Raaaa! I'm back with a new chapter and this time I PROMISE, that this chapter will be longer. That last chapter was just embarrassing...
Winter was sweating bullets from the desert sun above him, practically cooking his now not-so-shiny white scales. He was out on one of the dunes close to the Scorpion Den, trying to get a grip with his new powers and understand how they work. Being able to feel the air around him in a way he never could before.
He had enough common sense to around the group about these powers since he was new, especially going to his sister. But, everyone's powers were so different from his own that none of them were a big help at all.
Well... except for one other.
"What are we going to do best buddy?" Qibli asked teasingly.
Winter sighed, already annoyed. Qibli was the only other dragon that had powers like him.
He could swear Anemone did this on purpose to torture him.
Winter turned around to look at Qibli, "We need to try and figure out how to use our powers."
Qibli frowned but quickly smiled again, "Hey, we should finally be able to keep up with the rest of the group!"
Winter shook his head, "No, if we want to actually keep up with them, we have to not only be able to use these powers well, but get VERY good with them," Winter started explaining, "The original dragonets have had their powers forever now and have gotten so good, I don't think we will ever be able to catch up to them if we don't train."
Qibli frowned, "They looked strong, but they don't look THAT strong..."
Winter shook his head, "That was them just screwing around," Winter started explaining, "I have watched my father and Hailstorm toy with the other soldiers when they train, I can tell you that they weren't even trying."
"Well, what about the others in the group?"Qibli asked him.
Winter closed his eyes in thought but shook his head, "No, they aren't exerting themselves too much, but you can tell by the way they move that they are still trying to do everything they can to keep up."
"Even Icicle?" Qibli asked.
Winter nodded, "I can tell she is in her element in these battles, but she is still going as fast as she can."
"How powerful do you think they really are?"
Winter shook his head, "I have no idea, they haven't really met anyone to test their strength," Winter said remembering one of the reports from the war, "They took on Blister's whole army on in the SeaKingdom and from what I hear, it wasn't even close.
Winter almost shook at the next thought, "If we ever see them have to go all out, I don't think that we should be a part of that fight."
Qibli shook his head, "Then how are we ever supposed to catch up to them?"
Winter sighed again, "That's why I asked you to come here, we need to find out how to use our powers and train with them."
Qibli nodded his head, "So let's see, Anemone said that we could fly really fast, which that was easy to find out, we can always practice that later."
Winter nodded, agreeing with him, "She said that we could control the weather?" Winter said confused, "I have been trying to figure that out for about an hour now even before you got here, I definitely can feel a difference in the wind that I have never felt before?"
Qibli nodded, understanding what he meant, "Kind of like it's a-"
"Tangible object," they both said at the same time.
"It's kind of like I can grab it, but yet... it seems like I can't figure it out." Winter said confused.
Qibli looked around, "Maybe this isn't the best place to learn?"
Winter didn't have to think long on that, why would there be any weather in a dry hellscape that probably rains only once a year if it was lucky? As much as he hated to say it, the sand-snorter was probably right.
Winter nodded, "Where do you think we should go?"
Qibli looked to the west, "Let's head to the coast, there should be some type of humidity there," He looked down at his wings like they were new, "Let's see how fast we can really go."
Qibli focused on his wings as he flapped them hard, shooting off the ground with one stroke of his wings.
Winter followed him, lifting off in the same way.
This was... very strange. Winter felt like his wings weren't pushing air fast at all but when he looked down, he could see the dunes shooting by in a blur. This is definitely the fastest he has ever been even on his steepest dives.
Qibli flew next to him with a wicked smile, enjoying the speed, "I'll race ya!"
Qibli shot ahead with a hard flap of his wings.
Winter frowned but he beat his wings hard too. This wasn't supposed to be a game...
They raced for almost twenty minutes, flying hard and fast till they reached their destination.
Both of them crashing down on the sandy beaches of the western coast, kicking sand up from the beach as they hit the ground.
Winter looked up, taking in deep gasp of air. If they could fly like that constantly, they could be back to the Ice Kingdom in less than a day.
Winter heard Qibli groan in between his gasp for breath.
On the other talon... probably not worth it.
Winter looked to the south and could see the mountains on the southern coast, signifying Darkstalker's teeth.
Winter shivered, it's fine. They aren't going there today or ever.
"So who won?" Qibli gasped out.
"Not a clue?" Winter groaned.
Qibli got up and realized how far they had come in such a short amount of time, "Geez!"
Winter didn't mentally scold him there, it's the same way he was feeling right now. They flew three times faster than any other dragon could.
Qibli looked at Winter, "I know that we wanted to train but... can we wait for just a minute"
Winter ignored his whining, now feeling the air like it was water rushing over him.
Qibli waited for an answer but he felt it too suddenly, taking focus to the air around him.
It was like warm water was flowing around you, but you never got wet. But you felt like you could reach out and grab it.
"Wow"
Winter took a deep breath and focused on it.
He reached out to it and he could feel himself grab onto it. What should he do, this is the first time he will ever use this power, Mother and father would wnat him to do something special?
... They weren't here.
Winter took ahold of the tangible wind around him, making the wind blow around him and kick up the waves of the beach.
It was exhilarating. He had never felt anything like this. He reached out to the wind around him and started to make the wind howl, making the spikes on his back move around and rattle.
Winter slowed it down as basked in the now-cold wind. He smiled lightly but then frowned. If only he had these powers when Hailstorm was captured.
Qibli was watching with amazement on his face, "That's awesome, let me try that!"
Qibli closed his eyes, and soon he had the wind blowing around him. But the wind that he took control of was warm.
Qibli slowed down his wind and looked over at Winter, "That didn't seem to be too hard to do?"
Winter nodded, "We can keep practicing with the wind later, Anemone said that we had two other parts to our powers."
Qibli nodded, "She said I could control and make the summer storms and you could do the same with the winter storms."
Winter nodded again, starting to feel around again, looking for something else.
He looked for a bit but couldn't find anything besides the now comforting air.
Winter sighed, "Do you have any idea how to do that?"
"Aww the prince is finally asking me for help." Qibli teased.
Winter hissed in annoyance, "Shut it!"
Qibli shook his head, "Not yet... maybe we are not looking in the right area?"
"What do you mean?" Winter asked him confused.
"Well, storms are made higher in the sky," Qibli started explaining, "Maybe we have to look up there?"
Winter nodded his head as he closed his eyes again, that did make sense.
The air did feel a bit more potent up there like it was thicker.
But to do now?
Winter took hold of some of the air in the atmosphere and started messing around with it, not sure what to do with it.
He could feel the air not too far away from his own being taken control of by Qibli, doing about the same thing.
He couldn't let Qibli beat him to the punch, he would never let him live it down.
Winter took ahold of the air up there and moved it around a little bit, not knowing what to do.
When he was younger, he remembered a time Lynx was studying the weather for a project she assigned herself.
She was trying to make a more accurate prediction of winter storm patterns in the Ice Kingdom and she discussed one time with him about how storms were made.
Winter grabbed more of the air and he started to compress it like he was making a snowball, letting the mass of air grow as he collected more of the air around it till, he started to feel something else. Almost like a solid object.
He opened his eyes and looked up with a smile, knowing what he was going to see.
"Aww, you beat me," Qibli joked, as he looked up at the newly formed cloud, "How did you do that?"
Winter looked at him, "I took the air around it and started to rapidly compress it like I am making a snowball."
"What's a snowball?" Qibli asked confused.
Winter reeled back in shock but then mentally slapped himself. Qibli probably has never even seen snow before, let alone play in it.
"Just take the air and roll it around till you can start to feel it solidify into a solid object," Winter tried to explain to him.
Winter looked up into the sky in confusion, he had no idea how to explain how the cloud showed up, but its like it slowly went from a transparent object to a now small white fluffy cloud.
Water is weird.
"It's probably easier to make an actual storm when there are already clouds to work with," Winter said to Qibli.
Qibli nodded back, letting go of his control, "I have a feeling that I'm not going to be controlling lightning today, how about you try your new ice breath?"
Winter gave a nod, trying to hide his excited smile, "Can't be that hard?"
He looked away from Qibli and started taking a deep breath, but he started noticing something immediately.
Usually, when you intake air for an ice blast you can feel the air you intake go down into the muscle that weaponizes the air and speed up and thicken till it was ready to blast out.
The moment he started this time, he could tell he was taking WAY more air than he usually would, and it was more potent.
He opened his jaws wide and he looked out towards the ocean, not knowing what was about to come.
A glowing white beam shot out of his mouth, and it went almost three hundred yards away until it finally made contact with the water.
Winter could finally close his mouth and looked out over the water in shock. Where the beam went over the water, was now a large path of ice that led to a large pillar of ice that came out of the water.
Qibli and Winter both looked at each other in shock, "Holy shi-"
With Tsunami
Tsunami was smiling as she walked down the streets of the Scorpion den, looking through all the store windows to see what they were selling.
"Find anything cool?" Riptide asked her, walking next to her.
"Sand, sand, and believe it or not, more sand," Tsunami joked.
"HEY!" a store owner said, offended.
Tsunami ignored him and kept on walking down the street, Riptide following her.
Riptide laughed, "Not really much out here, smack dab in the middle of the driest place in the world."
Tsunami laughed with him, "No, not unless you're into cacti and getting sand blown up your snout every five minutes."
Riptide looked around like he was looking for something, "Have you eaten anything today?"
Tsunami shook her head, she would have to admit... she was starving, "Nothing since yesterday before the raid."
Riptide nodded, "Thorn said that there was a bar not too far away from here?"
Tsunami froze with a thought, "She had never drank before..."
"Sure, how bad could it be?" She said, unknowingly.
Three hours later
Riptide was blushing in embarrassment.
Tsunami. COULD NOT. Hold her alcohol.
She was currently leaning on the bar, loudly spouting out small stories.
"ONE TIME, WE CAUGHT GLORY USING HER CAMOUFLAGE TO PRANK SUNNY BY DROPPING RED JUICE FORM A FRUIT TO MAKE SUNNY THINK SHE WASNT HEALING HER SELF RIGHT," Tsunami said loudly, not even realizing she was shouting her story for everyone in the bar to hear.
"BUT, WE FOUND OUT SO EVERY TIME GLORY WOULD TRY TO USE HER POWERS, CLAY WOULD HARDEN UP THE GROUND SO SHE COULDN'T USE HER PLANTS THE RIGHT WAY. SHE GOT BEAT SO HARD THE NEXT PRACTICE SESSION SHE HAD TO BE HEALED BY SUNNY, BUT SHE WOULDN'T DO IT TILL SHE SAID SORRY!"
Tsunami was only four beers deep and she was also bigger than him!
Tsunami looked over at Riptide, "Can I just say, you're so handsome!"
Oh, three moons no...
"Tsunami, I think it's time to go!" Riptide said, dragging her off the bar.
Tsunami groaned, "But I want more!"
"No, you're going home and I'm making sure you don't get anymore," Riptide said, dragging her out of the bar.
"But...you're the one who asked me if I wanted some..." Tsunami moaned.