Three dragons were walking down the streets of the humble fishing village laden with baggage, heading back to their temporary accommodations here as students of the stormfighter academy doing some practical fieldwork.
This was a common practice of the academy, to send small groups of students out to remote villages so that they can get familiar with different environments that they may one day have to work in. Such a responsibility was only given to third years and up after they had gone through and gotten their temporary field permits.
Their groups were assigned to this small fishing village located just off the mainland called Halverda. There was four members in total:
Pyre and Amaya: A pair of fraternal twins of opposing elements which the shared colors with, while they fought sometimes, they were well behaved and could get a job done, they were also the 2nd and 3rd strongest of their class, which they joked was unfair, given their competition.
Said competition was Dawn, a light grey colored dragon with some darker grey that covered his chest and stomach, this dragon in particular could wield four elements: Air Water, Lightning and Ice, which the twins often joked was cheating. He was ranked 1st in their class but never bragged, instead he often helped out his classmates to try and elevate them all to the best of his ability.
Then there was their teacher, Akas a rather easy-going air dragon that had a reputation for being the type of teacher that preferred his students to “learn on the job”, he had a distinctive look as it did not seem to match his element at all, due to his mostly black scales and yellow chest & stomach scales.
It was at the teachers request that these three students be out in a more tropical climate to help them learn to fend of the oftentimes unpredictable weather of these islands that made up the coastal regions of their homeland, Eden.
it was also Akas that had sent the students out on a grocery run, making up the excuse: “it would be good for the locals to see the young dragons here to protect them” but the three were not fooled and read the massage for what it was “I want to finish my book”
“Ugh, why are we stuck out here doing errands?” Pyre complained to his classmates, earning him a swift elbow to his side form his twin, to which he just grunted and glared at her. “Seriously, we could be getting some good training in right now or scouting the island!”
“Scouting what, the same coast we saw yesterday?” Scoffed Amaya. “Face it, bother this place doesn't have much going on...” Seeing Dawn looking back at her over his shoulder she would add: “Yes Dawn, I see that look, knock on wood, yada yada...”
“Thank you” Dawn rolled his eyes at the twins' antics, not entirely disagreeing, but also enjoying the peace and quiet, “But I for one actually don't mind a qui- Peaceful mission for once” He said looking around as they made their way ‘home’, nodding to a few passing villagers that smiled and waved.
“Oh right, yeah, you won't be getting much of that at home soon, will you? not with a new sibling on the way.” Pyre chuckled, referring to the news that Dawn’s mother Bassa was pregnant once more, which had come as a surprise to the grey dragon’s family. “How long now?”
“Well, Mom laid the egg just last month, so, not too much longer, about four months, give or take?” Dawn answered, making the show of counting the months on his fingers. “She still insists it's another girl by the way...”
“Well moms tend to know best about this, some kind of gut feeling, like yours for danger, but in this case it's for spilled milk and diapers” Amaya chuckled as Dawn shook his head at her humor.
“You’re gross” Dawn retorted as he opened the sliding door to the little hut the group called home and began offloading their supplies into the storage boxes and ice chest, electricity was scarce here and only used for emergencies like communications and warning systems, it wasn't ideal but it's how these islanders chose to live, preferring a simple lifestyle.
“Ah good your back, just in time too with the way those clouds are looking, coms say there's a big storm on the way” announced their teacher, as he walked into the room arms crossed as he surveyed the supplies, “lots of fish I see, still on that odd kick again Dawn?” He teased.
“It's fresher here, cheaper too, Salmons a bitch to get inland, and keep it fresh, seriously who pays...” Dawns small rant was cut off as the Storm sirens began to sound, cutting him off “well fuck... I blame you” Dawn looked over at the twins to which the teacher just shook his head and started giving marching orders.
“Enough of that you three, we have work to do! Get out there and keep the island safe! I'll stay here, and start locking down the buildings, and direct people to the shelter just in case, this is a class three wild storm so be careful, and keep an eye out for elementals, we don't expect any but, you never know!”
“Right!” Three voices echoed as one, before turning and running out the door.
Wild storms were always unpredictable, that's what made them dangerous, they could appear within a mere hour and increase in intensity rapidly, and that only got worse if an elemental was a play, as third years they had yet to encounter one, but dealing with one was the passing requirement, hence field assignments in high-risk areas.
Dawn straightened up his scarf and slid his goggles over his eyes, taking lead pointing to areas of the town as they flew above, and then signaling to each sibling, talking and shouting was pointless in these conditions so they would often rely on hand signals to communicate.
As Dawn watched the siblings fly to their assigned spots, he allowed himself a moment to steady his breath no sign of titans yet, this was the third storm since they had arrived here. Dawn was getting a tad restless, missing home, but he had a job to do here and couldn't allow himself to get distracted, that could get bad.
Setting off to his own designated area that he highlighted for himself upon their initial scouting run on the first day of their mission here he had given himself an open area right at the coast to work with putting himself between himself and the village, Dawn replayed his teachers' words at the beginning of their trip.
“Remember, ultimately you have permission to do whatever it takes to prevent the loss of life here, you may only be students and have provisional licenses but you carry the full weight and responsibilities of a fully-fledged storm fighter, you are capable of great things, but remember you can fall back and have your teammates support you too, I know you have trouble with this. But, if the storms get too much, use your skills to their fullest.”
Dawn knew what he could do and what he was capable of. But he had trouble on three counts, one; he often went over his limits and overexerted himself. Two: his teacher was right, he had a tendency to ‘lone wolf’ things, even if this was a habit born of concern of his classmates. And three, he often had issues putting personal feelings aside, leading to him becoming distracted.
He sprang into action, putting up walls of ice along the coast, this was to prevent the larger waves making it inland, and a practice he employed a few times in this trip alone, his teacher had often remarked that it reminded him of the coral that performed the same job from below the water's surface.
With that complete, Dawn took to the air, taking a moment to steady himself on the harsher winds, category three winds were no joke and dawn wasn't as used to them yet sometimes trailing off course from a stray gust, this was to be expected however, he was still just a student.
Dawn first went to check on Pyre at team lead it was his job to keep everyone backed up and safe, being a fire dragon pyre was at a significant disadvantage in this weather compared to his sister, which was what he was here to work on, he had excelled at his last mission which was a firebreak operation out in the forests. Their teacher had suggested he work at overcoming his shortcomings while here.
It seemed however that Dawn didn't need to worry, Pyre was using his flames in combination with the moist air to soften the soil beneath him and dig trenches to trap the water piling the loose soil from his excavation on the far side between the ‘trenches and the village, Dawn smiled, Pyre was using his head for once, and not just brute strength, a bad habit of his.
Flying to the opposite side of the village to check on Amaya Dawn saw he didn't have to worry about her either, she was one of the few that during his time at the academy that Dawn was able to teach his techniques to, and she had at least been able to apply them to a degree as now even while she was somewhat struggling, she was manipulating the water away from the nearby structures.
Landing behind her Dawn fired off a few air bullets towards a larger wave that was headed for her, breaking it up at which she looked back and smiled in thanks as dawn took off back to his designated zone to check on his makeshift reef.
Returning to the area Dawn saw it was holding up but some parts had started to come loose, that wouldn't do, loose chunks of ice in this wind could be a hazard, luckily there was tones of water all round, crouching down and placing a hand on the soggy grass dawn focused his ice element once more making a new layer and re-sealing the cracks in the wall, that would hold for a while.
Looking skyward as he stood clasping his hands together to warm them up, he noted the storm had moved significantly inwards now, the eye was nearing, and thus far the village looked no worse for wear, good, this was a wild tropical storm, while unpredictable they moved fast, which Dawn liked, it meant they burned up energy quickly.
About 5 minutes from the eye which meant he had time to gather his classmates, taking off he flew an arc round the island tapping stopping long enough to pat each on both shoulders, their makeshift signal to group up at town center, before heading there himself after checking his zone one last time, completing his loop.
Seeing it holding up just fine he smiled, satisfied with his work as he kicked of the air for a little extra propulsion as he headed back to the meeting spot seeing his classmates and friends landed and crouched down as instructed, good, everything was going according to plan.
Dawn landed between them and similarly crouched as the twins got to work alongside him: Dawn creating a dome of air that Amaya settles water atop of and Pyre began to heat creating warm steam, this would serve as a shield for what dawn did next.
Just as the eye was overhead, dawn using his ability to read wind which he gained through his air element to tell the difference instantly, he set himself low hands and knees touching the damp ground beneath him, and spreading his wings high and wide as he focused his ice once more, this time not on the ground but the air outside the dome, and bringing forth a large chill that swept through the air, eating at the ambient heat in the rising air which fed this tropical storm.
This was a trick that the twins loved to see dawn use. As it was to them the full potential of Dawn combining ice and air, Elements they both lacked, and Dawn made up for. It took a little but the effects became apparent, the winds dying down and the temperature settling as frost began to build up on the buildings and foliage around them, dawn had been refining this since they got here, seeing how little ice he could form while preforming this technique.
Nodding and standing up, panting a little, Dawn nodded as he lowered the dome the warm steam washing over the three, knocking off the chill of the air that awaited them as the three smiled amongst themselves, seeing the Villigers and their teacher emerge from the storm shelter and start returning home to assess the damages to their abodes.
“See? That was easy” Pyre chuckled seeing Dawns expression at that statement “aww c’mon its quiet now, storm ove-” he began as a large roar echoed through the village, coming from the coast, “aww, hell..” he said as all three took off for the coast.
The sight that awaited them was both unpleasant and exciting for the trio, an elemental emerging from the waters as all three gaped at the sight.
This thing was massive: a titan sea elemental if Dawn had to guess, it easily dwarfed about 10 stories, this was trouble.
“Amaya! Rundown, stat!” Dawn called as they took to the air, looking over the beast that stood before them.
“Right! Uh... Large coral shell very little openings, looks like it's using seaweed to cover its animus in the joints of its limbs and waist to maintain flexibility: That could be our weak spot.”
“It's moving slow too! Large heavy movements.” Pyre added on, apparently his sister was rubbing off on him, “It’s kicking up a lot of water, probably to keep the seaweed from drying out!” he continued smiling over at his sister who looked proud, the two could actually work together when they wanted to.
“Good eyes both of ya! Alright, here’s the plan we need to draw it out of the water, then we heat the thing up, that should slow it even further, then we pick it off!” Dawn called out the twin's smirking, they knew while Dawn didn't like fighting, he was good at finding tactical ways to deal with looming threats.
They put their plan into action, keeping away from the titan to lure it over land, Dawn worked to intercept any Bolders and debris it hurled their way, catching them with his magnetic tethers and redirecting them away from the village, and the scattering villagers below.
Once it made landfall, they swooped in Dawn using more tethers to restrain its arms and keep it throwing more things, while he wrapped it up in a vortex of circulating air, as Dawn did this Pyre let loose with a gigantic cone of flame from his mouth which caught the air, and began to spiral round the creature. Amaya had probably the easiest job here: using her water to keep her twin from overheating, the one drawback of using his fire breath at this strength, the twins knew each other's limits well.
After a minute Pyre stomped twice, his signal he was letting up and all three braced as the flames stopped, their trick had worked, the titan stood still, the seaweed at its joints was dry and cracked, and starting to flake, the trio smiled, prematurely.
Dawn sent two whirling pairs of vortexes towards its arms, the twins knew this technique and winced, knowing that Dawn rarely employed his vacuum blades where a living thing was concerned, watching as both arms where cleanly severed at the titans ‘elbows’.
It seemed, however that this particular elemental has a trick up it sleave, as its severed arms fell to the ground it lashed up with more seaweed tendrils it had stored inside catching and reattaching its limbs, shaking off the flaking lawyer of “skin” to reveal still damp seaweed underneath. This Titan was intelligent, it was thinking, it had a plan.
“What!” Dawn called out seeing this development, when out of the corner of his eye he spotted something and froze, there was a child in the street behind him, running to pick up a teddy bear she no doubt dropped.
“Look out!” Amaya called out to him, just a tad too late as Dawn felt hard jagged coral slam into him, sending him down the street passed the hatchling as his vision blurred and began to fade.
“DAWN!” both siblings called out as they began to panic as they moved to distract the Titan that had landed a punch on their classmate, they were worried, but they couldn't abandon their task till this thing was delt with.
Dawn was sprawled out on the cobble street a few tens of feet back, everything hurt, his left arm burned in searing pain, his vision was blurred an unfocused and he was dizzy and struggling to even lift himself up.
Ahead he could see four blurs, one red, one blue, both swarming round a large grey one, that looked to be getting closer despite his classmates, as he now recognized them, efforts the fourth was the small white hatchling, with eyes matching his own, looking back at him tears in her eyes, she reminded him of his little sister, and the one that was on the way, and she was perfectly oblivious to the oversized coral fist that was crashing down towards her.
In an instant, in a single thought, everything was clear; the fog gone from his mind and he had plenty of energy to spare despite his apparent injuries, as he slammed his left hand down in a fist, his arm wrapped in a tight coil of lightning as a Teather encased it in a makeshift splint, a layer of ice hidden underneath.
Behind the girl, much to his classmate's amazement a large fist of earth erupted and caught the wrist of the titan saving the hatching from a gruesome fate. The both looked around to find the mystery dragon that had apparently stepped in, before their eyes were drawn to a glowing figure further down the street as he got back to his feet.
Dawn stood there with a grin adorning his face as he glared past them all to the titan, Dawn was wreathed in lightning, but something was off, unlike normally where Dawns lighting normally arced around his form in a jagged state, this time it was like a calm current, and the hue was off, shifting.
That wasn't the only thing about him that was different however, it was as though there was a constant cold front formed around him, his hair caught in an invisible gale, flaked with small shards of ice that seemed to dance round him, lightning occasionally arcing between them too, the cobbled earth around dawn was cracked too, with soil and rock floating around him as if suspended in the air.
And then, but most noticeable was his scales or rather the tiny gaps between them were filled with shifting hues and colors of light, much like his lighting and irises, And while And while Dawn held that smirk on his face, the twins could tell by a single glance at his eys, he was pissed.
The battle shifted the moment Dawn moved, in a single step forward he vanished and then occupied the space the titan had stood, a sonic boom echoing over the island as the ground where dawn stood blasted outwards, the debris caught and gently set dawn by tendrils of lighting as to harm no-one.
Then there was a tearing sound behind them as the twins turned to see Dawn occupying the spot the titan’s ‘face’ once did, its arm that Dawn had previously caught was still held firm in the pillar of earth, having sheered free as the Elemental was hurled backwards into a wall of ice and earth crashing through it and back out to the water, were it now lay.
Of course, it didn't stay down long, and was getting back onto its feet practically Howling as it made to charge back to land, clearly able to move faster than it let on.
Before the twins could even get a work out to Dawn, he was on the move once more, racing towards it before flapping his wing forwards sending out 8 small lances of ice 1 for each limb and another to the ground near it all crackling with prismatic lighting, as the creature quickly found itself tethered to the ground and lighting dancing over its wet form.
Ice and earth quickly followed the titans struggle slowly being eroded as it was encased. And its movements ceased leaving only its torso left out of the equation.
It was at this moment that it finally clicked into place for the twins: Dawn was surging with all four, no FIVE of his elements. They had seen Dawn surge before, but normally it was just his lighting, easily his most volatile element that would do this, but in this case, it seemed that Dawn had managed to experience a quintuple surge.
Dawn, it seemed wasn't contempt with just restraining the rogue coral reef that had dared to almost crush a hatchling in his presence, as he lazily few forwards, the smile gone from his face as he fired a single shot of compressed air towards the creature's head, shattering the coral that made up its faceplate, and glaring into the glowing center of the elemental's animus, it eye.
That moment lasted for a single minute, that seemed to last an eternity, the Titan shacked by the wrath of the elements and Dawn, floating before it in the air as they stared at one another as if in silent communication, before Dawn reached out pressing his bare palm to the raw power of the titan's animus.
With a single snap of crackling lighting, a crack that echoed like a broken branch during a deer hunt, it was over. The titan slowly began to decay, the coral and seaweed shell that made up its armor disintegrating and being carried away by the wind. The power that was surging through Dawn faded, and he went limp in the air and began to fall, their teacher swooping in to catch his unconscious form.
-----
Dawn awoke a few hours later finding his body sore, his head pounding, and his lips dry. As he tried to sit up the winced his arm still burned but refused to move, the reason became clear as he looked down at it, it was in a cast.
Hearing him starting to move about his friends were by his side in an instant calling for their teacher, who followed by soon after with a glass of water, shooing his classmates aside and offering the glass to dawn lips, which he eagerly accepted.
With a few coughs he spoke: “what happened?” to which his teacher raised an eyebrow and the twins looked dumbfounded.
“Wait seriously?!” Prye exclaimed, “you don't remember going crazy and surging with FIVE ELEMENTS!”
“Oh, um, no, all I remember was seeing the girl in the street and the- Is she ok?!” Dawn shot forward pain and panic shooting though his form at once and the wind was taken from him, leaving him gasping.
“Settle down, she’s fine, you saved her, and the village might I add” Akas reassured the panicked dragon, to ensure he didn't do any more damage, “It seems that you went through a quintuple surge which is astounding given that you are only supposed to have four elements, if I remember correctly?” The last part was clearly a question though it was phrased as a factual statement.
“Yeah, what gives!!?” chimed in Amaya, “since when the hell could you use earth?” A question that seemed to be on all three’s minds as the other two simply nodded, all eyes were on Dawn, looking for answers.
“Heh, right.” Dawn let out an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of his neck with his free arm, not making eye contact, as he thought about how to explain, that, particular development. “So, remember that earth Dragon that came to the academy to teach us about them lifestyle for culture history? Yeah, well I kinda-sorta asked him if he’d teach me...?”
“And he said yes?” their teacher seemed impressed, that wasn't a common occurrence.
“Well, that explains where you've been sneaking off too during breaks, you've been reserving the training room to practice haven't you?” Prye just chuckled, Amaya shaking her head beside him at the grey dragon's antics.
“With that out of the way, it seems that the power of a quintuple surge was just a bit too much for your body to handle, but you did last what I'm told was a full four or five minutes” Akas explained then went on to add: “as for your arm there I'm guess you can tell its broken likely a result of the punch you took while distracted, not that I blame you, the child should not have been there, her parents were severely reprimanded, luckily it seems in your surge you seemed to have had the forethought to splint your arm using your abilities, this made the repair and setting it much easier, well done.”
“As for this trip, since you defeated an elemental, and a titan at that, for which you will be compensated by the way, you have each earned your passing grade for the year and our job here is concluded, fortunate too given you need to recover” their teacher surmised, lightly laughing as the three let out a cheer.
“I still expect to see you three in classes however, just because you have passed my class does not mean your year is over, you still have lots to learn and improve on, so no slacking” rest up and pack your things, we head home tomorrow, he said, getting up with a proud smile and walking out the room, leaving the three to their own devices.
This one was fun to write. Inspired entirely by the image attached made by Haychel (seriously dude! it turned out awesome! thank you again!)
This Story features Dawn and two of his classmates out on a routine class assignment from the Stormfighter Academy where Dawn is learning and training to do what will be, one day, his future job. The Assignment goes ary when after a routine storm clearing, a Elemental Titan shows up and threatens the village they are protecting.
How do the Trio fare? Well you'll need to read to find out!
