Legends of the Dragons

There weren’t always dragons in the valley, but the people have thanked the gods every day since their arrival.

Zel is too young to remember a time before the dragons and the magic they brought with them. He is thankful that he has never been in a world where there weren’t dragons because the tales he has heard growing up. Zel has always been told that the dragons showed up just before the corrupted and started choosing humans they deemed worthy as companions. These chosen companions became known as wielders. It is his dream to be chosen by a light dragon even though he hails from the ice dragon clan.

It is not necessarily unheard of to be chosen by a dragon that is from a different clan, but typically you stay within your own clan. Zel has only seen one person that came from the light dragon clan. The light dragons are the purist, strongest and smallest in number among all of the clans. He knows that it is rare to be chosen by a dragon at all but even less so to be chosen by a light dragon. Zel has never seen a light dragon and has only seen the power of the light once in person.

He had been about six years old, when he and his best friend Ravi were on the outskirts of their clan territory playing tag. All of a sudden he heard Ravi scream from the other side of some bushes. This was not a playful scream, but a blood curling scream of fear. Ravi had never been known to scare easily, her father and brother were some of the strongest magic wielders in the clan and she was in line to follow in their footsteps. Zel knew that whatever was happening was serious.

Zel pushed through the bush, ignoring the small cuts he got on his arms. When he came out on the other side he saw Ravi cornered into a tree by a corrupted dire wolf. It was massive, easily three times the size of any normal wolf, the teeth alone looked to be the size of Zel’s arm. It had nearly pitch black fur that was patchy so that you could see the rotting skin. Zel could clearly see the rib cage of the giant beast and it looked like it hadn’t eaten in weeks. All he could think was that this corrupted wolf just found two tasty snacks and might continue on to the clan.

Zel was paralyzed with fear and hadn’t moved any farther, all while Ravi continued to scream at the top of her lungs. Zel believed she was hoping someone would hear and come help. Zel told himself to do something other than stand there, anything! But his body just wouldn’t move and even if it did, he thought, what could he do? He was six years old and hadn’t even started his basic weapon training let alone any magic understanding. In his mind they were both doomed to never see another day. Then he heard a man’s voice.

“Run! Get out of here now! I’ll hold it off!”

Zel looked up in desperation, in hopes of seeing an ice dragon along with a wielder from his clan. Instead he only saw one human man that was dressed in white robes outlined in bright yellow. He knew that was supposed to signify the light clan, but they had been all but a myth to him until now. Before Zel could even obey the man and run a bright light emitted from his hands at the wolf. It was faster than Zel believed it could be and moved out of the way just in time, jumping at least fifteen feet to their right. As it landed another beam of light from the man collided with it, this time it couldn’t move out of the way.

Zel watched as the brightest light he had ever seen before dissolved the corrupted wolf into nothingness. The man slowly started walking towards them obviously noticing that their faces were white with terror.

“You are safe now children, I assume you’re from the nearby ice clan?” His voice was deep and calm now that there was no danger. Zel remembers wondering how someone could be so calm after something like that. Especially since his heart still felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. Too stunned to speak both Zel and Ravi nodded their heads in response.

“Good. I was on my way to the clan on some business anyway, would you be so kind as to show me the way to the clan leader?”

Again the children just nodded still trying to get over the events that happened only a moment ago.

“Thank you so much, now what are your names?” he asked cheerfully, likely in an attempt to ease their minds.

“I’m… Zel, this i- is Ravi” Zel stammered.

“What wonderfully strong names, I am Zara of the light clan. I appreciate you taking the time to show me the way. Now, shall we be off then?”

Zel and Ravi took him to the clan leaders tent where they told everyone what had happened. They were both thanked for showing him the way and then scolded for being that far out. They were told to go home after and neither of them had seen or heard from Zara ever again.

Now, ten years later Zel and Ravi were mere weeks away from the clan convergence where dragons chose the newest round of worthy wielders from every clan’s sixteen year old's. This was held in the middle of the very same valley that the dragons had originally appeared in. This festival would signify the path they were meant to take in life. Some would be chosen to become wielders and have dragon companions while those who were not would take on other jobs to help the clan.

Zel found himself looking at his childhood friend Ravi, she looked beautiful and strong walking into the training area. Here they would spend most of their time over the next few weeks until the actual ceremony. Zel had slowly started to fall in love with Ravi over the last few years. She was the perfect woman in his mind, strong, beautiful, smart and she always picked up on the new skills they were learning easily. She even dominated everyone of their peers when it came to magic understanding, and to top it all off she was from one of the strongest families in the clan. There was no way that Zel even remotely had a chance with her.

“Staring at your girlfriend again?” a snake of a voice said.

“Screw off, Harold. You’re just mad because she never wants to train with a bug like you.” Zel replied with a sneer.

Harold was a mean looking kid and had the attitude to match on most days. He was a few inches taller than Zel and was about twenty pounds heavier. His short black hair was unkempt as usual and his robes were just as dirty. He always tried to mess with Zel because he was bigger, but the two of them were pretty evenly matched when it came to any of the combat skills, both with weapons and without.

“The hell did you say you little worm?” Harold sounded more angry now than he had in a while. Zel thought that maybe he knew a dragon would never choose him.

“You aren’t deaf, now go away, it's too early for this.” Zel was honestly hoping that he would actually listen, but knew that it was unlikely.

He was right. As Zel looked back towards Ravi, he saw Harold's lunky fist coming at his head out of his peripheral vision. He moved his head just in time and fell into his guarded fighting position.

“Last chance Harold, don’t do this today you seem like you are off your game.” He could tell that he was easily getting under his skin, the mental game was never Harold’s strong point.

“I’m gonna beat you into the ground you little worm!” Harold was also now in an identical fighting stance signaling that he wasn't going to back down.

Zel noticed that Ravi was looking right at them, but didn’t change pace or look concerned. Apparently even she was used to these stupid games. Oh well it was time for a warm up before training. Or so he thought.

Before either of them could do anything they were both hit in the side of the head with chunks of ice. Both of the boys were toppled over by the force that the ice had been hurled at.

“No fighting unless it is a supervised training bout. You both know that.” It came from a strong and confident female, which meant it had to be their instructor.

Both of them jumped to their feet. Zel turned and bowed in the direction of the voice and siad, “Yes ma’am, we were only going to train a bit before instruction started. Harold said he had a new move he wanted to show me”

Harold was still too angry to go along with Zel’s attempt at an excuse. He ran at Zel in an attempt to tackle him to the ground. Luckily Zel had anticipated this happening so he grabbed Harold’s arm and threw him using his hip. Harold fell to the ground on his back while Zel held his arm.

“See Harold, my move works better than yours.”

Zel suddenly let go when the instructor's dragon flew from seemingly nowhere over the training ground with a loud roar. It perched itself on a platform that was made specifically for that reason. The dragon was monstrous, it made the corrupted dire wolf they had the run in with look like an ant. It was a beautiful bright blue with spikes running down its back and tail. Zel always thought that dragons looked both stunning and terrifying at the same time.

“When an instructor tells you to stop, you must listen to them boys.” The mouth hadn’t moved but everyone heard the voice. Even though it had happened many times before, telepathy from dragons was always a weird feeling.

Again Zel turned and bowed in the direction of the Dragon, “yes master dragon, it will not happen again.”

“Oh I'm not so naive as to believe that, but I appreciate the words. Remember everyone, if we do not follow the rules it can lead us on a path to corruption.” The dragon said in everyone’s minds. He didn’t say anything else but nodded to the instructor.

“Thank you my friend." The instructor turned towards the group of teenagers "now pair up and begin stretching, since you all wanted to start with hand to hand combat this morning, that's where we will begin.”

“Yes master Alicia!” about thirty voices said in unison.

Harold and Zel locked eyes but Ravi stepped in between them facing Harold.

“You don’t get to steal my partner today Harold, go find your own.” She stared into his angry eyes without breaking eye contact or blinking. After a moment Harold looked away.

“Fine. But this ain't over worm.” Harold walked towards his normal group of mindless followers that were all too spineless to speak up or do anything.

“You don’t always have to come and save me Ravi, I had it handled.”

Ravi turned towards Zel and smiled. “What do you mean? I am simply territorial over my training partner and didn’t want him trying to take you.”

Zel rolled his eyes. “Yeah , yeah. Whatever, let's stretch.”

The entire group spent the morning reviewing basic and intermediate unarmed combat techniques. Considering they had about a week until their practical exams they all knew these moves by heart. They would all eventually learn the advanced techniques, but only after they had gone through the choosing ceremony. Those that were chosen would endure more rigorous training in both unarmed combat and magic understanding.

Zel was starting to dread the ceremony, thinking that he would not be chosen and knowing that there was no way that Ravi wouldn’t be. He didn’t want to live in a world where he couldn’t see and train with his best friend everyday.

Only his grandfather on his fathers side had been chosen from his family and he was almost always out doing some kind of mission. Zel felt that his father and brother were much better warriors than he was, so if they hadn’t been chosen then there was no way that he would be. The afternoons were spent reviewing magic theory, though most wouldn’t be tested on that unless they were chosen. This led to the people who thought they weren’t going to be chosen to pay less attention than others.

Zel did his best not to be one of those people, even though he didn’t think he would be chosen, he so desperately wanted to be. On the off chance that he was chosen he wanted to be as ready as possible.

The next few weeks passed without any unusual issues for Zel and Ravi. Every once in a while Harold and his goons would cause some kind of trouble, but they would easily avoid it or stop it. Before Zel could realize it, they were on their way to the valley on the morning of the ceremony.

Almost everyone from all of the clans would be in attendance, unless of course they were off on missions. Zel could see all of the clan's flags when they got into the valley, fire, earth, air, lightning and of course his own ice clan. The light clan did not usually have a flag up even if they did attend. If there was no one attending from the light clan then everyone knew that no one had been chosen to join them.

Zel had never seen anyone be chosen to join the light clan before, it was more story at this point than anything. He had hoped to enter the valley and see a light dragon flying or perched on one of the various towers made for the dragons. To his despair he saw none, which meant at the very least he would not be chosen for the light clan.

However, there were so many other dragons flying around the valley he couldn’t keep them straight. The full sized dragons with their wielders riding them were accompanied by many smaller and younger dragons that had no companions yet. They would be the ones choosing in the ceremony today.

At exactly midday all the potential companions would be gathered in the center of the valley, usually separated in their current clans. At that time all of the dragons looking for their companions would fly around until they found someone they thought was worthy. Those chosen would become their companion and the wielder of their magic. They would land next to them and have a telepathic conversation with only that person, asking if they would accept the dragon's power and companionship. If they agreed the new wielder and dragon would have to fly into the corrupted mountains and slay one enemy together. This was usually supervised by larger dragons and their wielders, but the mountains were known to have smaller, weaker corrupted. These enemies made a perfect first take down for new companion teams. Once they slayed the corrupted, the bond was solidified between the dragon and his new wielder.

Zel and Ravi were standing together on the edges of the ice clan group waiting for the ceremony to begin. They could see most of them flying in the distance or perched next to larger dragons on the platforms. Then they blinked and all of the smaller dragons were flying around the potential companions.

Slowly the dragons started to drop into the groups and pick their companions, it would be insane for any of them to deny the sacred offering. Some new companion teams flew off in the direction of the corrupted mountains. They were followed by one or two of the larger more experienced dragons and their wielders. But then the unthinkable happened.

The loudest dragon roar that Zel had ever heard seemed to shake the entire valley. From the opposite side of the valley of the corrupted mountains came one giant light dragon. On either side of it there was one smaller light dragon, signifying that there could be two people joining the light clan. To Zel’s surprise all of the other dragons stopped. This included the ones that were already on their way to the corrupted mountains. Everyone in the valley stopped to watch what would happen next.

The larger Light dragon was bigger than any other of the full sized dragons in the valley and they all show it the utmost respect. It roared one more time and the two smaller dragons flew off towards the large mass of potential companions.

Zel could hear people all around him whispering and gasping. None of them knew what to expect. Did this work the same as when the other dragons chose? Do they still have to go to the corrupted mountains and defeat a foe? Zel assumed that it would likely work the same, but he couldn’t wait to find out.

The two white dragons didn’t fly around the group of people at all, but went straight to the ice clan’s group. They both landed side by side staring right at Zel and Ravi. Zel froze, he didn’t know whether it was fear or excitement, but they were staring at him and his best friend! What were the chances...

At that moment Harold appeared between Zel and the light dragon.

“Yes of course I will be your companion oh great light dragon!” Harold exclaimed loudly and dramatically. He started to walk towards the dragon with his hands in the air.

Zel thought that there was no way that Harold had been chosen, but maybe he did? After all, Zel hadn’t heard any telepathic message, so maybe Harold had just been right behind him.

Harold began approaching the dragon, which apparently caught the dragon off guard since it reared back on its hind legs and swiped one of its claws at Harold. The strike landed true and Harold literally flew through the air for about thirty feet. Everyone gasped and moved back away from the dragon. Zel could have sworn he even heard an actual scream.

“Who in the hell was that?” a voice rang out in Zel’s head. It sounded exactly like a teenager he would know from training camp. “No matter. You are the one I am here to see. What is your name? Also, there is no reason to speak out loud like he was doing. Simply reply telepathically.”

Zel startled when the voice was in his head but did as he was told. “My name is Zel of the ice clan, master dragon.” Zel found himself instinctually bowing.

“Oh stop all that bowing and master nonsense. If we are to be companions we must treat each other as equals. Now, the path ahead as my companion will be filled with hardships, or so I'm told. However, the rewards will be just as good. Zel of the ice clan would you do me the honor of becoming my companion and the wielder of my power?” To Zel's surprise the dragon was bowing it's head.

“Of course!” Zell said out loud in a higher pitch than anticipated.

“Well, we will have to work on the telepathic thing, but hop on we must slay a corrupted enemy to seal the deal.”

Zel looked over at Ravi and their eyes locked. She seemed to be having the same or similar conversation with the other dragon. They both approached their respective dragons at the same time, got on their backs and they took off towards the corrupted mountains.

“By the way my name is Lux, and that was the easy part. It’s this next part that we might have trouble with! Remember to follow your instincts and training, they will help us out when we get into trouble.”

“When?” Zel replied in his head trying his best not to say it out loud again.

“When we get into trouble, I know you heard me it’s telepathy.”

“Yeah, I did but you think we are going to get into trouble in these mountains? I’ve always heard that these corrupted were easier to defeat and keep at bay…”

Zel’s thought trailed off and there was a long moment of silence that made him think that Lux was already regretting his decision in his new companion.

“Have you ever seen a corrupted before Zel?” Lux's voice finally rang out in his head.

“Only once, I was young and one of your clan’s wielders saved me and…” Zel’s eyes wandered over to Ravi. He hadn’t thought it to be possible, but she looked even more comfortable, strong and beautiful than she usually did while riding on the back of the light dragon. It finally hit him, they weren’t going to be separated. They may not spend every day with each other, but they were going to be wielders in the same clan. He wasn’t going to lose his best friend even if she was never going to love him as he did her.

“ZEL!” Lux’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “Ok, obviously you are new to continuous telepathy. We will work on that later, for now I need you to focus. The corruption can turn a normal dog into a formidable foe that even an experienced companion team can have issues with. We will have to work together to defeat anything we meet in the mountains.”

Zel was caught off guard that the telepathy hadn’t broken immediately, but there was no time for that, Lux was faster than he thought dragons could be. They were only minutes away from the mountains in what should have taken them at least 20 minutes, even by dragon. He was closer to his first fight than he ever could have imagined.

“Ok, sorry about those thoughts. What can you do in a fight?”

“Currently, I can only fire my light beam twice, we should only use it once in the main fight in case we need it again on the way out. Other than that I can infuse my claws and tail separately with light for a few minutes at best. Even without light flowing through them they are formidable weapons. I assume you are good with that sword on your waist?”

“Yeah, not the best in my group, but I can handle myself. Any thoughts on strategy since we are apparently going to be at the mountain in like ten seconds?” Zel was hoping that the nervousness he felt wasn’t translated through his thoughts.

“Split it’s attention. I’m bigger so it will likely keep its eyes on me but they are unpredictable so be ready for anything. I sense one already Luce found another one, they are going in a different direction. Keep your head on straight.”

Zel’s eyes whipped to Ravi who met his gaze, again she looked calm and ready for anything. He tried to mirror the feeling but knew that probably wasn’t happening. They both nodded at each other as Luce and Lux turned in different directions to their first battles.

“Ok, Zel it's game time in 15 seconds. Whatever it is, it's right around this next corner. It's smaller than me from what I can tell. When I land I want you to dismount and move to the right as fast as you can.”

“Roger.” Zel was nervous but as ready as he could be.

Zel could feel Lux tighten up as if it were his own body, they were both ready to fight whatever was around the corner.

Lux let out a roar just as they rounded the corner that visibly shook the mountain walls around them, it would likely shake the enemy as well. As they came around the corner he locked eyes with the corrupted that they were supposed to fight. He let out an audible gasp, it was a Dire wolf. The same as that day, but this time it would be different. It was time for redemption.

“Move!” Lux screamed in Zel’s head just as he landed.

Zel obeyed as soon as he could, vowing that he wouldn’t freeze no matter what happened this time. He jumped off of Lux and rolled as he hit the ground he hadn't realized how high Lux’s back was. He drew his sword when he returned to his feet and ran to the right as he was instructed. He kept his eyes on the corrupted Dire Wolf that was looking back and forth between him and Lux. Zel had the worst luck, before he had reached the distance that he had planned the Wolf sprinted at him.

“You’re in the line of fire for my beam!” Lux said through the telepathy.

Just as he said this his tail took a swipe at the wolf. Unfortunately for Zel the wolf moved out of the way, but stopped its advance on him. This gave him the time he needed to at least turn his sword towards it in order to better defend.

The wolf had stopped after it dodged and locked eyes with Lux, growling while saliva dripped from its teeth. Lux was responding with his own series of small growls.

“Zel, it's currently focused on me. I need you to move back slowly about ten feet. You are still too close for me to use the light beam. If I can hit it this should be over.”

“I’ve seen them dodge that from a wielder. If I can make it move can you hit it right after it dodges me?”

“That should work but you might still be too close.”

“I’ll worry about that, I’m faster than I look. Are you ready?”

“On you.” Lux replied with a nod.

Zel screamed at the top of his lungs and ran at the wolf bringing his sword back in preparation to swing. When he got within distance he swung and the wolf jumped about five feet back. Zel turned faster than he thought he ever had before, took two of the biggest steps he possibly could and jumped.

Just as the Wolf’s corrupted paws hit the ground Lux’s light beam hit it and it disintegrated into nothingness. However, the bottom of Zel’s boots didn’t get far enough from the beam and had been destroyed as well. Zel’s feet were barely untouched.

“Thanks for trusting me, Lux. Ravi would have tried to argue with me even in that situation.” Zel said out loud instinctively as he removed his boots.

“That’s probably because there was likely a better way to accomplish that. However, we are companions and we must trust each other.”

“Hey!” Ravi's voice. “I would not have argued! I simply would have told you how dumb you were.”

Zel turned around to see Ravi round the corner riding Luce, with a smug smile on her face.

“What are you doing here? Did you not find the corrupted?” Zel asked in surprise.

Ravi looked at him still smirking. “Of course we did. You are just slower than we are, duh.”

Zel was about to reply when he was cut off by a familiar voice.

“You both have much to learn and your training begins now.”

Zel and Ravi looked and both gasped as they saw the man that had saved them so many years before.

Their new master was Zara himself.