Chapter 17: Preparing For The Battle

For the next three days, the Five were in the library whenever they could looking up everything about combat. Alainia and Miecyzslaw's dragons had had a sudden growth spurt and were now over thirty feet long. Snow Fire and Ice Moon were learning to fly together and Miecyzslaw and Alainia would go out and practice riding on their dragons at night. Tonight was espiecally special because the rest of the members of the Five were going to go and ride on their dragons with them for once.

"I can't wait to ride on Moon Wing," Codie said. Moon Wing was his dragon and she was practically transparent. Instead of breathing fire, she would beathe moon beams which can destroy anything. "I've never rode on her before because I'm a guy...which I really do not get." The group started to laugh. At the moment, they were in the Dinner Hall eating lunch. Today they were eating meatloaf, which most of the time didn't look like meatloaf. Lurik was picking at his food and he made a face.

"I swear," he said pushing his plate away from him. "This meatloaf is just a bunch of left overs compressed into a tiny block." The others muttered in agreement.

"You think it's safe to add salt?" joked Pier. "Or do you think it will explode?"

"Hopefully not," said Miecyzslaw. She took a bite and looked as though she was going to gag.

"Don't hurt yourself," said Codie. Alainia was just sitting there picking at her food and eating it, not caring that it taste horrible. "Al? Are you okay? You've hardly spoken to us these past few days."

"Huh?" Alainia looked up. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about this so called Battle."

"Why are you thinking about it so much?" asked Pier. "I mean, it's not like someone's supposed to be killed is it?" Miecyzslaw rolled her eyes and whopped him upside the head. "Ow! What in the world was that for?!" She gestured at Alainia and mouthed the word Jason. "Oh...well, I was just joking."

Alainia got up and went to put her tray away. Miecyzslaw turned to look at Pier. Everyone there except for Pier knew that Jason was destined to die in the Battle. Miecyzslaw explained what was going to happen.

"Well I didn't know!" cried Pier. He folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. "Nobody tells me this kind of stuff anymore."

"Then ask," said Codie getting up from his seat. "Come on you guys. Maybe flying will get Alainia's mind off of Jason." And the rest of the group got up and went to put their trays in the bin up by the area where they would get their food. Miecyzslaw ran up and caught up with Alainia.

"Hey," she said looking at Alainia. "Are you going to be okay?" She nodded. "No you're not. Just forget about it. Just because one of the dragons in the Council forsaw it doesn't mean it's going to happen."

"But what if it does?" said Alainia turning to her. "It very well might. So far, the dragon has been right about everything."

"No he wasn't," she pointed out. "He wasn't right about us listening in on the Council last week."

"Yeah well, we got lucky." Miecyzslaw laughed. The boys caught up with them and they went up to Alainia's room. In the big red room were five dragons, making it extremely cramped. There was a blend of blue, red, white, cream, green, and black. Alainia walked up to Snow Fire and smiled.

"You ready?" asked Snow Fire. Alainia nodded and clambered onto the dragon's back. "Then let's go!" and Snow Fire walked over to the corner of the room and pulled a lever. The floor began to shake and the room became dark. The others climbed onto their own dragons and they all looked up at the ceiling, but there was no ceiling to look up to. They were now looking up at the starry night sky. It had been three months since they first arrived at the Guardian Castle. Now, they were riding on dragons and were getting ready to go through a war.

Snow Fire spread her wings and lifted into the sky. The other four followed. They flew away from the cloud and over a vast ocean. There was a full moon that night and you couldn't even see Moon Beam 'cause she blended in with the light. All you could see was Codie floating in midair.

"Come on," called Lurik. "Let's go check out Jeffern."

"No, we can't," Miecyzslaw called back. "We have to practice our flying so we'll be ready for the Battle in two weeks. We don't have time to go to Jeffern."

"Oh come on," whined Codie. "I mean we haven't been to Jeffern in three months."

"And don't you think it would be a good idea to see our families again?" asked Pier.

"It would be a bad idea if we got caught not being in our rooms back in the castle," reasoned Alainia. "We're not even allowed to be out in the sky at night."

"Then why are we even out here in the first place?" asked Pier's black dragon, Shadow. "Won't we get in trouble?"

"Maybe," said Snow Fire. "But since Alainia's the queen, whatever she says pretty much goes."

"Well," Moon Beam did a flip in midair making Codie sway a little. "Let's make the best of our time and have some fun." And they flew off into the night sky. Lurik's dragon, Devine (Lurik had named him after her mother) did a series of back flips. Lurik shouted out with joy and waved his hands in the air.

Laughing, Alainia lost her balance and almost fell off of Snow Fire. The Five circled around each other and got into battle formation, which looked just like a flying V, the formation in which geese and ducks usually fly in. Alainia was in the front with Codie and Pier on the right side of the V and Miecyzslaw and Lurik on the left side of the V. From this formation they usually could attack from any angle. This was one of the most criticle formations in the book Battle Choices: Formations, Fighting Stances, ect. Miecyzslaw had checked it out from the library. There were over a hundred different flying formations and it would take at least three months to explain them all.

The Five decided that they would stick with the six most basic formations. Alainia and Lurik were still working on their fire balls and the rest of the five were working on their water balls. Lurik had actually managed to master the fire whip before Alainia could which was a surprise to all of them. Miecyzslaw had been practicing her healing abilities and went over each and every book she had from the Healing Academy. Since she was the only one that could actually heal anyone, she had to be protected throughout the whole Battle.

"Shouldn't we tell Jason and Bjorn that we're doing this?" Alainia asked Miecyzslaw after the gang got in from their flight.

"I wouldn't worry about it," she answered after taking the saddle off of Ice Moon's back. "I mean it's not like their going to-" she cut off and stopped dead in her tracks. Right in front of the two girls was Jason and Bjorn looking down on them with their arms folded. "-find out."

"What do you two think your doing?" Jason towered over Alainia, who cowered back against the wall. Snow Fire growled at him. "Don't even think about it, Snow Fire! I'm not in the mood!" he said to the dragon. Miecyzslaw hated it when someone would yell at Alainia like this, and she found that she didn't like it when someone would yell at Snow Fire either.

"Look, Jason," Miecyzslaw stepped in between Jason and Alainia. "We were just practicing some battle formations so we would be prepared for the Battle. You don't have to yell at Alainia and Snow Fire because of this! She's upset enough about the fact that you're supposedly going to be killed! So just chill alright?" Jason looked at her menacingly.

"You're in as much trouble as Alainia is in, Missy," Bjorn stepped in. Miecyzslaw laughed.

"Oh yeah?" she scoffed. "Prove it!" Just then, Pier, Lurik, and Codie showed up in the doorway of Alainia's room. They must have heard Jason and Bjorn yelling, for their fists were clenched and they looked very angry. Codie looked at Miecyzslaw. The Five Guardians stick together, came his voice in her head. She smiled and turned back to Bjorn and Jason. "Alainia is the Queen and as far as I'm concerned whatever she says goes!" Alainia must have mustered up some courage for now she was standing up straight, fists and teeth clenched, and an angry look in her eye.

"You have to understand, Jason," Alainia said calmly. "We've been practicing these formations for three weeks now! The five of us don't want you to die-" Pier coughed. "-and so we've been making sure that we were ready for whatever might come at us. Lurik and I have been working on our fire powers and Codie and Pier have been working on their water powers. Miecyzslaw has even become as much as a master as I am at weapons and now could possibly be the Head Mistress of the Healing Academy."

The three boys in the doorway then moved and joined Alainia and Miecyzslaw. Pier stood next to Alainia and Codie and Lurik stood next to Miecyzslaw. Snow Fire moved in closer behind them.

"Jason," Alainia stepped closer to him. "I don't want you to go. That's why we've been doing this. Please don't tell the Council of Races."

"Well," Jason said nervously. "They kind of already know." They all groaned at the same time.

"What do you mean 'they already know'?" asked Lurik. Bjorn started to sweat and Jason shuffled his feet.

"We kind of already knew that you were sneaking out at night to do this," said Bjorn. "So we went and told the Council."

"Oh that's just great!" shouted Codie. "We're now going to be kicked out of the Academy!" The Five looked at each other. "Thank you Bjorn and Jason!"

"Come on," said Alainia shoving past Jason and turning to look at the rest of the group. "We best go and pack." She gave Jason one last look that she gave to people when she wanted to make them feel guilty. The others followed her.

"Alainia," Pier ran up to catch up with her. "Are we really going to leave?"

"I guess so," she sighed. "I might be the Queen and everything, but I don't have any power over the Council of Races. Not until the royal ceremony and I officially become the Queen of the Guardians."

"Well," said Codie as they entered the hallway. "Where are we going to go then?" Alainia turned to look at them.

"We're going to the stationary cloud that the Council were talking about. There, we will battle Satasan and his army."

"I don't think we're ready, though," said Lurik.

"We're ready," Alainia assured him. "We will leave tomorrow and dawn. Get some sleep and be ready to leave a second's notice." The Five broke apart. All accept Pier. He stayed behind and just looked at Alainia. "What?" she said.

"It's just..." Pier tried to put his thoughts into words. "You're so...different. You used to be scared to even climb a tree. Now, you're leading a...a band of rebels. What happened to that innocent girl I used to know?" Alainia sighed. She had a feeling that he would ask this question soon.

"I found out the truth and my fate changed," she finally said. "But not just my fate, me as well. I guess that when you know that people are counting on you...it really changes your priorities. My birthday is coming soon and when I turn fifteen, I'm going to be married. I found that out because Miecyzslaw and I spend so much time in the library. I found the book of laws in which the Guardians live by."

"Who are you going to marry?" he asked.

"I don't know yet," she sighed. "But I need to find out soon. I have twelve months left...and time passes by quickly here."

"Oh, okay," Pier turned around. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning." And he headed for his room. Alainia watched him leave. Then, out of no where, she remebered that tomorrow was her fourteenth birthday.

"We're going to battle on my birthday," she whispered to herself. "Tomorrow's going to be a handful." She walked back to her room hoping that Bjorn and Jason had left. When she got in, all she saw was Snow Fire.

"You okay?" asked the dragon.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "You better get to sleep. It's a big day tomorrow and we need to be up at dawn."

"What about you?" Snow Fire asked.

"Me?" she waved her hand at Snow Fire. "I'm going to be preparing for The Battle."

To be continued...

11:07 AM - Jan. 8, 2008 - post comment

Untitled Comment

wow i felt goose bumps keep going!!!

megaboy - 10:23 PM - Jan. 14, 2008

---