Pyrrhian Chronicles: Bringer of Storms

= Prologue =
The light of the moons shone through the branches. It was quiet for the rainforest, the only sound being the frogs croaking and occasional rustle of leaves. Elderfire crept toward the dome shape of the Rainwing hatchery. His task was clear: get a rainwing egg, get out, don’t be seen. The night was perfect for the mission, none of them would suspect a thing. None of them would suspect the big plan. When he got up to the window, he was surprised to see something inside. Why is there a dragonet in there? He looked closer and noticed the dragonet didn’t look quite right. The dragonet’s horns were all jagged and it appeared mostly black. Hmm, I guess he could work, he's scary looking enough. Elderfire crept slowly toward the dragonet while it was looking away. He then pulled a sack over the dragonet’s head and flew out the nearest window into the forest. He sped through the night, weaving between the trees trying to get back to the path to the night kingdom. Then something happened that he didn't understand. From the sack there seemed to be a flash of light and the smell of burning, then Elderfire felt a surge of pain he had never felt before. He crashed from the sky and tumbled into the forest floor, and was knocked unconscious. 
When he regained consciousness, he realized he no longer had the dragonet. I must’ve dropped the sack while I fell. He quickly looked around, then saw the sack. He quickly ran over and picked it up, but it was empty. However, more strangely, two jagged lines were burned into the fabric right where his talons were before. He looked around, noticed a mark in the dirt, similar to a dragon’s tail, heading off into the forest. He also noticed it was dawn, how long have I been out? He looked around once more before deciding the dragonet was likely long gone by now and flew away towards the path to the night kingdom. 
Little did Elderfire know, but the dragonet was still there, lying invisible, watching him look around. This dragonet had no name, for he hadn’t been given one. When he was captured, he had just hatched from his egg, none the wiser to suspect that a dragon with scales like the night sky sneaking into the hatchery at midnight wasn’t normal. When the Nightwing was gone, the dragonet looked around, but there wasn’t anyone else. He called out. Nothing. He called out again. Still, no one answered. He was alone, there wasn’t anybody who could hear him. He had no one else, he didn’t even know where he was. So he just sat there and began to cry. He did so for hours, until he got up the nerve to get up and keep moving. He wiped his eyes with his foreleg. This was no place to die. He would find someone who could help him, no matter how long it took.
= Chapter 1 =
==== Abducted by Wizards ====
It was a normal day in the Rainforest, Stormbringer had just sneaked off with some watermelons from the main village. This isn’t technically stealing. He thought to himself. They are technically free for anyone to take. He was just passing the quick sand pit when a blur of blue scales suddenly crashed into him making them both fall over. 
“Ow,” Stormbringer said, “What in the-” he paused when seeing the dragon who had crashed into him. 
She was clearly Seawing, with turquoise scales, dark blue gills, and the royal wing markings, along with a dragon shaped pendant around her neck. Her wing membranes, horns, and claws were a deep purple, and her eyes… Her eyes were a deep turquoise like her scales, like staring into the ocean itself. Then Stormbringer turned to see his watermelons roll straight into the quicksand pit. 
“Oh no, no no no!” he lunged after them, but they were already gone.
“Oh c’mon… it took so long to get those,” he said, getting up to a sitting position, his tail twitching by his side. 
“Oh, um, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” the Seawing said, “um… What's your name?” 
Stormbringer turned his head to look at her and scowled. “It’s Stormbringer.” He said flatly. He nearly let out a laugh at his tone of voice, since when did he talk so seriously?
The Seawing gave him an incredulously confused look. “... ok, I’m sorry about the melon thing, I honestly didn't see you there. I can replace them if you want…” she said, looking down at her claws and glancing up at Stormbringer. 
Someone called from somewhere in the forest, making both Stormbringer and the Seawing jump. 
“Splash? Where are you Splash!” Then a Nightwing with silver teardrop scales near her eyes tumbled out of the trees, wheezing, and looked surprised to see a hybrid in the Rainforest looking very grumpy.
The Nightwing was slightly purple in color, with purple eyes. She seemed to be about as athletic as every other Nightwing he had seen, thin and asthmatic, but it wasn’t as extreme. The nightwing looked more like they had to survive underwater rather than breathing in volcanic smoke.
“Hi, Whisp,” the Seawing said, who was probably Splash, “I just got lost.” 
Whisp tilted her head and paced around Stormbringer, looking him over. “Ok… what's up with the Rainwing?” 
Stormbringer straightened a little, and straightened his sail so she could see he was absolutely not just a "Rainwing". 
“Well, your friend here ran into me while I was on my way back home, and now lost my entire inventory of watermelons.” 
Whisp's eyes widened, why is she so jumpy, isn't meeting a new dragon normal? Maybe I misunderstood the term 'running into someone'.  
“Oh, um, I’m sorry about that, but I’m sure we could get you more.” Whisp said, trying for a smile. 
Stormbringer considered that for a minute, then shook his head slowly. “No, you don’t have to, I’ll just work on getting some on my own.” he sighed. He didn't want to inconvenience these dragons more than he had to. Besides, they had apologized, and it wasn’t like he was running a business selling watermelons or anything.
Whisp and Splash looked relieved. 
“Ok, we better get going anyway, our friends are waiting for us.” Splash said, “Well, Stormbringer, I guess I’ll see you later.” And with that, they both flew off. Wait, see me later? What did she mean by that? Stormbringer watched, visibly confused, as they flew off, shrugged, and headed home melon-less. 
A few days later, Stormbringer had just gotten done with gathering a couple of melons. He'd found them right by his tree, fantastic. 
“Hey, Stormbringer.” Splash emerged from the forest, carrying in a net trailing behind her… 
“Woah, how did you find all of these?” Stormbringer asked in amazement at the pile of melons in the net. 
Splash smiled. “Oh, I have my ways.” The way she said it seemed slightly suspicious, but Stormbringer didn’t care. Seriously, how did she get all these melons? 
“This, this is amazing, I don’t even know what to say! Thank You so much.” Stormbringer said, looking at Splash with newfound astonishment. 
Splash cleared her throat. “Well… it’s not much, but I didn’t think you’d react this pleased…” she said, looking at him slightly confused, 
“you act like you’ve never received a gift before.” 
Stormbringer stared at her blankly, not understanding the comment. 
“... you have received a gift before… right?” Splash asked, raising an eyebrow at him. 
Stormbringer was silent for a while. “... well… let's just say I’m not exactly the most popular among my tribe…” Stormbringer replied, feeling slightly embarrassed. 
Splash stared at him. “... huh, so this really is the first time you’ve received a gift… that’s actually kind of sad, but anyway, uh… you're welcome. I’ll just go now.” Splash said, seeming slightly more uncomfortable. Then flew away into the forest. What she did next was unexpected, though, making a sharp left like she was trying to stay out of sight. 
Hmm, what is she up to for making that kind of maneuver? Stormbringer turned invisible after a moment and followed her through the trees. 
When Splash landed, she was with a group of other dragons, each from a different tribe, including a Mistwing, which Stormbringer hadn’t seen in years. 
“What took you so long.” the Sandwing immediately demanded, he was the color of petrified sand and had a red dragon pendant necklace. 
“We’ve been waiting forever.” The Icewing said, she had white and grey scales with a hint of blue on her spines and underbelly and had a white dragon pendant. 
In fact, all the dragons there had different colored dragon shaped pendants around their necks, and seemed to be standing in tense positions, ready to battle. 
“Calm down Shard, I was only gone for ten minutes.” Splash said to the Icewing with the white dragon pendant, “now, we can begin training. First up, Whisp and Century.” 
Stormbringer crouched down in a small tree while Whisp and a green Rainwing with multiple colors on his ruff and spine walked into the cleared area. 
Whisp then, to Stormbringer’s shock, opened her mouth to blast an arc of electricity at Century. Century dodged and blasted a green tinged bubble that engulfed Whisp, making her freeze like ice. Almost like she’s frozen in time… 
He had never seen anything like this before, those powers shouldn’t even be possible. 
Then the branch broke and he fell out of the tree. The dragons froze and Whisp was released from the time bubble as the others scanned the area. 
“Why did that tree branch fall…?” the Mudwing asked after a long moment. He sounded confused but not completely startled, meanwhile the others looked like a pack of wolves scanning for their prey. 
Stormbringer slowly began crawling away. Apparently he wasn't stealthy enough and Century noticed the movement, blasting a time bubble at him. Stormbringer dodged and leaped into another tree. 
Whisp blasted electricity at him. He dodged, then made the fatal mistake of ramming into her. Crab. When she barely flinched, he attempted to dig into the ground, but then was shoved up again by a boulder the size of a Skywing. 
Then everything went still. Stormbringer couldn't move. Century had landed the time bubble. 
While he was in the time bubble he could see the dragons talking, but couldn’t hear them, there was no sound, no gravity, it felt like he was just floating there, unable to move. Was this what space felt like? 
After what felt like hours of them arguing, they finally released him. 
“Who are you and how much of our conversation did you hear?” the Sandwing demanded, glaring at Stormbringer with fire in his eyes. 
Stormbringer scrambled back, but ran into the Boulder. “I didn’t hear anything, I was just in the tree, I swear.” He said, trying to hold back the panic in his voice. 
“What did you see…” Splash asked in a menacingly calm voice. 
Stormbringer looked at her. For some reason, he felt he could trust her, which was weird. He's never felt that way with anyone before. “... well, I did see the ‘training exercise’ as you called it…” Stormbringer admitted. 
Shard made a face palm “Well now he knows something.” she said with an exasperated sigh. 
“We could just kidnap him, take him prisoner…” the Mistwing said, and Stormbringer noticed that he had gold scales rather than grey like a normal Mistwing. How had he not noticed it before? 
“No, Energy, then his tribe will come looking for him.” the Skywing said, gesturing both her talons at Stormbringer. 
“Maybe not. During my time with my tribe, you kind of know everybody, but I’ve never seen this dragon in my life…” Century said, staring at Stormbringer with a bit of intrigue, “for all we know he could be one of the outcasts…” 
Stormbringer frowned, “Outcast, is that what they refer to dragons like me. Ones who the tribe kicked out for not looking like the rest of them.” 
The dragons stared at him looking surprised. 
“Wait, the Rainwings banished you… the Rainwings?” the Skywing asked, with the sound of disbelief in her voice. 
“Well you may think them harmless but they are the most severe punishers on the continent, whether they know it or not.” Stormbringer retorted, “for instance, I wasn’t banished, they opted to ignore my existence until I died. Basically, to them I no longer exist.” 
Why did I tell them that? 
The dragons were silent for a while. 
The Sandwing raised his talon, “So, if we kidnap him, does that mean no one will come looking for him?” 
“I don’t think so, which means we’ll just have to take him prisoner.” Shard said, sounding defeated. Why was she so bummed by taking me prisoner? 
Stormbringer then realized they were talking about kidnapping him. 
“Now, wait a minute, if no one acknowledges my existence, doesn’t that mean no one will listen to me. Also I promise I won’t tell anyone…?” Stormbringer said, his voice getting smaller. 
“... Splash, what do you think we should do?” Whisp asked, looking at Splash. 
Splash stared at Stormbringer for a long time before answering, “We’ll take him prisoner, come on, let's get back to Jade mountain.”
On the way to Jade mountain, Stormbringer was very curious about some things. For instance, ‘Do you live in Jade mountain or next to it?’, ‘Do you have any reason for kidnapping me?’, and ‘Is it ok if I go home now?’. Of course, only the last one was answered with a collective “No!” 
However, when they got to the mountain range, his questions were answered when he saw where they lived. It was a valley with a lake, not unlike the one by Jade mountain, but it was surrounded on all sides by mountains and steep hillside. So if you wanted to find it, you would need to fly in instead of walk. Of course, that also made it a large funnel where anything that came down from the mountains would go into the lake, which is probably how the lake formed in the first place, from massive rainfall. 
He also saw a large white building built in the side of the mountain, with large torches lit with blue fire. To Stormbringer’s surprise and slight dissapointment, the dragons didn’t go that way. Instead, they flew to a small cave in one of the mountains just over the lake. 
“This is cozy” Stormbringer remarked, looking around the dark space. 
Splash smiled at him, then made a flicking motion with her tail. Magma lifted his talons and several torches inside the cave lit up simultaneously.
Stormbringer’s jaw dropped to the floor. The cave was amazing, much bigger than the little burrow under his tree. There was carpet, a hallway leading to several rooms, a library and living room leading from the main entrance hall, which was enormous compared to the entrance itself. 
Stormbringer looked around the room in a daze, speechless. 
Splash stepped in front of Stormbringer, “Ok, let's start over. My name is Splash, the grumpy looking Icewing is Shard. The less grumpy looking Sandwing is Magma. The Nightwing is Whisp. The shiny Mistwing over there is Energy. The Rainwing is Century,  the Mudwing is Cliff, and the Skywing is Breeze, and we,” she paused for effect, “are the elementals!” she lifted her talons in a tada! Position and looked expectantly at Stormbringer. 
Stormbringer stared back blankly. “... ok… does that mean you're like animus dragons?” Stormbringer asked, tilting his head. 
The elementals did a collective exasperated sigh, it’s kind of weird how they kept doing that. 
“No, we aren’t, we are much more powerful.” Splash said, flinging out her wings. 
“... uh huh.” Stormbringer said, nodding his head slowly. 
“... you don’t get it, do you…” she said, frowning. 
“No I do not…” Stormbringer said, shaking his head slowly. 
Splash slapped her talon on her face and wiped it down, letting out an annoyed sigh. “Ok, so the difference between us and animus dragons is that we control specific elements, not the entire world.” she said slowly so Stormbringer would understand, at least he thought. He wasn't offended by it, though, which was strange. 
“Oh, but how does that make you more powerful than animus dragons?” Stormbringer asked, now thinking about how powerful these dragons were. 
“Well, it, um...“ Splash said, and slowly started looking more confused, “ok, it makes more sense the less you think about it.” 
“Funny, that's what literally every dragon I ever met who followed either Burn, Blister, or Queen Scarlet said to me.” Stormbringer said, looking around the room again. 
When he looked back at the elementals, they were staring at him again. 
“What? I’m just saying it’s a funny coincidence.”
“Wait, how much do you know?”  Magma asked, with a hint of suspicion in his voice. 
“Oh just the normal stuff, like the exact locations of all the Sandwings Sister’s bases, both Seawing palaces, and the old island palace.” Stormbringer said, counting on his claws. 
The elementals stared at him once more for a really long time before Splash said, “Wait, you do realize that over half those places you just said are mostly completely unknown to the rest of the world, right?” 
“... really? I thought everyone would know by now.” Stormbringer said sarcastically. 
“So, you know the biggest mysteries and secrets of the War of Sandwing Succession, but you don’t know the difference between an elemental and an animus?” Shard asked, ignoring his sarcasm and appearing awstruck that someone could be so stupid. 
“Well, to be fair, before now I didn’t even know you existed.” Stormbringer replied, wrinkling his brow. 
Splash looked at Shard, “He does have a point, if you don’t know something exists you can’t exactly compare it to anything…” 
“By the way, why does no one know you exist?” Stormbringer asked, now filled with more curiosity. 
Splash hesitated, looking at the others. They nodded at her. 
“Well, while you're here, I guess we could tell you,” Splash sighed, “basically, we keep our powers and abilities a secret so we don’t end up like the animus dragons typically do.” 
“Ah, I see, you keep them a secret so you don’t get used as a weapon for the queen or something.” Stormbringer felt sympathy towards them, which was weird. He barely knew them, and yet he was already feeling bad for them? 
“I can understand that.” He found himself saying. 
Magma looked at Stormbringer with suspicion, “How would you understand that? Who would use you as a weapon?” 
Whisp’s talon shot up excitedly. “Maybe it has to do with that blast of electricity, it’s almost like he absorbed it and shot it right back at me.” 
“What?” Had he showed off one of his abilities without knowing? 
“Remember? When you rammed into me.” 
“Oh. no, that’s just a strange ability I have, but it’s not using other dragon’s abilities against them, it’s just... electricity. I don’t know why I have it, I just do.” Stormbringer said, calming down greatly. It was just his overly electrically charged spinal cord, nothing to worry about.
“... if you couldn’t tell, that’s not really a normal ability for a dragon to have…” Splash said, then looked like she had a sudden thought, “Wait, what if he’s one of us? Like, another elemental.” 
“Splash, I think the isolation is finally getting to you.” Shard said, waving a talon in front of Splash’s face. 
Splash swatted her talon away. “No, it could be possible, we’ve met lower level elementals before, like Drift, elemental of nature, and Quil, elemental of sound.” Splash looked at Stormbringer with a new light in her eyes. 
“No, he couldn’t be, he’s a hybrid, elementals can’t be hybrids, can they?” Cliff said. 
Shard then looked at him with dismay, “Of course not, a hybrid couldn’t possibly be an elemental, it’s impossible.” She sounded like she was trying to convince herself rather than the others.
“Wait, one of the books did say something about a hybrid elemental…” Energy said, his eyes on the stone below him. 
“I do have another question, what was that big white building in the mountain just next to the lake?” Stormbringer asked, thinking back to the blue fire torches and how they felt familiar. 
The elementals were quiet for a long time, then appeared to come to a silent collective decision.
“Ok Stormbringer, it’s time we did the test at the temple.” Whisp said, gesturing one talon towards the entrance.
= Chapter 2 =
==== Your a wizard, Stormbringer ====
The temple was nice. It had large torches with what when Stormbringer looked closer appeared to be a burning black sand in them. The temple itself was built into the side of the mountain, a semicircle of white marble sticking out of the hill side. There were stairs, but they were dragons, so the stairs were kind of pointless. 
The inside of the temple was a full circle, with a beam of pure white light shooting from the center into the sky. Along the walls, there were the names of dragons above the name of an element. 
These must be the names of the elementals Stormbringer thought. Some names he recognized, Splash, Shard, and Whisp were on the wall, but there were also names he didn’t recognize, like Prism, master of light. 
Wonder what tribe that one’s from Storbringer thought to himself, then nearly ran into Splash when the elementals stopped. 
“Ok, Stormbringer, walk into the light.” Whisp said, gesturing a talon at the beam of white light shooting into the sky. 
Stormbringer stared at her. “... you're kidding, right? Do you even know what will happen to me if I walk in?” He looked at the other elementals, but they all looked fully serious. 
Stormbringer turned and looked at the light. “... ok, I guess nothing could go wrong” He then walked into the light. He looked around while in the light. The dragons on the outside looked like they were covered in snow.
“Nothings happening.” Stormbringer said, then he recoiled as the light turned blue. 
Suddenly, around Stormbringer, swirls of blue fire erupted, surrounding him and blocking his sight. There was a flash of light above him and then everything went back to normal.  Stormbringer stepped out tentatively, then kept walking until he stood right in front of the elementals. 
The elementals had shocked expressions and were looking above him, then at him, then back. 
“What are you guys looking at?” Stormbringer turned around just in time to see the draconic symbol for Illusion dissipate and a dragon pendant that looked like the other elemental’s but was a light blue, like the torches outside, floated in the beam of light. 
Stormbringer stared at the pendant in the light, watching it bob up and down. It appeared to stare at him expectantly, like it was saying come on… pick me up already.
He then walked up to the light and took the pendant. He didn’t know why he did, it was just instinct. When Stormbringer turned around, now with the pendant around his neck, he saw the other elementals staring at him in awe. 
“... I was right… he was an elemental…” Splash finally said after at least ten minutes, “So you're the elemental of illusion.” 
“Ok… what does that mean?” Stormbringer asked, flipping the pendant around in his talons. 
“It means you are one of the major elementals, your main power being able to hide things from what they really are.” Century said, talking for the first time since they had gotten back.
That explains a lot about my life, Stormbringer thought, but he didn’t say anything. 
“Does that mean I live here now?” Stormbringer asked instead, but the elementals were looking around at the walls, like they were looking for something. 
Then by the entrance, part of the wall got darker and blue words were set into the marble.
Stormbringer
Elemental of Illusion
The dragons all stared at the writing, which in turn stayed a bright blue, like fire. Like the torches outside. 
“Huh, usually the name turns black after the blue fire thing.” Breeze commented. 
The name stayed the same, exactly the same bright blue, like it was glowing. 
“Well, the marble doesn’t normally turn that color when a name is drawn, either.” Century walked up to the marble and tapped it. 
“Maybe one of the elementals that came before him made this place, and that’s why it turned out like that.” Whisp put a talon around her chin, making her look like a Nightwing philosopher. 
“Wait, are you implying that I’m somehow related to an elemental?” Stormbringer asked, dumbfounded by the idea. 
Him? Related to some awesome superhero dragon? Psht, yeah right, and he was a superhero dragon too. In truth, Stormbringer felt less like a hero and more like a villain. He’d read many stories with heroes and villains, and the villains seemed to have more fun than heroes. While heroes were revered, villains were outcast, so no one particularly cared or paid attention to them afterward.
“Well, yes, most elementals are descendants to earlier elementals that came before them.” Whisp replied, bouncing up and down on her feet. 
“Ok, so, where are the names of those elementals kept?” Stormbringer asked, looking around at the walls. The elementals went into a grim silence. 
“The scrolls that held those names have mostly been either incinerated or destroyed by age.” Splash said, glancing at Magma. “There is only one scroll that is still completely intact, and most of the information on it is useless.” 
Stormbringer stared at them. “... but, why didn’t you just have Century use time powers to restore them?” 
“I can’t,” Century said, “I can only turn something back in time physically by a couple of minutes.”
“Ok, but can you at least look at the thing in the past and copy it down?” Stormbringer asked. 
“... well, yes, but it’s just that-” Century started, 
“That's all you need, you just need to be able to read the scroll.” Stormbringer stated. 
“... why didn’t you think of that?” Breeze asked, looking at Century with disapproval after elbowing him in the wing. 
“Well I didn’t know if that would work, o’ wise one.” Century snapped back. 
“Hey! I was just saying that seemed kind of obvious!” Breeze yelled back. 
“Guys, calm down. We don’t want to fight amongst ourselves, remember the prophecy.” Splash said, getting in between Century and Breeze. 
“Prophecy?” Stormbringer said, visibly confused. 
“Oh, right, you don’t know,” Splash said, coming to realize his situation. 
“Well, the prophecy was told to us by Whisp, basically it said that someday we would defeat some great evil being with the help of someone with lighting across their skull and spine, that last part we don’t understand, maybe you could-”
she stopped when she saw Stormbringer’s face, “uh… are you ok?”
Stormbringer felt like he’d just been hit by a rock realisation falling from the sky. He understood what the last part of the prophecy meant. 
“Ok, this is going to sound weird, but try to make me mad.” Stormbringer said suddenly. 
“What? Why?” Shard asked, looking genuinely confused. 
“Just do it.” Stormbringer said. 
“Ok… um, your mom stinks?” Whisp said, “sorry, I’m bad at insults.” 
“it’s fine, that wouldn’t work on me anyway because I accepted it a while ago.” Stormbringer said, shrugging his wings. 
“I got this, you are a weird looking son of-” Shard began, then was hit over the head by Whisp who yelled, “language!” 
“ok… let me try,” Splash hit Stormbringer over the head with her tail. Stormbringer’s entire spine pulsed with electricity, making the elementals jump in surprise. 
“OW! I know I said ‘make me mad’, but that’s just a bit overkill, don’t you think?” Stormbringer said, not hinting any anger in his voice, but his spine still radiated electricity. 
“Wait, this happens every time you're mad?” Shard said, backing away. 
“It also can happen when I’m excited or sad, but when I’m mad or angry is when it’s most intense.” Stormbringer said, rubbing his head.
The elementals stared at him, then Shard frowned, “Wait, does this mean he’s part of the prophecy?”
“I believe so, it did say ‘the one with bones of lightning.” Whisp said. 
Shard groaned, “Why? Why did it have to be a hybrid? What did I do to you universe?” she muttered and cursed under her breath, but Stormbringer still heard her. Yeesh, what happened to her to make her hate hybrids so much? Stormbringer thought, wincing from her remark. He then had an idea… 
“Hey, I think I know what my power with my actual element is.” Stormbringer said, then he vanished. 
“Camouflage isn’t an elemental power, Stormbringer. Besides, your powers don’t manifest until you’re nearly thirteen.” Century said, “Come out already.” 
Stormbringer appeared again, in the same place, 
“Hi, so guess what-” he was cut off by Shard suddenly lunging at him, but went right through him. She looked surprised, then angry that he wasn’t there, 
“What is this! Where are you!” She yelled in frustration. 
“Well…” Stormbringer appeared on the opposite side of the room and the fake Stormbringer disappeared, “that is what my power is, right?” 
“... that would do it, it’s more powerful than normal rainwing camouflage, I'd say.” Century said in amazement.
Shard growled and stormed out of the room. 
“... well, she looks mad.” Stormbringer said, staring at the doorway. 
“Wait, how did you know she was going to attack you?”
“I could tell by her expression, she just looked like she wanted to tear me in half.” Stormbringer said matter-of-factly. 
“How could you tell?” Breeze asked, “None of us could ever tell what Shard was feeling.” 
Stormbringer looked between Breeze and Splash, “well, it’s easy, I just read her expression.”  
“Can you read minds?” Magma asked. 
“No, I cannot read minds, why would you think I’d be able to read minds? Whisp is the first dragon I’ve seen who has nightwing powers.” Stormbringer said. The elementals looked at him, 
“Wait, you know that nightwings don’t have powers?”  
Stormbringer shifted his wings awkwardly. “Well yes, I did live with them for over two years of my life.” 
“Hol’ up, you lived with the nightwings, on the nightwing island?” Whisp asked. 
“Yes, it’s actually how I got my name.I wasn’t named Stormbringer, I made it up.” Stormbringer said, thinking it was a fun fact. 
Whisp begged to differ. “Wow, where were you on the nightwing island?” Whisp asked, looking more excited than ever. 
“...well, I spent a couple of months in the dungeon after getting caught trying to free one of the rainwings, she was just a dragonet, I couldn’t just leave her there.” Stormbringer said, his spine and horns erupting in electricity. 
“Ok, calm down, Stormbringer. We get it, you were trying to save the captured rainwings.” Splash said, then frowned, “Wait, why did you try to save them? I thought they abandoned you.” 
“No dragon deserves to be trapped on an island filled with death, that’s one of the worst situations you can get yourself in.” Stormbringer said. He thought this was obvious, torture was wrong. 
“By no dragons, do you mean only the worst of the worst deserve it? Or not any dragon?” Magma asked, making Stormbringer lose hope for them. "Because I can think of some dragons who might deserve that.” 
“Let me rephrase, no dragonet should deserve to be left on an island that is in the middle of exploding any moment and dying a painful fiery death!” Stormbringer said, his spine apparently erupting in sparks again. 
“Ok, it’s been a long day, I suggest we head back to the cave and just sleep on it, ok?” Splash said, already walking to the temple entrance. 
“That’s fine with me, I haven’t slept in weeks.” Stormbringer said, stretching his wings out. 
The elementals stared at him. 
“What do you mean you haven’t slept in weeks?!” Century yelled, “That’s not healthy!” 
“Hey, I don’t normally sleep much, and I’ve been fine.” Stormbringer defended himself. 
“Come on, let's just go.” Splash said, turning towards the entrance. “also, I understand not sleeping, but for weeks?” 
“Well there was a lot that’s been happening lately.” Stormbringer said, “Like getting abducted.” 
The other elementals grumbled a little in agreement before taking off to the sky. leaving Splash and Stormbringer, 
Splash looked back at Stormbringer. “I guess that’s fair. Well, I’ll see you at the cave.” She took off after the others. 
Stormbringer stood there thinking about what just happened, then realised they left him behind and took off after them yelling, “Guys! Wait for me!” 
Why did he feel like this was going be a trend?
= Chapter 3 =
==== A Walk Through Dream land, plus snakes ====
When Stormbringer woke up the next morning, he thought back to how the night had gone. After getting back in the cave, the Elementals had set up a makeshift bed for him by the door, he then curled up and took a long awaited rest. It was then at this time he decided to take a stroll through the other’s dreams. He thought of a random name and was underwater, in a very familiar hut. This must be Splash’s dream he thought, then he saw Splash herself, arguing with another seawing that Stormbringer recognized as captain Undying. Splash’s mother Stormbringer realized. A long time ago while Stormbringer was in the sea kingdom, disguised as a royal guard named Tigershark, he met the captain, who led him with some other soldiers into battle. Of course, after the battle, he had been on the other side of the continent. 
Now looking closer at the dream, Stormbringer understood Splash was having a nightmare, so she wouldn’t be able to see him. 
He then decided to check out what Century was dreaming about, except that Century was in a dreamless sleep. Wonderful. 
He then went to Whisp. Whisp was dreaming about being in a library, huh, she must really like scrolls. 
Whisp looked up and smiled, “oh, hey Stormbringer, you're in my dream too? ” Then she paused. “Wait,” 
She looked down at her scroll, then up at Stormbringer, then repeated two more times before asking, “you can’t visit other dragon’s dreams, can you?” 
Stormbringer was silent before saying, “well look at the time I better get going, seeya,” then left. 
Stormbringer shuddered. Last night was chaotic, let’s just hope they didn’t find out. 
Stormbringer then got up, shook himself off, then went into the library, looking for a scroll on dream visiting, just to make sure there wasn’t any evidence. 
Whisp came into the library to see Stormbringer there. 
“Hello there,” Stormbringer said, “and good morning.” 
Whisp looked at him suspiciously, “Stormbringer, you don’t have the ability to enter other dragon’s dreams, right?” 
“What? Of course not? Why would you think that? I am not that-” Stormbringer saw the unconvinced look on Whisps face and sighed. “Yeah, yeah, I did it.” 
Whisp cleared her throat, “So, how long were you in my dream?”
Stormbringer thought for a moment, “I had just gotten there when you caught me.” He replied. 
Whisp looked relieved, “Ok, who else’s dreams did you snoop on?” 
“Excuse me, but I don’t snoop,” Stormbringer said, indignantly. 
“Spying counts as snooping,” Whisp said. 
“Oh… well, I went into Splash’s dream first, and she was having a nightmare, so I left. I tried to go to Century’s dreams next, but he didn’t have any, so I went to yours.” Stormbringer said, sheepishly. 
“Is that all of the people you spied on?” Whisp asked. 
“Yes, because after yours I woke up and it was morning.” Stormbringer said. 
“Wait, how do you go through them so fast?” Whisp asked, now sounding more curious than condescending.
“Well, when in a dream, time seems to be going normally, but really it’s going several times faster than actual reality.” Stormbringer said matter of factly. 
“What else are you able to do in dreams?” Whisp asked, now sitting down and looking at Stormbringer expectantly. 
“Well, my ability works by dream visitor logic, in that I can only communicate with the dreamers if it’s a good dream, but if it’s a nightmare or dreamless sleep, I can’t communicate with them, but I can also change the dreams, too, like changing a nightmare to more of a slightly intense dream, and creating my own dreamscape,” Stormbringer said, and saw the the horrified shock on Whisp's face, then quickly said “but I can’t affect the actual dragon who’s dreaming, anything that I do with them won’t affect them in reality, other than maybe a slight headache.” 
“So, you can’t, like, kill someone in their sleep by killing them in their dream.” Wisp said, looking slightly more relieved.
“Well, technically you can’t die in your dream, because once you come close you immediately wake up.” Stormbringer thought out loud. “Besides I guess it is rude to spy on dragon’s dreams,” 
Then Stormbringer shouted, “like how it’s rude to listen in on other dragon’s conversations!” 
The other seven elementals slowly poked their heads around the corner looking surprised. 
Whisp looked from them, then back to Stormbringer then asked, “How did you know they were there?” 
“I could hear them, seriously, you guys have literally no stealth.” Stormbringer said, frowning disapprovingly. 
The elementals looked at him incredulously. 
“No one could possibly hear that, it’s impossible.” Shard said. 
Stormbringer remained composed, “Well, I didn’t hear you head over to the doorway, but I definitely heard the gasps.” 
“Well, if anything you said was true, what happened in Splash’s dream? You seemed to have failed to mention it.” Shard challenged. Stormbringer looked at Splash for confirmation, who nodded her head, looking confident.
“Well, it was a nightmare, she was in an underwater hut arguing with captain ‘the undying’ as the seawing army calls her.” Stormbringer looked at the confused faces of Magma, Breeze, Century, and Energy, then the incredulous look on Shard’s, and finally Whisp and Splash’s pale expressions. 
Shard scoffed, “Ok, Splash, tell him what you really dreamed about, Splash?” Shard looked over at Splash who was slowly inching away, “... are you ok?” Shard asked with genuine concern. 
Splash was over by the hallway before she answered in a voice slightly higher than normal, “yep, I’m fine, everythings fine, why wouldn’t I be. I’m going into my room now, don’t disturb me.” then darted into the hallway. 
Whisp then looked at Stormbringer and, in a hoarse voice, demanded, “h-how did you know her name? How did you know m-, her mom’s nickname?” 
“Well, I did work under her command for a bit until one battle with an icewing army later, she asked me before the battle to-” he then came to a realization, “Oh…” Stormbringer then began to pale, then slowly started to vanish. 
The elementals searched the library for him, but he had already gone outside to think about something. Before the battle, the captain pulled Stormbringer over to talk. “So, after patrol is done, there is someone I’d like you to meet.” She had said. 
“Oh, ok, who is it?” a naive Stormbringer had asked. 
The captain opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, then said, “She is my daughter, I figure since her only friend right now is her adopted sister, she would need some more, and you seem respectable enough.”
Stormbringer pondered this, “What is her name?” 
The captain was just about to answer him when the opposing army attacked. That was the last time he had spoken to her. Since then, he had met Splash and was abducted by her secret wizard club. 
“What are you thinking about?” Whisp asked, making Stormbringer jump. He must have been so deep in thought that she was able to sneak up on him.
“Oh, um...” Stormbringer started “Just about-” he never got to finish, because Whisp suddenly looked terrified, and pointed behind Stormbringer. Stormbringer turned to see a Dragonbite Viper poised in striking position. 
Stormbringer stared at it, it stared back at him. This went on for a few more minutes before the snake prepared to lunge. Stormbringer striked. 
He had been slowly moving his tail toward the snake, and then wrapped it around the snake’s neck, catching it in midair. 
Whisp looked astonished. “How did you do that?” She demanded. 
“I’ve dealt with snakes before, they’re predictable, especially the big ones.” Stormbringer said, keeping his eyes on the snake. He had been absent mindedly digging a small, deep hole that he then stuffed the snake, in head first, and buried it. 
When he was done the snake's tail was the only thing sticking out, flailing for a while before flopping to the ground. 
“With my time in the rainforest, I’ve fought off many snakes.” Stormbringer said blandly, “the big ones are the easiest, because they’re slowler. Or you could say they’re, slowpents.” 
Whisp didn't laugh, instead she asked, “Is there anything else you saw in Splash’s dream?” 
“No, nothing in there about the fact you’re her adopted sister.” Stormbringer said, then looked at Whisp, whose eyes were now wide with shock. 
“How did you figure that out?” Whisp shouted in disbelief.
“One, your expression when I told everyone about Splash’s dream. Two, I’ve spoken to the captain myself, who mentioned having an adopted daughter. And three, you just confirmed all of my earlier suspicions.” Stormbringer said, folding his wings close to his sides. Whisp stood there with a blank expression, before Splash flew over.
“Excuse me, but are you ok?” 
Whisp then appeared to come out of her trance. “Splash, he knows.” 
Splash looked between Stormbringer and Whisp. “Who told you?” 
“No one told me, I figured it out on my own.” Stormbringer said, shrugging. 
“He explained it, and I confirmed it without knowing. And I revealed everything. ” Whisp began to hyperventilate. 
“Hey, hey. Ok, I didn’t know that it was this important that you would have a panic attack.” Stormbringer said, now concerned, “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.” 
Splash looked around to make sure no one was within earshot, then whispered, “No one else knows, and I’d like to keep it that way.” 
She grabbed Stormbringers horn and pulled him down, “So say nothing.” 
Splash let go of Stormbringer, who rubbed his head and said, “ok, ok, I get it, it’s personal information, I respect that. Please don’t hurt me.”
Splash wasn’t listening, she had moved on to Whisp, who was trying to calm down.
= Chapter 4 =
==== Under the sea, ====
==== Well, actually it’s a lake ====
Later at lunch, Stormbringer was at the bottom of the lake. It was the only place where he could think without being bothered. There was a ripple in the water, and Stormbringer looked up to see Splash swimming down, sitting next to him. “Hi, sorry about earlier.” she said, using her scales for the seawing language of Aquatic. 
“It’s fine, I understand, you're protective of your sister and origins.” Stormbringer replied in Aquatic, to Splash’s look of surprise. 
“What, you didn’t think I was able to speak Aquatic? I learned the language a long time ago.” he said, tapping his tail on the bottom of the lake, nervously. 
Splash considered this before answering, “Well, I found you in the middle of the Rainforest on your own, so…” 
Stormbringer stifled a laugh and Splash looked at him with confusion, “What did I say?” 
“It’s nothing, just, have you apologized to someone before?” Stormbringer asked. 
“Well, for your information, I-” Splash started, glaring at him. 
Stormbringer nudged her with his wing, “Hey, it’s fine, I was kidding.” 
Splash wasn’t smiling. If anything she just seemed to become more guarded. 
“You can take a joke, right?” Stormbringer asked, smiling, then saw the serious look on Splash’s face and looked down. 
There was a long pause before Splash looked up and asked, “Are you mocking me?” 
“No, of course not, I would never do that,” Stormbringer was trying to mimic the serious look on Splash’s face. 
“Really, cause your face says otherwise,” Splash said dryly. 
Stormbringer tried keeping a serious face then gave up. “Yeah, I can’t keep a serious face, how do you do that for so long?” 
Splash said nothing in return. 
Welp, that was an awkward conversation Stormbringer thought. He tapped his tail on the floor of the lake. A fish swam by that Stormbringer watched before Splash ate it. From that point on no more fish came by so he watched the seaweed sway. 
This went on for a while before Splash finally said, “You do realise my mom's evil, right?" 
"What do you mean?" Stormbringer asked, confused. 
"Well, what exactly did my mom say to you?" 
Stormbringer tried to recall, "It was something about you needing friends."
"Of course she did," Splash made an exasperated sigh sending bubbles to the surface. "ok, listen, my mom was trying to find someone to betrothe me to, and, somehow you got caught in it." 
Stormbringer was quiet for a long time, trying to process what that meant. Splash apparently had been studying his gradual stages of shock, because she stifled a laugh. He felt his face beginning to burn. 
“Oh, moons, no...” Stormbringer said in a quiet voice. 
“Yep, and somehow you got caught in that nonsense.” Splash said unsympathetically.
Stormbringer slowly felt as if he were sinking into the sand. 
Splash looked at him curiously, “Are you all right? Not that I care, but you seem to be having a panic attack.” she then looked concerned, “Wait, are you having a panic attack? I can get some help-” 
Stormbringer held up his talon and inhaled, “No, I’m fine.” he exhaled slowly, sending a bubble up to the surface. “Everything’s… fine.”
Splash looked forward for a moment. "Do you miss them?" 
Stormbringer looked at her. "What?"
"Your family, at least, I'm sure you probably do." 
Stormbringer stared at her blankly, not understanding what she just said. 
"Family…" He pronounced it slowly, tasting the word. "I've heard that before somewhere…" 
Splash stared at him for a long moment before saying, “Alright, I’m heading back to the surface, want to come?” 
Stormbringer was silent then said, “Sure, go on ahead, I’ll be up in a minute.” 
“Ok, cya at the surface.” she said right before swimming upwards. 
Stormbringer watched as Splash swam to the surface, making a mental note to look up the word ‘family’ later in the dictionary.
After a couple of minutes of being alone and thinking about everything he had just learned, he swam back up to the surface. 
When he breached the surface, it was sunset, and he didn’t see anyone, but he could hear voices in the cave. 
Hmm, what's all that noise about? Stormbringer wondered, going invisible while climbing out of the lake.
Inside, the elementals were in the living room, having a meeting. By meeting, though, a more accurate representation would be shouting at one another.
“I told you, he’s bad news, he has basically the ability to read our minds!” Shard was shouting. 
“Shard, just because he can visit our dreams doesn’t mean he can read our minds.” Splash said, “Besides, he seems kind of nice when you get to know him, albeit a little silly.” 
“Yes, he actually has a sense of humor, something you guys seem to lack all of a sudden.” Cliff blurted, then quickly added when everyone looked at him surprised, “Sorry, I have no idea where that came from.” 
“Well… how do we know we can trust him? He could sell us out, or something worse.” Shard said.
“Shard, even I think that isn’t likely, he seems genuinely not a threat.” Magma said, then recoiled at Shard’s glare.
“Guys, lets try using the facts, he hasn’t attacked us unprovoked, nor has he tried to escape, he’s been completely cooperative. That on it’s own is enough to get me to trust him.” Whisp said to Stormbringer’s surprise. 
“Well… I-I still don’t like him.” Shard said, sitting down and crossing her forearms.
Stormbringer decided that was the end of eavesdropping for the night. He went for his bed and, to his surprise, fell asleep almost immediately. 
That night, Stormbringer decided to attempt to visit Shard’s dreams. When he went in, however, all he found was a sheet of ice blocking everything out, but he could just see something within. There were forms within the ice, the memory looked happy, but soon the ice began to turn red and Stormbringer saw one of the figures fall from the sky and the other diving after them. Stormbringer was then ripped from that dream, but he didn’t end up where he would normally after a nightmare. He was in a room the color of blood, forms moved within the somewhat transparent walls, where he could see what looked like hurricane beyond it, then he realised where he was. 
No, NO, get me out! Now! Stormbringer frantically tried to get out, but was stuck in place.
I’m sorry, but you can’t escape us, 
Stormbringer heard voices, all speaking in unison, about fifty in total. No, let me out, please. I don’t want to be here!
Nice try, but you're stuck with us, there is no escape from your fate!
Stormbringer desperately clawed at the walls, then leaped back as he noticed the floor slowly dissolving beneath his feet.
YOU BELONG TO US NOW!
The floor began to dissolve more quickly, herding Stormbringer to the middle of the room. The floor began to come off in pieces now, getting closer and closer to the point where Stormbringer had to stand on his hind legs. He tried to fly, but his wings caught no air. He tried to scream, but from his mouth came nothing. Then the final piece of the floor dissolved and Stormbringer fell into the void.
Stormbringer woke up, screaming. He was sitting up, and Magma, Energy, and Breeze were staring at him with confused expressions. 
“S-sorry,” Stormbringer said, shakily, “just a nightmare.” 
The three elementals stared at him for another long minute before returning to what they were doing. 
Splash rushed into the room, “Who screamed, what happened!” 
Everyone in the room pointed at Stormbringer, who raised his talon tentatively, “I had a nightmare.” At least, I hope it was just a nightmare.
Stormbringer hadn’t heard that voice, voices, in a long time. Yet it still chilled his bones just to think about it. He thought he had gotten rid of them, he thought he found a way to escape. Apparently not.
Splash sighed, “Ok, just a nightmare, who’s nightmare?” 
“..., I think it was mine, I saw no one else.” 
“Ok, so you can have dreams, that means your not entirely weird,”
“What?”
“Nothing, I’ll be in my room if anyone needs me, bye.” Splash said quickly, rushing back down the hall.
Stormbringer got up and shook himself off. 
It was just a nightmare, nothing to worry about. He thought, trying to calm himself down. Maybe a swim will help. 
He went into the lake to try to clear his head. Ok, so, that was a weird dream, but a normal dream, it’s perfectly normal to be stuck in place during a nightmare. Stormbringer thought
But not for me… his brain said.
Shut up, I can have my limits, it’s perfectly normal, I’m just overthinking it. Stormbringer snapped. He breathed in and out slowly for another few minutes before coming back up to the surface. 
There he saw Shard glaring down at him. 
Stormbringer jumped a little, “Holy moons, I mean, hi, Shard, what brings you here?” 
“I know you were spying on me,” Shard said coldly. “and don’t try to deny it, I saw you behind the ice.” 
“So it was your dream I saw, with the big ice sheet.” 
“Shut it, tell me everything you saw,”
“Well, there were two figures, then everything became red and one of them plummeted from the sky, and then I got shoved out,” 
“Is that why you were screaming?” Shard asked.
“No… because when you woke up, I was shoved into another dream.” Stormbringer replied.
“... Whose dream was it?” Shard said in an icey tone.
Stormbringer shrugged, “It was just me in it, I couldn’t see anyone else.”
“Then what did you see?”
Stormbringer hesitated, then described his dream, although he left out the part about the voices and his recognition of the dream. 
Shard sat there in silence before saying, “You’re useless.” and stomped off, leaving Stormbringer alone. 
Finally, he thought, peace and quiet. He sat there, waiting for something to happen. He climbed out of the water. 
Nothing happened. No one else came. There wasn’t even any sound, no birds singing, not even the usual chirping of crickets. It was dead silent. The only sound was Stormbringer’s claw tapping on the ground impatiently. 
Stormbringer whipped his head around, sensing movement, but it was just a frog hopping along the river bank. He’d learned from his time in the rainforest that frogs could be poisonous, so he let it go in peace. 
There was no wind that whisked through the valley, the water was perfectly still. It was all quiet, too quiet. 
Why isn’t there any noise coming from the elemental’s cave? A terrible thought struck him, oh no… it can’t be that. Please don’t let them be dead. 
Stormbringer began making his way to the Elemental’s cave when it happened. A blast of hurricane level winds shot out of the cave practically splitting the lake in half. 
Stormbringer stopped just in time before a large chunk of ice was cannon balled right in front of him and sent soaring into the lake. 
He looked inside to see Breeze and Shard dueling off while Splash was comforting Whisp, who’s wing got grazed by what Stormbringer assumed was a stray ice blast. Splash looked beat up as well. 
She’s hurt, why is she hurt. She cannot be hurt. Whoever hurt her must pay! Stormbringer thought, which surprised him. Since when did he care about random seawings?
Then something happened that he couldn’t explain. All he remembers is that he felt a surge of rage. The room temperature dropped. The room got darker. Ghostly whispers drifted across the room and increased in volume. 
He watched as the room became transparent. He could see the layers that made up what reality was. He saw a cave deep in the mountain several miles under with a form stirring inside, he saw the Elementals staring at him, their eyes wide in terror. 
He saw their souls, how they connected to their bodies, and their memories. Then everything returned to normal just as fast as it had come. The temperature rose, it became brighter, the whispers died down. He could hear the birds outside, finally. He though hysterically.
Shard and Breeze had stopped fighting and were staring at Stormbringer with horrified expressions, a long with the other elementals. 
“Well, didn’t see that coming.” Stormbringer said, then he felt himself fall and his eyes closed.
= Chapter 5 =
==== I have the power! ====
==== Please let someone else have it. ====
Stormbringer woke up to find the elementals standing over him. Whisp was poking him with her tail. He moved away and Whisp sighed in relief,
“Ok, he’s alive.”
“Good,” Splash said, “now he can tell us WHAT THE HECK THAT WAS ABOUT!”
Stormbringer flinched, “I-I don’t know what happened.”
“Could you control it?” Magma inquired, “Maybe use it on our enemies?”
“Magma…” Splash said in a dangerously low voice, “before we find out how to control it, I’m pretty sure it would be a better idea to find out WHAT THE HECK IT WAS!”
Magma recoiled and began to slowly back away. 
The others backed away as well. Stormbringer tried to slink away as well, but Splash stepped on his tail, keeping him from moving.
“Oh no you don’t, you're gonna explain what the flip you just did back there.” Splash said in a low whisper by Stormbringer’s ear.
“I told you, I don’t know what happened, all I know is that I saw Shard and Breeze fighting and you and Whisp were hurt, after that, I have no idea what happened.” Stormbringer whimpered.
“Perhaps we could try to jog your memory.” Splash said, “Century, show him what happened.” 
Century made a transparent time bubble around the area and Stormbringer watched himself walk into the cave after the chunk of ice was thrown out. He appeared normal, but as it went on, he saw his eyes narrow to slits and a snarl appear on his face. He could see the point where the anger took control. 
He watched as the entire room began to darken as if it were midnight, his spine and horns were covered with electricity. He saw transparent, pale forms shimmer in and out of existence, then saw the darkness implode and him promptly collapsing after saying that cheesy one-liner. 
The hologram vanished leaving Stormbringer still staring in awe at what just happened. Meanwhile, Splash studied his face looking for a reaction.
“You're telling the truth, you have no idea what that was, do you,” she lifted her talon off his tail, but he just stared back at her. All he could think about was how dumb that one-liner was. 
“Maybe it was a coincidence,” Whisp began, “like, he just lost control a little, it happens to the best of us.”
“No, that wasn’t an illusion.” Stormbringer said, shaking his head, “That was something completely different.” 
Everyone went silent, so much so Stormbringer got worried it was happening again. Then a bird flew in and landed on Whisp’s nose making her sneeze, which caused the whole room to smell like ozone. 
Shard was the first to speak before anyone else. “I say we drop it for a while, we need to tend to everyone's wounds.” 
Shard herded Magma, whose tail was smoking after Whisp sneezed, and Breeze to the living room followed by Energy. Whisp followed quickly after, trying to apologize to Magma, so Century followed to make sure nothing else got set on fire. 
However, Splash stayed. 
They stared at each other for a long moment before Stormbringer asked, “Uh, shouldn’t you get your wounds tended to?”
“I’ll be fine,” 
“... are you sure, you look like a glacier fell on you.” Stormbringer said tentatively.
“I’m. fine.” Splash said, but Stormbringer could see her swaying like she was close to collapsing.
“... so, how did you sleep last night,” Stormbringer asked, trying to make a little conversation.
“Couldn’t sleep, was too busy thinking,” Splash said, she began swaying very unsteadily now, coming closer to falling over.
“What were you thinking about?” Stormbringer asked, just now noticing the tiredness in Splash’s eyes.
“That’s none of your concern,”
“I know, but… why was it so important that it kept you up all night?”
“Because it is, that's it.”
“Do you need a hug?” Stormbringer was now just curious, what had happened to Splash?
“Ok! Fine! The reason I wasn’t able to sleep was because constant stress keeps STRESSING ME OUT!”
Stormbringer sat there for a moment, “So… is that a yes on the needing hug?”
Splash made an exasperated sigh and turned her back to Stormbringer. 
Whisp, whose wing now looked good as new, poked her head in. 
“Is she alright?” She asked Stormbringer.
Before he could answer, Splash shouted, “I’m fine!”
Stormbringer paused, waiting for Splash to speak, then said, “I think she’s sleep deprived.”
“How did that happen?”
“I think it’s because she’s not sleeping properly.”
“... yes, that’s what sleep deprived means.”
“I think the stress is getting to her.” Stormbringer amended.
Whisp nodded as if this made sense when Splash lashed her tail, “I’m not sleep deprived, I’m fine!” then stormed out of the room, quite literally. 
Stormbringer could’ve sworn he heard a crack of thunder from the miniature rain cloud now appearing above Splash’s head. 
“Don’t worry, that happens whenever she’s really stressed.” Whisp said.
Stormbringer nodded sagely, pretending that miniature angry thunder clouds were a perfectly normal thing to happen when someone was stressed. 
“So, you guys have to keep everything secret?”
“Yep,” Whisp said, shifting her wings awkwardly. “it can be hard sometimes, like what happened with Splash right now.”
“Understandable. But I do have one question, does anyone who’s not an elemental know that you’re elementals?”
“Nope, if anyone found out, we would be used like the animuses.”
“Animuses? Are you sure that’s how you say it?”
“Well anime sounds weird.”
“Wait, the plural for animus is anime?”
“Yes, so?”
“That sounds ridiculous.” Stormbringer said, shuddering from holding back laughter.
“Of course it is, that’s why I don’t like it, because calling Darkstalker and Fathom two anime doesn’t sound right,”
Stormbringer slid to the floor, laughing.
“What? What’s so funny about anime?” Whisp asked, looking confused.
“Nothing, it’s just the way you said it.” Stormbringer said, trying to catch his breath.
Whisp stood there for a moment, then said, “I don’t get it.”
“Yeah, well, maybe sometime you’ll understand.” Stormbringer said, getting up, “I’m gonna go outside and meditate.”
“Meditate? What’s meditating?”
“It’s an old rainwing tradition, supposed to calm the mind. Though, I noticed when I try it it doesn’t seem to work.” 
“... huh, well, have fun with that, I’m going to check on Splash.” and with that, Whisp went down the hallway to Splash’s room.
= Chapter 6 =
==== I rolled a nat 20 on charisma ====
Stormbringer climbed into the water and made his way to the bottom. 
It was peaceful down here, any sound from above was muffled. 
And that drove Stormbringer crazy. Whenever he tried to calm down, something appeared in his mind that was completely random, Splash being stressed, Shard hating on him, Splash not being happy, being attacked any moment right now, Splash not feeling well. 
It was then he began to notice a pattern. Splash kept coming up in his mind, for some reason. 
What the heck… why am I thinking of her? 
He then had a thought. Do-do I like her? 
His mind seemed to say, bingo. Right on the money. Survey says, you're correct, you have a crush on this dragon you met only a few days ago. 
Stormbringer slammed his head on the ground. NO! I promised myself I wouldn’t trust dragons anymore! 
His mind was silent before seemingly saying, yeah, well too bad, now you can’t get this idea out of your head. 
Stormbringer then began to wonder, wait, what would it be like if we were together, then said to himself, no, no, stop that, no.
But why not, she’s sort of your type.
N.O. no. 
Maybe she likes you back?
NO! Don’t give me hope!
But what if she does?
She wouldn’t, would she?
Maybe…
“Shut it,” Stormbringer said aloud, bubbles floating from his mouth up to the surface.
Stormbringer tried to focus on the kelp swaying in front of him, but then his mind went back to how Splash ate the fish last time he was down here. He tried watching the sand swirl on the ground, but all he could think of was how Splash swirled the sand with her tail when she talked. Stormbringer then gave up and slammed his head so hard on the ground in frustration he buried his head in it. He began digging himself into the sand. Soon he was buried neck deep in the sand. It felt cool against his scales. No overbearing heat. His mind actually felt clear for the first time in his life.
He then thought of something. An idea that was so tiny he hadn’t thought about it in months.
Stormbringer erupted out of the sand, scaring some passing fish, and burst out of the water catching the air and gliding down to the cave. 
Century, who was likely sunbathing, was now wide awake and covered with water. 
“Sorry, Century, got to go.” Stormbringer said, rushing past Century who gave him a bedraggled glare.
Stormbringer charged into the library and immediately started searching through the different scrolls. 
After looking through nearly every section, he found what he was looking for. Stormbringer pulled out the scrolls about the scorching, the formation of the tribes, and on the different tribe origins. He then plopped down on a pillow and began to read. 
He paused to look at Whisp, who stared at him for disrupting her reading by rushing in here. 
“Sorry, I just remembered something that I need to check.” Stormbringer said after a while.
Whisp then snorted, shook her head and returned to reading. 
Stormbringer began reading the scroll on the scorching, searching for any mention of the elementals. Nothing. 
He checked the scroll on the tribe formation. Still nothing. 
He was skimming through the scroll with the different tribe origins when he noticed a subsection labeled The Pyhrrian Pantheon. 
Stormbringer thought that was odd and decided to read more. 
The tribes of Pyhrria have their histories and battles, but they have their own ideas of their origins, having to do with multiple deities and divines. 
“Datys and divides?” Stormbringer said aloud, likely visibly confused.
Whisp looked over his shoulder, “What are you reading?”
Stormbringer showed her what it said, “oh, that says deities and divines, like, immortal magic people.” 
“Oh…” Stormbringer said, “thankyou,” 
“No problem,” Whisp said, then returned to reading her scroll.
Stormbringer continued reading:
The Icewings have a deity better known as the great icewing, though it is debated what he did that made him great, he either started the tribe, or the first animus, or the first icewing king, the stories vary. There is also another divine being among the Icewings known as the Ice Spirits. These spirits inhabit different masses of land such as glaciers, forests, and icey plains and represent the land itself. They are described as beautiful and elegant with grace beyond dragon comprehension. Meanwhile, the Skywings held a certain divine very closely. Named Sky, this being is the patron of the Skywings, though most currently worship the actual sky, instead. The legend goes, Sky granted the Skywings the power of fire scales to aid them in the revolution, named the first Skywing queen, and promised them reincarnation after death, and in return they would give him offerings for his services and name their tribe after him. However, when this was announced, most didn’t get the memo and worshiped the actual sky instead. However, the name Sky is still revered highly among the Skywings. Sky himself isn’t described as a Skywing, however. He is described more of a combination of all the tribes, mostly Icewing than Skywing, giving the theory he may have been based off of the Icewings’ Great Icewing. Then there is the deity of the rainforest. More commonly known as The Davokiin, the deity was the first religion of Pyhrria. There is known information on a Rainwing warrior who fought in the Scorching called Davokiin, but he is not the deity. The deity Davokiin is a god of both war and nature, his symbol on the banners of the coming cavalry of Rainwings during the revolution. The legends of Davokiin are rare, but he is said to bring victory to his worshipers in every battle and protector of the Rainforest. The only written document on him is a song titled “davokiin” written in the old language. Translations vary, but the most common translation of the first part goes like this.
Dragonborn, Dragonborn,
By his honor has sworn,
To keep evil forever at bay
And enemies turn route
When they hear triumphs shout
Dragonborn, for your blessing we pray
This is as far as translated, the rest of the song is disagreed upon translation, but it is known as the war song of the Rainwing tribe. This song was once the war song of all of Pyhrria, but has since been lost in teachings, rarely mentioned. The tribes of Pyhrria also have a collective legend of these beings known as elementals. The elementals are certain dragons from each and every tribe with powers reflecting the tribe’s element, usually. They are not divine nor deity, rather they are representatives of the balance of nature, if something tips too far one way or the other, they are there to prevent it. These dragons have existed before the Scorching and were known as the main contributors to the start of the revolution. However, it is unknown whether they were real or just myth, for animus dragons are known to exist but no one has ever seen an elemental since 2977 AS, which means they either are extinct or just never existed in the first place. The elementals themselves were divided into two subgroups, the eight major elements, and the eight minor elementals. The major elementals consist of the most powerful and the seven major tribes of Pyhrria and the Mistwings, the minor elementals, on the other hand, consist of all the other tribes, including the extinct tribes and bordering tribes of lesser known dragons. There is a theory there are more elementals on the lost continent, but that is unlikely, being that the lost continent is purely speculative. 
Wow, Stormbringer thought, that really didn’t age well. 
He put down the scroll. but that's exactly the proof I needed. Stormbringer then pulled out a blank scroll and began writing. 
Whisp looked over, “What are you doing?”
“I’m making a personal copy for myself of this section of the scroll.” Stormbringer replied, not looking up.
Whisp was quiet for some time before saying, “You can’t do that! What if there’s secret, elemental knowledge only information in there.”
“There isn’t, at least none that I’m aware of, unless you consider a scroll that talks about the legends of Pyhrria elemental secrets.”
“...fine, just don’t tell anyone where you got it from.”
“Noted.” Stormbringer then continued to write, checking to make sure he spelt every word right. He then labeled the scroll Pyhrrian legends and reached for his pack where he would store them, except he didn’t have it. 
Dang it, I didn’t bring it with me when I was abducted, he thought, uh oh, I have some real top secret stuff in that thing, lets just hope no one investigates what's inside. 
Stormbringer then looked at his new scroll copy and walked over to his bed, where he stuffed it under his pillow. 
That should do for now. 
He then walked down the hall to Splash’s room. No reason in particular, (not that he couldn’t stop thinking about her, no way.) he just wanted to talk to her, (which was not weird or similar to having a crush at all, it was perfectly normal.) He knocked on the side of the doorway, 
“May I come in?”
Splash looked up and violently flung the scroll she’d been reading behind her bed, “Oh, hey, Stormbringer, what are you doing here?” 
She looked both glad and terrified to see him at the same time. 
Stormbringer found that rather odd. “Well, when we last spoke, you were having a panic attack, so I wanted to check up on you to make sure you were ok.” 
Splash stared at him for a bit before answering, “Oh, yeah, I’m doing great, thanks for asking.” She appeared to be trying to avoid Stormbringer’s eyes for some reason, though he didn’t know why. 
“Ok… so what were you reading?” Stormbringer asked, trying to start up a conversation.
However, Splash did not respond with ‘oh, that's just a scroll I got from the library, wanna see?’ but instead said, “Nothing! What scroll? I wasn’t reading a scroll, nope, not at all.”
Stormbringer found her reaction rather suspicious, “Yes, you were, I just saw you hurl it behind the bed when I came in.” 
“Uh…” Splash slowly hid the little bit of scroll still showing behind the bed with her front talon, “No I didn’t.”
“I literally just saw you hide it.”
“NO!” she did a weird thing with her front talons, waving them in front of Stormbringer’s face, “You didn’t see anything…” she then began to inch over to the back of the bed. 
“Wait, ok, I’m sorry for pressing you.” Stormbringer said, holding up his front talons in a surrendering gesture, “I just wanted to talk to someone.”
Splash froze in place. "Oh… um… well, sure, but maybe in the living room instead of here?" 
"Oh, sure, sure, whatever you say." Stormbringer awkwardly put one wing to his head in what he hoped looked like a salute. 
He stepped aside as Splash walked out of her room over to the living room, while Stormbringer followed close behind. They sat at the table and Splash cleared her throat, 
"So, what was it you wanted to talk about?" 
Stormbringer thought about this for a moment, "Well, for one I'd like to apologize for calling you out for not sleeping. I figured it was considered unacceptable to you guys because of your reactions to me not sleeping."
“Oh, well, I guess you could get that idea from it." Splash waved it off, “Is there anything else?”
“Well, I found a scroll in the library that said something about the elementals,” Splash rose one eyebrow, so Stormbringer added quickly, “Wait, wait, before you say anything, it didn’t put anything into detail about them, really it sounded very skeptical about the whole thing.” 
Splash looked unconvinced.
“Did I mention it was mixed in with a ton of mythology?” 
“Oh, wait, why would it have that?”
“I don’t know, the scroll was called the origins of Pyhrria.” Stormbringer shrugged.
“Oh, you read that scroll.” Splash said, giving a sagely look to Stormbringer.
“Yeah, honestly it seems kind of useless.” Stormbringer said.
“Ok, that scroll is fine, but you can’t take any of the secret elemental scrolls.”
“Aren’t most of them incinerated?” 
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean it stops you from seeing them.”
Stormbringer looked at Splash very confused, “Wait, you mean I’m not even aloud to look at the incinerated bits of the scroll?”
“Yep, if mother nature meant for it to be shared, she would have made it so they were legible to your average dragon.” Splash said, folding her wings in closer. 
“Yes, well, in the scroll it also mentioned other beings that it called, uh… how did Whisp say they were pronounced… deities and divines?”
“Oh, yeah, what about them?” Splash asked, leaning in a little closer.
“Well, it mentioned The Great Icewing, The Great Ice Spirits, Sky, and one I recognized, Davokiin.”
Now it was time for Splash to look confused. “Who is this ‘Davokiin’?”
“I’ve heard the name before, in the rainforest, there is a cult that worships a being named Davokiin, they basically are a war cult.” Stormbringer said, trying to recall.
“So, not very good for the current world.” Splash finished.
“Yep, it did not age very well.” 
They kept talking like this for the next few hours, at one point Shard walked in, saw there were dragons in the room, then slowly backed out. By the time they were done, it was around dinner. 
"So, I walk into the throne room of the queen, just in time to hear this rainwing say 'I think you mean our rainforest.' and you should've seen the queen's face. Just pure, total confusion." .” Stormbringer said, laughing at the memory. 
“Wait, really? That’s actually what he said?” Splash asked, between laughs.
“Yes, word for word.” 
“Hey, are you guys gonna kiss now or what.?” Energy asked, his head along with the other elemental’s sticking in through the doorway. 
Splash and Stormbringer abruptly stop. They looked slowly at Energy and then, in unison, yelled “SHUT IT!” before divulging into how this was not romantic bonding whatsoever and was perfectly normal for two friends to have a conversation, just friends. 
Then they had to explain how they weren’t friends either, because you can’t just immediately become friends in the course of a day, that was ridiculous, but the others looked remarkably unconvinced. It was at that point (thank the moons) that Cliff decided to change the subject.
“Hey, um, can we eat now? It’s dinner time and I’m starving.” 
Splash and Stormbringer in unison, again, said, “Yes!” and immediately started running around setting up the table, bumping into one another several times with several “Excuse me, sorry.”s, which probably didn’t help with proving they had no romantic connection, before eventually setting the table up for suitable eating. 
While they were doing that, the others were getting food. They brought some random birds, fish, even a snake.
“Hey, why are there nine seats?” Shard inquired while gutting a large eel.
Splash shrugged, saying, “Well, I thought maybe we could include Stormbringer this time.”
Stormbringer joined in, “Besides, I already know what you say behind my back, so everything is fine.”
The elementals fell silent now, becoming very pale. Stormbringer began to laugh slightly hysterically, “Hey, it’s fine, I hold nothing against any of you. But, seriously, your faces are priceless.” he then began sliding down to the floor, still laughing while the elementals frowned at him, albeit now looking more calm than terrified. 
Stormbringer continued laughing, despite the clear disapproval on the others' faces. 
Splash then began to laugh slightly. “To be honest, he really did get us.” before slowly laughing close to how much Stormbringer was. 
Eventually, the others began joining in as well, less joyous, that is. Everyone but Shard, who sat there with a disapproving look on her face.
She muttered something like, “The Icewings would never approve of anything like this.” before shuddering and saying, “ok, let’s not think about the ice kingdom.” 
Eventually the others calmed down enough to actually start eating, but Stormbringer noticed Shard wasn’t talking. She remained silent throughout most of the time and very resigned, as if she loathed every minute of being here. 
Stormbringer found that odd, but brushed it off when Splash started talking to him about how this morning, she caught Whisp in her room writing something in a scroll before hurling it under her bed when she realised Splash had walked in on her.
“Hey! It’s personal!” Whisp retorted. 
“Yeah, I guess, anyway, what were you writing about?” Splash asked.
“No one, I mean nothing.” Whisp said, crossing her forearms.
“Come on, you can tell me.”
Whisp was silent for a moment before getting a smile on her face, “A boy.”
Splash stared at her for a moment before saying, “Ok, nevermind, I don’t want to hear about it.”
“Oh come on, you asked for it.”
“Nope, no.”
Whisp smiled in what Stormbringer realised now was her evil smile, “I can read it aloud if you want.”
Splash then ran to the entrance blocking the way, “Don’t you there!”
Whisp began laughing, “Come on, Splash, I was only kidding.”
“Oh, ok, I knew that.” Splash sheepishly sat back down next to a laughing Stormbringer.
“Ok, now that was hilarious.” Stormbringer said, after catching his breath. The conversations continued like this for the rest of the night, and Stormbringer loved it.
Is this what it feels like to have a family? He wondered. Stormbringer had looked up the word family in the dictionary. It was defined as a group of people consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit, and all the descendants of a common ancestor. However, what Stormbringer was in right now didn’t feel like what the term was defined as, but the term seemed to fit anyway. 
He’d realised he had never had a family, he was alone from the start. That was, until he met the elementals, who seemed to have taken him in as their own. He felt loved for the first time… ever.
= Chapter 7 =
==== The Elementals Strike Back ====
It had been around five days since Stormbringer had been in the company of the elementals. He had found out so much about them since then, for instance, apparently the scroll he caught Splash reading was Whisp’s diary.
He didn’t read it of course, he’s not completely crazy, but he did slip it back under Whisp’s bed once he had found it. He also found out Magma has a soft side for small cute animals, he found this out while he was hunting a small bird and Magma fully yeeted him into the wall to save it. 
He also learned that Shard liked to sing. Seriously, he walked in on her in the living room belting out musical notes. He then snuck out, somehow without her noticing. 
However, there was one thing they did that Stormbringer could never forgive them for, maybe. The elementals were huddled up just outside the cave when he was walking up to them. Then he saw Splash get hit on the head when she got thrown into a tree during training. Stormbringer flew over to see if she was ok, but the others got there first, and by the time he got to see her, she was looking around seemingly confused, but not hurt. 
“Oh thank goodness, you're ok, alright we need to get her inside and-” he was cut off when Splash pulled away and asked, “Who are you?”
Stormbringer was silent, then whisked away into the elemental cave, galloping into his new makeshift room he had made while he was there. The walls were covered in a blackstone, that when scraped revealed a bright white underneath. However, the ceiling remained the color of normal gray stone. He curled up on his bed, shaking uncontrollably. His head, no, his heart hurt more than it had ever in his life. It felt like he was dying inside.
Splash walked in, Stormbringer could hear her talon steps, but he didn’t turn to look at her face, he was still shaking uncontrollably. 
“Are you ok?” Splash put a wing on Stormbringer’s back, sounding seriously concerned, “Hey, it’s fine, it was a prank, I didn’t mean for you to react like this.”
Stormbringer stopped shaking immediately, he looked over at Splash’s face, who looked just as scared as he felt before she told him what was up. 
Stormbringer frowned up at her, “A. What.”
Splash looked several times more relieved now, “Yeah, we figured since you scared us like several times before, we would prank you as take back.” She scratched around her horns with one wing, and had a very nervous smile on her face. 
Stormbringer wasn’t smiling, instead he stood up, just to be slightly taller than Splash, “You scared me half to death.” 
“Well, we didn’t, I didn’t think you would freak out the way you did.” Splash said, dipping her head and tapping the tips of her claws together. Stormbringer strode out of the room and made his way to the library without looking back at Splash, but he could still hear her following him. 
“I’m not going to look at you, Splash.” Stormbringer said, stopping in the middle of the hallway.
Splash stopped then said, “You’re going to..” in a very smug sounding voice. He could practically hear the smile in her voice. 
They’d done this nearly a hundred times, and Splash almost always won. She’d found his weak point.
“Nope.”
“You know you want to.”
“I’m not going to.”
“Because if you do,” Splash began, “you know what happens next, we’ve done this several times.”
Stormbringer tried to resist the urge, but glanced at Splash's smug smile and said in a small, hoarse voice, “Yes.”
The sound of snickering could be heard from just down the hall. Stormbringer could hear Splash trying to stifle her laughter. At that point, Stormbringer broke. He began to laugh lightly, he couldn’t help it, it was just who he was. 
He took a breath, looked at Splash and said, “You really play dirty, Splash, seriously.” 
Splash sat there, staring at Stormbringer, then whacked Stormbringer upside the head.
“Ow.” Stormbringer rubbed his head, “Why did you do that?” 
“You’re not supposed to make that face.” Splash shouted.
“What face? I wasn’t making a face.”
“Th-that face, the one you just made.”
“I don’t know what you're talking about.” Stormbringer began backing away slowly.
“Just don’t do it again.” Splash turned around and sat down. However, before she spun around, Stormbringer could’ve sworn he saw a bit of red show up on her face. 
Stormbringer dismissed it as a trick of the eyes, though. He wouldn’t let himself hope. 
He continued his path to the library, while Whisp passed him, heading to Splash’s side. Stormbringer stepped into the library and started looking through the scrolls. 
Where is it, come on, I know it’s here. Stormbringer turned when he heard talon steps heading to the library, where he saw Century standing there, watching him. 
“Hi, do you need something?” Stormbringer asked.
“No, I’m just wondering what you’re looking for.” Century said.
Stormbringer debated telling Century about it, “I’m looking for a scroll.”
Century didn’t react in the way Stormbringer thought he would. Instead, he asked, “What kind of scroll are you looking for?”
“Um…” Stormbringer sighed, “Fine, I’ll tell you, I’m looking for a scroll about… understandinggirls.” 
Century stared at him for a long time then smiled slightly, “Oh, well, I’m not sure if there’s a scroll on that, but maybe I could help you.” 
Stormbringer was silent for a while, “How would you be able to help me with that?” 
“Well, I myself can’t help you, but I do know a guy.” 
“Seriously, this is the person you know?” Stormbringer said.
“Hey, she’s a girl, isn’t she? She would know.” Century said, sounding confident.
Breeze looked between Stormbringer and Century, then said, “You make it sound simple, anyway, so what is it you wish to understand about girls?”
Stormbringer was quiet for a minute before answering, “Well, I’d like to understand why Splash hit me upside the head.” 
Breeze was silent, “Oh, you wanted to know why she did that. Well I’m the wrong person to ask, I have no idea what she’s doing, I usually don’t.”
Century frowned, “Well, you're unhelpful.” 
“Well I’m sorry, but Splash isn’t exactly like other girls.” Breeze retorted.
“Ok, guys, it’s fine, I’ll just… go do something else.” Stormbringer interjected, before Breeze and Century could tear each other apart. 
He walked outside and sat down in the breeze. In the distance, he could hear the commotion of dragons. Jade mountain was being mined out for some reason. He didn’t know why, but he figured he would find out when he got home. 
Home… Stormbringer realised he hadn’t been home in nearly a week. How long had he been here, what was everyone doing back home? Stormbringer needed to know what was happening! He couldn’t just stay out of the loop like this! He needed information! 
Splash walked up behind him, brushed his wing with hers, and sat down next to him. “So, what are you thinking about?”
“Well, I kind of miss home.” Stormbringer said slowly.
Splash stared at him, then looked down. 
After a long time she said, “I understand if you want to go back home, and maybe never see us again.”
Stormbringer stared at Splash before saying, “Well I might miss home, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to see you again.” 
Splash looked up at Stormbringer.
After a while of staring into each other's eyes, Stormbringer cleared his throat, “Of course, I also mean the others, too.”
“Oh, yes, of course, right.” Splash looked out over the lake. 
This awkwardness lasted for a while before something caught Stormbringer’s eye. He looked over at the mountain, where he thought he saw movement. 
Splash looked over at him, “What is it?”
“Get inside. Now.” 
“Wait, why?” 
“Just go.”
Splash, surprisingly, didn’t argue, and went back inside. Stormbringer followed and covered the entrance in an illusion. 
“So, why did you tell me to go insi-” Splash started, but Stormbringer stopped her and pointed at a Rainwing appearing over the lake, as if just pulling up from a dive. He looked around, as if searching for something. 
Splash began to open her wings. 
Stormbringer looked over at her.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Stormbringer asked, before Splash launched out of the cave, followed by Whisp, and immediately started attacking the rainwing. 
However, the rainwing wasn’t alone. From behind him, a wing of rainwings appeared and soon Splash and Whisp were overrun. 
Splash dived into the lake, but Whisp was grabbed midair before she could go into a dive. Stormbringer turned invisible and tried to follow the departing wing, but was stopped by Shard, who was holding him back. 
By the time Splash got back, the wing was long gone, but Stormbringer was still trying to go after them. 
Splash stared at Shard, “What are you doing?”
“I’m both stopping him from escaping and saving his life.” Shard retorted.
Stormbringer didn’t say anything, he was still trying to escape Shard, who was fully pinning him down now. 
“Stormbringer, it’s too late, she’s gone.” Splash said, her wings drooping. He could see the tears in her eyes, which just made him want to go after Whisp more.
“No!” Stormbringer yelled, startling Splash, “There’s still time, I can fix this!”
“How could you fix it?” Splash asked skeptically.
“I have ties, I know stuff, I could convince them to let her go.” Stormbringer said, still struggling.
Splash was silent for a while, “What kind of ties?”
“You’re not seriously considering-” Shard began, but was cut off by Splash holding up one talon. 
“I have leverage. I told you all about it.” Stormbringer said, getting more exhausted.
“How would they help?”
“There are other options, how long have I been here?” 
“Around two weeks.”
“Two Weeks?!” Stormbringer stopped for a moment, which let Shard pin his front talons down. He’d been here for two weeks?!
He shook himself from his surprise. “If I remember correctly, the queens are having a meeting tonight. That means Whisp will be taken to the Rainwing palace.”
Splash considered this for a moment, “Shard, let him go.”
Shard looked shocked, “But, Splash, what if he just ditches us?”
“Just do it.”
Shard let Stormbringer go, and he paused at the cave entrance, staring at Splash. Then he launched into the sky, heading directly to the rainforest.
= Chapter 8 =
==== Hello there, ====
==== I’m your worst nightmare ====
Stormbringer was flying through the rainforest. He was home, he could head home right now and no one could stop him.
No, I can’t abandon them, I need to save them. But how?... Stormbringer thought. 
He couldn’t protect them all by brute force, he wasn’t nearly powerful enough. Plus, that would just endanger them more. 
And Splash… he couldn’t let her down now, not while he still had time. 
That got him thinking.
That’s it, it’s the perfect plan. Stormbringer was so deep in thought, he nearly barreled right into a tree. 
At one point, he was spotted by some patrolling rainwings.
“Hey, hey, where are you going?” One of them said, blocking Stormbringer’s path with one wing. 
Stormbringer backflipped midair, over the guards. When they called out to him, he looked back at them.
The guards promptly turned their backs. He was already punished, they couldn’t touch him.
He kept flying, ducking and diving around the trees, until he reached a building in, roughly, the middle of the Rainforest. He became invisible as he descended onto the roof and peared in. Whisp was bound near the entrance, while seven dragons from each tribe were in the room. This couldn’t have gone more perfectly. Stormbringer thought. He then leaped from his hiding spot and landed right in front of Whisp, turning un-invisible as he landed. 
The queens looked startled, some leaping back while others full on shrieked. The only dragon that wasn’t a queen brandished a throwing star at him. 
Stormbringer inhaled sharply before seeing the dragon’s face, let relaxed.
“Hello, Deathbringer.” Stormbringer said.
The look on Deathbringer’s face was priceless. 
The rainwing queen looked confused, while the other queens ranged from shocked to cursing violently. Well, one was cursing violently.
Stormbringer cleared his throat after Deathbringer backed up and stood closer to the Rainwing queen. “Ok, so, I have some concerns about the way things are being run around here.” 
“Concerns?! You just think you can drop in and talk about concerns?!” the seawing queen exclaimed.
The Rainwings queen held up a talon for silence, he expression pure calm, but Stormbringer could see her scales turning pale green. “Alright, what are your concerns?”
“Well, you see, you appeared to have imprisoned my friend here,” he waved one wing at Whisp, “so, I would like to get her out.”
“And is there anything else?” The Rainwing Queen asked, though she looked like she was expecting that to not be the case.
She was surprised, Stormbringer could see that, when he was finished.
“Yes actually, I would like to advocate for my friends so none of them are imprisoned in a similar way to my friend here.”
The Seawing Queen, who Stormbringer recognized as Queen Coral, spoke up, “And who gives you the authority to do this?”
“What do you have for us?” The Sandwing Queen summed up. 
Stormbringer loved diplomacy.
“Simple, leverage.” Stormbringer replied, with a smug smile on his face. 
The queens were silent. 
“What kind of leverage?” Queen Glacier asked, Stormbringer had read about the Icewing queen before but had never seen her. 
“Simple, a little thing I like to call blackmail.”
“So you’re threatening to black mail us.” The Skywing Queen raised an eyebrow. 
“Yes.” Stormbringer nodded his head.
“What could you possibly know that would count as blackmail?” Queen Coral Asked, now looking a lot more confident.
“Simple, I know where the deep ocean palace is, the location of all the sandwing sisters’ bases, and your backstories.” Stormbringer smiled in what he hoped was intimidating enough.
The queens looked slightly unsettled, but not convinced.
“How could you possibly-” The Sandwing Queen started.
“Queen Thorn, I wonder what the sandwing tribe would think if they knew their new queen was a former mafia boss.” Stormbringer said loudly.
Queen Thorn didn’t say anything. 
Stormbringer continued. “Queen Coral, perhaps the rest of the queens would like to know where your deep sea palace is.” 
Queen Coral looked taken aback, “You wouldn’t.”
“Yes, yes I would.” Stormbringer laughed slightly, then walked over to the map.
“Wait! Don’t.”
Stormbringer stopped then turned back towards the table, “Queen Glory! The dragonet queen.” 
“No.” Deathbringer interrupted, “None of that.”
Queen Glory shushed him with her tail. “Fine, we’ll agree to your terms. Speaking of which, what are your terms?”
Stormbringer smiled evilly, “Ah yes, my terms are the complete freedom of the elementals.”
The queens stared at him before bursting into laughter. 
Stormbringer’s spine erupted in electricity. The queens drew back in surprise. 
“Wait, you’re serious?” Queen Glacier asked in awe.
“No, I’m just making a practical joke, OF COURSE I’M BEING SERIOUS.” Stormbringer spread his wings for emphasis.
“And you’re one of them?” The Skywing Queen asked skeptically.
“Yes, now, my terms, I wish the elementals to not suffer the same fate as the animus dragons did, they will reveal themselves when they see it necessary and you must let them continue in their normal day to day going ons and let them be free.” 
The queens were silent. 
“Can you repeat that?” Queen Moorhen asked.
Stormbringer grumbled a little, then repeated what he just said, slowly this time so they could understand him perfectly.
The queens were silent for another moment, then Glory made an announcement, "All in favor of supporting his offer?" 
To Stormbringer’s surprise, all the queens raised their talons, making the vote unanimous. 
Queen Glory turned back to Stormbringer, looking slightly elated.
“You may have your way, you and your friends are free.” Queen Glory stated, straightening her posture. 
Stormbringer bowed, “Thankyou, your majesties, and Deathbringer.” He straightened up and walked out of the room with Whisp, who he unbound while he was speaking. 
"Why would you do that?" Whisp asked while they walked into the storm.
"Because, you deserve to be free, all of you." Stormbringer whispered.
Whisp was silent for a moment, "Thankyou." She finally said, and with that, they flew back toward the elemental’s home through the stormy night. 
When they dived down toward the familiar lake and landed at the lake’s bank, Splash launched out of the cave and wrapped her wings around Whisp. 
“Oh thank the moons, you’re safe.” Splash said. 
Stormbringer was silent. He didn’t want to say anything, he didn’t want to see their reactions to what he did. He was debating whether he should tell them now or later, when Whisp beat him to it.
“So, while we were there, something happened.” She then proceeded to explain everything, going into detail on his facial expressions while making the deal with the queens.
The elementals said nothing. Splash was the first to speak, “You, did, what.” she looked up to glare at him, but he was gone. 
Splash’s eyes widened and she whipped her head around.
He had vanished. He had hidden at the entrance of the cave, perched there, not daring to move in his fear. The elementals looked for him while Whisp kept talking, “Honestly, I think he did something good for us, because he didn’t reveal any of our identities except his.”
Shard looked at Whisp, “Hold up, did you say he only revealed his identity?”
“Yep, didn’t I mention that?” Whisp asked.
“No, but that would’ve been helpful before SPLASH SCARED HIM OFF!” Shard yelled.
Splash turned her head slowly towards Shard, “What? How did I scare him off? Where do you see this as my fault?”
“You were ready to tear him apart! You were going to kill him. His reaction was justified.” Shard said, “So, you’re the one who scared him off, you sent him away, you made it clear you hated him.”
Splash sat there, staring at Shard, then turned and dove into the lake.
Shard was breathing shakily then stormed into the elemental’s cave.
Stormbringer was still perched on top of the entrance, unmoving. He was too scared to move. He didn’t want to risk revealing himself. This lasted for hours. By the time it was morning, he hadn’t slept, and everyone had gone inside. Splash still hadn’t come up from the lake yet. He was starving, but was too afraid to go catch some food. 
Eventually he got so drowsy. he nearly toppled off his perch. He could barely stay awake, and finally, passed out cold and fell into the lake. 
His dreams were worse than his reality.
He was back in the box again, it’s walls soaked in red stains, as it always was. However, this time, he could see the source of the voices. At least fifty dark shadows in the shapes of dragons with glowing red eyes stood before him. 
You’ve come to join us, it was about time, you were bound to come to an end sooner or later. But, you’ve pulled through for most of your life, for now your time has come. You now shall join us. 
The room suddenly began to evaporate, the shadowy dragons tried to reach for him, but it was gone.
When Stormbringer woke up, he was underwater with a concerned looking Splash shaking him awake. He then remembered why he was down there in the first place and attempted to disappear.
“Oh no you don’t.” Splash pinned Stormbringer down, keeping him from swimming away. Eventually he gave up and stopped struggling.
“Ok, so, I’m sorry if I scared you away last night, I didn’t mean it. But, now your back, which goes to my next question, why did you come back?” Splash said in a rush, that Stormbringer almost wasn’t able to understand her Aquatic.
Stormbringer hesitated before saying, “I never actually left.” 
Splash stared at him, or where she thought he was, then pressed her talons to her skull, “Wait, wait, you mean to say you’ve been here the entire time? Where were you?!”
“I was on top of the cave entrance.” Stormbringer said. "I've been here the entire time."
Splash was silent for a while, then she threw her wings around Stormbringer. "I'm just glad you're back." She said quietly. 
They stayed like that for a while. It felt nice, not being in constant stress all the time. Not having to save anyone. He even felt safe enough become visible again. 
Everything and everyone were fine at that moment, he was fine. 
Is this what it feels like to be normal? Stormbringer wondered. If it is, I think I like it. 
He liked just sitting here, with Splash sitting next to him. Maybe saving the world can wait. He thought. Seriously, why not, the world wasn't going anywhere. 
"Are you sure you're going to be ok?" Splash asked. 
Stormbringer was preparing for his trip. Since the elementals had told him about the lost continent, he wanted to go see it for himself. 
It had been around another week since he’d revealed that the elementals were real. They’d let him go back home, and he was pardoned from his earlier punishment! 
He’d finally found out what they were doing up in Jade mountain. It was a school, made to promote peace and all the other nonsense that Stormbringer literally couldn’t care less about.
So, of course, he’d applied for a job there. When the elementals heard about it, they immediately enrolled, being named the sapphire winglet. Stormbringer was still waiting to be hired, but he wanted to teach history. 
It was his favorite subject and he really wanted to tell everyone what he’d learned.
"Yep, I'll be fine, besides, no one could stop me if they tried." He said, slinging his pack around his shoulder.
Splash looked unconvinced, "Ok, just be careful, alright?"
"It'll be fine, I'll be careful. I'll tell you all about it when I come back." Stormbringer said, then he launched himself into the sky and flew off through the trees. He could've sworn he heard Splash and Whisp yelling about something behind him, but he didn't care. He was free and was going to live like it. Nothing could stop him now.
= Epilogue =
The night was bright. Hurricane didn't know if he would fall for it or not, but she had to try. She could see him while she flew up. She just hoped he wouldn't suspect  something.
"Hey, Draco." Hurricane said, landing a few feet away from him.
Draco turned his head to see her and smiled, "Oh, hi, Hurricane, what brings you up here so late at night?" 
"I got something for you." She held up the necklace they made with help from the animus dragons.
"Thankyou." He took the necklace immediately, just as planned. 
Hurricane felt herself begin to cry, "I'm sorry, Draco, but we had to."
Draco looked at her confused, then the trap sprang, he began to be sucked into the amulet, he tried to drop it, but it was stuck. He shook his talon, it still stayed. 
He gave Hurricane one last look of shock that she had betrayed him, before fully disappearing into the amulet. 
Hurricane picked up the amulet and flew far away. She flew all the way across the continent, toward the familiar peaks of Jade mountain. It was there where she went far below in the caves and buried the amulet, for extra measure. 
She’d made it impossible to find, no one would even think to come looking for it. No one would dare come down this far. No one would ever find him. Who would even come looking for him? No, the world was safe while he was down here. He had lost his chance long ago. Now it was Hurricane's turn to step up and make things right.
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)