Shaking away the fears, he tried to tell Zuma that everything was going to be okay, but he didn’t quite believe it himself. There was only so much he could do to make them feel that way, but by merely vocalizing it, it made him believe the words, at least somewhat.

A light moved in the distance, catching both their attention. He wasn’t ready for another issue to arise. Dealing with runes, magic users, visions, tornadoes, or any other insanity was not what he wanted to deal with. He just wanted to relax with his dragon and not have to worry about death being at every window and doorstep.

Jaxtor appeared before them with a panicked look on his face. “Are you two okay?”

A wave of relief washed over him, his shoulders slacked. He felt his body weaken and he let it pull him down, collapsing on the ground. His knees slid into the mud and Jaxtor jumped, trying to catch him, but he was already in the mud, tears flowing again.

“Hey, buddy, it’s okay. We’re here,” Jaxtor tried to help him back up, but he was having a hard time putting the weight back on his feet.

Jaxtor was shouting and beckoned the others to join him. Eloise and Iratoi came up behind, scared at the scene they were seeing. Eloise slid next to him and waved her hands around in strange motions, and he felt a sense of ease come over him.

He let out a breath he had been holding and motioned to Zuma. “They need it more than I do.”

Iratoi was already at work, trying their best to do the same for the dragon. Zuma was responding well and stopped shaking. They both did their best to heal them with their magic, but their spirits were what needed it more, not their bodies. There was only so much magic could do.

“What were you thinking?” said Iratoi in a firm voice. “You could have died! Why would you fly into such a storm?”

He gave her a look of anger and disbelief. “You think I wanted to fly into that storm? No!”

“Then why did you go in it? We were trying to yell at you, let you know to take shelter.”

He waved his hand toward Zuma and said, “Zuma was pulled into it! They were in some kind of trance! I couldn’t do anything! They’re a freaking dragon. What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know. Will the damn dragon to stop?”

He threw his hands up and said, “yeah because I’m such an experienced dragon rider of a whole four days!”

Eloise touched both of their shoulders and said, “it wasn’t anyone’s fault but the storms.”

“The storm is just a storm,” snapped Jaxtor. “It can’t control anything.”

Eloise rolled her eyes and said, “and here I thought you paid attention in the classes.”

He huffed and turned away from them.

Rubbing his eyes, the frustrated tears starting to form again. He cleared his throat and said, “I eventually got through… it’s why we headed to shelter.”

“You should have gone up, not down,” said Iratoi. “It would have been safer up… there…”

He glared at her and said, “yes, because I’m so experienced in storms and dragon flight.”

“I’m sorry. We saw you go into the storm and then the next thing we knew, Eloise saw you two plummeting to the earth. Who would have thought that this thing could have produced a cyclone. I’m surprised you two weren’t injured. We expected we’d have to be doing some serious triage healing.”

Nodding her head, Eloise said, “Yeah, how did that happen?”

Rolling his neck, he sighed and said, “I don’t even know anymore. I wanted to protect us and there was an orb of water pushing away anything that came at us. No, I don’t know how I did it. Yes, it worked.”

Iratoi let out a small laugh and said, “I’m so sorry this isn’t going in any normal way. You don’t deserve such hectic events. This should have been easy and exciting for you. So far, our trip has been extremely disconcerting. I promise you, it will get easier.”

In a low and deep voice, Jaxtor said, “I wouldn’t make promises you can’t keep, Ira.”

He pointed toward several lights off in the distance. Someone was coming to check on the damages. The cyclone was so loud, so destructive, it was still raging off in the distance, destroying everything that came in its path.

“Why was this one so strong? There hasn’t been a storm like that in ages, at least not one I know about,” Eloise turned to Kaden. “Have you had more cyclones over here?”

“There was a pretty bad one like two years ago? A few have touched down here and there, but nothing like that. Nothing that large and destructive.”

She let out a hum in thought and mumbled, “so strange.”

“Why was Zuma attracted to the storm?”

Eloise smiled and said, “We are the guardians of the tempest. We are able to stay calm when the storm rages around us. You showed that today with your protection spell you managed to generate.”

“These things,” she motioned to the storm that was moving further away, “they have power. Magic isn’t only in the dragons, it’s in the earth, in the wind, in the rivers. It exists in the world. The storms? They have magic swirling around in them, too. This one was extremely powerful, though, so the power must have attracted Zuma.”

A crowd of farmers were running toward them in a panic and Iratoi said over her shoulder, “you two are too fresh to the exposure of the magical world. What was unlocked for you was also unlocked for them. Neither of you knows how to control anything. If we don’t get you two in training, you’re gonna do something stupid like this again.”

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She didn’t wait for them to respond before she was walking toward the farmers, explaining the situation. They spent the next few hours helping the civilians that they could. Some homes had been destroyed, some lost their lives.

Kaden knew that telling the king about the runes was important, but they had a duty to the people to help them in such a tragic event. He watched as his group worked at healing and helping the people. They did as much as they could with what they had. What many of the people were going to need was more than they could provide, but they still tried their best. They would need supplies, goods to rebuild, and to survive the incoming winter months.

There was a saying in the water realm, and more so, he found it applied to those who were blessed: “Never forsake someone in need. You don’t know how they got there. All you know is that they need help and you are perfectly capable of offering it to them.”

They were known for their compassion and willingness to help each other in their times of need. The guardians were showing the people that they were the exact embodiment of this sentiment.

He did manage to find a moment of calm, resting his head against Zuma. They curled their body around his and held him tight. Together, they drifted off into a light slumber. No darkness crept in. No thoughts of foreign visions. Either he was so exhausted that nothing could even reach his thoughts or being that close to Zuma helped their sleeping situation. If he had to use Zuma as a blanket from then forward, he was going to have to get a fluffier pillow to go with it.

“Couldn’t handle that whole not sleeping order, could you?” A voice rang out, jolting him awake.

Jaxtor stood over the top of them. Zuma’s eyes popped open and glared. She had been enjoying the nap as well. Yawning, Kaden stretched out his arms and playfully snuggled back into Zuma. “Five more minutes.”

Jaxtor laughed and kicked at his boot. “Come on, Iratoi wants us to follow the trail and see how far the destruction went. The sun is coming up, so we’ll be able to see it.”

Groaning, Kaden arose and started rubbing his eyes. More people were gathering around as the sun was indeed letting the edge of the horizon color with soft pinks and purples. He always loved to watch the sunrise, bringing light to a darkened night. Breaking the cold with the warmth of the sun.

Only problem was he was not a morning person, so seeing the sunrise wasn’t a normal occurrence for him. Nothing was really normal in his life anymore, so the rising of the sun was probably the only thing that was somewhat familiar, despite his unfamiliarity with it.

Climbing atop Zuma, he walked with them as they surveyed the area on horseback. The barn he had once thought would be a perfect shelter from the storm was strung about, torn to shreds. The powerful twister had flattened the entire structure. What he had seen as salvation from the rain would have been his ultimate destruction had they reached it.

They hadn’t seen any creatures or people in it, so that was a relief. It had stored hay and grain that was now all over the landscape. The local forest creatures would be thrilled at all the food just left for them to pick through.

They followed the path of the twister for some time, coming across a few more homes that had been rocked by the destruction. They frantically helped a woman find her husband. His heart sunk when they found his lifeless body.

He was no longer with them, a wound so deep across his head that there was fluid flowing out of it still. Wrapped in his arms tightly was a small child, still breathing, still alive. The mother wept and scooped the child up as quickly as they could. The child could be no more than two or three years of age.

Eloise went to work on healing the child as quickly as she could, offering what words of comfort she could with her own tears streaming down her face. Kaden helped Jaxtor pull the body from the wreckage, trying to get it somewhere safer for the family to mourn.

The fellow villagers were not far behind them. They were able to help comfort and take care of the woman as she clasped her child, sobbing as they helped lead her away. Iratoi shook her head, and they continued on.

Eventually, the path waned, and the destruction ended. Letting out a breath they were holding in, Iratoi instructed them to inform the villagers and once done, they’d be on the road again.

Eloise emptied her purse full of gold into the hands of the villagers before they left. She was sobbing just as they were, wishing them luck, advising that they would send more help their way after they reached the temple. That they will be taken care of in such a tragedy.

“Don’t fly into any more storms,” Iratoi warned him.

Kaden rubbed his head and said, “I’ll try my best to avoid them.”

With that, they were off again. That time, Zuma kept closer to the ground with the group in sight at all times. They weren’t going to lose them as easily as they had the day prior. It was not long before they reached the actual village that was nearby.

They refueled on supplies and continued on. Time passed slowly and the small amount of rest he got did help the venture. They moved from town to town without stopping. By the third, he had to wait with them as they exchanged their horses for new ones. The people were happy to do such an exchange and pleased they had been in the village at all.

Kaden didn’t know how to feel about such a thing, that people just regarded you highly where ever you went merely based on what you were wearing. He imagined many higher classed people got this reaction too. He had always been a poor farm boy whose only claim to fame in his village was that he was able to bring them some quality skins.

He wasn’t sure how he was going to handle it when he managed to get his own robes. Currently, they already gave him far more respect when they saw him coming in with Zuma. Robes were one thing, but a dragon, that was entirely different.

Kaden wondered what his life was going to be like at this temple, if he was going to be thrown in classes to learn about things, or if he could even spend time with Zuma. Would they be relegated to some type of weird stables like the others had mentioned? Would Zuma even get along with the southern Dragons? Maybe their nest didn’t like those city folk.

The whole concept of how they got blessed in the cities was strange to him. Parents would bring their children before a matriarch and hope they’d choose them over the other children. You couldn’t just walk in and do so. You had to be part of the temple. So you had to, as a normal citizen, go through all these steps just to visit the temple regularly and provide whatever support they needed.

He wondered if they were making a lot of money off such an ordeal, charging the parents access to the temple instead. Kaden wouldn’t put it past some people, but didn’t know if those who had been blessed with an azure dragon’s magic would do the same. They were supposed to be worthy and honorable, but they had said that people often choose to move away from the temple entirely, so there had to be some personal choice and behavior in the mix.

What he did know was that most people were blessed in their younger years. By evidence of his peers, that was apparently true. He somewhat looked forward to a whole temple of people closer to his age. All he had had were his siblings for that, and they were not always the most fun to be around.

They had reached another town, and he watched as the group slowed and came to a stop. Confused, he directed Zuma to drop in and see what was happening. The dragon really enjoyed sliding into a group of people, kicking up the dust that would always powder whoever was near.

Eloise and Jaxtor were behind Iratoi while she talked to another man, dressed in a dark red, gold, and black tunic that looked like it was worth more money than Kaden would ever see in his lifetime. The man looked over at them as they neared the horses Eloise and Jaxtor were perched upon.

“What’s going on?” he said in a hushed voice.

Eloise shared a look with Jaxtor before nodding toward the man. “That’s Lord Loratyk.”

“The… the one we’re—“ He couldn’t finish as Jaxtor put his hand out to silence Kaden’s words.

“Yes,” he glared. “That one.”

Kaden looked back over at the man and tried to take in every detail about him. He was tall, with darker hair and tanned skin. He was wearing expensive jewelry and generally looked like he normally wouldn’t have even given Kaden the time of the day. If he stayed on top of the dragon, he knew Loratyk wouldn’t be able to reject his presence.

“What is she going to do? Will she say what we—”

Eloise cut him off that time. “We have no idea. Just shut your mouth, open your ears, and watch.”