"See? That's the isle it's supposed to be on."
The wings of the Wavedragon billowed in the wind as it carried the ship towards the island, a mountainous one covered with different kinds of trees and other plants. The two Kaiqins aboard had been sent out to capture an escaped Tigrantine, a large, striped kind of snakelike feline.
"Rez, are you sure that plan will work? I mean, it's not..."
"Relax, it'll work just fine."
Rezeho cut Gryce off and leaned back against the mast with a relaxed smile, as the dragon carried the ship nearer to the hovering islands coast.
They were sent out by their Captain, sent out on a mission meant to train their skills further. There skills were elemental control - each of every Kaiqin specializing in one of the six elements, or a sub-element. The two of them were both from the very first batch, so they were, as well as their brothers, the ones the Dark Lord had the highest expectations to - at least that was what their Captain had always told them.
Rezeho had a talent for the element called Light - it was both the actual light in the normal sense of the word, but also the power of healing and to a certain degree control souls. He did not master that, though.
Gryce was strongest with the control of Air - many would maybe think of it as a weaker element, many Kaiqins of later batches certainly did. But he was fascinated by it, and his wind tricks and ability to steady air molecules fascinated his brothers as well.
The rest of their batch (of those still alive, their training had killed off quite a few) each controlled Fire, Water, Earth or Darkness as their best - no Kaiqin had power over the seventh element, the source of life itself.
Closing up on the isle's coast, the Wavedragon dove by orders from the lupine captain of the ship, making it able for a few members of her crew to cast out ropes and catch hold of some trees near the coast. The long asianish dragon folded it's magnificent wings slowly and levitated calmly, it's great size keeping it from falling through the infinite dephts of Hrowan while the crew pulled both it and the ship closer to the shore.
Gryce and Rezeho thanked the captain and some members of the crew as a ladder was pushed over the rail to give them a landing to the stony shore. They both climbed down, and then watched as the ropes were tugged loose, the ship drifting a bit away from the island before the Wavedragon spread it's wings again and slowly soared off, it's beautiful golden wingspan carrying the ship forth swiftly, away from the two boys.
Rezeho kicked a stone on the ground, and watched it fly after the ship before it fell down into the infinite space. He liked this about Hrowan. Unlike their home and training quarters in Motazu (which were all in an underground tunnel and cave system) the isles in Hrowan hovered, the gravity of the world allowing any object of a certain size to stay airborne, calmly levitating. Just like the Wavedragon that was now carrying the ship away from them, it's wings being a much more reliable drive than any sail could ever be with the unpredictable Hrowanian winds. Rez looked back at Gryce, who had taken a few steps towards the treeline, looking slightly nervous - probably thinking about the Tigrantine they were to catch.
The young lad shook his head and ruffled through his short, blackandred hair, cast one last glance after the ship and the dragon, then walked over to his brother with a confident grin on his face.
"Please tell me you're not still thinking it won't work."
Gryce looked back reproachfully as a wind came to live, playing with his tangled hair. It was longer and far more messy than Rezeho's, but besides the haircuts, the only differences between the two of them were the colours of their eyes and their individual scarring.
"I'm just saying..." he began, but was immediately cut off.
"It'll work just fine!"
Rezeho's blueish green eyes sparkled as his smile broadened a bit.
"Now let's get going, that kittycat-snakey aint gonna find itself, now is it?"
He laughed, and Gryce smiled, though he still doubted it would work.
A few hours later they were well started on searching the woods for signs of the Tigrantine. They knew it was somewhere on that island and that it would be very unlikely to leave it again anytime soon. They had found tracks of larger mammalian and avian creatures that would be excellent food for the predator they were out to capture, but so far not a single trace of the beast itself. It was a big island, though, and most of the rocky surface was covered by great woods, only a few valleys and the two mountain peaks left without actual tree growth.
When the light started to dim, Rezeho had found some edible plants before they set up camp for the night. Tigrantines were active during the day, and the two boys were in no rush to get back to the gray tunnels of Motazu, so they wouldn't search throughout the night.
They didn't start a fire. The smell of smoke would too easily alarm the snakelike feline's senses. So they just sat, chewing at the fleshy leafs and going through their plan again; Gryce still argued that it wouldn't work, and that they should think of a better way to trap the creature. Rezeho remained calm and stubborn, though, and eventually his brother gave in. He almost always did.
Rez was perhaps the most reasoning of their batch, Naalyen (the oldest, and the one specialized in Fire) being a stronger personality and a natural leader when all six of them worked together, but Rezeho definitely had skills of a leader as well. Gryce was generally one who followed the others, his brain tended to shut down when he had to work alone, so he acted on his instincts rather than his thoughts - a surprisingly efficient strategy.
Their other brothers... Enadin, a ponytailed and happy personality, always ready for another challenge; Okazi, a silent and dark Kaiqin who rarely ever spoke, but everyone seemed to listen when he did; Kathalor, a down-to-earth kinda fellow most of the time, quite friendly and very clumsy - he was by far the one of the surviving members of the first batch with the most severe scarring.
The last seven members of their batch had either died during training or joined the demons - Jukergon being among the latter. He had been a good fighter... What happened to him after he joined the demons none of the remaining brothers knew - but the Captain had told them to attack without hesitation if they ever saw him again.
After a calm night the two Kaiqins woke up as light began to flood the world again. Hrowan had no sun nor stars, the light just dimmed and lit up like some kind of very slow breathing...
Gryce yawned and made his hair even messier, ruffling it while sitting up from the pile of leaves he'd been sleeping on. Rezeho looked out from under a large, bushy branch he'd been using as a duvet, then sniffed the air.
"... What?..."
"I think there might be a storm coming."
Gryce frowned at him.
"A storm? You mean, like, with lightnings and thunder and stuff??"
He sounded anxious, so Rez made his voice calm and reassuring.
"I don't think so, it'll probably just be rain and clouds and wind..."
He smiled as his brother seemed to ease a bit - somehow he always managed to calm him down.
Shortly after they resumed their search for signs of the Tigrantine, and they had managed to search through almost a third of the forest before a wind kicked up. There had been a fresh breeze through the trees all day, but as it picked up strength it began to howl among the trunks, raindrops soon adding to the wildness of the storm.
When the first branch snapped above them and fell to the ground mere feet away, they realized it would be foolish to continue the search. Shouting to make themselves audible for each other, they decided to head for a valley they had passed a short while back.
The wind wasn't too strong near the ground, most of it's strength was spent in the treetops, but it kept making branches fall, and the raindrops grew heavier by the minute.
The boys entered the valley just as a bright flash of light and a roar of sound tore the sky - thunder. Shocked, Gryce miss-stepped and slipped on the wet grass, he fell and slid down the steep hillside, yelping out in surprise and fright.The poor boy didn't even have time to use his powers before his head met a stone and all of his world became pain, fear and storm for a brief moment - then it went black.
Rezeho hurried down towards his comrade as fast as he could without falling himself. He skidded to a halt in the wet grass, rain pouring down heavily by now, the sky dark between lightnings, and in one of these flashes of light he could see blood in the grass...
He knelt by Gryce's side, lifted his head very carefully, looking worried at the unconscious boy's face. He used his powers, his eyes glowing faintly in the looming darkness of the storm as the Light inside them sought to repair...
Several minutes later Gryce slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurred from the heavy blow he'd just taken.
"Wh..." he began, but Rez put a finger to his lips, shushing.
"Don't try to get up, I'll drag you to shelter..."
And he did so, lightnings still flaring, the rain hammering down on both of them, soaking them completely... And it was cold too...
It felt as if it took forever, his feet constantly slipping and threatening to make him fall, but eventually he'd gotten Gryce dragged into the relative shelter of a big rock that protruded from the hillside. The grassy ground under it wasn't as wet and slippery as the rest, and the ground not quite so muddy. Rezeho laid down his brother who was slowly coming about, looking rather scared after what had just happened and with the thunderstorm still raging.
"Ne..."
"Shhh, 's alright, 's okay."
Rezeho had his back against the rain, the rock not big enough to cover them entirely as it was. Maybe if he lay down too...
So he laid down next his brother. It helped, the rain didn't hit him square-on any longer, and since he was soaked anyway, the seeping drops tossed by the wind didn't really matter to him. They had endured far worse things during training sessions.
He glanced at the pouring water once more, then turned his gaze to his brother.
Gryce looked back with a weak smile. Though the freshly healed wound didn't hurt at all, he felt a bit weird. He hated storms. And he'd never been this close to one of the others either, it was... The warmth Rez gave off was a noticeable difference to the cold surroundings, and he kinda liked it... Rez always made him feel safer, and the last minutes had been so terribly confusing, much scarier than the life-threatening exercises they endured on a daily basis - for this was in another world!
Rezeho's eyes opened wide when his brother suddenly hugged him.
Gryce had his eyes closed and didn't even consider his move, but when he realized that he was suddenly much closer to Rez, his eyes flew open as well. They stared at each other. They didn't move. The blueish green eyes were locked with the iceblue ones.
Then Rezeho slowly put one of his own arms around Gryce, a slight smile spreading on his face.
"It's warmer this way;" he said, sounding a little surprised. Gryce nodded almost unnoticeable, and the two of them hugged closely, their foreheads pressing against each other.
The storm continued to rage for hours while the two boys laid like that, staring at each other until Gryce fell asleep again. Rez stayed awake, watching the other Kaiqin sleep, and listening to the storm.
When it had finally passed, Rezeho woke his brother up gently, then got up. There wasn't a cloud on the sky and the cold winds were replaced by a soothing breeze. The two Kaiqins tried to get the water out of their clothes, but they were so soaked that it was pretty much impossible. That didn't keep them from continuing their search for the Tigrantine, though.
Story~ All copyright me. Gives a sense of the scape of my imagination, does it not?
Sorry for double post.
