by Katie Pottle
Mira hobbled over to a small shed on the side of her mine. She disappeared behind the door for a few moments before returning to them holding several wares in her arms. “For instance, this bowl I have enhanced with several white cloud-stones—allowing all food within to be marginally salted when stirred. The effect lasts for years, depending on how often it is used.”
She handed the bowl over to Cadin to examine before holding up a kitchen knife. Cadin ran his fingers of the smooth white cloud-stones along the interior of the bowl.
“This knife is self-sharpening thanks to the alternating black and green cloud-stones along the edge. It took me many years to get that combo correct.”
“May I see that, Mira?” Marvin asked. His fingers twitched as he reached for the unusual blade. “What are the blue cloud-stones in the handle for?”
“They promote a calm and steady movement. The woman who commissioned this knife is older and has shaky hands. She wanted something that might help her cook again.”
“I would like to buy some cloud-stones from you,” Cadin said as he pulled out a few aros that he had won in a Ladder Master bet against Treven before Break. “I made my friends some weapons with the help of Grandpa Marvin and his apprentices. I would really like to add some cloud-stones.”
“As your father and grandfather mined extra stones for me, you are welcome to have any raw stones, or buy my worked stones for a discounted price. How about one aro for ten stones and I will help you figure out which ones are the most suitable for each weapon?”
“Deal,” Cadin said as he shook Mira’s hand.
“Now let us go choose the perfect cloud-stones for your friends’ weapons.”
Gur had not been very helpful in the picking, polishing and setting of the cloud-stones. He was running back and forth between Cadin, Sara and Mira, taking cloud-stones right from their hands and hording them into a pile behind Cadin. Cadin thought it was quite funny, but Sara suggested that the hording instinct was not a good thing to reward in a domesticated dragon. Cadin told him ‘no’ with the sternest face he could pull off while looking at his baby dragon holding a cloud-stone in each claw, three in his mouth and the rest with his tightly curled tail. He picked Gur up and relieved him of all the cloud-stones except one. The dragon seemed content with being able to keep the one shiny red one that Cadin had told him was his and curled up around it and fell asleep.
“Thank you for everything, Mira!” Cadin gave her a gentle hug after securing his new cloud-stones in his dragon-hide bag. His parents were flying over to the airship to load it with the mined cloud-stones.
Mira shivered and wrapped her wings around herself. “You are welcome back any time, Cadin.”
The wind sent a shiver up Cadin’s spine as he picked his way through a mixture of cloud and rock. Gur would have loved exploring in the deep clouds, but had stayed with Yes and Marvin who offered him a bath and juicy insects. At times the natural cloud was so deep that he waded through up to his waist before deciding to cloud-shift and walk across the top.
“Good thinking,” Sara said, while taming the stray strands of dark hair whipping across her face. She flapped her wings and jumped to the surface of the cloud. “Oh, I hope it is still there.” She scanned the horizon and Cadin followed her gaze.
“I don’t see what’s so great about an old abandoned building.” It was their final day on Air and Cadin had settled on exploring with his mom when he had asked if he could go check out Air. Sara refused to allow him to go by himself, but offered to take him to some interesting places that she insisted only the locals knew about.
Sara stopped and turned to him—her light brown eyes flashing gold in the evening sunlight. “Well, have you ever seen an old abandoned building before?”
Cadin thought about the rundown Core outpost and decided it didn’t really count. “No, I guess not.”
“Right, because the clouds usually swallow and recycle anything that doesn’t have enough cloud-shifting energy being fed into it on a regular basis. Oh, look there!” Sara smiled and pointed.
Cadin turned to see a dark bump peeking over the top of the cloud in the distance—sitting just in front of a small group of trees. His heart raced as they approached a cloud-structure unlike any he had ever seen before. The house was huge and slightly crooked—as if the cloud had started to break it apart at one side of the base and then decided against it. The walls were dark which was abnormal, but not the most unusual thing.
“Why is it so cube-like?” Cadin asked as they climbed through an empty window.
“That was the style of the time this home was built. I think they were going for a more human form which didn’t last too long because of its inefficiencies.”
Cadin caught his breath as he stood up inside and looked around. “Wow!”
“I told you that you’d like it.” Sara kept one wing higher than the other to keep her balance walking across the slanted floor.
The ceiling in the main room extended all the way to the top of the building where Cadin could see rays of light breaching several small holes. A set of stairs reached the second floor where a couple of rooms opened to hall. Above, there were no more stairs—just flyway landings. A few rooms still had doors, but the rest were missing or hanging off the hinge.
“What was this place?” Cadin asked as he ran his fingers along an unfamiliar angle where two walls met. He was so used to the smooth, gentle curve of a wall that he didn’t quite know what to make of it all.
“I think it was just a house. They have what I think was a kitchen through here.”
“But it is so big! There must be six or seven doors off the flyway.”
“Maybe several families or multiple generations used it.”
The flooring dissipated a little with each step he followed his mom through a large door in the back. The room had the feel of a kitchen, though small for this size house, and all the fixtures were gone. A few old, rotting cupboards were left. Cadin peaked inside only to find them completely empty.
He turned to his mom. “How old is this place?”
“I don’t know for sure. It looked almost identical to this in my childhood. Maybe a hundred years or so.”
“Why hasn’t this one been recycled if it truly has been abandoned for so long?”
“Cloud-shifters other than angels. There used to be a wrath’s nest inside of the cloud just under the house.”
“What, wraths?!” Cadin’s eye’s widened as he quickly scoped the rooms.
“That was over forty years ago. Right now, old trees got their roots under the base, which keeps it from being swallowed up.”
Cadin’s breathing evened. Forty years was an eternity! “What happened to the wraths?” Cadin asked as he stepped through an awkwardly squared doorway.
“The patrol angels chased them off. Wraths prefer fringe-lands anyway. Less angels to bug them, and much safer for the citizens of Air.”
The sunlight changed to hues of pink and red.
“Time to go,” Sara said.
A sick scratching sound echoed off the old walls.
“What was that?” Cadin whispered.
Sara’s eyes grew wide as several high, trebled calls filled the air. “Stay close, Cadin!”
“Okay. But what is that sound?” He had never seen his mom look so scared.
“Wraths!”
Shivers racked his body as the howls filled the air. Cadin desperately wished his wings had already emerged. Sara could carry him—however she could never outfly the wraths with their large leathery wings.
“Get your gin-blade out,” Sara said quietly as they approached the window they had originally entered through.
“Oh, right!” Cadin couldn’t believe he had forgotten he had a weapon. He pulled the blade from the sheath on his back and watched with amazement as the compact blade transformed into the elegant katana. He tapped his mom’s shoulder and gave her the ‘wait’ motion while he concentrated and activated the gins within the handle. Their energy zing
ed to life and he nodded to his mom to continue.
The sound of scratching on old wood filled Cadin’s ears, but he couldn’t tell if the source was behind them, outside or already within the old house.
“Once we get outside, you must follow my lead exactly. Understand?”
“I will,” Cadin said—his voice breaking.
Sara gave him a quick hug and then looked out the window. After what seemed like eternity, she crawled out. Cadin went to follow and then heard the wobbly call of the wrath and felt his blood drain from his face as he turned. A looming figure froze in the living room. Cadin paused for only a moment, wondering if movement would trigger the dark beast to attack. Its red-rimmed eyes closed as it took a deep breath—sniffing the air. The creature’s deep purple Aura pulsed and Cadin dove for the window before the wrath could react to his scent.
“Wrath inside!” Cadin said as he stood up at his mom’s feet. As he said it, the giant black snout poked out the window. Saliva dripped from its mouth full of needle-like teeth. A deafening call escaped the angry mouth, and both Cadin and Sara covered their ears as they scrambled away.
Sara was about to pick Cadin up when they heard the answering screech. A wrath soared through the sky above them, the final rays of daylight highlighting its deadly features. Sharp claws flashed as it folded its wings and dove toward them.
Without thinking, Cadin sent his two slice gins out to meet the beast as he pulled out at out a third gin.
“Expand!” The gin grew to form a large bubble-shield in front of them. Cadin concentrated on the slice gins—the wrath slowed and swiped in front of its face.
His mom gave two sharp whistles.
“Keep it distracted!” Sara said as she reached into the cloud.
Cadin felt the energy of the cloud react to his mom pulling its resources towards her.
The wrath shook its head at the gins and continued to charge toward them. Cadin tried aiming the gins at the red eyes, but his gins were only vaguely following his frantic directions. He wished he had focused more during his training sessions with Master Emilio. His mom exhaled heavily, but he didn’t turn to see what she was doing. The wrath reached its claws towards him while still in flight and then bounced back after running right into the gin shield.
“Cadin, in here!” his mom called.
A giant hardened bubble was nestled in the cloud. The wrath was back on its feet and attempting to swat the gin-shield aside. Cadin took a breath and made a dash towards the entrance. Leather wings disturbed the air behind him as the wrath dove. Cadin spun with Tsuyo held tightly in both hands and felt it connect to flesh and muscle. A horrible yell spit through the stained teeth as the wrath backed away enough to give Cadin a chance to duck through the small opening in the cloud-bubble.
Relief flashed across his mother’s face before she concentrated again on the cloud. The entrance closed and then crackled from being hardened.
He glanced at his mom, but was concerned when she didn’t let up from connecting to the cloud. A glean of sweat built up on her forehead—her face tightened in concentration.
“Why aren’t you letting go?” Cadin asked.
“The…wrath is…trying to…cloud-shift to get in!”
Cadin blinked like a fool for a minute while that sunk in. “I can help!”
The hair on his arm raised as he connected to the cloud. A bright energy surrounded their shelter—mom, Cadin realized. He sensed a moment of dark pressure attacking Sara’s bubble—searching for a way in. Immediately Cadin sent what he hoped was a reinforcement barrier around the inside of his mom’s bubble. He then split his focus to the energy vibrations outside of the enclosure where he realized not one, but two wraths were pacing. He felt another energy—his gins that he had forgotten to ask to return—nestled on the surface of the cloud. He sent his slice gins back and forth and around in circles in hopes of getting a few distracting hits in.
His mother sagged in relief. The wraths had stopped cloud-shifting against her bubble for the moment.
A muffled horn blew twice in the distance.
“They’re coming,” Sara nearly sobbed in relief.
“Who?”
“The patrol angels.”
Two more horn blasts reverberated through the clouds—much closer than before. Several wailing wrath calls echoed, followed by silence.
“The wraths are gone,” Cadin said. He made sure their energy was no longer connected to the cloud before he released his own connection.
“Are you okay, Cadin?” His mom’s eyes glistened in the darkened space. She pulled him into a hug before he could answer.
“Mom, I’m fine. Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes.”
Three thuds sounded. “Patrol Jillian here. You are safe to come out”
“Okay!” Sara called. She reached back into the cloud.
The original door dissipated back into natural clouds. Cadin swept them away as he crawled through.
A tall woman with dark hair and chocolate colored eyes helped him up.
“Thanks,” he said as he turned around to help his mom.
“Sara, is that you?” the guardian said—eye’s wide.
“Jill?”
Cadin stepped back as both women laughed and started hugging.
“Well this is quite a reunion after twenty years.” Jill stepped back to look at Sara and then gave Cadin an appraising look. “And this must be your son. He has your eyes.”
“Oh, yes. Jill, this is Cadin. Cadin, this is my friend Jill from school.”
“Hi.”
“Nice to meet you, Cadin.”
“So how about I escort you two home while my partners take care of the wraths?”
“Okay,” Sara said, pulling her hair back. “What are wraths doing back here anyway?”
“It is a very unusual move for wraths to return to a highly-populated cloud-land, even in a more rural area such as this one. We only heard your whistle because we came to put up warning signs. The wrath excavation was set for tomorrow. We were informed about the potential re-infestation today. Girdy swore her pet raven was eaten by a wrath; but you remember old Girdy...”
“Girdy who lived at the peak of Mount Har when we were kids? Yeah I remember.” Sara shook her head as they walked back.
“Well, she is even more forgetful than ever, so we didn’t know where to find the wraths or even if that’s what it was until late this afternoon. We wanted to wait until morning to go after them.”
“I guess we put a damper in those plans. Sorry to have caused trouble.”
“You couldn’t have known. Normally the abandoned house is the coolest place to bring visitors; however, within the last couple of years, wrath migrations away from the fringe-lands have made the edge of the cloud-lands less safe.”
His feet felt like massive cloud-stones as he dragged them across the floor to his couch. Cadin inhaled the clean smell of the feathered pillow as he debated whether to get up and take off his shoes and clothes. After their encounter with the wraths, Jill and his mom had talked non-stop about their lives. After Tal and Marvin finished their third round of interrogation about the wraths, they finally let Cadin go to bed.
“One last thing, Cadin,” Tal said before Cadin escaped his grandpa’s living room.
Cadin turned around and tried to keep his eyes focused as his dad rummaged through one of his bags.
“Got it,” Tal said as he stood up straight. “I was able to finish this for you while you and your mom were out hunting the most dangerous creatures in the cloud-lands.”
Cadin didn’t even rebut his dad’s ridiculous statement when he saw what he was holding.
“My medallion!”
“Yep, I was able to fit your medallion into my new proto-type armguard. It looks like other arm-guards on the outside, but it has a middle layer which is a buffering filament that spreads force evenly out over the entire surface area and allows for better heat and air transfer. It also has anti-microbial…whoa!” Strong arms w
rapped around Cadin’s torso.
“Sorry, dad. I think I feel asleep while still standing! This is…arhhh…so amazing! Thank you.”
“No problem, kid. Off to bed. We leave in the morning and you need to be rested for your Qualifier.”
Before he could fully decide about his shoes, dreams of deep clouds, crying wraths, and magical gin-blades took hold of his consciousness.
CHAPTER NINE
Second Qualifier
Tal had not even fully landed the airship before Cadin jumped out and ran into the school with his hands full of the weapons he made. His left arm flashed silver in the morning light, as his he shifted his load off his new arm-guard.
“Good luck, Cadin!” His parents shouted after him.
“Thanks. See you tonight,” Cadin yelled back before he shot through the doors. He was a little late, as the air currents had run against them, slowing the airship’s progress through the skies. He ran straight to the Gathering Hall; however, the non-Qualifier section of the school assembly was already over and Cadin was now fighting his way through the opposing traffic. He finally made his way past everyone leaving and quietly searched for his group while Headmaster Tripharian finished up and gave the floor to Instructor Kade.
People parted as he passed, and he could feel their eyes on him.
“Hey, guys,” Cadin whispered as he found Lep, Sun and Bart.
“Cadin!” Sun grabbed Cadin into a quick hug. Everyone nearby turned and Sun whispered a hasty apology before turning back to Cadin.
“Your Aura!” She whispered.
“It’s okay. I was able to figure some stuff out on my trip,” Cadin said.
“Did you have fun?” Lep asked from his side.
“Yeah, and I learned a lot. But let’s talk about it later. Did I miss hearing which Qualifier this one is?”
