Cloud Lands Saga Box Set Books 1-3

by Katie Pottle

  “Yeah, he is…special,” Devin said.

  “You mean off his wings,” Crow said.

  “Should we mention that we are not competitors?” Cinna said.

  “No, why spoil the fun?” Lep said. “We have nothing else to do for a couple of hours.”

  “Yeah, but they are probably exhausted,” Sun said, nudging Lep.

  “Oh, right.”

  “We are fine,” Crow said, crossing his arms.

  “Yeah, it sounds like fun,” Lana said. “Plus, we will get to see uncle James and Ferris.”

  The door swung open and Roli straightened his back and raised his wings as he walked down the steps followed by an average-sized angel with sharp edges and angles to his face. He had long brown hair with several white streaks throughout, though he appeared only middle age. His white Aura flared as he approached them.

  “Children, this is Kevin—one of our base weavers on the job site. He will be supervising you today.” Roli announced.

  Kevin walked forward with a wry smile on his face. “Oh, this job is forever changing.” His dark brown eyes locked on each of them in turn. “It is nice to meet all of you.” His voice was strong and sure, with only a slight fringelander lilt.

  “Yes, well—get to it. I’ll need you back with the weavers once they fix that darn backup.” Roli nodded to them and strolled away.

  “Shall we?” Kevin said. He had a long scar down the back of his muscular arm. “I was told to give you a clean-up job ‘suitable for children’,” he said over his shoulder as they followed him across the jobsite. “However, I think you are capable of more and we can find something more useful, eh?”

  Lep glanced at Cadin and shrugged silently. Obviously, he wasn’t the only one to not know what to think of the weaver. They made their way to a nook surrounded by excess construction material. They could still see the hustle and bustle surrounding the main footprint of the new building, but were out of the way.

  Kevin reached for an overturned bucket in the middle of the small clearing of parts and turned it upside down and sat on it. “Well, grab a seat and we will get started.”

  Cadin rummaged around and found an empty canister of sorts. He brought that to the now roughly formed circle of the others who had found something to sit on. Kevin unrolled a blueprint. He spread it out on the ground and pinned the corners down with stones and a small piece of a machine with wires sticking out. The layout was certainly not the new Condor Palace, but what looked to be a simple house.

  “Cloud-structures need careful engineering, a great deal of energy and materials, and angels to wield that energy according to the plans.” Kevin’s eyes widened as he sat up. His gaze stayed on Cadin for a second.

  Cadin took a breath and checked his Aura. He was expressing green, which was an agreed-to fallback when he was not accompanied by an adult. Nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps he had leftover sandwich somewhere on his face. Gur hiccupped on his shoulder.

  “Oh, this is Gur. Don’t worry, he is quite friendly.” He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to how fringelanders reacted to his dragon.

  “Right, right.” Kevin shook his head and focused on the plans in front of him. “You have all learned something about cloud-shifting at this point, correct?”

  They all nodded.

  “Good. Well, today you get to learn how to cloud-shift larger, concentrated amounts of energy fed from a pacificator and weave the strands together to be useful for cloud-construction purposes.”

  “Wow, really?”

  “How cool.”

  “Okay,” Lep said. His nose was scrunched up.

  Kevin peered up at him, narrowing his brown eyes. “Problem?”

  The color drained from Lep’s face. “Well, um—I’m just trying to think of what that would be useful for, I mean besides construction.”

  Kevin leaned closer to Lep. “Good thought.”

  Lep sighed.

  Kevin jumped to his feet so quickly, Cadin wasn’t sure how he did it. “Let’s get started and then you can tell me if you have figured out anything by the end, shall we?”

  Lep nodded.

  “Before I bring a pacificator over, let’s start with the basic principles.” Kevin flipped the prints over and pulled a pencil out of his pocket. “Let’s say you wanted to build this very basic structure.” He drew a hut with a domed ceiling, one door and one window. “Go ahead and everyone cloud-shift me a model as close as you can to this drawing—say ten inches high.”

  Sun raised her hand.

  “Yes?”

  “We don’t have any clouds to shift.”

  The corner of Kevin’s mouth twitched. “You always have clouds. Watch.” He knelt to the ground and reached inside the cloud-land as if his hands were reaching into water. His white Aura flared before he pulled his hands out of a hole that was now spewing out natural cloud, water, wind and a couple of specks of lightning. “If you are on a cloud-land, you are on a cloud, no matter how established it is. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” Cadin said as others nodded along.

  Kevin turned to Cadin. “Please, don’t ever call me sir.”

  “I, uh, okay. Sorry.”

  Kevin nodded to Cadin and then swept some natural cloud his way. “Show me what you got.”

  Cadin took the clouds and smiled as he connected to them. There wasn’t a lot of material, but enough for a small hut. He closed his eyes and imagined the clouds forming into the domed house. When he opened his eyes, the clouds were holding in the shape he wanted. Kevin walked around, sweeping clouds over to those who needed them. Cadin partially hardened his structure, and then molded the final details with his hands before fully hardening it. He considered the drawing and then his hut and smiled.

  When most of them had a hardened cloud-structure, Kevin summoned clouds over to an empty space and started what Cadin could only guess was weaving. His hands moved quickly through the cloud, and small rolls of cloud were soon anchored to other pieces. A crackle echoed throughout their small space, and Kevin waved his hands over the walls of his hut—smoothing the outer edges. The hut appeared almost identical to Cadin’s and most of the others, and hadn’t taken much longer to make; however, Cadin guessed that it was significantly different.

  “Okay, now everyone step back behind me,” Kevin said as he rolled up the blueprints. “You all successfully cloud-shifted a structure.” He waved his arm around the huts laid out like a small village. “But will those structures make good buildings?”

  He reached towards the base of the hole in the cloud-land. Wind started to swirl and pick up leaves and litter—spinning them through the air. Kevin’s voice rose above the noise. “Would they withstand a wind-storm?” The wind blasted the little huts, knocking over several of them and smashing them into the machines and spare parts.

  “Oh, man,” Lep said from behind him

  Kevin released the wind, but pulled on the water, sending a small torrent through their town. The river rushed into Kevin’s hut without moving it a bit. The water diverted and headed straight for Cadin’s house. It tore his hut up from the ground and swallowed it on its way out of the circle.

  Kevin closed the hole, and they all stepped forward. The town was in complete shambles. All the huts except for Kevin’s were gone, or completely broken down. Only Devin’s was left partially standing, though the roof was gone and there was a huge crack down the middle.

  Kevin’s house was not only still standing, but looked none the worse for the wear.

  “You can weave many elements into a building to make it resilient. Everything you need is already within the cloud. You just need to know how to weave it,” Kevin said.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Anger Cubes

  “That was interesting,” Sun said after they left the construction site. The fringelanders had stayed behind with their family but had promised to help Dragon Fire with mock battles when their training resumed.

  “I didn’t like the whole weaving energy thing,” Lep
said. “It seemed like a lot of work.”

  “Weaving reminds me of bricking—the technique Instructor Mia thought us last year. Maybe we can incorporate it into our training somehow,” Bart said. “And at least we all got a full credit for sitting around and playing with cloud-shifting.”

  “I liked it,” Cadin said. “I think I’ll go back again to practice.” He had felt the potential of how powerful weaving could be when he sat down and tried to isolate different properties. He had yet to get it down, but felt close.

  “You’ll be on your own, man. There are too many other cool ways to get credit in the C.V.” Lep said.

  Cadin nudged his friend. “No problem. It will be easier to concentrate without your groaning anyway!”

  Everyone broke out laughing.

  “Hey, that’s how I focus!” Lep defended. His groans and grunts were well documented during cloud-shifting sessions. “Besides, we won’t have much time for earning any more credit this week with the First Round of the Games coming up.”

  They approached the courtyard to their condos where dinner preparation was beginning.

  “Oh, shoot! I think it’s my turn to help,” Lep said, sprinting towards the kitchen.

  “He’s right,” Sun said. “We need to stop messing around and focus more on winning the First Round.”

  Dinner was energetic and filled with banter.

  “Now that we have all finished, I have an announcement,” Instructor Kade said. “I have the official rules for the First Round of the Games!”

  “You had those all throughout dinner and didn’t say anything?” Araina asked with pouty lips.

  “We are under strict guidelines to not release the info to any team before seven o’ clock,” Instructor Kade replied. He had a stack of papers and lifted them to show everyone. “Here are copies of the bracket. Note teams are matched up according to the seeding each team earned during the Qualifiers. If you placed low, your First Round opponent will have placed higher, and vice versa.”

  Instructor Kade pulled the papers away from the reaching, manicured fingers of Araina. “Before I hand these out, I also have to go over the rules for the First Round. There will be five Energy Cubes throughout the battleground.”

  “Five?” Bart asked.

  “Correct,” Instructor Kade said. “Each Energy Cube will be worth one hundred points if brought back to your own team’s tower. Once a Cube is in the tower it is safe and the points are yours. The cube will ‘turn off’ and all elemental energy will cease. Anywhere else on the battlefield they can be fought over, so the team that releases it won’t necessarily be the one that earns the points. In addition to Energy Cube points, each member will be wearing the Alpha Armor filled with one hundred hit-points. Once you are zeroed out, the joints lock and you are out of the game. The opposing team is awarded whatever damage is inflicted on your armor during play, plus an additional twenty-five points for each zeroed out player. The team with the most points at the end of a fifteen-minute round wins. A perfect score is 1000 points.”

  Instructor Kade fingered through the papers and handed two pages to one member of each team. “One is the bracket and the other is a summary of the rules. Glade has our next training time in the Arena tomorrow and I will have the field set up with five randomly placed Energy Cubes. Any questions?”

  “Yes, sir,” Cadin said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Well we have some friends in town who are not competing in the Games. Can they come with us to our scheduled training time to help us?”

  Several of the other students whispered around the table, but he kept his eyes on Instructor Kade. “Training partners are allowed if they are eighteen or under; however, they must follow all of the rules and blunt any weapons in the Light Bay.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  The following day was sunny and hotter than Cadin remembered it getting on Glade.

  “Lots of water today, kiddo,” Sara said as she handed him a gigantic bottle filled to the brim.

  “Thanks, mom.”

  “No problem. Come visit us at our booth when you are done training and I will get everyone buka cakes and more water.”

  “I’m in!” Lep said from behind him.

  “When aren’t you, Leptan?” Sara smiled and rubbed the top of Lep’s head.

  “Hey, now!”

  “Oh, and Leptan, I am sending a package to your parents tomorrow. If you want to add a letter of your own or anything for Charlie, just get it to me by the end of today.” She turned to Sun and Bart. “And the two of you are welcome to add to it as well. If I’m paying to ship to Glade, we might as well go all out, eh?”

  “Oh, thank you!” Sun said. “I found a couple little trinkets for my dad.”

  “Have you told him about your mom being here?” Cadin asked.

  Sun’s smile fell. “No, not yet. I don’t quite know what to say. I guess I better warn him before he makes the trip out here in a few weeks.”

  Sara stepped up to Sun. “Your mom is here?”

  Sun nodded.

  “Would you like to host dinner for her one night?” Sara’s tone was soft.

  “Well—um, we’d have to include her husband too. Is that okay?” Sun’s face flushed red.

  “Yes, of course. Feel free to let me know what day works for her and you and I will set up something special.”

  “Okay, thank you.”

  “No problem,” Sara said, giving Sun a quick hug.

  Cadin was flabbergasted. All week, he had been mulling over how to approach Sun about her mom. Maybe girls just had a special power or part of the brain he was lacking. “Naw,” Cadin said, shaking his head.

  “What’s that, Cadin?” Sara asked.

  “What? Oh—nothing. Just thinking out loud.”

  “Looks like we have a team from Carpathia First Round,” Cadin said, reading over the list as they strolled through town toward the hotel Sun’s mother was staying in. Sun had been fiddling with her necklace the entire walk and Cadin was doing his best to keep her distracted.

  “Yes, so they will probably be aggressive on attacking and expect us to be more defensive,” she said slowly. They had reached shaded steps of the hotel.

  Cadin glanced up at the embossed wings above the door. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come in with you?”

  She glanced at him and smiled. It was only a half-smile, marred slightly by the worry lines around her eyes. “I’m sure. I could use a little one on one time with her.” Her eyes drifted up to the sky. She sighed. “I have actually missed her.”

  “Oh, okay, then.” He wasn’t quite sure what else to say, so he punched her gently in the arm.

  She shook her head to break out of her daze. “One hour then?”

  “Yep. I’ll meet you back here and then we can head over to the Arena with Instructor Kade and meet up with the others. Good luck.”

  Sun tucked her wings as she pushed open the heavy doors and showed the waiting guard her I.D. card.

  “Hmm, now what should we do, Gur?” Instructor Kade had left them the moment they touched down outside Ramia-Oh.

  The dragon nuzzled up against his hand and sniffed around for any treats.

  Cadin walked around for a bit and found his way over to the Condor Palace construction site. An enormous enclosed tent now covered the footprint of the building. Guards stood at the entrances and patrolled the sky above.

  He was getting ready to leave when Ferris exited the tent. Cadin waved, and the young man turned towards him and squinted. His eyes widened and he waved Cadin over.

  “Hey there,” Ferris said as he swept loose cloud from his arms. “What are you doing here? I thought you were meeting up with my crew today.”

  “Oh, yeah—we are; but not for another hour.” Cadin glanced at the large tent. “What’s up with this thing?”

  “Well it is a high security building, or at least it will be. They don’t want someone fly over and to map the layout now that we have things underway.” Ferris shook
his head. “They even have all of the workers separated into different groups and we are each only allowed to work in certain sections so none of us know the full building either.”

  “That’s smart I guess.”

  “You mean paranoid. Who’d be dumb enough to break into a Calvarian Palace in the first place?”

  Cadin coughed and choked at the same time.

  Ferris patted him on the back until Gur went after his hand.

  A bell rang from within the tent.

  “Blue crew! Calling all blue crew,” a voice called.

  Ferris took a sip of water and turned to Cadin. “That’s me. Have fun today.”

  “Thanks!” Cadin called to his retreating back.

  The next part of the hour was spent wandering in and out of the expensive shops without buying anything. He was tempted to purchase a beautiful scarf for his mom, but he had never seen her wear one and figured it probably wasn’t her thing.

  He still had ten minutes before he was supposed to meet Sun, but couldn’t think of anything else to do, so he sat back on the wall across from the hotel while Gur hunted hoppers.

  Fifteen minutes later, the doors swung open and Sun popped out, looking back and forth. Cadin waved and she smiled as she crossed the road, holding a large white shopping bag in one hand.

  “Hey. Sorry I’m late.”

  “It’s okay, but we should head over to Travarti Fountain to meet Instructor Kade.”

  She nodded and fell in stride next to him.

  “So, uh—how’d it go?” Cadin asked.

  “Good, I guess. She and Francisco are set to come over for dinner on Saturday after the First Round of the Games is over.” Sun picked up a rock and skipped it across the surface of the fountain. Gur flew after it, reaching as it sank.

  “Don’t dive after it, Gur. You’ll be all wet for the flight over to the Arena.” Cadin whistled, and Gur peered back into the water before returning.

  “Silly dragon,” Sun said. She reached into a smaller bag that Cadin hadn’t noticed before and produced some sort of fluffy pastry crust and flicked it towards Gur.