Elemental Dragons Book 1: Blood and Water

by Jessica Turnbull

  What on earth compelled Asteroid to do that? Wes wasn’t in danger; he was just upset. It doesn’t help that he didn’t even attempt to stop her, even though she could have hurt someone. Aqueous was just standing up for Braith, but still Wes kept quiet and watched as Asteroid nearly squashed us all to death.

  Did that stupid dream really mean that much to him?

  If it did, I hope it was worth hurting his friends over.

  Asshole.

  21

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “Happy actual birthday!” Braith screeches, balancing on the ladder precariously.

  “Braith, it’s six in the morning...” I mumble, draping the duvet over my head.

  Groans and irritable sighing tell me that Braith has woken the entire cabin. But at least she got my birthday right this time.

  “I know... But Damayanti and I wanted to be the first ones to congratulate you!” She pulls the duvet off me and dangles it over the foot of the bed. “So, happy birthday!”

  “Thanks. Leave me to sleep, please.”

  With a sigh, she says: “Okay... I’ll go see Aqueous then... Seeing as I’m not wanted here!”

  “Bye, unwanted person.”

  With a gasp of mock hurt, she goes into the stables to see my companion. Aqueous moved in there after he couldn’t fit through the cabin door a few weeks ago. At first, he was really reluctant, but I spent ages making him a nice sleeping area, which I think he appreciated. A soft blue blanket, one of my pillows, and a stuffed toy lion to keep him company. Normie moved in with him, swapping between Aqueous’ and Asteroid’s bed every few nights.

  Wes and I made up in the end. He was apologetic about what happened, and Asteroid apologised profusely to Aqueous, though it took him longer to forgive than I did.

  I must have fallen into a light sleep because when I open my eyes people are starting to get up to go to school. With a long stretch, I get down and grab my clothes for today and go to my stall. What I was not expecting was Braith to be already in there with a surprise cupcake for me.

  “You scared me half to death!”

  She ducks playfully as I go to slap her.

  “Sorry!” she says in a sing-song voice. “Blow out your candle!”

  On the cupcake is a large candle in the shape of the number sixteen. It looks far too big for the small cupcake, so I quickly blow it out before it can topple over.

  “Okay, you can get changed now.” She places the cupcake by the sink, biting her lip excitedly.

  “Braith...”

  “We’re both girls, I have what you have.”

  I can’t be bothered to argue with her, so I just turn around and carry on like normal. Once finished, she looks absolutely delighted.

  “Here, breakfast.” Grabbing the cupcake from the sink, she shoves it into my hands and looks at me expectantly.

  Again, I didn’t want to argue, but I will admit that the cupcake was really tasty. It was a tangy lemon flavour with a vanilla frosting – my favourite because of the way it makes my lips curl. She probably spent ages picking out the right one for me. Once we’re outside, Aqueous runs up to meet me, greeting me with a headbutt to the back.

  “Hey, I’m pleased to see you too.” When I pat him on the head he calms down a little, though he still stays overly happy.

  “Hey, wait for me!” Wes sprints up to us, panting heavily with the effort.

  “Have you never heard of a gym?” Braith teases, elbowing him in the stomach.

  With a harsh swipe, he whacks her in the arm, making her lip quiver in hurt. “Hazel, I got you this.”

  From his bag, he produces a large package wrapped neatly in red paper with a small golden bow tied around it.

  “Oh, Wes you didn’t have to...” I weigh the package in my hands; it’s quite heavy.

  “I wanted to.”

  “Open it! I’m excited!” Braith bounces on the spot, shaking my arm vigorously.

  Underneath the wrapping paper is a bright blue book. The cover has a silver border and the title in big silver letters reads: The Key to a Dragon’s Heart – Book One.

  “It’s a timeline of all the dragon species, from Primordial to Avian, and everything in between, of course. I thought you’d like it, because you’re really interested in that stuff.” He shrugs sheepishly.

  “Aww, thanks, Wes.”

  He stiffens as I hug him, but relaxes once I pull away. Do I smell or something?

  “Mine’s still the best!” Braith sticks her tongue out at the uncomfortable boy and crosses her arms defiantly.

  “Oh? You mean the one with the pictures?” Wes snaps.

  We’re both taken aback by his sour change of attitude, which renders Braith silent.

  “Let’s go to school, okay?” I’m the first to recover from his grouchy reply.

  “Gladly. Oh, there’s a Cindaraan meeting tonight. Don’t be late.” He grits his teeth and walks ahead of us. Asteroid lands on the floor to walk with him.

  What is going on with him? He’s getting grumpier and grumpier by the day. What happened to that sweet quiet boy that I first met?

  It’s a phase. He’ll get over it.

  I hope he’s just going through a rough patch at the moment, so that he’ll recover from it soon. Maybe he’s tired, or upset about something.

  If he was upset, he hasn’t told me anything.

  Maybe he just wants some time alone. After all, the only people he really talks to are Braith and me; Marco and Rocky still aren’t fond of him after what happened last month.

  It’s probably a guy thing.

  * * *

  “Fellow Cindaraans! We have just been given news of new funding opportunities, which will be spent on furbishing our headquarters.” Cheers and whoops erupt from the crowd as Ray finishes his sentence.

  This place does need brightening up.

  Everyone is sat on plastic chairs, and the only other piece of furniture in the gloomy hall is Ray’s podium, which he puts his notes on for when he loses track of his words.

  The blond boy raises his hand for silence. “The last announcement I want to make is an unusual one. I have decided to host a dragon fighting match on the field tomorrow at six.” Winter bangs her foot on the floor for silence as quizzical chatter starts to rise. “All Cindaraans will attend, and we will see who the strongest dragons are. Depending on what place they fall in, they will get a job. Those who finish in the top places will be guards and patrollers. Those who finish in the final places will be cleaners and helpers. Any dragons that fall in between will be working on building a bigger Cindaraan headquarters. This building is being expanded.”

  Fuck. No.

  I will not have my companion work some stupid job. He will most likely get ridiculous working hours. Plus, he’s my friend. How am I supposed to be okay with him being pitted against other dragons? He could get seriously hurt, especially as the dragons have to drive each other into collapsing!

  “All dragons will have an equal playing field. No favouritism. Even my companion, Winter, will be involved.”

  This calms the crowd down a bit, but not much. How can he allow this to happen? Some dragons are stronger than others, and these stupid fights are sure to turn violent quickly. Aqueous isn’t competitive, it’s not in his nature, and he’s quite small compared to the other dragons in the room.

  “Will they get paid for working?” a guy at the back shouts.

  Ray’s eyes narrow slightly. “We’ll see. If they work hard enough, they may be fed and paid for their work.”

  “How many hours will they work?” another person shouts.

  “We have yet to decide. No more questions! The meeting is dismissed!”

  Instead of dragons pushing and shoving to get out the door, they run up to their partners, worry and guilt filling their eyes. Aqueous lands beside me as I step out into the aisle with his eyes full of foreboding and fear.

  How can I let him do this?

  If he gets hurt, it will be my fault.

 
My gaze lands on Rocky and Cerberus, who are both sat down and looking up at Ray with hatred burning in their eyes. Who willingly wants to do this? We all know if we fail to show up or not let our companions fight, then we’ll have to face Ray’s wrath.

  He’ll probably beat up any ‘traitors’ as he did with Maya.

  “Haze, don’t stand around; let’s go.” Marco yanks my arm and nudges Aqueous forward with his foot.

  We pass through the doors with little effort, as most have people stayed behind to talk to their companions or try to question Ray further. Damayanti spots us, and waves us over to Braith, who is sat on a step with her face in her knees.

  “Braith?”

  Her head shoots up as I sit next to her. Her eyes are puffy with tears and her shirt is damp from where they have fallen.

  Laughing, she wipes a tear from her cheek. “Oh, hey. I didn’t want you to see me like this, Hazy.”

  “Everyone’s upset.” I let her rest her head on my shoulder for comfort.

  “I know.” Snuggling into my shoulder, she sighs contently as I rest my head on top of hers.

  Marco sits down next to me, unsure of what to say. I’m glad he’s here, even if it is just for wordless comfort. He must be worried sick about Drea. She’s only just fully recovered from her neck injury; one bad hit could leave her bedridden once more.

  Aqueous sits in front of me, his gaze suddenly steely and determined.

  No, you can’t do this. I’ll suffer any consequence I have to.

  His gaze doesn’t waver, and he lashes his tail angrily. Obviously, he wants my blessing to do it, and he won’t accept anything but.

  “No. You’re not.”

  Curling his lip, he nods vigorously, as if to say: tough, I am!

  Before I can reply, Marco puts his hand on my shoulder. “He wants to do it. All the dragons will be forced to do it either way, so you may as well back him up.”

  Aqueous chirps in agreement, his turquoise eyes now shining happily without fear.

  I should have more faith in him.

  He might be okay in all of this.

  He might get through it.

  If the worst comes to the worst, I can tell him to fake exhaustion to stop a bad fight from escalating too far.

  He could do this.

  With a deep breath, I say: “Fine.”

  Pressing his snout against my forehead, he allows me to hug him tightly. Usually he doesn’t let me in public; I think the other dragons tease him about it.

  “I think in dragon training tomorrow we’ll focus on fighting moves for him.” Marco strokes my companion’s cheek roughly.

  “What about our dragon training?” Braith cuts in. “Drea and Damayanti could practise together.”

  Both of my friends nod in agreement, and both dragons seem happy with the arrangement as well. Aqueous vocalises his approval by chirping loudly and beating his large wings.

  I hope we can do this.

  No, we need to do this.

  * * *

  “No, Aqueous. Try not to use the river water. In the fight, you’re going to need to conjure it up on your own,” Marco instructs, nudging my companion away from the river.

  So far, he’s been doing well. I’ve asked Marco to focus on defensive moves, seeing as Aqueous will be too small against most dragons. I want him to use his agility to his advantage.

  My companion stomps his feet deep into the ground again, spreads his wings and closes his eyes. As he catches the wind he jumps back, spraying water on the sandbag target in front of him.

  My friend rolls his eyes as I clap hysterically, but Aqueous prances around, happy with his achievement.

  “Remember, only use that if your opponent is down for a long time,” my friend repeats. “It takes too long to charge; you’ll be knocked down straight away otherwise. Try using that other move on Drea, but be careful.”

  Drea steps in front of the sandbag and stands perfectly still with her legs spread far apart. My companion breathes a stream of water at her knees, knocking her off her feet and into a soaking wet white heap.

  “Okay. Let’s discuss strategies.” He waves both dragons over and we all sit in a tight circle.

  “Strategies?” I don’t object as Aqueous lies down behind me and rests his head on my shoulder, almost as if it were a pillow.

  “Yes. You know, like, um... Aqueous is against a dragon with the element electricity. That dragon is going to use the water to electrocute Aqueous while he’s firing it.”

  “I see. So, in a battle like that, he shouldn’t use his element?”

  “Yes.” Both Drea and Marco nod in unison, making me smirk. They’re so cute together.

  “So... What should he do?”

  “Just stick to the defensive moves and the flight. He’ll be a harder target to hit, and the dragon doesn’t get the advantage of using the water. This goes for the element ice as well. It will have no effect whatsoever; the dragon will just freeze it.”

  “What dragons would he be most effective against if he uses water?”

  Marco and Drea glance at each other for a moment, before my friend hesitantly says: “Fire, obviously. But possibly earth as well. Any dirt or small rocks could be softened if he sprays water hard enough.”

  My mind flicks back to when Winter encased him in hard dirt, and how as he was leaving clumps of wet mud were falling from his snout and chest.

  “You two are so lucky to have two elements. You don’t have any weaknesses.”

  My friend ponders this. “I don’t think we’d do too well against light. The whole area would be lit up and fire wouldn’t be very effective – those dragons are used to high temperatures. That’s the only one we’ve got to worry about.”

  “How long now?”

  My friend rolls his eyes and checks his watch. “Four hours. Stop fretting.”

  “I know, but...”

  “Look. We’ll all be fine. Braith and I are practising in our dragon training lesson in an hour. We even invited Rocky. You could always practise with Wes for a bit.” As my gaze locks on the floor, he tilts my chin up with his finger. “We all know the back-up plan; just feign exhaustion. We’ve got you to thank for coming up with that. Once it’s done, it’s done. We can all go home and have a nice rest. We’ve wasted our entire Saturday going through moves. Let’s take a break, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Aqueous whines as I move forward to hug my friend. He huffs and rests his head on his feet and curls his tail around his nose. Even though he’s trying to sleep he keeps one eye open and permanently locked on me.

  * * *

  Aqueous and I had to leave after Year Twos started arriving for their lesson. The Cindaraans among them looked scared stiff, and their dragons weren’t faring much better. Rocky caught me as I was leaving, however, to give me my birthday present. He’d sent it into a shop to get it framed and preserved neatly and it had only just been finished. It turned out to be a beautiful painting of Aqueous a few days after he’d hatched. He’s sat on the floor with his wings outstretched and his eyes wide and playful.

  I love it.

  It was a pain to carry home, though. The brown frame isn’t light, and I was careful not to let it scuff on the floor or bang into anything on its journey.

  Thankfully I bumped into Wes on the way home, and asked him how he would feel about Aqueous and Asteroid training together. He politely declined, which surprised me. But, we both decided to go out for something small to eat, as the others wouldn’t be done until five.

  “Have you and Asteroid been training with Ray today?” I ask, taking a bite of my muffin.

  “Yeah. It was great to train with Winter; it showed us Asteroid would be good at fighting against earth.” Asteroid looks up from her plate to nod, but quickly returns to her food as Aqueous eyes it up.

  “Cool. We think Aqueous will be good against fire and earth.” My companion paws at my leg and taps his empty plate with his tail. “It’s meant to be small – we’re eating dinner with th
e others later.” He doesn’t look impressed, but stops bugging me anyway.

  “How do you feel about doing this?” He looks up from his brownie to watch me carefully.

  Why is he acting so strangely?

  “I dunno. I don’t want to let Aqueous get hurt, you know? I just don’t think it’s fair that he has to fight to do some stupid job.”

  My friend nods slowly. “I understand. But, it’ll be worth it in the end. The dragons will be building more of the Cindaraan headquarters! We’ll be able to have multiple rooms! You know, offices, halls, dining rooms-”

  “Dining rooms?”

  “Yeah. Ray wants to separate us from the Krystalans as much as possible.”

  Wow.

  One surprise after another.

  This is all about getting one up on the Krystalans. I heard they got funding for a fancy new TV room. Now they just go over whenever they want to watch films or sports.

  I’d prefer a TV room to a fucking dining room.

  “Okay...”

  “Yep. Cool, huh?”

  With a shrug, I say: “I guess...”

  “You guess?”

  “Yeah. I’ll have to see it to like it.”

  He rolls his eyes but doesn’t probe me further. I feel as if I’m being interrogated. Maybe Ray asked him to question my loyalty.

  “Anyway, I have to go. I need to print my maths homework off.” He shoves the rest of the brownie in his mouth and Asteroid rises to her feet.

  “Oh, yeah. I did that yesterday. The table isn’t hard to find; there’s loads of them.”

  “Uh, thanks.”

  Before he can leave I grab his arm, making him jump slightly. “Good luck, Asteroid.”

  His companion nods and nudges Aqueous playfully, most likely offering words of encouragement to her best friend.

  “You’ll do great out there.” He pats my companion’s head and then smiles at me before rushing out the door.

  We’re growing distant.

  I do hope Asteroid does well. Wes looks up to Ray immensely; I’d hate for him to be disappointed if the large dragon doesn’t do as well as they’d hoped.

  22

  Chapter Twenty-Two