Legon Restoration (14 page)

Tenick spoke. "Legon, it's good to have you home," he said shaking Legon's hand. "Anna sends her regards," he said speaking for his wife.

"It's good to see you, and where is Anna?" Legon asked.

"We are staying in the Palace but she is not Ascended, so declined coming this afternoon," Tenick said warmly.

Legon was to begin training, now that he was an Ascended, it was for this reason they were meeting on top of the Palace roof. The brown haired Elf introduced himself, "My name is Gratook, I am the Head of Biologic training at the Venefica School in Seeon's Central Academy. I believe you have met the Dean of the school, but we have never had the honor."

Legon shook Gratook's hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
 

Opes spoke. "Legon, as you know today we are going to start your training as an Ascended, today we are looking to gage what your natural abilities are, each of us will be working with you on one thing or another. Iselin is one of the best flyers I know, so she will be working with you in the air. Gratook will be working with you with your minor. I will be assisting you in up close, physical combat. Tenick will be here to help you on a general level," he explained.

"Is this common?" Legon asked.

Gratook answered in a smooth voice, "Yes, you see Iselin, Opes and I will be focused solely on our perspective topics. For example, if you are learning to fight with Opes, Iselin will try to only notice your flying during a fight and comment on that. In this way you are able to get intensive training. Tenick will be the one who ties everything together for you as he will not focus on any one part of your skill set. Both we and the Iumenta do this when first training new Ascended. Once you have mastered your minor, you will be taught by Ascended with other minors along with me. So, shall we go to the training arena?"

Legon watched as Tenick, Opes and Gratook Ascended, and took off hovering above the Palace. Iselin spoke in his mind, "You've haven't Ascended since your first time, the important thing to remember is that Ascending and flying are mostly instinct, don't think about it," she said.

He remained in her mind as she transformed into a pink dragon and took off.
You can do this
he told himself. He closed his eyes focusing on the power within him, letting the urge to change take over, heat rushing down his limps, and he felt himself grow. He opened his eyes seeing the world only the way an Ascended could. Legon looked down the length of his body, flexing his wings, loving the way they felt.
 

"Very good Legon," Opes said in his mind. "Now take off."
 

Do what? The last time he'd flown it felt easy and natural, but now the prospect of taking off seemed a bit daunting.
 

"The last time you flew you didn't think, you were acting to save me and as a result you just used your natural feelings, you need to do that now." Iselin said supportively.

Legon extended his wings, coming in close to the ground he jumped in the air, driving his wings down. He lifted higher but it felt forced to him, he moved forward slightly but it felt awkward. "Whoa," he said lurching unsteady in the air.
 

Iselin spoke, "Stop thinking about flying and fly."

"Ok I'll do that, thanks," he remarked tartly.

"Empty your head Legon, that shouldn't be hard for you, there’s rarely anything in it anyway," she said acidly.

"What? How is that supposed to help? And what do you mean there is never anything in it? You always tell me to stop talking so much in my head and second of all..."

"You're flying," she said self satisfied, "just don't think about it."

And he was, Legon was flying, not with any level of grace but he was moving around without issue. He could only go forward and turn a little bit, hovering was out of the question, but he was still flying.

"Basic maneuvers like hovering and going backwards will come easy for you, after a few days basic flight will be second nature for you, it's just a matter of trusting yourself," Iselin said.

Legon wondered why none of the others were saying anything when he remembered that it was Iselin's job to teach him to fly. They all flew away from Seeon over the forest. Legon loved the way the air felt against him and the freedom that the sky allowed.

"It feels wonderful doesn't it?" Tenick said.

As they flew Legon noticed a large circular clearing in the trees that looked to be several miles across.

"That is the training arena," Opes said, "there are many, each one has specific duties. This one will suffice for what we are going to do today."
 

As they came over it Legon could see high walls with tall poles extending a few hundred feet in the air, the poles were about one hundred yards apart from each other spaced out along the length of the arena. "What are those for?" Legon asked.

It was Gratook that answered. "Prior to training we will each fly around the arena. In each of those poles are crystals with power in them, they can hold simple spells, we will each place a stop all ward in each crystal. Once we begin some of the crystals will levitate up even higher in the air, this will insure that all of our spells stay inside the arena," Gratook explained.
 

Legon followed the others around the arena activating crystals, as he flew he noted the diversity of the ground below him. Some areas had rocks like little crags and others were open field and still some were water. They landed in the center of the arena which was just grass.

Iselin spoke. "OK, I will be working with you first, remember this is just to see where you are at, there is no pass fail here," she explained.

They took off, this time Legon noticed that it was easier than before. Legon was to place several wards on himself, one was to make it so that if he got too close to anything he and others would be shielded. He was told that this was done because of his size, if he ran into Iselin or the others they could get hurt, or so he was told.

He was to follow Iselin as her maneuvers went from simple to complicated. At first Legon was having fun, it was easy; they flew around the outside of the arena, then she would climb and dip in the air. As time went on the climbs became steep and the dips became dives. It was on one of these dives that Legon learned the real reason for the ward he'd placed on himself. He was diving down behind Iselin, elated with the rush he was feeling, and while she was still high above the ground, she rose out of the dive. Legon made to do the same...he tried again and panicked. All he could see was the ground rushing up to meet him. He turned himself in the air and drove his wings down, he slowed drastically and then...WHAM! He hit the hard dirt of the arena, as his surrounding glowed magenta from his ward.
 

* * * * *

Iselin looked down as she heard her husband hit the ground with a dull thud. The wards he was using would prevent him from getting hurt so she wasn't all that worried about him. He was doing well so far, for a beginner. "OK, take off and let’s try again," she said.

"How come I fell? What did I do wrong?" he asked.

She could tell that he was bothered by not doing perfect on his first day. "You did fine, I am smaller and more agile, plus I have years of experience on you," she said trying to be supportive, she could feel that he wasn't buying it. "Look, when I first started flying I was horrible, it was like I wasn't even a dragon. I felt embarrassed every time I flew so I worked at it," she said. It was true; she could remember being one of the worst flyers she'd known of. But now after years of work Iselin was known for her abilities.
 

She came back around as Legon took off again following her in the sky. She turned slowly, weaving around in lazy circles. From what she could see he was having a hard time with his turns, it wasn't power that was his problem. She banked tighter and tighter. With each turn she could hear Legon behind her losing control. Tenick was sharing his sight with Iselin so she could see as Legon wobbled in the air. She tried slowing down and he steadied a bit. Then she sped up going faster and faster, Legon kept up with her, though he could not accelerate at the rate that she could. This time when she turned Legon cartwheeled in the air, crashing to the ground.
 

* * * * *

Legon found himself on the ground again…and again...and again, it was driving him nuts. Finally, Iselin called an end to the flying part of his test. Then he went on to working with Gratook, he thought the magic part of his test would be the hardest, but Gratook said that Legon was advanced for how new he was.
 

The last of his tests for the day would be with Opes. The test was on close in combat and this was what Legon was looking forward to the most. He knew that Opes was going to dominate the fight, he had literally thousands of years on Legon, but this was at least something that Legon normally excelled at. Oddly enough he was looking forward to getting worked over; Opes would give Legon a goal to achieve, a spot to shoot for on the horizon.
 

The two dragons faced off in the air circling slowly. In this test neither would be using magic. Legon watched the smaller dragon as he flew, biding his time, letting Opes make the first attack.
 

"Not going to use your size and strength to end the fight right away Un Prosa?" Opes said condescendingly.

Legon didn't fall for the bait. "Not until I can control how I fly, or how to best attack as a dragon."
 

"Very good, that is wise," Opes said.

Legon figured Opes was trying to lull him into letting his guard down so Legon relaxed a bit, trying to look unprepared. He'd read Opes right. Opes twisted in the air, rushing Legon who was ready, and right before Opes hit him Legon folded his wings, dropping. His wings snapped back open unsteadily but he lunged at Opes as he flew past. The red dragon twisted in the air facing Legon, lashing out with his tail. Legon caught the blow with his front paw feeling it sting and burn with the impact. The two dragons came together, Legon used his size to try and dominate Opes with sheer force. Legon found flying to be simpler now that he wasn't focused on it. Wards they had placed on each other made their claws feel like feathers as they slashed at each other. They bit and clawed for what felt like forever to Legon, and finally it was Tenick's voice that rang out over the network.

"I think that will do," he said sounding amused.

Legon panted, he was pleased to see that Opes also looked wore out.
 

"That was incredible Un Prosa, you have almost no skill with fighting but you are extremely good at reading your opponent and fighting within the skill set that you have," Opes said and went on, "So often when someone is a good fighter in their Elf form it is due to spending years on technical aspects of fighting, but you, you have learned to read what others are doing and you're willing to take risks within reason."
 

"Thank you Opes, that means a lot coming from someone as skilled as you. Had this been a real fight you would have defeated me," Legon said.

"But not without a great deal of effort, if you can learn technique, I dare say you will be one of the greatest fighters in our history," Opes said proudly.

Legon was happy to be done for the day. As they flew back to Seeon the sun was setting, turning the sky orange and making the bay glitter.
 

"It's wonderful isn't it?" Iselin asked.

"Yes, I love being in the air, even if I still have a lot to learn. I've been in your head when you’re flying. I've seen the world from your perspective more times than I can count, but even after all of those times, this feeling I have right now of flying is so much better."
 

"I really never tire of it, I'm glad we can fly side by side now," she said warmly.

They landed in the Palace gardens and Legon transformed back into an Elf, as did Iselin. Opes and Gratook flew to their respective homes and Tenick flew off to run an errand before dinner, leaving Legon and Iselin alone. They walked back into the Palace hand in hand.

Chapter Ten

Day to Day

"I saw a group of children playing today and I asked myself: Do I spend too much time worrying of the things of tomorrow and not enough time enjoying today? Instead of answering the question, I contented myself with a walk in the garden and spent the afternoon reading my favorite book."

-Diary of the Perfectos Compatioa

Barnin walked back to his tent wondering what he was going to do. He'd just gotten a promotion, now he had command over three units making him responsible for ninety men, a responsibility he'd managed to skillfully avoid for years now.
 

Ankle was next to him. "Sir, this is a good thing," he said for the tenth time.

Barnin huffed. "What am I supposed to do with this many people? Honestly it’s been hard enough to keep one unit alive," he complained.

He wasn't feeling sorry for himself by any stretch; he had done a good job with his current, well, now past command. His concern was he didn't have a clue of how to take care of more than one unit, and with the war raging he wasn't likely to get any guidance from his superiors. "Aren't you nervous about taking command of an entire unit?" Barnin asked Ankle.

Ankle shook his head "Nah I've been running it for years, I just let you think you were in charge, besides you're still going to be with our unit aren't you? Well, at least most of the time."

Barnin was still expected to fight, but now he would take time with each of the three units he was over. "Some time yeah, but to be honest I'm going to have to work with the other two units a lot more. One is a patchwork of other units that took heavy casualties and the other one is new guys right out of training."

Ankle winced, "Oh, now I know why you're not happy, at least the unit with the vets can fight."

"But they don't know each other, there is no unity yet, half of these guys have just been transferred out of healing centers. I'm sure they'll get it together, but it will take a bit of time and I'll have to spend most of my time with the other unit that came from Manton," Barnin explained.