Elemental Powers: Fire and Water

Flashback

 He flared his wings are glared at the woody barks. Anything could happen by now. If they attacked too early, they were dead. Leaves rustled in the dark. The undergrowth was too dark, barely any light reached here. This was a world where light could flood The Eye, yet places like this still existed. Marsh tossed The Eye into the shadow, the orb glowed and flashed, a deep voice echoed, " I don't like this plan."

"Me neither. But it has to be done if we want to survive. She just hatched."

The Eye glowed red. Marsh immediately snatched it and stashed it in the hole in the tree next to him. He dipped down to the sturdiest branch he could find. If he messed up the Solarflares would literally have him for breakfast. A particularly large Hydroblast slithered over some moss covered fallen trees, the emerald eyes roving across the bark.

I swear. If those twigs make a mistake I'm gonna skin them alive.

Snap. The branch below Marsh snapped loudly, a couple of his allies falling and breaking on the forest floor.

The water dragon twitched his ears. He clearly had heard the disturbance.

Another Hydroblast came through the trees, the spikes on her tail rattling softly and clinking against the stones littered around the ground.

All targets in sight. Attack NOW.

The tree bark leaped out of the leaves and bowled the two dragons over. Yelps of surprise filled the misty air. The largest bark, the same size as the branch Marsh was resting on, gripping a long mahogany staff with small mango colored orbs bobbing at the tip, throwing fire ball after fire ball at the Hydroblasts, but obviously in the fight of fire against water, water would obviously win, and the only thing the fire was doing was to annoy the attacked dragons, and they retaliated with slashing claws and scattering the twigs that were aiming at their victim's eyeballs away. Big Twiggy (the largest bark's name) dived into the leaves, narrowly missing the female dragon's lunges, the staff clattering on the ground and the male Hydroblast stomped on it, snapping it into two. The orbs faded away. Quitter.

Dammit. I should have asked for the brown one.

Marsh jumped off the branch swiping his well-trained claws across his victims' chest in one fell swoop. The male simply let out a roar of pain and shock before collapsing into a pool of his own water, but the other Hydroblast had black spreading on her scales-

SHADOWGROUND!

She bared her teeth at him and leapt forward. The silent attack creeped him out. He'd never heard a dragon fight soundlessly before. Rays blasted from the corner of her eyes and Marsh dropped to the ground, knowing that the light could blind him in an instant. His tail found her forearm and he gripped onto it, squeezing tightly and wrapping vines around the Hydroblast's ankles, pushing her to the ground. The light cleared away...

He had to end this. Quickly.

Reaching in... got it.

Bright fire flared from the earth, scorching Marsh's scales before he wrapped himself with water.

Then reality came crashing in.

What have I done???

They had a hatchling, I just ruined a dragon's life.

Regret flooded in his scales, cool after the burns he inflicted on himself. He realised... the years of insanity, lying to himself that he was doing it for his family. He knew that his parents would be disappointed in him, so he never told them what he did to keep them safe.

I am not hurting another Hydroblast again.

I will protect them to the best of my abilities.