Elemental Powers: Fire and Water

Battle Plans

 "What's your plan?"

Never would I have thought that I would be in a Fire dragon meeting. The Solarflares discussed plans, plans to fight the Earthbound who were breaking out of what Flame called their 'Lazy Shell'.

"This isn't safe. So many will be killed by just pushing forward and taking control!" The dragon in charge of defence, Horble, complained.

Flare intended to show me around the temporary Solarflare camp but was dumped into a meeting when the army of the 6th division had been defeated at the Battle of The Swamps. The bored look on his snout just increased with every word that was spoken

"Look," he snapped. "I'm not here to learn history, okay? Here's a plan." He drew on a small map showing the current borders, muttering under his breath.

When he was done, he sat back and said, "Just watch."

Fire sprung up on the border between the Earthbounds and Solarflares. The fire filled in the Solarflare territory as Flare narrated.

"The battle was because the humans weren't happy with their country being split in half, right?" Flare flicked a claw at the map again and the borders of the country Ethiopia lit up. The other Solarflares agreed.

"We can look like we're retreating, allowing the Earthbounds to send in weaker forces to 'finish us off', then we'll push in and take this country." The fire covering a little piece of land extinguished itself, then an especially bright blue flame gathered at the borders of Solarflare territory in Ethiopia.

"So we can give the people their country. But under another dragon ruler." Flare grinned and the fire expanded to cover the entire African country.

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After the meeting Flare had brought me back to the long corridor. It branched in three directions: straight, left and right. As we walked down the left branch, he muttered,"Gotta teach you how to keep that Shadowground in. You do that so many more times and you'll be stuck as a Shadowground. Anyways, the Solarflares live here." He pointed into a room to the right," and the Solarstorms are here." I stuck my head into the left chamber, and rude, unfriendly faces glared at me with golden eyes. I thought of the gold eyes of Amber, she definitely was warmer as in friendlier than these Solarstorms.

A Solarstorm leaped for me, her arms stretched out to attack. I dodged and she crashed to the ground next to me, got up and gripped my wings, tearing them up. I yelled in pain and anger, before I grabbed her horns and rammed her into the wall.

"Stop." Flare's voice carried through the hallway.

"NO!" The Solarstorm screeched, rubbing her horns. "BECAUSE OF HER, YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE US KILL OUR GENERAL! ALL BECAUSE OF HER!" The rest of the cave roared in agreement as a few Solarflares peeked out. Flare shook his head. "No. Your general is incompetent, rude, and an idiot overall. You are lucky to not have her as a General."

To add salt to the wound, he added, "Coral will be your next General."

What? I did not agree to this!

Flare met my eyes and I stopped fidgeting.

A moment of stunned silence. Then the Solarstorms blew up in anger, and rage smoke filled the cave and corridor. Some more Solarflares poked their head out of the entrance.

"No!" Yelled another Solarstorm.

"What are you going to do next?" Asked another sarcastically "Make us take Antarctica?"

"Yeah! Fight in the snow?" Screamed yet another Solarstorm.

In the torrent of anger we were receiving, I thought, Flare's doing what is best for them. They just can't see it.

Me and Flare headed back to the centre of the corridor, ignoring the shouts and insults of the Solarstorrms, where Flare tapped three specific ember stones on the floor. With a grinding crunch, the floor we were standing on was in fact a platform and we were lowered slowly into a dark hole.

"This is why I'm afraid of assassination." Flare muttered.

"I want to know." I blurted out.

"Know what?" Flare took a step off the platform, which had grounded to a halt.

"Why does the Fire Kingdom's inmates seem to hate you so much?"

Flare sighed, pushing a door wide open and allowing me in first.

"It was the way I took over."

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The group landed in the sand somewhere in Africa, where Amber and Ash were sure was safe from the Solarflares.

"I don't like this." Windstorm muttered nervously, looking around at the desert with his night-vision. When he spotted some flames, he asked, "Ash? Amber? You guys there?"

The echoes of 'yes' came back to him. Then who was that?

Suddenly, claws gripped is tail and he pulled in some concentration into his mind, forcing himself to ignore the pain, let instinct take over as he allowed the concentration to get the Hydroblasts' strongest ability ready. Then he let it go.

The air around him seemed to come to a stop as he rose off the ground peacefully, then the wind currents began picking up, brushing sand, Ash and Amber away, out of his radius before he let out the grand slam. Water erupted from thin air and the Solarflare holding his tail yelped and retreated as the water formed a ball around him, then it blasted away in a powerful fall of water energy and the Solarflares around him disintegrated with screeches of pain.

As he landed, Sky, Marsh and Blackberry appeared again, wet and a little ashy. "Good one." Blackberry pointed at the piles of bones, "They were trying to kill the entire group. This is why you should have stayed at the cave with Winter!"

"Okay, okay..." muttered Windstorm, a little winded. Ash and Amber came flapping back and hovered above the ground. Sky flicked her tail anxiously. "We should relocate. Really." She told Marsh. "Maybe to Earthbound territory." She added, and Marsh looked up with more interest.

"Is this far enough?" Ash asked, not wanting to see anymore Solarflares other than Amber. Behind him, Marsh pounced on a desert snake and killed it, nice and easy.

"Good job, soldier! Bring it back to the camp, quick!" Ash and Amber had mere seconds to hide, Amber simply shutting the brightness of her flame, and Ash lay in the ground, with Windstorm quickly covering him up with sand and Blackberry fading away into the shadows.

Marsh jumped and dived behind a cactus, but an Earthbound pulled him out.

"Okay, keep it for yourself." The Earthbound laughed, and Marsh stuffed the snake into his mouth. The Earthbound took a glance at Winter and squeaked,"Hydroblast! Do you need help?"

Windstorm blinked and then asked the Earthbound what was going on. Sighing, the Earthbound told him that they were getting ready for a war as some spies heard the Solarflares' plan to take Ethiopia.

"And we have to fight." The Earthbound said sadly. "No harmony in this world."

"We can try." Windstorm muttered. He glanced around again. "Imf wanf foo felp!" Marsh offered, mouth still full of snake flesh.

"We'll help." Windstorm smiled wearily. The Earthbounds must have been panicking, they had never really been in many fights before, until the Solarflares just attacked their territory.

The Earthbound beamed and led Marsh back to the camp, and Windstorm headed towards the pair of ears sticking out of the sand and say, "Ash, you and Amber... better hide."