Dragon Prince: The Storm's Heart

Chapter Four: A Storm of Wonder

The small team had gotten to know each other and fought against the nightmare in Cursed Caldera as they headed up to the cliff. Despite everyone's wariness, the team continued going through Cursed Caldera.
It was around night hours till the seven of them had started to arrive to a cliff and that has a hollow tree. The truck was as large as a small cottage and rose what had to be at least one hundred feet into the night sky. Shira decided to stay on the cliff alone as a lookout, while her team had all went inside of the tree trunk.
They were all bathed from a gentle, silvery glow from the full moon. Shira watched as Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, Ellis, and Ava started coming out from the hollow tree.
Shira and her friends looked up to see a figure emerging as if from the moon, getting larger as it approached the ledge. Shira could make out wings so broad they appeared as wide as the moon itself.
"It's a moon phoenix," Rayla said. "It's so beautiful."
"I thought the moon phoenixes were just a myth," Callum said.
"Not the first time you've been wrong today, buddy," said Rayla.
Shira glanced swiftly at Rayla before gazing at the bird again, understanding that Rayla is probably the protector of the princes. Shira took in the bird's dazzling plumage. Streaks of teal and purple highlighted its thick dark blue feathers, which appeared iridescent and magical in the moonlight.
They all watched as the phoenix knelt and a passenger dismounted. The woman sprang lightly from the bird's back. She wore a long blue cloak covered with crystals. Her snow-white hair was wound up in a knot on top of her head, and two braided plaits hung in front of her ears. Her very presence seemed to calm Shira's racing heart.
But Rayla wasn't calm.
"Ez was right," Rayla suddenly burst out. "That no miracle healer. She's a fake."
"What?" Callum looked at the elf, confused. "How do you know?"
"She's a Moon mage, an illusionist," Rayla explained. "She can't heal anything."
"It is true," addressed the Moonshadow elf. "I am no healer. I am Lujanne, Guardian of the Moon Nexus."
"I'm such an idiot," cursed Rayla, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I should have figured it out. None of the monsters we faced was real. They were all illusions."
"Yes. They were just to scare you. That's how I protect the Nexus," Lujanne said.
"No wonder that leech didn't scare you," Callum said to Shira.
Shira huffed. "More like it annoyed me."
"Wait a minute. If you're not a healer...how did you save Ava's leg?" Ellis asked Lujanne, desperately.
Lujanne approached them, stroking the wolf's furry cheek and kneeling. "I remember you and that little cub, both so frightened. I saw she had lost her leg, and I understood that humans would have trouble accepting her. But I knew her spirit was strong and that was all that mattered. To help you, I created an illusion. A leg that others would see and feel, even though it wasn't real." She touched the blue collar with the moonstone pendant around Ava's neck. "I enchanted the moonstone collar to hold the spell." She stroked Ava's face. "She never needed that fourth leg to be happy. Others did." She took it off and the fourth leg disappeared. Ellis realized that although Ava only had three legs, her spirit is strong and that is all that mattered.
"Lujanne, the help we need is real," Ezran implored. He kneeled and pulled out a huge black egg with a flickering blue light from the bag. "An illusion won't help us."
The moon mage gasped at the sight of the egg. "It's the egg of the Dragon Prince," Rayla explained. "It was stolen by a dark mage, but we saved it. We were trying to deliver it to Xadia, but a terrible accident happened."
"There must be something you can do," begged Callum.
Lujanne inspected it sorrowfully. "Its life is fading quickly. The only change of saving it now would be to hatch it."
"Well, how do we do that?" Ezran asked.
She closed her eyes remorsefully and said, "I don't know. I know that the eye of the storm could hatch the sky dragon."
Shira looked up at the night sky and said, "But there's no sight for any storms for miles."
She felt even more helpless and worried than before. More for the innocent baby dragon inside of the dragon than for her own sake. The egg needs help and that help is needed right now.
She looked at the dragon egg worriedly. The egg would die. The kingdoms would continue their war. There would never be peace.
A wave of grief washed over her, it was bitter and sharp. Much like how she had lost her mother, but just as worse. But there was nothing she could for the egg. Just like there was nothing she could do for her family back then.
"Wait a minute." She sensed that Callum had a certainty that he had ever felt welled up inside him. "I know what I have to do."
He pulled out a Sky primal stone from his bag and lifted it high in the air, clouds swirling and lightning crackling within.
In one swift motion, Callum smashed the stone on the ground. The orb shattered, releasing the storm it had long contained. Wind surged upward with torrential force. Blue lightning zoomed into the sky and gray thunderclouds rose into the night air.
Down on the ground, the wind whirled around faster and faster, strong as a hurricane. Everyone crouched down and gripped rocks to resist being blown off the caldera.
But the only thing protecting the dragon egg was Ezran's backpack. A strong gust blew the precious egg from the ground, sending it somersaulting toward the edge of the cliff.
"The egg!" Shira cried out.
"Nooo!!!" Ezran cried, reaching out his arm toward the egg.
Rayla suddenly pushed herself forward, straining against the violent winds. She battled through the storm in the direction of the egg, her head down.
She was only feet away when a gust pushed the egg to the very edge of the cliff. She dove and grabbed it with her injured arm, then clutched it against her chest as she fought against the debris and protected the egg. Rayla dug one of her blades into the ground as she and the egg were both lifted into the air.
"Hold on, Rayla!" Callum called out.
A few moments later, the winds died down to create a calm space within the storm. Rayla's body came back to the ground and the others were able to stand up.
Above them, cracks of lightning sparked in the clouds, occasionally crossing through the eye of the storm. It wasn't long before stray lightning found contact with the egg, which was still in Rayla's arms. She saw the electricity linger within the egg, and then something began to change.
Everyone watched as Rayla set the egg down carefully as it began to glow again. It grew brighter and brighter, attracting more and more lightning bolts. At first the lightning was white, but as the storm interacted with the egg, forks of gold, pink, and teal began to appear. The egg slowly rose off the ground.
To everyone's amazement, the entire storm came alive in a spectacular rainbow of colors. Shira stared at the wonder in the clouds, new hope growing in her chest, then turned her attention back to the egg.
"Crack." The sound was barely audible above the roar of the storm. A crack appeared on the egg, then another, then many more. Shira could barely believe it.
The cracks widened, sending beams of light streaming out into the sky. Shira never felt so amazed before.
Then all at once, the storm went still. The light from the egg faded, and it came to rest on the ground.
A piece of the egg fell away. Ezran broke into a huge grin and leaned in.
Out of its shell popped out the head of a cute baby dragon. He is light blue with six baby horns poking out of his white-maned head. He tripped over the pieces of its egg and fell to the ground, eyes shut tight.
"He's not waking up." Ezran nudged Bait. "Come on Bait. Lick him awake." Bait grimaced. "Come on." Bait licked the baby dragon's sealed eyelids.
The baby dragon opened his eyes for the first time from his hatching. His eyes are a beautiful bright blue, much like the clear afternoon skies.
The dragon leaped on Bait, licking him like a happy puppy, and making affectionate sounds that sounded like a puppy.
Then the dragon hopped over to Ezran, making little dragon squeals that sounded like puppy sounds. Ezran scooped him up and started communicating with him.
"You know your own name!" Ezran said a moment later. "It's Azymondias? We'll call you 'Zym'." He turned the dragon to face Rayla, who looked relieved, but was nursing her injured hand. Zym stared at her with curiosity.
"That's Rayla," Ezran said to Zym. "You almost blew off the mountain, but Rayla saved you." Hearing Ezran's words, Rayla began to weep with joy and relief.
Zym bounded over to Rayla and nuzzled her injured arm. He seemed sad and worried when he saw her constricted hand.
"Aw, it's okay little one." Rayla scratched Zym underneath his chin. "The important thing is you — one miracle is enough for me today."
Zym took hold of the binding between his small, sharp teeth. He tugged at it a few times, then bit down strongly and tugged it with all of his strength. The white binding snapped off and the baby dragon stumbled onto his back.
Rayla massaged her hand, amazed and overjoyed. Zym pressed his cheek against hers as she wiped tears from her eyes and kissed the baby dragon's forehead gratefully.
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The team soon sat down on the cliff to catch their breaths from their mission. Rayla, Callum, and Ezran (and Bait), along with their new friends, Ellis (and Ava) and Shira, sat down in a circle and watched Zym learn to walk and play. The newborn dragon bounded around, testing out his brand-new legs, tripping over his own wings, and sniffing the cool mountain air.
As Zym played, an unusual purple light rose from the night sky and shone down on the caldera.
"Look." Ezran pointed to the purple arc. "What is it?"
When the meteor reaches a zenith above them, it burst like a firework, and thousands of tiny lights dispersed in every direction. The group danced around the purple balls of lights, laughing and giggling.
One of the unusual lights landed on Rayla's hand and she smiled. "They're gentle — they even tickle a little." She blew the delicate creature off her hand, and Zym batted at it in the air.
Another one landed on Bait's nose and he crossed his eyes in a grumpy stare. Then he flicked his tongue out and swallowed the creature... only to burp it back up a moment later. Everyone laughed.
"Gah! Zym!" Everyone laughed again when they saw the situation that Callum was in. Upon seeing Callum, the young dragon tackled the boy with affection, giving him zappy kisses and rubbing himself against him as he made happy puppy-like sounds, before Callum pried the dragon off of him. Yet, the little dragon didn't stop and continued to give Callum love and affection by rubbing against him.
Shira rolled her eyes in fond amusement. But she laughed as she played and seemed to be dancing amongst the glowing lights. She soon saw Zym watching her, curiously. Shira chuckled and lowered herself to the ground to have a closer look at the baby dragon. Zym tackled the girl with affection, giving her zappy kisses and jumped onto her shoulders, nuzzling her happily and making Shira laughed at the adorable baby dragon.
Lujanne observed the merriment, but didn't join in. She looked back at where the meteor had originated. The birth of the Dragon Prince had been a great miracle, but danger and darkness would soon come. But that's not the only situation, the Moon mage looked at the eldest human girl as she played with the baby dragon. Lujanne has a secret to reveal to the human girl.