Dragon Prince: Legend of the Guardians of Xadia (Re-Write)

Chapter Eleven: Eye of the Storm

The small team had gotten to know each other and fought against the nightmares 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 ten 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 the 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 the team 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 the elves are probably the protector of the princes. They 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," Callum implored. He kneeled and pulled out a huge egg 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."
"There must be something you can do," begged Ezran.
Lujanne inspected it. "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 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.
But by a miracle, a fierce thunderstorm raged around of the mountain. Thunder roared and lightning flashed, while the wind and rain danced fiercely in the relentless torrent. But the team were full of hope and determined to perform a miracle.
"You're ready?" Rayla asked Callum as she made a nest for the egg.
"Ready." Callum smiled determinedly and gently placed the egg in the nest.
Far from scared, he found inspiration from the thunderstorm to do Callum's latest attempt to hatch the egg of the Dragon Prince.
Stepping a couple of feet away from the egg, Callum took a few breaths before drew a rune and said, "Aspiro Fulmimus!"
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 the ground to resist being injured by the blowing storm.
A few moments later, the winds died down to create a calm space within the storm. 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. Callum saw the electricity linger within the egg, and then something began to change.
They watched as the egg as it began to glow brightly 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 their amazement, the entire storm came alive in a spectacular rainbow of colors. They stared at the wonder in the clouds, 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. Callum could barely believe it.
The cracks widened, sending beams of light streaming out into the sky. Everyone 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. Callum broke into a huge smile and leaned in.
Out of its shell popped out the head of a cute baby Storm dragon. He is light blue with six baby horns poking out of his white-maned head. He tripped over the pieces of his egg and fell to the ground, his eyes shut tight.
Callum had finally done it. He successfully hatched the egg of the Dragon Prince and now the baby dragon was born at last. Seeing the baby dragon struggling to open up his eyes, Callum licked his thumb and wiped it on both of the dragon's eyelids. The newborn dragon blinked a few times before his bright blue eyes were able to focus.
Upon seeing Callum, the young dragon tackled the teenager 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. Rayla watches on a beaming smile at the new hope of being born and she started petting the baby dragon after he has caught sight of her and gained eager licks from the baby dragon before going back to Callum. For a few moments, Callum looked at the dragon giving love and affection before he finally spoke.
"Now that you're born, little one, what should we name you?" Callum asked the baby dragon as dragon started cuddling and licking a chuckling Shira before looking at Callum.
"Azymondias," a bright voice came seemingly out of nowhere.
"Who said that?" Callum asked, confused as he look for the source of the voice.
"Wasn't me." Shira suddenly realized what he was saying and looked at him in confusion. "Wait. What?"
"I did." Callum looked around in confusion, while Shira was alarmed by the new voice and looked around.
"Where are you?" Callum asked the voice.
"Right here, in front of you, Father," replied the voice.
Callum became more confused when he heard the voice call him "Father" and the team became more confused and concerned towards Callum before they both turned to see the baby dragon before them.
"Did you said those things?" Callum
"Yes, I did." The baby dragon met his eyes and licked Callum's cheek, making him laughed softly.
They couldn't believe it. The dragon was talking to Callum with his thoughts, seemingly knows his own name, and has even imprinted on him as his father. The last bit made Callum a little sad as the dragon's real father was killed four months ago. He'll be the only father the young dragon will ever know and Rayla will be the only mother-like figure towards the young dragon. Shaking the thought out of his mind, he began to wonder how Azymondias was talking to hm with his thoughts.
"I can understand him," he said, bewildered like Shira.
"Don't hear that everyday," said Shira in half-joking tone. "And now it looks like you're a Dad now." Shira laughed softly as Callum shot a dirty look at her before his expression softened and gently snuggled with Azymondias.
"How is this possible?" Callum asked, wondrous.
"It must been because you were the one who had started the storm that helped him hatched and it somehow connected you two together," Shira said thoughtfully. "It's a miracle. Good on you mate."
Callum hummed thoughtfully as he continued petting Azymondias and said, "Is it okay we call you 'Zym' for short?"
"I love it." Zym licked Callum's cheek again, making him laugh.
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The team soon sat down on the cliff to catch their breaths from their mission. Rayla, Callum, Ezran (and Bait), Runaan, Skor, Callisto, Andromeda, and Ram 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.