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

Chapter Twenty-One: The Storm Spire

"We're at your stop!" Everyone woke up to Nyx's voice and saw that they have reached the end of the Midnight Desert. When Shira woke up, she tried to keep her amusement at bay when she saw Callum sleeping next to Rayla. They both woke up at an instant and they both stepped back from each other, blushing furiously.
"What should we do from here?" Callum asked Runaan.
"We have to make our way up to the Storm Spire," replied Runaan.
The team mounted their magical mounts and rode off the Ambler's tail. They took turns thanking the Skywing elf as they rode out of the saddle and onto the green field.
Callum was surprised to see a beautiful green field dotted with trees and flowers. As they rode alongside a stone structure, and she realised it was a statue of a dragon, quite similar to Sol Regem. The shape was half eroded away by time, distorting some of the finer features, but it left enough to see what it was meant to be.
Rayla came to a stop and dismounted beside it, her smile gone as she reached down and plucked a small flower from the ground. She walked over to a flattened, open space that had a collection of ribbons, crystals, and other tokens placed near the base of the dragon.
"That's...that's not a statue. is it?" She's unable to take her eyes off it.
She looked up at the huge, stone figure towering above, broken and covered with moss. It wasn't a statue of a dragon, but the body of one, frozen still for the rest of eternity.
Callum heard heartbroken whimpering from Zym and started comforting him in his arms. "Shh. Hey, it's okay, little guy." Callum gently hugged the grieving baby dragon, while Rayla smiled at his compassion. "You're safe, you're safe. We're here with you."
Just as Zym began to whine in fear, a bird shrieked above them. They all looked up just as Phoe-Phoe swooped down from the sky, landing ahead of them and lowering her head, allowing Ezran to drop off of her back with Bait.
"Ez?" Callum asked. "Ezran!"
Zym tackled Ezran excitedly, but Shira ran past them to Phoe-Phoe.
"Phoe-Phoe?" Shira looked at the tired moon phoenix in concern. "What are you doing here? You've gone too far!"
Ezran crouched near Phoe-Phoe's lolling head and stroked her iridescent feathers. "You need to go home, so you can rest and get better. I know Lujanne told you to bring me all the way, but you have to promise me you'll be okay."
Phoe-Phoe responded with a combination of chatter and trill punctuated with clicks of her tongue and beak — Ezran loved the rhythm and musicality of the way she communicated. When anyone spoke, whether a person or animal, he always listened with his ears, but also with his heart. He could feel the great bird's exhaustion in his own bones. As he stroked Phoe-Phoe's feathers, Ezran's own breathing synchronized with the great bird's breath.
"She is going to be okay," replied Ezran. "When the time is right, she'll be reborn."
Shira gently stroked Phoe-Phoe's iridescent feathers with a warm, but sad smile. She gently kissed the moon phoenix's forehead and stepped back as Phoe-Phoe collapsed before them. They all watched as a magical blue fire have seemingly came out of nowhere and started burning Phoe-Phoe as she laid motionlessly on the ground. Once Phoe-Phoe had completely disappeared, a ghost feather was found by Ezran and he slipped it into his pocket. It wasn't long till Ezran started playing a game of tag with Zym and a green Bait. But Callum was looking up at the statue of Avizandum with conflicting emotions going over his expression as he looked up at the killed Dragon King.
"I don't know how to feel towards him." Callum's expression showed anger and grief as Rayla joined his side. "He's the one who took my mother."
"Oh." Rayla and the others looked at Callum regretfully. Not many people know the true reason of why Avizandum was killed. But he's one of the few people who does.
"Looking at him, seeing him..." Callum gazed at the stone dragon. "It makes me sad, and angry, and... confused."
"Of course it does. It's painful." Rayla placed a gentle hand on Callum's shoulder, comforting him. "How could you feel any different?"
"See that spear?" Everyone (except Ezran, Zym, and Bait) looked up to see the spear in the frozen dragon's chest. "That was her spear, my mom's. And my stepdad put it into his heart." Callum looked at Rayla, his expression filled with anguish. "How am I supposed to feel about that?"
"I don't know, Callum." Rayla haven't realized that Callum have lost his and Ezran's mother to Avizandum's wrath.
"Glad?" Callum was still confused with his raging emotions. "Happy that we got revenge? Or maybe regretful... and sad, because..."
"Because what?" Rayla looked at Callum in concern.
"Because that was Zym's dad." Callum and Rayla turned to see Ezran, Zym, and Bait playing together in the field, being watched by Ram. "I feel so sorry that this all happened."
"Me too, Callum." Rayla slipped her hand into Callum's hand as they watched their friends play together. "But look at them, playing together. That's the miracle. That's hope. They're the ones that are going to break the cycle."
After a while, the team started riding up the mountain trail together. But as they climbed higher, they started to have a hard time breathing. They suddenly heard the loud, flapping sound of wings and the ground shook as a massive force landed on the ledge. Callum flinched when he saw the red and gold Fire dragon. The dragon made eye contact with Callum and walked towards him, looking curious about him. He offered his hand to her, the dragon sniffed his hand and nodded understandingly.
The dragon started drawing something on the ground. To Callum, it looked like a pair Sky runes that's being drawn by Pyrrah. The dragon soon starred growling something to him, as if Pyrrah was trying to tell him something urgent.
"Pyrrah says that you must draw your last breath," Ezran said to Callum. "The trigger words are Ventus Spiralis."
Callum start drawing the rune for the breathing spell. "Ventus Spiralis." When he activated his spell, a pair of sparkling sky-blue magic went around them. Callum, Shira, Ezran, Runaan, Skor, Andromeda, Callisto, and Ram all gasped as they felt new air entering them. Rayla and Ethari both coughed several times, gasping for breaths before beginning to pant after they both felt new air entering them. Callum and Rayla both hugged and kissed each other. Runaan immediately hugged Ethari, a look of relief entered his expression as Ethari came back to him.
"Thank you Pyrrah." Callum smiled at the Fire dragon gratefully.
Pyrrah growled softly as each of them recovered their strength. Then she beat her wings, kicked up a cloud of dust, and took off into the sky.
They soon arrived to a large platform at the top of the mountain, a bridge of wood and stone ahead of them while on the other side of the bridge, was a large building, cut into the stone. It looked slightly rough and worn, but still beautiful as it reaches out to the sky, while at the very front, was a massive door engraved with beautiful runes.
"Looks like you're home," Ethari said to Zym with a smile.
The baby dragon smiled, but they became silent when they heard someone approaching them from inside. The group were amazed to see a Skywing elf have walked towards them from the shadowy room. He has short, light periwinkle blue undercut hair and warm light blue eyes. He has unique dark indigo-gray skin and has various white markings stretched along his face, and runic style ones on his arms. He has two curved horns on both sides of his head, fading from dark to light. He's wearing some type of elven armor, with a jutting neckpiece and a long skirt, along with baggy pants metal boots. He's also walking with a staff with metal plates resembling wings surrounding a glowing blue stone.
"We've brought him home too!" Rayla declared, bowing and gesturing to Zym. "Azymondias, the Dragon Prince!"
"It makes my heart leap to see that the Dragon Prince lives," Ibis said mournfully. "But you're too late."
"What do you mean? Too late?" Shira asked him.
"Queen Zubeia... she's fallen into a deep sleep and hasn't woken up since," explained Ibis.
"But she's still alive?" Rayla asked.
"Oh yes... she still lives," Ibis confirmed with a nod before sighing. "At least... at the moment. We do not know how long she can hold on."
Shira felt her heart sink at the words, but decided to keep her chin up. "I want to see her." Zym barked his agreement with his human sister.
"As you command," he said, turning away and walking towards the entrance.
It was oddly dark, the torches burning dimly as if in mourning. As he led them down a hallway, Ibis looked back at the others. "My name is Ibis, Mage of the Skywing Elves. When I heard that Queen Zubeia was ill, I thought I could use my magic to help her. Losing her mate and her children had irreparably broken her heart. For a while... it seemed she would be alright. But... eventually, she closed her eyes and has not opened them since."
They arrived at a large cavern, standing in the entryway at the top of a flight of stairs. Veins of blue metal ran across the rocks while a hole in the ceiling allowed sun and moonlight to flow in and illuminate the area. The ground sprouted a collection of crystals, flowers, bushes, and grass.
In the very center was a dragon, bigger than anything Callum and Shira had ever seen. Her scales are a dark blue, and her spine was covered in a mane of white fur like Zym's mane and tail. Her head rested on the grass, and her tail wrapped around herself and a verdant cushion of soft moss and flowers where Zym's egg used to stay.
The others stood at the top of the stairs and looked on in amazement before Zym slowly headed down first and the others followed. Walking up to the dragon, he looked her up and down. "Mother?"
Ibis nodded. "Yes. This is the Dragon Queen, Zubeia."
Ezran placed a hand on the Dragon Queen's snout. "Wake up. Your son's home." She doesn't stirr a muscle.
Everyone stepped back to watch Zym fly towards Queen Zubeia and nuzzled her snout. But a movement wasn't made by the Dragon Queen. This distresses Zym and he flew back into Callum's arms and was comforted by the human prince. 
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Shira watched as Callum gently played with Zym, while Rayla watched on with an amused smile. Runaan and Ethari were both speaking to each other softly, soft smiles gracing their features. Skor, Andromeda, and their fiancées were teasing each other and laughing. Callisto and Ram were chatting to each other near by. But Shira's curiosity quipped up when she saw Ibis passing through.
She followed him, feeling curious about him. "Umm... excuse me?" Ibis stopped and waited for Shira to join his side. "I'm not sure how to ask this. But... umm... I've heard Skywing elves have wings. But you don't." Shira flinched back nervously. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."
Ibis laughed softly and looked at her with a gentle smile. "Don't apologize, you didn't offend my ego. As I guess from your outfit and lack of knowledge, you were not born in Xadia?"
Shira nodded as they headed outside. "You got that right. This is my first time in Xadia." She smiled at the landscape that spreads before the mountain. "I never met my father, and my mother died a long time ago. She didn't really tell me much about my father." She looked down, her grief may have faded over time, but it's still a sore subject to talk about.
"I'm sorry, I know what it's like to lose someone." She chanced a sideways look at his face, there was sorrow and empathy on his face. He was old enough to be her father, and from the way he talked, she'd guessed he'd been in the Storm Spire for a while. Maybe he hadn't commented about her elven features yet because he'd seen others with the similar features... elves related to him.
Or maybe I'm totally desperate, Shira added quietly. She shook it off and looked at him curiously. "It's been a long time, it doesn't hurt so much anymore. Could you tell me something about the elves and the Flenimu of the Sky?"
"No problem." Ibis chuckled softly. "It is true that all Skywing elves and Skywing flenimu are born connected to the Sky, but less than one in ten are born with wings, in Flenimu wings are practically non-existent. And of the rest, only a few can learn it." Ibis took his position on the platform. "Manus. Pluma. Volantus." His arms soon transformed into majestic black wings. "Mage wings."
"Wow, that's amazing." Shira's eyes were wide at the astonishing sight. "Could I do it?"
"Forgive me." Ibis laughed softly. "But flenimu are very rarely mages, and you on top of that no one has ever taught magic and you don't know how to use it, so...."
Shira smirked at him playfully. Shira started tracing a shimmering rune shape in the air. As her fingertips moved, arcs of light formed, creating the light blue glowing curves of the ancient, powerful symbol.
"Fulminis!"
The rune disappeared. Blue lightning crackled out of Shira's hand, and danced across the sky before it disappeared as quickly as it came.
"And yet you are a mage too," commented Ibis, trying to cover his shock. "This is quite interesting."
"My father is a mage too," Shira admitted with a shrug. "At least, that's what my mother, Bianca, managed to pass on to me before...."
Ibis seemed stunned as his wings transformed back into his arms and looked at her closely, hopeful desperation in his eyes. "What did you say?"
"My mother is a woman named Bianca?" Shira could feel her heart racing for some reason. "Did you know her?"
Pieces were starting to come together in her mind, bubbling in a funny, hopeful, confused way.
"I didn't just know her." His expression became ragged with emotion. "I've loved her."
Shira raised her head and met Ibis's eyes. The Mage of the Skywing Elves put his staff on his back, stepped forward and seized Shira's hands in his.
When I was out searching for answers of my past...
Shira felt as though she couldn't breathe. His hands around hers, his eyes fixed on her. There were only real things in the mountaintop; everything else was blurring and sliding away.
But what I wanted...is finding my father.
Ibis gently gripped Shira's hands tighter. "Shira. You're my daughter."