Dragon Prince: A Warrior's Journey (Under Editing)

Chapter Sixteen: Storm Spire

"Wake up lovebirds. This is your stop." Everyone woke up to Nyx's voice and saw that they have reached the end of the Midnight Desert. When Sierra woke up with Zym on her lap, 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 Rayla.
"We have to make our way up to the Storm Spire," replied Rayla.
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 he realized 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 not a statue. Is it?" Sierra 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?" Sierra 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."
Sierra 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 petrified 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 looked at Callum regretfully. Not many people know the true reason of why King 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 King 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 carefully watched by Sierra. "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 (including their furry friends) started riding up the mountain trail together. But as they climbed higher, they started to have a hard time breathing. Callum leaned against the rocky wall, panting heavily. "The air's so thin. I can barely breathe." Zym flew down and nuzzled his human father worriedly. They suddenly heard the loud, flapping sound of wings and the ground shook as a massive force landed on the ledge. Ezran flinched when he saw the Fire Dragon that they have rescued. The dragon made eye contact with Ezran 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 Ezran, 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, Sierra, and Ezran all gasped as they felt new air entering them. 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.
"Rayla, wake up! Come on!" Rayla coughed several times, gasping for breath before beginning to pant after she felt new air entering her. Callum smiled at her as he held her. "We're going to be okay." Callum and Rayla both kissed each other on the lips.
"Hey, that isn't part of the spell." Ezran and Bait both looked at them in surprised confusion, while Sierra was muffling her laughter while Zym and their mounts were all amused by the sight.
Callum and Rayla both blushed fiercely in embarrassment, in which they both looked away from each other quickly. Callum was quick to fix their slip up. "Uh, yeah! So, uh... you were gone for a while, and now, uh, this is a thing, so..."
"What?" Ezran narrowed his eyes at them thoughtfully. But looks of realization sank into him and Bait. "Wha..." Both of their jaws dropped with realization.
"I bet that hasn't been heard for over a decade," teased Sierra playfully.
Out of pure embarrassment, both Callum and Rayla cried out, "Sierra!" Her laughter was soon heard in the wind of the mountain.
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," Sierra 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 surprised 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," The Skywing Elf said mournfully. "But you're too late."