Episode Four: A Storm of Wonder

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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. Sierra stayed on the cliff alone as a lookout, while her friends had all went inside of the tree trunk.
"You're all very brave," said Sol Regem, whose eyesight has been temporarily returned to him.
They were all bathed from a gentle, silvery glow from the full moon. Sierra watched as Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, Ellis, and Ava started coming out from the hollow tree.
Everyone looked up to see a figure emerging as if from the moon, getting larger as it approached the ledge. They could make out wings so broad they appeared as wide as the moon itself.
Sounds of amazed awe could be heard from the human side.
"It's a moon phoenix," Rayla said. "It's so beautiful."
"I thought the moon phoenixes were just a myth," Callum said.
Sierra glanced swiftly at Rayla before gazing at the bird again. 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.
"That's the miracle healer!" squealed Ellis, making the team jumped in place.
But they quickly surrounded their unknown friend from revealing him all too early.
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 girl, confused. "How do you know?"
"She's a Moon mage, an illusionist," Rayla explained. "She can't heal anything."
Sounds of sadness and desperation went over them.
"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.
"A what?" asked Marcos, looking confused.
"A Nexus mate," Sierra said.
"No wonder that leech didn't scare you," Callum said to Sierra.
Sierra huffed. "More like it annoyed me."
"No surprise there." Rayla earned a tired glare from Sierra.
"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.
The father of Ellis felt guilty for trying to put Ava down, especially for her strong spirit. While everyone understood why Lujanne revealed herself.
"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."
"He's right," said one of the Earthblood elves.
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."
Sierra looked up at the night sky and said, "But there's no sight for any storms for miles."
Everyone felt even more helpless and worried than before. More for the innocent baby dragon inside of the dragon than for their own sake. The egg needs help and that help is needed right now.
They gazed 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 them, it was bitter and sharp.
"Wait a minute." They watched as Callum stepped up to the egg. "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.
All of the elves and the dragons were stunned by Callum's selfless sacrifice by giving up his Sky magic to save the Dragon Prince's life.
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.
Everyone gasped in shock and their eyes widened with amazement.
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!" Sierra 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.
Runaan and Ethari both watched on worriedly as Rayla risked her life to protect the baby dragon.
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 felt their hopes rise as the Dragon Prince's egg has started to hatch.
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. Sierra 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. Everyone 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. Ezran broke into a huge grin and hugged Bait eagerly.
Everyone was too stunned to say anything, but the team of friends smiled at each other.
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 morning sky.
The baby dragon leaped on Bait, licking him like a happy puppy, and making affectionate sounds that sounded like a puppy.
The reaction was nothing short of a dream. Many elves had cried out, some with joy, others with disbelief, others with amazement. The children were cheering and laughing, and spouses held each other close, looking at each other with every joyful emotion in their eyes.
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.
Runaan loves Ethari and Rayla greatly, but he killed King Harrow and put his job first instead of hearing his adoptive daughter's reasoning of sparing the two human princes after finding the Dragon Prince's egg in the castle. But, he feels regretful for what he has done. 
What took him out of his guilt was a gentle hand on his four fingered hand. Runaan blinked the tears out of his eyes as he looked at his beloved Ethari.
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.
All of the Moonshadow elves gasped, they were amazed by this. Nothing could break through the assassin's binding except the teeth of the supposedly fallen baby dragon.
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.
The team soon sat down on the cliff to catch their breaths from their mission.
Everyone looked at the mentioned team that was brought together by chance.
Rayla, Callum, and Ezran (and Bait), along with their new friends, Ellis (and Ava) and Sierra, sat down in a circle and watched Zym learn how 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.
Everyone smiled at the adorable baby dragon as played with his adoptive family.
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.
"Dark magic." Rayla narrowed her eyes, clear disgust in her expression.
And she's not alone, a huge number of people made their disgust known.
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.
Everyone chuckled at the sight.
"Father." Callum blinked in surprise and looked around, trying to find the source of the unknown voice.
Everyone stiffened and stared at the screen in confusion.
"Where are you?" Callum looked around in confusion, while everyone else was alarmed by the Callum's confusion.
"Right here, in front of you, Father," replied the voice.
"Now that's what I call confusing," noted one of the Skywing elves.
Callum looked more confused when he heard the voice call him "Father" and the team looked more confused and concerned towards Callum before they turned to see the baby dragon looking up at him.
"Did you said those things?" Callum crouched down and gazed at the baby dragon.
"Yes, I did." The baby dragon met his eyes and licked Callum's cheek, making him laugh softly.
Everyone was stunned by this. For a few seconds, no one spoke in the room. That had been an important moment – maybe the most important moment of all the Humanity-Xadian War.
They couldn't believe it. The dragon was talking to Callum with his thoughts and has even imprinted on him as his father.
"I can understand him," he said, bewildered like the others.
"That was surprising," said Sierra.
This made the elves a little sad as the Dragon Prince's real father was killed four months ago. Callum will be the only father the young dragon will ever know.
"Don't hear that everyday," said Sierra in a teasing tone. "And now it looks like you're a dad now." Sierra laughed softly as Callum shot a dirty look at her before his expression softened and gently snuggled with Zym.
Callum threw her annoyed look and Sierra gave him a teasing grin.
"How is this possible?" Callum asked, wondrous.
"It must been since you were the one who had started the storm that helped him hatch and it somehow connected you two together," Sierra said thoughtfully. "It's a miracle. Good on you mate."
The Skywing Elves and the Storm Dragons nodded their agreement at her observation.
Callum hummed thoughtfully as he continued petting Zym. "Gah! Zym!" 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.
Humans and elves alike were frozen in shock before shouts of delight and awe exploded in the room.
Sierra rolled her eyes in fond amusement. She laughed as she played and danced amongst the glowing lights. She soon saw Zym watching her, curiously. Sierra 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 Sierra laughed at the adorable baby dragon.
Humans, elves, and dragons started cheering with fierce joy. Many elves had cried out, some with joy, others with disbelief, others with amazement. The children were cheering and laughing, and spouses held each other close, looking at each other with every joyful emotion in their eyes.
Lujanne observed the merriment, but didn't join in. She looked back at where the meteor had originated. The Moon mage looked at the blonde girl as she played with the baby dragon.
This episode soon paused itself. Everyone glanced at Emily, who'd shook her head and everyone turned to look at a giant female Storm Dragon as she walked towards the human side. Queen Zubeia looked around frantically and her gaze rested on the tense team. "Children. Please. I'm sorry for how my mate may have hurt your families." But her voice became pleading. "I need to see him. I need to know he's..." Not dead.
Sierra boldly stepped forward and met Queen Zubeia's eyes defiantly. Her eyes were filled with sorrow, but also with love and compassion. In a sense, it was like a reflection of Sierra's own heart. Her eyes softened and nodded to her friends, whilst stepping out of the way of the Dragon Queen. Rayla gently pulled Ezran, Ellis, and their animals friends behind her, unsure of how Queen Zubeia would react if she sees them. But the Dragon Queen paid them no mind. Callum gazed at Queen Zubeia with sympathy and empathy before he encouraged a certain baby dragon to reveal himself. Queen Zubeia gasped with joy as her son stepped in front of her and the two royal dragons nuzzled each other lovingly. She could see that Zym has brought together a unique little family of his own. To Zym's friends' surprise, Queen Zubeia laid down next to them and wrapped her tail around them to bring them closer.
"Thank you my champions." She looked at them lovingly and they smiled at her. "Thank you."

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