Dragon Prince: Warrior (Re-Write)

Chapter Sixteen: 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. Sierra 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. Sierra watched as Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Bait, Ellis, and Ava started coming out from the hollow tree.
Sierra and her friends looked up to see a figure emerging as if from the moon, getting larger as it approached the ledge. Sierra 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.
Sierra glanced swiftly at Rayla before gazing at the bird again. Sierra 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 Sierra'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 girl, 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 Sierra.
Sierra 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."
Sierra 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 watched as Callum stepped in front of them, a determined look in his eyes. "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!" 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.
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. 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.