Soul of Flames

Chapter 1

Nyradr stood behind Ivar with his hand resting on his back, waiting patiently for his grandfather to finish is speech. The young man who basically acted as a father for Ivar was very proud of his nephew.

Ivar was strong, brave, clever, and a skilled warrior though he was barely out of adolescents. He could wield an axe, twin swords, throwing weapons and he was also newly introduced to the bow and arrow though he took to the other weapons he used much quicker than archery. He just wasn't a natural at archery.

Now that Ivar was of age, he was now eligible to join the Calvary.

"Ivar, Son of Aesa, daughter of Tyrin. Today is the day that you come of age, the day you are appointed to join the Calvary to serve your kingdom, to protect and honor the citizens of the Dragon Born Kingdom," Ulf announced, "Today is the day you will take the trials to see which division you are in."

The almighty group of dragon spyrits and humans that were watching cheered and hollered the name of the heir until Ulf lead Ivar to the four alters. Upon them all were one of the four spyrit elements. Fire or air were for distant combat and water or earth were for close combat. There were rarely ever humans without the dragon spirit but being a non-spyrit human was better than being a distant combat dragon spyrit any day of the week.

In twelve hundred years, every single King was a close combat warriors therefore, distant combat warriors were shunned and treated extremely badly. Ivar was hoping that he presented as a close combat warrior to continue the family's good fortune of bearing good and powerful heirs. If he didn't present as a close combat warrior he would rather be a non-spyrit than bring dishonor to their family.

Ivar stood in front of the first altar that had a rock on it. If he'd been a earth dragon spyrit, the rock would have lifted into the air but no matter how hard he concentrated, the blasted rock didn't even budge. Ivar cursed silently and moved away from his favorite element.

Next, he approached the second altar that had a dreaded candle on it. He prayed and prayed then prayed a bit more for the candle to not burst into flames and luckily for him the candle didn't even flicker.

The third altar had a bowl of water on it. Although Ivar would have preferred to be an earth spyrit, he could settled for that. Water spyrits were weaker than earth spyrits but the were still respected because they were close combat warriors. Ivar had the shock of his life when the water didn't even ripple. He did a double take then almost cried with disappointment and he stared at his reflection in the water aimlessly.

With shaky legs he walked over to the last item which was a feather. If the feather lifted up, he would be an air spyrit, the exact bender he really didn't want to be. In all others eyes, air was the weakest and he was taught that by all his senior family, teacher and friends so all he did was believe them. Since push did come to shove, Ivar was praying with all his being that he was a non bender then his life would be just a bit more bearable for him. But the feather did lift. The crowd went silent and all Ivar could ear was the blood., rushing through his very ears.

"It...It is announced that Ivar, the future King of the Dragon Born Kingdom is an air dragon spyrit and he will be joining the distant combat calvary until the years of his service are up." Ulf said, barely above a whisper.

The crowd that gathered to watch slowly trickled out of the hall of muttering untellable things about the young heir.

Ivar left the hall in a hurry and built up a slow jog to hid out in the place he used to be alone. He could hardly process what had just happened. He showed no signs of being an air spyrit so what just happened? He wasn't delicately built, he didn't have the narrow and petite hands of an air spyrit and he wasn't careful and calculated. In fact, he was quite the opposite of all the listed above. Ivar jumped when he saw his uncle appear in front of his eyes.

"Will you ever stop that?" Ivar gasped with a hand on his chest.

"Sorry, It's not my fault you zone out so much and totally miss my entrance.

Ivar rolled his eyes and looked out at the lake that flowed beneath the hidden lookout.

"What do you want Nyradr?" Ivar asked, nearly above a whisper.

"It is not true you know." Nyradr replied.

"What's not true." Ivar grumbled.

"That you are the only air spyrit in our family for twelve hundred years," Nyradr said softly, sitting down and swinging his legs back and forth over the side of the cliff.

"What are you talking about?"

"I am the first air spyrit in about, eleven hundred years. The last was Nyradr I, the most powerful air spyrit ever recorded. It was said that he was so powerful, he could literally transform from a human form to a dragon form."

"Shut up. You're just saying this to make me feel better about myself and guess what! It's not working Nyradr! Just go, I son need you to make this worse!" Ivar spat bitterly, glaring at his uncle.

"I'm not lying, why would I lie about that? It makes no sense."

"But I thought you were a water spyrit!" Ivar asked, annoyance subsiding and curiosity rising

Nyradr smiled but shook his head.

"I can used air to manipulate water but I can't actually control the water itself."

Nyradr stretched out his right arm and faced his palm outwards. He closed his eyes and Ivar watched as the river started to thrash frantically and it started to funnel. A small vortex rose out of the water and as Nyradr rotated his wrist, the vortex spun faster. He formed a fist then splayed his fingers at lightning speed and the water splashed back into the river and all the commotion stopped and the river continued flowing peacefully as if nothing had ever happened. Ivar was a little sceptical.

"What if you were really just controlling the water? What if you-"

Ivar was silenced by a gust of air sucker punching him in the stomach and knocking him backwards. He was saved a soft cushion of air propping him back up into a seated position.

"Thars freaking awesome!" Ivar gasped

"I know," Nyradr replied smugly.

There was a beat of silence.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because, it isn't a thing I enjoy broadcasting." Nyradr muttered staring at his feet and fiddling with the cuff of his tunic.

"I guess that will make the two of us." Ivar muttered, leaning against Nyradr's shoulder.

Nyradr wrapped his arms around Ivar.

"It will be okay Ivar. I will be there with you anyway. I need help to improve on my control and I need to look out for you so you do not get yourself into trouble." Nyradr murmured against Ivar's hair.

"Thanks, Uncle Nyradr."

"No problem, Ivar." Nyradr replied, as he ruffled his nephew's hair

The two sat in silened and watched the sun go down. Tomorrow would be a new day.