The Elemental Blade: Chapter 12
Chapter 12
The next morning, the sun light crept through the window and shown in Links' face. He groaned in protest, but decided it better to get up now. He sat up in bed, yawning and stretching, getting the kinks out of his joints. Swinging his feet to the side of the bed, he stood up and got dressed. Link turned toward the mirror the Guardians graciously gave him along with a basin. He raked his fingers through his hair, getting it the way he liked and washed his face with cold water. The surge of icy cold water hitting his face woke him up instantly. Wiping his face dry, he put on his cap, gathering his things and headed out. Heading down the hall, he passed Spyro and Cynder's room and found them still asleep. He left them there, smiling as he walked away for they both looked cute the way they slept.
Upon walking into the dinning hall (or cafeteria, which ever you prefer), Link saw that some of the temples (or tower) residence sat eating their morning meal. Some greeted him as he walked by, others just looked up then looked back down. And upon one of the tables was a blue dragoness that turned to him as he walked by. "Link!"
Link stopped and looked around for the one who called him. He spun around and saw his friend, "Crystal! I haven't seen you for a couple of days. How have you been?"
Crystal nodded, "Yeah, it's been a while. I've been caught up with the things my mom wants me to do. I've also been training with her. I want to be just like her when I grow up!"
Link knelt down to her level and patted her on the head, "I'm sure you will. But why are you here? I thought you lived on the out skirts of the city."
"She sent me to do an errand for her. She said that I can get something to eat here."
Link nodded, "Well, I hope you have a good time here. I got to go and get some training of my own," standing up as he said this, "I'll see you around Oh, and tell your mother I said 'Hi'."
"I will," nodded Crystal, "Bye. See you soon." She waved.
Link waved back and grabbed an apple from the back of the dining hall and walked out. He ate the apple while walking down to the training grounds. The grounds were big open spaces on the opposite side of the temple were Link trains the cheetah warriors. Large circles scattered around indicating the boundaries for those who train. Looking around, he saw some practicing artery, some sparring and even some cheetah warriors practicing their basics further. Link finished his apple and through it into a bin, which he assumed was for trash and walked up to the grounds keeper. "Excuse me," getting the mole's attention.
The mole turned around to face Link, "What can I do for ya lad?" said in a Scottish accent. Link could tell that the mole was well in his years. By the graying of his fur and long hair from his chin indicated he was al least 40-45 years old (for a mole, that's old).
"I would like to practice my sword skills. Is there a spot open?" asked Link.
"Aye, we do lad," the mole waved his hand indicating for Link to follow, "Follow me." As they walked, the mole talked again, "What's your name lad?"
"Link."
"Ah, Link," the mole said with thought. "You were the one who helped defend the Eastern Gate are you not?"
"Yes, the very same."
"I heard some good things about you. Ah, well, here we are!" walking in the center of the ring. "This is your ring. Now, what will ya be practicing with?"
"Training dummies with the sword," ha answered pointing to his sword.
The mole nodded his head, "Okay. Well we got 5 levels here. We got Easy, Medium, Hard, Extra Hard, my personal favorite, and we got Suicide. I wouldn't pick that one 'cause, well, its suicide!"
Link chucked at that. He though about the choices. He was debating between Medium and Hard. 'Hard seems reasonable. I've done harder things than they might provide, but yet Medium is more mellow. Plus since I don't know their training exercises, Medium might be the way to go.' "I'll go with Medium." Link finally decided.
"Good chose lad, not too easy and not too hard. Here are the rules: Don't step outside the ring and if you had enough, just tell me." Link nodded. "Okay, stand in the center and we'll get started." The mole walked over to the wall next to the ring where several switches were.
Link did, and then asked, "Sorry, but I didn't catch your name."
"Ah, indeed you didn't. Name's Jamison."
Link nodded, "Well Jamison, please continue." Jamison nodded and punched one switch to activate the dummies. 5 medium sized dummies popped out of the ground, surrounding Link. Link took out his sword and shield, getting ready for the first strike.
Not even two minutes later, all the dummies lay on the ground either in shreds or in halves. This caught Jamison by surprise, as well as some others. "Let's go a step higher," said Link eagerly. Jamison only nodded and punched the next switch. Links' lips stretched into a smile as the next wave came.
The sun slowly crept closer to the purple dragon as he laid there sleeping. He cringed when the light touch his eyes and groaned, pulling away form the suns light. But soon the sun caught up to him and groaned again, but had enough. Spyro slowly opened his eyes and gave a wide yawn. As he stood up, he heard faint noises coming from the window. Curious, he looked out and down. He saw a ground of people gathering around somewhere which he assumed was the training grounds. They looked fairly small considered that he was a couple of stories up. Suddenly Sparx came in, "Spyro! Good you're up! We got to go to the training grounds, Link's there and he's gathering a crowd!"
"So that's the commotion down there, Okay, I'm coming. Go wake Cynder and we'll go."
"No way! She'll kill me!" You do it,"
"Sparx, she's not evil anymore," said Spyro sternly.
"She may not be, but that doesn't mean she won't retaliate from someone waking up. Remember when you almost clawed my head right off?"
Yeah, he remembered...
*Flashback*
Spyro had been traveling for days trying to find Cynder when she ran off. Running this way and that and fighting apes had taken a toll on him. He laid down to rest and found himself asleep. It was then Sparx that found him sleeping. He had to get Spyro moving for he couldn't tell when or where the apes would come. "Spyro, hey, buddy. Wake up, we need to move." Spyro groaned and turned to his other side. Sparx couldn't wait and went for the direct approach. He flew to his brothers; face and shouted as loud as he could, "WAKE UP!" Spyro jolted up, sweeping his claws through the air thinking he was being attacked. One of his claws swept over Sparxs' head, which had to duck. Once Spyro calmed down, Sparx scolded him, "Watch it Spyro! You almost literally knocked my block off!"
*End Flashback*
"Yeah... sorry about that. Anyway, I'll go and wake Cynder up."
"Thank you," Sparx said on both accounts.
They walked over to Cynders' door to find Cynder walking out, "Oh, morning Spyro. What's going on outside? It woke me up."
"Sparx said that Link's training and a big crowd has come to watch. Let's go ourselves and see what's going on," said Spyro, pointing his head towards the stair case.
"Okay, but after that, let's go get something to eat, 'cause I'm hungry," Cynders' stomach growled.
"You and me both sister," replied Sparx.
As they walked toward the training grounds, the loud shouts of ohhs, ahhs, and gasps could be heard. They squeezed through an opening and their jaws dropped at what they saw.
Link sliced and diced his way through the practice dummies with ease. He used the skills he learned from his adventures partly t show off, but mostly for his own benefit. A group of small dummies came running at him. Link held his sword like he was up for bat and concentrated, putting energy into the sword. When he couldn't put any more energy into his sword, he released his attack by jumping forward, striking he ground with the sword. A shock wave blasted the dummies away, none standing any more. Sensing the enemies intention, Link back flipped after his attack ended as a sword struck the ground were he was a second before. 'All down, one to go,' Link thought. Although it was the last, it was the biggest one so far. Link saw from the corning of his eye, Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx. He even noticed that Crystal had come too watched. Looking back at the dummy, Kink gave a wide grin, knowing what the audiences' reaction will be. Link slowly sheathed his sword, rewording him gasps all around. He even heard some people say things like, "What are you doing?!" and "Take your sword back out!"
Link only grinned more, his hand still on the hilt of his sword. The dummies smiled at his enemies' foolishness and ran full speed at Link, sword raised. "LINK!" he heard Spyro, Cynder and Crystal cry. Sparx just covered his eyes. The dummy came closer and closer. When the dummy was in range, Links' facial expression changed from grinning to serious in a split second as he unsheathed his sword while spinning and spinning and sliced downwards. This took place in a matter of a second. Link stayed in that position for a few seconds before the dummy split in half, falling on both sides of Link. Standing erect, Link did his signature move by twirling the sword with his wrist and sheathed it with a serious look. Silence was heard until the crowd up roared in screams, shouts, and praises. Link raised his hand in thanks and walked out of the ring. The crowd followed but Link insisted they get back to their duties. They reluctantly complied and lift him with his friends. Spyro, Sparx and Crystal gave him praises and complements.
"That was amazing! I couldn't believe what I just saw!" exclaimed Spyro, "Right Cynder?"
Cynder just glared at Link, walked up and slapped him hard on the leg with the flat end of her tail blade.
"OW! What was that for?!" Link said rubbing the sore spot.
"That was for scaring me half to death!"
"Thanks for your concern and I'm sorry, but I can take care of myself."
Cynder huffed and turned her head away. Turning only her eyes at Link, she said, "But I guess what you did was decent." Link raised an eyebrow.
"Decent huh? Then shouldn't that make your own fighting tactics lower than decent?"
The two dragons and dragonfly looked at each other and backed away from the other two.
Cynder turned her head at Link, "What are you talking about?"
Link scrunched his shoulders, "All I'm saying is that my Fighting tactics is very good if not awesome, even if you don't admit it while your fighting skills are pretty good. So you saying my fighting skills are decent, you're saying that your own fighting skills are average if not basic."
"What?! Are you saying that my fighting skills are basic?!"
"Hey, you said it yourself in a way," Link putting his hands up. Cynder growled and smoke coming out of her nostrils. "Hey, Cynder, it was just a joke." Cynder didn't seem to hear, she took a step closer. Link took a step back, "Cynder?" She took another step closer. "Ah, crap." Link sprinted in a dead run followed by cinder. Spyro, Sparx and Crystal all had sweat drops on the back of their heads.
"I think Cynder has made a new friend," said Sparx. Spyro just shook his head.