Chapter 9 - Gronaan

"Fire came here yesterday, and needless to say, it was intense. I ran into a few dwarves and not a soul of them recognizes me. Thankfully enough I am to that. I ran into the silver-eyed girl yesterday she goes by they and them, and that will take some adjusting to, turns out she is the Fallen Royal everyone has been talking about, quite terrifying if you ask me. I best be on my utmost proper behavior around them. I am still having trouble with the weight of my body it seems to have lost 50 pounds and I feel all floaty every day, it's been almost two seasons since I left my home, and I miss the rigid environment, it's all bouncing and giggling with air. I miss the mines and my family, but I haven't written to them I would feel like a failure if that were to happen. I guess I truly am one in a million the last dwarf to be chosen by air was almost 250 years ago, but I am not the first at all.

Today we have been told we are going to be learning elemental bonds in the best way, combat. I am still having trouble with that. I can move more quickly but I don't feel as strong as I did before like my muscles aren't worried about what comes after the initial charge and the wind at my fingertips isn't strong enough to push them around. I get called Sky Dwarf as a nickname, and I don't mind if I called myself that at first. I guess there are worse things to call each other. Speaking of speaking, the reason why we haven't had interaction with people is that our voices call about the power of wind as do our breaths. Avernous has been doing his best to help me understand things, I guess only the ones blessed by air openly communicate with our bound freely, it's words everyone else gets images and emotions from their bound. Well, that's enough of this scribbling. Time to whip some fire into shape."

Breeze 19

The display of raw power of fire and air in front of me washes through my hair and even the bit of beard I have coming in. One of Fire's most powerful students squaring off with our very own Harpy's Scythe. I believe his nickname is Bandit King, his elemental is a terrifying mass of deep black fur and red lines bursting into wisps of flames. He is tall about a head or two taller than me, he has dark skin, and it is covered in dark black tattoos, I haven't found myself in his company long enough to ask his name. Harpy's Scythe, on the other hand, is a monster in her own respect, a fae tall lean, and quick to violence. Her dark black hair blasting from the air erupting from her, her smile while on the field blazing, her eyes show the dark blue they once were in flakes throughout the almost ghostly white. Her elemental is a hawk resting on her shoulder its feathers alight with storm cloud grey lights erupting with the wind. With the drop of a stone on the battlefield from the instructor standing opposite of me they moved.

Instructors of both elements' arms blazed in circles between us air dispelling and flames being redirected to the sky. I say they moved but that isn't at all what happened, their energy lanced out toward each other pressing the other out to the sides. In a show of pure force, Fire would have the advantage in most situations, but our Scythe doesn't get shown up by anyone without at least drawing some blood. Once the initial barrage ended leaving both people surrounded by a veil of the elements, the boy of fire is good. On the training field, you can see most of the Air being tossed around because of the dust that trails behind it, but he had just scorched everything on the ground around him, and the crystals of glass solidifying on the ground at the furthest stretches from him glowed with the reflections of his flames. But that lets the Harpy free to move air around him without being seen, no dust other than the lines of rapidly cooling earth to give any indication of where her assaults were coming from. Her movements were sharp and quicker than I had seen in any training prior he must have said something at the meeting when the three monsters of fire led the pack, Fallen Royal, Bandit King, and Red's Blaze. Trust me, I have now trained with every member of Air more times than I can count now, she is terrifying.

With all of my thoughts being taken into note he fended off her assault of wind as she dashed around him swinging blades of air in his direction, without moving a step; I even think his eyes were closed. His offensive however was like nothing I had seen, the jet of white-hot flames that erupted from his chest launched him back to the path of the Harpy cutting her off before she could take another step. He had traveled 20 feet in the span of an instant, lifting his left arm roaring gout of fire pours forth from his hand blanketing Harpy.

Now Air is a tricky element, with as much heat as was in the air from their fight it is no wonder, she had projected an illusion of wind from herself on the other side of him. Three scythes of wind hammered him from behind. He faltered and with that she took her second offensive, dashing in while the scythes of wind slashed his robes to pieces cutting into his skin filling the Tattoos, and covering them with crimson. She couldn't see the one thing that would have clued her to the danger as his face was turned, a smile as she took the final step into his arms reach his arm just appeared at her throat and he had begun squeezing the wind from her mouth.

Then I hear Rowan from beside me begin to speak, "There he is stealing another win in the field by theft." When did she get there, and why wasn't I able to tell? The Bandit king with a jet of flame pressing from his elbow slams Harpy into the ground with a force I could feel from 40 feet away. Her face a smile after she was on the ground and blood spattering from her mouth, screams "BOO!" the wind erupting from her mouth launching Bandit king 40 feet into the air, blood pouring off and from him creating crimson rain everywhere beneath him, her next words laced with venom falling on ears of all around, "Fall now," Her elemental which had taken to the sky above him directs it's wind from the glowing wings, the torrent of wind like nothing I had ever seen her conjure blasting Bandit king into the ground flames across the battlefield where she stood blew out with the force of the blow. The wind still pressing him down clearing the dust and debris from the field, his body lay crushed under the power cuts erupting from his entire body. The instructor that had dropped the stone stepped in his voice calling out for everyone in the arena to be heard, "Match!"

With the match called Harpy's Scythe collapsed to her knee a smile blazing across her face shifted her view to the body of Bandit King, "Well fought!" Just then the man in the rubble began to laugh raising his hand for all to see calling with his tattered voice, "Well fought!" His arm collapsed back to the earth but before it could hit the ground a gust of wind lifted him from the earth gently holding him about two feet from the ground, an instructor raced to his side, inspecting his wounds. A separate instructor dashed over to Harpy's side checking on her as a second cloud of air pulled her from her knees.

The pair cleared the battlefield and collapsed on floating clouds of air, an instructor no bigger than half of me steps onto the field, "For our last fight our choices will be Fallen Royal and Sky Dwarf." My soul left my body, I am fairly sure that's what happened. And the first thing I heard before walking out to the field was, "I am sorry Gronaan." Oh, damn their voice can be so soft sometimes, so, I put my chin up. What else can a proud dwarf do besides be confident in his ability to fight? Another positive, I don't have to think about putting my hands on a woman, because Rowan doesn't identify as one, so I gather. With a bounding leap, I land in the center of the field. The blood from the bandit king's broken body after his match stained the ground off to my right, Air cheered as I took my position on the field, my feet not quite touching the ground but close enough to look like it. I get floaty when I get excited.

Rowan took slow deliberate steps toward me, their presence enough to unsettle me a bit, but it wasn't the pace they were taking, it was the body language, they knew what they are doing. Well, I guess, I am going to have to try my best just to stay alive. With Rowan's final steps I hear them speak once more, the softness in their voice gone, "I will not enjoy this, but I will try to make it as quickly as possible." Just then a roar from fire let everyone know who this person is, and that I am right to be afraid.

"Versus, Red's Blaze and Tyrant Ruler," The instructor's voice filled the air and the power of the crowd fell silent, not a word was whispered from their mouths. Fires number 2 and winds number one, versus Fires number 1 and me Airs 46th. This should be a laugh for the other two. I look back to where rowan had been not two seconds before I took my eyes off her, and she was just gone. The crowd parted as the two powerhouses stared daggers at me, standing alone on the field. Her voice filled my ears with a breath of relief, "Don't look so afraid, Red isn't that scary, he can just throw around massive quantities of fire and is physically powerful, not all that fast, and he is kind of slow in the head too. Just don't let him touch you." I nodded to them, and gave what information I have had on Ruler, "So, the thing about Ruler is we don't know what he can do, he always looks bored in his fights, and training, he finishes everyone he comes across in two actions or less, he is fast and strong and he is a tyrant over the air, so nothing I throw will get to them."

While I concluded my sentence, I took note of the monsters approaching appearance, Air's champion was a slender but tall elf maybe a demon, the features of his face mostly hidden by the tufts of ashy brown hair, his eyes breaking through the gaps and the cold black of them feels like looking into a void, without that being said white flecks fill his eyes, showing his bond with air; a great horned owl rests on his shoulder it's brown and white feathers filled with a light blue glow the color of the sky. The Other monster is a titan of a man, well dwarf, the tallest dwarf I had ever seen, He looked almost human other than the beard, only a dwarf can grow a beard like that at our age. His beard and hair were both a Chestnut color and an ornament of the noble houses of the wastes pulling it tight, his familiar an animal I had never seen before but can only describe as a small wingless dragon, I think I heard people call it a monitor lizard, but who knows how accurate those statements are, under the ripple of black and grayscale a deep maroon glow you can only get from cooling metal fills the air around it.

"Keep the wind at my back Gro," Rowan says giving me a smile, her . . . no their eyes filled with life, the silver orbs hardening me more than I thought possible. Red's Blaze looks over to Ruler and says something I can't quite make out, but I figure it's the same thing Rowan and I were talking about. "Right, and just know I am not the best in my class at combat, I do have a few tricks though," I say bracing myself for the incoming battle of blows that is about to ensue. I have seen fire finishing their training, and from the looks of it, they are for lack of better words intense, from start to finish. I have not seen Rowan or Red fight, however, the conflicts I have seen today have been mostly dominated by fire, and understand what trials I am about to face.

The instructor a smile resting on her face a wicked smile, she waited for the final four of the day to see what we would do begins to hold the stone to start the fight. "Okay Avernous, keep the wind in Rowan's back, I will be able to handle myself for long enough," I say to the squirrel resting on my shoulders. His bark told me more than I needed to know a confirmation only I could understand, he is ready too. The click and thud of stone sent us into motion, there was no display of raw force with this group, I made myself weightless as a pillar of fire presses me. Air is fickle and doesn't move for anyone sometimes, but most of the time it can't be touched or held in a hand but will just move without being told. That is exactly what happened I moved, the heat of the fire pushing me toward the sky.

Rowan's dash was impossible to trace and the blast of wind that followed them pushed them faster, as I was moving up. Red's Blaze did what he wanted with me, take me off the field because his attention turned to Rowan. She had engaged Tyrant Ruler but to no avail, he was doing the same thing I had done to dodge the first blow. Red with a dash lumbered behind Rowan bringing down fists the size of Hammers from the heavens to her. The wind I called shifted them to the side causing Red to miss though just barely, his hands grazed the training robes leaving small, singed marks on them. He coats his hands with flames just before striking good to know.

The shift in Rowan's weight must have caught them by surprise because she disengaged, and I began to float back down to their side back to where we had started the fight. Red standing in front of the ruler screamed in laughter, "Let me take the both of them, what do you say ruler?!" I didn't hear Ruler's reply but by Red's smile, I could see he agreed to the proposal. Rowan took a step back from me and their voice filled my ears, "You will be the offensive for him, I will give you the speed and power your blows need to put him down." Caught in the moment I nodded, I don't know what I was thinking, but here we go.

I felt the will of Rowan's flames fill me, and I feel like my old self for a moment, when red began his charge and I replied with one of my own, keep in mind I am weightless. His fist drove toward my face, the wind he was pushing moved me to the side and my arm lanced out a drill of air leading my fist to slam into his side, the burn of a small flame coming from my elbow sending my hand propelling at speeds I couldn't feel until the impact. So that is how fire has been moving so fast. But I am weightless except for the moment of impact, well weightless is the wrong way to word it, I call the wind to surround me pushing me from the ground at the same rate as gravity, it was one of the first things we learned. I was sent flying back to the left of Red, and he turned not at all bothered by the blow, though there was some blood pooling on the ground on his left side.

His next move was going to be different, and I was ready. I think about Rowan's information, he is a bruiser so if his punches and kicks wouldn't work, he would try fire once again. That is exactly what he did, but his words sent me into a rage. He said, "That isn't how a dwarf fights oh mighty Gronaan, just because you don't wear your crest doesn't mean I haven't heard of you, where is the berserker of the Dwarven hold." He knows who I am and my past, how I trained, and more than I knew about this man. So, I gave him what he wanted, I screamed, A torrent of air blasted forth from my mouth, sending a vortex of sharp cutting air towards him. His feet with every step into the cyclone created a mouth of flame erupting from the ground where his feet had rested. The torrent dies with my scream and the pillars of flame erupt from the ground without a moment's rest. He gave me what I wanted.

I am smart for a dwarf, well I learn quickly, and I know fire needs air to exist, it will also be tunneled and moved by air if you let it. Red let forth a burst of flame a blanket, its heat licking at my face from the twenty feet between us, so I called a tunnel of wind sucking up the flames into a loopback onto the monster that was feeding it. The image of a swirling dome filled my mind and began to surround him as his flames fed off my air, the tunnel of air causing a chimney effect driving the flames in the dome into an inferno. I began to tighten the dome around him the trapped flames hissing and distorting the world around it, lifting my arms the ball of air and fire raises from the ground condensing, well that is until the heat and flames turned my wind into a massive explosion. His flames may not be able to burn him, but the force of the explosion should be more than enough to crush him.

His limp body, robes in tatters, and beard flowing free in the air, his ornament melted into the hairs, met the ground with a thud. The feedback from the air hit me, I took a simple step down to one knee and felt the world spin in front of me but regained myself. Air's cheer filled the arena as a tangible thing, and I saw on the face of fire approval, and disgust. Rowan's laughter joined by Tyrant Ruler's filled my ears, and I knew what was about to happen, the real fight is going to begin.

I stood and moved back toward Rowan, they stepped to my fore, and the feedback's dizziness began to fade. With the blink of an eye, Rowan and Ruler closed the thirty feet between them, air and fire lancing out in both directions. When did rowan get knives? Then it dawned on me they were white-hot flames, one slash from them, and anyone was in trouble, their elbows and feet erupting flames with each movement. Ruler was no slouch, and it was the most I had ever seen him do in a fight, I tried to see the flurry of blows being traded between the pair, but it was too quick for my eyes. I reached out to my connection to Avernus and found him, and I'm not kidding, riding on Rowan's back.

He could feel the heat from Rowan's flames, and I gave him simple instructions, "Feed the flames!" A chitter filled my ears and an unfamiliar weight began to run across my shoulders, a Red Weasel wrapped itself around my neck. This must be Rowan's familiar; the little guy had been left with me because they didn't want him to be hurt in the interaction. Keeping my connection with Avernous open I told him to create pillars of air from her elbows and feet. Their movements in response to the command were too fast for my eyes to keep track of entirely, that is until a slash of flames licked out from the ruler's chest. The smell of flesh melting under heat filled the air, and a scream pierced the air around the arena. Rowan dashed back from the falling Ruler, he surprisingly caught himself with air as his body fell face-first to the ground. Avernous flew off Rowan's back into my face and jumped to the top of my head as Rowan landed next to me.

Rowan turned to me, sweat beading from their face, but most notably, their smile filled every inch of the beautiful face it rests upon. Their voice followed a small nod but the Fallen Royal, "Well I guess we will work together just fine; I was worried there for a bit." Laughter boiled up from my belly and drowned out the cheers and screams from the crowd of people, cutting them off. The feedback from the wind followed my voice, making me a bit dizzy but I found myself in Rowan's grip holding me up. "Thanks, partner, but I never want to fight you ever." Their laughter filled my soul, and I knew I wanted this person to be alongside me as long as I could have them.