FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

episode 9- the thunder dragon lords lesson

“ Ambassador he is a fire clan member. I must silence him.” The ambassador extended his hand and an arm blade came out of the armor right beside the guards neck. “ He is the key to my mission of destroying this poison in my world. Harm him and I will take your life.” The guard turned an eye to the ambassador. Then noticed the ambassador's blade was firmly against his neck. By simply moving he could open his own neck open. “ And I will say this so it is understood clearly. You are an invited guest and I am the host.” The royal guards start removing their weapons from Redsterns face. The ambassador then removed his own blade. The ambassador then raised the faceplate of his helmet.

“ Redstern wake up.” Redstern spread his wings defensively and stands from his desk ready for a fight when he realized he was in his class. After a moment to realize what he was doing he folded his wings again and retook his seat. “ Sorry Ms. Turner. It will not happen again.” The teacher points a ruler at him. “ If I catch you snoozing in my class again I will send you to detention.” Redstern gulped as he straitened his back.

After leaving the academy for the day Redstern found himself walking back to the hobby shop. He passed the coffee shop without buying himself any. He even did not notice the new dragon (Silvia) in the store as he went into the basement and changed out of his uniform and into his prior to his grooming towel. As he came to the top of the stairs again he found himself with a familiar looking sight and stopped surprised in seeing a thunder tribe she member. “ What is the big idea of just walking past me?” Redstern blinked finding she was not the thunder dragon lord but just a female in casual ware. “ Sorry, I just have things on my mind. Jake said I had today off because the store is closed so I wanted to get cleaned up and go to the battle contests.” The female looked at him coldly before laughing. “ What is so funny?” The female stops. “ My brother told me you were a little simple. Most of those fights are staged you know. You will not learn anything from watching them.” Redstern opened his mouth to protest but from the last set of fights he knew that true. What he was really wanting was get a hobby that he can relate to Terrans with. Sense fighting was in his blood and the battle contests were the only form of legal combat he thought that was a good fit. “ What do you suggest then?” The female looked over him. The towel did not cover him much. “ Meet me in the back in five minutes and I will show you.”

Out back was a barren grass yard with a small shed in the middle of it. The female was there with her hand over a control panel. Inside the shed was a small armory of dragon type gear. He was a little surprised by it as she grabs a small cylinder her hand fit around. “ A thunder blade?” The female goes into it's control matrix and changes its settings. “ Jake is actually a brilliant crystalline engineer. Three months of training and education and he was already working on advanced weaponry like these. It was him that designed the Kings Stand Card Simulation Module. The thing that makes the cards have substance. Many of the teachers that taught him think that he is throwing such talent away by putting so much effort in a non violent method of combat.” The female tosses the thunder blade to Redstern. It becomes activated in his hand. “ It is set to training level. At worst it will give you another scar like you already have.” She grabs another one and sets it before leaving the shed. Hers becomes active in her hand as well. She puts her hand beside the blade and takes a stance. Redstern takes it as well. “ You said you are Lord's brother but what are you called. My name is...” She cuts him off. “ Wilcon the Redstern. A fire striker. You have an attraction to the coffee bean. As I said my brother told me of you.” She starts to go threw a combat motion and Redstern tries to mimic it. Instead of being fluent as she was he received several zaps to his arms. “ Each blade is different and different for each that wield it. The currents of life in our bodies are always different from another. Even a twin. A single blade can be understood within a day and only mastered only after years of dedication.” She preforms a blocking motion with hers and he tries to do the same but the blade crackled and bent toward his face. “ Ow!” She giggles lightly. “ That happened to my brother when I tried to teach him some of the thunder blades. As a blade is used by one it adapts to them. It becomes in tune to them. It becomes antiquated by their moves. As one would block another might dodge. That is why if a thunder blade is wielded by one over a lifetime they can only be used by that one. When the thunder blade senses it's masters death it as well dies.” She then returns to the stance she had to the start and instead of mimicking her he held his blade outstretched from his arm.

After an hour of training Redstern's limbs were at the point of being too numb to work properly and she showed him how to turn it off. “ Why teach me how to use a thunder blade? I thought it was forbidden to teach the art outside your tribe.” She smiles gently at him as he rubs his arm from being shocked so many times. “ The teaching of the thunder blades is not a forbidden art. It is just complicated and hard to master. Most of the other tribes that try to learn find it too complicated. In turn they figure it too difficult for anyone but us to use. In truth less than a tenth of the thunder tribe warriors can even use these blades. That is why they use the thunder staffs and bolts. Usually by now a beginner would be completely numb to the pain the sword brings. Jake said you had potential.” Redstern became surprised as he looked at the cylinder in his hand. “ Still why teach me?” She smiled at him and had his hand close around the cylinder. “ As I said you show potential, but I know you are not ready to know everything yet.” She takes back her hand. “ You know Lord has taken a liking to you. He is starting to see you as an older brother he always wanted.” Redstern turns away and scratches his chin. “ Really? I do not know how that feels exactly. I grew up in a striker camp.”

“ Every day you would wake up and train to fight. Those older would teach the younger and those younger would help the older. As a younger I did well. I learned faster than most of the others and I supported in the chores better than those years older than myself but as an older I did poorly. I tried to teach but my lessons never came threw as I intended. I usually had my own chores done before the younger could help me and learn how to do them themselves. Yet I was also proud to be a striker. They were the only family I ever knew.” Redstern pauses to remember the days he was in the fire tribe. “ That is how I also wound up coming here. I was nearing an age to earn my gear when I was telling the youngers that any striker could do just as well as any higher ranked warrior in a fair fight.” She giggles thinking on that. “ Let me guess someone high ranking heard you say that?” Redstern sighs. “ Of course. The station commander's own son. He is as proud of the fact he is his son as he is of his own rank that he was given at birth. I was raised to believe I would never reach half the rank he was even after a full life of combat. Still I held to my boasts and he his pride.” Redstern notices his arms no longer stung. “ Usually such conflicts are settled then and there but my days chores were done and he did not want only me to be punished for my boasts but my entire unit. So the fight was delayed till morning and by then his father found out about this and thought an official demonstration of his sons abilities would do the whole station some good. The fight was as fair as it could get. No armor and no weapons. He had years of higher training and discipline but has not used them much in the months after his stationing. I was a raw rookie of a harder life. I had much less to lose than him. At first his better training gave him an edge but I outdid him in raw ability. I was on the verge of victory when I realized I had never learned the true meaning of being a striker. We are a group that aid each other and our allies. I always felt myself independent and looking for personal glory.” Redstern gripped his free hand tightly. “ If I won it would only do me good so I grappled him, and spoke to him. I told him to batter my ribs till I let go then beat me while I was down.” Redstern raised his hand and opened it to look into it. “ I took a fall. They called it an inexperienced mistake in my submission hold. A hold each of us are taught to use to subdue from the earliest of ages. A lie to hide the fact everyone knew I did it. So after being held back a year I was sent here. In place of the one that I let win.” Redstern noticed she was looking up into the sky. Redstern does the same. “ This world is strange. I often come here to get away. Often I just want to take to the sky and explore it's secrets, but I am a guest here. I do not have that privilege.” She looks back at him and he notices this. “ It is not often I get to just talk to another dragon my own age. For this I thank you. Wilcon the Redstern. May you protect your home here as you have protected your fellow strikers. The break is bound to be over and my disappearance will likely be noticed by now.” She stands and Redstern does as well. He offers the thunder blade back to her. She shakes her head. “ It has taken a liking to you. Train with it and when you feel ready for the next level demonstrate to Jake or Lord.” Redstern looked at it then nods happy. “ Thank you, you never did tell me your name.” She backs away a step and goes to the unit on her arm and her dressings changed to those he saw the night before. “ I am Silvia Osspring one hundred and fourteenth Lord of the Thunder Tribe. But you have earned my respect and friendship for now so Silvia will do.” She goes to the wrist unit again and a dimensional gate opens. “ Till next time Redstern.”