The Dragon Society - Training
#3 of The Dragon Society
Welcome back, me! This is my first story in a really long time, probably a year and a half at least. In any case, I think I'm finally ready to continue this series. I received only good comments from the first two installments, so I can't see why I wouldn't bother getting back into it and writing another story. Thus, here I am. I encourage those who are new to the series (and I'm sure there are many of you) to read the first two stories to get a background, so you can understand what's happened so far.
On a sidenote, I plan on beginning to write erotic stories now, since that seems to be more common here. So, be prepared for that! If anyone has any ideas for stories about these or other things, feel free to drop me a line at MSN: [email protected] or YIM: litfan32. I'd be interested in both inspiration and commissions. So if you have something swimming around your head, toss me a line and we'll talk about it.
Now, to the story!
Tim, Steve, Ray, Dave, and Ogre headed slowly out of the door, admittedly not in the highest of spirits since they weren't going to get any downtime. Fequagor, the huge dragon who was going to be training them, led the way, and the five of them could only wonder just what he would have in store for the five of them. Steve hoped that there would be breaks in between rounds of combat, but with their new bodies, he figured, they ought to be able to handle anything that the big dragon could throw at them.
Ah, if his hopes had only been correct.
"Alright, pair off, I want to see what you can do." Fequagor points at Ogre, who clearly is the strongest of the five. "You, you will spar with me. Don't worry, I'll be gentle." The big dragon grins a toothy grin as he shrinks himself down to an anthropomorphic size that Ogre could at least match up with in size, if not skill. Steve looked at Tim and stepped aside with him, and Dave and Ray completed the final pairing.
"Alright, let's do this then." Steve is a bit downcast, having never done any sort of martial arts since he took Karate back in kindergarten. He rationalizes it though, knowing that anything he learned then would probably be useless to him now. He assumes a simple stance, standing openly, his arms at his sides and claws extended forward. He then waits for Tim to make the first move.
The smaller half-dragon uses his speed quickly, getting close to Steve almost before he can react, but he manages to dodge Tim's blows before they can hit him. He was using his fists balled, to avoid causing any serious damage with his blows. Steve decided to use his bulk to his advantage, letting one of Tim's bouncing, quick blows hit his chest.
"Oof!" is the sound of air being expelled quickly from one's body, and that's what happened when the blow struck, but Steve took advantage, gripping Tim's arm and pulling him to the ground, bring his other claw around to grasp his neck from behind and hold him. Tim rests his limbs in defeat, and Steve lets him up.
"Okay, that wasn't bad," said Tim, but he gets into a stance after that, grinning. "But I bet you can't do it twice."
Meanwhile, in the center of the field, Fequagor and Ogre were in a devastating fight, heavy blows falling on both sides. Just then, a particularly punishing blow came from the full dragon, knocking the big half-dragon to one knee, but he quickly got back up to both feet again. Steve watches a minute before his next bout with Tim, wondering. Ogre had been known to have a temper that was difficult to rouse, as well as put down. And it was easy to see that he was getting angry. Ogre charged in, shouting a battlecry, and as his fist made contact with the big dragon's body, it was clear that he had actually impacted him. Fequagor grinned.
"It looks like you really have some serious combat chops there. I may have to take you under my wing, personally. We might be able to turn that anger of yours into focus in combat."
Ogre smiled for seemingly the first time since he had arrived, and just then, the combat between Ray and Dave had just been working itself to a final conclusion, with Dave finally getting the better of Ray just after Ray had successfully done a driving headbutt to Dave's midsection. The taller half-dragon crumpled, but he used that momentum to his advantage as he pulled Ray to the ground, and then pinned his arms behind him, ending the fight.
They continued the sparring, changing up the groupings in the fighting after every round. It soon became clear that with their sheer size and/or reach, Ogre and Dave were the best two fighters among them, with Steve coming in third. Tim and Ray, it seemed, just didn't seem to have the size advantage the others had, and it hurt them in one on one combat, so they figured they'd need some special kind of training before they would be able to hold their own in a straight-up fight.
"Alright, break time whelps. I've seen what you can do in combat, and you can handle yourselves a bit, it looks like. Head back to the barracks for now; your next evaluator should be there shortly."
The five wearily gathered themselves and headed in the direction of the rooms they were staying in, and took a much needed hour-long rest to massage their bruises and jibe each other for things they saw while they were fighting. The primary victim of much teasing was Tim, who was the smallest among them, and who most frequently came along the short of the stick in their sparring.
After the hour was up though, their reverie was interrupted by a voice in their heads, a pleasant voice that they instantly recognizes as Tanizamas'. They all looked around, but did not see the blue dragon anywhere nearby. So they looked at each other.
It is good to see that you all survived Fequagor's training. The five aren't really sure just how much of a joke that is, so they look at each other nervously while the pleasant voice continued in their heads. Iam going to be your instructor in the magical arts; we will see if your knowledge of arcane spells is in any way up to par with your physical fighting skills. They looked excitedly at each other. They'd all at some point or another played wizards in their role-playing games, so the prospect of being to actually cast spells themselves was one that they simply couldn't wait to try.
Come out to the training ground and we will begin. So, they all got out of their bunks and headed in the direction of the courtyard where they had trained with Fequagor earlier. They arrived and found nothing there waiting for them. Steve blinked and looked around again, wondering just where the magical trainer was waiting. His glances, however, were met with no blue dragoness.
Of course you can't see me, younglings, I have made myself invisible to your sight. Thus will this be the first of your arcane tests. You must figure out the currents of magic and be able to see me is clearly the best magician among you, and on down the line. Of course, there will be other magical trials as well.
"So all we have to do is cast Detect Invisibility and we can see you?" asked Ray.
If that is what you want to call the incantation, yes.
"Well that would be easy, if we knew how to cast spells!" said Dave.
That's the point of this trial, to discover who among you has the capability of casting spells at all.
They blinked. "Alright, fine, we can do that." Steve started channeling the arcane energy in the area, or so he thought he was trying to do. He focused his eyes like he was looking into one of those hidden picture things, trying to see past all the colors into something beyond. For a while, he started just seeing cross-eyed, just one image appearing directly in front of him; it made his eyes tired. Meanwhile, Ray and Tim had shouted in joy as they had successfully seen the invisible image, or so they'd claimed. Steve grimaced, and tried once more. This time, he felt something channeling into his eyes and voila! Right in front of him, in touch range, was the blue dragoness they had seen in the entry hall.
After some coaching from the three who had pulled it off, Dave and Ogre were able to see her, blurry although she was to their sight. Well done, younglings, you have passed the first test. Now let us see if your offensive arcane capabilities are up to snuff here. Eventually, you will be able to breathe elemtnal fire to damage your foes, but until then it would be wise to learn to tap other arcane energies.
She snapped her (now visible) fingers, and six targets appeared at the end of the field they were situated in. She chanted some words, and a ball of fire formed in her hand. She threw it, and it devastated one of the dummies down at the end. After the explosion, there was nothing left; actually, the dummy next to it (and these were spread fairly far apart) was singed slightly and bent to the side. She sighed and fixed it, then looked to the five. I suppose I was showing off a bit. In any case, it is your turn, mimic my actions and the fireballs should take hold.
They nodded, and began trying to repeat the arcane words that she had just uttered. They got it wrong several times, before Ray was able to get a working fireball first, followed quickly by Tim. They lobbed them down the field, cackling gleefully as their dummies exploded in a fiery death. Steve grunted, and he stared intently at his upstretched claw, willing a fireball to form there. Apparently that's what it took as the little ball of fire formed in his hand, and he whizzed it down at his target, but his timing was a bit off, as it burned through the dummy before it exploded, so it wasn't totally destroyed. For their part, Dave and Ogre were eventually able to get fireballs down to their dummies, where they didn't explode at all, but they did an excellent job of setting them on fire.
It seems you can handle offensive magic fairly well. I have to take what I've learned to my study for consideration. For now, head back to your barracks before Naxterimos takes you for the last portion of your testing.
They nodded and headed back to their barracks. it seemed pretty clear that Tim and Ray were the best at magic, with Steve being average again. For a change, Dave and Ogre were the ones being teased for their inadequacies, but, thanks to what they saw during the sparring earlier, they were less pointed jabs.
Steve stayed fairly silent during the jabbing and teasing from one side to the other, wondering about himself. I am not the best fighter, I'm not the best magician. I'm average at everything. What kind of use would they have for someone like me in their fights? I can't do anything epxertly. His thoughts bored into him as the time went on, just wondering what he'd be able to do in the coming time. _What about back home? Are we stuck here?
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Some time later, a knock came at the door. Then, the old man who they had seen before who turned out to be Naxterimos entered the room. "Greetings. I am here for the third part of the testing. As you have seen already, and practiced, in some cases," his gaze settling on Tim, "you are able to change between a straight humanoid form and a half-dragon form. I am going to instruct you on changing into a full draconic form. If you are able to do so with no trouble, you will be welcomed into our society, and we will be able to place you where you are most needed. But first, I want you all to try to change back into your fully human forms, as I have. It shouldn't prove to be too much of a trouble for you."
The five nod, taking this very seriously, in spite of the old man's mirthful expression, which seems to be somewhat permanent. Tim is the first to succeed, as he's had the most practice and is most familiar with his body, and the others quickly follow suit. They're pleased to note that most of the positive additions to their body have remained the same, instead of going back to the (mostly) previously flabby forms.
"That was the easy part," said Naxterimos. "Follow me outside and we'll progress to the next part."
They followed, and the old man stood in the center of the field. Almost before they could blink, he had shifted into his large dark-green scaled form, his visage a toothy grin. He looked at the group standing before him, who seemed to be somewhat worried.
"Don't worry too much," he rumbled. "If I'm right about you five, this shouldn't be a problem for you at all."
Tim was first again, having the ideas already in his head. He decided to keep his augmented form's main features in his large draconic form, though he wasn't sure just how he was going to pull it off. He decides to take it in stages. First, the blue-green scales cover his legs and arms again, the lower parts of those extremities, as his hands and feet claw up, and the spines and wings spring from his back, slowly. He successfully reached his half-dragon form again, and he decides to take another step in the right direction without going all the way. He closed his eyes and focused. the scales quickly spread all over his body as his face pushed forward into a draconic muzzle. Just as quickly as it started, it was over. His tail and wings spread longer and became more powerful. He was then in a fully anthropomorphic dragon form.
"Very good," rumbled Naxterimos. "You're not done however. You need to push into a full-size form like myself."
Tim nodded, and he closed his eyes and focused again. Now that he had the hang of it, he was able to quickly progress in size up to the big green dragon's size. He wondered about that as his body swelled in places, adjusting his limbs, and just as soon as he had started it seemed, it was done.
The others burst out in cheering as now there were two huge dragons before them, one a dark green, and the other a tealy blue-green.
One by one, the others all successfully managed to convert to huge fully draconic forms, all of them maintaining the peculiarities unique to each of their half-dragon forms. Their colors were different of course, as well as their horns (or other unique features). All of them, except Steve. Try as he might, he couldn't get past an anthropomorphic draconic version. He simply couldn't get to a fully size form, no matter what he tried. It's all in your mind! Just imagine yourself in a form like theirs! It'll happen! His mind was racing, wondering why he wasn't able to get it to work. Then, in a flash, it came to him. His body doubled, tripled, quadrupled, then many times over in size as his bones muscles and appendages grew, larger than half of the others, and he reached full size in a matter of seconds, punctuating the finish with a bellowing roar and a blast of flame to the sky. "Heh.. heh.." he panted as he grinned a toothy grin and his friends smiled too. Naxterimos smiled as well, then spoke to the five now full-fledged members of the Dragon Society.
"You have succeeded at all of our tests. We will have a naming ceremony tomorrow evening. Until then, you will be allowed to rest.
So there's part three. We'll see when I become inspired again. Remember to drop me a line if you have any ideas for stories or commissions. I'm all ears!
----Khabi