Dravon did not wake up until long after the sun had set. He immediately recognized that he was laying in one of the infirmary rooms. It was a room he was all too familiar with.

            “She must have knocked you good!” Chren said from the doorway. His arms were crossed as he leaned against the wall. He pushed himself off and walked over to Dravon’s bed.

            “So, be real with me. Did you mean to punch boob?” He asked.

            “Of course not!” Dravon’s pride would never allow him to resort to such underhanded tactics.

            “Well, instant karma unfolded upon you anyways. How’s the noggin?”

            Dravon felt the side of his head. Suddenly it all came back to him.

           “That was a cheap shot.” He mumbled. He made a mental note to never fall for the injured girl routine ever again.

           “Were you the one who brought me to the infirmary?”

            “Not exactly.” Chren said nervously. “I saw that Jraken already had you taken care of, so I flew out.”

            Dravon punched his palm out of anger. “Flew out?” He was not at all surprised. Chren never seemed to actually intervene in any of Dravon’s affairs. Which more times than not was exactly what he preferred.

            “What are people saying?” He asked. His reputation that he had worked so hard to build was crumbling around him. It had already taken one big hit from having to be saved from Kaizo. The last thing he needed was rumors spreading around that Jraken had saved him not once, but twice on the same day.

            “You are the only one who knows I was even there. I haven’t heard what Jraken reported. It is possible the general assumption of the student body is that you two sparred and he won. Just saying.” Chren said with his hands up, indicating he was not too blame.

            Dravon threw the sheets off himself and started putting on his clothes.

            “Where are you running off to? They’re going to want to check you out.” Chren tried to reason.

            Dravon started lacing up his boots, “I need to settle something once and for all.” 

 

 

            Dravon knew that the first-year dormitory would have constant surveillance of the entrances. He took a running jump and landed on the side of a balcony on the third floor. He climbed over and found that the door was unlocked.

            He had been to Jraken’s room once before to welcome him to the academy. That was a while ago now, and it was not dark at the time either.

            After checking a couple wrong rooms, he eventually found his brother sleeping soundly.

            “Wake up.” He said as he shook his shoulder.

            “Dravon?” Jraken asked. “You okay?”

            “I’m fine! I would have been fine! You should have just taken me to my room!” He said angrily while also trying to keep his voice down.

            Jraken sighed and got out of bed. “Let’s go talk somewhere then.”

            “After you.” Dravon said motioning towards the window.

 

            Dravon followed Jraken deep into the woods. The same direction he had gone when he had followed him the day before.

            “Did you even know you were being followed?” He asked as they approached where the woods were still smoking from Dravon and Marilyn’s earlier fight. The students and faculty had put the fire out amazingly fast. Only a small portion of the forest took any serious damage.

            “Not at all. I just wanted to train alone.” Jraken replied. “There’s a creek up ahead. It’s nice.”

            “What did you tell our instructors when you brought me in?” Dravon wanted to get to the bottom of how much damage control would be needed in order to restore his ranking and put him back on top.

            “That I found you passed out in the middle of the fire. It was the best I could come up with.” Jraken replied, never turning around to face his brother.

            “Thanks,” said Dravon, his voice a little calmer. “I think those girls were descendants of the banished Imperians by the way.”

            “The ones from the Elementi Civil War? What do you think they were doing here?” He asked.

            “I don’t know. It seemed to me like they were after you. They obviously didn’t want to kill you though. I think they were just sizing you up.” Dravon remembered how fast and strong the girl he fought was. No matter how hard he trained their always seemed to be someone who was a step ahead of him. Though, he felt that had the fight continued, he would have gotten the better of her.

            “Which means they may be planning another attack.” Dravon said grimly. Deep down there was a part of him that wanted to see a war start in his lifetime. Then he too could have stories of glory. Dravon would be the first prince to inherit the crown that had not previously fought in a war in over 300 years. Which was not a statistic he was necessarily proud to be associated with.

            “Our father is the strongest Elementi alive! He’ll send them crying all the way back to the Farak Quadrant.” Jraken said assuredly.

 

            They arrived at the creek and Jraken finally stopped and turned around to face his brother. The stars showed brightly as there were no clouds in the sky that night. Both Luna and Pyra could be seen floating in the night sky as well. They were covered in the lights of their cities as their citizens experienced their turn at the long-eclipsed nights.  Each moon would go through this phase as its orbit kept it on the dark side of the planet for several days at a time.

            “I don’t know if you know this or not yet so I’m just going to go ahead and tell you. Your team tried to recruit me today.” He prepared himself for Dravon’s temper.

            “Of course, they did!” The more it sunk in, the angrier Dravon’s voice became. “Those backstabbers are nothing without me! Fine! Good for you! I’ll make a team and we will crush you guys!”

            “Dravon, I didn’t join them. I wouldn’t do that.”

            “You deflect one attack and all of a sudden you’re the talk of the academy! Has anyone even really seen you fight? What is everyone so worked up about? I can’t take it anymore!”

            “Then I guess we’d better get this over with.” Jraken said with a serious tone.

            Dravon got into a fighting stance. “I’m glad you understand.”          

            Jraken held up his hand to signal Dravon to wait. “We did enough damage to this forest. I know we can get away with some things because we’re royals, but let’s not push it too far.”

            “What exactly are you suggesting?”

            “No fire. Simply good old-fashioned hand-to-hand.” Jraken said as he got back into his stance.

            “Fine by me.” Dravon said as he rushed towards his younger brother. He threw a couple quick jabs and Jraken dodged every one of them with ease.

             “How are you so fast?!” Dravon asked as he continued to struggle connecting a punch.

            “Grandpa Locke taught me a thing or two. I could show you if you like.”

            “I don’t need any help from you!” Dravon yelled as he tried to increase his intensity. He was trained by their father, Jrax. After the death of Drelaine, Jrax started drinking more than ever. Leaving Dravon to train himself. He had approached his grandfather before about training, but Locke saw too much of his father in him and declined.

             Jraken was unaware of this, but could see that bringing it up had angered his brother. Dravon’s attacks started gaining velocity and Jraken had to physically block some that were too fast for him to avoid.

             Finally, Dravon got a hit in that forced Jraken to take a couple steps back. “Well, you’re not untouchable, are you?”

            Jraken rubbed his cheek where he had been struck. “I don’t think it’s wise to use your anger to fight with.”

           “Don’t be a sore loser!” He yelled as he rushed his brother once again. This time when Jraken blocked the first punch he followed up with a counter. Dravon was not ready and took a hard kick to the side. It was much harder than he would have anticipated.

          He’s so strong too. Dravon thought as he gasped for air.

         “I brought you out here to help you. I’ve learned things about us that aren’t common knowledge.” Said Jraken. “Long forgotten training methods.”

          Dravon caught his breath and got back into his stance. “I already told you! I don’t need any help from you!” He attacked Jraken again and found it much harder to land a hit now that he was also having to focus on defending himself.

           The two brothers fought evenly matched for some time. Then Dravon noticed that he had mistakenly left himself wide open for an attack. He knew Jraken was experienced enough to take advantage of the mistake and braced for impact, but no impact came. He quickly shot a flame at Jraken’s face catching him off guard and forcing him to make an awkward evasion. Which allowed Dravon an opening to punch Jraken in the stomach hard enough to bring the young prince to his knees.

           “What in the abyss was that?” Dravon asked as he watched his little brother slowly rise.

           “What was what?” He responded, breathing heavily.

           “You had your shot to finish me! I was wide open!” Dravon yelled. “You better not be holding back on me!” He slapped his hands together and they ignited into flames.

            “Hey! We agreed!” Jraken yelled.

           “We agreed to fight too! And you’re not holding up your end of the deal!”

          “That is enough!” Yelled Instructor Lloyd Rivers. He was accompanied by Instructor Skyla and Instructor Haizo Blaze. Lloyd and Haizo were both ex-agents who had the respect of every student.

          Dravon extinguished his flames immediately.

          “First-years are not to spar without supervision!” Yelled Haizo. His short black hair was graying on the sides. Other than that he showed no signs of his age.

           “First you set the forest on fire and now I’m told you snuck your brother out here to spar without permission!” Lloyd added. He was one of the younger instructors. Losing half of his left arm in battle while serving as an agent gave him an early retirement.

           “We both came out here. Dravon didn’t make me do anything.” Said Jraken.

           “You don’t have to defend him, Jraken. Last-years always think the rules don’t apply to them. Being that he’s royalty I doubt they really even do.” Skyla snapped.

           “Not this time!” Said Haizo. “He’ll be lucky if he’s allowed to compete in the next tournament!”

            Dravon clearly looked like he wanted to say something. Instead, he bit on his lip and kept his words to himself.

            “The sun will be up soon. Why don’t we send them back to bed for now?” Skyla suggested.

            The other two instructors agreed and decided they would come up with Dravon’s punishment later.

            Skyla also insisted she walk Jraken back to his room since it seemed everyone wanted to challenge him.

 

            “What was so urgent that you and your brother couldn’t wait until morning to have your little sparring session?” Asked Skyla.

            “If you know my brother Dravon then you probably know he isn’t really the patient type.” Jraken replied.

            “So, it was his idea after all.” She said slyly.

            Jraken realized his instructor was too clever to hide things from, and he liked her too much to lie to her anyway. “Yeah. I didn’t exactly resist either though.”

           “Because you love your brother. You want him to be happy.”

           Jraken would not be caught saying those words out loud, but he did love his brother. He wished there were something he could do to keep him from pushing himself away.

          “He’s family. Don’t you love your family?” Jraken asked.

          “I actually have a brother who reminds me a lot of your brother. He was a proud man who was obsessed with his talents. One day I surpassed him, and he was never able to forgive me. Just like you, I did not want to lose my brother. I did everything I could to mend our relationship, but he wound up taking advantage of my generosity. If someone genuinely loves you, then you shouldn’t have to go out of your way to make sure you don’t upset them.”

           Jraken remained silent. Skyla could see that she had made him uncomfortable.

           “Have you decided on a team yet?” She asked as the dorm lights became visible through the trees.

            “Yes. I joined Jessa Hardu’s team.”

            “Hardu? Pink afro from one of my classes? I thought for sure the royals would try and recruit you.”

            “They tried to offer me Dravon’s spot, but I could never do that to my brother.” He said as he ducked under a branch.

            “How did you decide on Jessa Hardu? Has she even competed before?” She asked.

            “No. She is a second-year student. The other members are first-years like me though.” Jraken explained. “I have some classes with Jessa. She seems nice, so I asked her if she wanted to make a team with me. As luck would have it, she was already putting a team together.”

            “She seems nice, huh?” Skyla asked with a smile. “Does the young prince have a crush?”

            Jraken’s face grew red and his heart started to race. He had never had this feeling about someone before. He was not entirely sure if it was beneficial to go around telling people how he felt about her. Skyla seemed like someone he could trust though.

            “I do like her.”

            “Does she feel the same about you?” She asked.

            “How would I know?” He asked with honest curiosity.

            “Does she want to spend a lot of time with you?”

             “We are supposed to train this morning. In fact, I’ll have to leave as soon as I get back to my room, so I may as well start heading to our rendezvous.” He answered.

             “Very well! Best of luck, Prince Jraken!” Skyla said as they approached the first-year dorm.

            “Thanks, Instructor Skyla!” Jraken yelled back as he picked up his pace to meet with Jessa.

 

 

            “At least you aren’t banned from the tournament.” Chren said as he sat cross legged on Dravon’s bed. Dravon’s dorm room was filled with training equipment and the walls were lined with paintings of great Pyran kings.

            Dravon was doing one arm push-ups with his feet in the air in the middle of the room. “Cleaning the bathrooms is absolutely disgraceful! My father will be furious when he hears of this.”

            “Can’t say I’ve ever heard of a prince cleaning a toilet. Better hope your team doesn’t see you. You’ll never hear the end of it.”

            “The royals tried to recruit Jraken behind my back. I need a new team.” Dravon said dryly.

            “Hmm. That is unfortunate. Princess Mystie was a handy gal to have on your side. Maybe you could join up with her little sister! What’s her name again?” He asked.

            “Princess Luna. She has a team. Her two Lunanite cousins, Pelly and Marcel Tidal and Prince Pyke Stone.” Dravon replied as he switched hands.

            “Right. Pyke is Grolo’s little brother. Okay then, how about your cousin?”

            “Allabar Pyre. That’s a decent start. Who else we got?”

            “I don’t know. This is still all under the assumption that any of these people will even want to be on a team with you. You’re no prince charming.” Chren said as he leaned back on the bed. “Do you know if Kaizo is competing?”

            Dravon stopped doing push-ups for a couple seconds and got back on his feet. “I highly doubt it. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t get expelled.”

            Chren took a bite out of some string cheese. “Well, there you go.”

            “That could work. Tyke is sub-par and Bonette is a complete and total joke, but Kortro is an elite in making for sure!” Dravon was starting to get excited at the prospect of being on a new team. “Kortro will be missing Kaizo. You know he will.”

            Chren let out a small laugh. “Right now, he’s looking at Tyke and Bonette and I guarantee he is not at all thrilled with what he sees. Him and Kaizo did all the heavy lifting. The other two were just minor inconveniences at best. Not to mention, I would love to see the royal’s faces when they see you on the docket with the reigning champs!”

            “Chren,” Dravon said as he put on some weighted clothing. “This may have all been for the best.”