Mycah awoke with a groan; she pressed her hand over her eyes and grumbled as she sat up.
“Ugh,” she muttered swinging her legs over the end of her bed. “I think I’m going to be sick.” Carefully she stood and pulled her black robe out of the closet; pulling it on she tugged the hood up to shield her eyes. Slowly she made her way out of her quarters and came face to face with Sorrel who was paler than usual with dark rings around his eyes. He too had a hooded robe on and looked as though he was about to throw up. He inclined his head slightly to her and they shuffled towards the Dojo where they found Dio face down on the mat, he groaned as Mycah and Sorrel flumped down beside him.
“Shh,” he whispered. “My head,” he shifted position slowly and pulled up his hood so he could see Mycah.
“I think I’m dying,” she moaned.
“Why are you so loud?” muttered Sorrel. Chenyo burst into the Dojo and greeted them loudly with a grin on his face.
“Good morning, Dragon Masters!” He said cheerily, clapping his hands. He was greeted with a cacophony of groans and grunts. “Ah, I see you are feeling the after affects of flying through the aurora borealis. Have you made contact with your dragons this morning?”
“No,” was the whispered answer.
“Then I suggest you get outside and see if you can fix this with magic by working together.” Moving slower than a tortoise they managed to haul themselves up all three looking deathly pale. As they made their way outside they peeked through half closed eyes at their dragons who were lying sprawled on the floor; their front legs stretched out in front of them, their wings spread wide across the floor. As they came nearer, they opened their eyes a little to see them. A deep grumbling came from his chest echoing through their heads.
“Why do we feel so...ugh?” Sorrel asked Chenyo, clutching his head.
“It’s similar to drinking too much Elixyr. You are basically drunk on magic.” Chenyo responded, “Now, connect with your dragons and try and fix the symptoms because you need to train with steel today. It’s loud and I can’t have you throwing up all over my Dojo.” They groaned with the effort of standing; extending their minds they connected with their dragons, wincing at the extra noise they quickly muttered different groupings of words to fix the drunkenness. “Okay, who feels better?” He asked looking at them. Mycah and Raffy were opening their eyes properly and seemed to have most functions back; Dio and Loki seemed mostly okay but Dio still shielded his eyes from the light. Meanwhile Sorrel and Red hadn’t improved at all and were grunting from the effort of using magic.
“Try again,” urged Mycah. “You can do it!” They quickly muttered a long stream of words which seemed to do the trick for the most part. Standing up straight, Sorrel pulled his hood down and brushed his bleach blonde hair out of his eyes and stretched out.
“Mm, that’s definitely better. I feel much more...alive.” He said at a normal volume instead of the hushed whispers they had been speaking in before.
“What do you mean drunk on magic, Chenyo?” Mycah asked with a frown of concentration.
“It occurs when there is particularly strong magic that infiltrates your entire body and settles there.”
“Settles?” Said Sorrel. “What do you mean, settles?”
“I mean, the magic stores itself in you, like excess magic for emergencies.”
“Really? That’s so cool! We have aurora borealis in our minds,” laughed Mycah.
“What did you say about sword play?” interrupted Dio.
“I want you to practise with steel today, no magic involved just skill.” Chenyo said he was distracted by Raffy standing up and pulling his neck in as he stretched; he flapped his wings before taking off and rolling back on himself to disappear into the trees.
“Hunting,” Mycah said with a smile, she ducked down as Red and Loki took off and nearly clipped her with the tips of their long wings.
They returned to their quarters and removed their hooded robes; Mycah opted for short trousers with a sleeveless white tunic and found Sorrel and Dio had done the same in their colours. Running to the Dojo they race each other; Sorrel tried to trip Mycah but ended up falling over himself and face planting the floor, as Dio attempted to jump over him he caught his foot on the back of his head and stumbled and fell just in front of him. Mycah however stayed upright and burst into the Dojo laughing hysterically. Chenyo was unimpressed as he stood with four samurai swords while waiting for them. Sorrel and Dio finally limped into the Dojo; Sorrel had blood pouring from his nose.
“What happened?!” asked Chenyo stepping forwards to examine his face; he lifted Sorrel’s head to best see the damage. Quickly muttering a short, yet complex sentence there was a crunch of cartilage as Sorrel’s nose healed; he yelped as it moved of its own accord back into place.
“I tried to trip Mycah over and then Dio kicked me in the head.”
“Not on purpose!” Dio interjected, “he fell over in front of me and smashed his face into the floor. When I tried to jump over him he lifted his head up.” He dropped to the floor and lifted his trouser leg to see blood streaming from a wound on his knee. He held his hand over it and a soft light emitted from his hand which healed the wound; with a flick of his wrist water formed in his outstretched hand which he used to remove the blood from his leg and tunic. Chenyo had picked up the swords which had previously dropped them; he passed one to each of them and kept his own in his hands. Mycah grasped the katana scabbard and wrapped her hand around the handle which was wrapped in white cord and pulled the sword free. The steel was sixteen inches of double edged blackened fighting equipment; with a roll of her wrist she spun it easily.
“It’s so light,” she said out loud. Sorrel’s had red cord wrapped around the hilt and Dio’s was black; all three had strands of red and green woven into the top and bottom to represent the fact they were Dragon Masters too.
“Mycah, you and I will fight. Sorrel, I want you and Dio to. Before you start,” he said holding up a hand.” I want you to place protective wards on your body; I do not want to have to reattach limbs.” Sorrel’s eyes went wide as he gaped in shock.
“Limbs?!” he said, his voice several octaves higher. Mycah, Dio and Chenyo were busy placing wards around their bodies to protect themselves; Sorrel quickly begun to do the same.
Stepping into a defensive position, Mycah readied the blade in front of her as Chenyo did the same; their blades touched and they stepped backwards. Chenyo jerked forwards, his sword swinging down from his left; Mycah easily raised her blade in time to stop the blow and rolled out from underneath it to launch a counter attack on his open ribcage. Just before it made contact Chenyo managed to knock it away, stepping away from each other they waited each other out. With a twist Mycah’s sword sung down towards Chenyo’s right wrist which he blocked; as he attempted to strike back she knocked his sword straight out of his hand with a knock to his left wrist which he hadn’t anticipated. With an upward flick of her sword she touched the tip to his throat before lowering it and stepping away.
“This is easy,” she giggled. Sorrel however didn’t think so and the clashing of metal on metal was loud in the room. He was practically sprinting backwards away from Dio whose sword was slashing through the air quickly. Mycah lazily blocked an attack from Chenyo who didn’t think she was paying attention as she watched the other two fighting.
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