A test of Strength (Private with Alyas)

Tempest heaved the final puppet like thing into place, refusing to allow her guards to help her. Instead, they were there to escort her guest to her when they arrived at this meeting point. Tempest had a few things which she wanted to see before she granted them a higher ranking position, as these are her most vital roles which they had inquired about and she could not take them lightly. In war times, she knew that she needed to be able to trust this dragon completely and she would be placing the lives of many dragons in their paws. She needed to know that they could protect them.

For now, Tempest continued to set up the dummies, their weight and bulk hard for even her to push to their feet. In a final heave, she managed to get it in an upright position. She then wandered over to a cooler section of the cave, sitting there with her tail wrapped around her as she patiently waited. It even took her a long time to get to this training tunnel because of how it was located, it could be a little tricky for them to find. But that was her first test. It was a long way up from the base of flare mountain, and was almost at the very top. In there, a small tunnel had been dug by their ancestors, then this place carved out for training or testing grounds. For now, Tempest simply started counting.

Alyas observed the huge mountain in front of him, he supposed he had to climb this in order to meet Tempest... He took out the scroll and read through it again. From what he had gathered, there was supposed to be a cave somewhere at the top of the mountain and it would be where Tempest would be waiting.

He stretched out his wings and took off, figuring it'll be faster if he flew up half the way of the mountain. From there, he would then look for the training tunnel, hidden somewhere on Flare Mountain. He scanned the rocky surface of the mountain, catching glimpses of tiny holes here and there, with rocky edges, but so far nothing large enough for a dragon to get through. Some time later, he descended from the air and landed carefully on the rocky mountain and began climbing up the steep slope.

Tempest heard the landing through the rock walls above her, and she tilted her head up to look. He arrived much sooner than she had anticipated and she allowed a grin to form on her face. "Not bad... Not bad at all Alyas..." She said quietly to herself, before standing and nodding to the guards. "Bring him in." She commanded, and they both lowered their heads in respect and acknowledgement before wandering out to the entrance of the tunnel. Soon, they saw the FireWings and beckoned him to come.

"Alyas, we have been awaiting your arrival. Queen Tempest is through the passageway." A rather large and bulky guardian said, one of Tempests' old friends who she had met on patrol through the FireWing territory. "Do you have the scroll with you?" He also asked, calling over the blowing wind. Tempest had earlier said to him it was also a test, to see if he would be wise enough to bring the note in case he had forgotten the instructions on it.

Alyas was somewhat past the half of the mountain when a group of guards came to greet him. With his signature victorious smirk, he produced the scroll from under one of his wings. "Hah, I wonder...what does the queen have in wait for me?" he said, half to himself.

He followed after the guards, bracing himself against the blowing wind slightly to make it easier to move forward. Curiosity prickled his mind again while he made sure to loosen up his stiff joints in preparation for anything that could happen.

Tempest tilted her head from side to side. It's time. She thought, before she stood up and moved deeper into the cave, to a place where she could see everything below her.

The guards meanwhile, escorted Alyas to where Tempest was. Her long time friend smiled at Alyas, before nodding to where Tempest sat, watching. "Good luck Alyas, no one else has passed her tests since she had become the leader." They said, before backing away from the grounds.

As soon as they had left, Tempest jumped down from her ledge, her eyes locking onto the scroll. Good, very promising so far... maybe She though, before deciding to check his reflexes. With a crack of her tail, she sent it to collide with his side, seeing what he would do.

Alyas's gold eyes glimmered with excitement as he kept an eye on Tempest as she stepped down from the ledge she sat on. All of a sudden, he heard a quiet 'whoosh' and his head turned to see a heavy-looking puppet flying towards his side. He was almost a second too late, but had managed to knock the puppet down with his forelegs.

He looked back at Tempest, she was definitely testing his reflexes. He should have known, the test had already started from the moment the guards had escorted him into the tunnel. Alyas narrowed his eyes as he observed Tempest and his surroundings, awaiting her next move.

Secretly, Tempest was happy with this, normally they expected questions, interrogations, but no. She needed reflexes, strengths, smarts, ability to observe and their trust. That being said, this was a test, so Tempest didn't let him wait too long. The great FireWing jumped backwards, a fire billowing forth from her mouth as she secretly also snapped a rope aflame with her hell claws. The flames were a distraction, as her paw could only JUST be seen above them.

It was attached to two boulders hanging from the ceiling, and after this rope was burned, they would drop in front of the dragon. If this were to happen, it would end their training session there and then.

Tempest then cut the ropes holding three other puppets back, which swung towards Alyas. The three other puppets had extremely sharp points to them, and were covered in spikes. Tempest admitted, this normally caused some injury, but it would NEVER kill, which she had made sure of several times. She still had a few scratches where she took them herself.

Alyas narrowed his eyes and changed his posture into one which would be more suitable for the current situation. Flames appeared in front of his eyes and he felt something odd about it. Just then a few spiked puppets flew towards him and he leaped into the air, engulfed in flames, throwing a puppet down onto the ground while the rest burned slowly.

Alyas lifted his forelegs and licked up some of the blood from the spikes. That was inevitable, spikes covered the puppets all over, unless he could burn them in a split second, he knew it would be pointless to attempt a lack of injury during this test.

Tempest allowed him a few moments to lick his wounds, but she waited. Silently sitting there as her eyes narrowed, becoming more and more aware of the time that was passing as the smell of slightly singed hair wafted through to her. She gently flapped her wing, sending it to him so that he may be aware of his mistake. She did this for others as well, so that it was fair.

She continued counting, the rope she knew was visible for another 14 seconds. It could be cut and stopped for another 10 seconds exactly, but she didn't tell him that. The slight flickering light in the back of the cave and to her right should be enough for him to see. A danger like this could just be the glint of steel before a bolt lodges into a dragons side..

After this, she would let go of the ropes her hind leg was on, as they were holding boulders in place above where the rope was. If she were to let them go too early, he would be crushed, too late and it wasn't really a test. So she patiently waited, keeping her mind focused on the time as she sat still calmly.

Alyas grunted a little when he saw the slight flap of Tempest's wing, he had wasted time. He wiped clawed the ground slowly, getting rid of excess blood, when he noticed a flicker near her. Instantly, he started looking around him, for anymore hidden traps she could spring on him at any moment. "This clearly is not a test of mere strength and wit, isn't it, queen?" he asked, but it was more of a statement.

in return, she shook her head, and just as he had ended his question, she let go of the ropes. There was a deep rumble at the roof of the cavern, near the ledge which she was just near. And now that was where Alyas was. She knew that the dragon needed to concentrate for this part, and kept quiet as the three large boulders fell.

She was not kidding when she thought they were large, at least 3/4th of her size. It took herself and five other guards to man-handle them into place when they set this up. She already had her hell claws enflamed, ready to step forward and break any that may actually kill him.

Alyas felt small tremors and immediately looked up to see three huge boulders falling towards him. His eyes darted to the left, knowing that he would be trapped if he dodged right. However, there would be barely enough time for him to run without getting his tail smashed, but he dodged anyways, no time to make decisions.

Before he could cleanly dodge the three boulders though, he reacted by catching a boulder with his entire body before it could land on the ground, or rather, part of his body. He hurled the large boulder of his stomach and pushed it on the ground and shook himself off of the bit of stinging pain from the weight of the boulder. He was lucky enough that he had a large build.

Tempest took a step forward, her tail lashing out as she helped to throw the boulder from his form. It was designed to cripple if it hit-and she had to admit, she released them a little too late. When she was close to him and the boulders were released, she nodded. "You have the strengths to be able to command yourself and are definitely strong enough to be either one of the roles you are interested in... However, let's see how well you go commanding fellow FireWings. I am your ally for this. Guards, phase two."

They heard Tempests' voice, and the two who led Alyas in turned, suddenly snarling at them both. Three more guards came from two different entrances, one from the back and two from the side. She needed to see how well he fought when pressured by a multiple dragon advantage. Tempest stood, awaiting his orders as the dragons individually lunged for them, their claws and weapons gleaming in the light of the torches.

Alyas grinned, he had the opportunity to order another, he felt quite pleased with the current events, even if it would only be temporary. First, he counted the number of dragons that surrounded them. 2 in front...3, 1...and 2...7 dragons in total. He got into a fighting stance and without looking back at Tempest, he spoke, "Well then, Tempest. How about you take care of those behind for now, hm? Paralyze them, knock all 4 of them out, but don't leave any out."

He figured he'd try to plan their attack in a way to prevent sneak attacks from the guards. Since they were Tempest's guards, he doubted that any of them needed to be killed or put down permanently.

Tempest nodded, even though for her, knocking out 4 dragons would be a handful-especially considering she had hand picked these dragons for their ruthlessness and their own ability to fight. Still, they didn't want to rise against their leader, but with a roar of annoyance, they all jumped straight into action.

The three at the front rushed Alyas, their weapons and fire heating straight for him. The one at the back was designed to attack from ranged, while the front two distracted him. Their claws, fangs and bladed tails went to start reigning blows down upon the tested dragon.
The other two used fire and claws to try and catch Alyas off guard.

Tempest, for her part, roared and slammed her paws onto the ground, calling up two of her firelings to aid her. Knowing their weakness, two of the dragons stayed near the back and ignited the flame creatures with theirs to neutralize them. Then the two at the front attacked Tempest, and she blocked as much as she could and tried to knock them out as she said. But even though she was smart and clever, a two on one was sometimes even a little tricky for her when she wasn't bloodthirsty. She snarls in pain when one digs their claws into her shoulder and she ignites where they were standing with her flames.

Alyas left Tempest to her own devices while he concentrated on the three dragons in front of him. He noticed one of them stayed behind the others while the two came up to him and attacked. He gnashed his teeth in annoyance as flickers of fire sneaks up near his snout. Just then a small stinging pain hit Alyas in his side, the arrow coming from the third dragon.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance, it appeared he was going to have to find a way to lure the two dragons near the third one, or finish off the two but at the same time, potentially suffer more damage from the third one. He lashed his tail out on the ground as he rushed forward towards a guard, his claws out.

The guard he ran towards tried to dodge his attack be leaping towards the right, his own fire erupting like a volcano from his maw. The second guard had their weapons raised, aiming to strike at his chest while the ranged one was about to strike at Alyas with another his.

Tempest felt an overpowered spear shot slam into her side, breaking through her scales and lodging in a foot. The guards fighting her paused for a few seconds, realizing what they had done as her scales slowly started to change, a deep, angry snarl forming on her face...

Alyas landed on the ground and saw the flames and the dragons preparing their own attacks. He leapt backwards and rammed himself down towards the guard with his weapons raised up, in an attempt to pin the guard down. He would deal with the ranged dragon later.

Just then, he heard a slight snarl from Tempest's end and he quickly glanced towards her. Her scales were a different red colour from when he first saw her and it appeared the guards on her end were in shock. Alyas wasn't sure what was happening, but he hoped that she won't blindly attack him.

With but a snarl, Tempest summoned her four firelings in an instant, which immediately went after her foes. There were a few short explosions before she turned, snarling at Alyas and his opponents.

The guards didn't know what to do, ceasing their 'attack' on Alyas and worriedly,they looked at Tempest with a great fear in their eyes. They weren't trained to try and calm her down, and Flare, who was a friend of hers for a rather long time, was the one who knew the secret to stopping her rage. But alas, he wasn't here, and Tempest knew the dragons were fighting and she needed to basically put them in their place to stop them.

She snarled once more, her hell claws igniting and burning the ground beneath her.

Alyas paused when the guards suddenly dropped their attacks and he turned his neck to see a rather, angry Tempest. He turned his entire body around and looked her up and down. She didn't seem very calm, and the guards around her were shivering in fear. He glanced at the ranger dragon and nudged him with his tail.

"What's up with her?" he asked as he watched Tempest's actions carefully. His instincts were slowly twitching, knowing that she was extremely dangerous at this moment.

They will kill him... We cannot allow that! Tempest roared, a light building at the back of her throat as she reads up onto her hind legs. The ranged dragon wrapped their tail around Alyas, shouting for him to get back as she pulled Alyas to cover behind a rock. The other two physical dragons did the same, taking cover behind things which weren't flammable as Tempests' flames billowed over the top of them, scorching the grounds around them.

"They actually hurt her, she was already on the edge because she was so concentrated in the fight-but the idiots actually stabbed her. It looks pretty nasty as well, but Flare knew how to calm her... Wait, where is he?" The ranger asked, looking around. She could have sworn the fellow FireWing was there just before. But a sound cut her out of her thoughts..

She roars again, her claws about to slash the rock Alyas was taking cover behind.

Alyas raised an eyebrow(?) at the ranger dragon's explanation. He turned back and saw Tempest coming closer to the rock. As she raised her claws, Alyas leapt out of Tempest's way, taking cover behind another rock. All his instincts were twitching nervously, but he didn't want to let himself acknowledge how dangerous she was yet.

Not yet...she hasn't drawn any blood... he told himself as he pressed himself against the ground, observing the raging queen carefully.

//Bump. Should I write an application for Alyas in the FireWing position thread, even if he doesn't get the position?

(( He most likely will get the position-my apologies for the late reply, I didn't get a notification from this saying you had replied. ))

Tempest snarled, her hell claws tearing through the rock as the ranged dragon jumped out of the road, puffing out smoke to blind the Queen. She threw her head back, roaring again as she shook the soot away from her eyes. In return, she used her fires, using it to chase the ranged dragon back into hiding.

Tempest turned again to one of the potential threats, a melee dragon. She raised her paw, then hit it into the ground as two small fire tornadoes appeared, then settled into a flaming dragon shape. They seemingly snarled, then dashed to the melee dragon the other to Alyas... (Do not break them, it will be bad...)

Alyas backed away slowly, glaring at the flame dragon, growling at it uselessly. He looked around quickly and with a flick of his tail, he swept some pebbles at the dragon to experiment if pebbles and dust would do any good at putting the flames out. He stared at it intently, slowly letting his instincts take over and slowly, his view and sense of hearing increased.

Everything was quite clear to his eyes now, he could see every single ember that flickered from the flame dragons and he could hear every single breath from the dragons in the area. Some were tired, but all were still quite alive.