Only the royal members of the Houses could shift into dragons.
It was what made them special, what drew the line between commoners and royalty.
There would be many members of the Royal Houses who would be leading the war for the White King. For his house, there was only one dragon, which was him.
One dragon against many more; one inexperienced dragon against many that were experienced.
Alaris knew the problem he would have to face soon, but he told no one of his worries; after all, if the head was afraid, then what would he rest do?
Also, what was fear?
That was beneath him.
The warriors of the cave needed more training than ever though. They were lacking in number, but quality had always prevailed over quantity, so it wouldn't have been a completely dreadful situation if they weren't also lacking in skills.
They didn't watch to see when fire would be unleashed upon them, they weren't observant enough, nor did they know what to do when faced with flames.
One of them almost got burnt to death, had Alaris not swept him away from the flames himself.
The dragon people were faster, faster than humans but the dragon shifters were so much swifter than they were.
While some of the warriors displayed the knowledge of this in their attacks, some seemed to have forgotten it.
They would have died on a real battlefield and that was exactly what he told them.
“With these skills, you would all be dead before the real war even begins!”
He hadn't even shifted into his dragon and yet they couldn't hold a candle to his attacks! What would happen when he shifts?! They would be useless!
They said nothing to him, seeing his strength and knowing how powerful he was compared to them.
They trained as much as they could but still, there was much to be learnt.
“Is this the best you can give?!” Alaris had yelled at them as he saved another from one of his fireballs. His frustration was plain to see. “With these skills, you will perish in hiding. Do better! This war is ours, we must win it!”
There was much to be done.
Too much.
At one point, Alaris felt that he might be too hard on them; after all, they had never had a dragon shifter in their midst to train against these kinds of attacks before, nor to defend against them.
He was the first they had.
But he was so frustrated by their dwindling chance of victory that it made him rageful. Maybe, the fact that he would be facing against dragons for the first time also put him on edge, which he subconsciously concealed this fear with his rage because that was the emotion he knew best.
An angry mentor taught nothing, for the student would be too frightened to learn; therefore, he forced himself to be calm.
The days of war that Alaris had in the Human Realm came to his advantage, and although the beings of his realm were different and stronger than humans, many of the skills he had acquired while in the army and conquering kingdoms helped him greatly in training them.
Some were on the other side of the cave, working on different weapons to improve their survival chances and those of the warriors for when the war would finally be unleashed upon them. They improved their leather armours based on the experience they were acquiring from Alaris’ training.
It was an exhausting morning, a tiring afternoon, and an evening. Now, finally, it was time for them to rest.
Alaris looked around in quick observation at the exhausted and hungry warriors around who treated the little injuries they had acquired from training while rushing to another cave for food. He watched some of the females look at him in awe and desire.
He watched the Cave and his heart soured with disappointment. He had watched the map of Vestros before coming to train the warriors, Ny'ka had pointed out some places while the Priest had spoken about others he believed they could attack. Ny'ka knew more than he did, which was expected, but Alaris was certain that Tyrek would know more than she did; he was their leader, after all.
They had to start planning the war now.
Although, they were not ready yet.
The army was too small; they knew too little, and this couldn't be his army to take back the throne!
He needed Belladonna to be able to use her powers already, he needed for them to create an army of magic that could stand before flames and not get burnt!
This was useless!
As he headed to Belladonna’s cave section to find her, two of the guards he had appointed to watch over Ny'ka ran to him.
They had the most annoying news to give.
“Ny'ka is missing, My Lord. We were watching her then she just disappeared. Vanished into two air,” they said panting, her hands on their knees.
Alaris’ frown deepened but the most annoying thing hadn't been said yet.
“Lady Belladonna was with her. They are both gone.”
Gone?!
They had better not be it or he would be bringing this cave to the ground with flames.