DECISIONS

Sven looked up at the breaking dawn, by now his mother would just be stirring would she rush about worriedly calling his name in panic or would she go about her business thinking that he was simply away on one of his long walks until she realized too late that she had lost her only remaining child ? he shook his head to clear the thoughts out of his head, she would be much safer if he was gone far far away.

 He dreaded walking past the clearing by the stream where he used to play with his brothers Raz and Nenjii while his twin sister Xen would line up her dolls with their dresses, hats and dainty cups of tea and have a make believe tea party,  he could still feel the warmth of the sun on his face and Xen's humming in his ears,  when life was still easy and carefree, then war broke out and Raz who was nineteen had to go off to war, for seven months he was gone, he wrote only twice and then the next letter that arrived was news of his death, their family had snapped mother turned haggard and slow, Xen grew silent while Nenjii turned bitter and violent and home became once more like when father was around.

"Father'' he thought trying to rustle up a picture of the heavy handed, hot tempered man who had dominated his life up till he was eight, all his sons it seemed had inherited his hot temper and quick fingers, fast to hurt, the last time he had seen father had been the day he had smacked mother into the corner where the grinding stone was kept she had cried out and Raz who had suddenly grown very tall kicked his legs out from under him and sent father crashing unto the living room floor where he cracked his head open, he had risen up shaking the stars out of his eyes and blood poured from the gash on his forehead then he turned for the door and never came back.

 After Raz died, one morning after his twelfth birthday he woke up and, every time he raised his hands to perform the simplest of tasks there would be  lightning at his fingertips and wrists, the first time it had happened he had nearly set the house on fire, Mother had looked at him in horror and dragged him to the town drunk.

 Tornak sat on the edge of the cliff and looked out a cane lay crooked by his side, footsteps approached from behind him and someone sat down beside him he did not need to look up no one moved quite like Sven, silent and slow as a jungle cat yet always ready to pounce, the youth looked decked for a long journey.

'' You are leaving'' it was not a question, mainly an observation . The boy was between sixteen and nineteen - he had never really bothered to ask, with long inky black hair that spilled down his shoulders, his eye were a  shade of gray so light they turned silver when he looked away from you, the colour of lightning Tornak thought to himself.

 The first time he had seen the boy, his oldest brother had just died in battle and his mother had dragged him to his house, he had sent them away rather harshly, an action he had never forgiven himself for and neither had the boy, when they met again at this spot a year later, the boy had just killed his sister with his gift and he had been broke almost beyond repair.  

"Yes", Sven replied

"When are you coming back?"

''When I make meaning of all this" he said sapping his fingers and studying the lightning cackling at his fingertips, Tornak sighed

''I have ever told you my story have I?'' the boy just stared straight ahead '' Sikorra was a dragon Lord from Gesa and there were five young people  bound together by him and his dragon, he was very young barely fourteen, for every dragon lord you see there are five sages destined to teach him mastery of a natural element that is why your mother brought you to me"    Tornak twisted his palm upwards and a gust of wind blew past billowing his robes and tugging the stray strands of Sven's hair '' I taught him to bind the air, Akylice could bind lightning, Kofu was water natured, Srina was mistress of the earth and of our group'', Tornak smiled to himself '' and then there was Seri - Sword wielder we were tighter than thieves and the entire realm sang our names until twenty years ago a new dragon lord arose in Gesa whose father was already one of the most powerful men in Hanorak he had tried to bring Sikorra over to his cause to conquer and subdue everything in his path, when this new dragon lord arose it was a tug of war on who would get to her first but Sikorra he was unstoppable he pulled them over to our side and Maldorr never forgave any of us, Brrimorra, Sikorra's dragon died at his hands and Sikorra ran, no one has seen him since''

 Sven looked at the old man with new eyes, he knew that he had lost his wife and three children in a mysterious fire a year before Sven had been born and till he had sought them out after he  had heard how Xen had been killed he was known only as the village drunk.

 ''You married the sword lady" Sven murmured as he remembered the stories, he had thought them simply fairy tales told to children.

"Seri,  her name was Seri, yes I did and it was the best fifteen years of my life'' he looked at Sven ''This journey you are going on, I see a great adventure ahead of you''

''I don't want an adventure I want peace, to go to bed at night without a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach''

''Fear is good''

''Not when what I am afraid of is myself, I cannot control all this myself how then will I help someone else control it? I want to be normal''

''But you are not, and you will never be'' Tornak rolled up his sleeve and on the inside of his right arm was a dragon tattoo curled up with its wings forming an armour around it "This is the mark of the dragon, when your dragon lord is united with his dragon you will get yours and the fate will bring you six together, it always does, no two dragons have the same mark so you are only bound to those with the exact same mark as you do'' Sven rubbed at his right hand 

" When you find him, please be patient with your student, you have been prepared for this for longer than they have, no new dragon lord is ever prepared for the heavy burden thrust up on them, the first months or even years may be a tangled mess of confusion, fear and uncertainty but you must be strong for them and for yourself and above all think with your heart and not your head''

"I think you mean it the other way round''

''No, I mean it as I said it" Tornak sighed "Come back with a big story boy, come back with happiness, find it for all of us'', Sven rose to his feet he dusted himself and helped Tornak up bracing his weight as he adjusted to rest on his cane.

''Take care of my mother and of yourself '', Sven looked around uncertainly he had never been good with words.

''I will boy, now go and find your destiny.​