Dragon-kissed: Book Two: Hearts of Ice

By Phenomenal Pen

NOT ALL DRAGONS BREATHE FIRE.

Three young Dragon Slayers travel south to find a missing father and more clues to the theft of the Egg of the Dragon God, a relic that will decide the future of their world. Coming from rival clans, Aki, Temujin and Sasha forge an unlikely friendship, discover ancient secrets, and face overwhelming odds.    

Though the fate of all the clans hangs in the balance, ice shaper Sasha cannot help but rekindle his passion for Aki, while the beautiful wind guardian remains unaware of a prophecy concerning the man she is destined to love.   

• Language: English
• Publisher: Phenomenal pen
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9791223033913

Book preview

NOT ALL DRAGONS BREATHE FIRE.

Three young Dragon Slayers travel south to find a missing father and more clues to the theft of the Egg of the Dragon God, a relic that will decide the future of their world. Coming from rival clans, Aki, Temujin and Sasha forge an unlikely friendship, discover ancient secrets, and face overwhelming odds.  

Though the fate of all the clans hangs in the balance, ice shaper Sasha cannot help but rekindle his passion for Aki, while the beautiful wind guardian remains unaware of a prophecy concerning the man she is destined to love.   

Freebie

Some dreams you give up.

Some dreams you fight for. 

Get Free E-book

Dragon-kissed

Book Two: Hearts of Ice

Phenomenal Pen

Prologue: The Writing on the Scroll

There is a secret prophecy known only to Belshazzar, the first Yin-Yang Master, and senior members of the Ciconi imperial family. It declares:

Four and four, the moon is bitten.

On the last, a new kage shall rise;

son of the enemy, thief

of the Stork Empress’s heart;

prodigious feats of all elements five.

Before a dragons-tongue path,

warrior-lover shall stand;

light or dark seals the fate

of heaven, earth, and man.

History has proven that the Stork Empress is none other than the heiress to the Gold Lotus throne, Aki Rokkaku, whereas the son of the enemy has revealed himself to be the orphan slayer from the Vulcanus Clan, Temujin. This was the true reason the reigning Emperor and Aki’s mother forbade her from exchanging words with the red Dragon Slayer.

Yet a fresh enigma rises in the guise of the Undina clansman Sasha Babor. In a world of feuding clans, any male Dragon Slayer could well be the son of the enemy. What lends further credence to this theory is the fact that Sasha was Aki’s first love.

Come what may, the Stork princess shall fall for an outsider and the outsider shall harness the greatest power in all the lands, to either build or destroy.     

Part One: Water

Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows.

– Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Chapter I: Preparations

Aki loved to ride. After watching Temujin communicate intimately for the first time with his pet Harpax eagle, Griffin, she felt a pang of homesickness and missed her horse, Shun, back on the Ethereal Nest. Blue-eyed and snow-white from head to foot, Shun was a small horse of Nangchen stock that her father had gifted her. They had grown up alongside each other since she was two years old.

He was handsome and regal with his aristocratic face, broad neck and shoulders. Although pony-sized, he had long legs, was tall for a pony and was very sturdy. He also had enlarged lungs that were specially adapted to the high elevation of the Ethereal Nest. He was courageous, loyal and high-spirited. Above all, he could run as fast as the wind. When Stork Slayers weren’t gliding from one cliff-face to another, horse-riding was the next best thing. Every day Aki practiced sliding down Shun’s side to shield herself from imagined enemy fire while simultaneously holding her bow under the horse’s chin and returning fire, all at full gallop.

Hippocamps, however, were a completely different breed of horses. The name meant sea horse but they were more kin to reptiles. One specimen floated by the dock of Pukkitunturri after the blue Slayer Aleksandr, also known as Sasha, blew a conch-shell horn to make a long, eerie and rumbly call. Even with most of its body submerged and only its neck sticking out of the water, the hippocamp dwarfed Sasha and the rest of the crowd gathered on the small dock carrying sputtering torches and powdered with snow flakes. The neck was long, snakelike and ended in a small head with a long snout and a big jaw, which were the only things horselike in Aki’s eyes. She sided more with the early sailors and eyewitnesses who first called them sea serpents.   

Although the specimen was mostly submerged and hidden by the darkness, she knew from her books that hippocamps had short tails and flipper-like limbs that they used to paddle their way through Pan-Terra’s oceans. Being reptiles, they needed air to breathe so they always stayed close to the surface and didn’t really dive too deep. They used their necks in the reverse way giraffes would feed: they reached down with them to search for prey on the bottom. They had curved teeth which were useful for catching fish and squids.

The behemoth that graced the dock towered twenty feet high and stretched forty feet long, but in truth they were slow and gentle giants even in their element. Tragically, this prevented them from keeping up with faster, better-adapted fish and faced tough competition sustaining their considerable appetites. Sasha made the hand seal of Zai, the Ring of the Sun, by spreading both his hands in front of him, thumb and index finger touching. He chanted: I see the consciousness of the laws of nature. I am that consciousness.

The Kuji Kiri or the Nine Hand Seals was a set of mudras or hand signs. Originally developed by the mountain pilgrim monks of the Ethereal Nest, the Yamabushis, they served to purify Slayers under the raging torrent of a waterfall. By forming hand seals, Slayers were able to summon their ki (energy force) to perform any desired fighting technique. The particular hand seal that Sasha made gave him control of the elements of nature: the tides, the sea and all the creatures in it; big or small, known or unknown. A large stream of blue light emerged from his solar plexus and extended upwards.

The hippocamp bent its long, slender neck and lowered its head towards the blue Slayer. Sasha then held the creature’s head under the long snout and pressed his forehead against its own. From what she had seen of the technique earlier, Aki knew Sasha was now performing the Dobutsu to no Kaiwa Jutsu (Animal Communication Technique). He was sending images, impressions and even memories from his own mind into the animal’s. All blue Slayers could do this towards marine animals. The brown Slayers of the south had a similar technique towards land animals.

Up close, she noted that the hippocamp’s body had a sleek, green-mold appearance, as though it was perpetually rising out of a swamp. She also focused on the eye on the side of its head, which was sunken and full of intelligence and emotion, especially because it had an oily, jelly-like film over it. In the end, temptation and curiosity overcame her fear and she reached out to touch the slippery, wet flesh. It was not scaly at all, unlike what she had learned from her books.

After the deep telepathic contact with Sasha, the hippocamp made a series of mournful, haunting sounds. It was a combination of wails, moans, burps and snorts. Soon another hippocamp emerged that was of a similar size to the first and they started communicating with each other in the same surreal and lyrical language. Early northern sailors had mistaken the sound for that of mermaids or, worse, malevolent sirens. 

I wonder what they’re communicating to each other, Aki said out loud in awe.

How they want to receive their wages. The first guy wants salmons but the new one wants mackerels, both of which are much too fast for either of them to catch on their own.

Aki turned dumbfounded to Sasha and back to the magnificent creatures as they continued their alien discussion.

×

On behalf of Ilmari-san, his apprentice blacksmith proceeded to fit out the hippocamps. He was like a tailor whose client were giants. When the hippocamps finally agreed to their wages and waddled temporarily ashore like sea lions, the apprentice used a ladder to measure the creatures’ height, neck and shoulder width.

The perfectionists that they were, the blue Slayers had devised a special metal bow yoke that would settle on the necks of a pair of hippocamps. There was a swivel between the animals, beneath the center of the yoke, which would then connect to a length of wheke rope. Wheke rope was used by Slayers of all clans. Its knot held well and never slid. The lightweight rope derived from a plant native to the humid tropics that was the destination of the trio of Slayers: Terra Australis or the South Land, where lay the Tūkāriri Jungle. The plant produced a special leaf fiber that was buoyant and, most important of all, resistant to saltwater. The fiber had an amazing tensile strength that could pull even a large ship.

Speaking of which, theirs was a cargo vessel called a longship. It had one mast with a square sail, presently furled, and was mainly used for transporting seafood, whale oil and various contraptions to the south and bringing back rubber, rope, and luscious tropical fruits to the north. This time, Aki, Sasha and Temujin wouldn’t be bringing with them any products for trade, only provisions.

For the long voyage ahead, Temujin and Aki dropped by the famed market of Pukkitunturri. They were looking for a change of clothes and grooming odds and ends for Aki. It was an understatement to say that she had been in a hurry to leave the Imperial Palace. Temujin wasn’t planning on buying anything but as he waited for her to finish shopping (which took longer than he would have ever thought possible), he felt so bored that he finally picked something: abackpack made of hollowed-out cork. He paid with some pieces of copper he had saved from long ago when he was still working in the mines.

When Aki at last finished, she was carrying many bags of meat, fresh vegetables and fruits, eggs and cheese. She even had one lovely yukata robe fused with long, swinging sleeves called furisode, a cluster of pinkish-purple Arctic parraya, and a shamisen, which was a three-stringed musical instrument. Apparently, every shop owner plied her with their goods without asking for payment. 

Chapter II: The Voyage

When Aki and Temujin traveled north, Griffin had to fly about five hours before landing in Pukkitunturri. This time, they would double back and cover three times as much distance by water. According to Sasha, who had learned plenty listening to his elder brothers’ stories, it would take them ten to twelve days to get to where they were going, of course contingent upon the weather. 

At first, Sasha wore a blue parka with long flaps on the front and back and pantaloons made of lightweight and glossy caribou fur. Aboard the ship, he changed into his Slayer uniform, which was made of the pliant material from the South, the sap of the crying wood, and hugged his neck and muscular body like molten wax. He completed the blue Slayer ensemble with a lodestone compass, a speculum spyglass and a brass sextant, which Aki recognized as much smaller versions of the same contraptions in the Imperial Academy of Science on the Ethereal Nest.  

Temujin called dibs on one of the bunks below deck and proceeded to leave his stuff there, including his kurasigama scythe and chain, shuko (tiger claws), several kunai throwing knives and shuriken throwing stars, his old gi top with the sleeves now torn off, his newly purchased cork backpack, and another mysterious item, which he seemed to prize dearly based on how he tucked it under his buckwheat pillow. Below deck was the main hold emptied of cargo and now housing cannonballs, black powder, spare sails, ropes and so on. Next to it was a small galley stocked with meat, eggs, flour, sugar, rice, lard, dried fruit, coffee, milk, barrels of water and rum and other supplies.

Aki was more than happy to sling her hammock in the crow’s-nest high up on the ship’s mast. She kept mum about her intent to keep an eye out especially when they passed by the eastern continent, right before crossing the equator. She knew Imperial search parties would still be out looking for her. Because of her perch, Sasha saw fit to make her officer of the watch and lent her, with a great deal of reluctance, the speculum spyglass.  

Finally, with Sasha’s cry of Anchors aweigh!, they were off. On the ship’s deck, they waved down to the very hospitable and generous Tunturian crowd gathered on the dock, who cheered them on and badewishes of Hyvää matkaa!

Sasha had left a letter to the care of Mr. Olsson, the town leader, who, in his usual accommodating self, said he’d deliver it as though his life depended on it. It very likely did, because the letter contained the news that Sasha had run away in search of his father, Mr. Babor, and it would be the first time his mother would know of his plans. There would be the devil to pay when he got back.

Aki reminded herself to make amends to Mrs. Babor as soon as they were back. This left no room for failing to bring Sasha’s father home with them or, worse, failing to bring back Sasha in one piece. His mother would prefer to break him herself then.

×

It was Aki’s and Temujin’s first time to feel the rhythm of any boat or water craft. The constant swaying and occasional shuddering made Temujin dizzy and he felt sick at first, leaning over the raised sides of the deck and vomiting all the things he ate in the Babors’ igloo. Afterwards, he felt much better. Sasha called him a landlubber, someone who lacked sea legs. Meanwhile, Aki imagined she was anywhere but a ship and, soon, sleeping on the crow’s-nest felt like sleeping on a cradle that was being rocked.

Aboard the ship, there was very little to do to pass the time except sleep, eat, talk and train. Of course coming from different clans, there were plenty of topics to pique their interest. For instance, Sasha told them that the first ever blue Slayers used the fukiya (blowgun) as a snorkeland mimicked the curved shell of a turtle to stay underwater for hours, usually before ambushing a pirate ship.

You mean there are real-life pirates? Aki asked.

Sure there are. Pirates are the archenemy of blue Slayers. Ocean lizards are a distant second. 

"Speaking of ocean lizards, can’t you use Dobutsu to no Kaiwa Jutsu on them?"

"Don’t get us wrong. We respect the great Queen of the Deep in the way Slayers respect friends and foes alike. Some water-kin tribes in the east even worship it as the crocodile-headed god Dakuwaqa."

Sasha was referring to errant sister tribes on the eastern islands, who shared their water element minus its crystalline frozen form.

Toyotamahime ocean lizards, he continued, "are one of the oldest species of animals in the world, older than even the Great Serpents, and we learned many things from them. They have warm eyes and brains that stay alert in our cold waters. They’ve also honed a kind of sixth sense that detects minute electrical fields, from the slightest twitch of a muscle to prey that’s buried under sand.

The problem is when they get sensory overload. The same thing I told you that I’m apt to experience when I’m in Kuma-wani form.

The bloodlust, Aki muttered darkly.

Sasha nodded. The few ocean lizards who have permitted us a mental link gave us a glimpse of that. The feeding frenzy.

Aki’s thoughts turned inward.  

Sasha also taught them the various parts of the ship and some nautical lingo. Right was starboard, left was port, the front part was the bow and towards it was fore, the rear was the stern and towards it was aft. At the bow, the front part of the ship’s deck was called the forecastle deck but it was pronounced fo’c’sle. It was set higher than the rest of the deck to give a good view. The part where Temujin had leaned over to throw up was called gunnel because, in warships, it had openings through which cannons could be shot in case of a pirate attack. Instead of a simple yes, Sasha encouraged them to say aye, and for no, nay.

Once their voyage was underway, there was no stopping Sasha from using sailors’ lingo every chance he got. Temujin doubted if sailing blue Slayers really spoke the way he did. He thought Sasha was just doing it to keep motivation up; theirs and his own. It certainly sustained his cheery mood and Temujin didn’t mind because it took their minds off the long voyage ahead. Sometimes though, Temujin felt just a little uncomfortable because Sasha seemed too serious and overzealous to teach them.

They had plenty of clean drinking water stored in wooden casks. And if they ever ran out, there was also rum, which was as ubiquitous as palovino and, according to Sasha, had a longer expiration date than water. They had some extra fresh water for cleaning themselves but mostly they swam in the ocean when the hippocamps rested and then dried themselves and their laundry with the aid of Aki’s winds (which also removed all the salt). It was in the sea they learned that Sasha could swim as far as forty-seven leagues straight, Aki could beat him for longest breath-hold underwater if she was allowed to use air manipulation, and Temujin didn’t know any other swimming stroke except dog paddle.

Chapter III: A Tale of Two Lovers

Because of Sasha’s ice-generating powers, they didn’t have any trouble extending the shelf life of the meat or the vegetables, and they also ate ramen, rice, and bread for variety. Cooking was where Temujin shone, far eclipsing Aki and particularly Sasha, who had been used to preserving his mom’s cooking and eating it cold. Temujin learned how to cook when he was surviving by himself in the wild, including during Griffin’s first molting period.  

Sometimes Sasha would summon his fish brothers to swim straight into the fishing net that their ship dragged behind. Aki was amazed by this relationship between the blue Slayers and nature. It was deeply philosophical and rooted in Buddhism, in which everything was connected and animal brothers were willing to sacrifice themselves to nourish the bodies of blue Slayers. Aki and Sasha were both content to eat their catch raw after he had cut them up in small sashimi pieces like his mother did back in Blarjokull. Temujin, on the other hand, wasn’t comfortable eating raw meat and always roasted his food with his flames.

He also provided illumination and warmth through the whale oil-lamps and his own ki glow. Still within the Arctic Circle, they moved and lived in darkness and their activities were somewhat frugal, never more than necessary. Their meals were subdued, their laughter few and far between, and the