The dragon trainers – Chapter 5: Rigorous Training

: Clapped her hands. “Alright, listen up! Out there, things weren’t easy for us. Now I know one of you has training in survival, but I expect the others to follow up!”

She spoke to the 3 yordle males: Teemo, Rumble and Heimer. Their dragons were away from them in a corner. Lulu was sitting behind Tristana, listening carefully.

: “We’ve faced several bandits, wild animals, from the calmest grasslands to the dangerous mountains! But none of them are as worse as the ones from the void! I always made sure to avoid them, for my safety and Lulu’s! I’m not sure if we together could take on them, and I don’t intend to test that on purpose, but if the worse comes, I want to make sure we can stand a chance! Fight what we can’t outrun and outrun what we can’t fight!”

The three nod, believing she had a point.

: “So I’m going to single handily train each of you with and without your dragons. Remember, your buddy won’t always be with you, so we have to make sure that you’re trained in case something happens to them. And vice versa.” Stares at the dragons off to the side.

The dragons respond in their own way. Hufkins all look happy, Zora poses majestically and Dudley just puffs smoke through his nostrils.

: “That said…” She smiles. “Let’s get started.”

Sub-location: Training course.

: “Right, I asked Lulu to give you a padded arm gear for your right arm, this because most of the times, Zora will be sitting there.”

To further explain the situation, Zora casually stood on Teemo’s padded arm, just enjoying the position.

: “Now I have to figure out how to train myself to use her for shooting.”

: “One thing at a time, first we have to test her skills in flying.”

: “Tristana, she knows how to fly.” He said, as if she was confused.

: “Yes, but can she fly FAST?” She grins. “Here’s your first task, you have to throw Zora so she can gain momentum in her flight and during that high speed, she has to come across the obstacles all the way to the other end, where the dummy of you is and land on its shoulder. Ready to give it a whirl?”

: “Worth the shot, what you think, girl?”

Zora: Does an affirmative sound.

: Slowly backing away. “Alright, get in position.”

Teemo got in a stance, his right arm holding a steady Zora, he wanted to try and throw her like one would throw a spear.

: “On your mark!”

Zora: Flaps her wings once.

: “Get set!”

: Steady’s his footing, creating a little dirt bump behind his shoe.

: “Go!”

Teemo makes the throw and tosses Zora, and just as expected, she had a nice momentum for her flight, already at a good speed, she tried her best to dodge as many obstacles as possible, but sadly got cocky and ended up smacking her head against one of the poles.

: Ran towards Zora to check on her. “That must had hurt, are you alright?”

Zora: Gives out a little cry of frustration and pain. Must have hit her head harder than she should had.

: “If we were to rely on her to deliver a message, like calling for help, we would never hear the end of it. That’s a good start for practice.”

: Puts Zora back on his shoulder pad, letting her catch a break before trying again.

Sub-location: CQC arena.

: “Ok Rumble, we have to make sure that your dragon isn’t just limited to spitting fire. Me and Lulu had cases where our dragons either got a cold or sick and they couldn’t shoot it out. That’s why we’re training Dudley to learn how to fight with his claws.”

: Looks down at Dudley’s small arms and raises an eyebrow. “Those couldn’t even scratch the bark out of a tree!”

: “Well, he has to try. Start by hitting this wooden dummy. He has to take it down to pass.”

: “Alright, sick ‘em boy!”

Dudley: Didn’t move for now.

: “Come on! Hit it hard!”

Dudley: Still didn’t move, licking its lips.

: Sighs annoyed. “Pretty please, smack the dummy?”

Dudley: Smiled behind his toothy grin as he approached the wooden obstacle.

: Moped as he had to beg for his dragon to do something.

: “He’ll come around, Rumble. Not all dragons are obedient on first time.”

Dudley: He then tried to slash at the dummy, barely making a few marks.

: “Dummy has to be taken down, that’s the condition.”

: “Again!”

Dudley: Didn’t move.

: “Again, PLEASE!”

Dudley: Did another slash, again only leaving another mark.

: Left his hand on his forehead, annoyed. “This is going to take long.”

Sub-location: Target practice.

: “Alright, you’ll probably have a harder job. At what point do the Hufkins shoot their flames?”

: “I’ve asked and had little training to tell them to never do any fire related business without appearing out of my hair. That means sneezing as well.”

: “Good call, a quick sneeze is a good way to go bald. So the hufkins in your hair will be doing some target practice for now. Five targets, you have to hit them all, good luck.”

: Turned towards the targets and without looking up, he whistled.

Hufkins: Five of them popped out of his hair and spewed a large flame each toward the targets, two issues. First, their flames ended up crossed, second, they all missed.

: “At least it didn’t set fire to the back ground. But can’t they shoot straight?”

: “Sadly, my hair being so dense, they rely on each other’s communication to navigate through it, most of the time they accidentally turned towards their brethren before firing, thus causing the cross fire. Pulling out requires about two seconds for them to gain vision. In two seconds, anything can happen, even death.”

: “Well, is there any way to make them Uncross their fire?”

: “No… But I can make them aim better by instinct, I just need to train them under whistle frequency.”

: “Worth the shot, try again.”

: Whistled again.

Hufkins: Did the same thing, popping out of his hair blind before shooting in a cross fire. This time they landed a bit more to the right than last time, but the shots were almost consistent.

: “Hmm, it’s a possibility.”

: “Better than nothing.”

Sub-location: Exercise yard.

The place was filled with curious yordles from both the mothership scouts and Bandle Gunners, watching the dragon trainers in training.

: “Right, you need to be trained and be able to overcome anything, not just rely on your dragons, so we’re going to start with pushups, so try and do as many as you can. Ready?”

The three males got in position, however Heimerdinger tried to be clever.

: “No Heimer, you have to use your ACTUAL hands, your claw in that hair doesn’t count.*

: Fixed himself, barely handling his own weight, showing how much of strength he had.

The yordles in the background started to either chuckle or giggle, as if implying that Tristana was missing something.

: Didn’t pay any attention for now. “Alright, ready? Set? Go!”

The three males started. Heimer, being a man of science was having issues to do even one without panting. Rumble, being used only to work on inventions and heavy machinery was doing fairly well. Teemo however, was already speeding in his pushups, due to his massive training in the military. Teemo’s effort impressed Tristana, but tried not to make much of it.

: “To make things fair, Teemo, try to do it one handed, please.”

: Acknowledged her and started doing it with his left hand alone, still maintaining the speed.

A few cheers and whistles from the scout girls could be heard in the background. Heimer finally collapsed, too tired after doing two push ups.

Location: Lab B07, Testing area.

: “Right, with this gear, Zora should be able to attach herself to you easier. Won’t make her more comfortable than the arm pad, but at least it simplifies things. Get on your knees and call her.”

: Did as he asked and whistled.

Zora: Landed on the hooks on the back of his vest, it was a perfect match for her sharp claws.

: “This should do nicely, now you have to learn how to glide with her flying.”

: “I propose a test using my latest experiment, allow me.” He walks off to a corner, picking up what looked like a makeshift egg.

: Got up and allowed Zora to fly onto his arm pad, sharing a similar look of confusion with Tristana.

: Arrived holding the egg, it was heavily duct taped and filled with warnings. “You remember when you tended to use your mushrooms for explosive arsenal against your foes, correct?”

: “Yeah? What does that have to do with the egg?”

: “Well, this egg is a sensitive napalm device engineered from hextech.”

At the mention of that, both Teemo and Tristana jumped back, afraid of the egg.

: “You bring freaking napalm for show!? What if that thing detonated on our faces right now!?”

: Suddenly dropped the egg on purpose as it hit the ground.

Both Teemo, Tristana and Zora froze at the sight of the egg, only to realize that nothing happened.

: “You’d really think I’d develop an explosive device with no care of its user? A mere drop will not trigger such a thing. These eggs are specially design to only trigger at a major impact. Let’s say… From about 250m of altitude or if being stepped on by a heavy object or being. Now since neither of us is heavy enough to trigger it unless a dog pile is performed, I think we are safe from danger.”

: Gave a worried look, that was shared with Zora and Tristana as well. “You have a funny way to scare the heck out of us.”

: “Any who, my idea is to find a safe place outside of Bandle to train these.”

: “What’s the blast range of the egg?”

: “The size of a human’s round dining table. So you either aim well from above, or hope they can hit something vital from underneath.”

: “Might ask HQ for a clearing I can use and make a block to avoid trespassers.”

: “Alright, better get cracking then!”

Sub-location: Blast zone room

: “So you made this room to test out anything explosive or corrosive?”

: “Indeed, wanted to put my dragons to some tests, alongside the others.”

: Gets on her knees to pet one of many Hufkins that were posted on the floor, still inside their eggs. “Aww, they’re adorable!”

: “Indeed, been training them to do something specific. You see, they are trained to hate a specific object that’s filled with a flammable liquid. The liquid can also be a bit gooey on contact, so that makes me able to slow targets nearly to an halt for them to shoot.”

: “What does it look like?”

: “I will show you with a demonstration.” He turned towards a nearby dummy and suddenly, some jar of grey liquid was throw towards the dummy.

All hufkins stared at said jar, immediately interrupting what they were doing, focused on the jar. Moment the jar broke on the dummy, all Hufkins that were outside immediately gave a deep breath, looking a bit red and then shot out a charged flames towards the dummy, immediately igniting it.

: Whistled in amazement. “Alright, now we’re cooking!”

Both Heimerdinger and Tristana stared at each other for a moment. Tristana sporting a proud smile at her pun.

: “Moving on… There’s also a little project that I’ve worked on, problem is… Everytime I try this one, it doesn’t last too long.”

: “How so?”

: “I’ve mentioned that these hufkins are all clones, correct?”

: “Correct.”

: “Well, I did try several times to attempt at creating a specific hufkin of taller size. Results… Were somewhat satisfactory…”

: “You mean you can make one of these cuties into something bigger?”

: “I can, thus giving them additional power and…”

: “Show me!”

: Sighed, focused carefully as the machine seemed to go into a bit of overload before an egg that’s the size of the yordles was placed on the ground.

: Squealed, wondering what will come out of that.

The egg eventually hatched and a giant sized hufkin came out of it. He then noticed Tristana and gave her a few licks on her face, making Riggles somewhat jealous.

: Laughs a bit. “Alright, settle down… So he’s supposed to be a better version of the normal hufkins, right?”

Heimerdinger: “Indeed. Higher fire capacity, better flaming power, could do pretty much what Dudley does in single shots.”

: “Then why don’t you just make them all bigger?”

On cue, the giant Hufkin suddenly looked pale, looked like something wrong happened before falling back into his egg, lifeless. Tristana just looked confused and shocked.

: “Problem is that it’s hard to recreate bigger organs. I’m fine with doing lungs, but sadly his heart, liver and so on are so small that they can’t pump enough for proper body maintenance… So after about a minute of life, he gets a heart attack and ceases to be… That’s why I don’t use bigger Hufkins unless it’s ABSOLUTELY necessary.”

: Gives him a look of worry.

: “I’ve said this before, I work with clones because I wouldn’t attempt to do such experiments on live beings for a reason. They’re disposable, even if they’re based on an actual dragon. But at least the actual dragon is happy with its family, if it’s of any consolation.”

: Looks back at the egg, no longer sad, but not exactly smiling.

Sub-Location: Exercise yard.

: Was still doing the pushups with one hand, now having other yordles watching him as not only he did those with Riggles, Zora and 3 Hufkins on his back, but he also was talking to an elderly yordle lady.

: Was half happy, half annoyed, thinking that Teemo might be showing off.

: Was still at it, feeling tired.

Elder yordle: “Such strong youth these days. People of your age back in my day could still hunt without these new machinery and wonky gadgets. It’s nice to see good role models these days.”

: “So how’s your niece doing? I heard she went to Demacia or so?”

Elder yordle: “Oh, that child. She’s trouble, but she’s doing fine. I heard she met a fellow yordle there that arrived a couple of months later. Young man, wanted to be a blacksmith. Last I heard from them, they were dating for a few weeks…” She kept rambling on about her niece for about a hour.

: Just gave up after a while.

Sub-Location: Training Course.

: “Your head feels better now?”

Zora: Nods, half annoyed, half eager to try again.

: “Ready for another round?”

: “Ready as we can be!”

: “Alright, on your mark… Get set… Go!”

: Tossed Zora again towards the obstacles, hoping for the best.

Zora: Started to focus better after several failures. At this point it felt almost like auto pilot. Every left obstacle, she’d go right. Every right obstacle, she’d go left. She’d even analyze swinging ones to decide which path to take. At one point, she had to fold her wings to get past a narrow hole. Once she saw the dummy on the other side carrying an equal glove to Teemo’s, she immediately flapped her wings to slow her speed almost to a dead stop before landing on the dummy’s arm. She then turned towards her trainer with a proud pose and smile.

: Clapped in response. “Nicely done, Zora!”

: Nods, shutting the timer as the dragon landed. “And a nice time too! She might be ready for anything that comes her way!”

Zora: Flew back towards Teemo.

: Held her on his arm, smiling. “You and I can accomplish anything if we put our minds to it!”

Zora: Gave a little roar of agreement.

Sub-Location: CQC Arena.

: Was getting annoyed at this as Dudley did nothing but scratch the dummy for half an hour.

: Sighs. “Might as well try this another day. I don’t think we should continue for today.*

: “Wait, WAIT! I can make him listen! You have to stay a little longer!”

: “Rumble, these things shouldn’t be rushed. Trust me, you’ll get the hang of him when you’re both ready.” She gives a polite smile before starting to pick up her stuff.

: Was so annoyed that he turned towards Dudley and whispered aggressively to his ear! “Listen here! That girl is the love of my life and I will NOT be made a fool because of you! Stop being stubborn and freaking hit that dummy!!!”

Dudley: Was slowly getting annoyed, but for now didn’t budge.

: “You wet behind the ears or something!? I SAID HIT THE DUMMY! YOU’RE MY DRAGON AND I’M YOUR TRAINER! SO QUIT BEING STUBBORN AND SMASH THAT PILE OF WOOD!!!”

Dudley: Was so frustrated at his yelling that in a fit of rage, he pulled the dummy’s arms, then smacked the dummy’s head with his tail before crushing the body with his feet. He didn’t stop snorting out smoke out of his nose.

Both Rumble and Tristana stared as the scene happened in shock and surprise.

: Laughs. “YEAH! Told you I could make him listen! Just have to make this guy upset!”

Dudley: Slowly turned to Rumble, still half frustrated.

: “Hate me all you want, but if it means you’ll bash some skulls out of our enemies, then so be it! Just pretend everyone you meet that’s bad news to us to be me and you’re set!”

: Still half shocked. “You guys have the weirdest relationship…”

Location: Bandle Forest, restricted area.

: Via radio. “Ok, so the idea is dropping the eggs onto target points, uh?”

: “That is correct, it might be hard the first few times because of wind velocity and such, but once you get adjusted to field details, you can correctly drop them off at any point.”

: “How is he going to get more eggs if he misses?”

: “Until a better idea arrives, he’ll have to return to us for more.”

Meanwhile in the skies.

: “Well, guess I’m close to the target drop off.”

: Over the radio. “You have visual?”

: Spots the dummy. “Affirmative! I’m dropping off when right…”

After a while, he dropped the egg, it landed near the dummy, missing it, but causing part of the nearby grass to be set on fire. Lucky for them, it was a small amount since the clearing had no grass or nearby trees to cause a forest fire.

: “Darn, I missed.”

: Over the radio. “Return for another drop then try again.*

Teemo went there and back with a new napalm egg, hoping this time he’d hit.

: “Attempting to drop it again!”

: Over the radio. “Mind the wind conditions, they matter in the drop.”

Teemo tried again, but missed again. Nothing was set on fire besides the dirt that slowly made it gone.

: “I missed again! Going for another run!”

A short while later.

: “Ugh, seems hard to aim these from this high above…”

: Over the radio. “Guess you just have to practice your aiming.*

: “I don’t… Wait… Heimer, you said that the eggs had to drop from this altitude, right?”

: Over the radio. “That is correct.”

: “Because the eggs have to drop from a certain speed, so this altitude does it… What if I were to dive down instead? I could get a little closer and drop the egg at nearly if not better falling speed! Maybe get a more accurate answer!”

: Over the radio. “Teemo, that’s a big risk, what if you get burned by the blast radius?”

r: Over the radio. “However, the blast radius is 25 feet high, so you’ll have to be slightly above tree height in order to avoid getting burned.”

: “Alright, let’s try this, Zora!”

Zora: Roars in agreement, making a dive for the dummy!

After a quick amount of speed, Teemo dropped the egg, causing Zora to immediately flap her wings, stopping them both. The egg hit the dummy dead center, burning it into ashes in a matter of seconds!

: “YEAH! That’s a hit!”

: Over the radio. “Nice work, Teemo!”

: Over the radio. “Indeed! That was an excellent use of your tools of the trade.”

Sub-location: Blast zone room

: After several whistles, he started to make his dragons get better aiming on the targets, eventually hitting them all once in a while.

: “That’s enough for now. You did a nice job, and I think they’re getting a headache.”

Hufkin: One of them just dropped their head to the side, a bit dizzy from the constant pulling in and out of his head to fire.

: “Indeed. I think we’ve done a lot of progress in these past hours.”

: “Yep, let’s try and group up now.”

Sub-Location: Exercise yard.

: Was STILL doing one hand pushups, this time Zora, Riggles and the 3 Hufkins were asleep. He seemed proud of himself.

: Facepalming, now getting slightly annoyed.

: “You just don’t stop, uh Teemo?”

: “She did say to do as many as I could, so that’s what I intend to do.”

: That gave her an idea, however with all the other yordles staring, she’d have to take a hit of her reputation in order to get things going. She sighed, then faked a seductive smile. “You know, Teemo. I’ve been fantasizing about you recently.”

& : Both stared at Tristana in shock.

: Suddenly lost his balance as he heard that, causing the dragons on his back to suddenly wake up in shock. “WAIT, WHAT!?”

Before Tristana could explain herself, she started to hear all the other yordles whistling at the idea of a romance here.

: Once she heard the whistling calm down, she counted to ten before smiling again. “Just kidding, wanted to make you stop. So if you don’t mind, might we move on?”

The whistling nearly died, but some of the yordles weren’t convinced that she was tricking him.

: Slowly got up, still a bit baffled that she’d announce such a thing just to make him stop, the feeling was shared with Rumble and Lulu.

Later at the Bandle Gunner’s training grounds.

: “I believe we made a lot of progress today. Not only we learned new things about how we can use our dragons, but we also improved on such points. Zora can help Teemo into courier and high dive risks, Dudley can only beat down enemies when he’s angry and Heimer learned how to assist the Hufkins during possible blindness.”

: “The training did them well. Meanwhile been still customizing their outfits a bit more and I think they look ready for anything.”

: “I can tell you guys this. I’m proud of you all. We went from a dynamic duo to a fearsome five yordle team!”

: “All by your leadership. I wouldn’t know much of dragons to start.”

: “It’s always nice to hang around friends and acquaintances once in a while. I’ve learned that over the years.”

: “And this change in studies allows me to further understand the world and the universe as a whole. Some things might not be explained in a single way.”

: “You know what? I really can’t wait to start a new adventure. Just the five of us.”

On cue, one of the Bandle Scout’s shows up towards the group, leaving the group confused.

Scout private: “Sir!” He salutes, forgetting recent news.

: “Just call me Teemo, soldier. I’m no longer your colonel.”

Scout private: Was a bit taken aback, never used to the idea of the greatest soldier to be lesser than him. He shakes off that thought to address him first. “Sir, even if you’re no longer among us, we’ve caught important information that was requested to be addressed to you and your team.”

: “It’s Tristana’s team, and shouldn’t this information be told to command?”

Scout Private: “Normally it would, but they’ve been watching your use of the training grounds for your pets…”

: “Not pets, pal! Partners!”

Scout Private: “Right, sorry… And they thought that this info has relevance to you guys!”

: “Well, we’re all listening.”

Scout private: Lowers his salute. “Our scouts have sightings of something unusual in a cave not too far from Bandle, it happened last night when it arrived and we believe to be alive still...*

: “Well, what did you guys find?”

Scout private: “Ma’am… We found evidence of a dragon nearby!”

To be continued…