FicWad

Alex jaw dropped as she took in the scene before her. The base was huge! If she hadn't just descended a ridiculous amount of stairs, she would have never have believed she was underground. There was a large burning ball high above them that simulated the sun. Alex could see the light reflect off of a large transparent barrier that hung over them. It must have been keeping the ground from collapsing in on them. The base was so large, that there was even enough room for Avira to fly freely. A small village sat nearby and a large river was wrapped around it.

“Welcome, to our base” Mr. Warner said.

After a moment a short, gray haired, woman with strange purple eyes came rushing out to greet them with a puzzled look on her face.

“River, Alex this is my mother and our seer Arianna.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you ma'am. My name is River Valentine,” she said, extending her hand to the woman.

“It is a pleasure to meet you both,” Arianna replied shaking River's hand. She turned to Alex. “Alexandria, we have been waiting a long time for you special one. I didn't anticipate another visitor though, it is quite odd, but I shall prepare another room for her as soon as possible.”

“I hope I am not a burden on you. I am sorry for my sudden appearance,” River replied, slowly looking around the base, admiring its beauty.

“Oh it is fine dear, it is just very odd that I did not see you coming is all. My mind has been stretched quite thin lately, I must just be missing things. Regardless welcome, I hope you consider this you home now. Come I have much for you to see, and many people for you too meet,” she told them as they headed for the entrance of the small village.

“I kindly thank you for taking care of Alex and myself. I am sure you just need some rest.” River began to follow the woman, noting where things were, hoping that she would not get lost. This place was huge!

“What do You think Alex?” she asked.

“It's amazing, I would never believe a place like this existed if I hadn’t seen it for myself,” Alex replied.

As they neared the village entrance, Avira stopped and sat down.“This is where I must leave you, the village is not large enough for me to move around in comfortably. But come to see me after your training tomorrow little ones, it seems that I have much to teach you as well,” She said shooting Mr. Warner a dirty look.

“It is not my fault Avira,” He said, slightly insulted. “You know that Storm controls everything, we are not allowed to teach the legends of the world's origin anymore. Storm does not believe that they are true, and he fears that teaching it would inspire people to rise against him, so it is forbidden.”

“Very well then, goodnight my friends,” She said.

“Good night Avira,” Alex and River replied together.

They continued into the village and Arianna gave them a quick tour.“This is our training area.” She pointed out as they walked past a large enclosed area in the center of town. “We have shops, and an armory over here,” she told them as they passed a cluster of small buildings.

“This is really something, its like a small underground town. It looks like everything anyone would ever need is all right here,” River said as she continued to glance around while they walked.

“Ah, here we are, the Johnson household. William is the head trainer here and he is our leader, he is quite looking forward to meeting you Alex. River I am sure you can train with Alex if you wish,” Arianna said as the group arrived at a large cottage.

River nodded to Arianna, she could always use some training. Arianna knocked on the door and a large muscular man stepped out to greet them. He was tall and handsome with short brown hair and brown eyes, but his posture was rigid and very professional.

“Welcome, I am William, it is very nice to meet both of you” he said stiffly.

“Nice to meet you sir. I am Alexandria but please call me Alex, and this is my best friend River.”

“We train every morning at 6 so make sure you are at the training area early. River you can feel free to join us anytime you like. Tomorrow you will meet my children, they will be helping me train you. They are on a mission above ground right now but will be back late tonight.”

Alex groaned inwardly, not looking forward to getting up so early, it was supposed to be summer after all. River however, never minded getting up early. Her parents woke her up early all the time. Her mother wanted to make sure she was in shape at all times, so she would wake her up early to exercise. After that, her father would test her on her studies. River's parents seemed to care way too much about her studies and health, sometimes it got on her nerves but she was thankful now. It seemed like all that hard work would finally be rewarded.

“Don't worry Alex. I can wake you up if you want,” River offered.

“Yeah, thanks. I am definitely not a morning person, I thought I was done with having to get up early once school was finished.”

“I would be my pleasure. Besides I've always had to get up early with my parents anyway. I guess we will never be done getting up early,” River said with a chuckle.

“Well, we really should be going then” Arianna said. “Excuse us Will, I must show these girls to their room so they can get some rest before training tomorrow. I apologize but the two of you will have to share a room, I did not expect another visitor so I have not had time to prepare another bedroom.”

“I love sharing a room with Alex so it is fine. We really should get some sleep though so please lead the way, Arianna.”

“All right then, you ladies have a good night and I will see you bright and early,” Will said giving them a small wave.

Arianna lead them back through the village to a small cottage near the training arena.

“We thought it best that you have a place near here. This cottage belongs to both of you now, there are 2 bedrooms but one is being used for storage at the moment. It will be cleaned out as soon as possible,” Arianna informed them.

“It'll be so cool to share a room,” Alex gushed excitedly. “Just like a sleep over only we can't sleep in,” she finished with frown.

River thanked Arianna before dragging Alex into the house. “This will be better than a sleep over, we will be living together, just like we've always planned. We must not oversleep it would be rude to keep them waiting after all this time. Now a quick tour of the house then it is off to bed. We will need our rest for tomorrow.”

They explored the house for a few moments, finding a bathroom, a beautiful living room with a fireplace, a large kitchen and 2 bedrooms.

“Wow,” Alex said. “This place is a lot bigger than it looked from the outside.”

“You are right, this is just perfect for the two of us. We can really have some fun with this. Get it just right and then really enjoy this place. But now that we have explored we should get some sleep. The morning will be here faster than we want it to,” River said as she walked into the bedroom. “I shall take the floor. You have the bed.”

“Don't be silly the bed is big enough for both of us, we've shared a bed before. But we really should get to sleep if I have to drag my butt out of bed that early,” Alex replied settling in on the left side of the bed. River nodded.

“Yeah I guess so. I wasn't sure if you wanted to share or not. But it really will be like a sleep over now.” River crawled in on the right side of the bed soon drifting off to sleep.
*
As River and Alex slept, Kayla and Derek returned from their mission. They quickly entered their house to find their father waiting for them.

“How did it go?” William asked his children.

“Not so well,” Derek replied with a frown.

“We couldn't figure out who murdered the Moore's. All we found were severed body parts, who ever did this removed the victims' heads and a few of the man's other limbs were removed as well. They were very thorough and did a good job of cleaning up the mess. We over heard the police talking before we left. They think that their daughter murdered them and that is why she disappeared. She is wanted for murder now, so we have to be even more careful,” Kayla finished with a scoff.

“That and some girl named River has gone missing. Apparently she was Alex's best friend so of course they are trying to pin that on her too,” Derek chimed in.

“I was afraid of that,” William replied with a frown. “Storm is really pulling out all of the stops. She should be safe down here for now. River is here as well. She came willingly but the authorities will not listen. Storm has them under his control. It would be best to keep them both down here for now. We have a little more than 2 years before it is time, I just hope that is enough time to train Alexandria.”

“I am sure it will be fine,” Derek replied with a goofy smile on his face, he couldn't wait to meet Alexandria. From the pictures that he had seen of her, in her parents house, he could tell she was very beautiful.

“Oh please,” Kayla snorted “You're just saying that because you think she is hot. She doesn't look like much to me, she doesn't even know the basics of combat. If you would just give me a chance, I know I could defeat Storm. I have been training for this for most of my life.”

“Kayla, how many times do we have to have this conversation,” William said, exasperated. “I did not write the prophecy, so don't pout at me. Besides it is too dangerous for you to go alone and we have another 2 years before anything can happen. Just help me train her.”

“Fine, but you'll see. She won't be able to kill him and then you all will be relying on me.”

William sighed. “It is late, you two should head off to bed, we have a long day of training ahead of us.”

“All right good night Dad,” Derek said, eager to get some rest.

Kayla just started at her father for a moment and then stomped off to her room without a word. William buried his face in his hands. He knew his daughter had good intentions but she was so difficult sometimes. Why couldn't she be more like her carefree brother? He sighed one more time and headed of to bed himself. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
*
Morning arrived far to early for Alex, before she knew it she was being poked in the side by a very persistent River. Alex groaned and rolled over.

“Ugh just 5 more minutes”

“NO! Get up now or we are going to be late.” River was insistent on getting up her friend. She was going to make sure that her friend was up and ready for the day. “If you don't get up now. I shall have to find a way to make you.” River laughed a little.

“Okay, okay, jeez,” Alex replied grumpily.

Just then a loud bang from the other room startled both of them. They quickly went to investigate and found a pretty woman with red hair and green eyes in the kitchen.

“Oh hello dears, I am sorry if I startled you. My name is Lyla, you met my big oaf of a husband last night. I just came to make sure you girls got a proper breakfast before your first day of training.”

River wasn't sure how to react, a stranger in their house claiming to be William's wife? She couldn't help but be suspicious, but breakfast was sounding pretty good at the moment.

“That sounds great although next time could you knock please.” River smiled warily

“Oh of course I am sorry. I'm just so used to living down here where it is safe. I forgot that it is different up there. I have lived down here for 20 years. It is so much safer than up there. Anyway I made plenty of food so eat up you will need your strength.”

River and Alex were drooling over the delicious looking breakfast buffet spread out before them. There were eggs, bacon, pancakes,waffles sausage, everything you could possibly want for breakfast.

“Thanks Lyla, this is really nice but there is no way we can eat all of this,” Alex said with a laugh as River eyed all the food hungrily.

“We can certainly try Alex, but that might not be too great for training.” River took some pancakes, bacon, and eggs, and quickly started devouring her food. She didn't want to eat too much but she couldn't help it, the food smelled so good.

“Well, I didn't know what you girls liked so I made a little bit of everything,” she said giving them a warm motherly smile. “Now you girls finish eating and head off to the arena. Don't worry about cleaning up I will do that. My husband can be a real bear when his pupils are late.”

“Thank you so much,” Alex said. Lyla was wonderful. She reminded Alex so much of her own mother, and she knew that they would get along. She quickly scarfed down some eggs and bacon. River finished off her food and thanked Lyla quickly.

“You ready yet Alex? We should be going soon. Don't want to be late on our first day.” River stood tapping her foot.

“Who knew you were such a tyrant,” Alex said jokingly. She smiled at River and headed for the door.

“I am only a tyrant because I care. Jeez thanks Alex. See if I wake you up again,” River joked and Alex laughed.

“You know I love you anyway, tyrant or not,” She said.

The training arena was very large and open. It was not much more than an enclosed field but it gave the trainers a lot of space to work with. Once they were inside they found William and 2 younger people. They both looked around 19 or 20. The girl had pretty red hair and brown eyes while the boy had brown hair and green eyes. From the resemblance, Alex assumed that they were William and Lyla's children. When they finally reached William he started the introductions.

“Alex, River these are my children Kayla and Derek. They have been training with me for most of their lives and will be helping me train you.”

Kayla had a scowl on her face as she looked at the two of them, and Derek was grinning from ear to ear pleased with the two beautiful girls he would get to work with everyday.

“I am River Valentine. It is a pleasure to meet you both,” River said, hoping to make a good impression.

“It is wonderful to meet you River” Derek said and he bent to kiss her hand. “It's about time we got some new people to work with,” he said with a grin. “I was getting sick of working with my grumpy old sister.” Kayla turned her scowl on her brother as he made his introductions. “Don't worry about her,” he whispered. “She's just an overachiever and she thinks you two will steal her status as my Dad's favorite pupil.”

River had a slight blush on her face as he kissed her hand. He was kind of goofy but in a good way, much different from anyone else she knew. It was very sweet.

“Ah you must be Alex then, it is a pleasure to meet you too. We have been waiting for you for quite some time,” He said stooping to kiss her hand as well.

Alex gigged quietly and blushed. Derek was really cute and very flirty it seemed. Alex shared a look with River and they both grinned.

“I am sure it was not that terrible to work with your sister. She seems quite talented,” River said hoping to placate, a still grumpy Kayla. When it didn't work she looked to William “What will we be learning today?”

“Today is more of a learning experience for me,” Will replied. “I need to see where you are with your skills and we need to start working on bringing out Alex's power. For right now I am going to have Kayla and Derek spar with you so I can see where each of you are with hand to hand combat. I'll see what needs the most work and we can go from there. Derek, you work with Alex and Kayla you work with River,” He said hoping to avoid and actual confrontation.

He knew that Kayla and Alex would never get along. Kayla was so dead set against training Alex, she would probably maim her. River nodded to William and looked to Kayla. She seemed like she would be a worthy opponent. River knew that she had to hold back a bit though, she didn't want to seem to skilled. She was more worried about Alex, who had no skills in combat.

“Whenever you are ready Kayla.” River watched her opponent closely.

Alex looked extremely nervous as Derek took his position. “Don't worry I'll go easy on you,” he said with a gentle smile. They began to spar, and within seconds Alex was flat on her back. “Widen your stance a bit more,” Derek advised. “It will make you more stable and harder to knock over.”

Kayla grinned as she took in her opponent this would be too easy, and unlike her brother she wasn't going to take it easy. These two needed to be beaten down so Kayla could take her rightful place. River just stood there waiting for her opponent to make the first move. River was always taught to keep a relaxed stance, so it gives nothing away about the way you fight. She just waited for her to strike, planning to simply evade Kayla's attacks. River had to chuckle slightly as she watched Alex and Derek. She knew Alex would have a difficult time in the beginning. Kayla and River stared each other down for a long moment sizing each other up until Kayla finally lunged at her opponent. Letting out a frustrated growl when River dodged her effortlessly. River dodged Kayla attacks quite easily. Her attacks leaving openings, which could be easily exploited. But River didn't want to attack, she wanted Kayla to like her a little. She really wanted people to accept her as well. River knew they all had been waiting for Alex, and she was just like excess baggage to them. She wanted to show them she had some worth. Kayla had to admit that River was quite skilled. Although she never fought back, she was very quick and Kayla never landed a hit on her. They continued to spar for a long time until William decided to call it a draw.

“River, you have quite the talent for evasion, have you been trained elsewhere?” he asked a bit surprised. No one had ever bested Kayla like that before.

“Well, no I was never trained. I just have really good reflexes. I am not one for violent things usually. I prefer to talk things out,” River bluffed. “But Kayla is pretty good herself. It was hard to dodge all those attacks.” She looked at her companion and gave a small but fake smile.

“Well,… good job,” Kayla said grudgingly. She forced out as smile as she shook her opponents hand. As much as she hated being shown up, she still had manners.

“That was incredible,” William said. “With a little training you could be an amazing fighter.”

Meanwhile Alex began to improve slowly, lasting a bit longer each time. Derek was incredibly encouraging, giving her constructive criticism. Alex quickly began to like Derek, he was fun, kind and patient. He was the complete opposite of his sister. After about an hour Alex gave up she, just stayed on her back panting and groaning, completely exhausted. Derek chuckled and held out his hand to help her up.

“No just leave me,” Alex said dramatically. “I'll get up when I can move again” Derek laughed.

“The first day is always the hardest,” he reassured her. “You did really well for your first time though. Make sure you take a hot bath to relax your muscles and stretch before you go to bed so you're not too sore tomorrow.”

“You hanging in there? Do you want me to carry you back home?” River asked with a goofy grin on her face.

“No, I'll be fine,” Alex groaned. “Just give me a minute. We need to go see Avira after lunch anyway, she said she needed to teach us something.”

“That is right, I almost forgot we promised to go see Avira,” River said.

“Great job you guys,” William said enthusiastically “You both show great potential. River, I am going to have Kayla work with Alex on developing her shield tomorrow, so you can either take the day off or you can work with Derek. He is doing weapons training tomorrow.”

River thought about this for just a moment. “I think I will with Derek tomorrow if that is all right,” River replied looking at Derek. She was really hoping he wouldn't mind a partner tomorrow. She was pretty sure he wouldn't mind, but she wanted to be sure.

“Of course I don't mind,” he said happily. “I would much rather work with a pretty girl than my stuffy old dad,” He said charmingly. William just shook his head at his flirty son.

River smiled at Derek. She was glad that he accepted her offer. She had to laugh lightly at his comment. “Your dad seems quite skilled himself, I am sure you could learn a ton from him.”

“He's okay but I've worked with him my whole life. Besides you are much prettier than him,” Derek said and he winked at her. William just sighed and Kayla rolled her eyes.

“Ok now that that is settled, would you all like to join me at our cottage for lunch, we are having a bit of a town meeting there and my wife has prepared a lovely lunch for all of us.”

River grew excited about the invitation to lunch. How could they refuse? They would get to eat more of Lyla's cooking.

“We would love to right Alex?” She looked towards Alex.

“Of course we would love to go,” Alex replied from her spot on the ground. “Now if I could just get up.” Everyone laughed at that and even Kayla cracked a smile. Alex finally managed to pull herself and the group made their way to William's cottage. River walked next to Alex, wanting to make sure that she could walk on her own. As they neared their home, the sweet aroma of food filled the air.

“I think my butt is just one big bruise,” Alex said. “I didn't think training would be that bad, all of you mothers crazy exercise must have really paid off for you huh?” Alex said to River. River laughed at her comment.

“It certainly seems like it so far, my mother was crazy about exercise. She worked me hard every day, so it is nice to see the results of that now.”

As the group reached the front of the cottage, a bustling, excited Lyla met them at the front door. “Oh good afternoon dears. Arianna tells me that you had a wonderful day training. Please come in and relax lunch will be ready in a few minutes.”

They all took a seat in the dinning room and began to chat. River was still keeping an eye on her friend, she seemed uneasy on her feet. Training must have really taken it out of her. The group chatted happily throughout their lunch but after their delicious meal ended, William called the group's attention.

“Alex, the reason we called this meeting was because we had something to tell you. Now we can't stop you from going above ground, but right now it would be for the best if you did not venture up there. Kayla and Derek returned to me last night with some shocking news. Apparently your disappearance was not taken lightly by the police. They suspect you of you parents murder. River's parents have filled a missing persons report and since you were the last one seen with her and you have disappeared with her, you are the main suspect in that case as well.”

River stared at him shocked. Her parents thinks Alex kidnapped her! She wasn't sure how to respond to this. On top of that, the police believe that Alex killed her parents, who ever did this really knew what they were doing.

“That is not true. Alex would never do anything like that.” River shrieked, upset by the news. She was getting irrational about this. Alex could feel the tears well up in her eyes

“That is crazy, I mean how do they know I wasn't kidnapped too? Why am I getting blamed for all of this?”

“We suspect that it is Storm's doing. You will be much easier to find if your face is plastered in every village, now he has an excuse,” Arianna explained.

Storm was responsible for this? He was the evil lord in these parts, so it was likely put into action by him, River thought. But there was a small bit of doubt in her mind.

“What else do we know about what happened?” She was deeply concerned for her friend.

“Not a lot,” William replied with a frown. “They have their information locked up tight. We were very lucky to even discover that much.”

“So I am safe as long as I stay down here?” Alex asked, wiping thee tears from her eyes.

“Yes, they haven't been able to locate our base in 20 years so I doubt they will be able to at all,” Arianna replied.

“All right, then I guess I don't have much of a choice. I'll have to stay down here.”

“OK well I am sure you two have much to think about, and Avira would very much like to speak with you, when you are ready so we will let you go now,” Mr. Warner said lightly.

River just looked at her friend. First her parents were murdered, then she had to go into hiding, now she is being framed for their murder and her kidnapping. She couldn't help but wonder how Alex was handling everything, it seemed too much for one person to handle.

“Alex lets go see Avira. She might be able to help.”
Alex just nodded and stood up. “Thank you all, I am sure we will see you all tomorrow,” Alex said, barely holding it together.

“If you need some time to sort through your thoughts just let me know,” William said. “We can postpone your training until you are ready.”

“No,” Alex replied. “I would much rather be trained now so I can protect myself.”

“Very well see you at 6 then.”

Alex grabbed River's hand and the two of them quickly made their way out of William's house. They walked around the village for a half hour while Alex tried to pull herself together. It was a lot to handle. It had been less then 24 hours since she found her parents lying dead in their bedroom, and now she had many more things to deal with. River kept a comforting arm around her shoulders as they walked and she eventually calmed down enough to talk to Avira. As they headed out of the village Alex began to smile, excited to go see her favorite dragon.