The Water Dragon General - A Dragon Knights Story - A Bedtime Adventure

0:04 He Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world. I'm Martin and you are listening to dad's bedtime stories. Tonight, we're going to be headed back into the Dragon Knights series for another episode that could honestly stand by itself, or it'll kind of fit in with the other episodes you've heard about. This one will be the origin story for the Water Dragon General. In the last episode of the Dragon Knights, I asked people to write in if they had ideas for backstories for some of the other generals, as we've done a story for the Fire General and you came through with this idea. Let's check it out.

0:51 My name is Millie, and if a suggestion for the Dragon Knights series for the Water Dragon and Nature general. A water dragon in General's called Splash and her mother was a Dragon Knight, but she was a bit mean, so that's why she wanted to go with the Dragon Tife. Thank you. I love your podcast. I will give it ten out of ten stars, and I think this is the best podcast in the world.

1:15 You flatter me, Millie. That's a really nice of you to say, and it's a great suggestion for the Dragon Knight series. I feel like it's almost a challenge that you gave me here to write a story about a person who joins the Dragon Thief because their parent was a dragon Knight and wasn't very nice to them. So I took that challenge on. I hope you like what I came up with, because I think it made for some pretty cool characters that we can use in the future here, especially when it's time to, you know, take on the water dragons in the next episode. If you have any other ideas for this podcast, I really love getting voice messages and ideas on the Google form. Maybe about dragon Knights, maybe about something else, maybe about a

2:05 brand new series. You really can't do it wrong. I can only pick two or three of them a week to make, and I get more than that. But I really love getting them and I listen to every single one. I actually take notes on every single one and kind of write down what it's about for when I'm looking in the future. And aside from that, I just want to remind everyone that I just started another podcast, Dad's Anytime Stories, which will be going season by season. Each season will be an entire novel, read chapter by chapter, starting with the Cards of Power. But I imagine that the Dragon Knights series, once I polish it up and turn it into a novel, will also be added to that podcast anyway. You can find it anywhere you get podcasts, YouTube, Apple, Spotify,

2:57 that sort of thing, And if you to head over there and listen to it and give me a rating on it, that would really help other people find the podcast, maybe people who have never heard Cards of Power before. And yeah, if you want something to listen to on a road trip or some other time where it's not necessarily bedtime, though you can listen at bedtime if you want to. There's really nothing against it. Head on over to Dad's Anytime Stories. I think the logo will look pretty familiar, honestly, but now it's that time again, after a possible word from a possible sponsor, because sponsors are how podcasts are funded. Sarah, guys, close your eyes, get as comfy as you can in that bed, and imagine yourself doing what the kid in the story does. The

3:55 water Fortress was beautiful from far away. It looked like a frozen sort of crown rising from the cliffs, all bright ice and white snow towers shaped like jagged spears, and ice bridges. Carving back and forth between them. Up close, though, it was cold in a way that went far beyond the weather. It was always windy, The floors bit through boots.

4:29 The walls seemed to hold no warmth at all. Even voices sounded colder there. Splash had grown up inside those walls. She was born there, raised there, and trained there. As far as she knew, the whole world was made of ice, discipline, and people telling her to do better. Her mother was a true water dragon Knife, one of the defenders of the fortress in the seas beyond it. She was powerful, respected, and always busy. Splash admired her more than anyone else.

5:14 She also feared disappointing her. From the time Splash was little, her mother trained her relentlessly. Again, her mother would say, Splash would lunge, her mother would redirect her with a twist of the wrist, turn her momentum against her, and send her sliding across the hard packed snow. Your balance was off.

5:39 Again.

5:41 Splash would get up and try again, and again and again. When she was seven, her mother began making her train with wooden blades, starting at dawn. When she was eight, she had to spar older students. When she was nine, she was told she was wasting her motion, wasting her breath. She worked hard, harder than anyone else, honestly, and she learned fast too. She became one of the best young fighters in the fortress. She was quick with her hands, impossible to corner, and unusually good at reading other people's movement before it happened. Other children her age started out stronger, but Splash always won in the end because she simply never stopped improving. And still it never seemed to be enough.

6:43 You dropped your shoulder before the strike, you planted too heavily on the tad. You won, but not cleanly enough. Splash would nod, swallow the hurt and push herself harder. What she wanted was simple. She wanted her mother to smile and say good job. But it never happened. The other kids noticed, of course, they saw how good Splash was and how much attention the instructors gave her. That should have made them admire her, but instead most of them resented her. She acts like she's already a knight.

7:29 She only trains that all the time because she wants everyone to notice her. She thinks she's better enough. They would say behind her back. Splash heard those whispers often enough that eventually she stopped trying to make friends at all. The only one who seemed to understand her was ice Thorn. Ice Thorn was her mother's dragon, a massive water dragon with pale blue scale and long icy spines running down his neck. He was powerful in battle, but when he was resting in the lower caverns, he was calm in a way that no one else was. Splash often sat beside him when her mother was away. Ice Thorn would lower his head to her level and let her lean against his cool scales. Sometimes he would watch her practice

8:31 with the wooden blade. Sometimes he would show her small things her mother never had time to explain. Your mother fights like a storm, he told her once, after watching her spa an older kid.

8:49 Fast, direct, overwhelming. But that is not your way.

8:59 Splash wiped sweat from her forehead. Then what is Ice Thorn's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. You fight like deep water, quiet, patient, You pull people where you want them before they know them moving. Splash liked that. Another time, when she'd lost her temper during practice and thrown her blade across the yard, Ice Thorn nudged it back toward her with one claw.

9:35 Strength is not the same as worth, he said in his deep, steady voice. Splash frowned. You've said that before, because you still do not believe it. She didn't, not really, but she remembered it when her mother was a fighting ice. Thorn was the one who made the fortress feel less lonely. He was the one who noticed when she was upset, the one who listened. He was the one who told her she was doing well. And because of that, Splash loved him. The day the dragon Thief attacked, the skies turned red. At first, Splash thought the sunset was strange.

10:33 Then the alarm sounded. She ran from the training yard to the outer wall, just in time to see fire raining down from the clouds. Not ordinary fire. The fire, somehow, burned hotter than anything the fortress had ever faced. It hit the outer towers and melted ice that had stood for generations. Snow turned to steam. Defensive walls cracked and sagged.

11:04 Water dragons surged upward to meet the attack, blasting arcs of water and freezing power into the shields. But the fire punched through. Splash had never seen anything like it. No one had The sky was full of dragons, fired dragons, elemental dragons, and a few Earth dragons, all with riders in black and red armor. The fortress shook under the impact.

11:38 Inside one of the instructors shouted, but Splash was already running the other way. She needed to find her mother. She found her near the western gate, already armed in her dragon Knight armor, standing beside ice Thorn. Her mother's armor looked like it was coated with frost and sea water. Ice Thorn roared as a blast of fire hit the wall behind them, sending up a cloud of steam. Stay back, her mother shouted. The moment she saw Splash, I can help, Splash yelled, no, get below the wall. Another dragon screamed overhead.

12:25 Ice Thorn turned and blasted a wave of seawater upward, freezing at mid air into a jagged shield. A second later, the shield shattered under a blast of blazing fire. Splash stumbled backward. The heat was almost unbearable. Now huge chunks of the fortress were melting. Water dragons circled through the clouds of steam while defenders shouted to each other across collapsing bridges. Then saw something worse. One of the water dragons stopped mid flight, not frozen in ice, but frozen all the same. Its wings still beat, but awkwardly, as if someone else had taken hold of them. Its head jerked sideways, Its eyes went blank. The rider on its back screamed and then stopped screaming. The dragon turned and

13:32 blasted a jet of freezing water at its own allies. No Splash whispered. They'd heard rumors of the Dragon Thief's control spell, but now she was sure she'd seen it with her own eyes. One dragon after another faltered as they came in contact with the Dragon Thief. Some thought it for a moment, moment twisting wildly in the air, but the spell took them anyways. The sky became chaos.

14:09 Dragons turned on their own nights, Water slammed into ice walls from the wrong direction. Defences shattered from within. Splash saw her mother look up, sharply run. Her mother shouted. Ice Thorn shifted, moving protectively in front of Splash. Then the spell reached him. Splash saw the exact moment had happened.

14:38 His body stiffened, his eyes widened. He let out a deep, pained sound she'd never heard before. Then it was gone. The warmth in his face was gone. He stood still, silent, waiting. No Splash ran toward him. A blast struck the platform nearby, knocking her off her feet. Snow and shattered ice rained down around her. By the time she looked up again, her mother was gone and all of the chaos. All Splash could see was ice Thorn, standing there with empty eyes as enemy riders closed in around him. The fortress fell that day. By nightfall, the dragon Thief had taken the stronghold. The dragon Knights and other loyal warriors were rounded up and dragged away. Some dragon stood under new control, soldiers wearing black and red armor. The dragon Thief didn't

15:56 take everyone, though, he left anyone willing to swear loyalty to him.

16:03 He gave them a choice.

16:06 Train serve and be free, Refuse and we'll be taken. Splash wasn't proud of it, but she chose to be trained. After all, saying you were loyal to someone didn't actually mean you were. And well, she figured she could do more if she was free than she could if she was locked up. At first, she was determined to hate every minute of it. She hated the new banners and the new commanders and the dragon thief that now called himself the Dragon King. She hated watching controlled dragons obeys strangers, and most of all, she hated seeing ice Thorn still alive, still powerful, but utterly silent unless commanded. But something strange happened.

17:10 The Dragon King's officers actually treated the young trainees well. They were fed well, they were trained, they were given structure, and for the first time in her life, Splash found adults who didn't just tell her what she'd done wrong. They noticed what she'd done right. She excelled quickly. She beat the other trainees in nearly every martial test. She moved through the drills with sharp, fluid, precision, and sparring tournaments she won cleanly and then one again when challenged by the older recruits. During one of those tournaments, the Dragon King himself came to watch the whole training yard when quiet. When he entered, Splash fought three opponents in a row that day. She didn't lose once she redirected

18:10 the first opponent's charge, trapped his arm, and threw him. She slipped underneath the second one's attack and ended the match with a strike to the chest. The third lasted longest, forcing her backwards across the ring. But Splash had justed. She parried his attack, shifted her weight, and sent him flying into the corner instead with a sweep of her foot.

18:40 The Dragon King stood and applauded. Well done, he said two words, that was all. But they hit harder than any training strike her mother ever landed. The Dragon King studied her for a long while. Moment, you have discipline, control precision. Now what is it you want? Splash swallowed to be a dragon knight, she answered. The king smiled, I can give you that. He raised one hand and the guards brought ice thorn forward. Splash's breath caught the dragon she'd grown up beside.

19:37 Was right there.

19:39 He looked exactly as she remembered, and at the same time he looked completely changed. He looked at her, but he didn't seem to know her at all. This dragon obeys the spell. He can be assigned to any knight.

19:59 I chew.

20:00 Splash's stomach tightened. Any knight, some cruel stranger could have him. Then some fool who knew nothing about him. He used to belong to your mother, I'm told, the dragon King continued. Now he can belong to you splash, looked at as Thorn again. She knew this was wrong. She knew the control spell was well a mockery of the true bond that humans and dragons were supposed to have. She wouldn't share his power as she was supposed to, but she would be able to command him. She almost refused, but then she imagined another rider on his back, another rider shouting careless orders, another rider using him like a weapon.

21:04 Her hands clenched, she took one step closer to ice Thorn and laid a trembling hand against his scales. I'm sorry, she whispered, so only he would hear. But if this is the only way to keep you with me, I'm taking it. Then she straightened, do it, I accept The Dragon King placed a hand against her forehead, and the spell hit like freezing water. She gasped, and suddenly she felt the connection. Not warmth, not trust, but command. She thought of the dragon lifting his head, and he did.

21:56 She thought of him drawing water from the sea, and the sea outside surged upward in a twisting column. She thought of the water freezing, and the column hardened instantly into ice. She stared at it. She'd done it, or rather she'd made ice Thorn do it. She turned to ice Thorn again, she felt the hollowness. No voice greeted her, no quiet reassurance, no rumbling words about strength and worth.

22:32 He just waited.

22:35 At least you're with me, she said softly. He didn't answer, but when she told him to follow, he did, and for now that was enough. She rose quickly through the water dragon ranks. She was already an excellent fighter, the best there was, and now she had a dragon she knew almost as well as she knew herself. She understood his range, his speed, his possibilities. She knew the kinds of attacks he could give, the openings he'd leave. She'd watched him battle with her mother hundreds of times, and well she didn't share his connection to the water like a true dragon knight would have. She could command him to do the things that needed to be done, and that made her dangerous and slowly it made her forget

23:41 the promise she'd made to herself about not truly giving loyalty. It was during the campaign against the Earth Dragon's stronghold that she truly distinguished herself. The Earth Dragons had retreated into the mountains their fortress was monstrous, thick walls of stone reinforced with steel towers, carved directly out of the mountain side gates, so large that three dragons could stand between them shoulder to shoulder. The Dragon King had already taken some Earth dragons and the earlier fighting against the fire dragons, but the main stronghold held the rest. The army tried attacking from above first, but it failed. Fire scorched the walls but couldn't break them fast enough, and the uh Earth dragons were able to turn the earth

24:42 into bullet like projectiles that shot out in every direction. The Dragon King grew impatient. He called a war council. Splash stood among the officers and generals while a map of the mountain fort lay spread across a table. We need a breach, the Dragon King said, a real one. Splash studied the map, and memories from her mother started to pour back into her. Memories about her battles against other Earth dragons. Her mother once explained that she learned if she saturated the earth itself and froze permafrost directly into it, that well, it sort of gave her control of the earth too. When Earth dragons or knights attempted to use the earth against her, She would have control over it as well, at least in part, she could

25:53 fight against their control redirect their attacks. She remembered her mother's explaining that water had the power to erode almost anything.

26:05 And an idea.

26:07 Came in to Splash his head, an idea so great that well, she just wanted to share it, even if she didn't fully think about the consequences. What if we attack from below, she said, Explain the dragon king answered, Splash pointed, from the coast of the base to the mountains. We use the controlled earth dragons to tunnel from the ocean deep enough that the defenders won't feel it. Then we bring the water dragons through the tunnels and flood the ground beneath the fortress. Water under rock won't break a fortress, one of the fire officers said, not at first, Splash said, but saturated ground will lose stability. Eventually the fortress will collapse into a giant sinkhole. And at the same time, we'll seep the water into the earth above

27:18 saturated completely and freeze it into permafrost. That way, when the dragon's attempt to counterattack, will be able to have control over the earth as well. With the ice inside it, we can deflect the attacks, break apart more of the ground. Perhaps the room went quiet, and the dragon king thought, then smiled, I say we do it, he responded. The tunnels took days. Earth dragons and elemental dragons dug huge tunnels all the way from the ocean to the underside of the fortress. Then the water dragons followed the tunnels inside.

28:17 Led by Splash, they used the power of water to see bend the ground above them to erode it into a giant sink, coal and well underground lake of sorts. They seeped the water into the earth above, getting it as wet as they possibly could, and then freezing it solid into permafrost. When it was time to invade, Splash gave the command, and they broke apart the rest of the ground. Water dragons and earth dragons tugging at the now frozen earth until a catastrophic collapse began. It sent the earth dragons into a panic as the fortress below their feets began to sink. At the same time, fire dragons surged from above. Water dragons burst upward through the broken stone and rock and flooded into the halls. The

29:28 Earth dragon knights fought back. Of course, they were powerful and they knew the terrain better than any invader, but they weren't expecting the earth underneath their feet to be compromised by water and ice. They attempted to fire bits of the earth at their attackers, but the Water Dragons simply deflected it around them. They pulled water from the underground lake they'd created and blasted the Earth dragons with it, freezing them in place. At the same time, the dragon thief made the rounds, connecting to dragon after dragon and turning it on the others. It didn't take long before the defenders broke, before every single one of the Earth dragons and riders were either captured and frozen water or

30:33 turned against their brethren. When the fighting finally stopped, Splash stood at the edge of the fortress on ice Thorn's back. The Dragon King landed beside her on his gigantic elemental dragon. You have done what my Ahmi could not, he said. Splash said nothing, Her hands rested lightly on ice Thorne's neck.

31:03 The Dragon King turned to the assembled officers and raised his voice.

31:09 From this day forward, Splash will be the Water Dragon General the army knelt splash, looked out over the ruined fortress and felt something she'd wanted for years.

31:28 Recognition, praise, status. She'd earned it all, and yet when the army dispersed and the cheering faded, she felt empty inside. Something about this just wasn't right. Was this what she really wanted? That night, she laid in bed, She closed her eyes, pulled the covers up over top of herself, and did her best to drown out the thoughts. The secret was to focus her mind on something simple instead of the whole thinking thing that she did too often.

32:20 She focused on her breath, She noticed as her stomach rose and fell with each one, and she let go of the tension and her muscles, starting with her legs, her arms, her shoulders, her neck, and even her face, until she lay silently in bed, sinking down deeper with each breath, and she allowed her mind to wander off to thoughts of new dreams and new adventures to come.

33:05 Night. Everyone, mhm.

34:41 Union name in the New York More Union No no no, no assas