Princess Hanna: The Fire Tornado
Princess Hanna is training for a very special fire trick to use at the Fire Carnival. She also finds herself faced with her first doubters...
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Today’s story takes place in the dragon world of Courage Town.
Here is a link to the first story in the Courage Town series:
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Princess Hanna was in a paddock just outside of Courage Town, training alone. The sun was a vibrant shade of honey. Its rays warmed Hanna’s scales.
She was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the paddock. She was practising her breathing, just like her Uncle James had taught her. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
In… Two… Three… Four…
Hold… Two… Three… Four…
Out… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven… Eight…
In… Two.. Three… Four…
Hold… Two… Three… Four…
Out… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven… Eight…
She kept counting her breaths for a while. Her mind would wander and there was a little part of her — a very loud little part — that just wanted her to get up and start her fire training. Each time that little part started to nag at her, she had to calmly and gently set it aside, like moving a cat that’s stolen your seat. She would then go back to her breath — the count and the sensations of the process.
She would follow each breath as it journeyed through her body. At times she would hyper-focus in on specific sensations, like the raising and falling of her diaphragm or the sensations of the air on her nostrils as she breathed in.
Uncle James was right. Fire was all about breath.
Today was an important day of training for Hanna. She had a move she had been working on for days and struggling with. A move that she just couldn’t quite get right. A fire tornado.
She had first heard about it many, many years ago when she was a little girl. A famous dragon had conjured a fire tornado at a Fire Carnival and won the Carnival. It had never been done since. Hanna wanted to change that.
Uncle James told her that she wasn’t ready for a fire tornado. He refused to work on it with her, saying it was a waste of energy. And so Hanna could only work on it alone in her spare time.
Getting ready, she took a last few deep, thoughtful breaths.
She started spinning in a circle and blowing fire. She tried to manage her breath, to keep calm and steady.
She carefully began to flap her wings, only raising just above the ground at first. Spinning and spewing fire, she continued to lift up higher into the air.
She rose twenty feet. All she could see was fire. No paddock, no sky, just fire. She felt the heat of the flames on her scales. It was getting hotter and hotter.
She felt her breath beginning to stagger and become more uneven. She was losing the count in her head and could feel herself running out of air.
Finally, she lost control of her breathing and the continuous stream of fire was broken. The fire tornado immediately flickered and then extinguished itself. Just like that, it disappeared, leaving Hanna alone in the air.
As she was about to lower herself back down to earth, she spotted her two younger brothers, Mat and Tim, scurrying across the paddock towards her.
Hanna landed to join her brothers on the ground. They were both out of breath, having ran all the way there.
“What was that?” said Mat.
“What?” said Hanna.
“That fire trick,” he said. “What were you doing?”
“None of your business,” said Hanna.
Tim had a rolled up newspaper in his hand.
“They talk about you in the Courage Town Herald,” he said, waving the paper. “They say you’re going to lose at the Fire Carnival.”
“Yeah,” said Mat. “They say you don’t have a chance.”
“And who is ‘they’ exactly?” asked Hanna.
“Paul Spring,” said Tim.
Hanna snatched the newspaper from his hand and started reading.
The Courage Town Herald
The Season of the Fire Carnival
All around Courage Town, there’s excitement in the air. The annual Fire Carnival is fast approaching. It’s only a couple of weeks away now until it begins.
Scale City is in full preparation mode. The Queen of Scale City has said that it will be the biggest Fire Carnival in decades.
The Carnival is expected to be a special one for Courage Town, with one of our own being rumoured to be competing. Who? None other than Princess Hanna!
Princess Hanna was the talk of the town earlier this year when she relit the Forever Fire. The strength of her powers astonished us all. Although, at the time, she was breaking the law by using fire as a girl, the King of Courage Town then, of course, went on to change the law so that all dragons could use their fire powers and no one has looked back since.
And so Princess Hanna has become a teacher of fire for many of the girls and women of Courage Town.
But the question is this… is she really up to the challenge of the Fire Carnival?
She will be the first ever female dragon to compete in the Carnival and she will be one of the youngest dragons in the youth division.
Princess Hanna and the King of Courage Town will soon set off to Scale City for the Carnival.
I, Paul Spring, your loyal Courage Town reporter, will be going to Scale City with them to cover the Fire Carnival.
As for my thoughts on Princess Hanna and her big dreams of victory, I’d say she has a long road ahead of her.
She’s still just a kid and I get the feeling that she will soon find out that she’s bitten off more than she can chew.
Having finished reading the article, Hanna threw the newspaper at her brothers.
“Paul Spring doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about,” said Hanna.
“He thinks you’re going to be a flop,” said Tim.
“Is he right?” asked Mat.
“Of course not!” said Hanna. “He’s taking rubbish.”
As they all then walked home together, Hanna couldn’t help but linger on what Paul Spring had written. There was a little part of her that believed him — a little part of her that doubted herself.
What if he’s right?
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed today’s story.
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