"Ahh! That's flipping cold!" Flameheart shrieked, as she was awoken suddenly by ice cold water drenching her.

"Well it's about time you woke up!" Kennaspark answered indignantly. "Honestly, Sparky, you sleep like the dead!"

"Well ex-scu-se me for wanting to have a little rest!" Flameheart retorted. "Surely you could have woken me up with out giving me hypothermia?"

Kenna frowned. "What's hypothermia?"

Flameheart waved the question off. "Now who did this to me?!?"

Everyone pointed to Oceanfrost. "Kennaspark told me to!" She defended herself.

"Grr." Flameheart clenched her fist over her body and her bed, evaporating all the water froom the sheets. In less than a minute, there was no signs at all that there had been a mass drenching.

"Neat trick." Kennaspark approved.

Flameheart just nodded. Her eyes flicked over her not-so-new friends, and realised that one was missing.

"Where's Breezestorm?"

"Up here." Flameheart glanced up towards the voice and squeaked in surprise when she saw Breezestorm hovering upside down by her ceiling, her silver-white wings fluttering gently.

Wait, wings?

"Since when can you fly?!?" Flameheart yelped, her eyes not straying from Breezestorm's wings.

"Since always. Every Air Guarder has wings and can fly." Breezestorm answered.

"And no one thought to mention this to me?" Flameheart, already in a bad mood from her dousing, glared at her friends.

"We thought you knew." Willowheart admitted sheepishly.

Flameheart sighed. "Well I do now. What are you all doing in my room anyway?"

Kennaspark rolled her eyes. "Do you really think you'll get away that easily? Come on, spill. What happened last night with Reddust?"

"Uhhh...." Kennaspark narrowed her eyes.

"Flameheart." She said warningly.

"ReddustandIkissedagainandnowwe'relovemates." Flameheart blurted out.

"Say that again?" Oceanfrost asked. Flameheart started to shake her head.

"She said 'Reddust and I kissed again and now we're lovemates." Breezestorm answered.

Flameheart dove under her covers to avoid the four pairs of shocked eyes that were staring at her, but Breezestorm ripped them off the bed.

"Are you serious? The two of you are lovemates now?" Kennaspark shrieked.

"Yes! Alright? Yes, we are lovebonded. Yes, we are lovemates, even though that's practically the same thing. Yes, we kissed again, until Oceanfrost's numnah of a twin brother walked in on us because he forgot his throwing knife! Happy?!?" Flameheart burst.

"Snowrush walked in on you kissing Reddust?" Oceanfrost asked incredulously.

"Well technically, Reddust was kissing me but yes. Fleetwind was with him, and he yelled out, and I quote 'Ahh! Stars I do not need to see this! Do you really have to be doing that when other people are here?!?' that was actually kind of funny." Flameheart remarked.

"Fleetwind was there?" Breezestorm tried to conceal the eagerness in her voice, and failed miserably.

Flameheart narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Is there something about Fleetwind that you would like to tell us, Breezestorm?"

Everyone's eyes were now on the Air Apprentice. "Uhh, n-no. W-why would you think that?" Breezestorm laughed nervously.

"You like him! You like Fleetwind!" Kennaspark shrieked, and her accusation was confirmed when Breezestorm blushed a dark red.

"So? It's not like you don't fancy Sungaze!" Breezestorm shot back.

"Sungaze? Who said anything about Sungaze?" now Kennaspark was on the defensive.

"You both are terrible liars." Flameheart shook her head. "Now come on, it's breakfast time and I'm hungry."

.....................

The five Guarder Apprentices trooped to the mess hall, and sat down in their usual spot at the back of the hall.

Flameheart grinned down at her plate, remembering the first time she had eaten there.

"This is really big for a mess hall." Flameheart remarked.

"It kind of has to be if we want to fit every single Guarder in here." Kenna replied.

"How many Guarders are there, anyway?" Flameheart asked.

"Not as many as there used to be." Willowheart answered. "In the old days, before the Night Riders came, there were over 50,000 Guarders, and about 300 Apprentices. Not too mention all of the Companions and Foals, not all of them have Chosens."

"But now we're down to about 10,000 Guarders, and only 21 Apprentices. The Night Riders had all but wiped us out before Lightningstar became the Guardian." Breezestorm finished sadly.

"Come on, our table is over here." Oceanfrost broke the heavy silence and dragged Flameheart to a small circular table at the back of the mess hall.

"Do you have certain tables?" Flameheart asked, confused.

Kenna laughed. "No, of course not. We just always sit here, so we call it 'our' table."

"Ahh. Right. Um, are we supposed to get our food first, or what?" Flameheart sat down in the spare seat the Breezestorm had dragged over.

"No silly! Just watch us, you'll see." Willowheart giggled. All of a sudden, pancakes appeared on Willowheart's plate.

"H-how did you do that?" Flameheart was gobsmacked.

"Easy - just imagine what you want and it'll appear on you plate. Same for your drink. It's pretty cool actually, but I have no idea how it works." Oceanfrost said through a mouthful of gingerbread horses. Who eats gingerbread horses? Flameheart thought.

"Oceanfrost does. She's just weird that way." Willowheart said.

Flameheart blushed. "Did I say that outloud?"

"Nope. I have the Mind Talent, I can read your thoughts. You dropped your shield by accident."

"Woops." Flameheart muttered.

She visualised her favourite breakfast that she had when she was a mortal - Milo cereal. In seconds, her plate had transformed into a bowl and was filled with the cereal.

"That is cool." Flameheart stared at her bowl.

"What is that stuff?" Kennaspark leaned over the table.

"You don't know what Milo cereal is?!?" Flameheart practically shrieked.

"Nope. Never heard of it." Kenna replied.

"Regulus, you haven't lived. Here, try some." Flameheart passed the bowl to the other Fire Apprentice. Kenna tenderly popped a few in her mouth, and then rapidly started eating the whole bowl.

"Hey! That's mine! I do want some you know!" Flameheart yelped and grabbed the bowl back. Kennaspark looked at her with wide eyes.

"Sorry! That stuff is sooo good!" She quickly finished what she had and closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them her plate of bacon had been replaced by another bowl of the cereal.

"That's why I was hoping to eat it, before you gobbled it all up." Flameheart said crossly.

Willowheart looked curious. "Please may I try some?"

"Ask Kennaspark. The rest of this is mine." Flameheart started to scoop the cereal into her mouth, as Kenna passed around her bowl for the other girls to try. Within 5 minutes, all of the Apprentices had bowls of Milo cereal in front of them.

"Wow. I have no idea how we didn't know of this heavenly food before!" Kenna announced. Flameheart rolled her eyes.

"Now you're just exaggerating." She said, and stood up. "See you guys later, I have to go meet Reddust now."

"Ooooohhh." The others went. Flameheart just rolled her eyes again and walked out of the mess hall.

After that first morning, the whole table always had Milo cereal for breakfast. It was quite amusing.

"Hey Flameheart, you good there?" Oceanfrost waved her hand in front of Flameheart's face.

Flameheart blinked in surprise.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, just zoned out for a minute."

"I said we're going to train now, you should probably go see Reddust."

"Oh yeah." Flameheart replied getting up from the table.

"Oh and Flameheart, be good don't do anything naughty." Kennaspark winked at her.

"What, aw, come on give me a break, see you guys later." Flameheart stuttered, her cheeks glowing crimson red.

Her friends burst out laughing at her reaction as she hurried out of the hall.

........................

Flameheart rode Fireflame out to the training meadow, where Reddust was waiting for her.

"Hey Flameheart." He greeted her cheerfully, his face lighting up.

"Hi, Reddust." She replied, sliding of Flame's back and landing on the dry grass.

:|Bye Sparky, call out when you need me|:

:|Will do|:

"Today, I want to work on hand to hand combat and self defence." Reddust got straight to the point.

"Okay, where do we start?"

..........................

The lesson was over before she knew it. Reddust was noticeably relaxed, and every time Reddust went to correct her posture or position, his touch made her shudder, but he hadn't kissed her again.

:|Flame?|: Flameheart Mindlinked her Companion.

:|Coming now, be there soon|: He replied.

Reddust strode over to were Flameheart was waiting for Flame on a little bench on the side of the training meadow.

"Hey Flameheart?" he asked standing beside her.

"Yeah." she stood up from the bench and looked at him.

"I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me. Sit at my table, it's almost lunch time now."

"Yeah, that would be nice." She said, sliding her hand in his.

He turned to look at something behind her, and as she turned to see what he was looking at, suddenly a tonne of ice cold water was dumped on her head, drenching her clothes and matting her hair to her face.

"What in Regulus?!?" Flameheart gasped. She looked up through her dripping locks to see a smirking Snowrush along with Fleetwind and Sungaze.

"One point to me." Snowrush sneered at her.

"Snowrush, what the stars." Reddust stepped in front of her, shaking with anger even though he was not the one soaked to the bone.

"It was just a joke." Snowrush clearly didn't think Reddust would react in this way.

"You think that almost drowning my lovemate in water is a joke?!" A flicker of emotion passed through Snowrush's eyes then was gone as fast as it appeared, as Snowrush remained stonily silent.

"As for you two!" He turned to Fleetwind and Sungaze.

"I tried to stop him, but he was very determined to pull this off." Fleetwind rushed, shaking in panic. Reddust turned to Sungaze.

"Don't look at me, I didn't do it." Sungaze raised his hands in a mock surrender.

"Yes, but you of all people should know what happens when a Fire Guarder becomes to wet and doesn't dry off quick enough." Reddust snapped at him. Sungaze flinched slightly.

Reddust sighed irritably. "Are you okay?" he asked Flameheart.

"I'm good, I'll just go get cleaned up." She glared daggers at Snowrush as she spotted Fireflame gallopimng over the hill.

She swung herself onto Flames back and set out back to Regulus Hall.

:|Why are you wet?|: Flame asked through their Mindlink.

:|Snowrush.|: Was all she said, knowing Flame could read her thoughts.

.....................

Flameheart stomped back to her room and immediately used her heating powers to dry off, and changed into dry clothes. Trust Snowrush to douse her in salt water. Now I'm going to be all salty and itchy for days. She thought angrily. To soakings in one day. At least Oceanfrost was kind enough to drown me in freshwater.

Flameheart heard the thumping of footsteps as Kennaspark and the girls filed into her room.

"Flameheart. What happened?" Oceanfrost gaped at her.

"Your stars-damned brother." Flameheart growled back and tossed her sword hard against the wall.

"What? What did Snowrush do?" Oceanfrost asked, clearly confused.

"He tried to drown me in stars-forsaken saltwater and now I'm all itchy and I feel really weird and faint." Flameheart sat down heavily on her bed, the room suddenly spinning.

Kennaspark was instantly by her side. "How wet did you get?" she asked urgently.

Flameheart lifted her head. "I was completely soaked. Like I went swimming for a whole day."

Kennaspark cursed and turned to the others. "Breezestorm, find Reddust. He needs to get here. Oceanfrost, please give me permission to plan revenge on your idiot of a twin brother." Breezestorm nodded, and sped off, while Oceanfrost glanced at Kennaspark, her blue eyes icy.

"Of course. I'll help you. He knows what happens when you soak a Fire Guarder in saltwater. I'm surprised Flameheart's still conscious."

"Huh? What?" Flameheart only reacted because she heard her name.

Kennaspark sighed. "Saltwater drains a Fire Guarder of their energy and power for a certain amount of time. If you weren't so powerful, by now you would be out like a light."

"When I learn how to summon lightning, I am so going to blast Snowrush with it." She mumbled.

"Good idea." Willowheart said approvingly. At that moment, Breezestorm raced in, with Reddust right on her heels. His face was absolutely furious, and the other Apprentices found themselves backing away slightly.

Reddust knelt by his lovemate, now nearly unconscious, and placed his hands on her head. He frowned in concentration, his eyes closed, and channelled his energy into Flameheart.

Kennaspark understood what he was trying to do and grabbed Flameheart's hands. All three Fire Apprentices were still for several moments, until Flameheart shuddered and her eyes flickered open.

"Reddust?" she murmered.

"Hey, Sparky." He sighed with relief.

Flameheart sat up. "Can someone please come with me to beat the stars out of Snowrush?"

Five hands shot up. "We can ambush that little numah later. For now, you need to rest. I'll ask the Companions to get you guys off the hook for Riding Class today. Don't tell the senior Guarders aboout this, though. They've got too much to worry about with the Night Riders." Reddust said and stood up.

"Sparky, tomorrow I'll meet you here. After training we can all get togther to pay back Snowrush." Reddust pecked Flameheart on the lips and darted out of the room.

AN

Hey guys! Did you like this chapter? I did! Cayley wrote the whole Snowrush dousing bit, and I wrote the parts before and after that. Why do you think Snowrush hates Flameheart? And what did he mean by 'one point to me?' Comment your answers and my favourite one will get a dedication! 5 votes for the next chapter!

Buh-bye mortals,

Tess