Chapter 5 - Before the Final Day of Training

[DISCOURSE #1]

Now, a little discourse is needed to answer the burning question in your mind—or to bring it up, if you haven’t already wondered: How did my siblings and I understand our mother’s words when we were just days old?

It’s simple yet complex at the same time. Through my travels and experience with other intelligent dragons, I’ve come to understand that it’s due to our racial and instinctive magic. Essentially, this magic allows us to comprehend all spoken languages and to translate our words, too. There also seems to be some sort of hereditary magic that passes down a basic understanding of our language. Don’t ask me how it works, because even I have yet to figure that out. All I care about is how handy it is—it’s helped immensely in communicating with other races.

Just as my tale will be filled with life-threatening incidents, it will also be interspersed with many minor discourses. With that said, I’ll continue my story.

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The next five days of our two-week training went fairly well. We learned how to hunt, fly more efficiently, and master other basic survival skills a dragon needs. The only time things got remotely dangerous was when a hunting party of six green-skinned orcs decided to hunt us wyrms instead of the deer they’d been chasing across the plains. To their regret, Mother quickly made short work of them and had us feast on their bodies. To my delight, they tasted remarkably like cooked pork.

My brothers, however, expressed disgust after one bite. They preferred their meat bloody and raw, while my more refined palate could appreciate both raw and cooked meat—thanks to my previous human life, I suppose.

Seeing me continue to dig into the pile of cooked orc flesh, my siblings gave me looks of disgust. Even Mother snorted a little, watching me eat so enthusiastically. I guess she preferred her meat raw too. I shrugged with my wings, thinking, *Oh well. More for me.*

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By then, I was used to everything Mother threw at us, so the eighth day of training came as a surprise. She told my brothers and me that we would have a free day. Needless to say, I was suspicious of this sudden generosity—and I was right to be. Or should I say, disappointed?

We learned that we were to spend the day in a specific location. Judging by the sun’s path and my sense of direction, we were in the southern reaches of the forest where I was born. Calling this place a forest didn’t do it justice—it was more like a sprawling maze of many forests combined, stretching for leagues.

I was scratching my back against the bark of a tall tree, finally relieving the itch that had been bothering me since our morning flight, when Mother started speaking.

“This,” she said, eying me as I let out a small sigh of contentment, “is where you will spend the day.” She looked at me as though expecting me to disobey. “You may not leave this southern part of the forest.”

She stretched her wings and looked ready to take off. “Oh, and each of you will bring me back a souvenir.” She glanced at me as if she knew the question on my mind. “You will know what to bring me when you see it.” Without waiting for a response, she flew off. The only signs she’d been there were the deep imprints left in the soft grass and the scattered leaves and twigs as though disturbed by angry winds.

I turned to my brothers to see if they had any idea what Mother meant, but they looked as clueless as I felt—maybe even more so. Scarlet, alert and wide-eyed, was slowly taking in his surroundings, probably committing it all to memory for future use. Meanwhile, Blue and Yellow, inseparable as ever, stood close together. Except for the color of their scales, they were so similar that I wondered if they might be twins.

We were all alike in size and strength, each of us around six feet tall, with Scarlet a slight half-hand taller. By the way, I was the second tallest and largest. Dragons grow quickly, after all.

None of us looked particularly worried about being left alone for the day. What could possibly hurt us? Deer? Boars? Ha! It would be like striking an iron sword with a twig. Our scales were harder than iron, and besides, we could still sense our mother’s presence nearby. It was likely some form of instinctive magic that allowed us to sense her.

Satisfied with my back-scratching, I was about to take a look around when it came. Something hurtled toward Scarlet, with only the snap of a branch and the rustling of leaves as warning. Before I could see how he reacted, another one of them came crashing down from the tree above me.

In seconds, I was on the ground, wrestling with a dark mass of fur and claws. Its black claws scraped at the softer scales on my belly but barely left a mark. It was like iron against iron, except mine was stronger. Realizing it couldn’t pierce my belly, it went for my wings.

But by then, I was ready. My mind snapped into a cold, focused state—clearer than I’d ever felt, even when my human life had been in danger. There was no room for emotions or distractions now. All that mattered was eliminating the threat.

I lunged for the thing’s neck, sinking my teeth in and tearing a chunk of flesh free. The taste was vile, even for my accommodating palate, so I spat it out, splattering its face with its own hot blood. I had flipped the creature over, and now I was on top. Almost instinctively, my right forelimb came down with the force of a horse’s kick, crushing its neck beneath my talons.

With my senses still heightened, I scanned the surroundings for more enemies but saw only my brothers wrestling with their own. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that there were exactly four of these creatures, one for each of us. Scarlet was swiping at his opponent, already wounded from several strikes, and soon enough, a deadly blow tore into its throat, dropping it with a thud.

To Scarlet’s right, Blue and Yellow were teaming up against two of the creatures, moving in perfect harmony. Their coordination made their enemies look clumsy, and within moments, their deadly dance ended with both monsters' stomachs split open.

Feeling safe, my cold state faded. I turned to examine my fallen enemy. Now that the battle was over, I could see it more clearly. It was no longer just a dark blur; it was almost humanoid—about five feet tall, with triangular ears jutting from its head, slanted black eyes, a dog-like nose, and thick black fur covering most of its body.

I also noticed that it was male, judging by the bulge below its stomach. Mother’s command to bring back a souvenir flashed in my mind, so I cut off one of its paws. My brothers were doing the same, except Scarlet, who chose to take the head of his enemy.

Later in life, I’d learn that these creatures were called gremlins and that their magic made them hard to detect.

Once we’d all collected our souvenirs, we started heading back toward Mother’s distant presence. I, however, decided to spend some time in a nearby lake before returning. After all, Mother hadn’t said we had to come back immediately. I needed a good wash to get all the vile blood off me. And if I hadn’t mentioned it before, dragons are deft swimmers—or so I hoped at that time.

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The ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth days of training were both exhilarating and frustrating. We were learning how to breathe fire. It wasn’t until the eleventh day that I managed to blow out even a smidgen of flame. Still, I was proud to be the first to succeed—my brothers only managed it on the twelfth day. Mother had made it clear that if we didn’t learn how to breathe fire, she would kill us. We didn’t argue with someone more than twenty times our size. And no, that’s not an exaggeration.

The thirteenth day of training was a genuine rest day—no strings attached, which only made me more suspicious about what the next day would bring. I was certain it would be something terrible. Still, I pushed those thoughts aside and spent half the day practicing my fire-breathing before finally relaxing.

Oh, how I wished I had been wrong about the next day.