Chapter 5

I felt like I could barely move. I opened my eyes sleepily to see my parents chatting quietly. When they noticed I was awake, they smiled. My mother spoke gently, saying, "Hello, Zavi. You've been sleeping for an entire week. How are you feeling?" I was out for that long?! Seriously?!

"I can't move…"

"Wait for your body to finish waking up. You must've eaten until you were way past being full. You've grown so much because of that." I have? I looked down to notice that my scales were harder, my claws sharper, and my wings bigger. "I never realized you had your father's ability to grow faster and stronger by eating more than necessary."

"Hey, wasn't that last part unneeded? Besides, I don't know how it'll work in the second generation, nor what will happen with a female possessing it. You should be grateful she even woke up this soon." My mother snapped at him, making him yelp when she plucked a scale in the process.

"Hush up. Give her something to eat." He tossed a small chunk of meat my way and I automatically snatched it before it hit the ice.

"See, she moves fine."

My mother growled at him and he looked away. "Teach her to fly yourself then. She'll have to be able to travel long distances eventually if we're gonna move. Now hurry up!" He dodged her second snap and picked me up after retracting his fangs.

"So pushy." She bit his tail for the remark and he hurried away. He set me down at the edge and sighed. "Open your wings." I did. "Stand up first." I tilted my head and did as he asked. "Watch me closely. He leapt past me, spreading his wings and beating them down the moment he had the room. I marveled at seeing a dragon flying for the first time. He had seemed to bulky and huge all the time, but right now he looked as agile as a cat. His wings changed position to make him turn. I noticed that he bent the tips of his wings in opposite directions to turn or loop back. He slowed and hovered, watching me. "Your turn." What?! How could I ever be able to fly that gracefully?! "Come, or I will not give you your share of meat tonight."

"Huh?!"

"I'm not asking you something hard. Just come to me." I slid my paws closer until my fingers were hanging over the edge to grip. He huffed as he began to lose patience, a cloud of icy cold mist shooting out his nostrils. If mother breathes fire, what about him? If his element was fire, that would've been smoke, not mist. Not sure what he could do to me from over there, I closed my eyes and jumped into the open air. The basics sped through my mind and I evened out, drifting on the startlingly strong winds. I didn't know they were this strong up here! I gritted my fangs in my effort to stay in the air. "Hahaha~! What are you doing?! Hahahaha~!" His laughter made me growl. To my further annoyance, it sounded babyish and cute instead of mean and intimidating like his. I opened my eyes to glare at him only to find I was much higher than expected. Woah! How'd I get here?! "You should pay more attention!" He shot past me, flying up to the clouds. Wow...his scales make it hard to see him against the pale blue sky. Can I eventually fly like that? He furled his wings and dived, the speed of his passing making me tumble through the air. He laughed at me again and flew under me. "Can you catch me?" His taunting worked. I hissed and tried to chase him. It became a ridiculous game of tag that was mostly one-sided. I was all over the place, mangling how a dragon is supposed to fly while my father laughed and swooped around deftly. "You've got to do better than that!"

"Father!" My irritated shout just made him chuckle. After a few hours of this ridiculous game, I showed up in front of his snout and landed on his head. "Hah! I caught you!"

"You sure did. Now that you can fly so well, why don't you get off me?" He tossed his head, throwing me off. I was too busy being stuck on his words to panic though. I can...fly well? I focused on what I was doing and I found more than the basics flowing through my mind, but everything. Woah…! He taught me to fly by making me mad! Excited, I dashed back to the cave, zooming right past him and up to mother.

"Look, look!" I flew in circles around her head.

"Oh, how wonderful! Tell you what, next week, when your father leaves, you can go outside on your own for the day! As long as you come back by at least the next day, then you can do whatever you want." Awesome! We celebrated, even when my father came in grumbling because I was faster than him. At least he brought food with him, so the mood brightened even further. We ended up having fun all night.