Chapter 9

I yawned and stretched, rubbing against my father's scales. "Awake? Good. Get up, rest time is over." He stood up, using his tail to make me do the same. "We have quite a bit to do. Follow me." Rather than leaving like I thought we were, he turned away from the cave mouth and traveled further into the nest. I've never gone any deeper than this...what is he going to teach me back there? I trailed behind him, a little afraid of what may lay ahead. It began to get very dark and I hesitated. He stopped and I bumped into his leg. "What's wrong, Zavi?" I stayed silent, not sure how to respond. "Let your eyes refocus and stop paying attention to the absence of light." I wavered between doing as he said or refusing. In the end, I decided to go along with what he'd told me. To my surprise, everything lit up as if the sun could reach all the way back here. I'd always had night vision, but it had never been like this! "Better?"

"Very much so…"

"Hmmm...I was wondering whether you could use it or not."

"What do you mean?"

He continued walking and began, "I belong to the water element, the opposite of your mother who belongs with fire. She taught you what her element is capable of and you soaked it all up, so…" Ah, I see, since the two are opposites it's very unlikely for me to be able to use both. "But you have the night vision that the water dragons can use."

"So you use water magic?"

"Hm, yes and no. while I do belong to that specific element, I'm just a mere category of it. The highest section, but still." Ah! That's right!

"Can you tell me more about the sections?" I don't know the hierarchy of the dragon tribes. I do understand they're four tribes separated by their element, but nothing more than that.

"Sure. Water users, while it is the name of the element, are at the bottom. They can at most spit water at opponents. As you go higher, you get some who can control water at their will, all the way to those who can harness the power of ice, like me. Those ones can freeze as well as melt the water at will, so they're a force to be reckoned with." I nipped him and he laughed, his scaly lips curving into a grin. "Any who use ice can survive in even the coldest temperatures. I believe the same goes for your mother's tribe. The stronger you are, the more likely you are to be able to use lava." Lava?! "That would be the fire's only relation with earth. Ah, here we are." He stopped at a smooth deep blue wall that had an extremely thin layer of ice running over it. "You know how to breath fire, right? Explain it to me."

Explain how fire is used? Not sure how that'll help, but I'll do it anyway. "Focus on the heat radiating from your body (if there isn't any in the air or others) and center it into your core by inhaling. From there, let your lungs feel the warmth as something soothing, then breathe it out."

"So that's how she explained it to you? Jeez, you're an awfully smart little dragoness. I want you to do the same, but with the cold. When you breathe in, allow the cold to be a refreshing chill that re-energizes you with its friendly icy blast. Then release it." Wow, they're even complete opposites for using the power. One is soothing while the other is refreshing. Like how I pictured one would bundle up with a blanket in winter for fire, I imagined sitting on a beach in the blasting summer sun with an ice-cold water. I thought through the process many times until I coughed, a tiny cloud of mist trailing up and disappearing. "Very good. Keep going." Hmmm...if using it as breath, wouldn't it be like that character from that disney movie? Frozen, right? I took a deep breath and activated my mana. When I let it out, it came as a solid blast of freezing mist that turned to ice when it touched a surface. My father watched wide-eyed. "You…" I stopped with a gasp, shocked at the huge difference between the two elements. Is he...mad? What did I do wrong? "You're already so advanced!" His voice hit a high note in his excitement and he picked me up, giving me a huge hug. He's so much larger than mother is...it's really strange. "I can't believe you can use powerful skills in both elements! That's really rare!" I think he's grinning, but I'm not too sure.

While he was spinning and hopping around, I came to a realization. "Father…"

"Yes, my brilliant Zavi?"

"If the dragons live in a tribe together...why are we isolated?" He froze and looked at me with sadness.

"I'm sorry if not having any friends your age is bothersome, but there's not much we can do about it. All I can say is that fire and water aren't supposed to be near each other. I'll tell you more when you're older." He set me down and left with a heavy air about him. I don't think there'll be any more training for a long while...I should've kept my big mouth shut! Seriously, why can't I ever learn?!