17 Chapter 16: A True Warrior (Jangra's POV)

I nodded to her, this is what was going to me my best performance. I did not care all to much about being a warrior, but being a hunter was different. My brother had already taught me a lot, I had never caught one but my brother told me he didn't catch one when he was being tested.

I still felt a bit strange about the elders watching everything I was doing, Socra told me it was not anything to do with my mother but I still was not ready to believe that. You never know what lies my father could have told her about it as well.

"Alright lets go hunting!" She yelled so that the elders around us could here. She was being very kind to me the last few days, I wondered what was up with that as well. But I just shook my head not wanting to think to deep into it. I was just happy she had not told my father, especially with him divorcing my mother, you never know how he could feel about his own kids.

She nodded for me to follow her, I did and we began flying up high to a nearby field, I had only been here a couple of times before playing with friends so the field was kind of new to me. But like most fields I could see an animal here and there, and when I looked closely I could see a horse.

I was not the biggest fan of horses but I knew a lot of dragons loved eating those. I thought about bringing one back to my sister, having her surprised and smiling at me for catching not just an animal but one of her favorites as well.

Normally we split the food between a few dragons, we didn't eat that often and it was actually a bit hard to catch an animal. You would think not but it was hard to go up high and then down low and trying to catch them while they are dodging and weaving.

I smiled just thinking about it, I knew that I probably would not catch one, but I would at least try my best and maybe I would get to become a hunter. It was like Socra had told me a few moments ago, I would hate to be a cave dragon.

I knew that no matter how bad I did and how bad Socra could rate me, I was still going to be trained by the son of the leader of the tribe. As long as he did not break the news about him divorcing my mother before that.

I knew that the women were usually the one to blame for the relationship failing. A lot of the times it was not true, like this time for instance. If they found out before my meeting then I dont think that I would be trained by anyone.

I would just have to hope and pray that my father wasn't that hateful to us. I did not think he would be, but I really did not know my father all that much.

Socra held me back and pointed at a few animals that were around the area. I looked at them, we were up fairly high. I could see a few sheep, they would be the easiest to kill, and outside of that I only really saw the horses.

"The sheep are one of the easiest, I would recommend that since you have not been trained." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments and then shook my head. She maybe thought that I had not been training yet, but my brother had taught me a fair amount.

"I want to go after the horse..." I said to her. She stared at me for a few seconds and then she rolled her eyes and then began to laugh at me. Did she forget that even though my parents were seperating I was still the son of the leader. I was going to be one of the best dragons, fastest, strongest, and smartest in the tribe.

"You don't know how hard those are to catch, I really doubt you're going to catch that, and remember the elders are watching you." She said to me. It was a fair point, the elders were watching every move I did, and I had not caught one before.

I shook my head though, I would at least try my best and if I did my best I could still be a hunter. Most dragons did not catch one when they were first being tested, it was about how fast and how smart they were.

"I'm going to try my best..." I said to her, I then waited for her to say something but she just shook her head at me as if I was stupid. I shook my head back at her, I was about to prove her wrong, I began flying over towards it making sure that I wasn't too close for it to hear me.

All of the sudden I was lunged to the ground and I yelled loudly wondering who it was, was I being attacked what was going on? Once I got up I noticed it was Socra and she was shaking her head at me as the horses ran away when they heard me yelling.

"What are you doing? Do you even know how to catch one of those things? You dont just fly up on them, in fact you dont fly at all." She said to me. I looked at her a bit confused, I was wondering what she was talking about. You always fly at dragons whenever you sneak up to them and get really close.

"What do you mean? They're just faster than normal prey... I just go even faster..." I said to her. She began laughing and then she shook her head at me once again as if I was dumb. I was tempted to lunge back at her but I kept my cool.

"Well I know your brother has taught you a bit, but obviously not about horses. You sneak up on them then jump on them, they are nearly twice as fast as a dragon... If they hear you, you have to chance." She said to me. I had not realizing that and I lowered my head to the ground wondering why I had been so stupid.

Obviously not every animal was going to be the same... I sat down on the ground and I was about to be tempted to give up. Maybe I could just try another day, I had heard dragons were allowed to do that, I had already failed on the medicine part.

"I'm sorry... Can I just wait another day or something?" I asked her. She looked at me and then nudged her head against mine. I felt sick and I felt really dumb, I had just about lost all of my chances to even become deputy, which were already slim to none in the first place.

"No you are still doing better than most dragons believe it or not, if this wasn't a horse you did the first part right... I don't blame you... If you want to quit we will..." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments thinking about it, I already lost my chance at deputy it could not get much worse now.

"Okay I guess... I'm just not trying to fail all of my family..." I said to her. She looked at me closely for a few moments as if she was trying to think through my head. Almost as if she was the Odysse dragon. But I shook my head the tribe had not had one for a long time.

Most tribes did not have one either, so it was not scary not to have one, all they did is give you revelations, but maybe that is what we needed after the news that I had heard yesterday.

"Good... You have to wait a year before you do it again... Now just watch exactly what I do..." She said to me. I nodded as she began slowly creeping up on nothing. I could not hear a thing of any movement so clearly she was doing a good job.

All of the sudden she jumped and then landed swiftly to the ground. She sat there for a few moments and then she turned to me and nodded. She then slowly began walking back over towards me.

"What was that supposed to be?" I asked her. She sat there for a few mintues wondering what I was talking about and then she rolled her eyes at me. I was confused what exactly she was doing, was she trying to show me how to hunt or something?

"That is how you catch a horse, I didn't want to actually catch one because there is only 1 left in the field..." She said to me. I nodded to her understanding where she was coming from and then I looked around trying to see where the horse was.

After a few moments a saw it from a long way away. I then slowly and silently began walking towards the horse. Socra all of the sudden began to laugh and I turned around wondering what was going on and why she was laughing.

"You're pretty dumb for being a smart dragon, you dont have to sneak up right now that is a few hundred meters away..." She said to me. I nodded to her, in my mind I was cursing myself, I was really making a huge fool of myself, there was no chance of me being deputy at this point.

"I'm sorry... I was just trying to be careful..." I said to her. She looked at me and then began laughing again, this time I was a bit confused what she was laughing about, was there something on me that looked really stupid, I looked around my body making sure that a bird had not pooped on me.

"We haven't got all day, we still need to go to the warrior part... That is going to take a long time that way." She said to me. I nodded to her and began looking back at the horse to make sure that it was still there, it obviously had not heard us from that far away, why was I being so dumb today?

"I'm sorry... I we don't have to do the warrior part do we?" I asked her. She looked at me and then shook her head, which I took as her way of saying that we did not have to do the warrior part. I then began slowly walking up to the horse again.

"What are you doing? Yes we do have to do the warrior part, it is part of the dragon code." She said to me. I realized how dumb I had really sounded over the last couple of minutes, I was definitely no match to even have a chance at being a deputy.

"Sorry... I forgot about that..." I said to her. I had tried my best in my mind not to look stupid and do my best. I had failed in both aspects now, maybe Penta was right, I would just be a cave dragon and a failure to my father.

I had to stop thinking about her, I shook it off and then got up and began walking a bit faster to it. I wondered why I had forgotten the dragon code, I was supposed to repeat it every day when I went to sleep at night til I turned my current age.

I heard her as she stopped behind me, I turned around wondering what was going on, she nodded for me to continue and I realized why she had stopped, the less dragons walking towards it the better chance of it not hearing me.

I slowly began sneaking up on it once it was in range of it being able to hear me. I bade sure I did not slip or walk on to anything that would be loud enough for the horse to hear.

I was doing fairly well so far, I looked at Socra to make sure that I was doing it correctly and she nodded for me to keep going, I kept on going watching the ground to make sure I did not walk on anything.

I was starying to get really close now, I was near the range that I could hop at it. All of the sudden something flash in front of me and I heard a shot of something very loud. The horse fell to the ground and I ran back scared wondering what was going on.

"Get into the woods now!" Socra said quietly to me when I ran back over to her. I began flying towards the woods, I could hear some yelling from somewhere nearby. I wondered what was going on I had never heard something like that before.

"What was that, something just stabbed into that horse..." I said to her. Something walked up behind be and I spun around a bit scared. But then I noticed that it was just an elder dragon thankfully. It was looking right at me making sure I was listening.

"That is a human... Ever since our war with them over a thousand years ago we stay away from them..." The dragon said to me. I nodded to him and then he began walking back. I looked back over to where the horse had been shot at.

I could see it laying on the ground dead and 2 things nearly the size of a red dragon were walkinh towards it laughing at each other. I shivered, I had heard stories about humans, they were not fast at all, but they were smart and they knew where the kill spots were at. Not only that though, there were also millions of them all around the planet.

I shivered looking at them, I almost wanted to attack them, they had stolen my kill, but I remembered that I was not supposed to be doing that. We had agreed to a peace with them long ago and they did not know that we existed anymore.

"What are they doing out here?" I asked Socra. She looked at me I could tell that she was shivering as if she was a bit scared. Thankfully the humans had not heard or seeb us. They were yelling pretty loud, I could not quite catch what they were saying.

"I don't know, the nearest human places are almost a hundred miles out..." She said to me. I knew that we shied away from them as much as possible, maybe they had begun building something nearby.

But I shook my head, they were in our territory for one and there were dragons in our tribe that scouted outside of our territory often making sure that humans were not coming anywhere near us. What were they doing right here?

"What do we do?" I asked her. She looked at them and then took a few moments for her to respond to my question. I could see her staring at them she almost seemed like she wanted to get closer and try to hear what the humans were saying to each other.

"We will continue your training and then after that... We will go back to Himla and tell him about it." She told me. I nodded to her, I was thankful this time that she had not called him my father, I did not really think of him like that anymore. I just thought of him as our leader.

Whether or not I could call him a good leader I don't know. Everyone told me that he was, and he was really young and he had ended the last war between the dragons. But that was long in the past, and he was not the leader at the time, his father was.

He only took over in the final battle when his father died and he killed the black dragon leader. I had heard the story so many times, he had gone so fast in the air and then he rained down hell on the black dragons. I wasn't so sure it was true.

But I knew the leaders got something up in heaven from the dead dragons that made them stronger and have supernatural powers. I shook my head not wanting to think about it, I never saw any of my fathers powers.

Obviously if it was true than I would have super powers or my sister or brother would as well. But they did not, so maybe it was destined that I was not going to be the next leader of our tribe of dragons.

She nodded for me to follow her once the humans had headed back in the direction that they had came. I was tempted to ask her why we didn't just follow them but it was going to be hard to sneak behind them while they were in the woods. Besides they were gone now, all we could do is guess where they went.

"Lets go... We need to finish it up, it is getting fairly late." She said to me. I looked at the sky and could see that the sun was beginning to lower in the horizon, she was right and I nodded for her to continue.

I knew there were 2 training area right outside camp, I knew one of them was always reserved for the deputy and other important dragons so there should not be any dragons watching me, and I knew they would get in trouble if they were.

Which was also another surprise that the elder dragons were here with us, I thought to myself. But then just shook it off as we began walking back to the outskirts of camp where the training area was at.

The other training area was a lot bigger, and older and younger dragons often fought each other if they were upset or just to straight up keep themselves in good shape or be trained.

The one that we were going to was completely different from that one however. I could see it from not too far away, it was a bit further outside the camp than the other one, as we were flying up on it.

I had never been to this one, it looked a lot better than the other one however, clearly the cave dragons had done a good job taking care of it. I just did not want that sort of job, I knew a lot of dragons were fine with it and a lot of dragons didn't work or just did a couple of other jobs.

Once we were the we landed to the ground and I looked around at the small little clearing thinking of how nice it looked. Socra looked towards me and then she nodded for me to pay attention to what she was about to tell me.

"You did good on the hunting part, this is the warrior part... Odds are you wont have this job unless you can beat me or get close." She said to me. I nodded to her and she looked around at the clearing making sure that no one was watching us.

Thankfully she had looked around because indeed besides a few elder dragons there was one smaller younger dragon that stood out and I felt sickened when I noticed who it was. Socra and I walked over to the dragon and I looked away from her.

"Penta! I thought your grandfather would have taught you better... You're not supposed to be sneaking into meetings like this." She said to the dragon that was staring at us when we got close to her. I knew she noticed that I was looking away from her.

"Sorry... I just wanted to see how pathetic this dragon really was..." She said to Socra. That was about what I was expecting from her, I knew she was not one to apologize for anything. And I looked at her fairly upset and she smiled when she noticed that I was.

"Shut up! You're a devil dragon... You will never be me, and you will never get Kotas heart!" I said to her. She hissed at me and then she ran at me. I easily dodged it and then pushed her down to the ground. She was doing her best to try and break from it.

After a few moments of her fighting it she gave up. She yelled at me and then began to groan.

"Okay fine... I give up. Fine I will leave, I dont want to talk to you ever again though." She said to me. I knew that she was trying to get into my head and see how hurt I truely was but I wasn't going to let her do that to me.

I let her go however and she just sat there for a few moments before she finally pulled herself up and then she looked right at me. She did not say anything and Socra was the first one to talk after we were just staring at each other. I could tell that she felt bad but she didn't want to tell me it, she would keep playing her little game.

"You aren't supposed to be in these. You can get into quite a bit of trouble, I will have to tell Himla about this. Now leave." She said to Penta. Penta looked at her and I could see hatred in her eyes, like she did the other day when I had expressed my feelings for her.

"Himla won't be your leader for long... Kota will take over and me and him will be together." She said back at Socra, I rolled my eyes and me and Socra began to laugh. It was funny because she had gone with us to the marraige of Kota and his wife.

"You do realize, he has said he never wants that and he is with a dragon happily right now right?" Socra said back to her. Penta got even more bad and she began to walk away hissing at us.

"That won't be for very long... Good luck pathetic dragon..." Penta said to me. I laughed and she turned back around and she tried swiping at me again. I was not a normal dragon like her though, I knew it and I easily dodged it.

"We used to be friends Penta... We still could have been, all you had to do is say no." I said to her. She yelled something that I could not quite catch and then she flew off looking very upset as she went back to her cave.

"I'm sorry about that... She isn't thinking about killing Kota's wife is she?" Socra said to me. I was too busy staring at her as she walked of, thinking sadly about the times that we could have had with each other. I still cared about her but I would never try her or talk to her ever again.

She would be lonely her whole life, I knew some day being son of the leader, I would find a good female dragon, that loved and cared about me. If she was stuck on Kota her whole life she would never, and even if she got over it I could not see a male dragon putting up with her stuff for very long.

"No... She wouldn't, we used to be close friends, I dont know what has gotten into her lately." I said back to her. She nodded and looked back at the clearing, I remembered what we were doing and I took my mind off of Penta.

"I still will have to tell Himla... Anyways, lets get back to our training, I need to make sure your listening and your mind is not staring off into space." She said to me. I looked at her, realizing she was right and I was just thinking about Penta right there.

"Sorry... There is just so much going on, during my birthday too." I said to her. She nodded understanding where I was coming from, I knew that she was with a dragon a bit like that before. When she got deputy her husband fought my father for leader.

No matter how good, and smart of a deputy Socra was, he was still not related to her at all. The dragon had challenged Himla to a fight to the death. My mother had told me, and my father took him out with a quick blow that turned him on his back. Then he got him right in his soft spot.

I winced just thinking about it, then my mind went back to what was going on right now, I realized that this would determine my future and I had to pay close attention to what she was telling me. I nodded to her for her to continue and she nodded back to me for thanks.

"I am going to attack to like a black dragon, now realize that you are still about 2 or 3 years from fully grown, so I will fight you slow, I am already bigger and stronger than you." She said to me. I looked at her, she was a lot stronger than most red dragons, but it also did seem to lower her speed at the same tine anyways. She was about middle of the pack for the speed of a red dragon, I'm sure a lot of that came with age as well though.

"So like Yikla?" I said to her. She winced and I wondered what she was thinking about but then she nodded to me and then continued what she was telling me.

"Yes... Like her... Now, you're going to have to dodge and weave like you did with your friend earlier." She said to me. I looked at her a bit upset, she was not my friend anymore and I did not eant to think about her ever again. If I saw her anywhere near me I would move away.

"She isn't my friend anymore..." I said to her. She looked at me feeling a bit bad and I knew she did not mean it in that sort of way, she was clearly not attacking me she was just trying to tell me something that I could at least sort of understand. I could see it in her eyes, she was a true dragon. I could see why my father chose her as deputy.

"Yes... I'm sorry I did not mean it like that, please forgive me... I was just trying to give you something to relate to." She said to me. I looked at her and then nodded telling her that I was forgiving her for what she had just said to me.

For a normal dragon that would be a big insult and they would run at you, but I knew she did not mean it that way and I was smart enough not to do something that stupid.

"It's okay... Just tell me how to fight one." I said to her. She settled down and then nodded to me, she smiled a little bit but then shook her head off of whatever she was thinking about.

"Okay... So, they are a bit slower and bigger, like the black dragon you saw earlier right?" She asked me making sure that I was paying attention. This time I was and I did not have my mind in another realm. I nodded to her.

"Yes, Yikla... Keep going..." I said to her, making sure she noticed that I was actually paying attention to her now. She smiled to me and then she nodded to me and continued where she had left off in the conversation.

"The trick is to get up high and dodge them and slow them down, thats when you start fighting back... But that's not what we are going to do." She said to me. I nodded at the first part but then looked at her a bit confused what she was talking about on the ending.

"What do you mean, isn't that the whole point of fighting a black dragon?" I asked her. She looked at me for a few moments but then she shook her head at me which confused me a great deal.

"No sometimes you have to fight up close, you are big, strong, and faster than nearly every dragon in this tribe, you can easily beat me, even with me being one of the best warriors." She said to me. I remember hearing that she used to be a warrior back when the war with the black dragons was going on.

"What? How do you know? I'm still young and have you seen me fight?" I asked her. She looked at me for a few moments just squinting her eyes at me and then she nodded to me which confused me a bit.

"Yes... I've seen you fight your friends, me and your father have done a great deal of watching you, you always won, even when they were older than you and bigger and supposedly better." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, I had never noticed it but then I just nodded to her.

"So you were stalking me?" I said to her. She laughed for a few moments and then she tilted her head thinking about it for a few seconds. Then she nodded and began laughing again.

"Something like that... I'm only doing this to make it a more fair fight, we are going to do it in the wooded area right over there." She said to me. She pointed over to the wooded area making sure I saw it and then she continued. "You may not think of it as fair... But I will tell you later why."

I nodded to her and then she looked at me making sure that I was ready. I nodded to her and we began walking over to the little wooded spot for close range fighting, they had it at both training stations, most dragons did not use that one that much.

She looked at me in the eyes for a few seconds making sure I was settled, I stood still for a few moments... This was it, this was life or death right now to see if I would be an important dragon. I then looked right at her and nodded.

She sat there for a few seconds not doing anything and besides the birds chirping I wondered if everything had just stood completely still in time. All of the sudden she ran at me.

I had not expected it coming and she easily gashed into my flank. It hurt like hell! This was not how the fights were supposed to go!

"Hey! What the heck!" I said to her. She looked at me and then laughed she ran at me again, she was going a lot faster than a black dragon this was not a very fair fight.

"What are you going to do about it? Cry?" She said. She was clearly trying to get into my head and make me think stupid, but I was not going to play that game with her. If she wanted to fight with claws, we will fight with claws then!

I dodged the run this time almost smashing into a tree, and that would be the end game for me... Was this dragon trying to kill me?! I shook my head, and turned around as she ran at me again, this time I dodged in a direction that was not near a tree. I clawed at her and she yelled in pain as she looked back at me.

"See, it doesn't feel so good now does it." I said to her. She looked at me fairly upset, but she had brough this on herself. She then began laughing at me and then shook her head.

"I have felt a lot worse in battle, you're swings are pathetic, you are a pathetic dragon! You will never be like your father!" She said yelling at me and then swiping at me, I dodged again and then sliced her while she was off balance. I did not know where she was coming from right now, I had never seen this from her before!

She then turned into what I had heard black dragons were like at close range, swinging and swiping at me, I dodged most of them but a few of them hurt me and then one cut into my face.

"What is wrong with you?!" I said yelling at her. This was never what a fight was supposed to be like for the normal training, everyone told me it was just a soft fight in an open field! She was laughing every time she got a swipe.

Was she thinking this was getting pay back for my father killing her husband? Everyone had told me she had gotten over it at this point. Maybe this was her best way of thinking that she was going to get revenge on me. I yelled at her, now I was getting really upset.

"What's wrong? You sound just like Penta said! A pathetic little dragon! Maybe she was right! Maybe Kota does deserve to be leader! Oh and your father... Oh how sad he loves a black dragon over your mother." She said to me. I ran at her, it was not the Penta part that got me upset but it was more like the part about my mother and father.

I ran at her fast, and her eyes went large she was not expecting it, a began hitting and scratching her up really good. And she fell on to her back, I ran at her and held her down, I was so mad, I could hear her talking but I was not listening, I was looking right at that soft spot.

All of the sudden I heard a dragon nearby yelling my name and my mind went back to the present, Socra was looking up at me as if she was proud but she looked as if she was scared at the same time.

"Jangra stop!" I heard Himla yell to me from not too far away, I saw Plok looking at me smiling, my mother, Isma, and my sister Mik were staring at me as if they were a bit scared.

Socra got up and began cheering, I looked at her still super upset with the words she had just said to me, if my father knew what she said then he would understand why I was about to kill her.

"This is a true warrior!!!"