4 Chapter 3: Behind You (Jangras POV)

I woke up, I knew what was going to happen tomorrow. I had not wanted it too happen for so long, I had just been waiting day by day as time flew by so fast. My friends had already started their training, you were supposed to once you turned 20 years old, and until 500 unless you wanted to not retire and keep going.

I enjoyed living a life with my friends, before they had reached their age to start their jobs to the dragons around us. A few of them were hunters, some were watchers, one of my friends ended up being a medicine dragon. Most of my friends were gone now, they were out doing their own thing and most of the time they didn't have time or didn't want to hang out with me because I was underage.

My mother said it was normal "I will just tell you the truth... You probably wont talk to your friends much anymore." She had told me. It had hurt me, there was one female dragon that I was close too, she was turning 20 just a few days after me. I had always liked her so much but had never thought about talking to her about it.

If what my mother said was true, that would hurt me quiet a bit. I hadn't been hanging out with her the last couple of days because of it. I had already fallen into the trap that my mother said all of my friends were in.

I had to talk to her today, I had to tell her all of my feelings. Somewhere private, I did not want anyone to here just in case she said no. My older brother and my older sister said that she would not, because our father was the leader.

I don't think she cared all that much about that. She had said she didn't and I was 100% sure she was shouting that out for me. She was always closer to one of my older friends but she had felt a bit hurt when he stopped talking to her.

I tried to make her feel better but she just pushed me away. My brother kept telling me that I needed to shoot my shot, I didn't want to take advice from him though, he wasn't the best at that. My sister said the same thing as well, I trusted her.

I was afraid of her saying no, my father told me to never be afraid of anything, if he was then he said he would never be leader and he would never have been with my mother. I loved my mother so closely, I did not get to talk to my dad as much, so I was not as close to him.

My brother was, he was one of the main guys in our village. He was not quite at the role as deputy, but the one who was she was a bit older I would not be surprised if she retired soon. What was her age again? I think she was 635. My father was 312 so he had plenty of days left in him.

As long as humans didn't attack us again. Some humans back when we were in Africa, had attacked us before I was even born, that's how my father got the role as leader in the first place. My mother had told me how long he had grieved when he had died, he was my father mentor.

I got up, shaking out all of those thoughts. I would go to my friend Penta's cave. She was the girl I had liked for such a long time. I would go take her out somewhere and express my feeling to her. I hope that she would say the same to me.

Everyone kept telling me she would but based on the way she used to talk I was not too sure about that. Once I was out of the cave, my mother groaned to me, my brother and my sister were already out. They had already started their day which did not surprise me. They were always getting up early.

My father was hardly in here, my mother told me that he did not sleep most nights, he was too busy making our village stronger and making sure that nothing got in. He was a great leader and a lot of dragons around here looked up to him, but I missed him and I never really got to know him all that well.

I knew my mother had told me it was his job and she told me not too think to much on it, but I never really had a dragon that I could look up to. Even though a lot of dragons around here told me how lucky I was to have him as my father.

He was a great leader but I did not know much about him on the father side. I could not blame him, it must take a lot of time and strength to be a leader. It was a job I was not sure I was too keen on. I would leave that to my brother. Usually leadership was passed on through generations.

My brother was nearly 80 years old at this point, my mother had told me that my father had gotten leader around 200. That was really young for most leaders... I had heard most dragons did not get leader until around the time they were suppose to be retired.

There was a black dragon, who was supposedly the leader of all dragons, there was a meeting far away once every year where the dragons met up, my father had told me he was only 60 and he had gotten leader. He was nearly 150 at this point, no one really knew much about the black dragons.

They kind of kept to themselves, you would think that the dragons having an ever lasting peace meant that maybe they would be with talking to each other or maybe even living together.

We did not live with the other few groups of red dragons but sometimes they came around, with their leader and a few other dragons to come and meet all of us. That was not the case for black dragons, they had kept to themselves since the beginning of time as a lot of dragons like to tell me.

Once I nodded to my mother to tell her that I was okay she layed back down to rest. She needed as much rest as she could possibly get, she was always getting advice to my father and his deputy and making sure a lot of dragons in the group were okay. It was almost as if she was a medicine dragon when she used to be a hunter.

Warrior, medicine, cleaner, cave, and hunter dragons were the 5 roles I would have to choose between. The warriors were a dying breed at this point, the dragons had not fought each other in over 300 years.

My father always told me that some day the peace would lay to a rest. I would not be surprised if that day would be soon. I had never seen a black dragon in my life, who knew what they would be hiding. Maybe I was wrong and they were not hiding anything.

I walked over to Penta's cave. I grunted loudly so that she knew that I was coming in. She spent most of her days just playing around in her cave missing it up and cleaning it. She would most likely be a cleaner or a cave dragon.

She grunted back for me to head in and I did, she was cleaning up somethings and making some things to hang from the ceiling. She lived with her father and grandfather, both of their wives had past on. She had made the cave look so nice and beautiful.

I could only just think about being with her and coming home to see what she had done to the cave that day. My brother told me that her family was cursed with all of the women dying young. I hated thinking about that, but it had past through generations.

"Hello Jangra, are you ready for your meeting tomorrow? I promise that I will be there to watch it." She said to me. She made me feel so much better about everything. I felt bad for my friend Kota he was really missing out on her.

"Hi Penta... Sorry I haven't talked to you in a few days... It just makes me sad that we probably wont talk anymore... Thank you for coming to the gathering though..." I said to her. I had to be honest, she said she would rather tell someone the full truth then a lie to make sure they were not hurt.

"It is okay... We can still talk it doesn't have to be like Kota and all of his other friends. I will try to stay in contact if you will let me." She said to me. I nodded and then moved in closer, I almost wanted to give her a kiss or something but I didn't know how she would take to that.

She continued doing what she was doing, right now she was just cleaning some things up. I could tell that she was almost finished and I did not want to trouble her. I sat down nearby just watching her, she was such a beautiful dragon, she was perfectly shaped and the glitters that all female dragons had shined out like the sky. Hers was way nicer than the others.

Most female dragons just had a bunch of spots here and there. But hers was perfect dots all around her body. It seemed weird just staring at her and she turned around and smiled noticing that I was staring at her.

"Sorry I was just thinking about how sad it was that I was going to lose my last friend..." I said to her. It was a half lie but half truth, she told me she didn't like lies but I had stretched it out a bit, I did not want to tell her what I was really doing.

"It's okay Jangra, like I said it is your decision if we decide to stay friends or not... I will always be there for you." She said to me. She always had that way of making me feel so much better, she made my life feel great. I was just so afraid of her potentially saying no, I knew she liked Kota more than me.

But she did not talk to him anymore and it was not her own decision, I knew that she was in quiet a lot of pain since he had been ignoring all of his old friends lately. She had expressed it to me, she didn't say all of our friends she just named Kota in general.

"Thank you... Can we go further out in the territory right after you finish up what you were doing. I have something I need to tell you." I said to her. She looked at me a bit surprised as if she almost knew what I was about to say to her.

She just nodded and then she continued cleaning up her little cave. I looked away from her now making sure if she did turn around again she would not see me just staring at her. I would just let her finish cleaning. I had to think of the best way to say something to her.

I wish I had asked my mother for advice because she knew that I was going out today and expressing my feeling for her. Normally I could do it right now but at any second her father could come in if not her grandfather since he was retired.

Just as I was thinking about it, her grandfather Ipse walked in and looked at me a bit confused but then he nodded. Normally I was not in their cave, but she knew that me and her were close friends with each other so he did not ask any questions.

"Your gathering for your training is tomorrow, we will all be there for your ceremony. Are you excited?!" Ipse asked me. I hadn't really been paying attention to what he had said there was so much on my mind but I just nodded to him.

"Yes... I am, I want to be a warrior but it isn't really a job anymore." I said to him. He continued just walking around the cave before turning around and looking at me. He then grunted.

"Not much of a job anymore but it is still important, you never know when dragons could go rogue... It's happened several times before in your life." He said to me. I nodded, there was one a few years ago where a couple of dragons had tried to kill my father and take over. Im guessing that's what he was reminding me of.

"Yes I suppose so... I think my job will be as a hunter though, I don't really want to work on cleaning or caves, Im know Im strong enough to at least do that." I said to him. He smiled and then sat down right near me.

"Strong, smart, and courageous just like your father... If you ask me, I have notified your father, you know I am a big dragon here... The deputy should train you to be the next one, she has only trained one and he died from who knows what..." He said to me. I kind of just shook my head, I don't think I was strong enough for that, there were 1000 other dragons in our community I don't think I am the strongest one.

Besides most of the dragons thought that my brother would be the next deputy, he was just as strong as I was and courageous. Maybe he lacked on the smarts end of the spectrum.

Penta got up and she walked over to me nodding to me. She was smiling at me the whole time as if she knew what I was about to tell her. I was sure she did not. I was not even sure if she had feelings for me. She probably still had feeling for Kota.

"Alright Jangra... Lets head over to wherever it is that you are going to take me." She said to me. As I turned back Ipse nodded to me, he had known how long I had liked her. He knew what it was that I was going after. I was tempted to ask for advice but I didn't want her to overhear.

We began walking, I took us towards an area that all of our friends liked to hide and play. It was pretty far out in our territory, if I someone walked over and overheard us then that would just be terrible luck.

I could tell she knew the direction I was taking us and she took the lead with a big smile on her face. I just loved seeing her happy. I went faster and she began to race me over, she was faster than me but I was more agile and more nimble.

I got there just before she did... She was exhausted and she took a few seconds to lean over and catch her breath. But she was smiling and it made me smile just seeing her smile.

"Some day I will beat you in a race... You know I'm faster than you." She said to me. I smiled at her and just shook my head. Maybe so but I was faster on my feet and I did not ever run into any obsticles.

"I cant deny that, Im just better at moving around... Catch me in a field and you would destroy me." I said to her. She smiled happy that I was admitting to it. Kota was always a bit mean to her and said that she was useless "like all female dragons". I never understood why she liked him so much. He was always so mean to her and all of our other female friends.

My father told me that female dragons often liked the type of dragons that attacked them. I had no idea why that was true but I had to believe him, he knew way more about it then I did. He told me that when he was younger there was a dragon he liked a lot but she had feeling to a mean dragon.

I knew it was time I had to do something now though, there was no one else around, I could not here or smell another dragon.

"Penta... Ther-" I said to her. But she stopped me whispering something to me.

"Jangra... There's something behind you."