Dragon 101... Complete!

Marcus wanted to laugh loudly as he felt the chill air sliding over his scaled body. The large and bulky dragon form was actually quite streamlined here in the air. He thought for sure he'd kiss the mountainside when he leapt from the ledge but like Selvantra had said, when he stopped thinking about trying to fly the dragon god's body reacted on instinct transporting him swiftly into the skies. Now he could better understand the fliers he had seen while fretting over the gamble, the dragons seemed to be dancing on the air currents, dipping and looping in an aerial display that took his breath away, and now here he was looping high in the sky, his heart beating savagely as he enjoyed being untethered from the pull of the earth.

As he banked he spiralled around the peak, his eyes scanning the stone for the path, his eyes swiftly finding a smiling lamia waving at him from the path beckoning him to fly closer. While he saw no place to land near her he did drop closer, sweeping by with each turn of the mountain as he moved in to see what she needed. On his most recent turn he saw the lamia curled up like a spring watching him carefully, as he swung in close she launched herself up and out, stretching to reach him. A tinge of fear gripped his heart remembering the lunging giant snake she would one day become, but for now his claws reached out to carefully snatch Selvantra from the air, her serpentine body coiling around his leg and up around his chest as she came to 'sit' on the rear base of his long neck, her arms raised high in triumph, a childlike like laughter echoing on the wind, "Hahaha, I knew I could do it papa, when you get back you'll have to properly take me flying!"

Glancing back Marcus stared at the laughing lamia, "You mean you never done that before? What if I had dropped you? Or missed catching you?"

"Bah, sssilly not papa, I knew that you could do it. After all, you flew, mossst baby dragonsss crasssh their firssst flight, but I knew papa'sss body could do it."

"Glad you have confidence in him." Marcus muttered dryly then focused on gaining more altitude, he had to admit though seeing the world from a dragon's point of view was thrilling, he really had to learn that transformation and take Marigold for a flight, but for now...

Dipping towards the mountain once more Marcus let his body react to the closing ledge, his great wings spread wide as he glided down and came to a wobbly landing before the familiar entrance. Zee was waiting, though the goddess was frowning staring at the young lamia who scrunched behind his neck doing her best to avoid her mother's scowl. "I have to say Zee, flying is thrilling, next up is more natural abilities?"

Zee's frown continued for a moment before she spoke, "Indeed Marcus, but first, my daughter if you please, I need a word with her."

Slowly slithering down from his back Selvantra gave Marcus a sheepish look before slithering over to Zee's side with her head down, her windswept tangle of black hair shrouded her face but he could see a faint smile at the edges of her lips. Like any mischievous child she was feeling confident to get her way out of her mother's scolding. Zee however motioned Marcus off, "A dragon's natural weapons are naturally tooth and claw, doesn't take a genius to realize how to use them, what you need to learn next his an innate ability of dragons, your breath. Some dragons breath fire, some more exotic elements, in this case you're going to have to search your own thoughts. My love has never used his breath in front of me, so I'm not sure what it will look like, or if he even has one. He should but it has often made me tease my consort that his breath likely makes sparkly butterflies or lewd sounds..."

Selvantra giggled a bit at her side before Zee turned and lead her youngster back inside, "I'll leave it to you Marcus, there's a private spot at the base of the mountain for you to test it out, while you're spitting butterflies or black holes I need to educate my little bundle of recklessness here..."

Seeing the two off, Marcus turned for the ledge and once more thrust himself out into the air, denying the rush that urged him to go higher, his wings opened to help him glide lower, circling the widening base of the mountain, for the first time he truly appreciated that he didnt suffer from a fear of heights, cause it was a LONG way down. Around the base of the godly palaces mountain was smaller peaks, here he could see tribes of kobolds and hardier lizard folk going about their lives, like him they simply were doing as nature willed for them, there were no cities or temples just loose strings of living quarters.

Marcus finally settled on a wide ledge, the yawning cave mouth was littered with hazard warnings in a set of runes he recognized. The main sign labelled the cave as a testing site for breath types, warning kobolds and similar smaller folk to not intrude. Gingerly entering, Marcus could see the wide cave was designed and worked, even if there were two of himself they could walk abreast of each other comfortably. Side chambers were either open or closed. Smaller dragons of all sorts were going about their training, a few recognized his look but refrained from talking to him, though they did politely greet and nod their heads his way.

Selecting one of the side rooms he secured the door then studied the interior, and was frankly underwhelmed. The room could comfortably handle two regular dragons, or just himself with a little elbow room, but other than a metal lined chute, the room was empty. Glancing over the chute there was a rough stone sign that looked somewhat singed...

Step 1: Align with the test chute

Step 2: Focus your elemental energy

Step 3: Inhale

Step 4: Exhale. Hard. Aiming for the chute.

Looking the four steps Marcus looked between the sign and the chute and sighed, it sounded simple enough but what was elemental energy? Fire? So he should think about really hot fire, focus his energy, inhale and spit flames? Well, one way to find out.

Standing before the chute he focused his mind on producing fire, not just regular fire but more like super nova level heat. Picturing an imploding star in his mind he took in a huge lungful of air then aligning with the hole spit out hard. Marcus frowned, nothing came out of his muzzle other than a rather rude noise. Thinking on the problem he tapped his chest, maybe gathering elemental energy wasn't a long operation, but what else could he do? For the next two hours Marcus went through a series of failures, inhaling, exhaling, spitting, coughing, hacking up what he could only think was a draconic hairball and not wanting to think about what the dragon god was licking to throw up such a thing.

Sitting frustrated before the chute he went back to following the sign, only other than aligning with the chute he let the body take over, not focusing on anything but rather letting his form go through what it should know. As his maw open and his head darted towards the metallic chute he felt a raw energy coiling through his body. His chest grew hot, the pale gray scales that covered his throat and belly began to illuminate, pulsing up from his heart to his mouth, letting it fall open a gout of white hot flame roared into the chute for several seconds, the smell of over heated metal assaulted his nose as a soft *ding* echoed from the sign, an array whirring to life as a line of text appeared...

Test Results: Heavenly Tribulation Flame, Rank SSS, Suggested Improvements - None.

Marcus blinked as the message stayed a few moments then faded, in hindsight, the fact this body had a high rank flame breath wasn't a shock, yet why hide it from Zee? Sure it was called Heavenly Tribulation but they were gods, that shouldn't be a huge shock. Alighting with the chute again he watched the metal pulsing, even with Rank SSS flames the metal retained its nature. Letting it all go this time he tried digging deeper into this body when he heard a familiar voice, 'Do you really want to go there? Very well, on your own head this be.'

Inhaling deeply, Marcus seemed to lose himself as his maw opened. What came out was neither fire nor lightning, rather vertical gashes in existence flew into the chute, where they touched metal the metal twisted then ceased to exist. All through the chute this ball of primal energy cut it's way down before bursting through the very base, after several minutes heated magma erupted from the chute. That familiar *ding* returned but as he looked he frowned.

Test R3su1ts: Syst3m Off1ine, please dragon god refer to primary rules and call mainentance.

Blinking off another array fired a warning siren, back in the hall he could hear the other dragons evacuating the hall. Leaving himself, he watched a team of robed lizard folk charging for his room, the leader looked at Marcus and shook his head in exasperation. Apparently this wasn't the first time this happened and they seemed prepared, still he couldn't help wondering what was old dragon god's true breath? Space/Time? Was his breath really that over powered?

Stepping out of the hall Marcus had to blink as a face full of confetti shattered against his muzzle. Zee and Selvantra looked at him with wide grins, "Congrats on passing Dragon 101 not love/not papa." The pair chimed and looked up at him with wide smiles. Spitting out a tongue full of the confetti he looked to Zee, "Time to learn how to transform?"

Zee shook her head and rest a hand against his chest, "Sorry, only one lesson per shrine, we don't want my loves legacy falling if any single shrine falls, for now go back and try these things in your own body, my daughter can guide you to another shrine."

Marcus frowned and wondered if he should get himself a plumber hat, this in another shrine issue was going to extend his time of ignorance greatly, but at least he'd see Mari and Kia again. "So how do I get back?"

Zee smiled and motioned him closer, as he leaned down she drew back and slugged him hard. Rather than feeling his neck snap under the weight of a mountain range sucker punching his jaw, he instead felt himself falling into darkness, the voice of Zee laughing further and further away, "Like that."