Family

The more I let Ria get attached to me, the less time I had to relax.

Something was clearly broken in her brain and somehow she thought I was cute and cuddly when I was in dragon form.

It actually got me to spend more time with the other kids to get away from it.

Most simply hoped to get lucky, but there were others that aimed to become strong physically or through magic.

Since if they succeed the government will almost certainly take them in for the army or as mages.

"Lava! Come meet my friends!" Ria pulled and tugged.

I followed the direction the girl pulled me in and met two boys a little older than her.

Unlike Ria they seem to be taking the physical method.

"You were fast to befriend the new kid, weren't you, Ria?" One of them says after introducing himself as Taz and the other as Chase.

"If you want to land a better home you should start training like us right away. Your chances are slim unless you're specially gifted with magic like Ria." Chase advises.

"I understand." I dismiss politely.

"We're going to get strong enough to beat anything! Even a dragon! " Taz shouts.

"Everyone started saying they saw a dragon during the past nights, we can be heroes if we slay it!" Chase fuels.

I wasn't sure if I should be unsettled at hearing myself talked about in such a way, or worried that these kids think they would be able to beat a dragon.

Ria pulls me away and tries to pet me in my human guise.

"Don't worry, Lava. They'll understand later."

'Why does this girl keep doing things like petting me?'

Whether she wants to pet me or not she's still the only real friend I have. Except maybe gramps, but he really annoys me sometimes.

I really don't want her to be in danger, this village seems to be under quite the threat of magical beasts. Of course, an adult dragon used to live nearby, so it makes sense that a lot of excess Mana would condense into beasts.

Even if I have to let this little girl pet me every day I'll keep my first friend safe.

I can't exactly follow her around everywhere, so it's once again time to use my handy dragon database! As expected it has exactly what I want.

I take off one of my scales and use a spell to engrave some symbols and my name on it before giving it to Ria.

"Here, always keep this with you. Then you can use my name in an incantation to protect yourself. And you can use <Mana Beacon> if you're in big trouble."

Ria gets all teary and squeaky.

"Lava is giving me such a beautiful scale!"

'Jeez, calm down already, it's just a scale. Not like it's golden or anything.', I thought.

"Can I call you big sister?!" She begs.

I suppose everyone in this orphanage can technically be considered family.

"Alright." I conceded.

"Yay! Dragon sister!" She screamed almost too loudly.

'Ugh, I didn't say she could call me dragon sister...'

The possession of the scale was basically the same as having permission to borrow my power.

Normally no human would be strong enough to siphon any magic out of a dragon when using spells.

But since I gave her a part of me with a magic rune and my nickname, she can reference me in chants to use some of my Mana.

It's still only enough to protect her against around average level threats.

Lava is just a nickname, thus the amount of power she can get is much less than if she invoked with my true name.

"You can go now, little sister." I manage to call her little sister.

Finally she skipped away completely carefree.

It's been a month of lounging around as the laziest baby dragon I can be.

Currently I'm using <Mute > to ignore gramps' lecturing me because of how I hide in his office to be in my comfortable form every day.

But, just as it's ending someone bursts through the door panicking over something about a mine.

Some of the magical beasts attacked the local mine and trapped many of the miners inside.

I forgot that gramps is probably the best magic user in the village, aside from me of course.

I can use magic too! Even though I'm still a baby and average beasts are probably the most I can safely handle, especially while keeping transformation.

Dragons were actually as physically weak as humans when transformed unless they use magic to enhance the body.

"I want to help too!" I yelled.

"No, you stay here, be a good dragon." Gramps ordered.

"No!" I clung to him until he had no choice but to bring me.

He had no time to pull me off, so in that way I had to be brought along.

The mine seemed to be surrounded by beasts that were viciously attacking the entrance.

"Kale, we have to do something now! The mine might collapse soon!" The man from before stresses.

"I know! I'll cast <Slow > and <Ice Spear> to deal with the monsters!" Gramps responds.

Even with the flexibility of the magic system, humans were still mainly limited to template spells that they memorize and practice.

Trying to use a completely new spell they make up on the spot is very risky since they don't know how much Mana it will use or exactly how it will work until they try it.

'Gramps is super impressive for a human! Go gramps go!'

"One of the stronger beasts destroyed the supports! Everyone get clear of the mine, now!" Someone yells.

'Wait! Aren't there still people in there?! Don't abandon them! Gramps you have to do something!'

I pull and pull on gramps shirt and tell him to do something but he says he can't.

I can't just sit back and let them die if there's something I can easily do to stop it.

Quickly racking my brain for ideas I come up with an idea.

"In the realm of science, where knowledge reigns supreme, I invoke this spell, fulfilling my every dream, <Teleport >!"

The only thing I could think of on the spot was science.

Well, I didn't need to use environmental Mana even if that didn't collect any, I just needed to reduce the cost with an incantation of some kind.

Even if the incantation is just a bunch of empty words, the efficiency of spells increase.

Since science is all about understanding the world, this incantation can really be copy and pasted to any spell, though incantations with intent specific to the the goal are stronger.

I'm still a baby dragon, if I tried to use <Teleport > without an incantation, I would be completely drained!

As I appeared inside the mine, as far in as I could see with my eyes, the first thing I saw were huge boulders about to smash a group of workers.

I was just in time with <Telekinesis >.

"Follow me!" I announce.

'Thank god we are all close enough to see the exit.'

I guide the trapped workers outside while holding up the ceiling with <Telekinesis >.

As I get outside and confirm no more of them are trapped, the entrance crumbles as I release the spell.

Meanwhile, gramps was sitting there crying the whole time over me and came over to grab me.

"Don't you ever worry me like that again!" He tried to scold.

'Shut up, gramps. You should know better than anyone I was fine!'

Still, I was suddenly extremely tired and it was all I could do to keep my transformation up.

"It's alright, little dragon, you can sleep now..." He mumbled at me.

I was fast asleep, but that didn't stop rumors from spreading.

As I snoozed, those that were sensitive to Mana claimed to have been saved by a glowing angel with red hair.