The Silver Dragon (Unpublished, unedited version)

Chapter 25: Specialist Training

Silver woke early the following day, far earlier then usual. There were soft snores echoing through the cave, signalling that it definitely wasn't time to get up. She moved slightly on the metal surface of her nest, enjoying the cool, smooth touch, and closed her eyes again, trying to fall to sleep. But sleep didn't come. Her thoughts continued to circle back and forth, trying to make sense of each other. It all came back to what Iraliene had said.

She shifted in her nest again. On one hand, it made sense. Their were only two metal dragons left in the world and for some reason Silver doubted her father had mated again, or ever would now that her mother was gone. So the responsibility fell to her to increase the metallic dragon's numbers. She didn't want them to go extinct, probably more then Iraliene, and knew that some day she would produce hatchlings. But now?

On the other hand she didn't feel ready for it. Many dragons waited a long time until they finally found a mate, some even to nearly fifty. Silver new she wouldn't wait that long but she didn't want to choose one as soon as she was able. It was... wrong. She wasn't even in love. Well, there was Zepos, and Silver couldn't deny the strong feelings she had for the drake, but was that love? It was all so confusing for her, but the thoughts continued to run around and around in her head like a drunk dragon.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to find any sleep in her current state she slowly got to her feet, shaking herself off. A water dragoness, still barely two years old, shifted, but didn't wake up. Silver opened her wings and quietly took to the air, flying toward the exit of the cave. She landed at it, only to be surprised by a dragon sitting tall on a rock, seeming to be guarding over the cave.

"You there!" he yelled as soon as he saw Silver, "What are you doing?"

She stopped, surprised, and didn't say anything.

The dragon was an earth dragon, maybe fifteen years old, with a strong complexion and hard eyes. There was a hole in one of his wings and a long scar created by dragon talon running down his side. His forest green scales were dulled, mixing in with the brown scales that ran down his chest.

"Answer me!" he growled at her.

Shaking out of her stupor she snarled back, "I woke up early, couldn't sleep, so I decided to go for a morning flight before I loose the chance."

"Dragonlings are not allowed out of their caves before called," the earth dragon stated.

Silver blinked in shock. She was far from a 'dragonling', as the dragon had so nicely mentioned. Anger began to bubble in her but she suppressed it down. Now was not the time to be rash.

"And your going to stop me?" she threatened, letting a dangerous edge come to her voice.

The earth dragon hesitated, seeming to be surprised by her resistance. She suspected that he hadn't dealt with a dragon like her before. She was so close to eight that it was hard to tell how old she was. Whether she was supposed to be in the cave or not probably crossed his mind as well.

"Let her go Baraki!" the familiar voice of Gravon, "She's with me."

The earth dragon, Baraki, looked up to see the gravity dragon descending from above. Even though he was definitely the older of the two, he shied away as the rarer dragon landed in front of him, letting him take control of the situation.

"Silver! What a coincidence. I was just coming to get you," he said with a charming grin.

"What do you want Gravon?" asked the metallic dragoness. When she had learnt that he was Iraliene's son she had decided to be a lot more cautious of him in the future. The fact that Iraliene had even suggested him as a potential mate made her wary of him.