The Curse's Breath

Chapter Thirteen

Everything in Celni started screaming at once. He knew! How could he tell? It didn't matter--the only important thing right now was getting out of here.

She was younger than Lunar--but larger, too. Maybe she could overpower him and make a break for it. But how would she get past the other dragons?

While she was thinking this through, Lunar had started to pace. "I mean, I don't know what you are. You're some sort of hybrid of all of the types of dragons. But what I can't figure out is how?"

Her thoughts screeched to a stop. "What did you say?"

The Elemental kept rambling on, talking to himself now. "It's just not possible. No one can be all of the dragons at once. And yet here you are," he said, turning towards her with wide eyes. "A living example of this very idea!"

Celni's mind tried to gain traction on this mudslide of new information. He didn't know that she was human. That was clear. But what was this about being a mixture of all of the dragons? Wasn't she an ice dragon? That's what they had been saying originally.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, being completely honest for once.

"Oh, there's no need to try to hide it, Sotira. The others might not know what the eastern dragons look like, but I've studied my fair share of dragon history. I mean, take a look at yourself!" Lunar said, gesturing with a wing to her body.

For the first time since she had transformed into a dragon, Celni took a long hard look at her body.

Her entire body structure had changed. She didn't have arms anymore, but four long, powerful legs ending in paws that displayed wickedly sharp talons. She had a tail too, the edge fraying into sharp spikes. Her scales were the same icy blue, the reason she had thought that she was an ice dragon.

Lunar started circling her and tapping her with his tail. "You have the color of an ice dragon, yes. But your scales do not have a cold temperature, as an ice dragon would. Not only that, but you have the barbed tail of a sand dragon. Your bone structure is that of a forest dragon, and you have the gills and electrical horns of a water dragon. You have fangs that I assume can release venom as well as acid. To top it all off, I could tell when you breathe out that you can exhale both fire and ice."

He came back around so he was facing her, delight glowing in his eyes. "I'm not sure where your qualities of a rock dragon are, but I'm sure they're there somewhere. It's astounding, really!"

Being a dragon was bad enough. But being all of them? Celni's insides squirmed at the thought of it. How on earth had this happened? What was she?

"How do you do it?" Lunar asked, breathless with excitement. He shook his head before rephrasing. "I mean, how does it work?"

Celni hesitated, trying to think of a plausible answer. "I... haven't figured out how to use all of my powers yet," she said.

"Ah, right, of course! You've never seen our types of dragons before--you wouldn't even know where to begin." He started pacing again, faster this time. "Imagine what you could do if you learned from the other dragons!"

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. Imagine what she could do with training. "That's actually a good idea. I was already planning on going to your king and requesting to train with the other dragons; maybe he'd allow special training to--"

"No!" Lunar snarled, his outburst echoing off of the cave walls.

Celni's ears flattened at his aggression, and she shrunk down into her nest. "N-no?" she said timidly.