Crystal wakes up well before the sun rises. Mortals have a strange sleep schedule. She wanders around for around half hour, and then eats several berries that she found.
"Can you breathe fire?" She suddenly asks, reddish-purple juice dripping onto her hand.
I pause. I'd never really thought about it before.
I can try, I answer. With that, I walk out, Crystal close behind me.
"Do it away from the trees. I don't want anything to get burn." She says. I point my head up, open my mouth, and realize-
I don't have a single clue how to breathe fire.
Not wanting to show confusion in front of Crystal, I concentrate for a few minutes. I think of embers, burning within me, wanting to get out... My chest begins to warm up, and a faint glow appears. I close my eyes, preparing myself-
A few sparks fly out of my mouth, dying before they reach the ground. The glow fades, and the warmth disappears entirely.
"Try it again!" Crystal encourages, clearly amazed.
Smiling (as much as a dragon can, anyways) at her, I lift my head back up. Embers. Embers. Embers.
The glow comes faster this time, and I open my mouth again. Putting all of my energy into it, I focus on getting the fire inside me into the air.
A stream of fire erupts from out of my throat, lighting up the still slightly-dark sky. Beside me, Crystal cheers, jumping up and down.
"That. Was. AWESOME." She says, looking more excited than I had ever seen her. "Think you can do it again?"
Not yet, I reply. That was exhausting.
Crystal laughs. "I'd imagine it would be, creating a fire inside of yourself."
Well, when you put it that way...I dragon-smile at her, and she human-smiles back.
Suddenly, her eyes widen. "I...I need to get back."
Back? I ask. Back where?
"I'll come here again tomorrow" she says, not answering my question. "Stay here!"
With that, she runs off.