"Not that any of this matters anymore," Seisyll said, tail lashing behind him, revealing his frustration and anger at the situation. "After all, we're leaving all of this behind for a reason."
I swallowed, eyes focussed on the ground in front of me. Everything felt too big at that moment and I was too small to even speak, but...
I forced my eyes up, daring to look Seisyll in the eye, and I could feel bravery roiling in my stomach, called upon and answering. "Do you think you would be willing to have an extra dragon join you?"
Nkruma smiled at me, pulling both Seeryath and Azrael into her smile. "Any dragon," she said, "would be able to come with us."
"Something to think about at a later date, perhaps," Bur commented. "Let's focus on what is occurring at the moment."
"A smart idea, Bur," Natalia replied. "If you," she continued, directing her green gaze towards us, "are all going to stay, then you will need a dragoon to live and house with. I'm imagining that the dragoons will have a dragon that has a similar power or be able to help their dragon with their own diiv?"
"Of course," Andrea said, "and based on that reasoning, I extend an invitation to Azrael to the Alba dragoon, since we often deal with passive powers."
"I, on behalf of the Stea dragoon, extend an invitation to Seeryath," Natalia said, "since I have telepathy power myself."
Pamphilos met my eyes, "The Alke dragoon would welcome Thirak, if he so wishes. If you do wish so, you will house with one of the families within the Alke dragoon. It will be a group effort to help you, rather than one specific dragon though. But, you can take whatever form you wish to."
I sighed, body shuddering, but I was tired of being human – of having fingers and arms. I was tired of having a weak body that reminded me of Mark, reminded me of every memory we had made together. I was tired enough that I didn't care how I looked. My scars... I couldn't change that they were there right now, no matter how much I hated myself for them. I just... didn't care. I didn't want anyone's pity; I wanted no one's sadness. I was ashamed of my scars, embarrassed by them, but that didn't change the fact that I deserved this.
I met Pamphilos' pink eyes. "Thank you," I said, despite my feelings. My words were quickly echoed by Seeryath and Azrael.
Natalia shuffled her three sets of wings, before speaking, "The night is growing bolder, perhaps it is time to introduce these dragons to their den-mates."
"A sound idea," Nkruma said, "Come, Azrael."
Soon enough, the kinboks were taking off along with Azrael and Seeryath. Pamphilos stayed behind, calmly waiting. Shame rushed through me again, but I refused to show it. "My dragoon lives further away from the other dragoons," Pamphilos explained. "We're one of the safeguards to keep the eggs and hatchlings – along with their families – safe. As such, it means very few places require flying to get to, and those are only areas where dragons go to avoid the nosy younglings. We are nearby luckily." Pamphilos turned and entered a cave opening, and I trailed him.
Our path led us downwards, and after a few moments of walking, the tunnel opened into a massive cavern. Smaller caves dotted the walls and a single bubbling creek ran through the middle. Pamphilos ignored all of this and led me further into the cavern, before stopping at one of the cave openings that could be entered from the ground.
"I'll introduce you to Alexis, since she will be your den-mate," Pamphilos said, "you can meet everyone else in your own time."
"Thanks," I mumbled, just as another dragon appeared, poking her head out of the cave. From just her head, I could tell she was probably close to Pamphilos' size – two to three times my size.
"Philos," she greeted, not quite warmly but maybe something close. Curiously, her voice held a tinge of sadness to it, something that couldn't be shaken.
"Alexis," Pamphilos returned, "Are you free right now?"
"I am never free, but there is always time to talk," Alexis said. "Come in," she added as she pulled her head in, "Your guest is welcome to enter too."
I followed Pamphilos through the entrance and found myself in another large cave. Alexis was lying sideways, blocking my view of something, not that it mattered. She looked extraordinarily similar to Pamphilos, yellow-white horns curling backwards on the top of her head, grey whiskers – sleek and long – hung from her snout, and obvious ears sitting on the side of her head, looking like fins.
Even from where I was, near the cave entrance, I could tell she would be able to stay standing for quite some time in a fight. Her purple-grey scales were like triangles and were patterned in a way that would act as good armour. Her wings, like Pamphilos, were strange as there were two sets, a bird-like one above the bat-like one. However, when closed, it looked like she only had feathered wings.
"So," Alexis said, meeting my eyes with her blue-purple ones, "who is your guest, Philos?"
"This is Thirak," Pamphilos introduced. "He came with two others from outside. He needs to learn how to control his diiv as he can do little with it currently. Thirak, this is Alexis."
"A pleasure," Alexis said. She turned her gaze back to Philos, "I take it you want him to den with me?"
"If you are amiable."
"I am," Alexis decided. "Welcome Thirak, to my den." She moved her tail, and I finally saw what she had been hiding – five hatchlings.
"Thank you," I said, wondering if she could tell my words lacked sincerity. I wondered how long it would be until I was able to sleep.
Pamphilos was quick to leave, bidding us all a good evening, before retiring himself. I glanced at the hatchlings and then to Alexis, who was already coiling herself up to sleep. I wondered why she was so quick to trust me, trust me around her hatchlings. I was a monster. How could I-
I padded over to the corner, tired beyond words, and curled up to sleep, away from the other dragons.
***
"C'mon, just fight already!" Some juvenile dragon – around my age – said tauntingly, green scales flashing in the bright sunlight. I ignored the arrogant dragon, knowing very well that no matter what any of these dragons tried, I would continue to refuse to fight them, even if it was a simple spar, even if it was just to try and use my magic to fight. It didn't matter what the cause was! Whenever I fought, I killed. They didn't understand that! How did they not understand that? Whenever I fought, the only thing that came out of it was me – alive; destruction; and a corpse.
"What are you, a coward?" The same youngster called out, and I turned away from her. Their names meant nothing to me. So what if I wasn't going to fight them? Their lives were more important than their deaths, more important than me having another death on my conscious.
I didn't need to fight to train anyway. I had been here a few days, along with Seeryath and Azrael – not that I had seen them often. We were all doing our own thing, our own training or, at least, trying to. I had figured out that I could still train simply by watching others, by watching their energy move and trying to feel my own to manipulate it.
Sighing, I walked away from the designated training and sparring area. If I was lucky, the hatchlings would be somewhere nearby. Alexis' hatchlings were... They were still young and innocent. They went about everything with boundless energy and excitement, always curious. They were kind where they had no reason to be kind. They were everything I wasn't, everything I would never be. They were so much better and it was astonishing to see.
"Thirak!" Charalampos shouted, bounding over and nearly bowling me over as I stood on my two human legs. "Hi!"
"Hello, Lampos," I responded. The words were awkward and sounded weird, as if I had a heavy accent, but I managed to communicate to the young dragon even with my human tongue. "Where are the others?"
Charalampos, who was nicknamed Lampos, called out to his nest-mates, and soon there were four other hatchlings bouncing towards me. "Coming!" He said excitedly, "What are we doing? Are we going to play a game? Why weren't you fighting with the other dragon?"
"We could play a game if you and your nest-mates want to," I responded, avoiding Lampos' final question. I did that often – refused to answer a question. The hatchlings never seemed to mind, as long as I answered other questions of theirs. Often, though, their questions were about humans and simple to answer.
"Hide and find," Evangelos suggested, only slightly less excited than Lampos.
"I wanna play capture the rock!" Iro shouted.
"You always want to play that," Selene said with a roll of her eyes and a flick of her tail. "It's just 'cause you wanna be a hero."
"Heroes are cool! I'm gonna be a hero when I'm older. Just you watch!" Iro retorted. "I'm gonna be the best hero!"
I directed my gaze away from Iro. There was nothing wrong with the hatchling but looking at her, listening to her, hurt. She reminded me so much of when... when Mark had been younger.
"Perhaps," I suggested, "we can play hide and find since I'm pretty sure you're meant to be working on your tracking skills."
"Hide and find's boring," Iro complained.
"Then don't play," Selene responded, lip curling backwards in annoyance. "I wanna play and you don't get to ruin it for me!"
Iro growled, sounding more like a frustrated kitten than anything else, and bowled Selene over. The pair slammed into Lampos who quickly joined in on the fight. "Enough," I said, a growl distorted my voice and stopping the hatchlings in their tracks. "No fighting," I reminded them. "We're playing hide and find; if you don't want to play, I'm sure there are other hatchlings around who may be willing to play a different game."
Iro pouted, "I'll join," she said sulkily. "And I'm gonna win too!" She perked up considerably and I rolled my eyes. Hatchlings. "Photios is the seeker! He didn't get his turn last time."
"Hey!" Photios said, drawn from his daydreaming. "I don't want to be seeker!"
"I'll be seeker then," I said. "That gives you all thirty seconds to get moving. I wouldn't be wasting anymore time!" The hatchlings scattered and I started counting down.
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I'm so excited for the next chapter! Honestly, I didn't realise this would actually form one whole chapter, it was just expanding on small notes I did and trying to show the feelings and thoughts of other characters through someone else. It's extraordinarily hard, because Thirak might not notice said feelings/thoughts or he may misinterpret them. Plus, the characters here aren't just going to outright tell him. Also, I'm trying to work on show not tell, and since my plot's written from third person, it's getting very hard to write Thirak at certain points because I wrote my notes from an outsider's perspective.
Anyway, that's me done for now. The good news is that since I've got some extra chapters, I've been able to realise chapters closer together. With any luck, I'll write something like six more (which is highly likely) and increase updates so that you get two a month.
This is SilentSilverSlip heading out to continue writing.
30/10 new note -- I'm going into my first exam in a few hours. I hope I do well, and if I don't, well any comments will be sure to lift my spirits!
Edited: 2/02/2021