Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Home

-How.. how is nothing broken..- I couldn't believe it.

*Crumble*

The collapsing of the tunnel entrance quickly pulled me out of my thoughts. -Right.. I should head back up.-

*Flap*

With a strong flap of my wings, I threw myself up the mountainside.

Once I landed, I was greeted by Ilios jumping up and licking my face.

“Haha, I'm alright buddy.” Seeing that he wasn't going to calm down any time soon, I sat down and just gently rubbed his head. “Sorry I made you worry so much..”

A short moment later, Ilios finally started to calm down and Father flew up and landed next to me. "Vasilias, what was that bang?" He seemed slightly panicked.

"I was just testing out some new spells to let me fly faster, but when I tried to slow down, I lost altitude and slammed into the side of the mountain.."

His nervousness was quickly replaced with confusion. "How fast were you going when you crashed to cause the entire mountain to shudder?"

"Well, ‘too fast’ to say the least... Probably close to Mach 1.5 or so." I responded honestly, not thinking much of it.

"Mach?"

-Ah..- I had totally forgotten that this world was one that obviously wouldn't know what Mach was. -It’s odd enough that they use the metric system in all honesty..- "Mach is just a unit that quantifies the sound barrier. It's around 340 m/s, I think 343 to be exact."

He paused and just blankly stared at me for a moment before letting out a deep sigh. “Haah.. it's not good to exaggerate things like that, Vasilias.”

-I didn’t though..- "I can nearly reach Mach 2 without magic, as for with it, well.. I'm not sure where the limit is.” I figured it was best to leave the speed limit of my thrusters to the imagination.

“Huh? Y..you're not exaggerating?” It looked like his mind froze, as if he didn't know how to react.

“No? Is it not normal for dragons to be able to fly that fast?”

“W..well.. Older dragons can, but they'd need to at least be old elders or ancients.” He stared at me with a mix of emotions, but unlike Mother, he ended up letting his negative emotions get to him. (Things like jealousy) "Haah.. whatever."

His reaction made my heart skip a beat. It felt like a huge ball of anxiety was building in my chest.

Seeing my reaction, he quickly forced a smile. "In any case, I just came up to check on you and make sure you were alright. I'll be down the mountain with Krystallo if you need anything." His voice lacked the concern and care I was used to.

"A..alright… I'll be down later.." I gave a reluctant response.

As father flew down the mountain I just plopped myself down and pet Ilios until my mind settled down.

-Maybe… Maybe I should hide my strength a bit..- The instant the thought came to my mind though, I felt a tingling sensation wash through my body.

When I looked down at the source of the sensation, I saw Ilios looking at me with a serious expression.

“Haah, what am I thinking..” Whatever the sensation was, it cleared up my thoughts. -Hiding strength is never a good idea..- A warm smile crept onto my face seeing Ilios’s expression turn back to a happy smile. “Thanks Ilios..”

As I sat there petting Ilios, it felt like time started to pick up the pace again. The next month and a half passed in a blur.

I spent all my time playing with magic and aura, or learning from Mother, with the only thing undergoing any large change being my aura control.

At the end of the month and a half, I finally reached the point where I felt somewhat comfortable about being able to enter a humanoid city.

It was truly perfect timing since there was only a couple weeks till we needed to leave.

But, little did I know, there would be a slight change in plans.

“Mmmm..” It was the middle of the night when I woke up to a rough, uncontrolled aura leaking from the cave. (he was sleeping in the field)

-Wow, Mother actually called it.- It was Krystallo’s dragon sleep.

Not wasting any time, I hopped up and grabbed one of the two mid size bison laying outside the cave.

Using my wing to open the door, I headed inside and saw Father dash past me.

"Is something wrong?" I asked in case there was some kind of problem since he looked unusually panicked.

"No, Krystallo just lost control of her instincts." Not stopping to talk, he hastily made his way outside to pick up the other bison.

Catching onto his urgency, I continued making my way down the hall and into the main room.

Just inside the room, next to the mound of treasure, I saw Mother pinning Krystallo to the ground with her foot.

-She really lost herself, huh..- I didn't like seeing her in that state, but I knew it was just part of the process and simply set down the bison as needed.

"Haah.. thanks Vasilias.." Mother let out a deep sigh of relief as she lifted her foot off Krystallo.

As soon as she could move, Krystallo shot out from under Mother’s foot and ripped into the bison like a feral animal.

"It's part of my job as her big brother to take care of her." I showed a half forced, proud smile.

*Thud*

Behind me, Father ran into the room and threw his bison down next to Krystallo as well.

Not long after that, Krystallo finished off the first bison and started on the second.

After a while, I started getting worried that it wasn't enough food, but just before she finished the second bison she slowed down and came to a stop.

-Is that it?- I didn't know what to expect.

*thump* Her body went limp as she fell asleep.

"Phew..” Mother wore a look of relief. “I was getting worried.." Gently picking her up, Mother carried her to the middle of the room and set her down.

"I was getting nervous that I was going to need to leave before she entered her sleep.." Father spoke with a refreshing fatherly joy seeing Krystallo safely enter her dragon sleep.

-She did cut it down to the wire..- We were due to leave within the next couple weeks, whether Krystallo entered her dragon sleep or not. -If she didn't start her sleep in time, I would've had to stay here to help Mother.-

Although I wasn't against staying home to help Mother, I was definitely excited to finally see what this world's human civilization looked like.

Father was also aware of my anticipation. "Well now that she has gone into her sleep, it's time we start getting ready to leave..” He turned to me with a sly smile.

-Huh? Are we leaving early?!-

"Before we go though, it's time for your test Vasilias." Father quickly flashed an unusual smile that made me a bit uncomfortable.

"What? Test?" I hadn't heard about this so-called test so I was totally caught off guard.

"Before we go, I want to test the strength of your humanoid form!" Although he knew what my strength was like, even in my humanoid form, he never saw me fight in it. Even if I had a freakish amount of strength, without any technique, fights in my humanoid form would not be one sided. Unless I relied on my magic of course.

"So.. are we just gonna fight in our humanoid forms?"

Fathers grin widened. "Nope! I'll be in my dragon form!"

-EXCUSE ME?!- I tensed up and looked towards Mother for help.

She was looking at Father with a look of shock, seemingly objecting to the idea like me. "Honey, don't you think it's too extreme to have him fight your dragon form.."

"I'm not allowing any objections, he needs to experience a real fight with someone strong while there aren't consequences." He puffed up his chest a bit as if proud that he came up with the idea.

-Oh you have to be kidding..- "Father, I'm just gonna get destroyed.." My enthusiasm was draining by the second.

"Maybe you'll naturally learn some techniques if I push you to the limit."

What he was saying was that I was going to get bullied by him until I figured out how to fight back.

-Why don't you just teach me techniques then?- "Mother.." As I turned back to her, she dodged my eyes. -OH YOU TOO?!-

My one and only ally here decided to sit on the sideline.

"Haah.." As I realized I wasn't going to get out of the predicament, I slowly accepted my fate. -This is gonna suck..-