Late Evening - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

"Well, shall we?" I changed to my dragon form and sat down as father got situated.

"Come on Ilios.." Father waved to Ilios so he could sit in his lap but Ilios just sat on the ground and looked up at me.

"He's going to ride on my back, Father."

Father paused for a minute before reluctantly nodding. "Alright.."

Standing back up, Ilios hopped up onto my back and got situated.

"I'll be a bit easier on the acceleration this time, just remember to tap on me if you need something."

Seeing Fathers nod in understanding, I spread out my wings and started the flight.

With a mix of flapping my wings and using thruster magic, I could make an incredibly smooth and steady shift to high speeds.

Once we finally got to the upper atmosphere, I leveled out and started speeding up.

I quickly looked at Father who seemed to be enjoying the view and Ilios, who was laying down, to make sure they were alright then looked up to the sky.

It was a beautiful night with a full moon.

-The moon looks really pretty in this world..-

Although the moon was similar to earth's, it had far less craters and had far more texture.

I could clearly see tall mountains with snowy peaks and low valleys with some sort of reflective liquid in them. It even had these huge, ocean-like reservoirs filling some of the craters, but something else caught my eye.

One of the larger craters on the moon looked.. too perfect.

It was too circular and too uniform.

The crater had huge cracks starting from the epicenter, but all of the cracks looked like they were there for a purpose and weren't just random cracks in the surface.

I ended up spending a majority of the flight staring at it to try and find some other details, but I didn't find anything of note. -Maybe if my eyes get better after my next dragon sleep..-

Looking towards the rest of the sky, I took my time to enjoy the view.

As I had grown, my eyes got significantly better so the night sky was filled with a more vibrant array of colors compared to when I first looked at it in this world.

-It's truly a beautiful spectacle..- I was just barely able to see the faint glow from nebulae as well which gave the darkness of space some more color and background.

I ended up losing track of time as Father tapped on me and pointed towards the ground.

-Oh we're here already..-

Slowly turning down, I started to do a slow and large spin using the reverse thrust from thruster magic to slow down as we fell. (Corkscrew Dive)

It was pretty smooth since I was taking wide swings so once we were below the clouds I completely stopped using thrusters and just used my wings.

*Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* *Thud*

Safely landing, Father quickly jumped off and changed to his dragon form and Ilios followed suit and changed to his full size as well.

I followed father up to the doors of the cave which he gently opened.

*Woosh*

A strong breeze of extremely cold air blew out of the hall.

"How.. uh.. are you holding up.." Father nervously looked down the hall at mother.

She slowly turned her head and looked Father in the eye. "You're sleeping outside."

"Haah.. I figured you were going to say that.." Father turned around and walked out of the hall holding his head low like a defeated man.

-Did they fight or something?- I looked back at Father in confusion as he walked out.

"Welcome back sweetie!"

I whipped back around to see Mother wearing her familiar motherly smile but.. -She looks really tired..-

But nonetheless, her smile felt like it healed my mind. I stopped thinking about unnecessary things and felt at peace.

I quickly walked forward and gave Mother a hug.

After taking time to enjoy the hug, she finally let me go and looked at Ilios and I. "So.. what happened?"

"Well.. the only thing I know for certain is that I had a dragon sleep after I nearly accidentally blew myself apart."

"YOU WHAT?!"

Hearing her yell I instinctively lowered my head and started explaining. "So Kaelallan had an heirloom that was a really big monster core."

"Yeah and? What about it?" She stood there confused for a moment before realizing what I was getting ready to say. "Wait.. you didn't actually.."

"Well I ate it and it made my reserve explode.."

She sat there and stared at me with wide, panic filled eyes as she carefully looked me up and down to not miss a single detail. After realizing I wasn't injured and looked healthy, she quickly calmed herself down. "Well.. let's just be thankful you're alive and healthy. I still feel your aura so did your reserve somehow repair itself?"

-She’s.. Not mad?- I nervously looked back up to see her face filled with worry. "I think what happened was that I somehow made a new one."

As crazy as the statement sounded, Mother believed and didn't question my words. "So is the reason your aura is slightly less from before the trip because of that?"

"N..no.. it's not because of that." I sat there and contemplated how to explain the fact that I could change the thickness of my reserve’s wall in a way that didn't sound insane. "Its actually far more, but I now have the ability to control how much aura I exude.. to an extent at least."

She stood there staring at me with wide eyes for a moment. "So would you mind showing me how much you naturally exude?"

"Uh.." I looked back towards Krystallo who was laying behind the pile of treasure. "Do you mind coming outside for it?" I didn't want to disturb her dragon sleep and was too nervous my aura would do something.

"Mhmm."

I looked back towards Ilios. "Stay here and watch over Krystallo for us. If something happens, use some magic to blow open the doors."

"Woof!" Ilios gave a happy bark in understanding and walked over and sat by Krystallo.

Mother looked at Ilios, slightly shocked before lightly shaking her head and walking out of the cave.

Closing the door to the cave, Mother looked at me with a warm smile. "Alright, now show your mother how strong you’ve gotten."

"Haah.. you might want to brace yourself.." I walked out and sat down in the middle of the clearing.

Taking my word seriously, she layered some of her aura to form a sort of barrier and put on a serious expression.

"Well.. here I go.."

*VWOOooom*

A huge amount of aura exploded outwards, encompassing everything like a tidal wave.

I sat there, relaxed in the middle of the field, surrounded by a sphere of visible mana.

As the wave hit her, Mothers legs slightly buckled but she remained standing.

A smile crept onto her face. It was one of excitement as she resisted the aura.

I quickly sucked it back in and thickened the wall of my reserve again to ease the pressure on her since I was worried I overdid it.

"Sorry for taking so long to pull my aura away.." I was worried I let out the aura too much and dashed over to her to support her with my body.

"Haah.. haah.." With a heavy breath, Mother looked at me. "To think.. you got.. so much.. stronger.." Mothers eyes met mine as she gave a proud smile and fell limply onto me.

Panic instantly filled my body feeling her entire body weight on me as I assumed the worst.

Thankfully though, it was just my mind jumping to conclusions.

-She's.. just sleeping..- "Hooh.. Holy sh*t.." With the panic starting to subside, I used my wings to shift her around on my back so I could carry her more easily. -I knew she looked a little tired but I didn't think it was this bad.. Did she sleep at all while we were gone?-