Ithil woke up in a pool of his own dried blood. A dragon's blood was most often the same color as its scales. Therefore, Ithil's blood was of a copper color. The blood had dried to the point of being crunchy when Ithil stood up. He checked his body multiple times for any lasting injuries.

'Seems like I healed completely. How long has it been since I fell unconscious...? Four months? My healing capabilities seem to be increasing from the constant injuries,' he thought happily to himself.

'I should wash away this dried blood, it's both sticky and smells bad.'

He flapped his wings, lifting off. They felt slightly stiff, but not that bad. He quickly picked up speed and shot toward the ocean. Huge waves splashed outwards from where he hit the surface. He had slowed down just before impact, not wanting to risk injuring himself again. Right after healing severe injuries, he was always extra weak and brittle.

After the refreshing dip, he continued his exploration of the southern part of the island. He had almost the whole southern half mapped in his mind, down to every little nook and cranny. He felt it was good training for his mind since he couldn't do it by using magic. And a strong mind was useful for many things other than magic. Mainly resisting spells focused on attacking the mind. A strong warrior with a weak mind could easily be turned into a loyal puppet by a decent mage.

He had been exploring the island for several years, encountering many strong opponents. Some were even harder to defeat than the lizard. But he had survived and grown stronger in the process. He was at the age of thirty and had reached a length of almost 20 meters. His size was at the point where he could soon very well be mistaken for a small adult.

'How big will I be when I'm an adult? Does my size mean I'll die much sooner?' Ithil didn't like the thought and banished it from his mind.

Time had gone by quickly for Ithil since he constantly had something to do. He was considering exploring the northern part of the island but felt he had to first take a break. He wanted to for example check up on the Thornhunters. Not much time may have gone by for him, but for them, it was a different story.

After a week of not finding much, since he had cleared most of the southern half of living creatures, he set off toward the mainland.

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"Yeah, I think I'm going to visit the Voucan Kingdom for a short while. After that, I'll head back to the Island of Trials," Ithil said to his father. It had been a couple of hours since he got back, and he was telling his father what he had been doing. Both his sibling were away, but his parents were at home. Ithil tried asking his father about what he had been doing, but he got nothing out of it.

"Ok sure, but be careful with the northern half. When I was first there I had quite a lot of problems just surviving without picking a fight."

"I know, mother has also warned me."

"Good to hear."

They continued talking for a bit before Ithil felt it was time to leave. He didn't have many plans. Just to perhaps meet up with the Thornhunters and maybe even do a quest together. He wanted to test out his new strength, and perhaps even reveal the truth. Be he would first see how they were doing.

He walked out through the two massive doors. They seemed easier to open than before, he no longer had to struggle for a couple of minutes just to open them slightly. Walking out on the platform, he flapped his wings to warm them up. They were still stiff, but not as bad as before. He shot up and began the short flight to Rockyhill.

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"You certainly seem to have developed a lot. I can't remember you being so controlled in your movements. It's almost as if you're limiting yourself," Lerth said to Ithil. It had been a couple of days since Ithil had met the Thornhunters again. The group had changed a bit from the last time he had met them. There was even a new person with them, Hidah Ceihra, who was a tall half-elf and liked brute force apparently.

"Yeah, I guess it can seem like that..." Ithil said.

"So you're the one they're talking about... You really don't look as strong as they say you are, but you definitely have a special air about you," said Hidah deep in thought.

They were on a quest to subdue a large snake living in an underground burrow. It was quite an easy quest, so they didn't bring much equipment with them. It was quite the distance to their destination, plus they didn't want to rush, so they kept to a slower pace and spent the time talking. Ithil kept thinking about whether to tell them of his real identity. He felt it would be fun to see their reactions, but things could very well go wrong.

It wasn't impossible for one of them to have past trauma with dragons, and end up attacking him. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a bad idea. But just when they had crossed the halfway point, and Ithil was about to decide to skip telling them, he was met with extreme fatigue. The world started spinning and darkness crept in from the corners of his vision.

'What is happening...?'

He saw the others staring at him in confusion before falling to the ground, paralyzed.

'It can't be... Why would it happen now? I'm 20 years too early...'

Just before falling into a deep sleep, he managed to painstakingly say a few words since his face wasn't paralyzed yet.

"Take... care... of... me..."

Everything went dark just as his body started expanding, reverting back to its original form.