Ithil agreed, but only on one condition.

"Only you can see."

"That's fine, but we can't stay in the city..."

"I'm sure there's some hidden clearing in the forest, we could do it there?"

"Sounds good to me. By the way, how big are you now? I've heard dragons grow a lot during their sleep."

"I did, though a bit more than what's normal. You'll see."

It took quite a while to even leave the house. The guards didn't want to let him go by himself with a stranger. But Lerth was the one in command, and eventually, they got on their way. It also took some time to get to the forest because of Lerth's age, but they could still keep a speed that would seem extraordinary to a normal person.

"Okay then, let's do this," Ithil said. They had quickly found a good spot, and Ithil was planning how to do it in the best way possible. He wanted to get a good reaction out of Lerth, one he could remember for the rest of his life.

Lerth looked expectantly at Ithil, wondering if it would be the same dragon he had seen that day many years ago. He watched as Ithil started morphing. He started growing, and almost black scales started growing on his skin. His clothes disappeared under the scales, along with his hair. It was quite a grotesque scene, and it didn't help that Ithil had purposely slowed it down for effect.

Lerth backed a few steps as Ithil didn't stop growing. The few seconds that it happened felt like forever. Afterward, a huge, 30-meter-long black dragon stood in front of him. It was quite majestic, and Lerth felt overwhelmed. The dragon's figure towered above him, making him feel awfully small.

"You are certainly big," Lerth said, falling down on his knees from the pressure pouring out from Ithil. Ithil just looked down at him with the weird, dragon equivalent of a smile.

"Hah, this isn't my full size you know."

"What...?"

Ithil started expanding again, making Lerth stumble backward. Ithil more than doubled in size, forcing Lerth out of the clearing. The shock was too much for Lerth, and he almost fainted. But he managed to hold on.

"H-how..."

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Then, just in front of his eyes, Ithil shrank back to the humanoid Lerth had talked to just a few minutes earlier. Lerth finally succumbed and fell unconscious. The last thing he saw was Ithil running up to catch him at an abnormal speed.'

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A few hours later, Ithil was heading toward Cliffside. He had waited for Lerth to wake up before leaving, not wanting to leave just like that.

Huge waves splashed under him as he flew through the storm. Cliffside lay on an island far out to sea, where no land living creatures could ever get to. It was the longest flight Ithil had ever done. Before his sleep, it would have been hard, but now it was a breeze. He shot through the wind and rain like it was nothing, quickly approaching his destination. A few hours later, he was there.

Cliffside was a large, rocky island with enormous cliffs on each side. With the higher cliff being several thousand meters, it was the perfect home for dragons. The only other dragons Ithil had seen were his own family, so it was quite a shock for him to see so many different dragons in one place.

Brown, yellow, blue, purple. Dragons of all colors and sizes were flying around between the nests dug out of the cliffs. A dragon's preferred way of living was inside a large cave, so most had dug out their own caves on the cliff wall to live in. There were still many areas not dug out because of the cliff's enormous size, and the city was still expanding.

Ithil flew around, trying to spot his family while avoiding other dragons. He had shrunk to 30 meters long, so navigating was quite easy compared to his full size. Some dragons gave him weird looks.

'I seem to be the only black dragon here, and there isn't anything about black dragons in the given knowledge... I guess I really stand out here.'

Wanting to avoid the attention, he began to search for his parents a distance away instead of in the chaos. He spent several hours not finding anything, and was about to give up when he saw someone familiar. His father was flying on the northern part of the cliff, and Ithil hurried there. Ithil flew up behind his dad, seeing if he could surprise him. Ithil's dad didn't even notice him, and Ithil felt quite proud of himself.

"You must be really focused to not notice me."

Ithil's father spun around, shocked. It took Rothek a little while to recognize Ithil. But when he did, a bright smile formed on his face.

"You somehow manage to surprise me every time Ithil. One would think I'd get used to it, but apparently not."

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"You certainly changed color. It's very rare to see black dragons nowadays... I was a bit afraid you'd grow a lot bigger, but 30 meters is still abnormally large. Your siblings are only 20 meters long. Though, they are actually in their adult sleeps right now," said Ithils mother. It was a couple of minutes after Ithil had gotten home. Apparently, his family was quite well off. Though, he could guess from their riches back on the Distant Peaks. They lived in a large, well-decorated cave system on the northern side of Cliffside, near the top.

Ithil and his parents were talking about what had happened while Ithil was asleep. There was really nothing interesting, except them moving after a couple of years since the cave back on the Distant Peaks was actually their vacation home. That's when his mother brought up Ithil's changes.

"Well... 30 meters isn't my actual length..."

His parents looked at each other, before looking back at him, clearly confused.

"What are you talking about...?"