At the age of nine years and eleven months, Ithil entered his juvenile sleep before his siblings. In the dragon world, it was thought that the earlier one entered their dragon sleep, the better. So entering it before his siblings was a good sign for Ithil.

“What is it Ithil? You don’t look very well.”

Ithil, who had collapsed to the ground, look up at his father with a glossy look in his eyes.

“I… Can’t… Move…”

His father was shocked a first, but then realized what it must be.

“It’s probably your juvenile sleep, don’t worry.”

His father picked Ithil up and moved him to an undisturbed corner of the sea of riches.

Ithil barely felt anything as his consciousness faded away. It was replaced by the darkness he was so familiar with. At first, he panicked and thought he was dead, but then he heard his own calm breadths.

The contours of his sleeping body showed up before him. The body’s flanks were slowly rising and sinking in a soothing rhythm. It was a peaceful scene.

Ithil guessed he was currently his soul, outside of his body. He felt very powerful, much more than before he gained life. He didn’t understand why, he hadn’t trained his soul.

When looking down at his sleeping body, he came up with an idea. He tried to infuse his soul powers into his body. At first, it didn’t work, but after some time Ithil saw his body start to glow. This gave him hope and he tried even more.

The glow increased until it almost started blinding him. As his body received more power, Ithil felt himself get stronger as well. He didn’t seem to grow tired.

After who knows how much time, his body outline suddenly faded away. Ithil got worried he had done too much and destroyed his body, but then he felt himself getting sucked somewhere. Before he could start resisting, he was already awake.

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The father woke from his nap. He stretched before jumping down to the riches blow the stone platform. His weight caused the whole platform to rumble and the riches to almost get crushed beneath him.

He walked over to a corner of the room and looked down. There, his three dragon children lay sleeping.

‘I wonder when they’ll wake up? It shouldn’t take more than a year for their juvenile sleep.’

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His children looked so peaceful laying there, that the father couldn’t help but smile. Then, he noticed something strange. One of his children, the one who he had personally sparred with, seemed slightly brighter than the others.

Out of the three, it had grown the most. Even though all of them had grown thrice their original size to a length of five meters, it was still clearly bigger than its siblings. Its scales had also somehow changed color slightly. From a light copper to a slightly darker tone.

The father didn’t think much of it. Dragons were animals who could undergo tons of mutations during their lives. Being slightly bigger with darker scales wasn’t so unusual.

He jumped up to the platform again and left through the large stone door, planning to hunt some food for himself.

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When Ithil woke up, everything suddenly looked smaller. Even his siblings, whose sleeping bodies lay next to him. Stretching, he then walked around trying to get used to his new body. He felt much stronger than before, whatever he did during his sleep must have helped.

“Father?”

He called out but got no response.

‘He must be out hunting. Which is good, because I’m hungry.’

He turned around and looked at his siblings more closely. They were still in their sleep. Ithil’s internal clock told him that he had been asleep for slightly less than a year, and was now ten years and nine months.

His siblings were slightly smaller than him, and their scales looked lighter than his. Then he realized that it was his scales that were darker.

‘I’ve really changed a lot.’

He was now seven meters long, which is quite long for a dragon of his age. Even for a copper dragon.

Before he could study himself more, the huge stone door opened. Two huge copper dragons walked. One was his father, the other looked to be his mother. They were talking about something.

“…yes they should wake at any m…”

His father had seen him and stopped his conversation.

“Ithil, you’re awake!”

He rushed over, causing the whole space to rumble, and picked up Ithil who was slightly harder now that Ithil had grown. His father then put him down in front of the other dragon. It was another copper dragon the same size as Ithil’s father.

“Ithil, this is your mother.

Tihkar, this is your son.”

“Hi, mother.”

Ithil’s mother looked down on him lovingly, this made Ithil’s smile even bigger. She lowered her head and looked him in the eyes.

“You are certainly big, your father hasn’t been lying. You’re also slightly darker. It seems like I’ve given birth to a little anomaly.”, her voice sounded very majestic but also caring.

“I’ve heard you’re very talented, but not in magic. I was a bit confused a first. But then your father told me of how you’ve beaten your siblings and flown, without magic. I must say, that’s very impressive.

Can you show me?”

“Sure.”

Ithil couldn’t spar with his siblings since they were asleep, but he could fly. He was a bit worried it would be harder to fly with his bigger body, but his wings had grown a lot too. He found that it was actually easier.

He flew around the large room for a couple of minutes, before landing on the platform again.

“That is indeed impressive”, his mother praised him.

Ithil puffed up his chest and looked proud. He had heard that it was much more fun to fly outside, but that would have to wait until his siblings woke.

Ithil fell into his usual training routine, although without his siblings, as they waited for his siblings. He had gotten much better during his sleep and his dad was now getting forced to use a bit of magic. His amazing growth certainly surprised everyone.