The bottom was sandy just like all of the platforms he had been staying on. The only difference was that it was much more empty on the bottom. No life whatsoever.

It was so dark he could barely see 10 meters in front of him

Ithil decided to explore for a short while before heading back to the surface. He couldn’t wait to see the progress he had made. He had grown to eight, almost nine meters long, and felt he could probably head to the nearby kingdom and explore after.

‘I should probably visit mother and father. I’ve been away from them for longer than I first anticipated.’

But he didn’t get to explore much before an earthquake hit. Or at least Ithil thought it was an earthquake. He could feel the ground shaking as it was disturbing the water.

He got a bad feeling from it and started to head up earlier than planned.

As it turned out, it was a good decision. Just as the ground went out of view, the water currents changed suddenly. Ithil could feel something huge moving underneath him.

‘I need to get out before it spots me.’

He started swimming upwards, slow in the beginning to not alert the huge creature but eventually speeding up.

‘Maybe it’s what’s dug out the cave? Anyway, I’m never going back down there.’

It took him a couple of days to get to the top. The higher he got, the lighter he felt. If he swam too quickly, he would get dizzy.

He became faster and faster, to the point where he slowed down to not hit something because he wouldn’t be able to stop in time.

Eventually, he reached the top and shot through the entrance to the underwater cave. He was back.

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He was first astonished by the brightness and beauty of the surface.

But before he could admire it more, he had underestimated his speed and shot right into the cliff, making the ground shake. Cracks spread out from where his upper body had buried itself into the rock. As a result parts of the cliff fell into the water, splashing over Ithil.

He was confused. He’d felt barely anything. The years he’d spent thousands of meters underwater had done more than he could’ve imagined. He only though it would train his muscles and agility, but it had also strengthened his body.

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‘Now that I think about it, it did slowly get easier to stay under that pressure.’

He dislodged himself from the cliff, only to get hit in the head by a big rock that had been patiently waiting for him.

He shook away the dust covering him before heading back to his family living on the Distant Peaks. He felt a bit urgent, he couldn’t wait to explore something else than that darkness which had been with him for the past years.

He flapped his wings and shot forward. Everything went blurry before he once again hit into something rocky. The mountain he had hit shook and cracking loudly, causing the entire island to be disturbed. The upper part of the mountain actually flew of and landed in a forest below.

Ithil rose from the rubble, still confused by how little it hurt.

‘I appears I’m used to the pressure from down there, I’ll need to adjust my output.’

He started flying towards the mountain his parents lived in. Although a bit unstable and slower, the flight was still better than crushing mountains.

About halfway there, he saw a huge copper dragon flying towards him.

“Father!”

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“Did you see what just happened?”

“Uhm…”

Ithil felt a bit uncomfortable.

“Are we being attacked?”

Ithil felt even more uncomfortable.

‘How am I going to explain this…?’

“That was… me…”

Ithil’s father looked very confused for a moment.

“…What?

You blew off the top of a mountain?!”

Ithil shrank back, if you even can do that while flying.

“I didn’t want to… I wanted to get here as fast as I could, but I crashed into the mountain before I could stop…”

“So you accidentally blew up a mountain? Just what did you do those three years? You know what, don’t explain here. Do it for mother as well.”

Ithil followed his father back. He had gotten a bit better at flying without blowing up mountains, but he still looked very wobbly compared to his father.

When they got home, Ithil’s mother was standing on the entrance platform.

“Ithil, you’re back!”

Ithil landed and hugged his mother.

“Did you see what happened?”, his mother asked Ithil.

“Apparently Ithil crashed into the mountain while heading home.”

Ithil’s mother put on a shocked expression and let go of him.

“You what?!”

“It was accidental…”

Ithil shrank back even further.

“Accidental? Just what have you been doing?”

Ithil tried to think of a way to explain things, but gave up quickly.

‘I’ll just say the truth and hope things go well…’

“Well, I was training in an underwater cave.”

“Underwater? You spent three years underwater?! How deep was it?”

“I wasn’t at the bottom the whole time, just for a short while before heading back.”

“Are you saying it took three years to reach the bottom?”

“Yes, it was ehmm… 15… kilometers…”

His mother just looked at him blankly. Then turned around and headed back in, muttering to herself.

“Just what kind of dragon did I birth…”

Ithil looked back at his father who was just staring into the distance. Ithil shrugged and headed after his mother before laying down to sleep. His siblings were also home, but snoring.

After waking up, Ithil had to explain a bit more in detail his adventures in the underwater cave. His parents were quite surprised to hear about the shark, they were as clueless as Ithil. He left out the details regarding the massive creature he had barely avoided since he got a feeling it was a bad idea.

Afterwards, he spend a nice day listening to his siblings adventures. They hadn’t left the island, but instead explored the mountains. They also got to show their humanoid forms. They both looked similar to Ithil, the copper color was just a bit brighter.

Before Ithil set out again, he wanted to ask his father some questions.