“Today, we will be learning about the elements.”

Elder Dusk was in his true dragon form with the rest of his students arrayed in front of him. The draconic beast kids were there, of course, along with myself and surprisingly, Reela. She was relieved of whatever duties had been foisted onto her and ordered to accompany me from now on. Apparently, she was being punished for her ‘mishandling’ of her disciple, as an elder put it. I felt that the dragons were focusing on the wrong point here, but evidently, the princess irresponsibly endangering her disciple’s life was a minor issue compared to the fact that she let her first taste of freedom and power go to her head. As such, some reeducation was in order.

Hence, the grumpy scarlet dragonkin by my side.

“This is such a waste of time,” she couldn’t help but grumble.

“Firstly, what ARE the elements?” Elder Dusk asked, uncharacteristically ignoring her outburst.

“They’re the things that make up the world we live in,” Zabil answered.

“They make up everything, not just the world,” Tavia compounded.

“Water, earth, fire, air,” one of the other kids said.

Elder Dusk turned to me and asked. “And you, Rhaaj? What are the elements to you?” I always hated being put on the spot when a teacher called on me unexpectedly in class. It didn’t help that all the other kids turned to look at me with the gleam of wonder in their eyes. Apparently my novelty hadn’t worn off yet, as their eyes were filled with expectations.

“Elements are….forces of nature that we can communicate with by using our essence.” I offered.

“Hmm…well said,” he replied, “If not entirely accurate.” At this point, he turned back to face everyone.

“The elements are the basic components of existence, and while some are obvious, such as the basic four of water, earth, fire and wind, others are less so. Who can tell me some of the more hidden elements?”

“Space!”

“Time!”

“Life!”

“Death.” Surprisingly, Reela chose to offer her opinion, even if it was somewhat halfheartedly.

“Blood,” I chimed in, even if my voice was lost among the others’ shouts. I heard all kinds of elements besides the so-called ‘traditional’ ones, but some of them would have made my eyes pop out had I not been doing my utmost to control myself. Wood and metal made sense, as did sand and poison. But gravity, emotion, and faith were just…out there, for me. I guess after countless years, the dragons were aware of such ephemeral natural laws, even if I had no clue what faith magic would look like.

Soon enough, Elder Dusk raised his claw and everyone fell silent. “You all know the names of the elements, but what they are and what they are capable of would take a lifetime to explain. It is for this reason that we encourage you all to choose to specialize in only a few elements. Once your proficiency has grown to an acceptable standard, you can branch out and attempt to learn more about any others that interest you.”

“Elemental affinities are determined by your bloodline and lineage. However, the more…conceptual…of the elements can only be grasped with observation and study. So while you may be talented in certain fields, helped in part by your forebears, the path to power requires long studies of the world around you.”

“Your assignment for this week is to decide on the first element you wish to specialize in and tell me by next class. If you have any questions, you may ask me or your parents. Does everyone understand?”

“Yes, Elder Dusk,” everyone said in unison…save for me, who nodded.

“Then you all may get ready for physical training.”

Cute roars and howls filled the air as the dragon kids were unable to restrain their fervor, their mental shouts as loud and passionate as their mental ones.

Thankfully, the physical training that Elder Dusk endorsed was much more palatable than his descendant’s. It was basically playtime for the kids, as they got to fly, run, swim, or crawl for the next two hours, some form of tag breaking out as they all chased each other beyond the boundaries of the garden and into the next biome over, a wide open field.

My physical training, while not as carefree, was just as laidback though, and I had no problem sticking to it.

“I can just do whatever I want?” I asked incredulously.

“While I would not claim myself ignorant when it comes to humans, your physical growth and training regimens fall somewhat outside my particular area of expertise. I would hope that, having been in this world for some time now, at the very least you would possess some knowledge of methods to improve your body’s performance.”

“...I think I can manage for a few days, but ideally I would be using a few different pieces of equipment. I don’t suppose there are any skilled earth dragons nearby to create what I need?”

“You are familiar with the type of tools you would need? Their basic dimensions and shape?”

“Yes. Why?” A mildly concerning thought came to mind as I tried not to let the possibility of what I was imagining would occur show on my face.

“Just bring any memories of these tools to the forefront of your mind. If there are multiple instances where they were used, that would be more helpful.”

“...Soul magic?” I asked to confirm. I took the snort that came out of his mouth as evidence that my conjecture was right. He had already displayed some soul spells before, during my interrogation, which I still hadn’t gotten over, but the fact that he could do it without physical contact meant his proficiency with it was higher than I would have thought.

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I wanted to make a threat against the elder not to poke around too deeply, but it would be about as intimidating as a chihuahua barking at a meteor. If he was going to root through my memories, all I could do was hope that he could only focus on the forefront of what I was thinking of and trust in my soul’s ability to defend itself. As accommodating as the Elder had been, I did not want to find out what would happen if he discovered the Deity’s Seed.

I resigned myself to something unpleasant as I tried to remember memories of working out on Earth. The various gyms I had been to in my life, with the array of equipment that was in them coming to mind. The dumbbells were the first thing I thought of, followed by the ellipticals and treadmills. Then came the sit-up bench, the chest press, the leg press, the bench press, and others I had used or tried at least once in my life. While I had no idea how they were made, the materials and whatever software they were programmed with being beyond me, I knew how they strained the muscles, and that was what I tried to recall, the burning feeling of my muscles as I tried to get in one more rep before calling it quits. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help but remember the people there as well. My friends from school, the other gymgoers in my adult life, the awkward encounters with random strangers as I asked them to spot me.

Something threatened to crack inside me, and I smothered that rising feeling before it could do anything. Control yourself. As a certain princess was fond of saying, the past is in the past.

I was brought out of my memories when the ground shook and I was briefly thrown into the air by a few inches, stumbling when I landed. What I expected was in front of me, as I saw some basic equipment like the dumbbells on the ground along with various bars and weights to attach to their ends, though the more technological machines were absent. All in all, I had enough things to workout with, as long as Elder Dusk managed to recreate the weights correctly. Trying and failing to move hundred pound stones around didn’t seem like a good workout…for now. Surely the dragons had some idea of how to use magic to enhance physical performance, right? I mean, if humans could figure it out, the dragons had to have done so, and probably by a larger margin and with more efficiency. I strode up to the various pieces of exercise equipment and tried them out as the elder watched me, seemingly no worse for wear after peering into my mind and recreating what he saw from scratch. All it did was increase my desire to learn soul magic, not the freak show that was going on with whatever I was doing.

“I take it these tools will suffice?” he asked, getting a nod in response from me. “Then they are yours while you are here.”

“Thank you,” I offered my gratitude to him. Even if I was displeased with the process, I couldn’t argue with the results.

“Now hurry up, you only have two hours til the children come back.” he chided me, prompting me to do some preliminary stretches before trying out the equipment. As I picked up a dumbbell marked 15 lbs in each hand, I felt that the weight was correct, or close enough that I couldn’t tell the difference. I started bringing each one up to my shoulder before letting it drop back down again, going through the correct form as far as I could remember.

The workout was surprisingly relaxing, and I got to see Reela being chided by Elder Dusk for her previous methods of ‘training’ me. She took it well, and with the mesmer placed on her, she would likely be more carrot and less stick in future training sessions, even away from the Elder’s watchful eyes.

The workout ended before long, and the elder concluded today’s lesson by reiterating the assignment on choosing an element for the kids before sending them home, but not before each of them remembered me and somehow managed to touch me with various body parts before saying their farewells and heading back to their parents, leaving me alone with Elder Dusk and Reela.

“Rhaaj, you may stay with Reela if you wish, as she is responsible for you, but if you prefer your own residence, you may stay in the cave at the foot of the mountain,” Elder Dusk said, gesturing to the huge peak that was roughly a mile away. “Food and water are available there, as are the necessary furnishings for humans.”

“With all due respect, Elder Dusk, I think I’d prefer my own place.” Even if Reela was, for lack of a better word, rehabilitated now, I still didn’t want her near me. Weeks and months of bad thoughts don’t just go away on their own.

“Very well. You may take tomorrow to rest, but I expect to see you here the day after for lessons. He is your responsibility, Reela, and I trust that you will treat him as a proper disciple from now on?”

“Yes, Elder,” Reela respectfully replied, and before I could get a word in, the elder vanished, popping out of existence without any need for a portal.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed before I asked. “Is anyone else around?”

“You can speak out loud if it makes you more comfortable when it’s just the two of us,” she said, the sound almost alien to me after so many conversations occurring solely mind-to-mind.

“So, you’re responsible for me, huh?”

“...yeah.”

“Let’s just go to the mountain cave and see what it’s like before this gets any more personal.” I stated, and she followed along beside me as I took out a winged serpent from my beast space, the two of us flying towards the mountain. In no time at all, we had reached a prominent cave entrance at the base of the mountain, with a wide yet shallow pond beside it. I deposited my beast as Reela contracted her wings before we both walked inside, only a few feet of bare tunnel separating the main living space. It was a step up from the cold and dark cave I was first kept in, for sure. A miniature sun hung thirty feet in the air in the hollowed out cave. I recognized formations on the walls, though I had no clue what their function was, and there was no food or water in sight. There was an extremely large bed in the middle of the cave, along with a table and chair to the side, with something resembling a closet on the farthest wall. Opening up the closet revealed eight sets of clothes identical to what I was currently wearing, so there was that, at least.

“Um, where’s the food?” I asked, turning to Reela. I seriously hoped I wasn’t expected to hunt in order to eat.

“Over there,” Reela pointed to a formation on the right wall, making me wonder if I had damaged her brain when I mesmerized her. “Wait, have you…oh, right, human.” She shook her head before walking up to it and holding her hand in the middle of the formation, causing it to slightly glow, before she said, “Meat and vegetables for three, and something sweet.” Within a minute, three humongous bowls filled with meat and vegetables showed up on the table, along with a smaller bowl filled with fruits. These were obviously dragon-sized portions, but it looked like I wouldn’t starve while I was here. It was probably prudent to keep some of that in my space for later. I hadn’t looked in my space in a while, but my food stores had to be getting low.

And…the dragons had voice-activation technology. Neat. “And water?” I asked, wondering which formation I’d need to use, only for Reela to point outside.

“The pond? Seriously?!” I couldn’t help but wonder at the thought process of whoever designed this place.

“Why do you think it’s so close by?” Reela asked rhetorically.

In any case, my basic needs looked like they’d been accounted for, so I simply shoved down whatever awe I felt at the conditions and took one of the bowls for myself, throwing a piece of raw yet oddly tasty broccoli into my mouth.

“So, this is kind of a dumb question, but how come nobody else speaks aloud here?” I asked.

“The whelps don’t know how to, and the elders prefer communicating with soulspeak. Apparently it’s easier than having to remember the rules for each language and all their intricacies. I don’t know about the human language, but the beastkin tongue is hard enough that I feel they have a point about that.”

I chewed on the meat I had taken while I thought about what she’d said before asking, “And what’s soulspeak?”

“It’s the language of the soul,” she said in the most unhelpful way possible. Thankfully, it seemed like she got the hint when I didn’t follow up, as she continued. “You’ve cast spells with and without intent, right? It’s like that. Some elder a long time ago developed a way to create soul threads for communication. I don’t really remember the details, but basically, they found out how to let souls communicate regardless of the distance, or any barriers. But it requires intent to function. Otherwise it won’t work properly.”

“Soul threads?”

“That’s not what they’re really called, I just can’t remember the name right now, okay?” She paused as I kept chewing before pushing on. “And it’s probably best if you don’t use your space around the kids….or even in general.” Although it would be a bit of an inconvenience, she wasn’t wrong. It would be hard to explain why things or living beings appeared out of nowhere around me…though I would use it if the situation called for it. I nodded before plowing through the rest of my bowl, and heading to the pond to get some water, before walking back and using the bowl I had just eaten from to scoop out some water instead.

“Do you want the right side of the bed, or the left side?” My eyes went wide at the question before I got ahold of myself and just told my mentor to take the bed, as I’d be sleeping in my space.

And thus began my cohabitation with my dragonkin mentor, an arrangement that would continue for years.