Taylor woke up the next day to a splash of cold water. Well to be specific it was him splashing in the cold water. Melody woke up before him and was impatient so she threw him by the ankles into the lake.

Sputtering he stood up wiping off his eyes and squeezing his hair to get the water out. “Rude!” He yelled out to her.

“You were sleeping too long elf boy!” She said with a triumphant smile on her face.

As he wakes back to shore he said “you could’ve just nudged me and told me to wake up, that works you know.”

“But this was more fun!” She exclaimed as she ran up to and around him, “so when are you going to show me how to talk to the tree-“

“Gaia,” Taylor interjected, “he has a name, I know it’s difficult to remember now since he seems like only a tree to you but once you can see and talk to him I’m sure you’ll get better at remembering. Would you like it if I called you ‘it’ or ‘the dragon’?” He asked.

She kicked a small rock that flew off into the distance at Mach 1, “no”

He put his hand on her shoulder, “then try to remember his name until you can talk to him. Now sit down and close your eyes.”

She did as he requested and sat down and closed her eyes. She thought this was a bit silly but if the elf said this was the best course of action to speak to the, uh, Gaia, then so be it.

“Now I assume you know what mana feels like by now, so focus on that feeling, stretch out your mind and imagine your feeling outside your own body for that same thing.” Taylor explained to her doing so himself, “there will be two things you should be able to feel rather easily, me and Gaia.”

He watched as her mana, now with the slightest hint of purple swirls in it which didn’t seem to be causing any harm, reached out in the form of her own arms. He chuckled a bit realizing how different mana can seem to each individual.

“What’s funny?” She asked, her mana arms blurring.

“Focus,” he prodded, “I’m watching and can see the shape of your mana. I simply found int interesting and amusing that we perceive mana so differently.”

“I can’t feel anything,” she said in frustration.

Taylor stepped into her arm allowing her hand to touch his thigh, stopping once it touched his own mana that he had cloaked around him similar to a particular spiky haired anime character whose hair goes blonde.

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“Wait what’s that?” She asked perplexed, “it’s squishy.” Her hand began to mush his mana around like it was a stress ball.

“That would be my mana,” Taylor said a smile playing on his lips, “try to imagine you mana more like a cloud, or mist spreading everywhere instead of arms this time. It should make it easier to sense me and Gaia.” And he stepped away from her.

Her arms retracted only for a blue haze with a purple undertone to come out. It reached him and climbed up to surround him, not hampering his view at all but still covering his face nonetheless. He watched as her mama spread further and further until it reached the base of Gaia.

She gasped as it touched him and he appeared next to her, “hello Melody, it’s so nice to finally be able to speak to you.” Came his calming voice.

A tear rolled down her face as she turned away from Gaia and toward Taylor. Her eyes glowed like his but one eye was now purple instead of both being blue. A pant of guilt hit Taylor for causing these changes in her. If Gaia couldn’t fix it he doubted he could.

“He has the mana of a god” she gasped out, “thank you for showing me how to hear his voice.”

Taylor simply rubbed the top of her head between her horns, “no problem, I’m happy to help you anytime.” He said with a smile.

The gas was quickly retracting into her, “Gaia is going to disappear for you soon sad to say. You need to do this every day to talk to him longer.” Taylor explained understanding now how Gaia was able to know when the talks were ending before.

“Thank you great tree- I mean Gaia, for helping me after my family…” she trailed off without finishing her sentence.

Taylor turned to Gaia and attempted something he had never tried before, telepathy. He imagined the electronic signals in his brain that would indicate him thinking words being translated into radio waves and directing them to Gaia and reversing the process.

That didn’t seem to work so he tried the same process but this time translating the radio wave to sound waves as soon as they reached Gaia, “Gaia?” He tried again.

Gaia turned to him, “Taylor?”

“Great this works, yeah I just made something I’m calling telepathy. It allows me to speak to you without actually speaking.” He thought, not intending to send the ‘great this works’ part. Seems there’s still a few kinks to work out.

“Very intriguing,” Gaia said, “but what is it that you can’t say aloud?”

“How old is Melody and how old does that translate to the average human life?” He asked.

“She is one thousand and five hundred years old. That makes her fifteen in human years as dragons typically live to ten thousand.” Gaia explained.

Fifteen, that’s a pretty tough age to be, especially without parents, “how’s the maturity for dragons? Like do they mature around the same rate or how does that work?” Taylor asked.

“Typically a dragon comes of age at around five hundred years old.” Gaia said walking over to Taylor to stand next to him, “while in humans terms they are only five years old they have had centuries to learn the basics of life and the world and can leave the nest then and there if they wished. Though she never did, even to this day her primary residence is still fairly close to her parents nest.”

Taylor was puzzled by the last part of his explanation, “if she never left the nest how I’d she only close to her parents nest and not in it?”

“The human kingdom knows there’s a dragon out there somewhere and intend to capture her to make her a pet and breed with her to make more dragons.” He explained, “so they keep constant vigil on the last known nest, which was her parents until they came along and killed them for their skins. This was before they realized they were the last three dragons left.”

The humans killed her parents for their skins, what are dragons here? Just slightly more dangerous elephants? He thought they were at the top of the food chain. Not something humans could accidentally while out. Also how would they breed her if she’s the last? This all just made no sense to him.

“Well,” Gaia said, “dragons can mate with any species to fertilize their egg and the first offspring will always be a dragon. If the dragon born of one dragon and one parent that wasn’t one, and they mate with something that isn’t a dragon, say a human. They will give birth to the dragon born. A humanoid race that strongly resembles how Melody looks now.”

Taylor forgot the telepathy was still active so he deactivated it. “Melody let’s go for a walk please.” And he extended his hand.