Novels2Search
Dragon Ascension
Chapter 3: Progress

Chapter 3: Progress

It has now been a full 6 months since I have entered this world as a member of the royal dragon family. I have made much progress in gathering knowledge and information. I even have a name! I like it a lot, it is a name signifying strength and wisdom in the dragon tongue: Vedova. 

Isn’t that cool? Much better than 'Justin'. Right?

Speaking of the dragon language.

I have also gained a complete understanding of the two languages spoken by the people of this country, which are known as Muz and Nonvul. 

Nonvul is the dialect which is only known to the members of the royal family, it has been passed down from the first dragon who created it around 16000 years ago, this is the same dragon that is portrayed on the mural in the throne room. This dragon is the father of the species, and his death is used as a marking point in history. 

Similar to how Earth used the B.C. time measurement of Jesus' death, this planet used the death of the Pahborma, or 'Allfather'.

This great and noble dragon was said to be able to use all four of the Draconian elements, he was the most powerful existence recorded in all of history. 

The only reason Pahborma died was because he sacrificed himself to stop an asteroid that would have had similar effects of the dinosaur extinction.  The legends in my family's libraries tell of the 'Great King' using the very power of his soul to obliterate the huge rock completely, and apparently the amount of energy he used caused him to self-destruct.

The remnants of the dangerous soul energy became known to this world as mana, over time all of the other species mutated to be able to use the invisible power, but because us dragons are the direct creation of Pahborma, we inherited his skill and genes thus making us the most powerful mana users in this world.

Of course, we did not receive all of his power, and we can only use up to one of the elements that exist here.  My species is color coded because of the mutative power mana had initially on us, our bodies were not as strong as Pahborma so it still had some minor effects on our bodies. 

My mother is an electric dragon, all of her kind have pitch black scales including myself. The shade of black, or any of the 4 colors, determines the amount of innate ability that one will possess when they 'awaken' magically. 

My father is a Yoldvah, or 'Fire Dragon'.  His scales are a deep ember red, signifying immense power. 

The other two elements are Water and Air, air dragons are a pure white color and water dragons are bright blue in color.

There are only a little over 50 dragons in this world, all of them belonging to royal families. There is a deep understanding between our kind that we should not wage war with each other and should only take part in mortal affairs when there is genocide or a massive tragedy taking place.

The size of this planet is around double that of Earth, as such there exist huge continents surrounded by even larger amounts of water.  Even 3000 years after the death of Pahborma, or 3000 A.D., there are still parts of unexplored land which are deemed uninhabitable or have too hostile of wildlife to explore it. 

Out of the 6 continents of this world, 4 are completely mapped out while the other two are only vaguely outlined on the maps that exist, with a huge planet comes huge technological delays as many of the other races did not begin exploration until recently.

All of the dragons occupy one continent, and this one continent is governed by a council of 10 dragons, my father being one of the members. This council only meets when there are urgent matters at hand, and the last gathering was over 400 years ago when the humans were getting decimated by the biologically superior beastmen and elves.

The solution was pretty simple, the beast men got a slap on the wrist and an army or two destroyed, and the remaining couple thousand humans were allowed to reside on the dragon continent. 

Out of fear of incurring the council’s wrath again, the other 6 made an agreement that any wars will by no means result in the complete slaughter of an entire people. Considering the wars before, this was a vast improvement and the population of the waring countries never dropped below 1/2 of what they were beforehand.

Satisfied with this conclusion, the dragons have not bothered in interfering in their petty disputes anymore, instead we have been doing more important things like hoarding treasure deep underground and sleeping next to it. 

I'm not joking either, out of the odd 59 dragons only 14 of them are currently up and about and 10 of those are the council members seeing to it that nothing important happens. Apparently the old stories of dragons having an abnormal attraction to shiny golden things is true, my mother often talks to me about her own personal collection stored deep underneath the family castle.

My parents don’t even share treasure crypts, that’s how greedy our kind is. I guess it is just well known that gold comes before all else, as for why that is no one really knows, but they haven't really looked into the matter all that much. 

Vedbrii still does not know completely of my intelligence, but she has voiced her opinion several times on the matter to Sahqoviing.  Every time she brings it up he just says:

"Nii los aan ofan nol fin Pahborma" or "It is a gift from the great Allfather, she clearly is not satisfied with that answer and she brings it up almost every time she reads to me now.

Despite her suspicions, she still plays with me like I am some kind of kitten, I have gotten used to it and long since started to enjoy it instead of trying to fight it. 

But but but! When I awaken I will not allow such viscous play, it will be civilized, damn it!

Said awakening will take place in around 4 years, during that time my body will go into a coma and I will grow to be about the size of a horse in my dragon form. During the hiatus of about 3 months, I will need to be sealed in a room with huge amounts of food rations as I will need to eat to sustain my growth.

After I finally wake up I will be able to speak the Draconian tongue while still in dragon form, it will be impossible to speak Muz though. 

Dragons go through 3 major metamorphosis', one being the previously mentioned coma, and the others coming at the age of 13 and 22 respectively. So just once every nine years will I go into a deep slumber, although they will decrease by one month for each evolution.

Meaning my second hibernation will take 2 months and the final one taking 1 month.  From what mother reads from the books, I will grow to be the size of a football field excluding my head and tail. My wingspan should be somewhere around 440 meters, meaning each of my leathery and muscly wings will be about 220 yards long.

Such a length is to be expected, us dragons are very heavy and definitely not hollow boned like birds. Using those huge wings, Air dragons can cause severe hurricanes with just 2 or 3 heavy flaps if they wanted to, but that would have large effects on the other races so it hasn't happened yet except for in a controlled training environment.

These books are really detailed by the way, despite being in a world where the entire planet hasn't even been explored. Mother rambled on about how we don't need technology seeing as we can fly around and kill whatever food we need on a moment's notice. 

I am just excited for not being the size of a cat, then maybe I can get some RESPECT around here *cough* MOM *cough* DAD *cough*

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I might have bronchitis with all this coughing I am doing, maybe I should tone it down a little bit. 

On a completely different note, I have succeeded in controlling the frequencies of my little baby rawrs, I can't make them very deep but I have enough power over myself as too give an approving or protesting yip. I have managed to communicate several times now with Bormah and Monah that way.

Also on positive note, I can flap my tiny wings a little bit now too, still have no form of liftoff though, I will have to wait a couple years for that to come in. With the ability to fly, will come the ability to transform into a human as well, but I have no plans on staying in such a boring form when I can roam the skies as a majestic dragon.

The human transformations are still many times stronger than a regular one, but the form has its limitations just like the originals and I do not want to go out of my way to have limits. 

Another reason why I won't go back is because I feel more familiar with this four legged lizard body than my old one at this point, I can barely remember what it feels like to stand on two legs and have opposable thumbs. I am more than comfortable in this form so why should I switch back? 

I will have to play human again for formal events and conversing with humans, but when I’m by myself I will definitely be a badass bio tank that can spew lighting out of my body with a thought.

Well, it won’t be that simple, but with some training getting used to I’m sure that I will be fine. 

I forgot about an important discovery about this world, the different races that exist.

On the 3 other civilized continents exist beastmen, elves, fairies, demons, angels, and harpies with humans residing with us.  I thought the harpies would be considered a type of beast person, but the books say they completely separated from the rest and are now just nomads traveling from place to place, just going where the weather is nicer I guess.

What has me most intrigued is the beastmen, they are supposedly more physically inept than humans and can take after any type of mammal in appearance, from rodents to canines they are incredibly diverse.  When I was in my teens I always thought furries were incredibly weird and unusual, but now that animal human hybrids actually exist I am not sure how I would react seeing one.

I mean, the idea is cute and all, but could I live with myself if I do happen to take a liking to one? I literally grew up with everyone around me having a deep hatred for terrorists, referring them as 'goat fuckers' as a sort of secondary name for them.  

I have been thinking about it a little bit, and I think that the whole sentience and consent thing makes it ok but I really am having a hard time with this...maybe I am just thinking too hard? 

What was it that activists used to say? Something like love is love...I never really cared for all that stuff but it's not like I was going around lynching homosexuals, if they wanted to be gay or trans or whatever go ahead, just don't bother me with it.  I feel a little hypocritical now though, maybe I should start a movement spreading interracial love. 

No, that's a really bad idea now that I think about it. What if a demon and a human mated? Ewwwww....it would be like a more humanoid version of Shrek. 

Hey, wait a minute, donkey was an animal and he did it with a dragon and nobody really cared about that. Does that mean it's ok? Hey, if no one is going to tell me otherwise I am now going to assume it is ok.

As long as the beast people aren't literally animals...

You know what? I’m throwing this whole thought process away; I am only 7 months old. I need to be focusing on more important things like knowing how my city works.

But currently I am with Vedbrii in the kitchen making some mushed up dinner for myself, I won't get teeth until my first transformation so I have to get used to this stuff sometime soon as I will be eating it for the next 3 and a half years. 

I thought it was weird how I wasn't born with teeth seeing as I am a predatory flying lizard, but a biology book on dragons cleared it up for me. 

Since the time from being laid to the time I am hatched is so short, I did not have time to grow teeth in the egg, and because dragons mature in waves I cannot develop them now either. The book points out that the first 4 years and 3 months are when a dragon is most vulnerable, this is why I need to be on my mother’s shoulders at all times.

Also because she thinks I’m insanely cute and wants to show off her parrot lizard. But mostly out of love, yeah. Really intense motherly love. 

Sometimes I think it might be a little obsessive, but I am just a child in the face of an 8000-year-old dragon. 

I learned my mother's age during one of her ramblings about her youth with father, he is 12000 by the way. I thought they were separated by maybe 2 or 3 years tops, but dragons stop aging at the age of 23 so my father just has a more mature look. 

Apparently my birth was a huge ordeal was because dragons have an extremely low fertility rate and that my birth was a miracle in itself, my parents have been trying for thousands of years to no avail. I can’t imagine being with someone for that long, but dragons perceive time differently because they are immortal.

Years also do not matter to dragons when it comes to love, the only time years are brought up is a seniority concept which is deeply rooted in dragon society.

Juniors do not dare disrespect or offend their seniors, this is something that every dragon knows from instinct at birth. The legends say that this happened because of the Allfather, supposedly he created us with this in mind so that his children would not fight amongst themselves.

This guy was literally the world’s greatest dad, I bet his jokes were killer before he literally sacrificed himself by hitting a giant rock really really really hard.

This food still feels terrible going down my throat by the way, it is a constant struggle made worse by the fact that my throat is longer than what it was as a human, so I have to feel the mush sliding down all the way into my chest.

It is not a pleasant experience, I now know why babies hated eating baby food. It wasn't because it tasted bad, it's because the stuff is like slime crawling its way down your esophagus. 

I finished eating my muck as quick as possible and mother takes me with her to bed where father is waiting, this is a routine that I am used to by now. 

In the mornings, they play with me. After lunch, they play with me. After dinner and in bed for the night, they play with me for a significantly longer and more intensely. 

I suspect that it is a result of their accumulated stress throughout the day and that they need to take it out on me to make them feel better.  

And off I go to my fated suffering, as a living and breathing stress ball I must perform my job to the best of my ability. 

(I packed a lot of information into this one, so much so that I tried extra hard to have it be funny at the end. Let me know what you thought of this chapter and as always, thanks for reading and have a great night!)

(Proofread = Scientia Pyre)