Spoiler :

Sorry about that strangeness earlier, I am not usually impulsive until suddenly I am, it comes and goes. Here are some nice quotes to think about:

“Becoming powerful is much the same as becoming rich. It is a dream that does not require a reason. If a reason is required, perhaps it is fear of being poor or weak.”-I shall steal the heavens

“A baby eagle who always hides under the shadow of his mother’s wing will never learn what it is to truly be free. It is only through danger will one’s potential burst and take to the skies.” –Battle through the Heavens

“Meckala selvoka merenay trwa vataspere “– ???

Translation: The rulers of just one’s thoughts are often becoming the whole world (If it is one’s thoughts then it is a big part of one’s whole real world) -anonymous

The Terror of Silence

(Brother: currently going through growing pains)

“…so right when the evil …cracked scale was about to hit the little kid -er I mean human hatchling I made it so his sh- eh foot coverings were tied together and so he tripped and fell on the floor and the little hatchlings escaped and all the other big humans who saw laughed at him”

I and the others after hearing and seeing this ridiculous sight also broke out into laughter. Sister really did the funniest things in the outside.

“Can I help next time?”  One of the littler ones asked excitedly and soon there was a chorus of voices emotions and images joining in the begging. Sister seemed a bit overwhelmed for a moment before replying

“…Well can you see and move things around in the outside? I thought so. I will consider it if you manage to at least see into the human villages and be able to move at least a dust cloud.”

What was a good word for what Sister was doing? I know she had told me such things before…ah yes it was a cop out, an excuse or evasion. I would know because despite our closeness Sister wouldn’t help even me see directly outside and would avoid anything close to confirmation whenever I asked.

Because none of us even had the ability to affect things even just outside our shells of course it was completely impossible to do what she said without her help. But when we pointed this out she would just tell us that if we wanted to see we would have to hatch out and see it for ourselves.

I also had my suspicions that she continued to block those that could somewhat see outside. And whenever we asked her if she thought we should start hatching she would put us off with those excuse things as well as vague tasks called ‘preparation’. It was something that frustrated us all but at least in my case it was also very comforting as I was still a bit afraid of this unknown idea of hatching

Besides Sister seemed in no hurry to hatch and I was somewhat uneasy on going without her, there were also my five main friends 3 new siblings and not to mention the many other friends I had more recently made. It just didn’t seem like it would be fun unless we all went together.

I didn’t feel the need to spend much time thinking about Sister’s hidden reasons because I myself had just gone through changes of my own.

It had started when I had started to become the main leader other than sister of the other unhatched. My friends and siblings were also something of leaders but even they for some reason or other all looked toward me whenever a decision was needed to be made. Even if the decision was something as minor as choosing how to play a game we invented.

Soon after noticing it my status window confirmed it

You have gained a new stat [leadership]

+ 1 leadership

I had some sort of qualities that made others want follow me, and now that I had gained that stat those qualities only became more visible. After asking my friends I learned that most of them also gained the leadership stat however none of them had as much as me. When I asked Sister she just replied that yes she had it too and yes it was in larger amounts then I.

Even when the amount of unhatched suddenly increased for reasons unknown to us, upon gaining consciousness the new ones would just follow the example of their elders and would just start following me, my friends somewhat and finally Sister.

Upon gaining this stat I also started to gain a greater interest in those who looked towards me for guidance, and I basically took what I would later learn was called an unofficial census. There were currently a few thousand of us and this increased at least yearly usually by another few hundred or so.

Strangely within the new comers, not only were there were no new siblings but for the majority of these new ones, even after gaining consciousness and learning all they could did not seem to reach the level or capabilities of myself, my friends and most especially not even a fraction close to Sister.

When I asked Sister to explain, from the parts I could understand I got this: Simply put if it weren’t for us talking and interacting with them. The majority of new ones would have gotten so lonely that they would have instinctively hatched.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Myself and my friends had for whatever reason (I suspect my curiosity and boredom but have no clue as to others) we did not immediately hatch but created a mana stone instead.

Thus as my sister put it we were ‘special’ and as such it wasn’t surprising that after a certain point the new ones understood less and at a slower pace than we were able to.

This got me curious, if I was ‘special’ as she put it did that mean that there even more that I could do that the others couldn’t? The answer that came from both Sister and my own logical conclusion was ‘yes’.

Thus when I wasn’t ‘leading’ the others in games, lessons or mediating in fights I started doing what my sister called ‘training’ in my free time the results were instantly gratifying in the form of various stat increases and even a few skills but also because after some time I ranked up.

Congratulations You Have Ranked up!!

You are now a green-blue dragon!

Your color has affinity with nature, and water as well as with classes involving healing and other forms of magic

Strangely after ranking up most of my fear and hesitancy mysteriously vanished. I became filled with a strong sense of confidence in myself. It was an almost completely groundless feeling that was to the point that you could consider it arrogance.

And I am slightly ashamed to say that to supplement that arrogance I also started cultivating a choosy ignorance and pride. I had decided that I knew all I needed to know and what I didn’t know wouldn’t harm me in fact it was unnecessary.

Even more unusual, was that many of the things that I had once found intriguing suddenly became boring and many of the things that I had once mostly feared or felt indifferent about suddenly became almost unbearably interesting and tempting. Things such as the outside world.

When before my fear had filled my vision to the point that I could not even think about the outside without feeling at least a twinge or two of fear. I now possessed the ability of ‘tunnel vision’ as my sister would call it.

I could now think only of the possible delights of the outside and temporarily and conveniently forget about the possible dangers which had so concerned me before. I began to badger Sister unsuccessfully for information and when she asked for the reason for my sudden fervency I let slip that I was thinking of hatching.

To my frustration even that did not seem to have the effect I hoped for, because instead of giving me information about the outside world or giving her blessing on my plan hatching out. Instead she merely started to give me more of her ‘preparation’ tasks and told me to complete them.

They were simple tasks, most of them were about learning something she told me was probably useful or teaching it or lesser knowledge to the others in her stead. When before I had found joy and pleasure in her sharing with me, and in displaying to the others her trust in me by teaching them things she had only directly taught me or a few others (usually my siblings).

I now only felt irritation and exasperation. I could probably learn all I needed to know in the outside world when I hatched I thought often and even complained to her when my frustration got too much to bear in silence.

And in my defense I was probably correct in some respects. Sister did and does tend to often be overcautious and over prepared later I would consider this style of living quite wise and would even mostly follow it myself but back then I was going through what I would now call ‘growing pains’ and I had the notion that because I hadn’t thought the idea it must be at least inefficient if not downright incorrect.

But despite Sister’s ‘faults’ I still admitted even my strange state that she was too useful to me, to want to willingly hatch without her I forcefully thought this not wanting to admit the fact that I would miss her in my revelatory state of understanding.

Besides the strange flush of confidence in myself that I had gotten from ranking up and the growing pains that came with it, my position as the more direct leader had probably had much to do with why I had suddenly gotten so full of myself.

I had even started, because of my frustration of Sisters ‘lack of ambition’, to think that Sister wasn’t as important as I had thought she was. That even, if Sister wasn’t there I would have wound up in the same position that I was now in (though I begrudgingly admitted to myself that it would have taken longer).

I probably didn’t even need any preparation I thought to myself. I could hatch right now even without Sister or her help and would do just fine. I had even started to seriously think about asking several of the others to hatch with me and without Sister.  

And then suddenly it happened.

Immediately and without warning there was complete and utter silence.

Terrifying Silence.