After we ate it was right back to training, it was a mixture of running a few laps around the clearing and some training to see how strong I was. Like using my wings to see if I could fly or at least lift my body up into the air or using my tail to lift up the logs.

I don’t know why we did the wing training because only a blind person wouldn’t see how useless my wings are. It was like putting a set of leathery bee wings onto a black alligator…. That’s a weird comparison but it’s the closest I could think of. However, when it came to using my tail I found out that it was actually pretty strong and I could lift up two or three logs at a time! Even dad was surprised at that.

But after around 3 hours of training I couldn’t push myself anymore and it was time to go home. I was surprised I could even get this far with a new body but I’m guessing having the body of a dragon can make a lot of things possible.

“I wasn’t thinking about how far away we would be from home. Do you think you can push yourself to walk back home? What I could do is go get the family and bring them our here and then your mom could heal you up?”

Dad was looking a little concerned while talking about leaving me here but man just thinking about struggling to walk what I assumed was more than a couple miles back home….. I was starting to get bug eyed. Then again, it was starting to get dark and I could hear animal noises as the nocturnal creatures were starting to wake up.

“I think I can do it dad. Why don’t we see how far I can go before we consider leaving me out here for a little bit.”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s head home.”

I was able to push my aching body for what felt like an hour before I had to rest. I couldn’t take another step and thankfully dad was more than happy to sit down with me.

“Do you think it’ll be ok for us to just relax like this with how dark the forest got? Should we make a fire or something?” I asked while looking around at every little noise I kept hearing.

“Haha, don’t worry boy, There isn’t anything out here that is brave enough to even get near us. But if it will help you I can make us a little fire to help get rid of some of the darkness.”

“I would appreciate that, I can see in the dark pretty good but hearing all these noises is really just making me think of monsters that could jump out at anytime.”

“Hahahaha, That’s right you’re an abyss dragon, nighttime should be your playground but seeing as how you’re a baby I can understand that. Hold on for a moment.”

It took him all but a few seconds to chop one of the smaller trees down and chop that even further down until there was a nice stack of uniform logs. He then took some of the dried brush and twigs and just like watching one of the survival shows he made a textbook firepit. The only thing different was that when the fire was ready to be lit…. He plugged up one of his nostrils and with a smirk he hocked a fiery snot ball into the pile of branches and kindling.

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I chuckled because only a dragon would do something like that.

Pretty soon with a couple logs thrown on top we had a good fire going and the uneasiness I had was fading away.

“Ah this was a good idea son. We might just hang out here for the night if you’re up for it, we could get some more practice in and with it being nighttime we could even try and figure out what kind of powers you have.”

The more dad talked about training me and my powers the more excited he got, it was like he was a scientist and had just found a new test subject. But seeing how he acted when I got hurt makes me think that he is just genuinely excited about me getting stronger as a father should.

So, I nodded and agreed that it would be a great idea and so he went off into the woods nearby to catch us some dinner and to let mom know we would be staying out for the night. I don’t know how well she was going to take that but while he was gone, I had an idea I wanted to try out.

I closed my eyes and did what every guy did at some point in his life……. I tried to go super sa……. I mean I tried to sense the magic that had filled up my dragon heart. I remember the feeling of the mana flooding into my body, but what if I just tried to move the mana that’s already inside me instead of gathering more. I certainly didn’t want to risk another painful experience.

But closing my eyes I imagined my heart filled with a blue liquid that was constantly being pumped out into the rest of my body. I started from there and followed the flow of that liquid throughout the rest of my body. Down my legs, down my tail, even into the small wings I had on my back.

I couldn’t feel anything changing, I could feel the movement of the mana within my body but I was expecting something more….. I don’t know, Profound? Life changing? I was expecting at least maybe a Nirvana moment?

Then I realized I forgot something important, This whole time I was imagining the flow within my body I never thought to imagine it flow up into my brain. So just to make sure I didn’t mess anything up I went through the entire process again of the flow through my body but this time when the flow of mana reached back to my heart to start the rotation again, I had a secondary flow go up from my heart on one side of my neck, swirl around my brain, then flow back down the other side of my neck and back to the heart.

As soon as the flow reached my heart it was like an explosion of sensations! Even with my eyes closed I felt like the world around me became filled with vibrant colors, I could hear the tiniest of the woodland creatures scamper across the floor as they tried to avoid the bigger nighttime predators, I felt the heat from the fire like a warm hug and with enough focus I could almost sense the underground creatures beneath me.

I opened my eyes with a huge smile on my face and saw as my dad was sitting across from me watching me with a smile to match.

“That was excellent Stygian, I can’t believe you unlocked your [Dragon Sense] this early into your training! Dragonlings on average only begin to understand the flow of mana around the 5 year mark and even then some just can’t seem to complete a full rotation. Then again you did skip a few years I guess? So maybe that helped you unconsciously understand the way it’s supposed to work?”

“I think that’s what it was dad, Just something inside me naturally wanted the energy in my body to flow a certain way so I just let it take its course.” Sure, let’s go with that dad and not the fact that I’m a weeb who has lived his whole life waiting for the chance to use magic….

“That must be it, I will talk with your grandfather when we get back h……”

He continued talking but it was like all noise cutoff and my vision went blurry and everything turned into some weird funhouse mirror. My dad’s body was changing in sizes as his mouth moved before eventually he turned sideways and something smacked the side of my head before everything went black.

“There we go, I was surprised the boy held out for that long under the draw of [Dragon Sense]. First timers usually black out immediately.”

Solace looked up nonchalantly as an older man walked out of the darkness from nearby.

“Yea I know, this kid is amazing! You were right dad, he has an amazing potential.”