**Chapter Two**
The next morning came, and I woke to the mouth-watering smell of something delicious. Opening my eyes, I saw a gigantic crab in the middle of the cave. Without thinking, I bolted towards it, my siblings right behind me. We tore into the crab, devouring it in no time. Afterward, we lay there, stuffed and satisfied, with only a few bones left as evidence of our feast.
Mother returned, looking at us. “I see you all enjoyed your breakfast,” she said. We all nodded, still too full to speak. She continued, “Now that you've all hatched, it's time to explain what's happening with our clan.”
She paused, glancing at each of us before continuing, “At the moment, I am the only elder dragon in our clan—the founder.”
As Mother spoke, I recalled the stages of a dragon's life from my inherited memories. Hatchlings, like us, are between 0 to 6 months old, little more than helpless creatures. Wyrmlings, which we will become at 6 months, are capable of basic magic and flight, and this stage lasts until we are 6 years old. After that, we become young dragons, unlocking more magic knowledge tied to our element—fire for reds, lightning for blues, poison for greens, and so on. This stage lasts until we are 25.
Juvenile dragons, aged 25 to 50, unlock more magic knowledge. When we reach adolescence, from 50 to 100 years old, we become fertile and can have a clutch of eggs. At this stage, we will have unlocked most knowledge of our type of our main magic primary elemental type and will gain the knowledge for are secondary affinity. After adolescence comes adulthood, from 100 to 400 years old, when we gain even more knowledge on magic mainly for our lesser affinity magic types and we unlock shape-shifting This is the most active breeding period, although interest in it wanes with age.
Next is the elder dragon stage, from 400 to 800 years old. Dragons in this stage gain access also mainly to our lesser affinity to help them get caught up. The ancient stage, lasting from 800 to 1,000 years old, is when dragons lose their fertility. and when are lower affinity get caught up in knowledge to our main and we finally gain more knowledge of our main type again also, you are not always guaranteed to survive into this ancient stage some dragons are deemed unworthy and die of old age at the elder tier. If a dragon survives to become a wyrm, between 1,000 to 1,200 years old, they are nearing the natural end of their life. and gain access to a complete understanding of their main type of magic and there we no longer gain magic knowledge from our memories. And like the last stage, not all dragons are destined for this stage and die of old age in there ancient tier this is were most dragons die of age. But some rare dragons break through into the primordial stage, lasting from 1,200 to 6,000 years. These dragons are the most powerful, but their bodies give out naturally at the end of this stage and they now need to gain knowledge of the other types of magic like any other race from studying and practice.
I also recalled the sizes. Blue dragon hatchlings like us are about 1 meter long with a 1.5-meter wingspan. A wyrmling is about 2 meters long with a 3-meter wingspan. Young dragons are 4 meters long with a wingspan of 6. Juvenile dragons are 8 meters and with a wingspan of 10 and adolescents grow up to 16 meters with wingspans of 19 By adulthood, blue dragons lose their explosive growth and are about 20 meters long with a 24-meter wingspan, upon reaching elder age blue dragons are 24 meters in length and a wing span of 28 upon reaching the ancient stage blue dragons are 28 meters in length with wing spans of 32 upon reaching the wyrm stage blue dragons are 32 meters in length and wing spans of 36 and they continue to grow as they age. And hit a explosive growth if they can break through to the primordial stage The youngest primordial blue dragons are at least up to 40 meters in length with a wingspan of 46 meters.
Mother’s voice pulled me back from my thoughts. “In our current clan, there are only three adults, five adolescents, eight juveniles, thirteen young dragons, seventeen wyrmlings, and seven hatchlings, including you four.”
I realized how small our clan was. A typical blue dragon clan usually has one wyrm, three ancients, seven elder dragons, fourteen adults, twenty-one adolescents, twenty-nine juveniles, thirty-seven young dragons, and around forty-six wyrmlings. Many of these dragons are adopted from other colors, but our numbers were far fewer.
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Mother continued, “You four are the newest members. The clan will care for you until you become wyrmlings, after which you will learn to hunt and fly. By the time you reach juvenile stage, you must be able to provide for the clan. If not, you will be cast out like all other chromatic dragons.”
Her voice became stern. “You will bring glory to this clan and show why blues are the mightiest amoung us dragons”
She turned and left the cave. I spent the rest of the day exploring the memories of other chromatic dragons. Reds, I remembered, are the largest and strongest but are often direct and idiotic. Their arrogance leads to a high mortality rate, especially among the young. Blues, like us, are the second strongest and the most intelligent, excelling in magic. We live in clans near disaster-prone areas like deserts or beaches. Greens are the third strongest, preferring to use minions and cunning to win their battles. They live in forests and breathe poison. Blacks are the most cunning, always scheming and backstabbing, masters of illusion who live in swamps and breathe acid. Then there are the whites, feral and instinct-driven, living in cold places. They are the weakest and the disgrace of the dragon race.
A month passed, and I found something strange—I could already use basic lighting magic, even though I was still just a hatchling. I could also breathe lightning. During this time, the clan’s young dragons, all blue, took turns caring for us.
One day, I was play-fighting with my sister Zalyndre, who was the second strongest among us. We were locked in a fierce battle for dominance, staring each other down until she lunged at me, aiming a swipe at my head. I blocked with my right paw and countered with my left, which she also blocked. I quickly disengaged, dodging her attempt to bite me, which threw her off balance. Taking advantage, I struck her side with my right leg, which she blocked, but my tail came around, hitting her throat and stunning her. I used the moment to flip her over and pin her to the ground, my jaws around her throat.
“I give up!” she shouted, and I released her.
My brothers, Vaelrath and Zarothan, were lounging nearby, watching the fight. “Nice job, Azuron,” Vaelrath said. “You really showed her who's boss.”
Zarothan chuckled. “Yeah, that wannabe red never stood a chance.”
Zalyndre growled, “I’m not a lazy, arrogant red! I’m a noble blue dragon!”
Vaelrath smirked. “Yeah, right. You act more like a red than a blue.”
Zalyndre lunged at him, but I intervened, pinning her down once more. “Now, now, dear sister,” I said. “You're a wonderful blue, but you're letting your temper get the best of you. In a real fight, that kind of anger would get you killed.”
She growled but admitted, “I’ll work on my temper.”
“Good,” I said, releasing her. “See that you do.”
As she walked away, Zarothan muttered, “Like she’ll ever change.”
Vaelrath nodded in agreement, but I stopped them. “Give her a chance. We’re all blues here—the most intelligent and powerful of the chromatic dragons.”
“Okay, if you say so,” Vaelrath replied with a shrug.
I wandered over to the remains of the terror crab, the giant creature that we loved to eat, as it used lightning magic that made it taste especially good to us blue dragons. As I ate, I began thinking more about magic. Magic works by drawing from the ambient energy around you, or, if you are a magical creature, from within yourself. The second method is much faster and stronger but also drains your stamina. This is why young dragons can’t fly—without a developed dragon heart, they can't manipulate the air around them to take flight. But I already had a dragon heart and could see the magic around me, with a strong affinity for many elements, especially lightning.
Usually, dragons have one core affinity, like fire for reds or poison for greens plus a main secondary such as steam for reds and nature for green, but I seemed to have a strong secondary connection to many. I could sense steam, water, ice, nature, etc, and of course, ground which feels more like a main affinity than a secondary. And even sense some more uncommon types such as dark and light magic, which was unusual for a hatchling. you use magic by casting it in spells from tier 1 to 9 three also 0 tier spells which are non combatant and more for fail chores those are more human stuff. And above 9 are legendary spells strong enough to hurt Even the gods.
Later that day, I approached one of the young dragons and asked a question that has been bugging my mind sense mother took the dragon beasts away “What happens to the dragon beasts?”
He snorted and replied, “They’re used for breeding stock, sometimes even food. If they survive, they’re sold to anyone willing to buy them, and the parents split the gold.”
I felt uneasy at the idea, but I quickly dismissed it. Dragon beasts were almost a different species, and dragons didn’t eat each other.
Most of my days passed like this—eating, playing, and fighting with my siblings. Five months went by, and soon we would enter our dragon sleep, ready to emerge as wyrmlings.