Sweat-soaked, I breathed in and exhaled hot air.

A scorching air that stung my nostrils and pained my lungs.

They had told me this would help.

Over their stews of stones and crustaceans, they spouted answers until the common one had been decided to be a trial by fire.

That exposure to intense heat would progress my plateau.

When one is subjected to intense heat, one then comes to an understanding of oneself.

Or so the old dwarves said, between meals, sleeps, and forging.

Those damn men only cared to feast and shit in order to craft and sleep, then to do it all over again.

Bullshit, I thought as it took every piece of my being to merely remain conscious.

My breathing techniques from the village helped, but after a while, it didn’t seem like enough.

Coals crackled with a heat that sparked an ember red.

Sitting cross-legged within a cage of obsidian and steam, my mind strained to overcome my body’s desire to quit.

In order to become the champion of myself, I must grind myself into oblivion, I thought to myself as I forced the brighter side upon me.

Negative thoughts would do me no good.

Even with everything at my disposal.

With the breathings taught to me by masters of patience, with a resolve hardened by a perilous journey, and with a past that I needed desperately to crush...I still did not have enough to overcome the heat.

Right as my body began breaking, she walked in.

Her hair flowed down, only to become instantly glued to her damp crystalline skin.

In her bathing suit, she revealed that she was all parts dancer, the way her body curved like a blade meant for battle.

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A beauty meant for the high courts of aristocracy but instead she graced the battlefield.

Every limb seemed perfectly sculpted.

Muscles held her frame firm but did not take away from her beauty.

Her core was strong, her legs were long, and everything connected into a masterpiece of human creation.

She was a true work of art.

Not these damn swords and gear.

But her.

My heart raced to keep up with my feelings.

The sight of her would have driven any man mad.

Any person for that matter.

Whether man or not.

I was included of course.

Even more so, I would assume by the racing heart that fought to escape my chest.

But, in my current state- my suffering state- I cared for none of it.

I thought I would share in your agony, Captain.

Her icy blue eyes played with me.

They reminded me of the glaciers found in the Barren Seas, of cold itself, of everything but this.

Of an escape from my torture.

“I wish you could take it from me…”

I managed to whimper.

Every word stung with fire as it escaped my dry throat.

So, very dry…I thought as dreams of water coursed my mind.

We spent minutes in the hot silence.

Simply staring at the black walls that kept heat in like a treasure to be guarded.

I wanted to speak, but the heat held my tongue.

“Why are you doing this?

Do you really believe in their nonsense?

It had been a month since we had arrived with the dwarves and taken refuge in their great stone halls.

One whole month and everyone had seemed to progress but me.

I had hit my wall.

Then I decided on taking a quest out in the mountain range, one which I would challenge alone to make sure it was difficult enough to trigger growth.

Only to hit the wall once again with a force greater than before.

I was stuck.

I had plateaued in power.

I will do whatever it takes. No matter how foolish it seems. All in order to grow.

Her eyes searched mine as if peering into my being like a witch does her orb.

[Soul-gazing], I could feel its touch.

An intruder wished to enter my soul’s land.

My instincts wished to push back.

My heart allowed her in.

What she saw I could never know.

From the smile that came after, I was glad about whatever it was that I held deep inside myself.

As if celebrating too soon, the smile was very quickly followed by a scowl.

You’ll never get on if you don’t move on from her.

A sharp visceral pain hit me with the force of giants.

One that for a moment made me forget about the heat.

What’s heat? My mind responded

Pain is all we are feeling now.

A frown spread across my own face.

Droplets of sweat no longer fell to the floor, being covered in sweat was now my new state of being.

I hope that’s not stopping my growth

Because I don’t know when I’ll move on from my past.

If I ever will.

Each word burned but needed to be said.

Maybe, who knows?

She responded as she got up from the black stone she was perched upon and stretched those perfectly symmetrical limbs of hers.

Don’t be upset, I pleaded as she began to make her way out.

I’m not upset.

Just surprised that our Captain could be shackled by something as weak as the past.

Leaving me without air to respond.

She left the chamber of fire.

Leaving me alone to burn.

Losing.

I was losing.

I had let her walk out without explaining myself.

And now, as my body and mind swayed, I was letting the heat consume me.

Just before my mind left my body fainted.

A trigger appeared.

A cool emerged.

My breath

grew stronger.

The heat no longer scorched.

[Dragon’s Breath] achieved.

I smiled and stood up.

A dragon was born.