(This chapter was re-uploaded correctly on Tuesday 27/August/2024 9:00 PM, timezone GMT+3)
For those wondering about the meaning of the line above this one, this chapter was mistakenly uploaded in volume 1 rather than volume 2. As it was new to me to deal with different volumes, it went way over my head this time.
Please, enjoy reading.
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('1), ('2), ('3), etc. means that there is some explaining for the thing in the chapter's footnotes.
"..." small moment of silence.
"Talking"
[Different Language Dialogue (Different from the language of the PoV)] (What language it is: Accent if necessary)
"He-" Someone was interrupted.
'Inner Dialogue'
{Skills' names, chanting, spell keys and spells' names}
(PoV)
(Flashback, including the text)
Don't shy from commenting on typos and/or inconsistencies. That and/or suggesting a modification to certain things that didn't make sense to you.
I hope you enjoy reading this chapter.
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(3rd person PoV)
'Warmth... how I missed th... is... war... CLEA!' "CUE!" Nephelont bolted awake, surprising some of the Nightwatch and causing Eucleia to twitch a little. He looked at Eucleia and found her sleeping.
He looked at the sky and saw a navy blue, much like his skin.
To Nephelont's discomfort, the sun rose above the horizon.
'I will win! Mark my words!' "CUE! CUEE!" Nephelont balled his talons and punched at the sun, his scales shining with bright white light and breathed some tiny, puny flame. He fell unconscious due to mind down.
"How very interesting. So, they can develop their scales shortly after birth, enough to cover the entire body" A research team member appointed by the head of the research department was taking notes. "That may have a direct correlation with their eggs. On top of the invisible force, assumed to be wind-based, they can emit light from their scales and breathe fire" She noted that down. After a brief moment of observing Nephelont, she concluded another thing. "Emitting light seems to be taxing on hatchlings, as opposed to the multiple wind-based attacks made the prior night" The researcher lady closed her notebook and went away. She returned with some minced raw meat and some vegetables and fruits, just in case these hatchlings were omnivorous.
By the time she returned, she saw the red dragon, Eucleia, watching over Nephelont while he slept. She approached and grunted, alerting Eucleia to her presence. The plates were left there for Eucleia, and for when Nephelont inevitably wakes up.
'Why do I feel impatient? I want Nephelont awake. Now' Eucleia wondered what was different.
'But if I look back at our childhood, I woke him up whenever I felt like I wanted to play with him... Do I want to play with him like when we were children?' Eucleia asked herself as she resisted the urge.
"CUE!!" She was lost in her thoughts for just long enough that her instincts made her smack Nephelont up the head to wake him up.
'No... Nononononononono!!' Eucleia panicked. Her cute paws were covering her eyes as she distanced herself from a surprised Nephelont.
'What?' "CUE?" Nephelont looked around, searching for the source of his pain. When he saw Eucleia, something in him wanted to tackle her.
"CUE!" He playfully obliged then struck her up the head with a soft paw.
Nephelont jumped away from Eucleia, untangling their tails. He stood there, staring at her and inching away.
Eucleia tilted her head in confusion. She caught up a moment later and they started playing chase.
The townspeople were wary and avoided them for the entire day. One never knows when something happens. Looking at their antics from afar was enough for now.
When Eucleia finally caught Nephelont, largely due to her larger body, she tackled him to the ground and tightly held onto him.
"Here" A person gave out their open hand and waited with a smile.
Nephelont was hesitant to accept the affection. But seeing as they were newly hatched in this town, with people who did not harm them while they slept, he started slowly getting closer to that person's hand. When he finally reached it, his eyes dilated. He smelled meat.
Nephelont shook his head to rid himself of the urge to bite this person's hand. He allowed the person to scratch under his mouth. It felt great. The person felt a bit braver and moved their hand to the side of Nephelont's head, then to the top. They avoided the neck, as that might trigger the hatchling.
After some time, Nephelont pulled away. He and Eucleia went back to the plates that contained their breakfast and ate what they could in it, meaning everything.
"What meat are you feeding them?" The commander's grandson, passing by, was curious.
"A mix of Great Jagras and Kulu-Ya-Ku meat. Some vegetables and fruits seem to be on their diets as well" The research lady noted it down as she told the field team leader.
"Kulu-Ya-Ku meat? Their kind have the potential to develop inferno sacks at high-rank, no?" The field team leader cupped his chin in thought, a trait he inherited from the commander, his grandfather.
"The green-scaled hatchling breathed fire while comically standing up to the sun itself" The research lady almost chuckled. "On that note, they seem to be able to emit light from their scales. Further studies are required to understand this trait. A Tzitzi-Ya-Ku can do the same with its frills, but that comes in bursts of flashbangs. Theirs came as a constant stream of light, without pause. That was the case before its energy ran out and it fell unconscious"
"If they grew up, they may assist us well. We need to establish ourselves as friendly individuals to them, just as instructed" The field team leader then called a handler to account for him accompanying her hunter on a mission to cull Jagras populations in the ancient forest while introducing him to the terrain.
'Now that I had a look at them when they are still, they grew slightly larger than the night before. Just how fast do they grow? Would that make their lives shorter as a result? Or does this happen as an adaptation and has minimal consequences?' The researcher lady reopened her notebook and recorded her observation.
(Next day, noon)
When they woke up the next time, they grew from barely reaching the hips of hunters to the height of said hunters, at the shoulder. Their bodies spread the nutrients thin to create a larger body, which resulted in emaciated forms.
Their limbs were longer and had taken proper form. Their tails were no more the stubby, round buds. They were now long and thin, at least as long as the rest of their bodies from tip to toe, Nephelont's being longer and thinner than Eucleia's.
They could barely groan and lift themselves off the ground. In this state, they were sitting ducks. They had to rely on the hunters for food.
"I have been informed by some team leaders that the hatchlings are in dire need of attention right now. Let's hear what they have to say for a second time" The commander asked them to repeat what they told him. While they were discussing what they were meant to do of the situation, Nephelont and Eucleia were given enough meat to feed a group of hunters, and that was a lot of meat.
"The hatchlings grew very fast, from half our average height into exactly that. Furthermore, their muscles are emaciated due to rapid growth with less than the necessary amount of nutrients. We doubt that their skeletal structure is also suffering from the same problem" Elf-in-glasses.
"Commander, team leaders, we observed the habits they exhibited during their wake, and they seem to have an affinity with fire, light and possibly wind. They ate Great Jagras meat with a side of Kulu-Ya-Ku. A bowl of vegetables and fruits was there and was also eaten. The most interesting, however, is that they eat crystalline materials. There was a little crystal from their eggshells they forgot to eat. A little experiment revealed that these are too brittle, the very crystals that were very sturdy before. But as we know, traits and instinctive habits are there for a reason. We need a great deal of crystals of any kind, preferably from the coral highlands, as that area has crystals closest in structure and material to their scales, horns and other parts of their anatomy that we couldn't observe" The ecological research team leader proposed while reading a report about the hatchlings' alarming, possibly life threatening, growth rate.
"What do you say, all of you? Do you have the resources? Or, do we issue urgent quests for our hunters?" The commander asked as he looked around the meeting table somberly. He was informed of the situation beforehand, leading to this urgent meeting that halted the duties of the team leaders temporarily.
"Well, for the crystals, we can provide some of the highlands' crystals but will supplement them with crystals from other areas. As for the meat, we need to issue quests. Fire-affinity meat isn't in stock right now" The provision manager replied. She was smiling like usual.
"That's relieving to hear, coming from you" The commander's countenance eased and he smiled. He then put on a serious face. "Ready the able-bodied hunters for multiple hunts!"
'If what he said was true, that means the two little things could fortify their defences using their scales. How, we don't know yet' A thought passed through the heads of many among the attendees.
(Nephelont's PoV)
'Mmmm... How tiring. But why am I thinking differently to yesterday? Better yet, why do I feel like I grew more than I should? My body feels big yet empty. I have this strong craving for meat and crystals'
I tiredly opened my eyes to have a look. My eyelids felt like they were made of lead. My eyes were pebbles. I couldn't move my eyeballs without them hurting, burning, even.
'Good thing my energy reserves seem to have gotten larger'
By estimation, my reserves should be large enough to communicate with my Clea through wind arts.
"My Clea, are you doing any better than me?" I asked her by whispering the wind art beside her ear. I saw some people approaching us, carrying large plates appropriate for our new sizes. I kept my gaze trained on them, or more accurately at the plates in their hands. They seem to have heard a faint sound coming from our direction and promptly brought us food.
"Bunbun, they would not understand us. We could talk freely" My Clea aired her words openly. They heard her and were confused. I saw one or two of them noting things down and shaking their heads with questioning gazes at each other.
'They really don't. I guess we could feel free to do that, then'
"As for me, I can barely move at all~ It's annoying~" My Clea whined like a child, her normally refined speaking mannerism gone, scattered through the wind.
'She became cuter!' I could feel my scales getting hotter as I avoided her beautiful eyes.
...
'Oh... No! Her eyes! Why are both of them the same color? Where went that needle-blade pattern?'
I left my excuse of an observation skill and focused on what's important; food. Something in the plates was giving a very appealing scent this time, And I salivated over it. My Clea, too, tried and failed to suppress her saliva from overflowing. Both of us gobbled the minced meat and what tasted like organs.
The thing that generated that appealing smell was a sack of sorts, sliced in half and divided between us. We both ate it, felt a burning sting through the way to our stomachs, and relished in its spicy taste. I could feel myself able to breath more fire every time a part of the sack's storage of energy is absorbed by my body.
Forget about feeling full, I burped a wisp of flames. It felt liberating to breath out flames, really. But I held it in, as the place around us had many wooden instruments. My Clea, however, seems to have really reverted to a child. She looked ready to burn the place down to test her fire breathing limits.
My Clea! Stop! The place has wood in it!" I said in panic.
"No~! I wanna know my limits~! And it seems like fun~!" She didn't listen. She immediately started breathing fire around her, scaring everyone present. Her snickering made them aware that she saw a game in this, but that didn't lower their panic levels. I had to exhaust myself to help them keep the place where we were lying from going in flames. Wind arts are such hard counters for flames. How blissful. ('1)
(End of Chapter)
'1:
Here, Nephelont used physics against Eucleia's playtime with fire. He restricted the area the fire can draw oxygen from any moment she starts breathing it. Fire cannot be sustained for long on what he left her, amounting only to a fraction of a second of breathing fire before oxygen runs out.
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This and that happened, but here we are.
Now, you might have noticed that this chapter is barely more than 2k words, and that is true. There was originally an entire sequence where they hunted an Anjanath for its inferno sack. But, considering the lore, I removed that part for now. I replaced it with a bit of AU lore, stating that Kulu-Ya-Ku have some traces of fire energy in their meat and could grow an inferno sack at high-rank.
Besides that, let me explain what is happening with our hatchlings. You see, the growth cycle of Crystal Dragons (Nephelont's species) is riddled in conditions. From what you already know, not having the father around the children, like in the case of Thumper and his 3 siblings, hastens the mental growth. Not having a mother will hasten the physical growth. Not having either parent will hasten the growth of both aspects. How that is regulated is through pheromones that the young ones' bodies take as hormones, and stop growing one of either aspect when the corresponding pheromone/hormone is present.
"But why are their bodies growing so, so quickly? And why are they prioritizing growth speed over growth stability?", I hear you ask? Here comes another part of the convoluted net of conditions. When their bodies are in a state of hyper-focus on hastened growth of both mind and body, then being provided with an excess of nutrients from day one will trigger a growth spurt. I will leave the coming chapters to explain the rest of how this growth spurt progresses.
Have a nice time, ladies and gentlemen.