Children of the Dragon: Chapter 3

The branches snapped as Sefirin swiped his hand forward. He had long since put away his wings along with his scales. He had some claws on his hands and scales over his nose but for the most part, he was normal. His sister wasn’t far behind him.

They had been walking for the better part of an hour but their sister was nowhere to be found. Sefirin did his best to try and follow her scent but that wasn’t exactly something he was good at. At best he knew the direction of where his sister had gone. But she was good at running through the forest, she didn’t leave many tracks.

He hit a tree hard, scowling, and made it tremble with the impact. Silva walked over to him and raised her eyebrow. “She’s probably in some hole in the ground just sulking. We don’t need to be here.”

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

When it was just the two of them together it was hard to see they were related immediately. Their eyes were different, hair different, and even faces a little different. But the one thing they shared was their facial expressions. As they stared at each other, the same defiant frown bordering on a scowl there was no denying their blood.

“Don’t play dumb,” Sefirin said. “You’ve been doing this to Sofie for the past two years. Making her life hell. And Sofie won’t even tell me why.”

“If she won’t tell you then it must not be important?” She shrugged and walked past him. “Seems pretty cut and dry.”

As she walked past him he turned and grabbed her wrist. Silva stood still and took a very slow breath. “Let go of me Sefirin.”

“Not until we talk about this. You guys play nice in front of mom, dad, and una but I’m not gonna pretend like this is just my sister’s being assholes to each other.”

Silva flexed her arm, the wind suddenly picked up and knocked Sefirin over as she snatched back her arm. Turning around she faced him, her hair floating as she scowled at him. “I don’t owe you any sort of explanation. You’re my brother not my father.”

“Yeah I’m your brother and for whatever reason, you’re fine torturing our sister around me but no one else.”

“I’m not torturing her,” she shrugged her shoulders and put her hands in her pockets. “I’m just messing around.”

“You’re seriously going to go with that.”

“Weren’t you concerned with finding her? We’re wasting time.”

She started walking into the forest and Sefirin reached after her, “We’re not done yet!” But she was already gone, disappearing in a haze of light. Making a face he scowled, “Uncle Al would be proud.”

Silva was faster than her brother. She knew that for a fact. She was the fastest out of all three of them. She was the smartest and most powerful when it came to spell work. She had to be. Scowling at the thought she knew that her eyes were burning with red. “Enough of this Sofia. I’ll find you and drag you back myself.”

Jumping into the trees she started chanting a spell. Blue lines raced across her arms turning into several circles resting in her hands. Spinning around she thrust her hands outward and the blue magic surged in every direction. It rustled the leaves, shook the branches, and trembled the ground.

Sefirin took a step back startled as he felt the magic wash over him and winced. Covering his face, he expected something dangerous but realized what it was. “A tracking spell. Wish I had thought about that.”

The magic came back from where it started unsettling leaves above his head. Slowing down he stared up into the tree and watched Silva drop down from the limbs. Her eyes were glowing as she took in all the information.

When it settled she gasped and then looked at him, “Wherever she is. She’s not here.”

“What do you mean not here?”

“I mean she’s not in the forest,” The glow in her eyes faded and she put a hand on her hip. She held her other hand to her head and groaned having a mild headache. “She’s not on the academy grounds.”

“That can’t be right. It hasn’t even been that long. Where did she go?”

“Hell if I know. Why are you freaking out so much? The worst that happens here is running into a bear or one of those wasp hives.”

“There’s worse things that can happen,” Sefirin said trying to not even go down the line of a memory that was very very old.

“Maybe she’s learned teleportation magic and just disappeared.”

“Silva stop it.”

“You’re right. I behave in front of our parents but I don’t have to do that in front of you big brother.”

“What’s she done to royally piss you off this much?”

“She was born.”

Saying that brought a silence between them that was physical. Sefirin took a step back his eyes widening slightly. And having said it Silva’s eyes flickered from blue to green but she forced herself back to blue. They settled on orange and she folded her arms.

“How can you say that?” Sefirin said finally. “She’s our little sister. She’s never done anything to either of us but be there. You two used to be close. Hell she worshipped you.”

“That was a long time ago,” she said softly and she could see those moments. When she was only eight and her little five year old sister followed her like a shadow. Back then Silva was the faerie big sister. The one who knew everything. Silva could still see the admiration filled stare of that little girl when Silva showed her all the magic she’d taught herself.

‘Don’t worry Sofia. Stick with me and I’ll teach you everything I know!’

“I’m wasting my time even asking you this but how many kids do faerie’s usually have?”

The question caught him off guard, “What?”

“How many kids do faerie couples have? Just guess Seffy.”

“I don’t know. Two or three? Why?”

“Una is an only child. Francisco is an only child. Both our q’una’s were only children. Do you know why?”

“I have literally no idea and you know that.”

“It’s because faeries aren’t like humans or vampires or shapeshifters or any of them. Their magic is hereditary. You inherit it directly from your parents. Except only one child can have it. One gets to inherit the magic of a faerie. Because of that, pure faerie couples can’t have multiple children even if they wanted to. Not even twins.

“That should have been true for us as well but she was born and suddenly everything changed. When she showed off her faerie magic two years ago it changed everything. All the classes I’d been taking. All the lessons with q’una! All the books! All the studying and preparation! It went out the fucking window because of her!”

Her eyes burned a bright red as she started laughing. A hollow sound that echoed in the forest. Sefirin stared at his sister and all he felt was pity. Because as she laughed, he watched her eyes turn slowly from red to a muted green.

“And it gets better Seffy! Silva comes along and guess what? She’s bad at it! Not just faerie magic but magic in general! She can barely do simple spells! If she didn’t have the eyes, we wouldn’t even know she was one!”

Silva raised her hand creating a ball of fire over her palm. She moved it from her palm to over her fingers. Her finger cut through the fire turning it into one thin line and then turned. With one swipe of her arm, she swiped through a nearby tree leaving a blazing cut in its trunk all the way through.

It shook as it began to fall but she went to her knees. She pressed her hand against it and turned it hard. The tree shook and faint green lines began to form around the bisected trunk. And slowly but surely, they were pulled back together. Reunited as if she hadn’t just cut it in half with a blade of fire.

Even the burn marks had disappeared.

Silva turned around to face Sefirin and pointed at the tree, “She can’t do that Seffy. No matter how much she studies and trains she can’t even make a simple gust of wind consistent. She can’t fly. She can’t do anything and yet she gets to be a real faerie. You inherited dad’s dragon magic perfectly. You might as well have Silver living inside of you with how easy it comes to you.”

And finally, she started to cry. She cried, laughing at her brother. She didn’t fall down which meant more to her than she realized. But the tears fell and she didn’t bother trying to wipe them away. She looked at the sky and laughed again but it turned into a sob.

“What’s that leave for me Seffy? Everything that I thought I was. All gone. I’m not dragon enough like you or father. Not faerie enough like Sofie or mother. I’m just me. Just Silva.”

Her sobs stopped suddenly as Sefirin hugged her. He had one hand on her head and the other around her shoulders. Her sobs softened but didn’t push him away, “Get off of me Seffy. You shouldn’t be hugging me.”

“I’m hugging you because you’ve been going through shit and I didn’t notice,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. But you putting Sofie through hell for something she had no choice in is fucked up too.”

She looked away from him and he sighed. Once he stepped away from her, she rubbed her eyes and wiped away her tears. She looked at him, her eyes turning back to a muddy blue color. “You’re not wrong.”

“How’d you know all that faerie stuff by the way?”

“When my magic didn’t manifest, I did research. Thought I was a late bloomer. And then Sophie was born,” she replied and mumbled. “Not having a lot of friends gives you a lot of free time.”

She started to walk away when something tingled in the back of her head. She stood up straighter and turned around quickly. Her eyes glowed startling her brother but she wasn’t thinking about him any longer. Her eyes narrowed and she started casting again. Moving her fingers slowly she threw one hand away and watched her blue spell spread across the air.

“What is it?” Sefirin asked but she shushed him.

When the magic came back most of the circle was blue but one piece of it was red. She turned almost entirely around and stared at it her eyes widening. “The lake. Something just came back from the lake.”

“The lake?” Sefirin repeated.

“Don’t repeat after me. Get moving,” she said and swept her hand back. Her wings spread and she jumped into the air. Taking flight, she broke through the trees above their heads and felt her brother pass her by.

He really was something special when he got going. His body was covered in smooth silver scales. The way he moved was natural. Almost like he was made to be this exact thing. His arms and legs moved with each wing beat, and his head always turned to where he needed to go. Even his tail guided his next movement, following the wind.

She used to admire him but now it made her jealous. Shaking away those thoughts she flapped her wings and flew with him. From up above Silva’s eyes widened because she didn’t have to look long to find the cause of the magic she sensed. A huge white portal in the middle of the island at the center of the lake.

And she saw the massive creature that passed through. A large jade dragon whose scales glimmered in the sunlight. It was dazzling and amazing except for the fact that it looked directly at the pair of them. It flexed its wings and opened its maw wide moving forward quickly.

“What is that?” Sefirin growled to her and Silva shook her head. Talking in this form turned his voice to gargling rocks.

“I have no idea but that’s where Sofia’s signal came from. And now there’s that thing just appearing,”

Sefirin’s wings flapped one more time and then he dove down at it. He came down, landing on the edge of the lake. He crouched as he landed his wings wrapping around his arms. Even from this far away he could see how massive it was. He’d read about them in books, seen them in stories. But this was something else. This was a living breathing one.

It leaned forward and stomped lowering its head. Even from here, Sefirin could hear the rumble of the dragon as it stared at him. Sefirin walked toward it sniffing the air. It definitely smelled like dragon. He felt Silva land beside him and glanced at her. “Is she there?”

“I can sense her. Maybe through the portal. But there’s a giant dragon in the way.”

“Fine. We make the dragon move and then find our little sister,” Sefirin laughed. “I wonder if it’ll be like fighting with dad.”

Silva rolled her eyes, “Only you would want to fight a dragon.”

Sefirin spread his wings and jumped forward darting at the dragon and letting out a roar. The dragon roared back and he tensed ready for anything when Sofie ran in front of him holding her hands up.

“Seffy wait!”

He dug his feet into the ground and his eyes went wide as he saw his sister suddenly appear in front of him. He dug his feet into the ground hard to keep from blowing too far forward. He ran into her and threw both his arms forward picking her off the ground. Sofie laughed through a deep groan despite how white her eyes were.

“Seffy let go. Crushing. Ribs.”

They both laughed as the dragon form disappeared and he set her down. She took a step back looking up at him and smiled brightly. He looked at her exhausted and slumped forward, “What happened to you? You just disappeared off the campus. You had us worried.”

“I did?” she asked and looked past him to Silva as she walked over. Her eyes were a soft blue color but they were puffy. “You were worried about me?”

Silva rolled her eyes, “You ran off in a huff and caused a scene. Why wouldn’t we worry.”

“Oh,” she frowned hard looking away. “I’m sorry.”

Sefirin glared at Silva and she shrugged ignoring him, “What matters is that you’re okay now.” He felt the earth shift above him and looked up. He watched the dragon look down at him curiously. Under her gaze, he didn’t feel small. In fact, he felt large. Meeting her gaze, he felt the urge to butt his head against her own and almost wrestle. Even play.

“You are a strange one hatchling,” she said in his mind. “You smell like Sofie but you also smell like a dragon. How can this be?”

Sefirin took a step back, “You’re talking.”

“That seems to be a consistent moment of shock for your family,” she replied. She looked around them, shaking her shoulders as the air settled on her. “So this is the world of the spellcasters. It’s different than I expected. Though I am not sure of what I expected.”

“Sofie who is this?”

She scratched the back of her head and smiled but then rested her hand on Emerelda’s leg. “I guess I should introduce you guys. Em these are my brother and sister. Seffy, Silva. This is Emerelda. My dragon I guess?”

“Your. Dragon?” Silva repeated approaching slowly and her eyes bordered on blue with green around the edges. Emerelda looked at her and Silva froze on the spot. Despite her fear, she scowled at the dragon instinctively.

“It is nice to meet you both,” she said simply.

“Night to meet you too,” Sefirin replied.

“So this is where my favorite student and her siblings have gone off to.”

The three of them turned around as Sehren descended from the sky, as if he were walking on the air itself. He landed gently on the grass and walked forward. His smile was the same nonchalant one he normally wore. Even as he set his gaze on Emerelda.

“Headmaster Sehren!” Silva’s eyes widened and she quickly bowed her head to him. “I’m sorry we didn’t arrive at the meeting with you. We had something come up.” She glanced at her sister.

“So, I can see,” he replied raising his eyebrow. “This is most interesting. A dragon back in our lands. After so many years. And found their way through a very similar way as the last. Sofie’s more like Nero than I would have guessed.”

Silva scowled and started to walk away but Sefirin reached out and grabbed her wrist. She glared at him but paused meeting his eyes. Looking the other way, she sighed and stood upright snatching her hand away. Resting a cool blue gaze on him, “I’m not going to storm off and throw a tantrum.”

Sofie walked to join the three of them. She looked at her siblings then at her teacher. Looking down her eyes became as green as the forest, “I’m sorry headmaster. They came out here because of me. I ran away and got lost. And then I stumbled into a portal. And that’s where I met Em.”

He nodded and smiled, “Quite the adventure Sofie. I am glad that you are all safe.”

“It’s hard to be put in any real danger when you have everything works in your favor,” Silva mumbled and Sefirin shot her a glare while Sofie looked away guiltily.

That exchange wasn’t lost on Sehren but he smiled gently looking at them. “Come on now. Let’s go back to the academy. We can sort out what to do with Emerelda once we get back.”

“Do with me?” Emerelda asked.

“Yes. Our country isn’t exactly tuned with dragons in mind,” Sehren smiled up at her. “Silver was a special exception. Though because of Silver we are a bit more used to dragons here. Though you seem to be older than Silver was when she first arrived.”

“I am no hatchling no. I’ve seen many sun and moon rises,” she said and lowered her head to meet his gaze. She blinked slowly and sniffed at him gently. Her eyes widened slightly and she sniffed again, sniffed a third time as if to be sure. “You are old. Very old. Older than I. Or my mother before me. Who are you?”

Sehren chuckled, “My name is Sehren. I am very old. But I am a friend of their father. And the headmaster of the academy where these three study.”

“You are more than that Sehren,” she replied and stood up.

He smiled pleasantly, “Once upon a time I was. But I am interested in talking to you again. There are many things about dragons and dragon kind that I still do not know.”

Sehren turned around and motioned with his hands. With one swipe of his hands, he opened a portal in front of them. Motioning slowly, he walked through it and the others followed.

Sofie was the last to go through along with Emerelda. The dragon looked down at her curiously. “What is it Sofie?”

She looked at her and her eyes rested on a muddy green, “I don’t know. I just. I feel as if things are going to be different. And it makes me anxious.”

“Life is constantly changing hatchling. Many choices that we must make and some that are made for us shape and change our lives. The bond that was forged at our meeting was no accident. It is something ancient and special amongst my kind and I believe amongst yours as well. Do not worry about the future. We shall face it together, one day at a time.”

She wiped at her eyes and let them turn orange again as she smiled, “Okay Em. Let’s go face the future.”