I looked at my mentor, Socra, because what I had said was mainly gestured at her. She had her head down to the ground, and I could tell she was a bit embarassed, and she looked like she might be a bit upset at herself as well. She knew that I was right about what I had just said.
Kota seemed to show no emotion, he just had his eyes squinted at me. I did not know if he was going to attack me or not, it actually had me a bit back. I knew I could easily beat him in a fight, but if what I had been thinking about earlier was true... I could not beat all 3 of them in a fight.
I moved back a little bit, just in the case that those thoughts all of the sudden became a reality. I had to keep that in my mind as well. One thing that I had learned recently, was to trust no one. I had learned that from my father, he had said that to me when Socra had walked out of the smaller cave.
I sat there, as I began to walk out of the cave, not too far behind Socra. My father had his head down to the ground. I did not know that he was only going to get worse from here on out. I could see the pain written all over his face.
Socra had just about given up on him at this point. He was weak, it was something I would have thought that I would never see from my father. I was sure that someone would challenge him for leadership at some point in the near future.
I looked back at him one last time, and then I shook my head, as I then slowly kept on walking out of the cave. Just as I got near the exit however, I heard my father whisper something. I spun my head back around to see that his head was no longer staring down at the ground sadly, in pain.
He was looking at me dead in my eyes. I sat there for a little bit longer, not sure what I should be doing. He then nodded to me to come towards him. I hesitated a bit, not because I thought he was going to attack me, but more because I did not want to hear what it was that he was about to say to me.
I slowly began to walk back towards him however, as I looked back out of the cave to see if Socra had noticed. But I did not see her anywhere, and I doubt that she was going to sneak up on our conversation either. I then looked back over at my father as I sat down beside him.
He looked at me for a few more short moments, and I could see the pain and the grief in his eyes. I knew that he blamed himself for the loss of my brother, and no one had said anything to make him feel better about it. No one said "its not your fault".
No one said that because they knew that he was the one that had taken in a black dragon. No one in the tribe trusted those dragons, they were quite a bit like snakes. They would lie to your face, and you would believe it because they were so good at lying.
Yikla had lied to us, she had tricked us. We thought she was here to help us, she had told us about the attack. There was a part of me that did not want to blame her still. Though I knew she had told the black dragons exactly where the elders and the young dragons were.
Because of that we had lost many of them, and many of our best warriors as well. Now the tribe was weak, it was not to the point to where it was on its last legs right now, but me, Socra, and the rest of the dragons in the tribe were smart enough to know that we were nearing that point.
My father looked up at me, and then he moved up towards me. I moved back, quite a bit scared. I did not know why I was like that, he was my father and I knew that he would do no such harm to me. He noticed it right away and he stopped himself, I saw the pain in his face as it began to flood him once again, just as it had been already.
I knew what he was thinking, he thought that not even his own son trusted him to lead his own tribe anymore. A part of that was correct, he was in no such sort of shape to be leading the tribe right now. He was lucky that he had Socra standing up for him at the moment.
I felt a bit bad for him, I did not know what to say to him to make him feel any better. I did not mean to do that, it was just a natural instinct. I regretted it, and I could feel the sharp pain flowing through his body. I moved closer to him to make him feel better this time, but he did exactly what I had done, and he moved back from me.
I did not say anything about it, I just looked down at the ground. It hurt me a lot to see such a great leader like this at the moment. Such a great leader, and such a great father as well. I knew if I told him that, he was going to say what he always said.
"Not good enough to save my son." He would always tell me. I had no response to it either. I knew he was right, and a lot of it had been his fault in fact. A lot of it had not been his fault though, there was only so much that he could have done as a leader in those circumstances.
Both of us just kept on staring at the ground for just a bit longer. I was tired of it now, he had got me to come over to him for a reason, and I wanted to know what the reason was that he had stopped me from leaving the cave in the first place. I then began to speak up to my father, as he put his head up with his eyes squinted at me.
"I am sorry father, that is all I can say to you. I can not say it is not your fault, but you have to get over it at some point soon, the tribe needs you." I said to him. He sat there for a few moments longer, still staring at me in my eyes, until finally he made a reaction to what I had just said to him.
It was just not the reaction that I had been hoping for from him. He lifted his head back down to the ground as I said what I had just told him. It seemed that he had given up on being leader, and he had given up on living as well.
That was not what my brother would have wanted though, if he knew that he was going to die, he would have wanted it to make us stronger. He would not want my father to me in the position that he was stuck in right now. Surely he was smart enough to know that is not what my brother would have wanted... Right?
I shivered, as I felt like I should just walk out of the cave right now. There was no reason for me to be in here any longer. He was wasting my time, I needed to head back over to Socra, so that I could finish up with my training for the day.
I began to walk back out to the exit of the cave, just as I had been doing just a few moments ago. As I got near the exit of the cave, once again, I then heard the voice of my father, as he then began to speak to me once again. I turned my head back over to him, not going any closer to him.
I squinted my eyes at him, just as he had done a few moments ago. He did not seem to notice, as he still had his head pointed to the ground. But he was speaking to me, as if he did not think I was walking out of the cave at the exact instance.
"That is your job now, I am not leader anymore. There is no going back on it, my time is near. I am going to die soon, I can sense it in the air. I will be with your brother then..." He said to me. I looked at him for a few more moments, still having my eyes squinted at him.
I then began to grow a bit angry at my father for what he had just said to me. It made me feel a bit sick, and I began to walk back over to him. He did not even seem to notice that I was angry at him, nor did he seem to notice that I was walking back over to him, or that I had even been walking out of the cave in the first place.
I sat down near him, and I felt like I was about to attack my father. I knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to beat him in a fight, but I was just so upset at him. I could not get it out my head, as I then began to speak back at him, with nothing but pure anger in my voice.
"Please tell me you are joking! When have you ever heard of a leader that was barely above the age of 20... You expect me to lead your tribe." I began saying to him. He did not seem to notice that I was talking to him, and he did not respond either, so I kept on from where I had left off. "You are not going to be with my brother, if you keep on acting like that."
He just sat there, as if he had not heard a word that had just come out of my mouth. That is when I gave up hope in him, he was too broken, there was no going back on it now. I then began to walk back out of the cave for the 3rd time.
Just as I began to get near the exit, I once again heard the voice of my father as he started to speak back to me. This time I just kept on walking out of the cave, until I heard what it was that he had to say to me. My heart broke, and I wanted to give up just as my father already had.
"You were in love with that dragon, she betrayed us. You can never trust a black dragon, much less any dragon... I realized that mistake long ago." He said to me. I turned my head back over to him, once again. I was getting a little bit tired of it as well.
It seemed that he only wanted to speak just when I was about to leave him. I shook my head and thought about ignoring what he had just said to me. I thought about just walking out of the cave, as if this had never happened in the first place.
I could not bring myself to it, as the thoughts of Yikla began to come back into my head. It was painful to think about, I really had trusted her and I had believed in her. No one else in the tribe had, and I now realized why no one else in the tribe trusted her.
I began to walk back over to my father, making a note in my head as well, that this would be the last time. If he did not respond to me this time, then I was going to fly out of the cave and ignore what it was that he felt like he needed to say to me this time.
I got up close to my father, even closer than before. He did not seem to notice me getting that close, as he still just kept his head down at the ground. I sat there for a few moments, expecting him to keep on talking. He did not speak though, and it got on my nerves quite a bit.
I shook my head, and just figured I may as well speak, and if he did not respond to me this time, then I was going to leave the cave no matter what he had to say back to me. There was no use in believing in my father any more. I then started to speak back to him once again.
"You were in love with a black dragon, and you are saying that you do not trust me or my mother at all?" I said to him. He just sat there completely still for a few more moments. As if, he did not hear me again. Now I really was about to attack him.
However this time, he lifted his head up at me, and I could almost see tears begin to drop from his eyes. I had really hit the soft spot in him this time, and he had no other choice but to respond to what I had just said to him. He then began to talk back to me.
"Did you not hear what I just said? There is a reason why you do not trust a black dragon... I trust you, because you are my blood, I trust your mother because I love your mother. I trust Socra because she is a close friend and she is my deputy." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments and then I shook my head at him.
He was acting like he had not just been ignoring what I had been saying a few moments ago. It was kind of hypocritical if you ask me. I sat there for a few moments longer, taking in what he had just said to me however.
I was trying my best not to be bias on what he had been saying to me. I did not have very good thoughts about my father at this exact moment in time. I knew that he was right with what he had said, but I thought of the perfect response to him right away. I then began to speak it.
"You sure do not act like you trust us, you have treated us like garbage. Like we are not your blood, my sister is trying to recover, and you are not helping her with the process." I said to him. He sat there, and just kept on staring, and then he looked back down at the ground.
He knew I was right with what I had just said to him. I also knew he was right with what he had just said as well. I just did not want to believe it, and I just wanted to shy off of the topic of Yikla. I looked at him for a few more moments, and I noticed that he was not going to respond to what I had just said to him again.
I shook my head and then I walked out for the last time, this time it did not seem like he had anything to say to me however, and I looked back at him, a bit upset for some reason that he did not. I saw him, but it looked like he was about to fall asleep, so I figured I should just leave him be.
Yikla then looked up at me, and she was a bit angry as I could tell. She looked like she was trying to put it off like I was the one that had betrayed my own tribe. I rolled my eyes, but I listened to what it was that she had to say to me.
"I had no other choice! They would have killed me... I did my best to warn you, or else all of you would be dead. I lied to them about some things, you should be thankful..." She said to me. I looked at her, almost as if she was stupid. Because what she had just said, sure seemed to be fairly dumb.
I wondered if she even knew what she had said. She seemed to believe what she said was the correct move. I knew that there was no going back on what she had said. I knew her well enough to know that if she believed it to be true, than there was no going back on it at that point.
It was the last part that seemed to have made everyone else angry. Everyone that was here seemed to be paying full attention to what she had just said. I knew that all of us were smart as well. That is why all of us had the chance to be the deputy of the tribe.
Kota squinted his eyes at her, but he did not say anything about it to her. It was Socra that was the one that stepped up, and I could tell that she was very angry at what Yikla had just said to us. She had every right to be as well, all of us were upset, even if Kota did not show it.
"You are insane if you say we should be thankful, you did betray us... Like it or not, though you helped us at the same time, we lost many lives we should not have if you were to lie to them." She said to her. Yikla looked down at the ground, and I could tell that she had not taken that into account.
I sat there for a few moments, not sure what to say about that. Neither did the rest of us. I looked down at the ground, I knew that Socra was right, we had lost a lot of lives because of Yikla trying to save her own life... I looked back at Yikla and this time I more calmly began to speak to her.
"Yikla... I will talk to you tomorrow night, at this same place. I need time to think... For now, I suggest you leave."