The three dragons had formed a ring around the pile of camel meat.
Max and Mia's stomachs cried out at the same time.
They were famished.
It was to be expected, though, as they had not eaten much last night. In order to avoid battle with the adventurers, they had to flee before they had completed their meal.
Following that, they consumed a human warrior as supper and barely held back their hunger.
As such, the siblings were drooling at the sight of the camels.
"Before we eat, I'll give you another chance."
Agatha picked out a camel and placed it in front of Mia. "Mia! Use your dragon breath to roast the camel."
After saying those words, however, Agatha hurriedly pushed the other camels away as if she had recalled something.
She was afraid that Mia would accidentally burn all the camels...
"Let me try, mother."
Mia opened her mouth and tried to spit out her dragon breath as if she was retching.
However, due to her hunger, Mia no longer had the power she possessed from the other day. The dragon breath she spat out was small and intermittent.
When she was at her full strength, Mia was incapable of controlling her strength at all. She would turn the camels into charcoal in an instant.
However, now that Mia had run out of strength, it was just right!
Not long after, a fragrance that made Max's heart skip a beat wafted towards him. Had it not been for Agatha stopping him, he would have already pounced on the camel and eaten it.
"Stop."
Agatha said slowly.
Mia stopped and started coughing violently.
It seemed that using dragon breath in such a state was a little tiring for her.
"As for you, who can't even use dragon breath, don't think that you're qualified to be a Red Dragon just because you're strong!"
With that, Agatha picked out the second camel and threw it in front of Max.
Max nodded and accepted the challenge.
At the same time, he thought to himself, 'This seems to be mother's way of teaching us how to cook. She must be worried that we'll starve to death once she leaves us.'
Max approved of this particular behavior from his mother. Be they a dragon or a human, the first instinct of a mother was to teach their children how to feed themselves.
The first time Max had taken the test, he was incapable of unleashing his dragon breath.
The most he managed was weak electric sparks.
Perhaps it was the price that he had paid for reincarnating into a pure dragon. As a result, Max did not inherit the traits that were expected of Red Dragons.
Such a child was an anomaly among Red Dragons. As such, Max was considered to be rather lucky to not be expelled immediately.
However, Max had no such worries that day.
After all, his control over his Lightning Dragon Breath was also correlated to his mastery over the thunder element.
At this point, Max had already learned all of the thunder element spells known to man!
Aside from some spells that required a huge amount of mana to cast, Max could use any other spell that he so desired!
"Haaa!"
Max envisioned a stream of electricity flowing from his core and shooting out of his mouth.
Following this, a current of electricity was fired from his mouth. Although it had numbed his tongue somewhat, for some reason, it was a pleasurable feeling for Max.
Sizzle sizzle —
Although the camel before him was already dead, its nerves were still intact. As such, the electric current that Max unleashed had caused it to convulse.
Max realized that he had not only obtained the ability to use all the thunder spells., but he had also become proficient in using it.
He was not like Mia, who possessed great power but lacked the ability to control it. He was able to unleash an electric current that was of suitable size, and that was stable from the beginning to the end.
Therefore, not long after, a lethally addictive roasted camel fragrance was released into the air.
"Not bad."
Agatha's eyes were initially wide open at Max's display. However, she soon regained her indifferent expression and claimed that his performance was "not bad".
"Alright, remember this feeling from today. In the future, you'll have to use a similar amount of power to roast camel meat. Remember, us Red Dragons prefer our food cooked."
Agatha turned her head around. Following this, she unleashed her own blast of dragon breath to roast the remaining camel meat.
The three dragons then ate their breakfast together.
The life of the dragons was a monotonous and uneventful. After taking their meal, the three dragons then returned to their designated spots and went to sleep.
However, unlike usual, Agatha suddenly turned around and spoke these words, "Hurry up and sleep, the both of you. Grow up quickly, so that I can return to my free and unfettered life like I used to.
...
Max was unsurprised, as he had long known that this day would come.
Agatha was only around 3,000 years old. In human years, she was only around 17 or 18 years old.
There was still a whole life ahead of Agatha.
This was the nature of dragons. Agatha had grown tired of raising children, she was most likely hoping to hook up with some handsome dragon.
However, halfway through his sleep, he felt droplets of water dripping onto his wings.
Upon looking back, he noticed that Mia, who was sleeping on his wings, was crying with her eyes wide-open.
Max roared in his heart, "You're a dragon! A dragon! How can you cry like a big baby?"
However, Max had left his comments in his thoughts.
He asked her gently, "What's wrong, Mia?"
"Mom doesn't want us anymore."
"Yes."
Mia raised her head. Her pupils were trembling as tears welled up in her eyes. "Did we do something wrong?"
"No."
"Then why does she want to leave us?"
"We are dragons."
Max's tone was calm. It was not the tone that one should be using to coax a child.
However, Mia's tears never stopped. She choked and said, "Sometimes I feel that the sky is so big, it's like an endless blue abyss... Once we fly apart, we might never find the other party again."
"Sigh..." Max felt that he had taken the wrong approach. At this rate, her eyes might swell up from all her crying.
Max spread his wings and wrapped Mia inside.
He was so much bigger than Mia that Mia could not be seen from the outside.
Then, Max patted his bulging belly and made muffled sounds as if he was playing a musical instrument.
"The sky is not as big as you think. One day, I will show you an ever bigger sky... One that is pitch-black, and one that's filled with an infinite amount of stars."
"Really?" Mia's muffled voice came rang out from Max's wings.
"Yes, the outer sky is indeed pitch-black."
Max did not know how to explain it. After all, beyond the blue skies was the pitch-black universe.
"I'm not talking about that," Mia replied. "I mean, you will always be with me, at least until the day we visit the outer sky, right?"