Five years have passed since Coelestis had been stuck with the child that Jarrow had handed to her, and whilst raising the child, she had heard nothing from the father, assuming that he too was killed, choosing to hide the child's past from her. As the child, Hikari, grew up, Coelestis noticed her affinity for Celestial Magic, and began to teach her her ways of using Celestial Magic, as well as survival tips for her to use in the woods should she and Coelestis be separated.
Hikari grew up, thinking of Coelestis like her mother, and never stumbling into human civilization, growing up around a dragon, and the occasional dragons and their adoptive children that came around to visit, including Tempus and Umbra, two dragons that were lovers, along with their adoptive humans, Valentina and Vincent, twins were abandoned by their human parents due to their orange-amber eyes.
The three soon became friends at the very young age of two, before Tempus and Umbra had to move from the original area they were in, onto another continent further away. Prompting this Hikari was then isolated from children her age and began her learning of magic.
—-
"Um…Coelestis..?" Hikari says, prompting Coelestis to wake up.
"What is it child," Coelestis yawns before looking at Hikari, and seeing a goat next to her. "It's just a goat-"
"I am no ordinary goat! I am a zodiac spirit! I am Capricorn!" The goat yelled out.
"He just appeared after I was practising!" Hikari says.
"You..summoned him..?" That had shocked Coelestis, as she had thought it would've been long before she would have summoned anything, even if her affinity was of the Celestial magic type. She sighs before speaking again. "It seems the time has finally come for you to practice my magic, but not that current moment. It's late. Get some rest. Capricorn can go back or stay if they wish."
"I'm not tired though!" Hikari complained.
Coelestis sighed. "Then, do whatever it is children do to get tired. Go play with Capricorn or something." She yawns before sleeping once again.
Hikari was still awake when Coelestis had drifted off to sleep, and the spirit was still there.
"So what do you do?" Hikari asks the spirit.
"I am the zodiac spirit in charge of the constellation of Capricorn."
"But what do you do exactly?"
"I protect the Celestial Spirit King! All of us do, as well as help our summoners with magic!"
"Does this mean I can have more friends?"
Capricorn was stunned for a moment. "Aren't you a human child though with a dragon? Friends for your kind."
"I'm a dragon though?" Hikari titled her head.
"No, you're not, you would be like Coelestis here if you were. You certainly are not a dragon, but a human."
"Well I've never seen another human before, so I wouldn't know. I'm a dragon though!" Hikari pouted. "So don't call me a human without proof!"
Capricorn shook his head as Hikari went to go lay down next to Coelestis, falling asleep.
—--
"Coelestis, are you sure you don't want me to go catch food before we train?" Hikari asked, sitting down with her legs crossed.
Coelestis shook her head. "There is no need. I told you last night if you were listening. I'm teaching you the magic that isn't like what you have been taught by me before. I'm teaching you MY magic."
"You mean you intend to teach a child how to slay dragons? That's insane, especially since she is a human!" Capricorn yelled out.
"Why is he still here Hikari?" Coelestis sighed.
"I don't know, I made a friend contract with him though!" Hikari replies.
"There are no friend contracts in summoning though-"
"There is. She just made it up," Capricorn interrupted. "We accept any kind of contract. It was how I'm able to stay and go as I please."
"I…see. Anyways. Hikari, get ready. I won't make this training easy for you." Coelestis said, standing up.
"Alright then! I'm ready!" Hikari exclaimed.
—--
Hikari was thrown back by the attack, and several bruises appeared on her body, along with some scratches. It had been several hours since they started, and Hikari was barely able to hold her own with a dragon that was severely holding back.
"Coelestis! Go easy on me!" Hikari shouted.
"I am, it's not my fault that you are weaker physically. Now, attack me with what you were just attacked with." Coelestis stated.
"Are you crazy?!" Hikari yelled out. "I can't copy that!"
"Just do it, or I will attack you again," Coelestis stated and Hikari knew it wasn't going to be a lie either.
"But I can't-!" Hikari shouted out, and in the middle of her sentence shot out a beam of a weaker version of Coelestis' magic from her mouth.
"You can. Now, you just need to control it to be able to use it properly." Coelestis stated, unphased by her accidental attack. "Now, do it again!"
Hikari groaned. This was going to be a long evening.
—-
Weeks passed with the same routine every day. Coelestis would attack Hikari with a weaker form of her magic, and Hikari was to copy it and manage to use it before they moved on to the next spell. It took her a few days to get the hang of it, however, Hikari did manage to use the magic barely.
When Hikari did manage to copy the spells and use them, the training ended, and Coelestis had Hikari practice controlling her mana, in which she was successful. Hikari began playing in the forest each day, summoning Capricorn whenever she thought she could play with the zodiac spirit, and soon to follow she summoned Gemini, two twin spirits that were around her age, Leo, a man that looked to be in his teens with the features of a lion demi-human, and Aquarius, an older woman who looked to be in her 20's with her attitude ranging from kind to rebellious and was always carrying a vase that matched her platinum-blonde hair.
One day, Hikari had been wandering the forest when she came across a village full of people. Fascinated, she wandered into the village before seeing children her age playing with a big red ball. Watching the children, she stood in the shade of a tree that was nearby, curiously observing the game they were playing when the ball rolled over to her.
"Over here!" One of the children shouted, directing her attention towards them as she picked up the ball, the one who had gotten her attention running towards her. "That's ours!" The kid stopped, and Hikari noticed they had white hair while the rest had brown, blonde or black hair. She handed the ball back to them. "Who are you? I've never seen you around here before! Did you just move into the village? I didn't see any carts come by."
"Carts?" Hikari tilted her head.
"You don't know what a cart is?" One of the other children questioned. "What kind of rock have you been living under?"
"I've been living in the forest." Hikari bluntly retorted.
"The forest? But there are monsters in there, I even heard there was a dragon residing in that forest!" Another child stated, shivering.
"There are no monsters, I should know," Hikari responded, stepping back.
"Liar, I've seen them before!"
"Oh shut up will you Sam?" The white-haired child moaned before talking again to Hikari. "So, what's your name, forest dweller? My name is Ryder Caede."
Hikari placed a hand on her chest. "I'm called Hikari."
"Well? Do you really live in the forest?" Sam asked, earning a nod from her. "Are you really serious?"
"I've lived in it since Coelestis found me."
"Coelestis?"
"Oh! She's a dragon!" Hikari beamed.
"Now I know you're lying!"
"No, really, I'm telling the truth!" Hikari responded.
A bell is heard throughout the village and the children groan as they walk away. "Sorry, we have to go, you should too!" Ryder said, running off with the other kids.
Hikari waved and sighed. "Bye…" Turning around she began to walk back to the forest. "Coelestis is going to be angry with me if I don't get back." Hikari walked back through the forest, however unknown to her, there was a child following her.
—
When Hikari returned, Coelestis was standing in the clearing looking at her while in her humanoid form.
"Where did you go Hikari?" Coelestis questioned. "I told you to be back in an hour for your training."
"I was wandering and lost track of time," Hikari stated.
Coelestis sighed as she uncrossed her arms. "Don't be late next time. You still barely have control over your magic, what if someone were to attack you?"
"Sorry…" Hikari pouted, and Coelestis sighed again before looking in the direction Hikari came from like she had heard something. "Coelestis? Am I in trouble?"
Coelestis sighed and shook her head. "No, but how about we play a game?"
"A game? We never play those." Hikari tilted her head.
"It's called hide and seek. I'll find you when you hide, and you must control your mana to make it seem invisible to me. I'll give you a five-minute headstart." Coelestis explained.
Hikari nodded. "Okay!"
Hikari then ran past Coelestis, running deeper into the forest. Once Coelestis could hear her out of earshot, she shifted into her dragon form as the villagers from the village Hikari wandered into came into the clearing.
—
It had been hours, and it was already nighttime when Hikari began to wander back into the clearing. Hikari had noticed a light from the clearing and rushed to it, spotting a large egg on her way, grabbing it thinking it would be important. Once she reached the clearing she saw fire. Entering the clearing, she could see the villagers from that village and the burning corpse of Coelestis.
"Coe…les..tis..?" Hikari whimpered, catching the attention of a villager who tried to grab her arm before she backed away, tears rolling down her face. "What have you done?" She backed away another step, gripping the egg in her arms before screaming, "She was the only one I had! Why! Why! Why did you kill her!"
The villagers, now alerted by Hikari's presence, began to walk towards her as she backs up and began to run, still grabbing onto the large egg, not noticing it crack. She ran through the forest, noticing that it seemed like deja vu to her, however, she continued to run, even when she couldn't hear the villagers chase after her.
—
After what seemed to be hours, Hikari arrived at the entrance to a cave, one that she noticed was empty of any creatures, before it started raining. Running inside, she collected the sticks that were inside the cave before setting them in an area to start making a fire. Coughing, she started the fire as she looked outside, it raining so she couldn't get food without getting sick or even lost. Forgetting the egg, she looked back to the fire, sitting down near it, before starting to fall asleep, her stomach grumbling.
She didn't know when she had fallen asleep, the reality of Coelestis being gone setting in, and the fact she hadn't eaten since heading to the village in the first place. While she was remembering everything, she heard something crack. Sitting up quickly, she saw the egg cracking more. Watching, she didn't notice her stomach kept growling as the egg cracked open, and a smaller dragon that looked like Coelestis climbed out and shook itself.
Shaking, she had then spoke,"What is this…?"
The small dragon tilted his head and made a 'ku' sound as he closed his eyes, looking like he was smiling. Hikari was still shaking when the small dragon looked to the outside and began to run when she shouted at it, "Wait!"
He looked back and looked at Hikari before running out into the forest, leaving Hikari alone in the cave. Hikari, still under the shock of Coelestis dying, stood up and began to follow the direction of where the small dragon went, wandering until reaching the outskirts of a large city. She wandered inside it to see people like the villagers walking around, and strange creatures pulling carts. Walking around the large city, she wandered into an alleyway in a more secluded and ruined part of the city, where she sees an old blindfolded woman on the ground, looking like she was in pain. Compelled, she stepped forward.
"Old miss, are you okay?" Hikari questioned, stumbling over to the blindfolded old woman in the alleyway.
"Ah…I'm fine dearie…I should be asking that about you, you look like you were burnt and then were running for a while…" The old woman responded, motioning to Hikari's injuries.
"I'm fine, really. Can you see through that blindfold?"
"Why would a child like yourself have those injuries anyways?" Dodging the question, the old woman asked again before asking another question. "Do you want some way to make it feel better? To make the pain itself go away?"
"Make the pain go away?" Hikari thought. She was still shaken from the humans from that village killing Coelestis, and her dragon brother had left her behind soon after hatching. As she was still ignorant of how the world worked outside the forest, she shook her head.
"Just-" The old woman reached out, "-hold-" Hikari could feel something grabbing her from the inside, before feeling a tear from inside, "-still." Hikari screamed from the pain of the tear that happened, collapsing on the ground, holding herself while in pain.
The old woman vanished, and taking her place looked to be a woman in her thirties wearing the same blindfold and a green dress, along with a more darker brunette hair colour.
"Hmmm…it's such a shame really. You had such a perfect soul for a relic, and you're affected by a dragon wish. Shame, I'll have to deal with half," The woman sighed, looking down at Hikari. "So you're a child raised by one of two Celestial dragons. I wonder how that happened. And you're a descendant of an Intoner of mine, how very interesting... I'm assuming you have the curse and that's why a Dragon raised you..."
From one direction, footsteps are heard and the woman turns her head, looking in the direction they came from.
"Ah, I see that we have visitors. Well then, consider this event erased, little girl." The woman knelt down and placed her hand on Hikari's head, before Hikari lost consciousness and the woman vanished, leaving her in the alleyway. The last thing Hikari saw and heard was some humans wearing orange clothing and yelling something before running towards her, before everything went black and she could no longer hear the outside world.
The only thing she could hear now were some mysterious voices, talking as if they were there for a long time already.