Carnelians pov:
After flying around the territory for a week and a half, Carnelian and her siblings pestered mother to where she taught us simple mana use techniques and how to store magic, but… in a very simplistic manner so we basically have to learn ourselves.
Turned out it's like teaching a Jungle leopard how to hunt, fail and trail til you learn from your mistakes and figure it out. But unlike a Jungle Leopard we had each other to learn, instead of struggling on our lonesome.
When we first banded back together 4 days ago, each of them memorized every nook and cranny of a specific area. The only obstacle was that only one area was explored by each dragonet, every other section was unknown.
Mother taught a surprisingly simple technique to share selected memories which covered the problem of not exploring everywhere. Only catch was it could only be used once every six new moons.
All that was left was battle training.
…
Whoosh! A flash of red swerved to the side and cut behind a tree, dodging a wind attack from down below that her brother, Archaic had sent towards her.
Right after a spot of dark gray and black was spotted under some leaves in a low growing tree under Carnelian. It was Tiny locked into a fight of teeth and claws with Cerberus.
Throwing her head back, she charged up her throat, compressing a burning force from all the way down in her stomach and forcing the dragon breath out of her mouth towards her brothers
The tree they were fighting under lit on fire and she heard a yelp from Cerberus. Proud of herself she prepared to dive at Cerberus and attack him again, but right then, Soar popped up behind her and grabbed hold of the back of her neck. Damnit,
Before she could counter, Tiny popped up from under and hit right under Soars underbelly. Tiny's Element- works against us only as fog for now, but would soon be a poison dangerous enough dragons soon, erupted in a space of air around them.
Carnelian held her breath. If she breathed in his fog she would be rendered useless for a good ten seconds because of a bad coughing fit. Soar flapped his large, powerful wings and doing so blew the fog away with the intense wind, but throwing Carnelian slightly off balance in the process.
Tiny took his opportunity to pull carnelian and yank his body under Carnelian, holding her neck, and throw her down crashing into the ground of the forest.
Although there was still a big dirt crater, dainty was there hiding and softened Carnelians fall. Dainty, throwing her a knowing look and Cerberus quickly stalking over to us, shot the same look. A grin quickly formed on her face, 'Let's hope they have the same idea'
Sneaking away under the bushes soar was too busy fighting Power to notice us. The perfect opportunity for each of them to sneak away.
Cerberus stalked in the direction of the lake. The wind was blowing our siblings' scents towards us so they probably hadn't found us yet.
While Power was having a brawn versus wind fight with soar, Archiac had noticed our disappearance and was sniffing for us on the forest floor while tiny swooped overhead keeping an eye out for any dirty attempts of sneak attacks.
Before Archaic had caught our scent, Dainty shot out from the bush he was hiding in and crossed over the forest floor so quickly he was able to do a good spin move on Archiac and smack him across the face with his tail without Archaic even having a chance to defend himself.
Archaic let out a squeak of surprise that Power had heard. She threw Soar In Archiacs direction, as he dove headfirst he prepared to use some stored up energy and create an escape path for Archaic.
Nodding at Cerberus to go in a certain direction away from Power and he silently complied. Carnelian shot up towards Power before she could go help jump dainty and summoned a breeze that blew in all directions, throwing Power off balance, but giving away her position. Power bunched her muscles and braced for impact as Carnelian compressed the mana stored in her horns and Let the fire and wind explode only as her headbutt made contact with her sister.
Power was gasping for breath, the wind knocked out of her, but she still counterattacked with her tail, smacking Carnelian in the eyes. Wincing, Carnelian grabbed her by the wing and dove down, abruptly stopping to use the momentum to throw her down towards the forest floor.
Cerberus jumped out towards the flailing Power and Grabbed the base of her wings while biting her shoulder and neck with two heads and about to shoot fog right in her face with his side head. Ouch. Power panicked, pushing Cerberus with her free arm.
Tiny noticed the unfair jumping going on and released a widespread fog that was thick like a muddy puddle. Obscuring everyone's vision.
Dainty escaped from Archaic and Soar, flying towards me and Cerberus as fast as his wings could move him. Soar right behind him in pursuit.
Tiny also was diving down while blowing out even more of his murky fog, obscuring all vision completely.
…
…
"My shoulder hurts so bad!" Power whined, sprawled out on the ground.
Carnelian shook her head at Power and laughed, "It only hurts cause we set you up so good!" She bragged, "We're all so good at fighting we might as well go raid some other territories right now!"
Power tried to shake off her embarrassment and licked herself "I'm gonna ask mother to fix my shoulder."
Dainty, Tiny, Soar and Archaic all were panting, Dainty softly growled, "I'm so tired I could pass out flying midair. Let's just do some mana or something easy to pass the time."
Archaic seemed way out of energy too, more than usual. Even Tiny let out a yawn, and he's the one becoming the most daring and adventurous than any of us.
Carnelian was calm by the time she was done grooming herself, they had been training for six hours straight today. 'She huffed, "You guys do as you please, I'm gonna go on a walk to the hilly fields." She said while preparing for flight.
Dainty nodded, "We'll be near our cave." He said turning his back on me and walking away. Only then did I take off when I heard the rest of my siblings trail after him.
On the way to the Fields I reflected on all the different areas of our territory. Most fire dragons would live in hot environments or somewhere with much aridity to train their body to be more fire resistant.
But when mother was living alone in a territory, she forgot that we were mixed, not fully fire and wind, she had to reconsider where her territory was. She actually had another territory claimed that was near a volcano with lots of vantage points and strong prey that put up a good fight. But when she laid our eggs she realized that we were part poison dragon from one of my siblings egg patterns.
The reason she didn't just have us deal with it was because, and I quote, "Volcano ash, lack of water and poisonous kids? That would have been more of a hassle for me then for you all."
She then started slipping around already claimed territories and deciding how fitting they would be for her own benefit. When she arrived at this one, after examining thoroughly, she beat up the dragons that were living there and took it for herself.
Carnelian shivered thinking about her mother and went back to reminiscing about her current territory.
The entrance of our cave faces perfectly north, so we use it as our center marker, even though it's a good way further down from the middle of our territory.
The mountain where we learned to fly at is northeast on the corner of the territory, right below is the forest that covers up the east and southeast side of our territory with a small stream from the mountains flowing to the lake in the upper middle section.
Where I'm headed, the fields cover the area from the northwest to the southwest. It's covered in vegetation and prey, it even has tunnels connecting to other territory's as well as all around our own. They're only accessible in plains because in environments like forests they get buried in mud, dirt and leaves.
Directly south is another forest, the tip of it reaches our territory, but it's connected to the same one as the east forest four territories away.
Southeast is a small patch of land covered in mud, dirt and tunnels that may collapse at any given moment.
Lost in thought, reciting the territories, Tiny was approaching silently.
"BOO!" Tiny roared, headbutting Carnelian right in the ribs.
Startled, Carnelian automatically charged up for a dragon breath, but had to cough it away when she realized it was just her youngest brother.
"That hurt! Why would you do that?"
"To cover my embarrassment for following you."
"…"
"…"
"Okay… so what do you want?" Surely Tiny wouldn't follow me all the way here for nothing?
He huffed, as if he hadn't thought that far, "I guess I just didn't want to sleep for another 72 hours."
Hahah! This guy, "We haven't slept for longer than a day for the past two weeks! What are you on about?" Carnelian said, half laughing.
He grinned (somewhat because there are still dragons), "Anyways, why are you going to the plains of all places? It's not exactly the best place to hang out when you're all alone." His eyes widened, "Don't tell me you're turning into a boring dragon."
"Hah! I'll show you a boring dragon!" Carnelian did a summer salt in the sky and tried to hit Tiny with her tail, but Tiny swiftly dodged and barreled into her, horns first. Carnelian then grabbed Tiny and threw him under her into the ground, smashing the flowers and grass, causing some dust to rise.
Tiny groaned and shook aggressively, getting the dust of his body the best he could. "Tell me what you're doing here already, Carnelian. It's better not actually be something boring."
Snickering at the now dirty brown dragon, She finally replied, "I was planning on exploring the tunnels." He's so covered in dirt I can't lock in! Haheh.
His eyes widened in anticipation, "Really?" He dumbly asked.
After receiving only a small nod he continued, "Don't you know that these tunnels aren't actually natural? They're artificial." He said eagerly.
"Go on…" Carnelian pressed impatiently.
"Apparently, The dragons who lived here before, excluding their mother, were all nearly fully grown!" He exclaimed excitedly, but quietly as if someone could overhear.
Carnelian's mouth was nearly gaped as she listened for more.
"That's not all. The reason they made the tunnels is because they were looking for something." Grinning at the end of that sentence, it was now obvious why he really followed me here.
"Wait, wait, wait, how did you find this all out?" Carnelian asked, puzzled.
"Mother said it herself! And I quote, 'Those dumb earth dragons thought they could take me on just because they were young adults, I had to take one's life because those dirtbags didn't want to leave the useless treasure they uncovered.' Dont you remember?" Tiny tilted his head.
Embarrassed, She changed the subject to the more interesting point, "You sure you wanna go find the Treasure?" She made a puckish Grin on her face.
"Hah! I knew it. Let's go!" Tiny reared on his back legs before sprinting towards a large, bushy, lone tree about 20 mothers tall in the far distance.
"Hey wait up!" Carnelian charged after her brother, flying, fighting or running, she never liked being last.
Carnelian had much longer legs than tiny, so she quickly caught up to him. Between breaths she asked, "What'll we do if we get lost?" Do you have a plan or are you just gonna throw around dead weight?
Tiny lit up, "Well I thought you'd never ask!"
"???"
"You're gonna burn holes into the ground so we can follow our way back, and light the way through the tunnels! My element is wind and poison so if the treasure is a bunch of enemies you can blow a hole through the roof and I'll fill the tunnels with poison as we escape! Easy huh?"
Carnelian ran with her head turned, staring at her little brother, wide eyed.
"That's a great idea!" She yipped happily, impressed by her brothers planning.
They continued sprinting their way towards the ginormous tree until small roots started sticking out of the the increasingly growing grass and they had to slow down. The grass was now up to Carnelians belly and they still were even near the truck of the trees.
On the other hand, Tiny looked like a alligator swimming, having to lift each of his legs abnormally high in order to not trip on the roots, even having to bound over some that Carnelian could easily hop.
Over where the trees based The grass that grew taller each step of the way was ever so slightly covering the based of the tree, and with the leaves and branch's so large it created an optical illusion that made it look a lot smaller and closer when staring from a distance.
A ginormous tree was an understatement, this was like— a mountain tree!
It wasn't 20 mothers tall either, it was a 10,000!
"Oh my days oh my days, I think the top of this tree is literally stuck IN THE SKY. Tiny we have to start flying right NOW." Carnelian yelled while running in place, panicking.
Tiny didn't seem to want to show it, but he was definitely ready to get out of this scary grass too because he did not hesitate to nod his head in agreement.
Just as Carnelian raised her wings to take off something pinched the tip of her tail and jerked her backwards, but she was not playing games right now.
She charged up a Dragon breath, slit between her scales emitting fire and heat and immediately set a path of grass on fire, matching the now reddening sky. A high pitched screech could be heard as crows flew out from under the grass and into the tree.
Carnelian and Tiny were with the crows flying too. Panics flaps sending any crows behind them flying back into the ground.
After some crow murdering and their adrenaline rush started ending they wer about a mile away from the tree and head to head with it's lowest branch about 800 meters from the ground
"…"
"…"
Tiny did a quiet little cough cough and used wind mana to blow off the bird doo-doo on his shoulder and tail, while Carnelian looked off in the distance pretending not to notice the Doo-doo.
When Tiny was finished they both changed the subject, a quiet promise to never speak of what just happened ever again.
Facing the tree Tree Tiny had a serious expression, "There should never be any reason for a tree to be so big. Why hasn't it grown old and withered, why does it look so… normal?"
Tiny was right. Even Though the lowest branch that they were leveled at was super high up and thick, it looked at though Carnelian and Tiny had simply grown smaller.
"It has to be an optical illusion, look at how big the leaf veins are and how big the branch patterns are." Right behind where they came from, the grass and flowers are all still normal size, the crows that we spooked too. Meaning the tree was the only thing grown.
The image of the tree started twisting, the big leaves started shrinking into multiple twigs and leaves, the branch patterns going back to normal size. The illusion supposedly was brought down, but the tree was still ginormous and they still hadn't reached the tunnel yet.
"…"
"It's now or never cmon Carnelian, let's go." Tiny rested his claw on Carnelian's shoulder.
"I'm right behind you." Surely nothing could go wrong?