Chapter 4.1- The Seadragon's Roar

104 AC

“Continuous blast” I said, and watched as Igneel obeyed perfectly, sending a stream of red flames straight at the boulder we were practicing with. I timed it mentally, counting up the seconds as I marveled at his growth. Years ago, he would have struggled to get to five. Now, he did not stop until seventy-three.

“Seventy-three” I told him in High Valyrian, and his claws scuffed the ground as he growled in irritation. On more than one occasion, ut mother and Laena had commented that my training with Igneel pushed him too hard and that I was too strict. If only they knew that he was harder on himself than I could ever be.

“Chin up” I said. “Only one second away from your personal best, and we both know you’re far from fresh and well-rested like you were back then. This is something to be proud of. Your endurance is getting better” I said. And wasn’t that the truth. I’d boasted that Igneel was the fastest growing dragon in the world, but even I was impressed with hjusthow rapid that growth could be at times. It was moe than about physical size and mass— though that did advance at a rapid speed. No, it was things like this. We decided to train his endurance some months ago, and now he was leaps and bounds better than he had ever been.

Speaking of size though, that had grown but he still remained the smallest dragon on Driftmark. We kept a good distance from the Bronze Bitch and her pranks when we could, but Meleys was practically a shadow for everything we did.. Even now, she was relatively close by, sitting languidly at the top of a hill overlooking our training. I had little doubts that it was something Mother had asked her to do. But then again, there was the fact that while I was mother’s child and mother was her rider, Igneel himself had come from her clutch. Did Dragon’s feel parental bonds? It was difficult to tell. Did she watch us because Mother had asked or because Igneel was her child. Either way, she did. And she was a good metric for comparing Igneel’s size.

“Now, another lap around the Island since you seem so energetic” I said, and he growled his acceptance before ambling up to the boulder. It was a nice, smooth boulder littered with claw marks that we’d found a week ago. It was Boulder number 27, a replacement for boulder number 26 after the Bronze Bitch decided to land atop it the last time Laena and I raced. Igneel grabbed a hold of the boulder before his wings began to move. In a matter of seconds, he was in the air and making a course around the Island. I turned to Meleys and found her giving me an amused look. I waved in her direction even as I mentally timed Igneel’s course. From this point, it was easy enough to watch him fly around the island while making sure he didn’t take any shortcuts. He hadn’t done that in years, but it was good to be careful.