Chapter Thirty One - A Bond

Noah instinctively reached for where his sword would be, preparing to be attacked by the sitting man once again. Realising he didn't have anything to use as a weapon he decided he would have to use something he had never even tried before.

He pulled all the magic particles in the air into himself, willing the aura to surround his arms and fists. A black aura appeared around his right hand while a white aura appeared around his left, pulsating with power.

The old man stared at Noah's hands for just a brief moment before laughing which sounded more like a frog croaking. He raised his head and slowly stood up. "Child, you have a long way to go before you are ready to fight me; just watch."

Holding his right hand up and aiming at the stone building, Noah felt the magic in the air turn cold and hard. The magic particles floated to the man and were absorbed into his body before coming out at his outstretched hand, gathering in his outstretched hand. The magic turned into a ball of flashing light, changing from black to white multiple times in just a blink of an eye.

The old man blew out over the ball and it slowly floated over to the building before pushing itself into the closest stone wall, nothing happened at first...

Just as Noah was away to turn back to the old man and ask him if he was a fool, the wall started to let out groans. Like bricks being rubbed against each other. The wall shivered, splitting into two different pieces, then three and four and so on. It wasn't long before the entire wall collapsed along with the whole building after it.

Noah's jaw dropped to the floor, unsure of how to react at such powerful magic. The closest thing he had seen to something like this was when Isan had used proper magic words to control his magic.

The old man's crow eyes narrowed together as he let out another croaking laugh. "I see you don't even know how to turn magic aura into mana but you have such a strong connection to it, I am surprised you haven't experimented more or tried to learn more."

In Noah's mind, his brain was working overtime at the situation and what to do but with everything that was happening and had happened he could only go along with the crazy absurdness. His mouth drying up before answer, "Whenever I tried to experiment things got out of hand, that is why I stopped. I can't really control my magic unless I am sparring."

The old man's eyes twinkled, his lips curling up into a smile. "Well at least you have tried to experiment, I am sure it will be easier for you to control your magic now that you are bonded." Gesturing at the grey dragon which at this point was just wandering aimlessly around the grounds, occasionally glancing back at Noah and the old man like it was checking they were still there.

"Bonded? I don't know what you mean." Shrugging his arms and slowly walking closer to the fire to stay warm.

"I see... You don't know how to see you are bonded? Let alone feel the bond. Strange. Gather your magic in your eyes and look at the back of your hands, tell me what you see. Don't worry about losing control, I am sure you have at the very least gained this much control over your magic." The old man slowly walked to the baby dragon and kneeled beside it, rubbing under its chin.

Following the old man's guidance, Noah gathered a small number of magic particles into his chest and willed them to his eyes. When he looked at the back of his hands there were two different patterns, the one on his right hand was his father's insignia while the one on the left was a pattern Noah had never seen before.

It was shaped like a triangle but each line to the next point was too long, with a curved line connecting the ends of each line, forming a circle shape around the triangle. The insignia of his father shine with a grey light while the one on the opposite hand shined with a black light.

Noah was lost in the symbols that were somehow showing on his hands, he didn't remember them being there before nor did he understand how he got them. His eyebrows were nearly touching each other as he concentrated.

"You are quite the simple child, I see. There must be an insignia on your left hand and one on your right, one will be your family insignia while the other... is that baby dragon's." The old man's voice seemed to get quieter at the end of his statement, his eyes getting lost in thought.

The baby dragon seemed to have enough of the old man and charged at Noah, flapping its wings like it was trying to take off but only managing to glide after jumping up into the air. Crashing into Noah and licking his cheek.

"... He is already set in stone. To think this is how it would be..." The old man walked back to the fire and sat on his stone seat, his hand slowly feeling the bottom of his hair and twisting it into knots.

"Young man, for a dragon to bond straight after being born has only ever been heard of once. Has the baby dragon talked to you yet?"

Shaking his head in response.

"Not at first, normally they will send you visions in your head or pictures to try and describe what they say, but soon he will pick up the language we use and be able to use it, just as his mother before him."

Noah could only rub the cheek of the baby dragon that had nearly crushed him down onto the ground. "What happened last night that did this?"

"Well, I saw you were in a bit of a pickle yesterday so I stepped in to help you and the next thing I knew you had used that ring to teleport away and into my garden. Not the smartest of fellows for running away, are we? Anyways, I followed you back soon after disposing of the Hog to avoid attracting any other beasts into that area. When I came back to my garden you were already collapsed so I took you to my little home where at some point you bonded during the night with that baby dragon without me even realising it." When he said that his eyes narrowed and he stared Noah up and down as if he was staring at a puzzle that had too many parts that were the wrong shape and size.

"I only went outside for some fresh air when I noticed you had managed to hatch that little baby there and collapse in exhaustion. To be fair I have never seen a human hatch a dragon's egg in all 300 years of my life."

'300 years?! He must be joking. No human could live that long...' Noah thought to himself while comprehending everything else the old man had told him.