Chapter 12: Beginning (Jangra's POV)

I knew what was about to happen next, and I felt bad for my brother and sister. They were always a lot closer to Himla than I was. My mother had his head held down to the ground and I could tell Mik already knew what was going on.

"This is about our father isn't it?" Mik said to my mother, my brother looked a bit surprised and a little bit confused at the same time. He was smarter than most dragons but not quite as smart as me and my sister were.

"Yes... It hurts me to say it..." My mother began saying. My brother was genuinly confused. I was surprised that he had not seen something like this coming for a long time. It almost seemed like my father viewed my mother as a friend he could get advice from, just not a loved one.

"What is going on? Is there something I do not know about?" Plok said noticing that I was looking sadly at my mother. Like I said he was not dumb at all, but there was some things that he did not understand that dragons like us did.

"Plok... You've known it for a long time, I know you have, our father does not feel true love for our mother anymore, and I don't know if he ever has." Mik said to my brother, my mother was staring at the ground and I could see her wiping the tears from off of her eyes.

I did not understand how my father did not have love and affection for this dragon, she was beautiful as ever, she was always kind and sweet to him and his chidren. Plok was looking around still a bit confused but then suddenly you could see the pieces beginning to click in his head.

"Oh... I thought he just didn't have time to talk... I didn't realize there was a deeper meaning. Continue... Is he throwing you out whats going on?" He said to my mother. Mik looked at my mother, she had not known what was about happen next.

I knew something like this was in the making but I did not expect it to get this bad, and I felt terrible for my mother for it, I had lost a lot of respect for my father, it is one thing to leave your wife, but another to throw your kids out under the roof as well.

"Yes... Not just me, all of you, we will find a cave from the elders, and we will live there til you all find a loved one." She nodded looking at all of us. She then winced when she looked at me, she was thinking of the same thing that I was when she said it. Penta, and as much as I hated her right now, I still did care for her at one point.

"Oh... I did not know that it was that bad..." My sister Mik said to her. My mother nodded and sat down looking down at the ground of the cave sadly. I felt bad for her, I'll she gave him was pure love and still he rejected her.

He rejected her for a black dragon, a different tribe, and a different species none the less. He did not even talk to that dragon anynmore. I felt sick to my stomach just even thinking about it in my head.

Maybe he did talk to her, I had heard he would randomly sneak out of camp and disappear on his own for a while, it made sense, I just thought there were no black dragons nearby.

All of the sudden a ghast just broke into my mind, and it all started to make sense. Why all of this had come down to this right now. I remembered Yikla, she was the daughter of Plyma, but the mother of... Oh... It really began to make sense.

He knew that she was the daughter of his old love, and she had probably told him some things about him, or maybe he had asked. Based off of what I had heard, Plyma was not being friendly to any dragon, when I had snuck in to listen to their conversation.

He probably thought that maybe, Kopla, his old lover might be thinking about him or potentially thinking about going after her. It made no sense but I could see something like that fron my father, that is what basically had started the last war amung other things.

I wanted to tell all of them, but at the same time I did not, maybe I would tell Plok, I was not supposed to sneak in and hear the leaders conversations at all, his small little talking cave was off limits to any dragon.

The deputy, Socra had seen me and it would not be a surprise to me if she put some gaurds or maybe even some elders to make sure something like that would never happen again. I was lucky she was nice and gratious to me, or else I would have potentially gotten thrown out of the group.

With the way my father had been today, or rather yesterday, I thought not realizing that it was already so late until now. I was beginning to feel really tired now that I put that thought into my mind.

With how my father how he was right now, him throwing out us and our mother it would not have surprised me. Maybe that is why Socra had been kind on me, she probably knew what the position was with Himla, he told her about everything and he always looked for her for advice.

I had a feeling she tried giving him advice, and he would not listen this time. I shook my head and moaned thinking about him again, at least it was slightly better thoughts than thinking about Penta, but that really was not saying all that much.

"Yes... After your brother starts his training, like your father told me, then we were to be out." My mother said to us. I shook my head, I then walked away, I did not want to think about it, there had been so many bad things that had happened today, so much in one day it was worse than the whole last year.

That was not saying much, my life was pretty fun and all up until yesterday. But that had been just a terrible sequence of events. Penta rejecting me and almost attacking me, me taking in a black dragon, and then finding out that my mother was getting divorced, along with finding out we might get attacked. It was absolutely crazy. Plok walked over to me, he knew what was going on, and what was happening inside my head. It hurt me so much and it was just so much to take in all at once.

I sat there and he nodded to me pushing himself up close to me. Like all dragons whenever you rub up against each other you feel warm and loved and it made me feel a little bit better.

I sat there for a few moments and after Mik and my mother Oplam had fallen asleep then Plok began to talk to me. He looked at me sadly, as if he did understand what was going on in my head, which I doubted, he had never really had a love.

"I understand what you are going through, before you were born there was a dragon that rejected me, everyone told me that she would not, I am a handsome dragon and so are you, but she did just not quite in the fashion that yours did." He began saying to me. My brother was nearly 50 years old so I guess it kind of made sense.

"Yeah... She really hurt me, I think it is going to take a bit of time to grow from that." I said to him. He nodded to me and moved his head up and continued what he was telling me.

"You need to focus on you, the woman will come to you. I have had some for me but none that really interested me, you have to know you are bigger and better than that dragon. Something is wrong in her head, you can not blame her for it." He said to me. I nodded, all of out friends had known for quite some time that she was not normal.

I sat there and nodded, he lowered his body and he quickly fell asleep. I sat there for a few moments wondering about my brothers advice but then I nodded to myself and headed to sleep myself.

I woke up, it was bright outside, I got up as if it was a normal day but then I realized that it was not. I then began to get excited, my mother was staring at me smiling, Mik was nowhere to be seen but Plok was sitting there talking to her.

When he noticed she had stopped paying paying attention to him he looked around and then he smiled at me. He knew what I was happy about, and I had spent a lot of time thinking about it.

There were going to be a lot of people there, like it was for my sister when I was really young, other dragons it usually was not, they were right, no matter what I was going to be trained by someone.

I was not going to just be a cave dragon, my sister was being trained to be a hunter and then eventually be a elder, she was so smart but she had never shown any intent in ever wanting to be leader even though she had the correct skill set.

She just did not want the stress and all of those other things that came with it, it took a lot of time to be leader, that was one thing I could not fault my father on. I walked over to both of them and then brushed against them giving them a hug.

"We were just talking about you, I think I know what you are going to be trained to be, you probably do as well." Plok said to me. I nodded, I really did not know what he was talking about, no one knew that my parents were splitting apart yet so I would be trained.

"Yes... We believe with all that is going on, you are going to be trained to be a warrior, especially since there is fear of an attack, you are bigger than most red dragons at this age, but it is not a downfall you are smarter and faster than most as well." She said to me. I had not even thought that deep into it, all dragons were taught how to fight a little bit.

At this point though, becoming a warrior was a lost cause, there were only a few in this tribe, I wondered who it could possibly be and I was sure they would be the first to want to train me. It made a lot of sense, and I nodded once again to them.

"Yes... With Yikla being hear... And the news... That would make sense." I said to both of them. I had not thought that deeply into it, I had never caught anything and I had got a little bit of training. I thought maybe it was because I was young and not as fast.

Maybe becoming a warrior would be better for me in the end. They were smiling at me, they were proud of me and I could tell. I sat there, they nodded to me looking right at the entrance. I realized what they were telling me to do right away.

"Go! They are going to test you! You dont actually learn your set til tonight." My mother said to me. I nodded once again and then quickly began running out there. My father was already looking at me from his cave and smiling.

I was not smiling back at him, I was not happy with him right now. But I could see that he at least sort of cared about me. I sat there, I wanted to ask him why but there were a few elder dragons with me along with the deputy who was also smiling at me.

"Okay Jangra... So you will go with Socra and she will tell you the necessaries, the elders with be right now will watch you. Then tonight we will have the meeting. If the Elders don't think you are ready for a certain task then they will deny a dragons training request." Himla said to me. I nodded but so many things were going on in my mind.

I was afraid, no one had told me about it, now if I failed I would be in real trouble, I hoped that the elders had not heard the news about my mother and were not leaning towards my father right now. I could tell that he meant every word that he said.

"Ummmmm... Uhhhh... Okay!" I said to him trying to look like I was ready as much as possible, I had not heard of this, no dragon had ever told me, I had a feeling it was something new my father had made. Now that he was leaving my mother and he knew that tomorrow was my day.

"Alright... Go with Socra now..." He told me. Socra was looking at me and I was a bit afraid that she was going to tell my father about the little insedent that had happened last night. But she was just looking at me and smiling like she had completely forgotten what had happened last night.

I walked over to her and she was smiling at me still. I had never seen this dragon this happy ever before. She normally always looked depressed and always thought that something bad was going to happen to the tribe.

"Alright Jangra... You know what we will do, we will see how you can hunt, then we will see if you can train, or if you can remember medicine skills." She said to me. I nodded trying to remember all of those words she had just told me. I did not want to be a medicine dragon but if I really had to then I would.

It was only about two or three times per year that these happened, I had been to Kotas, I did not see any elders looking around making sure that he got trained into the right position. Plok had not told me about it either I was confused as too what was going on.

"Okay... I will try my best..." I said to her. She smiled to me once again and then nodded to me, I knew what was happening next and I could hear the elders from not too far behind walking behind us.

I remembered what my brother had told me about a warrior, he said first you attacked at close range and then at the air. It made sense as you why no one was a warrior anymore. She was way bigger than most red dragons, and most dragons my age were also smaller and not quite as fast.

I looked behind us, the elders were a bit behind us, but far enough behind us that they could not hear any conversation that was going on. Just as I was thinking about it, Socra seemed as if she went right into my head and told me what was going on in my mind.

"To any other dragon, you would have gotten in real trouble with last night. With your father upset at your mother, for things I do not want to tell you, I did not want to test him." She said to me. I nodded my thanks to her. I wondered why my father was upset at my mother, if anything it should be vice versa.

I did not want to ask any questions, I had already pushed it too far. I was just lucky she was kind enough not too screw me over, she was right when she said my father might get really upset about it.

"Sorry... I just wanted to know what was going on." I said to her. She nodded to me and then we kept on walking, I was surprised we were not flying to our destination, I had woken up a little bit late.

"It is okay, I knew it was news we would tell the whole tribe anyways. Do not get upset about it, young dragons are always looking for answers, you are not the first." She said to me. I nodded, I had heard stories but I'm sure it happened a lot more than what a lot of dragons told me.

"Thank you though. I appreciate it you saved me a lot of trouble." I said to her. She once again nodded and then took a while to respond to me. I wanted to get off the subject so I did not say anything else about it. She was still smiling for some reason I noticed.

She sat down all of the sudden, along with all of the elder dragons that were behind us. I sat down as well a bit confused as to what exactly was going on right now.

"So first... You will learn a few things about medicine and we will test you, then we will do hunting next, and then we will do a warrior. You have about 2 hours for each of these." She said to me. I nodded taking it all in at once. Now this wasn't just a dream I had thought about in my head for quiet some time. I was shivering, this would determine my future, I could not wait to prove Penta wrong.

"What if I fail at all of them?" I said to her. She looked at me and then she just smiled, she then shook her head at me and we continued walking. I did not know where we were going. I had not been in this area for very long before.

"Dont worry about it, this is just a beginning..."