'We as mortals, do not possess the ability nor the affinity that dragons have with mana. The only way to wield it is to try and force it to do our bidding. Yet that's not always a good thing for it comes with risks. Dragons on the other hand are blessed, for mana itself wishes to help them. Hence for a mortal to try and win a fight against a dragon is nothing but wishful thinking.' — ???

*****************

I had barely managed to touch the mountain edge before I was sent hurling backwards with an even stronger force by my mother's wind current. My body spun in the air as I quickly lost altitude.

My energy was depleted, the weariness from the previous fight with the monster shark, and now my mother's test took its toll on me as I was no longer able to keep myself in the air.

The wind howled in my ear as I freefall to the lake below, a strong sense of drowsiness threatened to overwhelm me. Just as I was about to touch the water, mother's gentle wind mana surrounded me, cushioning my fall.

I barely managed to raise my head as I caught a glimpse of her large figure staring down at me. She nodded her head in approval, before using her wind mana to slowly bring me back to our floating home.

At this point, I was barely conscious. The strange exhaustion overwhelmed me. The last thing I saw before I descended into the dark embrace of the dream world, was my mother's gentle gaze.

---

I had a very peculiar dream. I was aware that I was sleeping and that everything I saw was nothing but the works of my imagination. Yet for some reason, a part of me felt like what I was seeing was real.

It felt like I was witnessing history through the eyes of an outsider. I dreamed of a distant land, a continent full of humans, elves, and demons that lived together side by side in harmony. I dreamed of the gods as they sawed conflict and discord between the mortals due to their selfish desires.

I watched as the realm descended into a massive continental war. The land turned into a place where many young lives ended, in the sacrifice of the hope of better days for their loved ones.

I could sense the flow of mana that had been disturbed, yet the gods did not notice, or perhaps they simply did not care. The humans who were the weakest were slowly pushed to the brink of extinction, the surviving few escaping to the northwest of the continent where they closed themselves in and raised the white flag.

The elves and demons did not care much to pursue them, for humans were the weakest race. They instead continued with their battles, the war ravaging the entire realm. It was a time when countless heroes rose and fell, where Divine mages controlled the battlefields.

I felt like I was watching a very long movie, as countless events unfolded before my eyes. Suddenly, I was overseeing a massive battlefield. It looked like the final decisive battle between the elves and demons.

Their respective deities had even descended to the mortal plane. I could sense that their presence itself was a disturbance to the flow of mana, that they were NOT supposed to be here.

I watched as their fight flattened mountains, changing the entire landscape whenever they passed. The gods were indifferent to the lives of their followers who fell by the thousands each time they clashed.

Suddenly, the entire realm was shaken by a roar that forced the two deities to the ground. The glowing light that surrounded them dimmed, as their true form appeared.

An elegant winged eleven Goddess, and a horned demon God with bat-like wings. The duo's eyes were wide in fear as an enormous black dragon with familiar golden eyes appeared.

His figure blotted the sky as he cast a large shadow on the land below. Looking at him made me feel an intense feeling of awe, as something familiar seemed to draw me into him.

His size easily dwarfed my father, making him look like an infant in front of an adult. The dragon did not speak, his cold gaze bringing shivers down the celestials' spines as they hastily threw themselves to the ground and kowtowed in fear and reverence.

The massive black dragon merely glanced at them before the sky suddenly dimmed. An enormous beam of black and red energy, unlike any I have seen or felt before, materialized as he opened his jaw revealing a set of terrifying sharp teeth.

The beam seemed to shine brighter than the sun itself. It only took a second before it reached the cowering celestials giving them no time to react before they were instantly pulverized. The mortals behind them were not spared either as both elves and demons met their demise.

The dragon breath attack had left the entire battlefield in shambles. There was no fire or any trace of magic left behind, the flat ground was now a massive crevice. It looked like that attack had split the earth in half.

Just as I turned around to look at the dragon, our eyes met, a shiver ran down my spine as those golden eyes seemed to travel through the barrier of space and time to bear down on me.

---

My eyes instantly shot open as I gasped for air, my body jolted up as I stared in confusion at the open cave ceiling. It took a couple of seconds for my mind to clear.

It felt like I had woken up from a very very long dream. The sky that was beyond the cave was already dark. I glanced at my side where Green was curled into a ball fast asleep.

Blacky was nowhere to be found, White had her body leaned against my mother as they slept in a corner, while Golden boy was passed out on his back in the middle of the cave.

Father was nowhere to be found either. I ran my eyes on my body, scanning it for injuries only to be surprised by the lack of any. 'Did mom heal me?' I wondered.

'Then again, what was that dream?' I inwardly mumbled before I laid back down next to Green, my body feeling a bit larger than before, yet I didn't pay it too much heed, I was still sleepy.

'Probably my imagination,' I mumbled before I drifted back to sleep.