Master Of None

While the sparring continued, Midnight found that she was not having as much fun as she usually was. She wanted to get stronger but her training with the elemental breath attacks was something she didn't want to show off to the dragon village yet. If she did it might make more of a commotion and she wouldn't be able to get back home to her favorite spot by the fireplace. 

There was also the fact that no matter what they had already agreed to go to the main village to meet the royal dragon court. This was both exciting and nerve wracking for her. These were dragons much more powerful than her and that could easily change the way the party lived. The only benefit was that she had found a way to bond with Walker more and protect herself and her family from other dragons' wills.

  It didn't take long for her to notice that Illia was again flying above the group while they sparred. She appeared much more interested in this than the actual matches so Midnight decided to start to climb to the gardens. Walker already knew she wanted to get stronger and fly sooner. He would never stop her from pursuing g her own goals to get stronger and realize her potential. 

After noticing Midnight was climbing the steps to the garden, Illia decided to fly there and wait. She spoke when Midnight reached the top, "Do you wish to train your flying more? Or do you wish to do something else?" There was curiosity in Illia's tone. It had been a long time that she was able to speak as a human would and she went out of her way to always speak that way since most other races spoke the language. If she were to revert to growling and hissing it would feel that she had not grown up at all, but this didn't mean she did not understand Midnight when she growled slightly. 

"I can tell you about my training with ice and water. But it was something I was born with. It may not be something you can learn." Illia was not sure if Midnight would be able to improve her control of water elemental mana while doing what Illia does to train. However, Ilia was extremely curious after seeing the party do things that she had not seen in a human before. They were some undiscovered treasure in her eyes after losing the thought that they were just lowly humans. 

The huffs and soft growls from Midnight sounded more like a child trying to convince an older sibling to sneak them food than a conversation. Walker even felt the twinge of desire from Midnight while he trained but knew that she was already up on the gardens. The bond they felt between them was giving them a general sense of where they were in the world. 

"I can show you, but it will be up to you. I have already been wrong a few times." Illia admitted herself to be wrong in her first evaluation. Upon doing so she walked to the end of the gardens and started to pull up some rocks to uncover some centennial ice. "I leave this here for the cold days when I can grasp more mana." 

The pieces of ice that Illia broke off were the same size as the food the party had eaten the night before. The horned rabbit legs would easily feed the entire party and the ice here would most likely last them even longer if they attempted to eat it. 

"When I was just born it was the winter. That is normal for any water dragon. Instead of absorbing water as my two siblings did, I gained a small amount of wind in to my body. It was a very weak bloodline from generations ago. That caused the water elemental mana in my body to become colder and more potent to force out the wind bloodline. This is common for some mixed blood dragons when they try to purify themselves for the first time. The result I had was not a pure water elemental affinity but a condensed water affinity." 

This was very educational for Midnight who had not studied many things in this field. She only knew the condensing of elemental mana due to Walker's training and the results she had seen of it. He had been able to learn ice skills when he condensed the water elemental mana more and it was clear that doing the same here would give better shills. 

Making the relation to her own training, Midnight realized that she would have had a mist breath if she had not condensed the water elemental mana more creating her own, weak, but one day powerful, frost breath. The enlightening moment she had was small but enough for her to begin to understand why Illia was different compared to the other dragons. It would be harder for her to become more powerful because she had to have purity in the water elemental mana she used but also to condense it. Simply put, she needed more pure water elemental mana that a water elemental dragon would to do anything. 

"I have trained every day to be where I am now and I will soon be able to take my dragonkin form and represent this branch village with the elder. My main training is to take a portion of centennial ice that I created in to my mouth and absorb the water elemental mana in it slowly. This allows for me to circulate the mana through my body and condense it. It removes other elemental manas and cleans my scales. The strength I gained in my bones and scales is also note worthy." This was the same method as consuming the elemental mana crystals, but more specified for ice. Midnight walked to the centennial ice and clawed off a shard. It was in her mouth in a moment and she began to try the training Illia did. 

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