Natural talent

The following day I woke up to Crimson's smiling face. She picked me up from my cot and changed me into another new dress she had ready for me. Part of me was starting to feel like I was her own personal dress-up doll.

When we left my room, Crimson took me down a new corridor. This one took us outside the cave. Because of how bright it was inside the cave, my eyes didn't need to adjust to the bright outside.

As I looked around, I saw the area outside was a large training area built onto a large ledge on the side of a mountain and in the middle of it were Walter and Tom, 'Wow! I didn't realise the cave was in a mountain! From what I can see, we're pretty high up too!'

Crimson raised her hand in front of her, and as she did, I saw a yellow aura emit from her hand, and then a wooden chair materialise out of thin air. She then sat down and watched the two of them train, 'So I was right. She can use magic, and it wasn't just my imagination!'

As I sat in awe of Crimson's skills in magic, I couldn't help but overhear Walter talking, "You have to focus on feeling the energy in your body. First, you must feel its fundamental difference from your mana, separate it, and make it bend to your will and change. Then, once you can feel the energy flowing through your body, focus on it and force it outward, allowing it to swallow your body."

Tom nodded and then closed his eyes. While his eyes were closed, I could feel some weird energy in the air coming from Tom. I saw a faint yellow aura forming around him briefly as I watched. Then, as quickly as I saw it, it was gone, and Tom's face looked red and exhausted.

Tom lowered his head and stared at the ground with a disappointed face, "I'm sorry, Father, I wasn't able to do it still..."

Walter pulled a faint grin at Tom, "It's fine. Most children aren't able to understand how to change forms until they're at least seven, and then it takes them a further 3 years to fully mTom it, so you're making good progress." Walter's words brightened Tom's expression, and he became his usual cheery self again.

I started to think about what they were talking about, 'Were they practising magic? But Walter said something about changing forms... I wonder if I'm able to do that?'

I closed my eyes and started doing everything I heard Walter explain to Tom. As I focused, I could feel a strange energy flowing through my body, just like he mentioned.

I focused on the energy harder, and I could feel it starting to change and separate into two new energies. Then, as I focused on both of them, one began to expand almost on its own.

As I practised, Walter could feel my energy in the air. He looked over at me and saw a firey magenta aura forming around me. Seeing it, he immediately started walking over to us while Tom was still completely focused on his practice.

As I felt the energy start to overtake my body, it gave me an anxious feeling, so I stopped. When I opened my eyes, Walter was standing in front of me. Both he and Crimson were staring at me, 'What? Did I do something wrong?'

Walter and Crimson's faces both looked shocked while staring at me. Then, Walter's shocked expression slowly changed into a pleased smile, "It appears our daughter is more talented than I had ever imagined, she's only two days old, and she's partly changed forms already! This has never happened in all history as far as I know!"

Crimson smiled long with Walter, "Yes, it's incredible that she's already managed to form scales; it took Dan years of training to achieve this level of transformation!"

I couldn't help but feel shocked by what she said, 'Wait, I actually managed to transform?! And did she say I grew scales?!' As I touched my face, I could feel the scales covering me.

Crimson lifted her hand in front of her and materialised a strange sphere with a circular hole in its face with a yellow line going around it, starting and ending at the hole, "I believe we should make a memory crystal of this moment!"

Walter smiled even brighter at her suggestion, "Yes, I believe that's a great idea!" Walter then stood beside us, and as he did, the sphere took a slightly different position in front of us and started to emit a glow from the yellow line and the hole. After a couple of seconds, it stopped and then rotated its face towards the sky. As it did, a yellow crystal rose out of the hole.

Walter grabbed the crystal, and the sphere dematerialised. He then handed it to Crimson. As she inspected it, the crystal made an image appear above it, just like a hologram.

As I looked closer at the image, I could see it was a photo of the three of us, 'So that's what I look like? It's my first time seeing what I look like in this world. I'm actually a cute baby! And my scales look mesmerising! The magenta hue colour on them looks so captivating!'

While I was distracted, my scales started disappearing, and I returned to normal. After that day, Walter began to pay twice as much attention to me. Every day, I could see him staring at me while waiting to see if I did something else.

One day while everyone was eating and Crimson was feeding me some terrible-tasting baby dragon food, I couldn't help but notice Walter staring at me from the corner of my eye, 'Uhhh... Seriously, how long are you going to stare at me?! It's already been a week, and you won't stop! If you keep staring at me like that while I eat, I'll get indigestion!'

When I looked over at Walter so I could give him an angry glare, our eyes met, which caused his serious expression to turn to a smile, "Seems our daughter is interested in her Father today!"

Crimson smiled at Walter, "Yes, since you started paying more attention to her, she seems to have grown more attached to you!"

Crimson's words irk me slightly, 'Attached?! I just wanted him to stop staring at me! I'm not attacked to him at all!'

Walter chuckled lightly, "I'm glad our daughter seems to like me so much."

Crimson's face lit up as she had an idea, "Walter, why don't you spend the day with Sash!" her suggestion surprised me. I try to voice my displeasure, but I'm still only a week old, "Ahhh?! A bah ba ah ba!" 'I don't want to spend the day with him! He's not interesting at all and kinda scary!'

Walter's face had a beaming smile at hearing her idea, "That sounds like an excellent idea. I'll take her out to the markets in the lower town."

Crimson's smile became overwritten with concern at the sound of Walter's plans, "Umm... Walter, don't you think she's too young to go around the markets? She's not even ten days old yet..."

I nodded in agreement with Crimson, 'I agree. I'm still too small to be going around a place like that, too many unsavoury characters in places like that.'

Walter looked at Crimson in pure confusion, "Do you think so? What would you suggest then?" Crimson stopped and thought for a second, "Why don't you take her to the top of the mountain and share the view together?"

My face turned white at her suggestion, 'That's even worse than his suggestion! You can't take a baby to the top of a mountain!'

Walter agreed with Crimson's suggestion, "Yes, that's a much better idea than mine. The view from atop the mountain is excellent."

As I listened to them talk, I could feel my soul leaving my body at the idea of what was to come, 'How long can I survive with parents like this...'

The next day Crimson handed me over to Walter, and we set off outside the mountain. When we got outside, I couldn't help but look up to see how high the mountain was.

When I looked up, it felt like the mountain had no end. The peak of it was so high that it pierced the clouds and wasn't even visible, 'You seriously want to take me to the top of a mountain that you can't even see the top of!'

Walter looked down at me in his arms; he could see I was nervous, "There's no need to worry. I won't let you go."

For some reason, his words filled me with an unfamiliar comfort, 'Why did his words make me feel so calm? Is this what it feels like to know someone truly cares for you?'

Walter arched forward slightly, and as he did, a pair of giant wings sprouted from his back. When I saw them, my eyes nearly popped out at the shock of it, 'What the hell! I didn't know he could grow massive wings!' Then, when they fully emerged, he did one big beat of his wings and shot us into the air.

Completely terrified, I closed my eyes, and after a couple of seconds, I felt us slow down and land. When I felt us touch the ground, I peeked out slightly, and when I did, I saw we were atop the mountain already.

As I opened my eyes fully, I looked out to the horizon. All I could see were a sea of bright fluffy clouds bathed in a warm glow of sunlight.

The view somewhat reminded me of my previous life of the time I once travelled on a plane, the sight of being above the clouds back then was amazing, but compared to this, it was insignificant.

Walter looked down at me and saw my amazed expression. Seeing my face made him have a warm smile, "One day, you'll be able to fly out over the clouds on your own."

As he said that, I couldn't help but look up at him and smile happily, 'I guess you're not as scary as I thought.'

After a few minutes of watching the view, Walter smiled at me again, "It's about time we head back down." as he said that, he stepped off the edge of the mountain and plummeted us towards the ground and high speed.

I couldn't help but scream, which as a baby, sounded more like a cry, "Ahhhhh!" 'I take back everything I said about you, and you're not scary; you're insane!'

Before we reached the ground, Walter spread his wings to slow us down and landed gently. After we landed, I could feel my soul slipping away from the terror I had just experienced.