Silver Trilogy Shorts: Life in the Mountain
31/01/2020
Hey guys, its been a while since I posted in this book so I've decided to do so again. This short story is one I started a long time ago, but never finished and actually forgot about until I found it again about a week ago. Now, before I go any further, this story contains major spoilers for the Silver Trilogy. If you have not read 'The Silver Reckoning', I suggest you don't read this. It might be a bit confusing as well XD
Now, this story is a slice of life exert set about two years after The Silver Reckoning. It's a fun little story focused on Silver feeling a little stressed out trying to balance her family life and her life as the leader of Sky Mountain. So, here you go, and tell me what you think!
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Silver let out a small huff as she practically collapsed into her nest, letting the cool surface smooth her troubles away. The headache in her skull rapidly began to fade and her stressed breathing began to slow down. Her eyes closed as she made long slow breaths to help. Her metal shell retracted from her back at the same time. Even though having her back bare used to make her feel rather paranoid, she now found the absence of her metal protection rather soothing.
Before she was able to fully relax however a large grating sound caused her head to shoot up, alarmed. The metal sliding door she had made that allowed her to block off the cave to anyone else opened. She blinked with a frown, then let out a soft sigh and a smile as she saw her mate walk through. The lightning drake snorted softly when he saw her laying in her nest, her chin propped against one edge and her tail hanging from the other.
"We're that sort of stressed, are we?" Zepos grinned.
She closed the door behind him with a mental prod to her metal, "Mmh hmm."
He walked over and sat down in front of her, "I thought so."
She let out another sigh, "Why did I let you talk me into having a second batch of eggs?"
"Me talk you into it? I distinctly remember you being the instigator in that instance," he replied with a laugh at her glare.
They had had this argument many times, though usually out of levity than anything else. Neither one of them seemed willing to back down to the other, though they both inwardly knew that their copulation had been something that just... happened. It hadn't really been planned by any of them.
"Are they getting into your head again?" he smirked.
"It's not just that," she grunted, "But everyone keeps on coming to me for all their problems! Like they expect me to solve it all."
A couple of months ago Silver had announced that she was taking a bit of a break from her role as the face of Sky Mountain. It had been in a difficult choice, but in the end she felt it was the right one. Once the school had been set up and the human countries had mostly settled down about the fact there were dragons living in the world she had turned her thoughts to her family. Her youngest hatchlings had turned a year old not even a month ago, and she knew it was about time to set her current interests aside and focus on raising them instead. Despite this fact however, almost everyone seemed to not really care about that announcement and every little thing was still sent in her direction, when she had explicitly told them not to.
"I'll talk to the elders tomorrow," Zepos replied, nudging her with his snout, "See if we can get this workload piled onto someone else."
"Thank you," she said, lightly nudging him back, "How was your day?"
"Oh, the usual; over-eager humans and rowdy dragons, and us running around making sure one doesn't attempt to kill the other. You think at that age they would be able to have at least some common sense not to throw a fireball through a room of highly flammable individuals. Even as a joke."
Silver chuckled, "I trust no one got hurt."
"One poor kid got some mild burns. Nothing a life dragon couldn't fix, and I had Gretta give the fire drake responsible a talking to."
"Gretta? That may have been going a bit far," the dragoness joked.
Zepos snorted, "If I had had my way with him I would have shoved the prideful lizard's tail down his throat. He got off easy."
"Well I'm glad it didn't come to that," Silver bobbed her head, "Though it would have been rather... humorous to see."
"Yes, I kind of regret not doing so now," Zepos grinned at his mate and the two shared a laugh.
Silver had appointed Zepos as head of the school, seeing as it had been his idea in the first place, and he had done a marvellous job thus far. It was a two-year course, with around two hundred humans between the ages of eighteen and twenty five from all over the world. The course was shared with around two hundred dragons between eight and twelve, and the first year had already been a rather startling success. Many had wanted to join and, unfortunately, they had been forced to turn a vast majority down. The same thing had happened that year, and it warmed Silver's heart slightly that so many humans wanted to participate.
Of course, any that did come in had been given quite detailed background checks. They had already ratted out a few of the humans working for various organisations from parts of the worlds, both dragon hunting companies that were now few and far in-between, but still very much active, and a number of terrorist groups that attempted to take a shot at Sky Mountain. Many of these people had been picked out by various mind dragons that lived in the mountain, and others by Tyler's hacking skills.
The school worked by having each dragon pared up with a human. The pairs spent most of the day together, sharing classes and activities. It wasn't uncommon for two to become very good friends, though there were always a few cases where they didn't match. The classes often taught about the two species, focusing on things like habits, anatomy, history and language. The greatest problem so far had been trying to figure out how to teach to humans that all spoke different languages. Eventually it was decided that the classes would be split up between the different human languages, and they made pains to make sure that the dragon of the pair at least knew some of the language of the human he or she were going to be talking to.
"Did you finally get word back from Tyler?" asked Zepos.
"You mean about Diara?"
"Yeah."
Silver nodded her head, "Apparently there's nothing wrong. She is a healthy metal hatchling, as far as he could tell."
"So why...?" Zepos wrinkled his snout in a frown.
"I honestly don't see the problem. I mean, she is no weaker than I was at her age."
"You keep on saying that, but Elron completely overshadows her. It's like he has an innate sense for his powers and control over his metal while Diara seems to have absolutely none."
"She has a bit," protested Silver with a slight rumble, "Just yesterday she managed to fling spikes from her tail for the first time. And she can blunt her wings and become her full metal form easily enough."
"I know, but Elron was able to do that not even three months out of the egg. Diara's a year old now."
The dragoness went silent for a moment, studying her mate carefully. It was true that Elron was an extremely powerful dragon for his age, far more powerful than even his mother had been when she had been growing up. In fact, all three of Retrix's hatchlings seemed strangely strong. But they didn't have anything to compare the two young void dragons, Retrix (or Retrix junior as Tyler like to call him) and Vivian, to other than each other, and they both seemed relatively equal, so they just rubbed it off as normal for the species. Taya and Volt, the two lightning hatchlings were also healthy enough. Volt was certainly above average in power for his age, but that was likely because he was constantly pushed by his elder half-brothers to reach greater heights.
Silver sometimes wondered whether Zepos was slightly jealous of the fact that Retrix's hatchlings were quite a bit stronger than his own, but immediately discounted the idea. She knew that it was more out of concern than anything that he was asking these questions. Compared to her elder brother, it certainly seemed like Diara was struggling.
"Well, Tyler did have a theory about why Elron is so strong," Silver began slowly.
Zepos tilted his head, "Oh? What did he say?"
"He said it may have had something to do with my equilibrium. Apparently it may have affected them somewhat considering their eggs had just started maturing when I used it."
The lightning drake thought for a moment, nodding his head, "That makes sense... I guess. Does he know how they were affected?"
"Well... you know how when I first reached equilibrium, I grew a far more intimate connection with my metal? They might have that same connection with their own elements. Tyler had Krita observe young Retrix's mind during one of their tests. They were surprised to find his connection with the rift energy he controls is very similar to my connection with my metal. If Elron has that same connection it would explain why he is so easily able to manipulate metal."
"Oh... that's... kinda' cool actually," he admitted.
Silver smiled grimly, "I guess so, but I'm a little worried if this is true."
"Why?"
"Because they might not only share in the positive effects of equilibrium, but the negative ones as well."
"Negative?"
"You know, the whole 'loose part of yourself' thing."
"I seriously doubt that," Zepos grinned, walking over to her and giving her a slight nuzzle, "They may have a greater connection to their element, but unlike you there wasn't an immense trauma to get them there. And they hatched like this. You can't exactly loose something you never had in the first place."
"Still... such easy access to their power might get to their heads," Silver rumbled.
"Then it's up to us to teach them the value of power," Zepos replied, "You know better than anyone, miss 'most powerful dragon alive'."
"You know I hate when everyone says that," she said, looking up at him exasperated.
"I know," he smirked, "But you can't hide from the truth."
She rolled her eyes and rested her head back on the cool surface of the nest. There were two nests in the cave. One was made from pillows and blankets that had been happily offered by their human friends, and the other was the metal nest Silver was currently in. The two mates usually slept in the pillowed nest, as Silver couldn't stand sticks and straw and Zepos found the metal nest far too uncomfortable. But for days like that day the dragoness found comfort in returning to the soothing cool surface of older times.
"You are frightened for them aren't you?" the lightning dragon said eventually.
She looked back at him and nodded slightly, "I'm frightened by what it could mean..."
He sighed softly, laying by her nest and leaning his chin against the edge, looking her in the eye, "You're frightened at what powerful dragons could mean for our future with humans."
"They are already terrified of us Zepos. You've seen the stories, the debates. It's all over the news. It doesn't help that I destroyed an entire city of theirs. And it also doesn't help that there are dragons out there that refuse to coincide with humans. The more power we have... the less likely we are to have peace," she rumbled.
"Silver..." the lightning dragon growled, "We have done a marvellous job so far. Yes, there are those out there who don't want what we are doing to work, but it was never going to be easy. You fought so hard for this. Everyone did. But you can't expect everyone to understand, nor give us a chance. But we must keep pushing, for the sake of both of our races."
"I know," she smiled, placing her snout near his, "But sometimes I kinda wish that things would come easy... for once."
"If things came easy life would be boring," he snorted, before suddenly getting up, "Alright, time for you to stop feeling sorry for yourself. You are coming with me to the training centre. There is a new trick I really want to try, and you are the perfect candidate."
She lifted her head, frowning, "You know that you stand absolutely no chance against me, right?"
"That may have changed now," Zepos grinned at her, "But you need to stop wallowing here. You know a good scuffle clears your mind."
She groaned, laying her head back down, "Can't I just- Aah!"
Zepos had placed the tip of his tail against the edge of her nest, and while she was talking sent a slight jolt of electricity through the metal. Silver leapt upwards with a yelp, much like a cat getting startled, and let loose a snarl at her mate, glaring at him.
"That's it. You want to spar? Fine. I'll just have to make it quick," she snorted.
She stepped out of the nest, and the metal nest contorted, flowing like liquid metal as it moved over her claws and legs, before settling on her back in the metal shell she was known for. Zepos watched with a small smile, happy to see her thoughts moving away from the dangerous direction they were going. She was a strong dragon, but she still had those moments of weakness. It didn't help to leave her dwelling on them.
"What are you looking at?" she rumbled at him.
"I love you," he said with a soft smile.
She hesitated a moment, before smiling back, "I love you to. Now stop sucking up and let's do this. I'm eager to see this new trick of yours."
"Oh, you'll be amazed," the lightning dragon smirked, "I call it the 'Metal Dragon Counter'."
They fell into step beside each other, Silver opening the door to the cave.
"Real original."
"I know. Just imagine it. Me, inventing a new move that can take down even the most powerful dragon alive!"
"I told you not to call me that."
"What? It has a certain ring to it. Silver, dragon of equilibrium, queen of Sky Mountain, conqueror of the mind, and most powerful dragon- Yah!"
Silver spiked her mate's hind leg with her tail, "I am going to end you."
"You love me too much," he smirked, though he did step away from her to avoid another prod of her sharp tail.
Silver growled and went to pounce at him, but he was a little too fast, dodging out of the way. He raced out of the cave with a triumphant 'Hah!' and Silver hot on his tail. They ran through the cave, and leapt into the air, Zepos pulling into a dive as they accelerated toward the bottom of The Nest, dodging through the many dragons that were flying too and from their own homes. Yes, they still had their troubles, but they were making progress, and that was all that mattered.
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