The days pass, and still nothing stir within the young dragon when he search his feelings and clear his mind. He sense his beating heart and his own frustration. No powers. No elements. Just himself. Malefor, the powerless purple useless dragon, good for nothing else than hiding. The perfect character for a boring tale that no-one will ever read.
The elemental masters and the rest of the adult dragons watch him sink deeper down in despair. They wish they could help him, but they know they can't. A dragon without any elemental powers is not a dragon. It is just a winged lizard with the ability to speak. All they can do is watch, and hope against hope that he will find his call.
Malefor grow more and more desperate, and finally decide he have to try something new. Something that will trigger the element buried so deep within him he can barely feel its presence. He can't feel it yet, but he hope he one day will. One day in a not too distant future. Today, or maybe tomorrow would be a good day to discover it, he decide.
But maybe it is hiding from him the same way he himself hide from the others when they are playing hide and seek. They would never find him if he wouldn't show himself in the end, and a dragon's element is as much a part of him as his body. The nature of the element is always similar to the nature of the dragon wielding it, and the few who aren't are so few they are barely worth mentioning. Maybe his element is of the same principle. That he can only find it when he isn't searching for it.
He tries to put his mind elsewhere, but his theory make it almost impossible not to actively force himself not to think about it, and therefore thinking about it in the process. Patience is not his strongest trait.
As he wake up one day, he feel cold. Something is seriously wrong, and as the elder dragons tend to him they keep their silence I fear of what will come. Before Malefor, there has never been a dragon without an element. Some of them believe that the lack of elemental magic within Malefor will kill him, and that the sickness consuming him will be the young whelping's final hours.
The eldest dragon refuse to believe it. She has seen greatness in the Pool of Visions, clearly linked to the young dragon now shivering from the burning fever. If he dies, can she ever trust her visions again? Her visions have never failed her before, so why are they failing her now? And poor Malefor... Oh, how she wish she could do more than whisper soothing words as he moan in his fever dreams.
Words quickly spread throughout the dragon temple, and soon everyone is gathered around the presumably dying whelping. The eldest dragon tries to keep them at a distance, so not to stress him. The situation is bad enough, and she can feel the heat emerging from him even at this distance.
The heat...
She slowly turn around and finally manage to see clearly. The fever is not a sickness at all. It is the heat from glowing embers, deep within the young dragon, waiting to grow into a fire.
"Don't fight it, Malefor." she whisper. "Embrace it. Feel it. Release it."
Somehow, her urges seem to reach him through his struggle against his own nature. He draw a shuddering breath, and when he breathe out again, the air is hot. It is not yet blazing with flames, but she know that is just a matter of time as Malefor open his eyes in wonder. The confusion is slowly replaced with happiness, as he slowly realize what has at long last happened.
"Fire?" someone ask doubtfully. "But... he's not a fire-dragon!"
The eldest dragon know the truth in these words, and she too is filled with confusion and wonder. However, the knowledge that young Malefor isn't dying is the best of news she could ever wish for. And his mysterious connection to the element of fire might be the very reason why the Pool of Visions showed glimpses of his glorious future.