Aimless

by The Silent Insomniac

Joshua Renalia finds himself lost in the Dragon Realms with nothing but his sleeping clothes, his knowledge of Spyro lore, and a power beyond his understanding. Cut off from all he knows, the human discovers Spyro's world is alien, unforgiving, brutally shattering his naive expectations. How long can he live here before going insane? Is there a way back home? Why is he even here?

53. (TJH) (50D) Field Demonstration End

Author's Notes:

Ugh... this one took me a lot longer than I expected. Sorry for the delay, everyone! First, my wife got hit with COVID-19 and she ended up having a moderate case. Needed to hook her up with an oxygen concentrator, and had to be ready to help her out as much as possible. We had a few scares, but she ultimately recovered exactly two weeks after initial onset of symptoms. Thank god.

Second, I actually experienced a MASSIVE writer's block when I was writing this thing. Then, when I finished, I felt it was still a little longer than usual, so I wanted to trim it as much as I could. I managed to reduce the overall length by 10%, but... eh... well... what can I say? I just show too much. Anyone and everyone who's read my stories know that's my biggest weakness as a writer.

I know most of my readers don't have a problem with that, otherwise the whole lot of you wouldn't be reading each update I crank out, but I am trying to keep to a certain range. A lot of ebooks work with chapter lengths approximately one-half of mine. I'm running an OG fic somewhere and I do plan on self-publishing that series on Amazon KDP someday, but I really need to work on my bad habit of showing everything. "Show, don't tell" should be done selectively, after all.

Also... 774 reviews‽ Haha so close to 777. XDDD Ah that reminds me. If you guys notice "‽", that's called an "interrobang". Apparently it's the formal form of the "?!" you see often. I'm just experimenting with my style here, so if y'all don't have a problem with it... I'll keep on using it. ^^

Messages from my two beta readers below:

AzureDragonZX. Hello readers, Azure here. I apologize if you were all eagerly waiting for the continuation of the previous chapter. All three of us have had a lot going on in our lives these past few months. Fanfiction is just as much an escape from reality for us as I'm sure it is for all of you. That being said, your patience has finally been rewarded; CH53 is now ready. I hope you all enjoy it!

Strykeruk. Strykeruk here. This has been a particularly fun one to bat back and forth, what with the new viewpoint. I hope you all enjoy it and I look forward to reading your reviews :)

Timestamp key: "D" for days, "W" for weeks, "M" for months, "Y" for years, "EM" for early morning, "LM" for late morning, "EA" for early afternoon, "LA" for late afternoon, "EE" for early evening, "LN" for late night, and "AD" for all day. Note that the Dragon Realms follow the sexagesimal system for keeping time, just like Earth. (In other words, 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes per hour.)

Snip category key: There are four categories of snips. "Settling In", "City Life", "Beyond the Wall", and "The Journey Home". All four represent parallel storylines that take place within Aimless, and other than "Settling In", each snip category has at least two subtypes. Those subtypes aren't listed due to potential spoilers.

Enjoy!

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The Journey Home — For Science!

Chapter 53: Field Demonstration 3 (Final)

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

~ Carl Sagan

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[50D/EM]

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Kilat yawned as she sat on her haunches, listening to her hoo-man brother speak to the three officials in front of them. Her head bobbed as she fought to stay awake, ready as always to help Joshua.

Joshua began his flight with a quick retelling of the events that had occurred over the last red cycle. The last "month", as he sometimes called it. He mentioned the time he snuck away from his guards and found himself face-to-snout with Vara in Alona Hall. He recalled the walks he'd taken in the Temple corridors and in its utilidors, during which he explored the limits of his "life sensing" and inferred a few things about his unique element. He also recounted the nights when he played with Kilat, as well as the few times they engaged in a few rounds of Boop in their room.

Listening to what had happened in the days past had Kilat feeling like she'd missed much of Joshua's experiences. Why did she ever listen to him when he told her—when he begged her to take up Volteer's offer and take on an apprenticeship? Kilat was under no delusion about her situation, knowing how good she had it with the Guardian himself giving her tailwinds. All the older apprentices—every electric dragon at the Fellow rank and above—were deeply envious of her. To have one of the Savior's own teachers mentoring her, helping her through fellow-level curricula for elemental mastery and apprentice-level lessons on primary subjects, and even being her friend… there was simply no dragon who didn't know how great—how perfect the future looked for her.

Yet Kilat didn't care for any of that. She didn't really worry about what she wanted to do with her life. The trajectory set before her did not lead to—did not end at—Warfang. Her only desire was to stand by Joshua and support him. That wouldn't change even if she did find traces of her family in the City of Dragons.

The child couldn't understand why Joshua wanted to push her away. Education was only important if she intended on living in the city for the rest of her life. And what did that imply? Staying behind in Warfang while Joshua embarked on some long, arduous journey to find his way home? Without her? Without his sister? No! The two of them should stay together! No matter where the winds brought them!

Kilat's ears perked up when Joshua began narrating the night he finally made a real breakthrough with his power. She remembered that night. She woke up with her scales crawling and irresistible laughter erupting out of her maw. It felt like Joshua had acquired a hundred hands and tickled her entire body with them, the ephemeral fingers leaving no trace as they ghosted her hide.

"I went into it with a position of faith," the hoo-man posited. "I believed my power would do what I wanted. I envisioned the outcome I desired and discarded all my doubts and fears in the process."

Kilat knew that Joshua could invoke his element much more frequently than before, but… there'd been something more going on that night? That wasn't a trick? That was… a test? A test that she knew nothing of? A test that might've hurt her? That might've killed her? And he didn't tell her anything like that even in the days that followed?

Growling, Kilat whipped her head at him. Her eyes narrowed as strong emotions coursed through her. Hurt, angry, she demanded Joshua to repeat what he said, nearly unwilling to believe that he had made another decision that involved her without her consent.

He stammered out his confirmation, causing Kilat to rage and pounce on her brother, slamming him to the floor. Kilat stood atop the human's body as she let him know just how upset she was at the fact he never asked her. Joshua scoffed, turning the argument around on her. "You're the one who didn't ask me. You pressured me into taking on that Electric Orb!"

Kilat slapped his hand away when he tried to pry her foreleg off of his shoulder. She ground her muzzle into his face, snarling. "That was because I thought you could control Electricity, and I was right!"

Cynder rose from her seat with a stern growl, demanding her to save their argument for later.

Kilat remained defiant. She yelled, "NO! This is important!" Lightning sparked about her. "It's important to me!"

She acknowledged none of the reactions being sputtered by the others and continued to argue with Cynder. The more she lashed out, the more she desired to take all the rage accruing inside her heart and unleash it on the dragoness she detested so much. She would've deserved it anyway.

Vara reached out for Kilat and touched her shoulder. She asked her to stop, her voice lacking its usual austerity.

Kilat responded by headbutting the offending paw away. "I won't ground myself! How come every time people make big decisions, they don't think of me at all? I have a voice too! My opinions matter. My feelings matter!"

Volteer stood up and snarled her name, his expression serious.

Suddenly Kilat felt as though her connection to her element was cut off. Her mana refused to respond to her. The electricity crackling around her vanished like it had never been there. Severe fatigue struck her. It wasn't until she felt Joshua picking her up with his good arm and hugging her like a pillow did she realize what just happened.

Kilat tried to resist, until Joshua hushed her with gentle and soothing tones. "Shhhh…" He rubbed his cheeks on her head. "Shhh… calm down. Please, calm down."

Sniffling, she rounded slowly on Joshua. "You dumb, stupid, idiot. Why? Why didn't you just wake me up?"

"I didn't know what would've happened back then." His slow intonations reminded Kilat of the way Mother and Father used to speak to her and her siblings. "Didn't know how you'd react. I was going off on a hunch and, and so—

Kilat nuzzled him back. Joshua squeezed her wings with his good hand. It felt comforting. "I would've taken it for you. You only had to ask. I'm your sister! We should be making big decisions like that together."

"Oh, Kilat…"

Off to the side, Vara approached them, stretching her wings. "Hairless. Everything all right?" Had Kilat bothered to look, she would've seen an uncharacteristically worried expression on her muzzle as she looked nervously between them and their audience. But the little girl was too happy with her snout buried in Joshua's chest to care.

A hand stroked her golden scales. Then it went to her ears. She couldn't stop herself from purring. "She's doing better now. I think we can continue."

"Gintomyr the Prosperous, that's great!" Vara walked up directly to them. "Then I won't have problems doing this."

"...Doing what?"

Thwack!

Joshua yelped and squatted down, cupping his cheek on Kilat's head. The little girl herself whipped her snout back just in time to see Vara bringing back her wing, sneering at her brother.

"What the f*ck was that for?"

"For putting Kilat in danger without thinking it through." Vara snorted. "I'd love to do more but"—her tail swayed lazily at the three officials watching them—"it isn't the right time for that. Besides"—she pointed her paw at Kilat—"I have a feeling she'll want to go first."

Kilat, jumping off his arm, warbled in agreement. A slap on the face was the least Joshua deserved. However irritating Vara's constant disrespectful treatment of her brother was, it was apparent the older apprentice cared about him. "Vara's right. We have a lot to talk about, but it'll have to wait until later."

Joshua replied, "Kilat, I—

Kilat lashed her head and knocked his hand away. "I said later! We'll talk during your morning bath, Brother. This isn't over." Ambling away to the side of the arena, she found Blink patting the spot beside him, beckoning her over.

Kilat took the offer and went to sit beside the mole. She heard Vara sniggering at Joshua.

"Oh shut up, Princess!" Joshua grunted.

Blink didn't say anything when Kilat reached him. She circled the spot a few times before sitting on her rump. The mole looked uncomfortable. He wanted to say something, but he couldn't come up with anything meaningful. That recent exchange just didn't involve him to begin with.

Joshua apologized to the audience for the interruption and began prattling about his experimentations again. Each one seemed minor and of no actual consequence to anyone. For Kilat, they explained some of the oddities she had observed before: how Joshua sometimes appeared lost in the ozone, how he'd suddenly get emotional for no reason, or how he would suddenly fall or stumble.

Kilat wasn't completely paying attention, however. She busied herself pondering over the talk she'd have with Joshua once they were back in their room, alone, now that her buzzing anger had waned into a simmer.

Maybe they should revisit the topic of her apprenticeship? Kilat hissed when it occurred to her that discussion might lead to another argument. Mother always said bath time was sacred. A time for family bonding. For affection. It mustn't be ruined by vitriol.

Maybe she could ask Joshua to promise he'd never keep anything from her? Or lie to her? They only had each other. That wouldn't change even if he found a mate somewhere in the Dragon Realms, however inconceivable he dismissed it as on the extremely rare occasion that Kilat breached the subject at night.

Valorem's light! She just wanted to be close to him. He'd nearly been mauled by the Purple Dragon, he's always kissing that demoness's rump, and he got into a fight with three bullies! If she'd been with Joshua all the time, he would have never flown into all those storms to begin with! He'd be completely safe!

Joshua most likely wouldn't have met Vara up in Alona Hall, Kilat realized. But wouldn't that be a good thing? She detested the obnoxious, disrespectful way that orchid-scaled dragoness flew around her brother. Always acting like he was beneath her, like he ought to be kneading her scales, licking her paws all the time.

Yet…

...Kilat couldn't deny that Vara truly considered Joshua her friend. She couldn't deny how much happier Joshua had been the last few days because of her. If it wasn't for the incident in Alona Hall, if it wasn't for Vara's sudden, reckless trip to the third floor, would Joshua had been allowed to use his element to help others? Would he have even been granted this chance to stand before Warfang's highest officials?

Deep down, Kilat knew what would have happened and how Joshua would feel about his life.

Kilat frowned. Should she let her brother go? Should she let him fly on his own? Allow him to face and manage any turbulence the Ancestors would send his way?

But, she didn't want to leave his side.

She didn't want to be left alone…

.

.

.

Joshua's words eventually reentered Kilat's ears. "To wit, methods aside, the Unknown Element is not 'felt' like all the other elements. I don't feel any sensation in my body. No heat. No cold. No strange tingling. There is no tactile feedback, unless I actually try to grab another element."

Kilat lifted her head up, deciding to pay attention to Joshua for now and accepting the fact that she would just have to worry about these things some other time.

Cynder was the first to react to Joshua's statement. "Joshua, if you can't feel the Unknown Element, then how do you control it?"

Hearing that bitch's voice had Kilat scowling. She didn't care if it was a graceful, elegant, lady-like voice. The person it belonged to was nothing of the sort.

The Terror of the Skies briefly glanced at Volteer. It was a gravid look, one where silent messages were exchanged. It seemed apologetic.

Kilat made a light growl at the sight. It was nothing more than a fake display, she was sure of it! All of Cynder's evil was hidden in plain sight. No matter how thankful Joshua was for her "help", regardless of how even Kilat was happy she'd been allowed to stay in the Temple by his side, there was an underlying motive somewhere. Somehow.

"By thought," Joshua answered.

"By thought!" Cynder and the gnorc in golden armor echoed. What was his name again? Tuco… something? Mother of Knowledge, she couldn't remember. She'd been too distracted greeting Volteer to hear any formal introductions.

She did remember overhearing one name Joshua mumbled quietly himself when the high-flyers first entered Proudtail Hall. She was the only one paying attention to him while Vara was losing her scales and Blink was just beginning to stir awake.

'Gnasty', was it? With some particle-ish 'guh' at the start? It sounded weird to Kilat, yet she was unfazed. Her brother had a weird tendency to toss out placeholder names for people he didn't know or didn't care to know.

This… "Gnasty" character turned to Cynder and Volteer and talked softly with them. Kilat could only hear snippets of their conversation. "...make sense… you two?"

Vara couldn't help uttering, "Really?"

"Really, Princess," Joshua replied. "I'm not bull—I'm not feeding you dragon dung."

Gnasty coughed. "Joshua, what you just described sounds more like magecraft rather than an element."

Joshua looked like he'd just been blindsided by the comment. He gaped at the gnorc. "'Magecraft'?" he repeated. "You mean spells? Like the kind used by Kaos?"

"The very same," Gnasty replied. "Did you think dragonkind has a monopoly over the forces of magic? We have magicians of various species in our armed forces, albeit few in number."

Volteer raised his voice before Joshua could reply. "To add to the Councilor's point," he said, "Spells require calculations on top of focus, as well as sheer force of will. Dragonkind is incapable of such things, as our elemental magic is more a force of nature—a form of instinct—rather than a flexible, malleable, versatile science that attempts to bend the laws of reality to its whim.

"In fact, we dragons—and you, Joshua, by your aberrant mutation—do not have to worry about the backlash often associated with the highest levels of magecraft. Losing focus, for us, means letting our elements run rampant, out of control, recklessly inundating everything, and draining all the mana from our core. Spellcasters, on the other hand, experience more than just fatigue from mana expiration; at its worst, it could result in instant death."

Cynder asked, "Joshua, what happens when you lose control?"

The human shook his head. A gesture of negation, though Kilat didn't know if anyone knew this besides her. "Literally nothing. The Unknown Element fizzes away every time it's gotten to that point."

"Hence the reason Councilor Tuconsis says it is very similar to spells," Volteer spoke, revealing the gnorc's actual name in the process. "I concur with him. The similarity is uncanny. However, I will withhold my further conjectures for now."

"As will I," Tuconsis interjected. "Please carry on."

Joshua nodded. Another foreign gesture, which expressed affirmation amongst humans. "In addition to this, I can also extend my sense of self."

The three Warfang officials all shared confused glances, as did Kilat and the other two companions. After a long bout of silence, the child verbalized the question formulating in their minds. "Brother?" She tugged at his trousers. "What exactly do you mean by that? I, I-I don't understand. None of us do…"

Joshua scratched his head, a gauche look on his brown face. It appeared he found it difficult conveying his logic to everyone. Kilat locked eyes with the human. A feeling in her liver told her he was about to give an unusual explanation and he would need her for it.

Joshua knelt beside her and whispered. "Kilat, can you help me with this? It'll be easier to explain with you."

The request made her feel warm. "Sure."

"All right. Then, raise your paw."

"Like this?" Kilat brought it up, its leathery pad facing the ceiling.

"Now hold it steady." Joshua shifted his green eyes to the three officials watching them. "You guys, do the same thing. Move your limbs."

Cynder, Volteer, and Tuconsis were hesitant. They glanced at each other.

"What is the point of this?" Cynder asked.

"Please, just do it."

Belatedly, the three did as Joshua asked. Kilat couldn't tell where he was flying with this.

"Focus inward. Feel how your body is moving as you think." He added, "Circulate your mana if you have it. Again, focus on how it all connects to what makes you, you."

Joshua gave everyone a minute to act as instructed. Even Kilat circulated the electric mana inside her, letting it permeate her body as she pushed it out of her core and pulled it back. It moved like a fluid, one that ignored physical barriers and caused everything it passed through to tingle.

Joshua clasped her paw. "Okay, Kilat, now hold still." His thumb drew circles on her pad, occasionally pressing down on its softness.

For something Vara loved like dragon nip, Kilat didn't feel much. It felt… average. Better than what she expected, though not to the extent she would understand why Vara kept pestering Joshua about it. "Brother… uhm…"

"Feels good, right?" Joshua asked.

Kilat didn't know how to respond. Should she lie? Or tell the truth? Would he be disappointed if she did? Ancestors… to think she just told him there shouldn't be secrets between them. "Uhhhh… it, it feels…"

Thankfully, he pushed on with his agenda. "Anyway, you can still tell it's my hand? That it's something outside 'you'?"

If Kilat had glanced at the others, she would have seen that everyone followed his guidance. Cynder and Volteer kneaded the elevated platforms they sat on, while Tuconsis had taken his hammer and caressed it the way Joshua worked his fingers on his sister. Even some of the knights guarding the lecture hall mimicked their actions out of boredom or curiosity.

"Just do it! It'll work better for the both of us!" Vara barked, thrusting her tail into Blink's paws. It seemed like she had set her eyes on the boar since her usual target was preoccupied.

Kilat let out a scathing snort. Vara's brash attitude had no boundaries.

Earlier, when Kilat met Blink, the mole pup had been cautious around her. Wary of her. He had issues with dragons, it seemed, as it took Joshua's intervention to get anything going between them. He had walked over to the boar, placed his good hand around his shoulder, and bluntly revealed his views against dragonkind. "Sorry about Blink," she recalled him saying. "Meeting you must be weird for him. He doesn't like dragons, remember?"

The introduction prompted a short conversation about his observations regarding her species, and it led to Kilat shattering any preconceived notions Blink may have had about her. They had quickly discovered how she and the mole shared a passion for making things.

The two of them were well-acquainted by the time Vara was led inside Proudtail Hall. Even though Kilat had literally just met Blink minutes ago, she could already predict how he would react to Vara's impudence.

The boar gazed at Vara's eyes, then down at his paws, where her tail sat, and then her eyes again. A look of confusion setted over him before it crystallized into fury. He clenched his paws, his trimmed claws causing the dragoness to squirm. "Ow-ow-ow-owww! You, y-you little—! Stop pinching my tail like that!"

"I told you, I'm not one of your damn servants, scalie!" Blink snarled at Vara and threw her own tail at her snout with a smack.

The collision of scale on scale was loud enough to hear over the brief silence. Vara uncurled her body and stared down at the Blink, admonishing him in hushed tones. "Dumb pup! What makes you think that, huh? Huh? This is the best way to go about this exercise!"

"Then you should've asked first!"

Vara scoffed. "Why should I? You're Joshua's friend!"

"Yeah? And so what?" Blink countered, growling, "Just because Joshua and I are friends doesn't mean we are! Even so, you don't just shove your stupid tail in my paws—in anyone's paws without asking!"

"What's the matter with you?" Vara was equally indignant, voice naturally rising, approaching the limits of what would have tickled their audience's hearing. "I'm being nice already. I'm not—

"Oh? This is 'being nice'? Tch! You are so—

Vara bared her teeth. "I'm so what? Go on, furball. Say it. Say it!"

Joshua rounded on them before Blink could retort. "Blink! Vara! Stop bickering! Jesus Christ, you two, we're in the middle of something here!"

Vara glared at the human. "You started this, Hairless."

"Oh no, Princess, you're not pinning the blame on me!" Joshua straightened his back and glowered. "I gave my instructions loud and clear. None of 'em involved partnering up with someone else. You're the only one here who tried it!"

Vara momentarily reared back. She slapped her tail on the floor as soon as she was back on all fours. "Go fly in a volcano! Don't deflect your responsibility back at me."

Didn't Vara have a shred of humility beneath her scales? Couldn't she admit she made a mistake? Why blame others? That she came to a dumb, if baseless, decision was so illogical that Kilat couldn't endure anymore.

She snapped at Vara. "Hey! Brother explained everything properly. Don't sling bullshit at him. All you're doing is showing us how dumb you are!"

"What!" Vara's wings snapped open. "I'm not a stupid egg! I understood everything correctly. I…!" She swivelled her snout around the arena, panning the raised platforms. "I…!" Luckily for her, their audience was concentrating on their own bodies. They weren't paying attention to Vara's embarrassing behavior, for they were all trying to divine the hidden meaning behind Joshua's point.

Even Cynder.

Vara stopped herself. Her features wilted. Neck bent towards the floor, the adolescent stepped away from Blink, who stuck his tongue out at her when they locked eyes. She grunted heavily, sounding somewhere between a long, drawn-out sigh and a frustrated snarl.

Kilat stopped paying attention to her when she laid down on her belly and made something Joshua liked to call a "kitty loaf", tucking her legs and tail under her.

Joshua mumbled to himself, "I'll have to talk to her later…"

Kilat didn't react. Whatever Joshua was thinking had nothing to do with her. If Vara wanted to be friends with her—with Blink—with anyone—then she had to fly better about it. Simple as that.

Completely dropping Vara from her mind, Kilat focused on what came next. "What now, Joshua?"

Joshua blinked. "Ah! Right." Having held her leg this entire time, the human increased the pressure on her paw. "So, you feel this, right?"

"Yes," Kilat said, nodding the same way her brother always did. "I feel it."

"You feel it's me? You feel the force that's coming from outside your scales?"

Kilat inhaled slowly. "Uh huh… well, it's your hand."

She glanced again at the others. Blink was now rubbing his claws on the arena floor. Vara did nothing but watch, though her tail was uncurled and pressing itself on the floor, too. The high-flyers, however, had refocused on her and Joshua.

"And how do you know that?" The human replied.

"W-what do you mean?" She asked. His question confused her.

"How do you know it's my hand and not a part of you?" He turned to the others. "And you guys! I saw all of you pushing and poking at stuff the way I did with Kilat's paw. How do you know that you're touching stone or other objects, rather than parts of your own bodies?"

Kilat scrunched her muzzle, glowering at him as though he'd completely lost his scales. "Because it's just not mine. You're not making any sense at all!"

"Isn't this obvious?" Blink asked, rotating his paw before his snout. The metal knuckles gleamed in the crystal light. "Your hand's a part of your body."

"Again, dude, how do you know it's your body and not mine?" Joshua cast his gaze around, calling everyone else by name. "Anyone? Cynder? Master Volteer? Councilor Tuconsis? Anyone?"

Kilat's first instinct was to train her eyes on Volteer. He was the smartest, sharpest dragon in the entire cave, and the eldest at that. He had the best chance at providing an answer to Joshua's quirky puzzle. Hence the little girl was utterly shocked by the Guardian's serious expression. She had never seen the old dragon buried in deep contemplation like this. If he couldn't grasp it, who could?

Minutes passed before somebody had an answer. "By the motherlode, I got it!" It was Blink who shouted, his shrill voice piercing the silence. "My body directly responds to my will. Anything—no, everything that I can feel outside and inside my own fur! My flesh, my guts, my senses, my feelings, my thoughts, my wants… all of those sum up to—

"Myself," Joshua and Blink said, at the same time.

Volteer gasped in euphoria. "Thus… thus it follows that anything that cannot connect to my self, anything that does not instantly correspond to my thoughts and desires, is not part of my body!"

Joshua grinned. "That's correct."

Kilat overheard Vara groan loudly to herself. "Arrgghh!" She swatted the floor in greater irritation. "Hairless, that does not make any sense to me!"

She couldn't agree more with the other dragoness the second she tried to expand the logic to Joshua's supposed ability to manipulate his 'self'. "I agree with Vara," Kilat said. "How can you feel like you're part of the floor, or like, uughhhrrr"—then the idea popped in her mind.—"Like my tail is your tail, when you don't have one of your own?"

Joshua raised his only hand. "Jesus-Mary-Joseph, I admit, it's not the best analogy out there and it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to a lot of you—to all of you, but it explains everything I can do." He proclaimed, "Everything!"

Joshua swept his gaze across the lecture hall. "By extending the boundaries that make up 'me', I can directly observe, analyze, and even manipulate the things that are 'not me'."

Cynder rose to her paws, astonished. "Does… does that mean you can read our thoughts?"

Joshua raised his hand placatingly. "No, no, no! Cyn, you got it all wrong! I can't read anyone's thoughts! I don't know exactly what's on their mind. But! I can tell you're feeling agitated right now. I can feel your body as if it's my own. The twitching in your wings. The stiffness of your tail. The heat crawling up your breast. The way you're breathing..."

Cynder instantly broke eye contact. Her muzzle bent over, fussing over her own scales. "Ancestors. I, I don't know what to say. I still have trouble understanding how this all works."

A giddy Volteer licked his chops, body shaking like an adolescent's. "Intriguing. Most intriguing! My mind is absolutely bursting with postulations, conjectures, hypotheses! If this is truly the foundation of the Unknown Element, then through deduction, we can infer the reason you can control the other elements, interfere with dragons channeling theirs—

"Is by seizing direct control of their mana and manipulating it as if it was your own," Councilor Tuconsis concluded, his green face unreadable.

"Exactly," Joshua confirmed. "Allow me to demonstrate."

Kilat tidied up her posture, standing attentively on all fours. Blink had no chance of being picked since he wasn't a dragon and didn't have access to an element, but she did! She's an electric dragon and she was his first companion, too. It was only appropriate that—

"Vara, work with me."

Kilat couldn't hide her surprise. "What!" She gasped. "Why her?"

"Why me?" Vara asked as well, genuinely puzzled. She had not moved at all, barely uncurling from her 'kitty loaf' position.

"It has to be you," Joshua reasoned, strolling towards her. "You're the very first person I practiced this on back when I didn't even know what the f*ck I was doing."

Surprisingly, Vara didn't leap up at the opportunity to exult herself. She swung her snout away, her flanks twitching. "I-I don't know, Joshua..."

Joshua took Vara's forepaw, his fingers clasping her leg and pulling it out from under her. The motion caused her to jolt, but Kilat couldn't tell if it was from a sudden wave of pleasure (she wouldn't put it past her) or genuine surprise. "I know you're nervous. I can sense it." He squeezed her foreleg. "It's okay. You'll be fine."

Vara frowned. "You're not going to force me if I don't want to, will you?"

The human contorted his face. "What? No! I won't force you to do anything! Besides, I can't directly control people like puppets."

Vara did not stand. She looked at Joshua. A diffident stare.

Joshua pulled at her foreleg again. "C'mon. I need you here."

"But—

"Please, Vara."

Brother really wants to include her in this, Kilat thought to herself. She could only smile at the sight. No matter how much he cursed, grumbled, or ranted, Joshua was kind to a fault. That had never changed in spite of what Warfang had put him through during the last red cycle. Kilat hoped he would remain that way for the foreseeable future. It's why I love you.

Vara grunted before shifting her weight. "Okay. Okay! Valorem's Light, I'll do it. I'll feel bad if I don't." She rose on all fours and allowed Joshua to put a hand on her withers and quietly guide her to the center with him, while ushering Blink and Kilat a few steps aside.

Joshua murmured a few words to Vara before stepping back. She didn't need to ponder on what he said, as she quickly did as she was told. Vara sat on her haunches and raised one of her forepaws, pad up. Blue-white wisps of magic emerged from her paw and coalesced into a ball of ice.

She was wincing, her snout cringing every few seconds as her mana pulsed and continued to maintain the iceball. Once Joshua had judged the floating sphere as stable, he bridged the gap between them. "Vara told me this iceball is a basic mana manipulation exercise for ice dragons," the human said, his arm moving to clasp her outstretched foreleg. Just below the wrist.

Joshua's eyes glazed over. He appeared distracted, staring passively at the air, fixated on something none of them could see. If Kilat and the other people here didn't know any better, they would've dismissed it as adolescent thoughtlessness. As being lost in the ozone.

It was anything but. "Holding Vara like this, I can see where her mana is flowing. It's traveling through the paths I willed into existence before—more efficient, less waste, and more power. I can still see the narrow and convoluted paths Vara used to pull them through before she met me."

No one said anything. They remained silent and continued to watch Joshua.

"Brace…. will hurt. But remember… feeling!"

"Just fly already!"

Kilat barely heard their whispering. Vara's tense body and her grimacing snout highlighted her struggles. It was informative of her general lack of skill and power at the present time. Vara had a long and troublesome flight ahead of her if she ever wanted to soar high someday.

"Like Councilor Tuconsis mentioned, I will seize direct control of Vara's mana and do something she hasn't tried herself." A short pause. Joshua's face scrunched. He shivered. He clenched his fist and released a heavy, ragged breath. He shuddered again, and violently so. A wisp of air rushed out his mouth, as though he'd been thrust into a frozen lake. "Whew… all right. Here I go!"

With a loud grunt, Joshua tightly gripped Vara's arm. The dragoness suddenly screamed. She floundered, body tossing and turning in place. "I-it hurts!"

Joshua jerked his head sideways, narrowly avoiding an instinctive bite from Vara without so much as glancing in her direction. It was as if he knew it was coming. The human let out a sharp cry, adding to Vara's own screeches. As soon as they reached a crescendo, the iceball disintegrated into dust. Simuleaneously, long, crystalline blades burst from all four of Vara's elbows.

Kilat did not know it at the time, but the Ice Blade was a basic technique that can be mastered to deadly proficiency, capable of killing experienced dragon knights in life-or-death combat. The white, translucent nature of each crystal signified immense quality and focus. Even someone untalented like Vara could hold her own if she did nothing but concentrate on this one move for years.

"T-there," Joshua stammered. He relinquished Vara's foreleg and slumped forward, resting his entire weight on her shoulder. "Finished."

Exhausted herself, Vara hunched over as well and leaned on Joshua for support. She murmured a few words to him, which Kilat couldn't hear as they were too far. Nonetheless, she felt so jealous she wouldn't have paid any attention anyway.

Kilat wanted to be in Vara's position. She wanted Joshua to take control of her electricity, too. She wanted to see how far he'd come. He had failed several times before in the privacy of their room. Now, he was probably skilled enough to take anything she could throw at him.

Shaking excitedly, tail wagging, Kilat ignored the tiredness in her eyes and trotted towards Joshua. "Joshua! Me! Me, me, me! I'm next, I'm next, I'm—

Cynder's voice slammed into her excitement. "Hold on a second. Joshua, you're shaking!"

Kilat stopped in her tracks and scowled. As expected, the Dark Master's slave had drained all happiness and joy. Why did she always have to get in the way? ...wait, did she just say—

Joshua didn't believe Cynder either, and asked for confirmation. Vara was just as surprised as either of them.

"Yes," Cynder replied. "You're shivering terribly. Did you feel anything just now? When you directed Vara's mana?"

"I did."

"And? And? How did it feel? What did you feel?" Volteer got on his haunches and hollered. "You must provide a detailed description for us, young man. Now, while it's still fresh! FOR SCIENCE!"

"Jesus Christ, Master Volteer! Hold your horses for a second!"

He sputtered. "W-what?"

Joshua palmed his face. "Shit," he muttered quietly before raising his voice. "I mean fasten your wings!" His features scrunched, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just… uh, give me a moment here."

Volteer reluctantly obeyed and tried to calm himself down. His efforts resulted in impatient sighs and constant fidgeting, evidencing that it was impossible for him to regain full composure. Kilat had never seen an old dragon acting as excited as… as her! Like a young whelp!

Joshua grumbled. "The only thing coming to mind right now is the image of someone jumping into the sea during winter and then walking back on the shore while strong winds are raging."

Kilat giggled at the way his right hand jiggled. She noticed his bad hand was also twitching slightly, suggesting this was a common habit of Joshua's. "To be more, ummm, detailed, it's like my blood turned into ice. I felt a deep and lasting chill. Piercing my center, expanding from within, slowing my body down, and has me shivering as if I was in Canada."

"Canada?" Kilat echoed.

"One of the many human, errrr, kingdoms back home. Infamous for its freezing weather," Joshua replied passively.

Cynder turned to Volteer. "What do you make of this, Master Volteer?"

The dragon hummed. "Well, I'd have to consult Hookfang Library's scrolls on the Ice element, but in accordance to my fundamental knowledge—

"Ah! Since I've also done electricity thanks to Kilat"—Joshua gestured at her; she grinned proudly at the attention—"for Volteer's additional reference"—Vara, still letting Joshua rest on her side, coughed into his ears, pawed at the floor, and nudged his shoulder.—"Sorry. For Master Volteer's additional reference, whenever I extend my 'self' into Kilat's mana, my body just lights up. Tremors all over. Agonizing, but I can't scream. If I don't will it out as soon as possible—

"You'll be paralyzed for a few minutes, convulsing on the floor, your vision turned into static." The Electric Guardian cut him off. The old dragon grinned as the human's mouth fell open, speechless.

"Uhm, err, yeah. That's, t-that's exactly right. W-what—how… how'd you—?"

"Because that's exactly what I go through, Joshua," Kilat answered in Volteer's stead. She moved towards her brother and rubbed her head on his knee and thigh, brushing her flank against his shin. She silently hoped he would stop leaning on Vara and instead pick her up for a hug instead. "That paralysis happens when an electric dragon draws out more mana than they're used to and fails to control it."

"Really," Joshua said in an intrigued tone before turning to Vara. "Then, what I said earlier about your mana..."

"It's exactly what you're thinking," Vara said with a nod of her own. Kilat was somewhat impressed; she had figured out some of the human's body language as well.

Joshua had nothing to say to that. An awkward silence fell over the three. Blink watched from his side, arms folded and muzzle scrunched in contemplation. He was obviously taking mental notes, but he kept his thoughts to himself for now.

"By the way, are you okay now?" Vara mumbled a question. "Do you still need to lean on me?" She turned her muzzle away from Joshua. "Ancestors, it's, i-it's getting uncomfortable…"

Joshua replied, "No. Not anymore." He pushed off from her, but not before patting her head and pinching the webbed fins on her cheeks. "Thank you."

Vara crooned, slightly shuddering at his touch. "A-Anytime!" She replied with a slight purr.

Kilat didn't like the smirk that appeared on heo muzzle. Regardless, she found herself fidgeting enviously and shuffling her paws on the floor. A scowl had just begun to form on her muzzle when Joshua suddenly bent down and picked her up, fingers curling around her breast.

"Don't worry, kid, I didn't forget you," Joshua chuckled as he brought the child to his chest and held her tight. Kilat had just licked the human's face out of habit when Blink broke the brief silence.

"I'm not an expert on dragon magic, but I am starting to notice a pattern."

Cynder blinked in agreement, a wing fluttering. "I agree. I might not have power over the traditional elements, but I've seen Spyro use them all countless times, and I wield multiple elements myself. To channel an element means to tap into its unique characteristics with mind, body, and soul. If Joshua were able to seize someone's Fire, Earth, or even Shadow—

Volteer blurted, "Mother of Knowledge! It follows that he shall experience the exact sensations that all dragons undergo when they draw their mana from their core and shape it as they see fit!" He sprung onto his feet. "Ohhh this is prodigious! Phenomenal! Truly, utterly remarkable! I haven't been this excited since I met the Purple Dragon for the first time!"

Cynder laughed. "Fasten your wings, Master Volteer! Remember what happened when you asked Spyro and me to use Convexity together."

Volteer waved a wing in dismissal. "Oh please, Cynder! The fact Joshua's Element did not get trapped in turbulence and become a storm in the entire red cycle he's been here indicates there are specific, definitive, idiosyncratic prerequisites to reproducing the devastating impact that it had on our gatekeepers during the Incident."

"Master Volteer, I hope you haven't forgotten that the reparations for your experiment with Convexity were fully paid for by Moneybags." Councilor Tuconsis leveled a glare at him, scowling at the enthused dragon. At that instant, Kilat understood him to be a straight flyer. Strict, militaristic, no-nonsense.

"Well!" Volteer grunted. "Spinel Kaufer is our Councilor of Finance and Industry. Considering his experience as guildmaster of Gilded Wings, I think that bear would be prudent enough to appropriate an allowance for property damage when we schedule a more intensive examination on the Unknown Element."

He paused. For an instant, Kilat thought Volteer was gazing at her, watching her gently bite Joshua's ear and play with its stiff yet flexible texture. She froze, only to resume her idle chewing upon realizing he'd been looking at Blink.

"Yes? What is it, Galleron?" Volteer asked.

Blink mumbled to himself, loud enough for those closest to him to hear. "Rushing minecarts, I despise that name." Kilat took note of this. She should also ask him why someday.

The mole coughed, then spoke with improved cadence, "Vol—ehem! Master Volteer, you might want to reconsider your 'more intensive examinations' first."

"Care to expound on your retort?"

"It's nothing complicated. Everybody here knows Joshua got into a fight in Residential. I was with him. I'd been focused on my own fight, but I had a few glimpses of his."

Blink looked at Joshua. A couple seconds later, he sighed. "I won't downplay his accomplishments back there. He did hold the tunnel up against two scalies. Held it up long enough for his escorts to catch up, actually. But, it still ended in his loss."

Kilat frowned at the reminder. If she'd been there, she would've taken care of those bullies, and easily so. Volteer called her a prodigy. She might've been skeptical during her first few lectures, but that wasn't the case anymore.

The Electric Guardian furrowed his snout. "...Galleron, I don't see—

"My point is," Blink raised his voice, "Joshua isn't skilled enough to handle the tests you're thinking of. Just like my uncle, you're so excited you're becoming presumptuous. 'Diving into fog', as you scalies like to say."

Volteer opened his mouth to retort, yet the words died before they could fly off his tongue. "I.. well…! Uh, uhm, errr…"

Cynder started giggling, causing Kilat to glare at her. The Terror of the Skies, tittering like a young hen? It was unbecoming of the mental image she'd formed of the former general of the Dark Army. It was so uncharacteristically normal, if carefree, that Kilat's scales itched. She felt an urge to walk out and fly to the lecture halls in the spires, away from the dragoness who butchered her family for 'shits and giggles' (as Joshua liked to say) before she did something stupid.

.

.

.

"Am I hearing the garrulous Volteer fumbling his words? That's a first."

"Cynder, you should exonerate my saturninity! Commentaries on my character do not come red-eight. Valid critiques, even more so."

.

.

.

Kilat jolted when Joshua tightened his hold. Pinning her down with his chin, he twisted her away and pressed her muzzle into his white shirt. She felt the human's lips touch her snout. "Shhh… I know Kilat… I know…"

.

.

.

"All right, Galleron. I concede to your argument. Perhaps I am a bit overeager—animated—to pioneer this new discovery. Hence, the applicable solution is to catch the wind and, haaa… slow down a little."

.

.

.

Joshua's affection had a calming effect on Kilat. The desire to walk out or do something to Cynder ebbed away as the little girl relaxed. This comforting moment lasted for as long as it took for Blink and Volteer to finish talking.

Kilat felt okay enough to continue watching this demonstration by the time Volteer asked Joshua a question. "Can you produce the other elements on your own? Like Spyro?"

"I never really tried."

"Then do it, dude!" the Guardian insisted, unknowingly causing Joshua to grumble how he never should've taught him that word. "Proceed with Ice or Electricity—the elements you have the most experience with."

"A-all right. I'll try."

"And no cheating! I imagine it must be tempting to draw mana from Vara or your sister, but you must reproduce these elements on your own! It will benefit you more over your entire flight!" Volteer's interjection fluttered into Joshua's and Kilat's ears right as the human began to concentrate, curling the child tighter into his one-armed embrace.

His eyes snapped open. "Mother Mary! Volteer, please give me a minute."

Acceding to the request, the old dragon fell silent. His paws clenched in anticipation.

Kilat shifted in Joshua's embrace. The human had his eyes shut once more, and he bit his lip. She could make out faint murmurs escaping as he focused. "Ball of ice. Ball of ice. Rolling. Floating. Freezing."

More time passed. Joshua grumbled when he opened his eyes and saw empty space before him. "Damn. Nothing."

Kilat quickly licked his cheek to comfort him, cooing softly. Then an idea appeared in her mind. "Why don't you try what Vara did and stretch out your arm?" she suggested. "I like it when you carry me but, maybe… maybe I'm just distracting you."

Joshua growled. "No. That's not it. You're not distracting me at all, Kilat, and I don't need to put out my arm like that. It's just… even when I visualize it, it doesn't work."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Well I'm not connected to any of your stars right now."

Joshua once explained to her that he could see everybody around him as spheres of energy. Stars in a sky only he could see. He could "connect" to them, somehow. Wrap his "self" around them. The concept was vexingly mind-boggling, yet this demonstration emphasized how it was central to using his power.

Blink walked over and inspected Joshua. "I don't see any obvious physiological changes."

"Hairless, what about that white mist you can conjure?" Vara added. "I also remember a flashing light when you stopped me that time in the Second Floor."

"I was still synchronized with you then," said Joshua. "I don't need physical contact to extend my 'self' into you. I need that for all the other shit."

"Then why don't you try again, but while in sync with one of us?" Kilat suggested.

"...Okay. It's worth a shot."

Joshua shut his eyes again. He grunted again, mumbling about electricity this time. Kilat felt nothing out of the ordinary. She turned her head to Vara and Blink. Both returned her gaze. Both said nothing.

Vara also mouthed to her, "Just hovering here."

Joshua opened his eyes. They shone with an impassive light. Staring, perceiving the constellations invisible to all but himself. If he was synchronized with anyone at this moment, neither Kilat nor Vara sensed anything. "It's, not, it's just not working. Sorry."

Blink relayed his words to their audience. "Hear that, everybody? Joshua can't produce the other elements on his own!"

Volteer thumped his forepaws in reaction. "He really cannot?" His throat rumbled. A low growl of disappointment. "That wasn't the outcome I anticipated."

"Hoping to train him the way you and the others did with Spyro, weren't you?" Cynder's tail slid across Volteer's forelegs. One of the many ways a dragon would show support. Kilat did that a lot with Joshua at night. He always seemed to sleep better whenever she wrapped herself around him.

"I expected major differences given the unique mechanics of Joshua's Element, but, you assume correctly, Cynder. It would've been a challenge I would've relished to overcome."

Cynder hummed. Her eyes focused on the human. "Joshua, do you remember that time you made that white, cloudy matter to protect me from Infernus?"

"Clearly," Joshua answered.

Although Kilat neither liked Cynder nor approved her brother's fondness for her, she couldn't resist contributing to the conversation. "Joshua can only make that white stuff come out!" She blurted.

Joshua blanched. Suddenly, his hand squeezed her ear. She yelped in surprise. "Kilat! Don't say that!"

"Huh?" She was confused.

"It's—I—Errr, shit! Um, umm, it's ob—you shouldn't say it that way!" Something on her face had her brother stammering.

Kilat pouted. "But it's the truth! It's only that white stuff! Sometimes it's a small ball. Sometimes, clouds. A flash of light. Energy in some form or shape." She shifted on her perch, ignoring Joshua's discomfort as she sat on her haunches, curled her hindpaws on his arm, claws and all, and spread her forepaws apart. "Then there's that time you made this big, big, biiiiiiig white ball. And white lightning came out of it! It was scary!"

Kilat shuddered, recalling how many people had fallen to that. She hadn't seen how they looked up close, but the stories that were soaring through the airstreams, some being shared by her own lounge mates… they all sounded horrifying.

She did not see Volteer's and Cynder's eyes dilating, their bodies quaking, their snouts letting out a barely audible hiss.

Joshua wasn't paying attention to them either. "Then say it like that, then! Don't say 'white stuff' anymore. Make it sound more appro—I mean, you gotta sound smarter!"

"Like Volty?"

"Y-Yes! Like Volteer."

Joshua made a good point. Adults would take her more seriously if she spoke like one. "Okay!"

"Joshua," Cynder called. "Would you mind producing the white matter again? Any form or shape will do."

"I can't do it without extending my 'self'."

"Just fly the way you've always done."

Joshua worked fast. Only a few moments have passed, and the boy had successfully conjured a tiny cloud in front of him. Right in front of Vara's snout, given how close she was to him and Kilat.

The older dragoness recoiled and slunk to the side. "Hairless, watch it!"

"Sorry, Princess," Joshua said. His voice was straight, containing no emotion. If there was, it would've been muted. "I synchronized with you."

"I don't care! Vulcan's flames, I don't want to find out what happens if I touch this by accident!" Vara irritatedly fluttered her wings, snarling. "Don't just leave this to Gintomyr."

Instead of replying to her, Joshua trained his gaze on Councilor Tuconsis, who looked ready to say something on his own. "What is it, Councilor?"

"...caught me by surprise there."

"I sensed you would have something to say." Kilat couldn't help but think Joshua's eyes had sharpened, staring not at the sea of stars that exist in his mind's eye, but at the white cloud floating harmlessly between them. "It, uh, it takes a while to get used to. Surely."

Tuconsis smirked. "Very well. As you've deduced, I have a few questions I want to ask."

"Go ahead."

"First, how do you feel?"

"'Feel'? As in, tactile sensations?"

"Yes."

Joshua paused, his expression vague. "I feel nothing."

Tuconsis thrummed. "Hmm." He verbalized his next question slowly, as if he was unsure. "Then, is it"—he smacked his lips—"Can you move that cloud?"

"As long as I think it," Joshua stated. True to his words, the exotic vapors floated around Vara's head. Her eyes tracked it as it revolved her head thrice before splitting into two and reforming the entire mass between her and the elevated platforms from which Cynder, Volteer, and Tuconsis observed. The way it moved defied the natural laws, for not a single particle separated and merged with the surrounding air.

As soon as the cloud reformed, it vanished and reappeared closer to Blink without warning, before hovering back to its initial position.

Tuconsis gnashed his teeth in frustration while the two dragons beside him were in deep thought. "Third question. That, feat you just did. What were you thinking? Did you tell the cloud to move? Could you feel your mana moving it about?"

Joshua sighed. The cloud quivered, and briefly Kilat thought it would dissipate. "No, Councilor. I didn't feel anything. Didn't have to think so hard, either. I… I only imagined it."

Tuconsis slammed his fists on the stone platform. "This is confusing! Your thoughts, Master Volteer? Lady Cynder?"

To his dismay, the Electric Guardian raised a paw at him and remained silent. Likewise, Cynder stayed quiet, like she hadn't heard him.

Kilat couldn't help but notice that the white cloud hovered within her reach now. Curiosity blossomed. "Joshua? Is this, err, safe to touch?"

Another moment passed. "Yes. It's inert. I extended my 'self' into all six of you and thought it to be a harmless spectacle and nothing more."

Kilat took that as a cue to reach for the cloud. "Really…" she mumbled, stretching out her paw.

Both Blink and Vara asked her to stop, because she didn't know what would happen. The little girl blocked out their voices. It was all right to touch. It was okay to thrust her forepaw into the mist. Didn't Joshua just say he ensured it's a 'harmless spectacle'? Who should she believe? People staring at tornadoes, unable to forget what it had done before? Or her own brother, who used it?

"It'll be fine," Kilat said out loud, leaning forward to plunge her foreleg into the smoke.

.

.

.

Nothing.

It was neither cold nor hot.

It didn't tickle.

It didn't hurt.

Kilat clenched her paw. She didn't feel anything either. The child said as much. "This is so weird…"

Kilat's affirmation drained any trepidation that Vara and Blink had. Following her lead, the mole and dragoness reached out as well.

Blink's eyes widened. "She's right!"

"Ancestors, I actually don't feel anything either." Vara scratched her forelegs, unable to look directly at the human. "Sorry for doubting you, Joshua."

"Don't worry about it. It was understandable." Vara relaxed at that.

"Joshua," Blink said. "What are you thinking right now?"

"I… am… imagining a scene in my mind. All six of you… standing, exactly as I know you... here and now." Pauses littered Joshua's response. His eyes still looked like he was lost in the ozone, gazing at nothing yet everything at the same time.

Volteer then chimed in. "A rapid experiment is in order. Joshua! Can you alter the effect of your cloud from inert to something benign?"

"I can."

The change came without indication. Kilat, Vara, and Blink simultaneously retracted their paws, each yelping in astonishment.

"Eep! That tingled!"

"Urghhh, Hairless, my scales are itching…"

"Whoaa, rushing minecarts! That wasn't my arm!"

All three were shaking their legs. One moment Kilat felt nothing with her foreleg in the cloud, and the next something was crawling on her golden scales. There was no outright change in the cloud itself to forewarn her, Vara, or Blink.

Joshua preemptively spoke, "I thought of the feeling of bugs skittering over your legs, imagined all of you experiencing this, and tried to keep the image crisp and clear in my head."

"I'm honestly surprised that the effect didn't manifest on my arm," Blink reacted.

Volteer's tail loudly slammed the platform, startling the group. The cloud vanished instantly, winking out of existence.

"I have a conjecture!" cried the Guardian. "If I understand your process correctly, you extend your 'self' to include other people—no, other life forms. What the Unknown Element does, what shape it takes on, who it affects, and any other peculiarities are not guided by instinct or feeling. Rather, those are determined by your thoughts. Am I correct so far?"

"Yes. That's consistent with my experiences."

"Good, good." Volteer licked his chops out of excitement. Kilat almost giggled at the way his tail was wagging. At the moment, he appeared no different from a dragon of Kilat's or Vara's age. "And when that puff of smoke disappeared, was that a conscious choice on your part?"

"Of course not, Master Volteer. You just startled me, that's all..."

The old dragon grinned. "Then I am indeed flying in the right direction. Synthesizing what you just said together with the movements you demonstrated and your statement pertaining to the use of your imagination, I suspect—I conclude!—that the continuous channeling of the Unknown Element predisposes you to maintain the mental image you have conceived. Therefore, any sufficient distraction, abrupt cacophony, or any other form of disruption interferes with this visualization, possibly to the extent the mana you are shaping simply dematerializes."

Cynder slowly blinked. "As if it never existed in the first place. Consistent with official reports filed with the Office of the Keeper."

"Joshua, what do you think?" Councilor Tuconsis asked.

The question hadn't even been asked when Kilat lurched and felt her brother's chin on top of her head. Joshua hunched over, laughing. "I simply cannot underestimate you, man! I'd applaud you if I could."

Impressed, Blink remarked, "That's one mystery down."

Joshua went on, "Master Volteer is correct. That's exactly how the Unknown Element works. The past week, I've been doing some thinking on how to summarize the major principles, and I came up with three words that pretty much match the way it works."

Kilat smiled at him, licking his face twice, "Are these the 'three Ds' thing you took from some potter's story back home?"

"That's right," Joshua said. He leaned in and gave her snout a quick boop, nuzzling against her nostrils. Shifting his attention back to the high-flyers, "I've been invoking three words in my head a lot these days, whenever I use my element. Discernment. Deliberation. Determination."

"I can see how this connects to Master Volteer's theory," Cynder noted.

"The three Ds," Vara echoed him. "Okay. I understand that. But do you mind giving simple dragons like me the flight plan?" She leaned back, hindfoot scratching her ear. "I'm still trying to comprehend the 'ego boundary' thing."

Joshua snickered at her request. Kilat didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't keep up with Volteer and Cynder either. Some prodigy she was. She was only good at her element; nothing more.

"Not at all."

Kilat squirmed when Joshua gummed the frills on her cheek. It was ticklish. "Joshuaaaaa, don't~"

"You're not the only one who's puzzled, after all." The child flinched. By Alona, she couldn't get anything past the human, could she?

"To put it plainly, whenever I use the Unknown Element, I have to discern my surroundings so that I can deliberate on its actions, and be completely determined to make it happen."

Vara was deadpan. "You're telling me—telling us that it pops out and does what it does simply because you will it so?"

"Thaaaat's—yeah." He nodded. He nodded furiously. "Yeah. Totally right. Heh, it's almost like I'm a Green Lantern..."

Vara stomped the floor. "I don't even know what that means!" She groused. Neither did Kilat, though it probably referred to something from human culture. Joshua had a tendency to spit those out whenever he said his thoughts aloud. "Ugh, this is unfair! Why can't my element be like that‽"

Joshua made an awkward laugh.

"Uh, Vara, if it helps, I'm more jealous of you, Kilat, and all the other dragons here." He continued, "The elements work differently for you guys. Like, you can feel it deep inside yourselves. You can pull it out, direct it, like muscles you have control over. When it's out in the open, it manifests along some kind of predetermined path I can't even see, but you can still feel it—shape it by instinct alone!

"It isn't like that for me. I have to consciously think about it and—

"At least it follows you perfectly," Vara whined.

Joshua rolled his eyes. "The grass is always greener on the other side."

"Tch. You and your incomprehensible human sayings."

"Well for your information, it means—

Deep, stony coughs from Tuconsis interrupted them. "As interesting as human culture is, I just can't let go of the fact you can control multiple elements."

"Councilor, I appreciate how you share my elation for this subject, but you should relinquish this path, as I have. We have already established that Joshua cannot generate the other elements on his own, and so it is futile, pointless, nugatory to—

"Fasten your wings, Master Volteer." Tuconsis gestured at Volteer to stop. "There is one avenue left."

"Which is?"

"Given that 'will' and 'imagination' empower the Unknown Element, I believe Joshua can accomplish something even Lord Spyro himself cannot: Element Conversion."

Volteer gasped. "You don't mean—

The gnorc smirked. "Joshua! Do you want to try this?"

Kilat rounded on her brother. His expression contained both excitement and concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he dismissed.

The way he said it made her worry. "Brother, when you speak that way…"

"There, might be a backlash of some sort. I don't know what it is, but I've never tried it before."

The idea of anything happening to him unnerved Kilat. "Then let's forget about it. I just want you safe—

Vara brusquely cut in. "Stop being such a mother hen!"

Kilat rounded on the older apprentice. "I'm not being a mother hen! I just don't want Joshua getting hurt."

"Neither do I," Vara admitted. "But you have to give him space. Let him fly by himself!"

"That's what I'm doing! At least… at least when I'm around."

Vara disagreed. "No, you aren't. You wouldn't let Hairless out of your sight. You'd never give him that space."

"But—

"Kilat, just support him. Help him if he needs it. At least he won't be fending for himself, unlike me." Vara shifted her eyes before Kilat could reply. "And Hairless, stop being a smushed egg! Worrying about backlash now?" Her tail zipped about wildly. "Have you lost your scales‽ You're around friends and high-flyers!

"We've got enough spirit crystals here!" She swung her neck at the clusters of spirit gems strewn about the cave.

Joshua muttered. "Vara…"

Vara approached Joshua. Kilat curled against his chest and growled, but Vara silenced her with a fierce glance before thrusting her forepaw on his shoulder. "Don't be white-livered. Just go for it."

Seeing that they wouldn't listen to her, Kilat jumped off Joshua's arm and trotted to Blink. "Blink, can't you talk some sense into them?" She asked.

The mole declined, to her dismay, and took Vara's side. When Kilat asked why, his response was quick. "This is a field demonstration of his element in a controlled environment. As long as all preemptive measures have been taken to ensure his safety, I don't see anything wrong with it."

Kilat grimaced, her paws flexing, claws scraping the dirt floor. She had a reply ready in her mouth, but she never got to verbalize it.

"I'm doing it," Joshua intoned. "Now's the best time."

Vara swatted his bad shoulder. "I knew you'd see it our way!"

"That arm still hurts," Joshua reproached, wincing and rubbing where she slapped him.

Volteer shouted from his place. "Joshua, I take it you and your friends are finished discussing?"

"We are!" he yelled back. "I'll try it. Conversion sounds fun if I can pull it off!"

"That's why we're here." The Guardian grinned at him.

As did Cynder. "You'll be seeing me more often if you succeed," the dragoness said, alluding to her control over four elements. Kilat knew she should feel happy for Joshua about that, but the thought of him seeing the Terror of the Skies more often annoyed her.

Joshua smiled at them before facing Vara, having chosen her as his partner for this exercise. Kilat felt sad, but not surprised. He asked her to perform Ice Breath instead of forming an ice ball.

Vara's reaction was one of astonishment, and nervousness, as she wasn't that good at channeling and shaping her Ice, even with her recent improvements. Joshua persuaded her regardless and it wasn't long before Vara stood next to him, the two facing the center of the arena.

Vara lowered her center of gravity and bent her neck inward. Kilat recognized the posture. It was a novice-level form meant to aid a dragon in drawing the prerequisite mana from their core, shaping it as it reached their throats, and expelling it all out with a powerful breath.

With her eyes closed, Vara reached inward to the reserves of mana within her center and gathered it all together. Meanwhile, Joshua did nothing but watch.

Kilat was still trying to discern Joshua's other reasons for partnering with Vara when the dragoness herself insufflated air through her maw, breathing as fast and as strongly as she could, swinging her head up high to maximize the circular momentum. The dragoness expelled her air and unleashed a hollow, diaphragmatic roar. Concomitantly thick powdery fog billowed out of her snout, flowing towards the center of the arena and dissipating just past it.

An impressive Ice Breath, considering her elemental ineptitude. The frost it left behind on the floor proved its temperature was sufficiently cold—comparable, even slightly better than the average Temple apprentice of Vara's scholastic level.

Vara's Ice Breath lasted about ten seconds before it sputtered out—a normal duration for someone her age. Kilat's Electric Breath would have lasted slightly shorter than hers, only limited by her lung capacity instead of her raw talent. Wheezing, Vara flpped on the floor with her limbs splayed out like a five-point star, tongue dangling out her snout as she caught her breath.

Joshua had acted the instant the icy haze was blown into the air. He raised his right arm and slowly drew large, horizontal circles in the air. The undulating fog mirrored his somatic movements a second after he began and revolved around the arena's centerpoint, growing larger as it gathered mass.

Kilat took a few steps towards Joshua and studied his face. If he appeared to be lost in the ozone before, this time he was completely and utterly detached from the world around him, his eyes appearing as though they were lifeless. A second later, his tracing ceased. With his arm outstretched, reaching for the large cloud in the arena, Joshua gritted his teeth and hissed. "Come on…"

The snowcloud stopped in place.

"...come on…"

Then it shuddered. Joshua's nose started bleeding.

Kilat gasped. "J-Joshua!"

Joshua ignored her. Ignored himself. Ignored the entire world. His body rattled. "...come on…"

All eyes were focused on the stationary Ice Breath. Even Vara couldn't stop staring at it, her jaw remaining open. The cloud shuddered again. Then again. Its shaking became increasingly frequent, increasingly violent.

More blood spurted from Joshua's nostrils when his viridian eyes gained an edge that wasn't there before. Kilat was the only one in Proudtail Hall watching her brother, watching him twitch and tremble as though lightning was pouring into his body. Her tail fell limp. She ambled towards the human, anxious. Oh, how she wanted to stop him now. How she yearned to leap and tackle him down to the dirt.

"But you have to give him space. Let him fly by himself!"

Vara's words echoed relentlessly in Kilat's mind, forcing the little girl to root her paws in place, to resist every instinct clamoring for her to stop this lunacy. Her only wing folded and unfolded repeatedly, tail swishing from one side to another in rapid sweeps. She licked her snout nervously, ears barely hearing the faint murmurs streaming out of Joshua.

"...discernment… deliberation… determination…"

The human chanted the three Ds like a mantra. Terror lodged itself in Kilat's throat as Joshua's convulsions became more pronounced. Her cobalt eyes didn't glance at the snowcloud—didn't catch the golden sparks that began to illuminate it from within.

Joshua's voice went up by an octave. He let out a pained groan, yet he kept at it. He maintained his gaze on the large ice cloud, arm held high.

Kilat swore she heard a sudden popping sound. "Alona's mercy!" she yelped the second she saw rivulets of blood dripping out of Joshua's right ear.

Blink shushed her. "Don't," he admonished. "He's so close to doing it. It's amazing how it's getting more intense. He can't stop now. He can't. He just can't."

Kilat couldn't argue with Blink no matter how much she wanted to. She was hyperventilating, her heart pounding with worry. She wanted to stop this! Why wasn't anybody stopping this? They never should've let Joshua take flight.

Kilat became calm as she realized it was up to her to stop him. She fluttered her only wing and, sprinting, leaped towards her brother. She lowered her head. A solid headbutt would break his focus, dispel this ridiculous experiment—

"Discernment... deliberation… determination!"

Joshua bellowed so loudly the air reverberated. He screamed just as Proudtail Hall was bathed in a saffron flash.

"Whoa!"

"Ancestors!"

"Vulcan's Flames!"

Everybody aside from Kilat droned in amazement, watching Ice become Electricity for the first time in the millennia-long history of dragonkind.

Kilat didn't care if this distinguished him from Spyro or any other Purple Dragon. She didn't care about the implications, about the trouble this unique, first-of-its-kind feat would bring to Joshua's life now or in the future. All she cared about was her brother's health. She hoped—prayed she wasn't too late.

Her silent prayers to Azeroth the Infinite intensified when she watched Joshua Renalia plunge to the floor. Knees buckling forward, arms unmoving, the human crashed on his face a split-second before Kilat soared above him, barely missing his body.

"Joshua!"

Kilat twisted instantly upon landing. She couldn't breathe when she saw the blood spilling out of his other ear. Panic rushed into her breast. She knew it. She knew it. She f*cking knew it!

Kilat rushed to her brother, her movements drawing attention to him. "Joshua! Joshua!" She nipped at him several times, biting his cheek, his hands, his ears. But he refused to wake up.

Vara let out an audible gasp, before flapping her wings and leaving the arena in a hurry. Her still-audible wingbeats meant she stayed inside the lecture hall, but Kilat couldn't ponder on her intentions when her anxiety was deepening at the sight of blood leaking out Joshua's nose and ears. "Wake up," she pleaded, at a loss on what to do. The child placed her paws on her brother's chest and pressed down. "Joshua…"

Kilat leaned over and cleaned his face the only way she knew how. The sharp, unpleasant taste on her tongue pushed her instincts forward, compelling her to seek out the wound and wash it with her saliva. Her efforts were frustrated by the lack of any open cuts. Out of desperation, she went so far as to thrust her tongue into his nostrils.

Her entire tongue proving too large to squish into his rear nasal cavity, the panicking Kilat shifted to lift the human's upper body with her forepaws—to inspect his ears—to clean them—to shake him awake. "Joshua!"

Then Blink wrapped his arms around her breast. "No! You can't move him!"

"No!" Kilat shouted, her only wing flapping at the mole's face. She pawed desperately for her brother. "Noooo!"

"Damn it, Kilat!" The young boar wrestled the dragon child away from Joshua. "Leave him alone! You might make it worse if you—

Vara barreled in, touching down beside them with a bundle of cloth in her forepaws. "Out of the way!" She hobbled on three legs over to Joshua, her sweaty paws leaving damp prints on the dirt. A red spirit gem was revealed when the cloth was unfurled, and a large fragment at that.

Moving with haste, Vara did not so much as place the crystal on Joshua's face as she shoved it on him. She hissed, the uncertainty on her snout betraying her doubts as to whether this gambit would work.

Kilat stopped struggling and watched silently, hoping, praying the red crystal healed him. The magic within went to work as soon as it touched the human's russet skin. The color drained from the lustrous gem. Vibrant ruby faded into a dead gray, its attractive shine shrinking until dullness remained. For a few seconds, the drained spirit gem retained its shape before it finally turned to dust.

Vara poked Joshua's face with her muzzle. "Joshua." The apprentice put her paw on the teen's lips, but the gesture didn't carry any of her usual mischief. Vara was honestly worried for him. It showed in the way she released her claws, in the way she dug them into the human's sensitive skin, hoping to prick him awake. "Joshua… Joshua!"

Vara's eyes wandered up and down his body. She brought her paw to his nose and waited. A second later, she brought her head down on his tunic, earholes aimed at the chest.

Another second passed.

Kilat felt Blink release her. She glared at him, causing the mole to raise his hands defensively and back off, apologizing as he did. The little girl had no time for his reasons, whatever they were. She trotted over to Vara, hoping she at least did something. "How is he?"

"He's breathing fine," Vara replied, moving her head along his torso. "His heart… it's… ah! There. It's beating. Nothing out of the ordinary, assuming humans are similar to the other bipeds."

"I wouldn't know. Joshua doesn't really talk about the hoo-man body too much." Kilat regretted not squeezing out more information about human physiology from him. Anything might have helped right now. "Vara, if, if he's okay, why isn't he waking up?"

"I don't know. I scraped my claws on his face." Vara bit his chin. Kilat was bothered by the wet droplet of blood that leaked out; the apprentice had gone much further than she ever would. "And I just nipped him harder than you. Nothing."

Vara poked her snout behind his head, lifting him enough to slither around his back and prop him up with her flank. Kilat approached Joshua and warily studied him, nervous. She had never seen him like this before, rendered completely unconscious by his own power.

Kilat recoiled when Vara put a forepaw on top of hers. They locked eyes. For once, the obnoxious dragoness was gone, and she could perceive the concerned friend hidden within.

"Hairless is fine," Vara assured her. "There wasn't as much blood as we first thought." To prove her point, she gestured at the floor, which remained completely dry save for the droplets that trickled down from Joshua's ears.

"Then why isn't he waking up? Why—

A large shadow appeared in Kilat's peripherals. She and Vara turned and gazed upward to see Cynder herself descending from the air. A bundle of bulak cloth fell between Vara and Kilat, partly open to reveal a green spirit crystal nestled in its folds.

"Lady Cynder." Vara greeted her with as much deference as she could in her 'kitty loaf' position. She bowed her head, the tip of her snout nearly touching the dirt.

Kilat, who had no respect for the Terror of the Skies, shrank back and folded protectively around Joshua. Out of reflex, the child bared her fangs and snarled.

"I'm not here to hurt your brother," Cynder said.

"What do—

Vara interrupted Kilat's retort, paw clenching on top of hers, clawtips pricking the soft scales. "Your Grace," she spoke over her. "What's the mana crystal for?"

"Element Conversion might have drained Joshua's mana reserves to the extent he experienced a backlash," Cynder explained.

Both Kilat and Vara reacted in surprise. "A backlash‽"

Cynder gave them a slow blink to confirm. "Correct. I presume from your reactions just now that neither of you have never consumed your mana to that extent."

Kilat shook her head before remembering that it was something only Joshua understood. By then, Vara had already spoken.

"I have used it up to the point I can't shape ice mana anymore, I feel weak and sore, and trying to go further hurts."

"That's the result of emptying your core," the black dragoness said. "But you can go farther than that. If you ignore that pain and continue trying to pull out more mana, the attempts will spur your body into producing what you need at the expense of your vitality."

Vara mumbled the last phrase. "'At the expense of my vitality'..." Her eyes dilated. "You mean that's what happened to Joshua‽"

"Then let's try the mana crystal!" Kilat didn't bother with any further explanation. She snatched the cloth bundle from the floor and swung the green gem at Joshua before either Vara or the big, black bitch could stop her.

As with the red gem, its emerald glow gradually turned gray before disintegrating into pieces. Kilat feared it would have little to no effect on her brother. Staring at his face for several long moments, she nearly forgot to breathe as she left his recovery to the Ancestors.

Joshua began to stir. The little girl released the tense knot that had been growing inside her with an audible sigh. His eyes flickered. "H-huh? Kilat? Vara? Cynder?" Though garbled, his words were enunciated slow enough to be barely comprehensible.

Kilat threw herself down on Joshua, licking his face so profusely. "Joshua! Thank the Ancestors—You're—okay! I—was so—worried—about you!"

Joshua twisted away, but all it did was coat him further in slobber. He couldn't talk over her incessant display of affection, practically drowning in her slime. Kilat couldn't bring it in herself to stop. She was so worried that something bad had happened to her brother that tears and snot were streaming from her snout.

It wasn't until both Blink and Vara patted her on the withers that she realized she was hindering Joshua's opportunity to explain what had happened. "Oh." She said in an awkward chuckle. "Sorry… I was just really worried."

"We know, Kilat," Blink replied.

"Just, give him some space," Vara added.

Shaky, Joshua raised his arm and patted Kilat. "Thanks, everyone," he said as he expended the effort to acknowledge all three of his friends. "So… did… did I do it? What happened?"

Cynder leaned over until she and Joshua were looking eye-to-eye. "Congratulations, Joshua." She smiled at him. "You did it. You converted Ice into Electricity."

"H-holy f*cking hell. I—uhm… w-wow… I—for a, moment there, I, I thought..."

Vara cut him off by nuzzling his cheek and giving him a long, meaty lick from chin to crown. "Forget that, Hairless! You did it. You actually did it! Mazarach the Hopeful has nothing but tailwinds for you today."

Joshua's uncertain expression broke into an open smile. "You're right. Jesus Christ, I, I really did that, huh?"

"Yeah! And it's something only you can do! Not even Spyro—

Blink interjected, "We're all proud of him, scalie, but that's not important right now."

"Oh c'mon, pup, don't—

"How do you feel now?" Blink talked over her. "What happened back there?"

Joshua's smile disappeared as soon as the question left his muzzle. He was quiet for a while. "I, I don't know. I feel, kind of woozy. A little faint. Like, liiiike… I'm, not, in my own body..." He reclined further on Vara's flank, shutting his eyes as he relaxed on her scales. "So, damn tired."

"You lost consciousness at the exact moment you converted Vara's Ice Breath." Cynder walked around Vara to face Joshua better. "You were bleeding from your nose and ears. You didn't wake up until you absorbed vitality and mana crystals." Her explanation sounded too clinical for Kilat's taste, but she believed this much was appropriate, even from a monster like her. "Volteer and I suspect you suffered an unusually strong mana backlash. Can you tell us what it was like? Converting Ice to Electricity?"

Joshua did not answer her for several breaths' time.

"Joshua?"

"S-sorry, Cyn. Not, exactly in shape to talk." His head lopped left and right. There wasn't any mistaking the relief that Vara's scales were smooth and soft enough to keep him comfortable.

"I, had, a headache, as soon as I started." He paused again. The way he spoke so carefully perturbed Kilat. "Grew more, more nauseating until, un… until, I only saw white and stuff kept, kept stabbing me, all over my skin. It…"

"You can stop now. I think we all understand," Vara said. She shifted around, getting as comfortable as she could on the arena floor. Her tail folded around Joshua's waist. "Just sleep. Hairless. You earned it."

"...thanks again…"

Once Joshua capitulated to his slumber, Kilat padded towards Cynder. She swallowed her hatred for the black dragoness for once, because she needed answers. They all did.

"Why did this happen?" Kilat asked.

Cynder put her best effort into giving her a conciliating smile. "It's simple, Little Wing. Element Conversion must be an extremely advanced technique for him. It's far more difficult than simple manipulation of your elements, and much more taxing on his mana reserves."

"And his psychic fortitude, Cynder," Volteer plopped down next to the group. The old dragon analyzed Joshua while he slumbered. Kilat didn't have the decades of his experience as a Guardian to even guess what he was searching for. "Since the Unknown Element has similar operating fundamentals to magecraft, channeling it indubitably causes immense mental strain. Taking into account the abilities that it confers upon its wielder—unnatural, irregular, anomalous..."

Kilat went still. Why were Cynder and Volteer staring at her?

"...it is highly predictable that such cerebral tensity would exacerbate in proportion to the deliberations he would delineate, possibly to great degrees."

Cynder muttered her reply, letting loose a scolding growl. "Volteer, can you please fly straight? You're flying aerobatics again."

He shut his eyes for a moment. "In essence, Joshua could very well kill himself by specifying unrealistic—impossible outcomes and marshaling every bit of determination to make it manifest in reality."

Vara suddenly trembled. "Then, the wind whispers in the airstreams. All the people that died at the gates last cycle… I heard they were all felled in a single blow."

"Instant death on contact, multiple targets, penetrating all protection, even solid walls." Volteer lightly placed his paw on Joshua's stomach. "Doesn't that sound unreal, too, young dragon?" Kilat shrunk back as Volteer's eyes lingered on her again, and for a reason she couldn't place. She backed away until she bumped into Blink, who calmed her when he palmed her withers.

"At present, I can conclude with 95% confidence that Element Conversion is more or less on the same level as the devastation we've seen last cycle. Slightly inferior on a conceptual level, perhaps, yet just as aberrant."

"Ha! Poor Hairless. Sounds like he wouldn't be converting elements like an adept anytime soon," Vara snorted, her cheeky tone clearly an attempt to defuse the uneasy ambiance.

"...Indeed," Volteer replied. "It's too dangerous to overwork Joshua at his current level."

Suddenly Cynder exclaimed, "I don't understand!" Her wings flitted in her agitation. "If your theory is true, just, how… how did Joshua end up killing so many people during the Incident?"

"I…"

Volteer sighed.

"...I don't know either."

---

Author's notes:

And there it is! Pretty much revealed how Joshua's Element works here. Did anyone get it right? I hope someone did. XD

Can anyone guess why/how Joshua's power acted the way it did during the Gates then?

Oh, and... don't expect another update for a while. I'll be working on updating my OG fic in the meantime.

~~Replies to reviews below~~

Djax80. Expecting Vara to be worse off? How so? It's not like her family's dirt poor.

Hope you found Joshua's field demonstration interesting. XD

I liked that scene, too, actually. Really brought out her character.

Yoshifu101. Haha glad you like my story so much XD Are you open to OG fics, by any chance? Maybe you'd like to read mine :P

axkznapp. oooh that IS a perfect comm idea. XD I will consider that. It's a shame I have so many comms I want to realize but not enough money to comm the artists. Not to mention my go-to has stopped taking comms. D:

Re: Volteer's use of the word "dude". He IS doing that on purpose, yes. It's a foreign word to him and he enjoys the way Joshua reacts to it, sorta like how parents or grandparents enjoy embarrassing their kids. :P

Samo28. Well, you got your wish! He showed off his progress. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Bizzleb. Glad you're still kicking! Hoping you'd been doing OK, really. For some reason you rarely respond to PMs.

Abusive parents are a thing everywhere, it seems. Problem is, in backward or feudal societies, abuse is probably more frequent and overt than it is during modern times. My grandparents, for example, was raised in a manner that would be considered excessively abusive today, yet he complains that a great number of people my age or younger are "pathetic". *gasp*

Vara probably would get away from her home environment at some point, since Joshua is now a rising influence thanks to her. That IS one reason why she sticks to him though. He's fun to tease, he's a great friend, and there's the added benefit of becoming sort of influential herself when she's older.

And yes, it's so wonderful to see things FINALLY coming together! Totally makes my super-slow pacing and build-up feel worth it.

Re: demonstration. Hey, hey, hey, hey... I'm not THAT cruel. Didn't you see how Joshua did there? He performed amazingly. XD

Looking forward to your thoughts in this chapter.

MysteryWriter175. Warfang most likely does not have any of those laws. In real life, laws against toxic and abusive parents did not exist until the 19th century. If you dare to look up the subject online, you would find horrific details of child abuse, from our ancient civilizations to the middle ages, to the early life of the modern world. I actually provided some of those details in my PM to you, but I don't want to shock anyone by repeating them here. They can look it up themselves if they wished.

Aaand yes, it'll take a while for Joshua's friends to like Vara given her superiority complex and her tsundere attitude. :P

Those would be an interesting series of short chapters, by the way.

Councilors and other politicians are always making problems no matter where they are. Real life or fantasy stories... they're always there. XDDD

EndlessPossibilities57. I know! It was an awesome scene to imagine! :D And it came out of nowhere, y'know. I needed a time skip, and the idea just came to me! ^^

BronzeHeart92. Oof! Didn't realize I actually didn't reply to your review until I looked for my response in my outbox. Sorry, sorry.

Re: Olympics. I didn't watch it all, TBH. Not really my thing. Though it was interesting how the Japanese approached it during the pandemic. I watched a few YT videos showing how they ran things.

Re: Pantheon of Ancestors. Alona is a reference to one of the stories written by DragonMaster000. She's the goddess of life or something in his fic, particularly the one titled "One Day". A few others came from my online friends from a now-defunct FFN forum. We were all close to each other back in the day, and the names are all shoutouts to them or characters associated with them. For example, "Meredy" refers to the character of the same name in Riverstyxx's Firelight. "Seldoot" refers to Snickertoodles. "Virith" refers to an OC of GoldenGriffiness from her story (I think it was Legend of Cynder), etc. Others, well, I just came up with it since I just cannot have them saying "Ancestors" this, "Ancestors" that all the time. XD

The whole "clear skies, steady winds" routine is something inspired by a pretty famous HTTYD fanfic. In that story, the dragons would greet each other with something like "soft tailwinds, swift hunting!"

DiabloPProcento. Hello again. Sorry I didn't reply. D:

Glad you enjoyed the previous chapter! Hope you liked this one too.

Vara will show her abusive mother someday, for sure!

And yes, she does enjoy them. Those aren't her favorite spots though. XDDD

Betting Chicken (Guest). Binged it for a week, have you? Awesome XD I'm glad you decided to leave feedback as well! I really appreciate it.

Cynder lets Joshua call her "Cyn", yes. It isn't because she's developing any feelings for him though. It's actually because she sees herself in him and has made his welfare her personal responsibility.

Hmm... Voting for the Joshua/Vara ship, are you?

Drax (Guest). A 15-year old man! XD

Guest #1 (Guest). I've only started checking it out. Not sure what to say/feel about A Way Forward (HTTYD) until I've fully caught up to its most recent update. Thanks for the referral.

Piston24. Hey! Glad to see you're still around XD Better late than never!

Yep. Finally returning to Joshua's side for a short while.

I can't tell you why it feels that way. Maybe it's because you know Joshua is somehow linked to the events happening in December? After all you have Bianca and the Portal Masters in play, plus Joshua also mentioned in "Chasing Leads" (set 2 years after arrival in Warfang) that he'd been to Uzali, the town closest to Eyria! So the world-building has been playing a role. :3

AlbertDS1921. Like a few others, I have forgotten to send you my reply. Sorry about that.

I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far and thank you for your feedback.

Not sure what you meant about Joshua trying to "make trustworthy" to Spyro... there is a reason why Spyro treats him the way he does, though.

I don't think there's anything embarrassing about coming up with an isekai story. Just do it.

Henchman1997 (Guest). Hello! Thanks so much for leaving your review.

And thanks for liking this chapter! A brief respite from "Serious Aimless" is always a good thing. Plus, it'll make the time gap between Spyro's arrival in Eyria and their raid on an ape camp feel a lot longer for the readers... hehe

Vara has been raised to follow the rules "or else" she gets abused, no matter how senseless the rules are. But yes, deep down, she just wants to break free and soar. :D

Blink being a "great dreamer" archetype also fits.

Kilat... well, this chapter is the first time I've used her viewpoint after a long time. I hope she's to your liking here.

...So does Joshua's Element still feel like Conduit to you? And I ought to play that game, I swear. The only other time I heard about Infamous was from that crossover Spyro/Infamous fic where someone gets isekai'd to the TLoS world. I guess you've already read it too.

JustAnotherReaderPlz. Dude, so many reviews! You're on a roll here. I'm very thankful you're leaving comments every few chapters, just like before.

There's a lot to unpack in all the reviews you cranked out, and I addressed most of 'em in our direct messaging.

I know you haven't gotten to this chapter yet, but I do hope you enjoy it when you get here. XD