— Chapter 2 —

Blizzard, part 1

Oracles was not himself anymore. Instead of his own eyes, he found himself gazing into darkness as talons that were not his own moved around, pushing forward. They tried to break whatever was keeping him confined and after a few minutes of effort, he could hear the soft sounds of something cracking. With a sudden give of the cage, a black talon broke through. Encouraged by the success, his head pushed along with the rest of his body, until the egg broke apart and the rays of the moon filled his vision with light.

He was struck by the beauty of the place where he was at, even his young mind was perfectly capable of being awed by the view of the reflecting crystalline surfaces, with one of the moons shining outside and giving everything a silver glister.

And yet, merely a few moments after leaving his egg, his happiness was already short lived as he winced, feeling something extreme within his mind. Not a thought or a word, but just raw, unaltered sadness and despair, hitting him fully and unexpectedly, and before he even took his first steps he had already fallen to the ground while clutching his head.

"It hurts…" Those were some of his first thoughts after leaving his egg as he looked ahead, these emotions were hitting him from outside, whoever is making these flourish, they're over that way. So the newborn began to crawl the opposite direction and at least with that the despair was fading slightly.

These were several minutes of the intense feeling nagging in his mind until it finally turned bearable, and the dragonet felt a sense of numbness coming his way.

There he spotted a larger dragon, and the newborn dragon felt a hint of familiarity and kinship with a single look at the other one's body that contained a few splashes of black among a sea of white.

The other dragon looked towards the broken egg, surprise and stupor filling his mind as he quickly looked around until he found him tucked away in a corner of the room.

His father looked down at him, and he could feel a rushing stream of conflicting emotions within his mind coupled with the lingering sadness. There was worry when he saw the distressed dragonet there, but there was also anger and resentment mixed in with a hint of guilt, it was very confusing.

"Blizzard…" The other dragon slowly spoke, and the hatchling tilted his head, so that's his name? He liked the sound of it. "I'm your dad, Boreas," the larger dragon smiled very slightly. "And I promise I'll try to make this work, I will make sure that both of us are safe."

Blizzard barely understood most of what his father said, but he hasn't been able to stop getting readings of his emotions, and his dad was now feeling a combination of uncertainty and fear, but also now there was a bit of happiness as he moved forward and held his child.

"B… Brr… Bore…" Blizzard tried to say his father's name, who actually let out some light laughter, for a moment his mind not looking as conflicted.

"Impressive, not even 5 minutes and my own kid already called me a bore, oh well," he shook his head and was starting to walk out, but his amusement quickly went away when he apparently suddenly noticed the moonlight shining down on them.

Blizzard felt several seconds of heightened fear and panic in Boreas' mind as his dad raised up the baby and examined him closely, giving a thorough look at his face and near his eyes in particular.

Whatever it was, it didn't seem like Boreas found anything as he took a deep breath, sighed and kept walking as his mind cleared once more.

"Let's have dinner," he said to the dragonet. "I can't remember the time when I left my egg, but I assume that you're probably hungry?"

His dad brought him to the table then literally talked at a plate, and soon enough, Blizzard was eating chunks of penguin that Boreas had quickly cut for him.

Boreas meanwhile was eating a seal, and Blizzard felt at ease, at least for now during this meal, his dad's emotions weren't that crazy, and the dragonet smiled after tasting the yummy penguin.

As he ate, he remembered that while he was in the egg, there was another set of emotions, one who felt such joy and happiness that it made the hatchling try to come out quicker. But yet by looking around he wasn't able to feel any joy now.

A week passed, and Blizzard hadn't been doing a lot besides a routine of sleeping, strolling around the caves, basking on either the sunlight or the moonlight depending on the time of day, and eating. His father had magically summoned different types of animals on his plate these days to try, but so far the dragonet decided that penguin was still his favorite.

Right now he was laying down below the sunlight pouring from the magic window, stretching his limbs as much as he could while laying on his belly, then he felt his father's uncertainty before even hearing his steps coming nearby.

"Blizzard," his father called out to him, the dragonet was able to see a pouch held from his neck. "I… Have to go outside for some time, I will be back later."

He tilted his head at that, looking at his father. Outside? As in, where the sunlight and moonlight come from, and these pretty views he gets through the windows?

But before he could really get any curious, his father had suddenly taken a more stern tone.

"You are not to leave this place under any circumstance unless I say that you can, understood? Going outside is a great danger that I am willing to take, but you won't, okay?"

He repeated this a few times to hammer the point into the child's mind, who eventually nodded after a minute, making his father look satisfied by the answer as he patted his head.

"Good, always remember that. So just stay here and keep relaxing and I'll be back later."

He started to walk out of their home, and Blizzard saw as he pulled out a bracelet from the pouch before he ended out of sight. And so Boreas left the week old dragonet home alone in a place with magical items everywhere, but Blizzard was more interested in relaxing at least.

Hours later, he was in for a rude awakening as his father's mind approached, Blizzard jumped up surprised with a little yelp, the inner turmoil within Boreas… It was even greater than the feelings he sensed after leaving the egg.

Boreas just walked past him, his mind flaring with anguish and rage, so high that the dragonet stepped back and as far away as he could from his father, who went towards his cave room, and these strong emotions were not fading at all, leaving the little dragon clutching his head for a while, not knowing how much things would change after just a week,

His father… Had changed a lot, before he had gone outside some time ago… These first few days of his existence were nice, his dad had been awkward and nervous in his mind but overall nice. But since then he'd been in a much worse mood, glaring at him whenever he passed by, his mind constantly feeling resentment and ire, it was painful.

And the restrictions had begun to appear in place.

"As I've already told you, you are not to leave our home, and you will not touch anything besides what I tell you that you can touch, like the plates we use to eat. And you'll listen to whatever I tell you…"

And of course, Blizzard had to listen, his father had changed a lot in such a short time, and it was scary… He often wondered what happened out there that it made him so mad at his own child, but he couldn't peek outside without making his father feel even more wrath if he disobeyed, so he was between a sword and a wall.

Another thing that happened these days is that his father began to teach him basics like how to read and write, and Blizzard thought that adding an extra thing to the usual routine of sleeping, eating and resting under sun/moonlight would be incredibly good, and so he was eager on his studies. At 6 months he was already decent at reading, and it was possible to understand his own writing.

And the best part of starting to do this, is that he got to stay a lot in his favorite spot at home. After a couple of twists and turns through some passageways he could easily go to their library, the Gift of Wisdom, his father said once that any published scrolls would appear here on a shelf or an alcove too, so that meant they had the greatest library in the continent. So Blizzard often thanked the ancestor who probably made this out of sheer boredom due to lack of activities.

And it was decently far enough from his dad, coupled with him getting immersed into these scrolls and he was able to ignore better the headaches whenever his father felt strongly in any form.

But after not long, upon reading his first scrolls, the dragonet realized something important: when it came to talking about families, these scrolls often mentioned a "mom" as an important part of a family, so being curious about what a mom is, he delved into more until he comprehended what it means, and he realized that he lacked one.

So soon after reading about this, he approached his father and decided to ask,

"Where's mom?" Blizzard asked.

Boreas immediately froze in surprise, and the dragonet immediately felt a rise out of his emotions, anger and guilt mixed as one.

"What…?" His father questioned after a moment.

"My mom," Blizzard insisted. "The scrolls said that it's someone important for both of us, and the one who laid my egg, but I haven't seen her at all."

His father's anger mostly receded, leaving way for sadness and pity to take its place.

"She's gone," he replied, and Blizzard took a step back in horror. "The magic got her… She vanished."

The dragonet looked shocked by this, looking down to the floor. His mom… Gone? But he never even got to meet her. He actually recalled that last day in his egg, these joyful feelings from someone, which then eventually literally disappeared… Was it his mom? Which of their gifts could've made her vanish?

Boreas frowned as he sighed while looking down at his son. "Please don't ask about her again, and let this serve as your first lesson… On how dangerous magic can be."

Blizzard knew better than to press his father on this when very clearly the topic would cause an emotional rise, which would only heighten if he insisted on it, so he kept the many questions to himself.

But as weeks passed, his mind couldn't stop from wondering what exactly happened. And it didn't help that in the meantime he'd read a few scrolls about mysteries and detectives, so he felt like he was onto something.

The joyful presence from before he hatched must have been his mother, she was there, and then she disappeared and only Boreas' sad presence remained, what happened?

Well, he wasn't able to ponder much on this, since just a few days after they did a simple and short celebration of his hatching day, his father decided that he should get more lessons on the dangers of magic.

And these lessons started the day his father went to the library and approached Blizzard.

"Son," Boreas spoke in a serious tone. "You're a year old now, I waited until you reached some maturity before imparting the knowledge I'm about to give you as it can get quite… Gruesome."

Blizzard looked interested in this, his father sounded really serious about the topic, so the dragonet wanted to see what this was about.

"You've seen the portraits, including the ones at the start of this family tree, so let me tell you the biggest cautionary tale from that time, ones that'll make you see fully why magic is something to be wary of."

Grabbing a scroll from a black leather casing, Boreas began to ask it different questions to make different words appear in the scroll, and so now the dragonet learned the tale of the Darkstalker, his ancestor from so long ago.

And Blizzard was able to understand why his dad felt that way, over the course of several nights he'd be told of Darkstalker before going to bed, his overwhelming power, the enchantments and lies, the cruelty of many of his spells, how he acted even to those close to him. And then that dreadful end where he killed his own father.

"Magic corrupts the soul, and nobody should have that much power, nor no one should be able to control a dragon so easily. Darkstalker could just write down whatever on his scroll, and if Clearsight wasn't there for a moral compass…"

Blizzard shivered at the thought, unbelievable to think he's related to that guy… And he could understand now why his father speaks of magic with disdain. Although he wished these weren't bedtime stories, could've done without a couple nightmares these times.

And oddly enough, these times he felt a satisfied feeling within his father whenever he was scared or unsettled or disgusted about these tales, huh…

But nothing prepared him for the week after these bedtime stories had finished, when his father just threw a big reveal at him.

"Blizzard, I've decided that you should know this now… You've gained knowledge on this power, and I want to think you're a smart dragonet that can be trusted, so before any accidents might happen due to any miswording or such, let me tell you this… Like many others in this family, you were born an Animus."

Those are big words to just throw at someone, and the dragonet was completely shocked by their significance as his eyes widened.

"Me…? An Animus? I was born with those genes?" He asked worriedly, and he noticed yet again a slight hint of pride in his father's mind after he said that.

"Yes… That's correct, you can do magic. Although I can tell that you're distressed by the thought?"

"Well… Yes? What should I even do with this? What if… Something bad happens…?" Blizzard muttered.

Boreas nodded at that sentiment now.

"I agree, but it is tradition that whoever is born Animus uses that power for some good deed and makes a gift for the next generations… So try to look at it like that," his father nodded.

"And after I make my gift?" Blizzard questioned warily.

"Well… You see, many generations ago, one of our ancestors made it so any Animus born in this family can only cast 2 spells in their life, and that's probably the best gift any of our ancestors has made in my opinion…" Boreas mumbled.

Well that was a relief for Blizzard, only 2 spells? Far less chances to mess up or fall into some temptation with that, although now he thought about how he'd really have to make his magic count in such a case.

"Listen, don't think too hard about this… Gift. From what I've gathered, most other Animus in the family made their gift when they were 5 at the very earliest. You still have time, you have nothing to prove, and you can still just live normally. I just considered best you knew what kind of power your words held, for safety. You wouldn't want to accidentally harm yourself or… Me, right?"

"Right… You're right, as always. Thank you dad," the dragonet said, thankful, happy about not needing to worry about using his magic and part of his soul when he just turned 1 year old.

And after he said that, it now was one of the rare occasions of actual physical affection from his father as he patted his head, and Blizzard was able to see how Boreas apparently felt immense relief and less looming fear right now after this conversation.

The next 3 years were much better in all aspects, ever since that conversation where his father revealed that Blizzard's an Animus, they barely ever talked about that, and Boreas' mind had been less conflicted and uncertain than it was during the first year, as if he'd found some peace, and Blizzard had just kept the usual routine going, at times doing some writing of his own too.

But some few weeks after he turned 4, he thought that he should talk to his father about something.

"Father, I just realized something regarding the gifts, and I need your help," the dragonet started the conversation, and his dad looked over towards him.

"The gifts? What is it that you need help with them?" He asked, his mind as usual darkening a little as it always did whenever magic was the topic.

"Well… There's just so many here in our home… And if I am to make something useful for the next generations, I wouldn't want to accidentally make some repeat gift either. Do you think you could help me sort out the different gifts so I see what I could eventually do?"

His father considered that for some minutes, his mind sounding reluctant because he probably would much rather not see what every single little object can do.

"Fine… I guess that it would make sense…" He reluctantly accepted and stood up now.

The next several days were for the most part just seeing what each thing did, each gift had written down nearby their name and purpose so that helped, but it was just an overwhelming quantity that it was easy to get things confused or mixed up, especially when it was repeated objects with different spells on them, like scrolls or pieces of crystal or some jewelry.

Also they completely ignored a whole section of alcoves because, based on what his father said, these gifts he knows are cataloged as ones meant for offensive purposes and fighting.

"You wouldn't want to use part of your soul just to make something that'll hurt others, right? There is no point, we're safe and protected," his father said then.

After a week and half, they had written down a lot of the gifts in a scroll meant for Blizzard to read when he's ready to make his gift so he knows what Not to make… But they still had the last third of the gifts left to write down.

"I never considered just how absurdly many there were…" Boreas grumbled. "I assume that before the good ancestor that limited how many spells can be made, the ones before made many different gifts each…"

Some hours later, Boreas had found a gift that caught his eye, a scroll with silvery ornaments by the side, and next to it was written "Gift of Insight", and after reading its purpose, he handed it over to Blizzard.

"There, just hold onto this and make this chore simpler, apparently you can ask questions to the scroll and it answers with facts and logic, and it seemingly knows anything. So maybe we could just use that to sort the rest of things," he said, his mind sounding so tired and annoyed by this point after checking on so many gifts.

Blizzard took it with care after being told what it does, and indeed after a simple "Can you tell me the gifts and their purposes that we haven't written down yet, excluding ones meant for offense?" The scroll quickly filled itself with a comprehensive list which Blizzard copied over by writing it on the other scroll he was holding.

"Phew, done at last, this took way too long, long enough that I'd personally consider this list we made a good enough gift on its own," Boreas muttered and headed over to his room to sleep while Blizzard chuckled slightly in agreement.

Meanwhile the dragonet felt quite happy and satisfied, with all of this hard work he should be able to make his own unique gift when the time comes, and then he won't worry about magic ever again.

He was about to place the Gift of Insight back into its alcove, but he stopped right before, considering his father's words.

"Seemingly knows anything, huh…?" Blizzard whispered, tapping his chin with a claw in thought, then while holding the magical scroll he went over to the library and sat down. Now unless his father walked in then there was no way he'd be heard at this distance.

He recalled a lot of questions, ones that he had since childhood but didn't ask due to fear of annoying his father. Honestly even if it meant constant headaches, his odd ability to read his emotions has probably helped him a lot at not pushing his dad's limits.

But now he should be able to ask questions without bothering his father, and a scroll literally can't feel bothered, so…

"What was my mother's name?"

FLURRY.

His mother's name is Flurry, he wished he could've learned such basic details long ago. But better late than never.

"During the day I hatched… What happened to Flurry that it made her left?"

HER MEMORIES GOT WIPED AND SHE GOT TELEPORTED BACK TO HER PREVIOUS HOME.

Blizzard stared at the answer in a completely shocked silence for a full minute, his brain not even able to process what he'd just learned after 4 years.

"W-What…?" He cried out in bewilderment, his mother… Disappeared that way? With no memories? How could this be?

"H-How… How did that happen…?"

HER MATE, BOREAS, USED THE GIFT OF FORGETTING ON HER.

Blizzard almost fell out of his seat, his eyes wide open as his mouth opened and let out a growl, WHAT!?

His father… His own father… Did that to his mother!? He complains so much about the dangers of Animus magic, but then he just wiped her memories the same day he'd be born!?

He had many more questions to ask, but as he learned what exactly happened to his mother, his worry grew. There was that day, just a week after he was born where his father had gone outside and returned as an emotional wreck… And Blizzard did not recall him ever leaving the caves again after that.

"What… What happened to my mother after that? How is she? She still lives?"

SHE'S ALIVE. BUT THE WORDING USED BEFORE MAKING HER FORGET WAS VAGUE AND ALL OF HER MEMORIES FROM HER LIFE WERE WIPED AWAY. HER MIND IS UNSTABLE AND SHE CONSTANTLY NEEDS SUPPORT FROM OTHERS.

Blizzard slammed hard on the table with his talons, breathing heavily as he huffed. So that's why his dad felt all these emotions regarding his mother, the heavy guilt and the sadness must be over how he messed up using the gift.

But there was still one big question left for this enigma, something that the dragonet couldn't understand based on the readings he kept getting from his father.

"Why? Why exactly did Boreas do that to my mother?"

HE WAS SCARED OF HAVING AN ANIMUS SON AND FEARED FOR THE SAFETY OF HIMSELF AND HIS MATE, SO HE MADE HER LEAVE TO PROTECT HER IN CASE THINGS WITH HIS SON WENT WRONG.

Blizzard immediately got up from the table, his eyes hardening as his claws scraped on the floor while his heart was beating fast.

The fear and uncertainty he often felt from his father, mostly when he wasn't even a year old, the anger… The resentment directed towards him.

Did his father resent him and blame Blizzard for what he did to his mother? Scared of his own son that hadn't even hatched yet, so he decided to take away his mom and had him live his first year under a lot of emotional turmoil.

The bedtime stories… The warnings… Boreas is just a scaredy dragon looking after his own safety that he didn't ever truly consider how Blizzard felt about all this.

And looking into his own emotions, Blizzard could feel hatred starting to run through his body, all directed towards Boreas.