Chapter 5- Natural Talents
Upon returning home, Crystalia is greeted kindly by her mother who asks how the day went.
"It sucked." Crystalia replies immediately.
"Why so?" Crimsa asks worriedly.
"We did one incredibly easy thing today." Crystalia responds, "I got bored and entertained myself by slinging my stick I was levitating across the class."
"Did anyone get hurt?" Crimsa inquiries empathetically.
"No, I accidentally scared someone quite a bit, but no one was injured."
"I guess that's as good as I'm gonna get. Your father and I will talk with the principal if the activities are too easy for you tomorrow."
"Okay, thanks."
Relid enters the living-room as his mate finishes conversing with her daughter.
"Dinner's ready", he announces excitedly.
Crystalia runs into the kitchen as her mother stops, tells her father something, and enters behind her. The three dish out their serving of the stew Relid had made and gather around the table to dine as a family. After they finish, Crystalia tells her parents goodnight before heading to bed, soon falling sound asleep.
. . .
The next morning goes as usual, they eat, get Crystalia up and fed, then chat for a short time before leaving to drop Crystalia off at school again; continuing about their daily routine afterwards. Crystalia takes every roundabout path she can find on the way to class, dreading another boring day.
Finally entering class, Crystalia finds a spot alone in a back corner of the room and lays down, making herself comfortable.
Nol approaches Crystalia tentatively, taking slow, measured steps, attempting to avoid the same incident as yesterday. Crystalia doesn't look up from her paws but still comments upon Nol's approach.
"You're fine, I'm fine. As long as you don't interrupt my meditation, I'm fine."
"Okay, I just wanted to be careful, just in case."
"I don't blame you, I was just letting you know."
"You wanna come sit by us? We have plenty of space, and we're in back still."
Crystalia accepts the invite, following Nol to the opposite side of the class, where his sister lays..
The siblings chat with Crystalia for a few minutes before the next 'lesson' begins, all three easily mastering the medial task of simply catching a falling stick. They soon start attempting to drop their sticks on one another for entertainment and, soon after that, start a stick fight, stabbing at one another, though making sure to not actually break scales or hide. This continues until the teacher has everyone watch her as she demonstrates the next activity, spellcasting.
Crystalia immediately perks up at the mention of spell casting, though something deep inside her tells her that this won't be anything more than the kind of stuff she could do in her sleep.
After a very repetitive and unhelpful 'instructional' rant, Crystalia's apprehensions are confirmed as they are told to simply concentrate on one happy thought and see what happens.
Crystalia soon moves forward toward the teacher's desk, signaling to the siblings as they begin to follow her, letting them know of her plan. She lays down around five feet in front of the large desk at the front of the class and begins to focus.
Long before anyone else sees any progress towards their goal, a bright arcane flash emanates from Crystalia, followed by a scorching aura of heat around her. The heat aura quickly dissipates, leaving the carpet around Crystalia scorched and blackened. After around 5 minutes, the teacher jumps as the heat works through her paw pads, eventually making it to her skin underneath. She immediately looks to Crystalia, whose eyes still glow red with arcane energy; jumping up and heading around the desk to drag her to the principal's, she soon realizes her mistake. As she begins to near Crystalia, her paws grow warmer and warmer, the heat getting more powerful the closer she gets to Crystalia; just before she reaches the annoying female, her paw pads singe from their pinkish color to jet black, making her jump away from the small dragoness. Crystalia takes this chance to mock the teacher as she reels in pain.
"Betcha can't get me."
"Oooh, you little gremlin, when I get my paws on you..."
The teacher heads off to bring the principal to the class, leaving her students unsupervised. Crystalia uses the time to walk to the back of the class, leaving the carpet at the front of the room unscathed, just as how the ground under the trees was after she calmed down.
Nol seems upset at Crystalia's little joke. "Why'd you do that, you could've actually hurt her."
"I knew she wouldn't be physically harmed, her ego on the other hand, is a different story entirely."
At this point, Lasia finally breaks, chuckling a suppressed laughter and patting Crystalia on the shoulder.
"That was awesome, how did you do that?"
"I really couldn't tell you Lasia."
Lasia suddenly becomes defensive on the topic, taking slight offense to Crystalia's words. Her voice is filled with venom as she replies, "Why not? Is it because you don't think I'm old enough?"
"No. It's just... I don't even know how I did it. I know I concentrated on anger and it happened, but, other than that, I don't know."
Lasia sighs defeatedly. "Oh, okay. I guess I understand."
The three chat for a few seconds before the teacher returns, the principal in tow. The teacher points accusingly at Crystalia, giving the whole class a view of her charred paw pads.
"Her! she did it!"
The teacher and principal both head towards the back of the class where Crystalia, Nol, and Lasia are chattering and joking with one another. Crystalia is the first to notice, speaking to them without even looking any from her conversation.
"Can we help you?"
The teacher is the first to respond.
"Yes, you can leave."
"Now, now, Runa, why don't we find out what happened first. You should know by now that these kinds of things happen. Can you explain to me what happened Crystalia?"
"I'm glad you asked; I was doing exactly what the teacher told us to do when anger-inducing memories started cascading into my head, then, before I could stop it, a heatwave seared the area around me, burning everything near me."
"Can you show me where this happened?"
"Sorry, no, I can't. The scorch mark vanished when I stopped meditating."
"Well Runa, I can't really punish her here. She obviously didn't do this on purpose; go visit the nurse and clean up your paws. I'll watch the class in the meantime."
Runa mumbles something unintelligible under her breath before leaving towards the school nurse, limping slightly on both of her front paws.
"Just ignore her, she's always paranoid of new students. If she gives you any trouble, contact me before you burn her feet. Okay?" The principal says with a wink to Crystalia.
Crystalia nods, acknowledging the principal's statement and thanking him before he begins heading off to check on the other student's progress; he makes a round of the class before the teacher returns and he heads to his office.
The class is silent as they work on their meditation, some managing to create small, dim auras after a while of just messing around, but nobody gets close to Crystalia's blazing spectacle.
The day soon ends and Crystalia and the sibling duo both go their separate ways.
When Crystalia returns home, her mother is ready to greet her.
"How was your day, sweetie."
"Crappy as usual. Easy as usual."
"Good to know, we'll see what we can do tomorrow sweetie."
"Thanks mom."
They enter the kitchen and dish out their evening meal before they all head off to bed, Crimsa stopping by her daughter's bed and giving her a kiss on the forehead. Crystalia trills contentedly before laying her head down and falling asleep almost immediately.
The morning isn't unusual at all, besides the fact that Crystalia's parents enter the school alongside her, bound for the principal's office.
Crystalia joins the siblings with whom she's spent most of her time at school with, greeting them joyously.
"Hello friends!"
"Morning Crystalia." They reply, in turn.
The three take their typical places at the rear of the class before the teacher begins the lesson for the day, attempting to teach them all how to cast one of the most simple spells in existence. Crystalia knows this spell by heart, she immediately begins creating small stone trinkets and eventually creates a perfect likeness of herself and the siblings playing around with one another.
Unbeknownst to Crystalia, her small trophy draws the attention of Nol and Lasia, both completely awestruck at her skills.
"You did... How... But..."
"I have had a lot of practice, Lasia."
"But..."
"The process is simple enough; you simply have to visualize the scene you want and it should appear, if you do it correct and it's not too big."
"I... Please show me." Lasia stutters, stricken with awe and left unable to speak.
Crystalia happily obliges and, before long, they all have a small scene featuring a moment from their pasts. The other students manage a few small spheres of wood or stone and the odd headpiece or ring, but none as impressive as the three belonging to Crystalia, Nol, and Lasia.
The next activity is to simply create a small, pawheld, ball of fire, suitable to light a stove or oven with. Crystalia takes things one step further though, creating an eternally burning arcane torch before anyone even has a chance to create a single spark. She attempts to teach Nol and Lasia the spell she used, though she soon finds that the spell she had used was simply too complex for them; she does, however, manage to teach them how to light a fire with the spell they were taught before most anyone else does, only being beaten by one or two other dragons who seem, to Crystalia, to have a natural inclination towards fire.
When the class moves on, Crystalia clenches the arcane fire in her paw, dissipating it. Their next task is another emotion-based one; they are instructed to meditate, concentrate on feelings of safety, and see what, if anything happens.
When she demonstrates, the teacher is able to create a barrier around her which nobody other than herself can pass through. Crystalia, unlike the others, isn't impressed; she scoffs and curls into a small ball on the floor, concentrating on feelings of safety which, for her, come in the form of memories of home.
After a minute or so, Crystalia begins to fade away, her form becoming translucent at a relatively quick pace. Just as the teacher notices what is happening, Crystalia vanishes.
Crystalia, finding herself at home but unsurprised at the teleportation, lays back down and concentrates on thoughts of her parents, her whole body begins to tingle, lightly at first, then almost painfully, before she finds herself in the office alongside them.
They jump back as they attempt to process what had just transpired.
"Morning!" Crystalia says before laughing and turning tail, returning to class.
When Crystalia returns, she finds the teacher still stunned, wordlessly searching for her student.
Crystalia approaches the teacher, tapping her lightly on the shoulder, causing her to jump when she turns to find the student she had been searching for right behind her.
"How... but... it's impossible..."
"That's what my parents said, but even they were wrong."
The teacher opens her mouth to speak but no words come out, so she stands there, her mouth agape.
The bell signaling the end of the day brings her from her catatonic state and she dismisses the students before wandering off to make sense of Crystalia's abilities.
Crystalia leads Nol and Lasia to the office where her parents are still speaking to the principal; Crystalia introduces them before they head off to the playground to wait for Nol and Lasia's parents to arrive so they too can be introduced to Crystalia's family.
When the siblings' parents finally arrive, the playground is almost empty. Nol introduces them to Crystalia and her parents before they leave, allowing Crystalia to leave herself. She promises to meet her parents at home before teleporting, leaving them to fly home.
...
The unbearable silence between the two mates is finally broken when Crimsa speaks her mind during their flight home, "I think we should take Crystalia to the Capital, she's obviously more powerful than even she understands."
"You've heard the stories too, of them taking a dragon from its parents and not allowing them any contact."
"Those stories are myths, you know that."
"Yeah, I guess, though they've always seemed a little too surreal to be completely made up." Relid sighs tiredly and yawns, ready for a good night's rest.
Once the two return home, they collapse in bed, drained from their stressful day.