“So this is where you went.”

  I look up and see a dragon flying up to me. A dragon of magma. Smokewind lands beside me. I am currently sitting at the top of the mountain we live on. All around us is the vast sky and the oceans of water and leaves below. To the north is the Verdant forest. Its a large forest. A VERY large forest. It covers something like 30 percent of the world. It even goes under the OCEAN! In its center is the Great tree. A big ‘ol tree where most of the Forestry dragons live. Lots of woody, grassy tree huggers. Stabby tree huggers with green scales and root-like spikes along their backs and at the tips of their tails that make them very… well, stabby. To the east is the Obsidian Mountains. Lots of inactive and active volcanoes, a few supervolcanoes, and one massive supersupervolcano that all the Lavaflows live in. Smokewind, though a lava flow, has never seen that place. I doubt she's ever wanted to either. She seems too timid to want to live in a volcano to me. Meanwhile my brain is melting out of my ears.

  “I want to die.” I growl. My wings are splayed out at my sides and my talons rest on my snout. My head hurts so DAMN MUCH!

  Why?! Whoever invented tests deserve a special place in hell.

  “I hate tests. Tests are a test to my ability not to claw someones eyes out, and I'm failing.”

  “I made that test. I’m quite proud of it.” Smokewind says, then smirks as I look at her as if she were satan.

  “What is wrong with you?!” I snap, batting at her with wings. My wing brushes against her burning hot cracked scales over and over, just trying to be annoying. Every time I usually get a nice new burn to adorn myself. She is unaffected. And now shes laughing at me.

  “I think…you need… some burn ointment…” She manages between wheezes. I just keep whacking her snout with my wings. I've done this a lot over my life. The first ten times she scrambled to get me the burn ointment she keeps by her bed. After that she just found it amusing. But… my scales aren't getting burned. Slowly I stop. I look at my wings. Smokewind gets control of her vocal cords long enough to realize that i'm not hurt at all. For a moment she scrunches her nose in worry, then understanding.

  “Look at your stats!” She urges me. I nod and look.

  Name:Abhor

  [Locked]

  Titles:Timebreaker, Barterer

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Strength:20

  Durability:21

  Speed:20

  Stamina:22

  Intelligence:18

  [locked]:0

  Species:[Locked]

  Skills: Night vision(low), enhanced stamina(medium), bartering(low), Heat resistance(low), [Locked]

  Oh!

  “Oh!” I say out loud. “Heat resistance, and my durability went up!”

  “I thought you would get that after how much you get burned.” Smokewind says and nods. “Snowstorm has a cold resistance skill by default, like your night vision. If you get a cold resistance skill and level it to high, you could fuze the two.”

  “Stooooop…” I grumble. “My brain is goop. please no more knowledge” I roll over onto my back and hiss half-heartedly as her, swiping a claw at her. She jumps back with a yelp. “Scaredy-gecko.” I say cheekily, my mood slightly improved.

  “Shove a camel in it.” She snaps back, then reaches over and grabs my tail with her right talon. I'm distracted by the fact that it doesnt burn practically at all. Then I realize what she is doing. Uh oh.

  “Wait, what are you- EEEEPPP!” I let out a shout as with a grunt, she throws me off the peak of the mountain. Such a sore loser, her.

  <{(0)}>

  I sit in our room by the fire, looking into the flames as if they were alive. They move like they are dancing. It makes me wish I could breathe fire. I sit far closer then I normally would. The fire and heat doesn't warm me as easily, but my body maintains its heat better. I cool slower, but warm slower too. Im only a foot away from the flames. The fireplace is in the corner of the cave. There is a tube above letting the smoke escape.

  “This is nice…” I mutter to myself. After a moment of thinking I stick my head into the fire entirely.

  HOT!!!

  I yank my head out of the flames. Yeeeeouch! that freaking hurt! My scales aren't burned much, but it still hurt badly. Nowhere near as badly as I badly as I'd expect, but still pretty badly. I hear a snort and turn my head to see Snowstorm, his head buried in his wings as his shoulders shake with laughter.

  Seriously, why is everybody laughing at me today?!

  I give him a minute to settle down. When he does he comes over to me.

  “What did you think was going to happen?”

  He says, amused as he sits down near me, though further from the flames.“Im fire resistant now. I wanted to see how much.” I say defensively. Its not his business why I'm shoving my head into fire. Snowstorm is looking kind of constipated though.

  “Is the world punishing me?” He mutters to himself.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” He says, sighing. “Congrats. Its rare to get 2 new skills within a day of each other. Especially considering how far behind me you are in skills. This makes 4?”

  “Yeah.” I confirm. “All low except for enhanced stamina. It used to increase my stamina 5% but when it reached medium it increased to 10%.” Snowstorm nods.

  “Yeah, I have 8 skills. Where you have enhanced stamina, mine is Inelligence. It doesnt make me smarter, but it increases my intelligence stat by 10% ad medium, like yours.”I nod. I turn and look out of our cavern/cave/room/whater's window/door/entrance/I-really-should-know-what-these-are-called to the forest out below. The forest out there is just the tip, the southernmost point of the Verdant forest. I look out into the bushes. Then I notice something. that reflective thing in the bushes.

  Its still there. But… wait.

  “What is it?” Snowstorm asks, coming over to me where I stare out at the forest.

  “It’s moved.”