>>5850351Magic? You air your curiosity to them, and receive a lengthy response. Your siblings are beginning to lose focus, but you're extremely motivated to find out more about dragonkind, and what exactly you are.
Magic is a force of creation, destruction, and change, powered by mana that occurs in nature. However, your bloodline is incapable of making use of it. Though your body has an affinity with certain elements of mana, and you have innate control of the dragon grass sprouting from your back, spellcasting is beyond you. You blink hard, slightly disappointed, but not quite understanding what you're truly missing.
Your parents do not stop to console you either. It is merely a fact of life for their kind. Instead, they tell you stories of their own lives, and of your ancestors. Your siblings perk back up here, as they regale you with tales. It is not a full history, but they weave a clear enough tapestry to understand your kind better.
Your bloodline is referred to in instinctual words and impressions that best translate to 'Vine' Dragons. Claiming enough territory to form dominions and kingdoms is highly unusual for your kind. Instead, your parents have carved out an area that's absolutely and utterly theirs. The only things that move within it are food, and the idea of sharing is laughable. Within the conjoined clearings that make up your home, everything exists only for your comfort.
A sense of fear rises in you and your siblings, as your parents make their intent known. For now, you are welcome. You are cared for. You hold some amount of value as their progeny. But one day, you will leave, and you will not return. Or you will be strangled by the same vines that so lovingly carry you about. This is the nature of your kind, and your parents are immutable in this regard.
Apart from that, however, the swamps and jungle beyond will be yours to claim. When you reach adolescence, you will venture out to claim untouched lands, or battle another dragon for theirs. Your eldest sibling seems enthusiastic about the latter possibility.
By the time the lesson is over, the sun is beginning to set. Father ushers you away from the clearing so that he may burrow and hunt once again. As Mother leads you back to the cave, you attempt to pay more attention to your surroundings and learn how they've claimed their territory. However, you're too tired to truly understand it. You're still young, and your stamina is lacking. You need your rest.
Rest doesn't come so easily, however.
~~
