The Dragon Wars (Book 1)

Chapter 28: I do too (Jangra POV)

I felt bad for Penta, I knew that I should not. She had tried to kill me, but every heart was precious, my brother was right. She used to be a close friend of mine and she would look to me for advice. But she had genuinely thought that she had killed me and had bragged to the whole tribe that she had killed Ipse yesterday.
I was trying to remember what exactly had happened after I had died. I remember talking to a man, but I could not remember what he had said for the life of me. It was a bit disappointing, I thought if I was to die then I would get to talk to my family.
My sister Mik, I could see sitting beside me asleep in the cave had somehow saved my life. Yikla had told us that she was the Odyssy dragon. It might not make sense to her, but my father had always thought that she was something special to the tribe.
I looked around the exit to the cave, I was wondering if my father was going to head into the cave tonight, but if he was not here already then chances are he would not be here for the night. Sometimes he had come in really late, it usually woke me up.
I was sure that he had a lot on his mind right now. After Socra passed or after she retired then he would come to me for advice, but with Socra still there then he would go to her. I could not blame him either, I was his son some of what I said would be biased. Socra had also lived about 25 more lifetimes than I had.
There was so much I had to learn still and I was so excited to learn it from one of the most fearless dragons in the tribe. A lot of dragons did indeed look up to Socra as a big role model for many dragons. I did not really have a role model, my father was supposed to be the biggest role model but I didn't get to talk to him all that much.
In fact I don't really know if I knew my father all that much at all. I wish I could say that I could. I guess that was the whole point in me being the next deputy of the tribe. I would learn a lot from him, and some day I would be the next leader of the tribe. My father had taken over leadership when he was 50 because his father had died in the great war.
Plyma the son of the leader who had started the war was the leader of one of the tribes. He said he had learned from his father but just based off of what Yikla had said I was guessing that was in fact not true at all.
I could tell that a lot of the dragons were afraid of the war. But a lot of dragons had forgotten about the meeting a few days ago. It seemed like there was a strange sense of peace in the tribe, I knew that was not going to last long at all though.
I looked once again at the exit, my father was still not in, I shook my head, if he was not in yet he would probably not be in for the rest of the night. Besides, I realized after the fun I had today, I was so tired, I had not been sleeping well the last few days because I had an overwhelming amount of stress.
I sat down, looking sadly at the ground that my father was not here. I wanted to talk to him, all he had told me was that he was proud of me, but I wanted to see his reaction or what he had to say about me coming back from the dead.
I had heard many dragons talking about, and they were all looking at me very surprised and happy for me. A lot of the dragons in the tribe liked me, I knew that for sure. I smiled thinking about it, Penta was soon to be gone now.
Since she had not won the fight, she was to be cast out of the tribe. I was happy for it, I did not want to see her face ever again, I could tell that Kota had felt exactly the same. If I was to not kill her, she was to leave.
Even if she declined the fight and had changed her mine, I still believed that she should be kicked out because she had tried to kill her grandfather he had mentored her and helped her grow up her whole life. I knew Ipse would not have wanted that though.
I shook my head, even after she had tried to kill him... I still was not sure if he was going to live, but the medicine dragons had said that he was in a steady state at the moment. I sighed a ghasp of relief when they had said that. I lot of dragons in the tribe looked at him for advice and praised him heavily.
I closed my eyes not wanting to think about it, besides once again after I cleared my mind of those thoughts, I realized how tired I was once again. I quickly fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up it was a bit later than usual, I looked around, none of my family was still asleep, I could not blame them. They had slept fairly early and they had not done as much as I had the last couple of days either. Im sure they could not blame me either, they knew I must be exhausted.
Last night I had gotten a good amount of sleep however, and I was happy about it. I looked around the cave, I was trying to shake my head from the same thoughts that I had as I fell asleep last night.
I shivered a little bit, it was hot outside however. I got up and walked out of the cave, I looked around feeling the warmth of the sun and then figured that I should go and sit on the high rocks where I could see many other dragons resting as well.
I wasn't tired my any means at all but my body was full of aches and pains. I began walking over to it, I wanted to enjoy the warmth of the sun as well. A few dragons on the rock nodded my way as I walked over to it.
I walked past a few dragons and then chose a comfy spot away from a lot of dragons and layed to rest right there. I looked at the sky, not towards the sun because the brightness from it burnt your eyes to a crisp.
I laughed a bit thinking of when me and my friends used to play games like who could last the longest just staring at the sun. I realized how dumb it was to do that now. That was going to destroy your eye sight. My mother heavily frowned on it and said we would be blind because of it some day.
We never listened to her however, we kept on playing those types of games. I realized when I had laughed at loud a couple of dragons looked at me a bit confused. I shook my head at them as a way of saying sorry.
I had to realize some day that jokes were not all that funny to older dragons. Socra told me, that as dragons got older and older they grew more and more mature and they seemed to get a bit boring. Socra did like to crack so jokes here and there so I did not know how true that was.
I looked down at the clearing of the tribe camp below me I saw a dragon stand out to me. It was a darker black dragon and I noticed it was Yikla from afar. A few dragons around me I could tell noticed her as well and they had some ugly glances on their faces.
I looked at them a bit sternly and they looked back at me a bit confused, I looked back at her just seeing her standing in the clearing rolling on the ground just messing around. I could tell that she was lonely, and I really doubted if there were many dragons in the tribe going over to her and talking to her.
I decided to be the one to stand up however and I got up and flew over to me. When she heard the flapping of my wings she stood up and nodded to me as I landed close beside her. She smiled at me and then began rolling around in the dirt.
Many dragons did it to get mud on them, dragons loved to roll around in mud, it had not rained in a few days however so I was a bit confused as to what she was doing. After a few more minutes of her rolling around she got up and looked at me.
"How are you doing today Penta?" I asked her. She looked at me a bit confused and I realized how dumb I sounded. I had said it, because I had always had a huge crush on Penta, and now I was having the same feelings to this dragon.
I remembered how yesterday she had kissed me, no other dragon had seen it. I did not realize how beautiful a black dragon could look to me. I smiled at her and she once again looked at me still a bit confused as to what I was talking about.
"I'm not Penta... I know... I don't blame you, you have your mind in another place, you probably cant stop thinking about her." She said to me. I looked at her and nodded. To be truthful that was not the real reason why that I said it.
She looked at me and then smiled at me, my eyes sat there open as I looked at her just staring at her. I could tell that she was blushing a little bit and I looked around to see if anyone was watching.
I saw a bunch of dragons at the rocks as they were all staring at me. I hoped they did not realize what was going on, black dragons and red dragons were never supposed to be friends. A lot of dragons frowned upon my father for falling in love with a black dragon. A lot of dragons, had no respect for my father because of that.
"Can we go to the cave? I don't like a bunch of dragons staring at me." I said to her. She looked at me a bit surprised but she just looked at me and then laughed a little bit. I was a bit confused at what she thought was so funny to her.
"I like them looking at me, it makes me feel special." She said back to me. I rolled my eyes and then shook my head. I figured I should just tell her the truth, I was going to in the cave anyways.
"Well... There is another reason I want to be in a cave, there is something I need to tell you." I said to her. She looked at me a bit confused, but this time she had a serious look on her face. The smiled that she had was no more, and she nodded for me to continue.
"Sure... I have a cave to myself, we can go over there." She said to me. I looked at her and then I nodded. She smiled at me once again and then we slowly began walking over to the cave. I realized how bright and warm the sun was and was beginning to regret my decision now.
I wish I had just stayed on the sun rocks, I did not know how she was going to react to what I was about to tell her, I just hope she did not act the same way that Penta had when I had admitted to her my feelings. I did not know how black dragons were at all when it came to love if I was going to be truthful.
The sun was so warm, I looked back at the rocks, we were so far back now the dragons were not paying us any attention at all by now. I looked at her as she looked back at me and nodded. We were at her cave, it was not nearly as nice as mine, but I had seen worse from other dragons.
Besides that was not the reason that we were in here for the first place. I looked at her and then I stared at her for a few moments, she was looking at me a bit confused. I closed my eyes realizing how stupid of a look I must have on my face right now.
She coughed real quick and I opened my eyes realizing it had already been a solid few moments and I was kind of wasting her time. Im sure she was going to have a meeting with my father later, I wondered if I was going to be a part of it.
I looked at her for a few moments and then shook my head trying to remember the whole reason that I wanted to talk alone with her in the first place. I remembered what it was but she was the first one to speak.
"If you are wondering why I am slightly purple, it is because my father is a purple dragon... That is the reason dragons frown upon me, not because I am a black dragon." She said to me. I looked at her a slight bit confused but then I nodded to her.
I knew that purple dragons were the spawn of a black and red dragon mating. I had heard the stories already, how the great war between the dragons had started before. My father was in love with a black dragon. So was the leader of the black dragons.
They got into a fight, the black dragon leader thought that red dragon males were pathetic and was very upset about it, even though he was with a female red dragon in the first place. That I realized is why she was slightly purple, her father was a purple dragon.
It made since, they were heavily frowned upon by all dragons of all tribes. That was a big reason why my father never married the black dragon in the first place. All of the other dragons were getting into his head and frowning upon him.
I was happy that he did not marry that black dragon however, I would probably have never been born, and my mother and father got along and loved each other so much. I was happy the way it was right now and could not ask for much better.
The original war I had heard started between the 2 tribes but then other tribes began to step in, including some black dragons fighting other black dragons and vice versa for the red dragons as well. But in the end the war ended between the red and black dragons.
The peace between red and black dragon tribes did not last long, do to them being different races and they all took their own races tribe in the end. The war had ended with the death of Yiklas grandfather.
We should have known that Plyma would just be like his father, but I guess I was not there to really notice it so I could not blame any dragon for it. I looked at her realizing that my mind was in a different place.
She realized that I was not paying her any attention and she sighed and then began slowly walking out of the cave. I held her to a stop and she looked at me a slight bit confused.
"It's just about you kissing me... I just-" I began but then she stopped me. She looked a bit angry and upset which was the reaction I had feared would come out of her. Just like it had happened when I had confessed my love to Penta.
"It is a gesture of good luck for dragons. You should know that if you are in a near death experience. I was not going after you!" She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments and then lowered my head to the ground.
It was not nearly as bad as Penta was but it still did hurt me quite a bit to see her like this. They told me that love would be easy to find if I was the son of a leader, much less any dragon in the first place. But for some reason, it was getting hard on me for some reason.
She began walking out of the cave but then she stopped and then turned around and walked back over to me. I looked at her for a few moments and I thought she was going to attack me like Penta did for a few seconds. But she just stopped and smiled at me.
"Well... That was not the reason that I was talking about. It's something else." I said to her. I lowered my head to the ground once again. I was afraid, I did not know how she was going to react to it. Besides, black and red dragons tended to hate each other anyways.
Even if she was half purple, she grew up in another tribe, they probably told her many bad things about red dragons, much like we did about black dragons. This is probably the same reason that Plyma is trying to start another war in the first place.
"Go on... What did you want to tell me, I'm listening... If it is something bad, I will not hate on you." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, I wondered if it was true. Penta used to tell me stuff like that once before and I was so afraid it would end just like that.
I looked at her for a few moments and then I swallowed a bit of spit that was in my mouth. I was tempted just to go it off and just lie to her, I was afraid, I was scared... But my mother always told me to never be afraid of love.
"Well... I think, after you kissed me yesterday, I haven't known you for very long." I started saying but once again she interrupted me. I would have thought she would have understood what I was getting at, at this point.
This time she looked even more upset this time. If she did not understand what I was getting at then I figured that she probably did not have the same feelings. Besides, how could I be in love with a black dragon that I barely knew?! Those were 2 no nos.
"If you want me out because I kissed you I will have to deny that request I am here to stop a war before it starts... This was I sign of good luck like I had just said... Nothing more." She said to me. I looked at her sadly but she was not looking at me at all.
She was looking at the ground, and I did not know if she was being 100% truthful about what she was telling me. I walked back though, I was now starting to get even more scared. If she did not understand what I was getting at then she obviously did not feel the same way about me.
I walked back and began walking out of the cave. I was too scared to talk any more. I looked back at her one last time, she was staring at the ground with a bit of a blank expression on her face, I looked back at her sadly and then continued walking back out.
As I was heading out I suddenly was thrown to the ground. I wondered who it could possibly be. Where the black dragons already here?! Why had I not heard any other dragons yelling? Was it Penta?
I got up and turned around, it indeed was a black dragon with its back turned to me. I was tempted to fight back, I did not see any other black dragons around and did not here any. When the dragon turned around I realized it was Yikla.
I was a bit confused, was she trying to fight me? You were supposed to notify the leader if so, you would be kicked out of the tribe if you did not do that. But I saw a bit of a scared look on her face as she began talking to me.
"I'm sorry if I was a bit rude in there. Come back in, you can tell me... I will not judge. I'm just so used to being attacked by every dragon I know." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments and then I figured that I would lighten up the energy.
"You scared me for a few seconds, thought someone was attacking me." I said jokingly to her. She laughed and then nodded for me to follow her back in the cave. I did and I looked around to make sure that no one was watching or listening to us.
I thought about a lot of dragons probably wanting to listen to everything that she was saying because they were worried that she might be planning some sort of attack. But at the same time I shook my head, they would be too scared to come anywhere near her in the first place.
She sat down beside me and nodded for me to start talking. I was still afraid of how she would react, she said she would not judge as she stepped in to every word I said earlier to her. I sat there and she coughed really quick for me to start talking.
"Okay... So the truth is... I know it is too early to even think about something like this... You are a black dragon, but I just cant help but think and look. You are so beautiful and when you kissed me, it felt like it started a special bond between us." I said to her. She turned her head around for a few moments and for just a second I thought it was because she might be mad.
But she then turned around with a large smile on her face. She ran at me and kissed me once again, this time I could tell it was for real.
"Jangra... I knew it the moment I saw you. Something seemed a bit strange to me about you, but in a good way. I do too..."