Evelan: Vellath

True Powers

Here I am, standing against the wall in a dark corner of the training room. The only reason I'm here, and not with Vellath, is because Tya had begged me to cheer her and Messa on.

Leaving Vellath in the room alone was not something I like to do. So I stand right next to the door. This way, I can look through the crack. I had given Vellath a toy to play with. Once and a while, when I peeked through the crack, I saw Vellath throwing it around the room.

Yep, still acting like a puppy.

I watched several dragons go through the test before Tya and Messa was up. Mr. Cadei would hold up the stones. If the dragon did what it was supposed to do, then he would put a checkmark next to its name. The dragons so far had all passed, after going through an obstacle course made for its type.

Water went in the pool, and swam between dense seaweeds and other sea animals that couldn't harm them. It was also a maze, so we could see if the dragon had any problems with seeing under the water and finding a way around things.

Fire went through a maze. It would seem difficult, for a dragon, to get through. But, Mr. Cadei made it easier by making the walls fire. The fire would not hurt them, but would allow them to see through the walls slightly.

Air had it easy. They had to fly around and through various rings suspended in the air. If they could fly well enough, they would make it through with ease. This may seem like the easiest thing ever, but one dragon did hit its wing on the side of a ring. It lost a lot of points, but passed with a good enough score.

I had not seen earth yet, because Messa was the first to go through. Everyone made their way to the earth's obstacle. It just looked like a small square of dirt, with a gate around it.

"Let's see if Messa, here, can create a small earthquake only in the square," Mr. Cadei announced.

"Okay." Tya tried to sound confident. I could still see a small look of worry in her eyes.

Creating earthquakes was easy for earth dragons. It takes a lot of focus, but they cam do it in certain areas if they wish. Usually, the earthquake is a few feet long, and only about a foot deep for safety reasons. That's what Messa has to create to pass the test. Messa hasn't had any troubles during training, Tya told me.

"Alright. Put Messa in the gates."

Tya lifted up Messa and set it down on the other side of the gate. Tya took the earth stone from Mr. Cadei and held it up for Messa to see.

All the other students watched from behind, as Messa showed her power.

The earth split open, and Messa put one leg on the gate as if it wanted to climb out of the square.

"Messa!" screamed Tya. Dragons weren't supposed to be afraid. Plus, earth dragons had to stay on the ground for their power to work, hence the name 'earth dragons.'

The ground continued to shake, and Messa hauled itself onto the gate. Now, it wasn't touching the ground at all.

"Messa!" cried out Tya once more. If Messa failed, cowered out of the test, it would be taken away and no one knows what happens after that.

But right then, something amazing happened.

The earth split, only in the square, and opened up to a gaping hole to the middle of the earth as Messa sat on top of the gate and watched.

~~~~~《》~~~~~

"Vellath, I have some bread for you," I said, taunting Vellath by holding it up in front of its face.

"Sola," said a familiar voice.

I turned around to see Tya, standing in the door. She leaned against the side of it. Despite what happened earlier, she looked calm.

"Hey, Tya."

"Hey," she replied without changing her expression.

"Messa's pretty amazing, yeah?"

She laughed at this, then answered, "I guess so."

"Do you want to feed Vellath?"

"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?"

We sat down on the ground together, facing Vellath. It was sniffing the bag of bread. Then, it snapped its head up and looked at us both with hopeful eyes.

Vellath had grown in the past few days. I had noticed growth before. But only now was it obvious. It towered over us, and it was even laying down. I mentioned this to Tya, and she shrugged.

"They grow quite a bit in the first couple weeks," she had said.

"Has Messa grown?"

"No," she said.

"What? I thought they grow a lot."

"They do. Not Messa."

"Why not Messa?" Now that I think about it, Messa was a very small dragon. Messa was at least a head or two under the other dragons.

"Don't know, but Messa doesn't seem like a normal earth dragon anymore."

I had no way to respond to that. I simply nodded, and tossed a bread roll into Vellath's mouth.

I guess Vellath isn't the only special one anymore.