Ch. 4 - Growth

Amos had two younger sisters, the older one was Felicia, the younger one was Elena, and the youngest brother, Willy. If Amos was born the size of a pony, then his dragon sibling's size was equivalent to an adult street dog.

"And now, hehehe."

Willy looked at his elder brother who was nearly half his size and shrank back his neck.

A few days ago, after the three cubs completed their first slumber, they were dissatisfied with the behaviour of their older brother, who alone had taken one of the only two yaks. So the cubs initiated a challenge but were crushed by Amos’ absolute power.

First, relying on his size, Amos bashed into Felicia’s head, then knocked Elena to the ground with his tail. Then with a final roar, he left Willy so scared that he did not even take a step forward; firmly installing his majestic and invincible image in them.

The dragon mother, Salilina, didn’t care about Amos’s bullying. To her, the rule where the weak followed the strong was a part of a dragon’s life.

Over the next few days, in light of their brother’s deep love for them, the cubs reflected on their wrongdoings, corrected their mistakes, and vowed to mend their ways and unite around the Amos-centric collective.

[PS: Believe it or not; I don’t.]

This was how the white dragons, which would later change the course of Nordhill, grouped and came into being.

...

Howling cold winds, endless stretches of white snow, ice that the sun cannot melt, this was the North Wind Icefield.

Two kilometres away from Salilina’s nest, Amos and his three followers lurked in the snow. The white scales on their bodies were a natural protective cover here; their racial characteristics as white dragons gave them immunity against the severe cold.

However, the first hunt did not go as planned. The cubs were not yet skilled enough to control their draconic powers. Before the prey even got close, they fled in fright and the latent hunt failed.

Amos wasn’t angry. He then immediately changed his strategy. He decided to take advantage of his flying skill and chose to fly low and hunt the prey he discovered during the flight.

A dragon’s strong muscles, firm scales and sharp claws gave him the courage to fight head-on against any animal of similar size.

The idea was beautiful but the reality was often cruel.

For young dragons, the huge size of northern yaks were a clear deterrent and something they couldn’t afford to hunt; the snow-white rabbits and squirrels weren’t even sufficient to stuff their teeth and the only prey for them was the Ice Reindeer. Ice Reindeers were about 3 metres long. They were agile and had two-pronged ugly horns, and they also lived in groups.

Looking at the small group of Ice Reindeers not far away, Amos thought of a strategy and rushed straight in the open.

In case of a terrible stampede, umm …

The images of lions huntings horned deers in the animal world in his previous life flashed in his mind, giving him an idea.

He then called for the cubs to give them instructions. They then flew over near the group of reindeers and roared. But the young dragons weren’t all too formidable to make the herd scared of them; however, they did startle them and the herd began to run at the lead of some reindeers.

The cubs then, as planned, swooped in and harassed an outlying reindeer, and finally, a reindeer broke away from the rest of the group in panic and was driven to a corner by the well prepared Amos.

The time for the harvest was up, and after the course of action was calculated, Amos swooped down on the running reindeer with a howling roar. The nimble reindeer made a sharp U-turn to avoid the evil claws.

Amos's face scrunched up, discomfited, and the dragon's breath spewed out. This time, the reindeer could not entirely avoid it. The dragon's breath hit the back of its body, and its running speed dropped.

Elena made a dive at the sight. A desperate reindeer padding at rabbit’s pace, the potential energy of the dive, and the kinetic energy of the reindeer's hooves, kicked Elena in the face. Willy took the opportunity to block the reindeer’s path. And the reindeer's spine was eventually bitten off by Felicia.

Four grey-headed young dragons shared the reward of the eventful day. Then they went back to the dragon's nest with vengeance in their hearts.

It was a failed hunt, ending with half-filled stomachs. ...

Four years later. The North Wind Icefield.

The three young dragons released draconic roars into the sky and began encircling all three sides of a reindeer and orderly drove it to a corner.

Of course, they weren’t so idle as to amuse themselves by cornering a reindeer. Amos was lurking in the snow, waiting. He looked at the frightened eyes of the reindeer, the reindeer saw him too, and before it could make any moves, Amos spat out a breath of blue shards and icicles that covered an area of 20 metres in front of him.

The dozen or so reindeer running at the forefront were instantly frozen into ice sculptures when the fierce dragon swept in from behind them, while the reindeers at the back quivered in fear. It was a planned hunt.

Amos snapped his jaws at the frightened reindeer and drew another Dragon’s Breath. The three young dragons ignored the collapsed reindeer and swept in from the air to enjoy the delicious frozen venison with confidence.

A year ago, all four cubs had passed the Hatchling stage and had ushered in a golden period of body development. Amos had grown into a giant beast of more than 4 metres in height and had a wingspan of about 6 metres. His siblings also had changed and had all grown to be 3 metres tall.

Pulling apart limb by limb, the dragon’s ate their meal with loud and audible crunches. Dragon’s Breath contained a special magical effect that made the reindeer’s blood coagulate and its flesh hard and fragile.

Over the past four years, Amos had gained a lot.

In addition to the growth in size and the awakened magical ability, and the obvious growth in Dragon’s Breath, the system, his cheat ability hadn’t disappointed him. So far, he has learned more than a dozen magic tricks every month by parsing a spell model.

His current stats were something like this:

[Name]: Amos Aldridge

[Level: Giant Dragon (Level 6) / Mage (Level 3)

[Strength]: Level 2

[Faction]: Lawful / Neutral

[Introduction]: You are a male white dragon (Infant) with a soul from another world, causing the white dragon bloodline to undergo deep-level mutations, resulting in an ancestral phenomenon. Your body is stronger than an average dragon (Infant) and your scales are more durable and harder and you have stronger breath. However, you can barely protect yourself in this cruel world.

Willy, who was trained by Amos for several years, was as intelligent as a six-year-old and had become proficient in using Draconic Tongue for day-to-day communication.

After a good meal, they let go of the herd that had lost its ability to resist. The four young dragons then grabbed the remaining frozen reindeers and returned to their nest.

A dragon’s eating habits were very similar to that of snakes. After a full meal, they could live for a long time without eating. Adult dragons in the Legendary stage could even absorb the magical energy from the world and live on and reach the stage of inedia.

But most dragons choose not to do that, and although they wouldn’t die, they would still feel hungry and uncomfortable due to it.

When Hatchling dragons are just months old, they would be able to fight and hunt on their own and the dragon mother would stop fetching food for them. Instead, it was the cubs like Amos who’d bring back food to please their mothers.

Although it was just a matter of effort for the dragon mother, she was lazy and even though the cubs could hunt on their own, this did not mean that they could survive on their own.

The North Wind Icefield was Salilina’s territory. This place was where powerful creatures were either killed, expelled, or taken in as dependents (by Salilina). She wouldn’t allow anyone or anything to threaten the existence of the creatures within her territory.

Without the protection of their dragon mother, the young dragons would easily fall prey to other predators out there.

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