"You look exhausted," chuckled Diara as she came upon Eldawin taking large draughts of the fresh water from the spring in the middle of their oasis.

Eldawin turned and looked at her, giving a snort and turning back to take another couple of gulps. Over the past several months, Sediment had pushed Eldawin further than he had thought possible, mentally at least. Every day was the same thing, working on the constant refinement of his abilities, learning how to imitate touch, smell, taste, and even the passage of time. Every day he stretched his mind out of kilometres of land, managing slightly further each time, finding the hundreds of animals within the arctic, snowy wasteland. He was then required to focus in on them and tell Sediment what each was thinking and doing, even if the thoughts were simple and easy to replicate.

It wasn't that he didn't like the exertion of his training. If anything, he was glad for it, it kept his thoughts away from what he had lost, but it certainly left him unable to do much else at the end of the day. Even now the sun had gone down, disappearing behind the cliffs surrounding them, and leaving them in perpetual darkness.

"Your brother is a hard teacher," rumbled the mind drake as he looked at Diara with a slight grin.

"I can imagine," she chuckled.

She occasionally joined them, if more to have some company than actual entertainment, as with both out all day she didn't have much else to do. When Eldawin had asked Sediment about it the earth dragon had simply replied that if she wanted to join them she was free to do so. It left the mind dragon feeling a bit guilty at leaving her out. He felt as he was stealing away her brother from her. When he had approached her about it she had laughed it off, saying she was fine.

"But you are improving, he said," Diara continued, "Though seem a bit reluctant sometimes."

Eldawin hesitated, surprised Sediment had made such a comment, however true. There were certainly some things that the mind drake struggled with. Sediment seemed to think that Eldawin would be able to imitate things such as pain, both physical and mental, and had been pushing the drake to try such thing against him, too which Eldawin had made the excuse that he couldn't do it, even though he was quite sure he could.

Eldawin sighed, "Sometimes I feel as if there are things that I should not be doing with my powers... even if they are possible. Even going so far as to control the minds of my prey sometimes seems so... wrong."

The mind dragon no longer thought of his powers as weak. It was impossible to do so when he had done so much with them. But with that came upon another aspect that he had been trying to hide away from. After what he did to that fire dragoness when in captivity, and Diara's own fear of his manipulating her mind, which he would never do without great cause, it began to make him question whether he should be pushing for greater power at all.

Diara took a moment to respond, "I can see why. Taking away something's will, whether they be sentient or not, seems like a horrible thing to do."

"Yeah..." he looked away from her, thinking through every moment in which he had done that very thing. It seemed hypocritical of him to think such a thing now.

"But... you are the first of your species. It is kind of your duty to test the limits of your powers... to see what your hatchlings may be capable of and find which of those things should be allowed and which should not. If you don't discover them... someone else will. At least you have the morality to not use those abilities and teach against them."

"That is true," he sighed, "But it still doesn't make it any easier. Do you seek to find as many uses for your powers as well?"

"I try... but I don't have the same connection to my element as Sediment and you. It makes it far more difficult."

"I guess it would," Eldawin responded.

"The coolest thing I've figured out how to do is heat up my shell," Diara smiled, "It makes it far easier to fly through the snow. I get very cold otherwise."

The mind dragon laughed, "I can imagine. Metal does get very cold doesn't it."

"Very," she shivered as if remembering what she had gone through before she had learnt about the ability, "But other than that... well I can flick tail spikes and shoot streams of metal, as well as make the edges of my wings and tail vary in sharpness. That's all though."

"You are quite good at creating those statues," Eldawin responded.

"I guess... but that is more patience and skill than anything powerful."

"I am sure you will find other things you can do."

"Me too... eventually anyway," she smiled at him, "If I learn to control my metal like Sediment controls his earth I can finally shove that elemental crap in his face."

They both laughed, knowing how proud the earth dragon was of his abilities.

"What do you think of Sediment's spouting off all this 'seven elements' stuff he goes on about?" Eldawin asked after they had calmed down.

Diara thought for a moment, "I guess I do believe it... so far as he makes sense and I don't see any other way we could be here."

"I guess," Eldawin grumbled, he struggled with the idea of some higher power looking over them, habituating the very air they breathe and the ground they walked on, "But you can't say he has much proof of the matter."

Diara hesitated, "Well... my haven where I used to live studied quite heavily into all this sort of stuff. While no one had personally seen any of the seven elements, or met them, there have been accounts of other dragons of the past meeting them."

"Really?" Eldawin frowned, "So you're basing this on legends?"

"How else would we pass down our knowledge?" rumbled the metal dragon, "The only way to really gain information about the world, besides experience, is to be told it. Otherwise, we would know very little."

"I guess..." Eldawin refrained mentioning that most of his own knowledge was gained from the minds of others.

"I'm not asking you to believe me," Diara continued, "But maybe with your growing mental powers you might be able to find these seven elements. They are all around us after all."

Eldawin looked at the ground with a small frown, prodding out for any semblance of life. Besides the small bugs and the mindless element stones, there was nothing. He wasn't surprised, any other time he attempted such a thing had come with the same result.

"Maybe one day," he said, not believing he would, "But at this moment I am not able to."

Diara only nodded her head with a soft sigh, "Anyway, this isn't what I really wanted to talk to you about."

He titled his head, "Yeah?"

"I was wondering... well... if you would show me some of your powers," she looked to the ground, seeming slightly embarrassed at the question, "Show me some of these... illusions. Sediment said it was quite amazing what you could do."

Eldawin frowned, studying her with his eyes. Because he hadn't been reading their minds, he had begun to rely more on visual cues in trying to understand what someone was thinking. He often had to rely on his own memories of the way others reacted when speaking about certain things in order to understand what his two new friends were thinking.

"I thought you didn't want your mind to be manipulated," Eldawin said.

"I don't... but you have kept to your promise... and I think I can trust you... with this at least. I just... want to know what it's like."

"If you're sure."

"I am."

He could sense the slight shudder in her voice as she spoke, "It means I will have to reach into your mind again."

"I know."

"...Okay. Just... tell me if you want me to stop."

She nodded her head, closing her eyes and letting out a breath, as though she were preparing for the fight of her life. Eldawin hesitated a moment, before gently reaching into her mind. Anxiety riddled him. This was the first time he had been in her head since the night she sang, and the thought of what he was doing was oddly exciting.

Her emotions rushed through him like a stream of water, her own anxiety and fear causing panic to rise within her. Her focus on not trying to think forcing thoughts to the top of her head, thoughts that she had previously kept very hidden from the mind dragon. Her admiration and curiosity of the mind dragon, even an odd attraction that did not mirror the lust he had seen in many other females of his kind. It was more an appreciation of him, one that went far deeper than bodily desires. He forced himself not to dwell on these thoughts, instead focusing on the task she had given him.

'Prepare yourself, this is going to be a bit strange,' Eldawin mentally told her.

Picking a rather easy illusion out of the corners of his mind he gently spread it through her consciousness. Every aspect of reality he drilled into it. Physical feeling, sight, smell, taste, and sound, all of it, and suddenly the dragoness found herself not sitting in the oasis but high above the clouds, the warmth of the sun beating on her back.

A yelp escaped her as she beat her wings, which were now opened to catch the wind, pulling herself into a hover as she looked around in both amazement and fear. Eldawin chuckled, projecting a mental image of himself into the illusion so that they could both fly in the open sky.

"Wow..." she said, her voice sounding as real as it ever could, turning around in the world of nothing by the sky and clouds, "This is... kinda terrifying."

"You have to admit it's pretty cool," Eldawin smirked at her, knowing that despite her aversion to being mentally controlled, she couldn't help but be amazed at what she was experiencing.

"I mean... obviously," she laughed disbelievingly, "But... it feels so real... how did you do this?"

"Well, now that my memories are so... vivid, if I really wanted to I could reexperience anything I have done, it is a simple matter to take one of my own experiences, such as flying, and make them real once again in someone else's mind. Make them experience it themselves if that makes sense. It is a bit difficult sometimes, as when making someone feel something I have to take into consideration their own memories and experiences of the same thing. It leaves gaps because most memories aren't nearly as clear as my own."

"Yeah... now that you mention it my wings feel a bit different," Diara said, "I don't usually feel anything brushing over my wings when I fly."

"Oh? Hold on," Eldawin quickly brushed over several of Diara's flying memories to see exactly what flying felt like for the dragoness, then warping the illusion slightly to match it.

"Yeah... that's better. Wow..." Diara laughed, closing her wings and dropping into a short dive, dashing through a cloud, and then coming back through with her shell gleaming from the water droplets that had caught to it, "But how? It feels as though I have free control over my body and anything... yet we're still sitting beside that pool in the oasis?"

"Yes. Well... at least I'm allowing you the feeling of control I guess. In reality, I'm just seeing exactly what you want to do, and having your illusionary body doing it, with you experiencing what it is like to do it."

"Huh," she looked down over herself, "Well you've done a remarkable job of copying my body. How about my metal though?"

She swished her tail like a whip, metallic spikes growing from her shell as she flung them into a nearby cloud. She followed by firing a metallic ball after the spikes from her mouth. She grinned, looking back at Eldawin.

"That feels strange. Usually I feel the metal sliding over my tongue," she said.

"Yeah... it's hard to get things exact, especially since this illusion is based more on my own experiences than yours. If I tried something more complex than a sky, which we both have plentiful experience of, then it becomes much more difficult to make it realistic. For example,... if I were to take you into a desert, I would only be able to base your feelings and perception on my own in such a place, so it may feel slightly off for you. I can make guesses about how you would feel, but I doubt I would be able to match it exactly."

"Yeah... though because I haven't been to a desert I likely wouldn't be able to notice much of a difference."

"True."

"So you can pretty much do anything... or make me do anything within this mental realm?" Diara asked.

"Pretty much," Eldawin nodded his head, "As long as I can imagine it... it's possible."

"That's... unnerving," she spoke honestly.

"Don't worry," he smiled at her, "I would never use this to do something you wouldn't want to do. I can promise that."

She smiled at him, "I know. It's a little scary to think what could be possible though."

"Yeah," Eldawin thought for a moment, "Hey... do you want me to show you something cool. Something I saw within that cave where you sang that song."

Diara frowned slightly, a spark of distrust rising within her. She forced it down and responded.

"...Okay."

Taking a deep breath, knowing that the illusion would be quite difficult, he brought himself back to the memory of that time. Or, more specifically, the vivid memory he had seen within Diara. The scenery around them warped and changed as they spiralled back down to earth before they were suddenly sitting within a cave, the entrance darkened by night. A flickering fire produced the light that made it easy to see through the cave. Both Eldawin and Diara were sitting in a corner, watching as a fire dragoness curled her hatchlings up in their nest made from green leaves and sticks.

Diara's breath caught in her throat as she stared, the dragon she was seeing a spitting image of her own mother. It was her mother. And she recognised the cave as well, and the five hatchlings within the nest. The glittering of a metal shell made it all too obvious who they were. One was herself as a hatchling, the others her four-year-old brothers and sisters, and the final being Sediment, who was the oldest at five years.

As she watched her mother began the soft humming of the song that was so deeply engraved within her.

'Don't raise your head, little one

Keep your body low

Where you are safe

And your blood won't flow

Diara felt a tear trickle from the corner of her eye as the scene unfolded before her. Even if this was all just an illusion, even if it was all not real, the sight of her mother and siblings before her brought up a well of emotions that she didn't realise she had been bottling up inside.

I know it seems cruel,

For your soul to never move

But all we can do is stay,

Remain and look forward...

As the fire dragoness moved into the chorus, Diara found herself not able to help but join in. The song bubbled from her throat as though it were a stream breaking free. The song of hope. The song that hoped above all things for a world that was free.

Look forward to a world

Where dragons can fly

Where our wings can touch the sky

And our young can grow old

And our testament hold

Where our hearts will never die

The rest of the words were stuck in Diara's throat, and instead she leaned against the apparition of Eldawin, witnessing her favourite memory. The memory that would guide her for the rest of her life. A memory that was both the comfort of a life lived and a promise of the world to come. A world where mothers would no longer have to hide their hatchlings in the ground. A world where dragon wings could grace the sky without fear. A world where Diara would never have to witness the death of all she loved again.

The memory faded at the end of the song, and they were back in the oasis. Diara started when she realised that tears were trickling from the corners of her eyes. But in her head, she could still see the song. Could still see her mother using it to lull them to sleep with the promise of something better. She took in a shuddering breath.

"Sorry..." Eldawin said, withdrawing from her mind, trying to keep his own tears in, "I... thought it would make you happy."

A laugh escaped her, "It did... thank you."

She raised her head, looking him in the eye, "I think... I think I needed that. I never dreamed I would hear my mother sing again."

"Good... well... now you can... whenever you want," Eldawin offered.

She shook her head, rubbing her head against her forepaw to read herself of the tears, "No... no that's alright."

Another shuddering breath escaped her, and she looked up once again with a smile on her face, "Hearing that... it just reminded me... reminded me of something I had forgotten."

"Yes?"

"That... that there will be a time where we will be able to fly free. There will be a time in which our fear of humans will not govern our lives. A time that... my mother would have been happy raising her hatchlings into," Diara sighed, "Sorry if it seems impossible... I know it does. But... but it is my hope that one day we will."

Eldawin tilted his head, then smiled, gently walking over to her and nudging her with his snout, "I believe you."

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Hey guys! New chapter for you all! Hope you enjoyed. Vote if you did and comment on what you thought about it. Another moment for Eldawin and Diara XD. Next chapter will be out Wednesday! See Ya!

Pennator^^