Dragons Live Forever by D'Elen McClain Page A

little too hard, but I managed to hold back a grimace. I looked to the other two boys and they were grinning too. Sarn assisted me up and we all shook hands.
    Laryn spoke after introductions were concluded. “So what’s this bowing shit you keep speaking of? We’re all dragons; we bow to no one.”
    I realized he had no idea who I was. “The royal silver dragons are the mightiest dragons in all the realms.”
    Sarn laughed and spoke next. “Nothing personal, but besides a little shine, you have no color. What makes you think silver is the mightiest?”
    How did I answer that? “It just is,” I replied stubbornly. I don’t think my uncle ever explained why we were mighty; I just accepted it because he said it was so.
    Laryn leapt into the sky shifting to his blue dragon. “You are not prettier than this. Blue is the color of the sky and ocean. Blue is the color that should be bowed to.”
    “Hah,” Bastian said as he launched himself. “Blue is a sissy color, red is better.”
    I stood with Sarn as we watched them streak around, charge each other, and then miss by mere inches in an astonishing display of dexterity.
    “I suppose it was your father who put the silver-is-better crap into your head,” Sarn said beside me.
    “It was actually my Uncle Drakon,” I replied.
    “I’ve heard of him. My father doesn’t like him much.”    
    My father didn’t like his brother much either, but I wasn’t going to tell Sarn that. “Drakon is a mighty warrior.”
    Sarn only grunted. “Do you want to fly?”
    As much as I wanted to breathe. “Yes.”
    “Then let’s join them. Do you breathe smoke yet?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well at least you have that going for you. Bastian thinks he’s hot shit because he can do it better than me and Laryn. Let’s see what you got.”
    We took off and when I was higher, I pushed out more smoke than I had previously had luck with.
    “Not bad,” called Bastian from above me. “I think you’re better at it than these two wannabe dragons.”
    “Yeah right,” shouted Laryn as a thin trail wafted from his nostrils.
    I was more than satisfied that it wasn’t as thick as mine. Sarn gave it a shot with the same results as Laryn. Only Bastian’s was more than mine and I was the youngest. Silver was really better.
    That was how our friendship began and thousands of years have passed since. I miss those innocent times of youth. The time before the curse and what directly preceded it. I snuck away often to visit my friends. The times spent with them were the best memories I had of my childhood. We got into trouble, boasted about our prowess at just about everything, and challenged each other incessantly. Our friendship was built on trust and respect. 
    That was before everything changed.
    It began the day my father and Uncle Drakon got in a huge fight. They argued often, but this was different. My uncle was out of control threatening my mother and even me. I thought my father would finally challenge him, but it didn’t happen. My uncle planned to mate the daughter of a Goddess. Smoke floated from his nostrils at my father’s objections. Drakon had seen the woman and decided she was his for the taking. My father told him to stay away from her and that Goddesses were not meant for dragons. Drakon refused to listen and flew away yelling curse words at us all. He was often unpredictable and my parents hid me from most of his rages. I was older then and understood our situation a little more. My father should be our king, but by the fact of his later birth, our realm suffered at the hands of my cruel uncle.
    Drakon returned a few months later and for the first time, I saw true fear from my parents. Drakon, with insanity raging in his eyes, said he killed the woman he mated and her mother would seek vengeance. My uncle left after grabbing bags of gold. I never saw him again. A few hours later, the sky darkened and we could no longer see the sun. It stayed that way as night took over. My