Second Chance: Teaching of The Elders

Introduction
Flashback: Few Centuries Earlier

The sun was shining quite brightly on the warm sunny day, many of the farmers in the region could be seen starting their day with joy as many began to tend the seeds and work on the harvest. Among one particular farm was a young woman wearing all black on her body, from her shirt to her skirt, she had glasses on as she placed her hands on the ground causing it to open up as two young children came next to her and started to plant seeds.

"Oh thank you very much Terra, I must say, with the profit we were able to turn in, are you sure you wouldn't want to be paid" A woman said as Terra looked over to her.

"Of course not, believe me I don't need money to help out around her" She said with a kind smile as the young children finished and went back inside.

"Hey Terra!" one of the farm hands called to her from across the field. "You got a visitor, said he knows you from a while back." Looking around the corner of a large barn towards a slim man in a long black cote with red hair and eyes. Though he was waiting for her, he wasn't looking in her direction.

Terra at first didn't reconize who the person was, "May I help you?" She said as she slowly went for her sword that was leaning on the corner of the room.

"You know it's funny..." The man started, still not looking at her. "Last time I saw you, you where to pissed off with humans to even think straight." Though his words caught her off guard, his gaze when he looked over to her did so even more. "Yet here you are working alongside them with a smile on your face. Funny how things can change isn't it?"

"Well, it seems the young hatching has grown much since our last encounter, it's been some time Wottryon." She said calming down as she focused her attention on him. "Yes, well it took some doing, but I reconized that not all humans were evil, especially these kind folk" She replied looking over to the mother and her children as they were harvesting some of the ready crop. "How did you find me?" Terra asked with curiosity.

"I'm a lot better tracker than most." Wottryon said simply. "We kept moving, but master kept an eye on you to make sure you were ok, you did walk off after being bandaged." Wottryon looked out the window at the farmers tending to their crops. "And to be honest, you'll never forget someone's smell after they've bled all over you." he said smiling.

"I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter, so what brings you here?" She asked curious as to why the youngling, now grown, decided to pay her a visit after so long. "We didn't exactly leave on the best of terms, it's surprising that your master decided to keep an eye on me".

Wottryon huffed, then looked at her to explain. "Master doesn't hold grudges, he told us he knew you wouldn't be to opened to the idea of learning about humans. It's not that strange that he's concerned for your well being is it?" he asked surprised.

"No, I suppose not, he did save me from that horrible life" Terra said grabbing her sword and sitting down on a tree stub, "So what is it that I can do for you?" She asked looking at Wottryon with her glasses on.

Leaning back against another tree, Wottryon crossed his arms and explained. "I was hoping you had rethought your choice to make your own way. It's hard enough trying to track down others while remaining hidden. Most of the one's we've tracked down have the same problem as you do, thinking the change is permanent. If we could show them the spell could be broken, it would be a lot easier to get them to follow us."

Terra at first thought it impossible for anything to reverse this form of her's, but even though she enjoyed being a human for the first time in her life, she wanted to be a dragon again. "Alright, I accept, I will tell the family" she said with a sad sigh as she went to go break the news.

After a short goodbye, Wottryon and Terra walked towards the forest, seeking cover from human eyes. finding a clearing, Wottryon stood an the sender and began glowing. Blue cracks began forming all over his body, then a bright flash of lightning lit up the entire area, temporarily blinding Terra. When she looked back, a massive creature arcing electricity was standing before her. It resembled a dragons skeleton with glowing red eyes. "Ready to go?" it asked in a raspy voice. Terra stood stunned for a moment, but nodded and climbed into Wottryon's glowing claw. He raised his massive wings and took to the air towards the horizon.

In a cave located on a long mountain range, a child with large blue gauntlets was tending to a campfire, while an elderly man was skinning an animal. Just as rain began poring down in front of the cave, a dull purple light began illuminated the entrance ,and the sounds of wing beets could be heard. Soon Wottryon landed just outside and began walking inside with Terra clutched in his claw. Looking over at Wottryon's dragon form, the elderly man said ,"So your back Wottryon." Though after seeing Terra jump out of his hand he smiled surprised. "Ah, that's where you ran off to."

"Well if it isn't Little Miss Sword-Crutch," said Nidia with a smile. She walked over to Terra and sqeezed the life out of her in a surprisingly strong hug dispite her size. "So ya stayin this time or what?" said Nidia, though she said as more like a challenge than a question.

Terra laughed a bit as she hugged back "Well for now, I'll have to talk with the old man and see what he has to say about this" She said looking over to see the old man as she put a smile on her face, "It's been much too long, how have you been?" She asked with a kind smile.

"We've been doing fine." Jelonghoul said returning the smile. Before he could ask anything else, Wottryon crawled between the two of them, headed for a larger part of the cave. After finding a spot where he didn't have to press his wings up against the ceiling he curled up and seemingly went to sleep, though the only indication of this was that his glowing eyes faded away. Laughing and shaking his head at his student, Jelonghoul took Terra by the arm and led her over to Nidia, who was back to sitting by the campfire. "So how's life as a human been treating you since regaining your freedom?" he asked.

"It's been interesting, I have to admit, I never saw myself ever becoming like this, but now I can really see humans as different creatures, some more good than others" She said putting her sword down and sitting near the campfire. "How has it been for you all?"

"It's been great for the most part I suppose," said Nidia with a warm, but somewhat forced smile. She didn't want to bring up the fact that she still couldn't revert back to her dragon form if she didn't have to. That would just ruin the good mood of everyone, "We haven't really done many note-worthy things though I guess though."

"Well everything starts small, especially something like this, though I did find it a bit strange that there isn't many people here, weren't you all dragon humanoid finders?" Terra asked looking over to their leader as he took a drink from a nearby canteen.

"Ah, well..." he started before wiping water off his chin. "Not everyone is as eager to learn as others." looking into the fire solemnly he continued. "Everyone's on edge since the war broke out. Many see us with young Nidia there and assume we're human eaters, others send us away when they learn we're not." running a hand through his silver hair, he sighed. "It hard to make friends when you're standing neutral."

"No need to sound so discouraged Jelong-sama," said Nidia, "After all, we've managed to make allies with others besides dragons, which is huge for a little group like us. Master Boreana links us to the Phoenixes too. Don't get down when we're still making progress."

"I know where you're coming from, most of the dragons thought that humanity was a plague, though nothing is ever easy, which raises the question, what can I do to help?" Terra said feeling hungry as she grabbed a rock nearby and began to munch on it.

"We were hoping that you would be willing to join up with us for a while." He said, looking more upbeat about the situation. "There's news of a dragon attacking an out of the way human settlement. We'd like to resolve the situation as soon as possible, but it's a little more difficult than we would have thought." He gestured to Nidia and said. "Nidia can't talk to the humans because she resembles one of there young. We need you to convince them to allow myself and Wottryon access to there village to deal with whoever it is the next time they drop in.

Nidia puffed up her cheeks in annoyance, "Those arrogant little bugs, not taking me seriously. I'm more than old enough to be some of their grandmothers. It's so hard not being able to transform. But anywhoooo, what do you think about it Terra? Could you do it pretty please?" Nidia held her hands together in a prayer-like gesture, and shot Terra the best puppy-dog face she could muster.

Terra chuckled a bit as she walked over to Nidia and rubbed her head, giving her a kind smile as she looked over to the master, "Alright, if it means that we can protect the humans, then sure I'll gladly convince them to allow you passage into their home" She said bowing with respect.

"Thank you Terra." Jelonghoul said sincerely, looking a lot more hopeful than he did a while ago. "Though I do feel I should warn you, this group is particularly distrusting of outsiders. I'm not sure how they'll react the idea of letting Dragons around them." Focusing on both her and Nidia now he continued. "If they get violent, just turn and run, we'll just track this Dragon the old fashioned way." gesturing to his nose.

"All right then, let's go!" said Nidia loudly, jumping into the air. In the back of the cave Wottryon began to stir a bit from her noise, so she quickly covered her mouth with her hands, whispering through her fingers, "Let's go!" and began tip-toing out of the cave with Terra close behind.

Terra smiled, knowing that a lot will change in that event and decided that she would make sure no innocent people would die because of the rouge dragon.

Inner Turmoil
The two dragon's had walked for several hours, eventually arriving at the village that the master told them would be under attack, Terra immediatly told Nidia to hide somewhere and wait until she went to get her, then entered the town as she was suddenly glared at by some of the people in the village.

Out of nowhere, a crowd surrounded her, headed by someone who was in an important uniform. "Identify yourself." said a stocky human, stamping a cain on the ground. Many of the villagers seemed underfed, and several houses looked to be in disrepair.