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No matter what anyone might think, Alionse was not pouting. Definitely not pouting. Future Warriors didn't pout even if their father's were sadistic jerks that laughed as their son almost gets eaten by a dragon. A small dragon, but a dragon was still a dragon.

Alionse rocked back and forth on the branch he was sitting on , one leg tucked under him as his prink wings hung behind him. He could have put them away, but he liked having them out, feeling the breeze ruffled through them. It relaxed him and right now, he needed to relax. Whenever he went over the failed dragon hunt he felt a wave of irritation - irritation with his father, with the dragons, but especially with himself.

Being strong or weak...none of it had mattered before, but now it felt like it was too important not to matter. Letting out a long sigh, Alionse leaned back, letting himself fall backwards, but keeping his legs tight around the branch until he was hanging upside down. His long pink hair fell in a river underneath him. He folded his arms and just hung there, swinging slightly.

"How do I become stronger?" he asked the air, wishing that somehow he could find the answer, just as easy as that.

A strange sound that could only have come from an animal had Alionse jerking up. He quickly swing his weight forward and grabbed the branch he had been swinging on. He pulled himself up and crouched ion it as he tried to figure out where the sound had come from. Then he heard the rustling of leaves. Alionse narrowed his eyes, leaning forward from his position on the tree branch.

What is it?

Then the thing poked its head from the bushes. Alionse's eyes widened. A dragon! It wasn't like the Ysali dragons he fought. This one was red, and green, and gold. A striking combination. It worried him a little, but Alionse refused to be afraid, or at least not too afraid. He still had his father's dagger after all and it was just one dragon.

He eyed the area, making sure it was indeed just one dragon. Then gathering his courage he hoped down from the branch, spreading his pink wings to cushion his fall. He swallowed and took a bold step forward.

"I'm not afraid of you dragon," he said. He knew the dragon wouldn't be able to understand him, but it made him feel like a true warrior when he said that. Brave even. He could do this!

In all the scenarios running through Alionse's head it never occurred to him that the dragon would run away and hide. And the remote possibility that it would actually speak had stayed formly in the impossible, so when the dragon did just that, Alionse could only gape in astonishment.

"You talked! And what is a Valsspar?" He frowned and tried to turn over what was happening. Could it really not be a dragon. He didn't remember reading about dragons talking, at least not Magesc.

He closed his mouth and shook his head as if doing so would make everything make sense.