Dragon's Hope

A golden eyed child with a mop of platinum blond hair scooted around the corner of the corridor giggling in glee running as fast as a chubby little legs could carry him behind him he heard aunt Mira calling out for him to stop running looking over its shoulder he failed to see the person standing in front of them right up until he was snatched up in a pair of arms.

"Gramps", Alex chirped in delight throwing his arms around his grandpas neck giving him a big hug.

Zakath grinned at his antics, "What's all this about?" he asked Alex as Mira rounded the corner.

"We were playing tag!" exclaimed Alex, "Aunty was it" he giggled.

Mira rolled her eyes and explained how lunch had devolved into a game of tag between Alex Lily and Anna, Zakath chuckled at the children's antics. He spotted two small heads poking out from around the corner. Smiling at them Zakath called out, "come on out you two little devils" as he gestured to the two little girls. Pouting slightly at being called devils the two of them came out from around the corner. Lily had sapphire blue eyes and her hair took after her grandfather being a deep black that flowed down her back, she was the more sensible of the three but frequently got caught up in the pace of things regardless. Anna on the other hand had emerald green eyes that seemed to sparkle in the light with fiery red hair that she kept in a loose pony tail, she was most definitely the common instigator of the trouble the 3 of them got up to. As for Alex he was the glue that bound the little group of mischief together, partly due to his dragon tamer heritage but also just due to his bright and open personality, it was very hard to stay angry at Alex for very long.

"I have a small announcement to make to you three troublemakers seeing you are all here, soon you will all turn three years old, so starting at the beginning of next year we will have some tutors coming to start teaching you basic knowledge like reading

Alex eyes lit up, he was a knowledge sponge and had a great sense of curiosity so he loved seeing new things and meeting new people. "You mean I'll be able to read all the books in the book room?" exclaimed Alex excitedly.

"It's called a library Alex", Mira smiled as she ruffled his hair, "and yes once you learn to read you will be able to make use of all the books in there".

"Awesome" cried out Alex with a small fist pump. He turned to the girls, "We can all read the books together!".

"Un" both nodded their heads. Alex grinned at them.

As promised their birthdays came and went and at the beginning of the year their tutor arrived at the mansion, she introduced herself as Ms Rightworth. A prim and proper lady, she wore glasses with her hair done up in a tight bun. She apparently had most recently been teaching in school for nobles in the Kingdom of Valent and was quite strict with the trio rarely letting their antics slide, it was around this time the trio learnt the art of puppy dog eyes which helped immensely with getting out of trouble.

Alex soaked up knowledge like dehydrated sponge and could read as well as the average a.d.u.l.t by the end of the year, he even helped Lily and Anna by keeping his promise and reading books together in the library normally supervised by Mira just to make sure nothing got destroyed. More often than not she would find the three of them asleep on the couch Lily and Anna on either side of Alex with a book open in his l.a.p while they drooled on his shoulders.

The three of them learnt a wide range of topics from maths and literacy to geography as well common sense information Like currencies used in various kingdoms as well as the workings of the Guild such as the merchants and adventurer guilds. Anna instantly fell in love with the idea of the adventurer guild and became determined to become a member when she grew up. Alex and Lily also thought that that would be an awesome idea and that they would form their own group together. The even got so hyped up over the idea they spent the rest of the coming up with names for the group.

One day while the three were seated in the library reading a story about a mighty wizard who saved a kingdom from an evil demon, Alex raised a question to Mira who was sitting nearby reading her own book.

"Mira when can we learn magic?" Alex queried

Mira looked up to see 3 pairs of shining eyes looking in her direction. For you Alex you can begin learning at the age of six, in fact we already have a magic tutor arranged to come after your sixth birthday, as for you girls you will have to wait for a ceremony when you are twelve as you are both pure blooded dragons and have to learn draconic magic and you will need the ability to shift forms before you can start learning it. Alex frowned slightly and hesitantly asked, "Aunty Mira will I be able to learn draconic magic as well?".

Mira sighed slightly "There is a way for you to learn draconic magic but it requires a special set of circ.u.mstances, you will need to wait till your older before anything like that can happen" replied Mira

"Okay Aunty so long as there is the chance I'm sure it will happen", grinned Alex.

Time passed and Alex turned six along with the girls. Three months after his birthday his magic tutor arrived, he introduced himself as Sage Pennteller, he was an elderly gentleman but still moved with the vigour of someone much younger, his hair had long gone grey and he while he kept his hair trimmed short he did sport an flowing beard. Apparently he was from Arcvein the kingdom dominated by mages and he would be teaching me everything to do with magic for the next few years.

Much to the chagrin of the girls they were dragged off to special etiquette classes by Mira and Ms Righworth.

"Ok Alex first thing we are going to do is check your magical affinities and mana pool" stated Sage Pennteller

Alex eyes lit up with curiosity, "What are elemental affinities?"

"Good to see you aren't one of those timid types that is scared to ask questions" laughed the Sage, "Elemental affinities give you an idea as to what type of magical field you want to focus in, basically it boils down to the higher the affinity you have with a particular element the easier it is for you to learn it and use it".

Alex nodded with a thoughtful look on his face. Sage Pennteller pulled out a strange looking board and placed it on the table, the board had an obvious indent which was intended for someone to place their hand in but then it flared out to six columns with a With a unique symbol at the bottom of each column repeating four times it goes up.

Seeing the curiosity in Alex eyes the Sage chose to explain the affinity board to him. "As you can see Alex there are 6 affinities, these are earth, fire, wind, water, lightning and space. Each symbol past the first indicates another level of affinity, the first symbol is low affinity, then going up from there, medium affinity, high affinity and finally master affinity. If you pop your hand on the indent the board will pull out a small bit of mana and test your affinities".

Without further ado Alex placed his hand on the board and felt 'something' being pulled out *must be my mana* he thought to himself. Looking at the board eagerly, suddenly the runes on the board started lighting up.

"Pretty good so far" commented the Sage, all the runes lit up for low affinity, "its quite rare for someone to have even a small bit of affinity for all types of magic"

Then the next set of runes lit up Space, Fire and Wind all made it up to medium, the Sage c.o.c.ked an eyebrow at this, it was quite rare for medium affinity space mages to appear. Before he could finish that though both fire and wind lit up the third rune. The Sage blinked not believing what he was seeing, two high ranked affinities and a medium ranked space affinity it was like he hit the jackpot.

Then his mind blanked out as the final two runes for fire and wind both lit up, the Sage just stared dumbly not believing what he was seeing, dual master affinities!

"Are you ok?" asked Alex a small amount of concern on his face as he looked at Pennteller.

Pennteller came back to himself with a slight shake, "Fine Alex, right as rain, before we measure your mana levels I need to quickly discuss your affinity results with your grandpa, while I'm away read this" he said passing Alex book titled Mana and you getting in touch with your inner energy.

Alex shrugged and started reading as Penteller quickly left the room to find his employer.