Star

By @BraveDragon

"Destiny! Destiny! Come on, where are you?" Destiny heard her mother calling her name. She hoped she wouldn't find her, but that was most likely not gonna happen considering she was around 18 meters in lenght. She was sitting next to a big wooden house, in between piles of objects; swords, cans, tables, chairs and more stuff. Her tail whipped over the ground, showing how nervous she was. It accidently knocked over one of the piles, which caused a lot of noise. "There you are!" Her mother had found her. "Why are you hiding here? Your test is about to begin!" I know. That's EXACTLY why I'm hiding! "Snowpoff never hides for something important!" Her mother said. Snowpoff was the second reason for hiding. Snowpoff was Destiny's older sister. Her parents seemingly worshipped her like a god. Nothing Destiny did was good enough. It was always "Snowpoff this, Snowpoff that". Her mother sighed. "Sometimes Destiny, I ask myself how I manage to go on with being your parent. Come, the whole clan is waiting for you." Destiny followed her in silence.

When they arrived, the clan was standing in two rows parrallel to each other, forming a path. Many dragons looked at Destiny with contempt. Destiny was becoming angry from inside. She lived in Snowpoff's shadow. The only ones that looked to her with friendly eyes. were Fabian, Lalita and Felix. They were also her only friends. "Good luck!" Lalita whispered to her as she passed by. At the end of the path, there was a mountain. At the foot of the mountain was a enormous cave entrance. Genen, the leader of the clan, stood in front of the cave. He also had a friendly look in his eyes. Genen always treated her with kindness and respect, as he did with every dragon. "Destiny, come foreward." Destiny did what he asked. "Destiny, you have officially become sixteen years old two days ago. Our tradition sais that, on the first friday after his or her twelfth birthday, a dragon with the ambition to become a warrior will undergo the test. Now, confirm that you have this ambition." "I do." Destiny answered. "Then it's decided. According to our tradition, you have to enter the cave to find the rainbow crystal and give it to me. The crystal is guarded by the green cobra king, who will do anything to protect it. If it is your destiny, you will encounter a familiar who will help you during the test, and will stay with you the rest of your life. You have to make use of your training: your search skills to find the cobra king's chamber and come back here, your fighting skills to defeat him and possibly your coöperation skills to work with a familiar. Is this clear?" "Clear." "Well then. Enter the cave!" Destiny looked do entrance. Maybe she would never come back. She took a deep breath, and entered the cave.

Now, we're going back a little. You might remember that Destiny was hiding because her test was that day. But a little bit later you can read that she has the ambition to become a warrior. This might sound confusing. But actually, Destiny was hiding because if she failed her test, her parents would never let her forget that. If she succeded, they would go on about how Snowpoff had done it faster and better. So in the eyes of her parents, Destiny would never succeed, And that was why she was hiding.

Okay, now i'm really lost. The thought flashed through her head before Destiny had any time to stop it. She had forbidden herself to think things like that, but that was pretty hard considering her situation. She was standing in one of the tunnels in the cave system. In front of her, the tunnel splitted into three different ones. Again. She had tried to find the scent of the green cobra king, but she couldn't find it. She sniffed again. Nothing. Many years ago, a merchant came to her village. He sold snakes. She could remember their scent easily, but it was nowhere to be found in the caves. The stories that were told about the cobra king also told that he guarded more then only the rainbow crystal; huge piles of treasure would be lying around in his den, like dunes of gold. His den itself was more of a hall then a den. But she couldn't smell gold also. So... this way then? She looked at one of the tunnels. Who am i kidding, i can go anywhere and i still won't find any snake king nor a crystal. Lifeless and tired she sat down against the wall. Her stomach was empty, her mouth dry. She tried. She really had. She had tried every tracking technique she ever learned. I'm lost. I'm lost and i will die.

Destiny woke up. Apparently she had been sleeping for around twenty minutes. She still felt tired anyway. She got an internal struggle going on right now; part of her just wanted to wait here for the end to come, part of her wanted to get up and try to find the cobra king, or home, or something to eat. Suddenly a sound came from one of the three tunnels. She pricked her ears. It sounded like... crawling! Since she was an imperial, her diet was very variating. She could eat plants, bugs, meat and seafood. And crawling meant that an insect was about to be eaten. Seeing how loud the sound was, she expected a massive meal. And a lot less worries. She stood up, and waited for the creature to come closer. But when it stepped out of the shadows, she saw that it wasn't food. It was a hydra scorpion. The creature came closer while Destiny backed away. Though she was a warrior, nothing had prepared her for a fight with an enormous scorpion with 5 poisonous tails, massive claws and massive jaws. She felt stone against her back; she couldn't go anywhere. The scorpion kept crawling closer and closer, until it stopped right in front of Destiny. For a second they looked each other in the eyes and Destiny strangely felt... connected. Then the scorpion crawled away.