The Arena novel Chapter 42

This weekend, I’m taking Kenna to the mountains to teach her how to use her dragon’s call. She turned three a few weeks ago, and Avani agreed to meet us because Kenna wants him there.

We leave at night, but I keep a slower pace because Kenna still hasn’t reached maturity and is much smaller than I am. At this pace and only flying at night, it takes us two days to get there. My daughter seems to enjoy being able to stretch her wings and fly so much. It’s nice to share this time with her, and I plan for us to start coming out here more often.

When we arrive at our designated spot, I see Avani in his human form on the ground. I belt out my dragon call to him, showing Kenna how to do it. He returns the call to me, still in his human form.

Kenna lands beside him. He takes his time looking over her dragon form, lifting her wings, checking her feet, and noting the onyx-colored stripes down her side. I can hear him telling her how beautiful they are and that she should wear them with pride. He’s so good with her.

I tell him I’m going to get food and for him to start a fire. Kenna needs to rest before we begin. I’m back quickly, and he has the wood piled up and is showing Kenna how to send a stream of fire to only light the wood, not start a fire in the forest.

He’s patient with her, putting out her fires when she pushes her fire too far or blows too much fire.

“I can’t do it!” she exclaims.

“Of course, you can. You’re a fire dragon. All you need is practice. Now that you’re three, you can start learning some of these things so that when you’re fully grown in a couple of years, it will be easy.”

He waits until she stops pouting and looks at him. “Try again.”

She does, taking a deep breath that a human child her age would never be able to take and then blowing a slow, steady stream of fire over the wood.

“See! There you go,” Avani says to her.

“Nice job, Kenna.”

“Mom, are we going to start coming here more often so I can fly and practice?”

“Yes, we are. You’ve reached the age where you’re mature enough to start doing some of the harder things.”

“What’s first?” she asks over dinner.

“Dragon’s call,” Avani says.

“First, do you know why your dragon’s call is important?” I ask her.

“No.”

“A dragon’s call is used to call other dragons if you are in trouble. It can also be used as a way to say hello, and when nearby, it can be used as a warning to others that something is wrong. But, most importantly, for now, it is to be used as a call for help.”

“It is also something that you can do in your human and dragon forms, although it’s louder and more intimidating in your dragon form,” Avani tells her.

We finish eating as we discuss the reasons for the dragon’s call. When we’re done, we sit facing each other in a circle.

“First,” Avani says, “Take a deep breath into your stomach.” He shows her how to do it, putting his hand over his stomach and making a point of forcing his stomach to distend so she can see where to draw the air.

“You try,” he says and watches as she mimics his position of having a hand on her stomach and lifting her head slightly to take a deep breath.

Both of us see her chest expand. It is a common mistake to take in air through your lungs and not to your stomach. Avani works with her and has her practice it several more times until she finally gets it.