We awoke midday and grabbed something to eat in the hut's living area, the sun had already risen to its midway point and was working hard at heating the Earth. It was great to be back at home having breakfast with Jack, something I didn't realize I missed, the familiar scents of breakfast and forest drifted through the open windows. Draioct snuck out last night to gather some food for himself so we didn't have to worry about him being seen hunting during the day. Another nice thing about the cave is we don't have to worry about him being seen at all, unless he leaves. When finished with breakfast we headed back down to the cave to begin the long process of creating the armors.

"Good morning Draioct."

     I said as we made our way into the dimly lit armory, there was a distinctive smell of the Earth surrounding us that put my mind at ease.

"Good morning Adam. I was going over what Jack was saying last night about the forging of Dragons Leather. He said it was done with plasma fire....and I was thinking....I don't know how to do that."

     I sat down around the table and paused, thinking about what he just said. I never considered that point. Jack was the only person that I have heard of doing it other than the Queen, and I had not personally seen either of them do it.

"That's fine."

     Jack said as he joined me at the table, finishing off a piece of meat he was eating on the way down here. He handed me another piece as he sat down, the smoked meats smell filling my lungs and forcing my stomach to growl in anticipation.

"Eat up my son. You are certainly going to need all the energy you can get for the training we are beginning today."

     He looked over at Draioct who was standing in the immediate area watching our exchange with his giant intelligent eyes.

"I know that I haven't shared it with Adam, but I am actually very adept at fire, keeping it hidden helped people to think I was just a regular Blacksmith. While at The College I learned enough that I believe I can teach you two how to form plasma fire. Typically only strong dragons did it until the Queen came along, but I think Adam can learn it as well."

     Draioct and I both felt a wave of relief wash over us in hearing that, a small conversation passed between us over the excitement of learning to create plasma.

     I chewed up and swallowed the last of my smoked meat as Jack rose form the table and walked over to Draioct, his eyes clearly scanning over and sizing him up.

"Let's begin with you my friend. I want you to focus on a dummy over in the training area. Look inward at your power source. The raw energy you see and feel within you is like a muscle. If you draw too much and over use it you can actually hurt yourself, but the more you use it and push it to the edge it will come back stronger and fuller."

     I took a second and looked inward at my own power source. We had always used small amounts and never really paid attention to it coming back. It was always full when the time came because we didn't use it often. Jack began speaking again as he walked left and right in front of us, as if he was briefing a large Army.

"The speed at which your inner power comes back is different for every person and Dragon. It is however also something that can vary depending on training, we will work on increasing its speed as well. Now return your focus to the dummy. I want you to draw a quarter of your power and push the fire element form onto it, then begin directing it at the dummy. Keep a continuous flame until you reach about half power then stop."

     I melded into Draioct's mind in an attempt to watch the proceedings and gather as much information as possible. He walked over and faced the target directly to begin the process.

     We were both familiar with fire now, so turning the raw energy to flame was rather easy. Draioct paused a second to gather himself, then let go a huge constant beam of fire. The beam was large and incredibly hot. The dummy was made of metal and became brighter with each second under the flame. I watched as his raw power steadily dropped until it reached approximately the halfway point and he stopped. The whole thing lasted maybe thirty seconds, but that is a long time to shoot flames from your face. The light from the flames had been so bright that it took a second for my eyes to readjust to the dim light of the Armory. The metal of the dummy had warped slightly as its shape slightly melted to show a tired looking shadow of the previously untouched dummy.

"Good. Now pay attention to the speed of your power recharge."

     Jack said while tapping himself on the chest in the location where his energy was located. I hopped back into Draioct's mind and saw as his power gradually returned as if someone was filling a bucket with water. At the same time the size of the energy increased slightly.

"Ok it's full again."

     Draioct said as the power topped off, the blank energy swirling wildly like clouds disturbed from their lumbering crawl through the sky.

"Perfect. Perfect. Now we just need to repeat that until we get your power high enough to push it into plasma the way we want."

     Draioct and I both spent the next couple hours pushing flames at the dummies until they became black warped piles of metal. On the last bolt Draioct drew half of his power to start, then shot a huge white beam of fire at the dummy nearest him. I was standing ten feet away and felt the flames heat as if I had stepped into a fire. He grunted quietly with effort and held the flames strong for almost a minute before cutting them off, being mindful to keep about ten percent of his power as a buffer. Jack stepped forward beaming with pride. He slowly clapped and laughed as he approached Draioct, who turned to face him with a toothy grin of his own.

"There we go boys! That level is where we needed to be to learn the final step. What took you about a week, took me and Avaya two years of constant practice. I knew you guys could do it."

     The pride welled up within me at Jack's praise. He walked over and gave me a hug, then patted Draioct on the shoulder.

"Now let us begin on the final step."

     He stepped out in front of us as he began to explain, the concentration and seriousness showing in his eyes.

"This time draw your power and apply it the same as you just did. The difference this time is you need to funnel the flame to as fine a point as you can while project it. It is the same concept as blocking a stream. As the gap gets smaller the force gets stronger. As you control the flow of the element into a finer or wider point the heat will increase or decrease in response."

     Draioct and I walked over to the practice area and stood facing our respective metal dummies. We drew the flames and began working them into fine points as we blasted the dummies with heat. The flames became brighter and brighter until they transitioned to plasma, their beams going from the usual two foot diameter to about one foot. There was a loud crack as the flames turned to plasma followed by humming sounds of the energy coming from my hands and Draioct's mouth. The beams where blue hot with bits of molten material dropping onto the floor around the dummies. We cut through the remaining metal like a hot knife through butter.

     Unfortunately the force was so great that we couldn't sustain the power for very long and we cut off the flames before sinking into exhaustion. The power draw was much quicker and much more difficult than I had imagined it would be.

     I sat down on the ground panting as Jack jumped in the air a clapped his hands before running over to greet us in excitement.

"There you go boys! There you go! Rest up for a few minutes and then we will begin to build the Dragon's leather."

     He wasn't kidding about needing our energy today, luckily over the past week we learned that our internal power recovers almost ten times quicker than the average mages. One of the many perks to being and Alpha pair.

     While we rested Jack put the finishing touches on the molds he had made to build the armor in. The initial molds were only for my armor and the saddle. After those were completed we would begin making Draioct's armor. While we rested I took a look at my internal power and could see that the size of it had increased substantially. I was now able to push elements for almost double the duration I had been able to at the beginning of the day.

     A thought crept its way into the back of our mind making us nervous and aware. If we were able to grow our power limit and strength this easily, how powerful was the Queen? She had years of unchallenged practice.

     I just hope she has gotten complacent.

     I shook off the thought and focused on what Jack was finishing. I was becoming rather excited and restless to see the armor Jack was making and wanted to move forward with casting the molds. We awaited Jack patiently while he finished carefully triple checking things.

     Finally, Jack motioned for use to come over to where he had setup the castings. They were large bricks made of cement, set evenly spaced in the area we had been practicing our fire in.

"You both ready to begin casting?"

     We nodded in excitement as he walked us back to the positions we would be shooting from.

"Now I want you guys to focus on keeping the temperature stable, not just hot. It will need to be plasma but work on heating the entire casting evenly. When you both are ready we will begin. I will let you know when to stop casting the flames."

"Ready?...Go!"

     We both began shooting the plasma beams almost instantly, knowing that each other was ready. I focused on the bottom half of the cast while Draioct focused on the top. We worked the fire around evenly as the casting itself became hotter and hotter. My power was drawing further down until I began to worry about it being too low. I melded into Draioct and saw that he was not even half way, where I was almost out. He suddenly began pushing some of his excess power into me, creating a link to our power sources. We balanced the levels and continued shooting the flames until Jack gave us the symbol to stop. After we stopped I looked over at Draioct and we both realized how perfect this new talent would be. Sharing power between the two of us was going to be incredibly beneficial.

     We broke our internal musings to see Jack checking over the mold.

"Looks like you guys did a great job. Take a short break and then we will begin to finish off the other molds."

     I sighed in exasperation. I forgot we had a bunch more molds to do, this was going to be a long day. My initial excitement was replaced with the daunting task ahead of us.

     We spent the rest of the day completing the molds and letting them cool. Jack said we would have to wait till tomorrow to remove them because they were too hot to open, it could ruin the Dragons Leather. We picked up the mess inside the Armory and began to make our way upstairs to turn in for the night, my body and mind tired from the long day.

     As I took my first few steps I felt a new presence enter my mind. It wasn't like when I am with Draioct, it was more of an awareness that someone was there, then suddenly another and another. Just like that I felt five new living things inside the cave. I saw Draioct get up and begin peering into the darkness of the tunnel showing he obviously felt it too. There was a deep rumbling and cracking sound as the cave wall shook. The sound got louder until a piece of the wall crumbled and fell away to reveal a dark hole in the corner of the Armory. Draioct crouched and began a low and menacing growl into the darkness. We weren't sure what it was, but there were five living things hidden in that darkness.