Battle Mage: Dragon Mage (Tales of Alus) Read Free Page B

Like a permanent adolescent of her race, she knew that other che’ther pitied her when she wasn’t there to hear them speak.
    Having checked with healers and magicians among her kind, the simple conclusion was that Cheleya was nearly full grown. Her body simply refused to gain the bulk of most of the che’ther. She was healthy for her size, and her magic continued to grow where flesh would not. It was simply what she was and her mother didn’t enjoy the fact that her daughter brought humiliation on her household by the simple fact of being a dwarf, which was nearly unheard of for their race.
    “Well, I think that I had better go to my room and study,” Cheleya decided ending the awkward silence.
    Her mother nodded. “I will call you when your father returns and we’ll have dinner.”
    Having dinner was one of their customs intended to bring the family closer together; but conversation was rare and awkward, especially since she had started with the Academy of Magic. Cheleya merely nodded and plodded to the farthest room from the front doorway. Like the rest, there was no door in the frame, but it was still far enough back to bring some privacy.
    Grasping the amulet again, she cited, “Ekam emet tahway et ma desopus ot ebem.”
    The light returned but the end result was her tiny human body once more. She had let some red shade her blond hair to more of a strawberry coloring this time for fun, but aside from that Cheleya always adopted the same face and body. Her green eyes looked on the naked, nubile form a moment before the dragoness chanted a second spell.
    Turning her fore finger in twirls from her neck towards her feet, a dark pink scarf appeared following the line of her thought. Clothing meant little to the che’ther, even in human form. She didn’t feel the cold anymore than she had in her dragon body, so the pretty scarf started from her neck twisting behind her along her left shoulder blade before coming back around to cover her chest. The line continued to snake covering her private areas to continue down and around her left leg to stop above her ankle.
    Such magic came from the summoning school, a class of spell that was closely associated with being a dragon mage. Dragon magic summoned the attributes of a legendary dragon essentially and enhanced the body. It was different, but similar enough for Cheleya to have found a book from the Academy library and taught it to herself without any help.
    The girl looked around the nest that served as her bed as it had for all of her life. A large wood chest sat against the wall holding all that she had acquired in the seventeen years of her life. “Dragon claw,” she called the spell extending her hand towards the chest standing a little taller than the human girl positioned before it.
    Thinking perhaps remaining a dragon a bit longer might have made things easier; Cheleya guessed that easier would have made her miss out on using her magic. She was supposed to be training after all.
    With the spell driving the top of the chest up against the wall, Cheleya used her dragon wing spell to jump up onto the edge of the large bin. Sitting with her legs dangling into the box, the girl caught a brown pack with her right foot lifting it up and bending her leg to bring it into arm’s reach.
    She turned and stood on the eight inch thick outer wall of the chest. Walking like a gymnast along its length, the dragoness thrilled in the agility of using just her two legs and feet. She jumped down and felt a little pain from the soles of her feet. Sitting on the ground to rub the feeling from her appendages, Cheleya considered the delicateness of her form.
    While she inherited certain strengths carried over from being a che’ther, this body was still much more delicate. The speed and grace that she had as a human lost her much of the power and invulnerabilities of her dragon form. Still within certain areas, Cheleya found herself more at home as a human than as a che’ther.
    As the