I Started By Summoning a Small Fire Dragon

Yesterday's meeting with Dean Aldric had ended with more questions than answers. He had looked at Sol with the same confused look as Professor Gideon, noting the events in suspicious detail, but not providing any explanation as to what had actually happened.

All he had said was one thing: "We will be watching this development closely."

A sentence that sounded more like a threat than a reassurance.

Now, three days after the incident involving Sol eating fire, I stood in the academy's backyard with the rest of the Bronze students for our first field training exercise. The atmosphere among my classmates was still tense – they were all looking at me and Sol with a mixture of awe and fear.

"Today we will be training in the Little Forest," Professor Gideon said, pointing to a wooded area located at the edge of the academy campus. "You will learn how to use familiars in real field conditions."

The Little Forest looked quite lush despite its name. Tall trees stood close together, with dense undergrowth beneath. The perfect place for basic survival training.

"Remember," Professor Gideon continued as he walked toward the forest entrance, "this is not a game. There are some low-level wild beasts that have been released into the forest for training. While they are not fatally dangerous, they can still hurt you if you are not careful."

Marcus raised his hand. "Professor, what should we do if our familiars can't fight?"

"That is precisely the purpose of this training," Professor Gideon replied. "You must learn to work together with your familiars in challenging situations. Not all problems can be solved by brute force."

He glanced at me as he said this, and I was sure he was thinking about yesterday's incident.

"You will be divided into two teams," he continued. "Team one: Marcus and Lydia. Team two: Elena, Thomas, and Nova."

I sighed inwardly. Working in teams meant I would have to explain Sol's abilities, which I didn't even understand.

We entered the forest cautiously. The air inside felt colder and damper, with the scent of wet earth and rotting leaves. The faint sounds of animals and insects filled the silence.

"Okay," Elena said, hugging her white rabbit tightly, "what's our plan?"

"We have to find the dummy targets scattered around the forest and destroy them using our familiar abilities," Thomas replied, petting his green lizard. "But we also have to be careful of wild beasts."

I nodded as I felt Sol move on my shoulder. he seemed more alert than usual, his blue eyes constantly scanning the surroundings as if searching for something.

We walked deeper into the forest, following the established path. After about ten minutes, we found the first dummy target - a large straw dummy hung between two trees.

"I'll go first," Thomas said, stepping forward.

His green lizard hopped off his shoulder and stood facing the target. With full concentration, the lizard let out a small burst of fire that managed to burn some of the straw.

"Good!" Elena said. "Now it's my turn."

Her white rabbit let out a jet of water strong enough to put out the fire and soak the straw.

"Nova, your turn," Thomas said, looking at me with curious eyes.

I stepped forward nervously. Sol hopped off my shoulder and stood on the ground, staring at the dummy target with an intensity that made me uncomfortable.

Since yesterday's incident, I hadn't really tried to use Sol's abilities anymore. It felt too dangerous, too unpredictable.

"Come on, Sol," I whispered softly. "Try something… less extreme."

Sol stared at me for a moment, then turned to face the target. He stood still for a few seconds, as if considering something.

Then he opened his mouth.

This time, instead of darkness that absorbed light, what came out of Sol's mouth was... heat. Incredibly intense heat.

The air around him began to vibrate like a desert mirage. The leaves near Sol began to shrivel and turn brown from the extreme heat.

"Stay back!" Thomas shouted as he felt the heat wave.

We all took a few steps back, but our eyes remained fixed on Sol and the dummy target.

The heat that Sol was emitting was getting more intense. I could see the air vibrating more violently, and I could smell something burning.

But it wasn't just the straw that was burning.

The dummy target began to change color. From straw brown to reddish, then bright orange, then glowing white.

"What's happening?" Elena whispered in a shaky voice.

The straw in the dummy target wasn't just burning - it was melting. The organic fibers were turning into a glistening liquid mass, then hardening into something transparent and shiny.

Glass.

Sol transformed the dummy target into glass.

Complete silence enveloped our area. Even the sounds of the animals in the forest seemed to have gone silent in awe or fear.

The dummy target that was once made of coarse straw now stood there as a perfect glass statue, still retaining its original shape but with a completely different material.

"That's..." Thomas swallowed hard, "that's impossible."

Elena took a few more steps back, the rabbit in her arms trembling in fear. "How much heat does it take to turn straw into glass?"

I couldn't answer because I didn't know. All I knew was that Sol had just done something that should have been physically impossible.

Sol closed her mouth and turned to look at me with calm blue eyes, as if what she had just done was a perfectly normal thing.

"Nova," Thomas said in a voice that was almost a whisper, "your familiar is no ordinary familiar."

Before I could respond, footsteps sounded from behind us. Professor Gideon emerged from behind the trees, followed by Marcus and a pale-looking Lydia.

"We heard..." she trailed off as she saw the target dummy turn to glass. "Oh, by the gods..."

She approached the glass statue cautiously, as if afraid to touch it. Pip, her white rat, wouldn't even get off her shoulder.

"This can't be," she muttered, examining the glass from every angle. "To turn organic matter into glass, it takes temperatures of over 1000 degrees Celsius. And a little familiar like Sol..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but I could see the fear in her eyes.

"Professor," Lydia said in a trembling voice, "what exactly happened to Nova's familiar?"

Professor Gideon looked at me with a mixture of amazement and worry. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "But I'm sure Dean Aldric will be very interested in hearing about this."

Marcus, who had been quiet until now, finally spoke up. "Are we still training?"

"No," Professor Gideon said, shaking his head. "We're heading back to the academy now. Nova, you and Sol come with me to the Dean's office."

The ride back to the academy felt like a nightmare. My classmates looked at me with fear and curiosity, while Sol sat quietly on my shoulder as if not caring about the chaos she had just created.

When we arrived at the main building, Professor Gideon headed straight to the Dean's office without waiting. I followed him with a mixture of fear and confusion.

Dean Aldric welcomed us into his luxurious office. His black raven, Nyx, perched behind his chair with sharp red eyes.

"Has it happened again?" Dean Aldric asked when he saw Professor Gideon's expression.

"Worse than yesterday," Professor Gideon replied as he told him what happened in the forest.

The longer he told the story, the more serious Dean Aldric's expression became. When it came to the part where Sol turned straw into glass, the Dean even stood up from his chair.

"Are you sure?" he asked Professor Gideon.

"I saw it myself. The glass statue is still there if you want to check it."

Dean Aldric turned to look at me with an intensity that made me uncomfortable. "Nova, I need to ask you something. Did you feel anything strange when Sol used his ability?"

I thought for a moment before answering. "It's not like that. Usually I feel our bond, but when he used that ability... it felt like something very big and ancient was awakening."

Dean Aldric and Professor Gideon exchanged meaningful glances.

"There is one possibility," Dean Aldric said quietly. "But I hope I'm wrong."

"What possibility?" I asked.

Before he could answer, the door to the room swung open. A white-haired man in a pristine white robe rushed in.

"Aldric," he said in an authoritative voice, "I've heard reports of an abnormal familiar."

Dean Aldric sighed. "Professor Whitmore, we're not sure yet..."

"Let me see for myself," Professor Whitmore interrupted, fixing Sol with sharp, cold eyes.

I felt Sol stiffen against my shoulder. For the first time since I'd known him, I felt something akin to fear through our bond.

"That familiar," Professor Whitmore said in a voice barely above a whisper, "was no ordinary familiar."