The days following Grandma's revelation are difficult for Tao. His powers manifest more and more often, and he doesn't know how to control them.

His hands become hot without warning. Sometimes, when he's angry or frightened, small golden scales appear on his arms. They sparkle in the light, then disappear after a few minutes. At night, he has strange dreams where he flies above the clouds.

The worst happens one morning. Tao wakes with a start. Something is wrong. He feels an intense heat around him. When he opens his eyes, he sees smoke! His sheets are burning hot. They begin to blacken where his hands touch them.

"Grandma!" he cries, panicked.

Grandma comes running into the room. She sees the smoke and reacts quickly. She grabs a jug of water and pours some on the sheets.

"Tao, listen to me," she said calmly but firmly. "You must calm down. Fear makes your powers stronger. Breathe deeply."

"I can't! I'm scared! My hands are too hot!"

Tao is crying. He looks at his hands in terror. They glow with a red-orange light, like embers.

Grandmother sits down next to him on the bed. She doesn't touch his hands, but she places a cool hand on his forehead.

"My little one, listen to my voice. Close your eyes. Think of something cold. The snow on the mountains. The icy water of the river in winter. The fresh rain of spring."

Tao closes his eyes. He tries to follow Grandma's instructions. He imagines the snow. He thinks of the cold mountain wind. Slowly, very slowly, the warmth in his hands diminishes. The red glow fades.
When he opens his eyes again, his hands have returned to normal. He looks at them, still trembling.

"I'm sorry, Grandma. I ruined the sheets."

"It's alright, my child. The important thing is that you learn. You see? You managed to calm down. You controlled your powers."

"But it was difficult. What if it happens when I'm in the village? What if I hurt someone?"

Grandma doesn't answer right away. She's worried too. Tao's powers are manifesting faster and stronger than she anticipated.

That same evening, as the sun sets behind the mountains, a visitor arrives in the village.

He is an elderly man, but he walks with a brisk step. He wears a long gray monk's robe and leans on a carved bamboo staff. His hair and beard are snow-white. But it is his eyes that are most remarkable: a deep gray, they seem to see far more than what is visible.

He walks through the village without asking for directions, as if he knew exactly where to go. The villagers watch him pass by curiously, but he doesn't stop to talk.

He arrives in front of Tao's house and knocks three times on the wooden door.
Grandma opens the door. When she sees the man, her face turns pale. She takes a step back.

"Master Shen," she murmured. "That's impossible. How did you know?"

The man smiled kindly. "Hello, Ms. Lin. It's been a long time. I sensed the awakening of a dragon child a few days ago. The energy was powerful, even from hundreds of kilometers away. I came as quickly as possible."

"Do you know Master Shen?" asks Tao, who has come to see who is knocking at the door.

Grandma nodded. "He's the one who trained your mother a long time ago. It's thanks to him that she learned to control her powers."

Master Shen entersthe house. He looks at Tao intently. His grey eyes seem to read the boy's soul.

"Hello, young Tao. Your grandmother is right. I knew your mother when she was your age. She was brave and determined. I see the same qualities in you."

"Do you know where she is?" Tao asks hopefully.

Master Shen's face grew sad. "No, unfortunately. She disappeared seven years ago, in the northern mountains. But that's precisely why I'm here. To help you, and perhaps, one day, to discover what happened to her."

He sits down and looks at Tao seriously. "Your powers are awakening, aren't they? And you're having trouble controlling them."

Tao nods. "This morning, I almost set my bed on fire."

"That's normal. Without training, the powers of dragon's blood can be dangerous. That's why I came to offer you something."

He pauses.

"I run a temple in the eastern mountains. It's a safe place, hidden from the world. There, I train special children. Some have dragon blood like you. Others have different gifts. I teach them to control their powers, to use them for good."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Tao asks.

"If you agree. And if your grandmother agrees."

Tao looks at Grandma. He sees tears in her eyes, but she smiles.
"This is what's best for you, my little one. You must learn. And at the temple, you will be safe."

Tao thought about it. Leaving Grandma scared him. But he thought about his uncontrollable powers. He also thought about his mother. Maybe at the temple, he would discover what had happened to her.

"Okay," he finally said. "I'll come with you, Master Shen."

The monk smiled. "Good. We will leave tomorrow at dawn. Pack your things. The journey will be long, but I promise you won't regret it."

That night, Tao hardly slept. He was excited and nervous. Tomorrow, his real adventure begins.

The days following Grandma's revelation are the most difficult Tao has ever experienced. Now that he knows the truth about himself, his powers seem to manifest more and more frequently, as if they were just waiting to be acknowledged to fully reveal themselves.

The most obvious change concerns his hands. They become hot without warning, sometimes burning everything he touches. One afternoon, he picks an apple from the garden and it begins to cook in his hand; its skin becomes soft and smells like baked apples. Another time, he touches the wooden stair railing and leaves the burnt imprint of his fingers in the wood.
But that's not all. Sometimes, when he's angry, frightened, or deeply focused, small golden scales appear on his forearms and hands. They're beautiful, shimmering in the light like tiny fragments of the sun, but they constantly remind him that he's no longer entirely human. They disappear after a few minutes, blending into his skin as if they had never existed.

His other senses are changing too. He can see better in the dark. He hears sounds no one else can: the beating of a bird's wings a hundred meters away, the whispers of villagers in their homes. His dreams become more intense, more real. Every night, he flies over the mountains, feels the wind beneath his imaginary wings, breathes in the fire in his chest.

The worst incident occurs one morning, five days after Grandma revealed the truth to her.

Tao woke with a start from a nightmare. In his dream, something was chasing him, a dark and menacing shadow. He ran, tried to escape, and then... he transformed. Wings sprouted from his back, and fire erupted from his mouth.

When he opens his eyes, he immediately understands that something is wrong. It's too hot in his room. Much too hot. He smells something burning. When he raises his hands, they glow with an intense red-orange light, like pieces of metal heated red-hot in the village forge.

Her sheets, where her hands touch them, are turning black. Smoke is rising. In a few seconds, they will catch fire.

"Grandma!" he cries, terrified.

He tries to move his hands away from the sheets, but wherever he puts them, everything starts to burn. Panic rises within him, and with it, the heat intensifies.

Grandma comes running in, immediately assessing the situation. Without hesitation, she grabs the large jug of water that's always near the window and pours some onto the steaming sheets. A hissing sound rises, and steam fills the room.

"Tao, look at me," she said in a calm but firm voice. "Don't look at your hands. Look at me."

Tao looks up at her. He is crying, tears that evaporate almost immediately on his warm cheeks.

"I can't stop it! I'm scared! I'm going to burn everything down!"

"No, you won't. Listen to me, Tao. Fear fuels the fire. The more afraid you are, the stronger your powers become. You must calm down. Breathe with me. Inhale... Exhale..."

Grandmother breathes slowly and deeply. Tao tries to imitate her, but his breaths are ragged and panicked.

"Again. Breathe in... Breathe out... Now, close your eyes. Don't think about fire anymore. Think about its opposite. Think about the snow falling on the mountain peaks. Think about the icy water of the river in winter, so cold it hurts your feet. Think about the cool spring rain falling on your face."

Tao closes his eyes. He concentrates on his grandmother's voice. HeImagine the snow. He remembers last winter, when he made a snowman, how his hands were so cold they turned red. He thinks of the river, the clear, icy water.

Slowly, so very slowly, the heat in her hands begins to subside. The reddish-orange glow fades, turns pink, then disappears completely. Her hands return to normal.

When he opens his eyes again, he is trembling all over. The sheets are torn in several places, blackened and smoking. The smell of burning fills the room.

"I'm sorry, Grandma. I'm so sorry."

Grandma sits on the bed and takes him in her arms, carefully, making sure that her hands are really cold.

"You don't have to apologize, my child. You are learning. It's normal that it's difficult at first. But you see? You managed to calm yourself down. You controlled your powers."

"Barely. What if it happens at the market? Or when I'm playing with my friends? I could hurt them. I could..."

"Shh. We'll find a solution. I promise you."

But Grandma is worried. Tao can see it in her eyes. The powers are manifesting too quickly, too strongly. She doesn't know how to help her any further.

On the same day, as the sun begins to sink behind the mountains, tinting the sky pink and orange, a visitor arrives at the village of Autumn Cloud.

He is a man who seems both old and young. His hair and beard are pure white, yet he walks with the agility of a man in his prime. He wears a long, simple but finely crafted gray monk's robe and leans on a bamboo staff carved with intricate patterns of entwined dragons. But it is his eyes that captivate the eye: a deep, luminous gray, they seem to see beyond appearances, to read souls.

He strides confidently through the village, asking no one for directions, as if he already knows exactly where he's going. The villagers stop to watch him pass. There's something about him that inspires respect, almost reverence.

He arrives in front of the small house at the end of the village, the one where Tao and his grandmother live. Without hesitating, he knocks three measured times on the wooden door.
Grandma, who was preparing dinner, wiped her hands on her apron and went to open the door. When she saw the man on the threshold, she turned as pale as the moon. Her hands began to tremble.

"Master Shen," she murmured, her voice a mixture of surprise and something resembling relief. "It's impossible. How did you know?"

The man – Master Shen – smiled. It was a gentle smile, full of kindness.
"Hello, Mrs. Lin. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Since the day your daughter left my temple to go on her quest."
He pauses.

"To answer your question: I sensed the awakening of a dragon child five days ago. The energy was remarkably powerful, even felt from my temple, several hundred kilometers away. I knew immediately that it was someone special. I left the temple the next day and traveled as fast as possible."

Tao, drawn by the voices, comes from his room. "Grandma, who is it?"
Grandmother turned to him. "Tao, this is Master Shen. He's... he's an old friend. He's the one who trained your mother long ago, who taught her to control her powers."

Tao's eyes widened. He looked at the monk with a mixture of curiosity and hope.

"Did you know my mother? Do you know where she is?"/>
Master Shen's face became serious. "Come in, my boy. We have much to discuss."

The three of them sat down around the small kitchen table. Master Shen accepted a cup of tea that Grandma prepared for him, but didn't drink it right away. He gazed at Tao for a long time, as if reading an invisible book.

"To answer your question, Tao: yes, I knew your mother well. She came to my temple when she was eight years old, like you are now. She was brave, intelligent, and had a pure heart. I taught her everything I could."

"And... do you know where she is now?"

Master Shen slowly shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. Her letters stopped seven years ago. The last ones spoke of an important discovery in the northern mountains, of an ancient temple linked to the dragons themselves. Then nothing. I searched, but I found no trace of her."

Tao's heart sank. He had hoped...

Master Shen placed a hand on her shoulder. "But don't lose hope. That's precisely one of the reasons I'm here. To help you, to train you. And perhaps, one day, together, we'll discover what happened to her."

He turns to Grandma. "I suppose her powers are manifesting?"
Grandmother nods and recounts the morning's incident. Master Shen listens attentively, without interrupting.

"That's exactly what I feared," he said when she finished. "His powers are strong, stronger than most dragon children I've met. Without proper training, he could injure himself, or injure someone unintentionally."

He looks at Tao. "That's why I came to make you an offer. I run a hidden temple in the eastern mountains, the Temple of Clouds. It's a sanctuary where I train special children. Some have dragon blood like you. Others have different gifts: they can speak to animals, control the wind, see the future. I teach them to master their powers, to use them wisely, to live in harmony with who they are."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Tao asks, his heart pounding.

"If you accept. The journey is long - several days of walking through the mountains. The training will be difficult. But I promise you that you will learn to control your powers. You will never again be at their mercy."

Tao looks at Grandma. He sees tears glistening in her eyes, but she smiles bravely.

"It's your decision, my little one. But I think it's what's best for you. You need to learn. And at the temple, you'll be safe. You'll be with other children who understand you."

Tao thought for a moment. The thought of leaving Grandma broke his heart. But he thought of his burning hands, the blackened sheets, the fear in his own eyes this morning. He also thought of his mother. If she had gone to Master Shen's temple, perhaps he would find clues there about what had happened to her.

"Okay," he said finally, his voice firmer than he'd expected. "I'll come with you, Master Shen. I want to learn."

The monk smiled, and there was pride in his eyes. "Good. We will leave tomorrow at dawn. Pack your things—take only the essentials. The journey will be long, but at the end, a new life awaits you."

That night, Tao barely slept. He lay in his bed, listening to the familiar sounds of the house, knowing that tomorrow everything would change. He touched the dragon scale hanging from his neck. It was warm, comforting.
"Mommy," he whispers in the darkness, "I'm going to find out whatIt happened to you. I promise you.

And for the first time since his powers manifested, he no longer feels just afraid. He feels determined.