《Dragon Ascension》


 Prologue: My Life

    I can remember clearly the events of the past 16 hours that put me in this situation, which ended up landing me a seat in front of the most powerful force in the universe. I remember jumping on the grenade that would have killed my entire squad, and I remember smiling to my friend Tyler as I lay bleeding out.


    I remember the light that overtook me and the inconceivable amount of time that passed before this being appeared in front of me with a benevolent smile.


    Truly fitting for the title of ''God'' the man looks like he could be a model, with dark brown fluffy hair, light blue eyes, a chiseled jawline and full lips complimented by clear laughing lines.


    I don''t swing in the other direction, but you can definitely respect a man with looks as good as these.


    I have never really been the talkative type, so I waited for him (who I would later know to be  ''God'') patiently, not saying a word.


    After some amount of time, the man looks like he is trying to remember a distant memory and his having a hard time doing so. His eyebrows are scrunched and his poker face almost forming a frown, it is as if he is trying to recall which fork he used for dinner the week before.


    I have no idea how long it has been since he started, the churches always used to say that time passes differently when it comes to God, and I have no sense of time in this white light so I can''t exactly make a guess either.


    Finally, he smiles brightly and his eyebrows raise happily, it looks like he figured out what was troubling him.


    "You have done done well, my child. You have lived your life in a relatively proper way, your karma is very far into the positives. Your final moments especially pleased me, personal sacrifice is a noble thing to do. Let me think of how to handle your soul in the most appropriate way now."


    I can''t help but blurt out a stupid "Huh?" and I manage to get the young looking man heartily laughing, I can''t tell if it is one of humor or one of condescending nature at my stupidity.


    But seriously though, I don''t remember doing anything very special in my life, I mean sure I went to food pantries and things similar to that when my parents dragged me to church, but I didn''t go out of my way to help anyone.


    As if reading my thoughts...well...he probably was, the man I assume to be God says


    "True, you might not have helped the poor or saved any orphans in such a slight way like giving them a can of beans, but you tremendously affected the lives of a few individuals in a positive way. Had you not stepped in, all of them would have ended up as failures of society or dead by their own hands."


    Who, Tyler? Yeah, I did help that kid with some bullies when we were 6 and stayed best friends up until my death. Hell, we even went through the same BUD/s training and got put into the same squad. We did everything together, he was truly my best friend and brother in many ways.


    But I can''t think of anyone else who I would have had any impact on, Tyler was the only friend I hung out with outside of school.


    "Do you remember Jasmine and Carly who lived on your street? They were the twins that moved away when you were 8. They ended up moving to Tennessee, but they never forgot about you or what you did for them. Quite the sweet talker you are, I should take notes on this part"


    He says the last part with a playful wink as I try to remember who he''s talking about.


    Doing the same thing as what the man was doing earlier, I try to remember this Jasmine and Carly and what I did for them.


    Struggling to no end, I fuzzily recall a memory of me playing with the figure two girls in the field behind my house, but that''s it. I can''t remember their voices or faces, nothing pops up.


    Seeing me fight my memories, God helps me out a little bit and with a wave of his hand, we are standing above the field that I thought about earlier.


    Here I am, in my immature 8 year old body, playing with some decent looking identical blonde twins.


    A flood of feelings and memories wash over me and I can think of all the times we got together like this over the years before. They had always been sensitive about other people mistaking them for each other, but I could easily differentiate the two.


    If you looked closely into their blue eyes, you could see that Jasmine''s eyes were pure crystal blue while Carly''s had a slight turquoise color to them, as such I was their only friend who could tell the difference between them, and I suppose I imprinted on them.


    I can understand their feelings, even their parents had a hard time with the two of them so I suppose I was something like a savior to them.


    The days of playing finally came to an end on the day of the field, that was the day they were moving.


    They solemnly told me the week before, but after some consideration I told them that it would be fine if we just played enough for the next 6 years in the remaining week.


    With new found happiness, we did exactly that. With special permission from our parents, they slept over at my house for the entire week leading up to their departure, but alas, all good things must come to an end.


    And that was why they had such a sad expression on, when the sun eventually started to go down, they had to leave soon. I had already prepared to deal with these sniveling twins the 2nd day of the week of fun.


    With the help of my mother and father we made a trip to the jewelry store, I had thought the entire night on the 1st day of what to get them as a parting gift, so I had a general idea of what I wanted.


    I pulled out two beautiful gemstone necklaces hidden in two separate cases , in my right pocket was a silver chain with a respectably sized emerald lodged into the centerpiece, in my left was a similar necklace but instead of an emerald there was a bright blue sapphire.


    My family was in a well off standing, my father was a truck driver and snow plower in the winter with my mother in the business industry. Their two incomes made my siblings and I''s childhood comfortable and healthy but a little bit lonely.


    We had each other for that so it wasn''t too big of deal.


    And with such an income, we had a sizable amount of excess money in which I dipped into to buy my gifts.


    As soon as they opened the cases and saw what was inside, they cried loudly and hugged me from either side, the tears they were holding back in an attempt to be strong like me, all poured out en masse.


    Apparently, they would never get rid of those necklaces and they refused to date anyone less than me in consideration skills.


    "Those girls'' lives were drastically changed when you appeared to them, if you hadn''t then they would have fallen to drugs and crime to show defiance to their parents. They showed up to your funeral all the way across the world, by the way."


    That''s pretty cute, I guess they really did remember me. Enough so to show up at my funeral that was probably back in the suburbs of Chicago.


    With another snap we reappear in a different scenery, this place I recognize however.


    "This is where I defended Tyler, right? Why show me this?"


    He smiles warmly before answering


    "No matter how many times I watch your interactions with this boy, I can''t help but want to re-watch them, but this time I am doing so with you. It''s just something I want to do...mortals truly amaze me sometimes."


    A whim, huh...this part is pretty embarrassing and cliche to be honest, not something I would have brought up until many years later to poke fun at.


    We were at a park district, it was a very wide field with baseball cages, dugouts, a football field and even a skate park.


    Currently, it was the end of football practice and everyone on the team was taking off their tiny shoulder pads and such, the coaches had already walked away a while ago.


    This was when I was 6, so everyone else was 7. My birthday was late in August, but not so late as to move me down a grade. It wouldn''t be a problem in my later years, but right now there was a huge difference in growth.


    Along with that difference and my last name of Snow, I was bullied pretty much everyday. I was a pretty mature thinking child, I watched the History and Discovery channel when others would watch cartoons.


    I knew that this was just immature teasing so I didn''t pay any mind to it, when I ignored them they pushed me, and when they pushed me I would retaliate.


    They had long figured out that although they had the strength and height advantage, I still had superior fighting skills. They also figured out that I only fought back when pushed first, so they just kept it at verbal abuse.


    All of my life, I had been involved with sports, on a 2 season cycle and 1 all year sport, I was constantly active in swimming, football, and mma.


    As my body was still underdeveloped, none of them really had any effect until I was in middle school, but I still knew the basics and techniques of how to fight from my sensei.


    The other target in our team was Tyler, he had short brown hair and blue eyes, not as blue as Jasmines but still a nice light color. His last name wasn''t something that could be made fun of, but he did have an unusual colic.


    At the end of his hair by his forehead on his right side was an abnormal piece of hair that formed a permanent wave curling upwards, no matter how much you tried to push it down or move it, it would come back just as it was before.


    Later, it would add to his looks but for now it just looked stupid and the bullies made fun of him for it.


    I usually kept to myself, but this time one of them was yanking on his hair painfully while the others had him in a combined full nelson.


    So, being the cliche kid I was, I hit the leading kid with a cross and knocked his unsuspecting self out with a strike to the chin. The others, seeing how easily their leader had been knocked out, ran away to snitch on us about how I assaulted the boy.


    Tyler was now looking at me with glowing and admiring eyes, he was similar to me in the fact that we didn''t talk much, so I just said a few words that I thought would help.


    "Your hair is different, but why should it be in a bad way? I think the wave looks cool, I kinda wish I had one myself"


    I said those words with an unusually broad smile and I playfully ruffled his colic where the wave was, with that action he was embarrassed but he let me play with his hair a little bit longer before he had to go.


    From then on, we talked every day for the rest of my short life, I made it a habit to mess with his colic almost every time we hung out and he got used to it eventually.


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    I look over at God, who is chuckling sadly and he turns to me as well


    "This is something that I never had the opportunity to experience, it''s always been lonely at the top. I got bored after a while and created life, sometimes my decision haunts me and sometimes I feel overjoyed that I did it, right now is one of the rare times where I can say I''m proud of my children. Thank you for that, but for now we have to look at one more scene."


    That''s so sad...i never imagined that someone who can literally have anything he wants could be so lonely...


    Another snap of his fingers and another scene, this time I''m in combat gear with an M4 Carbine in my hands. I am in a brown clay hut, with 5 of my battle brothers each shooting out of one of the 3 windows present.


    ----------------------------------


    Justin''s Past P.O.V.


    The room/building we are in is around 3 meters tall and 15 meters wide, it''s pretty spacious and was a shop before shit hit the fan.


    Our squad leader is lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, a bullet had ripped through his carotid artery before we even got inside. We dragged him in and laid him down, just in case it wasn''t as bad as we thought it was.


    With Chief dead I was the highest ranking and took control of the men in the room.


    "Grim, Chain, hurry up and kill that fucker on the LMG, we''re going to be mincemeat if he keeps going!"


    Shouting out various orders to all of the squad I aim through my ACOG scope and pick off a man with an rpg on his shoulder, immediately taking cover again I wait for the gunfire targeting me to stop for a moment before peaking out again in a similar way.


    We were utterly surrounded, there were at least 40 insurgents closing in on our position and of the 20 men we came in with only us 5 remained.


    At the start of the ambush 7 of them were dead in the first car that got blown up, in the mad scramble over the hill another 5 of us got killed and making a dash to the buildings 3 of us were picked off.


    Air support was still 7 minutes away and we were running low on ammo, I only had 1 mag left myself.


    The hajis were getting closer and closer despite our efforts, one of them got close enough to chuck in a grenade through the window I was crouched under.


    The only other person who saw the projectile was Tyler, and we each made a scramble to get to it before it blew up.


    Seeing his intentions, I shoulder checked him out of the way and sent him sprawling onto the ground a few meters away from where the grenade came to a stop.


    I was a pretty big guy, at 6''3 and 234 pounds, I was a tank. Most of it muscle, I was by far stronger than Tyler who was 5''9 and around 170 pounds.


    I shout out loud enough for everyone to hear me over the crackling sound of gunfire


    "GRENADE, HIT THE DECK NOW!"


    I jumped onto the baseball sized explosive and hugged it to my chest tightly, hoping to absorb most of the energy myself.


    ''This is it, this is how I''m going out. I''m really going to die holy shit fuckfuckfuckfucking fuck''


    My thoughts were less than coherent at that point as I lay down on the dirt floor for my death.


    And soon enough, death happened.


    There was a momentary flash of light and heat, but soon after I felt nothing. I lay there with blood everywhere but I can still see whats going on, I guess my vest saved my heart.


    Tyler was the first to get up as he runs over to my body shooting someone out of the window in the process.


    He flips my body over and finally sees my condition, upon seeing my pitiful state he openly starts sobbing and saying something, but my ears are still ringing and I cant make out what he is saying.


    He gets down on his knees to grab my now outstretched hand with both of his, I can''t feel anything else in my body but his hands still feel warm, incredibly warm...


    I free my hands and try to tell him to let go, but all that comes out is a hoarse croak.


    He must have understood and lessens his grip on me, as soon as he does I reach up and twirl my fingers around his weird colic, at the sight of this burly man crying his eyes out with the same colic he has had since childhood, I cant help but smile.


    My last sight was off Tyler screaming with tears in his eyes, screaming something.


    My vision fades away to the darkness and I can hear a faint voice


    "JUSTIN, JUSTIN!!! STAY WITH ME, NO! FUCKKKKK!"


    It was Tyler''s voice, full of despair and sorrow at the loss of his best friend.


    -------------------------------------


    Back to present P.O.V


    I tear up at the sight, a warm streak of liquid falls down my cheek.


    God keeps showing me the rest of the battle, besides myself there were no casualties until the air force came and cleaned house.


    I was shipped back to my hometown in Illinois and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for my actions in quickly choosing to give up my own life for the sake of others.


    He fast forwards to my funeral where there are hundreds and hundreds of serviceman and civilians alike, the note I left allowed the event to be aired on national television.


    I had made a series death notes in the likely event that I was killed in action, it included my will and various letters to family members and close friends.


    Tyler was standing on a podium with a sling for his left shoulder, he''s standing next to a large picture of myself. I''d say it looks pretty decent, definitely one of my better pictures.


    I always had short black hair and grey eyes, they were almost a bright shade of silver, I guess my strain of eyes was extremely rare in humans so I was pretty lucky I guess. They were more gunmetal than dull though.


    My face always looked pissed off when I wasn''t smiling, a trait I got from my dad, and in this picture I am in a military uniform with my usual straight face.


    My looks were slightly above average, I had some light stubble on my chiseled jawline and my chin was a perfect button. My nose and ears were''t hideous so they neither took away nor added to my attractiveness. My lips were a medium size and were a shade of light red.


    All in all I would rate myself at an 8/10, I had been used as a poster boy for recruitment by the Navy''s propaganda agency multiple times now. I guess I could be called a model? No idea.


    Anyways, Tyler is standing there looking strong as he reads from the note I gave him that I specifically said NOT to read at my funeral...fuckin asshole. I''ll haunt you for this, you know.


    "If you''re reading this then I''ve probably died, if I went down in some accident, I want you to burn the letter and not read the rest of this. I died doing what I loved to do, I died protecting the american people and I died in an effort to protect my brothers. I always used to joke around about how I would be killed at a young age, but more often than not, such things do happen in our line of work. I want you to take care of my mother, she needs a new son as her''s is gone now. You have been in the family long enough anyways, you''re more than perfect for the job. If I died saving your sorry ass then know that it was my decision and if you dare to get PTSD, I will come back from the dead and haunt you until the day you die. My death should be celebrated by remembering the good times and my life, not all that depressing bullshit going on, and on about how I will never be there. Everyone in the service is ready for death and accepted the danger when we got our badges, I am no exception. I left you with all of my firearms, you will appreciate and take care of them better than anyone else. If you ever figure out a way to get rid of that weird hair of yours"


    He chokes up at this point and my mother makes her way to the stage to comfort him


    "...make sure to let me know ASAP so I can see you without it, I always tried to imagine you with normal and amazing hair like mine"


    At the end my mother is holding him in her arms as he tries to fight back the tears, they leave the stage and the rest of the funeral goes on without a hitch.


    More embarrassed and angry than sad, God takes us back to the white space and puts on a serious expression saying:


    "Your valiant camaraderie has touched me to my core, I''ve always had a soft spots for soldiers you see. The phrase "God loves the troops" is by no means a false saying. As such, I will reward you for your heroic actions."


    Panicking, I quickly respond


    "I don''t need a reward, I did what I did on a whim, I had no idea what effect my actions would have. Please, just treat my normally"


    He bursts out laughing and his eyes only further twinkle, I realize what I just said and know that I just fell into a trap.


    "That is exactly why you need to be rewarded, you did not know that there would be any rewards. You just did what you thought was right, as such you will be reincarnated as a race with extreme potential and innate abilities. This new world will include many things you have not seen or experienced before, some of it will bring you joy and others will make your blood boil. In all worlds, this is the same for everyone, just some get more of the anger and suffering than the joy and happiness."


    Before I can even object, he snaps his fingers again as he smiles and everything turns dark, I can hear his voice once more as I lose grip on my consciousness.


    "Make use of this life, bring pride to me once more with your actions, I will be watching."


    And with that, I black out.


    (Now that i finally finished typing it, i realize that this this prologue is really long. BUT i wanted to give you guys a good idea of his backstory and personality. I will probably release one or two more chapters today, but in the meantime let me know what you think in the comments! All constructive criticism is welcome and anything that will help my writing will only make the story more enjoyable to read in the future. Thanks for reading!)


    (PR = ScientiaPyre)

 Chapter 1: Birth

    God had pulled a fast on me, shame on him! Tricking a mere mortal that badly should be a sin, honestly how devious is he?


    I didn''t even get a choice in the matter, one moment he''s talking about an award and the next he blasts out words too fast to comprehend when he said them. It was like eminem''s ''Rap God'' super fast part, I couldn''t understand all of it right away but after thinking about it they became clear as night and day.


    I still cant believe this, that is just unfair! All he had to do was snap his fingers and now I''m surrounded by darkness. I have no idea how long it has been since then, just like when I was with God i cant tell time for the life of me! (A.N Pun intended)


    After getting over the initial shock, I tried to figure out where I was using context clues and feeling around my surroundings. I have gathered enough information to come to several conclusions:


    One, I am in a physical body that can feel and touch. I also have 4 limbs that I can move, but it feels like there is something else behind me. Something in the back of my mind is telling me that it''s there, but I can''t feel it or move it anyways. It''s like having an extremely numb arm to the point where you can''t move your fingers, you know they are there, but you can move or control them.


    Secondly, I am completely surrounded by something. I have reason to believe I am in either an egg or the womb of my soon to be mother.


    I can say with at least 90% confidence that this is the case because God said I would be reborn, and also because there is a warm thick liquid all around me. I''m leaning more towards egg at the moment though, because I seem to be lacking an umbilical cord that would connect me to my mother for nutrients and such.


    Another hint God gave me was that I would be a ''species'' with a lot of potential. He didn''t say I would be human, I am conflicted with this part though.


    Pros of not being a human: Human''s are pretty weak to be honest, we break very easily compared to other animals, plus we die at like 70 years old, that''s no fun. It would also be badass to be something like a cheetah or some shit, cheetahs are super versatile creatures...minus the whole getting poached to smithereens part. But I think I''m in an egg, so I might be a bird?


    No, I don''t have wings... I think? I know I have hands just from my probing for evidence, but I have not confirmed what the strange feeling on my backside is. I guess I could be a bird, Bald eagles are awesome as shit.


    Why? Because, well...''Merica that''s why. I could probably get enough food from the American populace to earn me a life where I wouldn''t even have to hunt. I''m not sure if that''s a good thing or not though.


    And then there are the Cons of being a non human: First and foremost I would have to remaster everything, and that''s assuming I can walk on two legs. If I am a four legged creature then my years and years of martial arts training will be useless. Then there is the new parts which will likely come from being a nonhuman, those will either be very fun or very tedious to learn how to use.


    I guess it depends on what I am though, I can''t really test anything else until I am born.


    Speaking of being born, I am kind of dreading that part too. Babies are always crying when they''re born, right? Shouldn''t it be super painful if they cry? Well, babies don''t exactly have a high pain tolerance but it surely must be at least unpleasant. Not looking forward to it.


    Especially if I have to break out of my home, which will be the case if I am indeed in an egg. I have seen a couple of birds/chickens hatch before and they don''t exactly look like they''re having a fun time either. In some cases, it takes them hours or days before they manage to free themselves.


    Either way, this will suck.


    All of this thinking has gotten me tired, rest is good for the developing body, yes? I''ll take a nap for now...


    -----------------------------


    I ''wake up'' sometime later, once again I have no idea how long it has been. I can''t open my eyes yet though, so instead of waking up, I guess I just became conscious again.


    There is another feeling of not being able to move something I should be able to on my back again, this time it''s by where my shoulder blades are.


    If my hypothesis is correct, then I should have wings and a tail? I don''t know what else it could be at this point. It would be too coincidental if they weren''t and coupled by the fact that I think I am in an egg I''m certain that they are wings and a tail.


    So i will have to break the egg, huh? I guess it''s better than being born like a mammal, it looks freaky and it sounds painful, for both the newborn and the mother...sometimes even the father.


    Chicks opening their shells look peaceful though, besides the violent pecks and stuff.


    I also have enough feeling over the rest of my body (save the new parts) to know that I am in the fetus position, and a tight one at that.


    I wasn''t even able to try and move around before, I just had enough control to wiggle my hands and feet. Now that I can feel around and jiggle my body a little bit, I start doing a little butt wiggle of sorts, if I were a human I would definitely look like an old white man trying to be ''hip''. Just that kind of dance with the shoulder and hip movements, you feel me? (A.N. Broke the fourth wall, Illuminati confirmed)


    I must have done something surprising, because I can hear a faint ''kyaaa!'' sound. I can''t tell if it''s faint because of the egg and liquid that I''m covered by or if my ears are really weak, but I heard it nonetheless.


    That was the first sound I have heard since God told me to make him proud like some sort of cliche father figure...well I guess he is my dad, eh? I am going to avoid that line of thought, because I am sure he can listen in on my thoughts right now.


    ''I am still pissed at you ya know! This isn''t funny! If I end up being some kind of pigeon, I am going to kill myself!''


    I feel a sharp but faint shocking feel jolt my entire body, did that bastard just smite me?!


    Calling him a bastard earns me another shock and I restrict my thoughts and calm myself down before I end up with a birth defect...


    Jesus Christ is this guy rude, some creator of the universe you are! Hmph!


    I get this nagging feeling that someone is laughing at me and I have my suspicions of who it is.


    Turning my thoughts back to the matter at hand, I try to prod at my egg to get an idea of it''s hardness and structure, I hear eggs are weak at the tip so lets try there first.


    Pushing my head up, I touch what I think is the tip with the crown of my head and I try to bring my arms up to push.


    Much to my dismay, it appears the egg is too tight to allow such an action, I only get stuck about halfway through. Pushing my arms back down with all my might, I pop through in such a violent and and sudden manner that I end up headbutting the side of the egg!


    When I hit the wall, I could feel myself roll forwards, now I can tell that I am facing the floor. When my roll begins, I hear a louder and more high pitched version of the ''kyaaaa!'' from earlier. I guess the hit was surprising to others as well. I feel myself getting re-positioned back to an upright format seconds later.


    Let me tell you, that surprise hurt really bad, like slamming your forehead up against drywall bad. But but BUT! I do feel cracks! This is good, very good. I found where I will begin my assault on my own home!


    But, the insanely intense headache that I earned myself will prevent all other progress for the time being. I then turn to what any other intelligent person would do when they have a headache and try to go to sleep.


    Although it takes longer than usual because of the splitting pain, I eventually drift off into the dream world for the second time since I have been re-spawned.


    ------------------------


    Similar to last time I came back into consciousness, I have a better feel over my new appendages, enough to wiggle them around and get a feel for them.


    My tail is at least as long as my body, that is for sure, it''s probably a little thicker than my arms at the moment. I can slightly get a feel for my wings, but they are hard pressed up against the shell and don''t have as much leeway as my tail does. I can tell that they are relatively small compared to the rest of my body, though.


    That''s pretty normal though, I assume that they will grow in later like most birds.


    There''s something that''s bothering me though, or should I say, the fact that I''m not bothered by having wings and a tail is mildly disturbing. Although I haven''t been able to feel them until waking up from my last nap, they feel as though they are as natural to have as my arms and legs.


    That might be God''s doing, though. I imagine it would cause problems if I couldn''t get used to them later in life when I need them.


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    Shoving all of my curiosity to the side, I resume my efforts to bust out of my prison again, now that the blasted headache is gone.


    The crack is right by where my hand is, so first I rub the area to find where and how deep the cracks are. There is a light indentation where my face impacted the shell, and sprouting out from that indentation are tens of small fissures caused by the hit.


    Only one of them is noteworthy though, and it is the one that runs straight from the center all the way to where my head is situated.


    Aligning myself to the best of my ability to the crack, I begin to push with my shoulder using the back and bottom of the egg as leverage for my weak legs. Something within me is telling me with urgency to push harder so i double my efforts, my baby muscles are burning from the workout but I pay no attention to them and work through the pain.


    Those initial thin cracks thicken as I push along, and the minor indentation has become a large bulge in the side of my egg. The largest crack has opened slightly, I know this because I feel the liquid surrounding me begin to drain through the crack.


    By now the hushed voice that told me to push harder is now screaming loudly in my subconscious and I push as hard as I can with every fiber of muscle in my new body, the bulge has now opened and the thick liquid is now gushing freely out of it, the tiny cracks are now as big as the biggest one and I can feel other smaller holes open up.


    Motivated by the feeling of victory close at hand, I shoved my hand through and push off the outside of the egg, widening the hole with my shoulder and sprouting my head through in the process.


    The moment I push my head through, I can hear shouts of delight and many different voices talking back and forth, I have no idea what they are saying though, it is a language I have not heard before.


    Finally, the moment I have waiting for is here! Excited by the sensation of cold air against my skin for the first time since birth I hastily open my eyes to get a good glimpse at the world.


    As soon as my eyes open I shut them tightly again because of the sudden brightness and coldness colliding with my moist eyeballs, I begin a series of fast blinks again until my pupils can dilate properly enough to see.


    What I see before me shocks me enough to make me gasp, and gasp I would have, if I had actually been breathing, I completely forgot about that. I take out a deep breathe of the cool air and try to think calmly about the scene before me.


    I am in a throne room, that much is clear. My shell is on some kind of stand next to the large throne where a man I assume to be the king is excitedly looking at me. Next to him but closer to me is a woman I think is the queen, something tells me that they are my mother and father.


    Who I think is my dad is a large, bulky man wearing a black sash and a black crown, he has fiery red hair and similarly red eyes. He looks to be around his mid thirties, his face looks to be that of a warrior. He has definitely killed before, but the usual scowl of a scarred man is no where to be found behind his broad smile. Not too shabby, ''Dad''.


    My new mother has shiny luminescent black hair and incredibly shiny silver eyes, she looks to be slightly younger than my father but not by much, maybe 2 years. She also has a battle tested look in her beautiful eyes, but like the king they are hidden behind a happy smile. I would describe my mother as extremely attractive in appearance, but thinking like that already is really weird.


    Her eyes are now moistening with tears of happiness? and she reaches out to grab me from my shell with a white towel looking thing that she was holding beforehand. Now having both of my arms out of my container, she picks me up under the armpits and I finally get a good look at myself.


    I am definitely not a bird, that is very clear.


    My arms have deep black claws attached to them, I had mistaken them for hands in my shell. My feet have the claws too, and all of my body and limbs are covered by black scales that are covered by a green slime which I assume was the liquid I was in. Looking forward, I can see the tip of my mouth so I have a fucking snout, this will be interesting.


    The muffled sounds of excited talking are now very clear and now in an uproar, my 3 external perception senses seem to be amplified my times compared to when I was human. I can clearly see out the open doorway at the far end of the throne room, which is around 30 meters away, my sense of hearing and scent are acute enough to hear and smell the different breathes of the people in the room with us.


    My mother starts to gently clean me, drying off the pitch black scales that were underneath. I twist my body to look at my backside and I can see two leathery black wings by my shoulders, I wiggle to get confirmation that I have control over them and they twitch in response, I then turn my gaze to my tail.


    It''s menacing as hell, spikes running up the back of it all the way to my wings too, they continue on past the wings but I can''t see them anymore so I will assume they stop at my head.


    I decide to test out my vocal cords as my mother embraces me only to let out a small roar that is far more cute than dangerous sounding, I repeat it several times in a test to change the pitch but only get the same sound.


    My adorable actions earn a collective ''awwwwwwhhhh <3'' sound from the gathered crowd of people in the room.


    ''Oi, hey you, I am NOT cute, i''ll eat your face off when you sleep! Don''t fuck with me!''


    That gives out the same yelp and once again causes the crowd to coo and aww.


    I am more than satisfied with my species, I''m a fucking dragon for crying out loud! This is better than anything I could have hoped for, it is so awesome that I forgive God for tricking me into this world. What could have been better than an apex predator, and one of noble birth at that?!


    Judging by the clothes of the people present and the fact that there is an active monarchy, I throw out all delusions of me being reborn on Earth. This world seems to still be in medieval times, the nobles are all wearing colorful robes and other fancy clothes that no peasant should be able to afford.


    Even the room is spectacularly decorated, there are sculptures of the heads of golden dragons mounted on the walls all over the place, it seems like this Kingdom has a hard on for dragons...perfect for me if I dare to say. There are several marble pillars supporting the ceiling 30 meters above us.


    Painted on said ceiling is a mural of dragons killing large amounts of humans, the largest of the creatures has a black crown seated on his large black, scaly head. I guess that means that dragons are royalty? Makes sense considering I am a dragon and my parents are the king and queen.


    Speaking of those two, they are cuddling me like mad as I try to protest with my high pitched roar, it doesn''t help at all. My father addresses the people gathered in that strange language from before and they begin to disperse. Soon after, it is only the three alone in the room.


    Judging by the size of myself compared to that of my parents, I seem to be the size of your average adult house cat only covered with scales and in a dragon form. It''s a pretty decent size for a newborn, i''ll take it.


    I flick out my tongue unconsciously and I catch a glimpse of it for this first time, it is incredibly long and red, I probe my face just to get an idea of how long it is and I can reach all the way to my eyes on the front of my head.


    Sending my very flexible tongue back inside my mouth and I discover that I have no teeth, only fleshy gums. I suppose expecting razor sharp teeth right from birth was asking too much, eh? I don''t really mind, it''s not like I will really need them as a prince.


    Being a prince will take some getting used to though, I don''t want to be some snob but I also do not want to seem weak. I''ll have to Goldilocks it when I figure out how to finally be human.


    There will certainly be a way though considering my mom and dad are in a human form right now, there will be a lot of studying once I figure out the language of this country.


    My mother and father are talking back and forth in a way that sounds angry enough to be German, but fluent like Spanish or Italian, it definitely isn''t something from earth though.


    All that complicated stuff will come later though, my entire body is demanding rest after the great escape, I am thoroughly gassed. This tiny cat body of mine is very weak at the moment, so I will give in to my own demands and fall asleep.


    Nuzzling up against my mother I let out a slight coo~ that makes her laugh lovingly, I will play the cute and unknowing baby when around them for now. I don''t plan on being an idiot though, in fact I would rather be portrayed as some genius but day 1 is too soon to start.


    My eyelids finally get too heavy to hold open, and I let the darkness wash over me again.


    (Thats it for chapter one! So how do you like the MC''s appearance? I thought it was pretty cute, especially since i put in the toothless part. Let me know what you think needs improving on and such, believe me when i say it will help tremendously later on. Anyways, thanks for reading!)


    (PR= Scientia Pyre)

 Chapter 2: Learning

    My birth must have been considered a national holiday considering the sheer number of people who came bearing gifts were innumerable. It started out with the nobles bringing incense and jewelry, but after the second day the nobles were replaced by commoners bringing whatever food they could spare.


    My father and mother had started to greet and thank anyone who came bearing tributes, but after the 4th full day of nothing but family after family bringing items they stopped directly receiving guests.


    For 9 straight days and nights I was paraded around like some kind of God, it reminded me of The Lion King in the sense that there were so many people who came. There were parades and festivals during that time, it was as if this was the greatest day of their lives. And none of them looked like they were forced into coming or were afraid of my parents either, they seemed to celebrate out of their own will.


    After the festivities calmed down I got to stay in the castle a little bit and try to learn the language. Not going very well to be honest, the little bits I have deciphered make no sense to me, I had pegged it for a combination of Germanic and Spanish, but now it seems more Norwegian and Danish.


    My mother takes me everywhere she goes on her shoulders; any attempt I make in getting off or moving just gets me right back to where I started. I''m beginning to think of myself as a parrot more than a dragon at the moment.


    But a plus side of being a parrot is that I get to hear everything she says directly next to her, from my understanding of languages if you listen in on a fluent speaker for long enough it will eventually bear fruits. She often talks directly to me, pointing at random objects and saying a word or two.


    It appears like she is trying to get me to learn quickly, which is better for me. I am hoping that my knowledge of German will help me to decipher these strange pronunciations, but I think it is too far from old German to have any connections or cognates.


    Not very surprising considering this is a different world, but oh well, I can''t do much to change it.


    Right now I am on mother¡¯s shoulder as she is talking to father about something in the bedroom, she allows me to hop off of her back and onto the silky sheets of the large bed. They stare at me while talking the entire time, and their speech slows down like they are making an inquiry.


    Shooting back and forth, I can start to decipher the vowels and sounds of the words that they speak, they seemingly only have to say a couple words per sentence, more so taking after English in that respect.


    My mother says something with the tinge of a question at the end as I stare at her


    "Rok los kinzon, vahzah?" See what I mean? It just sounds so difficult to decipher...*sigh*


    "Geh, rok lost aan kun ko ok miin"


    ''Rok'' was used twice there, it could be a synonym to him or he in this context if they are really talking about me, also I noticed the word lost, could that have a similar meaning to English?


    My mother nods and smiles and laughs like she has thought of something funny saying


    "Rok gahrot nii nol ok Monah!" After that last part my father scowls as my mother laughs aloud


    "Geh, nuz rok gahrot ok qah nol ok Bormah¡± I am noticing ''rok'', ''geh'' and ''ok'' are used so far. ''ok'' is pronounced like ahk and not like O.K.


    After that last comment by father, my mother nods and turns her stare away from my eyes and more to my body.


    "Rok los rinik haas, fin qah lost aan vul viin wah niin..."


    To that my dad sits down on the bed and starts petting me, surprisingly it feels extremely good and I start to make a purring sound.


    Wait. Hold on. I am purring? Seriously? My tail is flicking about too just like a cat, this is a problem! I am supposed to represent absolute power, I¡¯m a dragon for crying out loud! Why am I purring all of a sudden?! I try to protest, but all that escapes my throat is something more like a giddy yip, than a cry of desperation...this is terrible.


    After hearing and seeing my reaction, he doubles his efforts and I find myself weak at the knees, no longer able to hold myself up I fall down onto my stomach completely open to his attacks.


    I can hear both of them laughing wildly and my mother speaks as she is giggling like mad.


    "Dar los ful brit, bwahahaha"


    Overcome by embarrassment, I put all of my strength into running away, but I only make it about 5 feet away before my mother joins in on the ''fun''


    "Rok los unt wah krif nee ful hevno" Says my father while he is still heartily chuckling, those are the last words they speak for the next 20 minutes as they humiliate me with their hands, I continued desperately crying out in the hopes that someone would save me but no one answered my pleas for help.


    My suffering finally ends when my dad gets to leave with a few parting words, seeing me scowling at him he smiles once more and rubs the top off my head, shaking me a little bit.


    After he leaves my mother picks be back up and onto her shoulders, I¡¯m a little bit traumatized over what they did to me but I will get over it eventually.


    The rest of the day goes by pretty uneventfully, just talking to a few noble looking fellows and eating dinner. I thought I noticed during the festival and when I heard my parents talking to others, but now I¡¯m pretty sure that my mom uses a different form of speaking when she talks to everyone besides my father and I.


    If I listen closely enough, I can definitely make out some distinct differences, for example the words my parents speak are typically very short and don¡¯t sound like they go over 5 characters very often, but these ones seem to be elongated, an average of 7-8 characters per word.


    It could just be a formal way of speaking, but why talk formally to common-folk? This might be a bigger headache than I thought...


    ------------------


    My suspicions were confirmed over the course of next 3 weeks; they are 100% different languages. I finally cracked the code on my parent''s way of speaking and I can now decipher parts of a conversation well enough to get a vague understanding of what they are saying.


    From the constant use of ''rok'' when the speaker is looking directly at me I concluded that it must be the word for ''he'' in English, when ''rok'' is used there is often the word ''ok'' followed shortly afterwards, thus I can say that it means ''his''.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    As for the other words, they are most likely nouns or adjectives that I will not know until I get a direct explanation from mom or dad. For example, when my mother left the room and left me with the devil he flexed his arms looking at me and said:


    "Zu''u los mul" Which I assume means "I am strong" or something similar. I hope to be able to interpret as much as I can from their interactions with each-other, but when I am alone with the two of them usually it ends up in my constant abuse in the form of petting and tickling me.


    I finally figured out my parents¡¯ names as well, it took me a while though. My mom¡¯s name is Vedbrii and my dad¡¯s name is Sahqoviing, I realized that in the way they greet each other they say a word in front of their names. For Vedbrii, she says "Ahmul Sahqoviing" and for Sahqoviing he says "Kiim Vedbrii". Though they usually burst out laughing after speaking the greeting, they still say it nonetheless.


    When it comes to the other tongue, I have not made any significant progress, the multiple syllables make it hard to decipher spellings and the like, so I am having a hard time. It is only my first month in this world, so I can''t really complain. It took me a full 7 months before I was able to speak fluent German, so I expect it will not take more than 5 with the help of constantly being near speakers of the dialect.


    Another thing that I managed to get to happen is the reading of books to me by my mother. I was on her shoulder last week and she sat down to read a book, upon seeing this I yipped in a playful manner and wagged my tail around playfully. Clearly understanding that I was interested in the book, she began to read aloud to me the various writings.


    I am close to making another breakthrough in terms of grammar and possessive nouns because of this. With the help of mommy pointing to items and saying a word or two, I will expand my vocabulary in this world greatly.


    Back to the texts, the writings in this world are even more complicated than how it sounds, just one sentence in the book looked something like a mix of runes and markings, I cannot make out any type of letters at all. I assume that I will have to have a better knowledge of how it is spoken before I can translate text.


    Another thing that has troubled me since I was born is the food.


    Since I do not have any teeth, I must either drink a broth mix or mushed meat, it doesn''t taste terrible at all but the texture of the meat reminds me of canned cat food and it nearly causes me to gag whenever I eat it.


    The broth is usually composed of vegetable looking things in a brown seasoned water, the meat is pink and tastes more like crab than steak, but I can''t really describe it further than that.


    My initial estimate of the time period being medieval was correct, and I get to investigate further on the state of the world every day when Vedbrii takes me out on a balcony stemming from our house.


    Our city is quite large and densely packed, it has an urban fashion to it. The buildings are almost all a combination of stone at the bases and wood at the top for roofing, there are hundreds of streets all leading up to our palace that is situated on a large hill.


    Our home is a black castle which might be one of the biggest I have seen, even in movies. With walls 50m high and 100m wide, it is a wonder how it was built in this world with seemingly low technology. Judging by the size of the thing, I have not even visited a quarter of the space inside this monster of a house.


    Connecting the castle to the rest of the city is a series of large stair cases that all come together at a gate which is manned by tens of soldiers at any given point. It does not look like it would be an easy point to enter through if one would try to force himself in.


    Speaking of these soldiers, they look absolutely amazing. They are all appareled in black chain mail or steel plate armor, I assume that it is preferential. They have arm and shin guards as well, and their heads are protected by a pitch black helmet with red bristles sprouting out from the top. Most of them are armed with short swords, but occasionally there is a pike man or spearmen among the men.


    Across their chest pieces is a type of cloth or tunic with a black dragon imprinted on the red fabric. If I were to guess, I would say it is the same black dragon painted onto the ceiling of the throne room, I do not know who this dragon is but surely it can¡¯t be my father. I would imagine that my father''s dragon form would be red and not black, every myth I read about dragons on my world signified that the color of their scales dictates their features in a human form.


    So this black dragon must be someone else, maybe the founder of the kingdom? I will have to investigate this further later on in my life.


    Back to the structure of the city, we are surrounded on 3 sides by tall mountains. The remaining open side is directly at the front and it is a wide open flatland that stretches for over 5 miles in the least, I cannot accurately measure the distance covered but the prairie is a key strategic component in the strategical masterpiece that is this city.


    Unless invaded by flying enemies I can''t imagine anyone stupid enough to even attempt a raid on this place, it would be a literal massacre.


    Other than the nice looking soldiers and amazing defensive potential, the city reminds me a little bit of English cities during the pre-renaissance time periods. Minus the whole black death thing, and the fact that this area seems to be prospering greatly, I would say it is a photo copy.


    So, let''s review my 30-ish days so far on this world:


    Pros: I¡¯m a dragon, I am a royal dragon, my parents definitely care for me, the citizens seem to absolutely support the monarchy, God is watching over me and might? help me if I''m in trouble, the kingdom is in a state of prosperity and I think we are in a peacetime state.


    Cons: I get tickled and rubbed sometimes and I have to learn two languages...


    I think it''s a pretty good life so far.


    (That''s it for this chapter, I know it was a little bit on the shorter end but I just wanted to establish a couple things and inform you a little bit on the state of the world. I will be releasing another chapter today to make up for it though! I want to give you guys the choice for the name of the MC, I am not confident in my naming skills at all so I hope you will help me in that aspect lol. Also, if any of you know what language I am using feel free to let others know in the comments ;P Thanks for reading!)


    (Proofread = Scientia Pyre)

 Chapter 3: Progress

    It has now been a full 6 months since I have entered this world as a member of the royal dragon family. I have made much progress in gathering knowledge and information. I even have a name! I like it a lot, it is a name signifying strength and wisdom in the dragon tongue: Vedova.


    Isn¡¯t that cool? Much better than ''Justin''. Right?


    Speaking of the dragon language.


    I have also gained a complete understanding of the two languages spoken by the people of this country, which are known as Muz and Nonvul.


    Nonvul is the dialect which is only known to the members of the royal family, it has been passed down from the first dragon who created it around 16000 years ago, this is the same dragon that is portrayed on the mural in the throne room. This dragon is the father of the species, and his death is used as a marking point in history.


    Similar to how Earth used the B.C. time measurement of Jesus'' death, this planet used the death of the Pahborma, or ''Allfather''.


    This great and noble dragon was said to be able to use all four of the Draconian elements, he was the most powerful existence recorded in all of history.


    The only reason Pahborma died was because he sacrificed himself to stop an asteroid that would have had similar effects of the dinosaur extinction.  The legends in my family''s libraries tell of the ''Great King'' using the very power of his soul to obliterate the huge rock completely, and apparently the amount of energy he used caused him to self-destruct.


    The remnants of the dangerous soul energy became known to this world as mana, over time all of the other species mutated to be able to use the invisible power, but because us dragons are the direct creation of Pahborma, we inherited his skill and genes thus making us the most powerful mana users in this world.


    Of course, we did not receive all of his power, and we can only use up to one of the elements that exist here.  My species is color coded because of the mutative power mana had initially on us, our bodies were not as strong as Pahborma so it still had some minor effects on our bodies.


    My mother is an electric dragon, all of her kind have pitch black scales including myself. The shade of black, or any of the 4 colors, determines the amount of innate ability that one will possess when they ''awaken'' magically.


    My father is a Yoldvah, or ''Fire Dragon''.  His scales are a deep ember red, signifying immense power.


    The other two elements are Water and Air, air dragons are a pure white color and water dragons are bright blue in color.


    There are only a little over 50 dragons in this world, all of them belonging to royal families. There is a deep understanding between our kind that we should not wage war with each other and should only take part in mortal affairs when there is genocide or a massive tragedy taking place.


    The size of this planet is around double that of Earth, as such there exist huge continents surrounded by even larger amounts of water.  Even 3000 years after the death of Pahborma, or 3000 A.D., there are still parts of unexplored land which are deemed uninhabitable or have too hostile of wildlife to explore it.


    Out of the 6 continents of this world, 4 are completely mapped out while the other two are only vaguely outlined on the maps that exist, with a huge planet comes huge technological delays as many of the other races did not begin exploration until recently.


    All of the dragons occupy one continent, and this one continent is governed by a council of 10 dragons, my father being one of the members. This council only meets when there are urgent matters at hand, and the last gathering was over 400 years ago when the humans were getting decimated by the biologically superior beastmen and elves.


    The solution was pretty simple, the beast men got a slap on the wrist and an army or two destroyed, and the remaining couple thousand humans were allowed to reside on the dragon continent.


    Out of fear of incurring the council¡¯s wrath again, the other 6 made an agreement that any wars will by no means result in the complete slaughter of an entire people. Considering the wars before, this was a vast improvement and the population of the waring countries never dropped below 1/2 of what they were beforehand.


    Satisfied with this conclusion, the dragons have not bothered in interfering in their petty disputes anymore, instead we have been doing more important things like hoarding treasure deep underground and sleeping next to it.


    I''m not joking either, out of the odd 59 dragons only 14 of them are currently up and about and 10 of those are the council members seeing to it that nothing important happens. Apparently the old stories of dragons having an abnormal attraction to shiny golden things is true, my mother often talks to me about her own personal collection stored deep underneath the family castle.


    My parents don¡¯t even share treasure crypts, that¡¯s how greedy our kind is. I guess it is just well known that gold comes before all else, as for why that is no one really knows, but they haven''t really looked into the matter all that much.


    Vedbrii still does not know completely of my intelligence, but she has voiced her opinion several times on the matter to Sahqoviing.  Every time she brings it up he just says:


    "Nii los aan ofan nol fin Pahborma" or "It is a gift from the great Allfather, she clearly is not satisfied with that answer and she brings it up almost every time she reads to me now.


    Despite her suspicions, she still plays with me like I am some kind of kitten, I have gotten used to it and long since started to enjoy it instead of trying to fight it.


    But but but! When I awaken I will not allow such viscous play, it will be civilized, damn it!


    Said awakening will take place in around 4 years, during that time my body will go into a coma and I will grow to be about the size of a horse in my dragon form. During the hiatus of about 3 months, I will need to be sealed in a room with huge amounts of food rations as I will need to eat to sustain my growth.


    After I finally wake up I will be able to speak the Draconian tongue while still in dragon form, it will be impossible to speak Muz though.


    Dragons go through 3 major metamorphosis'', one being the previously mentioned coma, and the others coming at the age of 13 and 22 respectively. So just once every nine years will I go into a deep slumber, although they will decrease by one month for each evolution.


    Meaning my second hibernation will take 2 months and the final one taking 1 month.  From what mother reads from the books, I will grow to be the size of a football field excluding my head and tail. My wingspan should be somewhere around 440 meters, meaning each of my leathery and muscly wings will be about 220 yards long.


    Such a length is to be expected, us dragons are very heavy and definitely not hollow boned like birds. Using those huge wings, Air dragons can cause severe hurricanes with just 2 or 3 heavy flaps if they wanted to, but that would have large effects on the other races so it hasn''t happened yet except for in a controlled training environment.


    These books are really detailed by the way, despite being in a world where the entire planet hasn''t even been explored. Mother rambled on about how we don''t need technology seeing as we can fly around and kill whatever food we need on a moment''s notice.


    I am just excited for not being the size of a cat, then maybe I can get some RESPECT around here *cough* MOM *cough* DAD *cough*


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I might have bronchitis with all this coughing I am doing, maybe I should tone it down a little bit.


    On a completely different note, I have succeeded in controlling the frequencies of my little baby rawrs, I can''t make them very deep but I have enough power over myself as too give an approving or protesting yip. I have managed to communicate several times now with Bormah and Monah that way.


    Also on positive note, I can flap my tiny wings a little bit now too, still have no form of liftoff though, I will have to wait a couple years for that to come in. With the ability to fly, will come the ability to transform into a human as well, but I have no plans on staying in such a boring form when I can roam the skies as a majestic dragon.


    The human transformations are still many times stronger than a regular one, but the form has its limitations just like the originals and I do not want to go out of my way to have limits.


    Another reason why I won''t go back is because I feel more familiar with this four legged lizard body than my old one at this point, I can barely remember what it feels like to stand on two legs and have opposable thumbs. I am more than comfortable in this form so why should I switch back?


    I will have to play human again for formal events and conversing with humans, but when I¡¯m by myself I will definitely be a badass bio tank that can spew lighting out of my body with a thought.


    Well, it won¡¯t be that simple, but with some training getting used to I¡¯m sure that I will be fine.


    I forgot about an important discovery about this world, the different races that exist.


    On the 3 other civilized continents exist beastmen, elves, fairies, demons, angels, and harpies with humans residing with us.  I thought the harpies would be considered a type of beast person, but the books say they completely separated from the rest and are now just nomads traveling from place to place, just going where the weather is nicer I guess.


    What has me most intrigued is the beastmen, they are supposedly more physically inept than humans and can take after any type of mammal in appearance, from rodents to canines they are incredibly diverse.  When I was in my teens I always thought furries were incredibly weird and unusual, but now that animal human hybrids actually exist I am not sure how I would react seeing one.


    I mean, the idea is cute and all, but could I live with myself if I do happen to take a liking to one? I literally grew up with everyone around me having a deep hatred for terrorists, referring them as ''goat fuckers'' as a sort of secondary name for them.


    I have been thinking about it a little bit, and I think that the whole sentience and consent thing makes it ok but I really am having a hard time with this...maybe I am just thinking too hard?


    What was it that activists used to say? Something like love is love...I never really cared for all that stuff but it''s not like I was going around lynching homosexuals, if they wanted to be gay or trans or whatever go ahead, just don''t bother me with it.  I feel a little hypocritical now though, maybe I should start a movement spreading interracial love.


    No, that''s a really bad idea now that I think about it. What if a demon and a human mated? Ewwwww....it would be like a more humanoid version of Shrek.


    Hey, wait a minute, donkey was an animal and he did it with a dragon and nobody really cared about that. Does that mean it''s ok? Hey, if no one is going to tell me otherwise I am now going to assume it is ok.


    As long as the beast people aren''t literally animals...


    You know what? I¡¯m throwing this whole thought process away; I am only 7 months old. I need to be focusing on more important things like knowing how my city works.


    But currently I am with Vedbrii in the kitchen making some mushed up dinner for myself, I won''t get teeth until my first transformation so I have to get used to this stuff sometime soon as I will be eating it for the next 3 and a half years.


    I thought it was weird how I wasn''t born with teeth seeing as I am a predatory flying lizard, but a biology book on dragons cleared it up for me.


    Since the time from being laid to the time I am hatched is so short, I did not have time to grow teeth in the egg, and because dragons mature in waves I cannot develop them now either. The book points out that the first 4 years and 3 months are when a dragon is most vulnerable, this is why I need to be on my mother¡¯s shoulders at all times.


    Also because she thinks I¡¯m insanely cute and wants to show off her parrot lizard. But mostly out of love, yeah. Really intense motherly love.


    Sometimes I think it might be a little obsessive, but I am just a child in the face of an 8000-year-old dragon.


    I learned my mother''s age during one of her ramblings about her youth with father, he is 12000 by the way. I thought they were separated by maybe 2 or 3 years tops, but dragons stop aging at the age of 23 so my father just has a more mature look.


    Apparently my birth was a huge ordeal was because dragons have an extremely low fertility rate and that my birth was a miracle in itself, my parents have been trying for thousands of years to no avail. I can¡¯t imagine being with someone for that long, but dragons perceive time differently because they are immortal.


    Years also do not matter to dragons when it comes to love, the only time years are brought up is a seniority concept which is deeply rooted in dragon society.


    Juniors do not dare disrespect or offend their seniors, this is something that every dragon knows from instinct at birth. The legends say that this happened because of the Allfather, supposedly he created us with this in mind so that his children would not fight amongst themselves.


    This guy was literally the world¡¯s greatest dad, I bet his jokes were killer before he literally sacrificed himself by hitting a giant rock really really really hard.


    This food still feels terrible going down my throat by the way, it is a constant struggle made worse by the fact that my throat is longer than what it was as a human, so I have to feel the mush sliding down all the way into my chest.


    It is not a pleasant experience, I now know why babies hated eating baby food. It wasn''t because it tasted bad, it''s because the stuff is like slime crawling its way down your esophagus.


    I finished eating my muck as quick as possible and mother takes me with her to bed where father is waiting, this is a routine that I am used to by now.


    In the mornings, they play with me. After lunch, they play with me. After dinner and in bed for the night, they play with me for a significantly longer and more intensely.


    I suspect that it is a result of their accumulated stress throughout the day and that they need to take it out on me to make them feel better.


    And off I go to my fated suffering, as a living and breathing stress ball I must perform my job to the best of my ability.


    (I packed a lot of information into this one, so much so that I tried extra hard to have it be funny at the end. Let me know what you thought of this chapter and as always, thanks for reading and have a great night!)


    (Proofread = Scientia Pyre)

 Chapter 4: The Council

    It has now been over 2 years since I was born in this world, and my life is going more than well. Vedbrii and Sahqoviing have been more gentle with their play time and it has become more like a pampering than them ravaging my tiny body.


    I also have full control of all of my body too, however I still can¡¯t do much in this tiny form, but there is only another 1 year and 7 months to go before I enter my hibernation state. I can even fluctuate my voice enough to give a slightly intimidating roar, although it still sounds incredibly cute. If you pay attention enough you can tell my emotions through my voice, but to anyone besides my mother and father it just sounds like a yelp.


    I also have completely mastered this countries languages, still can¡¯t speak them though...but I CAN read now. Those rune looking things were a pain in my dragon ass to figure out, but I did it. (A.N. I would have put an example in here, but RoyalRoad does not allow the use of symbols/custom fonts. If you want to know what language I have been using click this link https://www.thuum.org/</a> )


    Since I figured out how to read, I was able to look at the books that my mother has not gotten around to reading yet such as details about magical cores, the geography of the other continents, and biology of the other 7 races.


    A book titled ''Lah Pel'' or ''Magic Information'' gave me a general idea about magic in this world. For all living species there are several stages after their magic awakening. From lowest to highest tier is Black, purple, blue, red, orange, and white. Each of the colors/stages all include 3 sub stages that will further grade them. If you just advanced your magical core from a light black/grey, you would move on to a dark purple color.


    From dark purple you would then advance to purple to light purple/violet, some species can bypass these rules however.


    Like dragons! We can progress our cores just like any other species, but when we awaken we automatically get a boost from our genes to a light purple stage. Meaning that when I am 4 years old I will be as strong magically as a 15 or 16-year-old human. The races have different progressions though, and I would only be strong as an elven 12-year-old.


    Speaking of different progressions and elves, I got around to reading a book called ''Reyliik Kopraan'' which describes the different physical and mental traits of the world''s races.


    First starting with the beastmen; They are more physically inclined like I thought initially, but are slightly less inept at controlling magic than the humans can. Beastmen tend to value honor and hand to hand combat more than ''cowardly'' casting magic from afar. With an average lifespan of 80 years, they aren''t that much better than humans.


    Then there are the elves: They are pretty much like all fantasy games and novels describe them as, they''re skinny and nimble with pointy ears but they control magic well. The few warriors that are elves are light armor based and more often than not assassins. Elves are an intelligent race with a lifespan of around 140 years, almost double that of humans.


    Next, the demons and angels. As the name ensues, they are mortal enemies of opposite playing fields that have been at war for most of the time both of them lived on this planet. The angels control a unique type of magic only available to them called ''Light'' magic, it is only effective in combat against the forces of evil or demons. However it can also be used to treat wounds like water magic.


    [size=small The heavenly creatures are gifted physically and magically, fortunately for the other races the winged ones are only interested in massacring demons. [/size]


    The demons are polar opposites to angels, as they live underground as opposed to some flying fortress in the sky like the angels. Demons are even more physically and magically skilled, but because of the lack of wings the angels can keep up. The ''evil'' ones can use a unique type of magic called ''Dark'' magic which is only combat effective against non-angels. The darkness energy is commonly seen as plagues, famines, poisons, and death. Although it cannot be used against the forces of light in battle, it is an effective shield.


    Light cannot pass through the darkness and darkness cannot overcome the light. Because of this, the demons and angels have been at a stalemate in their war for exactly 14284 years, with either side refusing to give up. None of them even know why they are fighting anymore, even though they are immortal, the elders have long since forgotten the cause behind their bitter hatred.


    There might not even be one, they just keep on fighting though.


    Unlike the demons and angels, fairies and harpies are peaceful creatures. Neither of them have been in a war for the duration of their existence and they don''t plan to do so either. Fairies are tiny, gentle creatures that almost have no physical ability but are extremely talented in magic. They spend their time in forests protecting something that not even the dragons know what is there, all that we have been told is that it is a prophecy stone that all of the fairies will sacrifice themselves to protect.


    Those little buggers are serious too, one of the council tried to force his way through and they just threw themselves at him until over half of them were dead, he did not want to cause extinction so the quest for knowledge stopped. Although we are greedy for knowledge and gold, dragons are not so heartless as to sacrifice thousands for their gains.


    A few hundred or so, that is an entirely different story.


    The harpies have no reason for being peaceful, they just don''t care enough to get involved in anything. Since the great separation 3000 years ago, the bird people have just wandered around doing nothing in particular. They have an average lifespan of about 50 years so I can respect them getting as much happiness as they can for their unusually short lives...


    And finally, there are humans. Pretty boring if you ask me, just like how I knew they would be. Both inferior in magic and strength to the other races, humans are the weakest of all the sentient creatures on this planet. They live to be 75 years on average, and almost all of them do nothing during that time period. With the exception of a few great people here and there, humans have contributed nothing technologically to this world.


    The final interesting book I read was that of one telling of the geography of the continents.


    The Hofkiingolt, or ''homeland'', of the dragons is extremely mountainous with mountain ranges and volcanoes covering over 80% of the landmass. Our city is actually located in one of the flatter and cool locations, despite the 3 huge rocks surrounding us and the fact that it is always summer here. Not that I mind, really...actually, the heat feels incredibly pleasant on my scales whenever I go outside with Vedbrii she lets me sprawl on the ground and bask in it.


    Again, just like a cat. I could care less now though, I stopped trying to fight my cat like nature last year when I discovered how much I truly like the sun.


    Speaking of dragons really liking the heat, apparently the northern part of the continent is thoroughly riddled with hundreds of active volcanoes, and inside the biggest volcano is the home of the council. Father tells me that it is his favorite place to take a nap and it feels absolutely amazing on his scales.


    My parents finally figured out my intelligence, by the way. I got caught reading a book in the dead of night after I snuck out of my room and into the library. They didn''t take it as a bad thing at all either, actually they were overjoyed that I wasn''t going to be an idiot.


    But that isn''t very important, what is important is describing the world to you people. (A.N. Broke the 4th wall again, don''t call the cops please)


    The continent I¡¯m on right now is the second largest on this world, being somewhere in between 20 and 30 million miles squared, it''s huge to me but only another continent to the people of this world.


    The closest continent to us is something like 30,000 miles away, we are on essentially separated from the rest of the world over here. This oceanic gap is the largest on the planet as the other continents are relatively close together, with the biggest gap being 5,000 miles.


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    The continent of ''Sunvaarmun '' is the land of the beast people. The races generally keep to themselves except for when they want to go to war so the entire chunk of land is all owned by animal men.


    Unlike my home, Sunvaarmun is almost completely safari like in all places, with the climate being that of southern Africa. The only problem this brings is the lack of wood, but they all built mud huts for cities and towns so I guess it is only a mild inconvenience. Their continent is something like triple that of Africa''s, so it is pretty impressive that they managed to get it all to themselves. I don''t know how large their population is, but it must be at least in the hundreds of millions


    Next is the Fahliil Golt, translated to literally Elf Land. The elves reside in heavily forested regions on a continent which is a polar opposite to the beastmens. Their climate would be that of Canada, with both winter and summer it is the first continent to have a 4 season cycle. From the descriptions and the travel records of going from one end to another, it should be around 20 million miles squared


    The fairies and elves are pretty cool with each other and they live in harmony in the forests. There has not been a single large dispute between the two and they are on friendly terms.


    The last populated region is Kunahrkvul, which is the battlefield of the angles and demons. The entire continent has been utterly decimated by the war, with only a handful of forests that have been untouched. I would describe it more as a desert than simply flat lands though. Kunahrkvul is the smallest of all the continents with only about the surface area of 8 million miles squared.


    As for the other two continents, the dragons who have ventured over there say that it is just forests that have been untouched by any type of sentient creature, and the only residents are monsters who fight in a Darwin type environment. Sounds nice, I haven''t even gotten a chance to leave at all during my 2-year life so far, mother says there isn''t much to see outside but I think it would still be nice to have some kind of change in scenery.


    But based on the total land and water coverage, the other two continents are at least the size of that of the elves and beastmen.


    I am kind of jealous and worried about my father though. He got called to the council to meet early yesterday morning, as for what it was even he doesn''t know. Mother and I saw him off as he transformed into his magnificent red dragon form.


    He was huge...just like the books said he would be. Everyone else in the city was in admiration and awe at the sight of such a superior being and I think every single citizen was on the streets at the same time to watch his departure. There was no celebration though, because the only time he has had to leave was when there was a great disaster or calamity.


    I wonder what could have happened? Did the stalemate between the angels and demons finally break? I will have to wait for him to come back before I can have any way of knowing for certain...


    -------------------------------------------------


    Council of 10, Holfkiingolt


    Seated at a large brown table inside of a pitch black room are nine men and women with serious expressions on their faces, each appearing to be in their early twenties.


    They sit in silence waiting patiently for the final seat to be filled, several minutes pass before a door leading to the room opens up and a young man enters. This person has bright white short hair and equally white eyes. Covering one of those pearl white eyes are 3 large slash marks, looking to be done by a claw of sorts.


    Upon seeing the man enter the room, the nine seated individuals stand up and speak in perfect unison:


    "Your juniors welcome you, Elder Brother Kinbok." As soon as they started speaking, each of them firmly planted their right forearm and clenched fist over their heart, in some kind of formal salute.


    The man dismisses them with a wave of his hand and they all sit down. The man called Kinbok begins to speak to the other nine, each of them staring intently at him as to not miss a single detail of what he is about to say.


    "We have received word from a fairy messenger late last night, the prophecy stone has activated again. They are not sure when it will be fulfilled, but it will surely be within the next 30 years. We must begin to make preparations for the Lot Dinok, we do not have Pahborma to save us this time."


    After hearing his words, the nine individuals started talking amongst themselves worriedly about what this message implies.


    The talking continues for several minutes before it calms down and a man with azure blue hair speaks his mind


    "Elder Brother, how are we meant to defeat such an existence that even the great Allfather could not destroy without killing himself? Surely there must be a way."


    Kinbok nods as he listens, and replies smoothly


    "The prophecy also tells of 4 who will surpass the power of Pahborma, they have already spawned and are in their second year of existence. The genes they inherited from Father are the strongest that have ever been passed down, they far surpass mine. By the time that they are in their third stage they will have power that is greater than my own."


    With this, the entire council goes into a frenzy of asking questions to each other, they do not doubt their Brother, but how can this be possible? After all, Elder Brother is many times stronger than they. And mere infants at that? It does not sit well with them, and they must converse with each other.


    Seeing their confusion and worry, Kinbok wait patiently for them to present their questions. This is how all council meetings have gone in the past, and they will continue to do so. The nine juniors pick a representative to ask a group question, and the leader answers.


    15 minutes pass before the dragons have decided which questions need to be asked, this time a crimson haired individual turns to address his senior, this man is Sahqoviing, Vedova''s father.


    "Elder Brother, is these 4 are already born then what is their identity? We must train them quickly, should we not?"


    Kinbok once again nods calmly, signifying to the others that this was a question that he expected.


    "One of them is your own son, Sahqoviing." He then shifts his gaze to a black haired woman


    "Two of them belong to you and your husband, Qovah. The two twins you were blessed with serve a higher purpose."


    He finally rests his eyes on a white haired man who is seated at the back of the table and speaks


    "The final child is yours, Sota, these four will be our salvation, make sure to raise them properly. The meeting is over, go now back to your cities and begin to prepare. For those of you that do not have them, go and wake up the others. Tell them what I have told you, we will need everyone for this war."


    And with that, the Dovgrind is over. All of the dragons leave one by one to fulfill the orders of their leader.


    (After this chapter I plan to put in a time skip to end the birth arc. I am not sure if I am progressing the story too quickly or not yet, let me know if this speed is fine or if I should slow down. Depending on what you guys think, I will either add some buffer for the evolution or get right into it. Thank you for the support so far, it really has been great, once again thanks for reading!)


    (Proofread = Scientia Pyre)

 Chapter 5: Transformation

    When Dad did finally came home, he was in such a good mood that mother was a little suspicious, enough so to interrogate him not even 5 minutes after he walked through the castle doors.


    Vedbrii is extremely scary when she is angry, please God let me never anger her, for it will be the death of me. Sahqoviin might be even more of a monster, being able to handle that pressure with a nervous laugh. The nervous laugh completely disappears after mother gets seriously pissed off though


    He starts to explain what the council meeting was about with a now troubled expression on his face, he is currently sputtering out words so fast and incomplete it only angers my dear mommy even further.


    I want to hide, get me off of this womans shoulders! Someone help dad, hes about to be murdered!


    My poor father is gathering his thoughts while stalling by pretending to stutter some more. Mother raises her hand to slap him silly when he finally gets out a coherent sentence:


    "Our boy is a genius who will even surpass Elder Brother, he is going to train with 3 of his siblings after he evolves next year, pleasedonthurtmedeariloveyou!"


    After hearing this my mother goes "Huh?" and i let out the closest thing to a surprised gasp as i can, still nothing more than a yelp.


    My father tries to smile weakly and moves in with open arms to hug mother, but she is having none of it and punches him square in the gut sending him flying. Before he can even land mommy sets me down on the floor and smiles calmly saying


    "Vedova baby, just stay put. You mommy has to talk to daddy about something right now, i will be back for you in a minute" She motions to a guard who is trembling in his boots to come over


    Run you fool! Get away while you still can! NO! What are you doing? Ahhhhh...its too late


    "You, take my son to the other room. If i don''t find you and him both there when i return you will wish you were dead, do you understand me?" The way she still has a smile on her face and says it in such a sweet voice makes it 10 times scarier than what it would be normally.


    The man quickly picks me up off the floor as gently as possible and carries me out of the room, i try to persuade him to help my father in the process


    ''Hey, you! Call the army, get the air force, my dad is about to get killed! I need help, where is your commanding officer?! You idiot, i will have you demoted so fast you will be mopping the town square in the rain! Do you understand me?! HEY!''


    My attempts are futile and my urgent sounding yelps only drive him further into his panic, now almost running out of the room.


    The last i saw of the room was my father on his knees with his hands in a pleading position, i can see the despair in his shiny red eyes.  I can make out the sound of my mother cracking her knuckles as she faces my father, i shudder about what is to come.


    ----------------------


    For over 30 minutes there was the sound of someone getting beaten over and over again. My soldier was sitting across from me the entire time, visibly cringing every time the sound of a new punch rang out. I feared the poor man would release his bowels in the royal furniture.


    Every time a meaty thud rang out there was an equally loud whimper, followed by a set of rapidly spoken words. Even with my amplified hearing i could not make out what was said, i am not sure if i wanted to.


    My poor old man, he was a good father while he was alive, this will be the first funeral i will go to since my first fathers dead when i was 20. Rest in piece, both of you.


    However my chain of thought is cut short by the door slowly creaking open, the solider jolts up and deeply bows at a 90¡ã angle and gives his greetings.


    In my mothers small right hand is the collar of the seemingly wound less  figure of my father. I am afraid he is no more than a husk at this point, even though his physically amplified body suffered no physical abuse, there will surely be mental scarring.


    Despite the full grown king and Dragon Council member dangling lifelessly at her side, her face is that of love and pride as she dismisses the man clad in black armor.


    He runs out of the room, i assume he will be making a visit to a tavern today.


    With her free hand, she softly picks me up to her face and rubs my cheeks with her own, speaking in a loving and soothing voice not matching the devil i just saw a half an hour ago.


    "I knew you were mommy''s little genius, you are so lucky you take after your mother! Who''s a good boy? Who''s going to be stronger than all of the dragons when he''s older?"


    She pauses for a little bit at the end of the question and without even sparing a thought to the meaning behind her words, i put on my best impression of a happy cat and purr with all of my might, yelping enthusiastically and wagging my tail.


    "That''s right! You are~, no prophecy is going to hold you down!"


    Followed by that was a long series of coddling and petting me, she doesn''t say anything else about the details she received when she inter- *cough* talked to my father about what happened at the meeting.


    Something about me being super strong and a prophecy, this is much too confusing. Father even said something about 3 of my siblings training with me when i evolve...i definitely do not want to be stuck with some random old ass lizards that i don''t even know.


    This is too much to handle  right now, i will try to pry information out of father with my charm when he ressure- wakes up later.


    ------------------------------


    I don''t get anything out of him in the year and 6 months that follow his return from the council, the only minor detail of information i get is that it will all happen after i go into my coma later tonight.


    Recently i have become hungrier and sometimes my entire body itches like crazy, mother said something along the lines of this being a side affect to the massive growth that will take place soon.


    These side effects are kind of worrying in all honesty, how violent is this thing that it shows side effects before starting? I am hoping that it will be a peaceful slumber, i just want to close my eyes and wake up 3 months later without a hitch.


    But the massive amounts of meat being transported to my resting area underground make me think that i wont be as calm looking as sleeping beauty...i mean 30 raan should be enough, right? These things are bigger than cows and i still need other food along with it.


    I know i am going from a house cat to a horse, but seriously this has to be too much.


    And why am i being sealed underground? Not only am i going to be 200 feet below the castle, but my father is going to put magical seals on the walls and door as well, even with the seals there are going to be rotations of 3 groups of 10 powerful human mages keeping watch outside my door.


    What the fuck is going to happen to me? I can only get more and more nervous as the time grows nearer, even my parents look like they are nervous and are petting me extra gently and comforting right now.


    I am not even being carried me on her shoulders right now, im in a cradle in her arms as we make our way down through the tunnels and stairs.


    After walking through the grey corridors and doors, we finally reach a pitch black iron door with dragon engravings carved onto it.


    This thing looks scary as hell, there are a series of runes above the doorframe as well that give a simple warning saying "Prodah: praan Dovah" which means Warning: Sleeping Dragon


    Why would you need a warning for a sleeping dragon? Im going to cry.


    When the door opens and we enter i whimper at the coldness of the room before me.


    Stacked on top of each other like cards are tens of animal carcasses which look to be covered in frost, near the back of the black and depressing cold meat locker is an opening with some thick cloth lain down, i am assuming that this will be my bed.


    All over the dark walls are hundreds of engravings, seemingly telling a tale of the life of a dragon. This carved portrait is so long and detailed with its pictures that only a small part of the ceiling is untouched, the image before the end is one of two fully grown dragons looking at each other with a tiny, newborn winged reptile in between.


    This must be the life of my father, he certainly has the time for all of these events to have taken place.


    My trio finally makes it to the combination of various animal furs that will be my bed, all the way back here it is so cold that i can see my tiny breath fogging in the air. These furs had better be warm, i hate the cold with all of my soul now that i am cold blooded.


    They set me down with a kiss on my forehead and give their goodbyes, wrapping me up in the cloth in the process.  As they quietly leave and close the doors, i can hear the faint sniffling of my mother followed by the hushed and reassuring voice of my father.


    I had read beforehand that dragons evolving has a slight risk during their first evolution, but only 3 dragons have perished in the 15000 years that they have existed. Not really much of a concern to me, but i understand how they feel.


    When i was around 13 in my past life, my older sister''s firstborn daughter had died of SIDs, it was a excruciatingly painful experience and i had not even been one of the parents, i will remember this concern they have shown for me.


    There is a faint blue glow coming from the door now, and i can feel myself getting more and more tired as the seconds go by.


    The last sound i hear as my eyes finally close is that of my heartbeat getting slower and slower.


    ----------------------------------------


    The moment my consciousness fades away in the black room, it reappears in a familiar white abyss with an equally familiar young man standing before me.


    Now in my old human form, i lose my balance on my two legs and fall over, but before i hit the ground a couple floofy pillows appear where i would have hit the ground.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Now chuckling at my disposition, the man i know to be God speaks up


    "I see that you have gotten used to your Dragon body, how is it so far?"


    I dont have to think about it at all before answering


    "I absolutely love it, i could not ask for a better species to be. This world is interesting as well, i cannot express how grateful i am for the gift you have given me." With this i give a lower my head and close my eyes to amplify the feeling of gratitude i am trying to get across.


    "Oh? But you do not even know of the extent of my gifts. You form and family status is only a part of what you will receive. Before you ask, no i will not share. You will have to see for yourself when you finish growing"


    He briefly sticks out his tongue at me playfully and continues


    "I will answer a couple questions you might have, although it depends on what you ask i can provide you with any type of knowledge you desire."


    Any questions, huh? Well the first thing that comes to mind would be the events of the latest council that got my father a beating.


    "What happened at the council and what did my mother mean by me being the strongest dragon. Also, what is the prophecy?"


    Smiling again, he nods his head saying


    "One question at a time please~ I will answer them one by one. Starting with the first one, it is simple. A prophecy has been activated and you along with 3 other newborns will be destined to stop what is destined to come.  This will be carried out in 20 years time, after your third evolution. Before i answer the second question, anything you want to say?"


    I give him a nod in the negative, and he continues


    "With the power i have given you, you will be the strongest dragon, there''s nothing else  to it than that. I will not tell you the power you will get, as it is related to one of my gifts. And the third question is the most important part, make sure you pay extra attention to this. There is an enemy that will come from another world, it is known to your world as the Lot Dinok, or Great Death. This enemy is a world devourer that has been annoying for as long as i can remember.  His main body will be coming to your world personally because of the grudge he has with me.  This will be the only chance i have had to destroy him completely in all of my years repelling him, one of the reasons i had you rebirth in this world was because of it. If you fail that the world will be destroyed and i will be pretty bummed...thats it.  Any questions?"


    Hmm...the way he said something is bugging me.


    "What do you mean by the grudge he has with you when it comes to this world?"


    That must have been a good thing to ask because he starts to laugh again, although not in a rude way as if making fun of me.


    "Good, good. I wanted you to catch that part, are you ready for a little surprise?  I am Pahborma, he was my original form. After using the amount of power i did to destroy a huge chunk of him, i transcended mortal planes and entered the realm of the Gods! Isn''t that impressive? I sure am cool, right?"


    Waitwaitwaitwait wait. Did he say ''Gods'' as in, more than one?


    "Hold up, if you became a God and not THE God, then how many Gods are there?"


    He puts his hand on his chin and looks upwards, seemingly thinking about something.


    "Hmmmm...around 3256. That was the last number i remember, but that was eons ago. I am the only god in this specific universe though, each of us are given our own after all.  Together, all of these universes make up the multiverse. There are even a couple VIP worlds where us Gods go for a little vacation now and again, its pretty cool. But this is not something i should be telling you about, at least not yet~"


    My head hurts now, and why did he say not yet? Urgh, fuck it im done with any type form of trying to understand how these things work. I need to think of how to kill this death bullshit right now, maybe later i can try to get what he just said.


    Seeing my troubles, God simply says


    "Dont worry, by the time you fully mature you will be a lot stronger than i was when i tried to kill The Great Death, you will just have to put some effort into it. Don''t tell the other dragons though, they might try to kill you for disrespecting me, teehee, my children really are loving <3"


    Well, that that helps i guess. Now i can look forward to having this power hes talking about, one more thing though, i want to know how strong these other 3 will be


    "Hey, wh-"


    Before i can finish the sentence God intterupts me with that superfast voice of his and says


    "Well, if thats all i really have to go. Ill see you next evolution, have fun!"


    OH GOD DAMN IT DONT YOU DARE DO THIS TO ME AGAIN


    Before i can voice my opinion, the image of God heavily laughing fades away and my vision goes dark


    -------------------------------------------


    ''That mother fucker, i let him do it to me again! Whats the old saying?''


    Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.


    Yeah, that one. For fucks sake, i should have asked earlier before he had the chance to run away.


    Oh well, i have a new body to get used to. With that thought, i slowly open my eyes for the first 3 months. As my eyes adapt to the darkness, the shape of the room i was in becomes clear. At the sight of the hundreds of bones before me, i cant help but shout out


    "Holy shit!"  Wait, that''s my voice? It''s deep as hell!  I am a black dragon, but damn is that deep, its far deeper than my old one.


    As i gaze around at the dried blood and broken bones all over the place, i begin to stand up to see just how big my body got.


    Fully standing, i am pleasantly surprised  to see that i am actually larger than what the books said i would be, i am over 3 meters in height and 4 meters long excluding my extremely long and beefy tail. I touch my scales only to find that the fleshy feel to them is now completely gone and replaced by a solid steel sensation.


    My claws and the spikes on my back have hardened as well, and i can tell that they are tens of times sharper and stronger than they were before.  I feel around the inside of my mouth with my flexible tongue and find many razor sharp teeth instead of the soft gums that i had before.


    I feel around my head with my paws and find two  horns sticking out of the top of my head, although small they still sprout up and out enough to begin to curl back towards the back of my head.


    I twist my now elongated neck and see that my small disproportionate wings  are now rippling with muscle, i stretch them out and find that they have over a 10m wingspan, i dont know the exact measurement though.


    In order to test out myself further, i smash my tail against the floor with maybe half of my strength.  Even with just 50% i make a large indentation and cracks form all around it. Impressive.


    Overjoyed at the new size, strength and  appearance of my new form, i take a deep breath and release a bone chilling, savage roar


    [size=small.  The roar is followed by a large gust of wind that violently picks up the bones in front of me and smashes them up against the opposite wall hard enough to cause them to crack. [/size]


    That wasn''t supposed to happen, was it? I have not read anything about electric dragons being able to do that...roars causing gusts of wind is an air dragon thing...


    Making sure i am not hallucinating, i roar again only to get the same result.


    Excitedly, i do what a magical book told me do in order to form magic.  Focusing on the center of my body, i concentrate heavily and i feel something warm gathering.


    Not warm in a pleasant way, but more hot and painful like being scalded by boiling water.  Shocked and in pain from the sudden heat, i shout out and try to heave up whatever is inside of me.


    When i push to expel the heat and roar, the heat travels up my throat to my mouth, but instead of being painful this time it feels pleasant and soothing.


    Also different from the inital searing heat, this gentle warmth goes continues smoothly out of my body and exits in the form of fire, searing the cloth that i was put to sleep in.


    The fire grows to be 10 meters long and continues flowing for 5 seconds before the energy gathered in my stomach runs out.


    Utterly surprised at the sight of a fire dragon spell; Fire Breath, i scream out in the form of a roar and scatter the now burning animal furs to the back of the room.


    Is this the ''gift'' that God was talking about? If i can use fire and air, then i should be able to use water and electricity right?


    This is going to be a better life than i initially thought, i was content with just one element but four? More than thrilled, i test out my powers over and over again until i get tired a little bit later.  This is too good, i cannot begin to fathom how amazing this will be.


    For now, i will wait for someone to get me. Those human guards should have sent word about my waking up to my parents, they should be here very soon. I can''t wait to tell them about my new power.


    Too giddy to sleep and too tired to have some fun, i lay down patiently in front of the door.


    (And with that, the birth and information plugging is over. Next chapter will begin training with some new characters!   I hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as i did writing it,  because this chapter was really fun to visualize. Let me know what you thought about it in the comments! I am always reading and have had a lot of laughs so far, it makes me overjoyed to see this many people liking this story. I hope you all stick with Vedova and I as we progress through the story :D)

 Chapter 6: Surprise!

    It doesn''t take long before the blue tinge of the door starts to change back into its original charcoal color. As it does, i can feel immense strength coming into my body.  Those magical seals must have done a number on me, and when they''re fully gone i can say for certain that i will be testing out this body of mine again.


    The door slowly opens and the face of my parents come into view, both of them wearing shocked expressions as they look up at my now 3m high body.  The shock quickly turns into relief as my mother jumps to my side, hugging the base of my neck with her arms.


    I can feel a certain moisture on my metallic scales, i am sure it is not water magic.  To comfort her an offer some reassurance, i wrap the rest of my elongate neck around her body, giving her the closest thing to a hug i can manage.


    My dad is more collected than my mom, and he lets out a low appreciative whistle saying


    "Look at how big you got! You are a lot bigger than i was when i first transformed, and i was supposed to be the largest one.  I guess you got the best out of the both of us when you were born."


    After that, he walks over to the opposite side of my mother and pats my shoulders causing a mix of a clink and a thud to ring out. It doesn''t hurt in the slightest, in fact in kind of tickles.


    Because of how much it tickles, i let out a booming laugh and both of my parents step back a few feet with the once again shocked faces.


    Vebrrii is the one to stay calm this time, and she looks at me still with even more tears in her eyes and says in a choke voice


    "My little boy is all grown up now, how am i supposed to carry him on my shoulders now?"


    She sniffles once more and starts openly crying, my father moves over to help her but before he can i move infront of her and lower my head enough so that she can see the top of it.


    Now with my snout almost touching the floor, i say in a gentle tone


    "Don''t worry, Mom.  I will always be your little dragon, just in a different form."


    Hearing my words she stops crying, but still sniffles, chuckling sadly


    "He is such a sweet talker too, how many women besides your mother will you make cry?"


    My father then comments, clearly without thinking of what he is saying


    "Just like his old man! Hey, did i ever tell you about the time i-"


    Interrupting what he was about to say, a meaty smack reverberates throughout the crypt im in and i lower my head even further, now touching the ground.


    I can make out the wheezing sound of my father as he tries to get some oxygen back into his system.  Mother simply says in a sweet but scary voice


    "What was that dear? I couldn''t hear you, was there something you wanted to say?"


    Obviously aware of what will happen is he continues, he squeezes out "No honey, i did not say anything. I love you!"


    "I love you too, but i wonder why you would say that here?"


    He knows he should not talk anymore, and after seeing that she will get no response my dear mother goes ''hmph!'' and walks around me to see the rest of the room i was in.


    My father waddles along after her, still trying to get a solid breath in. After getting fully past me, they both stop and i lift my head back up to see Vedbrii staring intently at one of the scorch marks.


    "Hey, these don''t look like lightning marks do they? And i thought he wasn''t even supposed to be able to use magic at all in here."


    To that my father stands back up from his scrunched position and nods saying


    "You''re right, they look more like burns from a fire, but that isn''t possible so it must be something else.  As for the not being able to cast magic part, Elder Brother said that Vedova would surpass even him so that isn''t all that peculiar."


    Knowing the true cause of the marks, i can''t help but laugh like some giddy school girl in my head at their faces when they see how i can use all four of the elements.


    With a shaky voice as i try to hold back my excitement, i call out to them


    "Mom, Dad, can i show you something real quick? I think you might want to see this."


    They turn to see what i want, and as they rotate enough to fully see me i have already nearly gathered enough energy in the pit of my stomach to breathe fire.


    I figured out why first time burned like hell through trial and error, i was using too much for my body to handle and it was spilling out of my control, thus burning me. I now know the full extent of the fire i should store in my core before i push it out to get the maximum effect.


    With my parents fully facing me, i push out the mana in the form of fire from my body. I had already turned my head to aim at a large pile of animal bones for my demonstration.


    The fire leaves my mouth at incredible speeds and fully engulfs the targets, going fully past them for a total of 20m length for the stream of fire.


    Seconds after the blaze surrounds the bones, they get reduced to nothing but a pile of ash. With more control over the flames, i immediately stop the moment i made the ash.


    Not letting my parents react, i take a deep breathe and roar with more force and power than the first time i discovered it. With the roar came  a large and violent gust of wind that scatters the ash into millions of particles throughout the room.


    After completing my show, i turn to look at the two individuals that i dropped the heavy bombshell onto.


    I hear a loud gasp and a KYAAAAA sound belonging to my mother.  A few seconds pass and Sahqoviing is the first to gather enough thoughts to make an attempt at speaking, stuttering out


    "W-what did you just do? Was that-"


    As he tries to finish Vedbrii interrupts him with an understanding expression saying


    "Fire and Air magic, our son is the first multi elementalist since Pahborma, do you know what this means?"


    After that statement she practically skips over to me an jumps onto my back, giving me a full body hug on the back of my neck.  I can hear her quietly whisper in the tune of a song:


    "My son is a genius~ he really is~ the strongest Dragon since the Allfather~"


    Unlike my mother who took it in a positive way, my father is now kneeling on the ground with an eerie and depressed look about his face and his rapidly speaking in a melancholy voice


    "Theres no way he got that talent from me, she must have cheated on me. I know i haven''t brought her a child in the thousands of times we tried but to cheat on me? Who was it...i bet it was that white haired pretty boy from the council Sota. That bastard! We have been married for 6000 years and he ruins it? Ill kill him! Ill-"


    Before he can continue his fast and sad ramblings a large lightning bolt strikes him from my back and he passes out cold. I can hear and smell the sizzling of my fathers flesh and i shudder hard enough to make my mother laugh and hop off.


    As she walks away toward my fried father she looks over her shoulders and lightly laughs out


    "Thats right, fear your mother. If you ever grow up like your father i will get a ladder to beat your ass i swear to Pahborma, i dont care how big you get."


    The way how she says it so lightly is terrifying, all i can manage to do is fall onto my stomach with a whimper as she peels the man i once knew to be ''Dad'' off the stony floor.


    With that thing now being dragged behind her, she walks towards the door motioning for me to come along. I look at the narrow door an become scared at the thought of her squeezing me through.


    Interrupting my thoughts, she abruptly stops about halfway through and thinks out loud


    "Ohhhhh, hes still in dragon form is he? Well we cant have that, i''ll have to show him how to transform. Vedova sweety, listen to mommy right now, ok?"


    Of course i am not going to object, and i focus everything i have on what she is about to say


    "Just think as hard as you can about shifting into a human form, the appearance is automatic so just imagine the shape."


    Oh, that isn''t too bad...i am definitely not going to share my opinion on being a human again, so i do as im told and try to imagine the outline of a human body in my mind.


    After a little bit, i can feel my entire body go numb and my vision fades for a couple seconds. When my eyesight reappears, i am on two legs and i lose my balance, falling onto the hard floor.


    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    I make a field check of my new senses, but i am delighted to discover that they are still the same.  I wont be hindered in that aspect, at least.


    Now shifting my eyes over to my body, i notice that i am naked. Quickly i cover myself to the best of my ability as my mother grabs the over shirt of my unconscious dad and hands it to me. I grab it with my free hand and immediately put it on.


    My father is about 6''7 so the coat is massive on my child like body.  If i were to guess, i would say that this human form is closest to that of a ten or 11 year old in height.  All of my muscles are slightly bulging, but i am a 10 year old so nothing is visible except for my toned abs.


    Seeing as how i won''t be getting anything else out of my physical traits, i rub my hair with my now primate like hands and find that i have shoulder length hair.


    That wont do, i always hated to have long hair in my old life.  With a quick idea, i try to imagine one of my claws on my hand and seconds later one sprouts from my index finger.


    Seeing this, my mother makes something like an ''OooOOo'' sound and says


    "Already shifting your form huh? It''s a very basic thing to do, but right after your first shapeshift is impressive.  I can''t really use everyone else as a basis for you though, now can i you little braniac! And not only that, but you''re bigger than what you''re supposed to be.  Every other Dragon is the size of a 6 year old when they first transform, but here you are as big as a 10 year old human runt."


    So i''m bigger in my human form and dragon form? Sweet! But first, i need a haircut.  Grabbing a huge chunk of it, i cut at the base an chop off a large chunk.  After tidying up a bit, i ask mother for a mirror to use.


    She thinks for around 20 seconds and then gets an idea.  Lifting up her arm, she smashes the ground beneath her hard enough to disintegrate the stone into sand. After forming the powdery material, she creates a large spark at her fingertip and sends out a tiny lightning bolt to the ''sand''.


    As soon as the stream of electricity touches it, the sand melts into a dull mirror the size of a hand. She picks it up and hands it to me, smiling like she is proud of her quick thinking.


    Scary, mother is scary...


    Hesitantly, i grab the still warm mirror and inspect it.  Although primitive, it will work for now.


    Looking into it and at my reflection, i see that i have pitch black hair that is still pretty long.  I shift my eyes to my face and am surprised to see a pretty boy type character staring right back at me. This kid has slightly pale skin and bright silver eyes, even brighter than my mother.


    With a mental whistle at my fortunate looks, i continue giving myself a haircut. A long series of snips and asking an opinion from my mother, i settle on a hairstyle that i like.  With my hair still long enough to play around with ans style but short enough to fit military regulation, i hand back the mirror to my mother and she teases me a little bit. (A.N. I would put in a link to a hairstyle but theyre just too long and i have no idea how to make a spoiler thingy to hide it :(  )


    "Oooh, i like the hair! Im sure you will have no problem finding a mate in a few thousand years <3"


    She says it with a wink and i can feel my cheeks redden a little bit. Seeing my flustered state, she laughs again and we leave the room with father being dragged face first on the floor.


    --------------------------


    It has been exactly 1 day since i awoke from my slumber, currently i am in human form sitting next to my parents in the throne room.


    Today is the day where i meet my training partners, since i was the last one to awaken from my sleep the other 3 decided to just meet here. They have been in the city for 4 days, but the guests decided to give me a day to recover and get used to my new self.


    They should be here any minute now and i have to be prepared to meet them in a formal way. Apparantly i will be spending the next 20 years with them just training to combat The Great Death.


    Several minutes pass and the door opens as 7 individuals walk through the door.


    3 children, four parents. With an assortment of differently colored hair, the guests enter at the same time.  From left to right, there is a man with bright blue long hair and equally blue eyes.  Next to him are two young girls seeming to be around the age of 7, one having white hair hanging freely and one with wavy black hair. Both of their eyes are a bright crystal blue, truly a pretty shade.


    Those are the twins that they father was talking about, i can''t help but think they look familiar, like i have seen them somewhere...oh well. Just a feeling anyways.


    After the two girls is a dignified looking woman with her long black hair styled into a french braid, she has brown eyes to match her hair.


    That seems to be the first family, not too bad.


    Entering behind them is a tall man with a short black crew cut and a light black beard forming on his cheeks, his eyes are bright yellow and look to have a jolly aura about them.  To his right is a woman i presume to be his wife, she also has black hair and she owns emerald green eyes, they have the same happy an humorous look about them as her husband''s.


    I like this family so far, they look to be fun people.  Behind the comedic pair is a young boy with an annoyed look on his face, when he sees me his light blue eyes light up brightly and he starts to run towards me.


    Not recognizing the boy who seems to know me, i complete my analysis and discover that his brown hair has the same stupid colic as Tyler does. Immediately understanding who it is i am not sure whether to laugh or cry. (A.N. Had to do it, couldnt resist.)


    Choosing to laugh, i burst out laughing hard enough to cause tears of both joy and sorrow to pour freely down my face.  The 8 others in the room look confused at our heartfelt reunion, but i ignore them and jump out from my seat, slowly walking towards the 8 year old who i knew in my old world as Tyler.


    I stretch out my arms as he draws near and expect him to do the same, like some kind of cliche romance.  Instead of the hug i anticipate, i receive a hard punch straight to my jaw.  Although not powerful enough to make me step back, it does hurt quite a bit and causes my face to turn violently in the direction that the fist went.


    Before i can even ask for why, i get the hug i was expecting initially. Tyler speaks quietly in english so that the others cant understand


    "Do you know how hard it was to live after the shit you pulled? I couldn''t even feel sorry for myself because of that stupid note you left me, fuck you.  Never do that again, do you understand me?"


    Shocked at his words, a flood of emotions wash over me as i nod slowly bringing my arms around to embrace my sobbing friend.


    Seeing that there is no danger, our parents don''t interrupt the bro-moment and i speak into his ear


    "How are you here? You shouldn''t be dead yet, and how did you know it was me?"  My throat is closing now because of the sheer flurry of feelings that are assaulting me, it starts getting slightly hard to breathe.


    "God told me about you and this world, he said something about a gift and that time works differently when it comes to him.  I couldn''t believe what he said until now, you had been dead for 52 years..."


    ''Ahhh....that makes sense...then does that mean that those twins are-''


    Confirming my thoughts, the two girls walk over to just a few meters away and wait patiently. I can make out two stones lodged into the center of their collarbones, one emerald green and one sapphire blue.


    There will be a lot of catching up to do, hopefully these two women aren''t as emotional as this kid in my arms right now....


    (Well thats that, this chapter took forever to write lol, I tried to amplify all of the feels in this one. It was pretty short though so i will be typing out another longer one later today. As for the 3 companions, a lot of you had suspicions about their identities, but now it is confirmed! I think they will be a nice touch to the story, what do you guys think? Make sure to let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!)

 Chapter 7: Soul Bond

    After the two of us finally settled down the greetings went smoothly, all of our parents went to a seperate room to discuss some things and i led my little group to a living room area.


    The first thing i did was greet Jasmine and Carly, asking them how their lives as dragons.


    I could still tell them apart, but it was far easier being able to see the completely different colors of the gems and hair of the two.  Jasmine, with the white hair and clear blue eyes and had the sapphire colored stone in her chest while Carly, with black hair and slightly turquoise eyes and emerald colored gem lodged into her chest.


    They were not as excited to see me as Tyler, but still visibly happy to be together again.  I didn''t really expect much, it has apparently been many years since i passed and i am sure they have moved on by now.


    Jasmine replied first with a kind smile  "My name is Britvah now and as the color of my hair implies i am a wind dragon, although i can use water magic as well. You can still call me Jasmine when we are alone, it would be easier that way."


    After she''s done talking she gives be a friendly hug and backs off to let her sister reintroduce herself as well


    "My parents have given me the name Ensonin, but you can call me Carly like how it was before.  As you can see, i am an electric dragon that can also use  the air element."


    Britvah and Ensonin, huh? Yeah...I''ll just call them Jasmine and Carly. And they can only use two elements?  I had  figured that the people God had destined to fight his mortal enemy would be able to use all four like me, i wonder if there is a reason for this?


    Well 2 elements is still good, 4 us just better.


    Unlike her sister, Carly hugs me for a significantly longer amount of time, she also tries to press her nonexistent chest onto mine, but i separate myself before she can manage to do so. I would not have minded the extra affection, but Jasmines glare kind of scared me a little bit.


    Who am i kidding? She scared me a lot...she was so visibly upset that i could make out her eyebrows twitching as she put on a pitiful attempt at a warm smile.


    It looked more like a robot than a person, but i was NOT going to say that out loud, i have seen first hand what the females of my race are capable of.


    Luckily for me, Jasmine takes her anger out on her now pouting sister, planting a firm grip on her shoulder and pulling her out of the room into the hallway.


    This must have not been the first time something like this has happened, because Carly is crying and yelling like she is about to be killed.


    Scary...girls are scary...


    Tyler must have come to the same conclusion because he hides behind my back and i can hear his teeth clattering, i try to look strong but i shudder as well. Damn it Tyler, get it together!


    I want to hide too, but i can''t leave you there!  I need an adult...


    The site of Carly digging her nails into the wood of the door frame will probably plague my dreams for many nights to come.


    It appears i greatly underestimated the feelings they still had for me.  But to this extent? I thought myself a good judge of charachter, i could not even see past the illusion Jasmine set in the form of her face. I didn¡¯t even notice until she snapped, it makes me cringe thinking of how good she will be when she is older.


    If i am already terrified the first day of the 20 years we are suppose to be together, how am i supposed to lead this group?  I will have to be strong enough to fight back! Yeah, fight back.


    Dont tell her i said that though, ok? I just need some time to get strong...yeah, time...


    What happened to the sweet little girl i used to know? I didn''t even make it to her funeral, what kind of friend am i?


    It was several minutes before Tyler had the confidence to leave his safe zone behind my back, and another minute to feel safe enough to say his new name and abilities.


    "My name is Rahgon, but just keep calling me Tyler. I can use the water and fire elements.  Whats your name?"


    I twirl my fingers around his colic for a couple seconds before answering


    "My name is Vedova, but you''ll hurt my feelings if you dont call me Justin.  I can use all four elements."


    Hearing that i can use all four of them Tyler doesn''t react at all, like he already knew.


    "Yeah, that''s what God said.  I just had to be sure. I already talked to the two of them and confirmed that they knew as well, what they didn''t tell me was how you knew them from your old world...they wouldn''t shut up about you the entire time we talked. I don''t remember you dating anyone, let alone two twins."


    He tries to raise an eyebrow quizzically, but only manages to look like a stroke victim who can only use one half of his face. It has always been this way, and it looks like even in a new body his physical misgivings carried over.


    He is well aware of this, and we both burst out laughing at the same time at his horrible failure.  No matter how many times he does it, it never gets old. The scary vibe in the room is nowhere to be found now, and is replaced by two idiots laughing.


    For a goo 15 seconds i continue laughing, eventually calming down enough to chuckle out


    "They lived on my street for a long time, but they moved away when i was 8.  They were at my funeral, did you not see them?"


    He looks a little bit sad now, but not so much as to effect the current mood


    "I think i remember seeing two blonde chicks talking to your mom, but i wasn''t really paying attention to females seeing as how i was at your funeral.  How did you live for 8 years with that girl on your street? I probably would have run away before i let myself be off''d in such a violent way."


    I put on a shocked expression and i slowly raise my finger to point behind him, trying my best to act like i was warning him


    "B-b-behind you!"  I should get an Oscar


    His face pales as he slowly looks over his shoulder, visibly shaking at the knees.  I creep my way around his opposite shoulder as quietly as i can and he figures out that Jasmine isn''t there.


    Relieved that i was only joking, he turns around to say something to me but seeing nothing but air he gets scared again.  I stand up now behind him as he darts his eyes around the room in front of him.


    When he turns back around to search the other end of the room i tap on his shoulder and go "Boo"


    That really spooked him, he let out such a high pitched shrill i thought he would end up breaking the vase that was resting on the small table at the front of the room.


    I think he jumped a good 3 feet in the air, by the time he landed again he was so weak at the knees he fell onto his butt. Realizing what just happened, he grew red at the face and yelled at me for scaring him.


    I was laughing too hysterically to understand him though and the girls quickly opened the door worried about the scream they just heard.


    Seeing how panicked they were as if looking for a cadaver only adds to how hilarious the situation was, now my stomach hurt and i had tears in my eyes.


    I don''t know how long it was before i settled down, but when i did Tyler was so red i thought he would burst.  Too funny, i crack myself up sometimes.


    I am kind of startled to see Carly and Jasmine both in a good mood after they left, i expected one of them to be missing some hair and/or bleeding. Something about them seems...mischievous, and i don''t like it.


    I let out a cough to get their attention and speak up


    ¡°As much as i would like to keep having fun with you three, it should be getting pretty late so we should go meet up with our parents. Im sure we will have plenty of time to catch up later.¡±


    No one disagrees with my logic and i lead them out of the room and to where the adults should be located.


    We make a large and complicated series of twists and turns but eventually end up in front of a pair of large double doors signifying the room to be the royal bedroom.


    Opening the doors formally after knocking i expect to see the sight of 6 ancient dragons having a civilized conversation with each other.


    Not much to my surprise, i find 4 ancient dragons conversing without any tension at all. The remaining two are the figures of the twin¡¯s and my father lying unconscious next to our respective mothers.


    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    I am very much used to seeing my father¡¯s sorry self at the feet of my mom, and it looks like Jasmine and Carly are as accustomed to the sight as i am, both of them don¡¯t even bat an eye as they walk over to their mom who is smiling brightly.


    Tyler on the other hand looks to be very confused and stares at me as if expecting an explanation. I give him a small nod signifying not to ask and he shrugs, walking over to where his very jolly looking parents are seated.


    What bothers me isn¡¯t the fact that my dad is near death yet again, but the unusually happy expression on the girl¡¯s and my mother¡¯s face.


    Usually the look on her face is clearly fake, but this time it looks real like she is actually happy. Strange, very strange. Out of the three of us, no one dares to ask what happened to cause such an incident and we just sit in silence listening to the conversation between the 6 individuals.


    My mother breaks the initial silence and looks down at me to ask a question that i had not prepared for


    ¡°Honey, how do you know that boy? This should be your first time seeing him, yes?¡±


    Hearing this question i gulp in panic as i try to think of the best way to answer her, i go through every memory in me to find something that would explain how exactly it was a reunion and not a meeting.


    Within 2 seconds, i have already thought of something that should work.


    ¡°We have seen each other in our dreams, mother.  Ever since i was able to think we have been meeting whenever we sleep. The same with Britvah and Ensonin, we all have known eachother for a long time.¡±


    I had read in a book about the psychology of my race and discovered that sometimes pairs of dragons can communicate in the dreamworld even though they have never met before.


    It is said in the book that if the connection between souls is strong enough that this will always occur, the only downside is the implications such things have.


    ¡°Do you hear that, Onikvah? That makes it certain, we had nothing to worry about. I told you this is how it would be~¡±


    The woman called Onikvah is the twins mother, and hearing this she nods agreeing with what was spoken. Then, she looks down at her own children and says


    ¡°What do you think of that boy, you two?¡±


    Ahhhh fuck.


    Of course, the two girls blush with the image of me in the minds, and seeing this Onikvah laughs heartily and asks again


    ¡°Now what you think of Rahgon over there?¡±


    This woman is smart, i can tell that she is very good at manipulating emotions and getting what she wants.


    Scary...women are scary¡­


    Just as i thought they would, the girls blushing lessens considerably with Tyler in their heads as opposed to mine.  This seals it, i already know what is coming next.


    ¡°Did you see that Fron? You know what it means right?¡±


    Fron is obviously the name of Tyler¡¯s father, and he keeps his usual happy face on as he nods twice in quick succession, letting Onikvah know that he did indeed see and understand what is to come.


    My Vedbrii and the twins mother¡¯s smiles broaden widely as they once again nod at eachother, this time standing up and walking over to each other.


    When they get close enough to embrace, they each stick out an arm and shake hands like they are sealing a prearranged agreement.


    Vedbrii then proclaims in a cheerful voice


    ¡°Then, by the special rules revolving soul binds; I, Vedbrii Yolosviing, hereby proclaim that in 14 years time my son Vedova Yolosviing will take Britvah and Ensonin as mates to further benefit the dragon kind.¡±


    I think Tyler just had a heart attack, his eyes are almost bulging out of his sockets. I would laugh at him if it weren¡¯t for the cause of his sudden surprise.


    Ahhhhhhh i already knew what was going to happen...the downside to saying that we meet in our dreams is that it means we have a special soul connection established between the four of us.


    In all of history, only 5 dragons have had this type of bond before. And now with us, it makes it 9. In this bond were 4 female dragons and one male, currently they have 4 children and all of them are resting underground somewhere in the northern part of the continent.


    As for the special rules mom was talking about, normally it is forbidden for dragons to marry before they are 2000 years old as that is the age for adulthood in the dragon world. But when there is a soulbond involved, that age is reduced to just at least the second evolution, as that is the age in which dragons become physically fertile.


    The ¡®benefit the dragon kind¡¯ portion is portaining to the fact that our species in incredibly infertile. Once again, because of the special soul bonds, the fertility is increased to 100% for one time only whenever both of the mates are willing to have a child.


    Another reason the age is drastically lowered is because it would be cruel to force lovers to wait 2000 years before they can formally marry...how considerate¡­


    All of these rules were created by the council when the soul bonds were discovered 6412 years ago. This will be the second time that the special rules are enforced in all of dragon history.  I don¡¯t really have a problem with it per say, but i will need proof that there is actually a soul bond present between us.. Also there is the fact that Tyler is meant to be a part of it.


    They just write that off as a special friendship if it ever were to happen between males. In the event of a situation like we have now, the females choose their mate out of free will. I did not account for any of this happening...this is going to be a pain in the ass¡­.hnghhhhhh


    The girls clearly were not aware or prepared for this either, , and their pale faces and ears are now a deep shade of red.  Too embarrassed to speak, they simply try to hide themselves by burying their faces into their mother''s bosom.


    That¡¯s actually adorable¡­ this is how i remember them being in my old life. It must have been that woman who changed them into the tigers they are now..she will be a very large problem in the future.


    Onikvah has a victorious smile on her face as she comforts the young girls by rubbing the backs of her heads.


    I still think we are a little bit too young to be getting told that were going to be married, for the first time in all of my life i gather enough courage to protest against my mothers decision


    ¡°Mother, we are only four, surely we are too young to be engaged?¡±


    I don¡¯t think she cares much about my protest and answers kindly in what i am sure is an already thought of counter


    ¡°My son, you would not want to play with two beautiful young girl¡¯s feelings would you? I am positive that i raised you to be better that¡­¡±


    She then pretends to gasp and puts a hand over her mouth with a sad face


    ¡°...unless you ended up taking after your father after all? What a shame¡­¡±


    That last part makes me cringe so hard my back pops in 15 different places, that might be the single most horrific thing i have heard in the entirety of my two lives.  Before i can deepen the hole i have dug for myself, i quickly spurt out an apology along the lines of


    ¡°I am sorry mommy, i didn¡¯t mean it really. I understand what i must do now, i would never be like father pleasedonthurtmeimagooddragon¡±


    She then returns to her usual face, except this time there is an element of smugness hidden inside as she accepts my apology.


    Utterly defeated and scared out of my wits at the near death experience i just encountered, i can only watch as our guests give their goodbyes and leave the room.


    The twins are the last to leave, and with still beet red faces they give a hurried courtesy and hurry out of the room, following that shedevil who has the body of her husband slung over her shoulder.


    I sulk off to my room after wishing a good night to my mother.  I have a lot of thinking and planning to do¡­


    (Hey guys! I wasn¡¯t too sure if it would be a good thing to rush the whole marriage thing, but i decided for it after some thinking. Hopefully you guys agree with my decision! I know that they are still children and i will NOT be putting in anything that would make me a pedophile! xD But also consider that they have known eachother for over 8 years at this point and that childhood love is still going strong! Anyways, thanks for reading and have a good night!)

 Chapter 8: Training Camp Part 1

    (Before you read, should i change the title of the story? There have been a couple people suggesting to do so, but i can''t really think of anything good to replace this one. Let me know in the comments, if i find one i like i will definitely use it!)


    I stayed up all night thinking of a ¡®battle plan¡¯ for my new fiances and i have formed something that i think will work. I just have to show dominance and let them know i am still in charge, those twins have been influenced by their mother far too much.


    Of course, they could have changed on their own during the duration of their past lives, but i know for a fact that demon in disguise did something as well. It doesn¡¯t matter to me because either way, i will have to ¡®teach¡¯ them that i will not be their plaything.


    I am already past that stage, mostly anyways.  I vowed to myself that when i evolved i would not keep the status of a kitten and i plan to act on it.


    But first, i need to get overwhelmingly stronger than them so i can start. That is why i need to maximize all of the results during this one month period, a leader needs to be the strongest, yes?


    Currently i am in a one on one classroom type area, i am seated in human form listening to my mother lecture me about mana. She said beforehand that i will first need to know what mana is and how to use it before i can practice later, this way i won¡¯t accidentally injure myself like how i did when i first learned to use fire magic.


    She doesn¡¯t know about that though and i don¡¯t plan on telling her, she also said it will be easier to teach me because of my intelligence and quick learning.


    Mother does not know that i was born with this intelligence, but i will let her keep thinking that for many years...i might die if i anger her.


    The twins i will have to control, but mother is someone who can never be tamed.  I¡¯d rather skin myself alive than go up against her, she is just too sadistic.


    Thankfully, this class is a one time thing just for today, the rest of the month will be spent in an area quite a ways away from our castle behind the mountains. I am glad that it is with my father and not my mother who will be physically training me, i have a feeling that she does not know how to be merciful.


    ¡°Are you listening, Vedova? What did i just say.¡±


    Hah! Lucky for me i was paying attention during my internal monologue.


    ¡°You just explained how mana is in a formless state until it is willed into the energy that is used in a spell.¡±


    She nods and continues on with her lesson


    ¡°As you know, mana comes in 4 types of energy; Electricity, Water, Fire, and Air. Excluding Light and Dark, this is how it has been since the great Allfather sacrificed himself to save us.¡±


    Boring~


    ¡°But, there are always exceptions to everything.¡±


    Oh? Exceptions?


    ¡°In your case, you are gifted to have the possibility to learn how to mix the different types of energies to form an amplified spell or something completely different.  The council members have all seen Pahborma using said spells, it is told that he created something he called ¡®plasma¡¯ as well as common ice in the forms of spells when he mixed two or more elements together.¡±


    Plasma and ice, i never really knew much about plasma but i know that it is essentially a mess of supercharged ions and that our sun is made of the stuff, but other than that it is a complete mystery to me.


    I haven¡¯t read anything about this either, even in the legend books telling about Pahborma and his deeds nothing sai anything about this. Now interested, i listen more closely to the lesson as it will probably be important later on.


    ¡°He explained that he willed air and water to create ice, that part was simple enough. But to make plasma he had to combine fire, air, and electricity.  Because of the tri combination, plasma was said to vaporize anything it touched. This plasma was apparently his strongest spell and took him many years to master, but even this was not enough to kill the Lot Dinok.¡±


    I can imagine that plasma is  able to vaporize anything...but how long will it take me to learn? How many years will it be before i gain enough strength to do what he did? This is just a reminder that i cannot be taking this easy, i need to progress and fast.


    There are some questions pertaining to the combination of elements...there has to be more than two combinations, and i wonder what would happen if i combined all four, it might just cancel out but if it doesn¡¯t then it will surely be a great spell.


    ¡°There was also steam, but that did not have any attacking abilities, just as a method to hide things like his home. He additionally amplified the effects of certain elements by combining them, he just didn¡¯t make anything in a new type of energy.¡±


    Ah, this will answer some of my questions right now


    ¡°By combining electricity and water, the shocking power was magnified by many times. Of course, this can happen at any time as long as your target is wet, but was able to do it on a whim so it had the possibility of being used in combat at any point in time. There was also scalding water that was made by combining fire and water in an indirect way¡±


    I¡¯m not sure how great the hot water is against  creatures with hard scales like dragons, but i think the electrified stuff would be successful.


    ¡°Lastly, theres a superheated fire that burns many times hotter than what it usually would, although not nearly as hot as plasma was, it is only made with a lot of air magic being combined with fire magic so it should be easier to use. The fire turns a bright blue color once it¡¯s complete and is so hot that it turns the ground into lava.¡±


    If it is capable of melting the ground and burns a bright blue, then the flame is most likely around 1,200¡ãC. Thats neat and all, but i still likely won¡¯t be able to have such adept control over my mana for several years.


    I mean, i can already cast some spells but those are the most simple and basic ones for anyone of light purple stage, i will have to progress my core to do anything flashy or significant. If i do the meditation that mother showed me and build my mana pool gradually, i should be able to advance my stage to dark blue within the next 3 months.


    That¡¯s actually really good by the way, it usually takes double that for a child like me to advance a stage.  The only reason i can do it this fast is because of the insanely large amount of mana i have, i already have triple that of what a light purple stage dragon should have.


    Everything about this body is ridiculously fortunate, from the size and looks of both my bodies to the mana i can control is almost too good.  I¡¯d be happy for my abilities but i know that they are not nearly enough to be able to go out on my own...as much as it pains me to say so i am currently weak compared to the rest of my species.


    -------------------------------------------


    With renewed motivation, i listened intently to the rest of my mother''s lecture for the next hour or so. Nothing much was shared, only basic information that i already knew about mana control and how it takes a lot of practice to get the amount right.


    Right now i am with my dad on the roof of our castle on a small clearing, it is like a helipad of sorts, meant for other dragons in humanoid form to land and take off on without causing massive amounts of damage to the surrounding area.


    As soon as we get there Sahqoviing grows a large pair of leathery red wings out from his back, turning around in the process.


    ¡°We we have to fly to the training area.  Ill shift into my real body after we get up a proper distance. I¡¯ll carry you for the first bit, but you¡¯re riding on my head after that.


    This will be my first time flying in this world, i am more excited than worried that i will die in the process. Not even thinking about the dangers, i let myself be picked up by my dad and he leaps into the air, flapping his wings to keep us afloat.


    The feeling of the wind on my face and the cold air nipping on my skin is something that i will never get tired of no matter how many times i feel it. As a Navy SEAL i have jumped out of a moving airplane hundreds and hundreds of times, i always felt it was recreational than practicing for a job.


    I never was scared of heights in my old life, actually i¡¯d say i tried as often as i could to get into high places.  Things like climbing trees, going onto my roof, and only riding the tallest roller coasters


    The clear bright blue sky without a hint of pollution only adds to the amazing experience, coupled by the feeling of the warm sun on my skin combines to create a feeling of bliss and comfort that i have never felt before.


    I can¡¯t wait until i can do this every day~ i might even end up in the sky more than i will be on the ground. If i could find a way to sleep up here that¡¯d be great¡­


    We flew around a kilometer up into the air before Dad started to transform into his 110 meter long dragon boy, during the shift i stayed in his hands even as they turned into massive claws capable of mass destruction.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    After he is finished, he sets me onto his back and tells me to climb further to the crown of his head in a booming yet gentle voice.


    On top of this massive dragon, i look like nothing more than an ant crawling along on a giant stretch of flatland, except the flatland is replaced by incredibly hard red scales.


    It takes me over 5 minutes to walk unsteadily to the place in between his horns at the top of his head, losing my balance on the constantly moving and slippery back of my father. There i lay down onto my stomach and grip one of his scales as per his instruction.  Firmly latching onto one of his 50cm long scales, we continue our journey through the skies of this world.


    I don¡¯t know how long it was before we stopped because i was so caught up in the feeling of being carried through the skies, but it had to have been 3 hours at the least. When we landed we were in a completely different region as the one i grew up in for the past 4 years.


    The calm summer that was around our castle was replaced by what would be an unbearable heat if i was not a dragon and did not enjoy the warmth so much, luckily for me it just feels great.


    As soon as we landed Dad allowed me to get off from his neck and he shifted back into his winged human form.


    The area where we landed is incredibly mountainous, no, these are definitely volcanoes. Tens of active mounds constantly spurting out tiny amounts of lava were completely surrounding us, the ground was dead and black as the night sky as it was covered heavily in ash.


    The air around us is actually very clear for what i would expect from being next to all of these volcanoes in such a short space, but i pay the thought no mind.


    Father tells me to shift into my dragon form and i gladly do so, i would have done it on his back but i can¡¯t grip or penetrate his scales with my claws.


    For the second time i focus completely on the image of a draconian form and seconds later i feel my body go numb as my vision goes black momentarily.


    Not even a full 2 seconds after my eyesight fades, i am back on all fours in my 3m tall and 7 meter long body again.  More than glad to be back, i let out a moderately loud roar and stretch my wings once more.


    Now in my scaly body, the heat feels even more comforting and less like the blistering temperature that it really should be.  Seeing my comfort and happiness to be in my true form, Sahqoviing lets out a very slight laugh underneath his breath and says


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you are so eager to spread your wings, you will be doing a lot more for the next couple days. Until you learn to fly, we will do nothing else. A dragon''s flight is one of it¡¯s best weapons an you need to master it to maximize your proficiency.¡±


    Fuck yes! I have been waiting for this day since the moment i figured out that i would be able to take flight! If i was not in a 4 legged reptilian beast form i would have been dancing for joy.


    Father tells me that we have to climb one of the smaller cliffs to start first and we hike the closest one, a small one maybe 80 m in height, not even a volcano.


    It does not take long at all before we stand at the top and Sahqoviing gives me a vague outline on what to do and how to fly, he says that before i try to flap my wings i need to glide and steady myself.


    Now that i am up here, im getting a little bit nervous at the thought of failure. My previous excitement is now ruined by the dread of realizing that i don¡¯t actually know how to fly.


    The birds just flap their wings and fly  right? Now that i think about it, i have no idea what they actually do, i¡¯ve never really looked at a bird and thought


    ¡®Huh, i really should figure out the aerodynamics and the process of flight, i might be a giant dragon who will need to know how to do such a thing¡¯


    Of course i wouldn¡¯t have, i was just a basic human who didn¡¯t even have the ability to use the slightest bit of mana in my old world. Even if i was a human mage, i would have never imagined that i might become a large winged reptile.


    Seeing my hesitation, my dad laughs and gives me some reassuring words like a man teaching his son how to ride a bike


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll be fine. You old man here managed to get it down pat on the first try! Well, most people do so don''t worry, because  it comes naturally. Just clear your mind and focus on flying. If everyone got scared as you are now when we started out, how could anyone know to take flight?¡±


    I guess with that logic it makes sense, but it doesn¡¯t make me feel any better about my lack of knowledge in the ways of flying, but i have to do it nonetheless. The reward far outweighs the risk, right?


    Doing as instructed, i clear my mind of any unnecessary thoughts  and spread my wings with the intention of soaring through the skies as a majestic reptilian seagull


    Gaining confidence, i look forwards off into the empty space directly in front of me and try to imagine a flight path.  I do know that i need one of those, it¡¯s pretty basic information in jump school at the navy. ¡®Always imagine where you are going to go, visualize the path¡¯.


    That saying was drilled into us time after time as we learned the basics, it should be no different here except that i am traveling the skies in a different way.


    With a leap of faith, i jump off the peak of the giant rock with full intention of mastering the ways of flight.


    The moment i dive headfirst into the air, i start falling downwards in a nosedive at rapid speeds.  Not wanting to panic at this and risk losing the chance at control, i tuck my wings and embrace the fall.


    After descending about half of the distance, i slowly re spread my wings and arch my back upwards. Improving slightly, i am now in around a 50¡ã angle facing towards the ashen ground which is about 25 meters away.


    Something in the back of my mind clicks and i fully spread my large wings, causing my body to cut upwards with the force of the draft now pushing underneath me.


    My vision slowly turns black because of the high G forces i just pulled, but after flattening myself once more the blackness is replaced by the sight of the empty air in front of me.


    Im flying! I can¡¯t believe i did it, this is amazing! I can¡¯t help but crazily laugh at my success, reveling in the feeling of the skies, i continue on for what seems like an eternity.


    The breeze at my face and the slight push at my wings snaps me out of my stupor and i realize how close i am to hitting the floor.


    I did not even remember that i was gliding not flying, maybe i just thought that gravity would be kind at leave me alone. No matter what i thought or didn¡¯t think of, the fact that i was now about to crash into the earth 10 meters underneath me cause me to panic and flap my wings quickly.


    The hastened movements do nothing but ruin the glide i was in, and now i have nothing supporting me.


    Now, instead of gliding, i¡¯m just falling forward in a mess of flaps  and screeches. Right before i hit the ground with bone crushing force, something materializes underneath me and breaks my fall.


    I keep  sliding across the ground with the image of a person underneath me for about 10 seconds before we come to a stop.


    Gathering my thoughts and calming myself down, i look at the now smiling face of my father as he sets me down chuckling brightly


    ¡°You weigh a lot, you oaf, what did you have to fall for? Just kidding, that was actually several times better than i ever thought you would do. I made up that part about everyone getting it on the first try, i could¡¯t even glide until my 6th attempt.¡±


    Pretending to laugh, i give a bitter smile as he admits his lie. I can see why he gets beaten so much by our loving Vedbrii.


    Now patting on the back with another heartfealt dad like saying


    ¡°Im proud of you, son.¡±


    Ahhh fuck you. I can¡¯t even get mad at him now, there¡¯s no point when he¡¯s this sincere...as much as he lied to me i realize now it was to  get me to progress in my training¡­


    Or he could have just been fucking with me and is now trying to make me think like he¡¯s a good person...i hope it¡¯s the first one.


    (Author here! This starts the training camp, it will probably only continue for 1-2 more chapters. After that we can start to get some real action incorporated into the story! The action is my favorite part ;P Anyways, thanks for reading and thank you very much for all of the support you guys have given me in these past 8 chapters, just know that i read and appreciate all of the comments whether criticism or compliments and i hope you all continue to do so in the future!)

 Chapter 9: Training Camp Part 2

    It took me 4 more full days of trial and error until i finally conquered the skies and succeeded in flight.  Every time we started over we did so on an even taller rock than the last, eventually jumping off of a 5,000 meter high volcano where i sustained controlled flight.


    I did nothing but fly for the following ¡®break¡¯ day, feeling the nice warm breeze and sun on my back as i flapped my huge and muscular wings.  No form of skydiving could ever compare to the sensation of deciding where you travel in the air, controlled falling is just that...nothing more nothing less.


    But flight is different, going up instead of down is a thrill that pumps adrenaline into your blood like no other. Even getting shot at in all of my missions as a SEAL didn¡¯t make me feel this way, it¡¯s like flight just triggers something in your brain that is only able to be activated by flying.


    I had come down only once during my freedom, and that was to eat some elk like creatures called Kip that my father had caught for me for dinner while i had my fun. After eating, i said my goodbyes and went into one of the tunnels formed by the volcanoes.


    They weren¡¯t exactly huge, but they were large enough for me to fit comfortably inside in my huge dragon body. Once inside i went back as far as i could to where it was the warmest, it was not only safe but cozily warm so it was perfect for meditation.


    During the one time lesson by mother, she had explained meditation perfectly about how it is really just purifying and expanding the mana inside your body.  The best meditative position on this world is only available to dragons, but all of the other races have some form of doing it.


    Once in a flat enough area, i curled myself into a large and scaly ball and concentrated to enter the required state of calm and focus.  After a minute or two of performing a breathing technique and concentrating on my inner self or ¡®soul¡¯ a light purple puddle came into my ¡®vision¡¯.


    From there i slowly willed the mana to separate from the ¡®impurities¡¯, or the pollution from the Great Death, out of the puddle. Non dragons are not able to see the clear difference between the two like we can, instead of individualizing the energies they simply take out anything that looks dark.


    The process works eventually, but it takes away from their mana along with the pollution.  This is only another reason why dragons reign supreme in this world, our mana pools are far larger and completely pure when we reach our peak, but the other races are more of a grey color and smaller than ours when they reach their final stage.


    After about two hours of meditation, i feel that i have done enough and allow myself to rest.  Staying in the same ball as before, i lose my focus and fall asleep with the warmth of the volcano as a blanket.


    -----------------------------------------------------


    I wake up feeling refreshed by a good 7 hour rest, naturally i yawn and stretch out my gigantic body lazily.  Today marks the 6th day of our month long training, since i got my flight down i imagine that we will be doing something different.


    After my stretching i get up and walk to the entrance of the semi large tunnel where my father should be located. Behind the perfume of molten rock i can smell my father just outside, not moving very much.


    My sense of smell makes things as trivial as looking for someone extremely easy and my sight makes hiding pointless, this is how i spot the sloppily hidden form of a 6¡¯7 wanna be ninja perched on the ceiling of the tunnel opening.


    I was about to call out to him and ask what he is doing this early in the morning, but before i can he leaps off of his hiding place letting loose a large amount of killing intent.


    Acting on reflex, i turn my body and slam my large 4m long tail into his abdomen before he can get to me, with a dull ¡®oof¡¯ he gets sent hurling out of the entrance at incredible speeds.


    More confused than alarmed, i casually walk out of the cave staring at where he landed. I know he¡¯s fine, his body should be more than sturdy enough to withstand a weak tail slap like that. I know very well that he can kill me in the blink of an eye in hundreds of different ways if he wanted to, but there is no reason to.


    This must be some kind of training?  There¡¯s no other reason for him to attack me like that.  Content with my conclusion, i ready myself once more in preparation for further ¡®training¡¯.


    Sahqoviing slowly get up and pats the area where i hit him with my tail, chuckling lightly he says


    ¡°That¡¯s quite mean of you son, to hit your father like that when he only wanted a hug.  Good reaction though, there is no reason for you to hold back afterall.  I can¡¯t train you much in your dragon form because most of it comes naturally, shift into your human form for some exercise.¡±


    What? I dont wanna...oh well...true there isn¡¯t much for me to do with that bulky form physically, but he could at least teach me some fire magic.


    I am not going to argue with this 12000 year old beast so i shift into the more boring option of my two forms.


    Within seconds i¡¯m standing on two legs, but i have gotten used to it by now so instead of falling i yawn again as i shift my posture over to my right leg.  I perform a couple light pre workout stretches so i don¡¯t accidentally hurt myself when we train and wait for orders.


    ¡°Good, good. So, i am going to be teaching you some hand to hand combat before we move on to weaponry.  It is not always convenient to be in a large dragon body so you will have to be in this form more often than you think. Make sure you don¡¯t blow this off, it will only hurt you in the future.¡±


    Yeah, yeah...i already knew that i can¡¯t be a 110 meter long dragon whenever i feel like it, but it doesn¡¯t change the fact that i don¡¯t want to be a human anymore.  Plus i already have a lot of knowledge in martial arts and small bladed combat.


    Sure, i dont know anything about a sword or a club but i consider myself an expert with a dagger or a knife.  Some of the concepts should carry over, but it¡¯s going to be a pain to learn how to swing a large sword.


    Even though i shouldn¡¯t even really need any foreign objects to kill when i can not only use magic but grow claws and a tail to help. Plus i have wings, short range fighting should be easy as physical training for the chair force.


    In this body i don¡¯t have anything like a reach advantage so i can¡¯t use my favorite side stance, so i shift my body into a more boxer like front facing stance.


    After nodding my head signaling that im ready i bring my fists into a tight guard and tuck my chin.


    The moment i do so my father darts to my left in a speed that normal humans would not be able to register, i can see him fine though with my advanced vision.


    I pretend like i am having a hard time following the image of Sahqoviing and within a second he already closed the distance of 25 meters that we were staring at eachother from and is now feet away from my left side.


    Still feigning ignorance, i turn myself to face him while he delivers a would be devastating blow to my temple.  Barely ducking underneath it i slip over under his arm and send my right knee into his ribs.


    Before it can land, he deflects my leg with his free hand and palm strikes the top of my thigh.  Because of the strength behind it, the hit sends my leg crashing into the ground and i falter slightly losing my balance.


    The instant my foot caves in the ground underneath me, i stumble forwards and hastily try to free myself from the hole. Before i can recover, he performs a perfect uppercut straight to my chin.


    Fortunately for me, he stops the punch before it can connect, just the speed behind it causes a moderately sized after wind to follow after he freezes his arm in place.


    I had tried to brace myself for the pain, but now that there is nothing i sigh in relief and finish getting my leg out.


    In a reprimanding way, my dad informs me of my mistake


    ¡°Don¡¯t let me hit away your knee, either shift the point of impact or stop the strike altogether.  If i did not reflect it the hit would have been good though, again.¡±


    ¡®I did change my target, you just blocked it you brute.¡¯  I didn¡¯t voice my thought though, instead i eagerly readied myself once more. It has been a long time since i last sparred with someone and lost, it will surely be fun to fight against this man.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Hiding my excitement, i give the same head nod and wait for his assault.  This time however, he waves his hand towards himself and does not move.


    Understanding that he wants me to attack him this time, i bolt straight towards him with a course of action already plotted out for my body to follow.


    One of my strongest weapons is the constant simulations i do in my mind, everything from daily conversations to fights is acted out in my head before hand. It¡¯s just a habit that i developed in early childhood after constantly being told to think about the consequences of my words and actions.


    Sometimes it gets a little bit unnecessary, but it has benefited me more than being a nuisance.


    From the time we started the spar i had been constantly thinking of different possibilities, one of those being the situation i find myself in right now.


    Step for step i act out the plan i made as i make tiny leaps from left to right, hoping to be unpredictable as possible. After the 5th step i find myself on his left side with my right leg about one meter away from his side.


    I throw a heavy shovel punch into his ribs, but it gets blocked with his forearm.  Not allowing my momentum to go to waste, i pull back my arm and launch a left cross, twisting my entire body to the right in the process.


    I don¡¯t even wait to see if the hard surface i felt was an arm or his face as i begin to pivot on my right foot, raising my left leg at the same time.


    As i fully complete the rotation, i extend my shin and slam the front of it into his chest.  Of course, he blocks it again with both of his arms but he can¡¯t stop the power behind it as he gets sent skidding backwards 2 meters before coming to a stop.


    Seeing it was another failure, i continue my advance and rapidly close the gap between us.  Refusing to move, my father stands still with an amused expression on his mature looking face as he waits to see what else i can do.


    In a flurry of movements i punch and kick as fast as i can, trying to stir up as much dirt and ash as possible in order to hide myself from him.  Eventually, the entire area is so black that i can only make out the vague shape of his tall body.


    Hoping to use this to my advantage, i slip lower than i would normally to about his waist level.  Moving as fast as i can in this final attempt to land a successful hit, i dash towards his left leg and try to grab it with both of my arms.


    Immediately after i lock myself onto his long leg, he tries to move away, but before he can manage to separate himself from me i lift upwards with every single muscle in my body, hoping to cause him to lose his balance.


    I manage to completely raise his leg, but he just perfectly stands on his right not losing the slightest hint of balance.  This is what i expected, if he had fallen down i might have cried in utter disappointment.


    The instant i feel his foot leave the floor i pull it and jump backwards, fully extending it in the movement.


    He must have been curious as to what i was trying to do, because he didn¡¯t try to push down or pull away any further.


    Fine by me, it does not interfere with what i am about to do.


    I put his calf on my left shoulder and twist his leg with all of my might to the outside, while my arms are doing that i bend my legs and jump upwards causing his back leg to raise as well.


    Clearly startled by the sudden movement, he loses his balance and i make one final push to set up my victory.


    Still in midair, i pull his extended and twisted leg towards me once more with even more force than the last time.  Met with little resistance as he has no support, his entire body gets yanked downwards to me.


    He is still falling by the time my foot hits the floor, and i jump up once again this time towards his face.  Extending my arm with all of the force i can muster, i launch my arm with such force that it pops and dislocates.


    Pushing through the piercing pain, i continue the motion as he continues to fall in my direction.


    For the first time in this spar, my fist meets his unprotected face and he gets spun through the air at breakneck speeds, tumbling on the ground as he lands some distance away.


    Too excited by my accomplishment to feel the pain and exhaustion that i just forced upon myself, i try to walk forwards but trip on my own feet and fall flat on my face after trying to stop myself with my dislocate arm.


    Even with my superhuman body it is only that of a 10 year old boy and the instant i hit the ground i feel the accumulated stress that was the result of such tiring actions.


    Every single muscle in my body feels like it has been put through a meat grinder and my lungs burn for oxygen, i can feel the pain of the shoulder i dislocated and my fists must have shattered at the impact.


    I have felt worse to be honest, but it still does not help the fact that i feel like shit.


    Slowly propping myself up with my good arm i lean backwards onto my butt so i can sit and see what happened to my father.


    Judging by the fact that my hand is broken, i''m sure he¡¯s completely unharmed.


    As if responding to my thoughts, his figure suddenly appears next to me and without saying a word he pulls out a bottle from his pants pocket.  The bottle looks more like a clear flask and contains a fair amount of red liquid.


    I reach out to grab it from him but he nods his head sideways telling me ¡®no¡¯ as he lowers the bottle next to my lips, pouring the strange substance down my throat.


    As soon as i stomach it my entire body feels hot like i just swallowed coffee straight out of the machine, far worse than that when i attempted to breathe fire the first time i begin to cry out in pain only to manage a shallow croak.


    Just as quick as it came the pain is replaced by a small warmth and my limbs feel just as good as when i woke up.


    I realize that this must be a healing potion that i read about in an alchemy book, a combination of certain plants and herbs that make a drink that heals injuries.  Depending on the quality of the potion, the process could take days or even seconds.


    In this case it¡¯s the latter and i stretch out my now healed body and confirm that there is no discomfort.


    After cracking my neck and hands with several loud ¡®pop¡¯ sounds, my father speaks out in another one of his pride filled voices saying


    ¡°I did not interfere because i wanted to see where you were going with it, i have not seen someone do that before. Although you did land a hit it would not have happened if i simply pulled my leg back, but against those who are weaker than you in terms of strength it will do fine. Good job! But¡­.uhm, don¡¯t tell your mother i let you break yourself, alright?¡±


    With a heavy laugh i wave away his concerns as i think about his words, true he could have ended it when he wanted to but i would call it a success for now, considering i only wanted to get one hit in.


    I definitely won¡¯t be doing it again though, it was just something i thought about on the fly, tons of openings and counters from everywhere and it would likely end up in more failures than wins.


    My train of thought is interrupted by Sahqoviings voice as he simply says one word:


    ¡°Again.¡±


    (Hello comrades, i might have to slow down production a little bit now that my sports and school work are starting to come back, but i will try to get a chapter out once a day,  i might have to do one per 2 days at the most.  Hopefully you guys don''t mind too much :D  Thanks for reading!)

 Chapter 10: Tough Love

    The spars were less violent and more so instructional from then on, Sahqoviing was careful as to not cause injury or for me to over exert myself so i did not need any more potions.


    Even though i would consider myself an expert at martial arts i still need to get used to the differences in the flow of fights of this world, because of those changes i am at a disadvantage when fighting someone more skilled like my father who can literally wipe your existence off of this world in the blink of an eye.


    With him holding back i was able to get a couple strikes in, but not too many where i would be considered winning. Because of the challenge he put me through i made significant improvements in the way i fight, things like fixing old habits of committing too much to a drive and not backing off.


    They might be little things, but in martial arts one tiny mistake could mean the difference between winning and losing. I have lost many fights just because i stepped too shallow or too steep and got rocked by a punch i would have dodged if i did it right.


    I¡¯m glad that i had someone so skilled to fight, you cannot improve by fighting easy opponents so in order to get stronger in this world i will need to fight the already strong.  I have decided that as soon as i am back with the other 3 we will go around trying to pick a fight with anything that might be able to put up a challenge to 4 dragons.


    I have my doubts that there will be anything in the first place but every legend has to have some truth behind it, and I will look for that truth.


    After the unarmed combat came weapons training, but that did not take more than a single day.  Father tested my comfort with weapon after weapon, everything from a spiked club to a bastard sword was used until we finally reached something that i was good at.


    That something was of course a simple iron dagger, but in my hands or those of any expert such a small weapon is as deadly as any sword, bow, or mace.


    I had bickered and complained my way through all of the tools until we got to my knife of choice, saying how they didn¡¯t feel right or were uncomfortable for me to use, so when I made clear my liking to the dagger my father immediately decided i would practice using that.


    The first spar we did i ended up having his throat at the tip of my blade, but he was still holding back considerably so it wasn¡¯t really that great of an achievement.


    Still, my skill with it far surpassed his expectations and he hailed me considerably as a prodegy with it and stopped the training there saying that i had already surpassed what he was capable of teaching with it.


    Not surprisingly, the 6¡¯7 brute never used anything less than a heavy one handed sword so a toothpick-like knife was nowhere near his style so he had almost no experience or knowledge for it.


    I don¡¯t understand why people pick the biggest sword they can find, there is no point in having such a large thing taking up space on a cramped battlefield, it might be overcompensating or i just   don¡¯t have the same love for the weapons that they do.


    After the single armed combat training day came the final portion pertaining to fighting with fire magic.


    It was basically a solo type thing involving me repeating a demonstration for about a week, but i did learn 2 lower tiered spells called flame wing and ember tail well enough to use in an actual fight.


    As the names imply, i just will mana to coat my wings and tail with fire. Fire wing is a ranged spell while ember tail is for close combat, but if i swing my tail hard enough the fire does launch off of it causing it to be a multi purpose spell.


    I can use both of these in both bodies, but it is far less effective while stuck in human form.  The same goes for the fire and air breath and the small amounts of lightning and water i can produce, they are many times smaller than they would be if i was in dragon form.


    Even though i have not learned any spells for the electric or water elements, i can still control the mana enough to form each of them, just nothing organized enough to be considered a spell.  I¡¯m hoping to get something out of mother in the future, or pry the information out of Carly after i get the twins under control.


    Speaking of those girls, they¡¯re supposed to get here along with Tyler at about noon today.  We have all finished our month long crash course on how to fight.


    I have no worries about Tyler seeing as he was a SEAL with me, but I¡¯m a little skeptical on Carly and Jasmine''s abilities as fighters. I highly doubt that they were anything but civilians, but they could have had a self defense class or something like that.


    Class or no class, their skill should be very limited compared to ours so it fits perfectly with my plan to get them under control.


    I don¡¯t care about anything they might do as long as they know who the alpha is anything goes.  I refuse to be whipped, I have never submitted to any woman besides my two mothers and I sure as hell don¡¯t plan on starting in this new life.


    Although I did get a little frightened when Jasmine turned into Queen Bitch but that¡¯s different, really scary stuff that i wasn¡¯t prepared for at the time.


    Now that I am aware of what she is capable of I refuse to be intimidated any further, I am no ¡®M¡¯ and have never enjoyed being harmed physically or mentally, it just doesn¡¯t sit well with me. My pathetic behavior during that first meeting has been bugging me every night since it happened, it pisses me off how I let that happen.


    And then there was the Soul Bond thing that I walked myself into, that was my fault entirely but I still should have had some choice in the matter.


    Weakness is something I utterly despise, I always have since childhood and it always irks me how people can just take abuse and not do anything to stop it.  I mean sure there is the exception of mental trauma and scarring but if someone is just being a coward who has no spine then it irritates me to no end.


    Just thinking about it makes my blood boil, I need to calm down a bit before our guests arrive¡­


    --------------------------------------------------


    I did clear my head completely and my mood has turned more mellow than angry as I sit waiting in the throne room next to the King and Queen. Currently it is exactly midday and the 3 will be here any second.


    The way I see it my plan has 3 outcomes: The first and the most favorable one being where I establish myself completely as the leader and dominant position of this group.  The second and worst ending being me overthrown and becoming a man-slave beta who can do nothing but follow orders.  I have decided that if that does happen I will either bide my time and flee with or without my friend, or bite my tongue off to kill myself, it depends on the severity.


    The third outcome would be neither terrible nor beneficial but also the least likely, if the girls take a similar mentality to my own when it comes to being betas and they either run or off themselves.  I have pegged this to be the least likely because they had no problem with it in our past life and their personalities do not warrant stubborn defiance.


    Technically there is a fourth option where Tyler becomes the Alpha, but I can not imagine it happening so I will not  even consider it.


    I hear the sound of the large double doors creaking open at the end of the hall and shift my gaze towards where the 7 figures will undoubtedly enter.


    First comes Tyler and his still happy looking parents, after them comes two little girls with sparkly eyes along with their still smug looking mother.  Their dad has the same serious expression on as last time, it might be considered grim at this point.


    Unlike the last time, the 10 of us exchange formal greetings with each other, no one says anything except for the usual ¡®Hello, how have you been?¡¯ type thing.


    After the last handshake and hug, my father coughs lightly and says


    ¡°I think it¡¯s best for us to talk in a more private place, follow me please.¡±


    No one says anything and we follow him in silence down the long and numerous hallways until we arrive at a brilliantly red pair of crimson doors with an engraving of a dragon taking up the entire space.


    I haven¡¯t been inside of this room before as it¡¯s pretty far away from the throne room. Judging by the fancy portrait of who I assume to be my father this room is something that belongs to him.  As for what¡¯s inside, I have absolutely no idea.


    He pushes open the large metallic doors and unveils the contents of the room. In the center of the massive room is a large brown round table with the edges raised upwards, in the center is a circular map of the entire planet including the untamed wilderness. There are around 20 padded chairs for seating at the table that look more like office chairs than furniture.


    The floor surrounding the the table and covering the rest of the room is a pitch black carpet material, the walls and ceiling are made out of stone which is dyed/painted a deep red color that goes very well with the black floor.


    Displayed on those red walls are tens of cases each showing off a different type of exotic weapon, many of which I have never seen before like a 5 bladed sword¡­


    I don¡¯t know anything about swords, but wouldn¡¯t five blades be too much? Maybe it¡¯s just decor¡­


    Overall the room looks nice, but I was definitely expecting something a little bit more luxurious because of the fancy door, but whatever.


    We all walk into the room mutely except for Tyler''s dad who goes ¡®oooooooooooo¡¯ like a kid at a museum exhibit for the first time, I¡¯m not exactly sure of his mental state any more, maybe I¡¯ll ask him later.


    We get seated in little family groups with gaps in between us all, since Sahqoviing is the host he sits at the head and begins to address us saying


    ¡°It is now time to discuss what will become of the young ones. As you know, we have already decided that they will leave to the mortal continents, but we have yet to discuss where they will travel. My wife and I suggest Sunvaarmun, it is warm and surely there will many strong beasts to kill.¡±


    Well, this isn¡¯t something I didn¡¯t know would happen, it is old news that we will be leaving, but i thought that they would have figured this out by now.  Kind of annoying, but atleast I get to hear the thought process behind the choices.


    Upon hearing this, the other 4 adults start to think about where they should send us.  The first one to come up with an idea is the twins mother.


    ¡°I think we should  put them with the elves, they have that magic academy right? That should be good training and knowledge.¡±


    My mother doesn¡¯t hesitate one bit before shutting the idea down


    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°The academy only accepts nobles an incredibly gifted individuals starting at the age of 13, none of our children look the part and won¡¯t for a while. They can go later if they want, but right now it would never work unless we reveal them as dragons, but that would destroy the possibility of normal interactions and I for one don¡¯t want them to grow up snobs. As for the rest of the continent, the only monsters there are in dungeons that are too high level for the younglings.¡±


    The woman opens her mouth to say something but closes it quickly and goes back to thinking.  After about a minute of brainstorming both sets of parents cannot find any reason not to send us to Sunvaarmun and concede.


    With a clap and a smile my mother once again speaks up in a cheerful tone and exclaims


    ¡°Alright! Now that the boring talk is done you children can play somewhere else while we have some fun by ourselves.  You leave tomorrow at dawn, you have the rest of the day to yourselves!¡±


    Well, now that¡¯s over i hop out of my chair and walk towards Tyler so we can leave. The adults left as soon as my mother declared the meeting over so it¡¯s just us four in the room.


    Completely ignoring the twins who were awaiting some acknowledgement, i pat my friends back and motion towards the double doors. Seeing that I want to leave without talking to the girls, he puts on a slightly puzzled face but follows me anyways.


    As we walk out of the door into the hallway I can hear the hushed grumblings of Jasmine and Carly following us.


    The first step of my plan is to establish that they are not as important as they seem to think that they are, I don¡¯t really enjoy being a dick like this but it is a requirement in order to continue.


    Happily walking along with my bestfriend I start some small talk to ease his concerns


    ¡°So, how was your training? I can¡¯t really imagine either of your parents fighting, they look so happy all of the time.¡±


    Keeping my pace, he makes a ¡®hmmm¡¯ sound and remembers the previous month


    ¡°Well, it wasn¡¯t especially hard, but I couldn¡¯t do anything with the swords and shit that they tried to make me use.  And yeah, I have no idea why they are so giddy all of the time, it¡¯s not like they¡¯re airheads but they always try to crack jokes whenever they can.  It was great at first but after the first year I wanted to wring their necks.¡±


    Still continuing down the hallway, I set down a path that will lead to my room and continue the conversation


    ¡°Haha, you had weapon problems too, huh?  Anything but a knife is useless to me, they might as well be wooden. Flying is fun as hell though right?  I couldn¡¯t get enough of it.¡±


    He nods as he walks and then his face lights up


    ¡°Hey, you wanna go fly right now? It should be like 1, we can get plenty of air time in while it¡¯s still warm out.¡±


    See? This is why I love this kid, he comes up with the best ideas.


    Grinning widely I stop and look at him for a second


    ¡°Hell yeah! Im game, let¡¯s do it.  Go right, there¡¯s an open window right a little bit further down the hall¡±


    When I stopped, I listened for footsteps and heard two sets of feet stop a breath after we did, confirming that they are actually still following us I quicken my pace to almost a skip and head towards the window.


    We get to the two and a half meter tall opening in the wall and begin to grow our wings onto our human bodies.


    I¡¯m the first one to finish and i leap out of the window with my new 2 meter long leathery black wings, with a couple powerful flaps I begin to rocket up to the cloudline, embracing the wind battering against my face and body.


    I look over my shoulder to see Tyler laughing like an idiot close behind me, I can barely even hear him because of how loud the air is as it rushes past my ears.


    With a smile now on my face I begin to do a series of tricks in order to allow the girls to catch up slightly.


    After my 3rd loop and 2nd figure eight the twin dragons are closing in on us so  I begin to climb at almost a 90¡ã angle once more, challenging him to a race to the top.


    After a couple provocative words he begins to chase me at full speed tucking his arms and legs and allowing himself to be as streamlined as possible.


    Because of the height difference between us, it might look like I¡¯m winning but Tyler is actually going faster than me at this point.  Not allowing myself to be beaten, I maximize my efforts as the clouds draw near.


    I was so focussed on the fluffy white pieces of condensed water that I wasn¡¯t even looking to see where my opponent was as we burst through into the clear space above.


    The sun looks nice in the clear blue sky, but other than that the clouds are pretty messy and don¡¯t look as nice as I expected them to be, still pretty and warm though.


    With deep breathes I look over to where Tyler is hovering, also panting he has his hands on his knees and coughs a little bit.  Our dragon bodies might have extra strength but we need to work on our endurance later on.


    Making a mental note in my head to start doing my cardio, I stare at the decently large hole we made when piercing the clouds.


    Soon after the two people I was expecting burst through the gap with even more tired breaths than ours.


    Both of us have already calmed down and are breathing normally while the other two are still quite tired.  Still pretending to ignore them I turn to my right to face my comrade.


    ¡°Let¡¯s call that a tie, I couldn¡¯t see who won through the clouds.  Next time we need a ref or something to officiate and such.¡±


    With a blank expression he immediately replies


    ¡°True, true. I don¡¯t really know anyone that would do it though, maybe we can ask-¡±


    After years of always being around each other he gets that I¡¯m ignoring the twins and follows suite.  He probably doesn¡¯t know why, but he trusts me enough to just do it.


    As he was saying that last bit, Jasmine got fed up and interrupted my companion rudely spitting out;


    ¡°Why are you ignoring us? Can you stop being such an asshole already? We didn¡¯t even do anything wrong and you are being extremely rude right now, if you don¡¯t stop we¡¯ll-¡±


    Baited~


    ¡°You¡¯ll what? What will you do, exactly.¡±


    This is the fun part, also the turning point that will decide how this goes.


    That shuts her up pretty good though and she just averts her eyes to my feet as she tries to think of something witty to shoot back.  It looks like she was just saying what came to mind like I thought she would and she doesn¡¯t actually have a follow up.


    Carly is standing slightly behind her also trying to think of something, although she looks more hurt than angry.  I guess she isn¡¯t as pissy as her sister is at the moment.


    I need to still act tough though, it is slightly saddening to see them like this but it must be done, like a parent disciplining their children.


    I look sternly at the two 7 year old winged girls in front of me and resume my battle


    ¡°That¡¯s right, you have nothing you can do, no one else to go to except for us. The only reason you are here is because of me, remember that.¡±


    Well, technically that¡¯s a lie but it has some truth to it...I had nothing to do with them actually reincarnating but they are on this world because I am also here.


    ¡°Do not force me to leave you alone, because just like a few minutes ago I will do exactly that if need be. You were only by yourselves for less than 20 minutes and look at how that turned out.¡±


    That should be it, let¡¯s hope it worked.  I turned my voice especially toxic for this occasion, so it should sound just as intimidating as I intended it to be.


    They were already pretty depressed looking before I finished it, but now they¡¯re on the brink of tears as they continue staring at the ground, this time closer to their feet.


    I had seen them flinch at my words, but I had not expected it to be this effective.  It appears like whatever control Jasmine thought she had is now shattered and gone as she looks at Tyler with teary eyes.


    Not saying anything he keeps a strong face and nods his head signifying that he stands by with me.  Even though he was pretty spooked by her tirade the first day, it looks like the defenseless little girl about to cry before him has bolstered his confidence.


    As terrible as that might sound, it¡¯s what I wanted. He needs to stay in a dominant and respected position as well otherwise he will continue to be scared.


    After the cold reply, they both start openly crying saying incoherent apologies while inching closer to each other.


    Definitely heart wrenching, but dirty work is still work and I have one last job.


    When they are right next to each other still bawling I reach out to them and embrace them both in my arms and coo quietly to them saying


    ¡°Just listen to me from now on and this doesn¡¯t have to happen, I hate seeing you two like this but I will not tolerate my two beautiful wives becoming demons before my very eyes.¡±


    I can hear Tyler covering his mouth as he bursts out laughing, but the girls don¡¯t notice as the cry even louder than before and bury their faces into my chest.


    Rubbing the back of their heads with each of my free hands, I kiss their foreheads and try to console them now instead of breaking them.


    Operation ¡®Tough Love¡¯ is a success.


    (Hey guys, I¡¯m looking for a P.R. so if any of you have some free time and are willing to correct my mistakes please message me later! Thanks for reading this chapter and let me know what you think in the comments!)

 Chapter 11: Sunvaarmun

    Laying in my bed the following morning, I can¡¯t help but praise myself for doing such a good job at their personality check.


    I was a little bit surprised at how well that ended up working, I didn¡¯t really expect them to be so emotional.  I guess that they just cry easily, because for how old they must be to cry that easily is a little weird.


    Some people are just like that I suppose, so I¡¯ll just ignore it for now and try not to think about it.


    After I established that I was to be listened to, they continued to cry for a couple more minutes before sniffling off back to the castle where they would spend the rest of the day.


    Tyler and I just hung out until around nightfall and then went our separate ways and went to bed ourselves.


    I hop out of my bed and onto the cool stony floor to begin my final day on this continent for a while.  Generating some water with my mana I splash myself on the face to fully rejuvenate myself and wash away all of the grogginess that comes after sleeping.


    A little cold but also refreshed I get dressed and walk my 10 year old self to the dining room where I hope that breakfast will be.


    As I make my way down the hall I¡¯m greeted by the amazing smell of eggs and a type of meat called Kip, which is pretty much just ham.  No matter how many lives I end up living, the smell of cooked eggs and ham will always be one of my favorites.


    Almost skipping I hum my way down the corridor to where the rest of my family should be.  Opening a small set of double doors I enter and see all of the guests here along with my parents sitting at the table waiting for their meals.


    Not exactly in the mood to talk yet, I walk over to my seat next to my parents and sit down without saying anything other than a general ¡®Good morning¡¯ to everyone present.


    Tyler¡¯s hair is short, but somehow there are still bits and pieces standing straight up as if trying to protest and leave his skull. His eyes don¡¯t seem tired at all, it¡¯s just the rest of his face and hair that are giving off the impression of a not so morning person.


    The twins both look energetic and back to normal though, their hair is already done and they might even be wearing a little bit of something similar to makeup. They¡¯re all smiles as they talk to each other and their parents, unlike Tyler and I who are simply used to waking up early, these two seem to enjoy the mornings.


    I could never understand such odd behavior during the worst time of the day, but to each his own I guess¡­


    Right after I sit down the food is presented to us and after thanking the Allfather religiously we begin to eat.


    The food was as good as it always is and I quickly finish my food to wait for the others.  We are leaving right after this so I don¡¯t really want to keep everyone waiting a second time.


    Soon after everyone finishes their meals and we are once again led by my father to an empty white colored room with a circular pattern on the floor.


    The complete lack of color hurts my eyes to stare at so I focus my eyes on the orange symbol covering the center of the room.


    It looks important, with a 5m diameter and intricate criss cross patterns it must have taken hours to draw.  I had read something about runes when I was first able to read, but this is my first time seeing one.


    All I know about them is that they are drawn in a way that allows the user to pour his/her mana into it and activate a spell based on the pattern, the more complicated the rune the more mana needed.


    I have no idea what the symbol means, so I¡¯ll have to wait for someone to explain what it does..


    Father enters the white room first and the rest of us follow, once we are all inside he turns around to face us and says


    ¡°This is a teleportation rune that we will be using to send you four to Sunvaarmun, from there you will be challenging yourselves by fighting those who are as strong or stronger than you. We have a few rules and things to give you, so listen carefully.¡±


    He then steps back slightly and my mother replaces him


    ¡°Firstly, you will not kill the weak without provocation, unless you are threatened or the situation warrants it then there is to be no killings, understand? ¡°


    Not that I was planning on committing murder anyways, but I nod just to inform her that I do understand.


    ¡°You will not be allowed to fight anything or anyone who is two or more stages above you by yourselves, if you are to fight the strong do it in groups after you have figured out your teamwork.  The last rule is that you are not permitted to reveal yourselves as dragons unless in a seriously grave matter, if that is to happen you are to immediately inform us of the situation with one of the items we are about to give you.  That is all for the rules, do you have any questions?¡±


    Well, they were pretty straightforward I think except for one thing, and the others don¡¯t seem like they¡¯re going to ask so I guess up to me.


    ¡°What are we allowed to kill?¡±


    It¡¯s a very simple question and it needs to be asked,  I have no problems with taking a life as long as it is someone who deserves it. I have killed many before and I will continue to do so, it¡¯s just the way it is.


    Upon hearing my question only the girls eyes open widely and they appear to be shocked, can¡¯t really blame them. Killing things is usually very ¡®touchy¡¯ with civilian women, I¡¯ll have to try and get them used to it before they freeze up and get us killed.


    Unlike the girls, my mother has no hesitation at all and replies coldy


    ¡°Anything is fair game, beastman, human, elven, anything. If someone or something  so much as looks at you in a menacing way you have our permission to end it¡¯s life, no puny mortal should dare offend us.¡±


    The sudden harshness of her words startles me a tiny bit, but I don¡¯t really have any problems with the answer.  I won¡¯t be as extreme as to kill someone who just glares at me, but this world¡¯s laws and rules are different now and I won¡¯t hesitate to end someone who poses any kind of threat to me or my friends.


    Tyler¡¯s eyes furrow as he nods quietly, looks like he has the same mentality as I do.  I didn¡¯t serve in the armed forces and reincarnate as a dragon in order to become some pushover, fuck that.


    Jasmine and Carly on the other hand seem to have different views on the matter, they both shift nervously from leg to leg and cross and uncross their arms.


    Can¡¯t blame them, the brutality of this world is not something that they are used to afterall. With some time I¡¯m sure they won¡¯t bat an eye, but it will take a lot of coaxing and convincing.


    That will be a project for later though, I should probably cross that bridge when I come to it.


    ¡°Is that all? No more questions then? Good, your parents all have something to give you. Vedova, come to your father.¡±


    I do as I am told and walk over to where Sahqoviing is standing with a black leather bag, he just tells me that inside there¡¯s some money, a few survival supplies, and a coin to contact them whenever we need to inside.


    I can only guess what the vague term ¡®survival supplies¡¯ means, but I hope there will at least be enough to survive in the wilderness for a while if we need to.


    The other children got the same bags, only they were color coded to match the hair/elements that we possess.


    Carly with a black bag like mine and Jasmine with a pure white bag. The only outlier is Tyler with a brown bag to match his hair. I never figured out why his hair was different, I can only assume that God had something to do with it but it could? have a potential hidden meaning.


    After receiving our goodies from our respective parents we were told to stand in the rune and wait for whatever comes next.


    Huddled together like a bunch of elementary students waiting for a bus we stand still as the twins father starts some sort of water element spell directed at us.


    The moment the blue energy makes contact with our skin I feel a warm sensation on the top of my head and on my backside, I look over to the twins to see what just happened.


    Apparently the spell had some sort of transforming effect because there are large fluffy white cat-like ears sprouting out of Jasmine¡¯s white hair, right above where her butt is is a similarly white thin tail.


    Well, it looks like I¡¯m about to get an answer to my questions about beastiality all those years ago...I wasn¡¯t expecting something like this but they don¡¯t look bad I guess¡­


    I go to look at the other two but before I can a red wall of flames comes bursting out of the edges of the rune.


    The blindingly bright flames aren¡¯t burning us, but they are incredibly violent and are quickly advancing towards us to engulf our bodies completely.


    The only emotion I felt as the flames surrounded me was disappointment at the fact that it wasn¡¯t actually hot.  Because of the fact that I don¡¯t hear any screams other than the initial shout of surprise I think the others are taking it well too.


    A few short seconds after the fire overtakes me I start to feel a pleasant warmth replace the nothingness that came with the fire.


    Briefly after the nice warm feeling I know to be the shine of the sun the bright flames fade away and I get a good look at our new continent.


    All around us are hundreds of small rolling hills covered by a deep green grass, for as far as I can see there is nothing but the grass, not a single tree in sight.


    Because of the lack of a safari like environment I can narrow this down to the northern part of the massive piece of land we now reside on, this is both good and bad.


    Good because there should be a lot of monsters and beasts to kill in this unpopulated area, bad because there won¡¯t be anything but a couple small towns and a handful of settlements large enough to be cities.


    There isn¡¯t really much we can do about our situation other than to fight and gain experience, it would probably take over a year to walk to the southern lands where the capital is without flying there in dragon form.


    And since we can¡¯t do that, we will either have to live off of the land or blend in the nearest town.


    Speaking of blending in, the new looks we got should help an incredible amount,  now that I have time to look I can see that Carly also has some black cat ears, although these ones seem to be more of a housecat instead of the lion/bobcat ones of Jasmine.


    Her tail is different too, it¡¯s rather dark and foofy compared to the white and slim short haired tail of her sister.


    The silence around us was broken by Tyler¡¯s hysterical laughing, he¡¯s bent over his knees pointing at the top of my head.


    Makes me kind of worried, also makes me want to punch him, how bad could my ears be?


    ¡°Oi, fuck stick. What are you laughing at? You have some pretty cheesy ears yourself Mr. Droopy.¡±


    He stops his mad cackle and a sudden realization rushes through his peanut brain and he frantically rubs the top of his head finding his limp blonde ears.


    After confirming that I am not some anomaly he lets out a heavy sigh and grumbles something about being a mutt.


    I can understand the mutt part, his ears really are floppy, they almost bounce with every step he takes. His tail isn¡¯t as funny looking, just a longhaired tail that you would find on a golden retreiver of our old world.


    I am kind of curious to know what my ears are like so I decide to ask the girls who are describing their own to each other a couple feet away from me.


    ¡°You two, how do I look? Is it bad?¡±


    They quickly turn towards me after hearing my voice and stare at my ears and tail quietly for a couple seconds, the first one to speak up is Carly


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    ¡°They both look like a wold¡¯s, black and pretty big.  They look good, but¡­¡±


    ¡°Your teeth are kind of weird, smile real quick¡±


    Jasmine finishes what her sister was about to say and a little confused I smile the brightest way I can.  I leave it open as the twins nod in quick succession and Jasmine speaks up again


    ¡°The canines are just like a dogs, they''re really sharp looking and decently long. Feel for yourself with your tongue.¡±


    I close my mouth again and furrow my eyebrows


    ¡®Tyler didn¡¯t have dog teeth, why do I?  What do humans even look like with long canines?¡¯


    Upon rubbing my teeth with my tongue I find that they really are just like a wolf¡¯s¡­The hell?  I guess it could be helpful...it could look really bad though, I wish I had a mirror¡­


    *sigh*


    Well, we¡¯ve gotta do something other than just stand here and wait.  It¡¯s already about 8 o''clock here and the sun should be going down soon, we need to set up some type of camp.


    I would have completely forgot about the huge time zone difference if it weren¡¯t for the fact that the sky was already turning orange. It¡¯s about a 36 hour difference from here to our home because of the fact that were 30,000 miles away so so it¡¯s already the next day and 12 hours after 8:00.


    ¡°We need to set up camp. We should be fine in this wide open area, but I don¡¯t want to risk night travel yet. Any complaints?¡±


    I get a chorus of ¡®no¡¯ from the three others and I tell them to look inside their bags for anything we can use for shelter.


    The relatively open area should be more than enough to act as a buffer zone for anything that might come to attack us, but I don¡¯t exactly want to be wet while I sleep.


    Also, the two girls will be pretty pissy if they have to sleep on the floor I assume, Tyler and I have done it several times in the field but those two were civilians I¡¯m sure.


    Not really focussing on any specific item, I go through the ruck sack like container that was presented to us, so far I¡¯ve found a wide assortment of items including;


    Rope, wire, a single potion, a flask?, and a hat.  As I reach about the midway point of the items inside the bag I find a semi large block, it seems to be made out of some type of cloth that I can¡¯t say would be a blanket.


    I carefully remove the object and find that it actually takes up the entirety of the 50% remaining space, save for a small pouch buried underneath it there isn¡¯t anything else inside.


    With a mix of disappointment and curiosity, I fiddle around with the thing in my hands until I find a small handle of sorts.


    There¡¯s nothing else on the surface, so handle it is.


    After tugging on the handle tediously as to not break anything inside, I find that whatever is inside is coming out at the base of the grip.


    I keep pulling with my tiny arms until somehow it takes the form of a small cubical ¡®tent¡¯ with the surface of the previous box acting as a base for the rest of it.


    Not large at all, the cube is maybe 3 feet high and 5 feet long and wide, leaving just enough room for me to sleep comfortably if I bend myself the right way.


    Glad that we do have some type of protection from the elements, I look up at the darkening sky and feel the air around me cooling slightly as the sun goes down. Although we don¡¯t really need one, a fire would feel nice so I decide to make one.


    After explaining what the black cubes inside everyone¡¯s bags are, they set theirs up in a circular formation making enough room in the center for a fire pit.


    To clear away any slight dangerous grass, I have Tyler perform a type of electric spell called ¡®Lightning Scythe¡¯. Basically just a precise piece of electric mana, all of the grass surrounding the pit is cut at it¡¯s base and added to the pile.


    Also nabbing as much as the shin high grass as he can from our surroundings, we create a formidable pile of tall grass that should last us about an hour before we will have to get more of the quickly burning material.


    The amount of the wild grass needed for such a long amount of time is huge, but we have a very large pile that will get the job done.


    With our now cozy looking clearing in the hills, I form fire mana around my finger in the form of a slight torch/lighter in order to get the fire going.


    Luckily, the pile grass is dry so it not only lights easily but means that there probably won¡¯t be any rain tonight.


    Making sure it doesn¡¯t burn too quickly, I keep a watch on the fire as my companions sit cross legged directly next to the pit.


    Normally the heat would be burning, but all dragons are pretty much immune to heat so it is impossible for such a small temperature to harm us.


    Content with the blaze, I sit down on my butt and let my arms support me as I think of a way to make some small talk.


    As usual, Tyler¡¯s just listening quietly to the two twins who are talking back and forth about the weather and hills, there¡¯s not really much to talk about and to be honest, I¡¯m not really much of a social person.


    Most of the time I end up talking to people is when they start the conversation, I just kind of keep the ball rolling so to speak, so starting one is actually a pretty rare event for me.


    Struggling with my brainstorming, I think deep about anything I could say that would be interesting.


    After about 5 minutes of my deep thought I remember a piece of information that I definitely should have asked earlier.


    Interrupting thee two girls¡¯ talking about how cute their ears are, I slowly tread on what might be a touchy subject.


    ¡°So, how did you guys do in your past lives?  I forgot to ask, but I¡¯ve been wanting to know for a while now.¡±


    None of the three really look too distressed about the question, but I can see Tyler¡¯s eyes lower and close slightly as if remembering something painful.


    Still with that strange look in his eyes, Tyler speaks up


    ¡°Well, after you died I continued my service until I was 40 and then settled down and retired.  I was out of work for a while, but I got a job as a high school football coach in Texas.  It was fun work, I liked it doing it and I had a good set of kids to teach. After our second playoff win I went to celebrate at a bar and met a good woman named Lauren.  We hit it off nicely and continued seeing each other as I coached for a couple months. She really was a good woman, tall, blonde, smart as hell too, I really loved her. After a year we tied the knot and bought a home together in the town I coached at in Southern Texas.¡±


    His eyes close and he pauses to sigh, tilting his head up to the sky


    ¡°We stayed together until she died of cancer at 59, it was terminal, deep inside her brain.  It hit me hard and I lived the rest of my life doing nothing but traveling to see the world until I passed myself.¡±


    He slaps his cheeks a few times and opens his eyes, good as new.


    ¡°It¡¯s all in the past now, a new life and a new world. No point in dwelling in my old memories when I have this schmuck with me.¡±


    He¡¯s had a hard life, much worse than how I had it.  I feel sorry for him, but I wouldn¡¯t dare let myself show it, no matter how tough it gets pity makes it that much worse.


    ¡°I¡¯m surprised you tricked some poor girl into marrying you, I can¡¯t believe my best friend brainwashed someone¡­¡±


    That gets the response I wanted and he laughs out loud for a short time before replying


    ¡°Hell yeah I did, better looking that anything you could ever get.  Good in bed too, pussy was bomb.¡±


    I laugh in return and look over to the two twins who are slightly blushing, brushing off the sob story we just heard I divert their attention to themselves.


    ¡°How about you two, what did you do before all this?¡±


    They had already been thinking about it for a while, so they both try to speak at the same time and apologize just the same. Awkwardly freezing, Jasmine goes back to talking after a second or two.


    ¡°I got a job in business on Wall Street and lived off of that my entire life as an upper middle class citizen. Unlike Tyler over there I never really married, but I did have a few boyfriends every now and then unlike my sister over there.¡±


    She giggles after that and Carly visibly reddens, even in the dim lighting of the fire I can see the tips of her ears glowing and she looks down.


    ¡°She always was too shy to do much,  just like a little kid.  She never even dated anyone in her entire life, she was a Veterinarian after graduating college. Apparently the animals were enough for her.¡±


    She leans in and blocks her mouth on the left side where Carly is still sitting and whispers softly


    ¡°She¡¯s still a virgin too¡±


    That gets a unanimous ¡®PHFFFFFFFFF¡¯ sound from Tyler and I and Carly looks like shes about to cry with a ¡®kuuuuuuuuuuu¡¯ cry/whimper.


    Jasmine bursts out laughing and Carly slumps down with moist eyes and covers her beat red face.


    I didn¡¯t think she would be a virgin, that¡¯s really sad but far more funny to feel bad for her. That¡¯s some good shit right there, this¡¯ll be good.


    I think I see tears forming so I¡¯ll stop myself before it gets too bad.  A couple chuckles later and I have my straight face on as I signal Tyler to stop as well.


    By the time he settles down it was a full minute later and Carly already scampered off into her tent, choosing to hide herself and run away.


    Jasmine seems like she wants to go apologize to her sister, I think she feels bad about bringing that up.


    I don¡¯t know why it was so funny, I guess the way she reacted made it that much better, it was still funny as hell though, probably the biggest laugh I¡¯ve had in 10 years.


    As the mood dies down I get up and  stretch, saying my goodnights I ask Tyler to stay on a 2 man night watch rotation with me.


    He nods as he gets up as well, walking around for a bit before sitting back down atop one of the small bumps in the field.


    I¡¯ll be back up in 3 hours so I should get as much rest as I can, even though I shouldn¡¯t be tired dragons have some weird natural ability that lets them sleep whenever they want. Its a pretty weird trait, but convenient nonetheless.


    Tomorrow we¡¯ll try to get a better idea of our location and find a town if we can, we might have to walk for a very long time¡­


    (Hello comrades, I apologize for the delay with this chapter, I had it all typed out and finished last night but I didn¡¯t like it and had to redo it completely.  To make up for it, this chapter is about 1,000 words longer than my usual chapters so that¡¯s a plus I guess lol.  I also put in some information about their past lives in this chapter too, I didn¡¯t want to put too much detail into it but I might not have put enough into it, not sure. I guess we¡¯ll find out xD Let me know what you think in the comments and thanks for reading!)

 Update for those still here

    At the time i was writing this story three of my close family members passed away in quick succession, as you might imagine i had no thought of this story on my mind for a very long time. Ive had some time and im starting to get back in to re-reading some of the light novels on this site and i have decided im going to try to get back into it again. Although, im honestly thinking of doing a sort of slight redo now that ive lost whatever thought process i had.


    The way i see it i have 3 options: The first being to drop the story conpletely and to start a new one with a completely different plot, i would probably do this in a darker setting where the MC is part of an extinct draconian race, its just a thought.


    Next would be a redo of the story, but keeping the same general plot line but editing the events, wording, chapter length things like that. It might turn out better and it might turn out worse than it already is.


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    Third would be continuing off of where i left off, changing nothing. Im not so sure about this one because honestly i havent tried writing since then and i have no idea whether my writing style has changed or not. Plus, looking back at the story it seems to me like i rushed it? It just seems a little sloppy to me, let me know what you guys think.


    But, all of this is implying that i deserve a feedback anyways after me selfishly leaving without making even the tiniest of a warning. Its been a while, and i dont expect there to be even half of the readers that were before, but i will be writing (regardless of how many there may be) for the few of you that are still here.


    Thanks for listening and i hope you can stay with me in the future.

 Final Update

    So I''ve thought about this for a while now, and after seeing all of your advice and opinions I considered what I really wanted to do and what I could do. As indecisive as I am, I''ve come to a conclusion!


    I can not continue ''Dragon Ascension'', I don''t have any feel for the story at all and I''m sure most of you remember nothing of it. So, I''m going to let it die as my first work and start anew.


    Its already been approved and you can check it out if you want, I only have the prologue up for now but I plan on getting the first chapter done by tomorrow.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    If you want to try it out, you can find it here: http://royalroadl.com/fiction/7148</a>


    Thanks for all of the support and advice you have all given me, I hope I can receive it again in this new story!