《But I don't wanna be a dragon girl!》 Prologue - A normal day ¡°Get up, sleepyhead¡± Egas heard his father calling. ¡°Ugh¡­ give me 30 more minutes¡­¡± As Egas tried to turn around in his bed, his father walked over to his bed and yanked the blanket away. ¡°No, not in 30 minutes. Now.¡± He was staring at his father with a blank expression ¡°Why though? Is there anything special going on today?¡± His father looked at him with a face that said ¡®how could you forget?¡¯ ¡°It¡¯s harvest season. The field doesn¡¯t harvest itself.¡± ¡°Why do I have to help with that?¡± Egas slowly sat up. ¡°Because you are now at an age where you can help. I can¡¯t afford to feed you if you don¡¯t do anything.¡± ¡°But why now of all times? It was never like this before.¡± ¡°Your mother wanted me to wait until you are a teenager to get you to help on the field. I respected her wishes and this time around you are 13 years old.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ I¡¯ll get up. So, what¡¯s to eat?¡± ¡°Why do you even ask? There is bread, eggs and some apples.¡± ¡°Nice! We haven¡¯t had apples in a while.¡± ¡°If there are no apples on the trees, how are we supposed to eat apples?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Now, let¡¯s go and eat!¡± Half an hour later the meal was finished. Egas felt satisfied and readied himself to go on the field. ¡°Be home before sunset. I¡¯ve got something important to tell you later this evening.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try my best but I won¡¯t promise you anything.¡± ¡°I know you want to go and meet up with your friends, but try your best to be here on time.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll try.¡± Egas was making his way out of the house into the direction of the local nobles¡® field. On his way to the field he walked through the village. The buildings in this region of Menia were not in the best shape. The roofs had lots of holes in them and the walls seemed to only be held up by them leaning onto each other. The streets were uneven and muddy. The people he met on his way through the village were all wearing rugged clothing and seemed to only be skin and bones. They would have done anything to become wealthy. Long story short: The people here were miserable. As Egas got close to the village center he turned into a side street, where there were three other kids coming down that street. ¡°Look who¡¯s there. Haven¡¯t seen you in a while, serf.¡± A small and plump kird, looking as if his father has force fed him his entire childhood, with a look that made him stand out of the crowd in the village, wearing the most expensive clothes Egas has ever seen was in the center of the group. Egas felt like puking when he saw him. He was one of the most vile people here in the village and always out to put everyone down. He¡¯s the son of the lord of this land. All the villagers that were in the way between him and Egas were now making way for him to pass through. ¡°Good day young master Filian. What brings you here? I thought you were attending school in the city?¡± ¡°As a matter of fact, the school year has ended and I got a long leave and now have to somehow get over that time in this shitty village.¡± Egas was not happy with that answer. Filian was an asshole who liked to relish on the misery of the peasants of the fiefdom. There was no school around here as the village was quite poor and attending school was a very expensive thing. Only nobles and the clergy could attend school due to the tuition fees. In case of Filian, to Egas¡® enjoyment, his school was located in the city over, roughly five hours away from this village. He didn¡¯t have to see him for an entire year. An entire year which Egas was able to just chill around and didn¡®t have to worry about running into this dickhead. The three kids slowly started to surround Egas while he had to talk to Filian. ¡°What have you been up to for the past year?¡± Filian had this haughty tone to his voice, which in Egas opinion was really annoying. ¡°What else was I supposed to do? I served the fief and helped my father as usual.¡± ¡°Good, good. What came to my ears however was that, you, Egas, weren¡¯t doing jack shit. As a matter of fact, as a serf, you are the property of this fiefdom and by extension also my property.¡± ¡°You see, if you aren¡¯t working, it decreases the fiefdom¡¯s overall productivity. And if productivity decreases we will see to it that the taxes will be set higher to punish everyone here.¡± ¡°What will you do when the people here want your head because they now have to pay for your laziness?¡± Egas stood there silently, letting Filian barrage him with his mighty attitude. ¡°For now we will let you off with a warning. But let me tell you, if you don¡¯t improve this the next time I come here, you will face the consequences of your insolence.¡± ¡°My apologies, and thank you, master Filian.¡± The fatty left with a snort and the others followed him. This time Egas was able to continue on with his day without getting a beating. The tension in his body just dissipated all at once and he almost fell to his knees, feeling all shaky. ¡°Phew, that was close.¡± This wouldn¡¯t be the first time that someone got beaten to death by Filian and his followers ¨C and certainly not the last one either. Still feeling a bit shaky because of this encounter, Egas continued to make his way over to the field. After another 15 minutes of walking he arrived at the field. ¡°Ah, how come are you here?¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.A familiar voice came from behind Egas. ¡°Ah, Adam. You¡¯re here too?¡± ¡°You can bet your ass I am. I¡¯ve joined the harvests ever since 3 harvests ago.¡± Adam was a boy, that is built a bit more muscular and taller than most. Adam and Egas became friends 5 years ago after Adam asked Egas whether he wanted to play with him when Egas was lying on a field, staring at the sky. His brown hair has grown roughly shoulder length and can be described as if he¡¯s been caring for it meticulously every day. ¡°Did your pops not let you skip out this harvest?¡± ¡°No. I wish he would have let me sleep for at least an hour longer. Anyways, since when have you been here?¡± ¡°Ah. I helped them as early as before the sunrise. We¡¯re having a good harvest today. Just look around you.¡± ¡°I can see that. This is enough to feed the village for at least a year.¡± ¡°Yeah. If we are lucky we can even sell some in the city market this harvest around.¡± ¡°So, what should I do to help?¡± ¡°You take this farming scythe, cut the wheat at the bottom and bring it onto the stack over there.¡± ¡°Kay, we¡®ll meet again after the harvest, right?¡± ¡°Sure bud. I will have some stuff to take care of afterwards though. I¡¯ll be there¡­ maybe late afternoon. Where do you wanna meet up?¡± ¡°How about over at the large oak tree close to the flower field at the north side of the village?¡± ¡°Sounds nice. Now, let¡¯s get to work.¡± After half a day of harvesting, the field was now mostly done being harvested. As Egas prepares himself for his way back to the village, Adam tosses two apples at him. ¡°Here, some food for your journey back. Don¡¯t forget our meeting later!¡± ¡°Sure, I won¡¯t!¡± Egas was making his way back home first, as it was relatively close to the oak tree. As he entered the house, nobody was there. Maybe father is helping out at the harvesting of another field? In the kitchen on the table Egas found some soup and some weird drawings that he thought should symbolise¡­ that his father would be back later? It¡¯s hard to tell, but as they were peasants, none of them were able to read or write, so this was their only way to leave a note for each other. Egas took the spoon next to the soup on the table, sat down and started eating. ¡°Hmm. Nice, he put meat into the soup. Why isn¡®t he here to eat something this expensive together with me?¡± After briefly thinking about it, he finished the plate and got back up. I stink. After a day of working on the field, that wasn¡¯t very surprising. Egas decided to take a bath in the river and change his clothes before meeting anyone. He walked to the drawer and picked out a change of clothes and a rag to dry himself with once he gets out of the water and leaves the house. The river was not too far away from his home. Usually it took him about 10 minutes to get there. Egas arrived at the river. It had a calm surface, without a torrent, so it¡¯s good for a bath or for getting water. He took a look around to see if anyone was around. After making sure that nobody¡¯s here, he took his clothes off and hung them on some nearby tree branches. A lot of people would call this habit feminine, but Egas didn¡¯t care about that. The instant Egas stepped into the water, a wave of coldness surged all over his body. While it was a typical, hot, summer, the flowing water was still cold and uncomfortable at first. However, after a few moments it started to become refreshing. Once he got used to the water though, he didn¡¯t wanna leave it anymore, just so he wouldn¡¯t have to face the heat outside anymore. After he stood in the water for a long while, he guessed it was time to get out or he might be too late for the meeting with Adam. Egas got out of the water, instantly feeling the wave of heat that¡¯s coming from the blazing sun and the air around him. He felt a light, warm breeze hitting him as he walked over to the place where he put his clothes. He put on the slightly oversized top and a pair of pants that fitted him like a glove. In general, with these clothes, he resembled a noble who¡¯s become a beggar recently. His skin was fair and soft, his hair had a dark blonde tone. He had a build slightly smaller than that of Adam but he looked like a beanstalk. His eyes had a bored look to them, a dullish green with fringes of grayish blue reaching into the inner parts of the iris. After patting himself down, he went back home to put his dirty clothes into a handmade wicker basket before setting off again. It didn¡¯t take long for Egas to arrive at the tree but Adam was nowhere to be found, so he just sat down under the tree and took out the second apple. Over time, the sitting turned more into laying and he slowly drifted into sleep. Egas opened his eyes. He didn¡®t know how late it was but he was sure it¡¯s been a few hours already. He found half of the apple he ate before he fell asleep still in his hands. Feeling hungry after the nap, he took a bite off it. The moment he took the bite, he started to feel weird. It started with a strong stomachache and headache. He felt like he was being torn apart and compressed into himself at the same time. The apple fell to the ground as Egas started to curl up, he could barely move due to the extreme pain he was in. The longer the pain went on, the more it felt like it was spreading throughout Egas¡® entire body. The indescribable pain first went over to his forehead and his hips respectively. After that the pain around the hips spread both up and down towards the thighs and the upper body, which felt like they were ballooning. The pain on his forehead was focused on two points, which felt as though something was piercing through his forehead. Meanwhile the pain on the upper body migrated to his back where it condensed close to the shoulder blades. Egas almost fell unconscious due to the immeasurable pain all over his body. The pain on the thighs moved onto his calves and feet. At the same time, his entire face felt like it was burning up. Egas held his hands in front of his face because of the pain brought to him. The moment he touched his face though, his hands and arms also began to have the same burning sensation. After a few minutes of that pain his entire body turned numb. He couldn¡¯t get up or even move. Just laying there, helplessly. **Prologue: END** Chapter 1 - The encounter Egas felt his entire body being numb and couldn¡¯t move or feel anything else. After a time, that felt like and eternity however, he started to slowly get a feeling in his body parts again. He opened his eyes and saw something white hanging into his field of view. A bit slow because of the sensory overload he just had, he shrugged it of. Without taking a proper look at himself first, he sat up. Huh, that¡¯s weird. Why is that still in my field of view? A bit confused, Egas used his hands to grab a chunk of those white, silky threads, and tried to yank them off of himself. AH! Fuck! That hurts like shit. Realizing something wasn¡¯t right Egas took a proper look at himself. When he looked down on his body, Egas couldn¡¯t comprehend what was going on for a while. Is that¡­ a tail? And what is that¡­ Where previously nothing but a bare, male chest was, there now was a bump, indicating the start of growth of breasts. As where there was his dick before, there now was a valley. Shocked, Egas grabbed onto his chest and crotch and felt a weird twitching sensation. Instantly, Egas pulled his(?) hands away again and ran over to a pond close by. The pond had very clear water and in the reflection he saw an appearance that could make any teenage boy loose his mind. A young girl with long, silver-white hair stood in that reflection. She had a face without any imperfections, large, friendly, eyes, which had a beautiful green to them, as if they were emeralds. On top of her head there were very small things poking out of her forehead looking like small horns. Her arms were slender and her hands didn¡¯t seem to have any callouses. Her body was slender but under the baggy top one could see the start of what can be called breasts. She had an hourglass like figure and looked like she would come out of the wet dream of any boy among the age of 12 and 18. All the clothing she wore did not fit her. the pants were only held up by the width of her hips, but the legs were too long. Her arms also vanished into the arms of the rags she were wearing. It looked a little like a kid wearing their older siblings clothes. Egas let out a shrill scream. ¡°EEEEEEEH?!?¡± Next she touched her mouth surprised about the voice that just came out of it. Very confused and still believing to dream, Egas slowly sank to the ground. In that moment *his* friend, Adam, showed up. As Adam saw the girl and his friend was nowhere to be seen he gets closer. After a few steps Adam could clearly see the details of a humanoid monster on the girl. Quickly, Adam took the scythe, he still had on him, because he wasn¡¯t home since he was helping at the harvest, into his hand. It¡¯s a farming scythe but used correctly it could still be a deadly weapon. Thinking Egas was killed by that girl, Adam rushed into the direction of the girl with a heart full of anger. Egas tried to reason with Adam. ¡°Hey Adam, it¡¯s me, Egas!¡± Adam, in a fit of rage didn¡¯t believe the creature in the slightest. Granted, it¡¯s weird that it that creature knew his name but it could just as well have known some kind of magic, that Adam didn¡¯t know of, that let that monster read Egas memories before killing him. Egas, seeing that Adam looked extremely angry and not stopping on his dash towards her just started cowering in fear, knowing that this will probably be her end, as her strength wasn¡¯t comparable to that of Adam. Adam took a swing and hit Egas at her back. *KLING* The scythe made a sound as if it was hitting a sheet of metal. In the next moment it scattered and the blade of it flew a few meters behind Adam. Both Egas and Adam were in a state of shock. Adam started moving again first and grabbed Egas by the Hair. ¡°If I can¡¯t kill you here I will bring you to the lord to have him judge your sin.¡± Egas was now in even more of a state of panic. If she were brought to the lord in this form she would probably be tortured and turned into an obedient slave to please the young master. ¡°HNNG. Let go! I don¡¯t want to go there! I swear, I am Egas!¡± Adam did not listen to Egas and draged her away. At least he would have, if he could. To Adams surprise he just couldn¡¯t drag the girl away from that spot. Almost as if she was heavier than even a tree with its roots in the ground. Egas, still panicking decided to bite Adams arm. The now sharp teeth easily went through the skin and hit the bone. *Snap* His arm was broken and looked like it was hanging on only single few strands of muscle and some nerves. Adam culled over in pain and held the hurt arm with his other hand.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Egas used his chance and with all the power he could muster ran away. Adam, now laying on the ground, heavily bleeding, yelled toward Egas: ¡°I WILL GET YOU. AND IF IT¡¯S THE LAST THING I DO!¡± Quickly making her way through the flower field, full of lavender color flowers, in the direction of the forest behind that, Egas was shedding a tear. She didn¡¯t want to hurt Adam. Nonetheless she had to do it if she wouldn¡¯t want to end up a slave to Filian. Once she reached the forest she started to slow down a bit due to the terrain. Egas climbed over thick roots just sprouting out of the ground and looking everywhere around her as wolves and bandits weren¡¯t uncommon around here. While taking a look to the right, Egas stumbled over one of the roots sprouting out of the ground, and fell to the ground. But even after, or especially because of, her running away, her heart, and head, didn¡¯t calm down. So she wasn¡¯t standing up yet and first had to cope with the situation. She was laying there, crying, thinking to herself: What will i do now? I can¡¯t go back to the village like this. That was Egas first thought. She wanted to go to her father and ask him for help but she was too afraid, that her father too would try to do the same as Adam, so she decided against it. Will Adam be fine? The last Egas has seen Adam now was him almost bleeding out and yelled at her that he would kill her. So going to check out and help Adam was out of the question. What will happen to me now? Deep down, Egas already knew that he would have to go on a travel for a long time. She still couldn¡¯t accept it. This was a world full of xenophobia and misogyny, so her chances of survival were slim. Though even death would be preferable to being brought before the landlord. Appearently somebody has found Adam. Egas heard the noise of a lot of people searching for both her male, and her current form. As Egas wanted to stand up again and walk over she decided it would be better to be running away further. Even though it would have it¡¯s dangers, it was safer than running straight into the nobles arms. Even now she was still feeling some numbness in her body. What was that even? How did Adam not hurt me? He couldn¡¯t even drag me with him. With his strength that shouldn¡¯t be a problem. And that bite¡­ Egas was slowly touching her teeth. They felt sharper than before, but they couldn¡¯t hurt her. Interested in her biting strength she picked up a tree branch from the ground and bit on it lightly. *KRAK* The Branch was completely split apart. EH?!? How ?!? Hearing the voices and the steps getting closer to him, Egas quickly got up again and walked further into the direction of the deepest parts of the forest. The voices grew more silent the further into the deepest parts of the forest she went. Her father always told her not to go into the forest if it¡¯s avoidable. There were many dangerous monsters around these parts. But on her entire way through the forest she didn¡¯t see any monsters. Not even animals. It¡¯s as if they were trying to run away from her. She came to a clearing in the forest and sat down. Nobody would go this deep into the forest anyways She thought. She was trying to calm herself down and get a clear head. *GRR* Suddenly her stomach grumbled. She hadn¡¯t eaten a lot today but enough for it to usually be enough untill the evening. Now the problem arose, that she doesn¡¯t know how to hunt and what berries were edible. She saw a lonely rabbit jumping at the other end of the clearing and suddenly had some instinct flashing through herself. She got up very quickly and straight up chased after the rabbit. The rabbit however was outrunning her by quite the margin. After five minutes of hunting the rabbit, she gave up and sat down again. Now with even more hunger. She couldn¡¯t catch a rabbit no matter how hard she tried. They were simply too fast and she too inexperienced. Due to her hunger and her not knowing how to hunt she started eating random berries and mushrooms. Even some treebark was consumed by her. It all didn¡¯t taste good but it¡¯s better than having an empty stomach while being hunted down. By the time her hunger has been satisfied she has eaten almost everything remotely edible in the clearing. The trees around didn¡¯t have a bark anymore. The berry bushes were completely empty ¨C some even left without leaves. And no mushrooms left. Though one couldn¡¯t call it satisfying the hunger. There still was plenty of space in her stomach, however she didn¡¯t have much appetite after the contents of her meal. She decided to lay down and catch some sleep while she got a peaceful place. In order for that to happen she searched for a place closeby and looked for a hiding spot where neither predatorial animals, monsters nor humans could find her. That she found. There was a very large tree closeby which had a trunk double the width of Egas. She was slowly trying to climb her way up the tree and found a thick branch, sturdy enough to hold her. At least she thought that. How heavy could she be in this form, right? Right after taking a step on the branch it made a loud noise and suddenly both the branch and Egas were falling down. Instinctively the wings, she hadn¡¯t realized they exist yet, began to flap but it was too little. It wasn¡¯t a full on collission with the ground, however it wasn¡¯t a soft landing. To Egas surprise however, she didn¡¯t feel hurt and¡­ were that wings? Full of adrenaline she couldn¡¯t sleep anymore and went straight into a direction she knew, she didn¡¯t come from. Shoving the thought of the wings to the side for now. **CHAPTER 1: END** Chapter 2 - Survival On her way through the forest, Egas found many beautiful places, which she had no time to enjoy. It was still weirdly quiet around. One step after another, now that the entire situation has calmed down a bit, Egas was still moving forward, deeply in thought. Since she was transformed into his current form, Egas had not a single minute of peace. This meant she couldn¡¯t even properly think about what might have happened. Magic was unlikely. To Egas¡¯ knowledge magic that leaves a lasting impact on a body would be felt, as long as the body is enchanted ¨C even though she didn¡¯t know much about magic. Not just that. Who would have the ability to enchant her into something like this in that village? The more Egas thought about it the more confused she got. Being transformed into a monster is already enough. Why did it have to be a girl of all things? Egas, as most people in this era had quite misogynystic tendencies. *He* wasn¡¯t the one to show it much but in his thoughts and with friends *he* liked to talk bad about women. First things first. First I have to find a way to become human again. After that I may be able to become human again. Egas didn¡¯t want to give up hope in this situation, in which she had no roof over her head, no possibility for regular meals or even for social contact. She was a person, who liked to live a lazy lifestyle and due to that didn¡¯t know how to survive in the wild. That was the most severe problem at this moment. The form was still secondary to survival. The priority would be finding out of the forest first of all. It¡¯s a large forest full of dangers. There are wolfs, slimes, some other minor monsters and even bears! Just as that thought passed along her she heard something. A howl. Couldn¡¯t have come any worse than this, could it? A pack of wolves was the most dangerous thing she could have encountered in this forest. Wolfes were fierce hunters, which went to the neck instantly to kill their prey without it being able to defend itself. If they don¡¯t manage to kill their Prey that way, they maul it to death, which usually is a very painful death. With that in her mind, Egas started to get on the move faster again. She needed to find a spot where the wolves wouldn¡¯t attack her. The problem however was, she couldn¡¯t see anything but trees, shrubs and mushrooms. So she just continued on her walk until she saw an old, abandoned shack. It was made out of wood and seemed to almost fall apart. The floor was full of holes and very dirty. The windows were all broken and last but not least, half of the roof was missing. Though Egas wasn¡¯t happy with this accommodation she bit the bullet and searched for something, where she could lay on comfortably. Egas opened a door. Behind that was a room that Egas could only guess was the storage room of the people that lived here before. Behind another door she found the bedroom. If it could be called a bedroom that is. Where Egas thought she would find a bed he just found a straw mat on the ground. A bit disgusted, not wanting to lay in a wet straw bed, Egas looked at the kitchen. That one was arguably the most devastated room of the house. The fireplace of the kitchen was quite sad and there wasn¡¯t a piece of wood left to start a fire with. Heck, even if there was wood she wouldn¡¯t know how to start the fire. There was a chair next to the fireplace that seemed like it could hold some weight. Being semiconscious about her weight after Adam trying to drag her and after that also a tree branch just breaking off the instant she stepped on it, she slowly sat down on the chair to test its durability. After ensuring herself that the chair would hold her weight, she got up again happily, knowing she found something to relax on. But first she had to find something to eat. Going out with a lot of hunger, she searched for anything edible. Mushrooms and berries she ate as she found them, but she had this insatiable hunger for meat. But no matter where she went she didn¡¯t find any animals but rabbits, however she already knew she couldn¡¯t catch rabbits. After an hour of search she got tired and her hunger overwhelmed her. Egas sat down on a treestump that was close by and held her stomach. The hunger was so bad that she was close to passing out. After some minutes of Egas not moving she heard wolves howl very close by. Suddenly everything around Egas got silent. A short moment later, Egas heard something in the bushes and some twigs breaking.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. The next thing Egas knew, was that a pack of 6 wolves were running towards her from different directions. Two wolves came from in front, one came from behind and the rest were flanking her from the sides. Egas, who still felt a hunger, that made her drowsy and not being able to move properly anymore, didn¡¯t have the time to react before the first wolves have even reached her. The flanking wolves tried to chew down on her arms while the wolves from behind and infront of her tried to bite her neck. In that moment though, both Egas and the wolves were surprised. Instead of them easily killing Egas, the only damage they have done was blunt trauma. In that moment Egas, in a world of hurt, chomped down on the neck of the wolf in front of her. The wolf died close to instantaneous. As the other wolves have seen that happen, they wanted to run away and try their luck on another prey. But to the dismay of two of the wolves, Egas instinctively grabbed two of them and they couldn¡¯t free themselves from her grip. Next Egas chomped down on the first of the two wolves and then the other. As the other three wolves have seen that, they ran away with their tail tucked in. She looked like an easy meal but they were mistaken and suffered the price of that. No matter what happens the other wolves would stay away from this place for the next few generations. For Egas it was a very long and rough day. After the wolf attack Egas ate one wolf completely, including bones, as if driven through sheer instinct with no rationality. Slowly regaining her mind, she looked around and at herself. There were two wolf corpses laying there and everything on her was soaked full of blood. This didn¡¯t leave much opportunity to think about what just happened. But how did it happen? Last thing Egas remembered was that she sat down and had a lot of hunger. Everything after that was blank on her mind. After checking that there were no wounds on her body, she took the two corpses with her to the hut. Once she reached the hut, she took water out of a well, that was conveniently placed right next to the hut and washed herself with it. Then she searched for some firewood and kindling and a flint stone. How hard could it be to make a fire without knowing anything about it? A few hours later Egas still didn¡¯t manage to make a fire. The leafs he picked up as kindling were too wet so they wouldn¡¯t catch the spark. After that Egas just sat down and let the day go through her head once more. It was the worst day of her life and she didn¡¯t even know how it came to it. Best she could do was lay down and sleep and everything would be back to how it was before. After this long day Egas eyes got heavy while she was still sitting in the chair contemplating on her day and what to do next. Slowly she fell asleep. That sleep would go on from the early night where she fell asleep until the sun being at the zenith of its height. In the middle of the day Egas woke up again. Sunshine¡¯s are enveloping her but she didn¡¯t feel hot. But the sun didn¡¯t just shine on her but also on the fireplace with the leaves still on it. After that long sleep, Egas felt an immense hunger again, so she tried to make a fire again to cook the wolves. To her surprise, the fire instantly started. Quickly she threw the wood on the leafs and the fire started spreading. Now she wanted to throw the wolves onto the fire, but suddenly she realized: one can¡¯t cook the wolves while they had their fur still on them and the organs in them. It would ruin the meats taste. After searching for a short time she found a sharp knife. She used that knife to cut chunks of meat out of the wolves and take the pelt off of it. There were also some cooking utensils on the ground so she took a pan and fried the meat in it. However, as she has never cooked before the meat quickly became black. Egas took the meat out of the pan by picking it up with two fingers and took a bite. It wasn¡¯t tasty, but, surprising to Egas, she didn¡¯t find it too disgusting. Quickly she ate the rest of the meat she has prepared. After that she prepared way rations as she couldn¡¯t stay here after eating everything forageable around here. That meat too turned black quite quickly. For the packing of the wayrations she ripped off a chunk of her top and found some ropes. she used that to bind herself a small makeshift backpack and put the meat and the knife into it. Sadly the pan was too large and Egas had no way to transport it. Before continuing on her way through the forest, she took another sip of water from the well and went on her way. Everything looked the same no matter where she looked. Not even experienced adventurers could find their way out of the forest sometimes, and she didn¡¯t have any experience with adventuring. The way she tried to get out of the forest was just constantly walking into the same direction. After a few hours she found that the trees became sparser and sparser until at some point she reached a point where there was a cut between the forest and some wheat fields. Everything that she could see in front of her were grass fields and wheat fields as far as the eye can see. Somewhere on the horizon she could see some houses but it was quite the distance. **Chapter 2: End** Chapter 3 - Undercover Over there on the horizon across many fields of rye and wheat, Egas saw a few houses. She thought that maybe it was her best bet to go to the village she found, so she could maybe find something edible. With this thought in her head she started making her way to a path located in between a lot of wheat fields. While walking towards the pathways she came to a realization, that maybe it wasn¡¯t the wisest of choices to go into a village looking like this. With a bit of quick thinking she looked around and quickly found a scarecrow. Relieved she walked over to the scarecrow and took its baggy pants and shirt. Quickly she took off her clothes and put on the scarecrows. Is created a very strong itching all over her body due to the wheat straws that got stuck on the clothes. The tail got stuck under the shirt, so that it flowed along her spine and just made her look a bit weird and the horns got hidden under her hair, so that nobody could see them. After ensuring her tail wouldn¡¯t fall out of the shirt and wouldn¡¯t be too obvious, Egas made her way towards the village. Though she felt uncomfortable having tucked her tail away, it was the best she could do not to get mistaken for some kind of monster. The sun was past its zenith and it was still quite hot ¨C no maybe even hotter than before and Egas was walking there without shade in thick linen clothing. The sweat she was giving off while walking and the itching all over made her feel very uncomfortable. More so than she thought before. On the path in between the fields she passed a few people. They seemed to be better off than the people in Egas home village. From what she has seen until now they don¡¯t seem to go to bed hungry, however neither have they become fat but look rather strong. She came ever so closer to the village without anybody seeming to find out that she had a tail, horns and wings. Once she arrived at the village it was already evening. The sun was now slowly setting and she got tired again ¨C and hungry. She walked a bit further until she found a more central position in the village and looked for a church. There was a church quite close by to her. Walking down three streets, she arrived at the church. It was a church dedicated to the goddess of fertility and harvest, Raone. It was a stroke of luck, as Humans followed a few gods but Raone was the most generous of them all. Egas entered the church and was immediately greeted by a hall that looked overgrown. The walls were full of ivy and the ground had a lot of weed filled into the cracks of stone bricks. There were six rows of benches, all of them empty. In front of the benches there was an Altair, decorated with flowers and earth. It looked unlike anything Egas has ever seen before. Though Egas hasn¡¯t seen a lot in his live yet. In the Village he grew up in, there wasn¡¯t even a church and the only prayer done was that at the table before dinner was served. In hopes the priest enters the church again, Egas sat down and recited prayers he learned from his father. In his prayer she didn¡¯t realize the priest entering the church. The priest himself was now sitting down 2 benches behind Egas and praying to Raone. She waited there on the bench for the priest to finish his prayer. After a while he got up. As that happened Egas stood up and walked towards the priest. ¡°What brings you here, my child?¡± the priest asked ¡°Father, I am a traveler without a home. I am in need of help.¡± the priest thought for a second and looked friendly at Egas. ¡°Come with me, child. I will give you meal and a spot to sleep.¡± The priest said and signaled for Egas to follow him. A bit hesitant, Egas followed the Priest to his home. Usually the home of a priest was right next to the church, and so it was in this case. As the priest entered his house he signaled Egas to follow him once again. Unsure of whether the priest was to be trusted, Egas hesitated again but after a grumbling from the stomach, Egas quickly followed. What Egas didn¡¯t realize from outside due to being quite in thought about what could happen and if he did the right thing ¨C the house was quite large and in quite a good state compared to everything he has seen in his home village. Coming into the house it was quite nice. The ground was layed out with bricks and wood. Going further into the house into the kitchen it smelled nice. ¡°I have already eaten and these are the leftovers. Take some if you want.¡± This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.The priest said while handing over a bowl and spoon over to Egas. ¡°Thank you, father.¡± ¡°No need for formalities. Call me Dedrik. How is your name?¡± Egas panicked. She couldn¡¯t just use Egas. It was a male name and would be unusual to use in her current form. So she quickly hand to think about another name. ¡°My name¡­? It¡¯s Kalmia.¡± ¡°Kalmia? It¡¯s a beautiful name i must say. Would you like a water or tea to drink?¡± ¡°I would like a tea, please.¡± ¡°Fine then wait here and start eating already. I¡¯ll be back soon.¡± Kalmia walked over to the pot with soup in it. It tasted hearty and was quite thick and green. It looked like a pea soup stewed with a little bit of chicken meat. With water collecting in her mouth she quickly took the ladle and filled the bowl in her hands to the brim. Behind her there was a small table with four chairs. Kalmia sat down on a chair next to a window and started eating. The soup was indeed a pea soup. It was rich in taste and thick in consistency. As pea soup was one of Kalmias favorite food she ate very quickly. If one would look at her appearance, one would never guess she would eat like that. From the huge 4 liter pot almost full of soup Kalmia quickly ate down to a fourth of what it can hold. A few minutes after she felt happy and saturated, Dedrik entered the room again with a pot of water. While he put the water on the fireplace for it to cook he looked into the pot and was surprised how there could only be a fourth of that food left. He wasn¡¯t mad as most of it would have gone to spoil anyways due to him not being able to eat that much within three days but he didn¡¯t expect that little girl to eat that much. ¡°Do you feel better now, Kalmia?¡± ¡°Yes fath- Dedrik.¡± ¡°Now tell me, Kalmia, how did you end up in a situation like this?¡± Kalmia was hesitant and thought a bit what she should say. Dedrik took this as nothing but shyness and her not feeling good about her story and didn¡¯t want to pester her into telling her story. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter if you don¡¯t want to tell, however know, that i just want to help you.¡± Kalmia takes the tucked away tail out of the shirt and shows it to the priest. ¡°A DRAGON?!?¡± Slightly irritated about what he said she started talking ¡°Not so loud, please. I swear i mean no harm.¡± ¡°I was hunted out of a village on the other end of the forest without reasoning just for my appearance and have nowhere to go. The hunt was harsh and i was in a few dangerous situations since I had to flee¡­¡± After having seen how friendly the priest was, Kalmia in her naivety decided to tell the truth. At least some of it. She wouldn¡¯t tell him that she was originally male and a human, however she started talking about her being hunted and that she wasn¡¯t human. ¡°Hmm, I see.¡± Dedrik answered. He was a truly nice human, who would do everything in his power for the unfortunate. ¡°Well you can stay here for the night and we can see tomorrow how to handle your situation best.¡± Kalmia looked surprised ¡°You don¡¯t think I am a dangerous monster?¡± ¡°Would a dangerous monster knock on a priests door asking for food?¡± The priest had a point in that. Kalmia didn¡¯t know much about monsters but the ability to reason was something she was sure, monsters couldn¡¯t achieve. The water in the pot was now boiling and Dedrik started pouring black tea leaves through a strainer in the pot. A few minutes later he started pouring the tea into a cup and handed it over to Kalmia. Kalmia took a sip and it was nothing but bitterness on her tongue. ¡°Would you like something to sweeten your tea? And a bit of milk?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t. You are already doing so much for me, how could i ask for more?¡± ¡°Ah, it¡¯s no problem. I live in abundance and always share my stuff with the people in the village anyways. Here you go.¡± Dedrik poured to rocks of sugar into the tea followed by a bit of milk on top. ¡°Wait a few minutes and give it a stew. It should be much more enjoyable now.¡± Kalmia did as Dedrik said and took another sip. It was a much more pleasing experience. It was a strong tea with a hint of sweetness coming from the sugar. Quickly, she finished the entire cup. ¡°Now that you finished that, let me show you, where you can sleep.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Dedrik started walking into the direction of a ladder. As soon as he arrived at the ladder he took it to get up to the second floor of the house. On the entire way, Kalmia was right behind him. For the ladder she didn¡¯t feel very safe stepping on it but when she tried doing so, it didn¡¯t break. After getting to the second floor, Kalmia could see 3 doors. ¡°If you got any problem during the night don¡¯t feel bad going into this room and asking me for help.¡± Dedrik said pointing into the direction of one of the doors. ¡°Over there you can sleep. There is a bed and a few candles in there, however it could be a bit dusty. I hope you won¡¯t get disturbed by that.¡± Dedrik pointed to the room on the opposite side. Now pointing to the third room, right next to his he said ¡°And that room is currently not in use. If you want you could sleep in there but i would not recommend as i use it for storage and it is relatively filled because of that.¡± ¡°Thank you. I will take this room.¡± ¡°Okay. Don¡¯t feel bad asking for help. My door is always open. Now go in and catch some sleep. After what you went through you probably need it.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sir, I am very tired.¡± Dedrik lead Kalmia into the room and closed the door behind her. The room was not the largest one and quite dusty but it was the most luxurious bedroom, Kalmia has ever been in. The furniture looked like it was freshly made from a skillfull carpenter and the bed looked sturdy and comfortable. Kalmia slowly sat down on the bed, not wanting to break it by her weight, but it didn¡¯t even make any sound. After that she laid down. It felt like she was laying on multiple layers of cloud, especially after her last nights accommodation. Afer a few minutes of laying there she quickly fell asleep, still having the clothes she came with on her. **CHAPTER 3: END** Chapter 4 - In your service Kalmia woke up after the best sleep she had in a while. The exhaustion of the last few days added onto the fact she wasn¡¯t staying awake for much longer than she had to. Kalmia walked over the a window, that she found in the room and looked outside. It was bright outside. Due to that she made her way down towards the kitchen and looked for Dedrik. Dedrik was nowhere to be found. Kalmia guessed that Dedrik would probably be in a church service. In the kitchen she however found a table full of bread. There was also a note on that table but Kalmia couldn¡¯t read the letters of the note so she had no chance of deciphering it. Due to there being a note though she guessed it would be fine for her to sit down on the table and just eat the bread. After the fulfilling meal, Kalmia tucked in her tail again and hid her horns. After making sure they wouldn¡¯t show she went out of the house and into the village. Now that it was bright outside she could see more clearly how the village looked like. It was a bit smaller than his home village, Kalmia thought while walking through the streets, however it was wealthier than the village he grew up in. The houses were in a better shape and the people didn¡¯t appear to starve. After just randomly walking through the streets for a while she stumbled on a market that she didn¡¯t see before. It was right in front of the church, however Kalmia didn¡¯t see it and walked into the other direction first and only stumbled upon the market after more than an hour of walking around. It smelled like there was a lot of fresh food and even snacks that were sold on the market. The market stretched across the entire street in front of the church until it reached the end of the street. Kalmia would estimate that there would be about 30 vendors in that small area. Not just the food that Kalmia has smelt was sold there but also wood, coal and other stuff like toys and things of every day need. Kalmia had no money on her so she couldn¡¯t buy anything. However due to the smells she became really hungry for something sweet. In front of one of the stores that sold sweets was a large amount of people standing. Maybe she could¡­ NO. How would Dedrik think of her when she took his hospitality and then stole? As he harboured her what would the people think of him? No, Kalmia decided against taking anything without paying. Suddenly a hand grabbed her shoulder. Kalmia turned around in a panic, however, it was Dedriks hand. Dedrik looked like he was exhausted from running around somewhere. ?Don¡¯t you know how dangerous it is for you to go out just like this?¡° Dedrik said with a tone of worry, audibly out of breath. ?Wasn¡¯t the plan for me to go after that night anyways?¡° ?Say didn¡¯t you read the note i left for you?¡° ?I can¡¯t read¡­¡° ?Oh¡­¡° Dedrik looked a bit sorry that he wouldn¡¯t think about stuff like that. He knew exactly how most people wouldn¡¯t be able to read. However he expected Kalmia to be able to read due to her dragon heritage. ?First come with me again. I want to tell you something.¡° Kalmia nodded and followed Dedrik back to the house. ?Sit down at the table first of all.¡° Kalmia did as said. ?So you currently have nowhere to return to, right?¡° She nodded. ?And you don¡¯t have the skills to live out in the wild, right?¡° ?Yes.¡° ?So I thought it might be better if you stay here for now until we found a more permanent solution to your problem.¡° Kalmia was surprised. She knew Dedrik was nice but she didn¡¯t expect anything like this. But Kalmia couldn¡¯t possibly accept that. She was already a freeloafer for a night and it made her feel uncomfortable. ?But I can¡¯t. You¡¯ve already done so much for me.¡° ?No no, please, don¡¯t say that. I enjoy helping people such as you.¡° ?But I¡¯m a¡­ monster¡­¡° ?You are no monster. From what I can tell you are a dragon! The rulers of the sky and one of the worlds most powerful creatures. Although you are still an infant, so one can¡¯t speak about you and being powerful yet.¡° Kalmia has never heard of dragons before. It may be due to her being illiterate and due to that not being able to read any informational material, that would be the only realistic answer, however why did her father not even remotely mention dragons? Did he also not know of them? Or are they just not relevant to the normal persons live? Also, she and powerful? She thought for a bit about the wolf attack and the attack Adam launched on her and came to the conclusion, maybe she wasn¡¯t as weak as she thought before. As she was a juvenile, she wasn¡¯t as powerful as a grown up dragon though. How strong might one of them be? Strong enough to kill a hundred men? Enough to kill a thousand men? Or even an entire kingdom? Kalmia had to find out more about that. After a time that felt like it was a few minutes Kalmia answered ?What¡­ is a dragon¡­?¡° ?You don¡¯t even know what a dragon is? Where did you grow up?¡° ?Celia¡­¡° ?Ah. That would also explain why you couldn¡¯t read. You see, Dragons are a rare creature, that most people wouldn¡¯t even dream about meeting. They have a high resistance to physical attacks and are the creatures with the fastest flying speed. They could get from here to Grunia within a few hours while taking the carriage would take at least a week.¡° ?How about it, I teach you to read, write and a bit over your kind and you stay here for a bit and help me keeping order around the house?¡° ?But I have no skills at all.¡° ?No problem, you will learn.¡° ?But¡­¡° ?But what? Do you have a better solution?¡° ?No¡­¡° ?Fine, then it¡¯s settled. You won¡¯t be a freeloafer and get through the days easier.¡° ?¡­¡° Kalmia looked a bit shy and couldn¡¯t come up with an excuse to not get to stay there. ?Fine if you think i should do that I trust you.¡° Dedrik seemed very happy about that answer and he seemed to gain energy again.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ?I hoped you would say that!¡° Dedrik pulled out a linen bag. He laid it in front of Kalmia on the desk they were both sitting at. ?For that I got you some proper clothes. Come on, open up.¡° Kalmia opened up the bag and instantly, her face became red. The bag was filled with dresses, simple clothes and underwear. ?I didn¡¯t know your sizes so if something doesn¡¯t fit don¡¯t mind telling me and we will trade it in for another size at the shop.¡° Kalmia didn¡¯t know what to say here. She was more than greatful for her just to live there but even the clothes¡­ however she didn¡¯t want to wear these clothes. All of them would make her look girly. ¡°What, you don¡¯t like it?¡± ¡°¡­ Could there be something less girly in here?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t want to look girly? Wouldn¡¯t dresses make you feel more comfortable because of your tail though?¡± Kalmia hasn¡¯t thought about that fact. But why the underwear? ¡°¡­¡± ¡°If it disturbs you that much i can exchange the dresses with pants and shirts. But please give it a try first.¡± Kalmia nodded slowly and took the bag of clothes out into the room she slept in. There she laid out the clothes she has gotten on the bed. Among those clothes she found four dresses, three shirts, two skirts and two linen pants. But also three pairs of thigh highs and 5 pairs of underpants and bras. Kalmia became uneasy and felt that it didn¡¯t feel right to wear the underwear so she decided to skip out on that. To make Dedrik happy and maybe find out how it feels to wear it she took one of the dresses on and pulled it over her head . It was a white dress which was laying very loosely. Considering the length of the sleeves however it appeared to be the right size. Because of it laying so loosely Kalmia got an idea. She rolled her tail around her hips and checked whether one could see the tail. From what she could tell it looked quite inconspicuous. After checking that out she went down to the kitchen again, in which they were sitting before and asked Dedrik. ¡°Do you see my tail?¡± ¡°Hmm. Turn around real fast.¡± Kalmia showed her backside for Dedrik to see whether one would see it. ¡°Nope, I can¡¯t see anything. But your shins got a few scales on them. Did you check out with the thighs?¡± ¡°No. I didn¡¯t feel comfortable to try to wear them. I don¡¯t think it is right.¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t it be fine? Look at you. You are a fine young woman. Many young boys would kill for you.¡± Kalmias face blushed up with a red hue and she looked away. There were a lot of things she wanted to hear but not anything in that direction. Something deep down in her felt weird tho¡­ her stomach felt funny and she didn¡¯t really know how to properly react to it. At the same time some intecrate thoughts popped up of wearing them. For now however, she put them off. ¡°¡­ Thank you¡­ excuse me for a second.¡± ¡°¡­sure?¡± Kalmia walked over to the room she was assigned to and put the clothes down from the bed to the ground after folding them. While having the thighs in her hands she thought about wearing them for a second but decided it couldn¡¯t hurt to try. They were made of an elastic material and were very stretchy. Unsure of how to properly wear them she just pulled them over her feet and pulled them as high up as she could. They felt very smooth on her skin and it was a feeling she would describe as very comfortable. She looked for a mirror but couldn¡¯t find any. That made her sneak out of the room hoping not to get seen wearing the thigh highs and going into the bathroom. In the bathroom there was a large silver mirror in which Kalmia could look at herself. In the mirror in front of her stood a young girl with beautiful silver hair and a new, white dress. Her Legs were adorned with black thigh highs. Would she still be a boy she would get a nosebleed from looking at her. The feelings she felt towards that made her very confused. She hated looking this way but at the same time it made her feel happy. Quickly she slipped out of the bathroom again and went the ladder up to her room again. She sat there for a while, thinking about whether she should wear them or not. As it was a comfortable wear she thought it was quite nice, however she also thought it was too girly for her. In the end she took them off and left them on the shelf and went down again. ¡°Back? Did you try on the thigh highs?¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t like it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s too bad¡­ I¡¯ll leave them here if you change your mind though.¡± Change her mind? Did he think Kalmia wouldn¡¯t be set on her thoughts? ¡°Sure¡­ if you say so¡­¡± ¡°Okay, now that that is done, let¡¯s come to the things you¡¯ll have to do around the house.¡± ¡°First of all you are the one having to cook the meals. Secondly you have to clean the house to keep it in a nice and pristine state. thirdly you have to see that you stay clean. fourth, you have to wash the clothes and last but not least you have to serve the guests that come around once in a while.¡± ¡°And in exchange I get to live here and learn from you, right?¡± ¡°Not just that but i¡¯ll also give you a monthly allowance for your work depending on how good you¡¯ve done it.¡± ¡°But I don¡¯t know how to properly do any of that.¡± ¡°No problem. The first few times i¡¯ll stick close to you and show you how it¡¯s done. As soon as I feel you are getting more comfortable with the stuff I¡¯ll leave it completely to you.¡± ¡°¡­ okay.¡± Over the next fewmonths, Kalmia had to get out of bed at an early hour to cook the morning meal and eat together with Dedrik. After the meal they went to the church and Dedrik does his sermon to which Kalmia attends. After the sermon, Kalmia started doing the cleaning for the next few hours, until she had to cook again. There was no time to relax really, which made her really uncomfortable. After eating for dinner she had to wash the clothes once in a month. On the other days, which were not as densly filled with work, she sat down at the kitchen table with Dedrik and started to learn reading and writing as Dedrik said, that it would be the basis for everything else. Once Kalmia got a bit more comfortable doing the chores, Dedrik left her alone more and more. At some time she got to a point where she got finished with cleaning proper enough to not have to clean everyday. At first it was every second day. Then it was twice a week. In the end she could get it down to once a week. As time went on and winter slowly started, she got more proficient in learning the human script. She got to a level where she could read simple books and write short letters. The letters weren¡¯t perfect but one could read them.. In all the time she had been busy she couldn¡¯t spare a single thought about her predicament nor about whether her father was fine. On days on which she barely had work to do, she liked to sit down and think about everything, even though it just gave her a depressed feeling. Soon and only once a year there was a special holiday. It was at the end of december and many people celebrated it by giving gifts to each other. It was slowly getting closer and closer and now it was just a week away. **Chapter 4: END** Chapter 5 - Yule It was a cold and snowy day. The people stood at home for most of the day and so did Kalmia and Dedrik. Kalmia, busy doing the chores, even if she didn¡¯t like to even after two seasons, picked up a picture, cleaned on the spot where the frame was standing, and put it down again. Over the last half a year, Kalmia has been staying with Dedrik she improved her housekeeping skills and learned the basics of reading and writing. Her handwriting wasn¡¯t yet the best it could be, however it was readable enough to get her somewhere. Unbeknownst to Kalmia, Dedrik had her do that so that she would learn to stand on her own feet and take care of herself. Kalmia sighed. She desperately needed a few days off and get a bit of time for herself to finally get some information about herself and her situation. Dedrik was sitting at the kitchen table while Kalmia was doing the chores. ¡°What would you like to do tomorrow?¡± ¡°What should I do? It¡¯s a day like any other.¡± ¡°Wait you don¡¯t know?¡± ¡°Know what?¡± ¡°¡­Nothing.¡± ¡°Huh? Whatever.¡± Dedrik got a grin on his face. Kalmia didn¡¯t know what Yule was. This means that he could surprise her even more by celebrating it together with her. Kalmia went up the stairs and into her room. she has been living in this room for half a year now. It was more spacious than the room she had at his fathers house ¨C and she didn¡¯t have to share the room. During the last few months she was being kept busy by Dedrik and ¨C at some points ¨C regretted staying with Dedrik due to the amount of work she had to do, however it was an unbeatable offer to have him pay her and stay in his house. The staying in his house is not just figuratively. She didn¡¯t go out of the house much. Especially since autumn has started and she got cold whenever going outside. Dedrik tried to tempt her into wearing high socks but Kalmia still refused. No matter how cold she felt, she wouldn¡¯t wear them. She sat down on her bed and looked at a shelf that was next to it. In the shelf she had easy to read books. She grabbed one of the books and opened it. The book was an epic about a strong man, who fought on the battlefield and some day fought a god and triumphed. When she finished the Book she was reading she went down to the kitchen table. Dedrik was already waiting there, prepared to teach her a bit more. ¡°Now that you know how to read and write, we will start calculus.¡± ¡°What is calculus?¡± ¡°It is¡­ hmm¡­ hard to describe. Can you tell me what 1+1 is?¡± Kalmia used her hand counting to find out ¡°Uh¡­ 2?¡± ¡°Correct. And with that you did calculus.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± ¡°I will teach you how to properly calculate in your head up to 100¡Á100.¡± Kalmia looked at her hands¡± ¡°Not with your hands but with your head.¡± Kalmia looked at Dedrik with a confused look on her face. ¡°How am i supposed to do that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s very easy. You just have to memorize it. It takes a lot of time but it isn¡¯t hard. And if you know how to calculate this amount, you can multiplicate and divide anything. before that though you first have to learn how to calculate with plus and minus.¡± ¡°Aha¡­¡± ¡°Trust me, you¡¯ll need it when you buy or sell anything. Not just because of the money you pay but also because of the items you receive.¡± After that, Dedrik taught Kalmia how to add up and subtract from. She learned that after nine it becomes ten and after nineteen it becomes twenty. For each of these steps up until two hundred. Kalmia heard of it for the first time and didn¡¯t manage to memorise them all that fast. Because of that Dedrik told her to repeat these over the next few weeks and she wouldn¡¯t have to learn with him for the next two weeks but rather repeat everything she has learned so far. After the learning session Kalmia went up into her room, started to wear a pyjama and laid down in her bed. It was already dark outside and as always she would get up early tomorrow. Early the next day Kalmia was surprised. Dedrik was already up and made breakfast. He even brought it up to her room and put it down on the ground in front of the door. What¡¯s going on? Kalmia ate her breakfast and went down into the kitchen. Dedrik was sitting in front of the fireplace and looking through documents. Kalmia looked around and everything looked a bit differently. There was a weirdly woody decoration hanging everywhere. It looked as if someone took some branches of pine trees and hung them up on the walls. Next to the fireplace were some weird boxes. They were wrapped up in some kind of decorated paper and laid there on the ground. Kalmia was very interested in what that would be. ¡°Good morning Kalmia. I wish you a happy Yule!¡± ¡°Yule? What is a Yule?¡± ¡°It is a tradition we have for celebrating your bonds with the people around you.¡± ¡°Sooo¡­ like birthday?¡± ¡°Well¡­ not directly like birthday but it has its similarities.¡± ¡°And how does one usually celebrate this Yule thing?¡± ¡°One burns a large log in the fireplace of the house and watches that with friends and family. After that one eats a goat that is cooked in a special way. At the end of the day there is a cosy get together in which people give each other gifts. If a family is poor they like to skip out on the Yule celebration as it can get quite expensive relatively quickly.¡± Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.¡°But¡­ I don¡¯t have any gift for you¡­¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need anything. You should think about yourself first.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Come here. Let¡¯s play some games today. Have you ever played chess?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t say I did.¡± ¡°Would you like to learn chess?¡± ¡°Sure, why not.¡± The next few hours were spent with Kalmia learning how to play chess. It took her half an hour to learn the rules and another hour to grasp the game completely. Even after understanding the game she would regularly get checkmated by Dedrik. It was obvious that that would happen but it was quite frustrating to Kalmia. After a while Kalmia had enough of chess. She thought she had Dedrik in a trap so often just to end up defeated herself. After Kalmia stepped away from chess, Dedrik asked her to come out with him and search for the log to burn. Kalmia didn¡¯t want to go out but in the end still came with him. She felt like she owed Dedrik to properly celebrate Yule together with him. Kalmia tucked her tail away and took a thick coat that Dedrik has given her. The coat was not just quite thick but it also reached down the Kalmias knees. With that she stayed somewhat warm but her legs still got quite cold. While walking over to the market and the shop that sells logs, Kalmia shivered a lot. ¡°So what do you say, which Yule log we will take home?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ how about that one?¡± Kalmia pointed at a log that still had all of his twigs and branches attached. ¡°But young madame, that one is not yet prepared.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll take that one.¡± Dedrik wanted to make Kalmia happy and stood fast on the ground of buying that specific log. ¡°It will do if Kalmia wants that log.¡± ¡°Sure¡­ That log will cost 30 chai.¡± ¡°Make it 20.¡± ¡°But if i pay you 20 i sell at a loss. how about 28?¡± ¡°Hmm¡­ 23 and no more¡± ¡°Lowest i can do is 26.¡± ¡°Deal.¡± Dedrik was stronger than he looked. It seemed that he could effortlessly pull the log through the market with some ropes. Once we reached the house they went into the kitchen and put the log there. Afterwards they went out again to buy a slaughtered goat to eat at dinner time. Once again at home, Dedrik prepared the Log to be thrown into the fire. this included taking of the bark and cutting of twigs and branches. the branches and the bark were used to start the fire. As soon as the fire got going, Dedrik threw the 1,5 meter large log into the fireplace. Quickly the fire began spreading all over the log, which first turned black and afterwards turned ash gray. As soon as the fire started burning Dedrik poked up the goat, which was already skinned and gutted, took a long metal rod and put it through the goat. It reached out on both ends. Next Dedrik hung up the goat on two spots on the wall to each side of the fireplace and had a tool to turn it with. ¡°I will do this one. Just watch.¡± Over the next 4 hours Kalmia and Dedrik talked a bit while he constantly had to turn the skewer. It was already dark outside as Dedrik got up. ¡°Kalmia, could you get us forks and knifes? also a large knife, please.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Kalmia went over to a drawer and took the largest plates and the largest knife she could find. ¡°here.¡± Kalmia reached Dedrik a plate and the large knife. While Dedrik began cutting down some of the meat, Kalmia prepared the table. Once the dish was on the table, Dedrik took out a bit of salad he had prepared the day before. The dish was very meat based and the salad should balance it out a bit. Kalmia however took a large piece, that originally came from the breast of the goat and chomped down on it. It was gone within seconds and Kalmia took the next piece. It was just as large as the previous one and came from the back this time. Dedrik was fine with getting a medium large piece from the back. He couldn¡¯t eat a lot anyways but Kalmia seemed to always have a hunger this strong so he purposefully took the largest goat they had. It barely took twenty minutes until the goat was left with only its bones laying on the plate. ¡°So¡­ what now?¡± ¡°Now we go to the traditionally last event of the day. The gift exchange. Don¡¯t worry. I don¡¯t expect anything from you.¡± Kalmia looked a bit sad. If she had known something existed she would have prepared a gift for Dedrik. Dedrik and Kalmia went over to the small wrapped up boxes. ¡°These are for you.¡± Dedrik took the two boxes and put them in front of kalmia. Kalmia sat down on the ground to open them. In the first box, there were a few books in there. ¡®Menise class 1¡¯, ¡®Calculus class 1¡¯, ¡®Draconic class 1¡¯ and ¡®Magic class 1¡¯ ¡°huh? what does this mean?¡± ¡°Open up the next one and you¡¯ll know.¡± the next one had three pairs of uniforms. They were white blouses with a dark jacket over. Not just that but also black skirts and thigh highs. ¡°What are you telling me with this?¡± ¡°You are going to go to an official school. I taught you enough for you to be able to learn at school and you got a far brighter future ahead of you if you study.¡± Kalmia nodded with her head. She didn¡¯t want to leave Dedrik, who cared for her as if she was from his own blood. Suddenly, when she thought about that, she got very sad and thought about her father. She left him all alone back in that rotting village. Also Adam, whom she had last seen badly hurt. Both the past and the present made Kalmia sad. Slowly a tear started to roll down own her face. then a few followed. After a short amount of time she started fully crying. She was a young girl. With the hormones of a young girl. She was a lot less sentimental when she was still a boy but since she became a girl she felt like crying a lot more often. Dedrik took her into his arms to calm her down. **CHAPTER 5: END** Chapter 6 - The grand City Kalmia was in a conflicted mood. Going to school was a once in a lifetime chance for her. On the other side she still wanted to find out how to turn back and go back to the village and she didn¡¯t want to leave Dedrik, who has been like a father to her. The school that Dedrik would send Kalmia to is one, that accepts any race and it isn¡¯t bound by nation. It is far away from this place she calls home, in a territory called Hunaga. The school has declared neutrality between the nations, which, as it has been seen as one of the best schools on the continent, has been largely accepted by this continents powers. It also is a very strict school, which excells at keeping order in the school. According to the school laws even outside of school territory, students are only allowed to fight if its in a manner that concerns the state. If one breaks the rule one gets one strike. At three strikes you get suspended from the school. The tuition is also extremely high. though it gets reduced if you show promise of being a strong magician. Not everyone can become a magician and outside of the circles of nobility and their bastards it is extremely rare to get the trait to perform magic feats. Dragons, as one of the magic creatures of the world, usually excell in magic. It must be said though that even dragons have to undergo the enrollment test to get accepted to the school. That means if Kalmia wouldn¡¯t succeed in that test, which is mainly focused on magic, she wouldn¡¯t be accepted to the school. The test however is less a test of skill, but one of capacity. They measure your magic capacity and put you in a class of people of similar capacity. Kalmia was nervous and Dedrik gave her off for two months until the test would begin. In this Period she spent her time mostly deepening the knowledge she already had. One of the things she did was learning the correlation of multiplication/division and add/subtract. After an explenation of Dedrik to the topic it was pretty easy to understand. Multiplication was just adding up the number to itself by x amount. Right before the time off had ended, the entrance exam had begun. It was a travel there of 2 whole weeks. Dedrik has rented a carriage to Luminor, a border city to the east of Menia. It was also one of the wealthier areas in this country. The ride with the carriage took what felt like an eternity. The roads were mostly uneven and there were even some mountain roads along the path. The nations eastern and western halfes were split apart by a huge mountain chain. Most people call them the Menia Alps. To the west of the Alps there was mostly forests, bad farming grounds and poor villages. Most of the Nations wealth concentrated in the east. The east of Menia had some of the best farming grounds in the continent. After passing the rugged mountainchain, all that Kalmia could see were fields over fields with only a few trees left, seperating the fields along the ditches. Not just the the terrain was different. The weather too was quite different to what Kalmia was used to. It was instead of a rather cool spring more like a cool summer. The temperatures reached the heights of cool summer nights and it didn¡¯t seem to rain too much. In exchange of that there were massive rivers, that the farmers used to irrigate the fields with ditches. As it was the start of spring many oxes could be seen plowing the fields with farmers behind them, making them move forwards. The rivers that were wider than Kalmia could throw a stone had elegant bridges out of stone stretching across them. The bridges had large arcs that would allow small ships to pass through underneath them. It seemed as if it was a different nation alltogether. The people they encountered were even talking funny. Truely it was a place, that Kalmia didn¡¯t expect to encounter on the other side of the mountain chain.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. After a long carriage ride they finally arrived in Luminor. As they passed through a gate in the city walls, Kalmia looked around her with wonderous eyes. It was a city with grand architecture. It was a huge and wealthy port city. The houses were mostly build out of stonebricks and had clay tiles as their roof. They seemed like they could last any weather for an eternity, unlike those wooden and straw houses where Kalmia came from. Soldiers were stationed along the entire wall from what Kalmia could see. The streets were paved with cobble stone to ensure a smoother ride and on the side of the road there were even lanterns emitting light once it got dark. All the way from the city walls to the inner city Kalmia could do nothing but be amazed. It was more than she ever expected. For all her live she has only seen the poor areas of western Menia and never expected there to be areas that were this wealthy in this kingdom. She wanted to explore the city and walk through the markets. As the carriage came to a hold in front of a large house with the letters ¡°INN¡± painted on a shield hanging above the door. ¡°This is where we sleep for tonight.¡± Dedrik got up to leave the carriage. ¡°Come here. Let¡¯s go in to put our baggage in our rooms.¡± Kalmia got up and left the carriage together with Dedrik. Before going in Dedrik gave a silver coloured coin to the Carriage driver, which in return looked very happy. Both of them carried their baggage into the inn and instantly a stench of alcohol and food blew into their faces. It was not too unusual to have the tables of an inn filled with drunkards but there were also those that just sat down to eat. The smell made Kalmia quite hungry. During the travel to Luminor Kalmia had to go to sleep hungry more than once. Right as they went towards the reception, a woman carrying a few cups filled with a drink with a white foam on top of it walked past. ¡°Will be right there for you in a minute.¡± Patiently, Kalmia and Dedrik waited in front of the reception until that woman came back. ¡°How can I help you?¡± ¡°Hello. We need two rooms for one person each please.¡± ¡°Sure we can do. That¡¯s one Mat per day per person.¡± Dedrik put 15 silver coins on the reception. ¡°We will stay here for a week. 15 mat. Keep the change.¡± ¡°Thank you sir!¡± The woman took out two keys out of a drawer. ¡°Here you go. The rooms are upstairs. Just look for the rooms with the numbers of the keys.¡± The keys had the numbers 13 and 16 written on a wooden shield that is attached to them. ¡°Thank you.¡± ¡°¡­ Thank you¡­¡± both of them gave their thanks and left for their rooms. Kalmia went into room 16 and Dedrik into room 13. The rooms were decently large and seemed pretty comfortable. Kalmia put her stuff down, left the room and locked the door. Dedrik also just left his room and locked his door. ¡°Let¡¯s go eat.¡± ¡°Yeah, I was just about to ask you whether we could get something to eat.¡± Kalmia was very hungry at this point. After that long travel with limited amount of food, that wasn¡¯t unexpected for Dedrik. They went down the stairs and sat down at a table. The woman, that received them at the reception came over. ¡°What would you like to eat?¡± ¡°The meal of the day for me.¡± Dedrik looked at Kalmia for a moment and turned to the woman. ¡°And for her the entire menu once.¡± A few minutes later she brought the meal of the day twice. It was a piece of pork with potatoes and a mushroom sauce. In the time that Dedrik took to eat about half his meal, Kalmia managed to eat her entire portion. A few minutes later the waitress brought her the next dish. It was half a chicken with mashed potatos and some asperagus. When that too was done a plate full of fish, potatos and spinach was put down in front of her. This continued for 3 more meals until the menu was worked through by Kalmia and she was saturated. It was already late and after eating this much she got tired and wanted to sleep. ¡°I will go sleep now.¡± ¡°Sure Kalmia. I will go to bed in a few minutes too.¡± Kalmia went up into her room and fell asleep pretty fast. What she didn¡¯t know was that Dedrik went on to drink for a few hours more. He didn¡¯t just drink a few cups of beer but he drank a lot. So much so, that he had problems walking up to his door. After a few minutes of trying to get the key into the lock he finally managed that and unlock his room. After that he closed the door and fell down on his bed and fell asleep pretty fast. **CHAPTER 6: END*** Chapter 7 - Lost in the city Kalmia had a good sleep that night. The same cannot be said of Dedrik. Dedrik drank too much yesterday and ended up having a hangover the following day. Once morning began and Kalmia got up when the sun was already up quite some height, Dedrik was still in his room, suffering from his own bad decisions. After waiting for a while, Kalmia knocked on the door harshly. She didn¡¯t know that Dedrik drank too much during the previous night and made loud noises to wake him up. Dedrik, who had quite the headache as of that moment, slowly made his way out of the bed and towards the door. ¡°Hngh¡­ could you be a bit more quiet?¡± ¡°Uhm¡­ sure? What¡¯s wrong? Do you not feel well today?¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ I got a hangover. Could you get me something to drink?¡± ¡°You want to drink alcohol again?!?¡± ¡°No, you¡­ Just get me some water please.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± Kalmia made her way to the counter down the stairs and asked for a cup of water. That Woman of the day before was already working at the counter again. She seemed slightly tired but still relatively fit. After Kalmia asked her for a cup of water, she quickly got cold water and handed it over to Kalmia. ¡°Here. Bring it to him fast, he¡¯ll need it.¡± ¡°Thanks!¡± Kalmia went up the stairs and into the room of Dedrik again. she started to talk in a lower tone ¡°I got you that water you wanted.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Kalmia put it down on a table next to the bed. ¡°I am gonna leave you alone for now. I¡¯ll check back with you later.¡± ¡°Thank you¡­ see you later¡­¡± Kalmia went out the door and didn¡¯t know what to do today. Usually when not at home Dedrik planed what they would do together. Now that Dedrik isn¡¯t here she didn¡¯t have much on her mind that she could do. After quite some time, possibly hours, of sitting in her room and reading through her textbooks, she couldn¡¯t bare it any more and went to Dedrik to look for him. She silently saw him laying in the bed and he seemed to sleep. Kalmia closed the door again to let him sleep and went down towards the the eating area of the inn. There she ordered three meals that she liked especially when eating the day before, and paid with one Mat more than she had to just to give a tip. After eating she sneaked into Dedriks room, took the map that they had taken with them and went out of the Inn. When she got out the sun stood high in the sky and there didn¡¯t seem to be a single cloud in the sky. Kalmia didn¡¯t really know how to read a map and essentially just walked around without a clue where she was going. She took turn after turn and somehow at some point managed to find the harbour. There were a lot of Carracks docked at the harbour. A lot of them were unloading or loading good on or off the ship. She saw Rugs, silken cloth or wooden crates being transported over the docks. She continued her way along the river, which the docks are located at. To her left is the river, to her right are magnificent building, which close to the docks were mainly storage houses and a bit behind slowly turned into pubs, stores and joy houses for those sailors, which have been without company for months. Suddenly, while continuing to walk along the river, a nice, sweet smell crept into her nose. Quickly she looked around for the origin of this tempting smell however she couldn¡¯t see the source of the smell just by looking around. This lead her to following the scent. Her sence of smelling distinct smells must have been heightened by her transformation to this form as well. She walked and walked and walked but only after about 10 minutes, she finally reached the source of the smell. It was a shop that was located somewhere in the middle of the city. After a short time, Kalmia went into the store and looked around herself. Everywhere around her there were many colourful displays, filled with the stuff, which that smell originated from. There were some black ones, some that had many colours, some red, some yellow, some green and many more. She went to the counter. At that counter there was no person standing so she waited there a bit. After a few minutes, finally a Person came. ¡°Hello, how can I help you?¡± ¡°Hello. Can you tell me what all this is?¡± ¡°Uhm¡­ We are a confectionery. All the things we sell here are sweets.¡± Kalmia didn¡¯t really know what sweets or a confectionery were but she was interested in those colourful things they sell. ¡°Could I get some of those Red things, some of those black and also some of those colourful ones?¡± ¡°Sure. Anything else?¡± ¡°No, thanks.¡± ¡°Okay, That is two T¨¦.¡± Kalmia hands two golden coins, that she took out of a coin bag that Dedrik has given her after employing her, over to the worker behind the counter which in return handed her over a small bag that had 3 scoops of each thing that Kalmia asked for. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.Kalmia looked around for a bit and her view stopped at something that looked like a bread, but softer. ¡°Also what is that?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a cake. They are a bit more expensive but people also tend to like it more.¡± ¡°Could I also get a piece of that?¡± ¡°Sure. That¡¯s three T¨¦¡± Kalmia who still had the coin bag in her hands opened it again and put the three gold coins on the counter. She looked into her coin bag afterwards and looked a bit sad as it is pretty much empty now. The man behind the counter points into the direction of a small table. ¡°If you want, you can sit down over there and we will serve you your piece of cake on the table, so you can enjoy it in peace while sitting down, instead of while walking around the city.¡± ¡°Thank you, I will take that offer.¡± Kalmia went over to the table and sat down on one of the chairs, that stood next to it. They creaked a bit but they seemed sturdy enough to hold her weight. A few minutes later, the same man as earlier brought her her piece of the cake put it down right in front of her. Kalmias mouth was already completely filled with salvia. It smelled sweet but there was something else, to it that Kalmia couldn¡¯t really tell. She took a fork and heaved a piece of that cake onto the fork. It looked very soft and was much brighter in dough than the average bread. There were also some weird mushy pieces inside the ¡°cake¡±. She put the fork to her mouth and took a bite. She munched on it a bit before putting a big smile on her face. She has never tasted anything like this. It is like soft, sweet bread and¡­ is that an apple taste? She loved everything about that cake. The cake wasn¡¯t for long before Kalmia has eaten it all. She wanted more however she didn¡¯t have the funds for it any more. Kalmia left the building and wanted to go back to the inn. After looking left and right however, she didn¡¯t know where she had to go to get back. The sun was already long past its zenith and evening was about to begin. First of all she had to find the way back to the port. She took a turn left and then right and walked down the street that didn¡¯t seem familiar to her. Once she reached the end of the street she took a left turn and came into another street that she didn¡¯t know. This went on for quite a while until the sun sank and Kalmia became brave enough to ask a stranger on the street. ¡°Hello, could you tell me where I can find the harbour?¡± ¡°Get away! I¡¯m in a hurry!¡± That certainly wasn¡¯t a good first try. Let¡¯s try it with someone else. ¡°Good evening sir, could you tell me the way to the harbour?¡± ¡°¡­¡± The man just walked past her without paying attention. Three time¡¯s the charm. She tried it one last time. The man she was about to ask now was rather shady looking however Kalmia lost hope and did what she had to to get back. ¡°Hello, good sir. Could you tell me how to find to the harbour?¡± ¡°Sure, young girl. I can show you the way.¡± Kalmia didn¡¯t know, that to the average human that didn¡¯t see he draconic details, she would just look like a helpless young girl. The man she talked to was wearing rather dark clothes and his nose seemed like is has been broken multiple times. He also had quite a few scars on his face one of which being rather large and going along the right side of his chin. She followed him mindlessly around some corners until they reached a rather dark alleyway. Kalmia became a bit more defensive. She didn¡¯t know where they were but she knew that walking in paths like these in the dark isn¡¯t safe. Especially as a girl. Without her realizing it someone sneaked up from behind and something hard hit her on the back of her head. She managed to get up again before it went dark before her eyes and she fell over unconciously. Next thing Kalmia knew was her being chained to a metal pole in some sort of storage facility. Her mouth was stuffed with some kind of cloth so all noises she could emit were very muffled. Her arms were bond to the pole and her legs bound together. They seemed to even have gone out of their way to bind her tail to her body. Quietly in the distance she could hear them talking. ¡°She is a god damn DRAGON, Max. What are we supposed to do with her?¡± ¡°MAN I didn¡¯t know either! She looked just like a normal girl!¡± ¡°Fine¡­ Let¡¯s think about it properly¡­¡± ¡°What¡¯s your plan Merkatur?¡± ¡°How about we pull her teeth out and train her to be an obedient slave?¡± ¡°She is a dragon Merkatur. Do you think training her would be easy?¡± ¡°No, that I don¡¯t¡­ But think about the stacks of gold we would get by selling a trained female dragon!¡± ¡°But then all of Selania will be after us!¡± ¡°Think about it. They won¡¯t let us go anyways after kidnapping one of their infants. We could turn this around and get someone else in trouble AND get rich!¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°Nothing but! You and me! Wel will both get filthy rich. Think about your family!¡± ¡°But my family won¡¯t be off any better without their father!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry! It will be fine! When have my plans not worked out?¡± ¡°¡­True your plans always somehow work out. Thanks to your plans we even managed to rob that snobs house.¡± ¡°You see? Let¡¯s get back here tomorrow when she is hungry and desperate for food.¡± ¡°Fine¡­ whatever you say Merkatur.¡± Kalmia couldn¡¯t do anything but sit there listening to them. Her stomach turned inside out and she felt as if she was about to puke. It may have been the stress but nonetheless she felt even worse and more in danger than even when hunted out of the village. **CHAPTER 7: END** Chapter 8 - Escape Kalmia had to think of a way to get out of this situation. If she didn¡¯t escape now, she¡¯d probably never get to enjoy her freedom ever again. She couldn¡¯t really move anything but her head and maybe squirm a bit around. A tear has rolled down her cheeks due to her panicking and loosing her hope slowly. The two men that kidnapped her have already left for a while now and it was completely dark inside the room, however Kalmia could somehow still see all of her surroundings. She had to think on how to get out of this situation.The tension was evident from her face. She was so stressed that she wasn¡¯t able to think straight so she went through all the details once again to sort her thoughts and think of a solution. She got tied to a metal pole, her legs were bound together at her feet, her arms were tied together at the wrists and close to the elbows, her neck was tied to the pole and her mouth was stuffed with some piece of cloth from what she could tell so she couldn¡¯t even let out a noise. An idea came to her mind. She tried to get her legs up to her mouth to try to saw through them with the teeth that would as far as she could guess poke out underneath. However after a few minutes of trying she gave up on that idea. She just couldn¡¯t get her mouth and the ropes close enough to each other to even properly try that. In return Kalmia tried to calm down and think a bit more. Did they overlook something, that Kalmia could use to free herself¡­ maybe¡­ just maybe¡­ Kalmia moved her left arm up and her right arm down as much as she could. Then she did the opposite. She continued this for hours before finally *SNAP* the rope was sawed through by the scales on her arms and wrists. They may be smooth usually but Kalmia found out not too long ago that, when she was stressed, they would become rougher, a bit like sandpaper. Now, Kalmia had to find out how to unknot these knots while not even being able to see them. First she took that cloth out her mouth and then tried to loosen the knot that bound her neck to the pole so she could look around a bit better. First of all though, she had to find the knot. It was not right at her neck. After a bit of touching round she found it right on the other side of the pole. She tried pulling on random parts of the knots first and managed to loosen something. She must have done something wrong though as now it was a very compressed knot. Kalmia now had to somehow find a spot in that knot that she could pull so it get it loosened up. It took a while but finally she found it. Outside, the sun seemed to slowly rise again. Kalmia was still sitting there loosening the knots. After freeing her arms and neck she went on and managed to loosen one knot after the other. The problem was the knot binding her body and tail to the pole. She couldn¡¯t reach that knot with her arm so she had to think of something. She looked around a bit and saw the bag with sweets she had bought earlier lying right next to her. Suddenly she got and idea and grabbed the bag and took one of those seemingly hard things out and put it into her mouth. It was a very sweet taste, sweeter than even the cake. She wanted to enjoy it more but she didn¡¯t have the time to do that now. She bit on that candy and it broke off. She did it a few times more until she had a sharp plate in her mouth. With that she went on to cut loose the last rope that bond her to the pole. And not one second too early. She heard the goons entering the building again talking about their plans so she hid behind some boxes. ¡°No touching the merchandise!¡± ¡°But how are we going to train her without teaching her those basics?¡± ¡°Once she is broken, she won¡¯t have to be taught any more.¡± Kalmias heart felt weird and she got very tense not just that but she also hard to suppress her hunger and hope that her stomach wouldn¡¯t grumble. The goons went over to the pole where Kalmia was bound to and found it empty. ¡°WHERE IS SHE?!?¡± ¡°QUICK, SEARCH EVERYTHING! IF SHE GOT OUT WE ARE DOOMED!¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.Kalmia knew her hideout wasn¡¯t that great and it was only a matter of time before she was found. She tried to sneak into the direction of the door to finally get out. Behind her she heard them pushing over boxes, opening closets and generally searching. She was right in front of the door when *grab* ¡°GOT YOU BITCH!¡± One of the goons grabbed Kalmia by her horns and she panicked. ¡°Good job, Max!¡± Kalmia turned around and in all her panic just bit down on his arm. It was not the first time she did that in such a situation but this time she didn¡¯t hold back at all. After just a moment there, where previously his arm was now there was starting the elbow only a stump left, which blood flowed out to no end. The goon fell to the ground and writhed in pain. Merkatur hurried over but when he almost reached his friend and Kalmia, Kalmia just jumped on him maniacally and bit into his neck until there was a big chunk of the neck missing. Kalmias clothes and hair were both soaked in blood and she felt, what the inner Egas in her would say, not humane. She didn¡¯t feel anything but ease when killing them. She made her way outside and found herself at a storage room right next to the harbour. When walking past the people on the dock, they looked at her intensely. They all could guess that what coloured her red was blood, however all of them wouldn¡¯t dare to confront someone that has so much blood on them. Not minding all those stares she walked the path that she did remember until ¨C finally ¨C she reached the inn again. When entering the bar everything inside became silent. A happy voice was yelling aloud. ¡°GIRL! YOU ARE FINE! Dedrik has been so worried about you!¡± It was the woman working behind the counter that was overjoyed. When she got closer though her tone changed and she became more serious. ¡°What happened? Where have you been? Who did this to you? Ah wait. First of all take a seat. I¡¯ll bring you something to eat and then you go and clean yourself.¡± Kalmia had a lot of hunger but didn¡¯t really feel like eating. Nonetheless once the food was put in front of her she couldn¡¯t stop eating. She ate even more than when they arrived in the city. After that meal she went up into the bathroom of her room and washed herself. In that time not for a single second she thought about where Dedrik would be. First she rinsed off the blood from her body and then out of her hair. It wasn¡¯t too easy to get it out of the hair but after a while her hair shone in the perfect silver-white colour it has had before. She was also quite happy that she brought a few replacement dresses with her in the case something would happen and whether they¡¯d get dirty. She pulled the dress over her head and hid her tail inside of it again. Then she went out into the dining area of the inn again. ¡°Dedrik will be here shortly, girl. Just wait a bit.¡± ¡°¡­ okay.¡± ¡°But tell me¡­ what happened?¡± Kalmia didn¡¯t really wanna talk about it much however after a bit of persuasion she faltered and told her everything, leaving out some key details that would give hints to her being a dragon. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t have gone outside all alone, girl. The city is dangerous!¡± ¡°¡­yes¡­¡± ¡°Did you at least enjoy the day during the time before?¡± ¡°¡­yes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s good to hear. Now come here i am sure you want to eat more now that you hopefully feel a bit better!¡± And truly Kalmia was able to eat a few plates more. Before eating the last plate though, Dedrik came into the inn, his face completely pale. When he saw Kalmia there eating, colour came back to his face. He seemed like he was almost falling over when hurrying to Kalmia. Kalmia didn¡¯t even see him entering the inn or walking towards him and suddenly two hands grabbed her from behind. It was a hug. Kalmias face lightened up a bit that after that torturous night, she could see Dedrik again. At the start of the night, she thought that she could never see him again. The man that saved her when she was in her ¨C previous ¨C hardest moment of her life. ¡°I¡¯m happy you are fine¡± ¡°¡­¡± Kalmia turned around and hugged him back. Both of them could not have been happier in this moment. The woman from behind the counter also came to the table again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry. The meal this time is my treat.¡± ¡°Thank you, Julia.¡± So Julia was her name all this time. After that they both went up into Kalmias room where she explained everything that happened. **CHAPTER 8: END** Chapter 9 - The entrance test After the adventures that Kalmia had in the city she didn''t really feel like going out there anymore. Not with Dedrik and especially not alone. One could go as far as to say she got paranoia because of those events. She just stood in her room learning and at times talking to Dedrik a bit. Dedrik in return after those events didn''t want to force her to go out with him so he let her do whatever she wanted. After some very uneventful days Dedrik came into Kalmias room at morning to tell her to get ready. The entrance test was at the afternoon of that test. Kalmia quickly prepared and tucked her tail away and essentially was ready to go. The tests location was a bit outside the city so they made their way out a bit early in the day. They choose to walk the path to the test and walked along some sights in the city. Dedrik hoped this would get Kalmias mood from going out a bit up but she still seemed quite distracted and always looked around her shoulders. This lead to him rushing to the other sights but it was always the same so at some point he just gave up. At some point though they walked past a confecture and Kalmia seemed to be interested. "Would you like some sweets?" "Sure. That would be nice." "Then come here." They went into the confecture and Kalmia instantly was standing in front of a display of a cake. "You want that?" Dedrik didn''t sound very amused but Kalmia didn''t realise. "Yes! I love these!" "In that case" Dedrik sighed and took out his coin bag. Then he went to the counter and came back with the entire cake. "Here. We will eat it in the inn after the entrance test." "Thanks!" Kalmia had a happy tone to her voice again so in the end Dedrik decided it was worth it. For the entire walk to the entrance test Kalmia could not think of anything but that cake and her mouth filled with saliva. In what felt like no time they arrived the showplace for the test. It was right outside the city gates on a small field. They arrived a bit early but as the sun was already past its zenith it wasn''t too long before the start. Dedrik left Kalmia there and told her that he''d wait at the gate. After Dedrik left, Kalmia took a look around. A lot of other people also already have been there. Among them a person with ears like a cat... or was it fox ears? Kalmia couldn''t tell. There were also two elves. They had a look like they wouldn''t take anyone else on that field serious, including the instructors. The last few people there were all appearently human. Dedrik told Kalmia in advance the details of the different races and that they could see any of them during the test. During their walk to the test he also told her that she would probably be more respected in the city if she wouldn''t hide her draconic features. The people of the city have seen all kinds of races before but they feared the dragon race the most as they were very protective to their members. Kalmia still didn''t want to appear like a dragon in public. Deep in her heart she still was a human boy. The boy part was hard to replicate but at least she could appear like a human. Some half an hour or so later in which appearently nobody arrived anymore, one of the instructors steps forth. "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. With your presence here I take that all of you want to participate in the magical capacity entrance test of our prestigeous Silver Island Academy." Everybody just stood there silently, waiting for that instructor to continue. "The requirements of entry should be familiar to all of you. In this location we well examine your magical capacity and you physical capabilities. For the magical capacity test it is absolutely unimportant how strong and numerous the theoretical spells are you could cast." "The strength examination in return is a test of your current physical strength. For passing only one of both is needed however we will test you in both to make sure how capable you are. The passing scores will be put in relation to the average strength and capacity of your races." The elves didn''t look too happy about that comment. "First of all let''s take attendance. When I say your name you say "In attendance" and race." "Marquis Morgan?" "In attendance, human" "Countess Rosemarie von Kulz?" "In attendance, elf." "Maria?" "In attendance, Beastman." Kalmia was at this point not really listening anymore but suddenly she heard her name being said. "Kalmia?" "In attendance, Dragon." The people around her looked at her a bit surprised. It seemed that a dragon would not be that common in this area? or would they just not attend a school like this? Kalmia didn''t really know. After that he listed a few more names. A few of them didn''t seem to be in attendance today. Kalmia could only shake her head when she thought about how ungrateful they must be.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. "Now that we know all the people attending, we will hand out nametags. Please only take your own nametag." Everyone proceeded to follow the instructors instructions. "On this table over there you see Capacity stones. They will measure your magic capacity. Do not be surprised. They will draw out a lot of your magical power to show your capacity." "Now you can go over and grab a stone." One of the elves went over to the table and grabed a stone. As soon as she touched the stone, it started to glow in a bright whitish yellow. "Passed." After her a human came to the table and his stone turned into a nice and dark blue but it didn''t really have much of a glow to it. "Failed." Interested in the process Kalmia came over to the table to grab a stone herself. It started to shine a bit brighter than that of the elf and its colour seemed to be... grey? What does the clolour even mean? Is it the element? is it the power? Kalmia didn''t know. Nobody seemed to mind the colour of her stone but the instructor seemed interested. He looked at it and thought for a bit before he came to his verdict. "Passed." This was easier than i thought Kalmia got back to where she stood before and watched the others do their tests. In total five people had passed the test. That was out of 14 people that attended. They would however have another chance. Next was the physical test. "Now that we tested all of you in your magic capacity, we will test your physical strength. For this you will just have to hold this rock. For every 3 seconds that you hold the rock it will double its weight. If you are human or elf hold it for more than 15 seconds and you pass this test. For beastmen it is 18 seconds and for Dragons it is 21 seconds." Now all of you, grab a rock." Everyone went to the table and looked for the rock that seemed the lightest, however all of them appeared to be the exact same shape and form, down to a millimeter. Everyone just grabed whatever stone was closest to them and tried to hold onto it for dear life. The stones weren''t too heavy at start but after six seconds one could already tell that most people were exhausted. The elves the most. Three seconds later and *PLOMP* the two elves couldn''t hold their stones anymore. Kalmia found it not too hard to continue with holding the stone but she did feel the weight increasing. More stones fell with the next weight increase after further three seconds. Now Kalmia passed a bit more than half of the time that she had to hold these rocks. At this point Kalmia still felt no struggle and kept hold of the stone. The beastman too did not appear to be in trouble holding the stone. After three more seconds, the humans that still held their stones passed and let them drop. Kalmia and Maria were both still having to hold onto their stones. Both of them at this point getting to a point that gets a bit harder to hold for them. The next time the three seconds passed, Maria may have passed the test but she was still holding onto the stone, as if she was trying to test herself to Kalmia. Kalmia now getting into the area of where it is quite uncomfortable to keep a hold of the rock. The weight doubled again and now it was over 90kg heavy. Kalmias fingers hurt like hell and her face started to get red. She didn''t wanna loose against that beastman. Something deep in her got the feeling of her having to overpower Melania. It was like a voice deep in her that didn''t want to loose. Both of them kept up with the weight so after three more second it doubled again. now roughly 180kg. Instantly both Maria and Kalmia let go of the rocks and they fell to the ground. Both of them passing the test and the only ones to keep up with more than they had to. Kalmia may have a competetive temper she didn''t know about herself until now but she wasn''t a bad looser. "I must admit, you are pretty strong!" "I have to return that to you!" "But you got it harder. You are a beastman." "Say, do I really look like a normal beastman to you?" Kalmia didn''t pay much attention to her before but now that they were up close to each other she could tell that those ears are definetly fox ears and that tail is a foxes. "Oh... you are from the fox clan?" Dedrik told her about some of the Clans of the beastmen before but from what she could remember the foxclan was the mightiest. "Correct." Maria held her head high and seemed very proud of that fact. "In fact we should be comparable in strength if you are a normal dragon!" Kalmia didn''t know how to answer to that. She didn''t even know whether she could be considered a normal dragon. Maybe half a dragon? At the end Kalmia just decided to just roll with what Maria said. "I guess this makes us equals?" "Yeah!" The instructor stepped forth again. "All of you that passed the exams thisforth just have the minor tests of maths, your native language and literature left. We will see you in the palais de Marmont in three days in the written tests." Kalmia was happy that she got this far. To her left was Maria that, from what Kalmia could tell, looked just as happy as she herself felt. The instructor told the applicants to leave the field and Kalmia went over to look for Dedrik at the gate. With a big smile on her face she told him about her success at the test. After having heard the news he seemed... even happier than Kalmia herself? Eh. Must be her imagination. **CHAPTER 9: END** Chapter 10 - The written test Kalmia had just told Dedrik about her success in the magical and physical entrance tests of the Silver Island Academy. With both those tests passed, Kalmia wouldn''t have to pass a single one of the written tests. At this point her attendance in those was just a formality. Now they were on their way back to the inn. Kalmia, all the way until they reached the inn again, was drooling, looking at the cake all the time. Dedrik, not oblivious to the stare, decided to go straight back to the inn instead of doing some excursions around city. He didn''t want to keep Kalmia waiting for what she has yearned for for the last hour or so. For Kalmia that walk back still felt like it took an infinite amount of time. Once they arrived at the inn, both of them took a chair in Kalmia''s room that was next to a small table and Dedrik put the Cake on the table. After that he went down to Julia and asked for a knife, two plates and two small forks. He also ordered a can of tea to the room. While waiting, even if only for a short time, Kalmia had to give it her all to hold back from eating that cake. The saliva was already drooling to the ground when he came back. "You like cake that much?" "YES!" "Calm down, calm down." Dedrik came to the table and put the plates and forks down. Right after that he unpacked the cake und began cutting it into fourteen slices. Then he put one large slice onto Kalmia''s plate and one medium size onto his plate. Before he even sat down Kalmia was already done with half the slice. "If you want more, just take it. You can have the entire rest of the cake. I am full." Kalmia, while having a mouth full of cake, just looked at Dedrik and nodded happily. A short time after Kalmia was done with the slice that Dedrik put on her plate, the woman from down at the counter, Julia, knocked on the door and then came into the room and with a teapot in her hands. "Hey, I got your tea." "Nice. Just put it down on the table." "Aye." She put the pot down on the table and left again. Right after the door closed again, Dedrik took the pot and filled a cup that was in front of him and then a cup that was in front of Kalmia. "It will be a bit nicer with some black tea." Dedrik had also put rock sugar and milk on the table. Right after that Kalmia put three rock sugar into her tea and also far too much milk. The tea was not even brown anymore but it already looked beige. She continued to eat cake to wait until the tea had cooled down a bit. When she finished half of the cake the tea was cool enough to actually drink it. And Dedrik was right, it really was nice to drink some hot tea to cake. "Did you know that in some regions of the world coming together at afternoon to drink tea and eat cake is a tradition?" Kalmia had a mouth full of cake but still tried to answer. "Nuhuh. Whad rebion awe u dalging aboud?" "First of all, don''t even try to talk while your mouth is this full. Keep up your elegance in public and don''t speak while you have anything in your mouth. Also I was talking about Belonia. They all drink a lot of black tea. In the morning the first thing they do is drink tea. After Lunch? They drink tea. In the afternoon? Yes, also tea. Even in the evening they drink tea, even though it keeps them awake. They are weirdly into tea." After he told her that she should be elegant in public, Kalmia stopped listening and focused back on the cake. A short while alter, she finished the cake. A further while later she didn''t feel all that good. She got a stomachache and felt weirdly nauseous. Dedrik saw those symptons and wanted to teach Kalmia a bit about it. "You don''t feel all that fine, do you?" "... No." "I guess you ate too much cake." "... You didn''t warn me that it can cause that?" "There were no records that I read that said that dragons could get that from too much sugar." "... Ah." "Just so you know, us humans get that a lot sooner than you. If you eat too much sweet stuff at once you get nauseous and you stomach starts hurting." "... Is there something I could do to feel better?" "Just letting your stomach deal with it and not eating as much sweet stuff is the only thing that can help you." "Fine... I guess I will lay down and wait it out." "I''ll get you some water and leave you alone after." Dedrik opened the door, closed it behind him and a little while later came back with a large glass of water. He put it next to Kalmia on a small table and left again. Kalmia took the glass and sat down on the bed while sipping a bit. Then she laid down and suffered through the day until the next day, she felt better again. As Kalmia woke up relatively early in the day due to going to bed early the previous day, she sat down on the edge of the bed and put her dress on. She felt a lot better than the day before so she got up, grabbed her books and sat down on the small table in her room again. She tried studying on her own with what was written down in those books but she couldn''t really understand anything. In maths she would have had to use some weird formulas she never heard of, in menese she was fine as far as she could tell and in literacy she would have to learn how to properly interpret the things she has read. For now she tried to learn the math formulas. They would probably be the hardest thing to improvise on. A few hours later, someone knocked on the door. As she opened it, it turned out to be Dedrik.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. "Are you feeling better now?" "Yeah. You still feeling fine?" "Of course. How long have you been up already?" "A few hours at least. Been trying to prepare for the tests during that time." "Ah that''s nice. Do you need any help?" "Uhm... sure. I''ve been struggling at a formula for a while. Here come here. I show you which one I mean." "Calm down, calm down. If you stress yourself now nothing I will explain to you will stick in your head." "But it won''t be long until the test and we don''t even know what they will ask in that test." "Calm down now. Even if you fail these tests you will be accepted to the school. Why worry?" "Because I... you''re right... I may have overreacted there." "That''s more like it! Anyways, what is your problem there now?" Kalmia takes her book and shows Dedrik where she had her problems. Dedrik wasn''t a teacher so with these a bit more advanced subjects he had trouble explaining it to Kalmia or even understand it himself. In the end, after Dedrik had tried to explain it for hours, he gave up and went to go and eat down in the large inn room together with Kalmia. The next few days until the day of the entrance test arrived, Kalmia continued to try to learn by herself, however now with a lot less stress as she would get into the school anyways. Sometimes Dedrik came into her room bringing her some sweets or something to drink. When the day of the written entrance tests has come, she was completely burned out. On their way to the city hall, where the test is held Kalmia wanted to go through everything she learned before but failed to remember most of it, whether it was due to stress or due to being burnt out, Kalmia however was getting more stressed because of that. It wasn''t important to pass these tests, however she really had this feeling of competetiveness boiling up from deep inside her. During her entire way to the city hall she was so distracted by not remembering anything that she couldn''t remember anything once they arrived. It didn''t take long for her and some other people to get called into the city hall by the exact same examiner as Kalmia has had during the magical and physical tests. Once she entered the hall she saw about twenty desks with chairs in that room. On each desk was a small paper that had names written down on them. "Sit down on the desk you are assigned to." Everybody hectically looked for the desk that had their name written on a paper that laid on it. After a few minutes everyone found their desk and sat down. Next the examiner went around and laid down a piece of paper and a pen on every desk. Once he returned to where he stood before, he turned around and continued talking. "Turn you papers around. If you talk or try to look onto another persons paper you are disqualified." In unison everyone turned around the paper in front of them at once. It was the Menese test. But to Kalmias shock it was not a lot of reading or writing but rather a grammar test. Grammar was Kalmia''s big weakpoint and she ended up just guessing whatever. The people around her were all still writing and she was just looking around as if she didn''t know what to do. In the end after some people were done she just did the same as them and turned her paper upside down and layed it at the top right corner of her desk. As soon as everyone was done the examiner walked around and collected the papers while handing out new ones. Once again after getting back to where he stood originally, he told them to turn the paper around. This time it was maths. That one was quite easy in Kalmia''s opinion as all the formulas that the test demanded were ones that Kalmia had previously learned. At some few questions she had problems but in the end she had a pretty good feeling about it. She wasn''t the first one to finish that test but also not the last one. Her timing seemed to be somewhat in the midfield. Once again the examiner walked around and collected the papers as he handed out new ones. It was the last one left, literature. Literature really wasn''t a thing that Kalmia liked. Dedrik already told her that a lot of literature is in the eye of the beholder however often examiners or teachers will try to teach you only their view on it. As soon as the examiner told them to turn the paper around and start working on it she was instantly hit by a poem. I cry for what i yearn Up above a blue sky Wish i could rise up for freedom is there But forever will I be Just a man with a dream Kalmia didn''t really know what to do with it. The question essentially just told her to interpret the writers opinion and what his situation could have been. Kalmia could only think that he was some kind of slave or was limited in some weird form... maybe escape reality even? but what could he have meant with that? Did he feel like he had nowhere to go? Or did he just want to have a better life and it was him just weirdly phrasing to wish for a higher life? Kalmia wrote a condensed version of her thought with some parts elongated onto the paper and hoped that whoever checks the tests would let her slide through with it. This time around she was one of the last to be finished. Once everyone was done, the examiner once again went around and collected the tests, however this time without handing out new papers. Once again he started talking when he arrived back at his spot. "With this we conclude the entrance tests. You will get a message per mail once we have taken a look at all the tests. We wish you good luck." On her way out of the hall, Kalmia saw Maria. Maria however seemed to be deep in thoughts so Kalmia didn''t want to disturb her. Once she got outside, Dedrik was already waiting there and Kalmia told him how the tests went. Both the good and the bad... and the poem interpretation. Dedrik seemed to think a bit before he said anything but in the end he said, that it would be fine, no matter if she was right or not. **CHAPTER 10: END* Chapter 11 - Back to the start The days in Luminor have passed quickly. Before she knew it, Kalmia was already on her way back to the village where Dedrik and she lived together. Once again they passed the large, prosperous fields, the bridges, where ships passed underneath and the mountains splitting the east and the west of Menia from each other. In no time they were back in the poor and rural region around the village of Grona. Just in their travel back Kalmia actually found out that the village that Dedrik comes from was called Grona. She would stay in Grona for four months before the school year in the Silver Island Academy, or how most people seem to call it SIA, would start. While on the way back to Grona, Kalmia asked Dedrik how far away that academy would be. All that Dedrik had told her that it¡¯s very far away and that it¡¯s as the name would say is an island. Apparently somewhere far off the coast in the ocean. While that leads to it being very isolated it also leads to it being neutral between the nations. Before, however, she would get this far away from home, she first wanted to see after her father and the people in her home village. Last time she had seen Adam, he was bleeding out, having lost his arm because of her biting it off. In her mind, Kalmia defended herself by her having to protect herself and her freedom, however she really didn¡¯t want to hurt Adam. She really hoped that he had survived but wasn¡¯t sure if that would be a good or a bad thing¡­ especially while she was still in this form and after what had happened. A few days after having gotten back to Grona, Kalmia told Dedrik that she would be gone for two or three days because she had to do something important before she would feel good to go to school. He didn¡¯t think much of it and agreed. Before she went on her way he gave her a linen bag full of food that would be enough for multiple days. Inside was mostly just bread as it would last longer than meat. After saying her goodbyes, Kalmia went the way she thought she had gone when first getting to Grona, past the large fields where she took the clothes off of a scarecrow, which now was wearing clothes again, to the edge of the forest and into the dark depths of the forest. It seemed far nicer and calmer now, that she wasn¡¯t in immediate danger. After a while she found the hut, in which she had spent that one night, right after transforming and where she had fought the wolves. By now it was in an even worse state than it was just half a year ago. The roof was completely gone by now and the walls seemed like they had burned down. After looking around for a little, Kalmia realized that the trees, that once were there, were now mostly gone or burned. Did¡­ she cause that because she didn¡¯t put the fire out? As long as it didn¡¯t hurt anyone it didn¡¯t matter anyway. She looked around a bit more, to check the damages and as she didn¡¯t find anything too bad, continued her way towards the village she grew up in. Her memory of the rest of the way was a bit hazy because she was in a hurry when fleeing into those parts of the woods. After a while however, she arrived at the spot where she climbed up that tree, where the branch broke off. From here on out, it wasn¡¯t far from the village and Kalmias home. The sun was barely on the highest spot if would reach all day, when Kalmia arrived at the beautiful flower field. It was full of those beautiful lavender flowers. There was a large pond and over at the end of that field was a large tree and in the distance, one could see the house where Kalmia, or rather said Egas, grew up in. Slowly walking through that field of lavender flowers, thinking about what happened at that day, which changed her life, Kalmia walked into the direction of the house. When she got close to the tree she saw some kind of memorial. It seemed to be in memory of her former, male form, Egas. Now that her situation calmed down and she had time to think of it, Kalmias thoughts went back into her denial of her current form. She wanted to get back into her male body, but didn¡¯t know how or whether even if she could achieve that. A tear rolled down her cheeks in thought of that but in the end she couldn¡¯t do anything for now. After what felt like a short time but really was half an hour, she continued walking towards the house, where she had grown up for her first thirteen years of life. Once she arrived at the house, Kalmia had instantly seen that it seemed¡­ kind of abandoned. The grass around the house had grown knee high and the windows were very dirty. When Kalmia got around the back of the house to the garden, the vegetable garden, which her father had planted and cared for each year, was very overgrown. There were weeds all around and the only plants she could see were ones that were returning every year but not any newly planted vegetables. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Slowly, Kalmia walked over towards the backdoor of the house. It was not locked so she just went in. Inside she found the house completely devastated. On the table was still the drawing that her father had drawn her because of the soup. Kalmia felt weird. It was a weirdly emotional feeling and a fear. What happened to her father? How did he react to Egas sudden disappearance? Kalmia really did not feel good when thinking about it. Looking around a little bit, Kalmia realised, that even the doors of the kitchen cabinets weren¡¯t hanging properly. Behind those doors, the cabinets seemed to be empty, only worthless stuff left behind. Kalmia made her way towards the bedroom. Once she opened the door what she found behind was¡­ nothing. There were two beds made out of straw and a few pieces of clothing, nothing else. Not her father lying there and also no hint on what could have happened here. In her mind, Kalmia started to guess that the worst had happened to her father or that he moved out to not have all those memories rising up. In case of moving away, how could she be mad about that? While being here all that happened to her emotional state was that it mixed her feelings between nostalgia and sadness. Kalmia went out of the house again. She thought about entering the village is but deemed it to dangerous. If Adam was still alive he would have told the people how she looked and they would think she caused the death of ¡°Egas¡±. In that thought she decided to go towards Grona again. On her way there however she had seen Filian, that little prick, walking through the Lavender field. To lighten up her mood she decided to scare him. He seemed to not be very attentive about his surroundings so Kalmia went into the lavender field and started to sneak down. Slowly but surely she sneaked towards Filian until suddenly, when she was right behind him she rose up and grabbed him. ¡°EEEEEEH?!?¡± ¡°LET ME GO YOU FILTHY BEAST!¡± Filian was thinking he could command her. He never changed. But Kalmia would not let him get away from her little revenge. Filian had enough room to move to turn around. What followed next was an expression in his eyes that both told his fear and¡­ some other feeling¡­. Kalmia quickly shoved that thought away because she really did not want to think of that. Quickly she regained her composure and continued: ¡°You think I would let you go? Why would I do that? I am hungry for meat¡­¡± The fear in Filians expression materialized stronger. ¡°I-I-I g-got m-m-money¡± ¡°And what makes you think I need money?¡± ¡°EEEEEH!¡± In revenge to all that Filian had done to her all her life, she decided to punish him a bit more. She threw him into the air with her newfound strength. While falling back down, he had already passed out. After catching him again, Kalmia took all of Filians clothes off and took them with her. After that she went over to the tree and threw him up as high as she could. She didn¡¯t think it would endanger his life. Back when she still lived here there were many people coming around this area so the odds that he would be seen sooner or later were quite high. After this small revenge she had longed for for a very long time, she made her way back to Grona now. Only after she got back into the forest, she threw the clothes she took into a hollow tree stump that was somewhere closely to her. The revenge she got on Filian was sweet but it didn¡¯t distract her from the thoughts of her father as she hoped it would. Once again she made her way through those paths she had already passed through when fleeing out of the village. This time it seemed entirely different than when she fled or when she walked to the village this time around. It all seemed darker than it used to. Everything around her seemed so familiar, however also so¡­ distorted, as if she was in a fever dream. When walking the path without her realizing, tears started to roll down her cheeks. At first it was just one but with time it became more and more. When she arrived at the little hut, she broke out in a full on crying. It took a long while for her to regain her composure to continue the path to Grona. Once she arrived at her destination, it was already late at night, however Kalmia had no problems navigating through the dark. It was a useful skill she gained since she turned into¡­ this form. Kalmia made her way over to the house of Dedrik and knocked on it. She was a bit early for what she said when she would return so she didn¡¯t expect him to expect her, and indeed nobody answered the door. Kalmia however had a key, that Dedrik gave her, with her. After unlocking the door, she sneaked into her room, or rather dragged herself towards her room while trying to be as quiet as possible, and, with a heavy heart fell onto the bed, crying herself into sleep, hoping to get some other thoughts again after waking up. **CHAPTER 11: END** Chapter 12 - Coping with emotions Kalmia was still sleeping in her bed well past sunrise. Dedrik didn''t realise she had already returned, so he went on with his usual day, which was doing a sermon in the church. The sun was almost at its zenith when Kalmia finally woke up. She hadn¡¯t slept well at all and wanted to continue laying in her bed. For all she thought it would be best to just continue sleeping. At least then she wouldn''t have to think about her father. For many hours she didn''t move out of the bed. Even though she got very hungry, she refused to get up to get something to eat. She felt like she had to puke, but nothing ever came out. That feeling came from deep inside her stomach. It felt worse than her entire transformation into this form. Not on a pain basis, but rather on a feeling basis. Never in her life had she felt anything like that. For the entire day she did not move out of the bed. When night came she was too hungry and thirsty to fall asleep again, so she just continued laying there. The hunger and thirst she felt couldn¡¯t compare to the pain that her father potentially felt due to her disappearance? Ever since she left she had gone on with her life without even thinking about how he would feel. She felt like she had a larger problem but she could at least have left some information to her father. She didn''t know whether or not what she had done was the right thing. All she knew is that she would probably never see her father again. It all was made so much worse by the fact she couldn''t even say her goodbyes to him. All night she didn''t move out of the bed. Only the day after did she finally get up to get something to eat and drink. When she went down towards the exit to the local well to get something to drink, she met Dedrik. "Oh, you''re back already? How did things go?" "I prefer not to talk about it." "Why is that? Something unpleasant?" Kalmia just walked past him without saying anything. She was tired and didn''t want to talk at all. Even less about her current mental state. She walked out the door with a wooden bucket in her hands and went right towards the well. She tied the bucket to a rope and threw it into the well. After that, she pulled it back up again and loosened the knot. Then she went back inside the house again and towards the kitchen. Dedrik had put something to eat on the table. He had a very strong impression, considering the encounter just a few minutes ago, that she was not feeling well and wanted to ease it a bit for her. One slice of bread is all she ate, however. After having eaten that, she felt nauseous again so she excused herself and went up into the room, where she once again laid down on the bed. For the next two weeks Dedrik would lay down something to drink and eat in front of her door every day, so she would have some nourishment each day. Every morning he would knock on the door, to ask whether or not she would be willing to eat at the kitchen table with him. Every time she told him that she would not feel well enough. After that it still took three days for her to be willing to go down to the kitchen to eat with Dedrik. She was still not talking much, but at least she would show up outside of her room again. By now she had eyebags under her eyes which had developed due to several nights when she couldn''t sleep. Her once so happy and friendly eyes just looked tired now. Her posture degraded into a hunchback, and her expression said nothing but to leave her alone. It was as if she was a completely different person who was always in a bad mood. Another few weeks were needed for her to get to a state again where she would feel comfortable talking again. She always refused to tell Dedrik what was going on with her though. The start of the school year was not far away so Dedrik tried to somehow brighten her mood up a bit more. For that reason he told Kalmia that she should come down to the kitchen that evening. In secret he had baked a cake while she was up in her room. It was simple to bake something as long as one had a cookbook, however sugar was quite expensive and difficult to obtain. It took Dedrik a while to get the sugar, but after a week of waiting for the local store to get some, he was finally able to bake the cake. As he hadn¡¯t baked anything at all in a long time, it took quite a while, with a cookbook, for him to finally get it done. One could say he tried his very best to make her happy... or at least brighten up her mood a bit more. When she came down to look at what Dedrik had prepared, he sneaked up to her from behind and held his hands over her eyes. "What are you doing?" "Well, I wanted to surprise you... and if you see it, it won''t be a surprise...." "Fine... then lead me where you want me to go." Dedrik smiled a bit and led her to the kitchen, right in front of a chair. "Now, please sit down." Kalmia did as Dedrik said and sat down on the chair that was behind her. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Keep your eyes closed." After saying that, Dedrik removed his hands from her eyes and took a fork into his right hand. The cake was already sliced, before Kalmia came down, so he just poked through a slice of the cake and brought it to Kalmia''s mouth. "Now open your mouth." Kalmia opened her mouth and, as soon as she had felt something entering it,closed it again. She tasted the delicious and sweet taste of cake. It was the best cake she had ever had in her mouth. It had a very nice and sweet taste. After getting through that she got to a layer of apple. It tasted pretty fresh, considering it was still early in the year. Because they were baked though, they were still quite tender. She started smiling a little bit. She couldn''t stop herself from doing that. "So... what do you think? Do you like it?" "It tastes..." Dedrik got visibly tense. "Better than those cakes we bought in the city." Dedrik¡¯s tension all dissipated in a moment, and he started smiling. "Well you know... I baked that myself." "Wait... you can do that?" By now Kalmia had her eyes opened again and admired the - quite large - cake in front of her. "Took me a while, but because you were essentially staying in your bed the past few days, I had plenty of time to bake this." "Was it... a lot of effort?" "It sure was. But it was worth it to see you smile again." Kalmia hadn¡¯t thought about Dedrik at all. In the past - almost - year, he had taken care of her and taught her a lot. She couldn''t get over the loss of her father, but at least she still had someone that wanted her to feel good and wanted to talk to her. Her mood lifted up by a substantial amount, even though she still felt some emptiness deep inside of her. "Then go ahead and also eat some yourself. You deserve it more than me." "Sure. I hoped you would say something like that. Baking it made me quite hungry. But first..." Dedrik took a can of tea that he had prepared on the stove and filled two porcelain cups with it. It was not the same kind of tea that Kalmia had before. When she brought it to her mouth to drink, after it had cooled down a bit, she tasted about the same basic taste, but it was a lot woodier than the teas she usually drank with Dedrik. "Hmm. I like this one." "That''s nice to hear. I usually don''t drink this type of tea but I also really like it." "Why not?" "It is quite expensive." "Too expensive for you?" "Yes, even for me." "Hah... interesting." When they were done with the cake, Kalmia had eaten about half of it and Dedrik a fifth. The rest was packed in a bit of paper and put on a shelf. That would lead to it being fresh a bit longer so that Kalmia could eat the rest later. Dedrik had achieved his goal for the day. He managed to brighten up Kalmia''s mood a bit. This was very important to him. Not only because of the school but also because he really wanted to see her happy again. It hurt him seeing her in the state she was in for what was essentially an entire month. The time they still had left was used with them spending some time together. Dedrik tried his best to not bring up anything about what had happened to her, and Kalmia tried her best to hide when she had bad thoughts from Dedrik. A week later, Dedrik remembered something. "Oh yeah, the written entrance tests." "... Yeah? What about them? Did I pass?" "You were decently fine in the literature test and pretty good with the maths test. But your Menianese grammar test was, to be frank, quite bad." "Eh. Does it really matter?" "Yes and no. You should catch up on that. It''s not in the entrance test for no reason." "Do I have to?" "You better do. Otherwise you will have problems at school." "Eugh. I hate this subject. But sure. I''ll try." Kalmia focused her time on learning for school again but this time around with a lot less focus and a lot less pressure. The day of her departure came closer and closer until the day she woke up to a horse drawn wagon standing in front of the house. **CHAPTER 12: END** Chapter 14 - Schwarzhafen Kalmia had to hurry and get ready before she could get into the horse drawn wagon. She had to brush her hair, wash her face and put on the school uniform. It was a knee-length skirt, which was coloured with black dye. For the top she got a white blouse, and there were some knee-high socks in black and brown, and formal shoes with a slight heel. Kalmia was not happy about how she looked in those clothes, but she accepted it under these circumstances. Quickly, she went downstairs to the kitchen to eat something. Dedrik had already prepared some travel food. He planned to join her in the travel as far as the harbour, but after that he wouldn''t be able to join on the rest of the journey towards the school. "We have to hurry up. No time to eat." "But if I don''t eat anything, I will go hungry for the entire journey!" "No need. I have packed enough food." Dedrik held two very large bags which, presumably, were completely filled with clothing and food that would last for multiple weeks. The driver of the wagon was already annoyed about the time he had to wait for Kalmia and Dedrik to prepare themselves. He had already been there for half an hour when they came out of the house and climbed into the wagon. "Good day, my sir and young lady, to "Ner Inn" in Schwarzhafen?" "Good day, indeed, that is our destination." "Okay. It will be a journey of a week. I hope you are prepared." "Yes, we are. Don''t worry about us." "Fine then." The driver of the wagon turned around and whipped the horses with the ropes attached to the bridle, and they started walking. This time around, the travel direction wasn''t towards the east, but rather north. It was a far nicer journey until one reached the marshlands in the north of the country. One could instantly recognize when one reached the salty marshes close to the ocean. Not only did the country get less and less inhabited the further north they got, but also there was a weird, salty, stench in the air while the lands around the road were flooded with disgusting brown water. The spots of dirt that were above the water were all covered by a dark, green, layer of grass. Every few meters there were some taller clumps of grass that, to Kalmia, appeared as large as herself. No matter where and how far she looked, however, she didn¡¯t see a single tree since entering the marshlands. Every few minutes, they passed a wooden sign. "You see that sign over there, about how leaving the road would be dangerous?" Kalmia paid a bit more attention to the sign and nodded. "Yeah? What''s up with that?" "Do you know why people put those signs there?" "Not really, no." "Well. Those lands around look pretty harmless, don''t they?" "Uhm... yeah? What about it?" "Well, the appearance is deceiving. If you get off the path it might very well happen that the ground eats you up. You would sink in and, in the end, you would quickly suffocate underneath the earth, as if buried alive." Kalmia shuddered a bit at the thought of her getting swallowed whole by the ground underneath her. That was a danger she was never expecting to encounter. "Well. As long as you stay on the road here, it should be fine. The paths should be trampled and compressed enough to not have anyone sink in." "..." "Well. We should be safe here." "If you say so, I will just trust you in that judgement." After they passed beyond the marshlands, it still took two whole days for them to arrive in Schwarzhafen. Schwarzhafen was not as rich and luxurious as Luminor was. The city walls were about a fourth as high, and the City itself was covered in a layer of fog. "Welcome to Schwarzhafen. I hope you enjoy your short stay here." "Thank you." Dedrik wanted to hand some money over to the driver of the wagon, but he refused. "No need. I am getting paid plenty by the Silver Island Academy, and I am obligated to refuse tips." "Okay then. Have a nice day." "The same to you." Dedrik and Kalmia left the wagon that was parked right in front of a decently large inn house. Above the inn there was a sign saying "Ner Inn". In comparison to the outer parts of the city, the inner boroughs seemed even richer. While the outer areas contained buildings that were quite fitting to the area Kalmia grew up in, the inner city, where the inn was located, seemed a bit more like Luminor. Kalmia could only imagine the tension between the classes in this city, as the living standards between the different parts of it seemed so drastically opposite, that upper class people must constantly bully the lower class. Kalmia thought that this would be Filian¡¯s perfect surroundings. He would probably enjoy the disparity here. They entered the inn and were greeted by a woman. "Welcome to Ner Inn. Do you have a room booked here?" "Yes. It was booked for us by the SIA." "Excuse me, could I see the invitation?" "Sure... Just give me a second, I have to find it in the bag first." "No problem, sir." Dedrik stood there for a few minutes, searching through the bag with the clothing until he found the correct piece of paper. "Here we go." "Just let me check it at the counter real fast. You can follow me if you want." The woman walked towards a counter that was located a few meters further into the building. "Your name?" "Kalmia." "How old are you?" "I am now 15 years old" "Where were you born?" "In Hena." "Current place of residence?" "Grona, in the parsonage." "Which race are you?" "Dragon." "A dragon from that poor area? What does one of your kind look for in that place?" "..." "Well, if you don''t want to talk about it, that¡¯s your business. Everything looks fine. Follow me, I will show you to your rooms. You must be tired from the long trip." At this point, Dedrik took the lead of the talking again. "That would be nice, thanks." The two of them followed the woman to a door, behind which there were stairs to an upper floor. She looked at Dedrik and handed him a key. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. "Your room is room 208. Right here on the right side of the hallway." Then she turned around to Kalmia. "And yours is room 215. Follow me, I will show it to you." The woman walked ahead of Kalmia and around a corner in the hallway. "This hallway is where the students reside until the ship leaves." On the left side of the hall the room numbers were increasing from 210, and on the right side they were decreasing from the number 230. "This is your room." The woman opened the door and held it open for Kalmia. "And here are your room keys." She handed Kalmia the keys to the room and left right after. It was a large room, bigger than the one she had in Dedrik¡¯s home. The metal on the furniture in this room was all covered with golden details. There were carpets made of red cloth, the windows could be covered with some black curtains, and the bed was larger than any that Kalmia had seen in her entire life. She even had her own bathroom with a toilet and a water supply of warm water into a bathtub. Kalmia closed the door to the room and locked it up. She quickly took her clothes off, climbed into the bathtub and let it fill up with hot water. Since she had transformed into her current form, everything warm felt a lot nicer to her, and she didn''t feel like she would be scalded any more no matter how hot it was around her or how hot the things were she touched. She enjoyed the bath so much that she laid in there for hours. It took loud knocking on the door before she realised how long she had been in the bath. "Just a minute!" Kalmia got out of the bathtub and dried herself off with a towel that was hung up next to her. She hadn¡¯t gotten around to washing her hair yet, but she could do that later. When she was putting on her clothes, the knocking started again. "One more minute!" She finished putting on the socks, which was kinda hard since her legs were still slightly moist. She walked up towards the door, unlocked and opened it. "Good day, young lady. Would you like something to eat, and your clothes washed?" "Uhm... sure, go ahead." "Well... you would have to give us the clothes that are to be washed and tell us what you would like to eat." "Wait, give me a second." Kalmia took her bag full of dirty clothes and emptied it. Then she took all the clothes from her room as well as those still laying in the bathroom and gave them to the man. "Here. And what do you offer as a meal?" The man had a piece of paper in his hands. "Here. Take the menu. I will be back in about ten minutes." The man handed her the menu and walked away. The menu had food such as entire roasted pig, cow ribs or chicken breasts, each with vegetables as a side dish usually. On the dessert menu was some stuff they called "gelato" or "Sugar preserved fruits". A roasted pig and this gelato thing sounded interesting to Kalmia. A few minutes later, the man returned. "I am back, young lady. Have you decided what to eat?" "Uhm... yes. The roasted pig as a main dish and this gelato thing as a dessert." "As you wish. The meal will be served in half an hour down in the dining room." The man took off down the hallway again. Some twenty or so minutes later, Kalmia went down to the dining room. When she entered, she found Dedrik already waiting there. Not only Dedrik was there, but also Maria. Kalmia went a few steps further into the room before Maria realised that Kalmia was also there. "Kalmia! Haven''t seen you in a while!" "Yeah, it''s been a few months." "How are you doing?" "Well... could be better, but I am doing okay. How about you?" "Let''s hope you get better soon. I myself am doing pretty good." "I didn''t expect to meet you here." "Well, this is the main port in the north of the continent when it comes to travelling to SIA." "Ah. I actually didn''t know that." "Well, the most obvious answer for you would probably have been the port of Luminor, but they localised it to the home region and the westernmost harbour was that of Schwarzhafen." "So you also come from the west?" "Well, from the country that borders Menia to the east, Hoga." "Is that a beastman country?" "Exactly." "And they didn''t give you the option to use a harbour there?" "Well, beastmen are rare to attend to SIA. Most of us only care about strength, so they usually don''t see a need for education, even though SIA also teaches combat abilities." "Interesting. That seems kind of weird, but you do you, I guess." "I mean, that is more normal than a dragon living in human lands" "You are probably right about that." Behind Kalmia, the food she had ordered was brought into the room. It was a small pig, laying on a silver plate, stuffed with something and had an apple in its mouth. "Well, I guess my food is done." "Yeah. Hope you enjoy it." "Thanks." The people around Kalmia looked a bit weird, when they realised this petite girl would eat that entire plate by herself. Piece after piece was separated from the pig until only bones were left. Kalmia was finished relatively quickly, considering the size of her food. After she was done with the pig, she waited for this gelato thing. A few minutes later, a small cup with some colourful stuff was put in front of her. "And this is gelato?" "Correct, young lady." Kalmia touched it with her fingers. "Should it be that cold?" "Yes, else it would melt. I recommend not waiting too long to eat it." "... Thanks." Kalmia wouldn''t let anyone tell her twice about not waiting too long to eat, so she also ate it quite quickly. However, because she ate it so quickly, her head started hurting suddenly. It was a very strong pain, but it subsided soon after. After eating, Kalmia felt so stuffed that she just wanted to sleep. She went up into her room and locked the door behind her. Then she laid down on the bed and fell asleep pretty quickly. **CHAPTER 13: END**