This took me by surprise. I read a little about changelings before but nothing mentioned them gaining a humanoid form.

“You’re Shifter’s mother? You’re a changeling?” I was skeptical since changeling only got past level fifty with a companion bond.

“A changeling? Oh no, I am a dragon.” she said.

I felt the blood rush from my face and into my legs. The only reason I didn’t take off running was that I knew it would have been worthless. All the stories I have heard about dragons have marked them as a nebulous threat with territorial and anger issues.

“No need to be so scared. I swear, you humanoids, it hasn’t even been more than 500000 years and you’ve already forgotten everything.” she said, shaking her head.

My curiosity mixed with the adrenaline running through me overtook the fear so I asked. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“With all your wars and fights for expansion and land you lose all your history. Your short lifespans don’t help much with that. Even now, there doesn’t seem to be a single one of you alive who remembers the accords you have.”

Thinking that it seemed I had nothing to fear from her I decided to find out more about these supposed accords that affected all of us. “What accords?”

“500000 years ago you humanoids, humans and elves and dwarves and beastkin, joined the ranks of the ascended. Us ascended races have contracts with each other, it helps preserve our territory from the damage a fight would cause to it. Dragons, phoenixes, giants, elementals we all have enough power that squabbles between us must be regulated.”

“But we don’t have the kind of power to measure up to monst- , I mean ascended” I almost put my foot in my mouth.

“Oh we know that now, to this day the contract with you humanoids is one of the only times in known history that we dragons have been so thoroughly out bargained.” a self deprecating chuckle came from the dragon, I supposed her nonchalance was for my benefit and it was working.

“But then, why did you make it in the first place?” I asked.

“Because we thought it was a good deal. Since you know nothing about any of this, I’ll explain it all to you, then we can talk about the debt I owe you.” she said and with a wave of her hand a table and chairs sprouted in the middle of the clearing.

I took my seat after her with Shifter changing into a small dragonling and curled up in front of his mother.

“More than 500000 years ago you humanoids were still the premier rulers of the planes. Not much different than right now. The only difference was that you had no protection, whenever one of the ascendants decided to wipe out a portion of you they just did. This made your kingdoms a lot more compact, it also made the wars for that land a lot more common.”

“That was when an anomaly appeared. All this we found out after it had all come to pass but for your sake I’ll explain chronologically. After the end of one of these wars the more cruel of the victors decided to use the slaves of the defeated for hunting sport. It wasn’t the first time the practice took place. The difference was that a five year old boy of one of the farming families managed to escape into the woods.”

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“Every time this had happened before they were either found later or killed by the other beast that lived in the forests. This boy however was different, very much like yourself he pushed himself from a very young age. Unlike you however he did it all for survival. Where you spread yourself in so many directions with your skills he had few. You both reached level eleven before the age of ten, but he also reached the skill level 100 in one skill and above 50 in a few others.”

“Despite only being five years old, he never forgot the terror of the day of the hunt. But he was patient, he spent the next five years surviving and fifteen more after that preparing. When he came back out of that forest he was already past level 200.”

“That may sound a lot for the likes of me, but surely he didn’t pose a threat to the likes of you” I said.

“That’s what we thought as well. And at the time he didn’t. His anger was focused solely on the ones who forced him to flee into that forest, so we simply ignored him. The next 100 years are a mystery. It all happened in human lands and all records of anything that happened have been destroyed as it happened. But at the end of it all, the humanoid lands were all joined in one empire with him at its head, and nothing remained of the kingdom that conquered his homeland.”

“He had grown more powerful, but instead of doing what you lessers did when you reached the top he chose to venture into the dungeons rather than try and expand his domain. Even now the only explanation for this we have is that sometime in those twenty years he spent in the forest he might have witnessed the power of an ascended and looked to improve himself. He ruled for the next 1500 years doing little more than delving into the dungeons and quelling rebellions. By the time we took a closer look it was too late.”

“He lived so long?” I thought humans didn’t live much past 1000 years.

“Oh, he lived much longer than that. After 1500 years one of the giants finally stepped into his empire and destroyed a few villages. It was nothing out of the ordinary for us. That is until he struck back. He spent the next 10 years battling the giants, at the end of which no giant remained alive.”

“And none of the others looked to help them?”

“Oh we would have, but the giants all but surrounded your lands back then, that and their foolish leader’s desire to not appear weak lead to their extermination before the rest of us could form a full picture.”

“We don’t know just how strong he became, but the lowly human went from the strongest beast to the strongest being in that millennium and a half. After the extermination of the giants he approached the rest of us ascended. A few challenged him but none could have a hope of winning. What he did with his power surprised us all.”

“Instead of looking to push his superiority like his predecessors he instead looked to have you all join as full members of the ascended. The whole reason why you are called humanoids is because he was human.”

That was news to me. It seemed natural to me from my previous life that elves, dwarves and beastkin be called humanoids that I never questioned the reason why it was the same in this world.

“ The contracts he signed with all the ascended were the same. What it came down to was similar to what our own deals with each other were, a protection from each other in our own lands. Where he differed however was in how this was enforced.” her tone changed there, it grew a little more awed, even Shifter woke up and looked towards its mother.

“You see, instead of choosing to let a single being compromise a deal, much like that giant started a war that led to their destruction, he let us be the sole enforcers of the contract. Should at any time an ascendant break the contract with the humanoids he was to be punished, according to the stipulations, by his own kind. Should a human however break a contract he as an individual would lose all protections stipulated. Essentially leaving them for us to deal with as we pleased.”

“Why would you accept a contract like this?”

“Because he also offered to not engage with any of those protected by the contract with the exception of self defense. A rather big setback for his own empire as this meant they would have to give up any contested piece of land. Or so we thought anyway. His next 8000 years rule was peaceful, he eradicated slavery and built a thriving infrastructure with the few regions humans managed to gain. He died at close to 10000 years of age.”

“It was only in the 50000 years following his death that we realized just how bad of a deal we had taken. No other humanoid had even approached us in power since then, yet all of your kind have freely expanded with the full protections of the deals he made by limiting himself.” she stroked Shifter gently as she was winding down.

“Your history is so poorly kept that you barely have any stories remaining regarding your greatest ruler. The ones that remain are wildly inaccurate. You all fear your greatest protector, his very name becoming a synonym for death. The little slave boy named Grim who took up the last name Reaper in honor of his common farming family.”

“This brings us to my debt to you. You see, us dragons have a tradition of letting our young explore unguided. My little one here ventured into a human city and was picked up by your friend. This normally wouldn’t be a problem as it has happened before, I was always with him to ensure nothing would happen. The problems appeared when the vampire attacked him, you see the contract does not allow a dragon to use their power inside a human city. This stipulation would be revoked should a human attempt to harm my son, but no exception is granted for a vampire. I am pretty sure you felt ready to interfere, yet your actions protected my son.”

“ So that was your mana I felt back then!” I exclaimed.

“Yes, my breach of the contract would have been severe, not enough to have me killed but most definitely unpleasant. As such I find myself owing you a debt, your intervention spared me my punishment. So what would you like in return?”