Most of the day had been spent learning what I could, surprisingly what they were teaching had started to click. Learning a new language is hard but theirs was already forming into words I could understand. Somehow…

It's late now, the hatchling and I have been put to bed in a separate room. Two piles of pillows with the hatchling by the other wall where it currently sleeps. It's been a few hours and now the house is quiet. If I listen hard enough I could hear snoring elsewhere in the house.

With a click the window unlocks and I push it open. A cold breeze flows in and across my scales followed by the distant sounds of a city's nightlife.

“Sure this is a good idea? People would freak out at the sight of a dragon.” My double whispers up to me from the floor. He had helped me get up to the window. His red eyes have a faint red glow to them and his body is barely visible in the dark room.

“We’ve done this before. Can't be that different to sneak around when I'm this small and black.” I had to know what was going on. Why are these dragons here? What city are we in?

My double rolls his eyes and turns to go lay on the pillows left for me. “Sure. Just don't slip up out there, Jack.”

“Dick…” I say under my breath and turn to the drop before me.

A cold breeze brushes across my scales filled with the night air, causing me to shiver. It feels just as cold that night that got me in this situation.

Outside the window is an alley with the stone wall of another building just across. Below is a short drop with a flat brick ground being reclaimed by grass between each brick.

“Its just a short drop. I've jumped from way higher.”

Taking a moment to calculate how to land with my current body, I then jump. The moment my legs left the windowsill my mind panics at the idea of landing hands first. Colliding with the ground face first I’m ass up and flop onto my back with a grunt.

“And I'm already bleeding the moment I get out.” I growl out, a strange rumble comes from my chest.

Some scales from my face and neck came off from the fall, blood dripping from the minor injuries.

“This body is a bleeder…”

The alley is empty. One direction takes a turn with what sounds like a large crowd around the corner and the other way ends with a neighborhood. A chariot pulled by a… griffon rolls by.

A griffon?

Getting to my feet I stay out of the moonlight and make my way to the neighborhood, my black scales blending me in the shadows. I stop just within the alley and look out.

It looked like a normal city street lined with houses, some with lights, some not. A group of people handing out further down the street.

“Am I just in a rich area and some idiot got a griffon?”

I look back to the window I came from in thought. Are those dragons there for the same reasons? Crazy dumb nobles?

I have to find my family. Its not my business if crazy nobles get themselves killed buying beasts.

I don't see anything familiar about this city, which is strange because I've been to many… Maybe I'm way farther east than I've been? What was that city far to the east? Isangrad? Forograd?

My eyes trail up to the stars and I attempt to activate a spell that would tell me where I am. I tap my core but the magic that emerges speaks the wrong words like before, unable to communicate a purpose.

“Dammit. What have you done to me, World?”

My view pans to the… moon?

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Instead of seeing the normal moon ive seen all my life in the night sky i see something else.

In the night sky is a moon with the shattered remnants of another moon trailing behind it, looking like it smashed the other moon in its path. It created a beautiful yet terrifying view in the sky.

Where the hell am i?!

A door opens nearby, pulling my attention back to my surroundings. A dragon steps out of a nearby house and leaves the door open. It walks out onto the sidewalk and I hide more into the shadows as it looks down the street past me and to the group of people.

I feel panic at the memory of a raging dragon, making my scales feel like they are standing.

The dragon shouts out a series of growls to the distant group, catching their attention. The growl did not sound angry or threatening, it was more of a question?

One of the people in the group breaks away and comes jogging towards the big dragon. As the person gets close and passes me I get a good look at them.

Claws, scales, tail. It's a green kobold wearing thick clothes, not a human!

The kobold stops before the dragon who looks down at it. The two growl to each other for a moment before they both walk into the house together, closing the door with a click.

Looking back to the group of kobolds they seem to be dispersing and going to different houses.

“Where the hell did World send me?”

I had a feeling rise in me. The dragons, the moon, the griffon and now the kobolds.

The distant sound of a market caught my attention, coming from back down the alley.

My legs moved on their own, taking me back the way I came. I pass the open window and come to the corner.

Did i dare look around the corner?

“I fear that I could be farther from home than I'd like.”

Whispering it didn't make me feel any better, nor did I think it would.

I peek around the corner and saw an active night market bustling with goods and trades. But there were no people.

Most of them are dragons, some kobolds and even a minotaur. A dragon trades a few coins for a rolled carpet before taking it in its mouth and holding it high as it walks away. Two kobolds wearing thick coats walk by talking in growls, holding baskets of food and spices. A griffon lays at the edge of the rooftop above, watching the activity below in boredom.

Is the whole city like this? Aren't these mindless beasts?

I back away from the corner, losing sight of the markets. Turning around to head back to the window i stop at what stands in the alley with me.

A big dragon completely covered in shiny full plate armor, maybe silver. The dragon has stumps where wings used to be, and its armor is covered in glowing complex magic runes.

And it has its head through the open window.

I quickly hide myself in the shadows again just as it is taking its head back out.

As if sensing me or through some magic it turns its head my way and through the narrow slit in the helmet glowing red eyes meet mine.

A sensation runs across my soul that makes my blood run cold.

A Gifted.

“Hello...” The dragon hesitates as it speaks in clear english. “...Hatchling.”

It.. speaks english? Had world sent it?

I glance to the window, had it killed my double? No. I would have known.

“who are you? Did World send you?” I ask it, my voice sounding child-like due to my body.

The dragon takes a moment before answering, thinking of how to best reply.

“That asshole isn't going to bother you anymore here. I recom-...” The dragon suddenly stops talking just as the runes on the dragons armor start to glow brighter. Jack feels his core being lightly tugged an unknown spell asking for his mana.

“I have to go.” The dragon closes the window and turns to walk away but Jack is quick to follow it.

“Hold on. Are you like me? Did you get sent here too? Maybe we can help each other.”

“Just drop it, Kid. You don't have to be a criminal anymore.” The dragon tells him as it steps out onto the neighborhood street.

Jack stops in his tracks. “What? You know who i am? At least tell me your name, Jackass!”

The dragon stops in the middle of the road and looks back at Jack. Jack feels another tug at his core and a pair of transparent magic created wings appear on the dragon’s back in place of its missing ones.

Without an answer the dragon jumps into the air and flies off of the buildings, out of sight.

“...dammit.”

The night is getting too much for him. His body is freezing and he had lost the chance at getting answers. It's time to go back and replan.

Jack hides into the shadows of a trashcan where he lets his body fade away and returned to his double.