“First of all, I’m not a Were-cat. I’m a Were-panther. And anyways, you’re the freaking mythical dragon, so why were you saying it like it’s a weird thing?”
“Mythical dragon, huh?” Tyler muttered to himself. “So I’m guessing dragons aren’t too common?”
“Aren’t too common…? Are you joking? From what I know, they’re practically extinct!” Tyler gulped at that thought. For some reason, the thought of dragons being extinct didn’t sit well in his mind.
“Well, you still didn’t really answer my question. So, you’re a Were-panther? What were you talking about, about a mission?”
“Ughh, I almost forgot about the mission. I so do not have time to play history lesson with a newborn dragon. All you need to know right now, is that I stole your egg from the winter kingdom. I have no idea where they got it, but I heard from somewhere that your egg has been dormant for almost 15 years and the King of Winter was trying to get it to hatch for some reason. Somebody got pissed and hired the Professor to steal the egg, which meant that I got sent to sneak into the Winter Palace and snatch you up from one of their holding cells. You’re welcome, by the way.”
Tyler simply stared at the guy, somewhat bewildered by all the words. Even though he could mostly understand the language, it was taking a little while to get used to. Finally, he started speaking. “Ok, so what are we doing now?”
“Umm, let’s see. We’re sitting in a cave, in front of a fire,” James said offhandedly.
“Well yeah, obviously,” Tyler deadpanned. “I meant, why are we hanging out in some random cave? Or should I say, why were you hanging out in some random cave before I hatched?”
“Well, that’s an easy one. I’m on the run. Or, maybe I should say we’re on the run, because you’re the reason I’m a fugitive.” Tyler stared at him again, for longer this time.
“So, Mr. fugitive. What are we going to do?” Tyler said slowly.
“Well, all we need to do is make it to Junction city. We’re about two days away if we travel at my speed, but I have no idea how fast you are so it might take a bit longer.”
“But it’s not going to be that simple, is it?” Tyler sighed.
“Nope! We’re still in the Winter Kingdom, so there are probably human assassins tracking us as we speak,” James said cheerfully.
“Wait, human assassins? Are you not human?” Tyler asked in bewilderment.
“Hahaha, do I look like a human to you?” James said, pointing towards his still fur-covered body.
Touché, Tyler thought. James didn’t know that Tyler was once a human, though, and Tyler didn’t trust him enough to give him that information. So, in order to get more information about this world, Tyler asked a very stupid question.
“What’s a human?”
“What?” James had a look of utter confusion on his face.
“I said, what’s a human.”
“Oh, damn I forgot you were born like 15 minutes ago. Here we go.” In order to answer the question, James stood on his four legs, and, after wrapping his cloak around his panther form, transformed back into his human shape. This time, instead of still having cat-like ears, he transformed completely. The only difference between him and a regular human was his slitted green eyes.
“This is what a human looks like. However, despite our form being the same, humans—or should I say, most humans—don’t have a blessing. This makes them much weaker physically, and they also have very short lives. Anyways, I carry the Blessing of Nature. It’s in my blood, and imprinted on my soul, and it allows me to change forms. You, as a dragon, should carry the Blessing of Fire, but it’s likely to be very different from a regular fire blessing. Because you're a dragon. I don’t know, though, that’s just what the Professor said.”
“What, err, what even are blessings?” Tyler asked sheepishly.
“Well, in most cases different races on Somnium inherit different blessings. For example, I’m of the Beastkin race, and so I carry the blessing of Nature. Each Beastkin clan has a different transformation they can do, though. There are a couple other races as well. The Naiad race carries the Blessing of Water, the Pixie race carries the Blessing of Wind, the Dwarf race carries the Blessing of Earth, and the Dragonkin race—they’re like half dragon humans—carries the Blessing of Fire. There's a couple other races, but you're never going to see one, so it doesn't matter,” James finished with a flourish, tipping an invisible hat. Tyler simply rolled his eyes. He kind of saw how this all worked, but he had no idea what his place in it all was.
“Either way, we should sleep. We need to leave early tomorrow. Before we do that, though, can you transform?” James asked with an eager smile.
“Transform? I can do that?” Tyler wondered aloud.
“Well yeah, of course you can. Probably. I mean, practically every race with a blessing can transform into a humanoid shape—even the Giants of the North! Oh, I forgot to tell you about them. They have the Blessing of Ice,” James beamed.
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“Well, how do I do it?” Tyler asked doubtfully.
“It should just come naturally. I don’t know, though, it took me a while to learn how to transform. Here, watch me do it again!” Tyler watched as James shifted once again into his catlike shape.
Well, here goes nothing, Tyler thought with a heavy sigh. He sat on the ground, and with his mind, felt within himself. For some reason, he felt as though he had a lot of practice in searching inwardly. Then, he realized that he did—this felt similar to when he was feeling for his body while in the blank dreams. And so, he looked inwardly, and discovered a couple of things.
The first thing he noticed was that his heart was quite strange. It pumped blood throughout his body, but it also circulated something else. The secondary substance was made up of condensed particles, somewhat liquid in viscosity, that were constantly shifting colors. Suddenly, he felt the urge to ask James a question.
Without opening his eyes, he said, “James, what’s all the sparkly stuff?”
“Very articulate, man. I can tell how old you are. What sparkly stuff are you talking about, oh great dragon?”
“Oh, shut up. I’m still learning the language. The glowing white, rainbow stuff.”
“Oh, you mean mana?”
“Mana?”
“Yeah, that’s mana. It’s the energy that magicians use for their magic. It’s also what powers blessings, but we won’t get into that.”
“Uh, ok. Why is my heart pumping it through my whole body?”
“Well I’ve heard that dragons have mana hearts which allows them to do magic instinctively, that and a special pair of eyes, but I thought it was a myth.”
“You think everything’s a myth, don’t you?”
“Oh, shut up,” James said frustratedly. “I miss it when you didn’t talk.”
“That was only for like five minutes.”
“Anyways, how did you learn the common tongue so fast?”
“I don’t know, maybe I’m just smart!” Tyler said smugly. He wasn’t about to tell James about his talent for languages for obvious reasons.
“Huh, I guess so.” After James said that, they both fell silent while Tyler still kept his eyes closed. He was mentally searching his entire body, but he couldn’t see anything more of value. Hmm, maybe I should just—
And just like that, he pictured himself transforming. As he imagined it, he could feel his body shifting. His long, razor sharp claws shifted into soft white hands, his tail shrunk into his tailbone, and his entire body turned into that of a human’s. Well, almost all of his body.
“What the… you still have your wings! And your horns!” James said as he burst into laughter. “And… and… and you look like a kid!” James couldn’t even breath because he was laughing so much.
“Hey, shut up! I am a kid, aren’t I?” Tyler shouted. He grabbed a cloak from James’s large bag so that he could stop using his wings to cover his naked body, which was an apparent downside to transforming. Then, he walked over to the pool of water to look, once again, at his reflection.
James was correct with his observations. Tyler still had horns of the darkest onyx extending from his head. They protruded from his black hair and curved gently around his head, somewhat resembling a crown. He could also now see that his wings, which were almost as tall as his diminutive humanoid form, had violet star-like patterns on the underside, not unlike the beautiful pattern of his egg.
Not only that, but he looked like a child. His wings and horns made him look like a cute five year old winged demon. Even more surprising than the still present wings and horns, and his apparent age, were the rest of his features. Not because they were unlike what he was used to. Rather, the opposite was true. Despite being seemingly reborn as an entirely different species, and looking about ten years younger than his age on earth, he very clearly had the same facial features as he did on Earth even down to the violet eye color. The only difference, besides the obvious ones, was the fact that his violet eyes had slitted black pupils, rather than round ones.
“What the hell is this?” Tyler asked incredulously. Even his voice was high pitched, matching his tiny body.
“Well, for the horns and wings, I guess you don’t have enough control over your transformation yet. I used to always have cat ears and a tail before I practiced more. And look on the bright side—at least you’re lucky in the fact that you didn’t keep your tail.”
“Well that’s great, but what am I going to do? Everyone is going to be able to tell what I am!”
“Not necessarily,” James said consolingly. “Dragonkin sometimes can transform to have wings and horns. They’re normally not black like that, though.”
“Here, let me try something,” Tyler muttered softly. He then began to focus only on his horns. With an enormous amount of effort, he managed to make his horns shrink back into his head—almost all the way. Now, they were still present, but were at least short enough to hide in his hair.
“There you go,” James congratulated. “Can you do anything about the wings?” Tyler just shook his head.
“That’s alright, I can help you with that. Sorry, the only extra clothes I have are my black infiltration robes,” James said unapologetically while rifling through his bag.
“That’s ok,” Tyler shrugged.
“Here they are. How does this look?” James said as he held them up. “I’ll need to shorten them a little,” he muttered while drawing out a long knife.
James ended up cutting the pants short so Tyler could walk without tripping, and cut two holes in the shirt so his wings could fit through. Getting his wings through the holes had been somewhat of a challenge, but it worked out one way or the other. After that, James gave Tyler a hooded cloak to hide both his wings and horns beneath it.
“Ok, now we should be able to go unnoticed when we make it to Junction city,” James said with a proud look on his face. Tyler looked at him strangely, before shrugging and laying on the stone floor.
How am I taking all these changes so well? Tyler thought internally. Because the truth was, he hadn’t truly been sad, or even shocked since he escaped from the egg. I think I’m just numb. Being in that void for so long has put a damper on my emotions. Also, none of this feels real. It’s as if I’m simply dreaming.
He also felt different than he ever had before. It could have been his new body or instincts, or perhaps the feeling of dying and being reborn. I really am no longer on Earth. Somnium, huh? Tyler thought, remembering the word James had used when referring to the world. It means dream in Latin. What a strange coincidence. Then, right before falling asleep on the cold, stone floor, Tyler remembered one other thing. James said that the egg was dormant for almost 15 years. Is it another coincidence? That’s about as long as I lived on Earth.
With that final thought bouncing around his mind, Tyler finally fell asleep.