Tyler woke up slowly, as if from a long, refreshing nap. The first thing he noticed upon waking was the changes to his body. Even without opening his eyes, or looking in a mirror, he could feel that he was larger. Did consuming the mana in the horns make me grow? This must be another unknown function of my body.
The second thing he noticed was that he was still in his humanoid form, his wings wrapped in the same oversized cloak he had been wearing since he met James, and tightly gripped in his slightly larger hand was the luminous guidestone. The third and final thing was that he was in an unknown room.
“James…” he could barely whisper, for he had no breath in his lungs. He looked around, searching his surroundings which seemed to be a small bedroom. He still felt weak from his extended sleep, but he found the strength to stand.
“Where… am I?” Tyler said to no one, before stepping in the direction of the door. To his shock, he found it locked. It was the kind of door that needed a key from either side to open, and though Tyler was almost completely sure that he could open the door through more… destructive means, he didn’t want to appear hostile to whoever owned this building.
Shrugging his shoulders, he sat back on the bed and began to wait. Though his body now had the form of an 8 year old, he was no child. He could exercise patience when he wanted to.
***
Not too far from where Tyler waited stood a pristine white tower. Compared to the buildings which at most stood five or six stories high, this tower was a giant. It took the shape of an obelisk, and was more than four times the height of the next tallest building.
At the pinnacle of the majestic tower, in a lavishly furnished room, sat two individuals. Both were hooded and cloaked, and sat across an expensive table from one another. The slightly shorter one began to speak.
“Why must I do this? I thought my mission would be complete once I brought the egg to you. Well, I know he’s not an egg anymore, but—“
“No, no, you mustn’t complain, young one. From what you’ve told me, there is no small chance that the dragon is like us. And, if he isn’t… Well, he will still be a powerful asset to hold. Lux knows how much we need strong cards to play.”
“But Professor—!”
“Enough. You still have a part to play. You must make the hatchling dependent upon you, for once you do, he will be loyal for all his long life. Do you understand?”
“…yes, Professor.”
“Good. Now go down to it, and bring him this,” the Professor said while handing his student a small loop of obsidian black chain. “It will be a token of goodwill from me.”
Without saying another word, the student sighed and turned towards the only window in the room—a small pane of glass that was facing the sky at a 45 degree angle due to the shape of the tower. He didn’t even look before unhatching the window and leaping from the peak of the obelisk.
***
Tyler was still sitting in relative calm when he sensed a presence by the door. Moments later, he heard the click of the lock and watched as the door swung open.
“Well, James. Took you long enough.”
“You’re awake,” James sighed, a bit of disdain creeping into his voice.
“Of course I’m awake! How long did I sleep for, anyways?”
“About two days. What even happened to you?”
“My body grew. I’m guessing that my physical strength has grown as well.”
“Yeah, but how? That’s never happened to me before.”
“Because I ate the king deer antlers! And they were delicious. Well, not so much delicious as they were nutritious,” Tyler said with a grin. In his heart, though, he was remembering what his acclaimed mother said in his dream. ‘Be wary of trusting Humankind. They will want to use you for your potential. And if they find they cannot, they will wish to destroy you.’ He assumed that Dragons treated all of the humanoid races--including the beastkin--as ‘humankind.’ After all, if you are at the pinnacle of the world, what is the difference between a red ant and a black ant? At least that was Tyler’s assumption. Hmm, should I even call myself Tyler anymore? I’m going to get a new name soon enough, after all. Hmm, well I guess I don’t have the new name yet, soTyler works well enough.
“Well, whatever. Anyways, I visited the Professor, and he told me to give you this,” James said offhandedly, tossing a black chain in Tyler’s direction. Tyler caught it without looking, and instantly began to examine it thoroughly. He even directed mana towards his eyes to activate his dragon vision.
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With his dragon vision, Tyler could automatically tell that it was not just an ordinary chain necklace. Far from it, in fact. He could see that it directed the mana around it in a certain direction, in order to fulfill a certain purpose. He could not, however, ascertain exactly what that purpose was.
“What does it do?” Tyler asked, somewhat suspiciously. He had never met this ‘Professor,’ and Luna’s words of warning were still ringing in his head.
“It’s a Battlesuit, just like mine. Here, try it on! I’ll turn around,” James exclaimed with a boyish grin on his face. Tyler simply sighed and began to undress, and after he was fully unclothed, he put the chain over his head. With a simple brush of his own mana, the chain reacted, suddenly expanding into a full set of lightly armored clothes.
Seeing this, Tyler gave an impressed whistle. “Your ‘Professor’ really knows what he’s doing, doesn’t he? This is amazing.”
“That’s his newest model, too. When you transform, the chain will meld with your scales, making it imperceptible. Pretty cool, right? The Professor said he wanted to give it to you as a token of goodwill. To sort of… get on good terms with you, I guess.” As James made his last remark, Tyler’s guard immediately went back up. So it’s some kind of bribe, huh. To make me feel in debt, or maybe to simply have me let down my guard. Either way, it’s not going to work.
Despite Tyler’s misgivings, he let nothing on his face show except for childish excitement. There would be time to investigate this mysterious Professor in the future. For now, however, he was glad for the untrustworthy benefactor, if only for the reason of getting this cool suit.
The Battlesuit was all black, with many hidden pockets all over its surface. Not only that, but was lightweight and durable, and could probably even stop a glancing blow from a knife. The best part about it, though—aside from the transforming aspect, of course—was that it had an attached hooded cloak. The cloak was perfect for hiding both his wings and horns, and if he so chose, Tyler could even make the cloak merge back into the rest of the suit, causing it to effectively disappear.
“This… I don’t know what to say,” Tyler said. Because he really didn’t. Are you supposed to thank someone for trying to bribe you?
“Well, it was a gift,” James said with a grin. “Anyways, now that you’re all dressed, let’s go explore the city!”
***
Tyler didn’t know what he was expecting from Junction City, but what he saw was definitely not it.
Though it was nothing close to the scale of New York City or LA, it was decently crowded with a wide variety of people. Tyler didn’t want to stand out, or else he would have openly stared at some of them. Though there were many humans of all shapes and sizes, with no defining characteristics that were outside of the norm, they were not the majority. In fact, though there were more humans than there were any other single race, Tyler guessed that if all of the nonhuman races ganged up on the humans, they would outnumber them two to one. Tyler could only infer which races were which, using the little information James gave him, but even with only that, it wasn’t too difficult to put the pieces together.
“Is it normal to see this many… types of people?” Tyler subtly whispered to James.
“What, you mean all the nonhumans? James asked, a little too loudly for Tyler’s tastes. “In most cities it would be weird, but this is Junction! It may only be bordering human kingdoms, but Junction is a main center of trade for the entire continent.”
One of the rarer races that Tyler saw were what he assumed to be Pixies. They looked like a mix of Tolkien’s elves and Tinkerbell, with fair features, pointed ears, and transparent bug-like wings protruding from their back. Their otherworldly beauty captivated Tyler for a moment, before he mentally shook himself and kept observing the city.
More common than the Pixies was a short group of people, only a little taller than Tyler himself. The tallest among them could only be around 5 feet (150 cm) tall, with many being even shorter. Tyler could guess this race as well. They had to be dwarves, except there was something unexpected about them. None of the dwarves Tyler saw looked to be any older than 30, and most had what seemed to be metal or stone growing on their skin, in patterns almost like acne. Some even had metal or stone covering large parts of their skin, such as an entire limb or half of a bare torso. I need to stop staring. Why am I staring so much? Tyler thought in frustration.
However, the foreign sights were too much for him to take nonchalantly. He kept subtly staring at the people surrounding him, and his eyes widened when he saw a pretty woman with red horns, claws on their human-like hands, and wings! And not insectile wings like the pixies, but wings shaped like his. His first thought was, is she another dragon? But after a moment of deliberation, he decided that this must be one of the ‘dragonkin’ that James briefly mentioned.
Half dragon, hmm? And apparently she has the blessing of Fire.
Tyler’s attention was drawn away once again as he looked closer at the actual city. Since Tyler had been busy looking at the people, he hadn’t had much chance to look at the surrounding buildings, but he would have been blind to not notice the incredibly tall obelisk which stood in the middle of the city.
“James, what is that tower?” Tyler whispered.
“Oh, that? That’s the mage tower. It’s where the Professor lives, but many other human mages do research there as well. Here we are,” James said, suddenly pulling Tyler into an overlooked alleyway.
“Where are we going, anyways?” Tyler asked.
“We need to sell these Arcblades, of course. I already sold the horses while you were asleep.” James then dropped his backpack in front of him with a soft this, and drew out two simple masquerade style masks. “Here, put this on,” James said while handing one to Tyler. “When doing business with these sorts of people, you always hide your identity.”
James walked silently through the alleyway, with Tyler following in tow. After a few moments of walking casually, James turned towards one of the many nondescript doors in the alley, and gave it a single knock. Through dragon vision, Tyler could see that some mana had been directed from James’s hand through the door into what he could only guess was some kind of lock. A passcode of some kind?
Almost immediately after James knocked, an eye slit on the door slid open. “What is your business with my master?” A voice croaked.
“I have some items of great value to sell that might interest him,” James replied smoothly. The person on the other side of the door glared at them a moment, then slammed the eye slit closed. A moment later, clicks from multiple locking apparatuses could be heard. Then the door swung open, leading into a gloomily lit hallway beyond.
Without a second glance, Tyler and James stepped through the open door.