I blearily woke up amidst fur blankets and soft pillows. The delicious sensation of my bed pulled at my half-awake mind, but Thelyris was being unusually loud this morning. After a particularly loud crash, I decided to make sure she wasn't about to burn the place down.

To my surprise, I was greeted by the sight of Hana cooking in the kitchen.

"Hey," I mumbled, wiping the sleep from my eyes. She spun to face me, an apology written across her face.

"Sorry, I just wanted to surprise you....oh wow, that's a new look."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, no, just, you're very...different. I'm just surprised, is all," she said quickly.

I looked down at myself in my long pajamas. Pale feet, pale hand, missing arm. All accounted for. Was she that surprised about my morning look? Its not like I'd been using makeup this last week, and I was gorgeous no matter when it was anyway.

I hovered between trying to go back to sleep and fully waking up. In the end, I decided on the couch. I could lie down and slowly wake up.

I buried myself face-down in the couch. After a few moments, a warm blanket wrapped around me. "Thank you," I said to the couch.

When I needed to breathe – which came a lot sooner than expected due to the scent of sweat filling my nose – I twisted my head and noted that the blanket was the same dark red fur one that had been in my room. It was still warm too.

Wait. Dark red....fur?

My closing eyelids snapped back open as I twisted to look at the fur. It began shrinking as I turned, and I pulled at it to examine it closer. The fur protested via a jolt in my lower back.

~What!?~

I stood up, fully awake now, and realised that the fur blanket was in fact, a thick furred tail.

I stared at it for a moment, before a wave of irritation hit. Stomping off to the bathroom, I started swearing at Janus.

~First my arm, now this? What the hell is wrong with this helmet?! I can't even sleep without something else happening to me.~

The view in the mirror revealed a furred body the same colour as my tail, with the fur fading as it reached the ends of my limbs. My ears were replaced by feline ears sitting on the top my head, and my previously green eyes had turned amber.

I took a moment to breathe deeply.

"System," I said carefully, "why has my body changed?"

Derived model capable of high energy compatibility. Deemed more suitable for host.

Similarities with host original maintained for improved transition.

"That's not what I want to know. Why do you do it without asking?!" I had to work to not shout at it. I hated people doing what they liked to me.

Host permissions irrelevant.

~. . . Are you shitting me?~

After I suppressed my anger, I realised I needed to explain my new form. Hana had already seen it, so it would only be a matter of time before everyone else found out as well. If I could even hide it.

"Is there some way to hide this?" I asked.

No response.

Gritting my teeth, I tried again. "System, is there some way to hide the changes from my old body?"

Host fur capable of manipulation, extension and retraction. No known methods of physical disguise for additional features.

"And how exactly do I do that?" My self-restraint was running extremely thin at this point.

Unable to quantify explanation

"Are you SHITTING me?!"

Query unclear.

~Ooooooh I am going to kill Janus when I see him.~

* * *

I was lying down in a forest a little ways outside of town, trying to organise my thoughts and feelings. Having so many changes sprung on me when I was already off-balance from this new world was wrecking my composure, and I needed that to carry out my plan.

~Always make sure you’re the most knowledgable person in the room. Isn’t that what you said, Lincoln? I doubt you expected me to ever be in a situation where I didn’t even know common sense.~

I sighed at the remembrance of my mentor. Noticing my tail, I stopped it from waving for the fourth time. So far, that was about the extent of conscious control I had over it; for everything else the tail had a life of its own.

Thankfully I’d managed to deflect Hana’s questions at breakfast, although why she’d stayed over last night at all was a mystery to me. Thelyris didn’t seem to care about my transformation, instead gushing about an animal discovery that had been in the news.

The tail and fur were going to have to be explained at some point, though. I went over my “background”, trying to figure out how to fit it in.

~So I was raised out in the middle of nowhere, by someone who taught me some fire control. That is also the reason I can’t read and speak some sounds accented. I’m here now because I loved

the idea of fire dancing and want to get to know the world. Now, why would someone like that disguise their appearance? Better question, how did I disguise my appearance?~

I was lost in thought and barely registered my ears twitch at the increasing wind. I paid a lot more attention when I was accompanied by a thunderous crash nearby.

My eyes snapped open, amber orbs searching for the cause. I didn’t have to search far, as a serpentine neck reared up above the treeline, nostrils flaring as the massive beast sniffed the air.

~A dragon? Are you kidding?~

Seeing it turn away, I started moving away quietly. I wanted to be nowhere near that thing.

Unfortunately, the dragon itself seemed to have other plans. Swinging its head back around, it started smashing its way towards me, leaping half the distance in one jump.

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I gave up on stealth and went for a full sprint, exerting my legs to their maximum. I needed to get away as fast as possible.

I immediately crashed into a tree.

Shaking the stars away from my vision, I looked at the tree in confusion. How had I ended up crashing into it? I obviously aimed to run between the trees.

Alertness overrode confusion as the ground shook again. I looked up to see the dragon at the same distance as before, and scrambled to my feet, only to trip as dizziness overwhelmed me.

A crushing weight and thunder in my ears informed me that the dragon had caught up. I twisted underneath the paw pinning me down, trying to slip out as the jaws lowered towards me.

~Damn, game over so soon?~ I thought, ignoring the hot stinking breath. I’d already panicked at my approaching death once, I would not be doing it again. ~I didn’t even get to have a magical police chase.~

The jaws lowered until the huge maw was barely an arms length away, but to my surprise did not open. Instead I was treated to a humid blast of hot air as the creature snorted at me.

Wide spectrum mental communication.

I was assaulted by a wave of confusion, which was followed by an image of a red haired humanoid vulpine, light swirling around it, and an impression of an appetizing delicacy. Next my nose was flooded by a powerful musky scent, which was associated with a drool-worthy deliciousness. Lastly were impressions of almighty power and diminishment, after which the confusion hit again.

My head now throbbing, I attempted to understand what was happening. The dragon was trying communicate? Then the image must have been me from its point of view.

~It wants to eat me, and I clearly appear delicious, so what is it confused about?~

“Why are you confused?” I yelled at it. Not an easy task with a ten-ton dragon sitting on you.

The image came back again, with a mental association to the scent. This scent was weaker though, and slightly different. I smelt similar to what it really wanted to eat?

A lightbulb went off in my head.

“Hey, how about this? You don’t eat me now and I’ll find what you’re looking for,” I pleaded. It was a hail mary, but I had nothing else to work with other than being eaten.

A immense sense of pride hit me, along with a memory of tracking the scent over thousands of miles to reach here. Realising the dragon could easily find what it wanted, and it knew it, I sighed. The jaws parted and came closer, a huge glob of saliva falling on my face.

There was a shattering sound, and the dragon roared as its head shot back. I turned my head to see five armoured men standing nearby, the two in the back with hands outstretched.

A rush of air filled my lungs as the dragon moved to attack the newcomers. As I savoured not taking shallow breaths I took a look around. Armoured men were popping up from the trees in every direction, and I was smack in the middle of what looked like an impending warzone.

I scrambled towards the encirclement, only to be blasted into a tree as the dragon’s tail whipped around. I stumbled away, trying to get my bearings amidst the pain, only to have my head narrowly missed by a massive shard of ice.

The ground shuddered and I realised I was back near the dragon’s leg again. The pearly scales near its jaw were scarlet now, but there were ragged tears along its back and legs.

I sprinted away, ears flat as I was deafened by the commotion. As I dashed past a few clanking knights, one of them stepped out in front of me, arms spread wide.

I ducked under his arm, elbowing him in the side on reflex as I went. I wasn't about to stop and play nice when there was a hungry dragon hunting me. Darting through the trees, I made a beeline straight back to the city.

*      *      *

~Holy cow. That was a dragon.~

The reality of the situation caught up to me as I walked back into the theatre building. This latest escapade had really brought home the fact that I was in another world. I thought I'd adapted, given the variety of feathers, fur and scales I'd seen over the days, but all those were vaguely humanoid. If I squinted I could have pretended the whole city was in fancy dress.

Not so much with the massive flying, fire-breathing beast. Thankfully there'd been no sign of pursuit once I'd made it clear of the forest, so I could only hope that the creature had been taking care of and wouldn't be looking for me again.

After taking a shower – cleaning out the forest debris in my tail took up most of the time – I sat down and went over tasks that needed to be done.

I needed to learn more about magic basics, and since I couldn't ask anyone here that left me with finding someone outside or learning to read and finding some books. Books seemed like the more reliable option, which meant I needed to do more experimental practice to keep up with the fire dancing training while I learnt to read.

I also needed to find some way to explain my look, or demonstrate how it was hidden, so that people didn't start poking holes in my cover story. Normally my cover story could withstand a missile, but this one was so flimsy I was worried it would blow away with the wind.

All that on top of learning about security measures in this world and things of appreciable value so that I could go out plundering.

A sigh leaked out. "Now now, no work, no play," Lincoln's phantom voice echoed. Not that I ever actually saw my old mentor do any work, it all tended to suddenly show up done.

"Fire," I muttered, and blue flame puffed into existence in my outstretched palm.

Another sigh escaped. "System, why is the fire blue?" I asked tiredly.

Host body capable of greater energy circulation.

Maximum output increased.

Maximum volume of control increased.

"Can I change it back to red?" Somehow I didn't imagine Aristide appreciating my new contribution to his artistic vision. I'd already learnt he was a man who lived for his art.

Flame colour within host control.

I focused on that mental tickle, throttling it slightly, and sure enough the flame changed to a flickering orange.

Somewhat relieved, I bounced the flame on my palm, thinking. As my mind wandered, the flame drifted between blue and red, eventually circling my head like a police themed moon.