I began walking normally towards the wood line. As I walked I felt amazing, there was an indescribable power flowing in to me as it got darker. I could sense every worm and bug and squirrel and rat for a hundred yards.

My vision sharpened even further, I realized I had four different sets of eye lids, I'd studied lizards in biology during school so I knew what nictitating membranes were, these were a bit different though. And I seemed to have four of them. One gave me vision like an eagle, my normal sight allowed me to have great vision but this thing let me zoom my vision like I had a magnifying glass in my eyes. The next one is what allowed me to see what I was beginning to realize was the radiation of heat from living things. The third one was what gave me the ability to see auras around things. I wasnt sure what that was for yet. The fourth one didnt really seem to do anything. But I did notice they were all heavily saturated with mana, when I'd gained my classes my combat class had allowed me to begin sensing mana around me. In my dragon form it was a much greater sense.

I also noticed as I could sense the things around me there was a kind of haze over everything. Not physically, just a sort of mental haze, so after about fifty feet I stopped and tried to direct my mana outward. As I did the darkness and shadows around me began to move! It was a very strange feeling, it didnt seem to take much effort at all to move the darkness around just by willing it so.

I knew next to nothing about dragons, the only book I'd been able to find in my house on the subject didn't include very much detail, and nothing at all about Shadow Dragons. So I wasn't sure if this was normal, or a result of my classes. Since my race was Shadow Dragon I was betting the former, but I couldn't rule anything out.

I sat there thinking about it for a second then decided to experiment. I began focusing my will, drawing the shadow stuff towards me. My vision at night might as well be daylight in dragon form but even I noticed how dark it suddenly got. As the dark came toward me I forced it in to a ball that got bigger and bigger. It worked pretty well. It didnt seem to strain me at all. I stopped when the shadow ball thing was easily the size I was.

Now what could I do with it? I tried to remember what I knew about the darkness element. It wasnt much, I'd never expected to use it so I hadnt studied it other than what we learned in school, wich was basic at best. Normally people who gained magic affinity were taught in apprenticeship or at the Academy.

I seemed to remember somthing about illusions. So I began to imagine this black ball of stuff changing slowly in to me, not as a dragon but the old me, slowly I pressed my will upon the darkness, and it responded!

The darkness began morphing and swirling till it took on a humanoid shape. Then it's face morphed in to a twisted version of a humans face. It was creepy as hell to be honest. Especially when the eyes started to glow with a red inner light. That's when I really freaked out and jumped backwards releasing my will.

"What the shit?" I said.

I pretty much decided right then and there I wasnt messing with magic till I had some training. Magic is scary!

With that decided I figured it was time to figure out this whole being a dragon thing. If I was going to be a dragon I needed to learn how they worked physically. I'd wait to practice flying till I got back to the clearing. I decided to see how my five senses differ from me as a human. I already knew they were more acute, but I didn't know by how much that was true. Even in my human form I'd noticed a change though. My eyes in human form has slitted pupils just like my dragon form did, so I'd noticed the change in my vision almost immediately.

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According to Sensei I was also faster and stronger, our sparring match had showed her a marked increase. I still wasnt anywhere near her level but she said I was definitely more powerful. I now knew about my vision, so I started with smell. Closing my eyes I tried to ignore the sounds around me and identify anything I'd never noticed before. I smelled the normal woodsy smells, but under that was a kind of cloying scent of decay and death, I began to pick out the individual scents of the creatures around me. I smelled a musky scent that was strong, much stronger than the rest. I figured that must have been the deer I saw. So I tried to see if I could figure out where it had gone.

As I followed my nose around I began to pick out individual forest sounds. There were the typical bugs and birds but high in the tree tops I could hear baby birds in the nests. To my left was a rustle in the brush, low to the ground. It sounded really low, it took a bit but I finally figured out it was a snake of some kind.

As I moved along the smell got stronger. Then I heard a crashing in the brush and a loud sound like a goose honking only much deeper with a kind of warble at the end. That's when I looked up and realized I'd wandered right in to a small group of deer, and apparently the one I'd seen before was a baby. They were huge. At least 12 feet tall at the shoulder. The leader had a massive rack of antlers easily another two feet. They spread out from its head like hands with a narrow gap about twelve to fifteen inches at the base and maybe three feet wide at the tips.

He was looking right at me, and he didn't seem happy. I'd been so engrossed in following the scents I'd been stupid and forgotten to keep an eye on my surroundings. So I did what every self respecting dragon in a situation like this would do.

"Uhhh...." then I turned and ran. I had no desire to see if my scales could stand up to a stampede. The buck charged after me like his ass was on fire. Wich was ironic because I was sure he was about to set mine on fire as well. I'm not ashamed to admit I may have screamed like a little girl. Wich is harder than it sounds when your a dragon.

He was about three feet behind me when I got smart. I whipped my tail out and grabbed a thick tree trunk. As I went by the tree i used the leverage to swing back around in a 180° turn, vanishing behind the tree. The deer monster tried to follow but slipped on the leaves and soil slowing it down. I took that opportunity to widen the gap. Then I leaped up as far as I could and sank my claws in to a tree in front of me and began climbing.

The deer hit the tree hard, so hard he almost shook me loose. But I managed to hold on. I also managed to get my tail out of the way. While he was distracted trying to get his antlers unstuck I kept climbing to a branch that was just over my head. Climbing on top of it I looked down and glared at the deer.

That's when i noticed somthing interesting. He was stuck in the tree! He had hit so hard fully half his antler pointp were stuck in the trunk and he couldn't seem to get them loose. So I crept along the branch till I was directly above his back. Then I jumped off.

As I came down I had just enough time to think about how stupid this plan was. Then I landed on his back with all four legs. It was about as graceful as a bucket of slops hitting a walkway. My claws hit first causing him to flinch, wich in turn caused me to slip, ripping claws down his ribs and flanks as I tried to maintain my hold. That caused him to buck rather hard sliding me forward and by odd coincidence put my muzzle next to his. So again I did what any self respecting dragon would.

I bit in self defense. Struggling I sank both fore claws in to his shoulders, leaned forward, and ripped a chunk out of his neck with my teeth. The blood tasted sweet and salty and hot all at the same time. Having bled during sparring sessions and matches before I'd expected it to taste coppery and metallic, but it didn't. It tasted amazing, so I took another bite.

After a while the deer stopped struggling as it slowly sank down on its legs to its belly. I stopped what I was doing as I noticed the shift realizing with a start that I'd nearly chewed through its entire throat.

I'd bled the thing out without even realizing it because I'd been distracted by the tastes and smells of the fresh blood. Looking around I realized the entire area had gone quiet. I wasn't even sure how long I'd been gone. Shifting to human form I grabbed the head and worked the antlers free as fast as I could. Then I took a hold throwing the body over my shoulders so I was holding the fore legs like backpack straps. I began to drag the carcass back to the lumber camp.