I’m not quite sure why I stopped but seeing a patch of blue in the sea of green and brown caught my eye. I was perched up on a tree at the time and once I took a good look I saw that it was a person. I  assume it’s  a girl since her hair was to her back.

Why is a girl wandering around in the forest at this time, she looks to be 16 maybe even 18 and she looks unarmed from a glance…? Well I think it’s a girl at least she’s wearing a tunic and pants so nothing remotely feminine. So maybe it’s a girly guy? While I was lost in thought I was found and was could hear a girl’s voice yell at me while waving her hands.

(Blue Haired Girl) “HHHHEEEEYYYYYY!!!”

I then notice something peculiar… it looks like she has four fingers… no way!? I’m left with little choice but to approach so I jump down from the tree I had climbed and walk towards the girl.

(Girl) “Hey! I didn’t think I would run into a hum…person here. What are you doing here?” 

She was going to call me a human… she would have been found out in a second if she was found by Harvey.

“I live in the forest miss… I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name. My name is Kurogane and I live on the outskirts of this forest.”

Getting a good look at her, she’s beautiful. Her skin white with small hands and large cat…like…eyes… This girl failed on every mark to hide the fact that she’s not human.

(Girl) “Nice to meet you Kurogane, my name is Aoi. I’m here looking for my younger sibling who was last seen in this forest.”

While she was telling me this she bowed to me, which I instinctively followed. Looking for her sibling she says? I haven’t seen any other dragons here other than me here maybe there’s another nest here… or maybe they just got separated in this forest? But then again… is she really a dragon?

“Nice to meet you also Aoi, you said sibling… is it a boy or a girl that you’re looking for?”

Might as well get details right, you never know.

(Aoi) “I apologize but I am not sure…”

I watch Aoi as she pouts for a moment… I should tell her shouldn’t I, it’s making me feel bad. Resolved to let her know I put my hand out and spread my fingers out.

“By the way… Miss Aoi you know that humans have 5 fingers right…”

By the look on her face she didn’t... I then point to my eyes and inform her that her eyes don’t look human either. Aoi’s face becomes redder and redder as I tell her the flaws in her transformation and she tells me to wait for a moment as she runs into some nearby shrubbery. After a moment she comes back out with all 5 fingers but her eyes and hair color are still the same… at least it’ll be harder to notice now I think.

(Aoi) “That was so embarrassing; I thought I had done it correctly… I’m a big sister now so I have to be a good example!”

She then puts her hands on her waist and puffs out her chest making a confident pose.

“Well your eyes are still wrong… and I don’t think blue is a normal human hair color.”

Though the source of this information said red wasn’t a normal hair color even though he was a redhead.

“Back to the main subject, Aoi how long have you been here looking for your sibling?”

Aoi’s face seemed to be lost in thought for a moment until she answered.

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(Aoi) “Dunno! I’ve been here for a while now looking around since this place is huge.”

What's with her does she really have no idea how long she's been here? Well she is a dragon I think so she'll be ok... right? There's also that... I should probably tell her about Harvey and people coming here to search. She seems like a nice enough of a girl and I'd rather not have these two encounter each other. Just thinking about what would happen makes me shudder, especially given my circumstances being a dragon with the memories of being human.

"So Aoi... there's something I think you should know."

She just looks at me with her blue eyes.

(Aoi) "Yes?"

I take a deep breath and slowly explain my meeting with Harvey of course leaving out the Elf City. I'm sure she wouldn't do anything but there's the fact that they actively try to keep dragons out. I could see her face get paler and paler as I told my story and she looked like she was going to cry.

(Aoi) "Did he find a dragon! Please tell me he didn't..."

I continued to explain that we found nothing and I had just separated from him before we meet.

(Aoi) "I understand, I'll be careful and stay on the other side of the forest while continuing my search. If you see another dragon here let them know I'm here."

And with that we went our separate ways, looking back though I should have realized sooner but I was too preoccupied with getting home.

The sun set shortly after we had finished talking and though I can see exceptionally well in the dark after a while I grow tired. Hopefully the children won't visit today since I don't think I can make it back before exhaustion kicks in. After searching for some time I find a good place to sleep for the night, I quant little cave that doesn't look used.

Just to be safe I look around the general area and don't see any form of tracks or signs of anything living here and mark one of the trees so I can remember the direction I came from. Carelessly making marks can lead to unwanted guests so I make sure to not direct it where I want to go. Once I finish my preparations I get ready to turn in for the night and finish my trip tomorrow.

As I lay down the thought hits me... what if I missed something and this cave does have residents or if something else decides to make this it's home. In that case if it saw a young boy inside it would probably attack me while I'm asleep, but if it was a dragon it would probably think twice!

Now the only problem is my sword, usually when I transform back and forth my clothes disappear when I'm a dragon, and reappear when I change back the next time. Why this is I'm not sure, it's convent so I'll not question it. But what about something that I'm carrying? It's not like I have something convent like some kind of magic spell that can store items or some kind of special storage ability.

After consideration I decide that if the sword acts like my clothing then great, if it doesn't and drops to the ground I'll just sleep on it. And of course if it disappears and never comes back... I'll cry myself to sleep. I take a deep breath and transform into my dragon form and look around... good it's not on the ground unless it's the worst case scenario. Please don't be! I really liked that sword, otherwise I'll have to hunt Harvey down and then hunt his friend down and ask for another.

Bracing myself I change back as confirmation... thank god it's still there. Well I'm not sure how it works but hey it's useful I won't question how and turn back and head to bed. I should be safe, nothing would disturb a sleeping dragon in the middle of a forest. Right...?