Two weeks has passed since I first hatched. Nothing different had happened other than uncle leaving and dad going out to work every day except for weekends.

Mom is always here. She kept teaching us the dragon language. Or we would watch what mom called the "tv" in the living room. There is one of those in me and my brother's room too.

Good news is I can finally understand what everyone is saying now. As long as it isn't big words I can have a full conversation.

Selen.

That's moms name.

Galderus is my dad, Kemok is my uncle and Kain is my brother.

And my name is Kyn.

Kyn.

Not Jack.

Not Jack N Rosemary.

Now it's Kyn Kere.

Yesterday mom and my brother had called me by that name and it didn't register that they meant me. But now I know.

"Mom?"

It feels good being able to speak to someone again. Even if it's in a different language. I'm surprised we learned to talk in just two weeks. Maybe it's another dragon thing again?

Mom looks down at me. She is in the kitchen cleaning the island top with a wet rag.

My brother is in our room watching the tv and playing with toys.

"Yes, Kyn? Is something the matter?"

I pause at her words. No. There was nothing wrong.

Sure, Kain is rough when he plays but that was fine. I had worries that I can't share with anyone even if I wanted to, but that is fine too.

I didn't really have any reason. I just wanted to see mom again, hear her voice.

"I love you."

Mom smiles at my words before coming down and rubbing the front of her muzzle against mine affectionately. Like an eskimo kiss.

"I love you too, sweety." She returns to cleaning, with a smile on her face.

Warmth blossoms inside and I smile from her words. An alien feeling that I love. I watch her clean for a few seconds before looking around at the kitchen. She and dad made food earlier before he had to leave for work.

Seeing a broom leaning against a wall I take it and starts sweeping the kitchen floor. Ilthe broom is much bigger than me but i'm careful with it.

Mom giggles when she sees me trying to help.

"Why don't you go play with your brother, Kyn? I can take care of a little mess." She reaches out to take the broom but I sweep out of her reach.

"I want to sweep. It never hurts to help, even if it's unnecessary, mom."

She nods and her smile grew a little more. "That's very sweet of you, Kyn. Thank you."

I smile too and we cleaned the kitchen together.

As I am cleaning I look over at mom. Yellow scales, brown short branchy horns and green eyes. Imperfections dot her scales. Scars. In the center of her back is a big scar where no scales would grow back. It looked like what had hit her was big and powerful.

I felt the need to ask about it but I stopped myself. Not all scars are meant to be remembered, I'd know. I didn't want to risk ruining her mood, she looks happy and is quietly humming to herself.

So ill ask her a different question.

"Why do you have a room full of gold and stuff?"

She washes the rage and cleans the front of the cabinets. "You'll understand when you are an adult. But it's your fathers and I's hoard. It's instinctual for us dragons to have one."

"Why? Does it give you anything out of having one?" I am really curious. Does it give dragons a buff or something?

"Mmmm, no. It's just the natural feeling of needing one. To collect things that have value, gold also just tastes good." She finishes cleaning and I had already finished sweeping. I had gotten stronger these past two weeks but the progress is slow, my limbs ache from the sweeping.

"We can eat gold?" Im surprised. I never had the though to eat gold since doing so would probably kill a human. At least I assume it could kill one since i never tried it or heard of it. But im a dragon now so i guess it can be done?

"Adult dragons can since our bodies can handle it. But not hatchlings so don't get any ideas, Kyn, else i'll have to rush you to the hospital." Mom picks me up and she carries me to the couch in the living room. Looking down at me she frowns. "Has Kain been rough with you again? Your scales are damaged. I thought I told him to be gentle with you."

Kain hadn't but it didn't bother me, he is just a kid after all and doesn't know his strength. "Its okay, mom. He doesn't do it on purpose."

"That doesn't make it okay, Kyn. He can permanently damage your scales." She lays on the couch and sets me infront of her on the table on a cushion. "I'll have to give him another stern talk later."

Theres nothing i can do to stop her and it would be nice if my brother would calm down. So i tried to change subjects.

"When do I get to be an adult?" I hope ita like human years and ill be an adult in 18 years. Its going to take a while to be 28 again…

"You will be an adult in 300 years. So you have a lot of growing up to do."

My eyes widened in horror and mom laughs. Im going to be stuck a kid for 300 years!? I've never would have lived for that long before as a human!

Oh god i'm not going to be allowed to make my own life decisions for the next 300 years.

"H-how old are you, mom?"

"I'm 6,000. I went and got my breeding license as soon as I reached the age of elder."

"6,000 years old? Breeding license?"

Mom laughs again and nuzzles me. "Don't worry about it sweety. You don't need to worry about that sort of stuff for a long time. And you won't be bringing in females till you are 70. At least you better not, young man."

Oh god. Oh dear god. 70 years without fun? I bet i'd have to wait just as long before I can drink alcohol too. Can dragons drink alcohol?

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Mom looks very amused at the face I am making. She then turns on the tv with a remote and we end up watching a tv show.

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweety?"

"Why do i look nothing like you or dad?"

Its a question that keeps popping up in my head. I cant tell if its because of my two issues or if its something else. I might as well see if she knows anything just in case.

"Im… not sure. Kemok confirmed that there isn't any reason why you are the way you are. But you do have a few odd things about your stats that confuse us. His best guess is your [Bad Genetics] but it could be the other two things that we can't even read."

"Why can't you read them?" Its because its stuck in English, its things World made, not the system. But this tells me English does not exist here.

"Kemok found out they are written in an ancient forgotten language. There's no way to translate it as a it hasn't been discovered how to yet."

Ancient language? As in english had at some point existed? Does this mean humans had existed here or that it just used to be used. Do humans exist right now and i just hadnt seen one out the window? Theres so much of this world i had no way of discovering yet. All I have to go by is what shows on tv or what my parents tell me.

Kemok knows its in the ancient language. Does that mean he could end up sharing my existence with others? What would other people think if they hear that a hatchling is born with unknown stats written in the ancient language?

I hope Kemok keeps this quiet…

Mom can see that i'm in deep contemplation and puts her paw on me. "Don't worry so much about it, Kyn. We will figure it out together. Until then why dont we go to the park tomorrow? Maybe you ans Kain will see other hatchlings you can play with?"

Outside? Where I can see more of this world? I don't want to lose a chance like this. I nod vigorously at the offer and mom giggles.

"Then we will go tomorrow."

She blinks and looks down at me.

"Oh and I almost forgot. Kemok is going to be giving you check ups once a week. I'm not worried about Kain since he had a healthy hatching but we can't risk you developing something and finding out too late."

"I understand. If it makes you feel better I feel perfectly fine." I am only half lying, I'm pretty sure i have bruises from Kain but it's nothing dangerous and my body could use the beating to get stronger. I'm pretty sure that's how it works, it did for me when I was human.

Her eyes narrow at me in suspicion. "Are you sure? Or is this like that time two weeks ago when Kemok sprayed your wound with disinfectant? You didn't even twitch when it happened." She then pauses as a thought occurs. She looks at me with worry. "Kyn? Did you feel any pain then? Can you feel any right now?"

I roll my eyes at her worry. "I can feel pain, mom. Its because of [Tough as Nails]."

"I know, it still worries me. I still don't understand how you were born with any stats…"

Should I tell her?

The thought scared me. The idea of telling Selen why I have stats. Of telling her who I am.

A killer. A bandit. A criminal.

Bloody Jack.

I shake my head clear of those thoughts. If I told her, or anyone, of who i am then everything could, would, change. It would ruin my chance to live the life I never got.

Tell her! Don't lie to her!

I bite my front right leg and my teeth sink through scales and in. I needed to escape the sudden wave of emotion that went through me and force it back wherever it came from. Those were dangerous thoughts it had given me that would destroy my chances. The pain made it all go away as blood flowed into my mouth.

"Kyn!? What are you doing!?" My mom panics as I remove my leg from my mouth. Blood drips from the newly made holes.

"Sorry, mom. I don't know what came over me."

She is on her feet and gets the first aid box from the kitchen. As she bandages my leg she looks torn.

My heart clenches at her expression.

"We can go to the park another day. Tomorrow I'm taking you to Kemok at the hospital and he is going to give you a thorough check up." She speaks with an air of finality. "There's something wrong you aren't telling me."

Damn. I messed up. I shouldn't have let my old habits get to me. Now we're not going to the park…

"Alright. I'm sorry, mom."

"You can't just hurt yourself like that, Kyn. You are too young to be getting hurt. Especially like this. No hatchling should have scars."

"I'm sorry."

She sighs and finishes bandaging up my leg with gauze. The bandage Kemok had put on me had been removed a week ago and I'm already having another put on.

Mom puts the aid kit back in the kitchen. She comes back and looks at me with a frown. "What am I going to do with you…"

"Maybe we can still go to the park after we visit Uncle Kemok?" It couldn't hurt to try and fix it.

She sighs and nods. "Fine. We can go to the park after Kemok."

She lays back down and pulls me close to her chest. Warmth presses against my scaly side.

"Why did you bite yourself, Kyn?"

"I don't know."

"You're lying, Kyn."

Could she really tell I'm lying? I've heard mothers know when their children lie but I didn't think it was true. "I had a muscle spasm."

She sighs in mild annoyance. "Kyn."

I'm starting to think it's true. But what do I tell her? Force of habit? To make the bad ideas go away?

"Just… promise me you wont hurt yourself again." Her voice shakes as she says it and a wave of emotion goes through me. Regret.

"I promise I won't do it again, mom." Old habits die hard but i did not want to hear her voice sound like that again.

-

I walk into my room, leaving mom to let her watch tv in peace. Toys are scattered around the floor, both mine and my brothers, not that I consider any of the toys mine. He can have them.

Kain is laying on his bed and drawing on a sheet of paper. On the tv is his favorite cartoon.

I go to the window and poke my head between the curtains to look out. At the right angle I could get a good view of the populated streets just outside the alley. Our home is just outside the busy markets.

"Are you watching that old dragon at the fruit stall again, Kyn?"

I still feel amazed that my brother and I learned to talk so fast. Dragons are so weird.

"Maybe."

I was. For the past week ive been peeking on the dragon and trying to see if I could read his lips.

Was there a good reason for trying to learn to do that? No. I just don't have anything else to do.

This time instead of seeing the old dragon there is just an empty stall. Maybe he is running late? Or he is taking the day off?

"Wanna see what im drawing?"

I look away from the window.

"Sure." I go and sit on his bed with him.

Kain holds up his drawing in his mouth by its corner, showing a black squiggly mess with two red dots. Next to it is white squiggles with blue dots. Messy clouds dot around the paper.

"It's you and me?"

"It's us flying together in the sky!" He exclaims proudly. "It's going to be so cool when we learn to!"

Kains wings open and flap out of sync.

Flying. Honestly the thought both excited and scared the hell out of me. The thought of flying high and the only thing below you is a drop that can kill. Thank goodness we weren't going to be able to till we are in our teens.

"That's cool, Kain. I can't wait till we can do that together."

"Uh huh! We can be better at it than mom and dad!" He then gets up and speedily runs around the room with his wings open. "I can't wait to fly!"

"I can't wait either. But maybe you should calm down before you trip and break a wing?" I'm sure that even if he did fall he would be fine. Dragons are made of tough stuff. Except for me. I'm brittle.

Kain slowed down and closes his wings, a sheepish grin on his face. He then lays with me on his bed.

I lean over and pull a book closer that is on his bed. Its a dictionary. It's pretty boring but we made a game out of it to make it not.

"What happened to your leg?" Kain just now notices the wet red gauze on my front left leg.

"Oh uh. I bit myself."

"That's pretty hardcore. I don't think I'd be able to do that to myself."

"Well, mom was pretty unhappy when I did it. So don't do it."

"I wasn't going to."

"You copy everything I do."

"Fine I won't."

I crack open the dictionary on a random page and I find a random word.

"Preoccupation."

My brother leans his side against me to read with me.