Kevin carefully schooled his expression as he listened to his mother continue to vent, which had evolved into a series of complaints and worrying concerns. Although humans and other races had a difficult time reading draconic expressions, they had no problem at all with bipedal expressions of their own.

His mother, Agaraparanamasta, had polymorphed into her most commonly assumed mortal form. She was tall and lithe, a rare, sandy-skinned dark elf with lustrous hair showing a tiny hint of grey at the roots. Apparently, at some point in the very distant past, she'd seen an elven woman who dyed her hair and hadn't kept up with it, but she liked the look and adopted it for the last few hundred years. Polymorphed dragons could easily adjust their clothing when they transformed as well. Kevin had always found it fascinating that if a polymorphed dragon took off an article of clothing, removed it from their body, it would slowly dissipate over about a week.

Agaraparanamasta currently wore an elegant dress of green samite, and she had on a large amount of otherwise tasteful jewelry. Her eyes flashed as she turned and regarded her husband, Parga.

Kevin's father was still in his dragon form and was lounging while flaring his nostrils in a dragon version of a nod at all the right times. He and Kevin both knew now that his mother was running out of steam, and there really wasn't much she could do at this point to stop him from leaving. Not least of which because both of his parents took their responsibility as custodians of the continent seriously. For the dark elves to have come all the way out to these cliffs and mountains meant there was something dire brewing indeed. In fact, Kevin's father had already told him in confidence before his mother got back that they'd heard other rumors from the mainland—disturbing rumors.

Finally, Agara stopped and sat in her carved stone throne in a huff. The throne fit her current form exactly, which was no accident. After all, over a thousand years ago, she learned how to carve stone as a hobby and had made both this throne and the matching one for Kevin's father. Parga seldom used his, though. As he’d told Kevin before, his natural dragon form was a lot more intimidating and regal than any chair, no matter how finely crafted.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Kevin?" said Agara. "You are only twenty years old, and you want to leave? Do you know how dangerous it is out there?"

"Yes, mother," said Kevin gently. He ambled forward and gently took one of his mother's now elven hands in his own. Having been raised this way in this world, he would never mistake a polymorphed dragon as a human; he could feel the power and authority held in check just beneath the surface of his mother's skin.

"I understand you're worried, mother, but this is something I've been asking for for a long time, and it's something that I believe you and father would benefit from, too. If it is dangerous, all the better to send me. How many other unknown members of mortal races are as capable as I am now? And there's no way you could send a polymorphed dragon."

"Why not?" said his mother.

For the first time in a while, Parga spoke. "You know why, Agaraparanamasta. Even if we could go, which we can’t, that sort of work is extremely tiring. So even if it was appropriate, which it is not. And even if they allowed us at the meetings and such, which they wouldn't, because of all the forces involved, we would eat them out of house and home. I haven't been moving much lately, and I ate a whale a week ago. I'm already hungry again. Even if we sent a younger dragon, they can still eat a lot, especially after maintaining constant magic like polymorph."

"Well, that's true," said Agara, "but what if the dragon only came down and changed for the meetings?"

Parga sighed. "You know as well as I do what kind of treaties were signed to end the Great War. We were there. We are stewards. And we can only meddle directly if we find evidence that other greater powers are."

"I have always hated that! It's ridiculous to treat us like we have such awesome power. I mean, yes, we aren't weak, but compared to the gods and the devils, angels and demons, it's not the same."

"We have talked about this many times before," said Parga. "You know what happens if anybody breaks the rules. Granted, we are stewards of this continent, but do you want to explain to the Greatest why you chose to break thousands of years of peace and tradition?"

"No," said Agara. She made an ugly face and, with a snap, changed her attire to an Earth outfit that Kevin had once described to her in excruciating detail. Now she was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt. The common-looking Earth clothing was ruined by her stunning, almost divine appearance and her bare feet. As she wiggled her toes, Kevin noticed with some amusement that she hadn't completely changed her toenails into human ones—they were much too large and sharp.

"Fine, I admit that keeping the status quo is probably wisest for everybody right now, but why does it have to be our son? He's so small and vulnerable." She stood up from her chair and ran forward several steps to bend down and fold Kevin in a huge hug. He hugged her back. Kevin truly loved Agara and thought of her as his real mother.

In his first life, growing up on Guam, his father had been distant, and his mother had eventually vanished, taking her secrets with her. In his second life, he'd been orphaned pretty quickly and never even remembered his parents, or even whether he had siblings. His cold upbringing in the orphanage had eventually become equally, if not more, cold tutelage in the arena. In his second life, by the time he’d grown to serve as a knight and finally found real friends, he'd already been an adult.

Agaraparanamasta and Parganatanemnon had truly treated him as one of their own after adopting him. And what's more, they were extremely honest, moral people. Despite remembering multiple lives, Kevin couldn't ask for wiser parents either—they were thousands of years old and had seen more than he could even imagine. He thought it was a blessing that he'd been able to regale them with stories of modern Earth that could even surprise them.

Kevin spoke up, saying, "Mother, you and father have taught me well, and you know I already have all the martial skills from my past life."

"But you can't even really do magic," she wailed.

“Don’t you think that’s kind of insulting to Kevin?” Parga rumbled.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"The magic situation is true, but it’ll never change unless I see the world," he said. "However slim of a chance there is, I want to discover whether I can find magic that I could learn. You know this. It was you that told me about some of the subterranean ruins and leftovers of the divine war. If I'm ever going to find magic that I’m suited for, or maybe even a way to change my form from a dream goblin, I'm not going to find it in the mountains here. You are both very old an very educated, but even you do not know everything."

His mother pushed him away by the shoulders and looked into his eyes. "I can't deny your logic, Kevin, but I don't have to like it. It's only been twenty years. Do you know what that's like for someone like me? Do you know how little time it feels like I've already spent with you?"

Kevin sadly shook his head. "I can't even imagine, but I promise I will do my best to keep myself alive."

Agara’s eyes flashed. "That means no heroics, right?"

"Yes. Of course." Now he regretted telling his parents some of the stories of his former life when he'd been a knight.

Agara clicked her tongue and finally said, "I don't see how I can truly block this without infringing on your freedom, but I hope you know that this is deeply disturbing to me."

"I know, Mother. I'm sorry. I promise I will try to send messages back as soon as possible."

“Then at least let me fly you to the nearest large, mortal city. Not orks, though. Maybe humans? You should spend some time in the world first before going to the goblin country.”

“No. I think I should do this on my own. And I know about dragon neutrality. If you or father take wing into the mainland and fly over a city, it will cause enough panic, it might start a war on its own.”

“When did you get so good with using words as weapons!?” She sighed, and her eyes sad, she gave him a half-smile. "I noticed you also didn't give me any real time frame and have kept all your plans completely vague."

"I was taught by the best," said Kevin, and he winked at her.

Now giving him a full, rueful smile, she returned to her enormous, regal form. Her form was a striking contrast with Parga’s.

Kevin's father was originally a fire dragon, one of the most common species of dragons. He’d evolved to a magma dragon, but as dragons went, his roots were extremely common.

Although Kevin had never left this world after reincarnating, his parents had spoken of other dimensions they visited that were “close by.” All of the dimensions they frequented had dragons. But in all the worlds they spent time in, including this one, his mother's species was one of the most rare—a dark jade dragon. She dipped her head at him, displaying her crown-like series of horns rising majestically above her head. Kevin's father's two thick spiraling horns were impressive as well, but had nowhere near the visual impact of his mother's.

She rumbled, "Do what you will, but I hope I can at least convince you to take some of the stronger artifacts with you. Your stubbornness in only using that shoddy equipment of yours is madness."

“Shoddy? I made most of this.”

She tisked. “You know what I mean.”

With the tone of an often-repeated mantra, Kevin's father said, "My dearest, you know he can’t take any of the artifacts. All the artifacts are known quantities in this world. They are actively tracked by multiple groups. If we want our son to be safe, it is better that he remain inconspicuous–at least as much as possible until he grows stronger and wiser. You know this. No amount of equipment we give him, no matter how strong, can protect him from some of the forces in this world."

"That's exactly why I don't want him to go. You are not making me feel better!" Agara wailed.

Kevin smiled at his mother and used [jump], one of the dragon life skills he'd mastered. The move sent him sailing over the distance, exactly as his mother had just done before when she’d returned home. He landed on her foreleg using another dragon-like skill, [weightlessness]. Weightlessness was primarily used by dragons when they flew; otherwise, there was no way they would be able to get off the ground. But it was also handy to stop gravity from breaking his bones after jumping. He hugged his mother's foreleg and said, "Like I said, Ma, I promise I will do everything I can to return. And I hate to say this, but I don't think you have a leg to stand on from stopping me from going. You told me about some of the crazy adventures that you and father had when you were hatchlings."

His mother bent her long neck down to fix a glowing purple eye on him from mere feet away. "When we were hatchlings on our adventures, we were already over over two hundred years old."

"Uh huh," said Kevin. "And right now, I'm twenty years old. In my first life, I reached over sixty years, and in my second life, I was fifty-five years old when I passed, so if anything, given goblin years, or even human years, I am much older than you were when you started having adventures."

Kevin's father blew flame and laughed uproariously. "He's got you there, Agara. You walked directly into that one."

The majestic, green-scaled dragon grunted and righted herself primly. Kevin hopped off her foreleg and watched her from a respectful distance. She was giving the dragon version of a pout and said, "Fine, I truly can't say anything anymore. I hope you will at least accept money to take."

"Oh, of course," said Kevin. "Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed every second of my life here, and my childhood. But I will admit that cooking for myself all the time, and especially only cooking for one..."

Kevin's mother interrupted, "We eat with you too sometimes. After polymorphing."

"Yes, but neither of you can cook, so I was always cooking, and it takes something away when I know that even in your human form, nothing I can feed you is going to give you a full belly. No, I think I would like a break from cooking. And part of that break is going to be sampling some of the finest food I can find at some of the finest restaurants I walk into. So yes, some money would be good."

Parga roared in laughter again. "This is a pragmatic young dragon we've raised!"

"Goblin," corrected Kevin.

His father blew out the dragon version of a raspberry. "You may look like a goblin, but you have a dragon's heart. You also have quite a few of our abilities now, I might note."

Parga's lips subtly quivered in humor. The giant, ancient magma dragon swung his enormous head over to his mate. "Agara, if you are truly still worried about this, please imagine what would happen to the average soldier from a human kingdoms if they were truly pit themselves against Kevin."

“But what about a mage? Or a high level adventurer?”

“Do you really think that Kevin cannot run away, given most circumstances? And which is more common, a powerful mage, or a mortal with a weapon?” When she didn't answer, Parga added, "Given that a mortal with a weapon would be the most likely threat to face, what about even a decent-sized group of them?"

The dragoness lowered herself into a reclining position like her mate and slid her eyes closed in thought. "This is true, and it makes some of my objections seem silly, but some of my fear is warranted, and you know it! Yes, against a standard human, even an ork, Kevin would have no problem. And with his past experiences, I don't have to worry about him freezing in the moment when he must kill to protect his life. But there are powerful foes out there, and also that damned curiosity he has."..

Kevin frowned. "You always said you liked and appreciated my curiosity until now."

"Well, before it was cute, but now it might get you killed! Besides, you've also always said that you want to find your own place in this world and not always rely on us. I don't know what that means. For all I know, you'll decide to become king of the goblins or something, and that would be a problem for all sorts of reasons."

Kevin shook his head. "It's not like I can walk in and just declare myself king."

His parents exchanged a look. His father said, "Despite your goblin body, you are–"

"Enough worrying about this," grumbled his mother. "Will you at least let me say goodbye when it's time to leave?"

"I will do my best," he said.

She eyed him suspiciously. “That sounds like the answer of a ‘lawyer’ from the world of your first life, the one with technology.” She showed her teeth in a dragon frown. "So when will you be leaving?" she asked. "Another few years?"

Parga coughed. "I told the the dark elf envoy that a diplomat would be arriving within a year."

"What!?" demanded Agara. “How can you make a decision like this without my presence!?”

“You were hunting, my love. Our time is different from mortals’ even elves. You could have been gone for a week or two. We cannot have a mortal delegation living in our cave that long, or even nearby. The artifacts, remember? Kevin can tolerate them, but other mortals cannot.”

Then Kevin added fuel onto the fire."Yeah, sorry, mother, I was actually thinking about maybe leaving in a week."

"What!?" demanded Agara again. Her new, tenuous calm had disappeared.