As I approached the hole at one end of the room, I noted that it was just a bit bigger than me. Or rather, the perfect size to fit my egg. Did someone hide it in here? Why? Maybe this is just the way dragons deal with their eggs?

Pondering these questions likely wouldn't help me for the moment, so I went through the hole. Despite being big enough, the uneven and winding path made navigating it somewhat bothersome. After at least 10 body lengths, it finally widened again, only for the ground to end after another 5 body lengths.

I carefully went to look over the edge, and could just make out a lake's surface in the blue-ish light of the moss. Well, it's more of a pond, really. Then again, I still have no reference of how big I really am. Could be that dragons are ginormous from birth and this thing is multiple kilometers across. For the sake of argument, I decided to define myself as 2 meters tall, at my shoulders, making this body of water maybe 150 meters long, and a bit less than that in width.

Besides that, there seemed to be a small bank on the opposite side of the cavernous room, and the ground was some 50 or so meters below. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any way for me to walk down there. I glanced at my wings. I suppose I could try to glide down there, but if I am as large as I just said, these wings are way too small for me to do even that much. If I'm much smaller than that, it might work.

I decided to give it a test first, using the 10 meters of space to try and get some lift form my wings. Starting at the ledge, I ran as fast as I could in the direction of my crevice, wings spread wide and slightly angled upwards. Feels like it might work, I just don't quite know if I can keep them extended under my entire weight.

Just to make sure, I looked over the edge again, but there was no way for me to walk or even climb down, as the walls around this spot were at a decent overhang. Nothing for it, then. Let's just hope I'm small enough that a fall into water won't be lethal.

With that thought, I took a few steps back, gathered my courage, and ran of the ledge at maximum speed.

At first, it didn't feel like my wings were catching the air, but as I picked up speed, my fall seemed to be somewhat affected by what my wings were doing. That is, wobbly, as I couldn't quite keep them straight under the strain. Shit, shit, shit! Abort! Abort! I was way too fast for my liking, but my flight did level out somewhat. I was still approaching the ground at a good clip, but it wasn't a free-fall.

As I went lower, I managed to level out even more, now nearly parallel to the surface of the lake. I hope this water isn't too cold. Was all I thought as I saw how far away the bank still was.

Right above the water, I actually managed to get a second of horizontal flight before I accidentally pulled up even more, stalling, and taking a plunge into the frigid blue. OK, this isn't half as bad as I thought it would be. The water was cold, yes, but it was manageable. A bigger issue was that I didn't know how to swim with a quadrupedal body. I immediately went for doggy paddles, but it wasn't enough to keep me afloat.

My wings were exhausted from my short but straining glide, so I couldn't use them even if I knew the movements required to generate lift. At least I'd had the very good idea to take a deep breath before I came down.

After trying a few variations do the doggy paddle, I got something serviceable. I breached the surface, took another deep breath and made my way to shore.

Thankfully it was only a few dozen meters to get there, and the transition between water and solid ground was a very smooth one. Even then, I was once again exhausted. OK, I guess I must be less than half a meter in hight right now. Once I find a stable source of food, flying will be the next thing I try to learn.

Before I even had the chance to slump down where I stood, I was once again assaulted by the status list.

Name: Keith Harrows

True Name: unknown

Age: 1 hour 16 minutes 56 seconds

Species: (some sort of)Dragon

Gender: female

Life Stage: Hatchling

Titles and Given Names: Keith, K, Mr. Harrows

Statistics:

  Things to never do again:

    - Auto-cunnilingus

  Times I thought of my situation as weird in any way: 6

  Times I fell on my face: 33

Goals:

  Learn to fly. Progress: 0%

God damn, it. Could you please stop popping up like that while I'm not expecting it? I slumped down where I still stood a few meters from the edge of the water. I dismisses the list and chanced a look up at where I came from.

I had to search for way longer than I expected, because the shape of the hole camouflaged it really well. It definitely wasn't a coincidence that I was up there. So my egg probably wasn't lost by accident. That leaves abandoned or abducted. But what kind of creature would steal an egg without the intention of eating it? My breathing was starting to calm down once again, so I forced myself up.

As the water was still settling down from my little swim, I made to way over to have a look at what my face now looked like. I already knew that there were some sort of nubs on top of my head, I had felt those just before I escaped my egg. I was also aware that my ears were some sort of wide frill. Somehow, the reality was really adorable.

My face was rather smooth, with hints of where angles might later develop. My snout was slender, with small holes for nostrils. Baring my teeth, they looked quite small and pointy, with larger ones further back. Deffinitely the jaw of a predator. My ears, at least I assumed that's what they were, looked like a fan of skin and scales, bleeding into the side of my face with do real transition. The nubs I had felt on my head were the beginnings of small spikes, likely going all the way down my spine. On the side of neck, there was a small row of more frills, these ones distinct from the surrounding scales.

The scales on the underside of my head and neck were the same as the ones on my belly, but no matter where on my body I looked, the scales were the same light blue of the light all around me. I'm probably some shade of white, then.

Well, I still need to eat, so I better get moving. I looked around at the sides of the room, about 10 meters at the closest and 100 at the furthest from my position. The walls and floor were still covered in the glowing moss, but there was also a large amount of non-luminous vegetation. Mostly other mosses and a few small mushrooms, but this was the most lively place I had seen so far. The only places devoid of the vegetation were narrow strips on the ground connecting the three caverns that connected to this place.

Is this some kind of thoroughfare? That could mean that this is the only watering hole in the proximity. I looked around for some source for the water but couldn't find anything. Does it spring from the ground maybe?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I lft the question unanswered and chose the closest of the tunnels and started walking towards it. This one appeared to be the smallest of the three as well, but it was hard to tell without looking at the other ones from closer up.

The tunnel wound quite a bit and the walls and ceiling were a lot more uneven than the ground. The vegetation also diminished back to just the occasional luminous patch of moss. I tried to smell the area, thinking that maybe a dragon's nose might be sensitive enough to pick up something's smell, but instead of taking a breath through my nose, my tongue flicked out. This must be those same instincts that made me break out of the egg. As my tongue came back, it reflexively went into some place in the roof of my mouth.

The sensations I got back from that were as weird as anything I had felt so far. It wasn't that I could identify everything around me, but I could definitely make out distinct smells and map them to what direction they were coming from. The only reason why I couldn't identify the smells themselves was likely because I didn't know what anything smelled like to this nose. Tongue. Whatever the correct term, the best way to deal with that is to identify each smell individually, following unidentified ones to the source and building a data bank of smells.

I went about doing that while I was moving along the tunnel. The tunnel itself bulged and narrowed in places, always curving in one way or the other but I certainly thought it was going downwards more than up, over time.

After a few minutes of smelling everything I came across - it was mostly the glowing moss but still - I only had one very faint, yet unknown smell to follow. Out of caution, I decided to try and move more quietly than I had up until that point.

Up ahead, the tunnel changed into something more open. It looked like some sort of Swiss cheese, with how many small pockets were missing from the walls, ceiling and floor. And on top of that, for some bizarre reason, those holes also glowed in that same blue-ish light. The Fuck? Glowing moss I can understand. But rocks? That strickes me as more than a little odd.

Upon closer inspection,  the holes looked way too regular and they were all way too close to each other in size to be anything natural. I licked the air again, and the unfamiliar scent that had been getting stronger seemed to be coming from all around. I don't think I want to meet anything that can do this to solid rock. I should go before whatever that was comes back.

There were two ways forward from this place, presumably the site of a battle, and one of them had that same smell coming from it. Number two it is. This one also had two or three unfamiliar smells, all very similar to each other, likely multiple creatures of the same species.

This tunnel had the same theme as everywhere else, with it's glowing moss and meandering path.

After another ten minutes that felt like an hour, I was getting closer, or maybe catching up, to the smells I was now certain were three creatures of the same species. I kept moving as quietly as I could, so as to not get the attention of whatever they were, and looked around every corner before moving on.

Right as I got to another sharp bend, I noticed that the light further along the tunnel seemed to be shifting. Shadows were being cast like blurry outlines and distorting, like the light wasn't coming from just one, but multiple, feint, and wide light-sources.

I pressed myself against the rock and slowly peeked out around the corner.

What I saw were three glowing, bipedal, half-meter high reptilians. Their heads looked similar to what I had seen in my reflection, but a lot more angular, and the tails were just about the same shape and relative size as my own. While they were indeed bipedal, their legs looked strikingly similar to my own hind legs, but their 'hands' had an opposable thumb, besides three other digits. They also weren't wearing any sort of clothing. Alright, now I've seen it all. Can I go home now? I really didn't need all this new shit in my life! The three things seemed to be picking some of the glowing mosses from the ground and depositing it in a kind of basket. Do they intend to carry that thing together or do these things have super strength? That thing is bigger than two of them on one another's shoulders!

The basket was already filled to busting, and two of them had already started to prepare to, presumably, return to their home. One of them made a sound that I could only describe as that of a torque wrench ratcheting back. The one that was still obliviously picking moss sprung up suddenly and ran to help it's group lift the basket.

With that, the three of them seemed to disappear right before my eyes. Well, almost disappear. There was still the issue that they were a damn walking light source. Are they, though? Here's a good question: what the fuck am I actually seeing? If these things have some way of making themselves invisible, wouldn't it be prudent to also stop that light from shining? I think this 'light' might not bet something they, or their predators, can see. Else they'd either already be dead or they wouldn't even bother.

I decided to follow them for the time being, as I still hadn't found anything edible, and these things seemed to have some place to go. I briefly thought about trying the moss, but with how my teeth looked, I doubted that I was anything but a pure carnivore.

As time went on, we went through a few intersections, but never stopped at any. The glowing mosses we came past were somewhat subdued in the 'luminosity', likely because they had been harvested recently. It occurred to me then, that I had never actually looked too closely at the moss before. I stopped at one patch that had a bit more light to it and got as close to it with my face as I could.

The beauty I saw in this plant was fascinating. This close up, the light didn't seem to come evenly from the entire plant, as I had thought. Rather, most of it seemed to be concentrated in the tips of the numerous tiny stalks the moss was made of. Most incredible, however, was where the plant's roots met the stone underneath.

Here, every fiber of the moss was streaked by minuscule veins of light, undulating and changing ever so slowly. This looks truly magical. I bet this would have looked great as a screen saver- wait! Magical. What if that word isn't far off from the truth? That certainly wasn't as far-flung as I would have assumed before I woke up in an egg. Could these mosses be absorbing some kind of magic from the rock? Magic would also explain the reptiles vanishing. Can I do any of that? Or can I not, because I myself am not glowing?

Ok, so if this moss absorbs magic - or is it called mana? - and that's what is making it glow like this, that means I can see magic? The reptiles obviously can't see it, their predators likely can't, and yet they're glowing like Christmas trees to me. How come I'm able to see it, but they don't? Could it be something to do with my being some species of dragon? Did I win some stupid inverse lottery and everything around me has magic, whereas I don't? Or something in between?

It seemed the questions were piling up rather quickly, and I didn't have the means to even start on answering most of them. I'll just have to continue observing and gathering more information. My body took that moment to remind me that it was still hungry. Right after I find food. I could technically eat those reptilians, but they made a way too intelligent impression on me to do that as anything but a last resort.

I went back to stalking the trio and their cargo until we came to a wall that was giving off more light than I had seen from anything so far. The reptilians walked towards it, then continued well past where I thought they'd have to stop. Is this an illusory wall of some kind? I tried to filter out the light coming off of it, but couldn't manage to convince my brain that it wasn't shining like a giant TV screen.

I went up to the very edge of the bright part of the wall and touched it with one of my claws. There was no resistance whatsoever, until I made contact with the wall a claw's length behind the wall. The illusion stayed up, but I didn't want to risk that they'd know someone had tampered with it that shouldn't have, so I continued on past what I now assumed to be the entrance to their lair.

I do hope there is more around here than creatures I don't want to encounter and ones I'd rather not eat because they're intelligent. I licked the air once more, and picked the smell I would follow next. It wasn't like either of the other two I had connected to some creature so far. If anything, it was more like the flora back at the watering hole, but I hadn't Isolated those smells out yet, so I might have just been walking in one great circle.

Either that, or I found myself some sort of herbivore. Who ever heard of a herbivore being intelligent?