As he slowly returned to the real world, Daisy was sat impatiently in front of him “Oh, your back.”

“Mmm” he nodded “how long was I out?”

“Err... Maybe an hour or so?” She guessed, but there was something more important on her mind “Well? How did it go?”

As he gathered his thoughts, he sat disorientated for a while before looking at his hand. Focus, huh? In his mind the word, claw came to mind, in that instant scales sprouted from his elbow and progressed down to his hand, before separating between each finger, finally pointed with sharp talons... so that’s how it was “Success!” He gave her a thumbs up with his scaly hand as she looked at it uncomfortably “... That’s good, soooo, food?”

“How did I know that would be the first thing on your mind... Yeah we should be able to do something now!” He confirmed confidently.

“Thank goodness!” She cried in relief, her stomach also growled in delight to her embarrassment.

The pair headed a little deeper into the woods, until they came along a collapsed tree “Hey, this should be good for tonight?” Daisy suggested cheerly.

As he looked around, he couldn't see what made her sure this would be a good place to stay “What do you mean?”

“Well we need somewhere to sleep right?” She asked rhetorically “We can use that tree for shelter” Her face had the expression of ,this was obvious, about it.

“I mean yeah...” He still couldn’t understand “...but that’s just an old tree, why are you so insistent we sleep there?”

“Leave that to me!” She said proudly “While I get it set up, how about you go find some food for us?” She suggested as she headed towards the tree, a hope in her step.

“Yeah sure” He agreed “I won’t go too far though so if anything happens, shout for me ok?”

“Less talk, more food...” she replied on automatic as she collected branches from the grand.

“Fine...” He retorted as he set out into the woods. The sun probably was high in the sky right now, not that he could tell under the shade of the canopy.

“Well, best practise...” He thought aloud, he at least wanted to know the basics of what he could do before trying to catch anything.

First... claws, with that thought his arms transformed once again to scaled-talons. Hmm... OK, legs. The same occurrence happened to his lower half. Ok, good... How about eyes. The world exploded into cool blues and light greens, infrared, interesting, this should make hunting a lot easier! Last one, the big one, Full body!... Nothing. “Huh, he checked around his body but nothing had changed.

“Don’t get cocky” A voice echoed in his head, Drake?

“Yes... When I said I’d transfer a minimum amount of power I meant it, this is your limit for now...” he chided with an irritated tone, as if he’d just been woken up from a deep slumber.

“No kidding...” Sulked Maddox, in doing so only irritating Drake more. “Don’t sound so ungrateful... Your vision, strength and speed have increased to surpass average spirits, your body is reinforced by my scales, you could sound more thankful...”

“I suppose still...” his voice still lacking enthusiasm “...I was hoping I could at least fly...”

“You’re not ready for that yet!” Drakes voice snapped hard and sharp, as if to rt.

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“You won’t know that until I try!” Begged Maddox, he really wanted to feel the sensation of flight, to be free of the restraints of the land.

“I assure you, you’re not ready for flight yet...” Reiterated Drake.

“I bet I am!” Maddox wasn’t giving up without a fight, finally the old dragon conceded “Sigh... fine, I’ll give you access to the wings, if you can hover off the ground for 10 seconds, I'll believe you’re ready...”

Finally, Maddox thought to himself “Challenge Accepted!” From his back, two dark extensions forced their way out as they flickered into existence, causing him to keel over to his knees on the floor, what was this pain!

“Your wings are basically an extension of you, you just grew two new appendages, with a new set of muscles, bones and nerves, you see why I said you weren't ready.” Bemoaned the old dragon, he knew this would happen.

Damn this pain was the real deal Maddox couldn’t think straight, this excruciating pain exerting from his back was too much. “Ok, I get it! I give!”

“Good, at least you’re not foolish enough to attempt it”

“How exactly am I supposed to overcome that!” His back still aching.

“Get stronger” Sighed Drake once more, hadn’t he said all this before? “once your mentality and physically prepared, you’ll be able to handle it easily.”

“If you say so...” suspiciously Maddox submitted “So tell me, what can I use now?”

“For now, apart from your eyes, arms and legs... you have access to my hearing, also I will grant you a small amount of dragon breath, but be careful, it will burn your throat until your body fully evolves to handle the heat, it will be good practise for when you can use it freely... Do you need anything else?”

“No, I think that’s it, thank you”

“Good” With that Drakes voice grew silent as he returned to his slumber in Maddox’s subconscious.

“Well this should be fine...” He continued to walk around the woods, but besides a few small birds high in the tree’s there wasn’t much prey to hunt. “Why is it so quite?” He thought aloud as he continued his path, eventually coming across a dark cavern. “There’s going to be something big in there that will be a pain in the ass to fight isn't there...” He commentated to himself as he walked a little closer, peaking inside using his infrared vision. Just as he thought, he could make out the presence of a large red shape around the cool blue walls. *Sigh* “I knew it... well not like there’s anything else around here...” He stood in front of the entrance and called aloud “Oiiiii!!! I’m out here! Easy prey!! Come and get me!!”

As if the beast had just been invited to an all you could eat buffet, it rumbled out of the cave on all fours, a bundle of hair and muscle rose to its feet as it stared at its lunch, a Direbear.

“Great...” bemoaned Maddox, no wonder there wasn’t any wildlife anywhere near, he wouldn’t want a Direbear as a neighbour either. As he got ready to fight, he raised his left arm, protecting his chin, and with his right clenched infront of him, he prepared himself for his first real right. Scales appearing around his arms and legs, his ears becoming pointed and sensitive to their surroundings, he was ready.

The bear looked bemused, like such an ant could put up a fight, as it returned to all fours, it slowly made its way forward to Maddox.

“Too slow!” With a powerful step forward, he had closed the distance between them in an instant, and with a sharp left, connected to the side of the bears jaw, sending it toppling to its side. It looked seriously pissed now... As it rolled back to its front, it charged for Maddox, this time he took it head on, ducking to one side at the last minute and taking a firm grip on the beast’s mane. “Got ya!” he exclaimed proudly, tightening his grip in an attempt to choke it out. However the bear struggled back up to its hindlegs, much to Maddox’s surprised as he now dangled from its neck. With a powerful hit, it crashed it's paw into Maddox side, sending him flying back-first against a tree. “Ahh! I was to careless...” The bear charged in once more, not allowing him to catch his breath, “Damn!” he rolled to his right at the last minute as the bear pounded into thin air. Scrambling to his feet, he returned to his fighting stance, the bear once again staring him down. They both charged towards each other, as the bear prepared to pounce, standing on its hindlegs, Maddox delivered another sharp left, his scaled fist digging deep into the bears stomach, sending it collapsing onto the floor. Once again Maddox took a firm grip of its neck and squeezed as the bear attempted to get up once more, this time however it struggled onto its front legs as it collapsed back to the ground. “Come on give me a break!” Maddox moaned as he tightened his grip, eventually the bear ran out of energy, its eyes began to glaze over as it lost consciousness. “Pheww!” He collapsed into the side of his advisory. “Is it over?” His face was dirty and his back bruised, but he did it, just... He lifted up his torn shirt to view a dark patch stung into his abdomen “These dragon scales..." he let out a little chuckle, stinging his side even more "Ahh!... So... I think I'll take 5 before I take this back...” He closed his eyes as he rested his head against the giant's warm fur.