I slowly blink away the sleep from my eyes and start to stretch my limbs one by one.
First one arm, then the other, then a leg, followed by the second, next the tail and lastly my two wings and my long neck.
It has taken me a good while to familiarize myself with my new form, the difference between a human and a giant winged lizard is quite significant.
I can still vividly remember my struggling in the beginning, after I freshly hatched in the middle of an underground cave filled with rivers of magma.
Only around a month later did I finally accept my new situation and started to actively try to improve my understanding of my new body.
Through the following twenty years I have fully adapted to my new form and position in the world.
With a loud yawn I raise my body which is covered in blackish green scales off the stone floor and make my way out off the cave in which I slept.
In my twenty years as a dragon I was forced to acquaintance myself with killing very early as the only other option would have been to starve to death.
Sadly, it is not possible to survive in the wild as a being the size of a small plane purely on fruits and other plants.
Believe me, I tried.
Once outside my self-made cavern, I raise my head high and take a deep breath of the fresh morning air.
The grass covered in dew reflects the bright sunrays of the morning sun and gives the seemingly endless green meadow a fairy tale like fib.
Fluffy white clouds silently hang in the blue sky a flock of birds fly merrily around.
I slowly scan the surroundings with my bright golden reptilian eyes in search of breakfast.
It isn't easy to find enough food to sustain myself in an unfamiliar environment, I have been flying around for the last three years in search of any signs of civilization, but I still haven't caught any.
In all of my twenty years since I have come to this world I have not once meet any intelligent life, the only beings that came somewhat close were my fellow dragons and some beings of more magical nature like spirits, but even they have only reached the mental age of an toddler at most.
Thanks to these experiences I have come up with the theory that I seem to have been born before the golden age of man and other races.
This caused me to become a bit depressed, but I got over it after a year or two and decided to travel the world in search of intelligent live.
In my personal quest I have come across many strange and interesting things which are strewn all over the continent.
Like the flying peaks in the south east, which is a mountain range where all the peaks are floating separated from the rest of the mountains.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Or the frozen forest in the farthest north, which consists out of a forest entirely made of ice, spanning multiple miles in each direction of the cold lands.
Even after three years I haven't managed to create a complete map of the continent and there is still the possibility of another continent somewhere out in the ocean.
Anyway, I am planning to take a break from my travels and start deepening research into the magical aspect of this world as to gain some more handy abilities which could possibly make my life a bit easier.
Till now I have only managed to find out how to sense magical energy and manipulate some of my inner magic to enhance my physical abilities slightly.
I am by no means a genius or a professional researcher, my ability to sense magic is mostly thanks to my sharp sense of smell and some minor visualization, with this combination I managed to create a surprisingly accurate sensing strategy.
As for the manipulation of my inner energy, I somehow figured out where it gets produced inside my body with the help of another dragon who I studied after coming up with my magical sensing strategy.
Thanks to that I found out that most of the magical energy inside a dragon comes from our hearts.
With this new piece of information, I came up with a simple way to strengthen my physical abilities, get my blood pumping.
I just have to get angry or scared causing my heart which is the core of my magic to pump more blood through my body and with it magic.
It is very simple, but it was enough for me at that time.
Except for this and the sensing, the only other magical ability that I possess is my dragon's breath, but that is a fully automatic procedure where I have zero influence on.
I slightly bend my legs and spread my wings in preparation to take off into the sky.
In the far distance I have spotted a herd of buffalo like creatures and deiced to make them my breakfast.
With the sound of strong wind, I push off the ground and flap my giant wings shooting up into the clear sky in the direction of the buffalo herd.
Over the years I have designed a highly effective hunting method for smaller herd creatures… crash landing.
My dragon body is highly resistant and is able to endure loads of punishment, even more so when enhanced with magic.
This allows me to hunt in a very reckless way as not only am I not easily hurt by my own maneuvers, but there also aren't many creatures that can easily bypass my defense and harm me.
Even if I get hurt, the recovery powers of a dragon is borderline ridiculous, it may not be on the level of instant regeneration or the like, but as long as the wound is not fatal and not magical contaminated, a dragon can heal from any wound.
With that in mind I let out a loud roar just enough to scare my prey, but not enough to throw them into a mindless panic.
This causes them to flee together as a herd and not scatter in all direction which would have been rather annoying.
I lazily circle the fleeing herd and obscure all their attempts to run in the direction of the forest and instead drive them further into the meadow.
Once they are close enough together, I press my wings close to my body and dive down at the flank of the herd.
Sharp wind blows over my scales and my aerodynamic reptilian body as I accelerate downwards at my prey.
Short before I impact in the ground, I open my wings with a snapping sound and correct my momentum so that I am going to crash into the broadside of the herd, hoping to creating as much damage as possible.
The buffalos didn't have time to scatter before my giant body crushes into them, instantly killing tens of them by burying them underneath my scaly body.
Their painful screams cause all the buffaloes who were luckily excluded from the crash to flee in all directions, effectively scattering themselves over a fast distance.
I hastily get up and shake off as much blood and dirt as I can before making a quick count of my successful kills and the condition of the remaining prey.
23 kills and the rest are scattered all over the place.
I decide to stop here and call it a success hunt and turn to my breakfast, 23 buffalos should be enough to keep me well fed for a while.
With that, I started off with finishing off all the buffalos who are still alive but heavily wounded as to end their suffering.
Once done, I indulge myself in the feast and devour one buffalo at a time with but one or two bites.
The meal was delicious as fresh meat could be and I soon was on my merry way again.