Whilst Lunara openly admired her knew weapon Elric’s thoughts drifted back to the conversation he had just had with Moira. Every time he offered courting her openly, she declined. At first, he had thought she wouldn’t love him as much as he did love her, but after some time he had discovered that that wasn’t the case. The opposite, actually. She loved him enough to let him go in order to keep him safe and happy.

He thought back to when he first got apprenticed to her. A scrawny dwarven boy, violated to his very soul by turning him into one of the creatures that had killed his mother.

Being a bastard of the dwarven king he had been sold of to the dragons who only thought bloodlines to be important but couldn’t quite understand the out-off-wedlock problem. A direct descendant was a direct descendant to them and a potential heir. They were simply not fertile enough to be choosers in this regard.

His father on the other hand had welcomed the chance to get him off his palate for good. No chance of him ever interfering in any inheritance dispute. The foreign blood coursing through his veins made him a pariah.

It had been two years between his transformation and Moira’s appearance. The two worst years of his entire life.

The dragons had taken their time, changing him slowly trying to help him adjust to the changes properly.

He had been 16-years-old when they had started. At first, he hadn’t even realized, what was happening. As a bastard of royal blood, he had had his room at the servant’s quarter. Eating along with the servants in the big kitchen, if not requested for random page services like serving at the high table. Elric had been a handsome yet scrawny chap at that time popular amongst the female nobles. From time to time one of them had taken a liking to him and sent sweets and other niceties to his room after he served her during her stay. That was why he hadn’t found it odd at first to get a regular supply of chocolate, a new delicacy, with an odd flavour to it, depending on the cook.

The even odder flavour than usual would have stopped him from eating more than one piece of it, if his father had not orchestrated a punishment for him, that included excluding him from regular food. After three days with only one meal per day and hard physical work, he would have eaten anything. He remembered every detail of the evening that had sealed his fate

Young Elric sat down on his narrow bed, that was his only meuble in his empty room. A room to himself, though in the servants’ quarters was still much more of a luxury than any other boy of his age had, disregarding the real nobility, obviously. Today had been his third day of going hungry. A punishment he wasn’t quite aware of what had brought it upon him.

Elric hadn’t done anything to deserve it, in his opinion, but this wasn’t the first time his obnoxious half-brother, the crown-prince had invented a deed he hadn’t committed.

The first few times he had tried to defend himself, but to no avail.

He was the bastard, a shame to the king’s good name, have a human. No one even thought of believing his word over the treasured prince’s. The bastard was a black sheep. A nuisance.

Elric had learned to grin and bear, especially after his mother, a human maid, had been killed by a random dragon, whilst being outside collecting herbs for the Castle’s kitchen. After that he had had to endure several beatings and other unfair treatments, before he had learned to duck and run.

After a while he even managed to become a popular page among the noble ladies, who thought him a polite and handsome boy, without knowing his heritage. Only the inner circle knew his ancestry.

Elric himself was taught to keep it quiet and so he did.

The presents the ladies sent had often been the only thing that kept him from going hungry for too long. Sometimes he wished for being a regular servant, it would have been easier on him, less strings and intrigues and definitely more food.

Food. Right now, he had run out of supplies, after three days in a row. Only that mysterious chocolate remained. He had already tried a piece… it tasted more than odd… as if there was metal in it or blood… he shuddered at the memory… but now here he was…

He still would have rather avoided the dubious chocolate, but after emptying anything else he was still hungry. His stomach rumbled as if to underline his thoughts.

After some pondering his hunger triumphed over his doubts. He unpacked the chocolate and put another piece in his mouth…

There it was again, the sweetness, the bitterness and the metallic aftertaste. It still tasted funny, but he was hungry and it didn’t seem half as bad as he remembered, as if his sense of taste had slightly adjusted to the flavour…

Still hungry he shoved another piece into his mouth, it even tasted less weird than the one before. He had eaten the whole package at that evening, every piece tasting better than the one before. At the end of his rush, he felt full and oddly satisfied.

Lying down on his bed he had odd dreams about dragons and flying. The following sleep was much deeper than usual and when he woke up in the morning, he first found it hard to orientate. His eyes seemed to blinded by the sparse daylight his slit-like window offered. Every single of his muscles ached and seemed much more energetic at the same time.

When he went to the kitchen to eat breakfast, his only meal he was allowed, he found it hard to coordinate his limbs, as if he was having some kind of disease. The cook, the only person, that genuinely cared for him placed her hand on his forehead and sent him back to bed the moment she saw him. ‘Boy you are burning away in fever. I will excuse you and get you some food up there in a while. Lie down and sleep, my little Elric.’ The good soul said with an honest smile.

So, the young boy returned and fell asleep as soon as his head lay on the cushion. After a while the cook brought him hot soup, white bread and some chocolate someone had left there for him.

He ate it all, feeling still ravenous afterwards, only satisfied after eating the whole chocolate, too. This package tasted even more metallic than the first one, but it didn’t matter anymore. Elric craved the taste.

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His fever-dreams consisted of more dragons, flying and hunting of game. Bucks, moose and predators alike. The taste of fresh blood filled his muzzle. That was the first time he in fact realized he was a dragon. That awoke him with a start. He shuddered. Elric couldn’t imagine being a dragon, one of those senseless monsters, that had killed his mother.

He dreaded going back to sleep, since he felt he would again dream of being a dragon. It was midday anyway, time for lunch. He staggered down the stairs towards the kitchen, where he got a huge piece of meat, his father had sent, when he got to know he was ill. A common occurrence, actually, his father loved to improve his reputation by sending ill servants food from his table.

The ravenous Elric wolfed it down in no time, still hungry afterwards. To help him out the cook handed him a bottle of a red fluid. Another present of his father.

Elric took it and climbed the stairs towards his room, where he opened the seal and felt surprised by the metallic odour the fluid gave off. He drank it all the same. It tasted like blood, but even though he knew, he was drinking blood, he could not force himself to put the bottle down, until he had drunken the last drop of it.

Elric felt as if someone had hit his head with a stone and sank down on his bed, unconscious.

The rest of the day and the night passed without him waking up, and when he woke, he knew he had changed. Even before he opened his eyes. His body felt different, though he couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

The first thing he knew when he opened his eyes was, that he had been brought to one of the guest suites. Huge windows, fine meuble, including the soft, broad bed he lay on. And the heavenly smell of food. Elric turned around to stand up and froze in motion. He was not alone in the room, there was dragon with him. In his human form, but still unmistakable a dragon. The young man smiled at him with his small fangs and slitted eyes framed by green scales and said ‘oh, you are finally awake, took you long enough. Your father told me; your name was Elric? It is usable for our purposes so you can keep it. I was told you were unaware of your transformation? Yes? Good, let me welcome you to your new life as a half-dragon. You will be my servant for the next two years or so, as long as it takes for you to become a full-fledged dragon and complete your merging. Afterwards you are on your own. My name is Corbin by the way and you will be my descendant in dragon standards afterwards. Call me father or master Corbin.’

‘Half dragon?’ Elric cried out and jumped up, searching for the nearest mirror. He found one as tall as himself. The reflection made him feel numb. His eyes were slitted dragon eyes now, his teeth had sharpened, so had his nails. No scales were to be seen, but he felt it would be before long.

Elric looked foreign and feral. Large tears of despair streamed down his face, as Corbin went behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

‘Oh dear, they haven’t told me, you hated dragons. But what is done, is done. There is no way of turning back or stopping. Your body now depends on its daily portion of dragon blood. You will die if you skip that. And that is something we cannot allow to happen, unless we want that bloody war to break out again. You will surely understand, that your happiness is far less important than the future of two races.’ The green dragon said in a gentle tone, that conducted an even measure of steel and compassion.

And even though he hated every single moment of the two following years that robbed him piece by piece his dwarven appearance and mindset, he could never condemn Corbin for what was happening. Instead, he grew to become his only friend besides Moira, he had yet to meet.

After half a year he looked like a monster, barely recognizable for what he had once been. Over and over covered in his blue and black scales with spike on knees and elbows, along with a full-fledged dragon muzzle. The day his muzzle grew out had been the most painful in his life as he could feel every single change and couldn’t even occupy himself with other things, since Corbin wouldn’t let him. ‘You can’t see properly and your skull is changing, ergo fragile. If you were to fall you could easily break it and damage your brain. You know I can’t let you. Lie down and refrain from moving unless you want me to chain you up.’ Even now Elric still shivered by the memory.

Half a year later another forced rest was forced upon him. Not by Corbin, but by his body this time. They were walking in a forest when his spine suddenly began to buckle. It had already shown signs of changing over the last weeks, making walking continuously harder and harder. Now it finally bent him over on all fours. Bending his hips into a quadrupled stand, rendering unable to stand on two legs. Walking on four paws without a tail was hard and Elric was near relieved, when it started to grow over night. The same time he felt as if was finally losing his las bit of his old life becoming the monster he had always feared. This feeling grew even more as he now found it hard to eat anything but game he had hunted, since he couldn’t sit up. He had to eat like an animal.

At that time Corbin had joined him in his huge dragon form. Especially since Elric found it increasingly hard to understand any other language, than dragon-mind-link. ‘That is because you have become a wyvern, now, a semi-intelligent dragonkin. They have no wings, no speech and are little more intelligent than some horses. Very driven by their instincts. You will feel those instincts, too, soon. But fear not, your mind will not even temporarily be reduced to a wyvern mind. You are becoming a dragon not some beast.’

The instinct flashes still drove Elric nigh insane, as he had to push through them and he really felt relief when he could feel his shoulder blades ache when his wings started to grow and the final part of his unwilling journey of becoming a dragon started.

In all this time he had slowly gotten used to his everchanging body and balance. But balancing half-grown wings, he was unable to properly fold during a storm was a challenge of its own. Corbin nearly fell over due to his laughter seeing a majorly grumpy, huge dragonling fight the elements, unable to enter the cave to the squalls always blowing up his severely uncoordinated wings every time he tried to enter. He had eventually used a pause to run in.

But even though the physical strain was high, the mental tribute was even higher. He had had to leave his childhood home after the first few days. And he was happy for it. The cook’s fearful expression when she last saw him had broken his heart well enough without being further framed as a monster. Core of his problem was the slow nature of his change, though much less dangerous, it was still painful and the transforming dragon-to-be was stuck in his appearance. No shapeshift.

Only after completing his first full transformation, he was able to retain a nearly human, part dwarven appearance, a human form, like any other dragon had.

After completing his merging, Corbin left. It went quite well, if one took into account, that he had hated dragons in beforehand and the merging was all about accepting, what one was.

He had returned into his hometown. Not as a regular resident, but as part of the royal family and guest of honour at the same time. Symbol of wealth and threat to the enemies. A pet to be presented. Not a citizen but more of a feared creature one was trying to appease. The dragons had lost their interest in their plaything and granted him freedom as one of their citizens.

The only people who treat him as a person were the dwarven smiths. They had often dealt with dragons, who were equally interested in forging and treasures. Although Elric had never thought much of those things, now he found himself equally talented and interested.

Soon he was apprenticed to the best smith in the whole dwarven kingdom. Another triumph for his father, Elric had come to hate, but still what he wanted to do with his life. Soon he had nothing left to learn, even helped his master when he had a problem. Another friend he had gained.

He still had to do things he hated to appease his dragon nature, such as flying in the forest and hunting down game. Only satisfied when he tasted the blood of his prey in his muzzle.

And then, one day, when he was outside hunting, he saw her. A huge red and gold dragoness. Beautiful like the sunset to him. A red hue in the distance. Far away as soon as he reached the place. That was the first time he had seen Moira. And in the retrospective, it was the moment he fell in love with her.

When she entered their town and offered to teach the best dwarven smith how to forge magic weapons, he would have never thought, that the cold and distant Sidhe princess was his fiery red dragoness. But soon after they had warmed up to each other he learned the truth. This apprenticeship of his took over fifty years and forged more than formidable weapon and a way around the Geas, it forged a slowly growing love. First too tender to mention, but later deeply engraved in both of their hearts. But that was a story for another time

Now Elric had to plan for the future and how he could survive quests the strongest heroes of the sidhe dreaded to try. The young dragon sighed but felt, that his love to Moira was worth every sacrifice, even his life, even if he lost the last of his human and dwarven nature, exchanged for the mysterious blood of the sidhe. He had lived through such a major change once, he could do it again.