It was dark and musty in the depths of the royal castle. Light being provided not by the expected candles but a glowing rock, shaped as an octahedron. The light casted shadows on the walls of a small square room. In the center of the room, there were four men sitting around a small wooden table. The man closest to the door, about 5’3 in height, was dressed in a flowing robe, a gray beard with worry coloring his face. The man to his right with brown hair and fair skin dressed in light leather armor was more relaxed than the other but small beads of sweat could be seen. The next man opposite of the door with blond hair and a strong build clad in half plate armor, had his hand stroking his chin while looking at the last man. The last man, who was a bit different from the others with hair as red as blood dressed in purple robes, this man was the king. He was a heavily built with broad shoulders and a height of about five feet.
“You know why I called you here.” The king said in a grave voice. “We have heard rumors that a new King of demons has been born in the lands to the east. As such I believe that we should summon a hero now, instead of waiting until they become a threat.”
“My king,” said the gray robed man, “I don’t know if that’s wise. We can only perform the summoning once every 100 years, lest we anger the gods. If this is a false rumor it could spell the end of us.”
“I understand your worries Thantos,” The king replied as he slammed his fist into the table, “but if we ignore the rumors we could also be destroyed.”
“Calm yourselves,” the man in the leather armor stated. “Why don’t we send out scouts into the east to confirm this rumor before acting rashly? I could send a few of the scout squadron to clear the confusion.”
The king leaned back into his chair and with a sigh said, “Fine, Atheros, send 2 squads to the east past the emerald forest to confirm the situation. Thantos, I want you to prepare the summoning. We can prepare without angering the gods and if we determine that there is a new demon king then we will go with the summoning.”
Both Thantos and Atheros stood up bowed to the king and left the room. The king turning to the only remaining person said, “What do you think Cirden, am I being too harsh ?”
“That’s the problem of prudence my king.” Cirden said, “You won’t know if you were correct until after the fact. Though some say better to be safe than sorry.”
“You’re right.” the king replied with a defeated sigh, “I want you to start gathering men to train the coming hero, if the rumors are true.”
“Yes my king.” He stated formally before standing and leaving the room.
The king now by himself leaning back in his chair just looked up at the ceiling contemplating the words of his advisors. He sighed one more time and said, “I hope I am not making a mistake.”
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It was another normal day, I thought to myself as I walked in the front door of my small apartment. I made my way towards my bedroom, and while walking past my living room i tossed my backpack on my small kitchen table. I plopped down on my bed and threw off my shoes. While I laid on the bed, I sighed.
“Well another day is done.” I said to myself.
Getting up I thought to myself, “What should I have for dinner?” as I walked back into the kitchen. Opening the door to my fridge I started looking around before I pulled out some leftover lo mein. Running my hand through my brown hair I started to heat it up the food.
“Just another day…” I repeated to myself for the Nth time. I looked over at the stack of rule books on the kitchen table that I needed to consult for the upcoming campaign session I had planned with my friends. Being the DM, my mind started turning at what horrors might await the unsuspecting players. But I had homework to do for school.
“what am i doing?” i thought to myself, “I go from work to school and i don’t do much else but occasionally meet up and play with my friends.” i took the food out of the microwave, I grabbed a pair of chopsticks out of the drawers. Sitting in front of my computer with the food in hand, I started going over my homework.
After a few hours I got up and stretched, working out the stiffness that had set in while studying. Deciding to take a shower, I walked to the small bathroom off my bed room. I briefly looked in the mirror at my tall 6’3” male self, before I started to undress. The mirror showed my usual North Germanic face with heavy set eyes one brown eye and the other blue.Then I hopped into the shower. Getting out of the shower I noticed a small dark ring in the center of my chest. Paying it no heed, I dried myself off. Sitting on my couch while reading a book I fell asleep.
I woke up later feeling as if my chest was of fire. I ripped my shirt off and on my chest, odd symbols started to appear. The symbols were arraying themselves into circle. As more and more symbols appeared, the burning kept getting worse. I screamed as I ran to the bathroom. I ripped off the rest of my clothes, jumped into the shower, turned the water to the coldest setting and let it run over my chest. But it did little to stop the burning. Looking down I could see a second ring of letters start to form over the first ring of symbols. These letters I recognized from class, they looked like the Norse runes. As the second ring was halfway done, I fell to the floor. The burning sensation was getting worse and worse. “So this is how I die.” I thought to myself through the burning, resigned. . “Am I going to die in a way that I don’t even understand ?” With that last thought darkness enveloped me as I lost consciousness.
Waking up, I found myself in a white room. “Well as far as the afterlife goes, this sucks.” I said out loud.
“Fortunately for you, this is not the afterlife.” A voice quipped.
Turning around I could see a young woman in a flowing white dress with sleeves that covered her hands, sitting on throne that was made from what looked like a solid emerald. The woman had dark blue hair and her eyes were the color of gold.
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“Who are you; And, if I am not dead, where am I?” I asked.
“Aren’t you inquisitive,” The woman said as if talking to a child. “I am the divine being that looks over this part of creation, and you are in the space between worlds.” Looking at me she pulled a towel out of nowhere and tossed it at me.
“This might help with the draft.” She said with a smile on her face.
Catching the towel I looked at myself and my face turned red. I quickly put the towel around my waist. “Thank you.” I managed to say through the embarrassment.
“Well I have good news and bad news for you,” the woman said. “You have been the target of a botched hero summoning ritual.”
“What do you mean botched hero summoning ritual?” I responded with a look of confusion on my face.
“Without getting too technical, they casted an incomplete ritual. In the normal ritual they get someone of their species that is blessed with great power, and made their champion to overcome some great challenge.” She explained. “Their second mistake was to make fun of me constantly and then they had the gall to cast a ritual using my power.”
“So that is what the symbols on my chest where.” I said to myself. “If they casted an incomplete ritual, what does that mean for me? I did not ask to get summoned.”
“It means several things. First I am going to interfere with the ritual. Sure, you will still get all the benefits, they completed that part of the ritual flawlessly, but the part on species and age not so much.” She said with a wicked smile. “Therefore I will give you a list of species and you will pick one and your age and will be reverted back to about 6 months old.”
“Wait, why can’t I use my body?” I ask slightly flustered.
“Oh, you can’t use that one because it died, due to the botched ritual.” She said with a smile.
“Ok, then I am guessing the bad news is that my body died?” I asked remembering the start of the conversation.
“If only it were that easy.” She said as a creepy smile appeared on her face. “No, the bad news is that you are being sent as a form of revenge. The species on this list are all ones that they either hate, fear, or both.”
“What do you mean by hate or fear?” I asked, worrying about the implications.
“I will tell you the specifics after you choose your new species. Here, look through these.”
A translucent window appeared before me. It displayed various fantastical creatures. I could see an entry for elves, beast kin, nightmares, fairies, furies, mermaids, mermen, and the list continued. At the very end of the list I noticed an entry for dragons.
“Let me guess, if you are not human you suck according to them?” I asked the girl.
“Yep, and considering that I cater to all species that are sapient, I consider it an insult.”
“I was always told, go big or go home. Therefore I choose the true dragon species.”
“Ha, you looked through the entire list, few people ever do that.” She said in amazement. Calming down a bit she started to explain. “Ok accepted, but there are a few things you need to know. First, the true dragon species are a conglomeration of several subspecies of dragon and it will be a game of spin the bottle that will determine yours. Second, because of the definition of birth differs between there and here you are going to experience birth from a dragon’s perspective.”
“Wait, what do you mean I will experience birth…? You said that I was going to be around 6 months old !”
“Yes, and dragons are born in eggs. Then they mature after about a year and hatch.” She explained with a smile on her face. “Don’t worry I will bless the egg to make it almost indestructible so you won’t be scrambled.”
“Now then it is time for choose your subspecies.” she said pulling a bottle and a huge square tile that she somehow had behind her. She placed both the square and the bottle on the floor. On the square were pictures of many different species of dragon, they all seemed to be the European version. Looking towards me the girl said, “I want you to spin it.”
Resigning myself to the situation, I prepared myself to play spin the bottle. I looked at all the different types of dragons and one caught my eye , an almost imperceptible portion of the board had mana dragon written across the face. Thinking that would be a cool one, I reminisced on the many roleplaying sessions I had ran. I hoped that one would be chosen as I set the bottle spinning. The bottle turned around and around, and as the bottle passed the section lit up. I held my breath as the bottle slowed.I watched it come to a stop, resting on the sliver saying mana dragon .
“Well, this complicates thing.” She said with a worried look. “But a promise is a promise. I am going to be in so much trouble for doing this… but whatever.” She sighed. “You are going to be a mana dragon.” She stated looking at me in the eyes. “A species so rare there are only three in all of creation. You will be number four. When you hatch you’ll need to eat your shell or that world will be destroyed.”
“What?” I said with a look of horror. “Are mana dragons that dangerous ?”
“They are existences that rival us divines, and due to my blessing you will be even more powerful. After this I will also need to sleep to regain my power.” She said with a sigh, “Now let us begin.” She started to reach for my forehead. Placing her hand on my head my whole body felt like it was on fire. I felt my arms burn away, my legs as well, everything it felt like everything was consumed by the fire. After a few second I could not withstand the pain and, with a silent scream, I passed out.
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though we did a ninja update to re do the entire chapter (no content change just grammer and sentince structure) look it over both me and rouge are human... mostly