Evan gathers them all outside in the backyard a short time later, and Julia finds herself clinging to Amaranth's book. She has no idea what to expect this to look like.

"First off guys, I'm assuming you all know we don't talk about this harder than the notion that we don't talk about Bruno. Right?"

"Right," everyone responds and rolls their eyes.

"And that dragons don't exist."

"Right, Evan." Julia can't help but smirk at his scowl when everyone responds in tandem.

"You guys are one twisted hive mind, I'm telling you," he grumbles. "Okay, rules. No photos. No videos. No selfies. Nada. We've been over this already. Rick already gave me the down low last couple weeks when he noticed me acting weird, and saw me grow claws while chilling in science class. That almost got real awkward."

"Get to that later, I've gotta see this in person to mentally prepare myself," Julia comments crossly. They follow Evan out on the back lawn, and he takes off his jacket. “Alright Evan, so is this process…painful?”

“Not really. The first time, it hurts. So be prepared for it. Afterwards, it's nothing you wouldn't be able to endure. I mean hey, your whole body is restructuring at the cellular level and there’s the whole mass-energy conversion as we gain about a half-ton of mass or so, but those are small potatoes.” He scuffs his foot against one of the patio tiles.

“Yeah Evan, not filling me with confidence at all.” Angela is super anxious, and Drenar holds her hand gently when her arm drifts in his direction. ”

“Now please observe.” Evan closed his eyes, like he was in a trance.

Julia is taking a mental map of every second that goes by, knowing this is her future now, and for Drenar and Angela as well. It almost looked like his exposed skin is cracking into little segments. Those splits become the beginnings of metallic looking scales, and they slowly turned color–from a pale flesh color, to a dull red color, like rust. And even stranger, there is a banding pattern of silver scales. Evan’s face distorts, elongating into a short snout–his ears swept back and formed a scaled web crest with a few matching feather accents, and teeth grow at alarming length to fill the void, and a lot more of them.

His body takes on a more lithe appearance, and the limbs grow longer. Some grew longer than others, and his shoes eventually disappear and blend into the form–like they’re merging into the transformation. His toes elongate into sharp talons, widely stanced, and a single long dewclaw shifts up the side. The ankle shifted upwards and backwards, forming a seemingly new joint. A digitigrade stance. Muscles ripple beneath the scales, well defined and toned. Evan is no pushover by any measure, but his body structure now resembles coiled steel.

His arms also have this coiled, powerful musculature, and areas on his forearms and shins and flanks have heavier plated scales that merge together–armor scales protecting the limbs, and the torso and belly, to a lesser extent. A serpentine tail emerges from his lower spine, and slowly, a new set of limbs emerge and sprout a majestic bundle of feathers from his back. Bright, blue and rusty red feathers with small white accent ones sprout, and the limbs unfurl like a majestic curtain.

All through this process, Evan has grown in size, slowly matching the proportions of his new form. And even stranger, tufts of feathers have formed on his cheeks, just shy of his muzzle, and bony, swept horns extend from the back of his skull. A whole mane of rusty red feathers emerge that accent his shoulders, neck and part of his chest. When he opens his eyes, they’re the same green color–but with a cat-like slit, and the green has taken virtually all of the space of his teardrop shaped eyes, with no whites remaining. Julia is in awe. She looks down at the book, and she flips detachedly through the pages, until she settles on one.

The Valencian Red. The classic fire dragon.

But then, she keeps flipping. She settles on the silver scales and feathers of the Maridian silver. And even a touch of the Azure’s tail! He’s a mix of three separate species.

Julia and the others stand silently in awe as Evan shows off his draconic form. Julia peers at Drenar, who has a determined expression, Angela has some level of anxiety judging by the way she’s wrapped around his arm, and James is stony faced. “Wow, none of you broke out in panic at seeing someone transform into a dragon. Shouldn't that be the default response?” Evan finally speaks, and it’s a throatier, harsher version of his voice–distinct enough from his own voice that people who didn't hear him on a regular basis might mistake him for someone else. His tail lightly swishes back and forth and he tests his balance on his legs. Just like the images, he’s bipedal, balanced on his legs with the stance wide, the toes stretched out lightly. He isn’t much taller than before, even with his neck extended–maybe two and a half meters, two-seventy five, at best.

She doesn’t have long to contemplate a thousand different details as Evan suddenly shudders, holding his chest with his claws. “Urgh. Rick told me the first few times could be a little intense. Forgot about that part.”

James finally breaks the silence with a hint of bitterness. “Human history is a lie, and we’ve got the proof, and we can’t share it with anyone. This is enough to make any academic worth his salt break down in tears and a broken laughing fit, Evan. So, do you have one of those dragon's souls' thingies in you?"

“No drakensoul in here, man. It’s just me. It’s always been just me.” He glances down at the ground, and scuffs his talons on the patio tiling again–and leaves a few faint claw marks behind. “We’re an endangered species, James. You've heard everything Drenar and Julia dug up. There's maybe sixty, seventy thousand dragons left in the world, and there was a near extinction event seven hundred years ago when they tried to leave the planet. There could have been millions living among us. Maybe even integrated the societies over time. The population is…stable…but no one can comprehend how much the world has lost. And no one ever will, because we stay out of the way of history.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Secrets suck. I get it,” Drenar says uneasily. Evan clicks his tongue and a spark of fire emerges for a split second, unintentionally or not.

“Yeah, it sucks, and I've had barely more time than you guys to process it. The Veil, this doctrine that all mages and magical species adhere to, makes it pretty clear that we keep this secret like our lives depend on it from the rest of the world. And our lives do depend on it. Not from other mages, from the world. There’s a lot of kids in our school who have parents who are mages, and they can’t tell a soul. Some family members go so far to keep their own spouses in the dark. Or lovers.”

Julia can’t help but feel that’s some kind of veiled statement, the way he says it, and that hint of bitterness in his voice. “You are so damn naive sometimes, Drenar. Like you can’t comprehend the tough things sitting right in front of you.”

Evan’s gone quiet, even for a dragon, and flexes his claws gently on his thighs, his wings drooping ever so slightly with his expression. “No. She never told me. I just knew. I knew by the way she would change the subject, when she was alive. The way dad would avoid talking to it, about my birth parents. That distant, sad look they gave each other when they thought we weren’t looking. Like dad knew this was the price he had to pay to be back with her, and that she deserved far, far better. But he made the effort to try and be a better person.”

“You guys have the silver scales and the azure traits in common. It could still be a coincidence, Evan. You guys never took a genetics test to confirm it,” Julia finally spoke. This was something so surreal–a living, talking dragon. There really is something magical about this moment, more than all those other incredible sights.

“I don’t want to. I got solace in that my dad is alive, somewhere. But he never came looking. Never wanted to…or couldn’t. I don’t want to know either way, Julia. Sometimes the things we find in the haze of the unknown are far worse than if we just left it well enough alone. For me, at least,” he added solemnly. “It isn’t all that dour, though. I can lift and fling a car, I can breathe fire, I’ve got wings, I can fly! Name one kid on the planet who wouldn’t want to fly?” he asks more confidently.

“Uh, me? I hate flying. It’s terrifying,” Angela shudders.

“A dragon afraid of flying. Is there some kind of prize for witnessing that?” Drenar chimes in. She punches him in the arm gently.

“Jerk. Stop using the disarming charm,” she scolds with a quiet smile. “Evan, how much has Rick told you about what's going on?”

“Just the basics, don’t tell a soul, don’t transform in public, and definitely don’t attract attention. And I’m not even scratching on the crazy magics of the world, the Conclave, and I can’t even begin to list off what else.” he scratches a claw to one of his horns. “I think Jasmine and Tristan are in the loop, most likely.”

Evan glances around and sniffs the air. “This is probably the safest place we can do this for now, take our draconic forms. The Conclave has tons of hot spots in towns and cities across the world that are mage-exclusive, Veil-safe zones they call it, where people are free to roam in their true forms and use magic to their heart's content. But with the Talons…with them in town…I think the safety they profess is window dressing.”

“Can you demonstrate how powerful you are?” Julia asks. He nods and grabs a tree limb hanging low, and tenses his claws. One vicious swipe later, and he's made kindling of it.

“Yeah, that's pretty easy. They're unnaturally sharp. They also retract somewhat,” he says as he relaxes his fingers and the claws retreat into a small gland, making grasping items easier. It's interesting how the hand structure closely mimics a human’s, but stronger and a little bulkier. There are pads of smoother scales that form on the inside, giving him better grip.

“So what's your ability?”

“Flame blasts, and ice, plus the armor scales reinforcement. Fire is fine, but the ice breath takes some getting used to. Um…it's kinda like…” he winces. “It's kinda like…regurgitation of alchemical ingredients in our bodies in a separate tract, and then exhaled.”

Julia looks blankly at the others. “Say that again?” She hopes it isn't what she thinks it sounds like.

“Translation, magical vomit,” James states with a disturbing expression.

“Eww!” Julia, Drenar, and Angela all exclaim with disgust. Evan simply looks baffled.

“Okay, first, it's not that bad. It's different organs. Second off, y’all seriously act as one twisted hive mind, you know that?” It's adorable that he can look embarrassed, even as a hulking dragon at the moment. Oh, this is going to be so much fun for me when Drenar transforms–okay, calm down Julia. Priorities!

“Please demonstrate the fire,” Julia states hastily and tries to not let the mental image perpetuate. Evan happily delivers with an open claw aimed at a patch of grass, his fingers tensed. A globule of fire forms within his hand, small but intense, and it seemingly bursts in a jet of intense flame, small and concentrated at the grass patch. It catches fire and Evan relents after a few seconds.

The burning grass is quickly corrected by Evan stomping on the flames; he doesn't even flinch at the heat when his clawed foot contacts the fire. He then bows proudly, wings in a relaxed position. “Ta-daa! I would have roasted Jonaleth, but sadly, the guy is immune to fire. That sucked finding out.”

“So, we have our backup,” Drenar concludes. “Julia, thoughts?” he directs her. She throws back a grin at him.

“Aw, how thoughtful of you. Alright Evan, here’s the deal. The Talons are bad news. And with everything going on with us at the same time, we think Nick Deshandrea is investigating them. He might be part of the military or law enforcement branch of the Conclave, and they had some kind of covert site set up on Mount Syren, that decommissioned mine on the other side of town. Our mission? Grab evidence and skidaddle before anyone knows we're there. We also need to figure out who we can trust, first and foremost above all else. Nick might be alright, maybe. But we need every advantage we can get.”

“Agreed. Let's get back inside, and lay out our approach,” Drenar adds curtly. She’s a hundred percent behind it now.

“You gonna let me say it?” Julia asks quietly.

“Yeah. I'd love to hear it from our resident radiant bit of sunshine.” Drenar says with confidence. “Do the honors for me, Julia.” She takes a deep breath, and the words come to mind without resistance.

"Guys? The Radiant Delvers are on the move. We're headed to Mount Syren tomorrow. We're getting answers." She takes a deep breath and she sees Drenar nod silently, then James and Angela follow quickly, along with the more notable nod from their draconic firepower, Evan. "These monsters have messed with the wrong group of determined youths."