Preparations for a first meeting

I became good friends with the forest lord and almost every day listened to his stories of the world. Well mostly what he heard from the passing by monsters and humans. To my surprise there were many wars in the past that weren’t recorded by the old dragon so I needed to memorize everything. How many centuries he slept, I wonder…

Learning to control my powers, outside of physical strength was hard, but Avamys taught me the basics of mana manipulation. He became my teacher and without his knowledge my guinea pig.

He told me about the main races inhabiting the world and their appearances.

The humans were the leading race with their numbers and cities, but rivaled with the beast mans in population. Most of the Beastkin differed in appearance from the others. Some were human like, and others inherited more beast like features.

The Elves lived mostly in forest or mountains depending on their kind. They hid behind barriers or traveled into cities. Some even moved into human towns. They were vegetarians and never consumed flesh. There were exceptions who ate meat or only draw in mana.

Then there were the Halflings who looked like children. They separated into two kinds, the dwarfs and hobbits.

All the halves, with different raced parents were called Magical Beasts. The beasts that could change their appearance into human like form were counted into this.

The ones with horns or colored skins were called Demonian. They had a disposition where they didn’t need to consume food, because they ate mana. Depending on their powers they can stay young for a very long time. It can be said that they don’t have a fixed lifespan.

From my viewpoint as a dragon, they sound quite tasty. However, if I can’t capture a single animal without my instinct, than eating a human without sympathizing with them isn’t possible.

Avamyst told me about a little village at the mountain’s foot. It is inhabited by humans. The girl I ate must have come from that place. I willingly stayed away from the places that smelled of humans, but it is important to secure a safe place I can live. This forest isn’t bad, but it’s boring and my desire for books can’t be satisfied. I want knowledge and something that I can enjoy.

With the help of the forest lord I planned my entry into the outside world.

The first thing I must remember is the behavior as a human. It’s sad that I forgot my former self this easily.

Resolving myself to never again forget the past me I made a thick book from the memories and placed it into the imaginary worlds centre; so that I wouldn’t forget again.

The first phrase was the hardest part; acquiring a human body.

When I thought that it would be impossible for me alone, I remembered that the current me is the governor of spirits. Wouldn’t that mean that I can ask for their help without holding back?

“Hear me now, O spirits who dwell within this forest. Grant me thy assistance. Take this image and grant it a solid form to bestow unto me! ”

As I formed the words different colored spirits gathered around me. I begun glowing and slowly shrunk into the size of an average human. For an improvised chant it went rather well. I have strong but thin hands and smooth skin with normal colored skin. My arms have muscles; well a dragon has lots of strength so it isn’t that weird. Standing is weird and there is a funny feeling spreading. I feel that the chest area became a lot lighter and… masculine?...

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While thinking no way I run my hands through the new body. It was slim, but well developed and strong with a rather big… NO WAY!

I run toward the nearest water source and leaned near the surface. I froze from my image. So the body was indeed male…

Resigning to my fate with a heavy sigh I sit onto the grass. I imagined the body changed to match my soul, but to think I was a male from the get go. Not that I look ugly. The face is unisex and I have beautiful silver eyes, almost white. My hair is long, black colored and feels like silk to the touch. I tried pulling a single thread out just for fun; it’s pretty durable. Nevertheless it’s still a shock.

Well… the body IS human.

Avamys told me that my hair and eye color is unusual for a human. What to do… I tried changing them, skipping the red and gold colors. They ended up becoming weirder. The left turned into blue and the right into golden.  No matter what I did the gold color remained.

It was a challenge to think about my hair. While I wanted white or blond, they were still unusual. Luckily when I made it into chocolate colored nothing strange happened, and it stayed that way.

The next phrase was establishing contact with a human. That was the easiest, but there was a problem. I have no clothes…

I did image training on how to approach them, but in this state none of them were believable. I guess I’ll have to experiment on this mana thing. They do say that magic is almost omnipotent. I’m too lazy to use my own magic, but feel guilty for making the spirits do everything and there is a set I want.

I decided to do it myself, not depending on their taste in clothes. I could make it without a chant, but if it’s magic then the chanting is a must. Of course only if there is time for that. Here goes nothing!

“Out of pure essence, I demand a light armor of magic. Grant me a shield worthy of thy! ”

Black fibers were created out of thin air and coiled around me, sticking to my body. For the upper body it became a long sleeved shirt with a long collar part that warmed my neck. The pants were formed the same way.  Inside it was the same silky material then the shirt, but the outside was made out of black leather with a metallic shine that looked like scales.

All this fit my body perfectly and as expected, it was smooth to the touch.  However it didn’t end with that.  Out of brown leather a jacket was made with a fur scarf sewn into the collar part and a pair of gloves with the materials of the pants.

The finishing touch was a pair of black leather boots that were padded with fur and a dark blue hair tie. With that my hair sat on my right shoulder falling onto the chest. As it is, it was a master piece.

I showed off infront of Avamys who looked at me with crept out eyes. Now that I have hands I tried my luck at touching the forest lord’s fur and petting his head. It felt great. Would it be a compliment if I said I want a doll made from his hide?

With a slight unease and sadness I parted from my friend and made my way toward the village.