“Are you sure you’re going to be alright on your own?” Emberheart asked for what had to be the tenth time.

“Yes, yes, I’ll be fine. I know how to take care of myself, and if I run into any trouble I'll come straight back to the cave and hide,” Rakon said exasperatedly. His adopted father could be so naggy sometimes.

Emberheart had received a summons from the Queen of water dragons. This was more than a little unusual, dragons did not often associate with each other. Especially water dragons with fire dragons. They were on opposite sides of the land and it would be a long journey. However the messenger impressed again and again the importance of this meeting, and Emberheart could not outright refuse a request from another monarch, not without risking offense.

Rakon couldn’t believe his luck. After his meeting with the human girl he had been filled with intrigue. He wanted to meet other humans and learn more about them. All he had heard about them was that they were incredibly dumb and bloodthirsty, but that didn’t seem the case to him. He had no idea how he was going to get away from Emberheart, and here the perfect opportunity just landed in his claws!

“Very well, very well. You be careful, Rakon, I will be back as soon as I can. I suspect it will be a few moons before I can return, so stay safe.” There was nothing to do now except leave. With a final nod to Rakon, Emberheart took off, flying through the early morning mist high into the sky.

Rakon waited about an hour after Emberheart left before he flew off himself. He didn’t want Emberheart to accidentally see Rakon in the sky, especially since it was a clear day. When he thought that Emberheart was far enough away he took off north. North was where the main city of the land was. It was only a couple days travel by flight, he figured he could find a cave to rest in if he needed to along the way.

While he traveled he went over his plan in his head. The past few days he had been practicing an ability that most dragons forgot they even had. This was the ability to take on a human avatar. Many dragons had forgotten this ability because it isn’t relevant anymore. When humans and dragons coexisted, dragons used this ability often. It was used so that dragons could strengthen their relationships among their human neighbors, and it was also used to spy on them during the Great Wars. Now with dragons living so far away from humans it was considered weak, distasteful, or even shameful to take on the form of a lesser being. For what could be stronger than a dragon?

Seeing as how he was already the smallest dragon he had ever seen, he didn’t think there was any shame in it for him. The first few times he had tried did not go so well. Basically nothing happened, no matter how hard he tried it didn’t work. He was worried that it wouldn’t work for him, he thought that perhaps it could be something that would only work for older dragons with more experience. Or perhaps it was just a forgotten art, after all it had been hundreds of years since the last time anybody had done it.

And then one day he did it. He was sitting near the entrance to his cave alone, Emberheart was out scouting the perimeter. He was thinking about being a human. Really really thinking about it. He thought about how it would feel to have hands, to be able to pick small things up. He thought about walking upright, and having hair on his head. He thought about how vulnerable it would be to not have his scales anymore, to be small and weak. He worried that he would actually die being stuck in a body so soft and easy to kill. Maybe he actually didn’t want to try this, he enjoyed his cave right? It was cozy, and safe…

No! He slammed his claws into the ground in frustration, subconsciously sending small cracks running out of his cave. Rocks started to climb their way up his foreleg. He would not live in this cave forever! He would go out to the humans and find proof that they aren’t all terrible creatures.

As soon as he had the thought, he felt something strange. There was a tingling sensation that started in his chest, and he felt weirdly lightheaded. He shook his head, hoping the sensation would pass, but it did not. Instead it intensified, getting stronger and stronger until finally he passed out.

When he woke up he was lying on the ground staring at the ceiling. There was something wrong with his eyes however, he could not see nearly as well as he should be. Things seemed a little too dark and dim. He raised his hands and rubbed his eyes, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. His hands! He had hands! He looked down at the rest of his body, his human body. He had no real idea if he looked normal or not, he had only seen a handful of humans in his life, but he thought he looked more or less like the rest of them.

He had walked around, a little unsteadily, and found his coordination to be satisfactory. His arms and legs worked fine, he could still see in the dark, but the images were much less sharp in his human form. He felt very different, but most noticeably he felt weak. He very much doubted he would be able to hunt for himself in this condition, he wondered how any humans survived at all.

He chuckled to himself as he flew along at how terrified he had been after his first transformation. It took him a little while to transform back as well. He figured out that turning into his avatar was a mixture of calling upon his earth magic at the same time he focused his thoughts on his desire to be a human. It took him some practice, but eventually over the next few days he was able to change forms without losing consciousness. Everytime he practiced he got a little faster. He wanted to have a good grasp on this ability before he got too close to any humans. He was extremely nervous that somehow somebody would realize he was a dragon and he would have to change forms and bolt.

He was heading northwest, he remembered being told by Emberheart to never go too far in this direction, because there was a large human city this way. He figured if he was to find out more about humans, a large city would be the best place to start. If only Emberheart could see him now, he thought, he would probably kill me. Mentally shrugging his shoulders Rakon settled into his rhythm and kept flying.

Rakon waited for dark to fully settle in before he landed for the night. He was close enough to civilization that he worried about being caught before this adventure even started. He landed in a thicket of trees, and as soon as he did he changed shape. This was a mistake, he was naked and did not realize how cold it would be. He needed some of those things that humans wore over themselves to stay warm, he thought, but where to find them? He definitely couldn’t make them, he did not even know where to start.

After a minute of contemplation he changed back to his dragon form and took to the skies. Flying around for a few minutes he found what he was looking for. A small farm in the middle of a large field, with no lights indicating anybody was awake. He flew around a couple times, wanting to make sure that nobody was out for a late stroll. His worries appeased, he quietly drifted lower to the ground and landed gently. He then turned into his avatar form and began to sneak towards the house.

It was much more difficult in the dark, luckily he still retained some of his dragon senses, but he wished his vision was a little clearer. He had to refrain from shouting out loud when he stepped on a sharp stick, slicing into his foot. He bit his lip as tears threatened to form in his eyes. When the pain slowly faded, he took a deep breath and crept closer to the house.

How did humans even accomplish anything? He wondered how they had survived so long as a race at all. Everything about them was soft and weak, he could understand how dragons had such little opinions of them. However there was something to be said about how they had survived for so long. They had a certain tenacity to them.

He tapped into earth while he walked, keeping his steps silent. He nearly gasped out loud at what he discovered. He made no sound. When he walked as a dragon and he used this skill he was very quiet, but not soundless. Now as a human he couldn’t be heard. He suspected that it was because he was lighter and smaller, it must make it easier to walk undetected. He hurried along closer to the small farmhouse.

Hanging on a line attached to the house were clothes. He figured they probably belonged to the father of the house, they seemed large enough to fit an adult male. He reached for a shirt off of the line, then hesitated. Was he a thief? In the dragon society, one normally did not live close enough to neighbors to take anything. And besides that, it was impossible to steal from a dragon. Legends were often told about dragons that had large hoards filled with gold and precious jewels. These legends were often right. To try to take anything from another living dragon was to ask for death. Now on the chance that a dragon killed another dragon and took his hoard, the dead dragon’s allies or family would hunt down the offending dragon and kill him.

Rakon snapped out of his moral dilemma and grabbed a shirt and pants off the hanging line and quickly put them on. He put off the guilt by telling himself that if he survived his trip to the city he would get some gold from Emberheart’s hoard and repay the farmer. The chances of that were slim, and even slimmer chances of him surviving Emberheart’s wrath when he found out that Rakon had left. He put that to the back of his mind, no need to worry about that now. That’s a problem for future Rakon. Future Rakon was definitely going to be able to handle that.

A light flickered to life somewhere inside. Rakon looked around frantically for a place to hide. Not seeing any, he dove towards the house seeking a place to hide under the window. He made it just in time. He held his breath as he heard the window open. He couldn’t move. From where he was lying he could barely see the head of an old man peer out the window. His eyes squinted as he strained to see what alerted him,

“Hello?” the old voice rasped out, “is anybody out there?”

If he looked down he would see Rakon. If Rakon wanted, he could get on his knees and reach out to touch him. He was that close. He continued to hold his breath, praying that the old man would leave soon so that he didn’t pass out. Please, he thought, just go.

Finally the man shut the window, but the light didn’t turn off. Rakon stayed there for another few minutes, but the light stayed on. Rakon was prepared to stay there all night if need be. He briefly thought about flying away right now, but didn’t want to cause unnecessary alarm. So he waited.

He craned his neck around to see what else was nearby and his eyes landed on a pair of boots. They looked worn in, but still sturdy. He knew if he was to survive the rest of his journey then he was going to need those boots. He couldn’t walk around with his naked human feet, they were too weak. He slowly started crawling towards the front porch to the boots, using his power over earth to stay silent. He had the earth slowly push him forward as he crawled, which tired him more than just normal crawling would, but he needed to be stealthy.

He had gotten close enough, finally. The light was still flickering in the window, but he didn’t want to wait around any longer. The best bet, he figured, would be to grab the boots as quietly as possible and then sneak away into the darkness.

Reaching out slowly for the boots, he grabbed them by the laces and ever so gently started to pull them back to him. As he leaned forward, he put more pressure on his right knee in order to keep his balance.

Unbeknownst to Rakon, this farmer was a water user. He used his power over water to keep his crops healthy and strong. Unfortunately, sometimes the rainfall is not enough water for the farmer to channel into his crops and he has to pull water from the brush surrounding his house. This makes for very dry leaves and twigs on the ground. Dry leaves and twigs are very weak and break easily, and often make lots of noise. Exactly like the noise that was created when Rakon accidentally put his left hand on a very dry small branch. Being a little off balance from reaching so far for the boots, he stuck out his left hand on the ground to steady himself.

Crack!

“Who’s out there? I know I heard somethin’, so you better come on out and show yourself!” The farmer’s voice sounded out from inside the house, a little shaky though, whether from his age or his nervousness Rakon did not know. The wooden door then slammed open as an old man appeared with a gnarled walking stick held tightly in his hands. He looked around wildly into the night, looking for the intruder. His eyes then slowly shifted downwards until they saw Rakon’s hands holding his boots by the laces. Even more slowly his eyes moved over until they met Rakon’s bright green eyes. He froze.

Rakon did what any sensible dragon or person would do in this situation. He smiled, gave a polite nod to the man, then grabbing the boots tightly he turned and ran.

“Hey! You there, stop!” the old man commanded. This was not the voice of a frail old man that Rakon expected.

Something else in the man’s voice touched Rakon. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it made him stop in his tracks. Was he a thief? He really needed these clothes and boots, but did that make it right? Was he no better than the bullies that had caused him so much trouble in the past? Perhaps he really did need these clothes, but the farmer definitely did too. He slowly walked back to the man, his head hanging in shame.

When he got to the man he put the boots back in their place on the porch saying, “I really am sorry sir, I- I really needed these, but that gives me no right to take them from you and for that I am sorry, it was wrong.”

Rakon felt good about himself. Yes he was about to steal from a helpless old man, but he didn’t. Even if he was going to have to continue his journey without human clothes, he would find another way that did not involve taking from somebody wrongly, he decided then and there that he would never do that again.

The old man looked Rakon up and down wearily. Taking in his bare feet and stolen attire he beckoned to Rakon with a wrinkled hand.

“Come in boy, it’s dark as the devil out there, come in before you hurt yourself.” Without waiting to see if Rakon would listen, he turned and walked in the house.

Rakon was dumbfounded. What was going on? Did this man really just invite Rakon, somebody who was completely about to rob him, into his home? Rakon didn’t move for a few moments, he wasn’t sure how to react.

“What are you standing there for? Come in!” The old man called out from inside.

Still confused, but not seeing any other option, Rakon walked inside. It was a small house, but for the old man it was more than enough. There was a small stove in one of the corners, a couple of chairs by a small but sturdy wooden table, a handwoven rug covering much of the dusty floor, and a wooden door leading to another room. The old man was sitting at the table sipping a liquid from a cup, waiting for Rakon to finally come in. He gestured for Rakon to take a seat across from him at the table.

Again seeing no other option, Rakon complied. Sitting down, Rakon finally got a good long look at the man. He was not nearly as old or as frail as he had seemed outside in the dark. Average height and average build made this man seem inconspicuous, but there was something about him that seemed different. Rakon couldn’t understand what it was, but there was just something about him.

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“So” the man started, leaning back in his chair, “why don’t you tell me who you are and what you’re doing in my clothes.”

Rakon blushed, he had almost forgotten who’s clothes he had stolen off the line. “Well, it’s a rather long story you see,” he fumbled for words. He hadn’t thought that he would end up sitting in a room with a human and had not prepared a story.

“We have all night,” said the old man with a grin that Rakon didn’t believe was real.

“Yes, yes of course. Well you see, I was traveling north to the city when I was attacked by thieves. They came at me earlier in the night right as I had finished traveling for the day. I was tired from walking all day and they surprised me” he thought this would seem believable, and then he added hurriedly, “and they stole all my things, my clothes, my shoes, and my pack.” This would explain why he had no belongings he thought proudly.

“I see,” said the man, seeming to believe Rakon’s story. “So they stole everything you owned and left you without a scratch? Rather kind of them, don’t you think?” The man smiled almost mischievously at Rakon, clearly not believing the story, but also not pushing for the truth.

“Yes that’s right, they um, they held a sword to my throat before I could do anything about it you see. So I just gave them everything before they decided to hurt me.” He knew the man didn’t believe him, but hoped that this was enough to satisfy him.

Apparently it was, as the old man nodded slowly and said, “Well this is a terrible situation you have found yourself in, but it is good you survived. You may stay the night, I have an extra blanket but you’ll have to sleep on the floor. And you still have to tell me your name.”

Rakon blinked stupidly at what was just said. “Rakon is my name.” Right as he said it he realized he probably should have made one up, “And why would you let me sleep in your house?”

“Rakon, eh? Unusual name, but we’re all a little unusual anyway aren’t we? My name is Loch, and as for why you are allowed to stay is simple. You did not harm me although you may have been close to stealing from me,” Rakon blushed at that, “but the law of hospitality states that I must not allow a stranger to wander naked in the night, quite literally in your case.” The old man chuckled at that.

“But enough talking, it’s very late and we are getting up early. You’ll be helping me with my chores tomorrow, and we get up before the sun so get your rest.”

When Loch said he gets up before the sun, Rakon was hoping that he was kidding, but he hoped in vain. Loch shook Rakon awake and shoved a pair of boots in his hands, different from the ones he had almost made off with the previous night.

“Put these on” he said, “I’ll be outside, don’t fall back asleep.” He kept his sentences short. Rakon got the feeling that he wasn’t much of a morning person. Rakon used to love the mornings, he enjoyed waking up to the sunrise and listening to birds chirping, but he had a feeling he would not enjoy his first morning as a human.

Stifling a yawn, Rakon sat up and stretched his arms high above his head. His back ached from sleeping on such an uncomfortable floor, but at least he was warm and dry. He fought the temptation to lie back down and put the boots on, surprised at how good they fit. He struggled with the laces a bit, but in the end just pulled them until they were as tight as they could go then stuffed the ends in the top of the boot. Satisfied with his work, he stood up and went to meet Loch outside.

For the next few hours Loch had Rakon help with the chores. It was autumn and the air was still warm in the early morning. Arulea had long summers that leaked into autumn. The winters were short but cold, at least in the southern part. Arulea was large enough that on the northern border the winters were at least as long as the summers.

They worked most of the day, feeding animals, chopping firewood, cleaning out the area for Loch’s horse, and other chores that Rakon wasn't exactly sure what they were for. He had never had to grow food before, and was a little confused by the process. He understood the concept of course, but how did Loch grow so much? And how did he know what to pull out of the ground and when? Rakon just did what Loch said and tried to act as if he had done some of these things before. He was sure that Loch was suspicious of him, but he tried to act as innocent as possible. Which wasn’t really difficult seeing as he was so ignorant of this new world around him.

After the chores Loch took him inside. They had eaten a light lunch a couple hours earlier and then gone back out until the work was done. When they finally finished for the day, Rakon was exhausted. He was ready to go inside and relax. Following Loch into his home he sat down wearily on the chair at the table. On the way to the table Loch grabbed a book from the hearth and sat across Rakon.

“You enjoy reading, son?” Loch asked as he opened the book.

Rakon wasn’t sure how to respond. Should he lie? He thought that this would not be an easy lie to live, so he decided to tell the truth.

“No, I can’t read,” he said quietly.

Loch didn’t say anything for a while. When he spoke, it was in an understanding tone, but no nonsense.

“Well, do you want to learn? I’ve known other boys who never learned, it's a disgrace if you ask me. Too many parents out there think it's a waste of time, they would rather have their boys working.” Loch shook his head in disgust. “Here, let me teach you your letters.”

Loch stood up and rummaged around his desk, one of his only pieces of furniture in the room. He came back with a piece of paper and a writing utensil. He wrote what seemed to be twenty or thirty distinct squiggles on the paper and handed them to Rakon.

“Here,” he said, “these are what we call letters. And each of them make certain sounds, when you put them together you get words. You need to learn what sounds these make first, and then we can learn how to put them together.”

Rakon nodded dumbly, unsure of what to do. Twenty four hours ago if somebody told him that he would be learning to read, he would have called that person crazy. Yet here he was, learning to read. Emberheart would be ashamed of him, he bet. First he couldn’t kill a man, and now he was learning to read, pathetic.

He was grateful for the chance to learn something new however, and threw himself into the work vigorously. They did this every evening before dinner and it became a kind of ritual of theirs. They would work and eat together, then Rakon would learn.

He had never been able to learn so much before, he had such an insatiable desire for knowledge. Rakon had never been able to ask so many questions, Emberheart always got irritated whenever Rakon showed interest in humans other than killing them. There was just so much to learn, everyday Rakon bombarded Loch with questions about this or that. The only difficulty was keeping Loch from getting suspicious. It wasn’t incredibly uncommon for a boy Rakon’s age to not know how to read, but if he couldn’t read and he needed help understanding all the chores, then that would seem strange to even the least observant man. And Loch was very observant.

After about a week, Rakon was starting to get restless. What was he even doing out here? He needed the old man’s clothes and shoes, so he stayed to work to repay the man’s kindness. Why hadn’t he just taken off days ago? There was something about Loch that made him stay, although he couldn’t name why. He truly did enjoy learning to read and work with his hands. He felt more than a little uncoordinated in his human body at the beginning, but was feeling more and more comfortable every day.

He had an internal war with himself of sorts. Some days he just wanted to soar away and live as a dragon, for there was nothing that could compare to the feeling of the wind under your wings. But then he would think about how other dragons would bully him mercilessly and, without the protection of Emberheart, attempt to kill him. All just because he was different from them. Maybe life as a human wasn’t so bad after all he thought to himself.

One afternoon while they were outside picking weeds in the garden, Rakon sensed something through the vibrations in the ground he hadn’t sensed for a long time. Footsteps.

He was a little puzzled, but didn’t let it show on his face. Perhaps Loch had friends that visited occasionally, although Loch really didn’t seem like the type of person to have friends at all really, he was not very talkative. It took Rakon a couple days to figure out that this was just how Loch was, he wasn’t really mad all the time. So if they weren’t friends, then who? He couldn’t quite make out how many there were, but they seemed to be heading this way. He decided to wait for them to get closer before he said anything to Loch.

Turns out he didn’t need to say anything at all. When the footsteps were a few hundred paces out, Loch wiped his hands on his pants and stood up.

“We have visitors.” he said, “You keep working, I need to fetch my walking stick.”

He returned shortly after holding his walking stick in his hands. In the week Rakon had been living with Loch, he had never seen the older man so much as lean on his walking stick. He got around better than Rakon did in all honesty. Rakon still felt as if he was getting used to his human legs, and he would often stumble.

Rakon continued to pull little weeds out with clumsy fingers, trying to watch Loch out of his peripheral vision. Loch looked incredibly relaxed as the strangers came into view. He was seemingly focused on his task of pulling weeds, not paying any attention to the strangers.

There were three of them, they all looked to be approaching manhood soon. Rakon watched them approach out of the corner of his eye, waiting for Loch to do something. The one in the middle was a little shorter than average with a cruel sneer on his face. He was not unattractive, and it was clear that the two boys on either side deferred to him. He was saying something to them, they were still too far away to hear anything, but to Rakon it seemed that he was issuing orders of some kind.

The two boys on either side of him were giants. Not actual giants, but close enough. Rakon would not be surprised if there was some giant blood in their family tree somewhere. They were so large that the boy in the middle only came to about their chest. Rakon would have guessed that he came up to their chins. They looked similar enough to be family, but not enough to be brothers. Perhaps cousins then? They looked like brutes, with strong jaws, huge arms, and even bigger chests. Rakon hadn’t seen a lot of human people before, but he had seen enough to recognize that they were trouble.

Loch looked up, pretending to notice the boys for the first time. Rakon followed his gaze, looking up at them. They were a few dozen paces away when they stopped. The boy in the middle now wore a face of pure innocence as he called out.

“Hello there! So sorry to intrude, we are but simple travelers with a poor sense of direction. You wouldn’t be able to point us in the right direction and spare a morsel of food would you?”

Rakon couldn’t tell what it was, but he really did not like the look of these boys. He hoped Loch felt the same way, he didn’t want to see the old man get taken advantage of.

“Of course lads!” Called out Loch, making Rakon’s heart sink. “Come on over here and we’ll see what we can do to help. You said you’re lost?”

Grinning from ear to ear the middle boy continued his approach. “That’s right. We are headed to the capital city, do you know which way that is?” The boy and his thug looking friends stopped a few paces away from Loch and Rakon. The boy spoke in almost a proper way, a way that made Rakon think that he came from comfort.

Loch nodded, “You’re not too far away, it’s just a week or two travel northwest. I can point you to a road if you’d like.”

The middle boy nodded appreciatively, “Yes, that would be very kind of you.” He elbowed his large friend in the side knowingly. “See Brutus? I told you the man would be able to help. I bet you he even has some silver for us to take into town, we are just starving travelers, and we need a little coin to buy some food at the next inn we come across.” He kept his same proper voice laced with fake kindness, but his look was anything but kind. Brutus and his cousin stood up even taller if that were possible, and they glowered at Loch menacingly.

Loch just smiled. “Oh boys, I don’t have any silver to give, so sorry. And if I did, I wouldn’t give it to you, honestly. You would probably just go spend it on cheap beer and make even bigger fools of yourselves. Better I save you some disgrace, and let you go ask daddy for some of his money, eh?”

It seemed to take a moment for the words to make their way through their brains, even longer for Brutus and his giant look alike. They glanced at the middle boy, obviously looking to follow his lead. When his expression turned angry, they cracked their knuckles menacingly.

The middle boy dropped all pretense of charm when he spoke. “I really don’t want to hurt you,” he sighed, “just please give us your money so we don’t have to, and we will be on our way.”

Loch grinned at him “Sorry lad, I just can’t do that for you.”

Rakon looked at Loch frantically. He wasn’t sure what was going on in his head, but he really hoped that the older man wasn’t expecting Rakon to fight for him. That would not end well. He supposed he could turn into his dragon form and tear the boys limb from limb, but that would have other consequences. He felt so weak and puny, never before had he been at the mercy of a human, no wonder dragons never took on their human avatar form.

The boy lifted an eyebrow in surprise then shrugged his shoulders at his fellows. “Your choice I guess. Try not to kill them,” then he paused for a second thoughtfully, “or not, I don’t really care.”

The giants took a step forward and reached out with their meaty hands. Rakon immediately took a step backwards and fell on his own feet. From this perspective the scary human boys looked even larger. One boy approached Rakon on the ground while the other walked towards Loch. There was a blur, then a cry of pain. Rakon saw the one called Brutus grab his arm in pain. Loch chuckled and twirled his walking stick around in one hand.

“I don’t know what you boys are doing out here on your own, and I don’t really care. But,” he spun his staff around and lunged forward, stopping the tip an inch from Brutus’s face, “if you want to be able to walk out of here I suggest leaving right now.” He finished with a growl.

This made the boys pause and look at each other. It was only now that they thought perhaps they were biting off more than they could chew.

“Are you serious? Brutus, Ox, come on and finish this up, you’re wasting time.”

With that the two boys stepped forward. They ignored Rakon, much to his relief, and slowly began to circle Loch. Rakon started to get nervous for him, it was clear that Loch had some kind of training as a fighter, but could he really defend himself against these two very large and fit boys? Clearly they had the advantage, but Rakon did not want to step in, he was sure he was just going to get in the way. He started to get up just in case his help would be needed.

A blinding pain to his head knocked him down. His vision swam for a few moments and he saw stars. He tasted blood in his mouth, and not for the first time he wished he had never wondered what it was like to be human. If this is what humans were like then he had definitely had enough.

When his vision cleared enough to see, the first thing he saw was the third boy shaking his hand and grimacing. Obviously punching Rakon in the face was more painful than he expected. Well good, thought Rakon, I hope he broke his wrist.

Spitting out blood from his mouth, he thought he bit his tongue, Rakon stood up on shaky legs. He held up tentative fists in front of him and widened his stance. How humans fought without teeth and claws he would never know. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Loch was handling himself just fine, in fact it almost looked like he was enjoying himself. Looking back at the problem at hand he hoped that Loch would come to his rescue quickly.

The leader of this small gang looked up at Rakon with a snarl on his face.

“My hand!” he cried out “I’m going to beat you senseless for that.”

With a rush he was attacking Rakon. Punching, kicking, spinning, he was obviously trained in fighting. Rakon was very obviously not. The only thing he had going for him was his speed. Luckily this was something that translated over to his human avatar form. He was able to get his arms in front of the worst hits and dodge some of the others. However not much time had passed before he started to slow down, he just was not able to keep up with the onslaught of attacks.

In desperation he called upon earth. As the attacking boy’s arm pulled back to deliver what would undoubtedly be a devastating punch, a pillar of dirt rose up from behind him and swallowed his arm, locking it in place. Surprise registered on his face for a split second, then he chuckled.

“If that’s how you want to do it, that’s fine with me.”

It seemed to Rakon as if the very air between them became too hot to breathe. Waves of heat were emanating from the trapped boy, Rakon held his hand up in front of his face to try to stem the flow of ever increasing heat. With an explosive boom the rocks holding the boy captive were launched in all directions. Rakon quickly threw up a shield of earth to protect himself. Dropping it just as quickly he was shocked at what he saw.

The boy’s arm was wreathed in flames. He had heated the rocks to such an extreme temperature that they exploded, freeing the boy’s arm. Rakon was suddenly very scared at the expression that had appeared on this boy’s face.

“You were the one that wanted to bring your element into this, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” And again Rakon was back to dodging and blocking as if his life depended on it, because it did.

The danger level was kicked up a notch, Rakon was distinctly aware that intense fire could severely injure him, or even kill him in his human state. His senses were completely heightened and he was quicker than he had ever been, but he still felt clumsy in his human form.

He had never felt more in control of earth however, and for a moment he felt elated at how smoothly the earth responded to his commands. The amount of earth he was moving to protect himself was exhausting however, and once again he found himself slowing down.

A strong gout of flames broke through his final flimsy earthen wall he was able to bring up and Rakon fell to his knees. The boy laughed as he looked at Rakon in his weakened state.

“You two should have just given us your money, we didn’t want to hurt you.” With that he raised his fist and the last thing Rakon saw was his snarling face, and then blackness.