Dragonlord

Ep 23. I Hate It Here. (3)

In a small neighbourhood just outside the central city of Partivine, an unremarkably small house’s blue roof bathed in the morning sun. It wasn’t luxurious by any means, but it was more than enough for a simple family of two.

And it was time to begin their days anew.

“Mmngh!...Whew. Glad yesterday’s finally over.”

Patrick stretched his arms as he made his way out of his bed. The chronometer was ticking just past the seventh hour – the usual time he’d go over to his sibling’s room to wake him up.

But then again…

“Huh…I wonder if their sleeping habits changed too?”

His sibling wasn’t exactly himself anymore. Or herself? Not entirely, anyhow.

Patrick slowly dressed himself for the day and made his way across the small living space to knock on the opposing door.

“Zi…er, Serenis? You awake?”

No response.

“Nope. Hasn’t changed.”

Apparently, dragons sleep in too.

Patrick swiftly turned the knob, opening the door.

“Serenis, wake up! The ceremony’s going to…”

“Mmn…”

“Start…soon…”

Patrick trailed off as he squinted his eyes. He then rubbed them a few times.

Before, his sibling had been quite small, even for their age. According to Patrick’s memories, the boy had never occupied more than half the bed.

But right now, the person lying on top was occupying significantly more of it. The blankets were neatly piled off to the side instead of being used, and in the place of blankets were a pair of pure white wings covering their body. She was curled up like a cat, and the tip of her scaled tail softly brushed against her nose with every breath.

The posture did make sense considering the difficulties that may ensue from lying on her back or side, with the horns and wings and all.

‘But…’

Serenis slowly blinked a few times. The dragon unfurled her wings as she stirred awake, revealing the skin beneath. Patrick immediately slammed the door behind him, locking himself out before seeing anything more than he should.

“WHY’RE YOU NAKED?”

“Hmngh…?”

Serenis blankly stared at the door. She nonchalantly slid out of bed to turn the doorknob and open it back up, not wanting to shout through the wood like a certain mage outside was so eager to do.

“Is there a problem?”

“Of course there- don’t just walk out like that!”

Patrick practically tore off his cloak and draped it around Serenis’ neck, almost choking her in the process. The fabric fell down to her knees, covering what would be deemed necessary by human standards…although the wings and tail made it impossible for the fabric to fall to the same level on her backside.

“…I’m failing to see the problem. It was you who said to make myself at home.”

“I…”

Did say that, yeah.

But I didn’t mean you should walk around buck naked. Especially looking like that.

“Didn’t you say you had to use a spell to…look like that?”

“I did.”

“And you used it the entire time while you slept?”

“It’s more comfortable regardless.”

“Ok, fine. Why are you naked though?...And why’re all your dragon parts back?”

“Need I really produce garments out of magic while I sleep too? In my own nest?”

“…”

“Also, I’ve had my ‘dragon parts’ for thousands of years, Patrick. Even you should know how odd it would feel to suddenly sleep without the limbs you’ve had all life.”

Patrick buried his face in his hands. He had no idea what that would feel like, nor did he care.

‘It’s going to be another long day, isn’t it.’

✧ ✧ ✧

“Welcome to the institute, first years!”

“If you’re interested in alchemy, join us at the Alchemy Society!”

“If you’d like private tutoring on summoning…!”

Serenis sat by herself on a small bench at another one of the institute’s courtyards. Armies and armies of little and big human younglings filled her vision, busily traversing about the stands students had set up across the courtyard to advertise their various groups. They shared in their talks, and activities, and…

‘Whatever in hell’s name they’re doing amongst themselves.’

The dragonlord had once again hidden her draconic features, much like how she had during her walk home last night. Patrick had insisted that she simply return to being the little boy he knew, but she adamantly refused.

- ‘Patrick, I will NOT return to being a midget again. It’s enough that you called me short once.’

- ‘You’re still not over that?...Fine, but you do know your files say you’re a human boy, right? At least do something about your…well, everything.’

They’d compromised. Serenis had hidden her draconic features, tied her hair with Patrick’s hairbands, shrunk her chest…and a little bit of her height. With the rather forgiving design of the institute’s uniform that was practically an oversized black-and-white mage robe, there wasn’t anything that would mark her as female.

Not that there was particularly anything that would mark her as male. Everything else had remained the same.

‘…Yap, yap, yap…’

Of course, bigger problems were at hand. The dragonlord was audibly groaning as if being slowly tortured to death.

She’d thought she knew how loud humans could be, but she never knew how loud their younglings could be when gathered in huge groups.

‘The owner of this body before my awakening was doubtlessly treading the rivers of insanity. How could any soul possibly want to suffer through this noise of their own volition?’

She wanted nothing more than to summon her wings and fly out of here, but…

- ‘You absolutely cannot let anyone know you’re a dragon, okay? You’re a first-year student named Zion who just enrolled today. Don’t forget that! And don’t you even think about summoning your dragon parts back at the institute!’

Oh, Patrick.

You make the most difficult of requests.

The admission ceremony of the Magic Institute was well-known for its disorderly commotion. Although the opening speech from the head of the institute was just fine, what followed after were welcoming/socialization events directed by the upper year students before the first classes would begin. Not that Serenis even cared what these events were.

Why did dragons prefer seclusion?

One may answer with their value of kinship amongst direct family. One may also point to their immense presence that would be difficult to integrate in the societies of other races.

But the dragonlord knew the real answer.

‘This is hell.’

Compared to other human-like races, dragons’ senses were much keener and more sensitive –they’re not really a human-like race to begin with. Morphing changed their appearances, not their perception. Thus, having sensitive hearing in places with constant noise was practical torture; Serenis would seriously consider punching another hole through Vulka’s corpse if it would let her out of here.

‘Come to think of it, I’m not even a dragonkin at the moment; my body’s that of a human child right now. Should my hearing not have deteriorated to their level?’

Serenis stared down at her flattened chest, specifically towards her heart: the only portion of her body that was no different from a dragon’s. There was no doubt that it would gradually change her human body to a dragon, in accordance with the dragonlord’s heart that was beating within her. Eventual changes were to be expected.

But she’d hoped that her wings would return first, not her hearing.

Unfortunately, attuning to an actual human body was a first even for the ancient dragonlord, and she had no clue or estimate of what the process would look like. And to make matters worse, according to what the crow professor had explained yesterday, she had to sit through an entire hour amidst this courtyard commotion before the staff would direct the students to their first classes. And to top it all off, Patrick had implored over and over for his sibling to move according to the institute’s schedule.

Her circumstances only pointed to one answer: another hour of suffering.

While Serenis continued to wallow in her little misery, she could hear a few of the individuals conversing as they passed by the groaning dragonlord.

“Hey, did you hear about the kid who blew up the stage during the mock duels?”

“What? Wasn’t that just a rumor?”

“No no, it’s real, I saw it! The kid used some spell, and like, a million light rays crashed down! You should’ve seen it yourself.”

Rumors have a tendency to grow bigger as more mouths carry their tale.

Unfortunately, the dragonlord’s mock duel was no exception; the spell that was essentially a glorified lightshow had suddenly become a spell that blew up the entire stage and knocked their opponent unconscious.

And on occasion, after a simple series of unfortunate coincidences, rumors had a tendency to become extremely bloated – much beyond what it would originally warrant. Granted, these coincidences were extremely unlikely…but not impossible.

Like today.

“Zion?”

The dragonlord slowly creaked her head to face the person that had called out her supposed name from behind her. She was ready to drive away any human youngling had come to bother her further in this nightmare.

However, contrary to her expectations, the woman before her was not a youngling. Adorned in a rather extravagant red uniform similar to the color of their hair, the woman fixed her dark flatcap as she examined the student on the bench. She wore a stern expression, much akin to that of an angered elder scorning the kin’s hatchlings.

Finding herself at a loss of ways to drive away an adult – which Serenis expected to be one of those ‘staff’ members that Karas talked about – the dragonlord responded in a relatively tame manner.

“That…would be me, yes.”

“My name is Iris Alpid. I’m from the enforcement sector of the Mage Association.”

As the woman’s actual identity was revealed, nearby students that were able to hear her immediately turned towards Iris, who was now holding out some sort of emblem-embedded identification card to the dragonlord. Then their eyes focused on Serenis, who had just been called by her human name.

“Wait, Zion? That’s the…”

Kid that blew up the stage in their rumors. The other students knew the name all too well now. However, all of them were noticing a small discrepancy.

“…Hey, wasn’t that kid supposed to be a guy? Isn’t that a girl?”

“Who knows, maybe it is a guy?”

“I thought he had blue hair. And he looked a lot shorter on stage.”

“And what’s an enforcer doing with him?”

“Maybe he used forbidden arts?”

The enforcement sector was essentially the policing department among mages. To have its members come seeking your presence was never a good sign.

Did Serenis know of this? Of course not. The only enforcer she knew was Patrick, and he was far, far removed from the image of a stern police officer.

But on the other hand, the woman standing before the dragonlord right now definitely did seem like a stern, unhappy elder. And granted, Iris WAS the elder in their current human context. ‘Zion’ was only fifteen.

After withdrawing her identification emblem, Iris prompted the dragonlord to rise.

“Could you accompany me for a moment?”

“Oh. Of course.”

Still, Serenis was perfectly content as long as she could get out of this place. She immediately got up from the bench and began trailing after the enforcer.

But as the two walked off towards the east building, students would begin to mutter amongst themselves.

About the destruction-maniac first year who was now on the enforcement sector’s watchlist.