《I am Dragon》 Prologue 1 & 2 Prologue 1 A voice as deep as thunder boomed, ¡°Velestrya! The summoning circle is ready, bring in the tribute items!¡± Finally, the time has arrived. The proper elements have aligned, the formation flags are set in their proper place and all the necessary items have been collected. ¡°All of you, quickly, contribute your mana and world energy!¡± The summoning circle started softly glowing. Faint sigils ever so gently peeled themselves off and began to float. Slowly rising higher and higher. Barely audible childlike laughter rang. The brighter the circle and sigils glowed, the louder the laughter became until that was all that anyone could hear. The same voice that could previously be described as booming was now a faint whisper compared to the cacophony of laughter ¡°Bring us any outer realm dragon and the tribute is yours!¡± he shouted. The light became blinding, lighting up the realm as far as one could see. The intensity of everything built up and crescendoed. Suddenly, the light seemed to just pop; the laughter stopped leaving a deafening silence in its place. Light particles fell from the sky like snow, slowly dimming and completely going out after touching the ground. Prologue 2 Someone, please help me. Screaming on the inside, the boy opened his mouth, but all that came out was a muffled groan. ¡°Hurry, hurry!¡± He could hear one voice whisper. He felt a pair of hands searching his pockets, different from the impossibly powerful pair holding some sort of dirty rag over his mouth and a knife in his side. His head was forced up so all he could see was the star-filled sky and his body held in place, between an alley wall and the man who stabbed him, his zip-tied hands held in front of him. Struggling only brought about more pain. He tried to scream out for help again. In response, his assailant twisted the knife in him. Screaming into the rag, he felt himself losing consciousness. The edges of his vision darkened as he struggled to stay awake. Staying awake long enough to get help was the only way to stay alive, he knew. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Shit, he¡¯s got nuffin¡¯ on em,¡± a gruff voice spoke out. The hands ended their search after having emptied his pockets of his wallet and cell phone. ¡°Wallet wit a student ID and nuffin¡¯ else in one pocket and a cheap phone in da otha'''' the annoyance clear in his voice. ¡°THAT''S IT?!¡± cried the second tough but less abused voice, belonging to the pair of hands still holding the boy in place. Tightening his grip over the rag on the boy¡¯s mouth, the attacker pulled the knife out of his side, producing a faint squelch. He pushed the boy aside and to the ground as he removed his hand from over the boy¡¯s mouth and both thieves ran off. Laying on his side, his face against the rough pavement, the boy struggled to push the rag out of his mouth with his tongue. Managing to spit the rag out of his mouth, he called out for help, ¡°Help! Call 911! I¡¯m dying!¡± his weary voice cracking in anguish. He tried standing up, but his body gave out before he could even make it to his knees. It hurts. I¡¯m scared. Someone, please help me. And there he lay, struggling to breathe, pain shooting across his body, bleeding out. The world turned to grey and gentle laughter could be heard. He couldn¡¯t see where the laughter was coming from but he immediately called out ¡°please help, I¡¯m dying, please call 911¡± ¡°Boy, what¡¯s your name?¡± He heard a voice ask, in a raspy, breathy whisper. ¡°My name is Kai, Kai Long. I¡¯m hurt. Call 911!¡± He frantically replied, his hope rekindled. ¡°Yes, now focus Kai, you must stay awake, '''' said the voice, still whispering. ¡° Focus on what I¡¯m saying. You said your surname is Long, right?¡± Thinking that help must already be on its way and this person is trying to help him stay awake he answered ¡°Yes that¡¯s right, it¡¯s Long¡± The voice, now sounding excited replied ¡°Like dragon, right? Long also means dragon, right?!¡± Hearing the excitement in the voice, Kai worriedly replied, ¡°Yeah, it means dragon in Chinese. Please tell me, the ambulance is on its way, right?¡± The pain he was in is more like a dull ache now. He was struggling to stay awake. The voice sounded panicked now ¡° My voice, Kai, hold on just a little more, focus on my voice! Surnames were derived by occupation or rank, right?.. Hurry Kai!¡± Dazed, he responded, ¡°Huh? Yeah, learned that in school.¡± His words were slurred and his world was spinning, the darkness almost completely overtaking him. The voice sounded far away now, like a whisper melting into the wind. It asked, ¡°So dragon, right Kai? You are a dragon?!¡± And so Kai spent his last moments on earth, zip-tied and bleeding out in an alley, responding to a voice that no one else could hear, and waiting for help that would never arrive. His last words were ¡°yeah, dragon,¡± as he let out his final breath. Ch. 1 Chapter 1 Ishitar''s POV He felt slight fluctuations coming from the summoning circle. It¡¯s time he thought to himself. Out loud his voice boomed, ¡°places everyone! Remember the plan and stick to your role! The moment the soul arrives we must power the soul snare array to prevent as much dissipation as possible!¡± ¡°Yes, yes we know!¡± someone responded, giving voice to what everyone in the crowd of dragons was thinking. Of course they know, I personally drilled the plan into each and every one of their heads! It''s just that he could not help his excitement. This is the culmination of 6 centuries of research, planning, and material gathering all coming together under his genius to change all of their lives for the better. The mana flowed out of the summoning circle and along with it came one of the smallest souls his eyes ever laid upon, finished seeping out before the circle started powering down. Was this all that made it through? ¡°Is that it?¡± again someone voiced out what everyone was thinking. ¡°Hurry up with the array! This still might be salvageable! Do not waste any time!¡± The array flags were quickly set in place, and as long as the dragons continued to manually power it or power it with mana stones, it would continue to run. Ishitar looked over to his clanmate and said ¡°Malos, try and talk to it¡±. Malos gave him his signature dead-fish look and held eye contact for 10 seconds before sighing heavily. Malos lowered himself to get as close as he could to the soul and initiated the spell , targeting the tiny piece of soul to humor Ishitar. Ishitar noticed a flash of surprise pass through the eyes of Malos before it shifted to another dull expression. ¡°It seems like you¡¯re in luck, Ishitar. The spell connected and I can even hear it speak sort of.¡± Excitement coursed through Ishitar once more, ¡°What do you mean ¡®sort of¡¯, what is it saying?!¡± He demanded Malos shrugged, ¡°I can¡¯t dual cast soul communion and a translation spell, and I haven''t yet, nor will I ever imprint a translation spell on my soul. I talked to it, it made noises back. We talked. Sort of.¡± Malos explained as if talking to a dull child. Ishitar nodded his head fully understanding while also ignoring Malos¡¯ tone. ¡°Alright, so we need to imprint the translation on the soul. It has to be done anyway since we need to get his or her consent for the blood kin ritual either way. They are a dragon after all, even if their soul is incomplete.¡± Ishitar stated righteously. Malos just rolled his eyes, ¡°This soul is probably mostly all there. My spell wouldn¡¯t have connected if too much of it was missing. This species has either gone through a soul compression of some sort or is a miniature dragon subtype. It is from another realm after all.¡± Malos said while inspecting the soul. Ishitar frowned at Malos ¡°Malos. There will be no more talk about subtypes. This potential clan mate is an equal. A full dragon with the rights of a full dragon, no matter how bright or dull their scales shine or how small their wingspan is.¡± Malos leveled his dead-fish look at Ishitar and replied, ¡°Is that how you¡¯ll comfort them when it''s time for them to find a mate? You should start working on what you¡¯ll say starting now because so far, it sucks. ¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Damn, he has a point. He thought while replying aloud, ¡°Whatever, let''s just start already.¡± Malos brought out a soul quill from his spatial device, delicately guiding his mana into the hollow shaft, moving it up the rachis, and letting it spread throughout the vane. ¡°I¡¯m ready, construct the spell formula.¡± Ishitar did just that, formula ready, he nodded at Malos. Malos dabbed the tiny soul with his soul quill and immediately the soul began to dissipate. Both dragons wore panicked expressions, ¡°Stop! Stop!¡± Ishitar screamed. ¡°I already did, I stopped the moment I noticed the dissipation start!¡± Malos replied, glaring at Ishitar. ¡°Velestrya! Velestrya come quick! Begin the blood kin ritual! If they decide they do not want to be a part of the clan, we¡¯ll fix it later.¡± Velestrya stood up from her position in the formation array, sending Malos to take her place. Ishitar''s panic-stricken voice spoke quickly, ¡°Vel, you need to use the smallest sliver of your soul for the ritual. We DO NOT need a soul puppet! And don¡¯t forget to imprint the translation spell on your soul sliver! That''s what started this complete mess in the first place!¡± Velestrya¡¯s sharpened gaze landed on her older brother and said. ¡°Ishitar, I am neither a novice nor your apprentice. Last I checked I was still clan matriarch, so do not presume to tell me what to do and give me space to work¡± Velestrya took out her own soul quill and began imprinting a sliver of her soul with the translation spell formula. Quickly and efficiently she finished the inscription and sliced off the newly imprinted soul sliver. Wasting no time, she began the blood kin ritual. Using mana as both the needle and thread, she attached her soul sliver to the dissipating soul. ¡°Give me the mimic meat¡± Velestrya commanded, looking toward Ishitar. Ishitar immediately pulled out the mimic meat from his spatial device and handed it over without saying a word. Velestrya then bit her thumb and willingly let a single drop of blood essence land on the mimic meat. She then brought the mimic meat close to the soul and again, with mana acting as both the needle and thread, she attached the mimic meat to the soul. With her part of the job done, she turned to Ishitar ¡°set up a healing array outside of the soul snare array. I need to rest .¡± Having said what she needed to say, Velestrya then walked out of the array and launched herself into the air, heading toward her cave-dwelling. Kai POV Kai felt confused. I died. I died and now I¡¯m here. He looked down on to his ¡®body¡¯ I¡¯m a blob of light now? How do I even see? I can¡¯t feel anything. Kai tries to speak out loud, only to find out he could not. I guess it could be worse.. Is this what it¡¯s like to be dead? Is this heaven? Kai slowly took notice of his surroundings, starting with the glowing floor. Hm. The floor glows here. Kai tried to bend down and touch the glowing floor. Ah, right. No body.. This is gonna take some getting used to. Kai turned his attention to what was beyond the glowing floor and froze. The sky is red, and I¡¯m surrounded by dragons.. These are definitely dragons. Gigantic lizards with arms and legs and wings. Resplendent scales that seemed able to shine all on their own. Feeling both horror and awe simultaneously was a new experience for him. Kai just stood there, watching the dragons. Do they look like they¡¯re talking to each other, maybe? Suddenly, a dragon with black scales so dark that could only be described as deep bends down and gives me an up-close and personal look to its giant purple-irises. The eye begins to glow and Kai can feel a vague connection form. Kai then hears the same sounds that the dragons were making at each other, but this time the sound was coming from within him. ¡°Holy crap, are you talking to me?! Can you understand me?¡± His only response came as more guttural sounds. ¡°Listen, Mr. Dragon, please don¡¯t eat me. I¡¯m a blob of light and I couldn¡¯t possibly taste good, or be filling in any way. Look, no meat! So please don¡¯t eat me!¡± Kai was practically begging by the end of his sentence and to his surprise, the black stood back up and seemed to start a conversation with a maroon-scaled dragon. I don¡¯t need to feel so scared right? I¡¯m already dead, I can¡¯t feel anything. That¡¯s one positive about not having a body, no pain! But I guess that means no pleasure either, not that I have much experience there. Do I need to eat? What do light blobs eat? Maybe I¡¯m like a plant now and can survive sunlight? Kai began looking for the sun in the bright red sky when he noticed the black dragon put a clawed handout, and out of nowhere, a giant feather appeared in its claws. These dragons are magicians! No pockets, no sleeves and it pulls out a freaking feather as big as I am! The show did not end there, slowly the feather began to glow. Once the feather was fully lit, the black dragon bent down again and as if he were about to write on me, he touched me with the feather. Kai could not make a sound but he was screaming on the inside. The pain was not something he could bear. With no body, he could not lose consciousness. At the place that the feather touched, he could see a tear, and the light he was made out of seeping out of him. His whole world narrowed down to that pain. He did not know, nor did he care about what was going on beyond his pain. He lost all sense of time, and he was begging to die, or whatever happened to light blobs to hurry up and happen so this pain could end. His mind was breaking and still, the pain did not end. Ch. 2 Chapter 2 Wynerva POV 2 weeks later 3 dragons sit outside of the healing array. Piles of mana stones are positioned in place, powering the array. ¡°This is impossible, with all the restrictions I inscribed into the summoning circle, this should not have been able to happen,¡± Ishitar complained. ¡®Idiot boy, how many times have I told you to never make deals with those damn pixies! Nothing good ever comes of it. Thinking of yourself much smarter than you actually are, I must have been too soft on you raising you.¡¯ Wynerva looks over to Ishitar and hits him over the head with her tail. Ishitar saw the hit coming but knew better than to dodge it. Lying inside the healing array was a human, not a dragon. ¡°You know, the strangest part here is not the pixies finding a loophole in your restrictions, no the strangest part is how the souls have combined!¡± Malos said with an excited expression that was almost exclusively reserved for his ¡®projects¡¯. ¡°2 souls cannot simultaneously exist in a single vessel, that is a fundamental rule in soul magic. Even with creatures like ettins or hydras, while each head has its own consciousness, there is never more than 1 soul. Normally when 2 souls are together in a single vessel, one assimilates the other. In cases where one takes a piece of their soul and forces it into a vessel that is already occupied if your piece of soul is powerful enough, it assimilates the original occupant soul and thus you¡¯ve created a soul puppet. By the same token, if the original occupants¡¯ soul assimilates your soul piece instead, they gain whatever knowledge that piece contained and they become stronger for it. This is how inheritances work. But here is a case where neither soul assimilated the other, staying combined but obviously separate as the vessel grew around it. Even now, after the vessel was fully formed, neither is moving against the other. They are co-existing. This is unprecedented!¡± Malos was yelling by the end of his impromptu lesson. His eyes shined like a child who just found his favorite new toy. Ishitar glared at his clanmate ¡°Shut up Malos! No one cares about how abnormal this damn thing is. You should help me think about how to minimize our losses. We need to stop wasting our mana stones powering this array, extract as much of Velestrya¡¯s blood essence from this thing as we can, give both the essence and the soul to Velestrya so she recovers as quickly as possible, and then discard whatever is left over.¡± ¡°NO!¡± both Malos and Wynerva shouted in unison. Malos looked over at Wynerva with surprise and then turned back to face Ishitar once more. ¡°No, Ishitar listen,¡± Malos began ¡°this is a valuable research subject. We need to study this to begin to understand how this happened to further our understanding of soul magic. The first step is letting the subject heal enough to wake up so we can test its cognitive function.¡± ¡®Neither one of these two can think past themselves to see what the sort of opportunity this outcome is. Those damn pixies, there are always so many layers to their schemes. Whatever is the obvious problem with the deal is always a feint. If we allow ourselves to react naturally, we will end up losing more than we realize until it¡¯s too late!¡¯ A crazed look entered Wynerva¡¯s eyes, the same look she gets when she thinks about pixies for a little too long. ¡°No stop.¡± She said interrupting their argument. Both Malos and Ishitar turn to her, silently noting her crazed expression. ¡°Have I not taught you anything about pixies? Have you learned nothing from my first-hand accounts and all the records stored in the Dream Pillar?¡± Her expression becoming more crazed as she continued. ¡°We must not react as they would expect, now that a deal was struck, this has become a battle! And to beat a pixie, we must become a pixie! Doing what seems natural to us is a path that only leads to frustration and insanity!¡± Ishitar and Malos shared a look, but neither dared interrupt. ¡°Any right-minded dragon would destroy this human as quickly as possible and hide the shame of what they did. The pixies know this, so why send a human? Why didn¡¯t they send us something that looked like a dragon, or even a dragon with a less obvious defect? Maybe a cannibalistic dragon? Or a dragon that is already subservient to one of the lesser races, and the moment we send it to Origin, it will immediately find a master and alert them about our escape attempts? And no son, it¡¯s not because the restrictions you placed on your circle were done so well that they could not find any other loophole to exploit,¡± Wynerva said, sending a look toward Ishitar.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Then why mother?¡± Ishitar prompted, knowing it was what she wanted. ¡°Because they want us, by our own volition, to destroy this human. This human must have the potential to be a key that could open up the way for us to get out of here, and here we are ready to destroy it. Or if one of our more soft-hearted brethren did let it live, it would be as a servant of some sort. Letting its status among us build resentment in its heart, either keeping it from reaching its potential or outright refusing to open the way. No. For us to win here, we must treat it as one of our own. Must treat HIM as one of us,¡± she corrected herself. ¡°From this moment on, HE is a dragon. Do you both understand?¡± ¡°Mother..¡± Ishitar started, ¡°Mother, that sounds crazy. Let¡¯s fly over to your cave, rest awhile and we¡¯ll go over all this again after.¡± Ishitar braced himself for the hit he knew was coming. *Thump* ¡°Boy, do not forget that this mess was made by you. This is your fault. How many times have I warned against the use of pixies? Have you not learned what happens when you don¡¯t listen to your mother? You think that because you¡¯re a little bigger and have your own cave that you suddenly know better? That I¡¯m old so I must be going senile?¡± *Thump* *Thump* ¡°Mother, wait¡± *Thump* ¡°Stop!¡± *Thump* *Thump* ¡°Listen to me! Of course I know you¡¯re not senile, but convincing the rest of the clan to go along with your plan is going to be next to impossible! Malos, tell her!¡± Ishitar sends a pleading look to Malos. Only to receive a conflicted look from Malos back. That conflicted look quickly shifts to resolve, and Malos replies ¡°I agree with Wynerva¡± Ishitar is momentarily slack-jawed, he gets in Malos¡¯ face and lets his anger erupt. ¡°MALOS! THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE THINKING ABOUT YOUR DAMN RESEARCH!!¡± Malos simply turned his head, completely ignoring the outburst. Ishitar stands straight up, flares out his wing, stretches his neck out as far as it¡¯ll go, and roars as loud and for as long as his vocal cords and lungs will allow. Wynerva and Malos sit silently, watching Ishitar finish his roar, retract his wings, and sit down. Ishitar looks at them and asks, ¡°who¡¯s telling Velestrya she adopted a human?¡± Malos responds with his dead-fish expression. ¡®Boy, you¡¯re the one who still needs a good beating. We¡¯ll see which of us ¡°needs to go home and rest¡±.¡¯ Wynerva wore a stern expression but inwardly she grinning like a cat playing with its food, ¡°Boy, again, this is your mess. You¡¯re an adult now, remember? You should be able to handle it¡± Ishitar sighed, his shoulders slumped, and was feeling the pangs of a budding headache come. One that had nothing to do with the thumps that were given to him moments ago. Velestrya POV 2 dragons landed in front of her cave entrance. Velestrya stood up groggily, gold coins and gems scattered as she tried to make her way out of her nest. ¡®I¡¯m so tired¡¯ Velestrya made it out of her horde-room and continued out toward her cave entrance to greet her guests. ¡°Mother, Ishitar¡±, she said in way of greeting, giving each a quick nod. She noticed Ishitar¡¯s nervousness. Her eyes sharpened, and the fog her mind was under from her recent sleep cleared. ¡°What happened? Is the child alright? Do you need more mana stones?¡± She quickly fired question after question. Listening to his sister, Ishitar¡¯s nervousness only seemed to grow. ¡°No, no all is well, we are just here to check up on you little sister.¡± Wynerva snorted at her son¡¯s reply. ¡®Does this fool think I was born yesterday?¡¯ Velestrya glared at her brother. Her eyes filled with the promise of violence to come if he does not quickly explain himself. ¡°Little sister-¡± ¡°Velestrya! Call me by my name or title as Matriarch and stop trying to engender familial feelings and get straight to the point!¡± Ishitar sighed and continued, ¡°Velestrya. There was a problem with the summoning. The pixies must¡¯ve found a loophole in the restrictions I inscribed. They did not bring us a dragon.¡± ¡°What did they bring us?¡± Velestrya asked. ¡°The problems don¡¯t end there. I was trying to minimize our losses and extract your blood essence out of-¡± ¡°WHAT. DID. THEY. BRING. US.¡± Velestrya enunciated each word. ¡°They brought us a human.¡± Ishitar closed his eyes and braced for the explosion he knew was coming. ¡°A MONKEY? THEY BROUGHT US A MONKEY? THEY TOOK SO MANY OF THE CLANS RESOURCES FOR A MONKEY? I ADOPTED A MONKEY?!?!¡± Velestrya screamed. ¡°Well, a human is slightly better than a monk-¡± ¡°SHUT UP ISHITAR!! This is all your fault! This was your idea!¡± *Thump Thump Thump* Velestrya attacked her brother, Ishitar continued to brace himself, letting his sister vent her anger on him. After Velestrya seemed to calm down a bit, Ishitar continued, ¡°So this isn¡¯t the only problem. I want to extract your blood essence from it so you can heal faster, but mother doesn¡¯t want us to kill it. She wants us to treat it like a clanmate.¡± Velestrya turned to her mother in shock. ¡°Mother. What is he talking about?¡± Wynerva sighed and explained her reasoning to her daughter. ¡°Mother, Ishitar isn¡¯t completely wrong. It¡¯s going to be difficult to convince the rest of the clan to get on board with this.¡± Wynerva sighed, ¡°I know dear, but you understand where I¡¯m coming from with this, right?¡± ¡®Not at all.¡¯ ¡°Yes mother, I do. We¡¯ll need to call a council meeting. I¡¯ll need the council¡¯s help to enforce this. ¡± Wynerva nodded along, ¡°yes, dear, I know. I¡¯m just glad I have your support. I¡¯ll call in some favors to prepare for the meeting. After getting everything organized, I¡¯ll come to get you. So rest well dear,¡± And with that, Wynerva exited the cave and launched herself into the air. Ishitar walked up and asked, ¡°Do you really believe this human is the key, or has mom finally lost it?¡± A scathing glare from Velestrya was the only response he could get.