We suddenly heard the loud noise of a large door opening. All the lights came on almost immediately, and my eyes, which had slowly adapted to the relative darkness, were blinded by the reflection of a chandelier in the window. We heard the voices of a few people echoing in the room. I started thinking as fast as I could. Either the mages had somehow learned of our presence, or they were simply starting their work day early. Both cases meant that we had to leave this place, and be quick about it.

I turned back to look at Lucyna, expecting to find her equally startled, but she seemed to have kept her calm. She was already putting back the book in its place. The voices were getting louder though, so she quickly came back to me, and with a finger on her mouth signalled me to stay quiet. She then proceeded to lay a hand on my shoulder, and closed her eyes.

I had to suppress a gasp. She had just disappeared in front of me. For a split second, I was scared she had used some kind of spell to transport us somewhere else, but had failed to take me with her. But this wasn’t possible, I was still feeling the comfort of her hand on my shoulder. Could it be…?

I looked at my arms, only to see nothing in their place. Examining further my body, my guess turned out to be right: she had made us both invisible. I still felt the exact same way as before; if anything, it seemed like my senses were even more alert, but I wasn’t sure whether this was due to me now being a girl, or maybe a dragon, or simply to her spell. Her fingers slid from my shoulder to my hand, and she gently dragged me towards the central alley.

I took a peek behind the bookshelves, to see who the voices belonged to. On the other side of the Archives, I could see a small group of mages, and the echoes of their conversation were faintly reaching us. “They’ve sent … carrier pigeon, and I’m sorry … couldn’t find the sword. A young guard has also … for its disappearance, but it’s still too...” It took me a few seconds to realise they were talking about me.

Lucyna pulled on my invisible hand, and I followed her towards the roof exit. We silently went back up the ladder and stairs, and once we’d reached the top, she finally let go of my hand, and we both became visible again. 

“So they’ve noticed the sword is gone, apparently,” she whispered. “Took them long enough.”

“What do I do now?” I inquired. “They will probably try to search for me, but I guess they can’t recognise me now that I look like… this, right?”

“They definitely can’t,” she reassured me, “but in any case, we’re going somewhere safe for now.”

As we were about to leave, I couldn’t help but notice that the door leading to the roof was still lying on the floor, broken in two halves, from when Lucyna had smashed it a few hours earlier.

“Can we do anything about this?” I asked. “It will probably lead to an investigation, and I really don’t want innocent people to get accused.”

Lucyna pondered for a few seconds. “Well, this door is made out of wood, so I could try repairing it with an elemental spell. The problem is, it might take some time. I only know the basics of elemental magic, but there’s no harm in trying. The mages have no idea we’re here.”

She sat down cross-legged on the floor, next to the broken door, and placed a hand on each of the two pieces. Within seconds, a faint and flickering green light appeared at one end of the fracture in the door, and very slowly began creeping up along the crack. I sat down next to Lucyna, trying to stay as silent as possible to let her concentrate. I finally had some time to process everything that had just happened.

So I was a girl now, apparently. That was a change. In the past, I had thought of gender as something one would only be born with, leaving out any real choice. It was never something that was questioned, by me or anyone else for that matter. But after all the questions Lucyna had asked me, followed by her explanation of the Dragonblade’s purpose, I could only see it as a simple part of one’s identity, like any other; a part that could differ from one’s appearance, or even change over time. Ultimately, if people could, say, grow their beards out because it made them feel better, why could they not appear as a different gender for the same reason? Of course, it was a big, and quite sudden change, but appearing as a girl was making me feel so light, so much more like a person rather than some… creature, or something. And it made sense; it was undeniably what I wanted to look like, and knowing that, the Dragonblade had introduced the changes accordingly.

However, I was less certain about the dragon part. Lucyna had assured me the changes would come sooner or later, but that it could take a bit of time in some cases. I was still worried, though; I had not taken the sword in hopes of becoming a dragon, I had never even seen one, and hadn’t known anything about them as a people before meeting Lucyna. It made me feel like I was intruding, like I didn’t deserve to be one of them, and I was trying not to think about how I would be received upon arriving at the settlement her sister lived in.

But for now, our priority was to get there. Lucyna was confident her sister was still alive, and she wanted to see her again more than anything. And even though I had some anxiety, I couldn’t deny that I was curious to know what the dragons were up to nowadays. I was eager to learn more about them, even after my brain had been fed so much new knowledge in such a short time.

After a few minutes, the light had almost crossed the whole width of the door, leaving behind nothing but healed wood. I was looking mindlessly down the stairs, where Lucyna had cast a spell before me for the first time earlier, when I suddenly remembered something she had said at the time. The ability to use magic was a perk that came with being a dragon. Did this apply to me? I mean, I wasn’t really a dragon, or at least not yet. I had no horns, or tail, or any non-human features. I was just a normal girl—oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that, aaaaaaa it felt so good—but if I was truly becoming a dragon, did this mean I would gain magic abilities? Lucyna used to be human, and she could do magic. I wondered if she’d had to train her skills, or if it was something innate. I’d always thought of spells, potions, and all things magical as part of some unattainable science that only the royal mages could master, and although I had no reason to doubt that I'd be able to use it in time, I still found it hard to believe.

We put the door back in its place the best we could, Lucyna changed into her dragon form, and we headed south, towards the settlement. Lucyna knew its location; it was the same place she had lived in centuries ago, and now that she knew the war hadn’t destroyed it, she was flying noticeably quicker. My hair had grown so long that it reached down to the middle of my back, and feeling it gently brush my shoulders as the wind blew was somehow even more of an intoxicating feeling than before. The sun had fully risen, and it wasn’t cold anymore, so I'd taken off my now tight and uncomfortable jacket, only keeping my linen undertunic on. I was still slightly apprehensive about meeting the dragons, but the exhilaration that I was experiencing, all these new sensations and feelings, overwhelmed my anxiety.

As good as all of this felt, I wanted more. I wanted to be a dragon, and to fly by myself. I wanted to travel more, and to see the whole world from above. I had never left Halminor before joining the royal guard, and although the trip to the outpost had been arduous, seeing new regions and landscapes was something that had kept me going. I wanted to fly to the far reaches of the kingdom, and perhaps see the neighbouring countries of which I didn't even know the names.

My head felt almost heavy from anticipation.

✦ ✦ ✦

It must have been around noon, and we had arrived above a dark forest. The hills that had made up the landscape until now were taller, and the terrain looked rugged and uneven. From our altitude, we could see the ocean far away in the distance.

“The entrance is in this clearing,” Lucyna indicated while initiating our descent.

“The entrance?”

“We need to hide ourselves, and this forest provides a first layer of protection. The settlement itself is not visible from the sky.”

“Not visible? Is there an invisibility spell that can hide an entire village?” I asked with curiosity.

“You will see!” she playfully replied.

We got even lower, and finally landed in the middle of the large clearing in the forest. The trees looked almost abnormally tall and had dense foliage, so much so that I couldn’t make out anything further than ten metres into the obscurity. Walking into the darkness kind of worried me, but thankfully, Lucyna headed for a couple of large rocks on the edge of the trees. I followed her, and before long, we were standing before the access to some kind of tunnel.

“Are we going underground?” I asked with excitement.

She smiled, and walked in without a word.

This was definitely an inhabited place: The tunnel was clean, with an earthen floor and moss growing out on the humid walls. Every few metres, a torch was fixed to the stone and lit up by itself as we passed. We walked like this for a few minutes, going deeper into the earth, and finally reached the end.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. The end of the tunnel gave way to a gigantic cave. It wasn’t dark inside, though; cracks in the ceiling allowed some rays of light to rain down upon small wooden houses located here and there in the cavern. They were linked together by small paths and stairs carved in the stone, and there were plants everywhere, like I’d never seen before. Large vines sprouted out between the walls, and were decorated with colourful pieces of fabric. There was a small stream of clear water coming out from the side, and the ground was mostly covered in grass everywhere, with rocks peeking out occasionally.

As I admired the view from above, loud bells began to ring all of a sudden, and their sounds echoed in the cave for several seconds. I was petrified. Our arrival had been noticed.

In an instant, the doors of most houses had sprang open, and shadows had taken flight, coming at us from all directions.

Within seconds, we were surrounded by dragons. I was way too intimidated to talk or even move, so I ended up simply looking at them shyly. They all looked different, but each and everyone of them had at least a few things in common: each one had horns, of various shapes and sizes, and a tail. Some had scales on their body, and some had fur. Otherwise, they all appeared to be regular people. A few of them were looking at me with curiosity, but most were just staring at Lucyna, a complete look of shock on their faces.

She risked a few words. “Hello, uhmm… I’m back! Is… Is Lirina here?”

After exchanging a few words in a whisper, everyone backed off to give us some more space. Only one of them didn’t.

She had similarly-shaped horns to Lucyna, and her tail was also covered in fur. Her eyes were full of tears.

The two sisters looked at each other without a word.

In the blink of an eye, Lirina had bridged the gap between them and was holding Lucyna in a tight embrace, sobbing quietly.

I had no idea what to do, so I kind of just stood there.

Lirina finally spoke. “Lucyna…” Her voice was elegant, softer and deeper than her sister’s. “Whatever happened to you… Welcome home.”

✦ ✦ ✦

The last week had certainly been eventful. Upon meeting Lirina, the first thing I had done was to return the sword to its people. It had finished its work; my transformation had ended shortly before arriving at the settlement. I hadn’t noticed it straight away, and it was only when I’d looked into a mirror, in Lirina’s home where she was letting us stay while our own cabins were being built, that I had noticed my newly gained dragon attributes. Lucyna and her sister had laughed way too much at my ‘that’s why my head’s been feeling heavier’ realisation. Regardless, I was so pretty. I had less trouble accepting I actually looked like this, now. These scaly dark red horns and tail were beautiful, and the small concerns I had at the start had almost immediately gone away. They felt right, moving my tail was so natural, and now that I finally had some proper clothes—kindly donated by some similarly-sized people from the community—I could finally, effortlessly, be myself.

Lirina had offered to teach me the basics of magic. It turned out that the sword had indeed given me this new ability, and my teacher had soon been impressed by my skills in elemental spells, which, she’d explained, was a way of interacting with nature through magic.

Today was different, however. The rainy clouds of the last few days had finally cleared out, and the two sisters would finally help me take to the skies for the first time.

As we walked back up to the surface early in the morning, I was bubbling with excitement. We arrived in the clearing, and Lirina began the class. “The first step, of course, is to turn into your full dragon form. A common way to achieve this is by closing your eyes, and imagining yourself flying, or freefalling. The dragon part of your soul should react by protecting you, taking over the human one. Are you ready to try?”

I was more than ready, so I firmly nodded, and closed my eyes. My thoughts went back to when I’d been travelling on Lucyna’s back. I concentrated as much as I could, and imagined myself jumping in the void below.

I didn’t feel anything happen, and opened my eyes, ready to try again. Lucyna was smiling, though. “Yay! You did it, aaaaah I’m so proud of you!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands.

She was right. Although I hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary at first, I had obviously changed. Moving my body in this new form weirdly didn’t feel too different from before, and I examined myself. My skin was entirely covered in dark red scales, my tail and horns were bigger, and wings had grown from my back. I could pretty much move them as I would an additional pair of arms, but again, it didn’t seem unnatural. Overall, I now looked like… well, an actual dragon. “Wow. I can really sense that I’m not meant to be on the ground like this. My movements feel so slow!”

“Which is where the second part comes in,” Lirina said with a smile. “This place is large enough to take off by running, which is much safer for beginners.”

She went into her dragon form herself, and gave me a demonstration. She ran for a few seconds, her wings folded on her back, then deployed and started flapping them, making her leave the ground almost immediately.

She came back down, and it was my turn to try. I wasn’t scared in the slightest, so I picked up some speed—running was as intuitive as in my regular body—and Lirina did the same next to me, to ensure I made no mistakes.

I spread my wings, and looked down to see the ground get away from me—then get closer again at an alarming rate.

It took me a few attempts to figure out how to control my vertical speed, but I ended up getting only slightly bruised. After a few hours, I could finally fly for real. I thought I had a pretty good idea of how this would feel like, when I was on Lucyna’s back, but this was even better than anything I’d imagined. The sensation was very new, and although I certainly had a lot of room for improvement, I was finally truly free.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Would you like some tea?” I asked my guests.

I had practised for a while, and my teachers had already seen a lot of progress in my flying skills. We were back underground now, after a full day of training. My own home was finally ready; I’d built it during the last few days with the help of around a dozen volunteers. I’d invited everyone over to thank them, and to celebrate at the same time.

I poured a cup for each of my friends. This was a good time to ask something that I’d been wondering ever since we’d arrived here. “So what are you planning to do, now that the Dragonblade is back in the hands of its people?”

“Well, I think most of us have been wanting to fight back, especially those who were already there during the war,” Lucyna replied. “Actually, we probably would have done so sooner had we known the full picture.”

“What was the reason you didn’t?” I inquired.

“We didn’t know quite how much magical knowledge the government had lost,” she replied bluntly. “At the time, they had enough power to drive us away, but now, we can afford to be more carefree. And we also have this!” she said happily, bringing the sword under the light. “So I think our first step is to make some noise so that people learn more about us and what it means to be a dragon.”

“You know, I’m surprised the leadership of this country hasn’t learned anything in five centuries.”

“Yeah, that’s usually how it is with governments,” she sighed. “It’s really about time we change things up.”

I sipped my tea with bliss. It turned out, now that I was surrounded by people like me, that being alone wasn’t so appealing anymore. As Lirina had put it, it was time to change things up.

It was time for a revolution.

Luna_C

Thank you so much for reading <3
I really hope you enjoyed this little story, some of my future works might share the same universe!

In the meantime, thanks to my friends Fanny, Rosa, Alisys, Elyrr, and @Querelle for giving early feedback. Special thanks to @SaffronDragon and @TrismegistusShandy for the massive amount of proof-reading they did on this story, please do check them out.