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--- Sally ---

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“I still can’t believe that you two are cousins. What are the chances of that?” I asked Orion as we sat in our tiny room, waiting for the evening.

“We didn’t really see each other that much, he and his father lived in Scandinavia and only visited once or twice.” He answered, leaving me to wonder how likely it was for two people who were related to get beamed up into this place out of the eight billion or so other people seems impossible. Well, I suppose it’s just improbable, not impossible.

“I didn’t like him.” He stated, confirming the obvious outcome of anybody who has to be around him for a long period of time.

We fell into a comfortable silence as the sun slowly set outside, and the time got closer for the party. I felt anxious about it, the chance to prove myself, that it was just the bond messing with me and nothing else.

I wasn’t exactly eager to hang out with Derick’s crowd of people, but it was something other than the constant depressing mulling over my existence as a whole. Though tonight was my opportunity to prove otherwise, that I wasn’t weird or an outcast, and to assert that I was normal. Hopefully this damn necklace would do what it said it could do, not just sit there and look pretty.

Eventually it was time, and we put Aylin to bed, thankfully she could sleep alone for a while now. But what was most surprising was that Orion didn’t want to stay upstairs.

“Can I come with?” he asked just before I left, the man staring awkwardly at my fleeing form.

“Uhm… you sure?” I hesitantly asked, I felt a bit guilty about it but I didn’t really want Orion to be there. He embodies the bond and all of the problems it brings, he’s the reason why I want to go, to show that I could be normal for once, and not that touchy freak. I didn’t want the bond to mess that up, again.

“Yes.”

“Okay, I’m not too sure if you’ll enjoy it, but feel free to come along.” I caved, and the two of us descended the stairs, the raucous shouting leading us to the already drinking groups of people. I spotted Grace, siting at a booth with another girl and decided that there’s my opportunity to try and set in stone who I am.

I left Orion behind in a crowd, the quiet Ranger quickly getting lost and confused in the unfamiliar environment as I waltzed over to the group. I jumped up onto an empty seat next to Grace and almost spilled the drink she was sipping, the liquor smelling like cleaning agents.

“Hi Sally! Ready to have some fun?”The already drunk girl slurred, and she seemed a lot more carefree than before, like a weight on her shoulders had been forgotten about.

“Yeah! It’s what I’m here for.” I enthusiastically responded, and as I did she pulled a flask out from under her jacket and from the smell it was filled with the same stuff she was drinking.

“Made it myself!”

“Nope, I’m technically a child, remember?” I sighed, and while a part of me was tempted to accept it just to see what happens, I wasn’t going to risk it.

“Sh!t, forgot about that.” she nervously laughed as she shoved it back in her jacket.

“Your a kid? How’s that work?” One of her friends said, from her accent and ebony skin that was the inverted version of Grace’s peak paleness, I’d assume that she was Ethiopian.

“When I got dragged here I got a new body, hatched out of an egg and everything.” I happily explained, the girl nodding, the motion dragging my eyes to her bald head. I hadn’t ever seen the style in person before, but I’ve got to say that it suits her.

“So did you have two dragon parents?” she asked, the simple words dredging up bad memories.

“… I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Amen to that.” She replied with a chuckle, thankfully raising the mood from the low it’d reached a second ago. With a bit of a break in the conversation I remembered what I came here for and took a breath to calm my anxious heart.

The girl in front of me looked and seemed nice, she should work. But how do you hit on somebody? I’d never really thought about it before. Maybe a compliment? Is that how it works?

“Like your hair, it’s beautiful look.” I genuinely complimented her, but then she gave me a quizzical look, like she didn’t really understand why I said that. It then occurred to me that complimenting her hair, or lack of it might’ve might’ve been stupid.

“Uhm… What’s the saying? Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery?” I jokingly said, the girl glancing at my scaly body before getting my joke and laughing heartily.

“You’re funny. You want anything Grace?” she asked as she stood up from the booth. Grace gave her an incredulous look as she poured liqueur into her glass and the Ethiopian gave her a shrug as she turned to get herself another drink.

“I think that went well.” I commented to Grace as she downed the glass without wincing.

“What went well, saying hi?”

“Well I mean the, y’know.” I tried to say before I got nervous, and just did random hand movements.

“What?”

“f-f-flirting” I whispered, Grace turning, slowly enough that I could swear that I could hear her bones creaking. We held eye contact for a few stressful moments before she burst out laughing, loudly enough that a few other people around us turned and stared at her.

“Wait, you’re serious aren’t you.” she giggled.

“Was is that bad?”

“Eh, it’s more that it really didn’t feel like that.” She explained, leaving me more confused than shocked.

“What? Why?” I sputtered.

“Well I mean, when you talked to her you were polite. You maintained eye contact, you didn’t even look at her tits. And they ‘aint small.”

“I thought that’d be rude.”

"Politeness is great and all. But not exactly how you flirt with someone, you sounded like you were talking with a colleague. And you’re kind of… eh?” she said with a familiar hand gesture, her wrist floppy as she waved her hand forward.

“What? I’m not eh.” I angrily replied with a floppy wrist of my own, did I come across as gay? The whole point of this was to not do that.

“Suuuure. It’s just that your not masculine, I thought you were a women before we started talking and your whole posture is the opposite of BIG MAN!” she drunkenly answered with puffing out her chest like a pigeon and broadening her shoulders like a caricature of an army sergeant.

I looked down at myself and realised that I’d draped myself over the table with my wrist now unironically loose with a single claw resting against the table. I don’t know what male dragons look like, but its probably not this. I sighed and drooped fully onto the table, feeling depressed as the other girl returned to the table with a wooden mug of something.

“Besiiiides, why are you trying so hard to get in a relationship? Isn’t your body still a baby or something. Can you even feel ro-man-tic-al?” She asked as I tried to shush her from airing my embarrassment in front of her.

“The girl having relationship troubles Grace? Why’s she in such a rush? Has she got something to prove?” The women practically shouted at me, a melancholic and bitter feeling overtaking me as I covered my eyes with my talons.

“Her pronouns are he *hic* slash him Jacky.” Grace ‘corrected’ her, leaving me to wonder if it was even the bond making me like this. Was I just stuck as this person for the rest of my life, delegated to being a weirdo. Can I even blame the bond anymore?

“And he’s sailing up the river De-nial.”

Is this just who I am, unable to change and escape it. But the thing that make me feel so hopeless was how I just forgot about it constantly, and I can’t just say it’s the bond, the other half of it is being depressed in the corner of the room like a broody noir detective.

Though the thing that confused me the most was how… I couldn’t stop. This part of me I should despise just seemed like my base state, the set of habits I’d fall into the moment I relaxed.

“I think I’m going to go somewhere else.” I muttered to Grace as I slid off of the bench.

“Feel free to come back little guy!” Jacky said as I left, the two girls immediately jumping back into some conversation full of drunken nonsense.

I walked aimlessly around the tavern’s floor, unsure as to what to do now. I felt like I could just go and join Orion moping in the corner, but that’d just be giving in to the bond. But I couldn’t go back to Grace and Jacky, I’d already lost on that front.

I felt like I was slowly suffocating, the ability to return to who I was before I became a dragon seemed to be slipping away as I sunk deeper into my new reality. It was like I’d become a formless mass underneath my scales, an indecisive mess of emotions.

Why is it so hard just be him? The me who got me through high school, the one who could tolerate the bullsh!t from every annoying teenager who’d crossed him. Where’s he gone, why was it so hard don his skin, his persona again?

Why were my attempts to be normal again ringing so hollow, so insincere?

Why did I feel like sh!t whenever I tried?

Why-

“Oh look who it is! Sally, finally ready to come to the other side?” Derick’s snide voice broke me out of my miserable musings. I looked up from the floorboards for the first time in a few minutes and stared at Derick’s grinning face and a table full of his friends. Well I guess talking to them couldn’t be worse than dissolving from inner turmoil.

“Sure, why not?” I mumbled as I jumped up onto an empty bar stool, making me about head height with the five loud boys.

“Guys, guys, this is Sally, the dragon I was talking about.” Derick eagerly introduced me, the other men oohing and ahhing in understanding.

“So, you guys all adventurers, killing monster n’ stuff?” I asked them, the men nodding.

“So what’s with the collar? You into that weird stuff?” One of them blurted out, the comment so out of left field that it made me flinch.

“What? No? Its a-”

“you some kind of sex slave?” Another one interrupted me, with mixture of disgust and excitement that it made me feel a bit nauseous.

“Why would you-”

“Are you doing gay stuff with your owner?”

“…” I fell silent as they started to talk amongst themselves about how much of a f@ggot Orion and I were. Was this really what I wanted? Friends like these while acting just as obnoxious as them to make sure I wasn’t the next one thrown under the bus.

Is this the way I used to be? A desperate spectre of a person chasing this sh!tty conversation?

Should I still be trying to be the man?

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--- Orion ---

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Everything was loud. I didn’t like it.

I wasn’t sure how anybody could like it, the shouting and how everything was sticky. Why are my shoes sticking to every floorboard is a question I don’t know the answer to.

I took glance around the room, spotting a couple of faces that I recognised, but most of them blurred together into a formless mass of chattering mouths and glassy eyeballs. I fiddled with my hands as I waited for this night to be over, the reason I was here still made me feel torn.

To make sure Sally didn’t think I was lesser than the rest of these people. I wasn’t sure why he cared for these kinds of things, why he cared more about the people who went to these things. But if it meant that there was less of a chance of Sally leaving Aylin and me behind, then I’ll do it.

But it was one thing to go to a party and another kind of beast to actively participate.

“Hey Oriooon!” I heard an obviously drunken voice call out and I turned towards it, spotting Grace, the reason I have to be in this environment and a friend of hers sitting at a booth.

I walked over to the pair, and immediately noticed that Sally wasn’t there, my thoughts wandering to where he could’ve gone.

“Come on, have a drink big guy!” Grave continued to shout too loudly, the sound sending discomfort fanging through my mind like white lightning. When I didn’t sit down immediately, she reached over and pulled me in, the sudden action was abrupt to catch me off guard and I fell onto the seat next to her.

“I’m surprised you’re here, I thought you’d’ve hated this shtuff.” the Irish women slurred.

“…” I stared blankly at her, unsure what kind of response I should give her.

“That looks like a yes.” her friend commented, and I took a moment to observe her. She was obviously a fighter of some kind, taught and well formed muscles moved just underneath her ebony skin whenever she reached for her drink. The faint scars on her hands suggested weapon training from a young age.

She was dangerous.

“Have a drink!” she said as she grabbed a mug and passed it over to Grace, knocking over a few empty ones in the process. Maybe she would be a threat if she was sober.

Grace filled the mug with something out of her jacket pocket and passed it to me. The liquid was clear and went I smelt it, I felt my nostrils burn with the strong medical smell.

“What is this?” I asked the women, the two of the giving me a perplexed look before Grace gave me a sharp grin.

“Just drink it, it should make you a bit more, relaxed?” Grace said as she put her hand underneath my cup and pushed it towards my mouth, and titled it back as soon as it touched my lips.

I swallowed as soon as the liquid hit my mouth, and luckily I didn’t taste it until after it’d hit my belly. I sputtered as the mouthful of liquid burned its way down my throat, it tasted like medicine made to hurt.

“Why?” I coughed with tears in my eyes, Grace’s drunken grin growing wider as she poured more into my wooden mug.

“It’s a-a-a-a, potion of confidence.” she answered, making me wonder if any of her other concoctions taste this foul and artificial.

“Why would you need it?”

“pshhh, it makes the night more fun! I’m sure it’ll help you relax a bit.” she reassured me and I decided to believe her, if it makes this environment a bit more bearable it should be worth it.

I pinched my nose and downed the second cup of the foul liquid, my stomach feeling upset as the drink settled.

“I didn’t expect you to just down a second cup of liqueur.” the warrior said with a bit of shock, leaving me a bit confused, how could you stand sipping this drink?

“This guy knows how to drink! Up for another one.” Grace tried to spur me on, but I shook my head to stop her from pouring me more. Though the motion made me feel nauseous, like my brain was floating in gel and it spun freely whenever I moved too fast.

“Let him at least digest the first two. He’s not an alcoholic like you.” The warrior thankfully intervened, as I breathed deeply as I tried to stop my head from feeling worse.

“Is this… Alcohol?” I asked slowly, the realisation that I’d had drunk that thing my father occasionally talked about, I didn’t realise that it tasted this foul.

“Yes? Have you not drunk before.” Grace asked incredulously, which I feel like should be obvious.

I sat there silently as the two women talked more, the topics changing as quickly as they got through drinks. Soon my stomach and head settled, enough that I could listen to the conversation without feeling sick. And it made everything seem… slower, softer. The loud noises where less abrasive, blurred into an unrecognised yet softer mess.

“How ya feel’n, big fella’?” Grace unsteadily asked me.

“Feels like I have a fever, but I’m not in any pain and there’s no fever.”

“I haven’t heard that before, feels accurate though.” the warrior responded, and they quickly resumed their conversation, their words quickly joining the background haze.

But before I could completely zone out of the world around me, I noticed Sally sitting at a table with Derick and some of his friends. Out of curiosity I tried to listen, I ignored the possible head ache and used <Hunter’s senses> to separate the conversation from the background.

“So what’s with the collar? You into that weird stuff?” One of them said, and Sally tried to speak back but was cut off by one of the other men, saying more foul things than the first.

And then another and another man said things more depraved than the last, calling Sally a sex slave and worse. Why was he just standing there, taking these words without saying anything at all, why didn’t he fight back with half of the vigour he scolded himself for doing things much less serious.

An unfamiliar anger started to simmer in my belly. It was a mix of confusion revolving about why Sally would willingly sit with them yet be disgusted if he touched people incorrectly and raw frustration. Anger that these people just have the audacity to say these things to Sally and act like it was normal, like they had the right to belittle him.

I listen for a few more seconds of their insults before I stood up, the empty mugs on the table rattling as I pushed it away from me. The conversation between the girls abruptly stopped as they both noticed my abrupt actions.

“… What’s he doing?” The warrior whispered to her friend, thinking that it was quiet enough that I wouldn’t hear it.

“I think he’s angry, but it’s reaaally hard to tell.” Grace whispered back. I ignored the both of them and started walking towards Sally and the group of men. I felt unstable, the most out of control I’d been for a while, my heart a manic beat as I opened the system.

[Sensing intent to change your title from <Silent Killer> to <You think your tuff big guy?

>

Is this correct?]

yes.

The title change wasn’t something I could immediately feel, but I did feel an unusual amount of confidence. But that might just be the alcohol.

It only took a moment for me to reach Travis, my hand grabbing the front of his shirt and shoving him against the table before I caught myself. I found myself forcing him to lean backwards over the table as I shoved him backwards, our faces uncomfortably close together as he sputtered in confusion.

“What the fuck do you think your-” One of Travis’s friends started to say, the childish man walking towards me with a closed fist raised. He looked like an idiotic child, his thumb tucked underneath the fingers. He couldn’t have ever thrown a punch before, otherwise he’d know that’d break his thumb.

It picked at piece of me that I’d forgotten about, the bruises my Father gave me for making that mistake weren’t pleasant memories.

He swung wildly and was annoyingly easy to dodge, the fist swinging by my face as the drunkard stumbled towards me. With my spare hand that wasn’t holding the paralysed Travis, I grabbed the man’s head and slammed it into the table, creating a new dent in the wood.

“Try not to hurt yourself before I can.” I scolded him as he stumbled away, clutching his forehead in pain as blood dripped from new wound. I looked back at Travis, he was already a bit shorter than me normally and I’d pushed him even lower as I leaned closer.

“What do you want you fucking dickhead.” Travis tried to shout at me, but his voice broke near the end, reminding me that he’s just… him.

“Stop bothering Sally.” I tried to calmly tell him, but my anger made it come out a bit strangled. He paled a bit further and I let him go, I think he got the message and I was tempted to ask to make sure, but I didn’t think it would be appropriate. I’ll ask Sally later to check.

I let go of his shirt and he fell back onto the table, scrambling to get his feet back underneath him before he fell of the table onto the floor. He breathed heavily as I passively watched him struggle, there was something therapeutic about watching him flail like a fish, helpless and suffoca-

No, that’s a bit much, watching him squirm is enough.

“Should we go?” I asked Sally as I turned to him, the dragon staring at me in shock and disbelief. I guess that was a bit out of character for me, but something about this night felt more loose. Like I could do anything, even punch Travis in the face.

“What are you looking at? Haven’t you done enough?” Travis spat hatefully. Maybe I could still punch him.

“We should go.” Sally repeated with certainty before he himself jumped off the stool he was on and walked over to the girls I was with earlier. But I could swear that there was something wrong with his necklace, it looked like it was glowing a little bit.

[<hand to hand combat>’s level has increased to nine.]

Oh, that’s good.

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--- Sally ---

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I led Orion back to our table feeling more invigorated than I had in a long time, steadier. And Orion had surprised me for the first time in a long time, brutally slamming someone’s head into a table and reducing Travis to stammering mess. It was almost endearing how aggressively he came to my defence, acting how people assume he should when they see his height and might.

Though it was strange how his dorkiness still lingered underneath, I could just tell somehow the things he said weren’t meant to be intimidating, but requests.

‘Try not to hurt yourself before I can.’ I’ve only ever heard statements like that said as threats, but I think he genuinely meant it.

We arrived at the table and I threw away my thoughts on Orion, he was a puzzle that I kept on thinking was simple, yet there was always another layer every time I thought I’d solved it.

“Can you still stand Grace?” I jokingly asked the drunk Irish woman, the empty flask abandoned on the table as wobbled back and forth while sitting down.

“I sh’tink so?” She drunkenly slurred, waving her hand around with nonsense motions.

“Shouldn’t we be stopping her?” I asked the other two people at the table, Jacky shaking her head as she watched Grace drink even more.

“Her tolerance is up there, and I don’t think she wants to drink reasonable amounts.” Jacky explained, a tinge of regret in her voice.

I stopped poking at the obvious sore point as an unfamiliar excitement started to occupy my mind. The realisation I had just before Orion interrupted the group of men insulting me left me lost to as to what I should do next.

I don’t really feel like ‘proving’ who I am anymore, that didn’t go well with these girl or those traumatised ass-hats steel reeling from Orion. I tapped my sharp claw against the table in a rhythmic beat as I mulled over the problem.

Who am I? I definitely wasn’t like those annoying assholes, but I wasn’t sure where I was on the scale. My feelings were an outlier compared to every other guy I’ve met, even Orion was more manly than I’d ever been. It was like I had been thrown into a crack in the system and I was lost with no-one to tell me how to be me.

I looked around the table at the happily chatting people and the silent Orion, and they all seemed to to fit. Like they’d never had to measure themselves against other to make sure they weren’t doing things that didn’t fit in with the standard. They looked comfortable in their skins, but I suppose I don’t really have skin anymore, just scales.

“What’s that song?” Jacky suddenly asked me, making me realise that I’d started tapping some sort of esoteric beat with all of my claws on one paw.

Tip-tip-tip-tictick-tap-tip. And then it would repeat. It was familiar in a way, on the edge of my mind but just out of reach, like a name on the tip of my tongue.

“I don’t know, feels catchy though.” I replied as I kept on doing it, adding another talon to the tapping, the rhythm picking up in tempo. It was a bit weird that I could replicate this song to well when I couldn’t even remember its name or where its from. It was a little bit catchy, but not much of a song with just the beat.

“I want’sh dance.” Grace suddenly demanded, falling over herself as she tried to shuffle out of the booth, forcing me to dodge out of the way as she stumbled along. When she reached the end of the couch she fell over onto the hard wood floor, flailing straight past Orion as he passively watched her faceplant.

Jacky immediately panicked and ran over to help her, soothing the crying drunk as she peeled Grace off of the floor.

“Why I’sh it sho sticky?” Grace cried as Jacky tried to calm her down. The witch’s apprentice was a mess as Jacky hugged her, the process rather similar to someone trying to calm down a young child.

“Should I have caught her?” Orion leaned over and asked me, and while the obvious answer was yes, if she got this drunk that often, maybe she deserved it a tiny bit.

I gave the confused man a shrug as he swayed dangerously back and forth just outside of the booth, and I pulled him in before he managed to fall over while standing still. He almost fell onto me as I roughly guided onto the bench, his skin surprisingly hot as it rough as it rubbed against my scales. But his lack of motor coordination making me wonder how much alcohol he’d been forced to drink by other people, because I feel like he wouldn’t drink otherwise.

I looked back over at the two girls and Grace had started to shamble around while holding Jacky’s hands. As Grace yanked the overwhelmed African around, I swear that I could still hear that beat I was making with my claws, but the moment I focused on it the sound dissipated. It was like an illusion that disappeared if you paid too much attention to it.

“Is that meant to be dancing?” Orion quietly said, the alcohol on his breath was pungent as I tried not to gag from the smell.

“What ever it is, it isn’t very good.” I replied, watching the spectacle with morbid fascination as Grace had her drunken way with Jacky.

“What’s it meant to look like?” Orion continued to ask like a toddler discovering a fascinating new concept.

“Well, there’s definitely more smooth movements, graceful coordination. Practically the opposite of that.” I pointed out while waving a claw at the Grace and Jacky.

“What’s it like?” Orion asked, making me wonder how many times he can start a sentence with ‘what’ in a row.

“I wouldn’t know, never had a chance.” I wistfully replied, it would’ve been another month before my school did its graduation dance. It was a bit depressing to think about as I’d never had any luck figuring out which girl at my school to ask out for that, none had really stuck out to me.

Orion let out a long and miserable sigh as he watched Grace and Jacky ‘dance’. I laughed internally as the grown man with his mentality reduced to a child’s by alcohol want to dance.

And as I watched him, his facial emotions loosened by how drunk he was, I realized that I could do something about it. There was a moment of internal hesitancy, that logic I’d learned the hard way saying that it’d be a mistake. But tonight some part of me really couldn’t care less, I’d already failed to be the man I had always tried to emulate and I was tired of it. Why can’t I just do something stupid, embarrassing and something I’ll probably regret tomorrow just for one night?

I clambered up onto the table and turned to face Orion, the ranger staring at me with wide eyes as I steadied myself. With my tail firmly pressed onto the wooden table, I slowly raised myself up, my two front legs leaving the ground as I turned myself into an unreliable tripod.

For the first time since I’d died as a human, I was standing on two legs. I used the opportunity to try to bend at my waist, realise that I didn’t have one in a human sense and instead just bent forwards awkwardly.

“May I have this dance?” I said in with a tone I hoped would make Orion think the suggestion was a joke. He gave me rare look of surprise, and all the while I could swear that the phantom beat was getting louder.