Dragons

Nearly gave me a heart-attack when I saw a single person joining my Patron under a free membership...and then another recently joined the 1st tier as a paid member. 

<Sc'the>

I finally get to see myself for the first time and instead of staying still and looking myself over I get distracted by a green vine slithering along the ground a little ways away. Redline had been mumbling for a good while about this 'Pops' character and that she 'was going to be in paper jail'...whatever that was...while I got distracted and followed the vine around a tree. 

I don't know what came over me. It just seemed like pouncing on the thing would be so much fun, and what do you know! The next moment I'm rolling around on the forest floor wrestling with a snake, a snake that soon realized their fangs couldn't penetrate my scales and their strength wasn't enough to harm me, soon trying to run away shortly after our scuffle. 

So I wore it as a scarf...A nice loose bundle of living noodle wrapped around my neck because I felt like it. It didn't even move either when I grabbed it! Careful not to cut the thing with my claws and spines of course as I maneuvered it into position. 

I looked back at Redline to see her staring at me with blank shock. 

What? I tilted my head at her to convey my thoughts. She just scoffed and stomped off, well more like stalked off since she didn't really make any sound, but the motion she made looked like stomping so I think it fits better. 

I wish I had a snake in my past life. If they were anything like this one I'm sure I would've had a blast. I proudly followed after Redline with my scarf hanging loosely around me, I didn't even realize I was smiling until she said something about it. 

"Stop grinning like that...it's unnerving." She'd pointed out as I walked beside her, "Did you have to torment that poor Temper Twine like that until it died of shock...wait, is it still alive?" She stepped a few paces away from me and I just looked at her confused. 

Why are you acting like this thing is so dangerous? Its just a little green noodle...I should think about giving you a name if I want to bring you along...

I continued to follow Redline, though sadly at a distance ahead of her because she was being a scardey cat. Anyways, I lost her a few times as she turned at random times or stopped for a few moments. I was just mesmerized by the forest: It had trees with trunks thicker than most of those redwood trees found in the early days of California, and the leaves were probably bigger than a car, even the low ones...and all of them glowed different colors when the light struck them at different angles. It was really a coin towards the term 'magical', though the constant cries through the forest didn't really help the atmosphere of it being peaceful. 

Redline's ears were on a constant swivel here and while I didn't feel much danger there was surely something around that could probably cause her trouble...maybe? If this snake was anything to go by there might not really be anything here that could really be that strong or impactful to cause her such unease. 

Oh look, there's another one...

Over the course of the next several hours I found five more of the snakes, draping most of them over my tail, careful not to scratch them with my blades or spines, and making sure to wrap them a few times each so they wouldn't fall off. 

...I'm pretty sure one or two might've slipped away from me though as I was sure there was a few more on my tail...

{Skill Level Increased: Tracking (Lv. 3), Fear Aura (Lv. 2 (Passive)), Paralyzing Touch (Lv. 3)}

Oh yeah I got three new skills out of this too! One of them, (Fear Aura (Passive)), was a Special Skill too. I'd say that was a win if I'd ever saw one, and now I got to travel in the back. When Redline looked back at me her tail fuzzed up and she started walking a bit faster. Though in doing so it caused me to have to walk that much faster to keep up with her, seemingly playing a game of keep-away with me as she didn't want to get any closer to me and the many ropes of green I had draped around myself. 

She looked back again, her tail puffing up and I swear her breath hitched a little. "How did you manage to find so many?" She breathed, and I just displayed my attire proudly. "Alright you're going to need to get rid of them now. We're only an hour or so from the city now and we can't have so many C ranked creatures so close to the city. Adventurers at lower levels would have a harder time seeing them, much less actually catching or running from them as you have so clearly displayed." 

I couldn't help the whine that left me. The thought of leaving behind my new friends was just too much. I lifted up the original one that I had caught and looked at her with the biggest hopeful eyes I could manage. Her ears drooped a little at that and I thought I was about to win when she suddenly shook her head and shot me down. 

"No you can't keep even one of them. I'm sorry, but having such wild creatures in the state they are in would be disastrous if one was to get into the city." I spent the next ten minutes following her silently, sulking, and when we could see the afternoon light casting a wall before us--at what I assumed was the edge of the forest--she stopped and made me un-wrap all of the noodles, set them in a pile at the bank of a near-by river, and watch as they all quickly slithered off to check me. 

"Turn around, spread your wings. I want to make sure you aren't hiding any of them." I did as instructed and she seemed to nod to herself in satisfaction, "Good...wait, open your mouth." 

I shook my head and stepped back. 

"I don't want to tell Pops that the dragon I'm escorting accidentally broke their foot." She threatened and I immediately opened my mouth and let the snakes fall to the ground. Slithering away quickly in freight as she looked at me in utter shock. "How did you fit three snakes in your...You know what, I don't want to know do I?" 

I didn't entertain her with a response and instead watched the fleeing creatures, saddened at my lost treasures. 

"I was just kidding about the breaking your foot part you know..." She tried to get closer and pat my head but I just stepped away from her with a glare. You don't get to give me heat-pats. You took away my noodles and threatened me. I lashed my tail to further my point and she backed away and looked elsewhere. 

We stood in silence for a moment after that. 

"Alright, lets get you past the gates and to the guild and then I guess how things go from there will be up to Pops." She turned on her heel and started towards the entrance of the gate, huffing something under her breath, "I hope Larry and Bob aren't the guards on shift tonight...I hate those guys."

As we neared the fields I nearly forgot about the incident before as the giant walls surrounding the outer ring of a city came into view. Redline had turned on an angle to go through a field of wild grass instead of walking towards the gates and that's when I noticed the stone-brick road that paved a path from the city and through the forest...How didn't I see that before? 

"I'm going to need you to--" She looked back at where I'd been, "I guess saying something about it wasn't really necessary." I'd turned invisible the moment the walls came into view. I don't know why but seeing such a giant structure made me nervous and that seemed to cause my control over my visibility to slip. 

This reminded me of my earlier years on Earth, when I was ten or so and saw my first patrol sentries floating through the streets near the playground I was playing at. Me and my friends, at the time, had thrown a ball too far into the street and they opted me as the one to get it. The robot had stopped before me and seemed to scan me with something before just simply floating over and turning the corner to continue their route.  The only thing I'd noticed were the tens of guns along it's entire figure and the fear as they all seemingly aimed in my direction. 

It was one of the scariest times of my life, and this was coming close to that. Times like this made me question whether I was a human in the body of a dragon, or a human mind transitioning into that of a dragon. I felt like myself still, but the things I did, the things that felt normal for me just shouldn't be. It wasn't until this happened that got me to realize that I was changing a lot more drastically than should've been normal for a reincarnated human...or maybe it was normal? 

It's not like I had anyone else to really compare to so I just dismissed it as a problem for later. 

I didn't realize that we'd reached the road until I heard the clopping noise of hooves hitting stone. It snapped me from my thoughts and I looked forward to see the strangest looking horses I've ever seen: They had six legs, with one pair seemingly sprouting from their ribs, and four pairs of glowing yellow eyes. Everything else about them was decently normal: skin that was  covered lightly hair, a mane that went along the length of their neck, some of them along the entire back, and long tails that ended in a spine...wait. 

"Please try to stay close to me, and if you can't, try to cause as little commotion as possible once we get into the city. I'll get you some nice meat once we're past the second gate if you do..." Redline whispered, likely knowing that I was close by and listening. She waited till the group traveling on the strange horses went by before trailing behind them and that's when I noticed that everyone was being corralled into two lines. Several beings that looked like guards that were traveling up and down the lines, getting what looked like some sort of badge from the occasional person and checking it against whatever tablet they traveled with before handing it back. 

"Stand next to me, but be careful of those passing and once we get in line be careful of the Line Keepers. Those are the ones dressed in metal that walk around grabbing the occasional badge to check for any illegals or criminals that try to get by." Redline seemingly knew what I wanted to ask about without me needing to do anything, but I wasn't about to complain about that. Just traveling down a road was stressful enough that I couldn't image being the cause of a scuffle or incident as we got in line like so many others. 

It seemed that the lines were separated by traveling types: one was for those with wagons or carriages, and the ours was for groups of people in various dress and armor with weapons and tools carried visibly on their persons. The guards over here were a bit more lax compared to the ones on the merchant side and this line also seemed to move much quicker than that one as well...thankfully. 

I just wanted to get to where we needed to go, and take a moment to cool my nerves, maybe even take a nap while I was at it. Eventually we neared the entrance to the city and by that time the sky had started to darken a considerable amount. The guards had stopped letting people in for some reason and I heard Redline hiss under hear breath in annoyance. 

"Of course. We just had to get to the front at the end of the evening shift." She growled under her breath and I swear she yowled as two guards came out to relieve the others of their position. "And of course we get the two stuck up...mwrrrr" Her hissing turned into a low rumble and I could see the point of her claws coming from her finger-tips. 

I pressed my head against the side of her thigh lightly, since that was seemingly the only not too poky part of me, but I still had horns that I had to be careful of. That seemed to snap her out of whatever mood she'd been in, and she took a few breaths to calm herself down muttering a quiet "thanks" to me as she finished. Thankfully the line had stagnated at this time, so she wasn't holding up the line or causing a scene as there already seemed to be one happening up ahead. 

I wasn't going to like this outcome was I? 

Dragons

I've changed the cover for this story in the 'Collections' tab on my Patreon! Go check it out and let me know whether it looks better than the current one or not...unfortunately I can't draw and I am broke, so it is AI generated until I am able to do either...

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