The next morning, I was awakened by a pounding on my door. I sent a message to Fran for her and Alfred to come back ASAP, then opened the portal for them behind a curtain. Making sure I was decently attired, I unlocked and opened the door. A huge man stood on the other side. He had to be at least 210 cm tall.

“Good morning.” I said cheerfully, peeking from behind the mostly shut door.

Instead of replying, he gave the air a good sniff. Then narrowed his eyes. “Child, why are you away from your family? It isn’t safe for one as young as you.”

I quickly appraised him, and found out he was also Dragonkin. He was wearing a large coat and a horned helm to hide his dragon parts.

“I might be small, but I am no child. I am strong!” I gave a childlike answer that ignored the question about family, but he noticed. I could talk around the truth, but this one was a little awkward.

“What family do you belong to? Actually, let me in first. We should have this talk in private.”

I felt my partners come through the portal. Alfred touched my shoulder, letting me know I was good to let it close. I did so, then opened the door, letting the man inside. The others were by the table. Fran was seated, while Alfred was putting food on the table.

I was surprised to meet a dragonkin so soon. I’d planned on searching for them at some point, but didn’t really care at this point. Might be good to have a contact for the future. I closed the door once he was inside, throwing the lock. I also lit the place up better with a few lightballs.

I headed for the table and took a seat, Alfred putting breakfast in front of me. He raised an eyebrow at me and gave a slight gesture to the man. I shrugged. We didn’t have the mental connection that existed between Fran and I. He had to guess my thoughts. But he was good at it. He decided to be diplomatic.

“We were just sitting down to breakfast, would you care to join us?”

The dragonkin had been eyeing us. But nodded, and took a seat. Alfred placed a plate of food in front of him. For breakfast we had omelets, thick sliced bacon, seasoned potatoes, and orange juice. It was delicious. And the juice tasted fresh squeezed. It seems at least one orange tree is producing fruit. Yum.

We ate in silence for a while. You don’t try to hold a conversation when the food is this good. But unfortunately, the reprieve only lasted so long. After the food was gone, it was interrogation time again.

“Thank you for the food. While I am glad you are not alone, why are you not with your family?”

“I am Telarynn Arwyn, I have no blood family in this world. These are my family now, Fran and Alfred. We are adventurers.”

He gave me a sad look, he must be thinking my family was dead, and I was the only survivor. From what I’d read, dragonkin were VERY family oriented.

“My apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I am Jaddrayt Essar, third child of the Essar clan chief. I am the Leader of the A-Rank party Crimson Blood. The rest of my party is from my clan as well. Even if you have no blood kin, why didn’t you seek out one of the other clans? Most would be glad to welcome a child.”

“Until you, I never met any other dragonkin. I was raised with humans, and do not know where any clans are located. However, even if I did, I doubt I would be able to be protected by them. As I said before, I may be small, but I am not a child. I am thirty-three years old. I am considered an adult among the humans who I grew up around. I will be strong on my own, and with my friends, not live as a sheltered child.”

“You might be thirty-three, but you are still only a child in my eyes. I cannot let a child of my kind be left to fend for themselves. You will stay with my party, and after the tournament, We will take you to our village.”

“No. I will not let you treat me like I am incapable of making my own decisions. I had hoped to be able to make friends with you and your party, but it seems you do not care to listen. Leave.”

I waved my hand, causing the door to be unlocked and swing open. He looked at the door, then got a stubborn look on his face. Damn, he wasn’t going to let this go. I’d have to prove myself to him somehow.

“If you are so worried, then watch me fight in the tournament. We are already registered. Though, I’ll have to fight from the bottom, since I only joined the guild yesterday.”

His face still showed his unwillingness to concede, but it seemed he didn’t want to alienate me, so he came up with a compromise.

“If you prove to me your strength, I will give up, but until the tournament, you will be staying with my party.”

“I won’t leave my friends.”

“I don’t care if they come too. I just can’t leave you out here. There’s all kinds of riffraff who’d love to get their hands on you.”

“Fine. We’ll come, for now. But don’t try to prevent me from training, or you will regret it.”

We came to an agreement, which also netted us some room in an inn. Jaddrayt, who said to call him just Jadd, was a nice guy, but very stubborn. I could see myself being friends with him, but I wasn’t so sure about telling him the truth of why I knew nothing about dragonkin, since I had barely become one. Maybe once I get to know him and his party.

We cleaned up the portable house (hence to be referred to as the PH), then headed outside. Jadd was very surprised when it was me, and not Alfred who stowed the house in storage. To show him just how good my item box was, I offered him an orc skewer from my inventory. His eyes widened again when he realized it was still hot as if just removed from the grill.

We started heading to one of the nicer inns in the area. It wasn’t one for nobles, but rich merchants and adventurers. We were nicely enough dressed that we didn’t get weird looks on entering. We headed up to their room, or so we thought. We walked into a suite.

“We have the entire top floor. It was designed for groups of rich merchants and their escorts. Well, that’s kind of how we are. We do have traders with us, though the tournament is primarily why we are here. Most of us have item boxes, since we have plenty of time to learn how to make one. I was surprised you had such a high level one.”

“Don’t underestimate me. Living among humans, I put in the same or greater efforts they did. My power is at least equal to the average human adventurer of the same age.”

I also had cheats that had buffed my stats really high.

A man came out of one of the rooms. He was dressed nicely, unlike the adventurer’s armor, so he must have been one of the traders Jadd had mentioned.

“I see you found her. Good job, Jadd.”

“Found her, yes, but she is stubborn. Insists she can take care of herself.”

“Does she now? Well, no matter, she’ll come around.”

“She highly doubts that. Also, she does not care to have others talking over her head like this. Are all dragonkin men so inconsiderate?” I had to make my displeasure known. I refused to give ground. They might have centuries on me, but I was my own guardian.

“My apologies youngling. I am Gydrin. I am the leader of our traders. We are glad to welcome you to our clan.”

“I am Telarynn, Adventurer. These are my companions Fran and Alfred. I did not agree to join your clan. I made a deal with Jadd. I prove myself in the tourney, he treats me like the adult I am, capable of making my own decisions. By proxy, that means you will do the same, even if I elect to visit your clan. I will not be treated as a child. I was not raised in your culture and will not submit myself to values I object to.”

“That’s not…”

“Are you saying you lied to me?” I stared Jadd down, while putting as much venom in my words as I could.

He looked troubled. Gydrin on the other hand just started laughing.

“I see what you mean, Jadd. Young lady, please allow me to apologize. I will do my best to treat you as you wish, and will ask the others to do so as well. I hope you will understand should we fail occasionally. There are some things that we might do unconsciously due to how we usually live.”

“Thank you for understanding. I will try to be understanding should minor mistakes be made. I do appear as a child, which can lead to misunderstandings given my age. Though I must admit, it can be useful pretending to be a child occasionally.”

This man was treating me how I wanted. Jadd on the other hand had a bit of a sour face. I barely caught it, but I heard him mutter something to the effect of,“You should have gone looking for her.” I laughed inside at that.

“Anyways, we’re here because Jadd refused to let me stay in our own lodgings, insisting that we should stay with you. We were using my PH out on the adventurer’s field, since there was no room in the inns.”

“A Portable House? What is that?”

“I took a boulder and molded it into a small home. I carry it in my item box.”

“Do you mind showing it to me? How big is it?”

We went to the carriage yard, where I showed it to him. He was impressed at the quality of it, as well as the fact that I had an item box large enough to store it easily. Yeah, mine is cheater level, I love it. I have a few spare boulders in case I need to shove them down something huges’s throat.

We got to talking, and had plenty of fun times conversing, sometimes at the expense of our companions. Fran and Alfred decided to go browsing the shops, to allow me time alone with the other dragonkin. Through the day, I met the rest of the group. There were a total of eight traders and the six adventurers in Jadd’s party.

I wasn’t likely to remember names well, so I took notes in my media app’s notepad. It’s very convenient. The first time the women saw me, they tended to pick me up and hug me. I guess I’m just too adorable… It was funny the first time, but it got annoying. Fortunately Gydrin was able to get them to treat me more like a young adult, rather than a child.

I learned more about their clan, since they were interested in me joining them. Depending on the conditions, I might not object to joining. First off, the majority of the clan were descended from red dragons, which is why the party had the name it did. Most dragonkin had the ability to transform to disguise themselves, like I did. That actually was a point in my favor. They seldom allowed younglings to leave the village unless they could disguise themselves. Jadd was one of the unfortunate ones unable to learn the ability, so he got stuck in the village longer than most.

When they asked about me, I decided to show rather than to tell. I borrowed a room and changed into clothes from the Magic Wardrobe. We had been carrying around bags only for those clothes. Maybe I should have asked the gods to allow those clothes to be stored the same way the potion was, unaffected by the timestop. It would have made things so much easier.

Changed, I came back into the room, made sure nothing would get hit, then undid my transformation.

Small horns poked up through my silver hair. My silvery tail and wings extended from the hole my clothing opened for them. I spread my wings wide. It felt good. I wanted to go flying! I’d done a bit at the villa, but I couldn’t really let loose because it was only 2km a side. Half of the height was below ground.

The room went silent. Uncertain why their faces showed such amazement, I did the little head tilt of curiosity. I liked doing that. I did it in the mirror, and it looked really cute. Yes, I am a narcissist! I freely admit it! The gods really gave me the good stuff with the potion. And I was about to find out just how much.

“Silverblood.” It was Ierva, the party’s mage, and Jadd’s wife, who broke the silence.

“Hmm, yes, they’re silver. They’re pretty, right?”

“Wait, do you not know?”

“Umm, know what? You are the first dragonkin I’ve ever met. My parents, the people who raised me, were human, so I know almost nothing of dragonkin culture, other than it takes forever to grow up, and people get treated like children till they’re like a hundred.”

Holding his head in his hands, Gydrin is the one who answers. He’s the oldest of the group, and the one in charge of all of them. He said he was part of the clan’s council, so one of the head honchos.

“The Silverblood clan was the ruling clan of all the dragonkin until it disappeared millennia ago. They refused to allow any of their clan to marry into other clans, so no one inherited the silver coloring. Yet here you are. Do you really know nothing of your lineage?”

I shook my head. “No, the only thing I know is what I’ve heard from you.”

“You’re dragonkin royalty, my girl.” Gydrin says.

“Nope! No, I refuse! I will not endure that kind of life. I don’t want to be responsible for others. I HATE politics. I just want to fight monsters and get stronger.”

There was a moment of silence, which was broken by one of the women, Irlet, I think, giggling. The others followed suit. The room echoed with laughter.

“Jadd, she’s just like you. Did you cheat on me?” This was Jadd’s wife, Ierva.

Another round of laughter, as Jadd tries to defend himself. I had to get in on this.

“Are you my daddy?” I gave him a long searching look, as if I was a lost child, seeking comfort, making my eyes tear up a little. I couldn’t hold it for long, before I broke out in a fit of giggling. “There’s no way someone like him could be my father.”

Ierva had moved over to me and took me in her lap, laughing and hugging me to her. “You’re far too much fun to be his. Our children cared more about weapons than magic, especially when they were your age.”

I let her hold me. It felt good. I could get used to this. I really needed not to if I was going to assert my adulthood. But for now, I just relaxed. I was old enough that I couldn’t remember how being held as a child by my mother felt. I hope it felt like this.

Jadd looked a little lonely, having been made the butt of jokes by others, but especially because his wife joined in. I used telekinesis to pat his head as if he was the child. I used a glove from my item box, so the others could see it. He swatted it away.

“This is fun, but seriously, only the gods know how I was born. I also don’t really consider it important. Just because someone is born into a family does not mean they are the best choice to lead. Just because I am a silverblood, does not mean I will take up the lost reins of power. My family name is Arwyn. It is the name I choose to be known by.”

That day, I learned a little of the history of the dragonkin race that I now belong to. If it is written down, I could look it up in my library, but hearing it like this was fun. Fran and Alfred returned a little before sunset. Alfred offered to make a meal, but it seems dinner was included in the cost of the penthouse suite.

Fran decided to try and play with my tail. I let her, twitching it away from her, so she’d have to chase it.

“In case you are wondering, Fran is as young as she acts. If you want to dote on her like a child, she will probably not object.”

When I made that declaration, Fran was scooped up and became the center of the women’s circle. I was included this time. YAY! Girl talk! I also got to ask all sorts of questions about biology that would leave the men too embarrassed to speak. I almost couldn’t ask.

I found out that the hermaphroditic nature of our race was indeed related to the transformation skill. We were born one sex, but if we raised the skill high enough we could change gender, or even turn into full dragons. Some tried the other gender, but most people ended up staying the same gender as they were born. I took notes on how to raise the level of the transformation skill. I didn’t really care about becoming male again right then, as being a girl was fun. What I really wanted to learn how to become a dragon. Why? Because it will be awesome!

As far as menstruation goes, dragonkin don’t have it. Instead when females are old enough, usually starting around 150-200, they have mating seasons every ten years or so. They would become fertile, but it wasn’t like they were required to mate. The sexual urges were just a little higher than normal. Dragonkin can have fun any time we want though, well, once the body is grown enough.

We had a great time that evening, Alfred spent it in discussions with the men, mostly the traders, while all the women holed up in one of the rooms for the girl talk.

When it came time to sleep, Alfred had to sleep on the floor. Well, he was on a mattress on the floor, so it was basically the same as being on a bed, just lower altitude. Not that he actually had to sleep, but since we were staying with the dragonkin, he had to fake it.

Fran and I were abducted and a schedule was made among the women for who would get to sleep with who on what night. I could have fought it. I probably should have, since I wanted to assert my independence, but outside of all the skinship, the women did treat me like a young woman. I slept really well that night.