“Poppa” Slowly with a big stretch Twink looked at me and smiled. “I am hungry Poppa, can we go eat?” Looking at the young girl sitting on the edge of the bed I felt the familiar ache within my chest. She was one of the many young people I had met with no one to help them but me. I no longer thought of her as an Npc or as my companion. She was now my responsibility, I knew my emotional response was over the top, but that is what years of living in government run orphanage had done to my psyche. At least I knew I was overreacting emotionally.

Grabbing my old gear from the bag, I told Twink to get dressed and then we would go eat. I waited in the hallway for her and thought about the day. First the geriatrics, who knew that a bunch of rich old people would be here, probable trying to take over if my instincts were on the mark. I had nothing against the elderly and thought that they deserved respect for having lived through some shitty times in the real world. The old people invading this game reality were not in the same class, rich pampered folks who had always had their own way. They were no differences between them and the damn donators.

Twink, how did she shape shift into the body of a young girl. She was a young girl for the Gods sake. What am I going to do with an eight-year-old girl? Hearing the door open I looked at Twink who was smiling shyly at me, “how do I look Poppa?” “You look very pretty; tomorrow we will go get you some nice clothing items. Seeing her eyes light up, I knew that I would be doing some more shopping. With that thought in mind, I led the way down the stairs and into the evening crowd.

“Tor.” “Who is this child?” Looking over to the kitchen entrance, I saw Reona staring at me. I usually like it when attractive girls are looking at me but I was beginning to feel uncomfortable in this situation. Dads do not develop in a day and Rome was not built in a day. I realized that my mind was wondering I was trying to think of how to respond. I did not like the fact that everyone in the eating area was now staring at me. Time to use it or shut it so, “Reona, this is my daughter.” Guess I decided to use it I thought.

I hope I am not coming across as some kind of deviant by showing up with a young girl. Looking at Reona I saw her stare at Twink and then a hint of a smile appeared. “Why did you not tell us that you had a daughter, and she is such a little thing?” “No wonder you are working here, trying to support your daughter. You sit down here and I will bring you supper, poor girl, you look hungry.”

I stared with my mouth slightly open as the extremely attractive barmaid turned into a grandma before my eyes. “Thank you miss,” Twink smiled up at Reona and then sat on the bench. I slid down beside her and within a minute two heaping helpings of stew appeared with fresh baked bread and fresh churned butter to top it all off. I received my tankard of ale and Twink has some kind of fruity cider watered down. I honestly can say after eating food that followed the government stated nutritional guidelines for the past few years that the food Ingame was incredible. It would disappear with tremendous speed once on my plate.

Yet before I was halfway done my meal Twink had finished hers and was greedily looking at mine. “All right, here finish it.” Watching her eat the food I realized that the energy needed to shape shift must be tremendous and that she was probably very hungry. Her caloric intake must be huge to maintain homeostasis. My plate was empty in minutes and I was becoming aware that a table of dwarfs was beginning to look at Twink and I.

Reona suddenly appeared and looking at Twink said “well child have you had enough?” “No miss, May I have some more please.” Reona looked surprised and then glanced over at me. “Two more servings please we are very hungry today.” With a shrug at me and a smile at Twink Reona disappeared into the kitchen only to return with two more huge portions, placing them on the table she whispered at me “do not worry if she does not eat it all, it is all good.” Nodding at her, I reflected on how the Npc could be both good looking and kind. “Thanks Reona, you are good to us.” With a smile, she disappeared and we both began to eat. Once again, Twink finished well before me and then took my plate and finished all of my food.

At this point, I saw a dwarf stand up from his table and slowly walk over to Twink and I. Stopping he looked at us and then in a gruff voice began to speak. “Sir I just wanna say to ye, that it does me heart good to see parents properly victualing the younglings. It is not something we see here in the human lands, indeed some of the learned dwarfs believe that the short life of ye humans comes from not receiving enough proper victualing while you are young. Not our place to judge mind ye but as we all watched the young one eat, will sir it did our old hearts good to see a youngling fed proper like.” With that, the old fellow nodded at me and stumped back to his table. What was that about, I wondered?

Looking at Twink I said, “Time to head upstairs, and standing up I led the way up to our room. Once inside I asked, “How did you change, from Dragon form to Human form sweetie?” Twink smiled at me and then said “oh Poppa” I will show you. Suddenly within my mind was a gentle touch, and with a cerebral snap and some slight dizziness I suddenly had a new ability on my interface. Shape shifting, this is the ability to shift into Dragon form and then back to Human form. Warning, be prepared to replenish your energy, this ability will use thousands of kilocalories.

Not sure what to make of this ability, it looks good on paper but if I have to stop for a five course meal every time I shift, that just will not work. “Twink are there any other things that you can teach me?” Twink looked at me for a minute and said, “Poppa, you are part human and none of the Dragon magic will work for you. I think you can learn fire and shadows but that is all.” “That is alright Twink I will do the best I can, if you can show me this fire and shadows I will be very happy.”

Suddenly once again, there was a gentle familiar touch in my mind and then another touch of dizziness swept over me. Once it passed, I saw two new icons on the interface one denoted Fire and the other Shadows. Highlighting the Fire I read, As a Dragon you have control over the element of fire. With practice, you will be able to equal a fire elemental in power. Being a Dragon is being a power. Use this power wisely. Fair enough, I will have to practice and learn to master the Fire.

I then highlighted Shadows, and read the description. The ability to summon shadows and lose yourself within them, you will be unknown and unseen, all attacks will have 100 percent chance to be a critical hit as long as you are within the Shadows. Once attack has commenced the enemy will have a 25 percent chance of targeting you bringing you out of the Shadows. Holy cow, talk about being OP, I will have to work on both of these new abilities and tonight back at the park will be where I start.