Rumors of the Dwarven Underground Kingdom are highly exaggerated, but do have a grain of truth to them. It is well known that they do keep sections of their city under that which is presented openly. The rumors of this being vast cities could be true but they would be empty cities. Caves and mountains do not supply even a fraction of the amount of food needed.

No the dwarves are a dying race, their pride preventing them from leaving the few ancestral holes of theirs that did survive the Disjunction. – Of Dwarves and Their Holes

Adrian

I look at my mother for a moment, “my dragoness comes from your side of the family. I want to . . .”

“That’s ridiculous” my mother says cutting me off.

“Dad can’t do it which mean I must have inherited the ability from you.”

“I think I would know if I was a reptile”

“Is dad one?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I would know if he was one.”

“Than how can I be one?”

My mother pauses for a while on the question before saying, “you’re my son but this is ridiculous. How can you know it is not due to something whoever took you to this place did?”

“Because I could do it before I arrived here.”

“You weren’t turning into a giant lizard before. . .”

“Two different versions of earth. I can remember both of them, in one of them . . .”

“Different places, doesn’t that also mean that there are going to be differences?”

I pause that is a good point, but everyone is so close to what I can remember of everyone leaves them as essentially the same person. My K is the same her if less experienced, the elven twins are them, Lysan kinder and shier while Talia is more prideful. Mom and Dad are themselves, and Ria is the same troublemaker she was before under what her slavery forced upon her before. . .

No wait, she shouldn’t have had the foresight when I met her.

“Maybe but shouldn’t we still look into it?” I ask.

“Why? What possible benefit could being a dragon give?”

I frown, how could she ask such a thing? Dragons are awesome.

“Aside from a body that will help you in the case of danger and weapons when we run out of bullets for the guns? Resistance to the magics that will be used against us. Flying, longevity, and being harder to kill?” I ask slightly flippantly.

“There’s no need for you to use that tone with me.”

“The benefits of being a dragon are self evident.”

“It is still silliness to think that I am one.”

“Would it hurt for me to confirm it?” I ask.

“And how would you do that?”

“Easy I just have to use the correct detection spell on a sample of blood. Kylana has already shown me a few of them, they’re really useful for determining if meat is safe to eat or not” I half lie. I’ve learned a few of those but what I’m going to do is definitely not one.

My mother looks at me for a moment, thinking if she wants to humor me, either that or she can still tell every time I lie. . .

“Adrian,. . .”

Shit she realized it.

“Why is this so important to you?”

“Dragons are awesome.”

“That doesn’t explain why. . .”

I just look at her with a bit of confusion, how doesn’t that explain why it’s really important?

“Mom, how are you going to help with what we need to do?”

“Any way I can you know that” she retorts.

“Which is?”

“I have guns and. . .”

“When the ammunition runs out?”

“Dad can make more.”

“How?”

“His magic.”

“And when his magic is more useful doing something else? Or when bullets don’t harm the enemy?”

“Then, I’ll have to. . . to . . .” she slowly trails off.

“Find something else?” I ask.

My mother pauses for a moment before nodding and I continue, “this gives you that something else. There’s no way for you to learn fighting fast enough, magic isn’t going to be a strong suit, and I can’t think of something else that may work. . .”

“Adrian I do know. . .”

“Some martial arts. I remember, but you don’t have the conditioning or level of training. . .”

“You don’t know that for sure and aren’t you pushing your friends to?”

I stop for the slightest of seconds, “Bryan can’t die, literally. He anchored his spirit to the mortal realm. Kythia would kick my ass if I tried to keep her from fighting. Ria knows enough magic to defend herself. The elves are nearly a century old and know what they’re doing.”

“What do you mean can't die?”

“Just that, a killing blow doesn’t end him.”

My mom frowns and is definitely not approving of it.

“That sounds a lot like what. . .”

“It isn’t, no one else suffers when he gets hit with a killing blow. Now can I do what I can to help?”

My mother does not immediately answer. She clearly does not like the implications of being ‘unable to die' I should have said something else for Bryan. At least she didn’t ask why I don’t stop Abagail. She’s so much worse this time. . .

“What is involved?” my mother finally asks and I smile.

“A bit of magic using dragons' blood to wake up what’s been left dormant.”

“You’re going to have to tell me more than that.”

“But you won’t understand it.”

“Than explain it better.”

“I’ll be hunting down a few dragons, getting Kylana to help me distil their essence and using it in a ritual where you will have to drink and be drawn on in.”

“Hunting down dragons? You’re going to kill and. . .”

“Yes, and before you go off on how it would be wrong to kill clearly sentient creatures; younger ones are beasts and . . .”

“Beasts?!”

“Rampaging animals driven by little but hunger. Anyways a large section of the adults are also irredeemably evil.”

I pause for a moment, expecting some denial of that possibility but none arrive. Skepticism, but none of the rejection from before.

“Plus, I have to eat dragon anyways” I continue for a moment before she asks “why?”

“The kind of dragon I am demands it.”

“So I’ll have to continually eat. . .”

“No, I'm a kind of dragon that shows up occasionally. You won’t have to hunt other dragons, just some of one I would have to hunt anyways.”

“I don’t like the idea. . .”

“That I have no choice but to hunt down and eat dragons?”

“Couldn’t you just use your magic and make it so you didn’t have to?”

I pause for a moment, I never thought of that. . .

“Maybe but I don’t think I could hold it forever. It wouldn’t work.”

“Why?”

“If I don’t hold the change it will revert and there are other problems to that idea. Magic has prices, rules to follow and consequences when they’re broken. Different magics have different set of rules.

Anyways, I have to eat dragons; you won’t aside from the initial thing.”

“I still haven’t agreed.”

“But you understand?”

“I don’t like the idea.”

“That’s fine, I just need a few days to find a dragon.”

“There’s something else I want to talk to you about. What are the other two girls? The one with the metallic blue hair and the cat looking one that is following Bryan around.”

“I don’t know much about the catfolk. Bryan found her and she’s following him around. You’d have to ask him or maybe Ria. Danny is the other girl, her real name is too long but she’s a draconian. A hybrid between human and dragon able to shapeshift between human and a half dragon.”

“Half-dragon?”

“Kinda looks like a lizard man with horns. She’s a mana draconian, good at a different form of magic than the one dad can do.”

“Why is she afraid of you?”

“She’s a draconian. She has dragon’s blood.”

“You’re compelled to eat her?” my mother asks horrified.

“At first, it isn’t as bad now but that’s not important.”

“You wanting to eat someone is important.”

“I’m not going to eat her.”

“Have you told her that?”

“Yes, not recently but yes.”

“Why is she following you?” my mother asks giving me one of her few don’t you dare lie glares.

“I rescued her from an evil man who was going to sell her as a slave or use her in some sort of magical experiment. I don’t know all the details.”

“And she’s terrified that your keeping her around to eat her.”

I pause for a moment, a bit of guilt but not near what I think she is trying to push on me. I frown, should I do anything about her?

“I’ll talk to her later.”

“You should talk to her now.”

“Later.”

“Now.”

“We already have an agreement. She knowns I’m not going to eat her. I’m going to help her with one of her goals anyways.”

“Which is?”

“She want’s to become a full dragon. I’m not sure how to do that but . . .”

“And how can you say you know how to turn me into one if you don’t know how to do that?”

“Because I already did it once in the other timeline. I have an idea, but I do not know how to do it exactly.”

Neither of us say anything for a moment.

“So, what’s going on back at home?” I ask.

“On what subject?”

“Family, world events, anything really. What season was it when you left? I don’t even know if the rate of time is different.”

“Mid-summer, but the garden hasn’t been tended as it should have been. The police called off the investigation into the disappearance of you and several others in town after a month. I haven’t been keeping up on anything else.”

“What of the twins?” I ask only for my mother to frown. Taking a deep breath she switches between anger and sadness before she says, “I haven’t seen them since your disappearance. Your grandfather recalled them.”

I frown, “any idea on how much they’ve figured out?”

“You’d have to ask your father.”

“And your side of the family?”

“They haven’t said anything.”

“Nothing?”

“They visited a few times, when they could. Not as much as I would have liked but you know how they are.”

“Super religious and judgmental, but they do love us in their own weird way?”

“You don’t have to put it like that.”

“I’m not wrong though, am I?”

“No, but you shouldn’t say things like that about family.”

“Even if it’s true?”

“Adrian, is this really the time for this?”

I just grin, knowing it bothers her a bit.

“Adrian?”

“Fine, I won’t say anything in public or around them” I answer with a roll of my eyes. Like I would ruin Christmas, what get togethers we are invited to, and Grandma’s cookies.

My mom just smiles back knowing full well that I haven’t changed my mind.

“Well, I should probably go see Dad before Ria drives him crazy” I say as I stand up from my seat.

“You mean rescue her from your father?”

I shrug, not actually sure which one of the would have ended up winning the competition of embarrassing questions or saying terrible things. . .

“We’ll see” I say as I walk over towards the table the two of them are at only to immediately turn around after hearing a single sentence.

Retaking my seat only a fraction of a minute later, my mother asks “decided against it?”

“I didn’t want to get involved in their discussion.”

“What were they talking about.”

“I think babies and grandchildren, either that or. . .” I don’t get to finish as my mother stands up and eagerly goes to join that discussion.

After that I smirk, knowing her enthusiasm will drop when she finds out they’re on the discussion of weird hypothetical outcomes that may come to be. I shiver slightly at the idea of lizards that become fuzzy under the full moon.