The doctor was a kind looking man with slightly grey hair, and a white robe. He didn't talk too much, except to tell me to hold something, or turn one direction, or cough. Kind of similar to normal earth doctor stuff, the the examination methods were a bit different. Which makes sense for a society that has magic. The examination wasn't too bad. A lot of it used magic crystals that apparently told them everything they needed to know. The doctor just told me to hold a crystal and he got information on a strange looking device. It was kind of like a cross between a tablet, and a bowling ball. So I guess, if you too a bowling ball and cut it in half, then squished the sides in a little so it was less round, and more oblong, then put a screen on the flat side. That's about what it looked like. It even had the holes for your fingers, so the doctor could hold it easily. When he set it down the back automatically put out a little stand so it would stay up by itself. It was also adjustable.

The crystals he gave me were color coded, so I'm sure he knew what they were for, and each one was supposed to be held in a different place. One went against my forehead, one went on my chest, and one went on my belly button, or where it should have been. Apparantly, a dragon does not have a belly button. He was a little surprised by that, but he just had me hold it in the area my belly button would have been. When all that was done he removed the bandage around my arm, and held a different crystal against my wound.

It was actually a little scary looking. My arm was all dark and bruised looking around the area I was bit, and the bite itself was covered with what looked like hardened tar. The doctor didn't say a word when he saw my injury, but he took a different crystal and held it over the bite, and a couple different places on my arm. When he was done he took his tablet ball, said "I'll be back", and left.

While he was gone, I had a few minutes to myself, and I started poking the tar stuff. It was a bit sticky, but it didn't hurt, or feel too uncomfortable, so I started picking at it. I ended up pulling it right off. It felt almost like glue that was stuck on my arm, and once I got it all off I saw a little bit of my purple blood. It wasn't much, but it kind of made me realize that I wasn't currently human. I mean, if you started leaking purple blood out of a zombie bite, it makes it kind of obvious. I knew I was a dragon, but just seeing that made me realize I was a dragon. I don't know why the wings and tail didn't, but it was almost as if I'd just been going through a dream, and when I saw my blood it made it feel real.

Of course the whole idea of the game was that it was a dream like experience, with rules. You can't just fly, unless you have that ability. So for pretty much the whole thing I felt like I had been dreaming. Where you just kind of accept everything that happens because you do. But seeing my blood brought me out of that dreamy feeling, and I felt like I was actually playing the game now, instead of just dreaming.

I wasn't too worried about the bleeding, it wasn't too much. It looked like my arm had pretty much healed, there was just a small hole that leaked blood. So, I started poking my blood. It was purple, so I was a little curious if it would feel like blood, I was also trying to wipe it away to get a better look at the bite marks. Thankfully, I've never been afraid of blood. I've seen enough of mine that I guess I'm just used to seeing it.

While I was wiping away my blood, the doctor came back in. "You removed the bandage? I see your wound looks mostly healed. Do you have any pain?"

"Nope. Just a little blood."

"Has your blood always been purple?" He started tapping on his tablet ball.

"I think so."

"Interesting, I've never heard of a beast kin with purple blood." He tapped some more.

"I'm not a beast kin." I actually felt a little insulted.

"What? Are you an elf?" He looked shocked.

"No. I'm a dragon."

He stared at me for a moment, then grabbed another crystal and handed it to me. "I see... I mistook the earier readings as beast kin. I sincerely apologize. I have a few additional questions though."

"What do you want to know?" I was a little surprised that everyone seemed to accept that I was a dragon. Even with Oshak it was odd.

"What is the curse that you are afflicted with? We saw it in our readings, but we could not identify it."

"It's the reason I look like this, instead of, well, a normal dragon."

"Hmm, but the nature of the curse is beyond anything we have ever seen, and that includes the elves curse of undeath. Your curse is far more complex, and we could not even come close to unraveling it. Even with magical assistance."

"Well it did curse all dragons, and my mother did something to make it less potent in me. So, my version of the curse is probably more complicated."

He tapped his tablet ball a bit more, "Then, if you don't mind, would you be willing to let us examine you more? I believe we could learn a lot about curses from studying you."

"No. I don't want to be a test subject. I just want to get back to my friends." I got ready to escape if I needed to, I did not want to be locked up here.

"It would be nothing too invasive. Just a full examination in the augur machine. It would allow us to see the curse in its entirety. Nothing would be done to you."

"What do you mean?"

"The augur machine allows us to see the magical effects in and around objects or creatures that are inside. It uses power from a different plane of existence to simply look at you. It will not harm you in any way. I've been in it multiple times."

"So all I'd have to do is sit in this machine for a while?"

"Yes, it's completely painless."

"I want to see you in it first, so I know what I'm getting into."

"That is perfectly acceptable. We can go now if you are ready." He glanced at my arm. "Let me bandage that for you first."

Once he wrapped my arm in a cloth bandage, because he didn't want to use a magical one and mess up the augur machine, he brought me to a large room. In the middle of the room was a thing made out of crystal, that looked like an hour glass. There were steps going to the top part, and it looked like there was a seat in the top. The bottom was basically a bunch of screens, kind of like the tablet ball, but bigger, and embedded in the crystal of the hour glass. There were five people, in white robes, who seemed to just be sitting around talking. Until the doctor entered, then they were checking random things, and looking busy.

The doctor ignored their flurry of activity, and let everyone know that he was going to show me how safe the augur machine was. With that they started powering up the machine. Basically, they tapped the screens, and the top portion of the hour glass started to glow. After a couple minutes a hole opened at the top of the stairs, and the doctor went up and in. Once he sat in the seat the hole closed and the whole hour glass started glowing. It only took a few minutes before the glowing stopped, and the hole opened again.

As he got out of the hour glass the doctor said, "See, nothing dangerous at all. And now I can show you my astral profile."

He got down the stairs and motioned for me to join him at one of the screens. On the screen was a human shaped image. It was mostly white, but there were patches of gold around the hands, and the head was blue.

"See, for the most part my astral body is filled with neutral energy, but in my hands I have holy energy. It helps when dealing with curse victims, and increases my resistance to curses. My mind is protected by several different enchantments, but that shows up as this blue energy."

"So it only takes a couple minutes?"

"Yes, though we will probably need a longer session to fully examine your curse. The longest we have ever done was two hours, and your case is a little more complicated, so I would estimate four to five hours."

"So I'd have to sit in there for five hours?" I was starting to think twice about doing this.

"Yes. We can break that time up a little, but each time we stop would add about thirty minutes on to the total time. We can do a short session just so you know how it feels, and then we can decide how long you want to go for each session after that."

"I guess that sounds reasonable." Then my stomach complained. Loudly. "Uh, could I get something to eat first?"

He laughed, "Of course you can get some food." He suddenly turned serious, "What do you eat?"

"Meat, I can eat fruit and vegtables, but they don't do as much for me."

"I assumed meat, I just wanted to know what kind."

"Oh, well, if you have meat that you eat, I'm sure it will be good." So far, I had only eaten dragon meat in the game. You only had to worry about hunger if you were in an exploration zone, so I didn't have to eat in the city unless I wanted to. And I was broke.

"So, you do not eat humans?"

"NO! That's disturbing. I have friends that are humans." Well, kind of humans.

"Good, good. We've heard stories of evil dragons that enjoy feasting on human flesh." He turned to one of the others in the room, "Go get her some meat. I will reinburse you."

"How much?" He looked at me.

"Um, a lot? I haven't eaten since I've been here." I was pretty sure this was one big exploration zone, so I probably needed a lot of food."

Once he left the doctor tapped a few screens, and turned to me, "If you are ready, we can do an initial examination while we wait for your food. It should only be a few minutes."

I agreed and climbed the stairs. The seat was actually really comfortable for being made out of crystal. I could see outside, through the crystal, but everything looked a little paler than normal. When they started the examination it felt like there was a warm breeze all around me, and then I heard something.

"Bwyd!"

It was Marcus.