Blinking I squinted up at the blue sky as fluffy white clouds drifted by gently, obscuring the midday sun briefly before letting it shine down again. I sat up and looked at around at the tall grass swaying in the breeze around me, a gust of wind shook the leaves in an oak tree and I looked up at the rustling of the vibrant green leaves. A small stone poked into my palm as I clenched it around the dirt and I glanced down.

A scream tore through the air, birds erupting from their perches in the trees and a rabbit shot through the grass as I scrambled up, tripping over myself in the process, eyes wide as i gaped at my hand. It was blue. With scales. And claws. Franticly I tried to shake it off before falling onto the ground again and staring at it. Chest heaving I breathed through my mouth before jerking my other hand up to look at it. It was the same.

Swallowing thickly I turned both hands over shakily, stretching the fingers with the short little claws at the ends. Pausing for a moment catching my breath I just stared, my hands were a shade lighter on the palms, but still blue and scaly. Experimentally I rubbed my fingers against my palms; the scales were soft and smooth, like my friend's pet corn snake.

I sat there for a minute just rubbing my hands, the birds had settled back into their trees, the scene around me returned to its previous calm. Snapping out of my reverie, I grabbed the bottom of my plain shirt and yanked it up. Like my hands, my stomach too was blue and scaly. Poking it briefly to confirm that yes it was my belly, I leaned forward and took off a short leather boot and pulled off the brown sock. My foot like everything else was also blue and scaly.

Not sure why I was expecting anything else at that point. Irritated I flicked the short stubby claw at the tip of my big toe. Something twitched in the grass next to me, I jerked back, but the snake shot forward following me. I rolled sideways gasping, waiting to feel fangs sink into me as I desperately scrambled to my feet, and ran screaming through the grass, one foot bare I could hear the swishing behind me as the snake slid through the grass.

Sprinting I ignored the sharp stones tearing into my foot as I shot looks behind me to see it gliding through the grass so close behind me. Tripping on a tree root I fell face first into the ground, just about bracing myself on one arm, I spun around on the floor to face it, one hand reaching out to catch the snake and miraculously I could feel my hand close round its scaly neck even as it desperately wriggled in my grasp.

Tightening my hold, I took deep breaths before inspecting the snake. A flash of panic shot through me, I hadn't caught the head end but the tail end. It seemed to wriggle faster in my grip and my eyes followed its body trying to find the head before realising it was behind me, yelping I leapt up but the whole snake's body came off the ground with me. Spinning in circles I jumped around trying to shake it lose before it bit me. My other hand reached around and grabbed the other end of the snake and yanked with all my strength.

Fiery pain shot through me and I immediately stopped pulling but didn’t let go. I froze and swallowed, slowly turning my head, eyes watering as I tried to see where it had bitten me. It was difficult to see past the rucksack but I craned my neck around since the pain originated right in the centre of my backside. I twisted a bit further and suddenly I was very aware of how stupid I looked, standing there with one shoe holding my tail aloft and staring at my butt.

Very slowly I lowered my tail before letting go completely and peered around to see if anyone had seen my stunt. I stiffened when I saw a boy standing there gaping at me. His tousled wet brown hair stuck to his forehead and soaking wet clothes clung to his slim frame.

I could feel my face heating up in embarrassment and I opened my mouth to say something when I remembered that this was a very human looking boy and I looked very not-human right now. A sliver of fear dampened my embarrassment; I needed to make sure I wasn’t seen as a threat as I contemplated what to say.

Suddenly the boy burst out laughing, clutching his side and almost gasping for air as he point at me and wiped at his eyes, embarrassment and anger came back in full force as he pointed at me "You.. haha" he laughed out "You.. you haha did you fall asleep with tail in river and get it bitten or something?" he wiped at his eyes and straightened up.

"No, I just-" I paused, redness still spreading on my face "There was a wasp"

He stared at me balefully "Sure there was" he looked down at my feet "Where’s you other boot?" he grinned, "Did the wasp take it?"

I glared at him and huffed straightening up to feel taller and noticed 2 things. 1, even though the boy looked around 10, he was still taller than me and 2, when I puffed myself up, I could feel something moving under my rucksack. Not to repeat the tail incident, I chose to ignore the movement under my rucksack and pray I had wings instead of a flesh-eating spider laying her eggs.

"Why are you soaking wet anyway?" Ignoring his question as I glared at him, he looked away as his expression soured "None of your business"

My tail lashed behind me a bit before I snorted and turned away, stomping back through the grass to get my lost boot.

"Hey where are you going?" he called and ran after me until he walked next to me "I'm Aron by the way, you're a Drake aren't you? I've never met one before, lots of Lizardfolk though" he looked at me sideways "Sorry I er.. I know you lot don't like to be compared or something"

"It's fine" I looked forward, so I was a Drake now? Well at least I knew my species "I'm Sasha" A sudden thought hit me "You're human aren’t you?" I asked just to double check.

He scowled, hands going up to his ears "I know I have big ears, but I'm not a half-Elf or anything"

Now that he mentioned it, his ears did stick out a bit. He glared at me and covered his ears with his hands, I opened my mouth and closed it, trying to force the words out "Ah I'm um" It felt like my insides where rebelling, I crushed the feeling and forced it out "I'm sorry" why was it so hard to apologise? I almost had to force myself to swallow my pride to do it, leaving a bitter wronged feeling in my stomach.

"It's ok, the other kids make fun of me for it too" He scowled and looked away hands dropping down. The feeling inside me eased a bit as my hurt pride was assuaged. Reaching for my lost sock and boot I sat down and proceeded to put them on again, before standing up and dusting myself off.

"So where are you from? Did you come with the traders?" An icy feeling in my stomach covered everything else, I was clearly not on Earth anymore, there were no Drakes or Lizardfolk or half-Elves there, so where was I? And what should I tell Aron? At least going by Aron reaction to me, I wouldn't be attacked by humans or anything, but what did I tell him? Should I make up a background story? But then what if it was disproven? I knew nothing about this world to back up my story so should I tell the truth? But it would sound ludicrous-

"Heeeelllllloooo" he dragged out the syllables and leaned forward waving his hand in front of my face.

"I don't remember" I blurted out

"What?" he looked at me in confusion.

Well I'd already blurted that out, at least no one could disprove that and who knows, maybe I did have Drake family around here somewhere "I don't remember" I repeated and stopped looking at him.

"You don't remember where you parents went?" he probed frowning.

"No, I don’t remember anything, my family, where I'm from or how I got here" I stared at the floor for a moment, the world suddenly seemed a lot less safe as it sunk home that I really had no idea where I was, how to get home or were to go from here.

"Are you sure?" Aron asked nervously

I glared at him huffing hot air out of my nostrils. Yes I had a snout but I wasn't going to focus on that right now.

"Ok well I guess I can take you to the village chief, she'll know what to do" he said straightening his shoulders as he reached forward to pat my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. A flash of irritation rose up in me but I squashed it when I looked into his earnest face.

"Alright lets go see your Chief" I said. He grinned at that "Ok its this way, it's not far" and started bounding back the way we came "If you're hungry we can stop at my grandpa's Inn, he makes the best pies ever, he's a level 39 [Chef]" He said with obvious pride as his chest puffed out a bit as he glanced back, deflating slightly at the lack of reaction on my part.

"Wow that’s great" I praised, I had no idea what level 39 [Chef] was or meant but he seemed proud of it and I wanted to be nice. He grinned, straightening his shoulders a bit before chattering about all the different types of food his grandfather could make and how good it was. Aron's clothes and hair mostly dried in the warm midday sun and I nodded along until we came up to and wide dirt path meandering through the grasslands. Following it, it curved around a hill and I could see an open village gate with a 3m wooden wall on either side, but what caught my eye was the massive minotaur standing guard with a human by the gate.

My eyes grew wide as I took in the large curved horns coming out the side of his shaggy head just above his floppy cow ears. Fine short brown fur covered his face, which ended in a distinctly bovine snout and he must have towered over his human companion by a good foot.

I slowed down slightly and interrupted Aron "Who's that?"

"Who?" Aron paused and looked forward "Oh uncle Rudy, he's a [Guard], he's friends with my grandpa, but I think my grandpa mostly likes him coz he eats so much" He looked sideways at me "First time seeing a minotaur? They're not that common but uncle Rudys always been here so its no big deal for me" he bragged.

I snorted and glared at him "No its not the first time I've seen one" I blustered, refusing to let him get the better of me. Why did I say that? of course I'd never seen one before, but the idea of Aron beating me at something was intolerable.

"Oh yeah, how would you know, thought you didn't remember anything" he glared at me, put out that he couldn't show off.

"I just know" I said, refusing to back down now. We simmered in silence walking closer to the gate until we went far off and the guards straightened to look at us.

"Who’s your friend Aron?" the Minotaur called out stepping forward calmly on cloven hooves, hefting his enormous battle-axe onto his shoulder, floppy ear twitching in the breeze.

I tried to keep eye contact with him, but my tail sagged lower and lower the closer I got, part of me refusing to back down and the other very aware of how completely and stupidly outmatched I was. Finally coming to a stop in front of the guards, I could see the thoroughly unimpressed look in his dark brown eyes and my tail flopped to the floor completely, his gaze turned back to Aron.

"This is Sasha" he said grinning "I'm helping her since she can't remember anything, I'm going to take her to the Chief and see what she says"

The human guard smiled and came forwards to kneel in front of me, it felt strange that an adult was now almost twice my height "Hey kid, I'm Dante a [Guard] here, did you lose your parents? Where did you see them last?" I hadn't paid any attention to him before but he had a friendly appearance with average features and a sword on his waist, but the way he called me kid rubbed me the wrong way. My tail twitched up and down behind him as I tried to control the urge to bite him, next to the minotaur he seemed a lot less dangerous.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself, seriously what was wrong with me, I'd never had the urge to bite a chunk out of someone before or ever been this proud or quick to anger.

"I don't know, I don't remember anything about where I came from or how I got here" I said, quite proud of how even and controlled I sounded.

The guard frowned and rubbed his chin "How old are you?"

A nervous feeling filled my stomach and my tail swished side to side as I shrugged.

"Alright how about we get your basic details from the scribe stone then" he said and stood up and started walking towards the wooden guard tower on the left of the gate clearly expecting me to follow.

Slightly panicked I looked to Aron but he was already trotting after the human guard. I looked to the minotaur but he seemed to ignore my presence now, I stiffly walked forwards, trying to look like I wasn't keeping an eye on him and then sped up a bit when I was past him, telling myself I was only trying to catch up with Aron.

I called it a tower but it only had 3 floors and the first was simply a room with a desk and drawers, probably so they could keep track of trade goods and people as they came and went. Aron already moved forwards to sit in a chair opposite the desk, legs swinging as the guard gestured for me to take the other seat as he rifled through some drawers.

Nervously I sat down, my feet didn't reach the ground, so I just dangled my legs waiting, what was a scribe stone and what did he mean basic information?

"Alright got it" he took out a small cloth bag from one of drawers and pulled an engraved tennis ball sized stone out. Throwing the bag down on the desk, he pulled an empty card out from a pile on the desk and sat down on the opposite side of the desk.

"Have you used a scribe stone before?" I shook my head "Alright don't worry it's easy, I'll put the stone on the desk, put your hand on it and repeat "show my basic status", your basic status details will become visible to us and I'll record it on this card, I'll file it, we'll get your entry to the village approved and I'll take you to the chief who will see what we can do about finding your family, does that sound good?"

I nodded, no idea what basic status meant but I doubted I'd get into the village without doing it, hesitantly I reached forwards and placed my hand on the stone, I expected it to burn or something, but it was cool like a normal stone. Glancing up at Dante he nodded encouragingly and I said "Show basic status"

The engravings on the stone it up and a panel rose up out of the stone.

Name: Sasha Lanncaster Species: Drake Gender: Female Age: 9 Class 1: [None] Class 2: [None]

I stared at the panel projected above the stone in disbelief, I mean I had briefly considered that magic would be real but it was entirely different to see it. The guard reached forward and tapped the card to the stone, a flare of light covered the previously empty card and writing filled it.

Hesitantly I took my hands from the stone and the panel disappeared and swallowed, well at least I knew the age of this body now.

"You can only get 2 classes? I can get 3" Aron boasted grinning, immediately my nervousness disappeared and I glared at him "I'll still get better ones than you" I snapped out. Why did I say that, kicked myself, I didn't even know what a class was or if some could be better than others but I just couldn't let Aron win.

"Nah uh"

"Yes I will" We glared at each other and I harrumphed and turned away. Seriously what was wrong with me, I had never been a sore loser before and for god’s sake even though I was stuck in a child's body I shouldn't be acting like a child.

"Ok now that that's sorted I'll take you to the chief now" Dante ushered us both out of the room and closed the door behind us, nodding to the minotaur he stepped forwards and started walking down the cobbled street, buildings where mostly simple cottages and some shops in-between, people walked around, mostly humans but occasionally I saw non-human figures and though people did look at me, no gazes seemed hostile or lingered for long. It was surprising how many ordinary people carried weapons though, mostly daggers and bows but some people had swords and axes to go with their rustic clothing style.

I looked down at myself, not like I was wearing anything better, plain boots with brown trousers and a woollen shirt with an old rucksack. I didn't seem to have a weapon but neither did Aron. We walked in silence until Aron nudged me and pointed to an Inn at the corner of the street near the centre of the small village "That's my grandpa's Inn" It had 2 storeys with a large sign hanging over the door The Stag's Crown written in gold stylised writing. Flowers in bloom hung by every window and ivy crawled up the side of the sandstone, benches outside were filled with people eating lunch and the smell that wafted out was glorious.

I inhaled deeply and my mouth started watering, how could food smell that good? I was suddenly aware of how hungry I was and looked at the Inn longingly, but the guard didn’t slow down and I was forced to continue on.

"We'll go later, I promise" Aron grinned knowlingly at me, my stomach rumbled a bit and I nodded my consent.

Dante stopped in front of large stone building, opened the door and walked in, I followed and looked up, the ceiling light looked like a glowing stone, similar to the scribe stone, if I had to guess, I'd say it too had engravings on it and that when activated made it glow.

I looked down at the sound of a voice "I was just heading out, how can I help you Dante?" A middle aged woman stood in front of the stairs that she'd just come down, the hard leather armour and a sword strapped to her side she had an intimidating aura around her.

"Aron found a young Drake out in the grasslands who can't seem to remember anything about where she's from, or where her family might be"

"Hm take her to Tycel, she can do a blood scry and find her relatives, otherwise ask around and find someone she can stay with for now. I need to go but let me know if it doesn’t resolve itself"

Without sparing a look the woman walked out and closed the door behind her. I let out a breath I didn’t know I'd been holding, my tail swaying gently.

Dante turned around "Alright you heard her, lets go do a blood scry"

Alarm flashed through me, I had no idea what that was, but it had the word blood in it and that did not sound good.

"Don't worry Tycel only needs a drop of blood" I relaxed slightly, as Dante headed off. My stomach rumbled again and Aron dutifully went along, I sighed and followed them. Luckily, Tycel was on the same street but on the opposite side and few buildings down. The shop had the unoriginal name Tycel's Enchantments but inside was very organised with many odd objects on shelves with prices and descriptions underneath.

"Hey Tycel, you in here?" Dante called. A rustling from the back and a young woman come out through the door, short and pretty, she adjusted her bun and pushed her glasses up her nose "Ah Dante, what can I do for you" she smiled in a way that was a little too forced but cheerful non the less.

Dante leaned against the front desk "I'm here by chief's orders, I've been taking a little Drake girl around the village trying to find her lost parents but she can't seem to remember anything so the chief thought you could do a blood scry to find her family" I stared at him as he tried to impress the woman who seemed vaguely uncomfortable but also used to this.

"Ah I see of course" She turned to me and smiled, "Hey there, I just need to prick your finger and then we can find your parents, does that sound alright?" irritation flared in me at being talked down to but I supressed it and nodded.

She took us into the next room and gestured for me to sit at the table, she rummaged around a bit while Dante attempted to make small talk and Aron inspected various shelves.

"Ok here we go" she lifted an old iron device onto the table, it was a small tripod like stand with a horizontal arrow bobbing up and down on top. It too had engravings all over it.

"Its a bit old so it can only scry in a 20km radius but that should be more than enough" she smiled and pulled out a needle "Just need to prick your finger now" I reached forward and gave her my hand watching carefully as she pricked the tip of my finger between the tiny blue scales there. I managed to suppress the urge to flinch and a drop of blood welled up, vivid red against the blue of my scales. She took my finger and wiped the blood on the tip of the arrow.

The engravings lit up and the arrow started to spin in circles speeding up before slowing down and then just drifting slowly in circles. The light faded and eventually the arrow lost momentum and slowed to a halt.

"Looks like you don’t have anyone first or second-degree relatives within 20km, I'm sorry" she looked up at me. I hadn't really thought about what this meant, its not like I really had family here or even back on earth but now it hit home that I was truly alone here. Tears gathered in my eyes and I tried to discretely wipe them away. From the look on Tycel's face she clearly saw them but pretended she didn't to spare my feelings. Not sure if that made me like her more or less.

"It's ok" Aron came up and started patting me on the head in an attempt to comfort me. Almost instantly anger flared and I glared at him, pushed his hand away and jumped up from my chair.

"I'm not your dog"

Aron pulled back, a hurt and confused looking his eyes "That’s what my grandpa does when I cry"

Guilt took over and I looked away "I'm sorry" I mumbled out, this time it was easier to apologise, maybe my newfound pride and anger could be controlled. Eventually.

"It's ok different people want to be comforted in different ways, or at least that what Dante said when he took Melissa upstairs when she was crying that her cat ran away" Dante made a choking sound and coughed.

I couldn't help it looking at Aron's serious face and a giggle escaped, as he looked confused, Tycel rolled her eyes behind Aron, I grinned and said "Thanks Aron, that helps"

He grinned, a bit confused but happy "Let's go to my grandpa’s Inn, I can show you around and we can eat lots of food!" he grabbed my hand and started dragging me out the door while Dante said goodbye to Tycel.