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Description
How Dragons Are Born

Sometimes when Deven slumbered he had dreams of his old life. It was strange thought. It felt so long ago now. For one as young as him it seemed impossible. Most days he did completely forget about it. Sometimes in his sleep though, the memories returned. It was a rather strange occurrence on how the dragon tyke came to his current state of existence. Strange... But not entirely unpleasant.

Before he was a dragon he was a human. This was always the hardest part to wrap his head around. He could remember being human but he couldn't remember what it was like; other than completely inferior to being a dragon in every way. Still, humans were such funny creatures! They didn't understand the value of shinies, hoarded food instead of just eating it, and most strange of all wore these strange things called clothes. Deven supposed he could understand wanting a bit of personal flair to make yourself stand out, but humans seemed embarrassed to be seen in a state of nudity! And yet, he had once been the same way? It was a good thing he was a lot smarter now!

Still... as he slept his dreams couldn't help but pull up some old memories. Some far off corner of his mind still had some part of his lesser boring human self.

He hadn't been an exceptionally unique human in terms of appearance. He was neither overly tall nor overly short. Sure, he had identifying features such as brown hair and blue green eyes, but those didn't really stick out as much colored scales or tail spines! He never realized how humans have so little variety in their appearance until he stopped being one. Perhaps he would have disagreed once but now he recognized he was as boring as all humans were!

The strangest thing about the human Deven wasn't his lack of tail, ears or even horns though. It was the fact that he was an adult! The idea of being a grown up didn't really seem to fit with Deven. It was still a concept that was hundreds of years away at the least! It might never come! So how was he a grown up? Yet the human Deven was. Thank goodness that changed!

Ah yes. He remembered the change. You didn't forget something that exciting. It was scary at first but now Deven remembered it as the best day of his life. Really, he could argue it's the day his life really started.

Deven had gotten off work from his part time job that day and he was supposed to head straight home. However there was a new bookstore that had opened along the way. They were apparently having a grand opening sale. Everything was 50% off. The strange thing was, Deven hadn't seen them actually putting in the new store. He was fairly certain the old building on Main Street had been empty for years and was practically falling apart. Yet the store looked brand new! Deven decided to step into the store and take a look.

Inside the store was small and crowded. Aside from the low ceiling the room itself was actually remarkably large. However so many bookshelves had been shoved into the space there was hardly room for a single person to move between then. Deven marveled at all the books on display. There were so many and they all looked ancient! He realized this wasn't a normal store that just sold paperbacks you might read on the bus. Whoever owned this place was clearly dealing in antique books. He probably couldn't afford anything in here. Still, there was no harm in looking. He squeezed his way between two shelves and to the front desk. There a single man stood behind the counter. He wore a brown coat over most of his body with a hood drawn concealing his face.

"Um, hi," Deven spoke. "I don't suppose you have a fantasy section do you?"

"Be careful about the fantasies that you seek," an old voice cackled from beneath the hood. "For they can often make you seem meek. Should you not be afraid of strife, you'll find it can be a rewarding life. One which you can stand from any peak."

"What?" Deven said staring at the old man flatly. The old man responded with a laugh and lifted up one arm. Part of his coat fell away revealing a gnarled bony hand as he extended a single finger pointing at the back of the store. "Um... Okay then," Deven muttered. "Thank you." He slowly took a step back away from the shopkeeper and went in the direction he had pointed. It wasn't easy. Deven wasn't an exceptionally heavy set guy but even he had trouble squeezing between shelves. He wormed his way to the back of the store and found the section he was looking for. Against the very back wall was a massive shelf full of ancient looking books. No, looking at the size of them the word book felt like a disservice. These were clearly tomes. Each of them was covered in dust as if they hadn't been touched in ages. Deven found this rather strange since the shop was brand new.

He studied the labels on each of the tomes and discovered something weird. The title of each book was simply the name of a fantasy creature. Looking through one section he saw manticore, naga and oni. They were clearly part of a series, and each one the size of an encyclopedia! Deven wondered who had originally written them and how old they were. He was almost afraid to touch them. They appeared too ancient he was worried that just picking one out to read it would be dangerous. Eventually though his curiosity got the better of him. He took exactly one book off the shelf. It was the book labeled after his favorite fantasy creatures in the world. Dragons.

Deven opened the book up to get a look at the inside. The writing he couldn't recognize. It was written in some ancient language he didn't know. That basically proved it was an antique. There were pictures drawn in ink within the book. As he flipped through the pages he saw several drawings of dragons. Some of the dragons were big, some were small. Some were shown breathing fire some were shown soaring in the sky. Each picture had some kind of label on it, though sadly Deven read them. Looking at it, this almost looked like someone had been researching different types of dragons and recorded them all out! Whoever came up with all this must have had quite the imagination.

Deven flipped through a few pages then stopped when he got to another interesting one. He couldn't figure out the words but the pictures gave him an idea. On the center of the page was some kind of weird squiggly symbol. In a circle around it were pictures of the same dragon. At the 1 o'clock position above the symbol was a mere egg. Then going around it showed a dragon getting slowly bigger. It was clearly talking about the birth and growth cycle of a dragon! Deven couldn't make out what was in the 12 o'clock position though. He wasn't sure if it was supposed to be something that came before the egg or after the full grown dragon. A layer of dust hid the picture from view. Very gently Deven rubbed the page with his sleeve trying to remove the dust without damaging the paper. As the dust removed he could see the picture beneath the dust was just a man. That didn't make any sense.

Suddenly the symbol on in the middle of the page began to glow with a blue light. Then each of the pictures lit up one by one.

"WHAT!?" Deven dropped the book in shock. It made an audible thump as he did. The symbol began to glow even brighter. Some of the pictures however started to lose their light. Starting with the fully grown dragon they each started to disappear one by one until only the image of a man was glowing. The glow began to flash between blue and green and the picture symbol of the man began to fade. As it did, the glowing picture of the egg began to glow and Deven's life as a human ended.

This part was always hard to remember. There was a sensation of the room growing up around him. Deven could remember his human clothes suddenly no longer fitting properly. He became chubbier, though not in a way where he looked fat. It made him look more youthful. His arms and legs became shorter and his torso became squatter. He remembered trying to shout out a protest but the only words he could mutter were gibberish. His legs gave out beneath him and he found himself no longer able to stand. Instead he tried to crawl away to safety. He abandoned his clothing and began to crawl across the room, now a tiny human baby. He didn't get far. He suddenly felt incredibly sleepy and collapsed where he was. His last thoughts were he remembered some kind of strange layer covering his entire body. It was hard and round in shape. He was forced to curl up in the fetal position as it completely covered him. As he was completely enclosed the light from the world faded. The last thing he remembered was that he felt strangely warm and secure now. Then he drifted off to the best sleep of his life.

What happened next Deven didn't really know. He had slept through all of it. However, Mommy had told him the story several times. She had said there was a bad man who smuggled magical creatures between worlds. As arrogant as he was though, he never tried to kidnap actual dragons or griffins. No. Instead he traveled to worlds where magic was unknown. Worlds where there would be no way to trace his crimes. Of course that meant the creatures he wanted to capture also didn't exist. That was fine. He set up traps; he would lure in unsuspecting victims and then use magic books to transform them into monster eggs. He would then sell the egg before it hatched and before anyone had a chance to learn the soon to be born monster was actually a transformed human.

That was meant to be Deven's fate! But Mommy was smart and tough! She saved him! Mommy was a powerful sorceress! When the bad man opened a portal to her world she had sensed it from far away. She came to investigate. The bad man certainly had a lot of magical power... but he was no match for the arcane and physical might of a fully grown blue dragon.

Here Mommy always got coy. She said that little ones didn't need to hear tells of such violence. All she would say of the encounter is she decided to leave him with the same fate he had left on so many others and so somewhere out there a very confused chimera was born into a life as a dungeon guard. After the fight though Mommy said she found something interesting. A small white dragon egg with light red spots. That was Deven! Not knowing which world he came from and seeing changing him back to a human a crueler fate than letting him stay a dragon, she chose to adopt him as her own. That was how Deven had been adopted. Mommy had found his egg and taken it back to her forest cave near the sea

That was where his memories started again.

One day Deven woke up feeling energetic. He felt far better than he had in a long time; as if years of stress had just melted away! However when he woke up he found himself trapped in a small dark area. It was cramped and he could barely move. As he struggled around he realized something was different. Something about him had changed, but in this absolute darkness he couldn't be sure. He squirmed and moved around but was unable to see a way out. Then something on the tip of his nose nudged into the wall of whatever he was trapped in. There was a cracking sound and suddenly he could see light. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust. Once his vision cleared the first thing he saw was his mommy.

She was a massive creature covered in blue green scales. A single one of her clawed paws could easily fit Deven within it. Most of the cave was taken up by her quadruped body. He doubted she would even fit if she unfolded the wings from her back. Yet he didn't feel afraid of her. She was the first thing he saw in his new life and he felt instantly attached to her.

As he blinked and looked around he could see what he was stuck in that he had escaped from. It was an egg! He had broken out of it! There was a tiny little horn on the tip of his nose that had broken the egg. He struggled to crawl out of the egg. It was difficult. Being freshly hatched he wasn't exceptionally strong yet. His arms and legs didn't work to well. He managed to claw at the ground and pull himself halfway out before falling onto his belly. The egg cracked in several more places from the tumble. He squirmed around and kicked with his legs breaking through the bottom of the egg shell. All that was left of the egg was now worn around his waist like a pair of comically large pair of pants.

"Roawr!" Deven gave a shout. He realized he didn't know how to make words yet to express his frustration. However his tail began to thrash and as it did he was able to break the last of the egg off. He was now completely hatched. He looked down at himself. He vaguely remembered the bookshop and being human. He certainly didn't look human now!

Most of Deven's body was covered in thick green fur. Parts of his face, his stomach, belly and underside of his tail however were not. Instead they were covered with brown scales. He had a pair of green wings sticking out of his back with a brown membrane to match his scales. Two horns stuck out of the top of his head and finds from the side of his head. His hands and feet were paw-like with little brown claws on the tips of his fingers and toes. Brown spines ran down his back and he had a long tail tipped with a brown barb. He was a dragon! Mostly! Hus body still seemed human shaped but the tail and wings clearly indicated dragon.

"Was wondering how long you planned to stay in there," Mommy spoke as she looked down at Deven "Here I was worried the entire summer would pass before you hatched." She gently stroked the top of Deven's head with a claw. "I don't suppose you can say your name yet? No, don't worry. Talking will come again eventually. You have plenty of time. I'll raise you to be a proper dragon."

Mommy did exactly as she promised! Of course it was a few years before lessons could begin properly. Dragons had incredibly long life spans and aged very slowly. Deven aged at a tenth the rate of humans and so spent a long time as a helpless infant. It wasn't too bad. Now that Deven wasn't trapped sleeping inside an egg he found he really liked his new dragon body. Before he could even walk he had learned to fly! Albeit it only short distances at first. Then Mommy taught him how to breathe fire! But he had to be careful in the cave. Even as a baby his flames were blue hot and able to melt stone.

Deven spent the first five years of his life inside the cave. This was for the best. Despite his new abilities he spent most of his time sleeping. He didn't have any proper teeth yet and was entirely dependent on his Mommy to feed him. She would disappear to a human village to obtain milk and food for him. Mommy said she took a human form to avoid scaring the villagers! Apparently a lot of dragons could shapeshift and she'd teach Deven as he got older.

After five years Deven was as developed as a six month old baby. At this point Mommy was comfortable taking him out of the cave. The entrance was hidden behind a waterfall within the forest. Deven squealed the first time they went through and he was completely soaked. However his fur and scaled dried surprisingly quick in the sun as the flew! Usually when they were out and about Mommy carried Deven in one paw. She would occasionally let him fly alongside her when they were low to the ground. Usually she carried him. Many days Deven would fall asleep before they returned to the cave and just wake up coiled up on her back the next day.

After twenty years Deven was starting to become more developed. He was the equivalent to a two year old now. However dragons were strong and tough! He could stand upright and walk a lot longer than a human two year old! Now he getting older and could talk again! Mommy asked him if he remembered his name and when he told her she acted so proud of him! She told him he was so clever and smart and way ahead of the curve even by dragon standards! Deven supposed part of that was the whole formerly being human thing. Some of those experiences stuck! It was a lot easier to learn to talk and walk when you had already done it once after all! This was good, because now he had to learn some completely new dragon skills.

Mommy took him along on hunts now. Deven was able to eat solid foods now. She didn't actually let him hunt, but wanted him to understand where his food came from. She did let him start cooking his own food though! Deven always burnt the meat with his blue flames. At least by human standards he burnt it. By dragon standards it was probably still a little on the rare side. Dragons like their meat well done.

Far more interesting than hunting lessons though were magic!

"Now Deven, pay attention," Mommy would start. "Dragons are inherently magical. As you get older your magic will get stronger. It's already started to manifest though so it's important to learn to control it!" Control was easier said than done. Mommy was patient, and she often explained a lot of it would come with age. For now, he was going to have to learn that magic was unpredictable. She would have him try something basic, such as sweeping the cave with a broom. Sometimes he could do it perfectly. Sometimes the broom would suddenly crash out of the cave, go through the waterfall and land in the river. And sometimes the broom just caught on fire.

Deven craved to try harder spells! But Mommy often insisted he wasn't ready. He remembered the spell that turned him into a dragon egg so long ago! He asked if he could cast it if he wanted a baby brother. She would smile and tell him yes, but he shouldn't cast such spells recklessly. There was no telling how they might backfire at his current skill level. Apparently once you mastered the art, changing someone to a different species, a different age or even just changing them in size was completely trivial. This did lead into the next lesson though.

Shapeshifting!

Deven knew his mommy turned into a human whenever she went to the town to get things for him. Now it was his turn to learn! Shapeshifting was a lot easier than transforming someone else. There was no resistance so it was just a matter of focus. The first form she taught him to take was easy. She taught him to turn into a full quadruped dragon like her!

That was really easy! Deven had spent his entire dragon life around Mommy! He knew how she moved, felt, acted! It was easy to see how to become a full dragon! He could even do it while running! He'd start running on two legs, drop to all fours and be a full dragon before he reached the end of the cave! Then when he wanted to he could easily stand back up on two legs and become a human shaped dragon again.

"But that's just the start," she said. "You can become any animal or living being that you can imagine if you try," she said. She showed him as she herself slowly shrunk in size. Her wings and scales faded as she became a young human woman. He had seen humans in passing since he hatched but it had always been from high in the sky. It was surreal to see one up close again.

Deven closed his eyes and tried to remember what it meant to be human. He knew it meant being weaker, not having scales. Actually, the thought was somewhat unappealing! Still, he tried to change. Slowly his scales melted away. His paws became normal hands and feet. His snout sunk back into his face.

"I did it!" Deven gave a shout. "I'm a human!"

"Heh," Mommy stifled a giggle. "Perhaps, but you're gonna stand out right now." She knelt down to ruffle his brown hair.

"What why?" Deven asked as he tilted his head.

"Well for one," Mommy said. "Humans traditionally don't run around naked." Both Deven and Mommy were completely nude at the moment. So she would stand out too by that logic! "I have a robe I keep in the back of the cave near my treasure for when I go to the market."

"Why do humans wear clothes though?" Deven asked. As a former human he should know that. But he couldn't quite remember. Having spent the last twenty years of his life without ever coming in contact with a single article of clothing the dragon toddler was an adamant nudist now. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to wear clothes now.

"Truthfully I don't know," Mommy said. "I was hoping you could tell me. Humans have some strange practices, but I guess even they don't know why. Of course, that's only one reason you'd stand out."

"What's the other?" Deven asked.

"Humans don't have tails," Mommy giggled as she grabbed Deven's tail lightly and tugged on it. "Or horns," she poked the tip of his horn. "Or wings." As Deven stood he was mostly human. However his horn, wings and tail had not gone away.

"Gah oops!" Deven cried.

"It's okay! You're not expected to master the art in one day," Mommy said with a happy laugh. "Let's try some animal forms instead." With that Mommy shrunk down even smaller than Deven as she turned into a squirrel!

Deven tried to copy. Though after his transformation he still had his horns and his wings. No matter how he focused he couldn't get rid of them yet. Next they tried turning into wolves. This time Deven still had spines running down his back and one on the tip of his tail. They went through several more animals during the lesson. Cat, fox, mouse, lizard, hawk, raccoon and deer. Every time Deven transformed he always had some dragon parts left over revealing his true nature.

"Give it time," Mommy would say. "I didn't master it till I was an adult."

A hundred years passed since the day Deven hatched as a dragon. Physically he was now ten years old. He could walk and run and even fly all day without needing a nap! He had become a hyperactive child and was ready to explore on his own anytime he got the chance!

He was allowed to go out on his own now. Dragons were expected to be tough! Besides even if he was only ten physically and emotionally he was still a hundred years old chronologically. That meant one hundred years to learn how to understand the world.

Deven loved going to the nearby human town anytime he got the chance. He was a constant figure there. They always seemed to know he was a dragon though! He was sure he was better at shapeshifting now! However, anytime he showed up everyone always recognized the naked dragon tailed boy immediately! Perhaps it was the lack of clothes? Who knows. But he hadn't worn clothing in a hundred years he wasn't about to start now.

At first people were a little scared of him whenever he would show up. At least the adults were. The kids were much more interested! They wanted to play with the dragon that came to visit him! After seeing that none of the children ever got hurt and that the children seemed to genuinely enjoy Deven's company the adults become more comfortable with him. This proved to be a doubled edged sword. Sometimes things Deven used to do would get him yelled at now that the adults liked him!

Like... The other day the baker's shop had a pie setting out on the window! Deven was passing by and he was hungry! So he ate it! Then next thing he knew he was being yelled at because he had to pay for it! Pay for it? What did they mean! There was a pie, he was hungry. He ate the pie. That was how the world worked! Why were humans so complicated! In the past, they'd just whisper things to each other and let Deven be on his way! Now Deven found himself dragged into the bakery by his tail and forced to wash dishes until the baker determined the pie paid for! This was child cruelty! Humans shouldn't be allowed to make dragons work for their supper! That's not how the world works!

Whenever he complained to his Mommy about this, she'd just burst out laughing. She told him that if he was going to hang out with the humans he needed to learn their customs. That was all well and good, but Deven felt like the humans should have to learn his customs too!

That was an idea.

Come to think of it, the human kids loved him! He bet they would love the opportunity to be a dragon too! And then maybe they could explain to their parents why they were being unfair expecting a dragon not to eat a perfectly good pie. He'd just have to learn a spell to do it!

He decided to practice on himself first. He came back to the cave early one day while Mommy was still out hunting and cleared out a spot to work. He had one problem though. He was already a dragon! So how would he know the spell was working? Well, he had a simple plan for that. Magic could change age and species right? After all, he had been turned into a ready to hatch egg previously! He'd start by turning himself into a baby dragon again! If the spell worked then he knew it was ready to show the other kids!

So he concentrated and gathered the arcane energies needed to cast a spell. He muttered strange words and threw his hands into the air! Then Deven began to shrink! It was working! His legs started to get wobbly and he started to get chubbier again. He fell down onto his butt as he slowly shrank in size. He passed backwards 50 years leaving him no older than a 5 year old and kept going. This was great! He was a better spellcaster today than he was as a toddler, but he was still a child. Magic was hard and his spells still didn't always work right. It was great to see this one was actually going well.

Deven shrunk smaller and younger. He was now only two years old. This was the age he had been aiming for. He giggled in delight as he reached it. He was ready! However his delight didn't last long! He realized he was still getting younger.

Soon he was down to a one year old. Deven flailed his arms trying to get control of the spell again. He muttered the magic words but all that came out were a series of rawrs. He was too young to talk again! And he kept getting younger. Soon he was a tiny infant crawling on the cave floor.

At this point he felt a familiar sensation. It was something he hadn't felt in a hundred years but he remembered it well. The feeling of being sealed inside an egg. The barrier slowly formed around him and Deven realized what was going to happen. His Mommy was going to come home and have to hatch him all over again.

'Ah phooey,' were his last thoughts before he fell asleep again inside the warmth and safety of his egg.

Apparently, when Mommy found Deven she nearly died of laughter. She couldn't believe he had managed to do that to himself! Still, he was her little boy and she took care of him. She kept his egg nice and warm until he hatched and then made fun of him because he'd have to do the last hundred years all over again.

That wasn't entirely true! Now that Deven had the idea of making some dragon friends he wasn't willing to give up! But magic was hard and he often wound up making himself younger by mistake. He wound up turning into an egg so often that Mommy just decided to permanently keep a nest around for him. Sometimes the spell worked though! This Mommy seemed to act mildly annoyed about. She never punished him for it. However she expressed frustration at having to go out and find another dragon to adopt Deven's new friends as he made them. She couldn't be expected to adopt all of them after all.

Still, it's not like Deven ever did it to anyone who wouldn't like it! He was a good boy! Just it got lonely being the only dragon kid. Everyone else got older so much faster. He just wanted some more friends. Today he had made a new friend! Though... The spell had gone haywire again and now both him and his friend had been transformed into eggs.

The two eggs sat side by side in Deven's nest. Mommy had tucked them in to keep them warm before heading out to look for a parent for the soon to be former human. Meanwhile, Deven slept inside his own. He slept content he'd have a friend when he woke up.

The slumber would last for a few months before he hatched again. It gave him time to dream and remember the old him. Remember how he got here. He wondered what kind of dreams his new friend was having in their egg. Ah, but of course it would be a few years before they could talk again and he could ask. Hopefully he wouldn't forget.

For now he slept.

Description
How Dragons Are Born

Sometimes when Deven slumbered he had dreams of his old life. It was strange thought. It felt so long ago now. For one as young as him it seemed impossible. Most days he did completely forget about it. Sometimes in his sleep though, the memories returned. It was a rather strange occurrence on how the dragon tyke came to his current state of existence. Strange... But not entirely unpleasant.

Before he was a dragon he was a human. This was always the hardest part to wrap his head around. He could remember being human but he couldn't remember what it was like; other than completely inferior to being a dragon in every way. Still, humans were such funny creatures! They didn't understand the value of shinies, hoarded food instead of just eating it, and most strange of all wore these strange things called clothes. Deven supposed he could understand wanting a bit of personal flair to make yourself stand out, but humans seemed embarrassed to be seen in a state of nudity! And yet, he had once been the same way? It was a good thing he was a lot smarter now!

Still... as he slept his dreams couldn't help but pull up some old memories. Some far off corner of his mind still had some part of his lesser boring human self.

He hadn't been an exceptionally unique human in terms of appearance. He was neither overly tall nor overly short. Sure, he had identifying features such as brown hair and blue green eyes, but those didn't really stick out as much colored scales or tail spines! He never realized how humans have so little variety in their appearance until he stopped being one. Perhaps he would have disagreed once but now he recognized he was as boring as all humans were!

The strangest thing about the human Deven wasn't his lack of tail, ears or even horns though. It was the fact that he was an adult! The idea of being a grown up didn't really seem to fit with Deven. It was still a concept that was hundreds of years away at the least! It might never come! So how was he a grown up? Yet the human Deven was. Thank goodness that changed!

Ah yes. He remembered the change. You didn't forget something that exciting. It was scary at first but now Deven remembered it as the best day of his life. Really, he could argue it's the day his life really started.

Deven had gotten off work from his part time job that day and he was supposed to head straight home. However there was a new bookstore that had opened along the way. They were apparently having a grand opening sale. Everything was 50% off. The strange thing was, Deven hadn't seen them actually putting in the new store. He was fairly certain the old building on Main Street had been empty for years and was practically falling apart. Yet the store looked brand new! Deven decided to step into the store and take a look.

Inside the store was small and crowded. Aside from the low ceiling the room itself was actually remarkably large. However so many bookshelves had been shoved into the space there was hardly room for a single person to move between then. Deven marveled at all the books on display. There were so many and they all looked ancient! He realized this wasn't a normal store that just sold paperbacks you might read on the bus. Whoever owned this place was clearly dealing in antique books. He probably couldn't afford anything in here. Still, there was no harm in looking. He squeezed his way between two shelves and to the front desk. There a single man stood behind the counter. He wore a brown coat over most of his body with a hood drawn concealing his face.

"Um, hi," Deven spoke. "I don't suppose you have a fantasy section do you?"

"Be careful about the fantasies that you seek," an old voice cackled from beneath the hood. "For they can often make you seem meek. Should you not be afraid of strife, you'll find it can be a rewarding life. One which you can stand from any peak."

"What?" Deven said staring at the old man flatly. The old man responded with a laugh and lifted up one arm. Part of his coat fell away revealing a gnarled bony hand as he extended a single finger pointing at the back of the store. "Um... Okay then," Deven muttered. "Thank you." He slowly took a step back away from the shopkeeper and went in the direction he had pointed. It wasn't easy. Deven wasn't an exceptionally heavy set guy but even he had trouble squeezing between shelves. He wormed his way to the back of the store and found the section he was looking for. Against the very back wall was a massive shelf full of ancient looking books. No, looking at the size of them the word book felt like a disservice. These were clearly tomes. Each of them was covered in dust as if they hadn't been touched in ages. Deven found this rather strange since the shop was brand new.

He studied the labels on each of the tomes and discovered something weird. The title of each book was simply the name of a fantasy creature. Looking through one section he saw manticore, naga and oni. They were clearly part of a series, and each one the size of an encyclopedia! Deven wondered who had originally written them and how old they were. He was almost afraid to touch them. They appeared too ancient he was worried that just picking one out to read it would be dangerous. Eventually though his curiosity got the better of him. He took exactly one book off the shelf. It was the book labeled after his favorite fantasy creatures in the world. Dragons.

Deven opened the book up to get a look at the inside. The writing he couldn't recognize. It was written in some ancient language he didn't know. That basically proved it was an antique. There were pictures drawn in ink within the book. As he flipped through the pages he saw several drawings of dragons. Some of the dragons were big, some were small. Some were shown breathing fire some were shown soaring in the sky. Each picture had some kind of label on it, though sadly Deven read them. Looking at it, this almost looked like someone had been researching different types of dragons and recorded them all out! Whoever came up with all this must have had quite the imagination.

Deven flipped through a few pages then stopped when he got to another interesting one. He couldn't figure out the words but the pictures gave him an idea. On the center of the page was some kind of weird squiggly symbol. In a circle around it were pictures of the same dragon. At the 1 o'clock position above the symbol was a mere egg. Then going around it showed a dragon getting slowly bigger. It was clearly talking about the birth and growth cycle of a dragon! Deven couldn't make out what was in the 12 o'clock position though. He wasn't sure if it was supposed to be something that came before the egg or after the full grown dragon. A layer of dust hid the picture from view. Very gently Deven rubbed the page with his sleeve trying to remove the dust without damaging the paper. As the dust removed he could see the picture beneath the dust was just a man. That didn't make any sense.

Suddenly the symbol on in the middle of the page began to glow with a blue light. Then each of the pictures lit up one by one.

"WHAT!?" Deven dropped the book in shock. It made an audible thump as he did. The symbol began to glow even brighter. Some of the pictures however started to lose their light. Starting with the fully grown dragon they each started to disappear one by one until only the image of a man was glowing. The glow began to flash between blue and green and the picture symbol of the man began to fade. As it did, the glowing picture of the egg began to glow and Deven's life as a human ended.

This part was always hard to remember. There was a sensation of the room growing up around him. Deven could remember his human clothes suddenly no longer fitting properly. He became chubbier, though not in a way where he looked fat. It made him look more youthful. His arms and legs became shorter and his torso became squatter. He remembered trying to shout out a protest but the only words he could mutter were gibberish. His legs gave out beneath him and he found himself no longer able to stand. Instead he tried to crawl away to safety. He abandoned his clothing and began to crawl across the room, now a tiny human baby. He didn't get far. He suddenly felt incredibly sleepy and collapsed where he was. His last thoughts were he remembered some kind of strange layer covering his entire body. It was hard and round in shape. He was forced to curl up in the fetal position as it completely covered him. As he was completely enclosed the light from the world faded. The last thing he remembered was that he felt strangely warm and secure now. Then he drifted off to the best sleep of his life.

What happened next Deven didn't really know. He had slept through all of it. However, Mommy had told him the story several times. She had said there was a bad man who smuggled magical creatures between worlds. As arrogant as he was though, he never tried to kidnap actual dragons or griffins. No. Instead he traveled to worlds where magic was unknown. Worlds where there would be no way to trace his crimes. Of course that meant the creatures he wanted to capture also didn't exist. That was fine. He set up traps; he would lure in unsuspecting victims and then use magic books to transform them into monster eggs. He would then sell the egg before it hatched and before anyone had a chance to learn the soon to be born monster was actually a transformed human.

That was meant to be Deven's fate! But Mommy was smart and tough! She saved him! Mommy was a powerful sorceress! When the bad man opened a portal to her world she had sensed it from far away. She came to investigate. The bad man certainly had a lot of magical power... but he was no match for the arcane and physical might of a fully grown blue dragon.

Here Mommy always got coy. She said that little ones didn't need to hear tells of such violence. All she would say of the encounter is she decided to leave him with the same fate he had left on so many others and so somewhere out there a very confused chimera was born into a life as a dungeon guard. After the fight though Mommy said she found something interesting. A small white dragon egg with light red spots. That was Deven! Not knowing which world he came from and seeing changing him back to a human a crueler fate than letting him stay a dragon, she chose to adopt him as her own. That was how Deven had been adopted. Mommy had found his egg and taken it back to her forest cave near the sea

That was where his memories started again.

One day Deven woke up feeling energetic. He felt far better than he had in a long time; as if years of stress had just melted away! However when he woke up he found himself trapped in a small dark area. It was cramped and he could barely move. As he struggled around he realized something was different. Something about him had changed, but in this absolute darkness he couldn't be sure. He squirmed and moved around but was unable to see a way out. Then something on the tip of his nose nudged into the wall of whatever he was trapped in. There was a cracking sound and suddenly he could see light. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust. Once his vision cleared the first thing he saw was his mommy.

She was a massive creature covered in blue green scales. A single one of her clawed paws could easily fit Deven within it. Most of the cave was taken up by her quadruped body. He doubted she would even fit if she unfolded the wings from her back. Yet he didn't feel afraid of her. She was the first thing he saw in his new life and he felt instantly attached to her.

As he blinked and looked around he could see what he was stuck in that he had escaped from. It was an egg! He had broken out of it! There was a tiny little horn on the tip of his nose that had broken the egg. He struggled to crawl out of the egg. It was difficult. Being freshly hatched he wasn't exceptionally strong yet. His arms and legs didn't work to well. He managed to claw at the ground and pull himself halfway out before falling onto his belly. The egg cracked in several more places from the tumble. He squirmed around and kicked with his legs breaking through the bottom of the egg shell. All that was left of the egg was now worn around his waist like a pair of comically large pair of pants.

"Roawr!" Deven gave a shout. He realized he didn't know how to make words yet to express his frustration. However his tail began to thrash and as it did he was able to break the last of the egg off. He was now completely hatched. He looked down at himself. He vaguely remembered the bookshop and being human. He certainly didn't look human now!

Most of Deven's body was covered in thick green fur. Parts of his face, his stomach, belly and underside of his tail however were not. Instead they were covered with brown scales. He had a pair of green wings sticking out of his back with a brown membrane to match his scales. Two horns stuck out of the top of his head and finds from the side of his head. His hands and feet were paw-like with little brown claws on the tips of his fingers and toes. Brown spines ran down his back and he had a long tail tipped with a brown barb. He was a dragon! Mostly! Hus body still seemed human shaped but the tail and wings clearly indicated dragon.

"Was wondering how long you planned to stay in there," Mommy spoke as she looked down at Deven "Here I was worried the entire summer would pass before you hatched." She gently stroked the top of Deven's head with a claw. "I don't suppose you can say your name yet? No, don't worry. Talking will come again eventually. You have plenty of time. I'll raise you to be a proper dragon."

Mommy did exactly as she promised! Of course it was a few years before lessons could begin properly. Dragons had incredibly long life spans and aged very slowly. Deven aged at a tenth the rate of humans and so spent a long time as a helpless infant. It wasn't too bad. Now that Deven wasn't trapped sleeping inside an egg he found he really liked his new dragon body. Before he could even walk he had learned to fly! Albeit it only short distances at first. Then Mommy taught him how to breathe fire! But he had to be careful in the cave. Even as a baby his flames were blue hot and able to melt stone.

Deven spent the first five years of his life inside the cave. This was for the best. Despite his new abilities he spent most of his time sleeping. He didn't have any proper teeth yet and was entirely dependent on his Mommy to feed him. She would disappear to a human village to obtain milk and food for him. Mommy said she took a human form to avoid scaring the villagers! Apparently a lot of dragons could shapeshift and she'd teach Deven as he got older.

After five years Deven was as developed as a six month old baby. At this point Mommy was comfortable taking him out of the cave. The entrance was hidden behind a waterfall within the forest. Deven squealed the first time they went through and he was completely soaked. However his fur and scaled dried surprisingly quick in the sun as the flew! Usually when they were out and about Mommy carried Deven in one paw. She would occasionally let him fly alongside her when they were low to the ground. Usually she carried him. Many days Deven would fall asleep before they returned to the cave and just wake up coiled up on her back the next day.

After twenty years Deven was starting to become more developed. He was the equivalent to a two year old now. However dragons were strong and tough! He could stand upright and walk a lot longer than a human two year old! Now he getting older and could talk again! Mommy asked him if he remembered his name and when he told her she acted so proud of him! She told him he was so clever and smart and way ahead of the curve even by dragon standards! Deven supposed part of that was the whole formerly being human thing. Some of those experiences stuck! It was a lot easier to learn to talk and walk when you had already done it once after all! This was good, because now he had to learn some completely new dragon skills.

Mommy took him along on hunts now. Deven was able to eat solid foods now. She didn't actually let him hunt, but wanted him to understand where his food came from. She did let him start cooking his own food though! Deven always burnt the meat with his blue flames. At least by human standards he burnt it. By dragon standards it was probably still a little on the rare side. Dragons like their meat well done.

Far more interesting than hunting lessons though were magic!

"Now Deven, pay attention," Mommy would start. "Dragons are inherently magical. As you get older your magic will get stronger. It's already started to manifest though so it's important to learn to control it!" Control was easier said than done. Mommy was patient, and she often explained a lot of it would come with age. For now, he was going to have to learn that magic was unpredictable. She would have him try something basic, such as sweeping the cave with a broom. Sometimes he could do it perfectly. Sometimes the broom would suddenly crash out of the cave, go through the waterfall and land in the river. And sometimes the broom just caught on fire.

Deven craved to try harder spells! But Mommy often insisted he wasn't ready. He remembered the spell that turned him into a dragon egg so long ago! He asked if he could cast it if he wanted a baby brother. She would smile and tell him yes, but he shouldn't cast such spells recklessly. There was no telling how they might backfire at his current skill level. Apparently once you mastered the art, changing someone to a different species, a different age or even just changing them in size was completely trivial. This did lead into the next lesson though.

Shapeshifting!

Deven knew his mommy turned into a human whenever she went to the town to get things for him. Now it was his turn to learn! Shapeshifting was a lot easier than transforming someone else. There was no resistance so it was just a matter of focus. The first form she taught him to take was easy. She taught him to turn into a full quadruped dragon like her!

That was really easy! Deven had spent his entire dragon life around Mommy! He knew how she moved, felt, acted! It was easy to see how to become a full dragon! He could even do it while running! He'd start running on two legs, drop to all fours and be a full dragon before he reached the end of the cave! Then when he wanted to he could easily stand back up on two legs and become a human shaped dragon again.

"But that's just the start," she said. "You can become any animal or living being that you can imagine if you try," she said. She showed him as she herself slowly shrunk in size. Her wings and scales faded as she became a young human woman. He had seen humans in passing since he hatched but it had always been from high in the sky. It was surreal to see one up close again.

Deven closed his eyes and tried to remember what it meant to be human. He knew it meant being weaker, not having scales. Actually, the thought was somewhat unappealing! Still, he tried to change. Slowly his scales melted away. His paws became normal hands and feet. His snout sunk back into his face.

"I did it!" Deven gave a shout. "I'm a human!"

"Heh," Mommy stifled a giggle. "Perhaps, but you're gonna stand out right now." She knelt down to ruffle his brown hair.

"What why?" Deven asked as he tilted his head.

"Well for one," Mommy said. "Humans traditionally don't run around naked." Both Deven and Mommy were completely nude at the moment. So she would stand out too by that logic! "I have a robe I keep in the back of the cave near my treasure for when I go to the market."

"Why do humans wear clothes though?" Deven asked. As a former human he should know that. But he couldn't quite remember. Having spent the last twenty years of his life without ever coming in contact with a single article of clothing the dragon toddler was an adamant nudist now. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to wear clothes now.

"Truthfully I don't know," Mommy said. "I was hoping you could tell me. Humans have some strange practices, but I guess even they don't know why. Of course, that's only one reason you'd stand out."

"What's the other?" Deven asked.

"Humans don't have tails," Mommy giggled as she grabbed Deven's tail lightly and tugged on it. "Or horns," she poked the tip of his horn. "Or wings." As Deven stood he was mostly human. However his horn, wings and tail had not gone away.

"Gah oops!" Deven cried.

"It's okay! You're not expected to master the art in one day," Mommy said with a happy laugh. "Let's try some animal forms instead." With that Mommy shrunk down even smaller than Deven as she turned into a squirrel!

Deven tried to copy. Though after his transformation he still had his horns and his wings. No matter how he focused he couldn't get rid of them yet. Next they tried turning into wolves. This time Deven still had spines running down his back and one on the tip of his tail. They went through several more animals during the lesson. Cat, fox, mouse, lizard, hawk, raccoon and deer. Every time Deven transformed he always had some dragon parts left over revealing his true nature.

"Give it time," Mommy would say. "I didn't master it till I was an adult."

A hundred years passed since the day Deven hatched as a dragon. Physically he was now ten years old. He could walk and run and even fly all day without needing a nap! He had become a hyperactive child and was ready to explore on his own anytime he got the chance!

He was allowed to go out on his own now. Dragons were expected to be tough! Besides even if he was only ten physically and emotionally he was still a hundred years old chronologically. That meant one hundred years to learn how to understand the world.

Deven loved going to the nearby human town anytime he got the chance. He was a constant figure there. They always seemed to know he was a dragon though! He was sure he was better at shapeshifting now! However, anytime he showed up everyone always recognized the naked dragon tailed boy immediately! Perhaps it was the lack of clothes? Who knows. But he hadn't worn clothing in a hundred years he wasn't about to start now.

At first people were a little scared of him whenever he would show up. At least the adults were. The kids were much more interested! They wanted to play with the dragon that came to visit him! After seeing that none of the children ever got hurt and that the children seemed to genuinely enjoy Deven's company the adults become more comfortable with him. This proved to be a doubled edged sword. Sometimes things Deven used to do would get him yelled at now that the adults liked him!

Like... The other day the baker's shop had a pie setting out on the window! Deven was passing by and he was hungry! So he ate it! Then next thing he knew he was being yelled at because he had to pay for it! Pay for it? What did they mean! There was a pie, he was hungry. He ate the pie. That was how the world worked! Why were humans so complicated! In the past, they'd just whisper things to each other and let Deven be on his way! Now Deven found himself dragged into the bakery by his tail and forced to wash dishes until the baker determined the pie paid for! This was child cruelty! Humans shouldn't be allowed to make dragons work for their supper! That's not how the world works!

Whenever he complained to his Mommy about this, she'd just burst out laughing. She told him that if he was going to hang out with the humans he needed to learn their customs. That was all well and good, but Deven felt like the humans should have to learn his customs too!

That was an idea.

Come to think of it, the human kids loved him! He bet they would love the opportunity to be a dragon too! And then maybe they could explain to their parents why they were being unfair expecting a dragon not to eat a perfectly good pie. He'd just have to learn a spell to do it!

He decided to practice on himself first. He came back to the cave early one day while Mommy was still out hunting and cleared out a spot to work. He had one problem though. He was already a dragon! So how would he know the spell was working? Well, he had a simple plan for that. Magic could change age and species right? After all, he had been turned into a ready to hatch egg previously! He'd start by turning himself into a baby dragon again! If the spell worked then he knew it was ready to show the other kids!

So he concentrated and gathered the arcane energies needed to cast a spell. He muttered strange words and threw his hands into the air! Then Deven began to shrink! It was working! His legs started to get wobbly and he started to get chubbier again. He fell down onto his butt as he slowly shrank in size. He passed backwards 50 years leaving him no older than a 5 year old and kept going. This was great! He was a better spellcaster today than he was as a toddler, but he was still a child. Magic was hard and his spells still didn't always work right. It was great to see this one was actually going well.

Deven shrunk smaller and younger. He was now only two years old. This was the age he had been aiming for. He giggled in delight as he reached it. He was ready! However his delight didn't last long! He realized he was still getting younger.

Soon he was down to a one year old. Deven flailed his arms trying to get control of the spell again. He muttered the magic words but all that came out were a series of rawrs. He was too young to talk again! And he kept getting younger. Soon he was a tiny infant crawling on the cave floor.

At this point he felt a familiar sensation. It was something he hadn't felt in a hundred years but he remembered it well. The feeling of being sealed inside an egg. The barrier slowly formed around him and Deven realized what was going to happen. His Mommy was going to come home and have to hatch him all over again.

'Ah phooey,' were his last thoughts before he fell asleep again inside the warmth and safety of his egg.

Apparently, when Mommy found Deven she nearly died of laughter. She couldn't believe he had managed to do that to himself! Still, he was her little boy and she took care of him. She kept his egg nice and warm until he hatched and then made fun of him because he'd have to do the last hundred years all over again.

That wasn't entirely true! Now that Deven had the idea of making some dragon friends he wasn't willing to give up! But magic was hard and he often wound up making himself younger by mistake. He wound up turning into an egg so often that Mommy just decided to permanently keep a nest around for him. Sometimes the spell worked though! This Mommy seemed to act mildly annoyed about. She never punished him for it. However she expressed frustration at having to go out and find another dragon to adopt Deven's new friends as he made them. She couldn't be expected to adopt all of them after all.

Still, it's not like Deven ever did it to anyone who wouldn't like it! He was a good boy! Just it got lonely being the only dragon kid. Everyone else got older so much faster. He just wanted some more friends. Today he had made a new friend! Though... The spell had gone haywire again and now both him and his friend had been transformed into eggs.

The two eggs sat side by side in Deven's nest. Mommy had tucked them in to keep them warm before heading out to look for a parent for the soon to be former human. Meanwhile, Deven slept inside his own. He slept content he'd have a friend when he woke up.

The slumber would last for a few months before he hatched again. It gave him time to dream and remember the old him. Remember how he got here. He wondered what kind of dreams his new friend was having in their egg. Ah, but of course it would be a few years before they could talk again and he could ask. Hopefully he wouldn't forget.

For now he slept.