People dream. It's natural. Daydreams you usually control and you can make them whatever you want. Sometimes they get forgotten, sometimes they spring back to life after a long time, or just a heartbeat. Sometimes, they come true.


Last year, I stayed home from school two days because of stomach pains. My mother thought it was some kind of odd flu, mainly because she had it too. But i can tell you, this was'nt a normal Get-to-stay-home ruse. This was longing. A longing to be a Dragon. I had just read a lot of Dragon TF stories on the internet(And, as everyone else just thought they were very good stories, but nothing more.) when the sensation popped up. It was also around this time that I begun making short, not too suspicious inquires (I didn't want to sound like an Ubergeek. That would have been, well, embarrassing at best.) about what they would do if I suddenly turned into a dragon.
How was I supposed to know that paved the way for my coming life?


I guess my story begins on the first of january 2011. I was bored, so I logged on to Skype as normal, where I was almost instantly greeted by the ordinary "Cucumber?" from Eric. This is a running joke between us, using either fruits or catchphrases from the internet to say hi to each other. I answered by typing in "NEEEEEEEEEEEIN!!!" which is also a somewhat retarded but still fun response. Comes from a YouTube video if you have to know.

"So, what are you doing you videotapesmellingmonkeybeerchuggingpinapple?!" Eric said.

"Nothing at the moment you tomato-throwing newspaperpage! You?" I answered, giggling a bit. He always seems to come up with the most ramdom stuff, no matter how hard I try.

"Playing a bit HoN. Isn't going that well though."

"Hm. I told you that game's boooring lol :D. No plans for tomorrow?" I said, just having had an idea.

"HoN's not boring, you pineapple! I'm just having a bad day playing, that's all. And no, no plans for tomorrow. What do you have in mind?"

"Yeaaaah...Sure haha. I thought we could meet up and just leave the computers a while? We've been sitting here just chatting for, what, two weeks now? Havn't seen you since the LAN."

"Sure, why not? At your place or mine?"

"At my home if it's OK :) Got something I want to check out in the woods,"

"Now you've tickled my interest, Jarl. Wazzup?"

I pondered if I should tell him right away what I had found or just wait until he arrived. I settled for baiting him a bit and then telling him.

"Give me a guess, hehe. I'm not evil so you can have a clue first. It's related to that rockslide that ocurred during that storm, remember?"

"Uuh...You know I hate guessing...You found gold? Crystals that the slide uncovered? I know you get crazy about that stuff."

I quickly typed :
"Nope. This is way better. The rockslide opened up a cave in the mountain :D. I thought we could explore it and see how big it is."

"A cave? Man, that's awesome! I'll go ask my parents if they can drive me to your house. Sucks not being old enough to drive."

"Do that. I'll BRB in the meantime."

"Yeah, see ya. Don't shut down Skype, will ya?"

"No way, Go ask them now you cucumberfoot!"

I heard a loud rustling as he took off his headset and hurried off. I thought about the cave for a while and what we might find in there. My thoughts strayed to the subject dragons and transformations and all off a sudden that longing sensation hit me like a train. My stomach was in upheaval, and I was feeling a bit dizzy. I half-groaned, half-muttered to myself "I know, I know. Dragons ahoy." I wrote a quick message in Skype about getting a sandwich and went upstairs. That sandwich was mainly to calm my stomach, but I also needed something else to think of. Therefore, food. When I had fetched that and went down again we chatted some more, but I ain't gonna bore you to death with two hours worth of text chat. To sum it up, he got clearance to come and even sleep here for a night (yay for that) plus he was allowed to go into that cave with me. His parents can be a bit jumpy on things like that, so we thought it best to ask. Besides, a few white lies about our equipment in there can't harm, right?

After about two hours we said goodbye for now and I shut off my computer. When I went upstairs I saw that the TV was still on, so I said to myself,

"Eh, what the hell. Might as well watch some. It's on, and who am I to turn down such an opportunity?"

I zapped around a bit, and eventually ended up on THE most basic channel: 1.

""Report", huh? Well...Boring as hell, but who knows? They might have found something interesting at the very least."

And sure as hell, I didn't have to wait long before a newsreport about a guy in the U.S popped up. He had apparently tried to fool people that he had captured a dragon. A few shots of the guy and the supposed "Dragon" appeared, and I saw how the "Dragon's" head fell off right before the TV cameras, revealing a man who looked like he would become very happy if he all off a sudden was somewhere else.

I muttered to myself;
"And some people really belived that guy? Man, I can't understand why some people even bother."

A few more news flashed by, but none catched my eye, so I turned off the Telly with a sigh, quickly downed a glass of milk and went to bed.





I jerked awake from a particulary nasty dream about me getting my a** kicked by some thugs on an open street, and sat up so fast I banged my head on the roof. Odd? Not really, as my bed is about two metres up in the air. Cursing heavily, I got out of bed only to bump my hand on my cactus, lodging several of the spikes in my fingers. My tears watered from the pain and I had to stop myself from yelling. After calming down a bit and turning my bedlamp on, I pulled out the spikes and looked down on my room. It was as it used it be, rectangular, my worktable in the middle with my computer and the two monitors on top of it. The floor was littered with stuff, as were the shelves. It was mostly books, but here and there some odd stuff peeked out, like some old bottles that once contained mulled wine (I saved the bottles, thought they might come in handy some day.), a broken computer headset, an intarsia from last year's woodcraft lessons, some old lamps that we had yet to put up, a book about  idioms, and magazines. Lots and lots and lots of magazines. I'm pretty proud of the collection my family have managed to pull together. Those magazines mean a lot to me. They were some of the first things I ever read, you know.

I sighed, seeing that my room was in need of cleaning. Well, that would have to wait. I had a cave to explore and I wasn't even dressed yet!
I grabbed my glasses, jumped down from my bed and headed for the wardrobe. I stopped at my mirror and looked at myself. The reflection showed a skinny, medium-sized boy at the age of thirteen with flat, blond hair and a tired but happy expression. I waved to my reflection, went over to the wardrobe, dressed quickly and hurried upstairs.

The clock in the kitchen was showing  9.26. "Good," I thought as I was preparing some sandwiches. "That means Eric won't be here for another two hours. Gives me some time to freshen up."
I raided the fridge for something to drink, and settled for one of the remaining milk packets. Really, I can't survive without milk. I need to drink at least a glass per day, otherwise I get cranky.

With the breakfast settled, I brushed my teeth and had a shower. My sisters were on some kind of thing with the school and not due to be home until 16.00, dad was away working(home at 16.00 too) and mom was sitting at her computer writing. That means that for a few hours, the house will be calm and I won't have to worry about having my sisters running around like some kind of sugar-high ten year olds, bothering me and kicking up a ruckus.

With the breakfast done and the clock at 10.50, I went down to my computer to kill some time and check my mail. Nothing of interest really, a comment on a photo on Facebook, plus a new move from Johan in our correspondence chess.
I browsed DA for a bit, and then I listened to some good old celtic music. Some people say that I'm strange that listen to that kind of music, but I like the swing of it.

It didn't take long though for the clock to get to 11.30, so I went up to see if he'd arrived yet. And wouldn't you know, there their car came roaring up our alley.
I put on my shoes, a pair of pull-on trousers(Hey, it's cold outside!)and a jacket. I went out to help unload his stuff.

"Hey you tomato! How's life?" I said.

"Morning,  troll! Life's living, so I can't complain." He answered with a smile.

"You need a hand hauling that stuff?" I asked.

"Yeah, thanks. Could you take those two bags?"

"On it. Man, those are heavy. What've you got in them, Lead?"I huffed.

"Nope, no lead. Just my clothes and some other stuff. He answered, smiling.

"Kay'. I'll just put them in the basement."

"Roger that. I'm right behind ya."

Our cat Tiger was blocking the door into my room so I pushed him out of the way with my foot. My reward for that was a very annoyed "Mreeeow" and an insulted glare from him.

"Hey, Can't help you're in the way." I said to him.

We packed up Eric's stuff and prepared a bed for him in the basement. He had brought his laptop, just in case we got bored with the cave, so I cleared out a spot on my worktable for that one too. After that was done, we went up and made some lunch. None of us had eaten, the time was just perfect and none of us wanted to have to go back from the cave because that we had gotten hungry.

We packed up some supplies(Sandwiches, what else?), two flashlights, a rope just in case, and our mobile phones if we got lost.

So we begun walking towards the cave, joking and laughing as we went through the forest. We stopped at the ciffside and stared in awe at the devastation. There were shattered stones all over, broken trees that had taken the full shock from the rockslide and large icicles had formed everywhere. I spotted the cave mouth and pointed at it. When we got to the cave, Eric quickly stuck his head inside and instantly yelled in surprise.

"What's wrong, man?" I asked.

He pulled his head out and said;

"This thing is huge! It's a massive frickin hall in there!" he enthusiastically said.

"Nice! Let's go then!" I exclaimed, beaming with excitement.

I scrambled inside, and saw what he meant. The roof of the cave must have been ten metres away, and the hall was at least fifteen metres long. I whistled in awe.

"Dude. Imagine this was here all the time and we never knew..." I breathed, flabbergasted.

There were stalagtites hanging from the ceiling, with lots of stalagmites on the floor. There was a hole in the ceiling that was letting in light, so the flashlights were not needed at first. Eric had gone a bit further in, and beckoned me over. I hurried to him to see what he had found. He pointed at a small hole in the wall that was glowing slightly.

"What the hell is that?" I said, peeing closer.

"I don't know, but it creeps me out. C'mon, let's leave it." He said, sounding freaked.

"Calm down man. It's probably just bioluminiscent." I said, leaning just a little bit closer.

"Bio-what?" he said, looking confused.

"Glows in the dark." I said, reaching into the hole.

"Hey, don't! You don't know what's in there!" He shouted,  but it was too late.

I stuck my arm into the hole, and I felt a small triangle-shaped object in there, nothing else. I picked it up and took it out. As soon as it left the hole, it stopped glowing.

I looked at the small triangular stone in my hand. It was red with black streaks, slightly rough, damp and had a short text inscribed on it. It was just something about it that made me feel uneasy. I looked at the text. "Dreams always come true. It's only a matter of time." I turned it over and I saw a picture of a roaring dragon head. When it dawned on me what I could be holding, I felt cold all over. I needed to get outside, NOW.

Eric just looked at the stone with a curious expression.

"Huh. I guess that was the thing glowing. But it has stopped now, though. I wonder what it is." He said.

I took a deep breath and said,

"I..I think I know what it is...and if it is, this thing is..is unimaginable." I said with a shaky voice.

Eric looked at me, having just seen me go from confident to a very shaken expression.

"What's wrong man? It's just a stone and probably that Bio-stuff you said before." He said, looking a litte worried.

"I..eeh..I think I need some air. I'll be right outside, okay?" I said.

"Fine. Just call if there's something, right? You look scared out of your wits." He answered.

I nodded and went outside. I sat down on a boulder outside and looked at the small rock again. If this really was one of the stones described in some of the Dragon TF stories, that meant that the old saying "All legends have a scrap of truth in them" was true. I thought of the consequences that it would bring if it really was for real. The big question that repeated itself over and over again in my head was "Should I do it?". Then, another saying I had read not too long ago popped into my head.

"You miss 100% of all the shots you don't shoot."

Before I could think it over again I quickly squeezed the tablet, hard. It instantly vanished with a bright flash of red light and was gone. I was still staring at it in shock when my hand started burning like it was on fire.

I could not stop myself, I screamed in pain. It was just as painful as it had been described, maybe even worse. I clamped my jaws shut; This thing would not get the better of me. I heard Eric call from inside the cave.

"What's going on? You hurt?"

I forced myself to call back to him.

"I'm okay! It's just...ARGH!" I yelled in shock.

I looked back on my hand and I saw that scales had begun erupting all over it. As I watched, my little finger and ring finger snapped together and fused. My arm begun to stretch out and thicken. Now the scales had begun to spread and they were quickly advancing up my arm. When the scales had reached my shoulder I felt my muscles growing and all of a sudden the advancing scales changed shape and colour. They begun growing on my chest in large black triangular shapes and I quickly ripped my jacket, T-shirt and pull-on pants off, knowing what to expect next. Standing in my normal pants a lot of things begun to happen at the same time. My left arm had just undergone the same transformation as my right arm and I felt a stabbing sensation on the tips of my fingers. Along with this, all the bones in my body begun realigning themselves in response to my muscles reshaping. My hips snapped, and I screamed in pain, falling to the ground. In the middle of all the chaos going on I heard Eric yell.

"What the hell's going on out there? Jarl, you alright? Screw this, I'm coming out!"

I panicked. He can't see me transforming like this! I tried to yell at him to stay inside, but the pain was too much and it came out as a whine. I heard him half-running towards the cave mouth. But I could not concentrate on that now, I had more, uh, pressing matters to attend to. My tailbone suddenly begun to push against my skin. At first i could not understand that, I was too dizzy. Then it dawned on me. A tail! I could not follow up on this thought though as my fingers sprouted claws in a very painful way and an extra pair of arms erupted on my back. The extra arms continued to grow as my legs begun to lengthen and my toes fused into a three-toed foot.
My nails almost instantly turned into claws and my entire body twitched from the sensation. In the haze, I heard Eric say "WHAT?!"

By now my neck was getting longer. I could feel my head sliding along the ground as it grew, and eventually bumping into a tree. My face begun to stretch out into a muzzle and I felt horns sprouting from diffrent places on my head. When my head got too wide for my glasses they flew off me and I heard them bounce off something. My teeth begun to feel loose and I got the worst headache in the world from my skull reforming to accomodate all the new feautures. I felt my eyeballs bounce around in my eyesockets for a bit until they increased in size and fit snugly.
Now my entire body suddenly gained in volume, my pants exploded off me and my back arced when the nervous system sent all kinds of test signals. I collapsed into a panting heap and turned my attention to my extra arms .

The extra arms were growing into complete wings, and I saw a leathery membrane growing in between the metre-long fingers. Now my lungs expanded and I begun hacking and coughing so hard my teeth flew out. They were however instantly replaced by very sharp and very pointy dragon teeth. My tounge responded to this by gaining in length and I felt a sharp cutting sensation on the tip. When I poked around a bit with it I felt that I now had a forked tounge.
Then came the most odd sensation of them all. All of my organs was moving around and expanding to fill in the gaps. It felt like someone was using my body as a meat liquidizer. It did not hurt much though, it was just strange. Normally I should have wondered about this but I was simply glad to have an end to the pain for a few seconds.
Sadly, that did not last long. I felt lots of pressure points running down my back all the way down my new tail. With a ripping soud and a shock of unimaginable pain short spikes erupted in a line down my back.

With that done, I passed out.

When I regained consciousness I just laid there, not wanting to move just yet. I heard Eric say something, but I could not make anything of at first. Then he said something in a very scared voice which I did hear.

"What the hell was that crap!?! Was that really..?"

I groaned. I could not talk, not yet. I was far too tired.
I heard him say;

"Shi! It's still alive! What the hell is this monster? It's a freaking dragon! What am I going to do now?"

That was a bit too much for me. First being called a Monster and then referred to as "It".

"I would prefer if you called "It" by name. I can still hear you, you know." I said in a hoarse voice.

I heard him take a step back.
"Jesus! You can freaking talk! What kind of thing are you!?"

"It's me, Jarl. Come on, you gotta belive me!" I said, almost panicking.

"How the hell could you be Jarl? Last time i checked, he was a human!"

"That small tablet...It transformed me. Come on, you saw a part of it. I heard you come out."

That seemed to calm him a bit atleast.

"Jarl...? Can that...thing...really be you?" he said in a freaked voice.

"It's me, man! Come on, ask me something only Jarl would know." I said, trying to convince him.

"Okay. What was the first thing i called you on Skype yesterday?"'

"You called me a "videotapesmellingmonkeybeerchuggingpinapple" which was pretty funny. I responded with calling you a "tomato-throwing newspaperpage". I smiled.

"What are you usually called in school?" He asked with a trembling voice.

"The Rumptroll. Came from Oscar, and I was not very happy about it at first, but I caught up on the joke after a while." I answered.

"Shit man...last question. What do you usually drink?" He asked.

"Milk. Lot's of it." I said, hopes rising.

"That's Jarl alright. How the crap did this happen, man!?" he said. I heard him take a step closer.

"It was that stone... Thought they were only a story. I've read about them on the internet. Some guy on DA I think" I said, with my eyes still closed.

"Dude, so you knew about it before? Where is that stone? And why are you keeping your eyes shut?"

"It vanished...That's what transformed me. On the eye thing, they hurt a bit. Now tell me, How do i look?" I said, wanting to be able to give myself an image of my new body.

"You look awesome." He said.

"Come on, that's not enough. Give me some more." I said

"Okey...You are covered in red scales all over, except on your belly, chest and the bottom of your tail where they are jet black. They look thicker there too. You have massive black claws and are about 2 metres long, excluding the tail. The tail is spiked with some kind of spade-thing on the end. Your head is...Well, spikey. You got a ruff at the back of your jaws too." He said in an awed voice.

"Right. I guess I can't wait any longer looking me over myself....Here goes."

I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry. Ah crap. My glasses. I tried squinting and my vision cleared up just enough for me to be able too see myself. What I saw almost made me cry with joy. I was really a Dragon. But not any Dragon, I was an almost exaxt replica of the Dragon I had always dreamed of. There were a few diffrences, but that did not matter. I was a Dragon, a real bona fide Dragon!

"This is amazing." I said, my voice bursting with joy. "Okay, i'm gonna try to stand up."

I gave myself a push and managed to stand up on all fours. I growled to myself, not wanting to be a quadruped dragon. I forced my body to stand up on my hind legs. It went smoother than I thought, and I was soon standing, leaning against a tree for support.

"Well, that went better than I thought." I said out loud.

I noticed that Eric had stepped back a bit at the sight of me standing. All blurred, he looked scared.

"What?" I asked.

"Well..It's kinda creepy seeing you like that. You know, uh, Green reptile eyes and all. You don't feel any...uh...urge to attack and eat me?" He said, clearly spooked.

"Are you crazy? I wouldn't eat you even if I was hungry. You're my friend, damnit!" I quickly responded, shocked.

That seemed to calm him a bit, and he walked up to me.

"Man...You're huge! I mean, that tail and all makes you seem much bigger. Besides, your voice sounds all creepy."

I turned around and looked at my tail. I tried to move it a bit and was shocked to both see and feel it move.

"That's kinda froody." I said, delighted. "Hold a second, where's my clothes?"

That question seemed to have an effect on both of us. If my face wasn't already I would be the colour of a tomato.

"Er...dude. I have a slight feeling that you're...well..." Eric said, reluctant to state the obvious.

"Naked." I finished for him and gave him the slightly-beaten-but-still-happy-face.

"Yeah. At least your, uh, package isn't showing. That's a plus in a minus, right?" he said, embarrassed.

I looked down, and saw he was right.
"I guess so... Hey, you don't happen to know where my glasses went? I can't see a damned thing."

"I'll see if I can find them. Hold on for a second, will you?" he said and begun to look the place over. It did not take long for him to find them.

"Here! They'd hung themselves up on a branch. Gotta be lucky sometimes, eh?" He said, sounding pleased.

He handed them to me and I tried to put them on. That did not work out well as they were about the size of my snout now. I bent them a bit and managed to hang them on two of my smaller horns. Thank god for metal frames, I thought for myself.

"Darn, it's good to be able too see again... Thanks. But really, I need some clothes. It doesn't feel right without them and I'm getting cold. I think we should head home." I said.

"Guess so. I'll go get my stuff." He said.

We begun half-running home as I was getting really cold by now.
When we was closing in on the house I saw to my relief that no one was home yet, except for Mom. I saw her head peeking up above her computer screen, but it did not look like she had seen us.

"Okey. I guess you get the hard work then." I said, just realizing something.

"What do you mean?" eric said, a concerned look on his face.

"Well I can't really just run upstairs and yell "Hey mom, Now we're home! Oh, and we had a little accident. What's for dinner?", right? That would freak her out." I said, trying to joke it away.

"Aww, dude. I did'nt think of that. This ain't gonna be fun." He moaned.

"Mh. First of all, though, we need to get into the house without getting noticed. I guess we just open the door and act normally, and I try to head for the basement as fast as possible." I said, frowning.

"Guess so." He responded.

"You come after me as soon as possible, okay? Just get down there A.S.A.P, 'kay?" I said and Eric nodded.
"Ready? Okey, here we go. 3...2..1.. 'Kay, let's run!" I exclaimed.

We ran to the door as fast as we could, threw it open, I bolted for the basement and Eric tried to act as normal as possible.

I ran towards the stairs, grabbed a pole with my tail to swing myself around, jumped down almost half the staircase and almost getting stuck with my wings on the doorframe I collapsed on a chair in my room. I took some deep breaths and tried to work out a plan. I realized this could get hairy very, very fast. There was no guarantee that she would belive Eric, or me, right? Hold a sec, though. If she would not, although I highly doubted that she would not, Maybe someone on DA would? It was a long shot, but hey? I'm sitting here as a dragon, so there has to be a shred of truth in it all, right? Who knows, maybe all the stories are true. I settled on that as a Plan C as plan B was to be persistent. Having two backup plans, I felt a little better.

All of a sudden I heard someone coming down the stairs. I tried to bolt for cover but my tail got stuck in the chair. I fell flat on my belly and the chair toppled over me. With a heavy oath in the direction of the chair, I kicked myself loose. I heard a slight chuckle and I looked up. Eric was standing in the doorway with an amused smile.

"What's so fraggin funny? Give me a hand instead." I growled.

He shook his head, smiled and said;

"Sorry. It's just not every day you see a Dragon fighting with a chair. Here, give me your han...uh, claw."

"Thanks."

He reached for my paw but hesitated a bit when he saw how sharp my claws were.

"Hey, I ain't gonna claw you up. I'll be careful where I put these things." I growled, somewhat annoyed.

"Right." He said. He grabbed one of my claws and pulled me up(Well, tried to, but it was the small tug that was needed.).

I got to my feet and gave the chair a dirty look.

"Okey...What now? I go upstairs and try to prepare her a bit?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, do that. I'll go and see if I can find some kind of underwear that I can squeeze myself into. I think i got a pair of scissors here somewhere." I said.

"Scissors? What for?" Eric asked.

I just waved my tail and he gave me a look of understanding.

"Ah. Tail. Right. Well, I'll go up then. I'll give you a Heads-up too when we come down." He said, turning to go.

"Thanks. See you in a minute, then." I answered.

Eric went up the stairs, not looking very happy about his place in the world at the moment. I was feeling with him, you know. He was just about to tell a mother that her son had turned into a red, two-metre tall lizard. I could only think of one spot that was worse than his, and that was my position.

"Okey. Can't show myself naked. Underwear, was it?" I muttered to myself.

I went out to my wardrobe, took the largest pair of underpants I could find and tried to put them on. Just getting my feet through was a hard task due to the size of them, and to make matters worse my claws caught in the fabric all the time. After a minute or two of struggle i finally got them both through. All went well until I got to the tail where they refused to go any further, no big surprise there. I looked around for the scissors, spotted them on a shelf (under a book) and cut a hole for my tail. It wasn't the best fit and almost the entire backside of the underpants were gone, but atleast I wasn't naked anymore. I thought about getting myself a T-shirt too, but I realized I could not modify it without help, so that had to wait. Instead i started up my computer to see if I could find something helpful on DA, and prepare an emergency message if it screwed up. I looked at my claws when the computer requested my password and I pushed a few buttons, trying to find out whether or not I could write without wrecking the keyboard. I accidentally scratched a few buttons, but nothing worse happened. Delighted that i could still operate a computer. I logged in and begun searching for just about anything that could help. I didn't really know what I was looking for but it felt good actually doing something instead of just sit and wait.

There! "Use this link should you ever transform into a Dragon" Uh... Is'nt that just a litte creepy, like they had been expecting this? Anyway, I clicked the link and got to a "Contact me" page. I composed a short message with the reason for me writing and my E-mail. I didn't send it though, I just minimized the window because I wasn't ready to send it just yet.

I heard someone come down the upper staircase. I minimized all the open windows and quickly stepped a few steps back so I would'nt be seen instantly.

"Jarl? You down there?" I heard Eric call.

"Yeah." I called back.

"What has happened to him? His voice sounds all throaty?" Mom said to Eric.

"He...uh...changed a bit when we were at the cave. Don't worry, he's still himself." Eric said, trying to calm her.

"Changed? What do you mean? Jarl? Are you okay?" She called down.

Oh, man. This ain't gonna be fun.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Considering the circumstances. Listen, do you remember what we were talking about a few days ago? That dragon stuff?" I said.

"Yes. What..?" she stopped abruptly as she understood. "No...you can't be serious. That's impossible!" She shouted, sounding shocked.

"No jokes here, sorry. I think you should see for yourself. Just...don't storm in, okay? I'd reckon it would be quite a shock." I called up.

I heard them come down the staircase and stop in the hall.

"Okay...are you ready for this?" I said.

"Not really. But now's a better time than never, right? I heard her take a deep breath to steady herself. "Alright. You can come out now."

Here goes, I thought. My entire future depends on how she takes this. I slowly began to inch my head out in full sight, centimetre by centimetre. I looked at her, trying to determine what she was thinking. She was staring at me in..Fear? Disbelief? Acceptance? Then she smiled, shook her head and said:

"Never would I have thought this would happen. What have you done to your glasses?." Then she laughed and ran into my arms, half-crying and hugging me all the time.

I stared at her in shock and tried to gather myself. I was amazed by how well she took it.(Relatively speaking)

"Hey, " I said as I hugged her back; "I'm still me, right? I'm just the same as I was before, mentally."

She pushed me away a bit and wiped her eyes. She smiled a wry smile and huffed a bit.

"We're going to have a hell getting you back into school, you know." She said, wearily.

"School?!" I exclaimed, shocked. I'd certanly not thought about that.

Eric laughed from the corner he was standing in.

"Oh man, a Dragon for classmate. This year is going to be epic.