Chapter 2 Part 3 - Formerly Ludger Folles

The sun was now high in the sky and the light that flitted down through the opening in the ceiling bathed the small patch of grass in the center of the room in a golden light, this nesting cave had a natural beauty to it that was hard to find in most human cities.

I didn't have time to appreciate it however, as I was finishing off a Cave Rat using my [Dark Slash] magic; it was poking around the entrance to our nesting cave, likely due to the thick smell of blood. Suddenly I heard loud squeaking as Reis started making a fuss.

Apparently Mother was trying to get up but was having trouble due to her injuries, even though she had taken that potion the wounds hadn't closed all the way yet but you could say that the amount she has recovered is remarkable since it has only been half a day since she was at death's door.

As I made my way over I tried calling out to Mother although I can't speak dragon yet I was hoping she would speak in my mind like she did last time, since if I can get that skill most of my problems can be solved. After a few tries Mother had managed to stand up and when she did, I who was in front of her realized again that this creature could kill me if they wanted to and I would be absolutely helpless.

Then another thought came to mind, who was capable of bringing such a mighty creature to this state. I couldn't help but shutter, based on my experience as an adventurer to take on a dragon you either needed a party of 10 adventurers with the same rank as the dragon or hundreds of lower ranked adventurers forming a coalition and even then they'd have to be within 1-2 ranks of it to be any kind of use.

However these rules only apply to things below [9*] since beyond that is a realm where destroying empires isn't impossible. If my intuition is correct though our Mother is an adult dragon and should at least be a [7*] maybe even higher.

As I was thinking this a much steadier female voice rang out inside my head.

"Little one are you perhaps unable to speak our language?"

Ever since I hatched from that egg I knew that me being a reincarnated human might cause problems for me especially if my new parents held animosity towards humans, however no matter how hard I tried I wasn't able come up with a better plan than to be forthright and come clean about everything.

I stared into Mother's large black pupils and could only nod my head as I lowered my gaze to the floor and steeled my resolve for whatever was to come good or bad.

For a long time Mother didn't say anything she only pondered and furrowed her brow until she spoke with an icier tone than before.

"From what I know the dragon language is something ingrained into our souls which means either your soul was heavily damaged or that you don't possess a dragon soul, and judging by the fact you aren't a lifeless husk I'd say that the second option is more likely. So tell me which is it little one."

Since it came to this I told her everything that had happened before I was reincarnated or rather I just said it in my mind but I felt like she could hear what I was saying, this kind of mental communication was really too strange.

Mother let me finish the whole story without saying anything but I could some how tell by the look on her face that she was rather displeased, I don't blame her though since I basically stole the life of one of her children even if they had yet to be born.

Reis who was on the side noticed that something was wrong between mother and I so they started to squeak seemingly trying to communicate with Mother. When Mother saw Reis walking up to her making a commotion she also started speaking what sounded like a string of growls and hisses, suddenly she began to shrink and transform into a humanoid shape, this left me completely dumbfounded never had I heard before of a dragon being able to change their shape or rather transform into a humanoid.

Mother who had now become a beautiful woman with: long, glossy, ebony hair, two spiraled, amethyst horns, a magnificent pair of pitch black wings, and resplendent violet skin; all of this was complemented by a thin silk dress that seemed to just barely drape over her buxom figure and her slender tail.

She was devastatingly beautiful but I couldn't help but wonder if all dragons were like this and that they had just never showed this side of themselves to the world. At the same time I had hope for myself being able to transform one day if I can survive long enough.

Mother reached down and held Reis in her arms still speaking in the dragon language, mid way through their conversation Reis looked back at me and then became even more frantic but in regards to this Mother only furrowed her brows before speaking in a more commanding tone, one which shook me to my core as it resounded throughout our cave.

Reis seemed to be frightened for a bit but quickly began to thrash about, jumping from Mother's embrace and standing in between her and I. Seeing this Mother was shocked for a second before she stomped her foot and let out a frustrated grunt, however she only turned toward the nest and plucked our two siblings who had yet to leave the nest; one of them was gnawing on a rib bone while the other was scared stiff with it's tail sticking straight out.

She brought both of them to the pond in our cave and after she put them down she shot a black tendril made of magic into the water. Mother flicked her wrist and the tendril shot out of the water bringing with it a whole school of fish and quite a few crabs as well.

Watching her use magic to fish has broaden my horizons and I made a mental note to experiment with all of the magic I can use now to see if I could come up with niche uses like that.

My sibling who had been chewing on the rib bone squeaked and jumped to catch one of the fishes in it's mouth while the other one timidly approached the water's edge to drink.

Mother began to separate the food into 5 portions, while killing and gutting all the fishes and removing the appendages from the crabs.

She tossed all the undesirable parts back into the pond and glanced over in my direction.

"Come and eat"

Was all she said before she walked behind the nest presumably to cover up her treasure that I had left in a mess when I dug for the box earlier. I was confused as to how my situation turned around so smoothly but I wasn't dumb I knew that it was all due to Reis, whatever they had said caused me to be safe for now.

I walked over to eat with Reis and our other sibling by my side and began to eat obediently as I was both hungry and parched while the food helped to calm my nerves.

About an hour later we were all finished eating and Mother came over carrying a black leather handbag, she looked over at me and spoke in my mind.

"I will inscribe the dragon language onto your soul, now be prepared because it will hurt."

I tried to stammer out a rebuttal however she swiftly took out a sleek ivory wand from the handbag and shot a beam of white light into my forehead.

Suddenly I was subjected to pain equivalent to a blade carving my skull and even though I tried to suppress my voice by clenching my teeth I still couldn't help growling as the pain crescendoed before finally reducing to a light throbbing.

I was left gasping and trembling after it was over however I began to hear a small voice shrieking in my ear.

"Mom what did you do?!"

"Oh be quiet you brat! I gave him the ability to understand our language like you wanted so now you don't have to run away and get yourself killed!"

As the throbbing faded away I was able to think and hear clearly, was it really that fast though learning a whole language just like that? And wait was Reis holding themselves hostage for me?

"Hey, can you… can you really understand stand me now?"

Said a soft voice next to my ear. When I looked over Reis' big eyes were staring at me unblinking. I nodded my head and began to speak in what I assume to be choppy dragon language.

"Yes it seems it worked"

Reis jumped on me and tried to tackle me but I was able to hold their weight.

"Hehe"

Reis let out a soft giggle and rubbed their head on my back.

"I have always wanted to talk to you, to hear your voice and for you to hear me. Im so happy right now! Thank you Momma!"

I looked up at our Mother and watched as she let out a sigh.

"This kid is hopeless really, how could I face your father if you really ran off together and especially right now when all of those people are following my trail you would have been dead within a week!"

From her words I could guess a lot of things but what was most important was that she said there are people following us! This isn't good if they could wound her to such an extent we are all in danger right now.

"What should we do?"

I asked worrying about how much time we have left.

"For now we are going to gather the resources in this cave that were meant for all of you when you grow up since we have probably a day or so before they catch up and then we will head towards the city your father is at."

By resources did she mean the ore deposits we found while exploring I wonder and hearing that our father is still alive is good I was worried that he died in the attack so Mother could escape or something tragic like that.

"It seems that the three of you have already evolved… a [Fire Dragon] line, a [Metal Dragon] line and well even though you look similar to the [Dark Dragon] line I have never seen yours before do you know what it is?"

Hearing that Reis chose the [Metal Dragon] line surprised me since it was not only one of the more powerful lines but it was also going to be the one that I chose before I saw this one.

"I don't know exactly what it is but all of the evolutions I saw seemed to revolve around day and night the evolutions after a certain point were only question marks and it gave me the [Rare Evolution] title."

"Can you use magic?"

I was a little confused on why she asked but I didn't want to hide it, so I answered honestly.

"Yes both [Light] and [Dark] magic."

This seemed to confuse her even more but she just shook her head and said.

"For now the details aren't that important all of you just need to follow me."

With that she picked up our two siblings that had yet to evolve; who at that exact moment were fighting over some leftover fish bones, before they got snatched up by Mother and squished together in her bosom. Quickly Reis, our other sibling and I all followed behind our Mother like little ducklings.

As we waddled along Reis turned to me and spoke.

"Momma said that you used to be a human is that true?"

I was blindsided by the sudden question but I quickly nodded my head embarrassedly and said.

"Yeah I was, I lived somewhere called Messia I'm not sure how far away it is from here since I don't know where this is exactly."

"Oh! You have to take me to go see it one day! Oh and doesn't that mean you already have a name what is it?"

I was bombarded by Reis' enthusiasm and it made me feel a little homesick and wish I could see my friends again but before I could answer Mother spoke up.

"Ah ah ah! You should just forget all that crap because from today onward you will live a new life with the name I will choose for you; you used to be a man right? So do you want to be a male again or a female?"

"Um what do you mean how would I choose something like that? Isn't it decided at birth?"

Mother stopped and turned around to look at me speechlessly, apparently I had lacked more common knowledge about dragons that I thought.

"Dragons usually choose their sex when they find a mate and stay sexless until then. You don't have that much time to choose though only a minute from now until I choose for you."

I felt a chill run down my spine, I didn't have time to be shocked at this revelation either so I hurriedly shouted out.

"Of course I'm want to be a man!"

"Very well then from here on your name is Razhak and you are my son, so you will obey me no questions asked! If you have any qualms about this then you can get lost!"

At this moment there was a ding in my head and there was a change to my status screen.

Race: Baby Twilight Dragon (Dragon)

Name: Razhak

Level: 11/15

Condition:

I felt tears build up in my eyes as I stared at that woman's back; for so long I had forgotten what a Mother's love felt like but I have just grasped something in this woman's harsh but warm words, truthfully I thought at best I would be abandoned or at worst killed off but instead she accepted me as a part of her family. As I thought about how lonely and scared I had been ever since my brother died, I spoke two words from the bottom of my heart.

"Thank you."