As I rex after a few minutes of punching, catching my breath, I pause. A cloud-shadow drifts across the ground, faster than it should be moving. Looking up, I see only the amber sky above. To my left, a branch breaks, and I whirl, scanning the trees. The branch that broke, a thick, sturdy limb, is snapped in two pieces like a twig. I gulp. Maybe I should leave- as I back up, I bump into something that hadn’t been there before. Turning my head slowly, my gaze is met with a wall of gold.

  The wall rises up, up, ending in a… head? A massive one, with ivory horns curling down to protect the jaw, sharp, gleaming white fangs lining the maw, with dark, golden eyes. As I pan my gaze up and down, I realise. The living creature looking down at me with amusement… is a dragon.

  I fall over, before scrambling to my feet and raising my scaled hands, ready to flee if necessary. The dragon lets out a rhythmic chuckling sound, before blinking slowly.

  “You’re not in danger, youngling. I sensed your draconic aura from up in the clouds and couldn’t resist having a look.”

  The massive dragon sits like an oversized, scaly cat, tucking its tail around and furling its wings.

  “Now, you might be giving off a dragon’s aura, but it’s weaker than a pure dragon. You’re a Dragon-Shifter, aren’t you?”

  I gawp. “You can talk. You’re a talking dragon!”

  I could swear the majestic creature rolls its eyes. “Very astute of you. I am Aurexiar, a female Gold Dragon, and High Priestess of the Drakeblooded Cities. Judging by how only part of your body has changed, you MUST be a Dragon-Shifter. But how? It is nearly impossible for a human to obtain such power… hmmm… your scent is strangely familiar…”

  I gulp as the mighty head of the giant golden dragon lowers. A hot rush of air flows past my body as she sniffs deeply, her eyes narrowing in contemption.

  “Hrrrrrmmm…. I am sure of it… I have encountered a scent very simir… almost two decades ago… a human woman. Julia Crane…. That was her name.”

  I splutter, “you know my mom?!”

  Aurexiar’s eye-ridges rise slightly.

  “You’re one of her brood? Which one? She said she had three females, with a son on the way.”

  I blush. “The youngest.”

  “Ah, the male? But this look suits you much better. You always smell of sadness, but I cannot detect its odour on you now. This isn’t the first time I have observed you. When I felt the aura of an unfamiliar drake in this realm st month, I investigated. Now, I have something to ask.”

  She fixes me with her molten golden eyes. I stare back, transfixed.

  “Young Dragon-Shifter, would you like to learn how to control your power? I can instruct you, if you wish, though my breath is of fme to your ice. However, the basics are the same for all young wyrms.”

  I gawp at her. “You… want to train me? Why?”

  I can see the maw of the dragon curve into what would be a winsome smile on any human face. “Why, for my own amusement, as well as your safety and the safety of those around you. Besides, I get the feeling that you are destined for great things, young dragoness.”

  I colour slightly. “It’ll be a little difficult to train me since you’re a dragon. I mean, sparring will be quite the challenge…”

  A rumbling purr of ughter rolls from Aurexiar’s jaws. “Oh ye of little faith. Stand back, youngling!”

  She wraps her wings around herself and begins to glow. The source of the light seems to diminish, dwindling to a more human shape. The light fades, and a… woman stands there. She’s still much taller than a normal human, about nine feet tall, broad and well-muscled, with an ample bosom and deep caramel skin. Her eyes are the same burning gold. “How is this? A lot more convenient for the situation, no?”

  I gulp, staring. The only thing I can think is ‘Death by snu-snu!’ Aurexiar grins, her dark red lips curving into a simmering, wicked smile.

  “In this form, you may call me Adalinda,” she speaks, her voice not as loud and booming, but a deep, pleasant huskiness that sends a shiver down my back. I feel the scales on my arms flex slightly, as if reacting to the feeling of pressure this strange dragon-dy’s emitting. Every instinct in my body is screaming at me to flee or prostrate myself.

  Adalinda sighs, and the pressure eases. “My apologies. You will need to get used to that, though, should you choose to come to us for official training. However, for now I will teach you enough to get by. Now… try and hit me. I will not retaliate for thirty seconds; just try to nd a blow! GO!”

  Instinctively, I lunge, cws out, but Adalinda whirls away, her lush golden hair billowing out behind her. I dive again, swiping in wide, scything arcs in order to catch at her ankle, but she hops about five feet into the air, effortlessly dodging.

  “Not bad, but you’ll need to put a little more energy into it, young one. Show me what you can do!”

  With a fsh of movement, I draw a cwed, scale-armoured hand across my mouth, exhaling bittercold frost over it and forming my frost talons, shing out with them as I replicate the feat on my other hand.

  “That’s more like it. Now, come at me! I’ll start fighting back now!” Adalinda grins fiercely, eyes flickering with just a hint of fme as she hunches her back, preparing to react to my next move.

  I whirl, bolting for the fallen tree, leaping onto it and sprinting up the trunk, using my momentum to catapult myself forwards, kicking off one of the stronger branches at the dead-leaved crown, springboarding back at Adalinda as she swings a fist, fmes coating it as she roars. I tuck my head in, just ducking the sledgehammer blow that would’ve taken my skull off, my talons fshing out, trailing cold mist as I attempt to gut her. Her other hand catches my wrist just as I scratch her skin. “Well done, little one, you’ve got potential!”

  I blink, sort of just… hanging there, as Adalinda lowers me to the ground and lets go. The ice talons on one hand have snapped midway along their length, and she smiles. “Now, I have some arrangements to make first, but I will contact you once everything is ready for you to begin your training.”

  I blink, backing up a little as she shifts back into her massive dragon form, her scales glittering in the evening sunlight. “I’ll find you, don’t worry, little one. Your mother will remember me. We fought together, after all.”

  I call, “wait-!” but it’s too te. Aurexiar disappears, powering up into the clouds in seconds, the faint, rippling boom of her leathery wings vanishing. “I… I don’t want you to tell my mom…” I finished weakly. Well, crap… the deadline for me to come out has just been cut, and I don’t even know how long I have left to make my announcement before a literal dragon does it for me.

  I transform back, my scales and cws dwindling into my skin, my tail ‘shlooping’ back into my backside. Holding the rest of my shift, I look down, running my hands over my body, drawing out this blissful moment. Sighing, I drop the shift, returning to my normal body.

  Returning to my bike, I mount up and start heading back through the park, my tyres whirring over the tarmac, the wind in my hair rushing past, the guards at the park gates waving. “Evening, kid! Good t’see you again, and get home safe, y’hear?!” one calls, her dark hair glinting in the light.

  I wave back, calling, “I will! See ya!” as I blur past, my pedals pumping round and round as I maintain my speed, heading down towards the main street of the city below. Thunder rumbles nearby, but it seems… off. The weather’s still good, and the news forecast said nothing about summer storms. Besides, it’s te autumn!

  My bike whizzes downhill, and I turn left, barrelling onto the main road, thunder rumbling again, louder than before. The air crackles with charge, an eerie, tingling atmosphere that causes the hair to stand up on the nape of my neck.

  The streets are nearly deserted, and I pass a couple, holding hands and nervously looking up at the sky, talking quietly as they pause in the middle of the sidewalk. As I slow my roll, I get the awful suspicion that something is about to happen. I decide to get home as quickly as possible; I really don’t like this-

  Something falls from above, nding in the middle of the road, a huge puff of dust and chips of tarmac kicking up and shrouding the area. Six glowing red orbs in a cluster burn through the dust cloud, before an ear-rending howl splits the air, somehow… twice. Loping from the haze of debris, something emerges. It looks like a wolf, but… wrong. It’s got two heads, both far rger than any wolf should be, saliva drooling from bared fangs. Each head has three bzing globes of fire burning in sockets. Small twists of smoke rise from the tarmac as the drool hits, pockmarks of caustic spittle eating into the bitumen. Boils and pustules burst through patchy, mange-ridden fur that looks like the world’s most moth-eaten coat. It’s the size of a car. I almost fall off my bike, eyes widening as I get my first proper look at a real monster, the sort of thing my mom and sisters have fought.

  The couple scream and run, drawing its attention. It crouches, a scaly, decaying tail shing. Before I can even think, I shift into my ‘real’ form, chest swelling, hips widening, and hair flooding down my back. I push the change harder, further than I ever have before, and the forearms of my hoodie shred as scales tear through the fabric, cws pushing out as my lower legs change to match, my trainers bursting asunder as I feel the bones in my lower legs crack and shift, raising onto my toes as scales grow through in yers, an itching at the base of my spine heralding a new growth. My bance stabilizes as my tail regrows, the arrowhead tip gouging into the already-abused tarmac, and I flex my footcws, my vision shifting as my eyes warp and alter. Right, now it’s my turn to try and distract this whatever-it-is.

  I open my mouth, running my tongue over what were human teeth and are now sharp, draconic fangs, drawing in a breath, and roaring. A couple of windows nearby crack from the sheer force, and the left head turns my way. I leap, using my new tail for bance, and crash down upon it with a punch that felt like it should have fttened a line-backer.

  The creature lurches to one side, shaking both heads, before rounding on me. I rear my head back and use my breath weapon, a beam of freezing white light crashing into the hellhound-thing’s chest. It catapults backwards, scrabbling at the tarmac to right itself, before it fires back, twin bolts of fme streaking across the roadway towards me. I manage to dodge the first, but the second sends me reeling back, swatting at my clothes as horrible-smelling, dark red fire licks at my side and chest. Patting myself out leaves me a little off-guard, and the monster rights itself and charges me.

  As I swing wildly at it, trying to get it to back off, I crack my scaled fist across it’s left head’s cheek, feeling the bone buckle inward with a crunching sound. A strangled yelp of pain and a snarl of fury double-tone the air again, and I wince as acidic spit drips onto my foot, hopping back and firing another bst of searing cold at the thing. As I prepare for another csh, voices that I immediately recognize break through the chaos.

  “Ohhh, no. My sisters are here…”