Baby dragon, 1/2

A month passed, and eventually, I was able to start sitting up on my own for the first time, 'I finally did it! I didn't realise how much I missed being able to sit!' just after I managed to sit up, Crimson came into the room and saw me. She quickly became ecstatic, 'Is she really that happy to see me sitting up on my own?'

Before I had any time to react, she materialised another one of those floating spheres and quickly made a memory crystal of me sitting up for the first time.

I couldn't help but feel exhausted at her boundless energy and excitement, 'She's doing it again... She creates one of those magic pictures anytime she sees me doing something cute or new, and I'm getting tired of it... She's just too excitable...'

Crimson took the crystal from the sphere, and as quickly as she entered, she ran out of the room and down the hall with a massive smile on her face, presumable to Walter, to show off the new crystal.

I sighed rather heavily from feeling exhausted, 'I know I always wanted my life to be more exciting, but this isn't what I had in mind... I'm glad I haven't been practising changing forms when she's around. I don't want a repeat of that day on the training grounds. It took two weeks for Walter to leave me alone!'

After carefully listening to see if anyone was walking outside my room, I decided to start practising changing my form again. Over the past month, I trained in secret every time they put me to bed and sometimes in the morning just after I woke up.

With my continued efforts in practising, I made a lot of progress. When I tried changing forms now, my entire body had scales formed over it, and I even grew a small pair of wings I couldn't control with a pair of small horns to go with it.

As I started to practice, I closed my eyes and tried to clear my head of thoughts. Then, I slowly began to focus on the energy within my body. I could feel it running through me like a river; with my practice, it had become much more potent and stable. Before, it felt like a messy stream running chaotically through my body that didn't know where to flow.

Once I entirely focused on my energy, I concentrated harder on separating the two energies, pulling out the one I needed and making it spread out into every corner of my body.

When I began to feel it swallow my body like it does every time, I felt my body instinctively resist it. Every time I practised, this was the moment I always hesitated and stopped.

The sensation of the energy overtaking and swallowing my body was an intense experience that can hardly be explained with words and can very easily overwhelm you. The feeling is so foreign that every part of you shouts that you should stop, but I didn't; I steeled myself and pushed through.

It slowly engulfed my entire body. Then, when I felt it swallow the last of me, I felt the energy change and become almost like a layer covering my body that seemed to merge with my skin and become a part of me again.

After the energy finished re-merging with me, my entire body felt strange. It felt as though I was both the same but different at the same time, almost as though I had been holding back this entire time and only now have I let go for the first time.

When I opened my eyes, I was lying down on my stomach. When I tried to sit up, I couldn't. It felt like something behind me was in the way. So I pushed myself up and stood on all fours, and as I did, I could feel my hands and feet felt different than usual.

As I looked down at my hands, they weren't even hands anymore. Instead, I now had paws with claws, and my skin had turned entirely into magenta scales.

I could even feel that I had grown a tail, which clearly stopped me from sitting up properly a minute ago, but this time I could also feel that my wings were much larger and stronger.

I could also move and control them, 'I think I did it. I think I turned into a full dragon!' I tried to focus on and move my wings for the first time since I'd never been able to.

With only a bit of concentration, I was able to stretch my wings out for the first time, and they quickly touched the sides of my cot since they were rather large.

'This is awesome! I wonder if I can figure out how to fly?!' Without putting much thought into it, I started trying to flap my wings. I quickly ended up barely getting off the ground and ended up falling back down, falling face-first and hitting one of my wings on the side of the cot.

'Ah! That hurt...! Flying's much more complicated than I thought it was.' With my half-formed plan to try and fly in a cramped space, I ended up hurting my face and ended up spraining my wing.

As I whimpered and sulked a bit from the pain and my massive failure, Tom walked into the room to see what the loud thump he heard was from. When he saw me in my full dragon form, his eyes nearly popped out of his head from shock.

"You completely changed like Mommy and Daddy! Not even Dan can change completely yet! How did you!"

I couldn't help but feel anxious at the fact I was caught secretly training. I had a strong feeling Tom would run and tell everyone, 'Oh no... This kid doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut! I just know he'll go around shouting it to everyone!'

As I got up and moved around, I flinched from the pain of my sprained wing, which stopped me in my tracks. Then, as Tom saw me in pain, he got closer to me to check, "Are you ok, Sasha? Did you get hurt by changing for the first time?"

I looked Tom in the eye with a slightly sad expression from the pain. When he saw my face up close, his expression changed to a more serious one, "Don't worry, I'll help you! I'll be right back!"

After saying that, he rushed out of the room. I tried to make a noise or do anything to make him stop so he wouldn't leave and come back with Crimson or Walter, but he had already left the room before I had a chance to react, 'I hope he doesn't tell Crimson. If she hears about me changing forms and hurting myself, she won't leave me alone even more than she does now!'

'I can only imagine what she would do! She would probably make me live in her room where she can keep an eye on me until I turn 30!' Then, as I went into a spiral, thinking about what might happen, Tom came running back into the room holding a roll of bandages.

He quickly pulled over a chair, put it beside my cot, and used it to climb inside. Then, he got close to me, grabbed my hurt wing and started to wrap the bandage around it. I couldn't help but flinch from pain as he clumsily wrapped it.

After a minute, he finished and stepped back, "There, all better!" he had a massive smile and a look of pride on his face at the job he'd done. I looked back at my wing and saw a mess of loose and overly tight bandages. The entire thing looked like a complete mess, 'He's really not any good at applying bandages...'

Tom then climbed out of my cot and put the chair back. As I watched him, he smiled brightly at me, "You'll get better within no time now!" after saying that, he walked out of the room pleased with himself.

I was still sitting there trying to process what he did as he left, 'I guess he didn't tell Crimson or Walter then? I guess he can keep his mouth shut sometimes. And the bandages he put on my wing are pointless since my wing won't be there when I turn back, but it was kind of him to try.'

'Maybe having him as my brother isn't such a bad thing.'

Later that day, while I was sitting on Crimson's lap watching Tom's transformation lesson, Tom managed to make a slight breakthrough in his progress and formed a small patch of scales on his face. When Walter pointed it out to me, Tom jumped for joy and celebrated his achievement.

While Walter praised him, Tom blurted, "Soon, I'll be able to take on my full form like Sasha!"

My face dropped at hearing him yelling out my secret so casually. Walter looked surprised by his words, "Sasha hasn't managed to take on her full form yet."

"She did! I saw her in full form earlier today!" Walter looked at me with a completely shocked expression.

Walter walked over to me and kneeled in front of me, "Sash, could you possibly show me you taking on your full form?"

Both he and Crimson were watching me intently with expressions of anticipation on their face. I couldn't help but feel annoyed by the situation, 'I was wrong! That kid couldn't keep his mouth shut if it was bolted closed!!!'

I couldn't help but feel pressured by them watching me with such anticipation on their face. Against my better judgement, I decided to show them.

Within minutes I managed to change into my dragon form again. Walter's and Crimson's expressions were filled with excitement at the sight of me changing completely. While smiling, Walter looked at Crimson, "We truly have an incredibly talented daughter! There's no doubt she's a natural-born genius!"

Crimson nodded vigorously in agreement while materialising another three spheres to take several pictures. All I felt from this situation was dread, 'I knew this would happen if they saw it... I just wanna be left in peace! And isn't three spheres overkill?!'