Like earlier in the morning, David and Ms. Derek were sitting at the table in the kitchen. The clothes from the store were on the table in front of David. The wooden chairs were built for someone much taller than David, and he swung his legs under the table. He gripped the edge of the chair, refusing to look Ms. Derek in the eye. 

"Do you want to tell me what just happened?" It would be the first of many questions David would never really be able to answer.  Ms. Derek's voice was kind, undemanding.

Her voice was unfamiliar. 

The dragon didn't react to what the woman had asked, instead, he continued staring at the grains on the table. He had expected— almost wanted— the woman to yell at him. This hurt more.

He missed his mother. He missed not feeling terrified. Aiden's voice bounced around in his head like an alarm constantly reminding him of the danger he was in just for golden blood in his veins. 

Where are your Shape Shifters now? 

He squeezed his eyes shut. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the chair tighter. Who was screaming?

He flinched feeling a hand on his shoulder. His eyes jerked open. The woman had recoiled her hand. Her eyes were filled with worry.

But the humans were monsters. The humans had to be monsters. David could feel the tears in his eyes. 

"Who's screaming?" The child asked forgetting about his accent for a moment. He begged with his eyes for an answer. "Who's screaming right now?" 

The worry in the woman's eyes turned to pity. "Oh, child, my child." 

The screaming stopped abruptly. It cut off in the middle. Everything around David got darker, like a cloud passing in front of the sun. David released his grip on the chair. Everything felt numb. 

The woman cupped his face in her hands. David's body didn't tense at her touch. 

"I am so, so sorry for what you must have been through." She whispered. "I'm so, so sorry." 

David stared at her. The words she said felt far away. What he had been through? His parents were dead. They weren't coming back. David was alone.

And that was the Shape Shifters' fault. 

It was like having someone to blame made David's mind grounded again. He looked away from the woman, forcing her to drop her hands. He blinked a few times and rubbed the tears off his face.

The woman stood up. "I need to find a place to put the rug I bought yesterday. It turns out we had a rug under the bed, so I didn't actually need it."

David looked up. There was no humor in her eye. He glanced to the side before nodding slowly.

She smiled and it matched the soft tone of her voice, "I'm glad you're okay. But please, never do that again." She handed David the clothes from the store. "Go put on your new clothes. They'll fit better."

David was grateful for the reason to be alone. Grabbing the clothes off the table, David left the kitchen, not looking back.

He closed the door to the room, and a cold shock sent his heart racing.

He'd never had a door before. David pushed the feeling away. 

He pulled the oversized clothes off, and for a moment let his scales appear over his skin. It felt good to remove the itchy clothing, but David's heart wrenched, and he let the scales melt away into his skin.

Rushed, David pulled the new clothes on. The shirt hung a little bit, but as he expected, he figured he would be able to live with the leather pants; they were as close as he was going to get to his own scales.

He looked down at himself for a moment. He looked like a human now. He didn't need to stay with the couple. David shivered remembering the feeling of being lost in the city.  Leaving wouldn't be better than staying here.

***

When David stepped out of the room, trying not to wince every time the cotton rubbed his arms, he noticed that the table had been moved. It now was leaning against the wall, opening up the bare floor. David stared at the blue rug that was now covering the wooden floor. 

The woman unrolled the rug from yesterday. "So, I found the faded blue rug under my bed, and to be honest I don't think I could ever walk on this. We'll just call it a tapestry, right?" The rug from the market rolled onto the floor, unveiling its beautiful stitching.

David stared at the castle, front and center. 

"The Stone castle," David asked, remembering the man calling the castle that. "Is it called that because it's made of stones?" Hearing the difference in his own accent he clamped his mouth closed.

The woman laughed a little. "Stone is the family's name, my little child. The Stone family lives in the castle."

David wrinkled his nose. That was a silly name. "Who are the Stones?" He tried to mimic the woman's way of saying words, but it felt too forced. 

The woman pulled the tapestry up and inspected it against the bare wall. "They're one of three royal families. You really don't know this?"

David's eyes widened and he shook his head. 

"This is perfect." She said smiling at the tapestry, letting it drop to the floor. She opened a drawer that was two steps over. "Ah, right the families. Well, there are three royal families, and the king or queen is from one of them. Every time the queen or king dies there is a vote, for the next leader. The people of Blolanda get to choose from the families' heirs." She put what she'd found in the drawer in her mouth, and picked up to tapestry again. After finding the same position, she used her right elbow to keep the side up and used that hand to pull the object out of her mouth.

She pushed it through the tapestry, into the wall. Then she let the corner go. She moved over to the other side and repeated the same actions.

"You must be really young to not know about the royal families." After finishing, she put her hands on her hips inspecting the positioning of the tapestry. "How old are you?"

David didn't respond. He stared at the image of the castle. The image moved. He watched the castle being built, while the trees around it grew taller. Then he was staring at the tapestry's original image again.

He blinked.

"It is beautiful, I agree. Definitely worth 12 coins." The woman said. 

David almost asked what coins were, but kept his mouth closed. He just nodded slightly to make it seem like he understood. 

***

Journal Entry

That's how it went. Ms. Derek would teach me things while doing some simple tasks. Some days I would learn the task; others I would learn of the world I had been forced into.

I never really thought about the royal families again, nor the people who lived in the castle at all. Much like Ms. Derek, I didn't care.

Slowly I learned not to be so tense around the humans. Despite everything my father and Aiden had said, I could find no reason to be afraid of them. 

She eventually agreed that I was around 6 years old, though I had said nothing about it. That age came from the day when I had been taught dates. I had been promptly told the year was 847 BA. I tried to understand how it all compared to the dates I'd learned from my father, but it was a task I couldn't do.

With all the sudden changes in my life, it comforted me to know that the humans also used candles and lamps for light at night. The door to my room unnerved me, but I got used to the ability to pretend the rest of the house was gone. 

Yet I still ran into the problem of being a dragon trying to be human. The longer I was with the humans, the less the Dereks allowed my odd behavior to pass. And...

I couldn't change my age.

End Journal Entry