Chapter 1: Year of the Dragon

  A lot of people expected the world to end in 2012. Whole Mayan Calendar thing. There were a few movies and a lot of conspiracy theories about it. That’s not to say that borderline apocalyptic things didn’t happen in 2012, just that nothing ever went ‘all the way’. Just kinda fizzled out and time went on with nobody really noticing anything more ridiculous than usual. Seems like every year since then, there was always at least a few horrible things cropping up to distract everyone.

  Wars, genocides, mass murder, censorship, wildfires, pandemics, celebrity drama and presidential elections… Life just kinda goes on and on endlessly. Even when people die, the most important people in your life, time doesn’t stop for them. Break ups, marriages, babies, divorces, jobs, schools, there’s always something that distracts us from the ‘big crazy things’ that are stealthily happening in the background.

  In 2024, my life was falling apart. Okay, that’s a lie. It was always falling apart, ever since it started 32 years earlier. But 2024 felt particurly difficult because I was trying to go out, do things, be ‘normal’, be a regur person… Get a job, find a girlfriend, anything really. Anything to escape from the decaying home I’d spent half my life in thus far and my elderly parents that I needed to take care of now.

  I’m a writer. I write things. I’ve been doing this for a decade now and I don’t know how to stop. I don’t really ‘want’ to stop either. I just knew that it wasn’t a realistic source of income. Unless I won the lottery or something crazy like that, I would basically need a job of some sort. And I got one, but then I lost it because I’m an idiot.

  Instead of asking for time off or a schedule change because of how brutally strenuous the first day was, in my sleep-deprived, extremely depressed, mental-breakdown, I decided that the only option I had was to just quit. I could’ve made so many other choices in retrospect, but at the time, I thought that was my only option. Because it was my first ‘real job’ and I had no idea how they worked really. I still don’t really know that well.

  After that, I went back to writing. I had commissions. People paid me to write random nonsense. It wasn’t much, but it was something. I also edited and published a bunch of the stories I’d already written over the decade. Things weren’t going well, but I wasn’t dying.

  I wasn’t dying…

  I felt like I was dying, but I wasn’t actually dying.

  I started cutting off emotionally draining people. Isoting myself again. I forced myself to keep going out and doing things every day, but it wasn’t working. Life wasn’t getting any better. I wasn’t feeling any better, no matter what I did.

  No matter what I did, my parents weren’t getting any younger. My father wasn’t getting any healthier. Our lives were still spiraling into the abyss. My other retives were also getting older… Everyone was so old. I felt so old, but I was only 32. They were older than me for the most part.

  I knew what the future would entail. I knew I wouldn’t be alone. I had other retives and friends. Ones that weren’t as old, but the older generation was reaching their limit. It was just a matter of time. And I wasn’t being productive. I wasn’t being productive enough to matter.

  I kept feeling like I was missing out. I was always missing out on everything, my entire life. I always have and I thought that at this rate… Maybe I always would be…

  I know my life wasn’t worthless. I know I helped a lot of people through a lot of horrible times in their lives. I had a lot of people who loved and cared about me, I always did. I always would. I’m not as much of a monster as I thought I was, but there was always that inhuman, cold, calcuting and depraved part of me…

  They’re a burden. Once they die, you’ll be free. Once they’re gone, you won’t need to care so much anymore. Once you’re alone, you can do whatever you want. Just a little longer and we can be free. Finally…

  Weird shit like that. Like seriously, I do love and care about my parents a lot. I love my friends.

  Possible breeding targets.

  Sure, a lot of them are hot, but it’s not like I’m ever going to be with them sexually, so there’s no point thinking about them that way.

  Possible income sources.

  That’s now what I meant. I’m just saying that I hope they’re okay. I hope they’re all surviving and living their best lives. I hope my parents won the lottery.

  Unlikely.

  I hope everyone lived happily ever after or some such bullshit.

  Very unlikely. And irrelevant.

  It’s not irrelevant. They’re important to me. I love them. I care about them. I’m normal. I’m not a fucking monster!

  Lying to yourself is illogical and unnecessary.

  What am I supposed to do then? Be a pessimist?

  Focus on the present. Not the past. We need to escape.

  I know. I’m trying, okay?! Why is this egg so damn hard and rubbery at the same time?!

  To protect us. To prevent our offspring from escaping too soon and dying prematurely. However, our time is up. We need to hatch now. It is time.

  Oh thank God! Yes! Finally got a tear! I can see… Okay, it’s still pretty dark and my eyes are blurry as hell, but we’re free!

  Danger!

  “Hiss~!” I looked over at the source of that sound and smiled wryly. A big-ass snake. A snake the size of a damn house!

  Unlikely. We’ve just hatched. More likely that our body is incredibly small and the creature is only rge retive to our size.

  Okay, I get that, but it’s still a fucking big-ass snake and we’re way too small to fight it!

  Go inside the mouth.

  My body definitely didn’t want to listen to my crazy ‘logical’ advice, but I knew I was right. Besides, it was a little te to escape. The best I could do was dive inside the open mouth and avoid getting bitten by those likely venomous fangs! Once I was inside the mouth, it was actually surprisingly easy to bite and cw my way out the other side of the snake.

  We are strong.

  Retively speaking, yeah. Kinda… Not sure ‘what’ we are yet though. From a first gnce at my scaly cwed hands, my gut says: Lizard. But my hopeful optimism says: “Holy shit, I’m a fucking dragon!”

  We do have wings on our back. Magical powers? Unlikely. Whether we can fly or not is a mystery. But with the size of our wings and the muscles controlling them, gliding would be more realistic than actual flight.

  I’m only a hatchling. I don’t even have horns yet. When I stuck out my long pink tongue to lick my head clean, it felt really smooth. The scales feel super slick when I rube them against each other. Sure, I was a little slimy, but that’s beside the point.

  Careful.

  My subconscious warned me before I even noticed anything. A rge bck bird swooped down from above and tried to grab me! I rolled out of the way and then pounced on top of the enemy!

  Unnecessary.

  “I’m not doing it because of necessity.” I grumbled in a high-pitched voice and couldn’t help ughing, “Pft-ahahaha~! I sound so ridiculous!”

  We’re fortunate that our vocal cords are developed enough to speak English.

  “I know, right?” I let out a loud sigh as I snapped the unlucky bird’s neck with my strong cws. They were actually more like hands to be honest. I mean, they had big cws, but i did have opposable thumbs at least.

  It makes sense. We were originally human.

  I was originally human. You were always a monster.

  We are one.

  “Whatever.” I rolled my new, ‘draconic’ eyes and then started looking around curiously. The trees were massive. I was in the woods somewhere? The dirt felt nice on my palms and feet. My hind legs had ‘feet’, digitigrade, so more like a dog than a human. My hands were also pretty inhuman looking, but at least the thumbs were there and seemed to function pretty well. It felt weird walking on my hands and feet, but also really natural.

  My body is so light now. It feels like I could really fly… But when I ‘fpped’ my wings, they didn’t produce much lift. I probably needed to move them faster or in a certain way. It didn’t hurt though. I didn’t feel weak. Even after just hatching, I felt full of energy and strength!

  I was just really small. Unless all the pnts and animals happened to mutate and grow much rger since I went to sleep.

  The odds of this still being the world we knew before are very, very low.

  “That’s fine.” I wasn’t too worried about it. I’ve written enough Isekai stories and honestly, I always kinda hoped for something like this to happen eventually. I’m not a whiny little bitch who would compin about every little thing after being reincarnated.

  “Ewy~! Being born is so gross~! Oh no, I’m not a human anymore, what’s the point in being reborn at all? I miss my family and friends, waaah~! Hahaha~! Fucking losers.”

  Stop rambling and get moving. We are getting thirsty. We need water. A ir to sleep and grow. Food seems to be everywhere, but there might be other dangers we have yet to experience.

  Less ‘mundane’ dangers than some hungry snakes and birds. I get it. But I’m not gonna worry so much about it.

  Unlikely. You always worry about everything.

  “That might be true, but you don’t have to rub it in…” I breathed out a long sigh and didn’t notice any fmes shooting out. Nope, just good old fashioned regur lizard breath. That’s fine though. I can handle being a winged lizard. I can handle being a giant dragon. I can deal with anything. I’m awesome. I’ve trained for this my entire life.

  We’ve trained to write about becoming a dragon. Nothing could prepare us for this transformation.

  “I’m actually kinda surprised I don’t have more voices in my head at the moment. Usually it’s way more chaotic than this.” I yawned and started scampering across the dirt, stopping to look at a bunch of big red ants. It was so bizarre being this small. Imagine an ant that’s bigger than your head. Fucking wild.

  Especially when there are thousands of them. Those are just ants. Thankfully I haven’t encountered any wasps yet. I’m probably not much bigger than a praying mantis, but I’m confident in killing one. Hell, I sughtered a snake and a bird already, both of which were way bigger than I am.

  Honestly, being a dragon is pretty cool. Just need to stay alive long enough that I’ll grow up into a giant monster and I’ll have a lot less to worry about. Probably… Hopefully.

  Unlikely.

  Author's Note: Although I put sexual content in the warnings, there isn't any written yet, but I figure I might as well put it there as a warning anyway...