Cutting the meat, Meriel tried and failed to collect his thoughts about what happened. Not only has everything changed, but the magic understanding in the world and the Lavarza kingdom apparently went completely ballistic. And, of course, his only companion for the last 90 years could apparently change into a humanoid form at any time he wished.

  "So you could have done this from literally the day I created you," he said, not looking at the elven kid that was Ziggy. There was a weird feeling in his head whenever he looked at him—as if something inside was telling him that Ziggy shouldn't look like this.

  "I didn't know, Meriel. I promise. But… you know—leaving me here or outside the city because I couldn't go in, apparently because I am a big scary dragon," he said, drawing out the words while looking at Mary who sulked in the corner of the kitchen. "It all made me feel left out. Like I wasn't a part of your family. Then I just thought about what I could do to go with you, to fit in!"

  "And so you decided to become an elf. Do you even know how rare elves are in the Lavarza Kingdom? I have never seen one and I have been at the King's table several times, and I met more nobles than I can count. Elves don’t leave the forest of Egoros, Ziggy."

  "Oh, you met nobles?" Mary said excitedly, suddenly joining into the conversation and the topic she was interested in.

  "Yes, sadly," Meriel nodded. "Trust me on this, Mary, you are not missing out by not meeting any of them. Unless they somehow changed a lot over the centuries, but I very much doubt that."

  Meriel brought his eyes from Mary back to Ziggy and waited for his answer to his previous question. “Back to topic. So? Why an elf?”

  "I didn't even know elves exist, master. I don't know much about the world. You know, locked in a bubble and all," Ziggy said, his elven ears twitching as he talked. "Also, it isn't like I had a choice. I just knew I could transform. Felt this pulling inside me, and so I listened to it and suddenly boom! I had this weird body and face, just like you do."

  “Well, I didn’t expect you to just… do something like this. I know you are very much capable of using mana, but I haven't taught you many spells."

  "You haven't taught me any spells," Ziggy corrected.

  "Okay, but I planned to," Meriel smiled in return. “When we were in the bubble, I kind of stopped thinking of what’s gonna happen after we get out. My mistake.”

  What Ziggy told him made him think for a moment. However, as he returned to cutting the meat on the wooden board, the soft sounds flowed back into his brain, letting him focus. What could that mean? But he looked back at Ziggy, finding his eyes once again giving him the same look as they did back when he was the dragon. "Can you transform back?"

  "Sure thing," Ziggy immediately answered, and hunched over in concentration.

  "No, I didn't say you have to do so right now. I just want to know if you can."

  Mary decided to join in, sitting closer than she did ever before to Ziggy. Apparently elves are not as scary as dragons. Actually, from the way her hand extended towards Ziggy’s ears, she didn't even seem to know what elves were at all. Meriel was surprised at first, making him once again wonder about the general knowledge in the current state of the kingdom.

  Finally, something clicked as he watched the two children banter back and forth. "Ziggy—can every dragon transform?" The dragon parts he used in crafting Ziggy were the only part Meriel didn't understand in full after all. And though the dragon he fought certainly did not choose to transform, he saw nothing proving that he couldn't. As far as Meriel knew, there could be several dozen dragons just crawling about, not trying to destroy humanity, but living in its midst instead.

  "I suppose not, though I haven't met any others of my kind, and I'm not even exactly just a dragon," Ziggy said. Though Ziggy and Mary looked mostly the same in their appearance age-wise at least, Ziggy was already visibly more mature than Mary was—at least as far as it came to how he responded to questions and his general cognitive operations he was showing. He seemed to be prone to the same childishness, however, that made Meriel wonder how the two would get along.

  "Seems I'm stuck with two children now. What a life." he muttered as he threw the meat into the pan which was already sizzling. He hastily cut the vegetables—the paxa root and veum apples—trying to get them diced before the meat was too well done.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  "Hey, I'm not a child!"

  "You sure look like one!" Mary giggled.

  "Hah." Ziggy rolled his eyes. "I'm almost as old as you are, Meriel. Don't you know? We spent a lot of years there, locked in the bubble, right? At least the evil folks outside the city said so."

  "Yes, yes, doesn't mean much when you spent most of it just sleeping." Meriel replied.

  "That's why I have this form now, though! I can join you in this academy that you wanna go to?" Ziggy said, his eyes and ears visibly going up and down as he talked.

  "Hey, but I was the one that’s going to be Mr. Meriel's student!" Mary said, angrily stepping in front of Ziggy.

  "But I knew him first!" He said back, crossing his arms.

  "No fair! Besides, the old person who gave us those papers didn't see you yet, so they might not accept you."

  "I'm sure they will. I'm very talented after all. Right, Meriel?"

  "OKAY, STOP you two!" Meriel said as he threw the seasonings into the pan, the nice smells already starting to permeate the room.

  "I mostly want to go to the university to see what they teach these days, Ziggy. I also wanna learn as much as I can about how the world changed in the past century. I don't want to feel like a fool anymore." He also needed to find where Elsa was, were she still alive.

  "Awww bummer!" Ziggy said though he didn't look let down in the least. "Well then I guess you will be teaching me for as long as we stay as well!"

  "BUT TEACH ME FIRST!" Mary shouted, putting her arm in front of Ziggy.

  "I'll teach you both at the same time, so please drop this silly argument. And someone prepare the dishes."

  The soft sounds of footsteps reverberated through the room as everyone moved in a symphony of movements. Meriel watched, thinking and lamenting over how he got himself into a situation like this. Then he slid the pan onto the table and grabbed a fork to eat.

  "I know I probably won’t learn much," Ziggy said, interrupting the quiet. "But I still want to go to the university; it's so lonely and boring to stay here. I've stayed locked up for so long."

  "I know, I know, Ziggy. I'll see what I can do. Okay, we'll go see the department head tomorrow as well with an excuse. He’ll surely be interested to know exactly how am I coming up with so many talented young mages. And apparently, my own skill and mana heart capacity were very shocking.”

  "I mean, it's pretty big. I think I've never seen anyone with a mana pool even comparable to yours," Ziggy said as he started wolfing down his own meal, not even pausing to chew. “Not that I saw many.”

  Mary, in a similar state of wolfing down her meal, just nodded hungrily, and then her eyes widened as she looked at Meriel.

  "Well, you told me back in the cave that you are one of the strongest, Meriel? Why are you surprised that the others are shocked?" Ziggy continued.

  He didn't like being told about things like this, but Ziggy was right. He shouldn't have shown his mana manipulation techniques if he didn't want to be seen as extraordinary. And apparently he was now more extraordinary than ever.

  All that was left was to hope that he could somehow still fit in.

  The memories of the young man looking at Meriel as he walked into the room surfaced back as he thought back on the day—he still didn't understand why the man was looking at Meriel as if he had caused him some great trouble, but something in the glare told Meriel he would get to know what caused it soon enough. Sighing, he started nibbling on his own plate of meat and then went to clean the plates and the pan.

  "Oh Mr. Meriel, I wanted to ask—will we need some special clothes for the academy? Can you magic us some?" Mary asked, clearly excited about the prospect.

  Looking at her, he realized that some new clothes for Mary were long overdue. Ziggy himself created some clothes with the transformation, though Meriel couldn't quite understand how, but Mary was wearing clothes that had seen better years—a long red skirt that seemed more brown, torn at the hem in several places, and a brown t-shirt that was completely covered in mud several times over—not quite clean by Meriel's prospects.

  "We'll buy you some clothes, Mary. And no, I can't magic us some," he laughed at the thought—if only it were so simple. "I'll need to see the papers now to see if we need some special uniforms, but there was a uniform that all of the students had to purchase back when I studied there for the first time."

  "So you’ll buy me a uniform?" Mary answered.

  "Not just that,” Meriel answered. “We'll probably get you some other clothes as well. You need to have some sleeping clothing, and at least three sets of non-academy clothes." He looked his own clothes over, took a sniff and shuddered. "Same treatment for me actually."

  "What about me?" Ziggy chimed in, looking as excited as Mary did.

  But Meriel didn't get to answer before Mary stepped closer and hugged him around his waist.

  "Thank you, Mr. Meriel—oh new clothes! Do you know how long it's been since I've gotten any new ones... actually I've never had some new ones. Always had some passed on from my cousins."

  "It's no trouble, Mary," Meriel said, flustered about the sudden gratefulness.

  "No, Mr. Meriel, it's not nothing. Thank you for everything." Mary said, still not letting go of the hug. "I really appreciate all of this. Thank you for doing all this stuff for me." They stood like that for a few moments longer, and then she pushed herself away and stormed into the other room.

  "What was that about?" Ziggy asked, looking from the door to Meriel and back.

  "I wasn't the only one without much socialization and luck in life," Meriel smiled and went to sleep in his own bed.