Dragon Bound

Chapter 12

Over the next couple of days, Ryoka trained and trained hard, hard and harder still, all to achieve one main purpose, the shift.

She was being trained by the hot looking Damien -honestly she has not been able to take her mind off how hot he is, especially when he takes off his shirt and shows his perfectly ripped body, that coupled with his reptilian eyes just made him look all so hot.

Damien trained her in close quarters combat, weapons training -Ryoka couldn’t but wonder why she needed to learn hot to shoot, fight with the sword and staff and a couple of other medieval weapons including the bow and arrow when she could just torch her foes, but then knowing how to wasn’t bad especially since it always gave her the opportunity to work closely with Damien.

The peak of her training was always the shift, after every training, no matter how long the duration of the training had been, Damien would always say “Now, shift, turn into a dragon” but no matter how hard she trued she always couldn’t do it.

She always blamed the fact that she was tired but then Damien had made her see reason that when WIC would come for her, they wouldn’t let her catch her breath or come at a time she was well rested.

Even at that though, Ryoka had tried shifting a couple of times when she wasn’t fatigued, before a training and even sometimes on her bed, she would try but always fail.

All she ever achieved was half transformations, she would grow very tough scales on different parts of her body, she would feel her face turning into a snout and sometimes there were horns, the most embarrassing was the tail, it would grow long and she would be able to control it, all that grew out of her were usually human sized though not the large parts of the actual dragon.

The most awesome of the transformations though, her particular favorite was her eyes, they would look like Damien’s, reptilian, hers was a orange center though with black at its sides, she loved the way they made her look, partly because she had the look in common with Damien.

But what she really loved the most about the eyes were the kind of vision they gave her, night vision check, far sight check, pinpointed sight check, different spectrum vision check, heat signature vision check, she always did the eyes transformation now, and explored all their options, she used it as well whenever she and Damien trained close quarters or weapons.

What she considered to be a downer was the fact that there was no X-ray vision amongst it’s options, she would have loved to see through the walls especially to peep at Damien when he bathed, but then she figured it really wouldn’t be fair because that would mean Damien could have been peeping at her too all these while, she got embarrassed just thinking about it.

“Is this really how you see the world always?” she asked Damien during an archery practice, she had just hit the bulls eye twice, her second arrow had split the first into two so it could gut the very same dead center of the bulls eye as well.

“Yes, one of the only perk of the fault that I am” Damien said and as well did the same, shooting his arrow to split Ryoka’s last so it could hit the dead center too.

“Superior race indeed, imagine a world were every had these series of vision, I can’t even fathom if it would make the world better or not, but seeing as it worked for the original Eldrians though, I don’t see why not” She said.

“Not all dragons see this way though” Damien said shocking her, he chuckled when he saw the expression of shock on her face, she had truly thought they would all see this way then.

“What?! How is that even possible?” she asked recovering from her shock, all dragons had to have the reptilian eyes so why would all not be able to see as one, she thought to herself.

“Some see the way owls see, all day and night though, no exceptions, some see the way eagles and falcons see, while fewer than any of these categories are those of us that see this way, this vision, see it as a blessing” Damien answered.

“But, why is it like that?” Ryoka asked feeling somewhat sad, she felt pity for those who don’t have this kind of vision, she doesn’t know she feels sad but she feels it is just wrong to be a dragon and not to be able to see like this.

“Well, take the humans for instance, out of ten people born, they would all exhibit different traits and develop different skills and abilities and would maximize different parts of their body, some can train to be gymnasts and some can be martial artists, some can be contortionist while others would not just be able to use their bodies the same way those I listed do, some would be born with clear and perfect eyesight while some would have eye issues, it is just the same with dragons” Damien said to her.

“Whoa, oh so dragons like humans, much like any other creature can’t all be equal, so what are the different traits in dragons then apart from the eyesight?” Ryoka asked in realization.

“Scales as well differ, in toughness, quantity, usefulness and usability too, some can maximize the use of their scales, even move them about to make some parts denser than other parts which especially come in handy for protection of the more delicate parts during battle” Damien responded to her question.

“Size as well differs, some dragons grow really large, and some grow moderate while some are stunted in growth, the exceptional ones learn to change their size, some change size at each shift, while others change size even while transformed they get to grow larger or smaller as would suit them” he kept on explaining.

“Spikes and horns are also a thing, some grow their horns to be however they will it, some for battle purposes and other just because its is how they want it, spikes though is rare, not all dragons get to have spikes, those that do have it along their spine, some till the tail others before the tail, some can shoot out these spikes while others can only elongate and retract it back” he said at length.

At the mention of the spike trait though, Ryoka remembered her father and the battle he had fought when they got separated, she remembered the odd looking man dragon had spikes as well which he had maximized during the battle against her father.

A feeling of nostalgia washed over her and she missed her father the more at that point, she wanted to go home, but where was home? Here she was even at her birth country, but what was she doing? training to survive, not at peace at all, she concluded though that hone would be wherever she was with her father.

“Most special of all, to me that is, is the abilities trait” Damien suddenly said in continuation “Some dragons when in their human form, can’t make use of their abilities, be it fire, gas, fog, ice, they are quirkless in human form and would only be able to use it while in their true form, their dragon form, this somewhat applies to new generation dragons since they all don’t have the type of special abilities I mentioned” He explained.

“But then there are those who can use their dragon abilities even while in human form or any other form at that, such as you as we have established from that fiery dinner, you haven’t even made your first complete shift, yet you could breathe out your fire, that indeed is special” Damien said.

To Ryoka though, he sounded as if he would love nothing more than to experiment on her fully, to know the extent of her powers especially since it has been established that she has most of these special traits; she could move her scales and they have been discovered to be damn tough, she had the special vision and she could use her dragon abilities.

She had always known her powers would be immense, she felt it that very day when she made contact with her core, she had been brimming with the power but had managed to dial it down, she made it cool off, it’s just a pity that the chili sauce sneeze still called out the remnants and almost exposed her.

She was careful of Damien, she always knew there was more to him that meets the eye, or eyes if you take his fixed reptilian eyes into consideration, now though there was this creepy feeling of being even more careful of him.

Speaking of creepy feelings, all the days Ryoka had spent here, she had always felt as if she was being watched, especially when she was out training or shopping with Damien.

Of course Damien never seemed to take notice, he never showed it if he felt it, so much so that she was about to write it off as a baseless worried feeling from her.

But today, while shooting the arrows out here in the open, a bit of a far distance away from their safe house, she had suddenly started to feel it once again, the rising of the fine hairs on the back of her neck made her very wary and she suddenly looked up at a point and caught the slightest glimpse of a large body disappear into the clouds.

Of course it could have been a bird for all she could tell, maybe a hawk or a falcon, but then she glanced back down and later saw a vague shadowy shape drift across really fast, then, she was sure.

It was a damn dragon.