A cave in the Northern Mountains.

"I mean, I'd be pretty surprised if you weren't a dragon. Not all dragons are raised by their parents. Silver dragons keep their young close until they're adults, but red dragons leave them to fend for themselves. The Earthwarden, a very powerful nature dragon, was able to adopt a baby red though. So I guess rules are made to be broken."

Jun patted her face when he brought up the scars. She craned her neck and touched the space under her jaw. Then she looked at her hands.

Most of her body was covered in armor, but even then a couple of scars were visible. They weren't abhorrent to look at, in her opinion. But they were definitely there...

She sighed. "That's... complicated." Her tone was whiny and hesitant. "Ayyyy... I keep them around as a reminder of what I used to be. Some of them have some good stories behind them. I got this one from when I used my cousin as bait to catch a bear. Poured honey on her head and everything." She pointed to one on her hand. "I think I got this from slaughtering a bunch of rock ogres in an abandoned fortress. I don't feel bad. They ate children, soo..." She pointed to one under her chin.

"I guess I have a complicated relationship with my old self." She bit into another piece of venison.

Jun had pulled out a pouch of dried figs to eat along with her venison, when she noticed the dragon inching closer to her.

She leaned back in tandem, wide-eyed and frank-faced. "This isn't the part where we start making out is it?"

Blackbean also looked up at the dragon, with a rather large piece of sinew hanging from his beak.

Jun smirked. "You're not a very old dragon, are you?"

She popped a fig into her mouth as her torso leaned back into normal upright position. "Do you know how to transform into a human?"

Blackbean went back to his bit of sinew. He seemed to have trouble picking it apart.

Jun chuckled and took another bite of her food. "Yes, well, age is just a number. Many people in my tribe believe in reincarnation, so it's plausible my soul is even older than yours. After all, it takes a certain amount of wisdom to know that power isn't everything, and that you don't always have to pick dragon each life."

She paused and looked up at the cave ceiling in thought. "Though I guess since I'm a powerful mage I'm not exactly one to talk..."

She shrugged. "Anyways, nearly every dragon I've met has the power to transform into a human. The former Earthwarden becomes this regal sort of lady with long flowing green hair. The holy dragon, the former red, becomes a fair-skinned princess sort with golden hair. Jarkoopi the Storm... conjurer... something, I forget, he takes on a handsome warrior visage. And this one hybrid I met, copper and blue I think, he likes the form of an old hermit. Oh, and then there is this gigantic red who lives in a volcanic chasm. He's..."

Jun's eyes froze as her flashback began.


"... Echem. Let's just say he's attractive."

She shook her head and finally decided it was safe to take off her helmet and coif. She started dealing with the straps as she spoke. "Anyways, since most dragons can transform into humans, it would stand to reason that if you're a dragon, you can also transform into a human. You also probably have an aptitude for magic somewhere in there."

When her coif came off, it was revealed that Jun had straight, jaw-length, dark brown hair. Her olive skin and demi-oriental face were clearer as well. As far as humans went, she looked about mid-20s.

Blackbean had resorted to violently shaking his head back and forth like an angry dog as he tried to get the long piece of sinew into two pieces while making meaty, feathery flapping noises.

Blackbean leaped back in fright. But upon seeing his prize conveniently sliced in half, he takes one of the pieces and swallows it whole.

"I'm not pressuring you. It's just that you said you're not sure if you're a dragon. Dragons have a knack for transforming into humans. So if you can learn how to do it, it makes it that much more likely that you are, in fact, a dragon."

When the maybe-dragon spoke her piece on power, Jun seemed to have another flashback.

"Yah..." She said distantly. "Power does mean you can do what you want. It's a privilege. There are many things I don't have to deal with that a lot of humans, females especially, do." Her countenance seem to brighten a bit, and she looked at Clama in the eyes with a grin. "I guess in a funny way I'm sort of a gentle giant. When you're powerful, you have this privilege to be friendly to anything you want. It's a gift that not a lot of beings with power take advantage of, unfortunately."

"Well, how could that be? I'm the one who's being held captive." Jun grinned devilishly.

She watched as the dragon struggled to turn itself into a human, for about five minutes. Once she had her fill of venison, she decided to continue with her experiments.

After 25 minutes or so, an isolated section of the cave floor was littered with little mounds of earth, each housing a little lichen on top. Some of them also had some cave mushrooms sprouting up next to the lichens. Each one had a scroll slapped onto the side of the mound, similar to the teleportation beacon she had used earlier, but with different shaped sigils scribbled onto them. Floating over each mound was some combination of a glowing, sun-like sphere the size of a softball, a fuzzy miniature rain cloud, one alternating for the other, or nothing at all. The intent was clearly to determine the ideal conditions in which these lichens could grow.

Jun looked over her work with pride. Her elemental magic was becoming increasingly sophisticated with each passing year. When she first started her adventure, she could never have done something like this. She was too focused on blowing stuff up. Now it was starting to look like she would one day surpass her father's farming abilities.

And she could still blow things up.

What she was not particularly good at was the weirder, wackier side of magic. Working with the world's natural elements was relatively simple. It was all about making friends with the elements, resonating with them. Making them bend over backwards to transform a dragon into a person, or even an object into another object, was something else entirely. At this point, it was literally easier for Jun to summon a thundercloud than convincingly pull a rabbit out of a hat.

So when the cloud of smoke came and Clama managed to actually do something, she swiveled around and watched with interest. Had she really done it? Had she transformed into a human, through pure concentration alone?!

If she had, Clama's instinct for magic was actually quite good, even if it did take half an hour.

"Welp, that settles it. You're a dragon... I mean, probably. Most likely." She nodded reassuringly.

She looked at her double up and down. "Gosh." She took steps to circle her, examining all the little details of her armor, examining her own scars.

"Wow. Heh." She put her hands on her hips and smiled. "You know, I'm not bad looking. So what other magic do you know?"

Blackbean had been "sunning" himself underneath of Jun's experiments. He flew over to them and sat on the real Jun's shoulder, almost as if to prove a point. Jun gentled rubbed his head.

Jun quirks an eyebrow as the poor dragon struggled. "Maybe you need to focus for half an hour to change back? We should probably work on your speed and efficiency. Hmm... Yah, that could work."

The gears were churning inside Jun's head. Jun could never, ever pass up a chance to gain a new power (as long as the process didn't require anything nefarious of course).

"I will make you a deal Miss Dragon-Who-Forgot-to-Introduce-Her-Name-to-Me-By-the-Way. I'm actually not very good at transformations like this. I can't do them at all. But, I can do other things. If you can help me learn how to transform like this, I'll teach you how to do something a little more raw." She demonstrated by taking a step back and holding up her fingertips. They suddenly ignited; golden flames danced and leaped from her fingers. She swung her hand around, and the flames stretched out like golden ribbons. With a few waggling fingers, the flames encircled the faux Jun. But before they could burn her or set her on fire, they disappeared.

Jun then snapped her fingers and pointed at Clama. "As an added bonus, I think I can at least change you back."

Jun lowered her hand and bowed politely. "It's nice to meet you. So what do you think of my offer?"

Blackbean's gaze remained on Clama, despite the change in elevation as Jun bowed. His little head tilted up, then down again to compensate.