Sapphyra sat up, drenched i, fists raised to punch at the unknown assaint in her nightmares.

  “Don’t fug touch me you-!” She blinks, slowly taking in her surroundings. She was in a dark wooden room somewhere. The smell of alcohol and hot grease filling her nostrils sed and the st of wet hair hit her nose.

  She looks down at the other side of the bed, having only reized something important at this very moment: she is not alone.

  Pearl slept beside her. Her soft breasts rose and fell as she breathed evenly, catg Sapphyra's eye. Sapphyra’s heart drops. She quickly covers her mouth, afraid to evehe wrong. Sapphyra pulls the small green checkerboard b over Pearl and slowly gets out of the bed they were sharing. She hoped to move fast enough before…

  Heat rose from her pants. She cursed to herself as she adjusted her hardening member before it passed the point of urn. At least she could hide how wet she was being. The st thing she wanted was to traumatize her best friend before she even had the ce to fess her feelings.

  “Mm. Sapph? Where ya going?” Pearl sits up, rubbing her eyes. “You okay? I was so worried when you passed out. I thought I might not see you again.”

  Sapphyra opens her mouth, a million different things she could say to Pearl, but the only thing that came out was: “you should go back to sleep. I’m gonna go figure out where we are.”

  A tug on her shirt stops her iracks.

  “Hold it. That’s all you say to me after turning into a superhero? I am not a side character in your story, okay? We do this together.” Pearl stares Sapphyra down, eyes narrowed at her best friend.

  Sapphyra sighs. This is doing nothing to soften her ere.

  “Pearl, I just…I don’t uand what’s happeo me and I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. I mean, If I ’t trol my strength or something, then there goes your head, ya know?” That was one of her primary fears.

  “Why do you think we’re here? Some guy, kinda cute but too old for my taste personally, showed up after you passed out. Said he could help you learn about your dragoage or whatever.” Pearl stretches her arms behind her bad yawns.

  “Wait. You let some random guy lift me up here?” Sapphyra smirks at her friend. “What if he had done something shady to me?”

  Pearl rolls her eyes. “As if. First, he didn’t lift you, he dragged you. Sed, me and my trusty hairpin would have had something to say about that.” She takes the bloodied hairpin out of her pocket and twirls it around with her fingers.

  Sapphyra tries not to let the violent memories flow as she eyes the hairpin. She shakes her shoulders, rolling the trauma off.

  Sapphyra chuckles. “Fine. Fair point. Still-” she takes another look around, disliking how bare the room was. A single frame hung on the wall of a dragon silhouette. It looked ese in design, long bodied with no wings.

  “You gonna stand there looking all day or ya gonna e along?” Pearl asks as she takes Sapphyra’s hand with her own.

  Blushing, Sapphyra nods, uo trust her voice as Pearl leads her along.

  They exit out of the spartan bedroom aowards the stairs nearby that lead down. The st of greasy food now apahe sweet smell of meat cooking. Sapphyra didn’t bother to stop the drool rolling down her as she rounded a er. Though her surroundings made her stop and stare. Draic figurines littered the room, with wing-tipped barstools and a pool table with a dragon's scaly tail ed around each leg. The ter had small dragon coasters that looked like an open mouth, sharp looking fangs holding the drink ihough they were soft to the toubsp;

  They were in a bar, a bar with a very etrier it seems. Sapphyra takes a seat at the bar and eyes the massive amount of liquor behind the ter. She wasn’t old enough to drink legally but she’d snuck a few bottles of vodka to the clubhouse on occasion, drinking with her friends. Pearl sat beside her and they shared a look.

  Each girl wondered if they could get away with stealing a bottle but they weren’t quite bold enough to do so, especially in a situation they knew little about.

  “You two finally awake?” Called a male voice from below the ter. A man rose from below, he had a chiseled jawline and full lips but his eyes were sunken in as if he sistently gets little to no sleep. He had messy long white hair and eyes so blue you could swim in them. Yet his smile did not reach his eyes, and Sapphyra felt something sinister behind those eyes.

  “Who are you?” She asked, folding her arms across her sizable chest.

  “Name’s Nahnco. I take it you don’t remember me from all those family gatherings?”He smiles, taking a gss in hand to it with a white rag.

  “The name sounds familiar but it’s ning a bell.” Sapphrya squints at him.

  “Shame. Your parents must not talk about me much. It’s odd, you’d think they’d bring up their own brother more often.” The er of his mouth raises as he scrubs a particurly hard spot on the gss.

  “Brother to whom? My mom and dad don’t have any siblings.” She calls his bluff.

  “Your mother. We’re estranged but you are absolutely my niece. Call her if you don’t believe me.” Another insincere smile. Sapphyra grabs her phone, dialing up her mothers number but it takes her straight to voicemail.She sighs in frustration and gres at him.

  “To be tinued on that then. In the meantime, feel free to enlighten us. I ’t stand waiting in suspense.”

  “What she means is, thank you for your help.” Pearl elbohyra's side and whimpers when she feels how solid Sapphyra is. Her poor elbow feels like it bounced off of crete!

  “Ow! What are you made of, bricks?!” Pearl moans, holding her limp hanging arm by the elbow as she gently rubs it.

  “Told you, I ’t trol my strength.” Sapphyra wants to reach out and help her but knowing how often she breaks things, she stops herself.

  “God, you really are a wyrmling aren’t you?” Nahnco chuckles to himself, this time his smile is sincere.

  “A wyrmling? What’s that?” Sapphyra asks.

  “It’s the first stage all dragons gh on their assion to power. Right now, you’ve had your first death and you’re fresh out of the womb like a baby. You’re learning how to fly, trol your strength and your fmes too. Think of it like level one fons. You’ll get stronger as time goes on. And to ahe question brewing in your mind: yes, you will have to die each time you want to get stronger…or worse. Now then, I heard how the battle went with the goblins from Pearl, but tell me, did you have any trouble elsewhere?”

  The head of the Minotaur she fought earlier fshes through her mind. She shivers, w if an ambunce ever got to Mr. Shuut in time.

  “Yeah. There was this thing, a Minotaur I think? I tossed a trash at it and its head came off. Where is all this stuff ing from? The monsters and my powers and this mist, what does it all mean?” She stares down at her shoes as Pearl pces a supportive hand on her shoulder.

  “Listen, “ he starts,” I know you’re afraid right now and things are happening pretty fast but I need you both to keep up with what I'm saying, got it?”

  The girls nod.

  Nahnco looks outside, watg the mist swirl around the front steps of his tavern. The mist seems to stop about 10 feet away from the bar on all sides as if a barrier was in the way.

  “The mist, believe it or not, is supposed to help humanity. The monsters you see roaming around in it are actually people from around here, mutated and morphed into something straight out of a brrimm fairytale.”

  Sapphyra’s skin pales.

  “Wait…so that means-”

  “You murdered a citizehe goblins too, all citizens. It’s not as bad as you think though.”

  “Not as bad? Not as bad?!” She stands up, smming her hands on the ter. Several beer gsses get sent sailing across the room. Shadows rip themselves from the ground of the dimly lit bar, reach up like grasping hands and catch each gss before it shatters against the ground.

  Nahnco sighs. “Could you not do that?”

  “Oh, I'm sorry, ime I'll keep my pletely ratioional outbursts to a minimum…Murder is not a NORMAL thing! Do you not uand that?!” She sits back down. Her chest heaves with exertion as she fights back her rising panic.

  “Of course I uand. I just don’t particurly care. Listen, the little shitheads running around, causing chaos? They’re the lowest of the low, plete gutter trash. They had no willpower to keep their sense of self and instead gave into their new monstrous forms instincts. You and me, we’re the better version of ourselves. At least I am. You, it remains to be seen.”

  Sapphyra couldn’t get over how he could expin this so calmly, so rationally.

  Pearl speaks up. “Wait, so is everyone going to get mutated? I'm fine. I feel fine. Kinda scared out of my mind, but I don’t feel like anything’s ged about me.”

  Nahnco points at Sapphyra, “that would be because of your e to her. You’re human, but you’re special, at least from the vibes you tutting out.”

  Pearl's cheeks darken. Her eyes widen as she grabs a drink from behind the ter, pops the cork and drinks it down. “We’re best friends. Of course we care about each other!” She quickly added between big gulps.

  Sappyhra really couldn’t stand this guy. She hides her blush with a healthy dose of skepticism.

  “Uh huh…anyway. Your closest retionships should be fine for walking around uhere's an exposure event.”

  “Exposure event?” Sapphyra asks. She should probably take notes.

  “Treat it like how STDs get passed around, bodily fluid, sweat, semen, blood etc. as long as none of those get on or in Pearl, she won’t mutate.”

  “But…what if I wao?” Pearl softly asks, ign the horrified look of Sapphyra.

  “Hm. Well, you could roll the dice with one monster roaming outside or you get your best friend over here to give up her body fluids and perform a ant. A ant is a way for a moo gain more power by depositing it within someohey share a special bond with. It all but guarantees immunity from any nasty effects out there…on top of giving you power to protect yourself.”

  Pearl turns to Sapphyra, breathing slowly to steady herself.

  “No.” Sapphyra says pre-emptively.

  “You don't even know what I'm going to ask!” Pearl pces her hands on Sapphyra’s shoulders, looking her dead in the eye. “Sapphy, we’ve always done everything together. Why should this time be different?”

  Sapphyra struggled to breathe as the bodies began piling up in her peripheral vision, just to the left of Pearl. She put a hand on her chest, grasping at her shirt and skin as if that would help her calm down.

  “Sapphyra?” Pearl's hands drop. She tilts her head as she regards Sapphyra with soft eyes and furrowed brows.

  “I was fortable with it, Pearl. Do you uand? Do you know how scary that is? How scary is it that I went from not wanting to hurt ao being a serial killer? Like I've dohis shit all my life? You don’t walk away from that,” she whispered to her friend.

  “Sapph, they were monsters. You don’t have to hold that weight on your shoulders Like your uncle said, they gave in to their instincts-”

  Uncle. As far as Sapphyra was ed, Nahnco was no more her uhan el Sanders was actually in the military!

  “How do you know I didn’t give into mine?! How do you know I won't turn on you one day, huh?” She locked eyes with Pearl, pleading with her to take this seriously.

  But Pearl was having none of it. She reaches over and s her slender arms around Sapphyra's neck, pulling her into a warm tight hug.

  The world was so quiet at that moment. Sappyhra could have sworn she hears two heart beats beating in unison, but all that’s on her mind is how good Pearl feels against her right now.

  “When that time es,” Pearl starts, “then I’ll just have to smae seo that big head of yours and bring you bae.” She smiles, showing off all her pearly whites and dimples that Sapphyra wao lid dive into.

  She sighs, shaking her head, though she returns the smile.

  “Yeah…yeah whatever.”

  “e on. Team Spherl?” Pearl wiggles her eyebrows.

  “We are not calling ourselves that and I'm not doing this ant-” Pearl gres at her,”-yet, I'm not doing it yet until I feel fortable knowing I protect you.”

  “My offer to train you still stands. I promise it's not as painful as you think it is.”

  Sapphyra opens her mouth, fully inteo say no when she and Pearl turn towards the door.

  Something heavy and strong nds outside the door, like a grand piano falling out of the sky.

  “Looks like you're about to get a crash course whether you like it or not, kiddo.”