Dragons in Disguise

The dragons

"What kind of proposition?" Andy asked, standing up.
He walked around the fire to stand next to Joy, placing them both in between the dragons and his siblings and cousins.
"One I think you'll want to take." Another dragon said. Andy couldn't determine the tribe he was from in the flickering firelight.
"Uh uh." Acacia frowned. "Introductions first."
"I'm Marshfly of the MudWing. That's Heatstroke of the SandWings, Blizzard of the IceWings, Current of the SeaWings, Peak of the SkyWings, Ashflare of the NightWings and you've met Acacia."
"I'm Joy and that's Andy, Grace, Mark, Ann, Alex, and David of Treehouse Clearing." Joy pointed at each of them in turn, then waved her hands at the treehouses sitting in the trees.
Heatstroke snorted. "Ha."
"Not of providence?" Ashflare asked.
"Nope." Ann replied. "Providence is full of pompous octopus heads. We want nothing to do with them."
"At least they have a sense of humour." Current remarked.
"What's your proposition?" Andy asked.
"May we come in?" Blizzard gestured to the clearing. Andy realised they were still standing at the edge.
"We don't own the woods, we just use parts of it." Mark replied.
The dragons stepped into the clearing and sat down elegantly.
"The dragons are dieing." Peak started.
"We know." Alex interrupted. "We're forced to watch as they drag their bodies through the town and display them like a painting."
"Humans are heartless monsters." David said softly.
"Not all of them," Ashflare replied, kindly. "You guys aren't and I get the impression that your parents are nice as well."
"Continue." Andy cut in.
"We need a way for our kind to survive." Peak continued. "We need you to help us with that."
"How?" Grace asked. "We're just kids."
"Sit." Acacia said. "This is going to take a while."
The Dragon Nerds crowded around Andy and they all sat down. Mark sat on one side of him and next to him was Alex. In between Alex and David was Joy. On Andy's other side was Ann and Grace. Once they were seated, Marshfly started the story,
"Long ago, there was a time when humans wanted to know what it was like to be a dragon. One of our animus created a spell. A dragon could give a human their life essence in order to allow a human to become a dragon."
"Isn't your life essence the thing that keeps you alive?" Andy asked.
"We'll talk about that later." Heatstroke replied.
"So, wait," Grace said. "You're saying that you're going to give us your life essence and somehow you will survive."
"Not 'somehow'. We will need you guys to do something." Acacia corrected.
"We try," Joy explained. "People don't listen to a bunch of kids."
"Maybe you need to be more," Current explained. "Maybe you need to be warriors."
"How?" Ann asked.
"We're getting to that." Blizzard said. "When we give you our life essence, certain things will change. One of which, being the fact that you will all become shapeshifters."
"What?" Mark said.
The dragons sighed.
"Looks like we're going to have to explain everything." Ashflare told no one in particular.
"Please do," David begged. "All dragon legends are written in Dragon and we can't read it."
"How can we speak to you right now?" Alex asked.
"We have scrolls on human language and so we learnt it just for this." Peak explained.
"We're getting off track," Current warned. "You will be able to shapeshift into a dragon. In your Dragon Form, you will look like that dragon that gave you their life essence. You will also be able to change halfway to dragon form. This is called Hybrid Form. In Hybrid Form, you will have wings and scales, our abilitys', like breathing underwater and breathing fire, and three of you will have tails."
"Why only three of us?" Andy asked.
"MudWings don't use their tails as weapons do they?" Marshfly said.
"Weapons?!" David cried.
"Yes," Heatstroke gave Marshfly a pointed look. "We were getting to that."
"You want us to stop the killing." Grace murmured. "You're willing to give up your life, so we can have these powers and protect your people because we won't be hunted. At least, not at first."
"If you do not want this responsibility," Acacia started, "we can leave now."
"No," Andy said. "Can you just give us some time to decide? To talk about it? Because all of us are doing it or none of us are. And I would like to make sure everyone is happy."
"Of course," Marshfly replied. "We'll come back tomorrow night and if you don't want to, it's okay."
The dragons stood up, bowed their heads slightly and left. Leaving 7 stunned children behind.
"They'll die if we don't." Surprisingly, it was David who said it.
"Our parents will kill us." Alex stated.
"So we don't tell them." Joy replied.
"Won't they see if we start parading around in scales?" Mark asked.
"I have a feeling, there will be some kind of magic hiding our identities." Grace told him.
"We could get seriously injured." Andy declared.
"And?" Ann said. "We'd be protecting a species that's about to go extinct. Who cares about injuries?"
"Our parents. How are we going to explain it to them?"
"Grace can. She's a great actor." Alex told him.
"Thanks." Grace answered.
"David is 9." Andy replied.
"Andy," David started. "We're like the only ones who care. They know how young we are, yet they had no choice but to come to us. If we don't do something, no one will."
"Are you sure?" Joy questioned.
"Yes." David said.
"Yes." Alex repeated.
"Yes." Ann parroted.
"Yes." Mark added.
"Yes." Grace finished.
Joy looked at Andy. He nodded.
The next night the dragons stepped into the clearing
"We're in." Joy said. "What do we have to do?"