I Guess I'm a Dragon Now (Part 1)

Where Am I?

'It's dark..' Garner thought as he tried to open his eyes, though for some reason he couldn't. He felt incredibly weak as well, though when he tried to move one of his limbs, he found that he couldn't. For some reason, he felt as if he were trapped in a incredibly tight space. And as he tried to move around, he heard a knocking that sounded like he was hearing it from underwater. Though, what surprised him the most was the fact that whatever he was trapped inside started moving around after the knock, and he felt as if he was rolling away before it suddenly stopped and he felt as if he were being lifted.

Thankfully the feeling soon ended as whatever had picked him up soon put him down. And while Garner was still slightly panicking about his situation, he eventually calmed down despite him realizing something important. The fact that he wasn't breathing.

'Am I dead? No... Otherwise I wouldn't be able to feel anything... Why is it so cramped?!' Garner wondered to himself. Though eventually these thoughts were lost as he struggled and struggled against his restraints. Though no matter what he did, he didn't seem to be able to break himself out. And so he waited for what seemed like an eternity for something... anything to happen. He slept and awoke, repeating the process while struggling to break free at every chance that he got while the space seemed to grow more and more cramped. And just when he thought that he might go insane from the situation, he struggled one more time and finally felt his arm push out of the barrier slightly.

"It seems that you are about to hatch." A woman's voice filled the small space.

'What? Who are you?! Where am I?!' Garner yelled in his mind as he wasn't able to actually speak.

"You are in your egg, of course." The woman replied, seeming to be able to read Garner's mind.

'Egg... what are you talking about? I've never had an egg before!' Garner replied.

"That's because you were human, which you are not anymore." The woman answered.

'Not human...' Garner pondered. 'If I'm not human, than just what am I? And who are you?'

"You do not need to know my name. Only that I have taken your soul and placed it into the body which you currently possess. The body of a young dragon." The woman answered.

'A dragon?! But... why would you do something like that?! I have my own life you know!' Garner yelled.

"Oh really, and what life was that?" The woman asked, though now that he thought about it,Garner couldn't remember anything about himself. Only his name, but as he thought of it, his name soon started to fade from his memory as well.

'W-what is-'

"I have taken away everything about you save for your personality and your morals." The woman answered. "Your memories will be erased, you views on life will change, and you will lose your humanity completely."

'Why?' He asked, not knowing what reason a person could possibly have for doing such a thing.

"For a game, of course." The woman laughed. "I want to see how well you'll do in this world that I've put you in. So do your best, okay?"

'You put me in a dragon's body for a game?!" Unknown asked angrily.

"Indeed." The woman confirmed. "Oh, and by the way, your new mother has named you Ergen already, so don't bother coming up with another name. That would be rude you know."

Still stuck inside of his egg, Ergen could feel as sudden lack of presence in his surroundings, and somehow he knew that the woman the he'd been talking to was gone. And with her absence, Ergen once again became conscious of his trapped state before he once again tried to break free. Outside of the shell, he could hear a loud growling noise as if some giant beast was nearby, and that only made him fight all the harder to free himself before his hand finally cracked the shell. And when it did, the growling sounds became even louder.

Kicking with his feet, Ergen broke the bottom of his shell as well while trying to break free with his other hand as well. Though it was a doomed effort as the hand was bent at an awkward angle inside of the egg. And so, with his feet pressing against what he thought was the bottom of the egg, Ergen extended his head and thankfully cracked the shell once before he repeated the process until his head eventually broke through. The remains of the shell still covered his head, however that was solved when the shell was suddenly removed for him. And by removed for him, he ment that a massive set of razor sharp teeth gently picked it off of him. And afterwards, Ergen looked on in horror as a massive grey dragon started sniffing him. And while he did scream slightly, unfortunately something that sounded like a gecko came out as he desperately attempted to free himself from the rest of the egg so that he could escape. Though, after a while, he did calm down as he realized that this creature was most likely his dragon mother... which was completely weird.

Eventually, Ergen managed to kick himself free of more of the egg, which somehow made his other arm free so that he could destroy the rest of the shell around his head. And once that was done, the hole was large enough that he could start climbing out, which unfortunately sent the egg toppling over on its side before rolling with Ergen still inside of it until his mother stopped his momentum with her tail. And using his opportunity, Ergen finally managed to crawl the rest of the way out of the egg, stumbling before falling as he tried to walk on unfamiliar legs and all the while releasing the gecko sound. Again and again he tried to stand, but each time he fell as he tried to stand on his two back legs. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to work anymore, and Ergen found that he had to stay on all fours if he even wanted to stand correctly, much less walk. And he experimented with this now, stumbling only a few times until he attempted to explore the end of whichever cave he was in.

From what he saw of the world outside of the cave, he was currently in some kind of giant forest in the dead of winter. At least, he hoped it was winter as there was a few feet of snow covering everything outside. And if it were summer then he could only imagine how harsh winter would be in a climate like this. He didn't get long to ponder this though as his mothers tail soon came forward and started pushing him back into the cave, obviously not wanting him to stray outside so soon. And while he attempted to resist at first, he had no choice but to comply as she laid her massive body at the side of the cave while keeping an eye on him.

Testing his new legs while walking around the cave for a few minutes, soon Ergen's new body started to get tired, and he let out a loud yawn before looking for a bed. And after looking for only a few seconds, he sighed as he realized that he would probably never sleep in a proper bed again... wait, what was a bed again? Everything he knew from before was steadily leaving his mind, and Ergen soon gave up in wondering what exactly he had been seeking before he moved over to where his mother was laying and rested in between her massive claws. While she'd been terrifying at first, for some reason he now felt safe around her. And somewhere in his mind, Ergen knew that his change from a human to dragon was already well underway.