"New to what?" Arthur asked.
"Well, I'm not a succubus, obviously, that's kinda demeaning, and stewpid! Nah, I'm a descendent of Rem, the Dream Dragon. And basically, I can enter your dreams! I chose you, since you were pretty smelly, y'know?" She said, laughing afterwards. The laughter brought a pain to Arthur's chest, and the urge to vomit in his stomach.
"Ah… okay. Um, why are we here?" Arthur asked again.
"Oh, just cause I thought it'd be fun," she said, walking over to him. She grabbed his chin, adjusting his head around and looking closely at his face. Arthur backed away, against a desk. He grabbed her hand and put it off of him, letting go quickly.
"Don't touch me, and stop staring at me like I'm a freak or something!" Arthur yelled. He hid his face, looking away from her and digging his nails into his finger.
"Oh? Afraid to show a lady your face? Well, from what I saw, I can understand why," she said, laughing at him. Arthur turned to face her, clenching his fists.
"Shut up, shut up! No, you're a dragon too, right?" He asked. She tilted her head, nodding it. Arthur reeled his hand back, launching it and socking her in the cheekbone. She fell onto her butt, looking up at him with a surprised expression.
"Wow, dude, hitting a girl?" She asked. "Man, you're just kind of a scumbag, no wonder you've got the Scent of a Traitor."
"Shut up!" Arthur screamed. He got closer, standing over top of her. "Shut up, don't act like you know anything about me! I didn't have a choice, if I didn't, everyone would have died, so I just did the only thing I could! I don't like hitting girls, I don't even like hitting people," Arthur said.
"Ah~? Then why'd ya–"
"Because you're being a bitch, that's why! Gosh, my life's fucking crumpling before my very eyes, and I have to be mocked for something I couldn't control along with it, it's so…"
Arthur stormed away, trying to leave the classroom. However, there was an invisible barrier in the doorway.
"Uh oh, looks like you're stuck with me!" She yelled. She got back up, still smiling.
"Y'know, I'd be willing to listen. I mean, I heard my family, they're super pissed that there's a traitor. And they're not even close to your family! Haha, ain't that hilarious?! You've got pretty much everyone pissed off!" She said, laughing and doing a silly little dance to accompany it.
"The heck are you doing…?" Arthur asked. He turned his head when she said she'd be willing to listen, so he saw her dance, which consisted of wiggling her arms and spinning around.
"Dancing! Y'know, healthy movement is the key to a long life! Just like dreams are!" She exclaimed. She went over and extended her hand to him. He turned away, and she shrugged her shoulders.
"Dancing is fun, especially with others. Dreams are fun because you can't be hurt or killed in them as well! You can see people die, but you can never be hurt or killed in one! Dreams are the best!" She said. She got on top of a desk, jumping from desk to desk, until one eventually slipped out from under her.
She fell and hit her back, but laughed it off and stood back up.
"See? No pain, no death. That's the ideal world, innit bruv? And since it's a dream–" She cut herself off, tea and a monocle appearing as she used them. She took a sip of tea, standing right in front of Arthur.
"Oi oi oi, bruv! Look at me, I'm Bri'ish! And now," she said, tea and monocle erased from existence. She grew in height, now with ultra long legs that were incredibly disproportionate to the rest of her body.
"Now, I'm tall! I can do ballet, or even basketball! C'mon, quit sulking about life, just have fun in the dreamspace for a second, will ya?" She asked. Arthur sighed, standing up. The school disappeared, turning into a cloud. The ocean was a long way down.
"Why are you doing all this…" Arthur asked. She smiled, shoving him off the cloud as she jumped with him.
"Cause it's fun! I know I made fun of 'yer face earlier, but that's cause I'm kinda stupid, not cause I'm mean! I like joy and whimsy, but I've also got a tender side, y'feel me? So go on, spill your guts out, tell me everything you wanna tell me, and I'll give you an ear," she yelled.
The two crashed into the sea, before it shaped back into a classroom. The two were sitting together, their desks against each other as the woman spun a pencil around in her hand.
"I… you won't… you won't tell anyone this, right?" Arthur asked. "I won't tell anybody! I mean, sure, the Scent of a Traitor sucks to deal with, but I can blow it away with a fan if I gotta. And all this 'dragon family' stuff is boring. I just like to use my ability to enter dreams to mess around with people, and have fun at night," she said.
"But if y'er really concerned I'll spill the tea with others, then you can say it however you want. But I am willing to listen, since you seem funny to be around."
"Of course it's 'funny to be around,' not 'fun to be with,'" Arthur responded.
"Man! Did some girls break your heart or what? I can forgive ya for punchin' me, since I was the one who touched that cute little face of yours first, but not all girls are out to get you, y'know," she said, laughing along with it.
"I know… whatever. I guess I'll just give my side, since… it's not like anyone else will listen," Arthur said.
And then, he did indeed spill his guts out.
…
"Yeesh! That's rough, buddy. And you really beat up your own mom?" She asked. She had already asked it while he was explaining, but the idea seemed so absurd to her that she wanted absolute clarification.
In a family of dragonkin, loyalty and family were absolute top priorities, obviously. Even if you hated another family member's guts, you had to love them anyway. The only exception to that love? Traitors.
So, to the woman who was raised in such a family, it was absurd to ever think about throwing hands with your mom.
And yet, she laughed at it as Arthur gave her another "yes."
"Well, that's just how it is, I guess? Though, to be honest with ya, you're probably gonna be dead soon," she said. Arthur looked away, resting his head on his hand. "I know that…"
"Throughout the world, dragons can smell your scent and track you down. And no one, not a single dragon, likes a traitor. Only the most vile families can accept you, which is why Graves has been pretty welcoming," she added. Arthur covered his face with his hands.
"Can you tell me what you know about the Graves family…? Please?" he asked.
He was still very, very clueless. He'd gone from a bullied existence in the human world to a victimized existence in the dragon world.
"Ah… well, they're pretty mean, first off. They kill a bunch of people, a bunch of dragons too. To put it simply, it'd be like if you were allied with the axis powers, or more specifically, Nazi Germany," she answered.
Arthur leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling with tired eyes. "For a dream, I've gotten no rest…" he grumbled. The woman laughed, standing up and reeling her hand back, a cartoonishly large boxing glove put on her hand. She punched him off the chair, letting out an "ORYAHH!!"
Arthur landed on the ground, looking up at her angrily. She laughed, tossing the glove off her hand and extending her hand. He took it and was let up off the ground.
"Sorry, that's just some revenge for punchin' me earlier! Ah, welp, this talk has been fun. I might visit ya again sometime, since it'll be interestin' to listen to ya until you eventually die," she laughed. "You're so dang morbid…" Arthur spat out.
"Guess I am! And next time, since I listened to you yap your head off, can ya listen to me yap my head off? I'm a normal gal, I got all kinds of issues that I can't go to my own family about," she said.
"Ah, sure, I suppose," Arthur said. She gave him a thumbs up, and Arthur gave one of his own.
"Wait, ma'am…" he said. She gasped and pouted, giving him a painless finger flick to the head. "Whatcha calling me ma'am for? How old are ya?" she asked. "19," Arthur answered. "Oh, well I'm 18, so no need to call me ma'am for. Anyways, whatcha want?" she asked.
"Um, what's your name?" Arthur muttered. "Oh, I'm Lucy," she said. He nodded lightly, and Lucy laughed at that. "Uh… can we… Can we be considered friends?" Arthur asked. She burst out laughing from that.
Arthur wanted nothing more than to die at that point.
'Of course. No, it makes sense. To believe that all it takes is one night of honesty to make another friend is so stupid. I got lucky with the friends I made so far, it's so stupidly greedy to want anything more. Someone who actually understands me, that's so fucking stupid to ask for.'
"Of course! 'Friend' is a very broad term, and I don't think we can be considered anything more or less than it. So yeah, friend is a good word for it! I dunno if I'll cry when I find out you died, but I know for sure I won't be glad," she said. Arthur looked at her with utter shock, and even a bit of anxiety.
"Really? I… wow, thanks," Arthur said. She nodded her head, and waved him goodbye.
"Cya later, assuming you don't die today!" She yelled. "Oh… shut up!" Arthur said with a smile, giving the friendliest response he knew.
…
He awoke. His eyes were tired even after sleeping a while. He rubbed them, and sat up in bed. It was Sunday morning, and he felt like an empty canvas.
He looked, seeing Tyler passed out on his own bed, snoring pretty loudly.
'Tch, so annoying, as usual.'
He complained in his head, before getting out of bed and walking into the bathroom. He used the restroom, then received a call from his insurance company. After some talking, he found out that his car was towed away.
The incident near the grocery store obviously had the police involved, it being believed to be an act of arson due to fire. The security cameras were broken in the initial explosion, so not much information could be deduced.
No other people were hurt, and Arthur himself was away from the scene. He explained that he'd been taken home by a family member, and that he would come get his car. He left the bathroom, woke Tyler up and asked him to take him to go get his car.
Tyler got up, being pretty cranky due to it being early in the morning. Ultimately, the two went and got his car picked up, Arthur doing some paperwork and paying fees which hurt his wallet, then drove back to the college.
Tyler went to bed almost immediately, and it's not like anyone would want to do anything. They were college students in the early morning, like a helicopter pilot navigating the seas by rowboat.
Arthur was burnt out, too exhausted to do anything extravagant. He went to the laundromat, he did a bit of grocery shopping, he stopped by the library to return some books and even picked out some new ones.
…
When it came to Tyler, he brought his girlfriend over. Arthur couldn't stand to be in the same room, so he went out and walked around the campus, just listening to music.
It was then that the thought of last night, and his awakening as a superhuman, or perhaps better said as a "dragon kin" hit him. Because he spent so much time doing the "boring" stuff of human life, he didn't think much about his new gifts.
Last night, he experienced an amplified physical capability. Physical ability beyond human limits, or at least beyond what he'd previously known himself for.
He felt stronger than usual as well. Though, when he looked into the mirror, seeing himself shirtless, he found that his body hadn't gotten stronger-looking. He decided to actually use the college gym he'd been given, doing something uncharacteristic of himself.
He used his student ID to enter.
Simply put, it was a college campus gym; not Gold's. It was nice, however, very clean and people were doing workouts for general fitness mostly. Of course, there were some people who were doing harder exercises, but they were a minority.
Arthur began to sweat a bit, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He didn't have social anxiety. However, he was simply out of his element.
He'd gone through life believing himself the nerdier type. He was good at school, although not super smart. He had a strong passion for certain things, he walked around with taped together glasses for goodness' sake.
So, naturally, the gym was a place he rarely entered. It wasn't like he never had an interest, of course. In the shows he watched, he would see big, buff men which he looked up to. However, being a man who didn't consider himself "that type," he didn't actually work out beyond maybe going on the occasional run to clear his mind.
He went over to a machine. It was a preacher curl machine, as a lot of the other machines, he honestly had zero clue as to how to use it. Preacher curls were easy to understand, and free weights would just be a burden to set up.
He started off with 10 pounds. And to his surprise, he blew through it effortlessly. Out of curiosity, he experimented. He went up the weights, doing one or two reps to get a feel. And to his surprise, he maxxed out the machine. Easily, even.
He was built like little more than a twig, repping 200 pound preacher curls easily. Dragon's blood would get someone banned from the Olympics.
He smiled to himself, feeling quite confident, very pleased with himself. He got up and couldn't stop smiling, causing him to cover his mouth to avoid seeming like a total psychopath.
He hurried up and left the gym, not wanting to stick around long enough to "reveal his secret." Now he was alone. His friends, he could only assume, were either busy or relaxing, potentially studying as well.
Ultimately, studying was a pretty big part of his life. In highschool, he never needed to try, even if he did. However, now in college, it wasn't common sense anymore. He had to legitimately study, so he went to the campus library and checked out some books.
The library he'd visited earlier in the day was not the one he was currently in. The books at his college focused on academic things, while the library off-campus was more for his own amusement, as he enjoyed reading every now and then.
He didn't fully expect the studying to improve his grades dramatically, as he was literally just reading a book while listening to music. He wasn't taking notes or flashcards or anything of that nature.
…
Some time had elapsed, and he got bored. So, he simply took the book and gave Sally a text. She responded, and he went off, going to her dorm room. He knocked, she answered, and he entered.
Her dorm room was with a pastel color pallet, with the occasional stuffed animal which she and Emily both shared. The lights were quite dim, with the exception of the TV currently on an episode of some sitcom. Emily herself was out at her job, so it was just the two of them.
While yes, two college students of opposite gender, alone in a dorm room with dim lighting might sound potentially sexual, both parties rejected that idea heavily. For one, Sally simply wasn't into Arthur. That didn't stop them from being friends, but wholeheartedly he simply wasn't her type.
And for Arthur, something similar was true. It wasn't that Arthur didn't fancy Sally in particular, but rather that he didn't fancy women in general. Not that he was gay, but rather he himself didn't want to feel romantic or sexual interest in anything at all.
It wasn't due to asexuality, but that life was simply easier when you didn't want anything. You cannot be sad about a failed relationship if you didn't want it in the first place.
While Arthur obviously did want things, he wasn't a Buddhist by any means, romantic and sexual interests were things he frowned upon, giving it the label of "futile." Simply put, it wasn't worth the effort.
Yet, that didn't extend to others. It was a personal conviction. Seeing a happy couple did fill him with a twinge of envy, but he made it a point to be glad for them in his heart. For himself, he didn't want to feel anything. Feelings only got him hurt when it came to romance.
"Yo, what episode were we on again?" Sally asked him. Arthur went and sat down on the couch, letting out a long "uhhh" before giving his answer.
"I'd say, like, episode 8? We're on season 2, so…" he said. She sat down and left the sitcom she was currently watching and hopped onto another streaming service. She got onto the show they both were watching, "Kirk's World."
It was about some guy named Kirk who simply explored with his friends in a magical world. It was lightweight, easy to digest and something they both enjoyed. They got turned on episode 8, and let it play out, binging multiple episodes at a time.
…
In the middle of a scene involving Kirk and his friends facing off against tree monsters, Arthur got a call. He answered the phone, finding the man from the forest on the line.
"Hello?" Arthur asked. "Arthur, the Graves family would like to have dinner with you tonight. Is that acceptable?" The man questioned.
'Ah.'
"Yeah, just give me like," Arthur paused. He grabbed the remote and paused the TV, seeing the episode had 13 minutes left. "Yeah, give me 13 minutes and I'll get ready; this episode is really good. Just text me what I need to know," he said. The man uncharacteristically sighed, before leaving off with an "understood," hanging up shortly after.
Arthur finished the episode, and left, going to his car and driving out. He inputted the address texted to him, and saw that it was actually well over 12 hours away.
'Huh?'
He let the man know that it was a 12 hour drive away. That was when the man gave him a call.
"Hello? I can't drive 12 hours for dinner, that's absurd," Arthur told him. "It isn't. You can make it quickly if you fly," the man revealed. "It's only 4:30, after all."
"FLY?! I can't—oh wait, I sprouted a tail, I don't see why I can't sprout wings, actually…" Arthur said, feeling kind of dumb shortly into the sentence. "Correct. All that's necessary is that you take a dragon form, or even simply use your wings. That's the first 'test' the Graves family has in order to accept you in," the man told him.
'Wings… ah, crud. And tests, too? This is so awful… well, I can try.'
Arthur got out of his car, taking a deep breath. Then, he made his first attempt at aerial flight.
…
Simply put, his ribs were fractured and he quite literally broke his ass.