"Very well..." my feral mind chirped, finishing up dried meat, "I will ssshow you..."
My feral mind waved his hand, and in a field of distortion, the scene changed to that of my classroom, but with all the doors and windows sealed up, as if they weren't there. The class's projector slide was on, and a screen had been pulled over the whiteboard.

On the screen it showed an image of what appeared to be a picture of me jumping mid-flight, but was however put in incredibly high detail.

Amazed, I walked over to the screen touching the screen. "You know, that'sss jussst a sssscreen image. You might want to take a ssseat, thissssss will take time..."

Slightly embarrased, I pulled a chair out from one of the tables, rotated it around and leaned forward onto the backrest, listening intently.

"Venom ssspitter..." he began, gesturing to the image of on the screen, "one sssuch as us is rare, mossst dragonsss are fire-breatherssss. While mossst dragonsss are capable of breathing fire as their breath weapon, one sssuch as you doesss not posssesss sssuch an ability. Inssstead, you are venomoussss, and in mossst ssituationsss, you are capable of killing othersss by merely ssspitting at them... While you alsssso have venomousss bitesss and venom glandsss to inject venom, your sssalaiva alone isss already enough to kill..."

"Wait, so if I were to spit on someone's shoe, it'd kill him?" I asked, cutting him off.

"No, your sssalaiva iss toxic, but only if it getsss into sssomeonesss body. Thisss can be achieved by ssspitting into someone'sss food, or by doing sssomething like kisssing..."

I shuddered, thinking about it. I was that dangerous, and knowing my friends and I, we often shared our drinks and food with each other on a regular basis, letting each other have a sip of whatever someone else was drinking.

To know that if I ever slipped up and let someone have a sip of my drink would prove fatal, was actually quite unnerving.

"Any other quesstionsss?" my feral mind asked, looking at me expectantly. I considered it carefully and looked back at him, frowning in return. Not that I didn't like what I was told, but because something told me that he was up to something, and there were things that he was hiding from me.

"Just one thing," I asked, crossing my arms, "how am I going to speak and stand up again? If you're now not going to move out, then..."

"Your mind will need to take time to... accept me asss part of you... Until then, sssince I have contro- I mean, accesss  to more subconsssious partsss of you, I can help you when you're lesss conciousss, like when you've jussst woken up, or if you're extremely tired. I'll try to pull a few ssstrings, hopefully you might be able to ssspeak by daybreak..."

He slipped up. I saw it. Frowning, I acknowledged him, trying to fake that I didn't notice anything. If anything, him knowing that I suspected him of foul play might've lead me into something much more complicated.

I didn't like where then general feel of where things were going, but I decided to play along, wanting to see what he had in store for me.

"It looksss like day break approachessss..." he said, looking around.

"How can you tell?" I asked, curious.

"No idea... I jussst... ssseem to be able to tell."

I shurgged, not wanting to further delve into such matters, since more important things were at hand.

"So, will you teach me more tomorrow?" I asked.

"Probably... I'll sssee you tomorrow, human..."

At that, my vision began to blur and distort, before turning black.

---

In a split second, I found myself being awoken by the repeated poking of a sharp, pointy object. I grunted, evidently not enjoying such treatment. With that, I rolled over into my side, my back facing whoever that might be poking me at that time.

Whatever it was, it was way too early for me to wake up.

My bed time disturbance continued to harass me, only prodding me harder at the sign of my consciousness.

Trying not to have been woken up at whatever hour it might've been, I continued to pretend to be asleep, or out cold, at least. However, my annoyance would not be defeated, and proceeded to give me a large slap on the back.

I yelped, smacking my head onto the bunk above me. While it didn't hurt, the sudden force definitely shocked me, causing me to hurt myself in other ways.

I groaned, clutching my head. If anything, having horns on my head now were painful, to say in the least. They were effectively extensions of my skull, and while they didn't have nerves in them, they certainly hurt when they were forcefully slammed in a direction that they didn't grow normally.

Groaning, I knew that only one person could've woke me up like this: My sister.

If anything, my sister was the only person who'd hit me between my family, which easily made her recognisable when it came to waking me up.

"Wakey wakey..." she said gently, before shouting, "YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOL, DAMN IT!!!"

I growled in response, before rolling around in the sheets, wrapping myself up like a big, green burrito. My sister shook me a few more times, only to stop after I my vocal chords started growling on their own accord.

My sister then tried a different approach, gently unrolling me from the sheets before shaking me again. "C'mon Ryan, I've gotta go to school too, you're going to make me late..." she pleaded with an annoyed tone, before reaching behind my webbed ears and scratching them.

My body seemed to go limp. Oh man, that felt good. As if on auto pilot, I purred, enjoying the scratch. My entire body went limp, and in fact, I seemed to become completely paralysed, blissfully occupied with the wonderful scratching that I was getting.

My sister seemed shocked, but continued scratching the back of my webbed ears, which was a delight to me. I think I heard her chuckle, but I was honestly enjoying myself way too much to know if she did.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she said, with obvious mirth in her voice.

I only purred louder in response.

She took her hand off from me, and at that instant, suddenly lost the feeling of it almost entirely. However, I was still basking in the afterglow of it, and was still feeling pretty dazed from being scratched like that.

"Can you still talk?" she asked, sounding more serious, "How are you going to survive in school?"

"Nnnot... gggooiiinggg... Neeeedddd.... Reeesssttt... tttooo... ssssppeeaakkk..." my voice croaked, mouth moving on its own. At this I was pretty surprised, my mouth was moving on its own! I wanted to freak out at that, but somewhere, I felt something in my mind tingle, and -though it's hard to explain- I felt my feral mind acknowledging that he had just helped me. I mentally thanked him, not knowing if he managed to hear me.

"If you say so." my sister replied, a little shaken that I could talk again, "I'll tell dad..."

I sighed in relief as my sister left the room, closing the door lightly behind her. I looked outside and realised that I was still dark out, and with that, blissfully went back to sleep, knowing fully well that I'd probably regret not going to school today...

---

I woke up to the sound of birds chattering noisily outside my house, and as I looked out the window, noticed a small flock of birds had gathered on the roof of my neighbour's house, and from the way it looked, were having some sort of squabble.

Looking outside, I also noticed that it was already light out, and with that, I groaned. I still felt rather lethargic, and with that, didn't even feel like getting out of bed.

However, the incessant chatter of birds and my own brain telling me to get my scaly rump out of bed soon became overpowering, and somehow, managed to coax me into actually waking up.

I groaned again, before rolling out of the bed and off my mattress. The sun began beating down on my eyes through the window, and even with them shut,  I somehow found myself being woken up again.

Emitting a low growl, I opened my eyes, dragging myself off the still-comfortable wooden floor that I had rolled onto. Admittedly, while I unconsciously rose to my regular, quadruped position, I noticed that everything was taller, and then remembered that I was stuck on all fours for awhile now.

Again, I tried getting up on two legs, but for some reason, my rear legs seemed to lock themselves in place at a certain angle as I tried to stand up.

I snarled in frustration, lashing my tail out at the wall. This was getting pretty frustrating.

After a few more minutes of goofing around and trying to stand up, my stomach eventually prompted the rest of my new body to get on with its morning agenda, and the first thing that was on it was breakfast.

Tumbling (no, tumbling, not walking) down the stairs, I crept into the kitchen, looking around for something to eat. I looked over to the bread box, glancing at its contents. Mouldy fruitcake? Nope. Mouldy Swiss roll. Nope. Loaf of bread next to the mouldy food? What, do I have a death wish?

The breadbox was definitely something in my household that one could marvel at. It was one of those large, dome-shaped boxes that was supposed to prevent one's pastries and bread from going mouldy too quickly, but ironically, almost all the food that went in there turned mouldy in a few days.

Giving the bread box a skip, though I suddenly fancied a nice slice of toast and kaya, I headed over to the fridge, looking for leftovers or something else that I could eat without sending myself to the hospital.

There wasn't any leftovers from last night, but there were a few eggs in the fridge, so I settled for that. Grabbing  the remaining three eggs from the fridge, I held them in my claws, mulling over how I might've wanted to eat them. One would be to fry them, which would present a very dry meal, another would be to boil them, but I didn't really like boiled eggs too much, and another way was eating them raw...

Though It sounded gross, I was quite taken aback when I found myself even considering eat the eggs raw, and it shocked me somewhat to find that raw meat and eggs were starting to enter my regular palate of tastes.

However, I was hungry, and at my own disgust, I found myself tossing the eggs into my waiting maw, before crushing the oddly tasty eggs and swallowing the mixture of shell and egg, since I really couldn't decide what I wanted to do with the eggs, and this seemed to be the most convenient thing at the moment.

At least, my stomach was somewhat full (hey, eggs are fattening, you know that?), and with that, I decided to grab a few more things before going back up.

In the fridge, I also managed to find a few strips of bacon, and after tossing them into the microwave to heat up, I also snagged myself a glass of milk, followed by a cup of water, which were a struggle to obtain, since I was reduced to being quadruped at the moment.

It was at this time that I was kind of thankful that I now had a tail, as I helped me hang on to things like a glass of water, since it was like an extra hand, and since I needed all four to be on the ground while I was walking around.

After grabbing breakfast I then made my way back up to my room, where I  mulled over what I should do now, since I was home alone and free for the morning. My parents were at work, my sister was in school, and I was pretty much stuck here, mute and on all fours. Studying to make up for lost time wasn't an option since, I didn't know what my classmates were doing for today yet, so I simply settled to finding someone to chat with on Skype.

To be honest, most of my contacts on Skype were almost always from overseas, and at least on the opposite side of the world, and with that, it meant that most of the time, I had someone to talk to on a sick day.

Grabbing my laptop off the table and setting it down on the floor, I laid on my mattress, putting the large laptop in front of me. I powered it on, and while it was powering up, took the opportunity to stretch myself, stretching my arms, legs and tail, before stretching one wing at a time, taking care not to knock anything in my room over.

The familiar hum of Windows 7 starting up sounded, and I cocked my head, watching as my standard background came into view, its artificially cheerful colours brightening the screen by a few magnitudes, causing me to squint slightly due to my draconic vision, which was more sensitive to colours, just like my other senses.

I shook my head slightly to clear any form of disorientation, and with that, proceeded to log on to Skype, before opening up my web browser and bringing up Facebook.

Though pretty much everyone was at school right now, nobody was online on Facebook, save the few that were using their smartphones to access it from class.

I chuckled as status updates such as "Wah piang, boring lessons eh..." or "Sien eh, falling asleep nao..." started popping into my live feed, before I proceeded to check my own wall. Looking at me from the profile picture was a nerdy, somewhat tired looking teenage around the age of fifteen, smiling widely at me, showing off his slightly yellowed, straight, buck teeth.

"Hmmm..." I thought to myself, "I don't look like that anymore, might as well change my profile picture..."

Curling my tail slightly, I wrapped it around the switch of the small lamp that hung on the post of the lower bunk of my bed, and with a quick squeeze, turned the light on, giving me a better illumination of me from behind.

I opened up my webcam program and tilted the screen angle, adjusting it slightly before clicking on the 'Snapshot' button.

As the countdown timer started, I cocked my head at the camera and gave it a confused look, before a quick, artificial camera snap was heard, indicating that the photo was taken.

I quickly looked over the photo and gave a low trill, marvelling at my own picture. "Looks good," I , thought, "maybe I should upload this one."

With that thought, I quickly got onto Facebook and changed my profile picture, adjusting the thumbnail of the shot, so as to show only my snout.

Now, looking over the picture, a young, dark green dragon stared at me, its head tilted slightly to one side, giving the user an inquisitive look.

Satisfied, I crooned, before the beeping of my phone alerted me to its presence.

Raking it over to my side with my wing, I picked it up, reading the message I had just received. I quickly facepalmed and unlocked my phone, reading the message over. If anything, it was school hours! Why would Jean want to message me now?!

"OAO" was the only thing she had sent, and I found it mysterious. Replying to her message with a single question mark, I shifted my attention back to the computer, reading over a few student-council e-mails that I've been too busy to read.

After going through a few documents that needed my editing or approval, my computer chirped, and a small speech bubble on the bottom right corner of my screen popped up. "How goes it?", read the small speech bubble, and with that, I guessed it might've been from usaf2222, or Matt, as I knew him by.

I opened up Skype to full screen,  and decided to chat with him, sending in my first reply:

---
Ryannnnnn!™: Sick today.

usaf2222: Aw. Dang. That sucks
usaf2222: With what?

Ryannnnnn!™: Uhh...
Ryannnnnn!™: Guess.

usaf2222: Flu? Chicken Pox? Syphilis?

Ryannnnnn!™: It's related to the color green >.=.>

usaf2222: Envy? :P

Ryannnnnn!™: No, keep guessing...

usaf2222: I'm out of things
usaf2222: Whadda doctor say?

Ryannnnnn!™: I'll give you one more hint...
Ryannnnnn!™: Scales.

usaf2222: usaf2222 thinks
usaf2222: Hmmmm...
usaf2222: Shingles?

Ryannnnnn!™: Nope.

usaf2222: Gangreous Shingles?
usaf2222: What? Green and scaly?

Ryannnnnn!™: Bingo, now keep going...

usaf2222: Uhhhhh....
usaf2222: usaf2222 shrugs
usaf2222: Sorry dude.
usaf2222: Nothing else

Ryannnnnn!™: Awwww, c'mon.

usaf2222: What?
uasf2222: I'm not Dr. House

Ryannnnnn!™: Well, think along the lines of 'Farm-Fresh'

usaf2222: Never read it.
usaf2222: Sorry... ^^;
usaf2222: usaf2222 is worried he's gonna get killed by a hired hit man O_O

Ryannnnnn!™: Nah, I won't :P
Ryannnnnn!™: But anyway...
Ryannnnnn!™: I'm at home today because I got turned into a dragon >.=.<

usaf2222: usaf2222 laughs
usaf2222: Have you gone otherkin?

Ryannnnnn!™: No, I mean it literally!

usaf2222: usaf2222 laughs
usaf2222: Sorry
usaf2222: That is great though
usaf2222: I'll need proof...

Ryannnnnn!™: There's always Facebook....

usaf2222: To high of a risk for Photoshopping :P
usaf2222: Alright scale brain. :D
usaf2222: I'll need it live
usaf2222: So a webcam would be nice

Ryannnnnn!™: Well, if you insist...

usaf2222: usaf2222 sits back and waits
usaf2222: I'll launch FSX while I wait for you to get set up
usaf2222: usaf2222 opens FSX

Ryannnnnn!™: Fine, I'll get the webcam.
Ryannnnnn!™: Alright, live feed in T minus...5.
Ryannnnnn!™: 4.
Ryannnnnn!™: 3.
Ryannnnnn!™: 2.
Ryannnnnn!™: 1.

---

With an incredible leap of faith, I brought my mouse over, clicking the 'call' button. In no less than a second, a small window showing my own video feed started playing, and from the other side, I could heard a loud 'thump' sound.

---

usaf2222: What
usaf2222: the
usaf2222: Fu-
usaf2222: HOLY CRAP THAT'S A DRAGON!

I quickly shut the video off, not wanting to further provoke him.

Ryannnnnn!™: Yup, that'd be me...

usaf2222: Dude...
usaf2222: I fell out of my chair

Ryannnnnn!™: So I heard. It was epic WIN.

usaf2222: usaf2222 collects himself
usaf2222: What happened?
usaf2222: Dude?
usaf2222: Like really. WTF happened?

Ryannnnnn!™: Well, I was walking in the park one day and then, "BAM", I suddenly realise I'm a dragon.

usaf2222: usaf2222 rolls his eyes
usaf2222: Sounds tooooo... I don't know... Convenient

Ryannnnnn!™: Okay, fine, I was joking...
Ryannnnnn!™: But how it really happened is a loooong story.

usaf2222: I have time

Ryannnnnn!™: Longer than peopple can rage about trollface.
Ryannnnnn!™: I'll need to explain another time.

usaf2222: Oooookaaaay....?
usaf2222: But seriously

Ryannnnnn!™: What?

usaf2222: I gotta ask
usaf2222: Is it cool?
usaf2222: Sorry. Curiosity kicked in there

Ryannnnnn!™: Well, kind of.
Ryannnnnn!™: It's cool for the first 30 seconds or so...
Ryannnnnn!™: And the you've gotta go back to soceity.

usaf2222: Yeah
usaf2222: Sounds cool though
usaf2222: Can you still do people suff
usaf2222: Like talk and walk upright?

Ryannnnnn!™: Not at the moment...

usaf2222: Oh...
usaf2222: Sorry to hear
usaf2222: That majorly sucks
usaf2222: Ummm...
usaf2222: Wanna try the webcam again?

Ryannnnnn!™: Not really, I dislike being the subject of public scrutiny...

usaf2222: I'm not scrutinizing. Skype's private...
usaf2222: I've just never have seen a dragon
usaf2222: Sorry for freaking out the first time. It just well...
usaf2222: Caught me off guard

Ryannnnnn!™: Well...
Ryannnnnn!™: If you insist...
Ryannnnnn!™: But I warn you, I can't speak.
Ryannnnnn!™: Not yet, at least...

usaf2222: Alright
usaf2222: That's fine
Ryannnnnn!™: I'm learning how to do that again >.=.>

usaf2222: Oh.
usaf2222: Again?
usaf2222: You lost the ability?

Ryannnnnn!™: Sort of.

usaf2222: Sorry
usaf2222: I just noticed the tone...
usaf2222: usaf2222 clears throat

Ryannnnnn!™: Tone?

usaf2222: I judged by the emotes you used earlier. They sounded depressing. So I just used a bit of intuition to guess what you felt

Ryannnnnn!™: Well, it's not too bad...

usaf2222: Well
usaf2222: Anyway, let me call you.

---
A small, black box appeared, graphically labelled 'USAF2222 IS CALLING YOU' appeared on my screen, along with two buttons, "ACCEPT" and "RECJECT". Hesitantly, I click on the answer button, and immediately, the one-sided webcam call resumed.
---

usaf2222: OK
usaf2222: ...
usaf2222: Take two
usaf2222: So
usaf2222: OK
usaf2222: That is really cool

---
I crooned in response, smiling, showing off my large set of pointed teeth.
---

usaf2222: Sweeeet...
usaf2222: So. That has got to be the coolest thing I have ever seen
usaf2222: What else do you have?

---
Mentally rolling my eyes, I stuck out my forked tongue at him, wriggling it in front of the camera, accidentally putting venomous spit on my screen. I quickly wiped it off with my palm, remembering not to use my claws as they would've torn the screen open.

My laptop was pretty new, and destroying it was not really on my list of things to do while I was a -dragon.
---

usaf2222: Interesting
usaf2222: I might take some notes on this...
usaf2222: Let me grab a pencil.
usaf2222: Tongue. Teeth...
usaf2222: Eyes...

---
I looked at him, or rather, the webcam, questioningly, wondering what he was up to. I knew he was hanging around taking notes, but I was honestly hadn't the foggiest of ideas on what he wanted them for. Still, since the video conversation was pretty much one-sided, I was unable to read his expression, since I had nothing to see.
---

usaf2222: Interesting structure
usaf2222: Slit like
usaf2222: Very cool

---
I barked in response, not really wanting to be the observation subject of some animal study.
---

usaf2222: No. No
usaf2222: Don't take this the wrong way
usaf2222: Dude. Remember
usaf2222: I've never communicated with a dragon before

Ryannnnnn!™: Well, then you get your wish.

usaf2222: Your horns are cool

Ryannnnnn!™: Please, my eyes are rolling in their sockets

usaf2222: What?
usaf2222: They are

Ryannnnnn!™: *eyeroll*

usaf2222: You still have thumbs?

Ryannnnnn!™: Yeah...

usaf2222: Well
usaf2222: I suppose that I've asked enough questions for tonight
usaf2222: This is so awesome! I know a freaking dragon!
Ryannnnnn!™: Lucky you >.=.>

usaf2222: Hey don't feel bad
usaf2222: I'm sure that you'll regain your speech somehow
usaf2222: Oh crap. I gotta go to bed. I have school tomorrow...
usaf2222: Dude
usaf2222: Have a freaking awesome time

Ryannnnnn!™: Thanks >.=.>

usaf2222: Now to go find me a gryphon rock...

Ryannnnnn!™: lol, have fun.

usaf2222: See ya man
usaf2222: Night

Ryannnnnn!™: bye~

---
With that, the video chat quickly ended, and soon, Matt had logged off, disappearing from my contact list on Skype.

I sighed. Now, there wasn't really much to do. With that, I headed out to the small, front yard of my house, looking around. It was a weekday morning, and with that, everyone was probably out in school or at work. I trotted over to the front gate of my house, looking around. The only things that were around the neighbourhood at this time were the houses, and a few birds. The was hardly anyone out, and with that, it was probably safe for me to be out here right now, since the chances of someone stumbling across me was very low.

A tingling sensation in my paws suddenly brought my attention to the floor, and I soon realised that the  stone flooring of my driveway, having been baking in the sun for the entire morning, was now at a temperature that was giving of an extremely pleasurable feeling to my paws.

It felt really good.

In no time, I soon found myself lying down on the floor, a small (by most dragon standards) green dragon now reduced to nothing but a puddle of contented scales. The warmth of the sun and the heated floor seemed to have a relaxing effect on my body, as in no time I soon found myself to contented to get off the floor, not wanting to leave such a nice spot to sun myself.

I soon ended up spreading my wings to their full length as well, the membranes in my wings absorbing all the wonderful sunlight that was being radiated from above me.

In all sense, I was totally blinded by the sheer amount of pleasure that was coursing through me, and if anything, I was nothing more than a green puddle of contentedness right there.

I basked in the wonderful sunlight, soon falling asleep, completely unaware of my surroundings; completely unaware of the photojournalist, armed with a mobile phone camera, sneaking over to my front gate to record a video of me basking in the sunlight...