The dense woods north of Whateley's main campus lay shrouded in darkness. Moonlight filtered through the autumn canopy, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor as Ethan, Kira, and Jordan moved silently between the trees. The night air carried an unusual stillness—no insects chirping, no nocturnal creatures rustling in the underbrush—creating an eerie, expectant atmosphere.

The tavern's weathered sign creaked in the autumn wind, its faded lettering barely legible in the gathering dusk. Inside, three figures occupied a corner table well away from the evening crowd, their drinks barely touched as they waited. Dhuson Blunthammer's thick dwarven fingers drummed impatiently against his ale mug while David Smythe and the man known only as Crash watched the door with practiced casualness.

The crunch of tires on gravel announced Elena's arrival twenty minutes later. Her Subaru Outback, mud-spattered from recent fieldwork, pulled into the lot with the practiced ease of someone who spent more time on remote forest roads than highways. Her headlights swept across the gathered group before cutting off, leaving them in the glow of Alex's modified exterior lighting.

Ethan arrived ten minutes early for her mandatory Warper control session with Professor Reynard, nervously tugging at the upgraded tracking band now encircling her wrist. The new device looked almost identical to the old one, except for a small blinking light and slightly increased weight—minor differences that somehow made it feel all the more intrusive.

The world was crumbling around Ethan, piece by piece.

Three days had passed since Jordan's machine had transformed her, and the aftermath was unfolding in ways she couldn't have imagined. What had started as a desperate attempt to hide from her parents while Jordan tried to fix his mistake had evolved into something far worse.

The bedroom door slammed with such force that the framed diploma on the wall tilted sideways. Ethan didn't bother to fix it. She collapsed onto her bed, staring at the ceiling she'd gazed at for the past seventeen years of her life. The same ceiling, the same room, but everything else had changed.

The sound of a door slamming echoed through the Altura household, but Melissa barely registered it. She sat cross-legged on her bed, staring at the wall opposite her. The black and gray tapestry she'd hung there featured an intricate mandala design that she used to find captivating. Now it was just another pattern, devoid of meaning.

The September sun beat down on Ethan's back as he lounged in Jordan's backyard, a half-empty can of soda warming beside him. It was one of those lazy weekend afternoons where time seemed to stretch endlessly, a welcome break from the first few weeks of their senior year that had already proven to be more demanding than expected.

The lecture hall buzzed with the low hum of students typing on laptops, punctuated by the professor's droning voice explaining object-oriented programming principles. Nathan sat rigidly in his seat, his enhanced senses picking up every tiny sound and movement around him. The once-familiar concepts now seemed trivial, almost laughably simple compared to the complex systems he'd interfaced with during his time away.

Celeste Rawlins pulled her jacket tighter against the evening chill, grateful she'd thought to bring an extra layer. October nights in Millridge were unpredictable—sometimes clinging to late summer warmth, other times plunging into winter's preview. Tonight was definitely leaning toward the latter.

The morning after the intense memory exchange with the mother dragon left Remi's mind buzzing with lingering sensations. Her bare feet tingled against the cool stone of the clearing, the rough texture grounding her as she processed the overwhelming input from the previous day. "It's like having a brain freeze without the ice cream," she muttered to herself, rubbing her temples.

David's gaming setup dominated one corner of his room, the dual monitors casting a bluish glow that illuminated his face in the otherwise darkened space. The rest of the room had gradually disappeared under the typical teenage chaos of discarded clothes, school papers, and empty energy drink cans. Posters for various games and sci-fi movies covered most of the available wall space, giving the room a collage-like quality.

Full Story begins next chapter!!!

Pre- Chapter Note - This is a prologue chapter. The full story begins in Chapter 02. So, this and Chapter 01 are the setup for the story.

Sunlight filtered through the ancient pines surrounding their clearing, casting dappled shadows across Remi's unclothed skin as she crouched behind a weathered boulder. In the weeks since emerging from the egg, her body had matured to that of a twelve-year-old, though such human concerns as clothing had long since ceased to matter in her day-to-day life with her dragon siblings. Her toughened skin had adapted to the elements, comfortable against both rough stone and mountain air.

Chapter 09

Warmth.

That was the first sensation—a gentle, encompassing warmth that seemed to cradle consciousness itself. There was no body to feel it with, no skin to register temperature, just the pure essence of warmth wrapping around awareness like a mother's embrace.

Forewarning:
This chapter is a bit darker than the last few. It deals with even more bullying and with death.
Please read at your own discression.

The nameplate on Ms. Thurnglad's door gleamed in the fluorescent hallway lights: "Student Guidance Counselor." Remi stood before it, his hand hovering over the handle as the morning bell rang in the distance. Through the frosted glass window, he could make out a vague shape moving within—probably Ms. Thurnglad arranging her ever-present collection of motivational posters and self-help books into their precise positions.

Preamble - I have now completely re-written all of the works I had worked with Sudowrite on. I no longer use it as a writing tool, only a story organizing tool. With my left hand healed I can now type again properly so I'll be able to write a lot easier. I am also returning to the online world but have permablocked where I got hated on for my prior writing of this. I will never author there ever again, and won't even lurk for their content. Their user base proved to be very toxic and the admins didn't care when authors were being harassed by readers. The reviewers were annoying but it was the DM's there that really got me.