15.1. Roots, Fur, Scales and Feather - Part 1

"You should be resting, Fefnir," I implore him.

"Nah, I'm good," he waves his hand impatiently.

I haven't seen him just for twelve hours but it was enough time for his body to become almost completely covered in scales. All of his hair fell off and I notice small horns forming on his scalp.

"Can I touch it?" I ask but curiosity isn't the only reason why I want to touch him. I need to make sure that he's really okay.

"Sure, go ahead."

I gently touch his scaly head, then inspect the little horns. It's fascinating what his body is capable of. I'm after a different thing, though. I connect to his mind, careful to only listen and not to project anything as I do with Erik.

I'm afraid that Fefnir, however bravely he acts, is panicking about the whole thing. I mean... becoming a reptile—what a mind-fuck. Except for wings and golden eyes, I still look pretty human at least from the outside but the only thing that the Dragonkin have in common with humans is a humanoid shape. They look like dragons who walk on two legs and have fingers.

Surprisingly, I don't find any panic in Fefnir's mind. Of course, he's worried about how his family and friends are going to react but concerning his transformation, he's excited and can't wait to test his new power. He feels calm inside, phlegmatic even—like he can take on anything with his strong body. The Dragonkin mentality, really.

"Do you feel like you'll be able to breathe fire?" I ask.

"Hmm, I do actually," he grins and pats his stomach. "I heard from Ingri that you already did some fire show?"

"It was hardly a show," I sigh and show him my bandaged palm. "I almost burnt Liana's bed."

"You have to be more careful next time, Ryuu," Erik worries. "How did it work ingame anyway?"

"Celestials can do fire magic but their bodies aren't built for that," Fefnir explains. "You can't make a flame on your hand like you did ingame where your own spells couldn't hurt you, Aefener. Only Dragonkin scales are designed to resist the heat."

"I'm scared of fire magic after that incident," I admit. "It was a shock."

"No wonder, Celestials can control all elements to a certain extent but fire isn't their natural racial skill after all," Fefnir says because Erik doesn't know these things. "The air is."

"Right, the air," Erik coughs. "Like yesterday? You seemed to be totally in your element."

"What about yesterday?" Liana enters the study, being pushed in a wheelchair by Hana. Her feathers have grown overnight and Dr Stein standing by her side can't seem to have enough of her precious patient.

"Seriously, is anyone even remotely resting?" I frown.

"You didn't rest that much either. It just seemed that way because your prince was carrying you everywhere you wanted," Liana reminds me. "And Ingri is resting, I made her."

"At least someone is in bed," I sigh.

"Not really in bed," Liana says. "She's in the gazebo outside. For someone who's constantly insisting on not being a plant, she certainly acts like one. She's inspecting all garden flora and sunbathing since this morning, totally mesmerised. And what was that about yesterday?"

"Ryuuto did some kind of air magic," Erik says. "Creating air currents... like a light breeze."

"Wow, how?" Liana is genuinely impressed. "I wanted to test that flame spell but Dr Stein didn't let me."

"You're still recuperating, Miss Richter," the doctor stays adamant.

"I don't know how," I admit. "Another spur of the moment."

"What were you thinking about? Did you channel mana? Did you do something with your wings?" she's super-curious.

"Ehm... it happened during... me and Erik were... you know," I don't finish the sentence because I don't want to go into details in front of Hana and Dr Stein.

"Oh," Liana turns red. She really is easily embarrassed when it comes to sex.

My phone starts ringing, a Vortex ringtone. Without my social media manager, I have to take care of that.

"Oh, it's Gotrid," I announce.

"Let's put him on the big screen," Fefnir suggests and quickly boots one of the computers.

"Hello my European friends," Gotrid greets us weakly. He's in bed and it's evident he's sitting only with great effort. "My Emperor," he nods at me especially and manages a faint smile.

"Are you okay, Gotrid?" I worry because he looks pale.

"As okay as one can be just a few days before their wings come out," he says tiredly. "That's not why I'm calling, though. Guys, this is Gin."

A new figure appears on the screen, sitting next to Gotrid. It's a fully transformed Clawfang! His ears are wolfish and he's almost all furry at this point. His eyes are unnaturally blue as if he was a Husky dog.

"Gin as... Emi's Beta?" I realise I know the name. We weren't friends ingame but all high-levels at least vaguely knew each other.

"That's right," Gin confirms. "I'm calling because we tried every means but my pack still isn't able to get in touch with our Alpha Emi. To be honest, we're starting to panic. All races have their rulers trying to calm the situation and organise Draconians... all except us."

I chew my lip. Oh, Emi, where are you? Are you okay? Besides Liana and Fefnir, Emi was one of my closest ingame friends even though we didn't have that much time to raid together anymore since we took our thrones.

"We've tried everything," Gin is desperate. "Various social platforms, videos, forum posts. Emi has a Vortex account for her fans but she hasn't been online recently."

"I'll try looking for her," Liana promises him. "We could try pressing the developers into contacting her through her home address."

"The developers are useless!" Gin spits. "We had one of them in our leading guild but he vanished as well."

"The same for us," I reveal. "We haven't heard from Uriel since the last time we were able to log in the game."

"It seems you have to take her place, Gin. At least for the time being," Liana says.

"I'm a Beta," he opposes.

"We don't have anyone else that well-known," Liana insists.

"You don't understand, viceroy," Gin bars his teeth. He has two fangs that kind of look like they belong to a vampire. "I don't smell like the Alpha, they won't listen to me."

Liana blinks, trying to wrap her head around it. Clawfang animality is something so distant to the Celestials that she must have problems understanding the concept of smells being significant. Celestial noses are below average. Something either smells nice or stinks for us. We can't distinguish subtle differences in scents like the other three races can.

"But they will listen to the videos you make or when you call them," Fefnir interferes. "You're still a gamer with quite a fanbase, right? Nobody can smell you through the Internet."

"I'll do whatever I can, Gin," Liana reassures him. "In the meanwhile, please cooperate with us and try to persuade your guild members to do the same."

"I... okay," he sighs.

"My Emperor," Gotrid speaks up. "How is your magic progressing? I saw the video when you're warning our people against experimenting indoors."

"Right, I hurt myself pretty badly," I put up my hand for him to see. "Be careful, okay? Don't try anything reckless."

"For now I'll be glad to survive the ordeal," he chuckles nervously. "Is that doctor with you?"

"I am," Dr Stein squeezes into the camera scope.

"Thanks, doc, for that document you posted," he seems really grateful. "When my time comes, my friends will hopefully know what to do and won't panic as much."

"What document?" I tilt my head.

"I wrote a thorough guideline to the Celestial and Dragonkin transformation," Dr Stein says with evident pride in her voice.

"Oh, I see," I'm taken aback.

For all that not liking her and having a default untrust towards doctors, I didn't realise she's actually helping us in other ways than just stopping our bleeding. She might be doing it for her own selfish reasons to enhance her career but if her data is beneficial to the Draconians, it's all good.

"Staying in touch," Gotrid says goodbye and probably goes to sleep right after that.

"It won't take much longer, high-levels are either already transformed or close to transforming," Liana ponders.

"Our network is up and running," Fefnir says. "More and more people are connecting every day."

"Good, but even this solution will soon become hardly manageable just because of sheer numbers," she sighs. "I'll talk to my IT department again and give admin rights to all race rulers and their deputies. Whether we like it or not, we have to divide our races among ourselves."

"I think it's okay as it's taking into account our mentality," Fefnir points out. "Gin was spot on when he mentioned that the Clawfangs won't listen to anyone but their Alpha."

"But it doesn't have to be that problematic for other races, right?" I oppose.

"I don't know, Aefener," Liana looks at me questionably. "I can't quite phantom it yet but... I don't feel like answering to anyone else than you. Strange, I know. But that's how I feel it."

I stare at her, dumbfounded. Did Laura Richter just say that she's fine by me actually becoming her superior even in real life?

"Do you get it?" I turn to Erik who's been silent during the call.

"Partly," he admits. "You will probably really become the best magic caster seeing how it comes naturally to you while Liana is struggling and doesn't have any magical accidents so far. And if that's what makes the Celestial Emperor, I don't see any other way. Start preparing, my royal love."

They mean it. They all really do mean it! My head spins but Erik doesn't let me panic and pulls me to his chest in a hug.

It'll be okay, I'm with you, he comforts me and for that moment I believe him.