At the Green Dragon Inn, there were no less than five or so people. The Bartender, his wife, a married couple, and an old man.

In the darkness walked a man in dragon boots. He was wearing a tunic, also made of dragon. It was said that if you wore a dragon's armor, you'd be protected from dragon attacks. This man, who many called Iiyumi.

Iiyumi walked into the Green Dragon Inn. He walked towards the bar. "Two tall ones." He asked for.

"Coming right up!" The bartender exclaimed.

Iiyumi shifted his attention over to a wanted poster. This poster appeared to have a dragon on it. The bounty for this dragon was 1,220,000 gold. Iiyumi smiled to himself.

"That's Atarica." The bartender explained. "A real devil of a dragon. It's said that those who went off to find her never came back. They say that if you walk outside at night, you'll hear her voice. Then she'll appear in front of you."

"And then what?" Asked Iiyumi.

"She'll drag you to your doom!" The bartender finished.

"You'd be wise not to go after her." The old man continued.  "You look like one of them dragon hunters. Word of advice, let this dragon go. Be best if you didn't go after her. For your own sake.."

And indeed Iiyumi was a dragon hunter. And a well known one. He had killed over 99 dragons. And he planned on making Atarica his 100th kill.

"Hey, barkeep." Iiyumi asked. "Do you have any rooms?"

"Uhh. Sure. You can stay if you want. But do you have the gold?"

"Here. 200 gold pieces." Iiyumi said, and threw the bag containing the gold to the bartender.

"Woha!" the bartender exclaimed, his eyes with a sparkle in them.

Iiyumi walked into his room. He was still carrying the wanted poster with Atarica on it.

Iiyumi took his sword holster off and walked over to the bed. He didn't bother to pull the sheets over him. Before he went to sleep, he decided it would be best to get his sword sharpened at the local blacksmith's. He'd also need whatever else he could get. If Atarica was as bad as he had heard, he would need all the armor and weapons he could get.

The next morning, Iiyumi went off to the blacksmith's. He carried his trusty sword with him.

"Hey, could you sharpen my sword for me?" Asked Iiyumi.

"Sure." Was all the blacksmith said.

Iiyumi looked again at the wanted poster for Atarica. His eyes not fixated on the bounty, but more on the dragon.

"Atarica, huh?" Said the blacksmith. "I heard'a her. Heard that those that see her, often wind up dead. The bodies of those who were murdered are always found in the same place."

"And that place would be...?"

"The river just outside the villiage. If you take a left, you'll find the river. And possibly the dead bodies. My son was among one of those who was murdered." The blacksmith explained, a tear ran down his cheek.

"But anyways, here's your sword."

"So how much do I owe you?" Asked Iiyumi.

"For you it's free. I give freebes to anyone who is planning to boldly risk their life to defeat that evil dragoness."

Iiyumi thanked the blacksmith and headed on his way. The next item to obtain was a shield.

Iiyumi walked into the shop that sold shields. He looked at all the shields, finally finding one he liked.

"Can I help you?" The clerk asked.

"Yeah. How much for that shield?" Iiyumi asked, pointing to a shield with a dragon painted on the middle.

"Oh this one? This one's a fine beauty. I'm afraid I can't sell it for no more than 200g."

"WHAT?!" Shouted Iiyumi. "That's overpriced. And I need a shield if I want to slay Atarica."

"Is that so?" Said the clerk. "Well I tell you what, I'll let you have this shield. If you return alive, I''ll let you have it, free of charge. But if you die, I'll take all the money off your burnt corpse."

"It's a deal." Iiyumi said with a grin on his face. He never was one to turn down a challenge.

Iiyumi headed towards the entrance to the villiage. He waved goodbye to everyone, promising that he would slay Atarica.

Iiyumi walked along the path, his sword and shield rested on his back. He remebered what the blacksmith had told him about those bodies. He decided to head down to the river to check it out.

When he got to the river, surely enough, there were dead bodies. They looked rotted, as though they had been there for quite some time.

Iiyumi was furious now, but knew he'd have to keep calm. Or otherwise he'd never be able to slay Atarica. He walked back on the path and headed for the cave Atarica lived in.

By the time he had reached the cave, it was sunset. Iiyumi decided to camp outside of the cave. It wasn't very smart of him to do, he thought to himself, but if Atarica shows up he'll be ready to slay her. At least that's what he thought.

The next morning came and Iiyumi woke up. He grabbed his shield and sword, carrying his shield in one hand and his sword in the other. His sword holster on his back. He walked into the cave.

The cave was dark and hard to see in. Iiyumi tripped over something. It was a skull. He picked it up. It looked like it was the skull of a young teen. Possibly the blacksmith's son? He wondered to himself

"So you've made it. At last." A feminine voice called out.

"What? Who's there?" Iiyumi asked.

A dragon walked out of the darkness and into the light. It was surely Atarica.

"That's some welcoming you left at the front of your cave!"

"Isn't it? I thought it went well with the surroundings."

The dragon wasn't all that big. At least human sized. But although she was a dragon, she was the most beautiful dragon Iiyumi had ever seen.

"So what do you want? Why kill all these people?"

"I wanted to test them."

"For what?" Asked Iiyumi.

"To see if they'd make a perfect mate."

"What, you want a half-dragon child?" Iiyumi asked jokingly.

"Oh, no." Atarica said, laughing. "I want to see if they'd make perfect dragons. When they weren't perfect in my eyes, I killed them."

"WHAT?!" Iiyumi shouted, about to lunge at Atarica.

Atarica's tail lunged itself at Iiyumi and struck him in the heart. Iiyumi thought he was done for. But strangely enough, he was still alive.

"What'd you do to me?" Iiyumi asked.

"Don't worry. It's just a side effect of your new dragon heart. It'll start beating soon." Atarica explained.

Atarica's tailspike opened up and lunged itself into Iiyumi's dragon heart, which started its beating.

Iiyumi fell to the ground, shouting in pain. He tried to get up several times but found his posture was now quadruped. His knees were now on the opposite sides. Iiyumi felt pain in his backside. A huge tail ripped out of his pants, wildly whipping itself around. He looked back at his tail and saw that it was covered in dark blue scales. Sharp spikes began to painfully grow out of Iiyumi's tail and continued until they reached where the tail connected to him.

His hands began to change. His thumbs and pinkies fusing into his hand until only three fingers were left. His fingers started to change into claws. The same happening with his feet. His feet became digitigrade and grew claws at the ends. There were only three claws on each of his now digitigrade feet.

Scales began to grow all over Iiyumi's body. His clothing ripped off, revealing a smooth underside growing on his stomach. The underside scales continued to spread until they reached Iiyumi's tail.

Iiyumi started to hack like crazy. As he coughed, he let out a fireball which lit up the cave. He wasd amazed that that came from him. Iiyumi's face began to change. It grew longer until it became a reptilian snout. His eyes stung so he closed them. When he opened them up, he noticed that he could see farther now. Iiyumi felt pain in his insides as they shifted and melded into new forms. HE yelled in pain but what emerged was a furocious draconic roar.

His head began to hurt as two long horns grew out of his skull. His back hurt again as long, leathery wings erupted out of his shoulder blades. He flexed them and saw that they moved just how he wanted them to. His transformation was almost complete. The scales covered what was left of Iiyumi's skin. All that was left were Iiyumi's thoughts. New thoughts entered his mind. He thought of killing humans instead of dragons. He had new instincts and new needs.

A year had passed and everyone believed that Iiyumi had been killed by Atarica. Not long after Iiyumi had gone missing, another person was found dead. It was the owner of the store where Iiyumi bought his shield. After Iiyumi's "death", a new dragon appeared, calling himself Dracken. This dragon was Atarica's mate. Dracken and Atarica had three children. All very beautiful hatchlings. However, Atarica and Dracken met their ends at the hands of a knight named Arthur. Hweoever their children survived. One married a human female and had a half-dragon child. If you want to know the truth, Atarica and Dracken are my ancestors. When I was born, there was an atavism in my dna which kept itself dormant until I hit puberty. So believe it or not, I'm a half-dragon. Probably the only one in the world. Although in dragon years, I'm still considered a hatchling. Most people wouldn't understand what I mean by that I like to sleep with my wings and tail showing. If you belive my story or not, just know that there may be dragons all around you. We could be your next door neighbors. We could be the very kids you go to school with. Who knows? Maybe one day you'll meet one of these dragons. Or maube you might even become one, like my ancestor, Iiyumi.

THE END