Draconic Traits

"If you have so many dragon-like traits, does that mean you ARE one? Does that mean you ARE a dragon?"

These questions ran through 16 year old Josh's mind. His friends had always said he was like a dragon, even earning him the nickname "Dragon Boy" among his group of friends. Regardless of his nickname, Josh himself loved dragons. Even at 16, he had always wished he could meet one. Oddly enough, Josh could actually sympathsize more with dragons than with most humans.

Some of Josh's "dragon-like" traits were the fact that he was a loner. He didn't have many friends. The reason for his having so little friends was because he was very skeptical about new people, even more so than most others. He also hated being around a lot of people. Whenever he was in a large group, even if it wasn't that many people, he always felt too cramped. His parents and teachers thought he may possibly have had some form of autism.

Josh lay on his bed, his left arm under his head as he threw a tennis ball into the air, catching it each time it came back down to him. After a little while, he stopped and decided to log onto his computer. As soon as he logged on, he selected Internet Explorer and went to Google. He typed in "Draconic Traits" and chose the first selection. He began reading each part on the glossary which talked about draconic traits. So many parts intrigued him. One part of the glossary talked about "Phantom limbs". Josh began to read it aloud to himself

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Various dragons experience phantom limbs where they sense or feel their lost appendages such as tails or wings. Sometimes they may even feel their entire draconic form. At different times these limbs may occur such as if the dragon is happy or sad. This phenominon still requires further study.
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Whenever Josh walked around, be it outside or even at school or in his home, he always felt like there was something following behind him. He could never tell what it was. If he thought about it moving, it felt like it was moving. He never understood what this meant though. Or what this feeling was.

"Josh, dinner!" His mom called.

Josh got up and headed out into the kitchen. He took his seat at the kitchen table. As soon as his dinner was brought to him, he began to eat.

"Hey, guys?" Josh asked after taking a drink of water.

"Yes, dear?" Josh's mom replied.

"Is it possible for someone to have the traits of, say a dragon and actually BE one?" he asked as best as he could.

Josh's parents looked at Josh like he was crazy.

"Josh, dragons don't exist. That's physically impossible." His dad said.

"You don't know that! For all we know, there are probably tons of dragons living around us! We jsut don't know it!"

"And they somehow took on human forms? That makes even less sense!" His dad argued back.

"The Theory of Evolution doesn't make much sense either. That doesn't mean it's wrong!"

As the two bickered back and forth at each other, Josh's mom noticed soemthing appear on her son's neck. Part of his neck was turning a light blue.

"Josh, are you okay?" His mom asked.

"Yeah, why, mom?" Josh asked back.

"...Nothing..." Josh's mom replied.

As soon as Josh finished his dinner, he headed back into his room. He bookmarked the site where he read about phantom limbs and logged off, shutting off his computer soon afterwards. He hopped into his bed and quickly fell asleep.

The next day after school, Josh was sitting with his two friends, Ebony and Jamie. Jamie and Ebony were Josh's closest(And pretty much only) friends. They sat at one of the tables outside the school. Josh told his friends about last night and asked them what he thought about the whole "Dragon" thing.

"So you're wondering that if someone has as many traits as a dragon, that they might be one?" Jamie asked.

"Yeah." Josh answered.

"Well...I dunno. I mean it could be possible. It's also possible that at some point, there were actual dragons."

"What? That doesn't sound believeable! A human actually being a dragon?!" Ebony asked, pushing back her blonde hair.

"The Theory of Evolution isn't too believeable either. Doesn't mean it's not possible."

"That's what I told my dad." Josh said, laughing a little.

"So, Josh. Are you saying you think you might be a dragon?" Ebony asked.

"I dunno. I've had these weird feelings. Like at certain times, I feel like there's something on my back, following me. When I think about moving whatever it is, it feels like it is moving." He explained to his friends.

"Well I've heard that amputees can still feel the prescence of the limb they've lost even though it's no longer there. If there was a dragon living as a human, and didn't even know about it, the same could probably be true." Jamie explained.

"Besides, you are more like a dragon than a human." Jamie teased.

"Hey!" Josh exclaimed, pissed at that remark.

"My point exactly!" Jamie laughed.

Soon Ebony joined in the laughter. Even Josh himself started to laugh at the remark.

After they were done laughing, the three friends parted ways, each returning to their homes. Josh ran home, actually happy for the first time in a long while. After about 10-15 minutes of walking, Josh made it home. He noticed that his parents' car wasn't in the driveway. He figured they must have gone out. He grabbed his house key from his pocket and opened the door, allowing himself in.

Josh got himself a glass of water, drinking it all in two gulps. Afterwards he started to feel tired. He took off his bookbag and threw it on the ground. He took off his pants and hung them up, leaving only his shirt and boxers on. He hopped into bed and quickly, drifted into sleep.

By the time he woke up, it was dark. He tried to pull his hands from under the sheets but each time he did, the sheets just moved along with his hands. Josh put his right hand over his left and grabbed part of the sheet, pulling it off his left hand. He brought his hand into clear view and noticed something...very off about his hand. He only had three fingers! And the remaining three had extended fingernails growing from them, the nails slowly encircling themselves around the tips of his fingers. Becoming bigger, becoming thicker, and exentually turning into dragon claws!

"AHH!" Josh let out a shriek of terror as he put his paw on his right hand and removed the sheet from it. His right hand, now looked just like his left hand! It was exactly the same! Only three fingers on each hand, each with a claw growing from the tips of his remaining fingers. He couldn't believe any of this! He was certain he was still asleep.

Just then, his chest began to hurt. His heartbeat got stronger  with each beat. With each "Tha-thump" "Tha-thump", the pain got worse. It felt like someone was beating on his chest and wouldn't stop. Shortly after, the pain subsided. He put his paw on his chest and tried to feel his heartbeat. It was definately different. His heart felt stronger, more powerful. It felt like...the heart of a dragon.

His heart rate went up again as his chest expanded and ripped out of his shirt. He looked down, noticing that not only was his chest bigger, it also had red scutes growing off it! He felt like he was going to be sick so he ran into the bathroom. He kneeled over the toilet and puked into it. However, instead of puke, what came out was acid. He tried his hardest to catch his breath as he watched the acid he had just spit up eat away at parts of the toilet.

"Okay...that CAN'T be normal stomach acids." He said to himself.

He got up and looked in the mirror. He noticed his ears were stretching and growing. Despite the obvious pain it put him in, Josh wanted to see what would happen to his ears. He winced in pain, trying to keep at least one eye open so he could see what they become. They finished their stretching, eventually becoming elegant finned ears. The membranes in his ears faded to red, while the parts with scales were a deep blue.

His shorts began to expand, eventually ripping apart. He looked down, noticing THAT was now gone. Instead, a sheath, covered by his scutes replaced it.

"Oh, great! This has to be a dream! Dad was right. This isn't real!" He said to himself, trying to keep himself from losing his mind.

A small stub appeared on his back. The stub began to grow outward, becoming a dragon's tail. A sharp, pointed fin grew out of the end of his tail. Sharp spikes emerged from his body, starting from the top of his head, going down his back, and finally ending at his new tail.

His shoulder blades began to reform. He screamed in agonizing pain as two very thin arms grew from his back, eventually becoming wings. Without thinking, Josh flapped his new draconic wings. With each flap, he slowly began to move off of the ground, hovering over it for a quick second before his new wings gave out.

He fell back to Earth, smacking his face on the bathtub.

"OW! Dammit!" He cursed, holding his nose, being very careful of his claws.

Just then he felt his nose extend out. His nose began to gain some slightly more mass to it as it extended and grew, becoming a reptilian snout. His snout had two slits for nostrils and soon began to grow blue scales all over it, which soon grew to cover his whole body.                                                       

Josh's legs snapped and cracked. He yelled in pain before falling face first again, this time smacking his snout on the toilet, only small chunks of the toilet missing from his acid. He tried to bring his paws to his snout but they wouldn't allow it. As he tried to stand up, he soon found out why. His posture was now quadruped!

"Oww! My poor snout!" He said to himself, the pain making his snout start to go numb.

His eyes stung as they became slitted orbs, surrounded by a red iris. His body finished its changing and rearranging as his hair began to completely fall from his body. Two beautiful, blood red horns grew out and crowned the top of his head. The transformation topped itself off as Josh's body began to expand, gaining more length until he was the length of a young adult dragon. His tail extended itself out to counterweight his new form.

He tried to think over what he could do. His parents would most likely be home soon and they wouldn't possibly believe that a young dragon was their son. Even Josh's father would have a hard time believeing all this.

The dragon began to sweat, his tail wagging around frantically. As he ran around, trying not to knock anything down with his long tail. Soon he stopped pacing as he heard the door open.

"No...!" He thought to himself.

The door opened and his parents walked in.

"Uh...hi...mom...da--"

"WHAT THE?!" Josh's dad shouted. "That can't be possible!"

Josh's mom said nothing. She walked over to her dragon son and hugged him, kissing him on his now dragon head.

"Mylene, do you know what happened to him?" Josh's dad asked.

Josh's mom stood up and sighed. "He got it from me." She explained.

"How, mom?" Josh asked.

"Yes, I don't get it either." Josh's dad said, still not believing any of it.

"It's an ativism."

"A what?" Josh asked.

"A trait you got from one of your ancestors. One of your ancestors on my side was a dragon who lived well over 2000 years ago. The trait didn't reoccur until later. When you were born. Then the dragon gene that our ancestor left in our family long ago was reborn in you." Josh's mom explained.

"So I'm actually a real living dragon?" Josh asked.

"Somewhat. You were born as a human so I guess technically you are a human living in the body of a dragon."

Josh did not understand a word his mom just said. He had a confused look on his face.

"Then, Mylene. Do you have dragon blood in you?" Josh's dad asked.

"I doubt it, Peter. Most likely, even if I do have dragon DNA in me, it's a very, very little bit. That kind of thing dissappears as a new child is born."

Josh walked outside, as did his parents. He opened his wings and hovered for a quick second. He tried flapping his wings and rose a few feet. He tried once more and rose further from the ground. He tried to continue flapping his wings and eventually propelled himself forward. He flew around, happily. For once, he could say he really did feel happiness.

"I'm free!" He shouted, mindlessly into the sky.

He flew for his friends' houses, wanting to tell them about all that had happened. With a smile on his muzzle, and happiness in his heart, he flew through the sky. The same sky his ancestors had populated so long ago. To him, he was a dragon. Now and forever.