"Okay children, it's time to wake up." Mama Loreen's voice rang out throughout the orphanage and slowly, the children woke up from their beds.
John woke up with a yawn and stretched his body before getting up from his bed and pretended like nothing happened despite what had transpired the previous night.
All the children made their way to a certain part of the orphanage were there was a large dining table with enough seats for everyone.
Everyone sat down and chatted while waiting for their food. But for John, even though he tried to forget what happened, he still couldn't forget the fact that he almost died.
"John!" A voice say from his side bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Hey I've called you like 5 times already, what are you thinking about that's making you not pay attention, also is everything ok, you look like you've seen a ghost." Ronald said from his side slightly worried.
"Oh, it's nothing, I just had a bad dream." John lied and Ronald narrowed his eyes at him but said nothing else.
"Okay children, food is ready." Mama Loreen's voice was heard and then multiple plates of food could be seen floating in the air with wisps of wind on keeping them afloat while they went to each child.
Normal people would be amazed by this, but the children just say it as a normal because mama Loreen had wind magic and she used it pretty much everyday.
When the food was distributed, tye children began to eat immediately and mama Loreen had sat at the front of the table and began to eat as well.
John felt inexplicably hungry when he saw his food and scarfed down everything very quickly as if he hadn't eaten in days.
Ronald who had barely began to eat his own food was surprised by this but just though that John was very hungry.
Eventually, everyone had finished eating and went around to do different chores, John was no exception.
He carried a broom and started sweeping around the building along with some other children. After the children finished their chores, they would go to the back of the orphanage and take a bath and change their clothes before being free.
John was talking with Ronald before the two of them were called by mama Loreen and went to where she usually stayed in the orphanage.
"I need you two to go and buy some meat from the market so that we can cook lunch." She said while giving the boys 10 bronze coins to buy the meat.
The currency used in the kingdom were bronze, silver, and gold with bronze being the lowest and gold being the highest. A hundred bronze coins equaled to one silver, and a hundred silver equaled to one gold, so 10,000 bronze made one gold coin.
John and Ronald made their way through the outer city towards the market. It was very lively as people sold their wares and others bought.
Despite most not being wealthy in the outer city, they were content with their lives and were fairly happy.
John and Ronald reached their destination which was a butcher to buy the meat. The butcher shop was along the road of the market and was were they frequently bought meat from.
"Ah, John and Ronald, how have you boys been." A short man with a thick beard and a round belly holding a butcher knife greeted the two boys.
"We're fine mister Leroy, we just came to buy meat as usual." Ronald replied respectfully.
"Yeah I know. how much do you need?"
"15 bronze worth please." Ronald replied as he handed the bronze to Mr Leroy.
Mr Leroy then grabbed a chunk of meat from the table behind him and carried it to a chopping board.
John watched he chopped the meat intently. Usually, he would be repulsed by the sight of it, but today, he wasn't, infact, it seemed appetizing.
John suddenly shook his head to rid himself of such thoughts.
'What am I thinking, it's raw meat, even if I ate it, I would probably get sick.' He told himself, yet he still couldn't get his eyes off of the meat.
"Well, here you boys go." Mr Leroy said as he put the meat in a sack that they had brought and sent them on their way.
While they were walking back, Ronald looked at John and asked.
"Hey John, are you sure everything is okay, the way you were looking at Mr Leroy's shop wasn't the best."
John heard his friend and gave him a reassuring smile before saying.
"I'm fine, really, I'm just feeling a bit tired." But in his mind he wasn't sure himself what was going on either.
Ronald hesitated before dropping the matter and the continued to walk forward.
The suddenly, there seemed to be some commotion as people were rushing to the side of the road as if making way for someone.
John and Ronald looked to the road to see who it was, and their faces darkened when they did.
He had white hair and looked to be around the same age as Ronald and John. He wore clothes that screamed noble and was riding a mighty horse with armoured knights surrounding him. He had his chest puffed out and his chin pointed upwards as he looked at the commoners around him the same way one would look at insects. His name was Christopher Wimbledon, and he was the son of the city lord.
The outer cities weren't actually under one person but were split up into different sections and we're each controlled by a city lord. And Daniel Wimbledon was the city lord of their own section.
Christopher looked over the crowed and smirked.
"Hmph, the number of insects keep increasing, I'm afraid that tax might need to be increased." When he said this, the faces of all the commoners became ugly. They were already having trouble with the current tax, and increasing it would make things even more difficult for them.
Then, Christopher's eyes locked into someone in the crowd and he revealed a perverted smile.
"You, come here." He ordered while pointing at someone in the crowd.
All the people moved out of that area, and the person that remained was a girl who looked no older than 11. She had a cute face and despite being quite young, already showed some signs of development.
The girl walked towards Christopher who was trembling and looked around hoping for someone to help her, but everyone avoided her gaze.
Christopher hopped of his horse and looked at her with lustful eyes and held her hand while feeling her up causing her to shudder and reflexively push him back
Christopher was enraged at this and shouted at her.
"YOU DARE PUSH ME AWAY! HOW DARE YOU." He then raised his hand and was about to slap her. But then out of nowhere, a hand came and stopped his from hitting the girl.
Christopher looked at who held his hand with an even angrier expression, but what he saw made him tremble slightly.
John was gripping his had tightly, tightly and looked at Christopher as if he was ready to kill. His pupils had become blue slits and if one looked closely, they would see that his canines were protruding from his mouth.
"Let her go." John said in a low voice but it sounded like a growl at the same time.
'When did he?!' The guards around Christopher were startled as none of them had noticed John get pass them and reach Christopher.
Earlier when Christopher called out the girl, John had felt this inexplicable anger building up within him and his heart pounded against his chest. He didn't even notice when his body moved on its own and appeared near Christopher in an instant.
Christopher was scared by John but remembered that he was just a commoner and posed no threat to him.
"D- Do you think that I will leave her alone just because you said I should, do you know who I a-" But before he could finish, John tightened his grip around his arm causing Christopher's face to pale.
"I said leave her alone." He repeated.
"UNHAND THE YOUNG MASTER YOU INSECTS." One of the guards shouted and they all unsheathed their weapons.
John saw this and suddenly smiled.
"Funny, you call is all insects when if not for us, you wouldn't have even gotten to were you are now." John said as his body suddenly unleashed a thick murderous intent causing Christopher and the guards to suffocate.
"All you know how to do is oppress the weak and suck up to the strong. You claim to have pride when you take joy in bullying those beneath you and raping girls for the fun of it." Now his voice seemed to be overlapping with something else.
"YOU CALL IS INSECTS, WELL THEN YOU ARE F**CKING GARBAGE, SCUM OF THE WORLD, YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE TO LIVE." John shouted and Christopher unknowingly wet himself and his horse had fled.
Then, a hand was placed on John shoulder and his head snapped back. He saw Ronald who looked scared but his eyes told him to stop.
Then at that moment, John's eyes went back to normal and his grip loosened from Christopher's hand who was shedding tears at this point.
"Let's go Ronald said before." Grabbing John's hand and leading them through the crowd.
After getting a good distance away from the crowd, Ronald turned to John and asked.
"What was that."
"I- I don't know" John replied as he looked at his hands that were trembling.
"When I saw him grab her, my body moved on its own, I didn't even know when I got next to him, it all happened so fast." Though John said this, he knew that this had something to do with what happened last night.
"*Sigh* I don't know what is going on with you, but please don't do that again, nobles are people we can't afford to offend. So please don't do that again."
"Okay." John replied while nodding and they went back to the orphanage.
"Mama Loreen we're back!" Ronald called out as they entered the building.
Mama Loreen came and carried the meat and gave the boys head pats before going to cook lunch.
After that, they just did things as normal in the orphanage until it was bed time.
At night, Ronald was awoken by the sound of footsteps causing him too look over. From his bed, he saw John walking towards the window in their room in confusion.
He was about to call out to him, but then he saw that his eyes were glowing and his pupils had become blue slits which scared him and stopped him from talking.
John walked towards the window and opened it before crawling through and ended up outside and started walking towards the wall.
Ronald hesitated before getting out of his own bed and followed John from a distance. John reached the wall and crawled through the hole inside and Ronald still followed after him and they ended up going into the forest.
"John, what are you doing, it's dangerous outside." Ronald whisper shouted to try and get John to stop, but John didn't listen, as if he was in a trance.
Eventually, John walked into a small clearing and stood in the middle before he stopped moving.
'What is he doing?' Ronald thought as he stared at John.
Then suddenly, blue flames surrounded John John in a ring which shocked Ronald. The flames then grew bigger and bigger instantly charring the ground black as Ronald felt the hair on his body curl up from the heat. The blue flames then condensed around John and exploded outwards creating a powerful shockwave.
The force from the explosion flattened the grass and Ronald was blown backwards and tumbled on the floor.
Then, Ronald felt his vision spin after being knocked down by the force tried to look at were John was, but what he saw shocked him.
It was 5 meters tall and 1meters long. Its shiny dark blue scales that gleamed brilliantly under the moonlight and looked tougher than steel. There was a long tail at its back that swept across the ground which had spikes protruding from it all the way to its tip. Its four large legs with bulging muscles and claws that looked like the could rip through anything. It's long neck that looked like it could stretch greatly and a lizard like head with small but sharp horns. Near it's shoulder were folded wings that had thin opaque membranes. This was a Dragon.
Ronald felt his heart skip a beat while staring in horror as what he assumed to be his friend had become a monster from legends.
"John" Ronald croaked out in fear. Then, the long draconic neck turned to face Ronald, its slitted reptilian eyes staring at him.
Then, it opened it's mouth revealing towns of razor sharp teeth and growled lowly as it approached him.
"John it's me." Ronald said with his voice trembling, but it still came closer looking hungry.
"It's me, your childhood friend, we grew up together, remember?" Ronald tried to reach out to John with his voice, yet it seemed to have no effect.
Then John jumped and pinned Ronald to the floor with his huge claws and opened his mouth ready to eat Ronald alive.
"John, if you are in there, then are you really just going to let this happen. After all that we've been through. What about the orphanage, Mama Loreen and the other children. Didn't you want to become a mage stronger than the four heroes. Please, don't succumb to this." Immediately when he said that, he gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.
He waited for a moment but felt nothing though.
"Huh?" Very confused, Ronald looked up and still saw the terrifying dragon staring at him. But it did nothing and looked at Ronald as if it was scared as it backed away and let out odd sounds as if it was crying.
Realizing that his friend must've come to his senses, Ronald stood up and asked cautiously.
"John?"
Hearing his name, John in the form of a dragon nodded his head and his wings unfolded and wrapped around his large body as if trying to hide himself.
"Oh my god."