My name is Lena.
Rather, it used to be.
I was already chosen to have a short life because of health complications, and I didn't even have a problem with that.
At just 19 years old, I'd accepted my impending doom.
Losing myself in food and books was the easiest way to stay cheerful, but eventually I had to face reality.
At some point I just started reminding myself that living forever would be a curse.
Living forever may be a curse, but I would have preferred to live a little bit longer.
I knew for sure when I was dead since I had to listen to myself flatline, but I was ecstatic when I realized I still had self-awareness, even though that dwindled slightly when I realized I was now a big lizard.
At first I was even terrified of my own mother.
Who wouldn't be shocked to suddenly see a scaly red giant?
I had no choice but to eat the disgusting raw meat she brought every day, lest I starve.
I didn't even think of trying to escape, fearing what punishment would be like when your mother is huge and terrifying.
Even my new name, Laviella Dex Tiama, was unbelievable.
It sounded like some kind of powerful noble's name.
But hey, at least magic was something to look forward to.
Dragons in this new world had a sort of genetic memory.
Thankfully, it didn't get completely 'unlocked', since if that happened it would be impossible for any normal dragon to ever have a personality truly their own.
But thanks to that, I already understood the basics of how magic worked as soon as I was born.
In this world, magic is focused almost entirely on chants.
Talent certainly plays a major role, but the chant clarified what would happen and how much Mana it would take.
This made me extremely happy, magic is fairly boring if it's just shouting lame template spells like 'Fireball' (Which does exist by the way!)
The more descriptive the chant, the more powerful the spell and the less Mana is used. While the smaller, more concise chants are typically weaker and take more Mana, though the more powerful you are, the more powerful you can be with less chanting.
They aren't required though, and for simple spells there is usually no point to use them.
While the chant is partly to convey the intent of the spell, it's not the main reason chants are stronger, since the chant is also used to specify external sources of magic to achieve a stronger effect, to the point of sucking out the Mana of living beings without enough will to resist.
A nasty side effect of this was that most spirits now hide in isolated and Mana rich areas.
Many humans include spirits in their chants, earth spirit, light spirit, etc, so every time they used a chant any weaker spirits around would have the juice sucked out of them.
This was absolutely terrifying for me as a dragon, since being much stronger meant I might end up wringing lesser beings dry, so I pretty much decided that if I was going to use magic I would either avoid chants or stick with vague things such as forces, gods, and the like, it didn't really matter if they existed or not. If they didn't then there wouldn't be any harm, and if they did, I doubted a god would run out of magic so easily...
There was little to do in the cave I was born, other than exercise.
I spent a few years bored out of my mind because my mother barely even tried to play with me or anything.
Today was different.
Mother was almost always back by this time.
The past few days she's been bringing back things that looked valuable.
She must be harassing humans... I have no idea why.
Most dragons either ignore humans or become arrogant and try to control them with their power, and my mother must have been the latter.
They also don't even bother with chants either, since they assume themselves to be too powerful to need them. I definitely don't want to be dangerously stupid like that...
I didn't really feel sad knowing she was probably dead, that kind of self-absorbtion was just asking for her to be struck down.
But, how do I survive alone?
I'm already hungry. Can I even hunt? What do people usually do in this situation? Oh, wait, I know!
"Status!" I yell into the empty space.
...
Nothing. I guess there was a good reason I didn't bother to try this as soon as I arrived in this world.
'Oh well, I guess I'm not going to have one of those fancy systems to help', I thought disappointedly.
Instead, I pathetically wander out of the cave searching for food on my own.
'Damn you, mother, making your baby have to do this herself because of your worthless pride or whatever.'
There was no way I would be able to catch anything, after wandering around for 30 minutes I was already too tired to do anything.
Suddenly, I could hear voices coming towards me.
This was the worst situation possible, I'm going to be turned into Mana potions in no time!
I was too tired to physically run away and had to forcefully pry enough human language out of my magic memory to even understand anything.
---
"Old man! What are we doing this far? You know it's dangerous this far in!" A young voice complains.
"Patience, young man, that just means there's more for us!" An older voice replied.
"Hold on, what is that?!" The young man screams, staring at the red scaled dragon in front of them.
"I didn't think dragons cared so little about their young that they would abandon them out here... Well, I think it looks a little cute. I think I want to try raising one of these before my time is up." The old man laughs.
"Have you finally lost your mind, old man?! Let's hurry!" The young man pulls, but the old man is already right in front of the baby apex predator.
---
"Hmm, I'm going to make sure you grow up right." The old man says while reaching around my body.
'What... What the hell are you doing? What the hell! Put me down you crazy gramps! Wait a minute, shouldn't I be heavy?!'
I didn't even try to seriously fight since I needed a new home so desperately and didn't have the privilege of being picky.
I didn't want to start anything so I just let this crazy gramps carry me to a small hamlet.
I was sure this was some kind of human orphanage. Yet I was hidden from everyone else separately.
"Old man, if that thing tries to eat any of the kids I'm gonna throttle you." I could hear the younger human threatening.
"Hey, calm down, it ought to be fine if it's been calm this long. We should start teaching it language." The old man responded.
I really did need to learn language, I should avoid over taxing my dragon memory.
I finally tried to talk.
"Hello." I grumbled with poor control.
"Oh, perfect! What's your name, little dragon?" He asks with anticipation.
I was suddenly deep in thought what I should call myself, since I wanted something addressable.
"Lava."
I could tell this old human was set on raising me to be good.
Well, I didn't plan on being evil in the first place so this is just free housing for me.
"You can call me Kale and this tempered young man Mino." The old man says.
At least I won't be alone anymore.
But I'm still hungry, they are starting to look really tasty if this geezer doesn't feed me already.
I might as well act like a baby...
"I'm hungry!" I roared, faithfully imitating the tantrum of a hungry baby dragon.
Even the geezer panics and leaves to go find something for me to eat.
I felt happy with that, especially when I could smell something good.
The gramps brought back a few pieces of fruit.
I was not impressed at all by him trying to turn me into some kind of vegetarian.
But Mino understood the risks of showing a baby dragon such an unappetizing offering and brought back an actual meal from a restaurant that made my tail wiggle.
So long... It's been so long since I had cooked meat with spices and salt... I could cry even!
"Mino! Don't you think it would be better and cheaper if we taught it to eat fruits?" Kale complains.
"You are lucky I brought something before it decided to devour you instead of those pathetic fruits..." Mino scorns.
That's right! Good thinking, Mino!
"I wonder if Lava wants friends..." The gramps spaces out.
YES! The answer is YES I DO!
"How are you going to try to make the kids accept a dragon of all things?" Mino raised with his hand on his head.
"It's fine, I'm sure even a youngling like this can transform, right?" The gramps said while looking at me.
I guess I'll have to try magic.
"
"
A bright light changes my form to a human child with flowing red hair and burning eyes.
Except, I can't stand it! It's so uncomfortable!
I quickly make a small cry of discomfort and revert back.
"It's okay, little Lava, you'll get better at it." The old man praises as if I was a child trying to ride a bike.
'No, you idiot! I hate it!'
Every day from then on was filled with private schooling from gramps.