Chapter 56 - Chapter 56 - Draconic Features

Halfway there, I changed my mind and went back to the tent. While I had destroyed a lot of the food, a cleric could cast the Purify Food and Drink spell to ward away diseases and poisons on the ones that weren't completely destroyed. Then again, I wasn't sure if they would even bother with some of the food items, such as the breads that I had stepped on. However, they might be that desperate.Since I still hadn't used the Mind Alteration power, I could at least try to cast it on the cleric that eventually came to purify the food and water. Although I might not succeed, it was worth trying. Because of this, I decided to wait until the cleric showed up. Unfortunately, I grew bored before too long.I tried to entertain myself but failed miserably. After an hour, I grew so bored that I decided to give up. While I was a little worried that I might fall asleep, I was more worried that I would do something stupid just to relieve my boredom. Disappointed in myself, I was about to start flying back when a breeze brought a horrible smell to my nose.I know in my last life, I didn't have much of a sense of smell, but I had to have a good nose this life because something was rank. I almost gagged. I started to look around for what might have caused it when I realized that the stench was coming from me."Fudge," I muttered, disgusted with myself yet again. I suddenly realized why all the female kobolds had been making weird faces and holding their hands over their noses earlier. That was also probably why the female maid who woke me up kept on trying to run far ahead of me.I hadn't taken a bath in my entire life. Okay, yes, I was only a few days old, but I certainly had done a lot of things during that time. I had visited several caves filled with bat guano. I was in multiple fights. I had been around the animal pens and other stinky places.By now, I was certain that my room was contaminated beyond belief. In fact, I was worried that when I returned there, I would find out it reeked. I would definitely need to get the maids to thoroughly clean everything inside the room. Then again, maybe they cleaned it every time I left. I hadn't really paid attention to what the room looked like.As in my last life, I sometimes didn't bother to pay close attention to my environment. With that thought, I decided to start paying more attention to everything around me from now onwards. For now, however, I needed to get clean. I was ashamed to show my stinky face.While I wasn't ready to visit the community pools to get clean, I was willing to head to the seashore and take a quick dip in the water to clean off. I guess I must have gotten used to my smell little by little. However, I was a little embarrassed that my minions had said nothing about my stench. Shaking my head in disappointment, I started flying toward the coast.The coast in question was basically a series of cliffs that overlooked extremely steep rocky paths that led down to the water. While it was possible for soldiers to climb up the cliffs, it wouldn't be easy. This was made even more difficult by the fact that the edge of the water was filled with massive rocks. Waves would make even small rowboats crash, much less bigger ships. Because of this, invaders were not likely to arrive by water.However, once I arrived at the coast, I had a hard time choosing a spot to land on. I was worried that the waves would knock me up against the rocky cliff or take me underwater and drown me. Finally, I noticed a small island in the distance. One side of the island would break the waves while I could use the other side to rest on.After landing, I took off my magic robes and magic boots. After that, I washed away the smells that had accumulated over the last few days and felt much better. I even washed the bags and belts just to make sure that nothing smelled. Of course, this required moving around food from one bag to another whenever I cleaned them.While I was doing this, I noticed that the bags didn't seem as large as before. In fact, I had to loosen the belt because it was too tight. I hadn't really noticed before. Curious, I looked for any other changes that might be taking place in my body besides the increase in size.Although I hadn't noticed it before, now that I was actually inspecting my body, I noticed that my arms and hands were starting to grow larger. All of the other kobolds I had seen had larger legs when compared to their arms, similar to other humanoid races. However, my upper arms were getting thicker and more muscular, although still not as large as my thighs. Even my hands were growing larger.Despite my arms becoming larger, I didn't see as much change in my legs. Really, I didn't see any changes. While I had been able to easily walk on all fours before, now I felt that walking on all fours might be easier than walking upright. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. It was definitely giving me a more draconic appearance.Almost every high kobold already looked very similar to wingless dragons, but since I had wings, the similarities were more pronounced. This became even more prevalent as they grew older. If it weren't for my size, I might even be mistaken for a deformed dragon. Even the smallest dragon wyrmlings were much bigger than me, however. Because of that, I looked more like a deformed pseudodragon. They were only slightly larger than me in size.Another change was my neck, which was definitely elongating. While not much, it was still enough to notice. In fact, every part of my skin had started to itch lately. Although I hadn't really thought about it too much, now I could see that my scales were starting to shed. The shedding was the most evident on my arms and neck, where I was growing the most. However, every part of my body had patches where the scales were starting to shed.Yet another change I noticed was that my feathers were harder, and sharper. In fact, I wasn't even sure that I could call them feathers. They were more like flat leather scales shaped like feathers. While the edges were flexible and finely serrated, they were also extremely sharp and durable. Instead of being a feather or a scale, they almost seemed to be a mixture of the two.Then again, feathers, scales, fingernails, claws, horns, and hair were all created by placodes that form in the top layer of the skin. When a signal was sent to a particular location in the skin to form a placode, these anatomical features were created. I thought about the rhinoceros. Their horns were actually made of the same stuff as hair and fingernails. One of the differences was the concentration in one place of a substance called keratin. This was a fibrous structural protein that could also be found in wool, feathers, hooves, claws and the outermost layers of skin.While both charcoal and diamonds are made of carbon, their structures are different. The same could be said to be true for my scales. They were very hard, much tougher than fingernails. However, they were also light. However, I suppose it was also sort of like an angel and their wings. A person would have wings but still wouldn't be able to fly because of their weight. Just like angels, dragons needed that certain supernatural magic to allow them to transcend physical limitations. That was probably why flying was locked for me at first.In fact, methane was a gas that was lighter than air, but also could be used in the production of flames. It was certainly possible that methane, or something similar, was naturally produced by many dragons which gave them innate buoyancy and access to combustible gasses, much like my previous ether breath. This might also explain breath attacks. Even bombardier beetles could store chemicals that when they interacted, created a scalding attack.Since I had a draconic bloodline, perhaps the magic was inherently found in the blood of a dragon I guessed. Then I amended that since I knew there were undead dragons with only a skeleton left that could still fly. Perhaps even though it said bloodline, the magic actually wasn't found in the blood. Perhaps it was more of a genetic or spiritual "bloodline." Still, I was also certain that dragons wouldn't have all the characteristics they did, such as wings, if it didn't help them in some ways.Perhaps they served as a base to hold the magic. For example, a dragon whose wings were damaged flew slower or might not even be able to fly. While it was true that a pterosaur could have a wingspan of more than thirty feet, they also had a different body structure. Dragons had a more feline or canine appearance. Pterosaurs also had interior bone struts, much like modern airplanes. This allowed them to have partially hollow bones. Although that wouldn't make a big difference, perhaps it did have some impact.So, I concluded, while most dragons had batlike wings covered in scales, my scales were just shaped a little differently to give them a more feathered appearance. They were still scales, just not in the normal scale shape, but either way they were responsible for channeling magic. This made me think of owls. Owls had feathers like other birds, but their feathers were shaped differently. Owls had specialized feathers with soft fringed edges. That helped them disrupt the flow of air across the wings and reduced their noise during flight. I smiled when an idea came to my mind, I might actually be able to fly more silently than a normal dragon.Unfortunately, despite the intriguing thoughts I was having, I couldn't escape one fact. The water was freezing. By the time I was done, I was shivering uncontrollably. I thought a lot of dragons could breathe underwater. Was Godzilla a dragon without wings? He breathed underwater. In fact, most regular black dragons had the ability to breathe underwater. Maybe I would unlock that ability later.At the moment, however, I was worried about freezing to death. Since there were a few bushes growing on the rocky island, I decided to warm myself up by starting a fire. Once I got the fire going with the Prestidigitation cantrip, I settled in as close to the fire as I could without getting burnt. That actually turned out to be much closer than I had thought, especially after I put on the Boots of the Firelands.Once I was dry, I also quickly put back on the Stylish Robe. I was starting to regret not having fire breath. While I could start a small fire with the cantrip, a big fire would have warmed me up faster. In fact, I could have even used it to burn down some of the tents in the enemy encampment. As it was, my cantrip just wasn't powerful enough. Because of this, I started rethinking my plan of learning the Zone of Death spell and instead learn the Fireball spell. After all, could I really consider myself a wizard if I didn't have the Fireball spell memorized?Since it was still a long time away from dawn, I decided to head back home. I was starting to get tired anyway. A growing boy needs his rest. Speaking of growing, I was hoping that since I was actually growing much faster than normal for a kobold hatchling, I would soon have evidence that proved I was a male kobold.As I was flying, I did consider possible reasons that I might be growing up so quickly. Finally, I settled on one theory. I had unlocked a lot of abilities from my feathered draconic bloodline, and this was causing some changes in my body. More than likely, my body was trying to create a balance between my kobold race and my draconic bloodline. Perhaps I needed a larger body to fully support the draconic changes. After all, I wasn't even as big as a pseudodragon, much less a real dragon. Perhaps that was the reason that I was starting to feel half-dragon and half-kobold. I wondered if I was actually going to turn into a dragon at some point.