The emperor's wife knocked on the door while waiting in the hallway for the one inside to give permission to enter.

[Kurt? Kurt, dear, It's me! Can I come in?]

The boy heard her voice and tried to reply using what he learned during his dragon language lessons, [Shure mion! Kyome raight in!]

She opened the door and was suddenly greeted by her child laying on the ground with his body full of red marks all over it.

It was her son, Kurt, who was now three years old, wearing the blue pajamas he got on his last birthday. His red messy hair had grown a little bit which now made him resemble a little bit his father, the emperor, while the color of his eyes resembled that of his mother.

[Kurt!!??] she yelled while rushing to his side and placing him in her arms, [My baby! What happened to you??]

The young lad tried his best to calm her down by showing his smiling face and explaining what was going on, [Nuothin maijior! Ai wuas chust truaing tuu liern hou to chiange into mai schiecondu fuorm!]

[You were trying to learn how to change into your second form? Sweetie, you're just three years old... You shouldn't be worried about these kinds of things yet!]

[Byut!]

[No buts! When the time comes, the time will come! This isn't the kind of thing that you should be trying to force!] she claimed.

Kurt realized that his new mother had no intention of backing down on this subject so he decided to simply give up and listen to her.

[All Ruaight...]

[Good! Now, stay still while I go pick up some healing items! I'll be right back.]

She left the room as soon as she said that, but not without giving him a small glare to make sure he better not disobey while she was absent.

Kurt decided to behave and took a seat on his bed, allowing a small bird that was watching the whole scene to finally come closer and land on his lap.

'Your first earful! Not bad!'

"She seemed really upset..." Kurt replied, "I should probably stop..."

'Ah, shame... I was really enjoying watching you jumping out of the bed while shouting 'Come out, wings!!' over and over again!' Dorothy commented.

"You mean you were enjoying watching me land face-first against the floor over and over again..." Kurt assumed while lightly glaring at his pet owl.

'Oh... You know me so well!'

"Ugh..."

His mother soon returned with a box of jewels of different colors, all with a strong glow when placed against the sun, and picked up a couple of them to press against his skin.

[Whuat... Aire... Thiisi?] Kurt asked.

His mother gave small laugh at the sight of her child trying to speak despite still not mastering the language, ['Thiisi', hihi, are fire gems! Some dragons have the ability to use healing fire and these jewels can absorb part of that ability and channel it by getting in touch with someone!]

[Whoa!!]

[This does NOT mean you should just go ahead and break your bones thinking that they can just be fixed later though!] she stated while pulling his ear, [We need to wait an entire week before our body is allowed to receive healing fire again, or we might end up overheating from the inside! So. Be. Careful!!]

[Wues, mion!] Kurt replied, shivering a little upon looking at his mother's face.

[Good!]

Once the treatment was done, the blond lady decided to finally state her reason to meeting him in the first place and invited the boy for a walk around the park.

The emperor's mansion was famous for being located in the very center of the city and near all the most popular locations one would want to hang out on.

A great lake that housed a large number of water dragons, a massive tree located on top of a hill with the best view for the sunset one could find, a famous market where one could find shops and stores for incredible difficult to find items and gifts, among other tourist attractions.

Every now and then, Kurt's mother, Saburi, would ask her boy if he would like to spend some time with her by visiting said places.

Kurt would always accept of course. Not only was he more than glad to deepen the bond with his mother, but he also enjoyed the chance to learn more about this new world and its culture.

He also enjoyed the chance to get more familiar with the locals upon doing that. In his old life, he never really did do a good job at getting close to people in his old life, so he wanted to try his best to not repeat that same mistake again.

This was one of the reasons why he always tried his best not to get upset at Dorothy's snarky comments. If he could get along with her, he could get along with anyone.

Of course, Dorothy knew that and exploited that fact by always mocking him in any way she could so he would give up and decide to go home, his old home, causing the two to have a rather strange relationship.

As the boy carrying a bird on his shoulder and his mother walked around through the park and enjoyed the view of the green grass, the falling leaves, and some of the seasonal flowers blossoming, a great number of familiar faces would stop to greet them.

[Greetings, your highness!] said a man that had his left arm transformed into a claw and used it to chop down a few trees that were growing too much.

[Guiritings, Carl!]

[Hello, Empress! Hello, little Kurt!] said a woman with wings on her back flying around while carrying a basket of fruits.

[Hielliou, miss Daisy!]

[Oh! Hello, Kurt! Taking a walk with your mother I see!] commented a young man who was walking while holding hands with a lady as if they were enjoying a date.

[Huai, Miguiel! Huai, Sandrua!]

Every time someone would talk to them, Kurt would do his best to reply while showing how much he learned from his studies, but it was still clear to anyone that he still had a long way to go before he could fluently speak with anyone.

[Youre getting better every day! I'm very impressed!] Saburi mentioned while looking at his son with joy.

[Ustill... Niot... Guud... Einough...] Kurt replied while feeling like his tongue was about to fall off, [Miust... Wuorkk... Hiardier!!]

[Youre already working hard every day, son... Just go at your own pace and you will get there eventually!]

He could feel that his mother was trying to remove some of the pressure, but the truth was, he wanted the pressure. Kurt more than anything wanted to not commit the same error from last time... Or rather, last life. Be it learning how to speak, how to change into a dragon, or how to handle his duties as a prince, he wanted to master all of it as soon as possible.

[Look, Kurt! How about we go feed the tree dragons?] Saburi suggested. He simply nodded and began to march while holding her hand. She tried to offer to hold him, but he declared that he wanted to walk by himself.

She then made a quick visit to a shop to buy a couple of seeds and when they reached a large tree nearby, poured some into hers and his hand and raised high up so that a couple of reptilian creatures with wings of a butterfly would appear from the leaves and come to feed on it.

Kurt flinched at first upon seeing something so strange stick out its head out of nowhere, but once he realized they just wanted to eat the seeds, he began to calm down and enjoy the moment.

[Trui driakuons?] he mumbled.

[Yes! Tree dragons!] his mother confirmed.

The boy began to think back to his old life and started to wonder if he ever would have done that with his previous family. Going to some zoo and try to feed the animals? He wondered why he never tried to do that before.

Something that Kurt did not expect was that all the living beings of the empire were all dragons. Things like birds, dogs, fish, cats, none of those existed in there. Instead, they had rock dragons, water dragons, cloud dragons, and of course, tree dragons.

Kurt began to wonder how these guys were any different from the regular dragons that walked around the mansion, but the answer lied in the fact that none of them could transform into what Kurt recognized as a human form.

Basically, he was part of a race of species known as warrior dragons, beings that are born to fight and protect, and that can access some of the powers from other types of dragons.

"Hey, Dora..." Kurt whispered while continuing to feed the tree dragons that wouldn't stop coming, "Does this mean that everyone thinks you're a dragon as well?"

'Possibly...' the owl lady resting on his head replied, 'They probably think I'm something know as feather dragon or whatever...'

"Hehe... And owl dragon..." he mumbled.

His mother smiled while raising an eyebrow as she watched him speaking in a language she was unfamiliar with. At first, Kurt could get away with this with the excuse that he was a baby just spouting gibberish, but the more time passes, the more she began to feel like he was actually speaking and actual language.

He had no idea how he could explain that to her, so in order to avoid suspicion, he tried his best to practice Dragonish so he could use it to talk with Dorothy from now on.

At that moment, Kurt was so distracted by his worries that he was caught off guard when the leaves on top of the tree began to shake with more intensity than before.

[Seems like a few more tree dragons are coming... Should we buy more seeds?] Saburi wondered.

The shaking became even stronger when suddenly a large shadow stepped out of it and began to dive in their direction.

"What the!??" Kurt gasped.

The figure began to approach them and revealed to be a large-sized tree dragon. Unlike the previous ones that were of the size of a fist, this one was bigger than Sabiri herself.

Kurt began to panic and covered his face with both arms to brace for impact, but before the winged lizard could touch him, a heavy piece of metal appeared out of nowhere and smacked its face.

[Kruaaahhhh!!!] the creature cried from the impact as it was sent flying against the ground.

"What was that??" Kurt asked with his eyes about to pop out of his skull.

He turned around and noticed that his mother had stepped in front of him, and that her arm was now covered in silver scales like and armor.

[Kurt, are you okay? Did that thing scared you?] she asked while seeking out for possible wounds on him.

"Moth-" he choked, [Ai mim... Miother!??]

The boy couldn't stop staring at her arm. He didn't know his species could use their dragon abilities without fully transforming.

[Don't worry, honey... Everything will be okay! Mommy will take care of you!] she declared while locking him in a tight hug.

He began to stare at his own hand and wondered if he too could do something so incredible like that. He really couldn't wait to learn how to use his powers.

[Come on! Let's go home!]

[Liet'su!]

Before the two could exit the park, Kurt gave one last look at the fallen tree dragon that his mother had knocked out and realized that it had completely disappeared.

"Huh?" he gasped, "Where did it- Oh..."

But his panic soon ceased once he noticed that the place where the creature had fallen was now being occupied by a strange green-haired lady with ragged clothes who appeared to be unconscious.

"That wasn't a tree dragon... That was a warrior dragon..." he realized.

[Come on, Kurt, let's go home before we get attacked again...]

[Attiackade eigin?] he repeated.

He stared at Dora as if looking for answers, but the owl simply laughed in response, 'You'll find out soon enough, don't worry, boy!'