When I woke the next morning, I was still in my new world and not a mental hospital. I considered that a win.

Tiberius was curled up beside me, his back to my chest. He woke as I stirred, yawned adorably, and scratched one of his oversized ears with a taloned hind leg.

Smiling, I sat up and tried to put my hair into order – then froze when my fingers encountered something... new.

What the heck was wrong with my ears?

In an instant, I was up and staggering to the little stream at the other end of my campsite. The day had just gotten started but there was plenty of light to see my reflection.

Oh my god, I had elf ears.

The cartilage was long and pointed. Like, really pointed. I didn't quite give Tiberius a run for his money but my ears had not been like that before!

Or... had they? I didn't remember reaching up to feel my ears yesterday. Had I arrived at the planet looking like this?

"Am I on Vulcan?" I wondered, bending to examine my reflection in the wavering stream. Nothing else seemed different. My face was just... a face. Pretty enough, I guess, but boys didn't give me a second look once they noticed my bum leg.

Thankfully, my newly pointed ears didn't stick out from my head more than usual. Wearing my hair down hid them.

Tiberius came to see what I was looking at and bent to drink from the stream. That wasn't a bad idea. I did the same, knowing I should boil the water or something but it wasn't like I had a pan or a cup.

Returning to my campsite, I packed my few belongings: A dead cell phone, a half can of pepper spray, and an uncured red egg-sucker dragon hide. Then I checked to make sure the campfire was out and I was ready to go.

Tiberius was fine walking beside me. In fact, he seemed energetic for a creature that had only hatched yesterday. I couldn't have walked as far as a two-day-old baby.

We tromped through the forest, picking the easiest paths. My stomach rumbled. There were plants and stuff but I had no idea what was edible. Tiberius turned up his nose at a tempting cluster of red berries. I decided not to chance it.

Finally, we came on a dirt road.

There were fresh wheel tracks in the soft earth. However, my attention was taken by the scary-looking three-toe footprints between the wheel tracks.

They looked like smaller versions of the T-Rex footprints in Jurassic Park.

I picked up Tiberius and held him so we looked eye-to-eye. "Tell me the truth: Does your world have dinosaurs?"

Tiberius cheeped. His little pink tongue darted out and licked the tip of my nose.

I set him down. "If this world has snaky egg-sucker dragons and foxlike dragons... maybe it has horse dragons?"

There was one way to find out.

Traveling along the road was much quicker than awkwardly picking my way through the forest. Soon, we had crested a low hill. The trees thinned beyond giving me a good view of the winding road ahead. There were merchant wagons a good distance off.

And yup, they were pulled by... dinosaurs? Dragons? The hitched animals were large and green. Standing on four legs, they had bright head crests and ridged backs, though no wings that I could see. Then again, Tiberius didn't either.

No way I could catch up to the wagons with my bad foot to go and ask. That was fine because they were close to reaching a cluster of buildings.

I was about to visit the first town in my new world.

The town itself was a collection of wooden buildings, none more than two stories tall. It gave me an old west vibe.

The only vehicles on the unpaved roads were animal drawn carts. And by animals, I meant dragons. They were all reptilian burden beasts of various shapes and sizes. Some had wings, some did not, though I didn't see any of the towns folk flying around on one. Most of the dragons pulling carts had stumpy, muscular bodies kind of like an oxen only with more scales and less horns.

Overhead, tiny palm sized winged dragons twittered and flew in dizzying loops. They nested under eves and gathered around watering troughs to chitter and peck at each other like birds. When one of the larger cart pulling dragons stomped over to the trough and rumbled threateningly, the entire flock rose into the air in a glittering rainbow.

The men and women… Well, thankfully, they look like normal people you'd see anywhere. Most wore simple shirts and pants made of tough, sturdy fabric in colors of brown and green. They also had rounded ears.

My jeans and shirt stood out a little, but not much. Most took a glance at me, frowned down at my clubfoot, and glanced away. That was nothing unusual.

Oh, and the snatches of conversations I caught were in English. Thank goodness.

There was a small market with merchant booths set up on either side of the main road. The smell of cooking food was thick in the air, and I was very much aware that I hadn’t eaten anything since dinner.

Tiberius whined with hunger until I reached down and lifted him into my arms. He turned and scuttled up to perch on my shoulder. He barely fit, and I had to make sure that his paws did not get caught in my hair, but it was more convenient having him sit there then in my arms.

We were both hungry, but first I needed money.

I limped over to a stall which had different hides stretched over drying racks. The sides of the booth had leather-worked clothing and purses for sale.

The shop purveyor gave me the up and down before his eyes focused on the folded hide in my hands.

"I don't think I've seen you around these parts before, young lady."

His tone was brisk, but his hazel eyes had a glint of kindness in them.

"I just came in today. I found this in the forest," I held out the folded hide to him. "And was hoping to trade?"

Wordlessly, he took the hide and laid it out on the table in front of him.

The looted hide I received was pretty well trimmed — four feet long, perfectly cut from what I assume was the best part of the hide. The only rough patch was the scale Tiberius had gnawed on last night, and you could barely tell.

The tanner ran one calloused hand down the length of the scales. "Egg-sucking dragon — emerald quality. You said that you found this in the forest?"

"We had a run-in," I said. "I got lucky."

"I'll say. Nicely skinned, too. Not a hint of flesh." He flipped it over to look at the inside, frowning. "But uncured. That will lower the price a little."

"What did you mean by emerald quality?"

"My evaluation is on the basic crystal scale, of course," he replied, which made no sense.

"Is it good?" I asked. "I'm new here."

His gaze flicked to Tiberius. "You're a tamer. Most crafters grade on the basic bond crystal scale, which you should be familiar with."

"I'm not," I said. "Maybe we call it something else where I’m from.”

Another quizzical look. I had the feeling I was asking something super basic, like what the value of a dollar was. He likely thought I was addled in the head, but he answered anyway. "The basic crystal scale is quartz, emerald, sapphire, amethyst, ruby, gold and platinum."

I ignored the fact that a couple of those weren't crystals. Emerald was second from the bottom. Not bad for my first loot.

Weird that he didn't mention an opal crystal, but I wasn't going to ask.

I decided to play my hand and see what it got me. "Well, if it's a good hide, I plan to go out and see if I can find some more." With my looting ability, anything that I gathered would be useful at least, but what I needed most were starting funds. Camping out in the middle of nowhere was fun for one night. Tonight, I wanted a bed.

He hemmed and hawed, turning over the hide again and again as if trying to find more flaws. "Hmm. I'll give you a good deal if, supposing you find more hides, you come to me first."

I glanced down the market street, not seeing any other booth who displayed hides. “As opposed to…"

The tanner shrugged. "As opposed to selling to the renderers on the other side of town. They fancy themselves hide experts, but they butcher anything that they try to collect. They're good for the meat, but don't have the creative eye for the skins," he said with thinly veiled disgust.

My guess was there was a rivalry there.

Well, if I didn't like his offer, I could just head off to the next town. "How much you going to give me for this?"

"For this hide? I'll pay two silver, ten copper."

He might have been ripping me off, but I had no idea.

"Is that enough for me to buy a meal and a good knife?" I asked.

He eyed me. Apparently this was another dumb question.

Quickly, I explained, "I found this hide as is, but what happens if I have to skin the next one myself?"

"You went out into the forest without a good knife, girl?"

"I had pepper-spray," I said blandly.

The tanner squinted but then shrugged. "All right, I'll throw in an old skinning knife. It's nothing fancy and you'll have to sharpen it, but it's better than... um, pepper."

"Deal," I said. And in the next moment, I found myself lighter one disgusting hide and plus one fancy knife with a curved edge on it.

I assumed the curve had something to do with cutting the skin off of carcasses, but I had no problem shanking a bitch if I needed to.

With coins in hand, I went to the first booth that was frying meat over an open grill. The meats were nothing that I recognized and I got a weird look when I asked if they had beef or chicken.

But Tiberius seemed very interested in some of the reddish meat smoking by the fire, so I bought him a skewer for three copper coins and shared it.

Once again, he munched down on his cubes with fiery breath, reducing it to ash before he swallowed.

The skewer wasn't bad. Highly salted and not as delicious as the egg-sucker dragon steak, but not bad. As I chewed, I walked up and down the row of merchants stalls, peering into see what people sold around here and how much my two silvers would get me.

Not much. Food was a lot cheaper than other items. Purchasing a simple–though clearly handmade–shirt would have cost at least a silver, though I heard people haggling. Maybe I could get the price knocked down.

I stopped at a book conveyors stall.

The guy manning the booth seemed to be not too interested in the comings and goings of customers. He had his nose so deep in one of the books that I had to cough to get his attention.

"Hmm? Yes?" He looked up and squinted at me.

"Do you have any basic books about dragons? Maybe a Dragons For Dummies?" I asked.

"A what?"

I thought about what the tanner had said. "I'd like to know about crystals and dragon taming basics." Both the system and the tanner had mentioned dragon taming so I figured that was a safe bet.

"Yes, I see." He blinked as if fully focusing on me for the first time. "Is that a fennec dragon?"

"Yes, he is."

I held out my arm and Tiberius balance on my forearm, sniffing at the man who peered at him.

"I've only seen these specimens described in books," the book seller said, "Interesting. Where in the world did you buy something like this?"

"I hatched him myself." No point saying where. No way the system had randomly dumped me in a forest which just-so-happened to be next to a clutch of ready-to-hatch eggs. That had been planned and not something which could be duplicated.

"Hatched?" the man murmured, "Rarer still…"

He stared at Tiberius and the little fennec dragon preened under the attention.

My arm was starting to ache and he hadn't answered any of my questions. "So, do you have any books on fennec dragons? Or is there a library around here?"

"A what? And no I can't imagine many people would be experts on a fennec. Very rare." Finally, he seemed to register that I was a customer. "You said you wanted a primer on taming crystals? Yes, I have something that may suit."

I hadn't asked for that exactly but wasn't going to complain now he was with the program.

The book seller went to the back of the stall and sorted through a pile, then pulled out a dark, thin volume. "One silver, fifty copper."

I did not have to pretend to let my face fall. I pulled out one of my two silvers and let a pleading tone enter my voice. "This is all I have..."

The man sighed. "Just take it."

Woo-hoo. My haggling skills were already seeing some use. "Thank you!"

I slapped the silver down and scooped the book up. It was so old the binding was cracked in a couple places. I hoped whatever was in there was up to date.

As I strolled past the stalls, I flipped through the book. Each page contained a description of a taming crystal. There were hundreds.

Curiously, I checked the glossary and then flipped to opal.

Opal Crystal

Rating: Extraordinary

Attributes: Opal crystals enhance consciousness skills. Available attributes are usually connected to senses or other incorporeal talents such as luck or mental strengths.

Special Attacks: As opals contain water, the special attacks are generally water or healing based. Some opal enhanced display sense-based attacks. SA alignment may differ depending on opal subtype.

"Oops. Should I have used that on a desert creature?" I wondered, then shrugged. Tiberius seemed fine. And again, the System had put me there with the crystal and egg within reach. Surely, I wasn't meant to use the crystal on the egg-sucking dragon.

Or was I? The objective had been to 'defeat' the dragon. What if...

... Nah.

As I read, I was half aware that the road seemed to open up past the merchants stalls. There was a circular fenced off area where a crowd was gathering. I lowered the book and walked closer to see what was going on.

A barker in an old-timey vest stood on a platform. "Tickets for today's duels are ten copper apiece! Buy them fast. The first dragon duel starts in ten minutes!"

Luckily, the book was small and thin enough to fit in my pants pocket. Screw studying. I was going to watch a dragon duel!