Alex beat his wings as hard as he could to gain some more altitude. He’d never flown for so long before, and it was really wearing him out. At this rate, he’d make it back to the academy in only a few hours, but he doubted that was possible. He’d only been flying for 20 minutes, and it already felt like his wings were going to fall off. The dragons he’d learned about were behemoths, with wingspans the size of entire castles, capable of flying for days without stopping. That must come later.

Right now, his wingspan wouldn’t reach opposite sides of a doorway. Fine for short flights at his size, but definitely not soaring great distances. It didn’t matter, though. He had no idea how long he had until his spirit locked him in this body. Flying was both the safest and fastest way to get to the academy, and a little back pain wasn’t going to stop him.

Alex clutched the thing’s severed fingers in his claws. For some reason, the orc had kept them in her bag. When he tried to get them, he almost fell in. Normally that would be fine, but the bag was much deeper than it should’ve been, and he wasn’t sure whatever magic did that would let him out if he got in. It was a good thing she kept them, though, no matter how strange. If he could just make it to the alchemy lab, he could make a polymorph potion of his own body out of them. They were extremely difficult to make and required exact measurements, along with some costly equipment. Attempting a polymorph potion without the proper equipment would not end up pretty. Literally. A botched polymorph potion didn’t just do nothing. It went wrong. You didn’t just walk away from a botched polymorph potion. At least, whatever walks away from it won’t be you.

Alex shook the thought from his head. Luckily, he’d never seen it happen before. With that distraction gone, he felt the pain in his wings again. While getting to the academy was crucial, it wouldn’t matter if he passed out midair and fell to his death, so he decided to land and continue on foot. From the sky, he had a clear view of the academy off in the distance, but from the ground, even the slightest hill obscured his vision. While lost in the woods, he found out he had a great internal compass, so he wasn’t worried about getting turned around. No, his real worry was someone seeing him. His black scales were a strong contrast against the green field, and there weren’t any trees for him to climb up to escape. If he got caught out here, it was over.

Now that he needed to use his legs to walk, carrying the fingers would be a problem. Holding them in his claws would prevent him from using his front legs to walk, and he wasn’t very confident in this body’s bipedal running skills. He would need to carry them in his mouth.

Even thinking about it almost made him puke. They tasted awful when they were fresh, but now they were four days old. There was absolutely no way he was letting them touch the inside of his mouth. He found some leaves, put one on each side of the fingers, and put them in his mouth. The leaves were old and dirty, but it was infinitely better than the fingers’ rancid taste.

Before landing, he scouted a path to the academy with as little risk of human interference as possible. While his path wasn’t the most efficient, it was definitely the safest, and he traveled without incident.

Now came the hard part. Getting into the academy. It was relatively remote, far enough from the nearest city where he had no reason to fear being spotted by guards, but it still had its own kind of security. Hundreds of students would be patrolling the grounds moving from class to class. While the summer semester brought fewer students, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. The tight corridors and his inability to open doors or windows made the inside of the building a death trap. That’s where Parker was supposed to come in, but now he’d just have to improvise.

The walk had given his wings ample time to recover, and flying would give him a better vantage point. He took a few bounds, pumped his wings, and took flight. He flapped to gain altitude and flew toward the academy.

And was immediately shot with an arrow.

He reacted at the last possible moment, banking right as the arrow flew harmlessly over his head. Well, there went the silent approach.

Alex scoured the academy for anywhere he could worm his way in. An open window, an unattended door, anything!

He heard yelling from below and saw more people gather. An archer nocked an arrow, as a newcomer cast a spell on it. The archer fired the arrow, and it instantly struck Alex in the side. Rather than piercing him, it stuck to his scales and began glowing. Magical tendrils shot from the arrowhead and wrapped around his wings, binding them to his body and sending him into freefall.

Binding arrows were a valuable tool to catch wild animals, and while he may look like one, Alex certainly was not. He whipped his neck back and snapped the shaft in two between his jaws. The magic poured from the break, and the tendrils disappeared. The arrow, now devoid of magic, fell to the ground.

Alex pounded the air with his wings just before slamming into the ground. He had enough of crash landings. His wings were still tired from the flight, and he just lost a lot of altitude. He couldn’t keep running for much longer, he needed to find a place to hide.

He heard someone running behind him, and turned to see one of his assailers glowing with haste magic. He quickly caught up with Alex, and reached for his tail. Alex tried pulling it out of the way, but was too slow. He was snatched out of the air and thrown to the ground. His assailer pulled out a dagger. In this single moment, Alex took a breath in, and just before the knife reached his chest, he unleashed the largest bolt of lightning he’d ever produced.

The bolt didn’t do any real damage, but the shock forced the attacker to drop his grip on both the knife and Alex’s tail. An arrow drove into the dirt, inches from Alex’s head. He rolled over and took off to the skies once again, and found what he was looking for. A window was left slightly ajar, just enough for him to squeeze through. It was a few stories up, so he would have ample time to hide in the building before his assailers got in.

Another arrow whizzed by, glowing bright blue. It wasn’t even close to hitting him, but he was still wary. He recognized that glow. That arrow was enchanted to follow its target. It was a cheap trick he never needed to learn, made for fools with no skill or drive. Right on cue, the arrow banked around and headed straight for him. It was too late, though. Alex tucked in his wings, pulled in his legs, and closed his eyes. He braced himself, and slipped through the opening, crashing into a dresser inside the room and falling to the ground. A second later, the arrow embedded itself into the wood, and the magic faded.

Alex grabbed his head. While his horns did a lot to protect his head, he flew pretty quickly, and the crash hurt. It dazed him, and when he tried standing up, he fell over. He tried looking around but was seeing double. His vision returned just enough for him to see a blanket thrown over him. Of course, this room had to be occupied. He tried pushing his way out, but was grabbed through the blanket and wrapped up in it. He thrashed around with his claws, trying to cut his way out, but it was futile. His captor wrapped him up tighter in the blanket, pressing his limbs tightly to his chest. Through the blanket, he heard a student’s voice.

“Please stay still, please stay still, please stay still!” He pleaded.

Alex complied, not that he had much of a choice. He felt hands moving around near his head, as the student pulled back layers of blanket. Finally, his head was free, and he got a good look at his captor. He looked young, maybe in his second year at the academy. He wore thick round glasses, and had messy black hair that drooped just over his eyes. He reached towards Alex's face with the back of his hand, in the same motion one would to gain a dog's trust by letting them sniff their hand. In response, Alex growled and snapped at the student, who pulled back his arm.

“Hey, hey, it’s ok, I’m not here to hurt you!”

Alex took a look around the room and saw the standard bed, dresser, and desk of the dorms. The bed was pressed in the corner by the window, with the desk next to it, facing outside. The dresser, now with a slight crack and an arrow stuck in one of the drawers. It would have been nostalgic, had he not been held captive. On the ground were dirty clothes, textbooks, and writing utensils. The walls were plastered with diagrams and pictures of animals and monsters. When he looked closer, he found most of them were of the same kind.

Dragons.

He wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or afraid.

“Oh wow… I can’t believe this! Is this really happening? What are you doing here? How did you know this was my room?” The student spattered.

And he thought Parker was weird about dragons. Hopefully, this kid was more interested in learning about living dragons than figuring out about what they looked like on the inside.

“Oh my god… You’re adorable! Mr. Phillips wasn’t kidding! How could he just leave you out there all alone?”

Just then, a loud knock resonated throughout the room.

“Hey! Is anyone in there? Open up!”

Damn! How had they found him so quickly? This room was 3 floors up! Now he was at the mercy of this kid!

“Yeah! Just a second!” The student replied.

He leaned down and whispered to Alex, “I’m sorry for this, but it’s for your own good,” just before throwing him onto his bed and pulling another blanket over him. Blinded again, he could do nothing but listen.

“Did you see the dragon? We saw it dive right into your window!” Someone yelled.

“Yeah, I did! It flew right in and started going crazy! I opened my door to let it out and it ran out that way!” The student replied.

“Thanks for the help!” The same person returned, and he heard the door slam.

His heart was beating through his chest. If that kid messed that up, he was a goner. That was a great save, though. After the pounding of footsteps faded, the student walked back over and uncovered Alex.

“I was going to take you right to Mr. Phillips, but it seems you need to lay low for a while.”

There was that name again. Phillips. Alex’s eyes opened wide with realization. PP! Parkers initials! Parker Phillips! This kid must know him! That changed everything!

“Wow, you must really want to see him.”

Alex blurted out a short, celebratory yip.

“Well, I’ll take that as a yes.”

The student reached over again and he peeled away the layers of blanket holding him down. Right before Alex was free, he stopped.

“Wait, you’re not gonna scratch me, or bite me, or dive out the window, right? I’m gonna trust you to stay here, ok?”

Alex tried nodding in response, but couldn’t. That damn silencing spell was as annoying as ever.

“You know what, its fine. He said you were pretty smart, so I’ll trust you to listen to me.”

The student pulled on the last bit of blanket, and Alex unrolled along with it, tumbling across the bed and splaying on his back. For the first time, the student got a good look at all of him. Wings, tail, claws, and the two objects clutches inside them.

“What are those?” He asked as he reached for them.

Alex tried covering them up, but it was too late. The student had already seen them.

“Oh, oh god, why do you have those? Who’s fingers are those?”

The student took a discarded shirt off the ground to protect his hands and reached over to take the fingers. Alex clutched the fingers and pushed them to the corner of the bed. Walls protected his flanks as he guarded them from the front. He wasn’t going to let his best chance at beating the thing get thrown out.

“Hey! Drop! Give! Come on, hand them over!”

The student took several jabs to reach past Alex, but pulled back whenever Alex snapped at him. He didn’t really want to bite the kid, given how Lasair reacted last time. She didn’t even hold back a little. It felt like when he got hit with that mace, except his snout was much more sensitive. No, he just wanted him to stay back. However, he realized too late that while he was distracted blocking one hand, the student reached over with his other and snatched them. Alex dove to take them back, but was grabbed out of the air and pinned to the bed.

As he struggled to lift himself up, the student inspected them in his other hand.

“Wait… These aren’t right. They’re… Spongy, yet also rubbery.”

The student them brought them up to his face, took a whiff, and recoiled in disgust.

“Oh, gross! That smell isn’t rot, but it’s certainly something. These can’t be human. What are they?”

Yet again, the question left Alex without an answer. His claws weren’t touch-sensitive enough to pick up on that, and he tried not to pay attention to them while he carried them in his mouth.

The student placed the fingers in his backpack, which was sitting on top of his desk.

“All right, you’re too out of control. I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice.”

Alex watched helplessly as the student pressed his fingers between Alex’s eyes and muttered a sleeping spell. He tried resisting it, which would have been easy back in his human body. However, unluckily for him, sleeping spells worked much better on smaller creatures. The student let go of the now incapacitated Alex, and picked him up. Sleeping spells took a few minutes to fully drag the victim into unconsciousness, but even in the first few moments, they are left too exhausted to resist

“I can’t leave you here. I’ll take you to see Mr. Phillips when I’m done with my classes.”

Alex barely listened, already half asleep. A weak sleep spell like this would’ve done nothing to him before, but he was too tired to be frustrated. The rest would be good for his sore wing muscles anyways. The student took his books out of his bag and gently placed Alex inside. While he had grown, the standard-issue academy bag still had more than enough room to fit him inside.

“Just try to be quiet, ok? You’re lucky you flew into my room. If anyone else knew you were here, they’d kill you for sure!”

By then, Alex was in no state to even try and respond. He was fighting the sleep spell and losing. He lasted for a few more minutes as the student walked through the hallways. In his last waking moments, he could just barely feel that familiar sense of dread.