Adam finished telling the chieftain his story. Since they were directly talking to each other through threads of spirit essence, no one else overheard what they were talking about. They could only see the chieftain listen to Adam with rapt attention, unsure of what was being said. Finally, the chieftain nodded his head. “Young Adam, I believe your story! While your life has been colored by death essence, your soul has not been drowned in it. Any other in your place would have fallen to its influence long ago. I will not exile you from this village because of the death essence that inhabits you, but I ask: what do you have to bring to this village? Why should I let you stay?”

Adam was suddenly at a loss. He wanted to join the village for at least a small time. There was certainly more to know about dragons and Dragon-forming and the best place to learn that was here. What could Adam bring to the table for negotiation, though? The only unique thing he had was his work on deviant spirit essence, which started out highly educational and very debatable but had turned controversial. Was it enough?

Evelyn's voice suddenly sounded beside Adam: “Is the chieftain asking you what you can bring to the village? You can control lightning, can't you? Use that!”

Adam glanced over at Evelyn. She gave a bright smile and a nod. Well, she was from the village so surely she knew that this could be his ticket in. Adam looked back to the chieftain and said: “I don't know if it will be incredibly useful to the village, but I can share my knowledge on how to control lightning!”

Adam reared up onto his hind legs and spread his wings out above him. Lightning started streaking from his wings, arcing between them with a few bolts hitting the ground in a controlled manner. Even though it was under Adam's control, everyone around took a step back in surprise at the sudden appearance of the lightning being emanated from Adam. After a moment of silence, a throaty chuckle came from the chieftain. “That is enough, welcome to the village!”

Adam put his wings down while feeling joy at being accepted. The chieftain then turned to Evelyn. Through his ability to hear spirit essence, Adam was able to hear the chieftain ask: “Young Evelyn, what is it that you can bring to this village?”

Evelyn puffed up with pride. She waved her hand and summoned a raging fire as she said: “I bring my life and my fire to the village!”

The chieftain then turned to Heinrich and asked him the same question, to which Heinrich said: “I bring my life and my strength to the village!”

As Heinrich spoke, he slammed his right fist into his left palm. This created a large concussive sound! From this, Adam thought that perhaps Heinrich was a spirit martial artist, rather than a spiritualist!

Regardless, Adam felt a bit disgruntled. There he was pecking his brain about what useful thing he could bring to the village and all he had to do was show off with some spirit essence? He could have used a bit of wind and it should have been enough! Seeing Adam's disgruntled look, Evelyn couldn't help but laugh. So as not to embarrass him, she discretely sent “Don't be like that. If you didn't have anything meaningful to give, the chieftain would have only let you stay in the village long enough to learn what you needed to know about being a dragon. Me and Heinrich were born in the village so we already had a place here. Out of the three of us, you were the only one who had to prove himself and a simple show wouldn't have been enough!”

That made Adam feel a little better, but he still didn't like how Evelyn and Heinrich had such an easy time of it. Adam was quickly brought out of these thoughts as the chieftain addressed him and the entire crowd: “These three before us are no longer children! They are now the young ones of the tribe. May this village of the flock guide them to greatness!”

Celebratory cheering and congratulations issued from the crowd around. Among the cheering, the chieftain added: “Young Evelyn, you have stood up for young Adam. It will be your responsibility to show him to a guest house and teach him the basics of what he needs to know.”

From the crowd, Evelyn started walking towards Adam. “There is a guest house near where I live. That should be a good place for you.”

Adam nodded: “Thanks.”

Evelyn then turned toward her parents in the crowd: “Since Adam doesn't have anyone else to celebrate with, can he come over to celebrate with us?”

Evelyn's father spoke in a tone that only pretended to be angry: “You little whelp, you don't tell us when you are going going to first Dragon-form and you still expect a party?”

Evelyn feigned shock and distress: “You can't possibly be saying you aren't going to celebrate your beloved daughter's all important Dragon-forming, can you?”

The voice of Evelyn's father turned more serious. “Hmm, thank your mother for her hard work with such short notice.”

Evelyn joyfully bounced over to her mother and gave her a hug: “Thank you mom! I'll show Adam a few places on the way, so we will be a little while.”

Evelyn's mother hugged her back. “That's fine dear. I can get more preparations done that way.”

Evelyn parted with her parents and waved towards Adam. “Let's go!”

Adam stared at her with an amused look before following after her. Seeing Adam's look, Evelyn asked: “Why are you staring like that?”

Adam chuckled: “Sorry, you just seemed like a little girl when you were with your parents.”

Evelyn turned slightly red with embarrassment. “If you were still with your parents, you would act childish too, wouldn't you?”

Adam thought about it: “If they were still alive, I am sure I would.”

Evelyn suddenly felt bad for bringing Adam's parents up. It didn't sound like it, but she wasn't sure if Adam was upset. “Oh, sorry... I didn't know.”

Adam nodded his head: “It's all fine, now what were the places you wanted to show me?”

At this time, Heinrich came up from behind the two. “Evelyn, you ran off too fast! Let me help you show Adam around.”

“Sure, why not?”

Evelyn thought this was a great chance for Heinrich to make up for the little misunderstanding he had up on the mountain. Whenever it came to anything about Evelyn, Heinrich was always... too eager. Regardless, Evelyn still treated Heinrich as a good friend and thought Adam could also become friends with Heinrich.

Adam himself felt unsure of Heinrich. They certainly didn't get off on the right foot, but Adam didn't want to intentionally sour his relationship with Heinrich more. The three continued walking as Heinrich asked: “So Adam, you are truly from outside the village?”

“Yes. I come from a little kingdom way to the south called Heider.”

Heinrich nodded in some form of understanding. “It always takes outsiders longer to achieve their Dragon-form, than someone from the village. How old are you?”

“Heinrich!”

Evelyn wasn't sure where Heinrich was going with this, but she thought it was a little sensitive of a topic to start out with. Adam also thought it was weird, but saw no reason to not respond. “I lost track a while ago, but I am definitely over one-hundred-and-fifty years old.”

Heinrich once again nodded. “Quite the difference. I am twenty-two this year, and Evelyn is twenty!”

Even though it was obvious that Evelyn and Heinrich were still young, it was still surprising to hear. What took Adam over one-hundred-and-fifty years to accomplish only took them twenty! Evelyn looked confused at Heinrich, wondering why he was bringing this all up. She added in: “Well, it is easier for us. Our parents are dragons, or rather those who attained their Dragon-form. Being born from them, our sensitivity and understanding of spirit essence is naturally greater than others. We also start out with more spirit essence in our bodies and souls than normal people do. Most outsider spiritualists are well over two hundred years old and close to three hundred before they achieve their Dragon-form! And that's only if they are strong enough to reach that point in the first place!”

Adam nodded with interest in Evelyn's explanation. Before anything else could be said, Heinrich once again started talking: “You were pretty fast compared to other outsiders, Adam. Only one-hundred-and-fifty years or so... that's means your are just a dozen or so years younger than our parents!”

Heinrich's remark was once again odd. Evelyn couldn't understand where Heinrich was coming from with these comments about Adam's age, but Adam was starting to understand it. Heinrich was clearly trying to create a divide between them! Adam couldn't quite understand why, though.

Evelyn tried to change Heinrich's odd comment into something informative: “Birth rates for dragons are lower than normal people. It has to due with the higher concentration of spirit essence in their bodies, which is passed along to the child. It is the same reason why it was easier for us to become dragon's so much faster than a normal person. Thus, dragons are normally over one-hundred before they are able to have a child.”

After Evelyn's words had settled with Adam, she quickly took initiative before Heinrich could come up with anymore odd questions or comments. She started introducing the various places around the village to Adam. Most of the village consisted of houses. There were a few places where one could procure or make goods. This included mundane things such as baked goods all the way to spiritual tools! You could ask others to help you make something or make it yourself. You didn't have to really pay for anything or even barter! As long as your reputation was good there would be people willing to make things for you in good faith of your deeds. In turn, you would likely help make things for them. You could also learn any or even all the crafts at your own leisure. Everything was open for learning.

Finally, they arrived in one of the many residential areas. Before the three stood a house that was large enough to get a dragon inside. “This is your guest house Adam. Inside there should be some clothing of various sizes. Some of them should generally fit you. We can get you better fitting clothes later.”

Adam peaked into the house through the large barn-like door at the front. Most of the house was dedicated to a large free space for his Dragon-form. In the back of the house, however, there was a human sized door that led to a back area that included a room, bathroom, and a kitchen-dining area. It was a simple house that provided everything a new dragon like him required.

“Thank you, Evelyn. I think I will head inside to change and then we can head back out.”

Adam walked into the guest house and closed the door behind him. He then resumed his new Human-form and headed to the back of the house to get into a proper set of clothes. Outside the guest house, Evelyn and Heinrich waited. Heinrich turned and asked: “What do you think of Adam? Do you like him?”

Evelyn nodded: “I like him. He seems like he could be a good friend... I get the feeling that you don't like him, though.”

Heinrich shook his head. “How can I just trust someone whose appearance is so close to a death dragon! How can you trust him?”

Evelyn shrugged her shoulders. “I was quite scared when I saw him at first, but... I just don't feel the chill of death around him and you can tell that there is much more to him, than just death, from his scales as well. I also somehow feel I can trust him.”

Heinrich once again shook his head. “That should make you distrust him even more! Who knows if he is just hiding his personality. He might even be using some kind of formation to make you trust him!”

Evelyn gave and exasperated sigh: “Heinrich, you are just being paranoid! Do you really think the chieftain would be easily fooled into trusting Adam by such a formation?”

Heinrich couldn't say anything against that. Still, it didn't seem to help him trust Adam any more. Before the two could continue the conversation, Adam stepped out from a human sized door that was embedded in the large barn like door at the front of the house. Adam now wore some loose fitting simple clothing. The silver-white sheen on Adam's black hair could easily be overlooked, but not the golden irises of his eyes. Despite this, Heinrich was visibly shocked at Adam's appearance for another reason: “I thought you said you were over a hundred-and-fifty years old! How can you look so young?”

Adam wasn't sure where to begin: “It's kind of a long story.”

Evelyn enthusiastically nodded her head: “If you don't mind, you should tell it at the celebration. It would help everyone to get to know you better.”

It wasn't like any of it was a secret and Adam had already told the chieftain. “Sure.”

As the three departed from the guest house to walk over to Evelyn's, it appeared that Heinrich's distrust of Adam had only deepened. He looked extremely huffy whenever he glanced at Adam.

It didn't take them long to reach Evelyn's house: “This house belongs to my family. Heinrich's family house is just five places down. Since birth rates for dragons are on the low side and we were born so close together, we easily became friends as we grew up.”

Adam gave Heinrich a brief glance. He could tell Heinrich didn't like him and he was starting to think he knew why. If Heinrich and Evelyn were the only two in their age group, there wouldn't be anyone to really fight over for Evelyn's love. Adam's sudden appearance, though, may have made Heinrich feel that it was some sort of challenge to his love for Evelyn. That was why Heinrich had tried to create a divide between them through their age. Adam turned back: “Well, let's not keep them waiting.”

The trio went around to the back of the house where the celebration party was. There were banquet tables lined up with some food prepared on them. As soon as someone saw the three, they called out and let everyone know they were there and the party finally started in full swing.

Though the party was for all three achieving their Dragon-form, a lot of attention was focused on Adam. He had a unique Dragon-form and even a unique looking Human-form. He was a mystery that intrigued almost everyone. Many listened with rapt attention as he told the story of being trapped in the plane of death and loosing his original body.

Evelyn took Adam around and introduced him to everyone. Her parents, Thomas and Samantha, were rather welcoming of Adam. Thomas and Samantha didn't even look like they had hit their forties yet! Apparently, the aging process slows down since dragons actually have a very long life-span. Normal spiritualist also age less than normal people, but it had nothing on this. A spiritualist over one hundred years old would still look like he was over sixty. Yet here were two people close to two-hundred years old and they didn't even look forty yet!

Many others were also interested in meeting Adam and talking to him to learn what his specialties were and to find out more about the display of lightning he had caused in the plaza. All in all, it was a pleasant party that lasted much of the day. In the evening, Adam went back to his guest house to rest. He had plenty of questions on the tip of his tongue, but he would ask them over the days to come.