"So far we have been speaking Draconic. The language of Dragons. Humans speak several languages, but the trade tongue is the only language that all humans speak. I made sure to speak it while you were in your egg, so you should have learned it." She paused a moment and then started speaking in a different language, which I understood perfectly. "This is the trade tongue. Try it."

"Um, hi. My name is Bwyd. This language feels weird."

"Mhm, but your body will have less trouble with it than if you were in dragon form. Now to teach you the correct words to say."

We spent hours just talking in the trade language. My mother couldn't stop complimenting my grasp of the human language, and I realized the trade tongue was very similar to English. Draconic was more of a hissing, growling, and clicking language where certain patterns had meaning. There was also a slight bit of energy, that was missing from the trade tongue, that I assumed was psychic, though I'm not sure what that did. I wasn't sure a normal human would be able to understand it with the limited range of hearing and lack of psychic energy sensing organs.

Most of what we talked about was how humans lived and acted in a couple different societies. According to my mother there were five major human civilizations. The closest to us was, what she called, the tree dwelers. They lived in cities built in and around massive trees. Of all the humans they were the least friendly. They tend to turn away outsiders, and not only do they have powerful magic to keep people from finding their cities, they also use the forest as a way to keep people out. Apparently, they can move trees, and rearrange the entire forest in a day.

The next closest group, and also the one near my mother's lair, is the mountain humans. They live inside mountains in incredible cities carved from stone. She was very welcome there. They loved showing off their craftsmanship, and every citiy of the mountain humans gave her a tour of their monuments and great buildings. They sold her the area where her lair is (though they had no idea she was a dragon), and she actually has some of them working for her in what sounds like an inn or tavern.

The only other group she had visited was the fractured humans. They had once all been part of a giant empire, but they had some wars, and now they're just a bunch of kingdoms that constantly argue, and fight with each other. She said they were the most innovative of the humans, and all their inventions were as amazing as they were odd. Like a gliding ship that used magic to launch it into the are so it could glide down to its destination. She also told me that she would send me there to learn about humans for myself, because they didn't notice outsiders as much as the others.

Before she was done talking I nodded off, but I'm pretty sure I was awake for the important parts. Until I woke up.

Congratulations!

You have finished the tutorial!

You completed your first quest

Reward: 3 stat points and +1 favor with your mother.

New Quest!

Remove your curse.

Reward: Unkown

Failure: Unknown

New Quest!

Join the Wardens

Or

Join a guild

Reward: 1 stat point

Failure: none

'I feel like I missed something. What is that smell?'

I was no longer in my mother's cave. I was in some kind of city. All around me were stone buildings that looked like they came out of the Medieval era. I was in an alley laying on a dirt road, next to a lovely pile of some animals droppings. Luckily I didn't have any on me, but I could smell it, and sadly my sense of smell was much better than a human's.

I slowly got up, making sure I didn't accidentally touch the pile, or a different pile, and then I started to look around. It was early morning, so there weren't too many people around yet, but I could see some men wearing chain mail and some kind of uniform walking down the main street. I was pretty sure they were guards, so I tried to act as innocent as possible. It shouldn't have been too hard, I was actually innocent, but the moment they saw me they quickened their pace and came straight for me. I remembered from somewhere that running makes you look guilty, so I stood right there and waited for them to come to me.

"Hey, you, girl, don't move." The one who spoke had a gruff voice, and a bit of a pot belly, but he looked pretty tough.

"Hi, I'm new in town. I think I'm a little lost, where's the..."

"Shut it. We don't care about your excuses, just show us your papers, and we'll let you go." Mr. pot belly held out his hand like he expected something.

"Oh, of course my papers are, um." I made a show of checking all over for something. "They're missing. I, I think I've been robbed. I have no money, and, and." I started crying, on purpose.

The guards watched me for a moment before the pot bellied one whispered something to his partner, which I happened to overhear with my super awesome dragon hearing. "I don't know. I'd wager she's lying. You can't trust those half-elves. Who knows how old she is."

'Half-elf? Mother didn't say anything about elves, and I'm not a half-elf, I'm a dragon. That looks like a human, oh, with pointy ears. Good thing they didn't see my wings or tail, they might think I'm a demon.'

"Girl, come with us to the Warden station. We will see if you are telling the truth." The other guard spoke his first words (to me anyway) with an almost monotone voice.

"Ok, but can we stop by the adventurer's guild first, they might be able to save you the trouble. They can vouch for me." 'I hope...'

"Fine, but if you can't afford an identity ring, you must be a bad adventurer." Pot belly looked like he believed me even less.

The walk to the adventurer's guild was, awkward. I had to walk between the two of them, and no one spoke a word. Everyone we passed in the street looked at me with pity or smug looks, like they thought I was going to be punished for something. Which was very possible, I had no idea what would happen at the adventurer's guild, I was just lucky that there was actually an adventurer's guild. I pulled that name out of my knowledge of other fantasy worlds. My mother's information was really lacking. She didn't know about elves, papers, Wardens, or guilds. I just hoped they didn't need to verify my race. That would be really awkward.