Rise of Dragon (Ready Only)

Astral's thoughts wandered as she sat in her office. She by no means was bored. In fact she was on a conference call and scrolling and replying at emails at the same time. Neither took very much attention. The conference call was about a mistake someone made that she had warned them against previously and now were figuring out how to fix it. She wasn't like most authoritative figures. Ever word that came out of her mouth wasn't a command. Rather when she could, she simply provided suggestions of what they should do. It was the only way they could learn. The emails were mostly simple responding to questions employees and clients alike had. Multi-tasking was the blond woman's specialty and today was actually a rather easy day. There wasn't anywhere in particular her thoughts went. There was always plenty of things she still had to mull over. However, as her eyes roamed across some of the dragon figures that decorated her desk, she got a quick reprieve from the emails. She couldn't help but think about the dragon rp site she ran. Or sorta ran these days. Forum based rp way dying and the site was nothing like it used to be. There was a major divide in the community after a troublesome user decided to take up the path of revolution. It made her sad every time she thought about it. People she once thought of as friends now hated her guts and the site was just barely still considered alive.

As she went back to scrolling over emails while reflecting, she stumbled upon a particular letter that yelled to have all of her attention. She stuck her conference call on hold. They could resolve it just fine without her. As a rather successful business owner she had many connections. And every wealthy person had some crazy imaginations. With technology where it's at these days such crazy imagining didn't seem as crazy anymore. Humanity could print hearts and just about any organ or tissue they wanted. 3D printers could print cars and more 3D printers to print more. Cloning mammoths and nanobots that could change things on a cellar level, even DNA and chromosomes. Though the company that announced that they could do so haven't. The morality and laws behind it may not allow such a thing for centuries. However nothing could have prepared her for this email. Normally she would write if off as a crazy and ineffective scam. However it came from a credible source. Still wondering if such a source had been hacked or something she picked up her phone to call him.

"Astral, haven't heard from you in forever. It seems an email like that really is the only way I can grab your attention." Came the voice from the other end.

"I knew something was up. You shouldn't be using my little weakness like that. Made me stick a call on hold." Astral responded with an annoyed tone.

"Oh no, nothing is up. It's for real." He replied back seriously.

"There's no way anyone's creating dragons. If any thing they'd create a Jurassic park first and we're still a long way from that."

"I'm telling you it's the real deal. I even managed to pull some strings and get you a private invitation."

"Oh I get it now. You're trying to sucker me into a date. You know I don't mix my personal life with business."

"With everything I know about you it's too late for that." He laughed before his tone turned stone serious. "I'm not going to say it again though. This is the real deal. Unfortunately the date it's available is very short notice. You have to arrive in 4 days and it's in Ohio. They are rather particular and secretive as you might expect. Speaking of which I'm sure you're already aware but don't share any of this with anyone. I'll send you the email with all the details shortly. I got to go now. Take care."

Before she had a chance to say anything more he hung up. She still couldn't believe this was a thing. Still if it was and she missed out on it she was going to kill herself. Calling up her secretary she told him to clear her schedule for the next 3 days and that she was leaving the office as well. Freaking Ohio was near the other end of the continent. Astral hated flying, well rather hated the process to get flying. In most scenarios she'd drive herself, sometimes even taking one of her motorcycles. It's a good thing she ran her business the way she did or doing this would be impossible without damaging her reputation in some way.
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A couple days later after a painful flight she was now being driven in the back of a limo that was specifically designed so the occupant couldn't see out but those on the outside could see in. Almost felt like a kidnapping. She eventually reached the destination. What and where she still didn't know. Upon exiting the vehicle she found herself to be in an underground parking lot of sorts. There to greet her were two armed guards and another fellow in the usual professional get up.

"Welcome to the facility. My name's Thomas and I'll be your guide." The man in the business getup introduced and extended a hand.

"Astral." She responded plainly returning the boring gesture of a hand shake. She didn't half *** it though. Handshakes were important to get right, because reasons.

"I hope you don't mind the security detail? As you might imagine the stuff we are researching here is top secret." Thomas said.

"It's all good, I understand." Astral replied.

"Excellent. I'll take you to the lounge where we can meet up with out other guest and we can get some formality paper work out of the way."

Astral didn't realize there would be another guest. It didn't bother her any and she still felt special getting a sneak peak at this. Upon entering the lounge she was greeted by the other guest. Again beginning with the handshake.

"They didn't tell me the other person to be on the tour would be a beautiful lady. My name is Fred, a pleasure to meet you Miss...?"

"Astral" She replied.

"Ah a unique and beautiful name. Fitting if I do say so myself."

Astral didn't feel like bothering with the small talk and moved on to get the paper signing out of the way. She was getting rather giddy with excitement and eager to see what they had. Once finished Thomas began the tour. Seemed they were just touring labs as Thomas spoke. "...Our goal is to create a dragon park--" Astral was quick to interrupt with a question.

"Why dragons rather than dinosaurs? They are far more popular and practical." Astral asked.

"True, however we are ambitious and when we are finished everyone will forget all about dinosaurs." Thomas replied.

The tour continued. They were using nanobot serums to change existing creatures into dragons. They were actually using dinosaur fossils as a starting point for the structure and even claimed to have figured out how to grant the creatures flight. They were still testing how large they could make the dragons with them still able fly.

"Wait, you guys have dragons already? Why the heck aren't we touring those?" Astral complained.

"Unfortunately I can't show you the dragons themselves." Thomas replied.

"Why the heck not? You've already told us you have them and all about how and why. What harm or secret are you revealing by showing us?" Astral adamantly continued.

"Miss please. We still aren't ready to reveal them even to our honored guests. As you are probably already aware the legalities of what we are doing are rather grey. We'll actually be ready to construct and begin the park the moment we can either find a way through or change some of these obstacles."

Astral grumbled and mumbled complaints but otherwise dropped it. She knew how these things worked but couldn't believe she was being denied after being so close to seeing an actual dragon. It was freaking fantasy come to life and if she wasn't currently caught up in the hype and excitement she still wouldn't be able to believe it. Heck until she saw them she wouldn't fully believe it.

Fred approached her again after her little outburst. Throughout their trip Fred the other guest had been pestering her with personal questions and trying to hit on her. She managed to get him to back off after answering some simple if some slightly unorthodox questions. Unorthodox wasn't unusual in this crowd though. Her answers were, no she didn't really have much in the way of family pretty much just being on her own; no she wasn't married or dating and wasn't interested; no she wasn't here for business only a personal fascination with dragons. But now here he was coming to bother her again.

"I've actually seen them. They're also beautiful, just as you are. I might be able to pull some strings if you're interested." Fred proposed.

Astral didn't even have to consider it. She knew she was going to have to owe him a date or something. Actually he probably wanted sex too. She wasn't going to go that far but it was worth it to lead him on. "Yes please." She answered. He seemed unusually satisfied at that answer, even beaming. Why the heck was he this interested? People of their class didn't get desperate as most things they wanted came straight to them.

Fred walked up to one of the security guards that were escorting them and whispered some stuff in his ear. The guard nodded and Fred headed back, grabbing her hand, pulling her into a separate path ditching their guide with the guard casually following them. Had he bribed the guard or was it a reputation and connection kind of thing? Suppose it didn't matter so long as she got to see her dragon. The guard now led the way and opened doors with his pass.

All seemed fine until they reached what could be a air lock or something like that. Wasn't the room that was off but the two with her. They seemed...different. Suddenly the guard grabbed her wrists and pulled both her arms behind her back keeping her restrained. "What the hell!" Astral cried out. Fred approached her with a grin that made her very uneasy...well more so than she already was.

"Don't worry beautiful. This'll only take a moment and then you'll be so much better." Fred said while procuring a syringe from his person. Astral struggled uselessly trying to bring her legs up to kick regardless of the guard pressing her arms in hurting her to try and keep her under control.

"I have money too. I'll pay double what he is paying and this is massively illegal." Astral offered more than begged. She had too much of an ego to let her voice lose it's confidence. Fred moved to her side where Astral couldn't effectively kick him and injected her with the syringe. She refused to cry out from the pain of it. Astral stopped struggling of her own choice once the needle was removed.

"All right so now what? What's your grand plan?" Astral asked.  

"I'd tell you but you probably wouldn't be able to listen to me. So I'll tell you later." Fred responded.

"What?" Astral was so confused. Was it some sort of anesthetic to knock her out? She could feel a numbness flowing through her, but she could still flex her muscles just fine. Then suddenly the most agonizing pain she'd ever felt rippled all throughout her body. She cried out at the top of her lungs and all her muscles tensed up. Fred instructed the guard to let her go and Astral fell straight to the ground in agonizing pain.

"Believe me I don't want to hurt you. I actually want you as undamaged as possible. But there is no way for the transformation to work without rearranging the nerves. You'll be perfectly healthy but nerves kinda hurt." Fred explained though Astral paid attention to none of it. It felt as if the entirety of her body was trying to rip it's self apart. The first thing to begin happening was she was losing weight and slowly shrinking in size. All her hair and even her finger nails fell off leaving her with just smooth skin. Her bones began rearranging her hips snapping into a different position dooming her to walking on all fours. Her legs began taking a shape more suited to a quadruped and her arms shifting into fore legs. Black scales began replacing skin all along her. Some being thicker and less mobile than others. Notably the ones along her legs being the thinnest. A pair of bones began growing from her and slowly became black leathery wings. Next her spine began growing in both direction pushing her neck out and bulking with muscle to support the head. Mean while the other side snaked out to form a tail the same length as her body. Her head bulked up both widening but mostly lengthening to form a muzzle. Her teeth fell out of her mouth only for long sharp ones with a gentle curve inwards to take their place. Her toes and fingers reformed with her toes merging into three long and thick toes tipped with wicked claws. Her now front legs formed four toes also tipped with claws with her thumb becoming less mobile and no longer in a position to grasp things. No horns pushed out of her head the only change beyond the muzzle being her eyes changing from a light blue to a bright green and her pupils vertical slits. Her breasts had receded long ago and she now shrunk to the size of a small house cat. Astral was now a fully formed dragon her cries of pain and agony having long since turned into little roars of pain and agony. The moment the transformation and pain was finished she passed out from exhaustion.

The moment Astral woke she knew she was in a car however her senses were absolutely overwhelmed. Smell and hearing all getting too much information she didn't know how to process. Despite her body screaming against opening her eyes she did so anyways knowing she was still in danger. However even her eyes were sharper and it proved too much, her brain shutting itself back down.

When she awoke again she was no longer in a car and her senses weren't as overwhelmed. Well her nose still was maybe even more so now for some reason. But her ears were at peace. Well hearing, she didn't have ears anymore. Still her body did not want to open it's eyes but again she forced it. This time thankfully not enough stimulation to knock her out again. She stayed still for who knows how long trying to adjust. Her muzzle wasn't that intrusive to her sight thankfully just being slightly more in the way than a regular nose. Despite everything Astral stayed very still. It didn't help she wasn't totally aware of how to move everything. Her body felt so strange and unfamiliar. It was all so surreal and unbelievable. She was slowly convincing herself this was a dream.

Fred walked in grabbing something off a bed. Maybe this was a bedroom? Oh and she was in a cage. Fred didn't seem to pay her any attention as he gathered some sheets from it. On his way out he spared her a glance and then he stopped in his tracks.

"You're awake." He stated surprised. "I would have thought you the noisy type."

He then approached her cage and crouched down to be closer at eye level. He was so much bigger than her now. She hardly even flinched though, still in a daze. Fred slowly brought a finger forwards towards her snout. As dazed as she was she did not want him touching her. A growl came from her muzzle as it near and Fred pulled back. "That's more like it." She stopped abruptly startling herself that she had growled. She was begining to come out of her daze and on very unsteady feet got up again. It just felt right to resume again growling as anger from her predicament boiled within her. She examine her surrounding confinement only to trip on her own wing and fall on it in the cramped space. She let out a pained squeak.

"Aren't you just adorable." Fred commented. "You know I thought it was going to be years before I found the perfect candidate and then you just magically fall in my lap. No family or loved ones to miss you and go looking. Not an investor to help my project along but instead a fan. And oh so beautiful. To top it all off you're of high society. Maybe not totally like most but I can see the confidence and self worth oozing from you. It's going to be such a joy to see you change. You know you were suppose to have white scales but somehow the idiots gave me the wrong syringe. I'm glad they did, I can't even believe how perfect you are. I don't even need to rename you. It's good you showed up so soon. This little dragon project is failing. There isn't much funds for it to go on much longer. The animals we convert to dragons can't survive. We know more about the universe than we do our own oceans and we know more about the oceans than we do our own brains. It'll be decades maybe even a century before we have the understanding and technology we need in order to rewrite the proper survival instincts into them. A human on the other hand can adapt. Not easily by any means but it can be done. For obvious reasons we can't go around kidnapping humans for our park. Only I will have a pet dragon."

Astral squeaked as the sudden high pitched ding dong of a door bell assaulted her hearing. It also interrupted Fred's monologue slash appreciated if infuriating exposition.

"Ah, the vet is here. The timing is perfect for your physical." Fred said approaching her cage and lifting it up before carrying it off. The cage swayed back and forth as he walked to greet the vet and Astral felt like she was going to be nauseous. She wanted to stand up and try to balance herself but was still trapped with her wing under her and not enough room to figure out how to get off it. After their greeting the vet went to prepare a spot in the kitchen. Made her very nervous. While waiting though it gave her a chance to look around. She was in a mansion a well decorated one at that but found nothing notable beyond that. Her main concern was how to escape, but being so small and unable to open doors made it seem impossible. This was basically a prison where only her escorts could lead her around. Or as he'd prolly prefer being called master. Astral visibly gagged at that thought. She probably couldn't talk. But just in case the little dragon attempted to but only succeeded in some really funky sounding grunts, growls, and other inhuman noises. Even nearly bit down on her tongue which stopped that nonsense. She wasn't interested in a tongue piercing.

Eventually it was time and her cage placed on a large kitchen island prepared to kinda look like a vets office. The moment they moved her off her own wing she was going to bolt. The cage door opened and Fred's hand reached in. Oh how tempting it was to bite it. He grabbed her by the neck and muscles she didn't even realize she had tensed went limp. In her mind she was freaking out. This may not be the body she was comfortable with but at the moment it was her body and she was not at all happy about not being able to move it.

"You like?" Asked Fred probably rhetorically. "The reflex isn't present in any known reptiles but we made sure to add it. It's very handy for taking care of feral dragons and in this case you."

"You're really taking to your new pet dragon aren't you." The vet commented.

"Yea, she's very special. And I want to make sure she's healthy. And you." Fred said pointing right at her to which Astral growled. "Are going to behave, or else." He then placed her down still growling confident she was going to listen. She could bolt right now. His threat scared her though. He'd already turned her to the helpless size of a small house cat. What could she possibly do. Couldn't communicate, couldn't run, and probably couldn't fight. Maybe if she could fit her jaws around his neck maybe. But if she failed that could be the end of her life. Didn't matter how "special" she was. Astral knew he wouldn't tolerate her life if she went after his own.

"Well go on make sure nothings wrong." Fred said to the vet who was a little hesitant to begin on the still growling dragon. He feared his boss more than the little dragon though and approached. It wasn't long before her growling actually stopped and she became very interested in what he was doing. He may have been checking to make sure nothing was wrong but in doing so he was showing her how her body moved and to what limits. Near the end of it she'd gotten a pretty good grasp on her body. Seemed there was more he was doing behind her tail though. She struggled to see what exactly when suddenly something probed her private nether region. Astral gave out a loud yelp and pulled away before quickly turning and biting at the hand. The vet just barely pulled away in time. Meanwhile Fred just chuckled. Astral really hated him.

"So?" Fred asked.

"A perfectly healthy young baby." The vet replied. 'Hatchling' Astral silently corrected. Wait hatchling? Well good to know she wasn't going to be this small forever.

Astral was placed back in her cage and her cage brought back to Fred's room. His daughter who seemed to be about 10 years old followed him. Utterly fascinated with Astral.

"Can I play with it! Can I play with it!" She begged her high pitched voice and instance causing Astral's hearing some pain.

"Not for awhile. She still needs to be trained." Fred replied. Astral growled at him but he pretended not to notice.

The kid then had a tantrum and Fred had to pick her up and take her out and he didn't come back. Astral was left with nothing to do but think. She came to the realization she was probably doomed. Even if she managed to escape there was nobody with the technology to changer her back. Plus it wasn't like she swapped bodies. This was her original body just completely changed. How would they know what to put her back as. There wasn't even a way she could talk to anyone. It wouldn't be bad being a dragon though. She'd often dreamt and mused about it. Everything about her life was in that damn mans hands now though. Freaking everything. She still had a responsibility to those that worked under her too. They'd probably be able to manage without her but she knew how people were. They were prolly spending just as much as they make and the moment they start making a fair bit less they are going to be in huge trouble. Astral had no interest in letting all those families that rely on her struggle, even if it was their own stupid fault. There was no hope of that though. Perhaps she should just starve herself. As new and now exciting as this new body was her confinement was very boring.

Only a single day had past of her not eating and she was already ravenously hungry. She could have gone 3 days as a human before being this bad. Maybe it had something to do with her being a growing hatchling. It was madding though. Fred came back into his room and Astral was actually glad for the distraction. His daughter Penelopy or Penny as they nicknamed her following closely behind. He grabbed the key to her cage from one of his drawers at the nightstand of his bed and then came to her with another chicken leg in hand. Another that she would refuse to eat.

"Look." Fred opened his lecture. "We both know how this is going to go. I know you enough to know you aren't going to let yourself die. You have too much pride for that even with everything being stripped from you. You should just accept that I'll take care of you. Feed you, give you attention, and take care of all your needs. You know eventually you will anyways. Your brain forced to rationalize the situation in order to cope. That it wouldn't be so bad. So rather than causing your own suffering just accept it now. I truly want to make sure you stay well." He then opened the cage and tossed the leg in. "She hated to admit it but he was right. She wasn't interested in dying. She'd been suicidal before and decided long ago she could always find a reason for living. As for her supposed inevitable changed of heart. She didn't want to believe it. But she knew full well what the brain could and would do during times of prolonged stress. As confident in her will power as she was, what he said wouldn't even be all that hard for her brain. Astral reluctantly began dipping into the chicken leg and surprising her self began ravenously trying to consume it. It wasn't at all easy either. Her jaw couldn't grind and her teeth wouldn't be able to do that anyways. She ended up having to hold the leg down with a fore paw biting down and tearing a peace off before throwing her head up and swallowing what she tore whole. Once she got a hang of it, it actually became rather easy. She used to dislike the taste of chicken, but this was pretty good.

"That's a good girl." Fred said reaching his arm forward to pat her. Astral quickly snapped her neck over to it and tried to bite at it but yet again another hand barely escaped. "Suit yourself. So long as you're eating now I'm happy." With that he left after putting the key to her cage back away. His daughter seemed to pay extra attention to that. She exited with him though leaving her alone to strip the bone bare. Astral may have decided to eat, but she was going to refuse to be his pet for as long as she could.

The next day while Astral was pretty sure Fred was working his daughter came in alone. Penny went toward the drawer with her cage key and took it out before heading to Astral's cage. The small hatchling had a bad feeling about this. Penny opened up the cage and started reaching for the dragon. Astral darted out evading capture from the kid but quickly stumbled over herself. Penny came running after her with a hearing grating laugh. Astral got herself up and took off again out the door that was left open. 'Don't think like a biped, you're a quadruped now. It's more of a jumping action to run on all fours. Leap with left and right back legs while catching the ground with the left and right front legs while maneuvering the body to prepare for the next leap forward. All the while using this helpful tail for counter balance. The ground felt like it was flying by Astral as she sprinted across the carpet. Somehow that freaking kid was hot on her tail. Seriously almost within grabbing distance of her actual tail. Spreading her wings Astral attempted to use them to speed her up but the action seemed to really excite Penny as the kid let out a sequel. The sound was so awful Astral couldn't even focus on running and tumbled over herself. Penny caught up going straight for her limbs. It was like she was a **** toddler. "Leave the dragon alone!" Astral said in the form of a roar. It was no use though and Penny's biggest fascination was Astral wing. Why was it always the **** wings. Penny pulled on the limbs painfully Astral squeaking and roaring in protest to no avail. Only one thing left to do. Astral bit down on Penny's left arm the girl quickly let go screaming in pain with tears not far behind. Even as small as she was Astral's sharp and long teeth had actually caused quite a bit of damage to the girls arm with more blood coming out then Astral was typically use to seeing. 'Ohhhhh **** I'm in for it now.' She had to escape right away. Running around Astral looked for anywhere she could go. Amazingly enough her salvation was in the form of an open bathroom window. It took many tries just to figure out how to jump to it and she gave pause before jumping out into the open. This window was apparently two stories up which to her seemed like a skyscraper drop down. It was either for sure stay and die though or probably die jumping down. Astral decided to go with the probably and leapt out. Extending her wings she figure now would be the best time to find out she instinctively knew how to fly. No luck and she quickly spiraled out of control. It was still a slower fall than if she just plummeted though and crashed very painfully and damnit. She could clearly see and especially feel she had broken a wing. She should have pulled them in before crashing.

There was no time to lick her wounds so to speak. Actually that's probably what she would have to do if she actually had any open wounds. But no time for that now. Astral just ran and ran. She didn't even know for how long as she crossed open plains then a forest and then she lost track.

She didn't even know when she passed out. Just that it was night and she could still see where she was running just fine till she went out. When she awoke the sun was in the middle of the sky and her eyes struggled to open as a painful barking sounded seemingly right on top of her. Finnaly getting them open she found a Chihuahua a few feet in front of her barking away. Astral was terrified of dogs and while Chihuahuas didn't really bother her that much there was now nowhere near as much of a size difference. Astral ran the other way as if she was running for her life which she felt like she was despite how easy killing the dog would actually be for her. Her left broken wing was agonizingly being dragged behind her but again no time to worry about it.

It was March, only six days in mind you, but still on the cool side during the day. The evenings were cold. Baldi loved the cold but he was hoping for warmer weather soon. He was going on a much-needed vacation next weekend. The weather in Ohio ended up where he was going. If it rained here, it would rain there. He intended to do some fishing while he was away and was unlikely to catch anything if the weather was unfavorable. He glanced at the bottom right corner of his computer screen. 3:25 AM. Where had the time gone? The last time he bothered to consult a clock was at 9:00 PM. Aside from checking weather reports he had spent the past few hours replying to posts. Baldi was an admin on a dragon roleplay site, a site that was lacking in activity lately.

There were four members besides himself that were active right now. One of the members was a moderator. For the longest time, Baldi had been the only active member of staff. Both he and this moderator had begun placing ads for the site around the web to bring in new members. Waiting to see if anything would come of those efforts was nerve-wracking. So Baldi focused on the few RPs that were currently taking place. At the moment, he was finishing a post for an RP concerning the tribe one of his characters governed. Most of the members active right now had characters in that tribe so it made it easier to concoct a plot.

At about 3:40 he finished and scrolled through the list of topics for his next post. One, in particular, caught his attention. It was a topic created by Astral, the site's owner. It had become apparent to Baldi that the activeness of the site was directly related to the presence of its owner. When Astral was present, the site was alive. If she was absent, the number of guests increased. The chat was lively and everyone's mood was improved. When she was away, things slowed to a crawl. So seeing that Astral had actually found the time to start an RP made Baldi happy. Perhaps activity would pick up again. This also meant he might not have to worry about the site while he was on vacation.

Baldi automatically went to edit mode as soon as the page loaded. He enjoyed RPing with Astral, but the woman couldn't type without multiple errors to save her life. He often teased her about it. Why it bugged him so much was beyond him. Others made spelling and grammatical errors and he never corrected their posts. He did so with Astral because she allowed him to edit her posts, though he had never asked. Editing was second nature to him. As he read what Astral had written, he mentally corrected anything that needed fixing. It didn't at all take away from the enjoyment of actually reading what was there. When he finished, he went back and fixed the mistakes. Only the mistakes were visible to him as he moved down the page; everything else had disappeared.

He glanced at the clock again. 6:00 AM. Astral had left him a lot to live up to with his post. He didn't have to match hers, he knew. Depending on what character he was using, Baldi's first post tended to be lengthy. While he could have easily stayed up another hour to get started at least, he needed some sleep. He closed the laptop, setting it on the floor beside his bed.

At 11-ish, Baldi awoke and began his usual routine. He let his two dogs, Shih Tzu/Yorkshire Terrier Bear and Shih Tzu Elliott, outside. He had a nice side dish of cholesterol, blood pressure, and diabetes medicine with breakfast. He sighed. At only 23 years old he had to take these. It could have been worse, however. He could have had to take insulin. Soon the dogs were scratching and whining to be let in. He got up from the couch and opened the door. Bear and Elliott had their own morning routine. Go outside. Come back inside. Receive a treat. The last one was most important. If Baldi skipped the final step, Bear stared at him expectantly while Elliott whined. So the former received a dog biscuit and the latter a carrot. By the time Baldi returned to his food, the dogs were searching for additional treats.

Following breakfast, Baldi showered then left the house. At the moment he was without a job. In all honesty, he didn't like working with people. He supposed this originated from his school days. Whenever it was required to work with a partner, Baldi was stuck with whoever remained. Sometimes his partner was someone who's preferred choice had been taken. On rare occasion, he was lucky enough to have to work alone. As a result of the former scenario, he preferred working alone. He also just didn't like being around people in general. Again, it came from his experiences in school. He knew not everyone was like how classmates had been. The damage had been done already.

Still, he managed to get a job because he could manage to appear normal. Why, then, was he not working now? Simple. The universe hated him. Baldi has flat feet.  As with most of his problems, it didn't really affect him 'til middle school. Over the past year, it had gotten worse. He often had to take breaks at his job. So he quit. The idea of a desk job bored him as much as going to college. But he didn't wish to be unemployed forever, so he attends physical therapy twice a week.

Right now, however, he had an errand to run. Baldi had a veterinarian acquaintance whom he drove to various clients. This vet worked for a company which was supposedly creating dragons. While Baldi had always believed in them, he doubted the vet's claim. "When are you going to get your car fixed?" Baldi inquired.

The vet, Benjamin, shrugged. "When I have time."

As Baldi drove along the river, he noticed the water was rather high. The drive through downtown was slow. The red lights dominated the traffic today. Baldi hated them in this part of town. He always managed to get every single one. In fact, he sat at one now. "Yeah? I think you just like have someone driving you around."

"It is quite nice." The vet spoke in a manner which suggested he considered making this permanent.

Baldi scoffed. "Then you better get a cab or start paying me."

Benjamin laughed at the thought of paying someone. "I didn't realize I had to pay a friend who is doing me a favor."

"I don't have friends. And you're milking it on this favor aren't you?" Yet another red light brought the car to a stop. How far had he gotten this time? Half a car length? Maybe a full one?

The vet said nothing.  He was indeed milking it. Why not? This young man wasn't going to refuse. He still hoped that Benjamin might tell him more about his work at the company. Perhaps even show proof of his claim. The remainder of the drive was in silence save for the radio playing. Baldi took Benjamin to his office to retrieve his supplies. While the vet was inside, he watched the people walking by. Some were heading to the pizza place. It was beside a sandwich shop. Across from them was the Chase building. Other people were walking to the bus station. A group of kids was walking to school. Suddenly, the car door opened. Benjamin climbed into the passenger seat. Baldi pulled away from the curb and continued driving through downtown.

An hour later saw them in a tri-city area. They were very close to each other. One might have considered them to be one city. In fact, two of them sat on opposite sides of a road. One had a lot of farmland. At the moment, Baldi was driving past a stretch of cornfields. As he neared a large house with a large tree in the yard, the vet directed him to stop. He parked and waited while the vet went inside. With nothing to watch out here other than the grass, Baldi looked at his reflection in the window. Benjamin returned a few minutes later.

"So what kind of pet did they have?" Baldi asked as he began the drive back.

"A reptile," Benjamin answered simply.

"Oh really? What kind?"

"I wasn't sure. Reptiles aren't really my area of expertise."

"You're employed by a company that is supposedly creating dragons. How are reptiles outside your area of expertise?"

"I have no experience with reptiles. There have many other animals to care for that I am familiar with." After a bit of silence, the vet added, "And not 'supposedly'. They are."

"Sure. So why don't you show me sometime? If you aren't going to pay me for driving you all over the place, you could at least do that."

"Among other obvious reasons, the company would prefer... How can I put this delicately? They are only interested in certain people."

"I see," was all Baldi said.

Back home, Baldi went about the rest of his day. Most of it was spent tackling various jobs around the house. He often checked DRF to see if anyone was online besides himself. Around 7:00 PM Baldi ate dinner and turned on his laptop. While he ate, he checked his email. He took Bear and Elliott for a walk around the neighborhood. After, he reread what Astral posted earlier. As he always did when replying to an RP, Baldi simply wrote. In his mind, he saw many different outcomes. The nature of the RP determined just how far into it he could see. The creator of it also played a factor at times. How he replied was determined solely by what he wrote. His writing was rarely decided by what he saw, however; there were just too many choices. Only two hours into his reply, Baldi got a little writer's block. He stopped for the night and spent some time on his Xbox.

The next day, Baldi returned to the tri-city area he had been to yesterday. It had a nature reserve. There were trails in it that Baldi liked to hike. It was also a decent place for fishing. Today, he was doing the latter. The first pond produced nothing but a discarded fishing line. A second pond yielded a few bites, but from minnows and crayfish intent on trapping his hook beneath a rock. The third seemed very promising because there were other people around, some of whom had fish. For a while, Baldi circled the pond, trying different spots. He finally found one he liked. He wasn't there long, however, when he heard a small dog barking. The bark was familiar to him. It belonged to a stray Chihuahua. How did he know the Chihuahua was a stray? He'd encountered it before. Baldi walked toward a trail the barking seemed to originate. He left his fishing pole behind, knowing no one would bother it.

The barking was getting closer. The small dog appeared to be chasing something. And sure enough, something came out of the brush with the dog close behind. But what was it? It was about the same size as the Chihuahua. It was undeniably a reptile. Were those wings on its back? He noticed one dragging on the ground. Baldi grabbed the Chihuahua and contemplated getting the odd-looking reptile, too. Only a moment passed before he made up his mind. He sent the dog after a leftover peanut butter sandwich and followed the animal it had been chasing. He didn't run; instinct told him the animal would stop soon. The injured appendage had to be causing pain. As Baldi slowly gained ground, he realized something. The small winged reptile bore a striking resemblance to a dragon. He should know, after all, he roleplayed as one. Had Benjamin told the truth? Baldi shook his head. Right now, there was a more pressing matter at hand. He had a more important question to ask. What was he going to do once he caught this thing?

The moment she exited some brush she found a human staring right at her. If a god existed it was out to get her. The young adult didn't wear any security or traditional work attire, still she assumed him an underling of the very person she wanted to be as far away from as possible. She veered a little to the right and then more so as a pond came in sight. She had smelled it long before actually seeing it even the human, but couldn't trust her nose anymore. She didn't know what information it was feeding her. Smells that were once familiar now had too much information associated to be recognized. The Chihuahua seemed to abandon it's chase interested by something else but now she had to worry about this human chasing after her. It was too much though. She had no stamina left and the intense pain of her wing hadn't helped any. It didn't matter that giving up would lead to her death the choice was out of her hands...her paws? Her legs having gone too weak causing her to stumble flipping over herself. The pain reminding her of the pain from her transformation as she flipped over her own broken wing. She gave out a weak cry, the most her body could muster. Having stopped all momentum she didn't bother moving a muscle. Her muzzle was slightly open her sharp teeth on display as her lungs heaved to filter air.

As the human with dark features got closer Astral was forced to accept it was now only a matter of time before she was killed. She wondered if Fred would do it himself or order another to do it. What would she have done had she escaped anyways? She couldn't communicate with humans and even those unaffiliated with Fred would be more than interested in her capture and then with the power at Fred's disposal he'd manage to reacquire her. She could avoid humanity all together and had little doubt she could learn how to survive eventually assuming nothing ate her. But again it wouldn't matter. The rate at which her metabolism moved she'd starve long before learning how to hunt anything. Even now she could feel her stomach churning upon itself in angry hunger demanding payment for all the energy she had used up. Then she'd also go mad from isolation. Heck her brain might even retreat within itself and she could become a feral dragon. How easily her life had been snuffed. How could she have known her fascination with the mythical creature would lead to this. Heck even having been living it, it felt impossible. Not even her longest and most vivid of dreams could replicate this kind of exhaustion, pain, and mental panic though. She was a dragon and she was too busy fearing for her life to enjoy it.

As Baldi had predicted, the slightly-bigger-than-a-Chihuahua-sized reptile stopped running. He could just make out a sound being emitted from the animal. It sounded pained. His pace remained the same, however; it wouldn't get away. Once he reached the winged reptile, Baldi stopped and scanned the area ahead. There was a pond. No one was fishing in it. He looked behind him. The Chihuahua had probably finished the sandwich by now. The fact it hadn't caught up suggested it had found something more interesting to terrorize. Baldi knelt and regarded the little thing before him. The longer he looked at its features, the more sure of himself he became. This was, without a doubt, a dragon. What else would you call a reptile will wings? Suddenly he was immensely excited, though it didn't show on his face. No, he felt it within, that sinking stomach feeling, only in his chest. And then he thought of something, rather someone. Astral. Baldi knew of no one else who liked dragons as much as her. If only she lived in Ohio and he knew her outside DRF. But alas, this was not so. It wouldn't matter if he did, though. Here or in Washington, she was a busy person. Despite her saying otherwise, he wouldn't just message her out of the blue unless it was something important. Well... he occasionally messaged her only to say hi. But he made a point of doing this only if a couple weeks or so had passed since he'd last talked to her. Usually. Baldi shifted to kneel on his knees, giving his feet a break. This discovery wasn't important, per se, but it was definitely worth trying to get Astral's attention with a bit of excessive messaging.

Right now, however, that would have to wait. For one thing, Baldi didn't have a piece of technology on him. And this dragon--no, this Hatchling--was injured. It was exhausted. Carefully, he grabbed the base of the tail and the forelegs. He wasn't concerned about getting scratched by the back claws. Once he had it off the ground he turned the Hatchling over to see the broken wing. It hung down. For obvious reasons, Baldi wanted to conceal the Hatchling as he made his way back to the car. There wasn't that great a chance he'd run into anyone between here and there. Still it was better to be on the safe side. So Baldi lowered the Hatchling--he still couldn't believe this was a word that he could now apply to real life--to the ground again. It wasn't cool out but he wore a light blue denim jacket. It kept the mosquitos off. He removed it and set it beside the baby dragon. Once he had it on the jacket--he made sure it was lying on its right side--he carefully wrapped the jacket around it. Then he made his way back to the pond where he'd left his fishing pole. A couple people had moved on. His pole had been undisturbed.

Baldi drove with his right hand while cradling the denim-wrapped Hatchling in his left arm. For the next hour, he thought of what to do with this discovery. This broken wing needed care, but he couldn't just go to the vet down the street. For one thing, the vet that cared for wild/exotic animals that sometimes ended up at the shelter wasn't in today. How would he even explain this lizard with wings? He could go to Benjamin... A car horn interrupted his train of thought. The sky was getting dark. Baldi pushed the gas pedal down a little more. Bear was terrified of thunderstorms and heavy rain, the fault of  his owner. Yes, the Shorkie had always been afraid of storms, but a trip to Kentucky added on to that. They had been walking in a park when a storm complete with lightning, thunder, heavy rain, and hail rolled in. From then on the poor dog became so anxious he often ended up shaking and drooling. Classical music seemed to help but only as long as the rain was light and the thunder distant. Most cases Baldi ended up sleeping in either the bathroom or closet. That's assuming he actually got to sleep. But he didn't care.

The intersection just down the street from home was insufferable. It took at least ten minutes to be able to turn. No matter the time of day, you could expect to wait a while. Baldi sat here now, two other cars in front of him, four behind. Just when it seemed the oncoming traffic had stopped, someone came racing round the corning. Baldi took the time to regard the Hatchling he held. He would have to keep it isolated from his dogs. Aside from common sense, he reasoned it might not be too fond of being around a creature that had previously chased it--especially given his dogs were much bigger than a Chihuahua. He had a spare room he used for his artwork. It could easily be cleared out to make a suitable nest, as it were, for this new addition to the household. But the injured wing... Baldi had once aspired to be a vet. His... preferences... and boredom when it came to school put an end to that. Yet it wouldn't stop him from being able to treat this. It couldn't be all that different from, say, a bat. Granted, he had never treated a bat. Another car horn sounded. Finally. Baldi was able to turn off the intersection and go home.

Baldi had barely pulled into the garage when the barking started. The claws raking the door did the same to his legs as he walked in. "Elliott, go to bed. Bear... just... get out of the kitchen." The former trotted off to his bed under the assumption he'd be getting a treat in return. Bear did whatever he felt like; at the moment, he felt like being in the kitchen. "Okay. I'll remember that next time you want a t-r-e-a-t." Baldi set the denim bundle onto the kitchen counter and unfolded it. He didn't turn on the light. Elliott, tired of waiting for a treat that apparently wasn't coming his way any time soon, climbed out of his bed and looked for a toy. Bear was still in the kitchen, sitting by the dishwasher and staring up at Baldi. Baldi was studying the Hatchling's left wing. Gently, he lifted and felt along it. He could feel the broken bone. He needed materials for a wing splint. Wait, no he didn't. He had an actual splint. It took a few minutes to find. Baldi had once taken care of a family member's bird, who at the time had a broken wing. For some reason, he'd kept the splint.

He spent the next hour making adjustments. He had gotten the Hatchling onto its stomach then gave it some water and a few pieces of cooked chicken. He would have to defrost some meat later. Once he was satisfied with his work, Baldi began the process of applying the splint to the wing. He went about it like he would a drawing. He visualized what the finished product would look like. The vision became reality in half an hour. Since he was thinking about it, Baldi checked the gender of the Hatchling. A female.  He carried her into his art room. A tarp covered the floor in case of spills. Toward the back of the room there was a large desk. In the center was an easel; at the moment there was a blank canvas on it. The left back corner housed a set of drawers holding brushes, pencils, charcoal sticks, and paint. The right front corner had a stack of sketchbooks. On the walls hung a couple works he was particularly proud of. One was a charcoal drawing of a Golden Retriever puppy at a fence. Another was a drawing of his very first pet, a Chow Chow. Baldi would have to clear out the room later. For now, he took a couple towels and fashioned a bed for the Hatchling in an unoccupied corner. He set her down on the towels and placed bowls of water and cooked chicken nearby. "I'll have something better later," he told the little dragon before heading out of the room, "And maybe a name." The door closed behind him.

As the human got uncomfortably close Astral had a choice to make. Either she could use what little energy she didn't have to try and bite him and hope he changed his mind about messing with her. Or she could play nice and hope that by basically submitting to what Fred wanted, her life would be spared. She believed she had a much better chance living with the later option. Something seemed odd about the young male who stopped to examine her though. He wasn't so surprised as if never expecting to ever see a dragon which convinced her he was an employee of Fred. However he also wasn't quick to grab her and not out of fear. More surprise and intrigue. Eventually the dreaded moment came and he went to grab her. She didn't need proper dragon instincts for it to be nearly impossible to resist biting him. Despite attempting the submission approach a weak growl was escaping her as he reached forward and her muscles tensing up as he grabbed her. Either he was incredibly brave or something else. She may be small but it was like picking up a miniature tiger but with scales and wings, though injured and exhausted. He didn't pick her up hastily or in a way that he expected her to escape. The way he picked her up was rather uncomfortable though. Regardless of not being used to being picked up by an appendage she didn't have a few days ago. It didn't hurt her tails was thick and he had it at the base but she felt very uneasy. It felt like walking on a railing and tipping over struggling not to fall off. She wasn't intending to hurt him any but her rear feet struggled for something solid if a little weakly given her condition.

The male seemed to examine her specifically her injured wing before setting her down again. Astral stared up at him, she was puzzled. He then proceeded to wrap her up in his jacket careful to keep her off her bad wing. A new theory was beginning to form. This human who ever he was probably didn't want her anymore injured than she already was because he planned on selling her. Who else in their right mind would pick up a creature such as herself.

She was then transported to a car, big shock. From there all she knew was she was being driven and through a city. The sounds were brutal to her unadjusted hearing. She growled in pain and displeasure. Apparently every expression she had came out as a growl. It was like she was a baby who cried for everything but with much more variation.....oh right. He close distance car horn caused her to cry out though. She thought those were bad before, they could only be described now as cruel and unusual torture. Another horn later being just about enough to change her mind on suicide.

Eventually they seemed to reach their destination and god damn it all of course he had dogs. Everyone had dogs. Why the **** did everyone have to have so many freaking dogs. There are plenty of other options that are also intelligent and loyal. She growled in response to those damn barks. This time her growl was deeper and more aggressive and directed, much different than her prior ones. Astral's growling only stopped when she was unfurled on a kitchen counter. This was familiar and different at the same time. Thankfully for both their sake the only body part the human was interested in was her broken wing. She let out pained growls and squeaks as the wing was handled thankfully it wasn't done so for long. After that he seemed up to something. What she couldn't guess but he provided her with food and water while he did whatever it was he was doing. Even helped her onto her stomach.

Although this all still worked in the context of her theory it didn't make sense anymore. Even if he needed her healthy to sell her off to whoever for whatever he wouldn't need to be nor would likely bother being so kind about it. No it was starting to become clear his only goal for now was to nurse her back to health. Well she wasn't going to turn away his kindness and chowed down as quickly as one who had no energy could. The meat tasted different like someone had removed a lot of the flavor from it. The far more troublesome thing though was getting the water. She couldn't grasp it and chug it down like she could as a human, she could lap it up with her tongue like a dog or cat, well she kinda could but it wasn't very effective. She had to dip her whole snout in filling her lower jaw with it and tip up having gravity pull it in. It actually wasn't that bad and worked rather well. She supposed she was just annoyed that was the only way to go about it now. Never again would she enjoy sucking liquid from a straw.

Astral's guess about him nursing her was only reinforced when he gave her a splint for her wing. She was then carried to an art room where bedding in the form of towels were provided. It was more comfortable than resting her side on solid ground. After this she'd probably only ever lay flat on her stomach on solid ground. He then also provided more food and water. This moment here being on towels in the corner if food and water before her. This was the very thing Fred wanted of her to be treated as a pet. This felt utterly different though. She wasn't here on the whims of a wealthy mans selfish desires and perversion. Though she found it a little hard to consider having a dragon as a pet a perversion. Instead she was here out of the kindness and self sacrifice of this young man.

As he left he said something about giving her a name. How could he give her a name when she didn't have his and she wasn't at all fond of being given a new name. She was rather proud of the name she had. Maybe with all these tools she could write it out. The thought was quickly banished though. She was to tired to even shift in place. Besides she knew full well she didn't have the dexterity for writing. She hardly had it with proper human hands. Would she even be able to hold a pen or brush? Complex communication was going to forever be lost. She could always nod or shake her head. A lot could be accomplished with yes or no questions. That could be a bad idea though. The man's priorities could easily shift at any point and an intelligent dragon that could understand the English language could easily grant him fame or fortune. Probably even both. He'd be set for life regardless of how terrible with money anyone could be capable of. Whatever she didn't have the brain for this now. Soon as she accepted it sleep quickly claimed her possibly faster than ever before, which was saying something.

Baldi walked away from the room and made his way back to the kitchen. Elliott was laying in his bed. Bear was walking on Baldi's heels. The man stopped and listened for a minute. No thunder. He looked over his shoulder at the brown dog with a naturally docked tail. Then he opened the freezer and rummaged through til he found the package of chicken breast. He set the pack on the counter and let the door close itself as he reached for the fridge. Bear was now sitting between him and the counter. Baldi smiled. "Waiting for some victuals? Pretty sure you can find that in your bowl." Nevertheless, Baldi pulled open the drawer the dog was waiting to have opened. Elliott, having heard the drawer, came running into the kitchen. Baldi pretended he was getting something for himself, grabbing an orange, moving a package of lunch meat, pondering a cup of yogurt. And then Elliott whined.

"Oh, you want a carrot? What did you do?" Baldi asked as he looked at the mostly white dog with gold ears, a patch of gold on the base of his tail and left side. Elliott then proceeded to lay down and roll over. Baldi tossed him a couple carrots. And then he looked at Bear. "Now what could you want?" Bear answered by quickly glancing in the direction of the laundry room, where his treats were kept, and looking back at Baldi. Baldi looked at the laundry room. "Suppose I don't feel like going over there?" Bear then started 'talking'. He made a series of whining noises that, if he did it just right, made it seem as though he were actually trying to speak. This was particularly hilarious if Bear happened to be locked up in his cage. One might think he were trying to talk his owner into letting him out.

"Oh really?" Baldi asked, as if he could understand what the dog was trying to say. In a way, he kinda did. Bear just kept 'talking' and wagging his stub. Well who could say no to that? So Baldi went to the laundry room and randomly selected a treat from the selection on the shelf. While Bear gobbled down his treat, Baldi turned his attention back to the chicken breast. He pulled all four out and placed them in a freezer bag, filling the bag with water. While that sat in the sink, Baldi for the first time became aware of the scratches on his arms. The Hatchling had kicked at him some back at the reserve, but he hadn't felt it. Or maybe he had and just ignored it. Either way, it was a bit of a surprise to him. He didn't bother cleaning and covering them, though. Getting scratched or bit by another animal really didn't phaze him any. If he bothered with a band-aid at all, it was only because the bite produced enough blood for one. So he just shrugged this off and went to the couch. On the coffee table was his laptop and tablet. Now, finally, he could let himself be excited by the day's events. He grabbed the latter and opened the Discord app. The circle next to Astral's profile picture was grey. She wasn't online right now. Baldi planned on fixing that.

'Hey. You won't believe what I found while I was fishing earlier. A dragon! A real, living, breathing dragon! Well, technically it's a hatchling, but... I still can't believe it so I'm sure you won't. I'll send proof a little later.'

He closed the app and grabbed the laptop. He went to DRF. There were a couple responses he needed look at and reply to, but he wanted to see Astral's first. He knew from her last message on Discord that she had read his post. She hadn't replied yet. On to the other topics, then. Over the next hour he replied to five topics and worked on a solo RP he was doing. The last he replied to was one in which he was using his FireWing character. It reminded him that he needed to nag Astral into using her own more. Well, nag was a strong word considering he would do so only if asked to.

Baldi got up and went to the kitchen. The chicken had thawed. He poured the water out of the bag and put the chicken onto a paper plate. From the cupboard he retrieved a bowl and a real plate. He put two pieces of chicken into the bowl and the bowl in the fridge. On the plate he placed one of the remaining pieces and carried it to the art room. Going in, he found the Hatchling was sleeping. He moved as if he were trying to sneak up on someone: slowly, carefully, avoiding every area of the carpeted floor that would creak if he stepped on it. When he reached the corner housing the Hatchling, he set the plate of chicken down, picking up the small bowl that had had cooked chicken in it. He noted that some of the water had been consumed and grabbed a new bottle of water that had been sitting on the floor beside a leg of the desk. He poured some into the bowl. For a long moment, Baldi just stood there, looking at the Hatchling. Something about her seemed... familiar. But why? He left the room again, closing the door, and returned to the kitchen. He went about cooking a piece of chicken for himself... much to the delight of his dogs. They sat at the edge of the kitchen, watching every little move he made. 'What was he fixing? Will we get some? We ought to get some, we've been good today', their expressions seemed to be saying.

Soon, the food was done and Baldi sat at the table to avoid having to fight off Bear and Elliot. Instead, he got to enjoy being stared down. Both were sitting by his chair, waiting for run-away morsels. From plate to mouth, they followed his fork with head and eyes. They licked their noses in anticipation. Baldi almost felt bad for them. Almost. They had had their share of his food in the past. Like last week, for example. Suddenly, as he chewed on a forkful of vegetables, he thought of Astral. He first experienced an intense sensation that he could only describe as anxiety. And then her name came to him like the lyrics to a song he hadn't heard in forever and had spent the better part of a week trying to remember. He was compelled to pick up his tablet and get on Discord. If she wasn't online at that precise moment he was having this feeling, then she had been on earlier in the day and this was... Well, let's say the signal hit a few other towers before it reached him. Baldi got up and went to his tablet. In a matter of seconds, he discovered Astral wasn't online now and hadn't been earlier. So why was he experiencing this disturbance in the Force?

Baldi returned to the art room. He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest, his head tilted down and to the right slightly. He looked at the Hatchling thoughtfully. He had thought before that this baby dragon looked familiar. Now he knew why. "Astral." For the longest time, this was all he said. He closed his eyes. He was thinking again, thinking back to every single roleplay Astral had done as her namesake character. He focused on descriptions of that character. He saw her profile picture and signature. His eyes opened. He looked at the little Hatchling. "You look like Astral's character. So that's what I'll call you. What do you think?" Baldi was aware he wouldn't receive an answer. At least, not in the human sense. But he knew animals had their own way of communicating. His dogs wagged their tails, whined, barked, spun around, jumped. Bear would run up to you and sneeze if he had to go outside, and would sneeze if you asked him about going out. Baldi's grandparents had a Blue Crown Conure that bobbed her head when she liked something. This little dragon, he reasoned--based on his experience--could 'talk' to him in her own way, too. And he would work out what everything meant.

Astral didn't know for how long she was out. When she awoke she half expected to be in her normal body in her overly comfy bed. She was barely awake before realizing this wasn't the case. Was kind hard to miss the extra set of appendages she'd never had. Despite having who knows how much sleep she was still really tired and a little cold, but at least now she had at least some energy. The next thing that gnawed at her mind was hunger. Why the heck was she always so hungry. Even if she was warm blooded which who knows she may be, her body wanting this much food was just stupid. Oh and hey look there was more food. Astral dug in and found it was better than the cooked meat from before but something was still off about it. She couldn't put her finger....er claw on what. This human taking care of her was so nice.

Speaking of human she became aware of his presence when he spoke her name. She turned her head to him and titled it slightly in bafflement at the human against the door frame. Did she hear that right, did the male really speak her name? Sometimes she felt like someone was calling her name when they weren't. It was annoying. After he pondered something he spoke it again. This time in the context of her looking like Astral's character. She decided to look over herself to evaluate on her own. The character she typically used was that of a Nightfury from the How To Train your Dragon series. She knew she didn't have horns so that was similar as most dragons were depicted as having them. Night furies also had a muzzle more reminiscent of a cat while her own was large and seemed made for crushing and holding things in place like the large Theropod dinosaurs. Her body was sleek but not quite as much so as a Nightfury. She was a bit closer to the classic stocky western dragon and a look at her feet showed they seemed to be made for supporting something heavy. Astral also didn't have any of the extra fins a Nightfury had at the base and tip of their tail. The only major similarity was she was small and had those super dark black scales. If she had green eyes she could see herself looking similar enough but as far as she knew her eyes were still that light blue. The long neck made it a lot easier to look herself over but a mirror would be nice to truly appreciate herself.

This was way too coincidental though. The name of Astral was super rare even online where it seemed no name was uncommon. She could count on one hand er one paw. Wait her front feet had 4 toes. Didn't matter she could still count on one paw the number of times she was stopped by a registration because someone else had taken her name. On top of that for her name to be associated with a specific dragon. It was impossible for it to be anything else but her character on DRF. But it was also impossible ok maybe not impossible but soo improbable it was impossible that this human taking care of her had been to DRF at one point or another. I mean the context of everything would make sense especially that he was so willing to take a dragon into his home. There were tons of people in the united states though and only a little itty bitty amount had ever been to her site and even fewer to actually register and know who she was. Then the question was who exactly was this. It was unlikely it was someone she knew well and heck even if it was these days it was probably someone who hated her. In any case she didn't want them to know it was actually her. She was fine being taken care of by a stranger while she couldn't fend for herself in any way but it would be humiliating if it was someone she knew and especially who knew her. In any case at least she got to keep her name. She gave a grunt of approval.

The Hatchling's reaction to the first time he spoke Astral's name was not lost to Baldi. No creature reacted to a name it heard for the very first time. So the Hatchling's grunt when he asked what she thought of the name added to his puzzlement. He moved away from the door and walked further into the room. He sat down on the floor a few feet away from Astral. "Why did you react to that name like that?" he asked, though he already knew the answer. "You know it. You've heard it before. But where? You had to have come from somewhere, obviously. So someone else named you. But that name... And..." he trailed off. "Well, I can tell Astral her name is slightly less rare now." Baldi regarded the Hatchling Astral again. Her features actually weren't that similar to Human Astral's character. There were a couple things. The biggest, though, were the eyes. That bright green the shade of new grass. He turned his attention to her plate. "I doubt your stomach growls at a level I can hear, or that you'd devise a way of letting me know you're hungry like a dog would. Well, of course. You're not a dog. You're a... a baby dragon." He chuckled and grinned. "A baby dragon." He stood and walked back to the door. "I'll get you some more chicken and make this room more reptile-friendly."

Baldi got both pieces of chicken he'd put in the fridge. He'd go to the store tomorrow to get more. He took them into the room and placed them on the plate. Bear and Elliott were sleeping, so he left the door open. He began removing everything from the room, leaving only the drawings and paintings on the wall and the tarp on the floor. Once everything was gone, he brought in a small heater which he plugged in at the front of the room. He turned it on and set it to shut off automatically after one hour. "There. That should warm things up in here. It usually is really warm in here but right now it's still cold out." Once more he left. This time he brought back a quilt. He walked over to Astral and picked her up. Unlike last time, he used only one hand. To avoid moving her injured wing, he put his hand between her front and back right legs and placed it on her stomach, lifting her that way. He moved the water bowl and the plate of chicken--if there were still any on it--and picked up the towels. Then he unfolded the quilt and laid it out on the floor. All this he did while holding Astral in his left hand, keeping her at arm's length to avoid accidentally brushing her left wing. Before setting Astral on the quilt, he bunched it up a bit. He figured she'd rearrange it, so he didn't put much effort into it. Once he set her down, he put the bowl and plate back in place. The towels he just set nearby. Now there was the matter of her relieving herself. The back yard was fenced in, so that really wasn't the problem. The problem was he had intended to keep Astral in this room until her wing healed enough. While he wouldn't really mind if he ended up having to clean up after her, it would be preferable to not. Too bad he didn't have any kitty litter or at least a litter box. Again Baldi left the room. Again he returned with something; his dogs. He sat a few feet away from Astral and held Bear and Elliot on his lap.

"Astral, this is Bear--" he nodded to the brown Ewok, "--and the other is Elliott. Bear you probably won't have to worry about much. Elliott is more curios, but he shouldn't be any trouble either. Now, you two..." Baldi patted the dogs' sides, "Some new rules. This is now Astral's room for as long as she's here. You do not come into this room. You do, you go inside." At that word, the dogs flicked their ears and looked at him as if to say, 'Inside? What did we do?' baldi continued, "I know it's more likely she would bite than you two, but you don't bite Astral. Astral's food is not your food, her water is her water. These are her towels, that is her quilt." He pointed to each in turn. "And last thing. If she decides to wander around the house, you will sit on the couch, your bed, or chair. You will stay until she comes back here. You move, you go inside." He then set the dogs on the floor and made them sit. He looked at Astral. "This was more for you than them. I'm pretty sure the only word that got through was 'inside'. The point is, you won't be confined to this room and the three of you should be able to get along okay. Bear thinks he's pretty tough when it comes to the big dogs on the other side of the fence, but he's a scaredy cat. So is Elliott. All you'll probably have to do is growl at them and they'll leave you alone. Maybe swat at them."

Baldi got up, taking the dogs with him. "For today, though, you ought to stay in here." One more time, Baldi left and came back. He had some newspapers. "This'll have to do for today." He spread the newspapers out on the floor at the opposite corner. "I'm out of chicken, but I've got some fish I'll bring a little later."

From 5:00 PM to 7:30, Baldi was outside in the backyard, constructing a dragon door. Okay, it was a doggie door, but whatever. This way, Astral could go in and out as she pleased. He made it big enough to accommodate only her so Bear and Elliott would still be at his mercy if they wanted to go outside. As he installed it, he considered going ahead and making one for the art room. He didn't. After he finished, he got the salmon and tilapia he had set out and took it to Astral. There were two decent sized pieces of salmon and one of the tilapia he hoped would tide her over til tomorrow. He made sure her water bowl wasn't empty and turned the heater back on, this time turning the temperature up two degrees since it was getting colder. In the living room, Baldi sat on the couch and checked on DRF. There were replies for him. For the rest of the evening he replied to RPs on DRF, did a little gaming, a little reading, and some research on the company supposedly making dragons. Again, he considered telling Benjamin what had happened today. At 4:32 AM, Baldi finally went to bed. At 5:30, he fell asleep.

At 11:02 AM, he woke up. He let the dogs out. When they came in, because their paws were wet, he put them in their cages. Well, they put themselves there because they were used to eating their morning treats inside. He gave them their treats, locked them in, opened the door to the art room, and went to the store.

Directly across from the art room was a closet. It was closed. Directly to the left of the art room, between it and the closet, was the bathroom. The door was open. Unlike the majority of the carpet in the house, the carpet in this bathroom was purple. Baldi rented the house so he couldn't change it, but after all the years he'd lived in it, it had grown on him. It had a big mirror, a shelving unit over the toilet, and two towel rods on the wall. The living room was diagonally across from the art room. It had a high ceiling. There was a brown leather couch in the center facing the tv, which was along the left wall, next to the master bedroom. In front of the couch was a brown coffee table with black metal legs. There were a few small bite marks, made by Elliott, on the top left corner. One of the two large windows in the room was on the back wall, giving a view of the backyard and patio. On the right wall was another window, overlooking the a neighbor's house. Beside this window was the dinner table. The table was round, the top made of glass. The legs were metal and silver colored. The four chairs were black and had round backs. The only thing that separated the kitchen from the living room, other than the counter housing the sink and dishwasher, was the carpet. While the rest of the carpet in the house was beige with a raised diamond pattern, the carpet in the kitchen was dark green. The refrigerator was white and simple--it had no ice maker or water dispenser. There was an electric stove across from the sink and above it a microwave. The laundry room connected the kitchen and garage. The door was closed. The master bedroom had a king-sized bed, a fireplace that had never been used, a walk-in closet, and dresser along the east wall under the window. The ceiling fan was on at low speed. Unlike the guest bathroom which had a regular tub and shower combo, Baldi's had a walk-in shower. The carpet was dark green. Bear and Elliott's cages were in the llving room, along the back wall, right next to the back door. There was a small plastic box behind the dinning chair closest to the door which held their toys. Two containers of dog food--one clear and one blue--were stacked next to Bear's cage. The clear one had grain-free food and belonged to Bear. In the backyard, there were three trees. Two pear trees sat in the middle of the yard, a few feet apart. Along the back of the brown fence was an evergreen, a popular nesting tree for robins. It was at that fence Bear got into a barking match with the two big dogs on the other side. Baldi didn't know their breed. A portion of another neighbor's fence made up the back fencing. Unlike the brown one that was built for privacy, this one was small and white. This one was home to a Basset Hound named Harvey. Bear often barked at him if he was outside, but Harvey ignored him. Along the left and right side of the yard were flower beds. Right now there was nothing in them. A large grass bush thing sat against a post of the patio. The patio had a small two person table on it, the table top frosted glass, the legs wrought iron. A wicker chair was at the end opposite the door where the lawn mower used to be. A gate was right next to the door, to the right. It was the bane of Bear's outdoor existence. Many a rabbit had escaped by hopping through the gate.

Her reaction must have have made him confident it was safe to come closer or something. Not like he was all that afraid of her before. He sat down basically right in front of her. Then he asked why she reacted the way she did to that name. Oops, had she already gone too far? It didn't seem so. He reasoned with himself that someone else had already named her this, which was true. He continued speaking to her. As a matter o fact she could let him know when she was hungry. It would be as simple as making a load noise non-stop till he figured out it was food she wanted. Also hatchling, not baby dragon. She silently corrected once again. Something the male said a little earlier gnawed at her mind. To tell a different Astral that her name was less rare. She was convinced now it was the same Astral. Whoever this was they had been at DRF he seemed to be among those that didn't despise her by the way he so casually talked about striking up a conversation.

Her human left the room once again and got to work rearranging for her. He gave her some more chicken while he took the artwork out and placed a heater in. She wasn't too interested in the food at the moment but more curious about everything the young male was doing. He eventually came in with a quilt and headed straight for her. She assumed it was more bedding. In order to place the bedding he ended up picking her up again and setting her back down once he was finished. All the while she was docile. Unlike last time she didn't feel at all threatened by him.

This time after he left Astral's attention turned toward the heater. He hadn't been on very long but she could already feel it starting to heat up. She felt drawn towards it. Getting up she walked right up next to it and sat back down on her stomach. Her hurt wing felt so strange being in this splint. She was glad it was getting medical attention though. She was beginning to get excited at the prospect of attempting to fly or glide. She had no idea how long it would take to actually heal though.

When the human returned this time he brought his two dogs with him. While at first she was comfortable, now she was scared and upset. She stood back up only to crouch low opening her mouth ever so slightly to show off her teeth and emit a growl. Again he sat in front of her thankfully keeping his dogs with him. When she realized he wasn't going to let them go off his lap she calmed down a little. She sat back down, closed her mouth, and her growling got softer but definitely didn't stop. He talked about some new rules which were totally unfair for the dogs anyways. They lived here and now they were basically being told that she owned the place. Although apparently this explanation was more for herself. Did he know she understood english? Did he just automatically assume dragons were intelligent. Even so how could he assume she understood what he was saying. As for getting along Astral had a hard time getting along with dogs when she was many times their size. Now she was near their size, well these ones at least. She was smaller than other ones.

Again the human left thankfully taking his dogs with him. Something about a dog named Bear seemed familiar. Who at DRF had a dog. Probably many of them. Everyone had a freaking dog. OH MY GOD who hated me, it was Baldi! She remembered a conversation she had with him once about how she liked thunder storms and he hated them because his dog Bear was terrified of them. They joked about wishing they could trade. What on earth were the astronomical chances. It all made sense, everything made sense, but at the same time was so unbelievable. He wasn't random anymore but of all the people she knew he was probably the only one she didn't mind being taken care of by. He was always so nice and thoughtful. She still didn't want him knowing it was her though. Not that it would matter. She wasn't the original Astral. She could do none of the things she could do back then nor had any of her status or influence. She'd have to decide later if flight and strength are worth the trade. Hard to do while she had neither. Had significantly less strength but.....really strong natural weapons. This was all so confusing. Well now she had a face to associate Baldi with.

Baldi was up to something but she didn't know what. He wanted her to stay in here and she didn't mind. The heater was warming her up and she felt less tired and more energized. She guessed this answered whether she was cold blooded or not though the question about why she ate so much still remained. While she was awake and hand energy now she was still not exactly feeling great. She still ached from everything that happened and her wing of course was bothersome. At some point the heater shut down and she fumbled with it trying to get it back on with no success. Oh well she was warmed up enough. She decided to see what her voice was capable of and was surprised to find herself capable of a large verity of sounds. She'd even managed to give a short purr at one point surprising herself. She couldn't remember how she had produced that though. If Baldi came in to check what the heck was going on she'd just look at him silently like he was crazy for thinking something was up til he left. At some point he ended up turning the heater back on but by then she was more interested in figuring out how to use her nose. She'd forgotten to add heightened senses to the list of possible benefits of the trade. Course it wasn't totally a benefit. Remembering the barrage of information she received after transforming being enough to knock her out. As well as the very unpleasant car ride. The barking of dogs was also more annoying. Another interesting thing she found was she was now capable of hearing sounds that were at a much lower frequency. She really wanted to know how bass music sounded now. Heading back over to her bedding and food she decided to try one of the salmon. Astral only liked salmon if it was cooked a certain way and with lots of lemon pepper. She wondered if that changed and downed one. Nope, still didn't like it. She wasn't all that hungry though for now anyways and would save the tilapia for later. Despite being still rather warm, she was tired and eventually decided to curl up on herself in her bed and doze off.

When Astral eventually awoke Baldi didn't seem to be in the house and the art room though she supposed it was now her room, was open. Her first task having that cold and tired feeling again was to move up to the heater. But it wasn't on. Astral headed back to eat the last of the fish that was left over before deciding to have a look around the house to try and find something to warm her up. She found a fireplace which seemed to not have been used for a very long time. A shame fireplaces were great. Looking at it brought a thought to her head. She wondered if she could breath fire. Probably not, that sounded too complicated for the scientists to accomplish. Astral ended up exploring much of the house but found nothing to warm her up. Heck she found a mirror too but couldn't reach it to get a good look at herself. It was time she got creative. The sluggish way she was forced to move was annoying. She wondered if warm water would do the trick. She did what she could to try and jump on the ledge of the tub and managed to actually get up there but right away slipped off it and into the tub. She squeaked from from surprise more than anything else. She was careful to keep from hitting her bad wing against anything. Standing back up a little unsteady she was going to have to jump back onto the ledge just right to keep from slipping off the other side and be able to walk over to the valve. But she found she couldn't jump. Her feet had little traction. Maybe if her muscles weren't so sluggish she could manage. She tried running up the sloped side with absolutely no success. At least the sound of her claws clicking against the porcelain as she walked was somewhat satisfying. The longer she was in the tub though she found it to be sapping what heat was in her making her even more sluggish. Astral purposely squeaked and cried out in hope that Baldi was still here and would find her but didn't seem to find her. She stopped and stood still to conserve energy. Being small and cold blooded was freaking awful. If ever somehow she rped a dragon again she was never going to rp a cold blooded one or a small one ever again. Her rp dragons would be big, independent and not forced to seek out heat desperately. Course what was the point of rping a dragon if she was one now. She mused at the though of rping as a human now. Bout the only thing she could do was ponder random stuff.

As Baldi walked to the fresh meat and seafood section of the store, he contemplated. His new charge was about the size of Bear. She appeared to be cold-blooded--he'd noticed how she sat close to the heater when he was clearing out the art room. She ate raw meat with a preference for fish and chicken, though he had yet to offer anything else. Since she liked those two, however, he probably wasn't going to bother with anything else. This was all he knew about her. For now, though, he supposed it was enough. Those were the most important things, anyway: whether she was warm or cold blooded and what to feed her.

Baldi stopped and looked at the case holding the fresh seafood. There was salmon, catfish, tilapia, lake perch. He got some of each. He moved to the frozen fish, of which there was a bigger selection. In addition to salmon, ocean perch, and tilapia, there was halibut, swordfish, flounder, ahi and mahi mahi. He got a pack of ahi tuna. He moved on and got a couple packs of chicken, breast and drumsticks. From there, he walked to the pet section. He got a new toy each for Elliot and Bear. A little peace offering after yesterday.

After waiting in one of only two lanes open, Baldi made his way back home. On the way, he got a call from Benjamin.

"I will be in need of you and your car tomorrow," the vet said when Baldi returned the call after pulling into his garage. "You aren't busy are you?"

"Well, that depends on when you will be needing me. I have a doctor's appointment at 3:00."

"Oh? Nothing serious, I hope?" Baldi couldn't tell if Benjamin was actually concerned or just afraid he'd have to find a new chauffer.

"No. Wouldn't kill you to find a back-up driver, though. Where do you need to go?"

"The house in Clayton. You remember it, don't you?"

"Yeah, you said the guy got a reptile."

"Yes... well... it seems the thing has fallen ill. I must return to have a look at it."

"That's too bad. So when are you wanting to go out there?"

"As soon as possible. Oh, but don't cancel your appointment on my account."

"You don't have to worry about that. I'll call you when I'm done." With that, Baldi hung up and went into the house. The dogs had been barking the whole time.

He set the grocery bags on the counter and went over to Bear and Elliott's cages. They flew out as fast as they could and jumped around, happy to see their owner. Baldi chuckled and patted their heads. "Didn't miss me did you?" Bear ran off to see what was brought for him. Baldi returned to the kitchen and got the toys out of the bag. They were kongs, durable--but not Bear-proof--rubber toys into which you could put treats. Baldi typically put peanut butter in them and did exactly that. The dogs waited as patiently as was possible for them. Bear immediately went into his cage and sat, waiting. Elliott decided to wait until told to go inside. Once they were both in, Baldi gave them their new, peanut butter-filled toy. He left the cage doors open. He had decided on the drive to the store that making the dogs accommodate Astral was unfair, especially considering he knew that would do whatever they wanted to. He knew they wouldn't do anything like bite or fight, but they would certainly be intrusive.

Wait a minute. Astral. Baldi had left the door to the art--well let's just go ahead and call it Astral's room. He had left the door to Astral's room open. Had she come out? He walked to the room but quickly realized she wasn't in there. Naturally, the first room he checked was the bathroom, and lo and behold, there was Astral. She was in the bath tub. Baldi chuckled and knelt by the tub. "Were you trying to take a bath?" He lifted her out and looked at her left wing. It didn't appear she had bumped it or anything. Remembering that she was cold-blooded, he carried her to her room and turned on the heater. The tub, of course, was cold and he had no way of knowing how long Astral had been in there. He looked at his watch... He he had been gone an hour.

After he turned the heater on, he left the room, closing the door to help the room heat up faster. In the kitchen he put away most of the chicken and fish. He left two drumsticks out to defrost and a couple pieces of tuna and salmon. The salmon was for himself for later. Ten minutes later, after putting the plastic bags away, Baldi returned to Astral's room and opened the door. He then went to the living room and sat on the couch, soon joined by Bear, who jumped onto the back and laid down. Elliott was still in his cage, curled up in the back and sleeping.

Astral knew the moment Baldi had returned. She could hear the subtle sounds of even the car door closing from in here. Once he was in the house she didn't feel like she had the energy to call to him. He'd realize she was missing eventually and go looking for her right? She was so glad he did. It didn't even take him very long at all. He made fun of her trying to take a bath. Ok well he wasn't actually making fun of her but being stuck it felt like it. She was so glad he rescued her though. It was so scary being stuck. She cooed as she was carried back to her room nuzzling her muzzle against him and even licking a couple times. Having rped dragons for a long time she knew very well how to communicate appreciation. In fact now that she thought about it since this was Baldi she'd be able to communicate with body language pretty well.

Baldi placed her down near her heater and turned it on for her. Either he assumed or had figured out she was cold blooded. He closed the door on her leaving her trapped in her room but shortly after opened it back up. She continued to lay by the heater for about an hour soaking up the warmth. Feeling sufficiently heated and energized she headed out of her room to go see what Baldi was up to. She found him on the couch and was disappointed to find Bear with him. At least he was on the back of it. Astral jumped up on to the couch without too much trouble. She did reflexively flex her front feet to try and grappled and pull herself up accidentally puncturing some small holes, woops. She made her way over to his lap and stared up at him as if asking 'are you going to do anything except just sit there?' that or it could be interpreted as her wanting food. Her food from earlier though was only just recently starting to digest again though so she was fine.

Baldi was surprised to hear Astral--what was that, cooing? He looked down to see her nuzzling and occasionally licking his hand. He chuckled, "You're welcome."

One hour later...

Baldi was re-training himself to write with his left hand as well as he could with his right. He was naturally ambidextrous but a snappy pre-school teacher put an end to him utilizing that gift as a writer. He still switched hands constantly when eating, took forever to choose a dominant side when playing baseball, softball. Eventually, he grew out of the eating habit. To this day he had never played golf, baseball, tennis. Tennis wasn't actually that bad because it didn't feel wrong to switch hands all the time. But baseball and golf? It didn't feel right using either hand as the dominant hand. But now he wanted to be able to write with both hands again. So for half an hour, he sat with a notebook and pencil. He practiced both print and cursive. The latter was harder because he kept wanting to do it as if he were using his right hand.

For the remaining half hour, Baldi just sat there, his laptop on, the browser opened to DRF. He stared at the latest topic list on the left side of the home page. He was currently involved in five RPs with other members of the site. One involved his NightWing Hatchling; one his SkyWing Guardian; another featured his FireWing-IceWing Guardian; the fourth was a human rp; the final involved his main character, the EarthWing King. His contemplation was over the order in which he would reply to them. At the moment, he was logged on as his human character, so it seemed the most logical place to start. Baldi mentally stepped into character, into his writing zone. He was no longer in his living room, but in the home of his character, in a world ruled by dragons and invaded by monsters.

The sound of Bear's license and rabies tag pulled him back into his own world. He had written quite a bit already but still wasn't done. He looked up at his oldest dog and found him looking at something on the couch. It was then Baldi became aware that Astral was sitting beside him. The expression on her face was identical to that his dogs sometimes had. A questioning look which said 'what are you doing?' He noticed the holes in the cushion but still smiled a bit at the Hatchling. "Hello, Astral. I guess you're feeling better. Is there something you want?" He set his laptop on the coffee table and shifted a bit to reach up and pet Bear. Bear had started getting up to jump down and approach Astral. Baldi pushed his rear down to make him sit. When he moved his hand away, Bear started to get up again. This time, Baldi made a "phhh" sound by pushing air between his teeth. Bear looked at him, laid down, and like the dramatic dog he was, gave a heavy sigh as he rested his chin on his paws. A few moments later, he leaned forward a bit and sniffed the top of Astral's head. If she reacted by growling or swatting at him, Bear would likely get off the couch. If she moved but didn't otherwise try anything, Bear would stay where he was. Elliott had since moved from his cage to his bed. The three year old just couldn't be bothered to investigate Astral right now. He was in his bed, comfortable, and sleeping.

Astral supposed she shouldn't be too surprised she found Baldi rping. If there was any doubt before that this human who had taken her in was Baldi it was dispelled when she saw the familiar site and his familiar profile picture and name. She wondered what was going to happen to the site after she vanished for good. Most probably wouldn't notice for a long time. It was Baldi who was the most likely to find out she had vanished. After about a month of no response back he might get worried or something. She wondered if after that he might begin to suspect it was her. It was a beyond far fetched idea even if it somehow was true. All she had to do though was act like she didn't know how certain human things worked. As Baldi placed his laptop down to acknowledge her presence the perfect opportunity presented itself. She wanted to know how well she could still use a laptop. She was interrupted though when Bear decided to go in for a sniff. Astral recoiled backwards and growled. This seemed to be all Bear needed to get out of her hair...horns? Scales! That was the first time a dog had ever listened to her. Another point added to the dragon advantage list. Animals pay attention and head your warnings much more. She didn't wish the dog any ill will though she did hate how there were dogs everywhere. She just feared them like a girl would fear a spider and didn't want them getting anywhere close to her.

With that distraction out of the way Astral jumped on to the coffee table wobbling unsteadily from the lack of traction compared to the couch. She used her tail and wings to keep herself balanced and planted. It was strange how she felt more grounded and stable on all fours like something her own size could ram into her full force and she wouldn't fall over. Yet on smoother surfaces she struggled not to slip and felt like the slightest thing would push her off.. Baldi had just set his laptop down and hadn't closed it or anything. Astral walked over to it even having to get on top of it and practiced trying to press the keys. The toes of her front legs didn't want to move independently of each other preferring to close and open at the same time. She settled on resting a single claw on a key and trying to just let her weight gently press it down but she must have been too light as nothing happened till her whole paw rested on it pressing a bunch of keys together. She was going to have to be bigger before that could make that work. Moving on to the mouse pad not worrying as her back legs clicked a bunch of random keys Astral then attempted slide her foot across it to make the curser move. Using her long neck to look behind her at the screen she wasn't having much luck. The sensors of the mouse pad must not like the smoothness of her scales. It was like trying to move the curser with a nail on the mouse pad, it just didn't work. Defeated Astral jumped back over to the couch and then jumped on to Baldi's lap. She was careful not to dig her claws into his legs and sat down on them. It was decently comfy and only more so factoring in the heat his body was giving off that she was all too happy to soak up.

Three weeks passed with Astral getting comfortable in what she considered to be her new home. She was trapped there anyways as it would be unwise to reveal herself to any other humans and she couldn't live on her own out in the wilderness. A pack of wolves would eat her for dinner or something. Astral didn't mind Baldi's dogs so much anymore. Sometimes they almost seemed to listen to her more than they did Baldi. She wasn't friends with them or anything but didn't mind them around. Astral quickly discovered why she was always so hungry. In the three weeks she'd been here she'd grown substantially. She was now just a little smaller than a golden retriever but although she was smaller in height she was not smaller in weight. Her long neck and especially tail made her twice as long as one. She'd graduated from fish and meat bites to whole fish and large slabs of meat. She was worried she was going to eat Baldi into bankruptcy. Astral also couldn't get used to her size for how fast she was growing. She'd become very good at knocking things down by accident especially with her tail. She'd also long since discovered how to jump to the toilet and then up to where the big mirror was at to admire herself. She still couldn't decide if the trade for being a dragon was worth it, but she had to admit she was gorgeous and she was no longer expecting to see blue eyes facing back at her but had come to accept her green ones. Now days though it was hard to get to the mirror as she barely fit on the counter/sink.

Astral woke up on her comfy nest of towels and a quilt. Slowly she walked over to her heater which was already on. She didn't need it as much anymore but sitting there for an hour before the day just made her feel better throughout the day. After her hour was at Astral got up and stretched out all her muscles and leaned forward like a cat while giving out a little morning roar that was drawn out and lazy. It was basically her yawning. She wasn't load enough yet to for Baldi's neighbors to hear her and hoped that day never came. If her growth kept up though it wouldn't be long. Astral then gave her wings a few experimental flaps. Her left one still had the new splint since she out grew the old one but her wing felt completely fine. It was hard to believe that in just a few weeks her wing had already perfectly healed. Course it was also hard to believe she'd grown so fast too though. Grabbing the splint with her teeth she tore it off and flexed her wings out give them quite a few experimental flaps. She didn't realize how cramped that wing felt till now. Now that she was free to move it all about.

Astral came running out from her room to try and find Baldi. When she did find him she'd wave her left wing in front of him probably nearly smacking him with it. After that she'd jump onto the back of the couch not noticing accidentally clawing it. She'd jump off it to a clear part of the room and attempt to glide her full wingspan taking up a lot of space. She almost immediately nose dived into the ground this time pulling in her wings before actually hitting the ground. She wasn't going to repeat the mistake that broke it in the first place. She was in fact very protective of her delicate wings. Well delicate compared to the rest of her. She'd try this over and over and over again pretty much nonstop. Progress was very slow but she was dedicated, not letting herself be distracted by even food. She was getting better eventually though being able to kind of glide. She could glide a short distance before she ended up veering off into a direction other than straight which sometimes made for some unpleasant crashes as she ran into things.

Her mission to try and learn how to glide was only halted when a particular youtube commercial caught her attention. It made her growl almost right away as she recognized Fred's voice coming out the laptop speakers. She went over to investigate what Baldi was watching. It was a commercial and she doubted Baldi would reach for the skip button because of what the commercial showed and was about. It had captured both of their attention. In the commercial Fred was advertising his company that they were creating dragons. It was basically a trailer of what they had planned. A zoo of dragons. Unless Fred had decided to just start kidnapping humans she knew this wasn't possible so either he was or something else was up. Near the end it was just Fred standing with a grey background. In his arms he held a white hatchling dragon with light blue eyes and about the size Astral had been 2 weeks ago. One could pass it off as the most amazing CGI ever but Astral knew the truth and Baldi likely knew the truth as well. It was a real breathing dragon in his hands. What Baldi didn't know was Astral suspected this dragon was once a human. She remembered Fred talking about how she was suppose to end up with white scales. Likely after she had escaped he found a replacement. He probably was not as picky with who it was due to his picture of perfection having escaped him. "Unfortunately one of my dragons have escaped. Her name is Astral and she is much like this one only with black scales . This is not a joke or prank. The person who can bring this black dragon back to me alive and unharmed and I mean not a single scale missing, will be rewarded with one hundred million dollars. These dragons are but babies and will not survive on their own. I repeat the person to bring me the black dragon back alive and unharmed will receive a reward of $100,000,000." This time the large number actually scrolled across the screen.

The moment the commercial ended Astral slammed the laptop closed with her paw probably only barely not breaking it. She roared at it a little louder than she ever had ever roared before loud enough for a neighbor to hear. She then turned around and went to cuddle with with Baldi nuzzling and licking as if to say 'please don't sell me off.' Why couldn't this commercial have arrived before she started needing soo much food and knocking everything down. She wondered if Baldi was considering it. He likely thought Fred was her rightful owner and maybe even thought Fred could take care of her better than he could. If Baldi convinced himself it was both better for her and him what would stop him?

The interaction between Bear and Astral went just about how Baldi expected it would. And then something... odd happened. Astral jumped onto the coffee table. At first it looked like she was going to fall and Baldi reached out to catch her, but stopped when she regained her footing on her own. The the Hatchling proceeded to... type? Was he seeing this right? Was this young dragon trying to use his laptop? He watched in bewilderment as Astral tried to press the keys, to no avail. She finally managed to do it, but pressed several at once. Baldi was suddenly glad he hadn't been in the middle of a post. Things only got odder when Astral then attempted using the mouse pad. "What--" He was at a loss for words. He had RPed dragons enough to know they were intelligent. But this was real life. Could that really still be true here? Well Astral existed... And it had to be for Astral to be trying to imitate him. That's exactly what she was doing, after all. It wasn't randomly just stepping on the thing while trying to get to something else, as a dog or cat would. Baldi's thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of claws on his legs. He had expected Bear but instead found Astral settling into his lap. He pet her head with his index and middle finger as he would with most other reptiles.

The next day, Baldi drove Benjamin back to Clayton to see his client.

"I've been meaning to ask you something," Baldi said as he pulled up to the house.

"You'll have to wait a little longer, I'm afraid." The vet got out and walked briskly to the front door. He was promptly admitted after ringing the doorbell.

"What do you mean you lost it?" Benjamin snapped as soon as the door opened and Fred stepped aside.

"I mean she bit my daughter and got out through a window."

"Let me guess. That wonderful child of yours let it out of its cage? Because you were careless with where you kept the key?"

"Yes..." Fred responded through gritted teeth. "I know you see her as a mere animal now, but that baby dragon was once human. Try not to be so... well, you."

"Do you have any idea where it went?" the vet asked, ignoring Fred's desire to have him refer to a simple beast--albeit one as magnificent as the dragon--as if it were human. Benjamin believed that referencing a being by its gender was something reserved for speaking of mankind. After all, humans were superior. This is what the vet believed, anyway.

"If I did, I wouldn't have called you."

"Then why did you call me? I didn't get the chance to implant a tracking device, ergo, I can't help you."

"I need you to take this." Fred produced a vial which held a tissue. On that tissue was Astral's saliva. "It's the dragon's, from when she bit Penny. My job is finding worthy candidates, not the fine details like DNA and stuff, but I bet there's enough there for you to clone her."

The vet took the vial without looking at its contents and slipped it into his coat pocket. "If there is, this time, the dragon stays at the facility. Do you have any preferences for it?"

"I want white scales." Fred walked the vet to the door and opened it. "And I want the other one found, too. The scales didn't come out the way I wanted, but she was perfect, Benjamin."

"No promises," the vet said as he stepped outside. He stopped for a moment and glanced over his shoulder at Fred. "You'll have to find it yourself. I have more important things to do. But might I suggest a sizeable cash reward? That always seems to do the trick in situations like this." With that, Benjamin walked back to Baldi's car.

"So what was it you wanted to ask?" Benjamin inquired an hour later.

"I just wanted to know the basics for taking care of reptiles."

"Oh?" The vet turned his head away from his window and looked at the younger man. "And why is that?"

"A friend of mine just got a chameleon."

"I thought you didn't have friends?"

"I don't. Not unless you count pets."

The vet laughed, "I don't understand how people could consider their pets a friend. They're mindless animals who depend on you for survival, nothing more."

"You clearly never had a pet growing up," Baldi remarked as he pulled up to Benjamin's office. "They don't judge, don't try to get you to be someone you aren't."

Benjamin started to say something but thought better of it. Besides, he had work to do. "Yes, well, you ought to get a few real friends. That might help. Tell your... friend... taking care of a reptile is quite easy. Just don't allow it to freeze to death."

One week later...

Over the week, Baldi thought about the incident with the laptop. It was really bugging him for some reason. But it was at the back of his mind because there was plenty of other things to worry about. For one, explaining away the amount of noise Astral would make in the morning when she woke up. She was getting bigger, though right now, not quite big enough to get Baldi's neighbors curios. He actually lived in a semi-detached house. He didn't know the couple that lived next door and hadn't bothered with finding out. Before they moved, his grandparents had lived there. As long as Astral didn't come into his room in the morning or evening and start making a bunch of noise, things should be fine. Of course, he had no way of knowing if his neighbors used both bedrooms in their house. All he knew was he shared a wall with them, the two bedrooms and bathrooms being where they'd be able to hear each other.

For now, though, Astral wasn't quite big enough to cause too much concern. She was beginning to eat more, though. Baldi had to get whole fish. Astral ate whole packages of poultry, slabs of beef and pork at once. Baldi always made a point of saving more than he spent, so he had quite a bit of money saved up. While he had had other plans for it, it now belonged to Astral. Whatever he needed to ensure a full stomach and good health, he got.

Two weeks later...

Baldi was back to being DRF's eternal guard, the sole admin in charge of keeping it going. It had been a few weeks now since Astral had logged on, or he'd heard from her on Skype or Discord. It wasn't surprising, however. Since around June of last year, Astral had been around less and less. Yes, she had periods of activeness, but more often she was away for weeks at a time. It always left Baldi a bit depressed. For one thing, Astral's absences resulted in a drought on the site. Things just kinda... stopped. For another, she was his favorite RP partner and the only person remaining from the old days that he actually considered a friend. He read through what they had of their topic so far. It saddened him that it may never be completed. It saddened him because he had never seen Astral excited about an RP before. Never seen her stay up late (maybe late by his standards) to reply and wait for a reply. It saddened him that by the time Astral came back, she'll have likely lost her muse for either the character or the RP itself. Perhaps she might have forgotten about it altogether. He wondered briefly if anyone else ever missed having her around, or even noticed how long she was gone. Baldi looked over the other topics he had to reply to and realized he'd been neglecting them slightly. That is, he hadn't been putting a ton of effort into his replies--except for his posts as Baldirak. He logged out of his main account and onto a different character.

Astral was now the size of a Golden Retriever. Ordinarily, Bear and Elliott would have avoided her at all cost, given the size difference. But since she had been around for a while, they were used to her. Nevertheless, they knew she was now top dog, so to speak. Baldi was just glad they were getting along. He was also very glad he didn't have a ton of things around the house to get broken. Astral tended to knock things over. He couldn't help but laugh at her struggle to get used to her ever-growing body. It wasn't unlike watching a medium-large breed puppy tripping over its big paws constantly until it grew into them. Perhaps it was karma or merely coincidence, but Baldi tended to get hit with her wings a lot. Yes, wings. Plural. Astral's left wing had finally healed. Baldi had figured it would take maybe another two weeks. But then Astral trotted into the living room Tuesday morning without her splint on. He was concerned until he saw her moving it and she didn't appear to be in any pain. He had smiled then. Over the next few days, Astral spent a good part of the day jumping off the back of the couch and trying to glide as far as she could. Baldi had moved the dinning table and pushed the couch to a spot that would give Astral the most room. He couldn't help but notice the decidedly human-like way in which Astral acted now. The way she kept practicing. It made him think back to the laptop.

At around 7:00 PM on Friday, Baldi was sitting on the couch. He was scouring Youtube for a good classical music playlist in anticipation of heavy rain later. The radio was one of the things Astral had actually broken. But he was stopped by a commercial he couldn't skip. He wouldn't have even if he could. The commercial was for the company creating dragons and about their plans to make a dragon zoo. Astral had joined him on the couch and was watching just as intently. The man speaking was holding a Hatchling with white scales. He spoke of a black scaled dragon that had escaped and the one hundred million dollar reward for its return. What came next told Baldi what he already knew: Astral was the dragon this man was looking for. Suddenly, his laptop was slammed shut and a loud roar rang in his ears. Baldi groaned and covered his right ear. He was about to say something when he felt Astral cuddle against him and--for the second time since she'd been here--nuzzle and lick him. But unlike last time, there was a sense of... fear. The way Astral nuzzled and licked was like a canine trying to appease a member of the pack that outranked them. "It's okay." He pet her head. "You're safe now. I will keep you safe until you can leave here."

At Baldi's petting Astral found herself purring, not exactly like a cat but similar. It was deeper and rumbled a bit more. She already had felt close to Baldi in a friend kinda way over the internet, but after all that's happened he was now more. She couldn't recall the last time she was this close to anyone that wasn't her sister. The physical attention felt wonderful. She knew each petting was filled with tender care.

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One week after their meeting discussing Astral's escape. They had successfully cloned Astral into a white variant however the dragon came into the world not knowing anything. It had the brain function to adapt with the proper nurturing but it was very high maintenance. Fred who's real name was Tim didn't want to take care of a baby. He'd done that once already with his daughter and was not going through that again especially not with a potentially destructive dragon that would be as large as him before a baby began speaking it's first real words. Tim would have to figure something else out as an emergency replacement however this did solve a different problem. A Dragon zoo was now actually viable. They would just have to raise the dragons maybe for about 4 years before they would be in ready enough condition to display. This was doable. Thankfully he wasn't going to have to raise them that's what his employees were for. No his job would be to find more funding. But for now the more pressing issue was his emergency dragon replacement. It seemed he didn't have a choice he'd have to transform another human and he had just the one in mind. Thomas was the one who grabbed the serum for Tim and aided in the capture of Astral. It was justice his punishment would be being turned into a dragon himself. He could never replace Astral and he fully intended to get her back. He hadn't gotten where he was now though without preparing back up plans. He wondered if his plans failed though if he'd ever be able to accept Thomas as his new dragon.

Another week after. Tim invited Thomas to his house to celebrate Astral's capture. Thomas still wasn't aware Astral had escaped. Currently that information was only known to himself, his daughter, and Benjamin. Thomas probably thought Tim was just inviting him over to show Astral off. Two butler guards were ready to greet Thomas as he arrived and opened the double front doors for him. The moment he walked in, however, the butlers moved in behind and locked his arms and torso leaving only his legs able to really move freely about. "What is the meaning of this?" Demanded Thomas. The butlers didn't answer and Tim chose this moment to begin his decent down a large dramatic staircase near the entrance.

"What, this doesn't look familiar?" Tim said but stopped talking to move down a ways on the stair case. Thomas didn't talk and just waited for the explanation. "We had rehearsed it together, even if it was in a bit of a hurry." A little further down the stair case. "Though I suppose you weren't actually there to see the magic happen." By now Tim had just about reached the bottom and was going to head straight for Thomas. "I figured we'd do a little reenactment so you could see how it happened. Only this time it's going to go as planned. There aren't going to be any mix ups."

Finally Thomas began speaking and frantically at that. He didn't think Tim planned on doing anything drastic especially since he already had a dragon, but there could be lots of pain involved. "Look, if this is about the thing with the woman, I'm sorry. Nothing like that is ever going to happen again. You don't need to scare me or anything. Not over a simple color mix up."

Tim's brows furrowed at that last comment. "Her name is Astral and she isn't a women (that's right she isn't. She's a woman ), she's a dragoness."

Tim was almost upon him now. "Sorry, the dragoness. We can research some way to make her scales white. It'll be easy." Thomas tried to reason and fix his apparently major blunder.

"Shhh" Tim hushed him bringing one of his finger to Thomas's lips. "Dragon's don't talk." With that one of the butlers revealed a syringe and jabbed it into Thomas's side. 'How could anyone want to change her. She's perfect.' Tim thought to himself as he watched Thomas begin is transformation.

The third week after Benjamin had suggested offering a reward for someone to bring him back Astral he was all set for the commercial to be recorded and published. He stood with the plain background behind him and the white dragon that was Thomas sitting docile in his arms. Almost right away it became clear Thomas would never be able to fill the void left in his life from the short time he had with Astral. Thomas was just so accepting and fearful. The way each coped with their change was night and day difference. Thomas clung to his life because he was afraid of death and afraid of him. Hardly a week had passed and Thomas already did everything he though would make Tim happy and followed his every direction even going above and beyond not to prevent him from ever getting upset or worse bored. It was too late though. Tim was already bored. Thomas had no personality. He might as well been born an animal for Tim could see little difference. At least Tim didn't have to baby him. In that regard a small part of his fantasy of a pet dragon was being itched. He would have to linger on how imperfect everything was another time though. The recording was about to start.

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"It's okay. You're safe now. I will keep you safe until you can leave here." Those words calmed Astral down and she began purring instead. She believed him whole heatedly. The last bit of his ending sentence haunted her though. It repeated on a loop in her head. 'Until you can leave here.' She might have been reading too much into it but it smacked her with realities of her future. If she continued this growth rate she wouldn't fit very well inside the apartment and not even a middle class couple without children could afford feeding her, unless her metabolism miraculously slowed. If she could go a couple weeks before starting to get hungry like many other cold blooded creatures it would be far easier. She also had to consider by being around him Astral was endangering Baldi's life. There's a lot of people who would kill for an easy hundred million. She should learn how to take care of herself. Astral didn't want to have to rely on Baldi. If she could manage all her own needs and just be with Baldi that would be perfect. At the same time though she couldn't leave those doors. The moment anyone spotted her they'd whip out a phone and take a few pictures or hit the record button. It wouldn't just be Fred after her. The entire world would want to see a real life dragon. Others might also want her as an exotic pet. Probably some hunters that wanted her as a trophy. Certainly some scientists that would want to study her. Most at a distance just to learn, others more intimate and destructive. Astral was starting to like being a dragon, but she despised fame even more now.

Astral decided she needed to learn how to fly. Eventually people would grow suspicious, especially the larger and unintentionally louder she got. In case things went bad inside or out she needed to be able to fly away. She also needed to be able to fly in search of food when she was bigger and needed more of it, after she learned how to hunt. It seemed the How To Train Your Dragon quote was true for real life. 'A downed dragon is a dead dragon.' Astral would enjoy cuddling a bit longer, but after a bit she'd get up and head to the door that led to Baldi's car and press against it with her body and butt it with her head from time to time. She hopped she wouldn't have to claw at it. Her claws were made for mauling unlike a dogs. At her size she'd cause some major damage to the door. Hopefully Baldi would get the message she wanted out and hopefully would take her somewhere that was hopefully secluded far from any potential humans and start practicing how to fly. Heck if she could communicate well enough she'd asked him how he felt about a camping trip.

Astral started making a sort of purring sound. Whether it was in response to his words or the petting, Baldi wasn't sure. Perhaps it could have been a bit of both. He could tell the commercial had really shaken her up. It was really odd that she understood all that, but right now he focused on comforting her. He was just glad she was calming down. Her outburst had sent Elliott and Bear into hiding and surely his neighbors had heard it. In fact, one of them came to the door. The couch, fortunately, couldn't be seen from the front door. Baldi had no problem leaving Astral there while he answered the door. Just to be on the safe side, he did tell her to stay before he got up. Elliott and Bear were already at the door, barking. He picked them both up before opening the door.

"Hello," he said to the older woman who stood outside. "You live in the house next door, right?" He knew she did.

The woman took a moment to fawn over the the dogs--and comment on Bear looking like an Ewok--before answering. "Yes. I'm sure you know this but we do share a wall... so when there's a loud noise over here, my husband and I hear it..."

"Right. I'm sorry about that. I was watching a movie and one of these guys decided it would be better with surround sound." He gave what he hoped looked like an apologetic smile. Kinda hard to tell when you can't see your own face.

It must have worked because the woman smiled and waved him off. "Oh it's fine. We have a cat and she does stuff like that all the time." But then, in a more serious tone she asked, "Do you have a big dog?" For a moment she seemed to be trying to peer inside the house for signs of one.

"No. Actually, I have a... tiger cub. The shelter got her from some guy who had a lot of exotic animals as pets. I volunteer there and volunteered to care for her for a few weeks until they could find a zoo or sanctuary to take her. They just didn't have anywhere at the shelter to put her."

The woman was intrigued. "Really? Can I see her or...?"

"I wouldn't mind but it's not really a good idea. The less interactions she has with people, the better for her. Besides, she's a cat--a master escape artist."

"Oh, that makes sense." She was clearly disappointed but understanding. "Well if you could keep her quiet in the mornings that would be great."

"Oh, sure thing. I mean I'll try to. Can't tame a cat, though." Finally, the neighbor left. Baldi went into Astral's room and to the window. He peaked through the blinds to in time to see the woman walk by, oblivious to the spying as she crossed the pear tree that sat in the middle of the two yards. Bear and Elliott resumed trying to get a difficult treat out of their toys. Baldi returned to the couch and continued petting Astral. "I'm not sure but I think they heard you that time."

For a while, Astral remained on the couch with Baldi, cuddling against him. Bear had since assumed his usual position on the back of the couch. Not to be left out, Elliott jumped up and laid at the other end of the couch, curled up in a tight ball. At some point, Astral got up and headed to the kitchen. Figuring she was getting hungry, Baldi got up and followed. Astral, however, went on to the laundry room and started pushing against the garage door. Why was she doing that? Curios, Baldi opened the door and flicked the light on. Astral then walked over to his car and sat.

"You want to go somewhere?" Astral gave her usual affirmative grunt. Baldi could swear sometimes that she had been a human in another life. Where could she possibly want to go? Maybe she'd find some way of telling him. Baldi grabbed his keys. Once he got Astral into the car, he drove off to... well he wasn't going anywhere specifically. Not yet at least. "So where do you want to go?" He asked as he sat at a red light. After Astral found some way of conveying that she wanted to fly, Baldi would look for a secluded place to take her. He knew a place that might work. He expected to be out a while, so he would have to stop at the store to get a few things.

Baldi went to Meijer and parked as far away from other cars as possible. At that far, he would have to run to prevent taking five minutes to actually get to the store. He cracked the window and didn't bother covering Astral up. For one thing, it was dark out and the windows were tinted. If she wanted to hide, it would be easy enough to do herself. He had tucked one end of the blanket into the backseat and the other into the pouches of the driver and passenger seats. This way, she could be concealed without having to actually be buried under the blanket. "I'll be back," he had said before getting out. It didn't take long for Baldi to regret parking so far away. Both his mother and father had run track in high school and Baldi seemed to have inherited... whatever it is that runners have. In elementary school, he always won races. He was highly sought after by his peers whenever a relay race was to be held; the team he ended up on celebrated early while the other hoped maybe he'd have an off day. But Baldi never followed his parents' footsteps. Middle school killed his feet and any chance of that. Speaking of which, by the time he reached the store, Baldi's feet, especially the right, were hurting so bad he had to walk on his toes.

He bought a small bag of ice, some fish and chicken, and a box of diabetic snack bars for himself. He had gotten down to a limp by the time he checked out. What had been a few seconds' run became a nearly ten minute walk. At least he wasn't in a hurry to get somewhere. He had a cooler in the trunk into which he poured the ice. Within the ice he put the fish and chicken and some bottled water that was also in the trunk. "I think we're all set." The drive was a about 43mins long. There was a shorter route but most of the one he took contained a long stretch of practically deserted road. This way, Baldi could let Astral sit up front with him and look around. There wasn't a whole lot to see besides farmland, but it was better than nothing.  

Their destination was John Bryan State Park. Baldi had been here a couple times for fishing. This was the first time he had ever been at night. It would also be the first time he ever went on the trails. He got a general idea of where the campsites were by looking at the map kiosk in the parking lot. Once he found a trail that led to Clifton Gorge and avoided the campsites--though it was still too cold for camping, so running into anyone around there at night was unlikely--he grabbed the cooler and let Astral out.

Dang, already people were suspicious. Astral must have attracted the neighbors attention with her roar earlier. Baldi did an amazing job explaining it off though.

Thankfully Baldi did get the message she wanted out of the house. Getting into his car was interesting. This was the first time she was going in it since Baldi had rescued her earlier. This time though she wasn't being carried and she was far bigger. Astral jumped into the back seats trying to be careful not to scratch up the seats with her claws. As she looked out the window she realized she'd be spotted instantly. Even lying down anyone in a jeep or lifted truck would see her. Astral stepped down and wedged herself between the front and back seats on the floor. It was super uncomfortable but the only way she could stay hidden. She couldn't complain too much though. Had she waited longer for this she might be too big to be driven at all.

As they drove about Astral found being unseated and on all fours in a car to be very unstable. Her body weight was thrown to and fro where ever the car moved. She was especially glad she wasn't on top the back seats now. Baldi asked her where she wanted to go. Astral found that question to be easily answered or at least the hoped. Was hard to do charades in this cramped space. Astral extended one of her wings over the back seat and flapped it up and down with what little room she had available to do so. Baldi seemed to get what she was saying. They came to a stop surprisingly soon and Astral poked her head up to look out before quickly ducking back down. Seemed they'd made a stop at the general store. Baldi probably just wanted to grab some things real quick. Before long they were on the road again. After a bit Baldi invited her up front. Confident Baldi wouldn't exposure her needlessly she did so settling unsteadily in the front seat. If anyone came in sight Astral could just duck down to the floor again and she had much sharper eyesight than humans. Especially considering it was dark humans basically couldn't see at all. There wasn't much to see beyond farmland but it was enough to stimulate Astral's imagination. She was getting giddy imagining herself flying over all of it. Her tail attempted swaying back and forth in anticipation. Was that a drone in the air? There was nothing strange about seeing a drone. The things were controversially popular. No what was odd was that it was being flown at night where people couldn't even see the drone. Astral passed it off as some sort of military exercise. Back in Washington such things were common pace, though typically it was manned aircraft.

It didn't take too long for them to reach their destination. It was a shorted drive from her house to work. Course she did live particularly far from her office. Far from everything in fact. Took an hour just to get to town. Seemed crazy to a lot of people but she really loved her home up in the mountains. Heck she wouldn't mind living up there as a dragon too. There were tons of deer, cougars, and coyotes. Bears were harder to find though. Hopping out of the car Astral took in a deep breath. The air was so fresh around here only made better now that her nose was much better. There were better things to do though. Astral would look around for a decent high position and a clearing. Once she found one she'd first continue gliding and work on mastering it. It didn't take her very long to be able to easily glide in a straight line and now she needed practice turning. She was itching to get flapping though and truly fly. She wouldn't hurt herself if she stayed low to the ground though. Astral practiced turning while gliding and gaining a small amount of altitude in a straight line. Both were very hard.

Baldi chuckled at Astral's eagerness to get going. He followed behind slowly, not really worried about her getting too far ahead. She was likely to find him if they got separated too long, anyway. Baldi hadn't brought a flashlight. If there were anyone else out here, it would bring attention to him, and thus to Astral. After a minute or two his eyes would adjust to the darkness. Surprisingly, it didn't take too long for Astral to find a suitable place to practice her gliding. He couldn't see her clearly, but there was enough light to see her eyes--when she facing the right way. Baldi sat beneath a tree, the cooler beside him, and watched.

His vigil didn't last long, however. Baldi ate one of the snack bars he brought and drank some water. Then he got up and wandered around, though made a point staying within the limited range of vision which included Astral. When walking around no longer appealed to him--or his feet--he climbed a tree. He sat in it and continued watching his no-longer-mythical friend. When that, too, bored him, Baldi returned to the ground, laid down, and stared up at the sky. The sky was nearly overcast but a few stars peeked through. He wondered about those stars. How far away were they? Were they distant suns warming planets? Were they young or old? Eventually, he closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the night. He could hear the leaves rustling in the slight western wind. Somewhere, a branch fell or snapped. He heard Astral land, go back to her starting point, and open her wings. This series of sounds was constant. There was something almost... soothing about it. It lulled him to sleep. While Baldi slept, he dreamed. He found himself in the world of DRF. He was his main character, Baldirak. While Baldi had had vivid dreams that he would remember in perfect detail years later before, this was not one of them. He woke with a start, immediately forgetting all but the very last seconds of his dream, and looked around for Astral.

As a bit of time went on while Astral had made a lot of progress she was no starting to slip backwards. It wasn't that she couldn't remember what to do now just that staying in the air was starting to get harder. At first she thought it was exhaustion but then she began to realize it was just one of the downsides of being a dragon that was thwarting her. It was cold out, but Astral wasn't as small and vulnerable as before even to the elements. Though it slowed her down she could still function fine, but with her newness to flying she couldn't continue. She'd for sure hurt herself eventually and Astral had no plans of another broken wing.

She decided to head over to Baldi and leach off his body heat. He hadn't strayed far likely because of his limited vision. It was easy for her to keep track of him the whole time. He climbed up a tree and sat there for a moment. She supposed he was bored. For whatever reason though he then decided to head down and lay on the ground. Astral came up and sniffed at his mostly unmoving form. Nothing was wrong he was just asleep. Astral curled herself around him and decided to join him. His body heat didn't really make up for the cold around them but it was comforting and she soon fell asleep.

"You know I was about to stop the surveillance of unusual activity after most the stuff we investigated was nothing or not the unusual thing we were looking for. Suppose people are worried about drones for good reason." Spoke Fred

Astral woke as fast as she could. Sleep plus cold hated her body and her moving seemed to have awoken Baldi abruptly. Not far from their position right in front of them stood Fred. At his feet was the white dragon and to their flanks were two presumably guards with assault rifles pointed at them. Astral tried as quickly as she could to push Baldi back down and cover him with her body. She growled loudly mostly at Fred. While she had no idea just how strong her scales were she hoped that at least her body would be able to shield Baldi if they opened fire. Though she weighed a lot Baldi would be able to push her over with enough effort if he really wanted. The sun seemed like it was just starting to peak the edge of the horizon.

"Oh what's this? You seem to have grown attached to someone else. But why! You'll be his but not mine! I'd offer you anything. He doesn't even have a job! He wouldn't be able to care for you long." Fred/Tim said. He had run Baldi's plate and discovered everything about him he could. He even already knew where in his house Astral's room was. He spared no time getting to know and prepare for everything. Thomas who he'd renamed to Luna helped sniff Astral out. It was like heavens gate opening when he saw her now larger and impossibly more perfect form.

"You've really up set him now." Spoke the little white dragon.

Astral's growling stopped as she stared in bewilderment at the other dragon. The noises coming out of it sounded rather deep and varied and somehow Astral's brain translated those sounds to speech. It was too low a frequency for the humans to interpret it as anything beyond deep rumbling. Astral attempted to speak back and found herself making the same noises. "You can talk? We can talk?"

"You're so stupid. You aren't worthy of Tim's admiration." He answered.

"Who the hell is Tim?" Astral asked a little annoyed. This was not a conversation she wanted right now.

"Oh he never told you? Well then I guess you know him as..... oh right, Fred. His real name's Tim though. Now don't cause anymore trouble. He hasn't been himself ever since you well both entered but especially left his life."

Astral huffed and returned to roar at Fred, err Tim. Who while Astral was distracted had been speaking to Baldi. A wasn't just a roar that came out though, she ended up breathing a torrent of Fire his way. He leapt out of the way of the flame and threw a hand up. "Don't fire! Don't you dare **** hurt her!" shouted Tim. Astral recoiled shocking herself at what she had just done. Ok so apparently she could breath flames, but how had she done it?

When he first drifted off, Baldi was lying on his back. But he was a side sleeper, so by the time Astral came over, he was on his left side. Baldi had never been one to fall asleep quickly unless he was exhausted. Unless he was exhausted, he didn't stay asleep more than a couple hours. Tonight, he fell asleep quickly and slept soundly. He never felt Astral curling around him.

It was first light. The sun hadn't cleared the horizon yet. Baldi's heart raced because of how abruptly he had awoken. It wasn't clear to him if it had been his dream... or the men with guns standing in front of him. The first thought in his mind was Astral, but he found her. She was right above him, protecting him from the armed men. He vaguely recalled feeling her push him down and hearing himself grunt at that. Then he heard a man speaking. Was... was that a dragon with him? Wait. He knew that voice. Then man from the commercial. What was his name...?

Baldi appreciated Astral wanting to protect him, but couldn't in good conscience let her do that. Suppose something happened to her in the process. He rolled onto his hands and knees and pushed up against Astral until he could get out from under her. It took a couple tries because she was heavier than he anticipated. Once he was, he whispered to her, "Thanks. But I can't keep my word if I'm pinned under you." Baldi stood and moved so he was standing in front of Astral. Yes, he couldn't very well protect her the way she had planned to for him, but it was better than nothing. He turned his attention to Fred. "I don't necessarily need a job to care for her."

Fred/Tim had been speaking to Astral and now looked at Baldi. "You think that now. But another week or two of this and you would have been begging for that $100,000,000 reward. Fortunately for me, I don't have to wait that long. I took the liberty of learning about you, Baldi."

"Is that so? If you think I'm going to accept that amount for her, you didn't learn enough."

"I learned plenty. For instance, I learned your twin sister is in a bit of a tough spot. Give the dragoness to me, I'll make sure your sister gets an apartment in a nice neighborhood."

Baldi had closed his left hand into a fist but said nothing.

"No? Well then maybe you'd like..." Baldi stopped listening. He was looking at the two men with assault rifles. He was judging the distance between him and them. It was too far for what he had thought of doing. But then, if unintentionally, Astral provided him with a way to do it. Just as Baldi was beginning to pay attention to Fred/Tim again, Astral pushed past to roar him. Only, Astral didn't roar--well she did, but it wasn't just sound that came out. Astral breathed fire! Baldi heard Fred tell his men not to shoot Astral.

So he wants Astral unharmed... Baldi got an idea. He happened to have a small knife in his pocket. It was dull and couldn't have cut paper, let alone a dragon. But Fred didn't need to know that. He pulled it out and knelt beside Astral, placing one hand around her snout to hold her mouth closed, while the other held the blade to her throat. "If you don't want her hurt, tell your guys to put their guns down. And then let me go. With Astral."

Astral couldn't help but inwardly sigh at Baldi. Wait, no, that wasn't his real name. Still Baldi would always be how she thought of him. His plan was desperate and even though he wouldn't and she knew he was just doing it to try and save them it still hurt her for him to hold a knife to her neck. She also wasn't ever expecting to be muzzled by him. Still in seemed they didn't have much of a choice. At least Baldi was doing something. She couldn't really do anything. Well unless she figured out how to breath fire. That seemed to work pretty well.

For the second time Tim's hand shot up "Don't!" He knew his men were an amazing shot and it probably wouldn't be too difficult for them to shoot the hand holding the knife. They were after all only a few meters away. Still it was too close to Astral for Tim to be comfortable with it. He had no doubt if he didn't say anything Baldi would already be dead. While at first he was amused now his face turned to a scowl. Even though he was sure it was a bluff even just saying he intended to harm her **** Tim off.

"Do you think me dumb boy." Tim berated "If you wouldn't accept a hundred million to simply give over the dragon then why would you hurt or kill it. There is nothing for you to gain. Besides you only further prove how incapable you are to take care of them. You don't know the first thing about dragons. Your blade couldn't do anything to the scales of a dragon that age." That is he couldn't cut the scales. Baldi could still stab her. Her scales weren't mature enough for that. Her neck, tail, and body scales were some of the strongest. He could cut the legs and the areas where the appendages connect. But if he really wanted to hurt her he'd go for the wings. He did pose a new problem though. How did he know her name was Astral? Did she communicate by scratching words into something? How much did he know and what contingencies had they prepared. For all he knew they already went to the police or something. Seemed unlikely given the current situation but still. It remained he would have to interrogate him.

"Now let me show you how that ploy's done properly. Astral, you two are coming with me back home. From here on out if you don't listen to me, I'm killing Baldi. I promise he'll be safe so long as you listen. You have 5 second to come here. 5...4..."

Astral hesitated. They were so screwed and she was at his mercy again only this time he had chained an invisible leash to her. She should have run away from Baldi the moment she was well. Shouldn't have involved him in this crap. Her own selfishness blinded her to this possibility. Maybe she should have just run away from Baldi the moment they woke up. If Tim hadn't learned she didn't want him hurt then Baldi wouldn't be in this mess. He'd likely have ignored Baldi. Now he was a tool to keep her in line and oh **** he's counting now. Astral did as he said and would pull away from Baldi. If he hung on she'd pull him with everything she had. If he still kept her from going anywhere she'd have no choice but to resort to claws. It was that or Tim would have him killed.

Assuming Baldi didn't get himself hurt by not listening they'd arrive back at the parking lot where many cars and men were waiting. Tim would throw a hand sign in the air and point to Baldi and one of the men lifted a rifle. "Nooo!" Astral roared. He fired, but it was only a tranquilizer that hit Baldi.

When he awoke he'd find himself in a jail cell somewhere. There were other cells but nobody inhabited them. With him in his cell would be the white dragon from earlier. It was awake but didn't seem to care about Baldi and was curled in on itself in the cell corner.

"Hey Benjamine, I found Astral, but there is a complication. Someone was taking care of her and we captured him as well. I need you to interrogate him. He knows about Astral and I need to know everything he knows as well as everything he's done in the past month."

Benjamin had actually been studying medical practices and science while working as an interrogator for the FBI. Before that he'd done the same for his local police but he was fired for his breach of interrogation protocol and the methods he implemented. That's when the FBI picked him up.

In his haste, Baldi had forgotten to tell Astral to trust him. It didn't seem he had needed to; she didn't struggle or try to get away. She couldn't have been happy about it, though. The next 30 seconds played out just as Baldi had expected. There were few things Baldi actually hated. One of them was people assuming he didn't know something. He was fully aware how best to injure Astral if he so desired. But he didn't have time to be irked. Fred made his own demand, but to Astral. Baldi could feel Astral begin to pull away. He held on. "Astral don't--" She pulled harder. He let go.

Baldi awoke on the floor of... where was he? The last thing he remembered was hearing Astral roar. His left shoulder hurt; it was where the tranquilizer had hit. He groaned as he sat up. His head was throbbing. He looked around and quickly realized he was in a cell. He noticed the others and the lack of occupants. And then he saw a familiar shape in the corner of his eye. Astral? He turned his head in the direction of the dragon. It was the other dragon. "So I guess your the guard, then?"

"Hello there." It was Benjamin. "You've been keeping quite the secret, haven't you? I was surprised when Tim--you know him as Fred--called to say he'd captured the dragon and the person harboring it. Imagine how much more surprised I was to find that person was none other than my chauffeur. My own friend."

"Benjamin. I told you I don't have any friends. Even if I did, you're definitely not on that list now."

"What a pity. With the right friends, you could get out of sticky situations such as this. Open the cell." One of the two armed guards that accompanied the vet unlocked the jail cell and pulled the door open. The other, his gun leveled at Baldi, motioned for him to come out. Baldi did as he was instructed and soon found himself in handcuffs. The trip was short, just down to the other end of the hall and through a set of double doors. He was led into the first room on the left and sat in a chair to which his legs were tied.

"So what now?" Baldi asked when the guards stepped away. He didn't like the smile Benjamin gave. It was unsettling.

"Now, you tell me everything I want to know."

"And if I don't?" There was that smile again.

"Then I'll just have to get... creative." At that, the guards wheeled in a table. There was a cloth over it, but Baldi could see the outlines of various objects beneath. After wheeling the table in, one guard left, closing the door behind him. The other moved to a corner of the room and trained his gun on Baldi. Benjamin walked toward his captive with that same unsettling smile on his face. "If you cooperate, this won't take long and you'll be free to go."

Baldi smirked and gave a wry chuckle. "Good thing I've got this comfy chair and nowhere to be."

The smile faltered a bit. "Let's start at the beginning, shall we?"

Oh how it had hurt to pull away from Baldi. Especially when he told her not to. She was pulling away from the closest person she'd been to in a very long time. As they tranquilized Baldi and drove her back to Tim's house, Astral's mood turned sour. Where normally one might expect to be sad haven been separated and taken in as a pet with no hope for escape. Instead Astral was mad. Possibly more angry than she'd ever been before. It normally took a lot to make her mad. It was easy to annoy her usually it was specific people that annoyed her. She doubted someone like Baldi could ever annoy her beyond not thinking well of himself. But this had crossed too many lines. She probably should have gotten angry long before now, but it didn't matter at this point.

Astral walked alongside Tim into his home. She didn't have to be caged and converted with basically psychological torture. That wouldn't even work anyways. Not now that he'd got someone she cared for involved. No instead he had Baldi's life in his hands and by extension her obedience. She never imagined this happening to her. Someone else being threatened to make sure she did what they said. It was disgusting to involve someone like that who otherwise didn't need to be involved.

Tim led Astral into the kitchen and started talking with her like nothing in the world was wrong, like everything was perfect. "So I don't exactly have a room for you yet so you can stay in my room or wherever so long as you don't leave the house." 'Mansion' Astral corrected. "When you ran off I was a little too busy trying to find you to finish preparing the place. Oh and about my daughter." He turned around to look her in the eyes. "I forgive you, she probably deserved it, she probably hurt you didn't she?" Astral didn't move but she was berating herself. If she hadn't run away none of this would have happened. She'd be happily brainwashed living as Tim's pet and Baldi would have never been involved. "Well no matter. I don't know what you like to eat, maybe I should ask Baldi. Animals that have been converted tend to continue preferring whatever meat they had eaten before. Oh but herbivores, very bad idea. They just die and don't eat without intervention. So I've assorted a variety of different meats. We've got beef, pork, lamb, a bunch of fish, and a bunch more. When you get around to it go ahead and move the ones you like in a pile so I can order more of that. Other than that I guess, uh, just do what you want. I'll be sure to have a room specialized for yourself ready as soon as possible." Astral just purposely collapsed on the floor with a snort coming out her nostrils. She curled up and was going to just lay there. "Oh come on. Don't be like that. I order you not to mope." Astral didn't move. "I still have Baldi, remember." Astral snorted again this time smoke coming out of her nostrils. Tim put his hands up. "Okay fine, you can mope. Tomorrow I expect you to be in a better mood though. Not like I'm **** ISIS or something. I offer you a carefree life and you mope."

Tim walked off to who cares where. Astral stayed there for most the day. She eventually jumped on the kitchen counter using her wings to keep herself from sliding off. The demand for more food was soo strong. Astral gobbled up all the fish, well except the salmon. She even tried a few bites of the other meat but found fish was still superior to all other meat.

The next day Tim found Astral just resting on the kitchen counter. He noticed it seemed to be fish she liked. "Come on Astral. Come join me on the couch." Thankfully for him Astral complied spreading her wings and gliding to the ground. It was beautiful, none of the other dragons had learned how to even glide and here Astral was making it seem like the easiest thing in the world. Was his dream finally going to come true? He made his way to a couch that sat in front of a very large TV. There were other couches to sides but he sat in the middle one. Astral jumped on it and settled at the point furthest possible from Tim. Tim looked at her and patted his lap. Begrudgingly Astral came and sat on his lap. Tim turned on the TV and began petting her. Astral only responded by growling. He hoped she would eventually stop, but didn't. Wasn't she getting tired almost non-stop growling. "This is about Baldi isn't it?" Astral turned her neck to look at him. She didn't have much in the way of expression but people say eyes tell everything and she was giving him a death glare. He seemed to think about something for a boringly long time. Astral set her head down only for Tim to finally speak. "What if I let Baldi be with you? I can't ever let him go, not with everything he has to know and everything he could know. But what if I bring him here and let him be as free with you inside this home? Then will you promise to do your best to accept this?" Tim asked. Astral was unaware of the double meaning but slowly nodded her head. With that Tim got up, "Stay here, I'll go grab him myself." With that he left.

Tim first made a quick stop at the lab to grab some stuff which included a couple of armed guards and then headed to the facility where Baldi was kept. He called Benjamin ahead of time to move Baldi back to the cell in case he was still working on him. When he arrived at the cell entrance Luna ran up to the bars grunting and whining in a reptilian way. Tim had already forgotten about him. He supposed Luna could be a good role model while Astral adjusted then once she was all good he'd figure out something to do with Luna. Probably sell him off to someone who wanted the most exotic of pets. Tim bent down. "Alright fine, you can come back to my home." Tim opened the cell door to let Luna run to his legs and nuzzle and lick him. Tim then turned his attention to Baldi and motioned his guards to restrain him. "I'm taking you with me to Astral. But first we need to make you more suitable to be with her and in my home." With that he stabbed Baldi with the needle he had grabbed from the lab and began a monologue as Baldi changed. "You're lucky. You're getting our new and improved serum. Unfortunately nothing we could do about the pain. We've stopped the transformation from consuming soo much in order to make the change possible. By the end of it you'll probably be near Astral's size. We've added horns and spines though they are a bit random sometimes not all popping up ((aka do what you want with your transformation)). Make you look more like a classic dragon for the future viewers. Not that you'll be in our zoo. Nope, you're lucky you stumbled into Astral. She's negotiated you joining her in the good life. Anyways one of the other things is increased size once you're full grown and stronger scales. We realized zoo animals didn't really have much of a need to be agile and limber so we decided to make the scales stronger for demonstration events. Once Astral's full grown she could probably stop a 10mm but once you are full grown you could probably take on a .308."

After it was all finished he'd bring Luna and Jared back to his home. He'd have to figure out a new name for Baldi. His real one wasn't a name befitting a dragon. Astral was curled up on the end of the couch and Tim had his men set Baldi down on it. "There you go. Now I've got a little work to do. You two behave." With that Tim left with the white dragon following behind him.

Benjamin was incredibly irritated. He had interrogated tough guys before, but they all cracked eventually. The vet couldn't see so much as a chip. Baldi hadn't spoken or even yelped. If he made any noise, it was a sharp exhale through the nose coupled with a stifled growl. Benjamin was tempted to just kill the man and tell Tim he had tried to escape. Why keep him alive if he wasn't going to talk? "All of this for a dragon," Benjamin was saying as he circled Baldi. "An animal. I could understand if she were still a person. But that is not so, so why allow yourself to suffer unnecessarily? We've been at this, oh what, about thirty-two hours?" He paused and looked at the guard, who shrugged. "Well something like that. You could be home or at least back in your cell. But instead you're restrained in a chair in a little grey room. Letting yourself be tortured for simple answers. Pathetic."

'I could understand if she were still a person'. They were the only words that made it through to Baldi and stayed long enough to be remembered. They beat against his brain in time to the throbbing of his body. Baldi's breathing was labored. His chest burned with the strain of holding in breaths and screams. His nose was broken. He couldn't tell anymore where the cuts were, but saw blood on his arms. His right eye was swollen shut. He might have had some broken fingers on his right hand. He couldn't really feel his hands. His knees weren't broken, but they felt like it. His head felt like it had been struck really hard. The left side of his jaw was hard to move. And he was fairly certain that guard had neglected to... Or was that a broken rib?

A phone rang. After only the first ring, Benjamin spoke. "I haven't gotten anything out of him yet... Are you serious?" A heavy sigh. "Fine. He'll be ready when you get here." Benjamin ended the call and slipped the cell back into his pocket. He turned to the guard. "Get the other one in here and get our guest out of the chair. We're taking him back to his cell. And be quick about it."

Baldi found himself on the floor of the cell again. The  lights were harsh. He didn't recall the walk back. He might have been dragged on account of his knees. The floor felt good. It was cold, soothing. After some time, Baldi felt hands on his arms, yanking him off the most comfortable floor he had ever lain on. He was handcuffed again. And then he saw--somewhat--Fred. Or had Benjamin said his name was Tim? He could see the man's mouth moving, but words were muffled beyond comprehension.

Baldi was back on the floor. He didn't know when he had fallen. He hadn't even felt it when Tim stabbed him with a needle and injected him with something. Even in the state he was in, Baldi denied his captors the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

When the transformation ended, Baldi was no longer human. He was a dragon, classical in his appearance. He had a long snout, a broad neck to support his new head. That head was adorned with two brown horns that curved slightly inward. His scales were dark green, his eyes were hazel. If he ever found himself in front of a mirror, he'd find he looked surprisingly similar to his DRF character. The main differences were his scales were only one shade of green now and his eyes weren't pale blue. He lacked spines down his back but had three on the end of his tail, like a Stegosaurus. And, of course, he was a lot smaller. He was one, maybe one and a half feet taller than Astral.

'Did he say Astral?' Baldi thought as he lie there near the end of his transformation. One of the guards picked him up and put him in the back of a vehicle. He didn't know what time it was, but the sky was grey and it was snowing. Baldi finally allowed himself to sleep. When he awoke, he was on a couch. He smelled something. Wait, he could smell again? More importantly, he knew that smell. 'Astral?' Baldi tried to sit up, but his body wasn't moving. Then he realized he was on his side. But it was more than that. He felt... weird. The exhaustion took over again and he slipped back into darkness. For about three hours, Baldi slept. It was a dreamless sleep.

When his eyes opened, he was still on a couch. Though he was laying still, the room was spinning. He tried to get up again. He couldn't. Oh, right. He wasn't sitting, he was laying on his side. He went to roll over on his hands and--hands? No. Paws. Paws? A scent hit him. Astral. But his nose was broken, why was he able to smell? That didn't matter. What mattered was he could smell Astral. She was close by. He went to stand up and realized he was already standing... until he fell over. Then he became aware of something resting against his side. It lifted and he could see it out the corner of his eye. A wing? Something told him to try moving an appendage he couldn't possibly have. He felt it move. So he had a tail, too. Tail, wings, four paws... What were the odds? He didn't want to know. So Fred or Tim or whatever his name was, had turned Baldi into a dragon. And apparently, he brought him to Astral. They were somewhere with a couch. As Baldi's rattled brain tried to make sense of all this, it remembered something. Something important the vet had let slip--or maybe he had said it on purpose. Astral was human. Like Baldi, she had been transformed by Tim. With more effort than it had taken the first time, he got up. His wings stretched out a bit to help steady him. It didn't take long to find Astral; she was right next to him.

Astral watched as Tim came back with the white dragon at his feet and a more typical dragon in his arms. But where was Baldi? Did he think a new dragon for company was a decent enough trade. 'Oh no, what if they killed him?' She couldn't help but think in horror. Maybe they were going to say this green dragon was Baldi. It was a new looking kind of dragon. They could say as an unintended side effect they accidentally brain washed him. As far as Astral was concerned that was the same as killing him.

The green dragon was set down on the couch and then Tim and his men departed. The dragon did kinda look like Baldi's character. She wondered if they had gotten into his laptop and modified a serum after it. The dragon stirred and seemed to try and get up. This was probably just a regular animal transformed then. If it had been a human a dragon that size would have had plenty of time to learn to move it's body. It fell back asleep though like it was exhausted. This was really weird. Cautiously Astral walked across the sofas over to him. He was freaking huge. She sniffed him and found Baldi's scent to be on him. It was too weak for it to be Baldi's human form but too strong for them to rub a dragon against him to try and fool her nose. This was Baldi. That bastard turned Baldi into a dragon. He had dogs and a sister to take care of. How the heck was he suppose to do that now. Well then again they weren't letting him go to begin with so suppose it didn't matter if he was human or dragon. Hopefully he'd come to accept his new dragon self. He was after all a DRF member. Then again it was really jarring to be ripped from your own body and into one you didn't even know how to move. He was soo lucky though he got to start off big somehow. If a spoiled little daughter comes by he can just wack her aside with his tail or something. She could imagine if he were to use his mouth he'd kill her. Astral curled up next to him and waited for him to awake again. She didn't know how she'd help him through this but she could at least be there.

Astral ended up taking a nap an hour into waiting and two hours later Baldi's stirring woke her. She decided to wait for him to adjust before saying anything. He was actually doing pretty darn well, already moving his tail and wings and even trying to use his wings for balance an eventually stood up on all fours. He then looked right at her. Astral got up herself, far more gracefully. She supposed there was no point in attempting to hide who she was now. "Soo...you want me to call you by your real name or Baldi?" Astral asked with her low frequency dragon speech.