#dbrmm

Archeologists dropped by to restock potions and were good customers because they listened to his advice on where to go to find the best stall for equipment and where to avoid demons. They were a chatty bunch, but they shared their findings to him and kept him awake with their outlandish stories that were likely exaggerated for entertainment purposes. Adventurers made up a bigger bulk of his income, but that was because they kept ignoring his warnings and getting into trouble by getting injured on repeats. Soldiers from Velder, nobodies from faraway places, they all had something stuck between their thick skulls.

A tall man dressed in dark colors approached his tent. The clothes he wore looked out of place in the mass of earthly toned fabrics settlers and soldiers wore when he had a coat that hung over his shoulders like a cape. He had two belts where a ring of keys hung from there and tight pants that couldn’t be comfortable. What was he doing here?

“Hello,” Add masked his curiosity with a professional tone. “What can I do for you?”

He rubbed his chin. “You’re the local alchemist, right?”

The ponytailed man sighed and pointed at the sign on his tent with the word ‘Alchemy’ in block letters. “Yeah, I live nearby,” Add said with a tight smile. He could handle this oaf’s innocent questions.   

The stranger must have some confidence to wear such a form fitting shirt in a chilly region. Must be from the capital city, he mused. Add stopped himself from gasping when the man extended his arm to reveal black bars wrapped around his wrist. Up close, he could see that the bars were made of smaller markings lined together, shiny like black scales.   

“I want something that makes me stronger,” the man said. “You have any of that?”   

From the way he dressed and held himself, this man was another adventurer wanting to test his strength. Potions related to strength were one of the most common type requested. Add signaled the man to wait and checked under the table to grab a stamina potion to hand to the other.

“I’m afraid I’m out of them,” Add said. “They’re the first to go and they won’t be in stock for a few days.” Not until he went to restock alchemy ingredients and brew a new batch. It could take longer if he failed to mix it properly.

“What about this?” He held up the stamina potion.

“They’re good substitutes to increase your defense,” Add explained. “They can’t replace strength, but they good for strenuous work and battles.”

They were popular with workers who did demanding jobs like the archeologists or the merchants who transported goods back and forth between Feita and the major cities nearby. Not many adventurers have shown interest in that, so Add was surprised when the man accepted it with a smile.

“That will do,” he nodded in deep thought. “Will the strength potion be here if I come back later?”

The air the man gave reminded Add of the cocky Velder knights, the ones who trained all day but probably never stepped into a battlefield. In all this dreary weather, what was he happy for? He walked with no fear and showed no remorse at the stares he earned for his unusual white hair. The man was comfortable in his own skin and it made Add envious.   

Add shrugged, “Give or take. It’s your decision if you want to wait for it. I’m sure there are other places that offer the same thing as I do.”

The man grinned, “Thanks for the potion!” He handed the change to Add and waited for him to count them out before accepting them.

“What are you here for?” Add asked, “Did the ghost stories interest you?”

The man turned pale at the mention of ghosts and gulped, “No. There have been rumors about a white-tailed demon giving people problems.”

Add frowned. That one? It had come up many times since he first moved to Feita, but now that the man mentioned it, the stories have become more frequent over time. It was hard to tell the facts from the exaggeration, or if such a demon existed at all, but all the rumors held one consistency. The beast was white and it appeared close to the mountains on foggy mornings.

“Chasing a rumor isn’t a good idea,” Add said.

“I want to catch a glimpse of it,” the man disagreed. “Well, I better get going on. I wouldn’t want to take up your time when you have other customers to think about!”

“Hey!” Add groaned when the man left the tent to disappear outside.

He covered his face in frustration. It wasn’t his responsibility if his customers did stupid stuff with his products, but that didn’t mean he could stop worrying about it sometimes. The alchemist leaned his head against his chair.  He wondered how long would it take before that fool came back bandaged limbs and in need for elixirs to heal whatever damage was inflicted onto him, rumored demon or not.

His favorite thing about going through his day were the morning strolls. The woods surrounding the cottage he lived in smelled of wild flowers and plants, some of them requiring magic to flourish properly. Many of them were exclusive to the region. With enough knowledge and experience, a skilled alchemist could brew potions and elixirs worth a fortune. Add wasn’t there yet, but what he knew was enough to make money to be comfortable. Besides, it wasn’t expensive to live where most people wouldn’t choose to venture in.  

Where the red rocks and dry breeze of the desert ended become a maze of thick trees and fog where Feita sat. Days away from the capital city, the small settlement was abundant in old temples and the weeds grew over the cracks of the abandoned places of worship. It was popular for archaeologists to stop by to investigate the many ruins and for merchants to take advantage of that by pricing their products at higher prices for profit. Add was one of them.  

Brushing his feet past the dewy grass the next morning, Add was bundled in layers of clothes. From the bottom of the stems, he picked up a bundle of tiny purple flowers he found in the ground with white gloves. The wild apples he spotted from the trees overhead could be used for soups and jams. If he had any left over, he could sell them to merchants in exchange for alchemy material to make new batches of potions.   

Placing the flowers into a woven basket, Add left it sitting on the ground to reach for the apples on his tiptoes. His long white jacket sleeves slide down to expose lilac colored markings decorating his arms. They glimmered like gemstones scattered on his pale skin when Add smoothed them over with one hand after dropping the apples into the basket. They were on his hands and the rest of his body, but he made sure to keep them out of view with layers of clothes.

Add dropped his arms to grab the basket, turning around to check for anyone. There was no one around, but that didn’t stop the alchemist from being cautious. It was already bad enough getting stares from people because of the unusual color of his hair. White wasn’t unnatural, but it wasn’t common either. He scratched the markings around his neck and grimaced when he felt the small bumps, like flat pebbles.    

The trek back to his cottage wasn’t a long one, a brisk walk with only the occasional songbirds flying south for the upcoming winter. Not many people wanted to live where he was because of the uneven roads and the frequent erosions caused by demons. He picked up an additional bundle of weed and wild plants he found from the bushes and tucked them into his basket. Today was his day off, so he was in no rush on heading back. There was still time to make breakfast if he returned before noon before setting up the equipment to begin making potions to sell the next day.        

There was a low hiss when he heard something rustling in the bushes from behind. He narrowed his eyes and slid his body down to the floor, hugging his basket when dark shadows emerged from the woods. Glitter monsters covered in blood red armor and wielding primitive looking weapons appeared.

They groaned when Add summoned icicles forming from water droplets on the trees to rain down on them, pinning them to the sides. He took his chance and ran the opposite to where he saw them, not wanting to be followed back to the cottage. The nearest settlement was miles away from where he lived.

More demons appeared when he ran. They were just as weak as the wave from before, but there were too many for him to take them down all at once. His vision blurred when he tried keeping up with them and using the spell cards from his inventory to keep them at bay. Explosions erupted from the palm of his hands as the cards summoned a monster to fight beside him. He was going to run out of magic if he wasn’t careful.

Even with the spell cards and spare potions in hand, it wasn’t enough to clear a path for him to sprint away to the nearest human settlement. There wasn’t time for his mind to process when one of the demons charged at him with a dagger to slash across his stomach. Add cried and fell over, losing his breath as blood seeped through his pristine jacket.

A black cloud of smoke poofed beside Add, he turned to see that his summon was destroyed by the hoard of demons. He pulled out more spell cards from his back pocket to summon allies to fend them off, all of them weak monsters that barely held themselves against the enemies. The alchemist grabbed the apples from his basket and tossed them at the demons too, covering them in thin layers of ice to add a tough texture.  

Pinching where it bled, he clenched his teeth as he drew out a small dagger from his belt and held it up against the mob drawing in closer at the scent of blood. His hand shook and almost dropped his weapon when he closed his eyes in pain. His blood felt hot, but his skin was icy cold. Add ripped his soiled jacket off, scratch marks and markings covering his arms glowed when he let out an inhuman scream.

A man named Lusa was dressed in a fluffy black coat looked up when he heard a deafening roar pierce through the woods. The trees picked up a strong gust of wind coming from the area towards the mountains, the furthest away from town. It couldn’t be an upcoming thunderstorm if the wind flew the opposite direction to the rest of the wind.

Demons with fractured bones had their limbs sprawled into awkward angles, hanging over trees and littering the floor with their mouths wide opened. They were freshly killed if their black blood hasn’t dried for their bodies to crumble into dust. A few demons were still breathing when the man went to investigate. The sloppy cuts that killed them was done by an inexperienced fighter. Lusa looked up when he heard the roar again.       

Ice shot from the ground, consuming the loose dirt and snapping tree trunks. Demons scurried out from beneath the cracks before getting splintered fallen trees and debris. The man ducked when the sky sprinkled with hail and hid himself under a demon corpse to avoid getting hit.

On a block of ice was a white dragon lying down with its head resting in between its arms, snarling at him when the man approached it. It had thin leathery wings stretched across with a lilac colored membrane and a long white mane running down its slender neck. A demon squeaked when it failed to escape its eyes when the dragon grabbed it and crushed it with its claws.

“Hey, what are you doing here making a mess?” Lusa shouted at the overgrown lizard and pointed at the corpses on the floor. “You see that? That’s all you.”

If he didn’t stop this thing, it was going to ruin the forest and everyone living here. Didn’t the alchemist say he lived nearby?  

The dragon looked at him unimpressed and growled at him, moving its tail impatiently. It was taller than a house and could crush trees when it crawled on its fours, flapping its wings to pick up wind when Lusa proved himself to be too fast for it. He threw himself onto the dragon and pointed at its neck with a dagger.

It hissed when he stabbed it, turning its head around and slammed him against the floor. Lusa hugged his head and lowered his head, wrestling to keep the damn lizard down with the strength he had. The dragon snorted at his feeble efforts and breathed into him, ice forming around his coat and solidifying the collar.

Lusa withdrawn his hand and slugged the dragon in the face, “That’s my coat, asshole!”

The dragon pulled its head back from getting punched in the face, shaking its head and glaring at him. There was something familiar about the way it looked at him judgmentally, like it was better than him. First it was trying to wreck people’s homes and now it destroyed his jacket? Well, he wasn’t going to have any of that!    

Lusa pulled out his arms to show off the markings on his wrists glowing as everything around him grew smaller. His clothes melted away as wings sprouted out from his spine with the rest of his body growing to become a black dragon with purple outlines covered in jagged scales. As he transformed, his weight became overbearing on the smaller white dragon, slithering away when Lusa tried to pin it down.

He spread his wings to launch himself into the air when the dragon breathed ice again, diving back down to attack. The other flicked its tail at him, pulling him down and crashing to shove a bunch of trees down. Lusa wrestled for control when he noticed the bloodied wound across the dragon’s stomach. He coated his body with electricity to form an armor and pinned down the dragon to send shocks to paralyze it from movement.

It choked the dragon from opening its mouth and gagged, coughing out nothing before it passed out with Lusa standing over it. Light blinded him as the dragon glowed before fading away to uncover a man lying on the ground with his white hair tangled in the grass. His chest was still rising with each breath when Lusa checked the unconscious man and recognized him.   

Fuck. He almost killed the local alchemist.

In a flash of light, Lusa transformed back into his human form and ran over to check on the bleeding alchemist. The wounds weren’t too deep, but how long had he been fighting with those injuries? It was unsafe to leave him like this, so Lusa did what he could and used the last bit of water he had in his water canteen to clean the man’s injuries and tore off a bit of his jacket to bandage the wounds he could find. It wasn’t professionally done, but it should hold until he could bring him to town to the nearest healer.         

Lusa was careful in moving the injured man, bending his legs and putting him into a sitting potion. The alchemist’s position was adjusted so his chest was against his back and pulled the arms over his shoulder so he could piggyback ride him.  

Local alchemist revealed with draconic origins, Lusa gave an empty laugh at the imagined headline.

So there wasn’t a white tailed demon. No wonder the alchemist chose to live in such a desolated area with minimal human contact. With that condition, he was an oddity at best and an exotic animal biding its time for slavery at worse. Dragon human hybrids were a rarity after all.     

It was not the first time Add woke up after what felt like a long nap. He didn’t wake up immediately. His mind surfaced and drifted away again in what felt like every few minutes. He barely registered the pain straining from his muscles when he stretched in a restless sleep. It didn’t feel like he rested at all when he opened his eyes to an unfamiliar room.

His mind was foggy. It was that uneasy feeling of Deja vu he experienced when he realized he couldn’t remember what was the last thing he did before passing out. Was it still morning? It was dark out with the sun dipping under the horizon when he peeked out through the window at his bedside. The only reason why he knew it was going to be night time was because he smelled dinner coming from outside his room.

Pain shot through his body when he twisted his body to look for a clock for the time, 5:17. The clothes he wore didn’t belong to him either, a size too large where he could see the bandages peeking out through the short sleeves on his arms. Most of them were minor injuries, but most of the pain was at his stomach. The bandage wrap in that area looked like it needed to be replaced with a big blot of blood starting to seep through.

His clothes were dried and folded on an empty chair placed beside his bed, cleaned by magic if there were any indications by the lack of blood stains. There was also a black coat and a purple shirt that didn’t belong to him. Add looked up to find their owner sleeping in a chair opposite to him.   

It was the customer from yesterday! He rested his head on the armrest, snoring when Add leaned over to see that he was injured through the dim room. The man had no shirt on with bandages wrapped around his arms and shoulder pads with one big one slapped on his forehead. His white hair swept over the right side of his face, his eyes fluttered open when turned on the lights at his nightstand.  

“Hey, you’re awake.” The man said with relief, “You were out like a light since noon.”  

“What happened to me?” Add searched for his memories.

His legs were numb when he pushed his legs to the side of the bed to touch the wood floor with his bare feet to face the man. It was hard not to forget this customer when he dressed like he was part of the mafia rather than visiting Feita’s ruins. What was he doing here in the same room as him? With all those bandages, the man looked like he was ambushed by a lizardman.    

Oh no… not again.

The man asked with a strange look in his eyes, “What are you doing making a ruckus in the mountains with powers you can’t control?”

Shit. How much did he see? Add panicked inside, searching for an escape route, or somewhere to run. Did the man find him injured like this or did he see more? The man was a dragon too if he had those same markings on his arms. Maybe he already figured out what Add was before he even transformed. He pondered for questions, unaware of the stares he was earning from the other.

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Add played dumb with a stiff smile, treating him as any other customers who ever tried to pry through his personal life whenever they became too curious. Something told him that the other was as stubborn as he looked if he was still in the area after a few days.   

He said. “How much control do you have over that form?”

It suddenly became too hot for Add and he wished someone would open the windows so he could breathe out the stuffiness the room was giving him. The alchemist gulped and gave the man a curt answer.

“I have no control over what happens after I close my eyes.” He narrowed his eyes, “What’s a dragon like you doing here? Still looking for that imaginary demon?”   

The man sighed, “That white-tailed demon was you. You’re no demon, you’re the same as me.”

He lived far away from most humans for this reason: to avoid these questions. With no humans nearby, the worse damage he could inflict were on demons around the mountains and maybe wandering cattle if they was stupid enough to get lost. Is that why this man was here? To check out this so-called rumor and see him make a fool of himself?      

“What do you want from me?” Add bit his lips, “As you said, I have no control. I’m no use to you.”

The man scratched the back of his head, “You don’t remember what happened to you?”

“No,” Add was getting tired of this conversation already.   

“Well, I found you bleeding,” he said. “I stepped in to stop you from hurting yourself more so I could bring you to a healer.”

So that’s where they were, Add understood. That made sense. He didn’t appreciate visiting healers after he acquired this...curse and instead relied on his own medicine and remedies to take care of himself. He covered the markings on his arms with sudden self-consciousness and gritted his teeth.

As if he read his mind, he said, “I told the healer those were tattoos if you were wondering. Am I scaring you?” The man dropped the stern look to replace it with a gentler expression, “I promise I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to know why you’re like this.”

Add gulped, “Not that it matters since there’s no way to lift the curse.”

“Curse?” The man was confused.

He laughed with no humor, “I was a fool and tried returning a baby dragon back to its mother when it cursed me. I guess the feelings weren’t mutual.”

The dragon was the size of a house cat, a little one that mewled when he picked it up to bring it inside when he found it alone. What was he thinking trying to play dragon tamer and taking care of it like a household pet? He wasn’t even aware of being cursed until it was too late when he one day woke up to a forest fire. He moved away to avoid everyone when he was still an alchemist in training.   

“I can’t say I know anything about curses, but I can help you learn to control that form if you want.” The man introduced himself with an extended hand, “You can call me Lusa.”

Controlling his form did sound appealing, but how was he supposed to do that if he wasn’t even conscious during those moments? It was beyond his imagination to wonder how anyone could be trained to control another side of themselves like that.

Add stared at the man, but accepted the offer and shook. It was a tight handshake, he could trace the calluses on the other’s hand. He mumbled, “I’m Add.”

“Add,” he repeated his name and grinned. “This is going to be some adventure.”

“I’m not leaving Feita,” Add said.

“I’m not asking you to,” he shook his head. “This is actually a good place to start since almost no one lives here. Didn’t you know that the best adventures can be at home? I can’t promise you instant results, but we can try for a few weeks and see if it works.”

“Are you doing all this for the potions?” Add couldn’t stop himself from sneering, his mindset still one of a merchant. Old habits die hard. He didn’t have a lot of friends here, so socializing outside of work was an oddity for him.   

Lusa rolled his eyes, “You have some ego to think your potions are worth that much.”

Add glared, “What happened to ‘I’ll come back in a few days to check’?”

“All right, I want to help because I don’t see a lot of people like me.” He admitted, “It makes me happy to meet someone like you, even if you’re cursed.”

Add didn’t respond. It sounded too good to be true. What kind of person bothered to make the effort to pin him down to snap him out of that state, take him to a healer, and then claim he was going to help him? He thought it was logical to be wary when weighing his options. However, with the destruction he caused when transformed, it was worrying on how long he could live like this until authorities or other adventurers would start tracking him for causing too much damage. Living in a cage or becoming the Velder army’s training dummy wasn’t something he wanted to deal with either.  

He drew out a breath, “If you try anything funny, I want you to know that I have studied under a certified alchemist and know all the different things that could kill a dragon.”

Lusa snorted, “I’m glad you trust me so much. Just remember that the same stuff can kill you too if you eat or inhale it.”

“As I’m very aware of,” Add said with a serious expression.

Despite the threats, Lusa beamed and laughed when he gave him a questioning look. His cheeriness when the healer came by to give them dinner made it hard to stay wary when he kept asking Add questions about being an alchemist and living in Feita. The other was apparently from Velder and was excited to move to a place where there was more room for him to roam without an army chasing after him.