My Dragon System

CHAPTER 002

The pain came first.

It tore through Caleb's body like a lit fuse, starting at the center of his chest and racing down his arms and legs until every nerve screamed. He bit down on his pillow to keep from waking the neighbors. His back arched. His fingers dug into the mattress hard enough to tear the sheet.

The red and gold window hung in the air above him, calm as a judge.

[Installation: 12 percent.] [Reforging muscle tissue.] [Installation: 31 percent.] [Reinforcing bone density.] [Installation: 58 percent.] [Awakening dormant bloodline. Please do not die. This would be inconvenient.]

"Funny," Caleb croaked through clenched teeth. "Very funny."

[Installation: 100 percent.]

The pain vanished all at once, as if somebody had flipped a switch. Caleb lay there gasping, sweat soaking through his hoodie, staring at the ceiling and the glowing words that now floated there.

[Welcome, Host. I am the Dragon Sovereign System. Most Systems are given. I was inherited.]

Caleb sat up slowly. His hands were shaking, but they felt strong in a way he could not describe. Solid. Like he had finally been given a body that matched the one he'd always imagined.

"Okay," he said hoarsely. "Okay. I'm hallucinating. That's fine. I've been under a lot of stress."

[You are not hallucinating. Please view your status.]

He swallowed. "Status."

A new window unfolded in front of him, bright and clean and written in letters of living flame.

[Name: Caleb Turner. Age: 16. System: Dragon Sovereign. Rank: Hidden. Stage: Hatchling. Level: 1.]

[Strength: 12. Speed: 11. Endurance: 14. Intellect: 9. Dragon Heart: 5.] [Skills: Scale Skin (Rank E). Ember Sense (Rank E).]

[Warning: Your true Rank cannot be measured by Analyst Systems, Appraisal Orbs, or Scanner Devices at your current stage. For your safety, they will report you as Rank F.]

Caleb stared at the numbers. His old stats had been a four, a three, a four, and a six. The new ones were triple or more. A hatchling dragon, according to the window, but he had barely scratched the surface.

"Wait," he said slowly. "Wait. Rank F? So everyone will still think I'm weak?"

[Correct. A hatchling that announces itself gets eaten. This is a lesson dragons learn early.]

"That's incredibly dark."

[It is also accurate.]

He could not help it. He laughed, a thin, shaky laugh that bubbled up from somewhere he hadn't known was still alive. After a whole year of silence from the gray window, the new one had a personality, and the personality was dry as the Colorado desert.

"Do you have a name?" he asked.

[I am the Dragon Sovereign System. You may call me anything you like. Previous Hosts called me Ember, Ash, and in one memorable case, Gerald.]

"Previous Hosts?"

[Information locked. Insufficient Dragon Heart. Complete Quests to unlock more.]

A new window popped open before he could ask anything else. It glowed in warm gold and read like an invitation.

[First Quest Received: The Hatchling's Oath.]

[Objective: Complete the Daily Training. One hundred push-ups. One hundred sit-ups. A five-mile run.]

[Time Limit: Before sunrise.] [Reward: Ember Core. Dragon Heart plus 2. A random skill.] [Penalty for failure: Ember Core fails to form. Host loses one level of potential.]

Caleb checked the clock on his nightstand. It was 2:47 a.m.

"Before sunrise," he said. "It's almost three in the morning. And I'm supposed to run five miles?"

[You have three hours and forty minutes. You have also been reforged. Try it.]

He tried it.

The first push-up should have been hard. He had never been able to do more than five without his arms turning to jelly. But his arms did not shake. His body rose and fell like a machine, and by the time he reached fifty, his breathing was only slightly heavier. At one hundred, he was sweating but strong. 

The sit-ups went the same way. He felt his body asking him for more and he almost laughed again.

The run was a different story.

He stepped out of his apartment building into the cold dark and started jogging down Maple Street. The neighborhood was asleep. Streetlights painted the sidewalk in long orange pools. 

For the first mile, he paced himself like a normal person. By the second, he realized he was not breathing hard. By the third, he was running faster than he ever had in his life, and it felt like flying.

[Ember Sense activated. Detecting nearby heat signatures.]

Caleb skidded to a stop. His vision shifted. Suddenly he could see warm shapes glowing through the walls of nearby houses, a sleeping family here, a cat there, an insomniac with a laptop two blocks down. The world was a map of living warmth.

"That's incredible," he whispered.

[It is also a good way to find out who is awake and watching you. Continue running.]

He finished the five miles in thirty-one minutes and forty seconds. At the end of it, he doubled over with his hands on his knees, breathing hard, grinning like a fool.

[Quest Complete: The Hatchling's Oath.]

[Reward: Ember Core Formed. Dragon Heart plus 2. New Skill: Dragon's Spark.]

Heat bloomed in his chest, a small bright coal that settled just under his ribs. It pulsed once, warm and steady, and Caleb felt it take root like a seed.

[Dragon's Spark (Rank E): Release a small burst of dragonfire from your fingertip. Currently the size of a birthday candle. Do not set the apartment on fire.]

He held up his finger. A small orange flame appeared at the tip, flickering like a lighter. Not a flame lord's inferno, only a little spark. But it was real, and it was his.

He closed his fist and let it die.

"Why me?" he whispered. "Why now?"

[Your father's pendant was a Bloodline Key. It was waiting for you to be ready.]

Caleb stood very still in the empty street.

"My father," he said slowly. "What do you know about my father?"

[Information locked. Insufficient Dragon Heart.]

"That's convenient."

[It is also true. I recommend sleep. You have school in three hours and a Games team that has already underestimated you.]

He went home and lay in bed for twenty minutes without sleeping. His mother's key turned in the front door at six a.m. 

Her footsteps crossed the hall, paused outside his room, and then moved on. She did not look in. She never did, afraid to wake him.

Caleb smiled up at the ceiling. For the first time in a year, he did not feel like a nobody.

At school the next morning, Marcus found him at his locker, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Okay," Marcus said. "You look different."

"Do I?"

"You look like you drank coffee. Do you drink coffee? I thought coffee made you nauseous." 

"I slept well," Caleb lied.

Marcus narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. "Hold still. I'm scanning you." 

"Marcus, you scan me every week."

"And every week you're an F. Let's see if anything changed."

Marcus's eyes glowed faint blue. His Analyst System swept over Caleb, and the glow flickered. Then it steadied. Then it shrank.

"Huh," Marcus said. "What?"

"You're still an F. Nothing changed. Levels one, stats all fours. It's weird. For a second I thought I saw..." 

He shook his head. "Never mind. Sleep deprivation. I stayed up studying for chemistry."

Caleb let out a slow breath as Marcus walked away.

[The Hatchling survives its first scan. Excellent.]

He closed his locker and smiled.