Dragon Dreams

Chapter 4: Discovery

In the center of my vision was a red, scaly muzzle. I blinked a few times, and it refused to go away. With a frantic rustle of sheets, I bolted out of bed and promptly fell flat on my stomach. Right in front of my face, I saw a clawed forepaw lying on the carpet; it was mine. I lifted my head and looked back at the rest of my body, splayed out on my bedroom floor. I registered the leathery wings draped across my back, the powerful hind legs—one of which wore the tattered remains of my boxers—and the long tail that trailed back up into my bed. Somehow, my wish had been granted, and I had woken up from the dream as a real dragon.

Quickly, I picked myself up onto all fours and bounded to my door, locking it. I could not let myself be seen yet. My mind was racing, and my heart was thumping in my chest. "Maybe this is still part of the dream," I thought, "and it only looks like I woke up in my room." I had experienced some false awakenings before, so this seemed like a logical explanation. A little more calmly, I walked back to my bed.

"How can I tell if I'm dreaming right now?" I wondered. Apparently numbers and letters change in dreams when you look away. I looked at my alarm clock, reading 5:51, then looked away for a few seconds. When I glanced at it again it was still 5:51. "Great," I thought, "now what?"

If I was dreaming, I should have been able to wield some kind of control on the world around me. I decided to test this out in various ways. First by trying to turn my lights on and off with my mind and trying to push my fingers—no, my claws—through my other palm. I also tried to change myself back by picturing my human body and concentrating. Nothing worked. I started to worry that this might not be a dream after all.

In the meantime, I decided to look at myself in the mirror. As I walked across the room to my bathroom door, I wondered if I was able to stand up on two legs like a person. Slowly, using my tail to counterbalance my front, I raised myself up. To my relief, this upright stance felt just fine, only a little less natural than all fours. With some time to get used to it, I was sure it would be no trouble. My dragon-legs seemed just a tad shorter compared to a human's, but with my long neck I stood quite tall, probably over seven feet.

With a bit of a wobbly gait, I walked into my bathroom on two legs. While my head was low enough to pass under the doorframe, I had forgotten about my horns. They banged into the wood frame and jarred my head back. Fortunately, it didn't really hurt. "Damn!" I swore aloud, "I forgot about those." I vowed to be more careful. Then I turned my attention to the mirror and my new reflection.

My eyes were not facing forward anymore, instead they sat on the sides of my elongated snout. This gave me a pretty wide range of sight. I leaned closer to look at my new draconic eyes. They were a brilliant golden color and had a vertical slit in the middle. Other than my eyes, which I hadn't been able to see before without a mirror, I looked exactly the same as I did in the dreams. I opened my jaws to see the sharp, predatory teeth at the front. In the back, I could see some flatter teeth for chewing and grinding. Apparently, I was meant to be an omnivore. I was just fine with that, since a diet of exclusively meat sounded pretty dull, not to mention expensive. My long tongue also caught my attention. It was deep red and forked at the end.

I closed my mouth and turned on the faucet, starting a stream of cold water running into the sink. A few seconds of splashing water on my face helped me feel more awake and refreshed. "Ahh," I said happily. "At least I can still talk." My voice sounded almost the same, a little deeper perhaps. After drying my face with a towel, I walked out of the bathroom. The next thing to address was the fact that I was naked. Although there was nothing to see, just smooth plates from my neck all the way down to my tail, it still felt weird not wearing anything.

"A large pair of shorts would probably fit me," I thought. Laying my biggest pair of athletic shorts on my desk, I pulled out some scissors and cut a large, round hole in the back for my tail. It was a bit of a struggle to get them on. I had to put my tail partway through the hole first and then pull it up my legs. Any kind of underwear would have been impossible so I had to settle for just the shorts.