Ch 2- Lonely Cub

Casey was now an orphan cub from the dwindling dragon race. In his memories, the dragon race was fierce, ambitious, and ahead of many interstellar races.

They were a proud race with higher spiritual power, strength, and intelligence. But with such superiority the race had an inherent flaw; conception was extremely low and over the many years their numbers had been dwindling.

Casey has heard many things and read stories about the powerful dragon race, but because of their dwindling numbers the dragons drew into seclusion. Their main star has been mostly closed off to the outside world.

It's rare to see any out in the galaxy unless it's a lonely nomad or a convoy for negotiations. Although they drew towards seclusion other races haven't bothered to entertain the thought of attacking and taking their territory.

The race was too advanced in its technology and even without it their fighting progress was terrifying so most races steered away from them. and some even revered them as a sacred race.

After sorting the information from the Inherited memories and combined it with what background knowledge he knew. Casey felt puzzled.

Why was he abandoned here? When dragon cubs are so precious why on earth why his egg abandoned, he just couldn't understand. He also couldn't understand how he became the dragon in the egg either.

"I just came from a family that was no different from being alone. And now I come back and I don't even have a family at all, which is worse?".

Casey felt lost and depressed again, he died and was even more alone than before his death. His small face pouted and he sniffled as quiet tears fell.

Eventually, he calmed down, after sitting for a while the shakily stood up on his new legs looked around, and saw the leather bag and the jewels inside. He couldn't help but grab the bag to take with him.

Casey knew he couldn't return to his old family and life anymore and decided to slowly let go of the past and accept his new self. After taking a few steps forward he stopped.

"Maybe my parents left some information inside the bag?". After receiving the inheritance Casey felt a strong resonance with what he is and considered the egg as himself.

Casey dumped the bag and looked carefully at every item in it, including the bag itself. Casey felt frustrated as he found not even a single syllable on anything.

Everything was carefully put back into the bag. In line with his dragon mind, he felt a strong attraction to these glittery jewels and gold and refused to leave them behind.

He took one last look and saw his tattered clothes and bones and decided to bury them before leaving as a way of saying goodbye to his past self. As he picked up everything he found the small jade knife under his clothes.

He picked it up and noticed a tiny etching in the handle. Casey squinted and looked closer and saw a character etched in the knife, but he couldn't recognize what it meant.

Regardless Casey thought he had a clue, he carefully wiped off the blood on the knife and excitedly put it in the bag. After he finished burying everything he went and walked outside the cave.

Blinded by the two suns hanging in the sky his eyes squinted to see, turning his head back and forth he saw a vibrant and beautifully lush forest.

"Let's look for a water source first" Casey decided in his mind.

Walking around cautiously he thought; "If there was a high-level Kali that means there should be more of them in the area".

As he made his way around he started to tune more into his senses. He noticed his eye sight, hearing, and smell were significantly sharper than in his previous body.

He also felt stronger as a whole; which helped cheer him up and helped him look at his situation in a positive light.

"At least I got my wish of good health", he lamented.

After an hour of making his way by using his keen sense of smell he came across a large crystal clear pond.

Crouching behind a bush he vigilantly looked around the area. After deciding, there were no other creatures and it was safe he slowly crept towards to water

When he reached the water Casey looked down to see his reflection for the first time.

"Silver". Was Casey's first thought as he saw his reflection.

He saw a mostly silver little dragon, with light blue horns, ruby red eyes, and beautiful silver wings.

He look down and inspected himself more closely, he had splashes of light blue on the tip of his tail and wings.

"Quite handsome" he grinned to himself.

When he looked at his wings he tried to open them up and flap them. At first, he struggled to lift them up and down. Then after a few moments of going through the motions, he managed to barely lift himself off the ground.

"So cool!" Casey exclaimed.

"In the future I'll be able to fly freely!" For the first time, Casey felt genuinely excited since this whole endeavor started.

Casey continued to flap his wings and managed to hover several inches above the ground. He spun himself in a small circle; in his excitement, he puffed out a small ball of hot air from his mouth.

The heat surprised and scared Casey a bit and he instantly lost concentration and fell on his butt to the ground.

"Ow Ow Ow". Casey stood up and lightly kneaded his sore butt before sitting back down. While he had the inheritance memories and knew of some of the innate skills dragons have knowing and experiencing it are two totally different things.

Casey really started to feel excited about his new body and temporarily forgot about his past depression and loneliness.

For the first time in a long time Casey greatly looked forward to his future.

"What should I do now?".Then he felt a bit lost, not knowing where he was or where to go.

"Should I head to Dalhi star?" (The main star for the dragon race).

"It seems like the best place to go, " he thought to himself.

"But how would I find my way there?" he knew that dragons are able to freely fly even in space for periods of time after they grow up a bit.

But that didn't matter if he couldn't find the right way, and he also couldn't fly like that yet. Casey made up his mind to explore this planet and see if had any other intelligent life that could help him.

"I'll go look for that crashed escape pod first, maybe there are still useful parts in it".

Raising his spirits, he drank some water before setting back off in the direction he thinks the crash should be. Casey trekked for about three hours, practicing on flapping his wings and fluttering along the way.

He then saw the crash up ahead and rushed over. After sorting through the wreckage Casey felt a bit down as they're was nothing salvageable for him to use.

He sat to rest for a bit, he was too young and was tired easily; he needed to build up his strength, he thought to himself. Then Casey smelled what seemed to be a type of roast meat, he started to salivate and lifted his nose to smell more closely.

His little silver wings started to flutter and he slowly lifted a few inches off the ground, taking his small self towards the tempting smell. Snapping out of a daze he reached the source of them smell, and exclaimed out in surprise.

He had arrived on the outskirts of a small tribe of the Shera race; an intelligent humanoid race. They have distinct blue skin and silver hair they are very smart and are a race that prides themselves on having some of the highest technology in their galaxy.

What Casey found odd though was that such an advanced race was sitting here in a primitive-looking tribe, totally contradicting their normally bustling tech cities. But the little dragon didn't give the oddity too much thought.

Casey just felt like he could see the light at the end of the tunnel, he grabbed a rock and threw it at a male shera that was a bit separated from the others.

The Shera named Mac touched the back of his head that had just been hit by a rock. He looked around puzzledly, not sure of what just happened. As he looked around he suddenly saw a sliver of silver and blue waving at him from behind some bushes.

Mac was startled and turned to tell the others, as he did so another rock flew at him. Smacking him right in the middle of his forehead.

Mac exclaimed in pain and looked back towards the bush and this time saw a small dragon head popping out. "Oh my god!" Mac yelled out loud and all the other shera looked at him in inquiry.

When they saw the astonishment on his face, they looked towards the direction he was looking. Then they too saw the small silver dragon hiding behind the bushes and went into a frenzy.

Many races revere the dragon race and worship the majestic beasts, they are typically a highly respected race across the stars. The Shera are also a race that greatly respects them, though many have never seen one in person they could still recognize what Casey was at a glance.

"Can you all please help me out?" A small voice speaking the interstellar common language came from the dragon in the bush.

Mac was the first to come back to his senses and enthusiastically walked forward.

"What do you need help with?".

"I want to go to Dalhi star, but I don't have the means or know they way to get there from here".

When the group heard Casey's words, they frowned and showed complicated expressions.

They looked at each other and once again it was Mac who replied first.

"We would love to help you if we could, but all we can do is give you a star map to point the way. We have no way to take you or leave this planet."

"How can that be?" Casey exclaimed.

"Do you know what star we are currently on small one?"

Casey shook his head expressing he didn't.

"This is Moren star; a planet where several intelligent races send those who are banished or have committed serious crimes. The races send those criminals here to fend for themselves".

"The races that live here don't have the technology to leave and live a rather primitive lifestyle. The only ships that come here are ones that dump off prisoners essentially".

"There's no way for us to leave, it's our good luck and fortune that we found a star map before that you can use".

Casey looked at the Shera with a wary expression.

"So you're criminals?".

"Most of us aren't, our ancestors were sent here and many of us were born and raised here. Some races have a higher amount of criminals here than others. So you need to be cautious when wandering around. Also, there are many unintelligent and vicious native species living here".

Casey thought of the Kila he saw before and he sat down as his eyes started to water again. "What should I do now? I can't fly in space yet".

Mac saw him crying and rushed to comfort him. " Although you can't leave now, for a superior race like yourself this planet should be very useful for training yourself to grow strong".

Casey raised his eyes to stare at Mac as he continued on.

"It's not like you won't ever be able to leave, you can spend your initial growth phase here and after that you'll be able to leave. In a harsh environment like this you should be able to train yourself and advance faster than you would be able to on other planets".

Mac spoke fast and made points that were logical and concise, helping Casey to calm down and think more carefully.

"Maybe this is why my egg was left here, maybe this is an opportunity for me". Thinking to himself again Casey slowly accepted his situation and sifted through his inherited memories.

Dragons don't have a fixed growth rate, they go through two growth phases in their life that occur after gaining enough strength and experience.

The first phase is when a dragon reaches a high enough level spiritually and physically it will go through rapid and painful growth and then will be able to change to its human shape for the first time.

After changing shape a dragons initial potential sky rockets and once Casey completes the first growth phase he should be able to travel the necessary distance in space. He thought through and evaluated his current situation. Then looked back up at the young Shera in front of him.

"Until I reach and pass my first growth phase can I stay here with your tribe?"

Mac turned his head to look over at a Shera who was much older than himself. This Shera had just walked out of a house, holding a beautifully carved staff. The old man is the leader of the group he looked over at Casey gently.

"Young dragon although I do not know what brought you here. It is our race's honor to host and have you with us. Please stay with us as long as you need, we will be your support during your time on this planet".

The Shera were kind and showed enthusiasm towards his presence. Casey felt very embarrassed but he also felt the warmth coming from this small tribe and showed them a brilliant smile.

"Thank you for having me then, my name is Casey".

Casey slightly looked forward to the time he would spend in this tribe.