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Jimmy got sick a lot when he was little. He couldn't control his body temperature very well yet, being cold blooded like his father, and hadn't yet developed fire breath to keep himself warm. His mother took care of him until he could. She read him stories and made him a stuffed cat he named Norman. He didn't see much of his family until his mom started getting sick.
She knew they didn't approve, but she needed the help. Especially since Jimmy had sprouted wings and had taken to climbing and jumping off furniture when he was feeling up to it, which had thankfully become more frequent.
They did surprise her a bit though.
"Of course we'll help," her mother told her. "If it's important to you."
"Jimmy is a he, not an it," she corrected.
"Right."
Jimmy was six when he met his human grandparents. His mom had told him to be on his best behavior, so he was sitting at the kitchen table. It was hard to sit still, though; he was just so excited! He hadn't met anyone from the village yet because he was always sick. Maybe he could go to the market with his mom now that he'd been feeling better!
There was a knock at the door and Jimmy was quickly on his feet.
"Be on your best behavior, Norman," Jimmy reminded his plush cat as he went to answer the door.
His mom was already there, though, so he watched from around the corner.
There were two people, a man and a woman on the other side of the doorway, their hair was graying and the lady reminded him of his mom. He wasn't paying attention to what they were talking about, he was just studying the new people. If he had been paying attention though, he would've known they were talking about him and that his mom was setting ground rules.
"-alright then. Jimmy!" his mom called for him.
"I'm right here, Mommy!" he walked up next to her, grinning.
"Were you eavesdropping?" she asked jokingly.
"Nope!"
His grandparents were smiling at him. Not in the same warm way his mom did though. They weren't sure what to make of him. Of his hair and eyes that matched his mother's mixed with two small horns, wings, tail and the red scales he'd gotten from his dad. They were tense, but trying to be polite.
Of course, Jimmy was too young at the time to notice.
"So you're Jimmy," his grandfather said.
"Yep! That's me!"
"Well, I'm your grandfather and that's your grandmother."
Jimmy looked at her. "You look like Mommy!"
That got a few chuckles from the grownups before his grandparents walked inside.
Jimmy was eight when he started going into the woods.
His mom had died the year prior and his grandparents were stricter than her. They didn't like it when he hid stuff under his bed, even if it was just making sure Norman was safe! They also wouldn't let him jump off of furniture, even if it wasn't too high! He decided that was baby stuff anyways. His wings were getting bigger, he would need a bigger area to try using them in.
He'd taken some bread for a snack and left a note so his grandparents wouldn't worry. They were going to the market that day anyways, and still wouldn't let Jimmy come.
He wandered until he found a sturdy looking tree and began climbing. Unfortunately, he had little concept of how high up he actually was. He just knew he was higher up than he'd ever been at home or in the backyard.
He spread his wings and jumped from a branch.
And very quickly had two scraped knees and hands.
It stung a lot, and he couldn't help but cry.
"Are you okay?" Someone asked.
Jimmy stared at the new person for a moment. "You're like me!"
The stranger had two large, pointed horns coming from his forehead and wings on his back, like Jimmy. And he had red scales under his eyes. Just like him. He also had brown eyes that stared back. The main difference was the dark brown hair.
"I am," was what he said in response. "Now, back to my original question: are you okay?"
"I'll be fine. I'm a strong dragon!" It's what Jimmy's grandparents told him when he was scared. So it must be true.
"Come now, you look like you've barely hatched." The stranger responded. "A scraped up little hatchling. What's your name, hatchling?"
"Jimmy. And I'm not a hatchling, I'm 8." Jimmy didn't actually know what hatchling meant.
"Will you let me bandage you up, hatchling?"
Jimmy looked at him, I’ll call him Mr. Dragon , he decided. Mr. Dragon was giving him the same warm smile his mom would give him.
"Okay." Jimmy sat down on a nearby rock.
"This is going to sting a bit," Mr. Dragon explained, pulling out a water canteen. "You want to rinse these off so they don't get infected."
A cold stinging ran through his legs, causing him to tense up. He didn't like the cold, hated it, actually. Winter was the worst with all the snow. He couldn't go outside then, or else he'd get sick.
"Might I ask what you were doing that high up?" Mr. Dragon began wrapping the bandages around his kneecaps.
"I was trying to fly!"
He paused and looked at Jimmy, then at Jimmy's wings. "It might be a little soon for that, hatchling. Try gliding from a low branch next time. Now, show me your hands."
Jimmy tensed up as the water rinsed his hands.
"Almost done." Mr. Dragon carefully bandaged his hands. "Since you were such a good patient, you get a prize!"
Jimmy's tail swung in excitement as Mr. Dragon pulled something small out of a pouch on his belt.
"Close your eyes."
Jimmy felt something small placed in his hands.
"Open them."
In Jimmy's hand was a small, simple, silver ring with a smaller rhodonite crystal in it.
"Woah! Thank you!"
"You're never too young to start on your hoard."
"What's a hoard?"
"It's your own little collection of treasures."
"Like Norman!"
"Who's Norman?"
"My kitty, Mom made him for me!"
"Then absolutely like Norman."
Jimmy got back home a bit before sunset. His grandmother had already begun making dinner.
"I'm home!" he yelled as the back door swung open.
"Did you have fun?" She sounded a bit distracted.
"Mhm! I got a pretty ring from my new friend, Mr. Dragon! And he bandaged me up after I fell from a tree!" Jimmy told her. "He also told me I should glide before I try flying again."
"That's nice, Jimmy. Go get washed up for dinner."
Jimmy continued going into the woods. He also continued getting hurt and bandaged. Every few days Mr. Dragon would come back and show him something new before giving him something for his small hoard under his bed. He also let Jimmy talk about whatever came to mind in the moment, and helped him get his fire breath under control. Mr. Dragon also offered to teach Jimmy his to fly but Jimmy was determined to figure it out on his own.
Jimmy really just wished Mr. Dragon would stop calling him "hatchling".
Jimmy was 10 when he went to town for the first time. His grandparents had some rules for him. The rules reminded him of the dawning truth that they didn't like the parts that made him a dragon.
Keep your wings closed
Keep your tail still
And absolutely no fire
Of course, there was the understandable rule of staying near them so he didn't get lost.
Jimmy noticed people staring at him and whispering. He looked to his grandmother, who didn't seem concerned. He decided that he wouldn't be either. He's a strong dragon! He had more important things to focus on, like making sure his tail stayed perfectly still.
Jimmy had stopped going in the woods when he was 13. Like the other kids, he was now expected to help out around the village, and become an apprentice. Unfortunately, he'd hit a growth spurt and wasn't used to his new proportions yet. This made for a terrible apprentice. His strength, however, made him perfect for odd jobs.
As long as the odd job didn't involve anything breakable. Jimmy was teased by some of the nicer villagers for being clumsy. He ignored the meaner ones' jabs at his burn scars from the bakery oven and metalsmith's forges and his tendencies to trip and fall or accidentally knock stuff onto his tail.
He was a strong dragon. He could take it.
When Jimmy was 18, his grandparents told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to move out. He was a grownup now, he needed to do his own thing away from them.
Jimmy didn't mind too much. They were right, they just could've been nicer about it. He told them as such, which snowballed into a big fight. They told him the truth he'd been trying to ignore for years.
They only took care of him because they loved his mother.
Well, fine, Jimmy thought as he packed. If they don't care about me, then I won't care about them, either.
Jimmy liked Afterlife. He didn't have to shy away from his dragon features around other origins. Letting his wings and tail move freely again took some getting used to, though. He also almost accidentally started a forest fire on his first day but nobody needed to know about that.
He still got banged up from flying sometimes, partially from being out of practice and partially because he never figured out landing when he practiced flying regularly.
There was something a little odd about the others though. They were oddly concerned about him.
The first time he really noticed outside of glances or questions about what happened was when he promised to help Gem move some blocks and other supplies to her oil rig.
"Hi, Gem!"
"Hi- um… what happened to your arm?" the robot asked.
Jimmy's forearm and hand was wrapped in gauze, preventing the medicine from coming off or the burn getting infected.
"Oh, I accidentally set a tree on fire and burned my arm while putting it out," he explained. "Don't worry, I can still carry stuff."
Gem stared at him in stunned confusion. "Jimmy."
"Yes?"
" Jimmy. "
" Yes? "
"You don't have to help me with this. We can do it another day. Or I can get someone else to help," Gem stated.
"I already told you I can still help!"
Gem took a deep breath. "Jimmy, I can't in good conscience let you work while hurt."
"But I'm fine!" he insisted.
Gem let out a frustrated, mechanical sigh. "If you're so determined, at least get a regen potion from Sausage."
"Fine, if you insist," he huffed.
Sausage's base was large and pretty. It’s also very high up and one of the reasons Jimmy was grateful for the way stones.
"Sausage? Are you home?"
The gravital landed in front of him, stumbling from the launch.
"Jimmy! What brings you to the heavenly villa today?"
"Gem wanted me to get a regen potion."
"Oh no! What happened?" Sausage asked.
"I burned my arm while putting out a tree. I told her I could still help move stuff but she told me to come to you," Jimmy explained. "I think she's overreacting."
Sausage now had the same stunned confused look that Gem had.
"What?"
"Nothing. I have many questions, I will ask none of them. Um. Have you ever used a regen potion?" Sausage asked.
"No, never."
Sausage did little to hide his concern. "Follow me."
Jimmy followed Sausage to the Church of Saint Pearl.
"The potions guy is in here."
Jimmy sat in one of the pews while Sausage talked to the cleric. The gravital returned with a glass bottle of fuschia liquid.
"I'll need you to remove your bandages or else we'll just have some sticky gauze and that won't be helpful to anyone."
"Alright?" Jimmy was trusting Sausage; he'd never used potions before.
Sausage went wide eyed at seeing the burn on Jimmy's arm. Why was he freaking out? It wasn't that bad. It hurts, obviously, but it'll heal. He's a strong dragon. He can take it.
"Jimmy, Jimmy. Look at me."
Now it was Jimmy's turn to look confused.
"If you ever get burned like this again, I want you to use a regen potion. Sausage's orders."
"I don't have a brewing stand."
"You know what? Give me 3 days, I'll have so many potions ready for you. Now, give me your arm."
"You'd do that for me?" Jimmy knew that it was hard to get the ingredients for a regen potion. The Nether was dangerous, or so he's heard. The dimension was too hot for him. The idea of someone going there for him never entered his mind.
"Of course! What are superheroes for?"
Sausage popped the cork and gently poured the potion on the burn. The burn tickled as it began fixing itself until it just looked like a very bad scrape.
"Woah."
"There, almost good as new! You'll still want to wear your bandages though."
"Uh, thanks, Sausage."
"Don't mention it! Now, here are the other two from the batch. Tell Gem I said hi!"
Jimmy felt weird. A… good weird? It tugged at a childhood memory in the back of his mind.
Jimmy's tail was swishing in anticipation. He was going to meet the other dragons! Joel and fWhip weren't fire breathing like him; they were wyverns, which apparently breathed poison.
Then the other two flew down, in humanoid form, and landed easily. They were taller than Jimmy by quite a bit. He always figured they were tall but that was from across the room at server meetings. He didn't know they were this tall. They also had more visible scales and larger wings.
As they came down, though, Joel roared and Jimmy's arm began burning.
"Ow! Hey!" Jimmy had never been poisoned before but he knew he should drink milk to clear it up. Milk, which he didn't have.
"I told you he was cute," fWhip said to Joel.
"He looks like a little hatchling!" Joel added.
"I'm not a hatchling! I'm a grown man!" Jimmy's wings expanded with his frustration.
"Sure you are," fWhip ruffled his hair.
He was regretting this already.
"You know, me and fWhip have been looking to adopt a kid-"
"YOU JUST POISONED ME!" Jimmy interrupted. "And I'm not a kid!"
"The poison thing was friendly. Like punching someone in the arm," Joel explained. "Wait, you aren't immune to poison?"
"No, why would I be?"
"Aren't you a dragon?" fWhip asked.
"Half-dragon, technically." His wings closed to his back.
The two full dragons stared blankly for a moment. They'd never met a half-dragon before. Sure they've heard of them but that's completely different.
"So, what can you do?" fWhip asked.
"I can breathe fire!" Jimmy demonstrated. Aiming at where Joel was standing.
"Hey!" Joel stumbled back.
"That's payback for the poison!" Jimmy laughed.
The fire was quickly stamped out.
"I can also fly," Jimmy launched himself into the air and glided down, stumbling a bit as he landed.
"Can you launch yourself higher?" Joel asked.
"If I climbed-"
"No, no. Like this." The wyvern demonstrated, soon followed by fWhip. They could go twice as high as Jimmy could from the ground.
"Oh… No, I can't," Jimmy hoped his few red scales could hide the embarrassed blush creeping onto his cheeks. They couldn't. The ones on his face were dotted under his eyes, like weird freckles.
What was he expecting? That he'd be amazing at doing dragon things? He was biologically incapable at being a good human, why would he be any better at being a dragon?
I'll deal with that later.
"What should we do today?" fWhip asked.
Jimmy collected himself before answering. "Well, I was thinking, since we're all good at building, we could make a design shop together."
He held his breath and glanced between the other two, trying to anticipate their reactions.
"What would we call it?" Joel inquired.
"Diamond Designs?" Jimmy suggested.
"I have a better idea: Dragon Designs," fWhip answered.
fWhip said he'd look for a location near spawn and picked the highest peak. Jimmy could get up there, just not as quickly as the other two and he had to be careful so he didn't fall. And he didn't.
Until the final building day.
"I'm almost there!" Jimmy called up.
"You know, you're the worst dragon I've ever met," fWhip remarked.
"Yeah well-" Jimmy was interrupted by his foot catching on the edge of a rock. He fell face first on the top of the mountain, hitting a dripstone block on the way down. His ears began ringing and he could tell fWhip and Joel were yelling something but Jimmy couldn't discern what.
He began pulling himself up. "'m fine. Jus' a lil'..."
He started falling forward, getting caught by Joel.
"Jimmy? Can you hear me?" He sounded frantic.
After a few moments too long, "Yeah, yeah I am- can. 'M a stron drag'n."
"Oh no-," fWhip said before Jimmy blacked out.
Joel carefully shifted Jimmy into a position that was easier to carry, being careful of his head. The small half dragon had a bleeding cut on his forehead. Jimmy usually got a little banged up from failed landings or not looking where he was going, but this was different. Very different.
"What should we do?" Joel looked to the other wyvern.
"Um, Jimmy's base is pretty close. Sausage told me he gave him a bunch of regen potions?"
"Should we fly?"
"I don't think that's a good idea."
Neither of them had any medical experience, much less with half dragons.
"That's a lot of blood. How is he bleeding that much? He's so small…" fWhip muttered.
Joel pulled out some wool from his pocket (it was an accident, don't tell Katherine) and pressed it to Jimmy's cut.
"I think this is what we're supposed to do. Oh no, he chipped one of his horns."
It took a few minutes to get down to the waystone in the middle of spawn and teleport to Jimmy's base.
They may or may not have broken his door to get in.
"How does Jimmy organize his chests?" fWhip asked.
"I don't know!" Joel snapped.
"Hey, I'm as worried about him as you are!"
"Sorry, sorry," Joel carefully put the half dragon on his bed. "I'll check this one, you check that one over there."
"It's been 25 minutes, should we get Sausage?"
Jimmy blinked his eyes open, confused. His head hurt. Why did his head hurt? And why was he in bed? He was just with Joel and fWhip at their store.
He began sitting up.
"He's awake!"
That was Joel.
"Joel?"
"How're you feeling?"
fWhip.
"My head hurts."
Jimmy looked at the wyverns. They both looked terrified. Like he was going to drop dead if they weren't careful.
"What happened? Why are we in my house?"
fWhip answered, "Your foot caught on some stone-"
"Are you gonna make fun of me?"
"Wh- Jimmy, I'm not gonna make fun of you for getting a concussion," fWhip answered. "To answer your first question, you got a concussion and we brought you to your base because it's closest to spawn."
"Oh." Jimmy was feeling that good weird feeling again.
"Never do that again," Joel stated. "You really scared us."
"Sorry."
"Don't apologize, just be more careful."
"Okay. Do you guys still want to finish the shop?"
Joel and fWhip looked at him like he was crazy.
"I have a better idea," Joel announced. "We're going to fWhip's base!"
Joel insisted on carrying Jimmy to the lighthouse, even though Jimmy insisted that he could walk on his own. They used the waystone inside to get to fWhip's base, which Jimmy hadn't seen before. It was amazing. Three rock formations that resembled dragon spikes. There was also a giant dragon skull but Jimmy decided to ignore that for now.
They went into fWhip's hoard, a gigantic cave full of gold and jewels.
"Alright, Jimmy, we're gonna do a super fun dragon thing," fWhip started. "It's basically a cuddle pile."
Jimmy liked the sound of that.
Joel carefully put Jimmy down and transformed into his dragon form, along with fWhip. Their dragon forms towered over him, making the half dragon feel especially small. This feeling was interrupted by Joel picking him up by his hood like he was a kitten.
Joel and fWhip laid down in the center of the treasure filled room. And Jimmy was placed between them.
"What am I supposed to do?" he asked. Then he remembered they couldn't speak English in dragon form, the vocal cords weren't right. They might not be able to hear the question, actually, since they were so big now.
fWhip said it was a cuddle pile so maybe… Jimmy moved to sit leaning against Joel. He was warm. Not uncomfortable warm. More like lying under a warm blanket.
Jimmy felt safe. Like nothing bad would happen while he was here with Joel and fWhip. He felt like they cared, even if they liked to tease him and poison him, they still did. It was a nice feeling.
For the second time that day, this time for less dire reasons, he fell asleep.