Omen

"Look at his eyes! He belongs to the Mother! We are restoring the natural order!" she hissed.

Omen woke up to confusion and shouting. The young hatchling did not know what was going on, but his parents seemed very upset. His body seemed a little different, and he didn't have any hair before he fell asleep under the cypress tree, but he didn't mind the change. His parents were a different story.

"Mother, I feel fine. Did the queen not change your form to help you escape your parents' past? Father, everything will be all right. Both of you please calm down."

"That was different! I was an adult and I asked for the change!" his mother protested.

"Mother, I do not mind this change, truly. I feel... more powerful, somehow. I feel like I found my place. You told me my eyes make me different, something more primal. Is it not fitting that I join this primeval colony?"

His mother was shocked into silence, but his father found his tongue. "Son, if you ever change your mind, the queen will help you regain your original form. Be well, and remember that we will always love you," he said with more than a tinge of sadness and loss.

"I understand Father, and I will petition the queen to return me to my original form should I feel the need. But somehow I do not think I will. Farewell."

The young dragon turned and joined his new family deep in the heart of the swamps of the Tangled Wood.