Adopting Derek

The overwhelming scent of two humans came as a surprise because I had made sure to enchant the forest surrounding the human cottage that I own. No one should be able to even see my cottage unless that person drove up the dirt road or if that person was another dragon. One scent was quickly fading as I approached the area where the scent was strongest. It’s coming from my front porch? How? Even though I was in my dragon form, I was concealing my true size because human made objects break way too easily. I jumped onto the porch only to be faced with a human hatchling’s car seat. I slowly approached it as I was anxious that there really was a hatchling waiting for me in the car seat. Of course, what else would be in the car seat? A dog? Not likely.

I peeked over the side to find a cute little male hatchling. He giggled at me. “Doggy!” He cried. “Doggy! Doggy!” He was reaching out towards me when suddenly my snout became soft, furry and wet. Wait! Let me get this straight. This human hatchling has mana? “Doggy!” He cried again while grabbing the momentary fur.

Satisfied with my “fur” being gripped tightly in his little fist, he relaxed back and so did his mana. The soft fur and wet nose returned to its normal look, but as I tried gently pulling away from the human hatchling, his grip became more intense. The scale that was now within his grip was being pulled the wrong way. Thankfully, it was slightly loose thanks to my scale shedding season that was going to begin soon. Every human year, dragons shed roughly half of our scales.

I tried to be gentle because of how young the hatchling was, but I couldn’t sit here playing tug of war with this hatchling all day. I needed to prep for my shedding season. With one last tug, I went rolling backwards. My nose was stinging heavily from the loss of a scale, and this hatchling was laughing like it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. Then again, maybe it was given his age.

I huffed a little at the hatchlings amusement before heading into my cottage via the dog door that I had installed for my own use. I immediately went into my human bedroom that was filled with all kinds of human furniture. While I knew the basic functions of most of these items, I preferred the simpler life of my cave, but today, I needed to go shopping. The human hatchling on my door step presented a problem for me though. I can’t just leave him here, but what should I do? I guess taking care of him for the time being would be okay as long as he doesn’t rip anymore scales off.

With my mind made up, I began to shift into my human form. My snout shortened into a mouth and nose. My back legs lengthened out, and my front legs took on the shape of arms and hands. My claws on both my feet and my hands became perfectly trimmed nails. My rough scaly pelt became soft squishy skin in most places, and the rest turned into soft, long hair. I blinked a few times and my eyes shifted from dragon slits to round human pupils. My wings shrunk down further until they barely reached the width of my shoulders. I gently wrapped my tail around my left leg. Then, I flattened both my tail and my wings against my body to make them look like tattoos. If only I could do the same with my horns without almost depleting my mana. Thankfully, several humans wear hats these days.

I pulled out the oversized sun hat to hide my horns with and a set of random clothes. I quickly dressed myself and returned to my porch barefoot where the hatchling was crying. Great, now I have to deal with him upset. I picked up the car seat to take him inside. He tugged at the straps holding him in. Does he want out? His speech definitely wasn’t developed enough to tell me, so I pulled him out of his seat. As I went to set him on the ground, a letter fell out of his seat. The hatchling began crawling around my living room. I picked up the letter, and opened it out of curiosity.

To whomever finds my baby,

I am leaving my child in your care because I’m afraid that the government may try to take my child away. He has some strange ability that may make him a target of experimentation. My grandfather once told me a story about the existence of dragons and how they like more secluded locations. I’m hoping perhaps you are one, and if you are, then I beg of you. Please help my baby boy. His name is Derek, and he turned 18 months old a week ago today. As his mother, I am ashamed that I am unable to raise him, but I only want what’s best for him.

Sincerely,

Nora Burke

Well, I can’t simply turn this mother down now can I? Even if I could, it’s not like I can just return him. Ugh, this is a major predicament because the one rule we were given when we were allowed into human society was to keep our identity a secret from the humans because they may try hunting us down like they did in the Middle Ages. She seems like she wouldn’t hunt us down especially since she’s hoping for our help, so it should be fine right? Right, time to borrow my brother’s car.

I went into the bedroom and picked up the cell phone. My brother was the only person who I could call about this if I didn’t want it to blow up in my face. My best friend would be more ideal, but I’m scared that she would react badly. Thankfully, human technology has made it easier to stay in touch with my family. Finding his number was easy since I don’t have very many contacts. I tapped the call button and returned to the living room where I saw that Derek had pulled all of my books off of the lower two shelves of my book case. On top of that, he was now curled up in the bottom shelf as if he had done nothing wrong, and he was also asleep with my scale still firmly in his grip. What a little stinker!

“Hey, sis,” my brother’s voice came through the phone. “Do you need my car again?”

“Yes,” I answered him while stacking the books into a neat pile for later, “but I need you too.”

“Me? Is your bike dead?” He questioned, confused.

“No, I was just thinking that I should buy a car instead of always borrowing yours,” I replied. Unfortunately, my voice went up an octave, so he caught onto my half-truth.

“Uh huh, sure Leila, I ‘believe’ you,” he said. I could hear the air quotes in his voice.

I sighed, “Please, Bert. I really was planning on getting a car for my bigger errands. I just saved up sooner than expected.”

“Fine, I’ll be over in 20, but you had better tell me the truth when I get there,” he said before hanging up.

During the 20 minutes I had to wait for Bert to arrive, I looked up things I would need to care for Derek properly. I wrote everything down on a piece of paper and slid it into my pocket along with my phone. I gently picked up Derek, who was still asleep, and placed him back in his car seat. While I was fiddling with his seat buckles, I heard my brother drive up. I figured Derek’s buckles could wait because the last thing I wanted right now was a baby crying from being awakened. I lunged for the door and opened it before Bert could knock.

“Someone‘s in a hurry,” he said with a smirk on his face.

“Not really, I just don’t want to wake Derek up,” I retorted quietly.

“Is he your boyfriend?” Bert teased with a bigger smirk.

I rolled my eyes before opening the door. “You can see for yourself.” I remarked annoyed.

“By the way, what happened to your nose?” He asked with a soft chuckle, “a bee sting?”

I slapped him across the shoulder with the back of my hand. “Not a chance one those creatures could touch me.”

Bert went inside still chuckling, but he quickly halted when he saw Derek. “Is that… a human hatchling?” He asked.

“Unfortunately, yes, he is,” I replied as I returned to Derek’s car seat to finish strapping him in. “He’s also the reason I need my own car.”

“You should get rid of him,” Bert said bluntly.

“I can’t,” I replied. “At least, not right now.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons, the note on the counter, and use mana sense on him,” I instructed.

“See Mana,” he said with his eyes closed. When he opened them, his pupils were slits. “I haven’t seen a human with that much mana since trains were invented.” Shock was written all over his face. He closed his eyes for a few moments to release the spell. Then, he picked up the letter. After skimming through it, his jaw dropped. “I can’t believe it. Someone still knows about us.”

“And that’s why I can’t just ‘get rid of him’ like you said to do,” I commented using air quotes.

“Okay," He sighed, "but do you really have enough money for a car?”

“I should since I’ve been very careful with my money in the past 20 years,” I replied.

“Only a dragon could say that,” Bert chuckled.

“Let’s just go,” I grumbled while picking up Derek's car seat. “Humans get hungry more often than we do, and I don’t have anything to feed him yet.”

All Bert did was snicker at my comment. On the way out of the door, I grabbed my purse and bag full of broken scales before locking the cottage up behind us. Once we got to his car, Bert showed me how to buckle the car seat into the car before we got in and headed into town. Bert stopped where I asked him to so that I could sell my scales and cash my check. We chatted until we got to a car lot. While I went to haggle for a car, Bert stayed with Derek in the car just as he had done at each previous stop.

Thankfully, I knew exactly what I wanted: a cheap used car similar to my brother’s car. The guy at the front desk was willing to see what they had, but he made no promises as to whether I could get the exact make and model that I was looking for. Which it isn’t really a surprise to me since it’s an older model, but I’ll also take what I can get as long as it isn’t brand new.

After finding what they had, the sales clerk showed me three cars, all different colors, but otherwise they looked the same. He even allowed me to look under the hood of each of them. Having worked on my brother’s car and my own bike, I actually knew what to looking for. I decided that the blue one would be the best of the three after checking each of them out. None of them were brand new, so I got my wish.

I purchased the blue car, and then I parted ways with Bert after collecting Derek from him. Bert also gave me a few tips about human rules concerning children especially babies. Too bad he couldn’t just take Derek off of my hands, but he has his own hatchlings to attend to.

I had enough money to buy the car, the plates, and all the other tags for it; but I didn’t have much left over. When did the prices hike up so high? Oh well, I still need to go grocery shopping for Derek and myself. It seems as though everything in the car is working, but it is in desperate need of gasoline. There is also this list of baby items that I’ll need to get as well. My bank account won’t be happy after this shopping trip.

I had to go around to several stores to shop for the various baby items on my list because there were limits on how much I could get in any one given place. At my last stop, I picked up all of the food groceries that I had on my list. My jaw dropped at the excessively high amount it cost me. Good thing that I was saving up my money for no reason.

Derek was pretty quiet most of the trip which worried me a little since most of the articles I read, were about how fussy babies were. Nevertheless, I was grateful because that meant he was okay. He also slept through most of the trip which also helped even though I felt like it was unnatural given what I’d read while waiting for Bert to get to my house earlier.

Once back home, I checked Derek’s mana levels. They were lower than this morning, but not extremely lower. I quickly brought everything into the house and began to put together the various baby items that I had purchased. I also baby proofed my shelves and kitchen as suggested in those articles.

By the time everything was put in place, Derek had woken up crying. My dragon senses immediately told me that he needed a diaper change. As I pulled it off of him, the putrid scent hit several times harder making me feel a bit nauseous. Thank goodness, I don’t need to eat very often. I worked as quickly as I could to clean him up and put a fresh diaper on him. I threw it away and washed my hands, but before I finished drying them, Derek started crying again.

I was unsure of what he wanted, so I picked him up and got him some food because I thought that he might be hungry. I pulled out one of the baby foods. It was labeled as chicken flavored. I tried feeding him a small spoonful, but he turned his nose up at it.

“Yucky!” He cried.

“C’mon just try it,” I tried again.

“Yucky!” He cried again while pushing it away.

I sighed. It is supposed to be chicken flavored, so it couldn’t be that bad. I tasted it. Gross! It was nasty and definitely not chicken flavored. I threw it away and proceeded to try three other flavors. Each time, Derek wouldn’t take a single bite. Sighing again, I tried making a mashed potato. Of course, I made a mess, burnt it, and then had to watch tutorial videos before finally getting it right. I let cool before handing him a small bite.

He took the bite. Finally! I just placed the bowl in front of him and slowly fed him. About halfway through the bowl of potatoes, Derek began to get sleepy, so I put him to bed. I quietly cleaned the mess I made, and I tasted the potatoes which were surprisingly good. I guess that I should write down his likes and dislikes for future reference.

After my first day with him, I quickly got into a routine with Derek. Whenever Derek took a nap, I also curled up and dozed. Strangely, taking care of Derek drains extra energy from me, and at night, I went to my cave for an hour to switch between forms to drop my loose scales which only added to my exhaustion.

He isn’t extremely fussy except when I go to feed him, and even then it’s usually just pushing the food he doesn’t like away because he finds it “yucky.” I’ve started eating when he does because it seems to help him eat. I even started cooking my meat. I introduced him to mashed avocado which he turned down, but when I made guacamole out of the rest of it, he wanted it. What a strange thing for him to like guacamole but not the avocado. Derek even started chewing soft foods like beans, but he was as picky as ever even with those. I ended up only keeping the liked food list. I also began eating whatever I made for him with the addition of meat.

This went on for three months until my brother called and told me to turn the television on to the local news station which of course I did. The news report was about a woman who had been taken in for child abandonment. She was also facing charges of possibly killing her baby. I missed her first name, but her last name was Burke. Since there was only one woman that I knew with that last name, then I figured it had to be Nora. I checked to see when the news would be on again and decided that I would just watch it again when it was next on. In the meantime, I called Bert back.

“Yes, sis?” He asked while answering.

“I need your help,” I stated.

“Is it because of that news story?” He asked skeptically.

“What else would I need you help with?” I countered.

“You know that you shouldn’t get involved right?” He continued asking.

“And you know that I can’t just leave her to spend who knows how long in jail right?” I argued back.

There was a moment of silence, a distant “hey!”, and a sigh before I heard anything else from the other end of the line.

“Hey, Leila,” the spritely voice of my best friend and sister-in-law came across the phone. “Whatcha need?”

“Hi, Allison,” I greeted her. “I need a concealment spell for my horns, specifically, one that’ll last for a couple of months.”

“A couple of months? What have you and Bertram been hiding from me?” She asked accusingly.

“A human hatchling with mana,” I stated bluntly because I was too tired to go into a full explanation. “I want to save his mother, Nora Burke, from getting hurt by human laws at her hearing in two weeks, but I don’t have enough mana to conceal my excessively large horns like other dragons.”

“I see…” she stopped mid-sentence as though she were thinking. “Have you tried absorbing the hatchling’s mana?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t last long and only when I’m touching him,” I answered while watching Derek play with his toys.

I could hear muffled chatter, but I couldn’t hear everything that was said. I figured it was Allie coercing Bert into helping me. The thing that baffled me was her lack of reaction. I could tell the phone was given back to Bert because Allie told him to agree to help me, and I heard that very clearly.

“Fine, I’ll help you on one condition,” Bert said an air of annoyance in his voice.

“Which is?” I asked.

“Derek’s mana is the medium for the spell,” he stated.

“As long as he doesn’t die, I’m fine with that,” I said.

“Okay, I guess I’ll see you next week,” Bert said with a groan.

“Right, see you then,” I said before hanging up.

Sighing heavily because my shedding season wasn’t quite over, I got Derek ready for a quick shopping trip to buy me something more appropriate for court than my jeans and random tops. Of course, I knew that the small town I lived near didn’t have any shops with that sort of clothing, but just an hour north, in a bigger city, they did.

The drive was longer than usual, but Derek just fell asleep without any fuss at all, beyond strapping him in. I quickly found five outfits that would work for these types of situations. I only bought three because I wasn’t sure how often I would need them. I also bought some shoes and a nicer purse than the one I usually used.

Over the next two weeks, Bert stopped by to gather Derek’s mana into a magic stone which he apparently did back when we got me a car. Bert said he was curious about Derek’s mana because of how long it’s been since he had seen humans with mana. I got mad at him for his excuses, but I couldn’t complain about it too much because he was helping me.

Now, it was time for me to go crash a court hearing, and my confidence was gone. Bert used the magic stone to hide my horns for me. While I freaked out, Bert was calm, and he reminded me that we were special when it came to dragon kind. He also believed that I could accomplish whatever I set out to do. Derek was asleep due to lower levels of mana, but my brother assured me that he would wake up by the time I got to the courthouse. As if on cue, Derek woke up right after I parked the car.

“Lay-Lay?” He asked. Lay-Lay was his nickname for me which was better than doggy.

“Yes, Derek?” I asked back.

“Mama,” he said sadly.

“Are you missing her?” I asked. He nodded. “Good thing we are going to see her today.”

“Mama!” He exclaimed happily.

I pulled him out of the car seat, and we went inside. Getting through security was a bit of a pain because they didn’t want to allow Derek in; however, I eventually convinced them to let him in. We entered just shortly before the verdict was given which was good because that meant I still had a chance.

“Your honor, may I speak,” I asked without sitting down.

People began murmuring about interfering with the court of law until the judge used his gavel. “You may, miss...” he trailed off not knowing my name.

“Leilakali Croun, sir,” I said stating my name for everyone in the room.

“Very well, Miss Croun, you may speak,” he said to the displeasure of everyone in the room.

“Mrs. Burke asked me to babysit Derek a few months ago,” I said while walking forward to a more central part of the room. “The boy, here in my arms, is Derek Burke, the son of Mrs. Nora Burke.”

“Mama!” Derek cried happily as he saw her. He was now reaching for her as well.

“May she hold him?” I asked mostly because I could see the desire, happiness, confusion, and gratitude in her gaze.

“She may,” the judge said.

I immediately handed Derek over to her. “As you can see, Derek is alive,” I said. “When Mrs. Burke asked me to babysit Derek so that she could return to work full time, I offered to adopt him because I am more financially stable than her. She decided to have a trial period first to see if he could adjust to living with me.” Yep, I was absolutely lying right now, but I refused to allow them to punish this mother for simply wanting what’s best for her baby. Plus, it wasn’t a complete lie because she did leave me a letter.

“Thank you, Miss Croun,” the judge said. “Please take a seat by Mrs. Burke while the court takes a short recess.” I took a seat by Mrs. Burke as the jury and judge took a recess. Mrs. Burke was crying while Derek was petting her hair the way I do to him when he cries without reason.

“May I hug you?” Nora asked.

“Of course,” I said. We gently hugged, and I felt good for helping her. “I really do want to adopt him, but it’s your choice.”

“If it’s an open one, then I wouldn’t mind,” she said with a sad look in her eyes.

“Absolutely!” I said smiling broadly.

“Mama! Lay-Lay!” Derek exclaimed happily. We both laughed and hugged him.

The judge and jury returned. The recess was over, and it was time to hear what they decided during their time gone. The judge called the court to order.

“After discussing Miss Croun’s new development in the story, we have decided to let Mrs. Nora Burke go free, and we will allow you, Miss Croun, to adopt Derek after one month if Social Services doesn’t find any reason to not allow it,” the judge said. “Also, you will need to provide the court with some legal information at your next court date. If everything is in order, then we can get the adoption completed next time we meet. Court Adjourned!”

Nora went to collect her things while I returned outside to wait for her with Derek. I offered her a ride home, and she accepted. She came out with an escort who left her at the door. Once in the car, she gave me her address, and I began driving. We chatted for a little bit, and I revealed that I was a dragon. Afterwards, she remained silent for the rest of the drive. She invited us in for a snack so that we could further discuss things. I had no reason to refuse, and Derek was extremely happy to be with Nora again.

“Are you really a dragon?” Nora asked once we were sitting down.

“Yes, I am,” I stated proudly. “We stay hidden by using transformation magic and IDs made by appearing older or younger than we actually are.”

“Is there a way to show me that you aren’t lying?” She asked still wary of me.

“Of course,” I said with a smile. I took the necklace with the magic stone in it off. After a few moments, my horns reappeared. “Release eye transformation.” My eyes also returned to their original appearance. “Anything else and I’ll destroy my clothes.” I said slightly embarrassed. With my eyes now in their normal form, I could see that she had some mana though not as much as Derek.

“And I thought grandpa was lying,” Nora said flabbergasted.

I redid my eye transformation. “Would you like to see the mana for yourself?” I asked a tad sheepishly.

“How?” She asked.

“I can cast a mana sense spell on you, but it won’t last long,” I answered. “I don’t think you’ll even get a headache because you have a little bit of mana yourself.”

“I do?” She asked again.

I nodded my head remaining quiet. I could tell she was having a bit of an overload of information. I let her contemplate while I put the necklace back on. My horns relaxed back onto my head. Derek came toddling up to me while I was letting Nora sift through all the new information.

“Lay-Lay, up!” Derek demanded while reaching up at me. I lifted the little tyke up and into my lap.

“I… I think… I’d like to see it just once,” Nora said.

“Alright, close your eyes for me,” I instructed. She closed her eyes, so I stretched my hand out. “See mana.”

Once I drew back my hand, she opened her eyes. Her hands flew to her mouth as her eyes welled with tears. She could definitely see the flow of mana.

“I… I think I can see your dragon form,” Nora said mesmerized by the things she was currently seeing. “And Derek, my baby, is so special!” The spell began to fade, and Nora was happily crying at the wonders I had shared with her.

We spent a few more hours chatting, but I had to get home because I needed to take down some of my enchantments before tomorrow since I didn’t know when the social worker was going to come. Derek was sad about leaving Nora, but he was also too tired from the mana drain to complain too much. Nora put him to sleep so that we could leave sooner.

The drive home was quiet, and Derek didn’t even wake when I brought him in. I put him in his crib. Then, I went to the front porch where I took most of my enchantments down. My cottage would now be visible to humans from the main road, but the conjured mist was still lurking.

During the following month, the social worker visited me at least once a week. I gathered all the legal documents that I would need with the help of Bert and Allie. Bert was planning on attending the hearing with me so that he could verify any statements we made, and Allie had to stay with their hatchlings. Derek was growing by the day, but his speech was still limited. Nora also came by to spend time with Derek.

On the day of the hearing, we all arrived at the court room with crazy nerves. I presented all of the legal documents I needed to, and the social worker gave the report on my behavior. In the end, the judge allowed the adoption, and he even said there wasn’t a reason for it not to be an open one because he understood that being a single parent was one of the toughest things to struggle through. The adoption was finalized, and Nora could still be his mother.