(CH1) From Soldier's Rifle, to Dragon's Wings (Book 1)

Story by taro619 on SoFurry

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There are man things we don't know about the mysterious world of the Military, Project Draco is one of them. I was recruted into this project against my own will at the age of 14. My life wnet from normal to dodging bullits everyday of my life. you could say that i know death personally, but when you have wings, scales, talons, and can breath fire you already have a target on your head. It's only a matter of time. This is the story of my life as a Project Draco recruit..............as a dragon.


CH1: A Change~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Ok, I wrote this book and the other 2 of the FSRTDW Trilogy on another website, and have jsut reciently discovered that i was a Scalie. So i decided to repost the trilogy here on Sofurry.com to see how it will do. SO if you read this story, thank you. BTW there will be no Yiff in the first book, but i may rearrange the next 2 to have yiff in them if this book does good. anywhay thx for reading my book. Enjoy.)

The cold January air rushed inside the Marine recruiting station as an old looking man in uniform entered. He turned to the clerk behind a desk and they began a conversation, but I ignored them. Instead, I reached for a rather large copy of Guns&Ammo, and immediately turned to a picture of a sniper shooting an M109. I had come to the recruiting station with my 24 year old brother Sam. Hes wanted to be in the Marines since as long as I can remember.

I closed the magazine and set it back onto the stack of magazines it came from. The station wasn't very big, maybe 15 could fit in here comfortably. It wasn't very uncommon for someone in my family to join the military, my family's roots go all the way back to the civil war. My father is Marine Force Recon and never home, my mother is a helicopter pilot in the Army and goes active every six months each year, so it's pretty much me and Sam at home.

I'm planning to be a fighter pilot in the Air Force, and Sam wants to be Force Recon like our dad. A man then came out of an office and called Sam's name.

"Well.....see you in a bit jack". Sam said as he stood up and disappeared behind the door.

"See ya". I said quietly after the door closed. After a couple of minutes, I grabbed the Guns&Ammo with the picture of the sniper in it again. As I looked at it, I realized, it would make a great wallpaper and started to silently beat myself up for forgetting my IPOD at home.

In the picture, the sniper was laying on his stomach with the M109 poised to fire. A bell then rang above the entrance as a man around 40 to 50 years old entered and sat beside me.

"Hello im Abe" he said completely catching me off gaurd.

"Ohh.......my names Jack". I said as I started to look him over, I could tell he was doing the same to me. He looked much older now than he did when he came in. He was black with green eyes, a wierd combination, but it worked on him. His hair and goatee were completely gray, and he was wearing National Gaurd Fatigues. It only took me a second to fully look him over, I quickly looked away when I realized I was starring.

"So....you wanting to join the Marines? How old are you son?" he said as he moved his gaze from me to the picture of the sniper. I closed the magazine and put it back in the pile.

"I'm 14 sir, and I'm really wanting to join the Air Force, but if i don't make it, thin ill go to the Marines." I replied as I shifted my position so that I faced him.

"I'm just here with my brother, hes wanting to join the Marines and go Force Recon."

"Oh wow.....your brother has some pretty high set goals."he said as he turned and nodded to the clerk behind the desk. The clerk then picked up a phone and made a quick call.

"So, you like to fly?" Abe asked as the door bell rang again and an old man with a walker entered. He started to wobble toward us, but I payed him no attention.

"Yes sir, I love it when your up above the clouds, especially when its on a very rainy.........."

I was cut off by the old man who had fallen toward us. The walker hit my calf and tore my pants all the way down to my shoe.

"Sir.....are you OK!" I asked frantically as I helped him up.

"OH I'm so sorry." he apologized over and over again as I managed to stabilized him with the walker.

"Its OK I can patch the pants up." I said as he nodded at me then began to wobble toward the door.

"Here......I'll get the door for you." I said as I opened the door.

"Well, thank you." he said as he exited the station. After the door closed behind him, I turned and began to walk back to my seat, but once I had taken maybe two steps toward my seat, I noticed a few blood covered footsteps starting from small puddle where the old man had fallen into me. I immediately looked down at my leg, it was cut deep down the same path as my pants.

"OH wow that's not good." Abe said as he stood up and ordered the clerk to get a first aid kit. He then sat me down as the clerk approached with the kit. Abe opened the kit, pulled out a role of medical tape and quickly started to wrap my leg up. Once he finished putting on the medical tape, he started to put on a thick layer of bandage. Suddenly, the phone rang.

The clerk, who had been mooping up the blood, stopped and answered the phone, I heard a small mumble and the clerk hung up the phone, He then sighed audibly.

"Conformed Abe." he stated loudly.

"Copy." Abe said as he reached into the first aid kit.

"Conformed? What does that mean." I asked, starring blankly at Abe.

"This is gonna hurt." Abe said as he took a syringe out of the first aid kit. He then injected me with a large amount of some clear liquid.

"What was that." I asked, growing panickd. The bell above the door rang again as two men in black suits entered and starred at me.

"A sedative, youll find out wh when you wake up." I jumped up and immidiatedly became dizzy.

I tried to shake it off and head for the door, but instead, I took a step, my vision went dark, and I collapsed. I couldn't see but I could still hear.

"So you think he's a match." a man asked.

"I know he is." i heard Abe say as I completely blacked out.

I was warm and cozy as I sat in the flight seat of an F-16 high above the earth. There was some chatter over the radios as a large formation of fighters and bombers appeared from behind a large storm cloud.

The image faded and turned into a small black room, I was sitting in the corner of the room, I had been beaten and was hurt badly. A Japanese man then entered the room and stared at me angrily.

"You didn't give us any information, but your friend did." he said, pointing toward a door. Two men carrying Sam's lifeless body entered the room and dropped him. I tried to scream , but felt something holding my lips together. He then drew a sword, lifted it, then struck. My eyes flung open in a panick.

(I'm awake, it was all a dream.)I thought to myself before noticing that I was in a white room with a small dark mirror on the same wall as a door. The walls were padded like you'd expect to see in a mental institution. I was on my side and felt weak, I couldn't move currently, but after some time, I managed to roll onto my stomach. It was nearly 30 minutes Before i was able to move, but it was limited to my head and arms. I started to stare at the mirror and moved my arm so I could try to get up, but froze when a black figure moved into my field of view. After a moment of looking it closly, I tried to move again, the black figure moved to. It was an arm, my arm, but it was no longer an arm, it was a paw with five short razor sharp claws on the end if it.

I managed to lift my head and noticed that I was heaver than usual. I stared at my new appendage , when a touch on my leg startled me. I turned my head to my rear, only to see that it was a tail that touched me......my tail. I began observed my new tail, then moved up my back to a set of wings.

(What am I? Where am I?) I jumped up only to immediately lose my balance and slam into the soft wall. I started to scream uncontrollably,

"Where am I, Whats going on, Please someone, answer me!" The door then opened and a light blue.......thing entered followed by two men in lab coats. I starred at the blue thing as one man opened a file and began to read aloud.

"Jack Wheeler, age 14, gender male, residence Olive branch, Mississippi, father Ryan Wheeler, mother Casey Wheeler, brother Sam Wheeler, and no known sister."

"Whats going on, whats happend to me!" I asked, shifting my gaze from the blue thing to the man with the file.

"You, Jack, were drafted into a top secret military project known as Project Draco, where we abduct children and inject them with dragon DNA, thus turning them into dragons." The man with the file said.

"The perfect super soldier." the other man said.

"So what am I no, a monster, a freak! I wanna go back to normal." I commanded as I tried to stand only to collapse. The dragon laughed silently, but did not remove its gaze from me.

"Sorry Jack, whats done is done." the man with the file said. I jumped up in rage and managed to leap at the men, but the dragon tackled me, pinning me face down on the ground.

"shut the door!" she commanded as the men left. With one strong thrust I sent her flying into the wall. She quickly recovered and starred at me angrily.

I looked her over, she was about 10 foot long and 6 foot tall, not very big, but she could lay a hit. I was about the same length and height, and was stronger than I liked to be.

"Well your a pretty strong one arnt you" she asked still glaring at me with a less angrier expression, but still pissed. I snarled at her, and held my ground.

"You want to know more about us.......about yourself." she asked immediately catching my attention.

"I'm Sorrel." she said finally letting herself relax.

"I just want to go home" I whispered before collapsing. Sorrel then walked over to my side, and lay around my back covering me with her wing. She was warm and very gentle. I moved my head toward her neck and closed my eyes hoping that this was all just a dream and that it would end when I woke up, but a part of me new that this was real and impossible to change. She raised her head and started to gently lick the back of my head as sleep quickly took me over.

The smell of cooked meat roused me hours later. I lifted my head and looked for Sorrel who was by the mirror looking at herself.

"You hungry."she asked as I stood up.

"They brought Deer and water, now Jack you may feel awkward eating at first, but you ll get used to it." she said sliding a rather large tray of meat to me. I took it in my mouth and tried to tear a piece off, but failed miserably. Sorrel laughed.

"Use your paws Jack."she said before smiling happily.

I then pulled the meat out of the tray and like a dog with a bone, put it between my front legs and pulled, success. the meat was cold, but tasted like nothing Ive ever eaten in my life. All knew is I wanted more. After I finished the deer and had drank a small amount of water, Sorrel asked

"Good , wasn't it?" I still, gulping down the water, nodded to her.

"Dragons taste differently than humans do." she said as I finished drinking.

"So, are you ready to go." she asked, catching my attention

"What." I asked sounding confused.

"well your a dragon now, you should at least know about Project Draco." she said as the door opened. She then turned and exited the room, I quickly followed. The door led to a hallway with a large room at the end.

"Project Draco was founded in 1957 and was a great discovery in the field of genetics." she said as we entered the large room. It was full of men and women at computers, some screaming at each other, others almost asleep.

"Where are we?" I asked in amazement.

"Underneath the Pentagon, cool isn't it." she said as a man in a lab coat approached us.

"Come with me." he stated before turning and walking down another hallway. I reluctantly follow them.

"We have to speed things up, you know the Bay of Pigs in Vietnam." she asked as the man led us to a small hallway.

"Yes, some special force team went in to kill some governor or something." I replied, trying to sound smart.

"Dictator." she said.

"And it wasn't special forces, it was a group of 3 dragons from the Draco project." she said as we came to a stop at a door. The man typed a few numbers into a lock and the door opened.

"Many other well known operations were also executed by dragons." she said as the door opened to its full width revealing a solid white room with a separate glass room attached to it. Some men with computers sat at a desk that overlooked the glass room. Some more men and women were in the glass room preparing some machinery.

"You ll be in there and well observe you from up there." the man that led us into the room said.

"For what." I asked as I entered the glass room.

"Testing, to make sure your able to function like a dragon should." He said before leaving the room. The door closed and at least 10 people were left in the room with me.

"Lay down on your stomach please." a woman asked. I complied, laying flat on the surprisingly warm tile floor. A man came over and lifted my rear left paw up and inspected it, he did the same with my other legs. They overlooked my body for hours, even making me roll over to give a (physical type examination). Hours passed and I was allowed to stand up.

"OK two more tests, and then you can go. A woman with a clipboard said as she tossed a small piece of deer meat at my snout. I caught it in mid air, and swallowed.

"Perfect." she said

"One more test." she said as a clicking sound caught my attention, but before I could turn to see what it was Sorrel called my name. I turned my attention toward her as a large BANG rocked me, I was in an immense amount of pain.

"MOTHER.............OF GOD!!!!!!!!!" I screamed in pain as I turned to see a man holding an AK-47, The crazy bastard shot me in the side of the ribs!!!!! I then turned to look at the wound only to find a small flat piece of metal and no blood.

? "It didn't pierce the skin........how." i asked myself.

"Hurts doesn't it." Sorrel said as she entered the room.

"You see, dragons can take anything up to a 50 caliber bullet." she said as she motioned for me to follow her. I started to limp after her as we walked past the big room, the place where they held me, and then to a hallway with doors lining the wall. it almost looked like a hotel would. We then came to a stop at a door numbered 619 and entered it.

"This is your room Jack." Sorrel said as I entered and started to look around. There was a mirror, a bed that looked like a dog bed, and a sink looking thing apparently used for water.

"I'm next door if you need anything Jack." Sorrel said, standing in the doorway.

"Get some rest, you've got a lot planned tomorrow. Goodnight." she said as she left. I was all alone for the first time since I had been a dragon, it felt.....weird.

I slowly walked to my bed and lay down, it was very comfortable and I almost immediately fell asleep but I couldn't. Instead, I lay with my eyes closed thinking about what tomorrow might hold and how my life changed from normal to strange in a matter of hours. What am I leaving behind, what good things will come out of being a dragon, how will my family react to this. The thoughts raced through my head until sleep finally took me over.