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He took as many forest paths as he could, in order to avoid unnecessary attention. He flew to the area where he had blacked out the day before - where he knew nobody would find him. Unlike that night, he managed to land just fine, with a little wobble and a sudden stop. He also noted his overall maneuverability had improved dramatically. He still could not attempt any sudden sharp turns or stops, but his speed had increased and his stability was unprecedented. Eric also noticed his arm was doing just fine, which he found strange, seeing it had only been a few hours since his collision.

After landing, he managed to follow Matt's advice once again, in order to shift back into his human form. He did not feel the need to practice it very much, seeing he had drastically improved. On average, his shifts lasted about 25 seconds, which in comparison to other TFRs, was approximately 10 to 15 seconds too long; however, it shattered his previous times; 15 minutes, two minutes, and at the school, 45 seconds. Shifting was probably one of the weirdest events he had ever experienced. When the process would begin, he felt being taken over by his own body, gradually feeling the power flow through his veins. His whole body would change by itself and his mind would fog attempting to get past the modifications. The most amazing thing to him remained the enhancement of his senses; he saw and heard everything, enabling him to track any type of movement, all while keeping the intelligence of his human self.

As he took a seat against a nearby tree, the fatigue suddenly hitting him, he pondered about Matt once again. The fact he was a TFR came as a shock to him, but he still did not comprehend why he went through the trouble to get him to safety. "Maybe he grew tired of his life and needed something to run for?", he thought. "Maybe he was sick and tired of kids causing him trouble? Maybe he just had a sudden urge to just to get away from everything?" Eric considered that final reason. He would not have blamed him if he tried to pursue it; it was a great feeling.

He got up, tired of sitting around doing nothing, and decided to walk home. Out of nowhere, however, he heard sirens rushing toward the school behind him. He knew an encounter with the police would have been a horrible scenario, so he picked up the pace. One thing was for sure to him, though; his story would definitely become a front page headline. News of his dragon form would spread rapidly, and the media would easily accomplish spreading it around the world if it was required. The only good thing he had going for him was his looks; 17 going on 18, brown hair, a regular height - in other words, the average young adult. He would most likely blend perfectly into crowds.

Once he arrived home, he hesitated when opening the door. His parents were there, because it was almost 2 o'clock at the time, but he being back from school so early would probably cause a major ruckus. Explaining the situation would have been as much of a disaster as well. He thought over omitting the dragon part of this story, however he knew it would have ended up being a terrible move, since he would have no other plausible explanation for the police showing up at his house, guns drawn - which was something he knew he would have needed to face in a matter of minutes. In fear of what he would have had to go through, Eric opened the door and walked through the doorway, expecting to hear a fight of some sort, but for once there was absolutely no sound. He launched a glance towards the welcoming mat; his parents' shoes were there indeed, but he could not figure out why there was no argument, no noise, nothing. Something was wrong, and he knew it. He climbed the stairs to face his parents, sitting around the table, watching him enter the room. He slowed his pace and looked around, searching the cause of the silence, as he waited an opening statement.

"Eric, we need to talk", his mother began, arms crossed against the table. "Your father and I have discussed about it for quite a long time, but we've finally decided to go through with it. I know it's going to be hard to believe, but we've decided to tell you that--"

"Its okay mom", Eric interrupted. "I already know I'm adopted."

"What?!", his parents bellowed in unison. Eric clearly understood he had made a mistake. A small silence ensued, before his father continued, rubbing his head. "How the hell did you find that out?"

Eric's face blushed from the embarrassment. "Wait, what? Wasn't that what you were about to tell me?"

"No..." Mimi replied, still in shock. "We were just going to tell you that we're filing our divorce papers. How did you find out about your adoption?" The divorce topic seemed to have lost most of its significance at that point.

"Well, you left a letter on the counter from the CAA..."

"That's just great", his father blurted, his arm supporting his head in frustration. "Now we have to talk twice as much. Thanks a lot, Meredith."

His mother seemed to have completely ignored her husband's comment with a dreadful sigh. "Eric, listen. I know you probably feel really bad about this whole thing, but you have to understand that we adopted you in order to protect you. You see, I've had a uterine malformation all my life, which made me completely infertile. I couldn't have a baby even if I wanted to. So, we decided to adopt. We went to an adoption agency in Toronto to choose a baby to take home, and we saw you." She smiled, recalling the moment. "We adored you the minute we saw you in that cute little crib of yours, wrapped around a baby blue blanket. However, when we asked for you, they refused, saying you were under a special 'treatment', and that they simply placed you there for the time being. We - or at least I - begged for them to allow us to take you, telling them we would take extreme care with the treatment. They continued to try and talk us out of it, saying it was a very complicated process, and that we would not be able to handle it. But we never backed down. We demanded we should have at least had a chance. Then, they finally told us the reason why, and, well, we figure you already know by now."

There was complete silence. Eric was not sure whether she was referring to his dragon form, and taking his former mistake into consideration, he did not say anything. This gave her the chance to continue. "You were a dragon. At first, we began to hesitate bringing you in, because complications were bound to happen, and would hurt both you and us. When we asked what the special treatment was for, they told us you were a threat to society, but that they were not permitted by law to kill you. Not long before then, they found a new way to reverse the effects of the TFR injection safely, and because there was a war going on at the time, they immediately decided to use it. It was just a simple injection every day at noon for a period of four years. That's it. We insisted they show us how so we could take you home, and they finally gave in." At that point, his father had already calmed down and begun to listen to the story he knew too well. Eric had already pulled up a chair to listen. "But, about a year into the treatment, you got sicker and sicker..." She started to shed tears, which clearly showed it was a very bad memory to her. "Even if your father was against you becoming a dragon, we both knew we would rather have you alive and well. So that night, we decided to take you off the injections, and we've been lying to the government about giving it to you ever since. We have been under strict orders from them not to do anything drastic, or else they would take you away, where you could not cause any 'harm'."

Those three minutes answered so many pertinently asked questions in his head; that was why he was so "special". That was why he was being monitored so closely. That was why he was adopted. He was eager to ask many more questions, but he knew he had put his mother through enough for the moment. He waited a few seconds before asking his next question.

"Mom, who are my real parents?" Yet another silence ensued. His mother wiped her eyes, trying to remove any signs of her anguish.

"Well, honey, we don't know." This answer hit Eric hard, but he did not want to show it. "They never told us, and frankly, we never really asked." Her face suddenly showed signs of panic.

"Listen Eric; your school called a few minutes ago. They know where you are, so it's not safe for you to stay here. You probably heard the police cars go by; they're obtaining information from the school, and then they'll come here next. We have to stay here. There's no use for us to run, but we'll act as if you had lost it and flew away somewhere else in town. That should buy you some much needed time. There's an abandoned power station north of here, near Thunder Bay. No one should suspect you of hiding there. Now, hurry along before--"

They all turned around at once. Police cars began to swarm the area, and there were a lot of them. His mother's plan was ruined; however, Eric knew he would not have followed it anyways. Remembering what Matt had told him, he shifted into his mid-form as quickly as possible. His parents turned around toward him, only to witness their son transforming for what would be their first and final time. His father did not seem very pleased, reflecting how much he actually hated Eric. With the completion of his shift, he gave his parents one final look, as he turned around, and ran through the back door of the house. He jumped off of his porch railing and began his ascent just as the cops yelled orders through their megaphones. Once Eric reached a considerable height, the cops noticed his escape, and in view of this, hopped back into their vehicles to pursue him. A few of them stayed back in order to question his parents, who Eric knew would end up revealing everything about him, which is what he wanted them to do. To have the world's focus on him, and not them.

The flight to the wind farm did not commence without his tears. Even though he hated his parents, particularly his father, he knew deep down, they had cared enough to try and take good care of him, which rightfully deserved his respect. The police cars' sirens behind him faded from his ears as the crooked turns of the back roads they faced were incomparable to Eric's one-track flight. He did not know whether he would succeed, however he did know his predicament would escalate to a frantic goose chase across the province, and perhaps even the country.