Freedom in its Richest Form

Change of a Different Kind (4)

Suddenly, he pounces on me again, pinning me to the ground. This time, however, he's sniffing me like a curious puppy. "Uh, wha-what are you doing?" He stops and looks at me before lowering his nose to my heart.

The paw that is not holding me down trails up to his forehead, and a razor-sharp claw makes a small incision, just enough to draw blood. Why in the nine realms would he do that!?

I watch with an undertone of foreboding as the crimson liquid trickles down his nose and onto my shirt, right where my heart is. When he gets off me and lays down in the same place he was before, I've made up my mind.

Dragons are really weird.

A sharp pain snaps me out of my thoughts. I look down to where the maroon drop was only to find it gone. The pain hits again, this time far more intense, and I stumble back, clutching my chest. Looking at me, dragon's features twist into shocked guilt. "What did you do to me?"

A scream tears from my throat, but I have no hope of being found, as far from the village as I am. I tear off my vest in a desperate attempt to cool the growing heat around me. Soon, the pain becomes too much, and my trembling form drops to the soft, mossy ground.

Onyx scales sprout from a wake of bluish flame that starts by my heart. They cover my hands and transform my nails into razor-sharp claws. The same occurs to my feet, leading me to rip off my shoes in a similar manner to my vest.

An indistinguishable burning sensation starts behind my eyes, forcing me to close them as something similar happens to my ears. However, the worst is still yet to come.

Indescribable, incinerating agony in my back has me writhing upon the ground in a futile attempt to quell it. The flames congregate by three areas and viciously penetrate my now scaly skin.

The wild plasma coagulates into bone and flesh, tearing through my skin and burning holes into my clothes. The process is agonizingly slow and absolutely excruciating. I feel every tendon, every nerve that forms with unforgiving clarity.

When the fire finally does relent, my transformed being lies curled up, quaking in phantom pain and trauma. I lie there for what seems to be an eternity, my previous agony fading into a dull ache.

When I finally do decide to get up, my movements are sluggish, and my breathing is heavy. Opening my eyes, a beautiful world of color and perception is presented to me, every single blade of grass amplified and given unfathomable perception. My other senses are similarly tuned, laying before me a side of the world which I could never guess existed.

However, when my eyes trail down to myself, my mind snaps into overdrive. "No no no, this cannot be happening!" I shout, shooting past the befuddled dragon and towards the nearby cove with a lake as smooth as glass.

The foreign objects on my back make themselves known with every stone or log I pass over, but I refuse to acknowledge their presence. This cannot be happening. I was dreaming last time, so why can't I be dreaming now!?

My motions towards the cove are fluid with the years that I have come here to hide. However, the...the things on my back are making it kinda tricky.

As I turn into the crevice that leads to the peaceful pond, they snag in a crack, jerking me back. However, the force releases me and I not-so-gracefully make my way down the steep rocky path.

Once the world ceases its incessant spinning, I scramble to my feet and stumble the rest of the way to the still water. Finally, I reach the edge and look in, but the reflection that greets me is not mine.

This person has untamed raven hair, smooth, onyx scales covering every inch of skin, and draconian ears. Retractable obsidian claws as sharp as the volcanic glass itself adorn his hands, and his canines are far sharper than they should be.

Powerful ebony wings are folded awkwardly against his back, and a slender, elegant tail hangs limp, fins lifeless. Secondary stability wings rest near the first, used for stability. Small, vertical scales form a ridge trailing from his forehead to the tip of his tail.

There is no possible way that this is me. None. At all. But...when I look into the reflection's reptilian, forest green eyes, I cannot doubt. This is me.

By some absurd twist of fate, I have been somehow transformed into this crazy human-dragon hybrid. Turning around to see my...my wings, a strange sense of tranquility and acceptance encompasses my mind. I don't have a clue as to what is going on or what just happened, but this all just feel so inexplicably right.

I turn to the perplexed night fury that followed me down and ask, "What did you do?" Strangely enough, the biting, panicked edge that spilled from my voice earlier is completely gone now.

"Uhh... You see, I'm not exactly sure..."

...What?

I freeze. Dragons don't talk. There is no way that dragon just spoke.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but yeah, we kinda can. And I do have a name, you know," he says, because apparently hel has frozen over.

It takes me a minute to snap out of my stupor, and I turn to the mildly annoyed dragon, finally processing what he said. "Did-did I say that out loud?" Nod. "O-okay...uhh...so what is your name?"

"Toothless." I look at him oddly, although I would probably have a slightly stronger reaction if I were not so freaked. "What? It's not the worst. Let's hear yours," he pouts...because apparently dragons can do that, too.

"H-hiccup."

Okay, so whadya think? Please let me know. Also, there is far more to come.