Aci soared through the clouds. So high that the air was thin and chilly, but it didn’t bother her. Above the sun warmed her with its orange brilliance. Everything was perfect. Right? It didn’t feel perfect. Something was missing and she couldn’t get a talon on what it was. Onwards and onwards she flew. Her wings knew no aches of fatigue.

Until out of the blue, literally, she realized what it was that was missing. And more than that, what was wrong. What had been a mite under her scales since…since…As she realized she was dreaming everything changed. A red-orange hue suddenly was cast over the world like the sun was setting. Yet it couldn’t be for it had warmed her back.

In that instant of change she forgot the realization. Turning to look in the direction of the sun. Only to find it being eclipsed by the second, smaller, moon of the world. It quickly threw everything into a darker reddish hue. Bathing the world in bloody tones. The rivers below her, stretching into the distance, seemed to flow sanguine. Then the smell of iron, of blood, hit her. Followed by smoke and ash.

When her vision cleared she was crashing to the earth again. Wings limp and useless. Except this time the ground at the base of the mesa gaped open with a massive rumbling and cascade of stones. The great maw gaped and Aci could do nothing but fall into the gaping earth. Falling is not something dragons care for usually. Unless they are doing it on purpose, of course. But having the ability to use ones wings taken away was torture as she tumbled tail over horns, trying to at least stabilize her fall.

Which was taking an awfully long time. Again that lightning moment of lucidity hit her. Aci was dreaming! She had experienced lucid dreaming before when she learned of oneiromancy from her Dam during magical studies. But it had been a passing thing then. This time felt different. More real than before. She could smell the ash that still clung to her. The smell of the earth around her. And somewhere distant the smell of wet earth and of water.

Aci willed her wings to work. This was a dream. Her dream. She could and would fly. Slowly her wings obeyed. As if the air she continued to fall through was made of thick mud. Something was fighting her for control of the narrative. Her narrative!

“No,” Acinoryvy’s voice boomed in the endless chasm. Defying whatever was trying to wrap her up in the blissful ignorance of simple dreaming once more. Hearing her own voice gave her more strength. Her great wings, her strong wings beat again. The air had a little less resistance and her descent slowed. Which was a good thing as it had begun to grow hot and the darkness had begun to be lit with a white-hot light.

Somehow she knew if she reached that light she would not awaken ever again. That certainly helped. It didn’t wake her up though. She still was struggling just to give her wings one beat. So she stopped trying. Instead locking them open to allow her to glide. For the briefest part of a second the air resisted being locked into proper aerodynamics again. Again she spoke her denial into the darkness and dream. “NO!” Louder this time, though not quite a roar.

The rocky chasm around her, made of dark stone, shook with her declaration. Small stones fell free from the walls. Some of them twinkled with the hidden light of gems in reds, blues, and prismatic colors. They were another attempt by the Other to assert control. To distract her with pretty baubles. So, so many pretty stones tumbling free and falling to the magma far, far below her.

A taloned hand stretched out and she began to dive for them. The hunger, and damnable flaw, of many of her species clawed at her. Treasure! It could be her treasure. So easy, just reach out and take it. Take the stones. ‘Take the stones…’

“NOOO!” This time Aci roared into the darkness. No, at the darkness! The walls shook again. This time though it was greater. Her roar turned into the roar of falling rocks and hot magma super-heating the stone around it. The air suddenly caught in the sails of her wings. It was hot, so very hot, but it was also rising. Suddenly her descent was no more and her wings moved freely. Upwards she flew. Away from the consuming white heat of the magma and the taunting darkness.

Now that she had control fully, of that she was sure, she willed herself a ledge. A ledge appeared, complete with a natural stone throne made for a dragon. With delicacy and ease she landed lightly. The landscape changed around her still. More rocks kept tumbling, but none touched her oasis. As the earthly chasm fell away it revealed darkness once more. Her ledge was a tiny island in a vast emptiness.

That emptiness was not so empty, though. Within it was a longing and a loneliness whispering softly. “I know you are there! Show yourself,” Aci demanded at her most imperious, anger lending her majesty. That and having control once again helped. The darkness moved and suddenly it had eyes. Eyes that burned like magma met her own. They illuminated the black sockets they sat within. Those sockets being part of a skull shaped much like her own. As the light of those eyes shifted and flickered, it left the full shape of the being concealed.

“Well? What is all this about?” She demanded after a few seconds of them staring at another in the void of lucid dreaming.

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The voice which answered her was born from the depths of the earth. From the thunder of sones heating and cracking, of magma flowing, tectonic plates shifting came the answer to her question in one word. “Testing.”

That only made her more annoyed. More angry. Lifting herself from her couch of a throne she mantled her wings. It made her look bigger than her true small size. Others from her clutch were twice her size when they had left months and months ago. “Testing!? You were testing me?!” Now Aci was positively irate! How dare the dark assume to be her better. To assume it could beat her! ‘But it almost did beat me,’ A small part of her whispered. That sobered her some. Not a lot, but some.

Narrowing her eyes she tried to pierce the void to see more of the dark being that faced her. But even her keen eyes couldn’t find more than the vague hints of a skull. “Who are you to test me, Acinoryvy the Iridescent?” She demanded.

Again that rumbling earthly thunder of a voice answered simply, “A possibility.”

Well that was a pretty useless answer. Irritation began to rise again causing a growl to start in her chest. In response the Darkness moved closer as if drawn by her anger. “A dream,” Echoed into the voice a heartbeat after her growl. That gave her pause. And she recalled in that moment her Dams communion with the Swamp of Despair’s heart. When she had asked what it was like speaking with the embodiment of the land, Jylynberge had found it hard to put into words. Her Dam had simply finished the discussion with, “You will know if you find a living place to call your own.”

Was that this? Was the darkness in fact an embodiment? Or the potential for one at least. Here in this dreamscape her magic wasn’t the same. Yet that same soft voice, the one that spoke infuriating truths, whispered, “It’s waiting for us.” Suspicion and paranoia were the trade of her kind, of the blacks. It was why they were so solitary. And probably why there were so few of them as well. Finding a mate, wanting a mate, were all voluntary things after all. And most of the Black felt little need or want for such things and the spawn they’d generate.

She felt the strength of that suspicion now. Suspicious of that inner voice, though it had not been wrong yet. “So?” She asked the darkness expectantly. And despite the fact that skulls tended to lack any way to effuse expression, she felt its confused gaze. A silent questioning was hung between them with a look.

If this was an Embodiment it wasn’t particularly clever. But perhaps that came with time. Again her Dam had not been very forthcoming about them, beyond that they existed throughout the known worlds. Even the moons supposedly had Embodiments. Where they come from was not known, though there existed many different theories, both magical and divine. Aci’s Dam had favored the theory that they were born from the power of ley lines. Most, but not all, Embodiments had a leyline nexus at their hearth. Her birth home, the Swamp of Despair, had one.

In this dream she found herself frustrated with her Dam’s lack of helpful education into Embodiments. Especially since she had expected her wyrmlings to go out and find Embodiments of their own. Of course a dragon could make their lair anywhere they chose and often did, according to her Dam. But they were lesser dragons, unable to lay claim to true power. Aci had been determined not to be lesser even though she was small. The teasing of her clutch mates had only locked in that determination.

So instead of snapping at the Darkness, she asked cooly, “So how did I do on your test?” The clarity of the question cleared the air between her and the being. Understanding somehow could be seen in those magma eyes.

“Passed test. May live,” The Darkness replied. Then Aci awoke and found herself in a small cavern, the walls strewn with silvery veins of untapped metal. From the ceiling grew a giant mass of fire quartz crystal grew, occasionally flickering with inner light and illuminating her surroundings like lightning. She didn’t remember the place she had dragged herself into looking like this. Yet there was a deep pool like the one she had dunk from earlier. She had thought the pool had only been thirty or so feet inside the cave opening, but she had been gravely wounded and exhausted.

Which made her realize that she no longer hurt. Anywhere. Her wings felt as if they had been rested for days while her side was scabbed over and healing well. Several days worth of healing for sure. Had she been unconscious for days? It wouldn’t be surprising to be sure. Dragons could sleep for centuries if they needed or wanted too. Though she had thought it was voluntary. Of course, her sleep hadn’t been a normal one had it?

Hefting herself to her feet she looked around at her environs closer. The fire quartz was especially curious, since she had not remembered seeing the magical gems when she entered. And she can’t imagine not noting them, even with her pain and exhaustion. The worth of just one spire could purchase a kingdom’s crowns. The ceiling was covered in hundreds. Some as long as her tail and all of them flickering with pure white fire inside.

There were four exits from the small cavern. All of them big enough and then some for her. She couldn’t remember which one she had come through and there were no obvious clues of her passage. But only one smelled of warm, damp earth. It also smelled of sulfur and something else pungent. Something tantalizingly familiar.

She made her way from the chamber of fire quartz down the long and winding tunnel. The smell and the heat began to grow quickly as the smoothed tunnel curved and dipped. A last sharp turn opened onto another cavern. Only this one was bigger and lit by a river of swiftly moving lava. Pools of bubbling yellow and orange liquid gave off the pungent smell that had been so tantalizing. And upon seeing them she recognized them for the acid springs they were.

Delight filled her young heart and she forgot caution in that moment. Bounding forward she leaped without caution straight into the nearest pool. It was so very hot, but it also felt amazing. It felt, in fact, like when her Dam would clean them when they were hatchlings. Covering them with the thick, acidic fog of her breath. It would rid their scales of any trace of grime or parasites. The later a greater problem in the swamp of her home. Leeches and mites were too stupid to know better than to bleed a dragon.

Now she felt the acid bubbling against her scales. Removing the grime that had accumulated in her recent encounters and leaving her feeling almost whole. As she surfaced from beneath the acid she was thinking that she did not mind this place so much. Then she saw the giant being of magma standing over her pool and gave a very un-draconic scream.