Madness introduced itself to Glimclaw after he curled up in his tent after a tiring but fulfilling day.

‘What are you doing pleasing the humans? You should be a tyrant of the sky yet you lower yourself to tricks for treats?!’

Glimclaw only understood some of the words, so the presence now in his head then scoffed and assaulted him with a barrage of strange images. All of them were of his gleaming black form flying around and plundering.

Glimclaw shook himself violently, tearing into his bedding a little. Why would he want to do any of that?

‘To take what you want.’

Glimclaw thought of smiling and laughing young humanlings and a proud Tavrin and wondered how doing anything the presence suggested would lead to that. Glimclaw decided he should ignore the strange presence.

Sputtering, the presence’s words devolved into incoherent nonsense. Unfortunately, lack of coherence did not stop a constant stream of angry noises and images.

“Glimclaw, what’s wrong?”

Glimclaw squeezed open an eye to a tanned human towering over him with a worried expression. Tavrin must have heard him in pain! Glimclaw cupped and rubbed his head with his wings all while whining.

“Oh, your head hurts? How badly?”

Glimclaw thumped his tail over five times.

“That badly? Kalden did run you rather ragged didn’t he? I know just what you need.”

Tavrin grabbed one of his many pouches and poured a powder into Glimclaw’s drinking bowl.

“Drink up Glimclaw. I use something similar myself sometimes.”

Glimclaw happily drained his bowl, and then the world seemed to twist and the angry presence stopped mattering.

The next day, Glimclaw glided with taut and buzzing wings straight into their band’s practice ring after a quick chomp of his breakfast.

Tavrin laughed.

“Good to see you feel great now Glimclaw.”

Glimclaw preened but kept himself rapt at attention.

Tavrin threw four silver hoops high up into the air, all in different directions, and after a moment swiped a hand down. At the gesture, Glimclaw beat his wings and leapt up into the air after the hoops. With deft flaps, he managed to dive through each hoop before they hit the ground.

After the last ring hit the ground, Tavrin threw a placard carved with a star shape up into the air. Not missing a beat, Glimclaw blew brightly focused flames into the engraved shape mid-air. Tavrin tossed him two treats once the fire burnt out, and Glimclaw quickly fell back into his routine.

After an especially long day, Glimclaw overheard Kalden and Tavrin arguing.

“They would love to do anything for you and would be fine!”

“You’ve been running them way too ragged. I thought you wanted to do things right? If you’re so invested in including one of the bigger Orbs into the band’s route, just ask your family.”

When Tavrin came by his tent, Glimclaw poked his head out. Tavrin became startled a little but then smiled wanly.

“Glimclaw, there’s no reason to worry. I’ll make sure.”

In the most memorable Orb’s community yet, the children could somehow turn themself into various animals. They revisited the place rather recently, so instead of his usual routine of flight tricks and fiery shapes, Glimclaw played hide and seek with the children within their band’s ring among actual animals. Tavrin had him act confused and bring actual animals to parents instead of their children. Glimclaw felt genuinely confused about why until the children giggled at his mistakes.

Glimclaw had a blast and decided to fly up to roar out a blast of flame into the void beyond the atmosroi connecting the Orbs and toward the daybreaking light.

The day would have been flawless if the angry presence hadn’t come back, even if only briefly. Glimclaw just herded one of the children whose form was actually draconic like himself. When the child reformed into a human child in a flash of light to hug his parents, the presence rumbled.

‘Interesting…’

The presence kept quiet afterward, thankfully, so Glimclaw didn’t need to ask Tavrin for help with sleeping again. Their band’s Orb hoppings blurred together again.

Glimclaw curled up back in his tent after a simple routine but for a long day with Kalden, when a potent smell of iron filled his snout. The smell was familiar. A few times before, Tavrin showed up with gauze over a cut on his face, grumbling about bad blades. The smell’s strength suggested a much worse injury. Glimclaw rushed outside into tall grass.

The day had long since ended, but Glimclaw easily followed the scent with such strength. Getting closer, Kalden’s perspiration seemed mixed into the scent.

‘Ahahaha… one of ư̶͛͐̿͊̿̏s̸̃̎̿̋͛̇̄͘ always focused on the runners before picking off the others. Many runaway snacks complained about how they thought that the good ones always died first.’

Glimclaw ignored the presence with a low growl.

“I should have expected Tavrin to disagree violently, but the last thing I need is a vengeful drake. You better be worth your price.”

Glimclaw heard Kalden call out in the distance, and a voice he didn’t recognize replied.

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“Do not worry. You hired a mimic of a Myalonar’s ability. We simply need to catch the drake before twenty hours pass. It should come to attack you within the hour, and if not hunting it down will be simple once light comes back in six hours.”

Glimclaw only knew a life within the entertainment portion of Kalden’s troup. Tavrin raised him since he broke through his egg’s shell, from tending to injuries and illnesses to celebrating achievements. Something primal boiled within Glimclaw and demanded to be released.

‘Finally! W̷̊̌̽̎͂̈e̸͐̊́̍̔́̈́̈ wondered if you were a true dragon, since you never raged.’

His unwelcome mental guest hammered him with another thought and snapped his maw shut, flame only leaking from the sides.

‘Although w̵̧̙̪͎̮͇͔̉̅́̃̓ͅȩ̶͚̠̜̱̝̙̺̂̾̐́͛́̈͠͝ approve of your urge to finally go on a rampage, you shouldn’t.’

‘Why?! You tried to force Glimclaw into a rampage when you first dug your claws into Glimclaw’s mind! What changed yours?’’

‘Your death would be a major setback for ư̶͛͐̿͊̿̏s̸̃̎̿̋͛̇̄͘. We weren’t aware how ineffective your rampage would probably prove.’

‘Glimclaw only cares about ending Kalden.’

‘W̷̊̌̽̎͂̈e̸͐̊́̍̔́̈́̈ did not want to resort to this…,’ the presence groaned into his head. ‘Would Tavrin have wanted for you to throw your life away?’

Glimclaw’s fury petered out, letting his anguish peek through.

‘Do not make make ư̶͛͐̿͊̿̏s̸̃̎̿̋͛̇̄͘ lose the little respect w̵̙̪̉̅́̃̓ͅê̶͚̠̜̱̾̐́͛́̈͠͝ gained for you. That one herd of humans managed to turn themselves into other creatures. You will mimic the one humanling we commented on.’

Glimclaw shoved down his anguish, taking a moment to center himself before sneaking away.

‘Glimclaw remembered the comment but the child turned back into a human in a flash of light.’

‘Ah yes, that flash of light was a pattern of rapid currents of prana.’

Glimclaw cocked his head.

‘Currents of prana?”

‘You used your prana to twist your flames into those ridiculous patterns. Stop focusing on increasing your flames brightness and your flames should contain enough unused prana for you to use. Hmmm… your brief existence as a trained beast might prove useful. Most young drakes focus their prana towards pure destruction too much.’

‘Glimclaw likes the approval but still doesn’t know how to mimic the child.’

As soon as Glimclaw projected his thoughts to the presence, a series of many snapshots of the light forming around the child began looping slowly in his mind. Glimclaw immediately remembered when Tavrin taught him the more complicated shapes to form with his fire.

Making another silent vow to rip apart Kalden, Glimclaw hunkered down to recreate the child's pattern of light around himself with his flames. Time became nebulous to Glimclaw for a while, and his dim flames eventually mimicked the child’s prana flows.

‘Hurry! Daybreak comes soon!’

With one final puff of his flame, Glimclaw recreated the pattern of light, then his fire somehow melted back into him. There must have been an error in his mimicry, because the child hadn’t shown the slightest hint of discomfort in switching forms. Switching from quadrupedal to bipedal set alight every part of his body with frigid pain!

‘Get up! You need to grab some of those coverings humans use or your disguise might not work!’

Glimclaw tried to get up but quickly toppled back to the ground.

‘Well… at least w̵̧̡̙̪͎̮͇͔͎̥͔̉̅́̃̓ͅȩ̶̧͚̠̜̱̝̙̺̦̦̯̞̂̾̐́͛́̈͠͝ know how to take the form of a human as a disguise now. The addition of your memories will be meager in amount, but great in value. End your life, so ǫ̸̧͕̮̣̳͉̈́̄͋̽̿̔͛̕͠u̶̡̢̨͉͇̳̜͇̜̣͉͛̈̀̏̈̔̌̂̀̔̿̂͘͝ŗ̷̫̮̪̒ memories won’t get scrambled even more. Don’t worry, w̵̧̡̙̪͎̮͇͔͎̥͔̉̅́̃̓ͅȩ̶̧͚̠̜̱̝̙̺̦̦̯̞̂̾̐́͛́̈͠͝ will still end up killing Kalden.’

‘Shut up. Glimclaw refuses to die.’

Glimclaw began to claw his way forward. Alas his balance proved too awful, and stepping on a loose rock sent him crashing back down again. The taste of blood and mud filled his mouth. Spitting rust colored muck down, he flipped himself on to his back. Unbidden, the edges of lips curled up. At this rate, Glimclaw might die and let Tavrin go unavenged.

Shaking his head with a snarl, he got back to crawling. Some of the human entertainers suffered much more awful injuries. Split lips, scrapes or bruises would not kill him. Not being able to walk or talk would still bring suspicion to him, though... What if he had an injury to explain why he couldn’t walk or speak? Turning back for the rock he tripped on didn’t take long.

Glimclaw raised the rock over his right leg.

‘Ah, that solution did not occur to ư̶͛͐̿͊̿̏s̸̃̎̿̋͛̇̄͘. The strong would not need such pathetic and cowardly tactics.’

‘Shut up or I will let the hunter get Glimclaw.’

He raised the rock over his right leg again, but the thought of the coming pain stopped him. Breaking a leg as a drake hurt enough. How bad would it be as a human?

With a yell, Glimclaw brought the rock down onto his leg and then to his jaw ferociously. His vision went white. Glimclaw underestimated his nerves’ sensitivity as a human and just laid there whimpering for a while. His leg still wasn’t broken, though, so he brought the rock back up. Tavrin had to be avenged!

‘STOP! Just as you thought, scrapes or bruises would probably not kill you, but a badly broken leg might. You won’t have the care your fellow… entertainers had. Your leg is injured enough. The pain has only just begun, however.’

The next hours filled Gimclaw with more pain than anything he experienced before combined. Every few paces, he would nearly break down, but his rage never completely flagged. Tavrin had to be avenged.

Eventually, Glimclaw clawed his way to where he knew the cloth and clothes were kept. He followed the presence’s suggestions and took the green trousers of a performer's outfit and the dark grey shirt of a vending grunt.

“What are you doing boy?”

Glimclaw jerked his head up to see Kalden glaring down at him from the tent’s entrance.

‘Draw these symbols in the dirt largely. It’s ‘your stupid drake attacked me’ in writing.’

The presence brought up an image of a series of symbols like what Tavrin used sometimes in Glimclaw’s head. He did as directed.

The suspicion in Kalden’s eyes melted into desperate interest.

“Where did that drake go?”

‘Don’t be too eager to ‘tell’ him. Get him to heal you. Healing injuries will still count as excuses.’

Glimclaw shook his head and pointed at his leg and jaw. Kalden snarled but called over his caravan’s healer. The presence helped Glimclaw write in the dirt about only seeing Kalden’s drake seeming to flee away from daylight. The lie would have been true if mimicking the child took too long.

Kalden nodded and charged off with his hired hunter and most of his other hires. Glimclaw watched them to make sure he truly fooled Kalden.

“What’d you do? Give Kalden a lead to his run away drake?”

Glimclaw whipped his head around in surprise. An auburn haired young man stood behind him, seeming to have dropped out of the sky. A harness on his back carried a bundle of wood and his belt kept seven intricately carved rods strapped to his waist.

“Did the drake attack you or something?”

Glimclaw nodded his head. Sounds of commotion pulled his eyes to the edge of the encampment. There, several older adolescents worked to tie up three hires Kalden left behind. Younger children floated down on parachutes and began to run around the rest of the encampment.

“Why don’t you join in the fun? You gave us a lot of time, after all. Here, use this to walk.”

The young man snatched a support pole from one of the smaller tents and held it out.

“I’m Jalten. What about you?”

Glimclaw figured he couldn’t go by his real name. Not a single human he met had ‘claw’ in their name. Fortunately, Jalten misinterpreted his silence.

“I guess plenty of people also ‘forgot’ their name. How about Galan as a name?”

Jalten walked off after Glimclaw nodded to the name.

‘Learning to walk with an aid will be much easier. Three ‘legs’ is closer to moving on your legs and wings after all. Once you learn how to feign being a human child properly, I’ll fly you through how to take to the skies as a human, so make sure to grab one of the left behind harnesses filled with wood like Jalten's. I know just the orb for you to train yourself on.’

As the presence predicted, Glimclaw quickly picked up on walking with the stick. His disguise would shatter without learning to copy the children, so he trudged after one of the herds. Ironically, Glimclaw only wondered why the presence knew how to write after figuring out how to speak properly and communication through writing stopped being necessary.

‘One of ư̶͛͐̿͊̿̏s̸̃̎̿̋͛̇̄͘ learned in order to destroy an army more easily.’

‘Army?’

‘Imagine thousands of men like your master’s killer forming a massive band to kill you.’

Glimclaw shivered. The confidence of the bastard from before still unnerved him, but if Kaiden could get an army for protection, then what could Glimclaw do? Risking a confrontation with the confident bastard started to seem the only option if he wanted to put down Kalden.

‘Let ư̶͛͐̿͊̿̏s̸̃̎̿̋͛̇̄͘ put your worries at ease. Even if Kalden were to end up with an army protecting him, you will be able to end him with enough ferocity and timing. After you learn how to be a proper dragon of course. Armies are ridiculously easy to throw into chaos.”

Numerous images of many humans fighting en masse flooded Glimclaw’s thoughts for a moment. As the presence intended, many of the armies gave Glimclaw the feeling of great disorder but the burst of images also gave him an idea.

Glimclaw followed the herd of children into another of the performing non-humans’ tents. Talons was the tromouda for a flock of tromouden, so they worked with each other quite a bit. Even if she lacked the spark Glimclaw had, she still served as a good partner for spectacles. For a chance at petty revenge at least, he briefly fantasized about stealing her away along with the many other nonhumans, but they were just like him in only knowing a life in the troup.

Fortunately, he had quite a few things to learn from the children spilling into poor Talons’ tent. Especially their speech patterns. They all rambled endlessly at Talon and each other, providing examples for Glimclaw to grunt his way into imitating.

‘So the impression, huh a new word, I have is that armies can have a variety of purposes.’

‘What are you planning?’

‘Not sure yet.’