Cold was a dominant feature of the Winding Mountains. The other was that the snow that should have been falling, the wind that had been cutting into them for hours, and the noise of it all shrieking into their ears should have been present. Yet, the snow fell slowly, as if in honey and the air was still cold but no longer moved as it had before. The sound of the footsteps of the party of five echoed up to them after the last of them had taken ten steps from where their leader had last set foot.

The dwarf, wrinkling his nose at the delayed sounds, shook his head and focused on what lay ahead. Even from the rear he could still spot the castle over the others heads. Granted, all but one of them were dwarves, but the half-orc was off to the side. It was the archers footsteps that really bothered him. Slightly farther away than the rest of them, her footsteps always made it seem like someone was following from the sides.

"Company? I'm flattered you all traveled so far to find me."

Despite the Hero at the front holding a fist up everyone stopped upon hearing that voice. Fear or anger, and uniquely, a sense of longing from the halfbreed as the words were likely spoken minutes before. However there was a burst of normal moving wind and snow that battered them for a moment before a shadow loomed overhead. Overlooking them from a frozen snowbank was their quarry, and sitting at the tips of his claws in one hand, the object of all their desires.

"You will have to excuse my rushed appearance, I wasn't expecting you all for another hour. At any point, actually." The dragon narrowed his eyes at them, focusing on the one currently aiming an arrow to fly up his nose. "Then again, I had heard one of my offspring had followed in my footsteps. Time is a precious thing, especially for an archer."

"It's good to see you too, father." The ranger replied coldly. She still had arrow trained on him but now she was aiming for the soft lips where fangs were poking out. "Mother passed away. Not that you would care."

He sighed, the movement further distorting the after image that clung to him. He did care, despite the things he had done, what he had tried to do, but that news had put another hole in his heart. Dragons mated for life, so they wanted a mate that was as close to perfect as they could find. That orc warboss had given him a few scars from that deceptively small hand-axe. Her daughter bore a strinking resemblance to her, enough to make his chest ache, despite the larger fangs, his eyes, and the thinner layer of dragon scales covering her.

"Sickeness took her, then?" He rumbled knowingly. "Then I was too late. I would ask for forgiveness, but then again, I won't need to." He held up the crystal he'd had in hand that all but the Hero of the party had forgotten about. "Not with this!"

"You stole the Heart of Strend from our people." Rolef, spoke for the first time since ascending the mountain, staring up at the dragon unflinching. The wand at his side rose up, aimed squarely for the dragon's chest. "You betrayed us, no matter your intentions."

"To be fair, Hero," the dragon replied in an tone suggesting they had had this conversation before. "My intention was to betray you. You're the one who could have warned the guards what I was capable of. No one, other than Kira's mother, knew what I was capable of. Yet, you stood there like a fish out of water, watching me turn them to dust or chdren. But, that no longer matters."

They all felt it, as he fed power into the crystal. It's golden honey color turned blue as his magic replaced its own. Not one to stand-by, like a fish out of water again, the wizard let a pre-charged spell at the lizard as the dragon's daughter began emptying a quiver. The dragon, for his part, only glanced toward the arrows and the spell as the crystal grew brighter. Not bright enough, given the frown on his face.

"Ah, better try again. Perhaps this time I won't engage with my daughter? Hm, no, not after hearing such news."

Idle thoughts like that raced through his mind as the attacks slowly, but surely struck. Pinpricks dotted his lip and a growing warmth spread over his chest. Faster than the dwarves and half-orc could percieve without one of the other spellcaster assisting them, or Kira's own inner magic, the dragon seemed to just disappear. However, the brief alternate they saw told them a different story.

That frown he had, had taken on a surprised and hurt look as the spell Rolef struck him with anchored his form. Physically, it should have, but it appeared to have interrupted something the dragon had been in the process of doing. He had disappeared, but he wass also still present, frozen some feet away with a terrified look as he had his wings outstretched. The look of fear, coupled with how he was cradling the aforementioned crystal, made it clear this wasn't just an illusion, now was it a fragment from the past. This was a glimpse into the future, however far that might be.

As for what had actually happened to the drake, he found himself blacking out as his body underwent a metamorphosis of sorts. Scales, muscle, skin, everything either fell away or retreated into his body. Curling around himself as he became softer, smaller, the crystal's glow intensified briefly before turning a dull white.

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The cold, mountain air was replaced by humidity and heat that rivaled the jungles of the orc's homeland. It was comforting to the dragon as he hit soft soil, rolled like an armored ball, then bounced against a tree before coming to a stop. However, he did not uncurl himself, as his magic still worked. His form shrunk even more, his mighty spines and claws shortened and dulled, until finally it was over. Yet, he still did not move.

Not when something much bigger than him was nearby. Something that was blowing hot air onto him as it sniffed this foreign object. Cracking an eye open, he found himself staring up at something that vaguely resembled a kobold should they ever try and breed with a chicken.

In reality, he knew it wasn't much bigger than the dwarves that were conviently missing, nor did it look like too much trouble to deal with. Assuming he hadn't over done it one the spell. With slow movements, eliciting a surprised noise from the thing and making it retreat a few steps back, the dragon propped himself up on the inert crystal.

The crystal that was of equal size to him now that he had become a hatchling once more. Still, despite the size difference and low level of magic in his system, he was confident he could beat off whatever the thing standing before him was. Assuming it was going to attack him. Not that he would allow that, as just sniffing him as it did before was insulting enough.

Taking as deep a breath as he could, he let out a burst of flame onto the needle covered ground. The inital burst scared the thing into running away but the spreading flames were sure to keep it gone. He ignored the hungry fire, instead looking around while he could before the fire inevitably ate the forest around him.

Tall trees with brush shaped growths hung heavily on branches above him, ferns and other small plants struggled amongst the sparse patches of sunlight on the forest floor, insects, birds, and roaring echoed all around him. Licking his lips, the dragon got back on the crystal and started rolling it in the opposite direction that thing had ran. The fire wouldn't be an issue though, but the visibility would hinder him.

There was work to be done, and more importantly, magic to acquire. The rate at which it was regenerating naturally in such a tiny body was abysmal compared to the stores his older body had. Not to mention the lack of mana in the air, ground, or even in the trees was especially worrying. He seemed to have landed in some sort of sterile area.

He didn't let his thoughts idle or wonder as he rolled his prize along the ground. Whatever was making such a fuss around him never seemed to come close or was by another noisy thing. Most worrying, however, was that he could feel the ground shudder ever so slightly. That was worrying, given his current condition.

Focusing away on what he couldn't control, he put his concentration on just rolling the crystal. The sooner he got it somewhere secluded, the sooner he could rest and recover. Going through time is no trivial matter, despite how easy he made it look. One had to focus on where, when, and how they wanted to appear. The where and when we're always obvious, but the how was always tricky. Something had to be given for the exchange. That something had been his years of age and his body, though, the thought that perhaps that spell he'd been struck by had... altered it.

No sooner did that reasoning begin did it abruptly stop. On one hand he was comfortable knowing he was still on a mountain. One the other the sight stretching out before him was, concerning, to say the least.

Giant, scaled beasts were wading through a river below. If that thing from earlier was on the small side than the things below would have towered even over his adult form. Other, flying creatures, large and small darted through the trees or cast their giant shadows over the land as they glided. Yet, it all seemed like poorly drawn background props as his gaze ventured further up into what was undoubtedly a sunset. At first, he expected to see a moon and was glad wherever this place had one. What was concerning was the fact it appeared to be on fire, or was so volcanically active the oceans of red stood out from the blasted rock that made up the only dark thing about it. Even with the sun's rays it was partially visible and confirmed what the drake had feared.

Not only was he reduced to a much weaker version  of himself than he was aiming for, but he was certainly nowhere his kind, or any others he had come across, had ventured before. There was that odd sensation of falling which didn't usually accompamy a rejuvenation spell.

"I suppose there's nothing to do now but wait." He grumbled. The fact his voice was a higher pitch didn't help his mood, nor was remembering the angry look his daughter gave him before he was slung off to wherever he was now. He was, patient by nature, and more so after years of meditation. However, there was one thing he hadn't been able to ignore, besides the forest fire quickly picking up.

A growl rose out of him, not of malice or a warning, but a sign he was hungry. Despite having eaten a light meal before his unscheduled departure from the world of magic his body demanded nutrition. Water, too as well and shelter for the foreseeable future.

Looking out over the expanse of land with simple creatures, no matter how big they were, they had unfortunately garnered the attention of a dragon. One that may have not been an adult at the moment, but still a formidable predator whose instincts were allowed to take the wheel a little more as survival became paramount over magic for the time. Not one to waste an opportunity he was already scoping out a particular patch of fallen trees by the river as his new 'subjects' looked up at the inferno building behind him. It would have been a terrible sight if they could see the creature grinning with malice only a monster could have or if they could understand that, unfortuanly, since they were so alien he was going to have to learn all he could about them. Whether they were alive, crippled, or dead was of little concern to the drake.

He would take this world and it's treasures back home with whatever these new creatures could provide as support. For now, they were demoted as food. Just as everything was below him.

"Now, how to get down?" In his haste to conquer and pillage the thought of how to get down a cliff face had slipped his mind. "One step at a time. Don't want to end up like Frooshy. Good work, you killed everything for miles, now where are you going to get your food, hm?" He chuckled at the memory of the emaciated dragon losing the life below him before he ate the remains. "Ah, well, dwelling on the past will only change the future if I can get my magic suffiently higher. Can't do that on an empty stomach either."