Dennis was losing his mind.
He’s been out in the wilderness for more than twenty days. Every time he meets with someone, be they buff masculine guards, sweaty construction workers, feminine male librarians, or male merchants, his lower half pulses and hugs the cage it’s trapped in. Weirdly enough whenever he speaks with women, he never has the same issues.
He disguised himself as a simple adventurer and traded his spellweave robes for simple cotton shirts and pants. He changed his fur color to a simple gray, making him look like a different person. This made him blend perfectly with the crowd.
Unfortunately, he had unfortunate reactions with several men when they touched his shoulders or brushed past his chest. He always felt his lower half tighten before he had to retreat to a nearby bathroom and calm down. Said bathroom however, were filled with other men showing their dangling parts which worsened his state.
He did the only thing he could think of and ran to the woods. He needed to find a dragon bone and make the key fast. He really doesn’t know how he can keep this up.
It felt like a curse to him. To feel this way, an abnormal way that he’s never felt before. A feeling so alien to him, a part he must repress because it is not how things should be.
He feels...abhorrent, dirty, depraved, like a degenerate wearing another skin. He just feels weird now. He cant even think of his best friend without feeling certain feelings that he does not understand.
He couldn’t even ask for help from his friends because he’s worried of what they would think of him. Would they judge him? Would they hate him? Would they distance him to the point that he would no longer be able to talk to them like they always had? This was too different for him.
He’s scared. For the first time in a long time, he’s scared.
It feels like a curse to him, these urges he gets, these feelings he has never felt before.
He sunk in on himself.
He doesn’t understand.
Not himself or what he’s feeling.
If he could reverse what the ritual did, he would do so in a heartbeat, if only to bury these feelings in the dark again.
But he can’t, it already happened and he can’t turn back.
He’s already acquired the angel’s feather he needed. Now he just needs a dragon bone, any one will do.
He was using a dead branch as a walking stick, propping his weak self up. He couldn’t form proper spells at this point, and even his speech was slurring. He was seeing double, part from physical exhaustion and part from the mental burden he was dealing with right now.
He found rumors of a dragon living in the nearby mountain. He wanted to hunt it and take it’s bones. Hopefully he could take off this cage and calm down.
He cast a magic detection spell, highlighting areas the areas that magic is concentrated in. These areas usually have dragons, so he hopes he could hunt one this time.
In his senses he sees a large beacon of light in the edge of the mountain. He ran and followed the light. It pulsed and flowed just like a stream that fell to the sky. Spirals and curves flowed through the fluctuating currents of magic. Whatever was in the cave was undoubtedly strong.
He ran past trees of monumental height and cliffs that cut the very path he was taking. When he reached the end, he saw a large cave. The cave was yawning and beckoning whatever foolish soul that eneterded it to their doom.
Dennis smiled, he was close.
He stepped inside the cave, it was deep and damp with moisture. Despite being dark, life populated it’s insides. It was as if a carcass was petrified and made to stone, making it form a cave so vast that it sunk deeper than the level where ruins of long past civilizations are buried in. Arthropods, insects, and blind beasts moved under it’s surface, making micro-tremors as they swam through the earth.
It was a sea of life masquerading as an abyss.
Magic and life filled the air. It would have brought heel lesser mages as they would’ve been paralyzed by the sheer amount of mana alone. But Dennis was no lesser, and he intimately knew what this place was.
It was a dungeon. A will that bends reality to its own desires and implants itself in a location.
He feels the air ripple as a voice booms in his mind.
“Turn back mortal!”
Two golden eyes emerged from the darkness. Slitted irises that saw anything in front of it as prey. Shadows obscured the creature, covering it’s form and making seem like a visage of nightmares. A fiery maw of dripping magma opened up and showed razor shard teeth as big as knives and a forked tongue that flicked itself. It’s voice boomed and shook the ground, dropping stalactites from the sound waves alone.
“There is only death here for your kind, there is only doom and sorrow for any who enter here.”
Dennis was shaking, not because he was scared. But because in his excitement to free himself, he inadvertently made himself excited in a different way.
“Wh-what are you?!”
Dennis stammered, struggling to fight off the tightness in his organ. This however was misinterpreted by the creature as genuine fear. The creature decided to push this more and it’s voice boomed again.
“I am the terror of the skies, the fiery death from below, the one who sits and waits at the end of the world. I AM OGIER THE CHILD OF WRATH!”
The creature lit the cave up with magic and light from it’s flames, and it unfurled its massive wings. It broke the stone confining it and melted the silicon in the cave, making it into hot molten glass. It opened it’s maw and bluegreen fire spewed forth as it pointed it’s mouth above itself.
A neck filled with scales that seemed impossible to pierce, claws that could break the earth as easily as it could cut steal, wings that could carry it’s massive form above ground even if it was below the ground, and flames that seemed to bend the very rules of reality.
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It was a dragon. A true and genuine dragon.
Dennis was shaking. He could finally take it out. He could finally take the cage out and get rid of it.
With shaking hands, he tried to point a finger at the dragon and form a spell. It was becoming a bit too hard with the cage he had, as it sapped his focus.
Please I just ne-need to cast the spell.
The dragon saw this and increased it’s pressure, getting in a position that magnified it’s majesty and enhanced it’s muscles. The dragon flexed its biceps and used magic to make its form shine. It was still spewing fire from the top of it’s head, so it could only view by using one eye with it’s sideways tilted head.
Dennis however saw the muscular dragon and it triggered something inside him. He saw the glistening pecs that could smother him it his sleep, the biceps that could squeeze his skull, and abs that could be his bed at night. The dragon’s pecs bouncing the light with it’s red scales. He felt dizzy and his heart was beating irregularly. He felt like he could not form a coherent thought to save his life.
He was shaking and lurching at this point. He held his stomach and put his head on the ground. His mind was fuzzy and he was slowly losing consciousness. He fell into a pose of prostration on the ground, the form one takes in front of an altar to pray.
The dragon however saw this and misinterpreted it as worship directed to him. It grinned at the black-furred ratkin, pleased at the fear it inspired.
“I-i” Dennis mumbled, struggling to not break his mind from the pressure.
Then finally he let go, his face hitting the ground and a something wet released itself, easing his pressure. Then everything went black.
----------------------------------------
Ogier was pretty proud of himself. He managed to intimidate a mortal with his presence alone.
See, he wasn’t as worthless as his other brothers claim he was. People actually respected and feared him here. Back home he was just a runt, but here he was actually a fearsome threat.
One day he’s gonna go back to the dragon realm as the most powerful dragon who’s ever lived.
But first he needed to actually get stronger here.
He measured the magical potential of the ratkin that fell to his cave and saw that it was actually pretty big. If he could train this guy as a slave- umm intern, then he could slowly grow his own magical prowess. He could use this man as a minion and start a kingdom.
“Hehe” Ogier had a wide grin.
He’s going build the greatest kingdom in this realm and go back and beat up his siblings.
But first he needs to bind this ratkin to his soul to him quick, that way he could have a servant of his own. His very first minion after years of hiding in a cave, how exciting!
He carried the unconscious ratkin with his arms and moved even deeper in the dark, dank caves until he saw the glimmer of gold.
A mountain of gold and gems was strewn haphazardly on the cave floor. Swords and spears that glowed with an aura of power. Artifacts, jewelry, and trinkets that twinkled in the darkness. Chests filled with treasure that overflowed and spilled to the ground. Towering shelves upon shelves of magical tomes and grimoires that held knowledge of the ages. Large boulders of gem encrusted gold covered with runes that indicated they were secret weapons of untold power. And lastly a throne that could only belong to a genuine king, a seat of power.
It was a hoard that could inspire avarice to even the most charitable of saints and could color the eyes of even the richest emperors and merchant lords with envy.
Or it would be if any of it was real.
Unfortunately, the gold was enchanted with glamour and the gems were merely painted on rocks. The artifacts and weapons were all just replicas made of wood and carefully shaped glass. The tomes were simply cookbooks with their hardcover changed using fancy looking cheap rocks he found on the road. The boulders were simply weights that he used for working out. The throne was his only real magical artifact among the said bunch that he got by haggling with a witch. It could hold his huge frame and it even had a reclining function.
He spent years making sure it looked like his dream hoard one day. Someday he’ll replace all the stuff with real treasure and gloat back to his family.
And what better way to do that than to get his first minion.
Now where did he put that soul binding artifact?
He opened chests and looked under the fake gold pile until he saw what he was looking for.
“Aha!”
He took out a strange stone cup adorned with images of skulls and had red marks painted around it in the form of tear drops.
He cut his finger with his sharp claw.
“Owie!”
He let the blood drop in the cup.
He then proceeded to do the same with the finger of the unconscious ratkin, mixing both of their blood in the cup.
He grabbed a hidden jug of watered down wine and poured it inside the cup. He felt the air thrum and saw the cup glow an ominous purple light.
Did he just hear ominous laughter?
Anyway, he brought the cup to his lips and took a sip. Next he opened the rats mouth open.
He opened it wide and tried to pour a little bit of the blood wine mixture, before he slipped and dropped the whole cup inside the mouth.
He panicked, he didn’t want his first minion to die! He was going to be the laughing stock of all of dragonkind if word ever got out of this.
Suddenly the ratkin opened it’s eyes.
It started coughing violently, trying to expel the artifact from it’s throat. It was flailing, desperately trying to make sense of the chaose it woke up to.
Ogier tried to bring his fingers inside the ratkins mouth to fish the cup out.
The ratkin shocked by such an action, closed it’s mouth. It was coughing a cup sized object from it’s throat, but refused to let the dragon enter his mouth.
Ogier got annoyed and pried the things mouth open with both his arms. The ratkin was surprisingly strong and attempted flailing even harder.
Ogier used his tail and wings to pin down the ratkin. Surprisingly the action made the ratkin stiffen.
Ogier had the perfect chance to take the artifact out, but he noticed that all his limbs were stuck. Annoyed by this, he did the only thing he thought of. He used his long dragon tongue to fish out the cup artifact.
The dark furred ratkin suddenly shed a tear and whimpered as he felt spit enter his mouth.
Ogier sucked the cup and spit it out to the cave ground.
Ogier let go of the ratkin. The ratkin then ran with his back against the wall, shocked and with eyes as big as dinner plates.
A mysterious purple smoke appeared to wrap itself between the two of them, then a thin string of magic connected them. It was unbreakable, a link that not even the gods could sever. They were now fatebound, a master and his vassal.
Nice the soul contract has activated.
He should probably say something cool and instill the unceasing loyalty to the poor and scared ratkin. Ogier cleared his throat and formed something.
“Ehem, mortal be grateful that this dragon has noticed your potential. You are now my minion and you shall serve me for the rest of time.
You serve the one who shall make the heavens quake, the oceans part, and the very earth shape itself to be my temple.”
Be grateful mortal, for I have chosen you to be worthy to be my first vassal in this world.”
I shall be the Godking of this world and you shall serve as my right hand!”
So sayyeth Ogier, the greatest of all dragons!”
Ogier smiled. He was pretty proud of the impromptu speech, especially that part about the earth shaping itself to be his temple. He grinned and faced the ratkin who was still frozen in place.
Weird, he should be praising him now and begging for him to teach him dragon magic. Did he do something wrong?
It’s hands were on its knees and it fell down to the side. He was now in a fetal position, silently quivering in place.
Oh, the poor rat just couldn’t handle the pressure could he? Aww, dont’ worry rat boy, I’ll make you into a king one day.
Ogier smiled and got closer to the ratkin.
Strange, whats that smell of almonds?