The world was nothing but heat, light and pain. Not a physical pain, Kase didn't feel that much anymore, this pain seemed to dig its claws into his very soul. He tried to cry out, to scream, to beg, but there was no air here, only fire. He felt his skin blister, blacken, and peel away, only to reform to begin the process over again. His bones melted, turning to a thick liquid that rushed throughout his limbs, trying and failing to burst outward with the pressure.
He felt the dull registering of an impact and realized he had collapsed. He wasn't sure why he knew he collapsed, or why it had happened now instead of at the beginning of his eternal torment. He tried to move, to force himself out of the fire, but his muscles and tendons had fried, becoming fragile and brittle. He could only lay on the ground and accept the flames burrowing into him, drilling through his very being with fingers of suffering.
The heat seemed to fade, the light dimming, the pain receding, it was almost over. He was almost over.
But.
He didn't want to.
He didn't want to be over.
He didn't want to die!
Not like this!
He flexed, not his flesh, for that had already failed him, succumbing to the fires. No, Kase flexed his will, his soul, putting everything that wasn't being consumed by the fire into one simple command. Move.
Move.
Move.
Move!
MOVE!
His finger twitched.
He couldn't feel it, but he knew. If he could move even that little bit, he could do more. His fingers gradually curled, he felt them sinking into something soft, it squished around his fingers like rotten fruit. He tried to pull himself away, to escape the fire, but everywhere he grabbed was the same. Some strange goop his hands would sink into and provided no purchase. He didn't stop trying, he grabbed handfuls of the stuff and tried to throw it away, hoping that if he cleared it he could find ground.
It was futile however, and Kase felt his spirit about to crack under the strain of forcing his ruined body to move. He took one last gasp, what he thought would be his final breath, and felt something shift. He felt everything around him, no, everything inside him, condense. It all sank together and pressed into a new shape, a firmer shape, a better shape. He felt the goop that he had tried to dig through molding around him, and finally, the pain seemed to stop.
The absence of pain left him feeling strangely hollow, a feeling that was quickly replaced by a rush of energy the likes of which he had never felt before. His last thought was, strangely enough, of a bird.
He felt warm, he felt safe, he felt comfortable. He wasn't sure who he was. He didn't know where he was. He didn't even know if he was. He only knew the pressure and the rhythm. The rhythm, reverberating around him. Shaking his world. Rocking him gently. Lulling him to sleep. He dreamed. Or thought he did. Images flashing before his eyes. His life? Or another? He didn't know. And he didn't care. Some of the images were good and evoked happy feelings. Some were not.
He saw one such image. One scene. Playing slowly. So he could focus on every detail. A girl. He knew her. She struggled. Fighting. A man. Trying to hurt her. The man turning. Trying to yell. His face. Broken. Bones shattering. Blood on the brass. Blood on his hands. Blood on his eyes. Blood in her face. Blood in his mouth. The tears. A woman. His mother. His mother! The streets. The guards. The gate. The river. The boar. The Dragon. The eggs. Baby. The fire. The fire!
Burning! Tearing him apart! Destroying him! The pain! Burrowing into bones turned liquid! The rhythm was slow. A calm beat around him. But he felt another. A new rhythm! Coming from him! His heart, his soul! Two rhythms collide and do battle! Crests and valleys made in waves! One rhythm was stronger. Overpowering the other. But not beating it down. No. Helping. Nourishing. The rhythm grew stronger.
He tried to move, to scream! He couldn't. He was frozen. His body wouldn't move! There was no air! No light! Just darkness, and pressure!
But he remembered. He remembered who he was! He remembered what he had done. What he could do. He remembered moving when his body was ruined and he flexed his spirit. He strained! Every bit of power his soul could muster, pressing towards one goal! He would move! A sound! A crack! Something was happening! It was working! He pressed harder, feeling his soul condense again as the restriction on him finally gave way.
He burst upwards, in what would have been a shower of razor sharp shards of black glass. Instead, it was more like a miniscule barrage against the green scales of the Dragon laying on him. She shifted, lifting her bulk off of him and looking down at him with concern etched plainly in her eyes.
Hurt?
“No, I'm not hurt. What happened?”
Fire. Tempering. Awaken.
It rushed back to him then. The blast of fire, the unimaginable pain, the struggling to stay alive! Then something else struck him.
“D-did you just talk?”
Talk? No more than I have been?
“But, but I can understand you!”
You could not before?
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“Well, not really. I could sort of figure out what you wanted…”
Perhaps it is because you are Dragon now.
“What?”
The fire. Tempering. Awaken soul. You are Dragon now.
He shivered at the mention of the fire, memories of pain tickling their fingers over his back.
“But, why? Why… everything?”
Everything?
“Why did you take me in? Why make me a dragon? Why feed me the eggs?”
Hm. Before you, laid eggs. Four eggs. Came back from hunting. One egg gone. Things like you trying to take others. I attacked. They broke eggs. I gave chase, wanted to kill. They escaped, lost sight, couldn't track. Saw you, ate boar. Going to eat you. But didn't.
Things like him? People? Why would people go after her eggs?
“But why didn't you eat me?”
Small. Young. Baby. You roared. Felt soul. Felt fire.
“I wasn't a baby!”
Baby.
Then a thought crossed Kase's mind.
“Where is your baby?”
She bumped her nose into his chest.
Baby.
“The other one!”
She moved her head to the left, to a small mounded section of the smooth black glass. Conspicuously next to his own section that was now shattered and broken, but still with the perfect impression of his body in the bottom.
Baby still sleeping. You woke first.
“How long was I… asleep?”
Seasons. Didn't count. Doesn't matter. Saw your marks. Made new mark every sun for you. Might have forgotten. Tried to keep up. Why marks?
“I made a mark for every day I was here, to keep track of… the… time.”
He had been turning as he spoke, and had finally caught sight of the section of wall he had been marking. It was unrecognizable. The marks she had made were only slightly bigger than his, she had a lot of control with her sharp claws after all. But even with that the marks covered nearly every inch of the wall and in some spots had been made so close together they were almost indistinguishable.
He tried to count them but lost track at 80, mainly because he hadn't covered even a tenth of the wall yet. Kase started to panic, his heart beating faster and faster as he rushed out of the cave. He stumbled out into a pleasant rain, slipping in the mud and looking at the leaves just starting to turn to the vibrant colors of fall. He looked at the trees that had been nearly dead the last time he saw them, now noticeably larger.
He had been sleeping in a cocoon of black glass and had been in there for years. How many he wasn't sure. 3? 5? 10? Kase felt a strange feeling building up inside of him, a pressure that felt like it would make his chest burst. He raised his arm, and felt the pressure rush there instead, bringing his fist down into the mud which flared in a small explosion. He smashed his fist down again and again and again, bursts of power accenting every blow.
The Dragon sat there, waiting for his tantrum to end, and when he finally stopped she nuzzled against his torso with her giant snout.
Don't know what's wrong. Will try to help.
He didn't know what was wrong either. He felt like he had missed so much, but in the Wilds there was nothing to miss. As he looked into the churned mud beneath him he did his best to sort out his thoughts. He probed his own mind, sorting through his mixed up feelings. He felt lost, he felt hopeless, defeated, he realized why just a moment later. Despite giving up on the thought of rescuing his family, he had still held onto a small ember of hope. An ember that had now been snuffed by the years he spent sleeping.
He felt hot tears running down his cheeks and turned sideways, grabbing the Dragon's face in a hug. He wept into the smooth scales of her snout and she kept still, letting him get his emotions out. When he had cried himself out, he stood and walked back into the cave. Mama Dragon followed along behind him and once inside had laid back down on the black glass.
Kase felt a pang of hunger gnawing at his stomach, he could go out and hunt, but didn't feel up to it. He picked up a stone and threw it at the wall, watching impassively as it exploded into fragments. He grabbed another stone and repeated the throw, again and again, as his thoughts played behind his eyes.
His elder sister Lily Blossom.
Smash.
His elder brother Bahks.
Smash.
Bas’qet.
Smash.
Poht.
Smash.
Spring Breeze.
Smash.
Lady Golden Wren, his mother.
Smash!
Mistress Orange Meadow.
SMASH!
The Mayor.
He didn't even get to throw that rock, it just shattered apart in his grip. He didn't grab another rock, just stewing in his anger. The silence of the cave was broken only by a faint cracking sound that quickly caught their attention. Mama Dragon stood from the glass and turned to look at the spiderweb of cracks over the mound. They widened and spread, before bursting outward to reveal the horse sized Dragon that lay beneath.
Mama?
Hello baby.
Brother?
“Over here.”
The not-so-mini-anymore Dragon turned to his voice.
Woke first? Boo! Wanted to win!
“Nope, I won, you lost!”
Kase finished his taunt by sticking his tongue out. Baby reciprocated the gesture and he laughed.
Children. It is time to choose.
Baby suddenly looked very serious and Kase had to ask.
“Choose what?”
You have been Forged. Awoken. You are true Dragons now. You must choose your names.
Kase already had a name, so that wasn't too important for him, no instead he had another question to ask.
“What is your name?”
I am Ta-Rrun. Ta to honor my mother, and Rrun to remember my birthplace.
That spawned a few more questions for Kase, but he had something more important to say first.
“I already have a name. My mother gave it to me.”
What name did she give you?
“Kase.”
Kase… It is simple. Quick to say. Keeping it honors your… mother.
Kase felt a strange sense of sadness from the dragon, and it was no wonder why. She had taken him in, cared for him like her own young. He should do something for her too.
“I would like to honor you as well, but perhaps to keep my current name as well. How would I add to my name?”
She perked up then, scales around her eyes bristling with pride.
Un. To honor Dragon mother. Kase to honor egg mother. Un-Kase.
“Then, that is my name. Un-Kase.”
He hadn't expected anything to happen when he said his name. But as the last sound passed beyond his lips he felt a click, a shifting in his body as something settled into him.
I am Un-Ke-Ra! Un to honor my mother, Ke to honor my brother, and Ra to remember my birthplace!
The mother Dragon continued to bristle with pride, and Ka- Un-Kase, smiled at the sight.
Un-Ke-Ra cocked his head to the side and looked between them.
Hungry. We hunt?