Chapter 35: A Tail of Life Support (Part III)

The Rulers of the world change, and by “ Rulers” not the short-lived and cowering Lessers.

Rulers as in the Overlords produced from the Rock's fissures and crevices. The Cage starts to spin, and it screeches from rumors of impossible feats. What truth would come from telling lies? Tempting the Prisoners with the possibility of escape.

I would have my bones, and the Rock would believe me sharpening those bones into a Key. Bones are high, and others are low you push past to the extremity to find the Bones most Cold.

In my human form I stood out, why wouldn’t I, I didn’t belong to such weak beings. Once upon a time I used to eat them. My nature changed and so did my appetite.

A Dravine who learned that becoming an Elder was something earned. This planet doesn’t support the weak of mind and heart. It does not support the young and weak.

It was in the human lands that I truly grasped the system. A system that was new to the world, A System that came from beyond the Rock. I had lived a long life and I knew the truth.

We were no dragons. I am not meant to be caged no matter how much time goes by I will not forget my goal and lone ambition, to leave this world.

Is it a secret? If it is a secret, it was mine to keep. This world would not and could not have me.

Still trapped on this planet I had decided to live among those different from me. I had seen the skies and walked the land. She treated the world as a cage. If it is a cage? why is it a cage?

My vessel could be dimmed and contorted. I had taken the form of the weaklings before. I was always mimicking my mother following in her steps so why couldn't I be more, do more?

I was highly capable of being more than just the bringer of light and life. I needed to be more, than what they wanted me to be.

So, I walked the land like I had never walked before.

To do that I needed new legs to walk among men. For how long?? I hadn't planned.

My presence in the human lands hadn’t gone unnoticed. Many tried to take me as their own. I would not have them. killing those who lay hands upon me.

As time went by I learned that they usually frowned upon killing for such petty things and killed for far- Trifling mortals.

Let's not linger on the matters of mortals. I am no mortal that's learned.

The system told me my nature was yet to be complete. Humans were crafty and so I would learn to beat them at their own game.

Everything became easier once I realized the frailty of the human. Skin needs to be covered as normal humans grow cold. It is customary to eat one’s fill or they will die. They stand together, that is where they find their strength. Learning is the key to unlocking possibility.

There was so much I had failed to understand about my own life. It was clear to me that I had to become more than a dragon to leave this plane.

I wandered across the lands and my eyes opened to see the world in a brighter light. A light that was my own unmoved by its illusions.

My goal would never change but it dawned on me. My light helped the living thrive, but what about me? What did I have beyond saving others from this world's treachery, the endless cycle of pain?

I hadn’t completely forgotten my mother's ways. Obstacles had to be removed. The only difference was that I wasn’t my mother.

Living among the other races had shown me what I was missing in life. When they worshiped each other even more than yesterday that is when I took my leave.

The human lands were no longer in need of my light. Few would remember my face. Even fewer would recall my help.

I had learned all I needed to know from them. The system would help me process and piece together everything else. They were deserving of my light in the end. Even if that was the case, I would not stay in one place.

Foolish trying to cage me within my cage. I've grown to the point where I can no longer fit only move and be moved.

"Humans were more than a quick meal mother." They change just like us even without Nature they also weren't much of a meal, to begin with.

I walked aimlessly trying to learn about the cage. Time would pass and I would find out that the mountain of ice had an owner now.

The real change that had occurred to the land of old was clear to see. It was now unforgiving to the living, uninhabitable by even monsters.

what was causing this change? What had called me to the mountain?

Stepping foot on this mountain I felt the pull of a familiar force that quickly gave way when sensing my presence.

What was I doing here? I wanted to have my own life. My nature was more than caring for others. I was more than this planet's caregiver.

I would not share my life. Some things were too precious to give away. My light on the other hand had brought me here.

I wanted to be here. This was where I was needed most at the moment.

“What has become of the old hatchling you seem to have changed for the worse.”

“…” No speech or movement; he'd become one with the mountain.

“This is what’s become of the life I spared.”

“…” The heart beats in a body that has grown. A life that is more than the heart can handle. But his mind was still there, his eyes followed my movements. My hands as I wave them around. And all is well until he attacks without notice.

His eyes are enraged; as he burns his life force. It was a good hit. I had been knocked out of my corporal form for the first time. This had never happened to me before, but I was most grateful it did.

The blizzard he was creating while draining the life from this mountain was nothing but a breeze to my physical form.

Having lost my now Human-shaped body I didn’t panic I've never felt better.

I was grateful the instant it happened. I was my mother's child. Her need to be free had given birth to my Nature. Free from my Human vessel the system recognizes my nature as [Energy], a nature that encompasses many elements.

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He readies himself to make another attack but it never comes. My liberation comes with freedom, and with that freedom I find control.

I could melt the Mountain if I wanted or turn the Old Hatchling to ash.

But I don't seek and destroy. This was the day I realized that I could leave this world any time I wanted.

I chose to stay. Flowing back into my body I chose not to attack the old hatchling in my new form.

I spared his life for the third time.

As unheard of as it was, I decided to court the Old Hatchling. Covering the entire mountain in a blinding light for even distant lands to see, I grabbed his tail and his neck.

“If we are to consummate, I will be taking your True name Old One or do you prefer I call you Hatchling.”

A little drop from the well of my life and he was back on track to being healthy and capable. His body was approaching the normal size of someone his age.

The mountain was shortly named by the dwarves whom I let make a home in a place once devoid of life.

It wasn’t my voice that could be heard whispering across its crevices; it was his. The one who had lived a long life as the Dragon of cold. My presence changed his very being for the better. I would one day leave him for the skies but until then I had to see what this planet had to offer. I had lived a long life but was it truly mine? I lived the majority of it finding my nature.

Who was I, now that my nature had finally been found?

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I had it, what would happen if I had all of it?

I am boundless. My energy would one day rival the sun in time. It didn’t just come from inside me it was given by this world.

I had told the Old one to push me out of my body and he did eventually. He feared for my life. How amusing he was.

From there the secrets of this world became clear. The planet was indeed repeating an endless cycle. It was a cycle that I hadn’t suspected or even realized until the incident with the Old one.

This planet was taking energy and giving it back at a "lesser" rate. A transference of energy was taking place and I was somewhere in the middle. The sun was radiating everything it touched, giving life. Even the planet I once thought to be a cage did the same.

Turns out I was in the best position possible. The planet and everything in my vicinity gave me energy but that same energy never went back into the planet like it should have.

What would’ve happened if I didn’t willingly give my energy away to save the other inhabitants of this world? What would happen to me?

I was going to leave this plane whether I wanted to or not. My nature would outgrow this planet.

In my years of trying to figure out the ramifications of keeping my life’s energy. I had neglected the Dwarven town that saw prophecy more delusion in the old one's cold domain.

Pleasures of the body were new to me. My first light show against the Old one caught their attention and the second, third, and fourth brought them here.

I was in my phase of taking responsibility for my actions. I wanted to prove to myself that I could be more than “A monster of blood and destruction”.

So, I helped the dwarves that would freeze to death trying to endure this Mountain's living conditions. I saw possibility like no one before me, creating possibility turned out to be their forte.

Never daring to reveal my true form. All was well a city was forming below our home and the Old one was falling into what humans would call love.

I had even told him of my plans to leave this world one day and he had quite the reaction.

“I will travel wherever you take me beyond this world and the next!” The old one had a way with words. Swearing to do just that. I couldn’t care less as long as he wouldn’t hold me back from finding my mother.

Time went by and the Old one started to sense my body's change. I felt my body becoming energy itself.

I was still putting off my leave while the Old one was counting on my stay and benefiting from being in my presence. I almost convinced him to take dwarven form but becoming a dwarf and living with dwarves wasn’t in the cards for a Dragon of such pride.

We had done a lot in our hundreds of years together. I had taught him much more than he ever did me. A dragon was too arrogant to admit his lack of anything. Even I once upon a time nurtured the same ideas.

Testing the world's boundaries, I learned that the sky went further than I had thought. A full-grown dragon would tire trying to reach the heights I accomplished.

The more energy I lost the more would be replenished by the sun.

“Finally.” I had reached the edge of this world's skyline breaking past the layers of resistance trying to force me back in.

An underestimation. I could not breathe at first, a problem fixed by my body's natural adaptation. There was no air to speak of outside of the planet of Condralat. The mountain was incapable of competing with the cold temperatures of this space.

Sensing a change in my body that there would be no coming back from I chose to go back and make plans.

I had even shared rumors with the dwarves about what waited beyond this planet.

Time went by and the world changed. The Old one wanted to have offspring with me, but he had not yet spotted the difference between us two.

Dragons never stopped growing until they eventually died after thousands upon thousands of years. They would live five to ten years as a hatchling and reach lesser dragonhood by eighteen. In adulthood, they would take on the title of a true dragon, some never reaching the age and wisdom of the Elder Dragon. The Elder knows of power and chooses to hunt wisdom despite Powers' allure.

Pedigree a word picked up along the way could allow a dragon to reach unspeakable heights at a faster pace.

My Kin had the potential of Elder dragons shortly after birth. My body only had to grow to exercise the power that had already been. My Mother, a Dravine not a Dragon after all, had reached the size of this Mountain before she left this world.

The old one being so close to my true form had benefited greatly from the privilege. The only one besides my Mother to be close to my true form. Hundreds going on a thousand years of exposure to close contact with my skin had caused his mutation into a lesser Dravine. A mutation is what the System calls it. He was unaware that I had been giving him my excess life supply without his notice or permission. Until I figured out what I would do beyond this planet, I saw no problem with giving away the energy. Part of me always wanted to push my limits but how could I ever when I knew deep down that the limit didn't exist?

A true form that was false became volatile to beings lesser than an elder dragon. Being exposed to that had caused him to evolve into my lesser standards. He would never be exposed to that power, beyond my control. It was then that I became wary of creating a bloodline.

A bloodline that would hold me back like I once did her. To find control I needed to learn about my own Nature. Of Nature, I didn't search far or for long. In turn, more time is shared with the Dwarves than the Old One.

The Old One, he who would wait patiently for my return. He'd never known of my fears of staying, only of leaving.

The Dwarves became crafty and adept at magic in no time at all. The Lessers had always made more of less. I found that amusing. A few gouged my arrival, and soon I was sought after in the city, or was it a kingdom these days? Do they come for the magics I develop or my Dwarven beauty and stature? Having so much power, who could compete or compare? How could I forget about the changes that were taking place around me? For thousands of years, I was hunted, challenged, and even worshiped for sharing my gifts.

But I ignored the signs too engrossed in my plans, in Dwarven schemes. I shouldn't have ignored the signs to take my leave. I should've left the kingdom long ago, but the Dwarves piqued my interest and I had someone to come home to for the first time.

My light no matter how dim these days would shine bright enough to lure those indulging in their darkness. This world would once again become a cage. Envy and jealousy are lesser traits of lesser beings.

They couldn’t wait to steal it. In a world that needs life only to cause death, it is the work of the living to take life for granted and seek out death.

This is a cage not to them, but it always has been to me. I will no longer support the will of this world or its inhabitants. It is time I take my leave. To say goodbye to the Old Hatchling.