Nidhuggr felt a tug. Not a physical one but a magical one. It grew stronger and he could feel the soul reaching towards his body. Straining and vibrating and searching for every last string of connection it could find and selfishly holding them close. Then the mind shattering pain. He clutched his head. When the pain subsided he raised his head again and felt something wrong with his face. He went to his large mirror and took a look. To his horror, there was a line of flesh Coming down from the top of his skull to the top of his nasal aperture. It was silver and hideously alive somehow. He scratched at it and peeled it away causing more pain. The flesh regrew. He wanted to tear it off again in frustration but knew it would accomplish nothing. 

He paced the floor remembering how the intrusion felt. He played it over and over in his head obsessively. There had to be a way to turn this to his advantage. He refused to believe that the dragon he killed hundreds of years ago could so easily reclaim his vessel.  He stopped pacing and focused on the stillness. His stillness. Then he felt it. A string of the soul. He carefully tugged it not with the magic in the dragon body but with his god spark. He slowly traveled the string leading back to a boy. Not barely sixteen. Human, and looked to be part of a group that stayed mostly ethnically pure. That meant his ancestors were brought en masse and stayed to themselves.

He hovered unseen above the boy. He was walking in a hallway of what he could only guess was a stately manor. He remained loosely tethered to the boy. He was passing many doorways and behind one of them, he could feel a very familiar and distinct tone. He saw the boy pause by the door and shake his head. Could he feel the tone too? He realized it was Trune's tracking potion beacon. The conduit was here. That could only mean that he had stumbled onto a way to spy into the very heart of those tasked to bring the prophecy to fruition. Yes, he thought, this is very good indeed. He followed along until the boy entered a dining hall. Nidhuggr let himself fall back into his body. 

He paced and picked at the skin trying to think of ways of blocking him from finding him again by following the magic in the bones he inhabited. He opened a link to Trune.

"Yes, MY Lord Nidhugger?" Trune was pleased to feel his need through the link.

"I need to stop Hima from reclaiming my body." Nidhuggr got straight to the point. He was aggravated and even if he was afraid to admit it, scared.

"I will have to start experimenting again, it may draw some ...unfavorable attention," Trune was most pleased by the development, and was not afraid to let Nidhugger know. The link wavered because Nidhuggr himself was unsure. Then he cautiously weighed his options. More attention on his followers that could potentially lead to him being discovered by dragons and humans, or Hima taking his body back through the magic the soul and body contained in each, also leading to his discovery by the Kalestral Gods themselves and banishment. He sighed and knew that Trune was already aware of his decision. 

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"Do what you must," The god was resigned and committed to the path, and the consequence. Trune's excitement was heavy and palpable before the link was severed.

Nidhuggr felt momentarily defeated. It wasn't really the experiments themselves that gave him pause but the attention the missing Dragons or Dragonborn would cause after all this time. Especially since there were so few of them. The Dragons would certainly be more wary about one disappearance than they were 900 years ago. He also knew Trune, and one would become a dozen. He sighed deeply. He walked to the entrance of his cave home and took dragon form. 

The scales on his face distracted him for a moment. They were also a bright metallic silver. Shinier than the flesh in human form. It made him feel off balance and wrong. He scratched at it with huge claws but dragon scale was tough and he remembered how the flesh felt when it grew back and did not want to revisit that feeling again. He took to the air and gracefully circled the mountain he called home. He could never give up this power he had found in physical flight. Knowing that he bent the wind to his will. The wings itched as the rotting flesh pulled against the wind shear. 

He flew over every inch of the wasteland he ruled. The desolation could not become complete unless the girl died. If she did not die, then she posed a deeper threat than just bringing the magic back to Kalestra. He could feel the threat she posed. Like a cold shade laid across his heart. He flew to the edge of the wastes and landed at a small grotto. The water would be high enough that no living thing would be able to hold their breath to get to the dry part. Except maybe another God or Dragon, if they knew. Still in dragon form, he slipped into the water and swam the watery distance to the air pocket and firm rock. He shook like a dog to get water off his bones and rotting skin. 

The two small figures chained to a wall by a long chain and ankle cuff scurried from the mass amounts of water. He caught the male under his foot and tapped a claw on his chest. The man shivered and trembled. This made Nidhuggr extremely happy.  His bone dragon face imitated a snarling smile. 

"Your daughter still lives for now," Niduggr said in a low growl and he heard the woman sigh in relief. He roughly picked up the man and threw him in her direction. He hit the wall and didn't move but he still lived. The woman screamed and sobbed, and Nidhuggr was quite happy again.

"I found her, and soon you all die" Nidhuggr laughed a bit, then lay down on his haunches and played with his toys, enjoying the terror they felt with every scratch he made on their flesh.