I headed east looking for the tracks left by those that had fled from the fight. I felt the blood on my claws drying and I promised myself that I would embrace my true self otherwise I wouldn’t stand a chance against a demon. I was probably going to leave more clues that a dragon was around.

As I walked and contemplated how I would bring down the camp. Depending on the size of the camp I could theoretically wipe it out with one breath like Brewmaster but I’d never managed such a powerful feat. I even doubted it as I heard it second hand from those that revered him. It also put him into a long slumber. I didn’t have a secure cave, I didn’t have anyone to protect me. I’d have to do it the brutal way.

I found the men that had fled. They had collapsed in a group breathing hard and trying to recover. I was upon them in a flash, I would be as quick with their deaths as I could. The first one hadn’t seen me coming. I gripped the back of his head and chin and brutally twisted and with a crack his neck broke and he went limp. The next couldn’t draw his weapon in time. I came in low and with my claws flayed his inner thighs open slicing through muscle and vein, he collapsed as blood pumped out of the wound. The third had decided fleeing was still the best option. I plucked a knife from one of the fallen men and with all my might and skill hurled it into the spine of the running man. He tried to crawl with only his arms working as I approached. I stomped on the back of his neck, breaking it. By the time I returned the man I slashed had already bled to death.

This demon was too great a threat to the greater world if left unchecked. There had to have been a dabbling hedge wizard to summon it. I was already tired of the violence I had to inflict upon these men. I had seen too much death both natural and unnatural. I thanked the gods that the nightmares of dead faces stopped long ago. I left the bodies and kept going east. I’d try to remember to hide them later.

I said a quick prayer to Terus to bring his attention to the souls I had sent to him. I continued on the road feeling a building desire to be my true self for the first time in hundreds of years. How long had I stayed in a mortal body? I lost count of the years. The ground became more and more hilly as the day turned to dusk. Suddenly the ground dropped away revealing a valley.

Along the steep rise of the other side I could see a makeshift camp set up. Valley was a misnomer, it was closer to a canyon. A deep river snaked along the center and met the edge of the large spread out dark version of civilization. I could see fires start to be made all around the area as dusk fell. I could see the rough handling of people being dragged towards the camp from another trail. They had innocents captured. I would have to be careful and try to find where they were going to be kept. I turned to one of the many trees around me and began to strip. Soon all my belongings hung from a branch and my skin puckered at the sudden coolness I was feeling.

I cracked my neck and hopped on the balls of my feet preparing for what was about to happen. I was exhilarated deep in my core to be free from mortal form. Even if for a brief moment. Before letting go of my current transformation I made a quick image of Dolan’s form so that I would have a chance to return to it once I could. I had been building a reputation big enough to get me in the courts and I was finally making headway.

I knelt and got awkwardly on all fours and let go. Instantly my skin turned to steel hard scales. Wings erupted from my back below my shoulders, feeling like an extra set of limbs. I stretched them out as my ribs and spines began to crack and reform painfully. I could feel my skull warping and growing thicker. Adding in the protection that the gods saw fit to protect my mind. My feet grew longer and my toes turned to claws. My ankle shifted and became its true joint further up my rear shin. My muscles swelled and swelled. I felt my tail begin to extend from my spine back into the forest and had to look back to ensure it didn’t crash through any trees. My entire body began to expand outward, to a form far larger than I had transformed into before. When I started my journey to spread my tales far and wide. Soon I towered over the trees. The tallest ones meet my shoulders height. I reared back and truly stretched my wings to their limit and blanketed the forest in a shadow. In the failing light I looked upon myself in wonder. My collections of paintings that told a thousand tales had stretched to cover every part of my wings and snake onto my shoulders. With great will I suppressed the desire to roar into the sky about my freedom.

Carefully I stepped to the ledge and fell forward spreading my wings to catch the air. I glided into freedom and pumped them three times soaring higher. I used my powerful vision to better scout the land below me and began to memorize how the camp stretched below. No longer did I feel that it was massive. A single man could reach my ankle at this size. All I’d have to do is stand straight to protect my belly. I made several passes over the camps while being hidden by the dark sky. I saw a collection of cages each filled with innocent people shoved to the side around a cave entrance.

I made a great swooping arc and let myself get so low my belly scraped the treetops. In one fell swoop and with a dozen screams I snatched the cages from the ground and sent the embers of the nearby fire flowing across the whole camp. Men yelped at the stinging hot pain of embers landing on flesh. The people in the cages screamed hysterically as I carried them off onto the edge of the canyon and placed the cages down. Carefully I pried doors open and people fled in all directions except towards me. I swore to myself that I would find those that got lost and guide them back to civilization. That done, I turned back to look at the camp. A few small fires had broken out in front of the cave.

I pumped my wings a dozen times and took back to the air. I flew high and looked to the very center of the collection of homes. Many people were rushing around trying to raise an alarm. I doubted I had saved all the people but I would have to settle for what I had done. With one final flap I tucked my wings close and dove down. At where I could best judge I put my wings as far back to slow me down before I slammed into the ground. The earth shook mightily at my arrival and a few poorly made homes collapsed under the titanic crash. I crushed three men under one claw and spun sweeping my tail through a half dozen huts crushing those inside them. This time I let myself roar a challenge to the skies. I felt the very air shudder at my call.

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A dark mist burst from the cave. Thin vapors waved like black tentacles spreading out in a living tangle of ephemeral limbs. I watched as a man, tall as a small house, crawled free of the cave. He towered and the men called in triumph their leader. To me though, he was insignificant. I went to take a breath. The mist leaped up and slithered into my nose and mouth and I choked at the interruption. I coughed violently and slammed a hand down trying to crush the man. Dozens of men swarmed my legs and I could feel their weapons clang off my hard scales. They began to try and wriggle their blades in between and behind my scales hoping to draw blood. I simply pulled my legs together under me and collapsed like a cat. Their bodies were pulped by the simple movement and I felt disgusted how the fire squelched across my body.

The leader cried out in a booming voice that was filled with unearthly power, “Demon I summon you! Vanquish this enemy!”

The black mist slammed into the mouths of every man there. Their eyes burned bright for a moment as their very souls were ripped from them. The leader had one moment of horror before the mist slammed down his throat. The bodies withered and were pulled together in a patchwork body the size of my own. It happened so fast I could barely stand in time.

Hundreds of corpses had been torn from the ground and a mountain of decaying flesh now stood before me. Two bright red coals burned in the lump that formed the body. A deep sniffing sound rippled across my senses.

“Weaver… we meet at last. I thought all you dragons were out of the way.” The voice was like fiery oil spread across water. It crackled and dripped from everywhere the creature stood. “I’ll enjoy reaping your flesh and destroying this fetid world.”

I did not dignify the beast with a response. Demons did not listen to words. They were ruthless, conniving tricksters that had wielded mortals against the dragons since the dawn of time. I still believed the first cults were caused by their kin.

Knowing my breath would not work on the fiend I roared and charged slamming down upon it with all my weight and power. It absorbed the blow with its amorphous flesh and rolled slamming me into the side of the steep mountain. My bones rattled but I recovered as it went to pin me with its mass. I wrapped my arms around it and picked it up straining every muscle in my body before slamming it down hard. As it rolled away from me I tore a handful of the bodies away and pulped them into paste. I forced my magic into them and it became inert. There would be a heart in that great pile of meat. A center that anchored the demon to this world. I had to find it.

We clashed once more and this time it was me that was lifted and slammed down onto my back and shoulders. Stones cracked and shattered against my back as I raked my legs across its base, shoving enough of its weight to the side for me to roll on top of it. I rammed an arm deep into it and tried to search for a center of power. He flexed and swelled against me, shoving my arm free and knocking me back a step. I spun and used my tail to scatter a huge collection of bodies from its top across the canyon. I again reared back and this time slammed both arms to the shoulder deep inside it and scraped. I pulled large amounts of bodies from it and crushed them into paste. The battle went on as I slowly crushed the bodies into softer meat that would be easier to sort through.

I was growing tired by the time the moons were above us and stumbled. It moved like liquid and pinned me down. The voice returned, “Valiant fighting Weaver, but it ends here.” All that weight and soft meat began to push and smother me. Just before it sealed off my nose and mouth I gulped a breath in. It pushed and I didn’t have the strength to lift it once more. My plan backfired and I could not get a grip on the loose meat.

As my heart pounded I stilled and focused. I closed my eyes and opened myself to the magic around me. Reaching a calm that would be necessary to feel what I needed. Demons tended to gloat, he would be close to me in order to feel my heart stop as he pinned me. That’s when I felt the red hot coal of its being slithering closer and closer to my mouth. The meat it made of its body began to try and pry its way into my nose and mouth. I began to infuse the air in my lungs with enough magic. I tensed and shifted my flesh to empower my lungs to the most they could handle. I opened my mouth.

The demon poured in and the sudden relaxation of my jaws and I felt it try to escape but I clamped my jaws tight and exhaled. As my magic poured through the flesh it became inert. Then all that magic crashed into the demon's core and I felt it blink out of existence. The pile of flesh sagged suddenly and all the focused weight began to pour off me. I struggled myself free and wretched out all the disgusting flesh from my mouth and throat. Even some from deep in my lungs came free.

I was so tired. The amount of power I had to lose would set me back years to recover while I was awake. I didn’t have it in me to take care of all the evidence. I made my way to the river shrinking down slowly so I could fit. Rivers of gore were forced from my body and I submerged myself. The cold frigid waters of early spring felt good on my overheated skin. The river ran red that night from all I washed from myself.

I returned to the edge where I started and while I landed I began the awful task of assuming the form of Dolan. It took far longer to do that resizing in dragon form. The night was mostly over when I stood once more and made my way to the belongings and got dressed. Now I had to find the lost.

image [https://i.imgur.com/52Ry73d.jpeg]