The dragon, Ryong Aang, fell from the clouds with glorious splendour but Dan was not looking. Instead, Dan could not tear his eyes away from the astonishing sight before him. He watched as Fa Lian’s transformation took form. The dark petals gathered around her and covered her, obscuring her from sight completely. The cocoon shivered as it swaddled her, changing in shape as more and more of the black rose petals swarmed to join.
There was a rippling shockwave through the ground as Ryong Aang reached land. Another shriek of anger tore from the massive red maw, scales glinting as it shook, casting a spray of red like a blood splatter. For all the aggression, Ryong Aang came no closer. It knew that whatever Fa Lian was doing was dangerous but that also meant that it could not act.
So they both simply watched.
From her position on the floor, Fa Lian seemed to stand. The amorphous shape covering her gave the vague impression of her form. Two symmetrical shapes appeared, connected to her shoulders. As though she was looking at herself, she raised a hand before her own face and then turned to face Dan. The head tilted questioningly before turning once more and facing Ryong Aang. In her hand, a long thin staff of black rose petals took shape.
She raised one foot before slamming it back down again. Underneath the shadowy cover of flower petals, a light began to shine. Brighter and brighter, the light grew in intensity until the petals were translucent purple with the light beneath. Six great petals, conglomerations of the others, closed around her like the clock had turned backwards on a huge flower, the bloom resetting.
Right as the large petals closed around the now luminescent Fa Lian, the entire collection of floral fragments covering her exploded outwards. The twice-scattered petals this time burned to cinders as they were expelled, leaving just the now transformed Fa Lian standing and shining with a beautiful white light.
Two large wings raised up high over her. They appeared made of the same light that seemed to crackle just under her skin. The wings didn’t quite touch, hovering just inches from her shoulder blade. They did not have feathers but were instead made of flames, not crimson like the dragon but pure. To Dan it seemed like an artistic representation of his own mana, once thought of as empty, given form and purpose.
Her clothing, whatever it had been, was also changed. A full body covering of dark purple and black ran from her neck to her feet, finishing in boots with a thick raised heel. The suit ran up her whole body, all black material except around her curves where a filigree of amethyst coloured ribbons accentuated her form. Dan blushed and was sure that Fa Lian was not proportioned like that normally, either an aspect of the outfit or the dream.
“Is it you? Really you?” Dan shook from those thoughts as she looked right into his eyes and the perspective of the distance between them shifted. She was suddenly right in his face. There was no inertia, but her closeness was intense. It made sense, this was her dream. Once she took control, Dan himself was just a passenger. He nodded.
“It is,” Dan’s reply was tinted with Kumiho’s voice, Fa Lian arched an eyebrow at the difference but did not ask more, “and I’m here to help.”
Fa Lian did not reply, instead turning to the oncoming dragon. Ryong Aang was running, though the dragon looked very sluggish. The movements were slowed, as though it were out of sync with the rest of the world. Dan looked to Fa Lian for an answer and saw a smirk on her face, playful and derisive at the same time. “Shall we begin, then?” Fa Lian clapped her hands as she spoke, the landscape changing once more. No longer were they on a field by a beach, but instead on the plateau of a mountain.
Ryong Aang, stuck in the molasses of a slow, dreamlike running, was rearing back his head. Its position in relation to the pair of them had not changed, despite the scenery. A crawl of light and heat began to snake its way up the dragon's throat. Like a wad of sticky sweets, it then chewed the flame before spraying it forward. All the while the dragon, and even the flames themselves, were moving at less than a quarter of their normal speed.
Fa Lian turned to Dan, her eyes wide with faux patience. “I said… Shall we?” Dan hadn’t realised she was actually asking, so he nodded. There was an explosion of rock and debris as Fa Lian launched herself from her position straight at Ryong Aang. She shot forward like a black arrow. Given even more speed with a large flap of her luminous wings, Fa Lian aimed her feet forward and truly became a projectile. The force of expelling its flame had sent Ryong Aang’s head back, leaving the scaly throat exposed. The dragon did not even have time to register a look of surprise as she punched through the ineffectual flames and kicked both feet into its neck.
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“I like her.” Kumiho said, pouring her words into Dan’s ear and mind at the same time. The great crimson mass of Ryong Aang soared through the air, no longer moving slowly. The impact had sent the dragon careening through the now open skies below the plateau where it righted itself. Dan raced to the edge of the rocky mountain shelf, not sure whether he intended to attack Ryong Aang or simply watch the spectacle. He had claimed he was here to help, and certainly he had, but he was no longer sure he was needed. “You will be,” Kumiho purred through his thoughts, “stay vigilant.”
Looking like a bloody wound across wool, Ryong Aang landed on a cloud and slithered across it before propelling himself once again into the air. His normal speed returned, the dragon would reach the battlefield again in an instant. “What is happening, Kumiho?”
“Ryong Aang was not as clever as it thought.” When her reply was not enough, frustration pulsing through Dan at the non-answer, Kumiho continued. “This is the dragon’s form. It’s true form. The staff that it once transformed into is now just an inert piece of pretty wood. Ryong Aang is fighting for its life because this girl somehow ripped its very essence and shoved it inside herself.”
“So, this is a dream but the dragon is real? What would have happened if we were too late?” There was a pause, the pair of them watching Ryong Aang’s furious assault. As it clawed up the mountainside, even approaching and aggressive, it looked to Dan now like a caged animal.
“Dreams are real, Ah Dan. Not the way you understand, I suppose. Watch out.” Dan did not need the warning, but it came right as he moved all the same. Fa Lian was continuing her assault. Leading with the staff, she jumped from the cliff edge seemingly without a care. Ryong Aang saw an opportunity and rushed the belch more blood red flames without giving her the opportunity to dodge.
Not even using her wings, which Dan hoped she would, Fa Lian met the flames with the staff, rotating and spinning it at such speed and with such ferocity that she batted away the dragonbreath like a candle flame. As it dispersed, she kept falling and the dragon kept rising. They clashed, Fa Lian smashing away the dragon’s toothy maw with the firm staff in her hand.
Even as the dragon reeled back its head, Fa Lian swung the staff again. As she did, the staff separated in the middle. From Dan’s position he saw her bury the two swords which had been the staff into the dragon’s back. She tore through scale and skin and muscle until she met bone where the blades and her momentum stopped. Ryong Aang screeched in agony and tumbled along with Fa Lian onto the plateau. She rolled away, the wings behind her disappeared and reappeared as she did, splaying out to stop her momentum.
Dan stood to the side of their battle, feeling both impressed and impotent. “The moment approaches, Guan Ah Dan. Be ready.” With no other advice or input in what he was supposed to do in “the moment”, Dan could do little more than keep himself tense and watch the proceedings. If Fa Lian truly wanted him to be involved, he already would have been due to her control over the space. Instead she kept him, for now, as an observer.
The fight tore through both of them in increasingly equal measure. Ryong Aang was being torn to pieces, Fa Lian’s swords had continued to transform, matching the weapon she could use to best effect at each moment. In one attack it was a spear, then the black mass morphed into a shield to deflect a whipping tail, exploding into black dust and then reforming to appear as a bow, arrow ready to be nocked. Letting that loose, the dance continued, her weapons becoming armour as needed.
Still, Ryong Aang was truly powerful and it would take more than the shallow cuts most of Fa Lian’s attacks amounted to. She needed more and didn’t need Dan to tell her. Kumiho once again voiced her delight at Fa Lian while they watched her start climbing in the sky. Ryong Aang had been grounded, the wounds enough to stop his flight. While Fa Lian was bound mostly by her imagination, Ryong Aang was in a physical form and held those limitations.
Once she reached her perogee, Fa Lian started spinning. Head over feet, feet back over head. Over and over and over, increasing in speed as she let gravity take its rightful prize and she started to drop. The momentum increased with each revolution, her body tucked in small to add more spin to her fall. As she fell, she extended her arms, the mass of black energy which had been her weapon became a sharp, long, flexible blade.
It came down hard. It came down fast. With a fierce determination, Fa Lian’s flourish found its mark. The air itself was sliced by her blade, a screaming whistle fluctuating while she fell. It did not stop when it met scale. It did not stop when it met muscle. It did not stop when it met the bone of Ryong Aang’s shoulder or rib.
The right arm of the dragon dropped away from the rest of it as Ryong Aang rolled to the ground and howled at the pain. Dan felt his heart shatter. The dragon was wondrous and this assault was nothing but vicious. Fa Lian’s smirk had not left her face since it appeared, growing only more fervent as steaming blood dropped away in bucketfuls from the stump.
Dan could watch this no longer.
He pushed against the dreamy haze that slowed his movements, against Fa Lian’s control over him in this space. She landed hard, the plateau cracking under her knee and fist as she suddenly stopped. The collision caused Dan to bounce. He did not ask Kumiho if this was “the moment” because it didn’t matter when it was the ideal time to move. Dan simply had to.
Facing the downed dragon, the black-clad Fa Lian whipped her slicing rope and it reformed once more. The axe of an executioner dropped weightily into her hands. Dan was thankful that she didn’t seem to be paying him any attention, content to forget him for now. It allowed him to struggle through the thick air with its swamp-like consistency and reach her as she began her back swing.
Preparing to remove the head of Ryong Aang.
Dan caught the axe in time to stop her.
“That’s why you’re here.” Kumiho whispered. “That was the moment.”
There was no real moment of relief for Dan as Fa Lian’s head turned around on her shoulders, a terrifying cracking noise accompanying the uncanny awfulness of her gaze. Her eyes were unblinking and black. If Fa Lian had full control over this dream that meant that she could change whatever she wanted.
“What.” Fa Lian’s voice was a broken and hollow sounding thing. “AAre. YoU. DooOoing?” The dream shifted, the plateau disappeared. Fa Lian changed everything one more time.
Now, it was a nightmare.