{Arthur POV}
As Arthur slowly regained his senses once more, he immediately felt the power flowing through him. He could feel it course through his entire body, the raw strength was a very good feeling. When he opened his eyes he could see everything around him with crystal clear vision. Arthur was in a grassy field, with hills to his left and right.
This clearing stretched on until trees blocked his vision about 500 feet away. After checking his surroundings he immediately focused on himself. He was standing on four legs, and he felt extra limbs he's never felt before. Arthur slowly craned his neck to gaze at himself.
Red dominated his vision. He was truly in the body of a red dragon, and he was gargantuan! A massive body with hard, numerous-looking scales covering it. Arthur focused on the two giant wings on his back, getting a feel for them and slowly unfurling them to their full width and flapping them a few times, creating a surprising amount of noise and Arthur almost felt himself hover for a moment there. He stopped, not wanting to create too much noise, and turned his attention to his arms, or legs, he wasn't sure.
He took his time examining his claws, bringing them to his face so he could see them better. Sharp, was his first thought as he examined these massive probably sword size claws. He made a fist, squeezing with all his might, and was delighted by the sheer power behind the simple action. He looked at the grassy ground and experimentally sent one claw into the ground, using about half his strength. It easily tore up the dirt and grass, creating a small hole almost immediately.
He shook off the dirt from his claw and touched his face with one hand, slowly feeling out his snout and horns. His snout felt shorter than he expected, sort of beakish, and had little ridges on top of it. His horns were on his head as if they were a crown, curling around his head and the ends of them sticking out. The top of his head had a frill-like appendage, he supposed that was to help him fly.
He felt a sudden urge to try to fly and spread his wings at that thought. But he clamped it down. He needed to figure out his own body before exploring, that was just a simple strategy. He remembered that dragons could talk. Arthur opened his huge mouth with razor-sharp teeth and said, "Hello."
His tongue made sounds much like a human did so it was simple to say that. His voice had a deep bass and harsh roughness to it. It sounded awesome, in Arthurs humble opinion.
He stood there for a few moments saying random things like a crazy person, testing out his new mouth and voice. Arthur stopped in the middle of a classic villain monologue and focused on the inside of himself. He was feeling, slightly hungry? And he also felt as if his mind was more clear and sharper than when he was human. And he also felt a sort of fiery liquid deep inside himself, waiting to be unleashed if he desired it. He supposed that was his breath weapon.
His inspection done, Arthur opened his eyes once more and looked around once more before deciding to try and see how these new limbs would work out in a run. He readied himself, setting four claws equally apart and lowering himself slightly. With a dash and wind flying past his ears, he sprang across the meadow with four legs working to go as quick as possible. He was clumsy at first, stumbling each step, but with built-in instinct and his own sharpened mind working together he got it down quickly and had a good pace.
Arthur has never felt so alive, each movement made by him was delivered with overwhelming strength. He left little holes behind him each time his claws dug into the ground for traction. Arthur was so caught up in this moment that he didn't notice how quickly he was getting to the trees, and by the time he noticed it was too late to stop himself.
Digging into the ground to stop his momentum achieved little as his massive frame slid towards the tree line with unstoppable momentum. He positioned himself at the last moment so his shoulder would take the brunt instead of his head. With a resounding crack, the tree he smashed into took it like a champ, shaking violently for a second before stopping. Arthur stepped back and saw a sizable dent now on the tree. He rubbed his shoulder before realizing he didn't even feel a sting or any pain at all on his shoulder. Oh right, He was a massive dragon. Shaking his head to clear it, he decided to take to the sky and survey his surroundings.
Walking to the middle of the clearing, Arthur spread his wings and started flapping them as hard as he could. He felt himself start to rise up, up, up in the air and he was soon hovering well above the now forest he saw surrounding him. Still getting used to flying, Arthur observed his surroundings, finding he was surrounded by forest as far as he could see from this position. He spotted a pretty sizeable mountain in the distance, a good 15 miles away, and decided that was as good a destination as any.
Briefly struggling to fly forwards, Arthur let his instincts guide him and made noticeable improvements as he went along towards the mountain, eventually getting to where he could fly and glide without going too slow. He felt the wind on his face, the flapping of his massive wings filling his ears, and he had the urge to roar as loudly as he could. He let himself, opening his mouth and unleashing a booming, terrifying roar he heard echo throughout the forest. Feeling better, and with more confidence, Arthur drew closer to the mountain with surprising speed, where he decided to land on the flat top.
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He got there, stopping and carefully slowing his wings so he landed on top of the flat mountain top. Satisfied he nailed the landing, he scans his surroundings and is surprised to see a satyr not 20 feet to the left of him, staring at Arthur with mouth agape and slight bewilderment. And fear, Arthur realized. He felt a pang of loneliness, making the connection he wouldn't really be accepted within intelligent creature society anymore. He decided it was for the best, for both parties. People were left alone by him, and they in turn left him alone. He was fine with that.
A large ogre wielding a makeshift club came running out of the sparse trees about 50 feet away yelling, "GOAT MAN COME BACK WITH SHINIES!". The ogre didn't notice Arthur, somehow. Slightly taken aback by these two sudden appearances and thus having to socialize, Arthur cleared his throat and said, "Stop, ogre." For all its wrath and rage, the ogre listened and stopped itself, and with a confused grunt looked up, and up some more at Arthur. It was almost comical how it slowly craned its head upwards towards his face. The satyr snapped out of his daze and immediately threw himself to the ground in a deep bow, saying quickly, "Pleasesparemeivedonenothingwrong-!" "Calm yourself." That came out harsher than he meant. Or perhaps that was just how his voice naturally sounded.
The satyr immediately stopped talking and started whimpering silently instead. Yeesh, this guy really thought he was dead didn't he, Which was fair. The satyr, still on the ground in a deep bow, not looking up once, hastily pulled out a handful of golden coins and dropped them on the ground and nearly shouted, "Please take this as a tribute and spare my life!" The ogre, who was up to this point staring dumbly at Arthur as if in disbelief, roused at the appearance of the coins and with a cry of rage charged the satyr with all his strength would allow, seemingly forgetting about Arthur at the sight of his stolen gold coins.
Acting on instinct, Arthur walked towards the satyr and backhanded the ogre with a clenched fist once it got close enough, breaking its charge and from the sound of it, a few bones and sending the ogre flying 5 feet before it fell to the ground with a heavy thud. It didn't get back up. Arthur internally winced and thought that must've hurt. He turned back to the satyr, who was trying not to hyperventilate with him this close. "Look at me, please." The satyr looked up with a gaze of bewilderment clear on his face. "What's your name?" "My name is A-Alek, your Majesty!" Alek tacked on the last bit rather hastily.
Arthur empathized with this satyr, he knew in D&D red dragons were merciless tyrants, doing whatever they wanted and enslaving or killing any intelligent creature they met. "Stand up, Alek. You don't need to bow to me, it's embarrassing for the both of us." Alek stood up slowly, as if any sudden movements would spell the end for him. Arthur backed a respectable 15 feet away from him. "You're not gonna, Uhm, eat me right?" Alek said meekly. "Calm down, I'm not going to harm you whatsoever. What was that all about?" Arthur gestures to the ogre, who was very much dead. From the blow itself, or something internal, Arthur didn't know.
Alek glanced at the ogre and said, "That ogre moved here recently, and it left its cave to hunt for food, so I went into its cave and saw those golden coins in a pile and I couldn't resist taking them, and the ogre came back, and it chased me here where your royalness happened to land."He tried to act shameful, though Arthur could see through his ruse rather easily.
"It must have pillaged some village to get that much gold. Thanks to your dragon-ness mercy and kindness, I am now safe. So if that's all, I think ill go now.." He starts to back away with a fixed smile on his face, but Arthur calls out "Wait a moment. I need to know, are there any towns or cities nearby?"
"Oh yeah, there's a town to the south of this mountain-" Alek suddenly clamps his mouth shut with a hand, and doesn't say anything else, looking mortified. Arthur felt a tinge of amusement at his antics. "I don't plan on burning it to the ground, trust me. I am.. not like others of my kind, for lack of a better explanation."
"What..do you plan to do if I may ask your grace?" Alek says, lowering his hand from his mouth and looked obviously on edge. Arthur took a moment to contemplate. What did he plan to do? He asked that question out of force of habit from playing D&D all his life, if Arthur was being honest. He didn't really have any ties with this world and knew next to nothing so far about it, only that it was based on D&D. He decided he would get information.
A thought occurred unbidden from his mind, a tidbit he read long ago in a manual. Dragons are innately magical creatures, and thus can cast spells if they choose to learn them. Arthur was an ancient red dragon, so he could possibly cast 1st to 8th level spells!
This thought got him excited, and unbeknownst to him, steam started to vent out of his nostrils. He could use magic! His favorite class in D&D was always wizard, as magic just seemed so versatile and fun to him. He turned back to Alek to find him slightly pale. Arthur realized he was smiling, which must have shown off his teeth. He composed himself and said, "My apologies, I plan on gathering information and possibly spell scrolls. And I also don't have a home, so I suppose I'm looking for somewhere to lie down as well."
Alek looked completely bewildered when Arthur apologized, but managed to pipe out, "The town does happen to have a wizards shop, and as for a home, the cave the ogre was in was actually a really big cavern. Big enough for you to possibly make your home in." Alek let out a burst of nervous laughter.
Arthur nodded his thanks and said, "I don't have money to purchase these scrolls, so I suppose I need gold." A plan slowly formed into Arthur's mind. "Alek, do you happen to know if that town has any major problems?" A hesitant nod confirmed Arthurs suspicions. Arthur drew himself up and said, "We will talk later. Lead the way to the cave if you will, Alek. Let's see if this cave will fit me."