Flying far above the clouds I got to witness scenic views of the clouds below and the blue sky above. Behind me the setting Sun, repeating day after day for a full two months, flying calmly high in the sky and thinking about what I will meet at the end of my journey.
The trip had to come to an end eventually, and I had to confront what I had become, would I ever become small again or am I forever stuck as a massive feathered True Dragon. Luckily the last day of my trip had a clear sky, with me arriving in the first rays of daylight the warm air contrasted heavily with my expectations of a cold winter. Although I had flow far from the Sentient Assemblage and was now in the Southern Hemisphere so it being warm even at night should have been predictable.
The land below me was egg shaped, the beaches of the massive island were surrounded by sand with the northern section containing a rainforest while the Southern part of the island consisted of rocky outcroppings and hills that culminated in a volcano in the bottom part of the island. Luckily for me the volcano was not spewing out smoke or rocks, although going by a few clearings in the rainforest that had a large stone in the centre the volcano was still highly active.
There was a massive contrast in humidity, the feeling of hitting a barrier while descending over the rainforest part of the island made me reconsider my stop, while I had dived into the ocean for food and even flown through rain I had never let myself stay wet for long, causing me to detest the idea of spending my time in the vibrantly coloured rainforest below me.
Knowing from past experiences that I am difficult to set alight I changed course for the Southern hills, so I quickly rose out of the islands top climate and flew down South before descending to the top of the volcano. Lording over the entire island the volcano was the best vantage point to see if I could spot some sort of sentient creature to answer my questions on where I was, my instincts had told me that I needed to visit this place but not why or how this would help me with my growth.
Landing on top of the vantage point allowed me to feel the hard rocks beneath me, the brown, grey and black ground contrasted heavily with my initial planned stop, although the lack of colour was depressing I would have been far more depressed if I had to subject myself to constant humidity. It is a weird feeling to have my instincts so heavily integrated into my mind that they can affect my behaviour, although that is probably for the best as I have no clue on how to look after my true dragon body.
Thinking of all the things that can go wrong with normal lizards if they are not in an appropriate humidity environment makes me shiver on top of the volcano, the blazing sun above and the scorching hot ground beneath me can be used to cook eggs but I stand on the potentially active volcano with no worries about it in my mind. Instead I think of scales that stick to my skin and never fall off, starting to rot on my body and growing into a garden for fungi and parasites while my feathers fall off to make me look like a partially plucked chicken from the stress.
Shivering for the last time I put the horrific scene behind myself as I try to focus on surroundings, the reason for coming up here was to find a sentient creature, or more appropriately a local to help me decipher my internal instincts. But looking around only causes me to seize up as I accidentally begin to stare off into the forest again, this feeling is weird as I am not afraid of water but the concept of perpetual exposure makes me scared.
Looking away from that part of the island no matter how eye catching it is with yellows and reds that stand out amongst the bright green canopy I instead look the other way at a baren landscape, although that is a disservice to the beings that live in the brown world as they would most likely say that they live very happy and fulfilling lives in their rocky terrain.
Between hills the landscape is marred by craters and rocks with piles of ashes in certain parts, there are also bones scattered around from small rodents to bus sized quadrupedal creatures. Upon closer inspection I can also find two story sized boulders that look like tortoise shells, and considering what I had seen since hatching here large tortoises would be the least surprising beings that live in this world.
The shells look extremely symmetrical when compared to the rough and uneven looking boulders that they nestle between, with most having their shell plates be coloured different shades of grey as though trying to show off.
Deciding to start off with the slow moving creatures in case the islands inhabitants are not friendly I fly down after finding the largest tortoise that I can find, a three story shell that is nestled between two hills and being the most brightly coloured out of all. The surroundings grey stone barely matches the darkest shades of grey on the shell, the creature no longer tries to blend in with its size and colour as all nearby rock outcroppings are no longer able to blend in with the symmetrical shell.
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I fly down easily without even flapping my winds once as the natural air currents running up and down the volcano carry me to the bottom with a bit of magic infused into my body for a smooth landing.
Standing before the shell I am slightly confused as to where I need to start talking to the creature, or even if it is possible for me to speak with the being. I highly doubt that it can speak sentient assemblage, however I have to start our conversation from somewhere so I start by addressing it from where I have landed.
Zutal: “*Ahem. Excuse me giant turtle.”
There is obviously no movement, the main reason for this could be the fact that we do not speak the same language although another reason could be that I now have a very deep and terrifying voice.
Seeing that after waiting for a bit there was still no movement I proceed to knock on the shell again, this time slightly stronger but the same three knocks spaced out by a second between each one. The tortoise has to feel the knocks on its shell, otherwise it has to be dead.
After waiting for a while again and nothing happening I proceed to take a step back and walk around the armoured home, looking for entrances I find two curved plates, one of which must be for the back and the other for the front.
Having figured out the turtles position I proceed to knock directly on one of the shell hatches, this shortly backfires as the panel suddenly drops and a beak shoots out to take a bite out of me.
Dodging backwards with a flap of my wings and pouring whatever I could from within my chest allows me to escape the beak mostly unharmed, as once I am out of the immediate striking range of the extended neck that the turtle possesses it proceeds to open up its mouth and spit out a few grey feathers.
Looking down I can not see clearly where it got the feathers, but I am not too pleased about a potential bald patch on my body, flame roaring in my chest I am about to spew out flames when I get a voice in my head. The reverberating sound feels like a soft echo with a feminine touch to the way that it is softly spoken.
Tortoise: “Ha ha ha, so young and hot headed.”
As if to mock me the tortoise proceeds to warm up the surrounding around itself with what I assume to be magic, as not a second later from the areas which I felt a warm thrumming in the air form a lot of grey feathers. The now grey feathered tortoise lifts its head high above its own shell, with it moving its legs out of the insides of its home and standing up, the now raised walking fortress is 16 metres (52 foot) tall. Adorned with grey feathers along the crown of the head and down to the base of the neck in a mane of grey, that does not make me jealous.
Tortoise: “Pleased to meet’cha, Names Fragile River and we don’t get many of you roun’here.”
The energetic voice that is now broadcast into my mind is still feminine in nature, however it sounds mocking in its introduction and the tortoises new appearance being stolen from me. Looking smug with its beak pointing at my forehead rather than directly at me, the turtle shows no shame in its previous actions or the current highly intrusive method of speaking to me via directly beaming words into my mind, the tail of the tortoise slowly wags from left to right and back to right again as I observe the weird feathered creature.
Thinking hard within my mind and speaking my intentions within my head only prolongs the silence, as the two of us stare at one another, my attempts at psychic or telepathy clearly amuse the tortoise with its head rising ever so slightly and it making its legs feather as well for some odd reason. The feeling of heat that went into the neck feathers felt immense, but when all four feet got the same treatment I had to take a momentary pause, sensing my weakness from not only the speech failure but also the awe at the magical display results in the turtle continuing this one sided conversation.
Tortoise: “Aww, little baby got his world view broken by witnessing some real magic, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it. Comes naturally with being a lil’ol creature like me. Ya’know just a Giant Volcano Tortoise.”
The turtle proceeds to stop looking into my eyes and turns its head around to gaze at the slightly dusty shell, using more of the warm thrumming in the air to turn it fully polished before looking down, head lowers down to inspect the newly feathered feet with the front feet doing a little twist from side to side as though carefully inspecting the new look.
Tortoise: “Still having trouble talking huh, you’re a slow learner aint’ya.”
The head turns around just in time to see me try to rebuke the claim with a half open mouth, only to close it as I realise that we do not speak the same language with me being unable to use this magic telepathy. Looking smug again the turtle goes back to looking at its shell before glancing over at the reptilian tail, and shortly after using her own magic to fully cover it in feathers as well.
Turning her head back and locking gazes with myself, the smug look is no where to be found as the tortoise seriously gazes into my eyes, this makes me slightly more nervous as it clearly plans on doing something. Magic begins to *hum audibly around both of us, however I am not the one moving so much warmth into the air around ourselves.
This display of power is terrifying, for it is multiple magnitudes above what I am currently capable of exerting on my higher end of power estimates, looking directly at me with a gaze of a predator does not make the situation any less threatening at such a close distance.