The room was murky. The walls were dripping like wet paint on a canvas. The window, being out of the little boy's line of sight, was distorted, the outside world completely missing. Yet despite this, his eyes were focused on the center of the room, on the man towering before him. A shadow was falling constantly over his face, no matter which way the boy looked at him.

The only thing he could see was the man's gentle smile, almost sorrow. He knelt on one knee, and looked at the boy at the same eye level. He stretched out his hand, and patted his head. The hand felt warm, and the boy felt a strange sense of content by the action.

The man softly stroked the long and silky blonde hair. He paused for a moment. Despite the shadow covering the man's face, the boy could tell he was looking at him. He began to speak in a kind yet low gravelly voice.

"You grew so much since last I saw you."

He looked at him intrigued, yet fondly. However, this time would be cutting short, as his surroundings turned to black. The man stood up and turned to leave, not before saying his final goodbye. "Live, my boy, and become a great man..."

Before the boy could reach out his hands, to try and grab onto him so he wouldn't leave, his eyes opened again, looking up at the wooden ceiling. He turned his head to his left, and saw a woman of fair build, wearing an old humble wool dress, with little to no decorations. Her body, at least the parts that could be seen, were covered in scales, a mix of black and blue. Along her arms were thin, folded wings, and a tail that rested from her lower back down on the floor. Her face was elongated into a long scaled maw, with small horns adorning her head, barely visible through her wild long red hair. She looked at the boy with her slit pupils, her light chestnut eyes showing a stern expression.

This woman was a Drakonid, but also the little boy's mother, Caoimhe. She huffed out a puff of smoke from her nostrils as she looked at the boy, crossing her arms. "Finally awake are we, boy?" she said, her voice both teasing and stern. Caoimhe shook her head as she laughed softly at her son's sleeping habits, and walked over to the bed. She put her hand on his forehead, checking for any fevers, as she continued in a more gentler tone. "Had a fright did you, my darling?"

The little drakonid of seven years, known as Láidir Iarlaith, was much like his mother. His body was covered in scales, black and blue, and a small tail with length befitting his age. However, he was also unlike his mother, in the fact that he had no wings along his arms, and his body was much smaller than what regular drakonid boys were like in his age. His eyes were softer, an azure blue colour, and his hair was silky, long and blonde. He sat up and yawned, rubbing his eyes with his small hands. Looking up at his mother, he softly spoke. "I dreamt about the man again, mama." said Láidir Iarlaith, the expression on his face showing a slight melancholy as he reminisced about his dream.

Caoimhe sighed, knowing well what was plaguing her son's mind. She sat down on the edge of the bed and turned towards him. The mother stretched out her arm and gently caressed the boy's face, leaning towards him, and gently pressing her lips on his forehead. She pulled away and looked at him, as a mother would, and spoke softly. "T'was only a dream, a mhuirnín. There isn't a man at all. And if there were, You've a mother with you that'll ward any away, alright?" She asked with a small smile. The boy nodded and Caoimhe laughed, nuzzling her snout against his. She stood up and looked at him proudly. "Now then boy, there's work to be done. Best not dwell on the land of dreams longer at all."

Láidir Iarlaith nodded, and slowly stretched, feeling slightly stiff around his torso. He looked down, and sighed while touching the small set of mechanical apparatus attached to his body. There were five circular robust bronze pieces of machinery that were constantly ticking, the gauge moving constantly, and expelling small puffs of steam through one of the pipes that were on the sides in conjunction with something that he heard was called a "steam engine" attached. The apparatus were placed on the sides of his body where his lungs would be, on his chest where his heart would be, and on his upper back. Moving with them was always slightly painful to him.

As he got out of bed, he looked out through his window, at the bright sunny afternoon. The sky was a clear blue, with little to no clouds to be found. A proper break from the rain they would usually get. He looked at the tree whose branches almost poked at the window, they were so close. On a branch, birds were chirping in their nest, waiting for their mother to return with food. Further away, down the hill, was the village of drakonids, specifically the Blue-Winged tribe.

The little boy continued to look out the window, until he felt a soft wooly cloth cover his head, and got pulled down over his body. Caoimhe ruffled the boy's hair, which caused him to softly giggle. "What did I say, boy? Now's the time for work, not daydreaming." She said, and kissed the top of his head as she finished dressing him up. "Okay Mama, I'm coming!" he laughed and excitedly ran around her. She looked fondly at her boy and laughed alongside him. "That's the spirit, A dhrágaín bheag. Let's not waste anymore time."

Caoimhe walked out of the room, and the little drakonid followed after her. Before he left however, he looked back to his bed, and thought about his dream. Despite saying he wouldn't be bothered by what his mind had concocted while he slept, he couldn't help but feel a sense of longing, a longing for that dream to continue.

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In the pitch black of nothingness, a figure was floating by. The figure does not remember who they, or rather she, were. The first thing she remembers is waking up in this void, unable to see anything. She pondered where she was, the question intriguing her far more than who she was. 'What's the point in dealing with semantics? I think, therefore I am,' she thought to herself. 'This...however is far more intriguing.' she continued pondering. The first thing she tried, was to speak. 'Perhaps there's someone out there watching me?' she thought, and tried to scream. However, nothing could be heard from her voice. She tried to move around, and although she could tell she was moving, she couldn't feel the movement. She looked upon herself and only saw a bright light where her body was, only a soft outline where her limbs were could be seen.

The strangest feeling however, was that she could feel a sort of essence passing through her. She did not know what it could be, but she definitely felt it. Then, out of the corner of her view, she saw it. In pure darkness, there was a flicker. The flicker was blurry, but something within them stirred a deep emotion within her. Something familiar. She tried to reach out through the void, to touch upon what she thought to be a dream. However, she would be disappointed by the fact that she could never reach it. Always left just out of touch. Despite this, she did not give up. She pursued the flicker, and made note of it's patterns. 'This thing...it's almost as if it's repelled by me..!' she thought, as every movement she made, the strange flicker followed in the opposite direction.

Knowing this, she tried to see how she could make use of this information. She would move around, seeing how exactly the flicker was moving. As she moved towards it, it ran away. When she started to back away, it would approach her. Like a proper repelling force, the flicker kept an optimal distance from her. She pondered how to make this strange flicker obey her and approach her normally. Then, a thought came. 'A magnetic repulsion is based on the same type of force, two south poles, two north poles, the same result would come. Only when it's opposites will they attract. Thus...if I were to turn around...' She thought, and turned her view away from the flicker, and instead of moving what would be considered forwards, she floated backwards.

As she did so, she felt the deep emotion within her building up. Almost as if the essence was getting closer. She looked over her shoulder, and saw that she was indeed getting closer. 'Finally, a moment of victory!' she thought, as she continued to float backwards towards the flicker, it following her movement and getting closer as well. And after a few moments of floating, feeling the deep emotion building and building, she turned around and witnessed the strange, blurry mess flickering in the void. For a moment, a mountain of emotions flowed through her, and the only thing she could do, was reach out and touch it. Just as she was about to, however, the void started turning to pure white, blinding her.

She closed her eyes and tried to withstand the bright light of the void. Then she realised something. She had felt her eyes closing. As a matter of fact, she felt many parts of her body now, no longer devoid of nerves and senses. She could feel the air around her, sound started to vibrate through her, albeit as of this point only as a loud beep. She felt her body contracting against the surface of some ground she was on. What's more interesting however, was a different feeling, something she couldn't place her mind on what it could be. It flowed through her, touched the surface of her body, and did so many other things that she felt dizzy trying to understand it. 'Blood? Oxygen? A gas? I can't make heads or tails.'

Finally, she felt a sort of calm end to the bright light. She slowly opened her eyes...only to be met by something that had truly stumped her. She wasn't outside laying down on a patch of grass, on a boat in a river, or in a sterilised room. No, the place she was in seemed to be more like an underground laboratory, with the proof being the mossy stone walls and dim lighting, the plethora of equipment, some seeming outdated to her, some she couldn't even begin to understand what they were. And the last proof being the strange humanoid creatures in sterilised uniforms, most of them having elongated noses, horns, and strange colour of skin. Besides them, were multiple cages, in which were strange looking animals and other humanoid creatures, more deformed than the scientists that she saw.

'Just where have I gotten myself into?' She thought. She too, like the other creatures, was in a cage. Thus, the only thing that remained to be answered, was her own body. So she looked at her body, having to crane her scaled neck around to see it. 'Scales? Since when did I have those...' She would ponder, but not for long, as she saw that her body wasn't what she was used to, a normal human woman. No, she had the body of a scaled beast, appearing similar to a reptile species she had once seen in her past life. Quadrupedal body structure, osteoderms around her back and midsection, and a long but thin spiked tail.

As she continued to try and piece together just what the hell she was, she heard the scientists from before approach her and speaking in a language she thought sounded similar, but completely unrecognizable. She looked up at them and noticed they were analyzing her. One of the scientists, a small swamp green humanoid with deformed facial features, long nose and ears, and small beady yellow eyes, takes out a label, and starts writing down something on it. He places it in front of her cage, and the scientists leave, seemingly discussing something.

When she was sure they were out of sight, she approached the edge of her cage and looked at the label placed there. It was a paper attached to a steel plate that had many symbols which she could not recognise. The only thing she could piece together, by context, was that this was probably her designation number and species. Among these symbols, she saw some which looked similar to certain letters she was accustomed to. When putting those letters together, they would create one word, or more precisely, a name. 'Mellua.'