By now, licking the air was nearly an automatic process. It would happen every half a minute or so, keeping me up to date on all the smells around me. Since I still couldn't put a creature or plant to most of them, and I didn't know what could harm me or not, I stayed cautious of everything. I kept following the scent I had picked up, but it didn't seem to be getting much stronger. In fact, it seemed to be changing ever so slightly every time I took it in. It went from a sort of earthy, rich scent to something akin to spoiled milk, not that the smells were exactly like anything I knew from my formerly human nose. No, a reptile's olfactory sense was certainly a very different beast all together.
Whatever the source of the scent I'm following, I think it's safe to say something happened to it. Might be some defence mechanism of a plant, or just a creature that died. I kept walking, not having anything else I could do, and decided to train myself in a few more modes of locomotion.
I think I've got walking figured out, but my running could still use some work. I did some short runs, now being able to keep moving in a single direction, albeit around a bend or rise in the tunnel. I even did some glides when the tunnel came down steeply enough. As expected, these exercises brought me a few more points towards falling on my face, but I also managed to get a decent running speed and now knew how to control my flight in a level glide.
I had yet to gain the confidence to try flapping my wings mid flight, but I did experiment with moving them while running. This produced much less satisfying result, as I wasn't able to do more with a single flap than make myself lighter on my front feet. The thing that happened the most often, was that I would mismatch the flaps of the two wings, being at a different speed or angle from one another. This would at best make me stumble, and at worst make me tumble.
And I don't even like rock 'n' roll. … This doesn't have the same effect with no one to groan at me. I checked myself for scratches after picking myself up once more, but still couldn't find even a scale out of place. Hardy thing, this dragon hide. I can see why they might be hunted, if this is the resilience of a dragon not even two and a half hours after hatching.
When, at long last, I was getting closer to the smell, it had turned from a vaguely spoiled smell to a truly rancid one. By the time I thought that I should be careful again, I had already fully exposed to what I would describe as a giant glowing mountain lion, though it had two tails, and it's feet were covered in scales, rather than fur.
Luckily, it had it's back turned to me, so I quickly back-pedaled around the corner I had come from. It didn't seem to notice me at first, but that was likely only because it was gorging itself on the remains of an equally large goat. So, is that what I was smelling all this time? Not like I didn't expect that, but these things are at least four times my size! I was certain now, that what I was smelling, was the gore and excrement from the dead giant goat.
And there was a lot of it. The tunnel around the eating lion looked worse than what I had seen over an hour ago. Where back then, the walls had very regularly sized chunks taken out, these walls looked utterly destroyed, like someone had swung around a wrecking ball with abandon. And in places, it was covered in blood and patches of fur, presumably from these two creatures hitting each other with the boulders that were scattered about.
What little I could see of the goat was mangled and most of it had already been devoured. I guess I found my dinner, once that lion leaves. If most creatures down here have some ability to take chunks out of the walls, I'd rather content myself with scavenging. I smelled the air again, intending to memorize the smell of the lion, but I couldn't pick it up over the smell of death and gore.
I crept back further, still within range to see the lion's 'light' shift, but far enough that I should be able to scarper, should it decide to come this way. The lion was oddly quiet, for how enthusiastically it was eating it's food. It's probably got some of those reptiles' magic, just to make it's sound more subdued. Maybe it's scent as well. I should be mindful of that. I can't hear everything, and smells are unreliable at the moment. If I'm not careful, next time I meet one of these things I might not be lucky enough that it has it's attention firmly on feasting.
The lion itself had looked like it took a beating, but out of caution I assumed that it still had plenty of fight left to squash a little dragon hatchling.
I lay low in a small alcove in the side of the tunnel to wait out the creature, and just spent some time to really think about the situation I was in. There's only a few possibilities as for what is going on.
1: I got reincarnated as a dragon. The last thing I remember before waking up in the egg is coming home from work. I don't have any recollection of death, nor what happened to bring me here. For this to be true, I'm pretty sure there needs to be a soul involved, as well as an infinitely variable multiverse.
2: I am in a virtual reality simulation. I don't remember there being any sort of technology that could induce this level of realism. I could have been abducted by the government or some shady private organization to test their tech, but that seems unlikely. Last time I checked, the data transfer and computation speeds needed to pull this off to this degree were still decades away.
3: This is all just my imagination. I almost don't want to include this one, but here goes. I never thought of my imagination as this vivid. If this were a normal dream, I'm sure I would have woken up by now. I've never heard of anyone being aware of the exact passage of time within a dream. Maybe it's some sort of coma induced hallucination, that would explain why I don't have memories beyond coming home. Hat doesn't mesh with what I know of coma and brain death, though.
4: This is my only life and the memories I have are the imagination of a dragon as it grows within the egg. This one, while possible, requires the most assumptions out of the bunch. It's also the most disturbing, somehow.
As much as I'd like this all to be my imagination, I think the most likely one is the reincarnation theory. It only makes a few assumptions that we had no way of disproving back on earth. That does mean however, that I really am a female dragon, surrounded by monsters that seem to make a sport out of violating tunnel walls. ... OK, I should watch my phrasing. I don't think that image will leave my mind soon.
It took the lion another 15 minutes to be satisfied with it's feasting, upon which it thankfully moved away from where I was hiding. I stayed in the alcove for another minute, just to be on the safe side, then made my way to the corpse.
The predator had done a thorough job, considering it's size, but there was still plenty to pick off the bones. Only the smallest bones had most of the meat left on them, and all of the bigger bones had been crushed, presumably to get at the marrow. Really, the thing was barely even recognizable as a goat anymore, not that it ever had more than a resemblance.
I had expected some sort of gag reaction upon seeing the carnage up close, but my hunger was only stoked. There go those dragon instincts again, I guess. It's probably for the better though. If this had been enough to make me queezy, I don't think I could have killed and butchered anything myself.
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I cautiously started peeling off scraps off the ribs. It was hard work, but it tasted decently well. I had to gnaw at the bones with my incisors to really get a grip on any piece of flesh and then rip with all the strength in my neck to get anything off. I had to work for 5 minutes to get the first rib to the point where getting anything off didn't feel like it was worth the effort, and I probably didn't get more than 5 mouths full of meat.
After 35 minutes, all of the ribs were as clean as I was gonna get them. The feeling of hunger that had been growing ever since hatching now felt like it had never existed. As was about to turn to other bones to see if I could get more, I saw light from the corner of my eyes. I looked that way, but didn't see anything.
What- Shit! I had forgotten that there's a bunch of creatures that can make themselves go unnoticed. I scrambled away, the same way that the lion had gone, because there was light moving in the direction I had come from.
It's probably those reptiles. I decided to call them kobolds for now, because that's what they most looked like.
I tried to make as little noise as I could, but I didn't think I was quite successful, because the kobolds were making more of those ratcheting noises. This time, it was more than just that though. There were hisses, clicks and chirps in there as well. I ran for a minute until I was sure that they weren't following me.
Did they even give chase? Note to self: always pay attention to your surroundings. I had barely finished the thought when that stupid list popped up again
Name: Keith Harrows
True Name: unknown
Age: 3 hours 30 minutes 18 seconds
Species: (some sort of)Dragon
Gender: female
Life Stage: Hatchling
Titles and Given Names: Keith, K, Mr. Harrows
Statistics:
Notes to self:
Never do auto-cunnilingus again
Always pay attention to your surroundings
Times I thought of my situation as weird in any way: 8
Times I fell on my face: 46
Goals:
Learn to fly. Progress: 6%
OK, are there any settings for this stupid thing? Can I make it not pop up unless I intend it to? I tried to think 'settings' at it, but nothing happened. Pointedly thinking what I wanted it to do didn't make any difference, so I just silently, without subvocalizing, promised myself to always expect the thing to pop up.
Looking over my name, I couldn't help but think that it doesn't really fit my new circumstances. In two of the four possibilities I had thought about, taking a name that was more befitting of a dragon would be beneficial. And at least two of the entries in given name would also no longer fit. I don't even know what a normal dragon's name would sound like. My first impulse is to go with something that sounds edgy or like I'm way too full of myself. On top of that, I don't know what dragon language sounds like.
I looked back at where I came from, but the tunnel was still empty, save for some small marks that I assumed to be the first marks of the battle between the lion and the goat.
After making sure I was alone, I tried to speak once more but found the same limitations as the first time I tried after hatching. I just couldn't make the right shape with my mouth and my vocal cords didn't behave as I expected them to. All I got were rather high-pitched chirps and hisses that seemed wholly unsuited for any sort of language I knew. Then again, those kobolds made some chirping and hissing sounds. Maybe I could get my throat to produce those ratcheting sounds and clicks. The I'd just have to get through first contact with creatures I know nothing about, and learn a language from people that I can't communicate with. … Easy.
I only have my life to lose if they're not friendly, after all. I imagined all the different outcomes that could come from trying, but didn't like my chances of survival if they turned out to be hostile. I was torn between leaving them be, entirely, for that reason and making contact, just so I didn't have to live with the prospect of being alone forever.
Maybe if I shadow them for a while, I could start to pick up the language? How long would that take? How much of a risk is it? More questions were once more cropping up, but this time, there was one very simple way to answer it. Too bad that way is actually doing it. Not exactly the way to go with risk assessment. To be fair, following them wouldn't be any any more dangerous than being on my own, if I disregard the threat the kobolds might pose.
With that, I reluctantly turned around and went back to the goat's corpse. There, I found just what I had expected. A group of four kobolds was carving away at the mutilated remains of my earlier meal. I had approached in a low crouch, trying my best not to make sound.
They were working with just their claws, but it seemed to be efficient. In this group, each member had an individual basket, though they weren't nearly as big as the one I had seen them carry previously.
Only one of them seemed to be looking around, the others working almost hurriedly. I wonder how they can see. I never actually stopped to think about that, but how does anything see down here? I assume they can't all see mana like I can, otherwise the ability to disappear and make illusory walls would be a waste of effort. But I haven't noticed any source of light tight doesn't come from what I presume to be mana.
Maybe it's to do with the same magic as they use for disappearing? Some sort of high-powered dark-vision? I didn't think I'd get to a conclusive answer to that soon, so I listened as well as I could to the small amount of conversation going on.
My plan to learn a language gave me a small idea as well. Goal: Learn the kobold language. I intended for it not to make the list appear, but had no such luck.
Name: unknown
True Name: unknown
Age: 3 hours 33 minutes 28 seconds
Species: (some sort of)Dragon
Gender: female
Life Stage: Hatchling
Titles and Given Names: K
Statistics:
Notes to self:
Never do auto-cunnilingus again
Always pay attention to your surroundings
Times I thought of my situation as weird in any way: 8
Times I fell on my face: 46
Goals:
Learn to fly. Progress: 6%
Learn the kobold language: Progress:0%
I dismissed it again and went on to identify as many distinct sounds as I could. All in all, that part was easier than I had expected. I concluded that this were the very same sounds that make up the language that dragons usually speak, thus my brain was somewhat pre-programed to pick them out.
There seemed to be a high variation in pitch on the various sounds. They came too fast for me to actually pick out what might have been separate words, let alone what they might have meant, but I thought I might have heard the same phrase multiple times.
The conversations would start with very short exchanges between two kobolds, then a third would pitch in. Every time it got a bit too loud, the last one would call out in something between a gurgle and a hiss. That probably means something along the lines of 'Shut up!'. I did my best to memorize the sounds for later tests to recreate the them.
By the time they had cleaned off the corpse of most of the remaining flesh, it already felt like I could hear tiny pauses in between certain sounds. It was a far shot from understanding the language, but a good first step, especially if I could get a start on training myself to simply make the right sounds.
Once they had packed everything back up again, the group of gatherers went back towards their lair again. I followed them, this time intending to at least see what was behind that illusory wall of theirs. Maybe I could learn to do that as well, if I study it closely enough? Should be easy, if I can see the very structure of the magic.
I decided not to experiment more with my movements while I was stalking the kobolds, but I did try and find something that would let me walk quietly and quickly, because as it was, I was forcing myself to wait for them to round the next corner or crest the next hill before moving closer again.
As we came up to the illusory wall, I was just starting to get something serviceable. It was something like a sideways crawl, where I move my front left and back right foot, and my front right and back left almost simultaneously, with my body turned away about 60° from the direction I was moving in. It made for a rather large visual profile, but it got me moving the fastest without making a sound I myself could hear.
The still invisible kobolds went through the wall just like last time, and I waited to the side for a few minutes. Here we go, if they know something comes through, I'm bolting back the way I just came.