The dragon in the Mountains (Solo)

[Aeos]

Weeks. It.. had been weeks. Weeks since he last saw a human. The dragon in human guise was busy, doing his best to avoid humans and their civilizations. He left the world of humans a little bit after his fun in Bern. He was glad he was around to witness a good festival and watched Gar in the Arena. But, he was uncomfortable around them. Around people. And he knew why. His power. His.. power was growing. And his control over it was diminishing. The last thing he wanted to do was to cause a calamity in a heavily populated area by accidentally shape shifting and losing control over himself. So he did, what he swore he wouldn't do, but saw no other option in the matter. He decided to flee. He fled into the safety and remoteness of the mountain ranges, that hugged the southern end of Bern and stretched up into Lycia. From there he crossed the stretch of plain land that divided the mountain range from yet another set of mountains. All the while doing his best to avoid human contact. And only approaching civilization when he was truly desperate for non-forage-able supplies. And even then he didn't stay long. A few hours at most. 

From the Northern Lycian mountains he traveled west ward. Towards the Desert, towards his homeland. To a place where humans were pushed to the very limits of their survival thanks to the harshness of the environment around them. To a place where.. humans should be sparse. At least.. that's what he thought. 

His time in the mountains had helped him somewhat. With out the stress of humans.. doing their human things around him he was able to focus. He made a routine for himself. A mix of mental training and physical activity. His meals consisted of wild meat and whatever herbs he could forage. The meat was usually, wild goat or it's predator. In the rare moments he found a mountain lake or stream he fished. The gaminess and sometimes rawness of his food didn't bother him. Meat was meat. And he needed to keep up his nutrition. The constant climbing up and down the mountains took a toll on his body. The mix of exercise and protein helped to restore some of his muscle mass. He looked a lot more like he used to before the his shipwreck. 

The mental training consisted of meditation and magical training. The Nabatan spent more and more time in his half shifted state. His half human half lizard like form was slowly changing in response to his training. The hard nubs on his back were starting to hurt more and more with each partial transformation. He noticed his scaly skin becoming harder and more resistant to wear. A discovery of that was made when he took a tumble down a particularly nasty slope during one of the many climbs. 

And he learned his half shifted breath attack was hurting less and less with each practice blast. He launch one at an unfortunate boulder, or at side of the mountain every day as a part of his training. He was slowly.. getting accustomed to the powers of his kin. He slept in his human form. His camp usually consisted of a small fire if the tinder was available. A small tent.. or at least the semblance of a tent. And his sleeping bag. His camps throughout the nights usually consisted of him sleeping on the ground. His mediation usually happened in the morning, shortly after his bodily necessities. The meditation was cathartic. He hadn't seen another human in weeks. He hadn't had a proper conversation in weeks.. and that was starting to grate on him a little. Even, if he knew it was for the greater good. The meditation offered him a moment to talk to someone even if it was just him talking to himself. 

The weather within the mountain ranges varied. In the weeks he spent climbing up and down the Bernese mountains he found the weather to be either too cold or too wet. But, it was easier for him to find foragable materials like wood. Where as the mountain ranges of Lycia was drier, warmer, but were harder to find resources. And now that he had hit the borders of the Nabatan borders the weather made another drastic change. The Lycian side of the shared mountain range was considerably wetter than that of the Nabatan side. He suspected that the reason the desert was.. a desert was due to the fact that the mountains acted as natural cloud barriers. And he couldn't see himself arguing with that logic, since, he went through the literal proof. Now, he was back on the Nabatan side of the mountains and noticed the sheer drop of humidity. The mountain grasses that were abundant on the Lycian side of the mountains shriveled to nothing as he dropped down into the Nabatan slopes. The larger wild game became harder to come by. But, things like snakes and lizards became a bit easier to find. 

He had one more mountain range to cross before he reached his destination. The mountain ranges that lingered in the southern half of Nabata. Those mountains that hugged the coast. Familial mountains. 

[Aeos]

The dragon made a settlement for himself, on the south eastern section of the Nabatan mountains. These mountains faced Valor. To him Valor looked like a small black speck, that blemished the horizon. Upon arrival into these familiar mountains, the dragon began to work on creating a home for himself. He scouted a cave for shelter. Then proceeded to drag several large rocks towards that cave to create a sort of door. He could barricade himself within the shelter of the cave using the various boulders. A wall of rocks would be incredibly difficult for humans to pry open. So he felt safe leaving his belongings within his new cavernous home. He created a small land mark using a stick and a piece of white cloth, then rammed it into a gap in between two rocks. He then collected a small series of shiny rocks and circled his landmark with said rocks. This made his camp easier to find while in the air. 

Aeos slowly settled into a routine. He decided to spend as much time as he could in his half dragon form. Or at the very least at a quarter of his dragon powers. He carved a path for himself down the mountains towards the sea. As he pried himself down the mountains, he would train. Sometimes he would carry large rocks with him down the mountain. Other times he would jump down the mountain going from rock to rock. Sometimes trying to flip as he jumped. Sometimes lying flat on his face with his pride wounded.

He would venture towards the ocean twice a day. During the early hours of the day and again before the day ended. He was careful with his travels up and down the mountains. He needed to made sure there weren't any humans nearby. No shepard's guiding their herds up and down the mountains for grass or water. No nomadic fisherman cruising the coasts for the fruits of the sea. Some days the trips to the coast bore him a banquet of shellfish and kelp. Other days he went hungry. What fish he did catch were often eaten raw, aided by the strength of his half shifted dragon maw. Sometimes he would take the fish back up the mountain to be cooked or smoked for later. 

His trials up the mountain consisted of him rolling a boulder upwards towards his camp. The middle of the day was divided out into sections. A time to scavenge for supplies. A time to train. Which mostly consisted of him pushing, pulling, or blasting more rocks. He could feel his strength returning. He could feel his strength growing with some unfortunate side effects. The forces of nature were responding towards his growth. He wouldn't know it until later. But, there were subtle shifts in air currents around the mountains. He knew the nights in the mountains were cold. But, he wasn't prepared for how cold. He found himself nearly freezing on some nights. Some days he would wake and the entirety of the mountains would be covered in a deep fog. He would chalk this up to being rare but not unheard of. Then he would continue about his day as if nothing else had changed. 

His back was starting to hurt more and more. Some nights he would wake in a cold sweat or fully half shifted even though he went to bed in his fully human form. His head would hurt like all hell. And the voice in his head of his other self would be screaming at him to leave. Even though he knew, they knew, they were perfectly safe within their rocky confines. Other times he would wake up with just an extreme thirst or hunger. Even though he was sated when he shut his eyes. Some nights he would wake to hear the winds howling outside. But, stronger. Almost like they were threatening to tear down the boulders and rocky walls that encompassed him. Meditation during this time helped but other times he felt like breaking the walls down to pieces. This transition lasted for about ten days, with each day getting progressively worse and his routine suffered for it. 

[Aeos]

He lost track of the days. He lost track of the nights. Everything was starting to turn into a blur of moment inside his own mind. The nights were becoming harder to sleep through. Nightmares were starting to take a toll on his mental state. Terrible nightmares. Most of them involved reliving the destruction of the pirate ship. Nightmares of him using his powers to destroy human life, of losing control over himself, of his human companions suddenly brandishing their weapons towards him. Betraying him. Killing him. Going after his family. The nightmares felt real enough to have him wake up, half transformed, and ready to defend himself. But with no real threat there he simply shook his head, slapped his face, and stared at the wall until dawn. 

One night he couldn't, sleep at all.

Humans cannot be trusted. He found himself repeating that phrase. Then stopping himself. He thought he had gotten over his whole fear of trusting humans. But, the steady growth in his powers, return of his physical prowess, and the fact he was up in the mountains living like a hermit, brought back that old mental demon. He hadn't heard much of his other half since his brief stay in Gar's Fortress. But, he figured now was a good time as any to check up on his dragon self. Provided if that part of him was even there. The mental manifestation of his dragon side.. of his other half.. he remembered.. them coming to terms with one another. He closed his eyes, and focused on his meditation. The powers of his stone responded by glowing and floating a few inches in front of him. Still bound to it's mortal body by it's necklace chain. 

The wind spirits responded to this tap in power. They seeped in from the outside through the gaps in his boulder-fied door. They swirled around him within the confines of his cave. The dragon in human guise controlled his breathing. He tuned out all external distractions. He didn't feel the change in his body. His human guise completely fell apart as the skin on his body was replaced by scales. His feet and hands morphed into something more lizard like. His back hurt like hell. As well as some parts of his face. While his body retained a human shape, he did not look it. Deep breath in. He failed to notice how pure and crisp the air was. Breathe out. He didn't see the subtle tint of green that dusted his external breath. His eyes remained closed.

Slowly, the vision of his mind started to take shape. The darkness that surrounded his vision slowly morphed into something else. He felt himself falling, but then stopping. Landing mere centimeters away from the 'ground'. The mental avatar of himself slowly turned upright and stood on what it perceived to be the floor. The mental version of himself stood there for a few moments before being accosted by a series of powerful and violent gusts that spun him around. 

An outside observer staring at the lizard man's body would note that his face seemed to be in pain. 

His mental avatar was tossed about. Pushed. And pulled into various directions. The darkness of his mental world shifted slightly. Enough so that he could see what was the cause of the pushing and pulling. A violent tornado stood before 'him'. Within that tornado he could just made out the dim outlines of his dragon self. Trapped within. No. Not trapped. 'He' deduced that by the sudden paid of hands that gripped him and pulled him upwards towards the 'head' of the twister. 

Our.. future.[/b] The twister 'spoke'. The mental avatar of himself was then sucked into the violent malestrom of swirling wind and chaos. He could feel the power of each gale. Strong enough to snap trees. To snap limbs. But, he also felt himself spinning and swirling within the tornado. Despite the chaos, 'he' felt oddly happy. And relieved in a way.. as if some weight was lifted off his shoulders. 

No. Control. No Control! NO CONTROL![/b] 

And his voice was right. The mental avatar of Aeos couldn't voluntarily move. Then the humanoid avatar felt itself being grabbed by the actual dragon self.

Chaos.. and destruction we will bring. The dragon pulled it's human looking self downwards. 

We will be HATED.[/i] The human avatar was thrown about towards a 'wall' of darkness.

We will be HUNTED![/i] Slammed into another wall.

ADAPT OR DIE! The human avatar of the dragon was simply pinned by the massive dragon half. Then painfully scraped along the side of that mental wall. Before the dragon half of him rammed it's whole body forward and was absorbed by the human looking self. Then everything stopped. Suddenly, he woke up. Back in the cave. 

He slumped over onto his side. He was in so much pain. The dragon man was wheezing and coughing. He felt very cold and was sweating like crazy. He was very dizzy. He clutched his dragon stone in one hand. He had gone on a journey in his own mind before. But it was nothing like that. He wasn't sure what to classify that as. He slammed his free hand on the ground and tried to force himself up. But, he felt heavy. Like there was some sort of pressure on his back that was weighing him down.

The sun was out now. He could see trails of sunlight coming through to illuminate his mini fortress of solitude. He slowly staggered to his feet. His breathing was labored. And he was still very much a mess. But he noticed he was still fully half shifted. Noticed something else. His shadow. It was different. Larger. And misshapen. His.. body balance was off. He staggered back a bit and hit his back along the cavern wall. He crumpled back down onto the floor. That's when he noticed it. The reason for the extra weight upon his back. Wings! He never had wings out in his half shifted form before. He knew that it could be done. His parents told him that was kind of normal for dragons. But, he couldn't do it himself for some reason. Until, now. Adapt.. or die.

The dragon stared at his dragon stone for a moment. He was disgusted at it, then just.. upset. He closed his teary eyes and mustered all the energy he could to revert back into his human guise. Once, he did that, he found it easier to breathe. He curled his knees towards his chest and buried his face in to his hands.

[Aeos]

He spent the rest of the night holed up in his cave. Necessity forced him to come out of hiding. He pushed the boulder out of the way and embraced the sunlight. It was a new day. He had a new ability. A new fear. He took a moment to examine himself. Everything hurt. His shirt was in tatters. The stress of the sudden wing growth destroyed the fabric. The dragon in human guise removed the remains of his good tunic and tossed into his bag. 

He looked terrible. To anyone who would have been looking directly at him, they would have seen the following. A man who looked like he was suffering from a terrible cold of flu. He looked so exhausted. Long dark bags were visible under her eyes. His breathing was labored or difficult. He appeared sweaty. And if one were to touch him he would find that his body was cold, despite the heat of the weather around them. 

He examined his body for any signs of damage. His back was scarred. The area where the wings burst from his body were all sore and bloody. The slightest sandy breeze stung his back. And it was almost impossible to apply any sort of vulnary or ointment. He was so tired. So very tired. Too tired to make the trek down the mountain towards the ocean. Too tired to make the trip up the mountain towards his small water source. He was so tired. The night of half transformation, and revelations made him ravenous for more food. He was lucky to have his small stockpile of smoked fish nearby. Three fish. Enough to last a human at least two days. The dragon man wolfed it down in only a few minutes. The bones made an oddly satisfying crunch in his mouth. He left nothing of the fishes save for a few messy bits of scales all over his face. It wasn't nearly enough to satisfy his appetite. Then the thirst set in. He grabbed his water pouch and drank every last bit he had. 

And then he just, sat there. Sat there near the doorway of his hermit home, under the sun. He wasn't sure what else to do. What could he do? His body.. his magic.. practically forced him to accept this new ability. Even if this ability itself wasn't 'new' to his species. It was new to him. According to his parents and various conversations with Locke, wings and use while in a humanoid state were common to most dragons. Some preferred to keep their forms with wings. Others liked to sport a horn or tail. As far as he knew none of these things on the 'human' body were as traumatic as what he experienced overnight. 

He stared at the ground and just tried to process his emotions. He tried to remember his dream. The power he had within himself. That twister. He shook his head. He wanted to know more about his abilities. He had no choice in the matter. He couldn't put it off anymore. Things were changing. He had to change with them. He knew he had to embrace his powers. He can't keep being afraid of it. He knew he needed help. Someone to talk to about all of this. He needed to find another dragon to talk to. Someone who could help him understand what was happening with this growth. He remembered talking with Locke about a city full of dragons and humans living in harmony. Arcadia. I think Nayru mentioned it too.

He had no idea how to get to this mythical place. He had no map. No real supplies. He had supplies to survive here in the mountains. But, out in the open desert? No. He needed to really prepare for that journey. 

I'm.. going to have to learn how to fly all over again.  He stared at the shadow of himself on the floor. He wasn't sure if it was the heat of the sun of just his sheer exhaustion. But the shadow of himself on the floor looked like his dragon self. Wings spread out and all. 

Can't be afraid. He felt himself nodding off. 

[Aeos]

As the days passed, he slowly got better at flying as a half human hybrid. He learned how to maintain his altitude. Turn on a dime. And dive in both directions. What he had a hard time doing was landing safely and figuring out how to fight while in flight. He tried to blast a breath of his element once in the air and that was a mistake. There was now a large, Aeos shaped hole in the middle of a rock wall, thanks to that horrible experiment. He found it very difficult to maintain this new winged form. He felt that it sapped his energy much more than it would if he were half shifted but wingless. He supposed that that fatigue would lessen with time. After all this form was new to him. It tugged and pulled on muscles he didn't know he had in a 'human' body. He hadn't dared tried to fully shift into his dragon form while he was shifted into this human winged form. 

His appetite had once again spiked while he was in this strange training and isolation. And since he had moved his base camp to a place further up the mountains, it was difficult to travel downwards towards the ocean. He had to rely on the small animals that called these highlands home. And he had set up several traps to catch all sorts of mice and groundhogs. Birds were slowly becoming a scarce resource up in the mountains. The vultures that used to follow him for his scraps were becoming a part of his diet. And now they had learned to keep far away from the dragon and his camp. With is resources rapidly dwindling he knew he couldn't stay up here for very long. Soon he would have to venture down from the safety of these mountains and into the land below. He wanted to return to Khan Yunis and gather some more supplies. He wanted to venture further into the desert sands and hope to find others like him. 

He knew a sanctuary for dragons existed. Somewhere out there. Locke had told him as much. And he even gave him a map on how to get there. But, sadly said map was at the bottom of the ocean by now. If it even survived such a journey into those depths. He suspected the ocean water may have shredded the fragile map into unreadable bits. But, he was determined to find this place, to find Arcadia. But, the journey into the middle of the desert would not be easy. He knew the hardships of the desert. He knew he could die due to lack of water. The sun could bake his skin right off his bones. And who knows what sort of monsters lurked both under and above the desert sands. At least these mountain ranges offered a source of shade and sometimes, water. The ocean provided a potential plethora of food. But, he just knew he had to go. He had no choice. He couldn't risk staying in Khan Yunis like this. Not with his powers being what they were. But, at least now he knew he could fly a fair bit of the way. 

End thread