Draconic - Ch 3 (Commission)

Commissioned by Jazper Hemsath.

“Where are we going?” San asked as his sister dragged him deeper into the woods.

“I told you,” Ren replied. “I found proof of your theory about the world changing.”

Matt crouched behind some rocks on the shadowy edge of a forest clearing. The twins were approaching, and he hoped to avoid frightening San by revealing himself only when the boy was ready.

The two human children stepped out into the rocky clearing, and Ren said, “We’re here. Now, you need to promise not to be afraid of what is here.”

“What IS here?” he asked.

“Promise,” she demanded.

He sighed. “Fine, I promise. I’m not easily frightened, after all.”

“Matt,” Ren said. “We’re ready.”

Matt took a breath and crept out from behind the rocks, stepping out into the light.

San’s eyes went wide, and he stepped forward to put himself between his sister and the dragon he saw. “Stand back!” San told her. “I’ll protect you!”

“Wait!” Ren replied.

“No!” Matt said, taking a step back. “I’m not…”

San had already begun casting a spell, drawing in magic with his lifted hands. A ball of light formed in front of him and suddenly darted at Matt, who lept into the air at the last moment, taking wing and just barely dodging the magic missile.

“Stop!” Ren cried, wrapping her arms around her brother and pulling his arms down. “He’s not what he seems.”

“What are you doing?” San said, struggling against her arms.

“Listen to her,” Matt said, landing in front of them. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise.”

San seemed torn between an instinct to protect his sister and his curiosity about this dragon who seemed mysteriously tame. He relaxed and sighed. “I’ll be calm,” he assured them, “but I’m going to need some explanation.”

Ren and Matt both sighed with relief and Matt began to tell his story.

***

When Matt finished speaking, San was silent for a minute, thinking over what he had just heard.

“Well?” Ren asked. “What do you think?”

“I believe it,” he said. “His story fits with what I have sensed. However, I have no memories of this other world.”

“Neither do I,” Ren said. “But, he does. What does that mean?”

“It means that he might be the cause of this worldwide transformation.”

“I did this?” Matt asked, looking down at his dragon claws.

“You said you wished your brother could stay with you. You wanted him to be with you and to play more games about dragons.”

Matt nodded.

San stroked his chin, trying to appear knowledgeable. “It’s possible that there was an instability in the aether currents passing through your home, and your heartfelt wish was enough to destabilize it even more. You altered its flow to begin to conform to the world you desired, thereby transforming your brother to be the same age as you and reshaping your family and friends into dragons as a consequence”

Ren stared at her brother and turned to Matt. “Did you understand any of that?”

“I wished for this,” Matt said, “and now my wish is coming true?”

San nodded.

“If he did this,” Ren said, “then he should be able to undo it. He just has to wish the world back to normal again, right?”

San frowned and stared at Matt. “You said you were forgetting your old life?”

Matt nodded.

“That is a bad sign,” San said. “It might mean that the aether currents are restabilizing into this new reality. We might be able to change the world again, but only if we act while the currents are still in flux. What is more, we will need to find a place of great instability in order to affect them again.”

“That’s good news,” Ren said. “So, we just need to find that place, and Matt can return everything to the way it was.”

“Easier said than done,” San said. “I’ll need to travel to locate the place we need. It might take days to reach it.”

Matt stood up and spread his wings, causing the twins to recoil slightly from him. “I think I might be able to speed up the trip a little.”

The twins exchanged a worried look. “You want us to ride you?” Ren asked, sounding simultaneously worried and excited by the offer.

Matt knelt down before her, lowering his neck. “Climb on,” he said.

She hesitated a moment before he felt the girl crawling up his scales and taking a seat on his neck. It was a weird sensation to feel a small person on him. Matt felt his face get warm, realizing that his body was between Ren’s thighs.

“Come on,” she told her brother. “Let’s get going.”

San shook his head, stepping back. “I think I’d rather walk. Maybe I could ride a horse or…”

Ren groaned in frustration and said, “Matt, just grab him and let’s go.”

“Oh,” Matt said. “Very well.”

He walked over to San and wrapped his huge dragon paw hands around the boy’s waist, as he chanted, “No, no, no…” Then, Matt beat his wings, blowing back the trees around them and launching them into the air.

San screamed in terror as Ren squealed with delight.

Matt wavered slightly on his somewhat unsteady wings. “Are you alright?” Ren asked, gripping his neck more tightly.

“It’s okay,” Matt said. “I’m just not used to carrying anything while I fly.”

“Have you done much flying?” San yelled. “Weren’t you human just a few days ago?”

“It’s fine,” Matt said, trying to sound reassuring. “I’ve only crashed once so far.”

San groaned fearfully as Matt began flapping upwards feeling for the wind currents that would keep them aloft.

Ren shouted, “San, start searching for that magic flow you need to find.”

He stopped groaning and replied, “Alright. I’ll try. Just try to fly smoothly, please.”

“Will do,” Matt said, rising up into a stable breeze and starting a long circle around the valley.

***

“Stop here!” San yelled.

“Are you going to be sick again?” Ren replied.

“No!” he yelled back. “This is the place. I feel it.”

“Going down,” Matt announced and made a careful and slow descent toward the wide flat space near the cliff’s edge. Gently, he deposited San onto the rocks and took a step back before lowering his neck to let Ren dismount him. He felt some disappointment, sensing her conspicuous absence from his neck. However, she patted the side of his head affectionately, warming his heart enough to cause some smoke to leak from his nose.

“Yes!” San cried. “This is definitely the place. I can feel the aether converging right here. You should be able to undo the changes if you wish hard enough now.”

Matt looked to his side, seeing Ren staring expectantly back at him. Once he was human again, he decided he would tell her how he really felt about her.

“Okay,” Matt said, closing his eyes. “I just need to make a wish.”

“I’m not sure,” San admitted. “But, let’s try that and see where it gets us.”

Matt began to recall his old life, his old home, his birthday party, his friends, his brother…

“Mathusela!” his brother cried from a short distance above them.

Matt opened his eyes and saw his brother circling in the air.

“What are you thinking, going near those sorcerers?” his brother said. “Fly away with me now!”

“Wait!” Matt said. “These are my friends.”

Drake landed beside him, and San pulled his sister away to protect her behind himself as he had done before in the clearing.

“Drake!” cried another dragon voice. “Mathusela! There you are.”

Matt saw both Dan and Nick come in for a landing behind them.

“Stop!” Matt said, moving his body to block the humans from the dragons. “Let me explain.”

“What is he doing?” Dan asked Drake.

“Has he lost his mind?” Nick asked. “Those are humans. Sorcerers!”

“I don’t know,” Drake said. “He has been acting strangely lately.”

“How so?” Nick replied.

“He was going on about believing he had been a human himself.”

“Mathusela? A human?” Dan replied and began laughing. “How ridiculous! What dragon would ever want to be a human?”

Drake chuckled, but Nick looked worriedly at Matt. “Is it true?” he asked.

Matt nodded. “It’s true,” he said. “I used to be human. We all did. Some magic transformed us all. It’s my fault.”

Dan and Drake’s laughter died down as they noticed the serious expression on Matt’s face.

“It can’t be,” Dan said. “Can it?”

“It’s the truth,” Ren shouted. “My brother and I can confirm it. Look at the three of us. We are working together in trust. Have you ever seen humans trusting a dragon as we do?”

Matt’s brother and friends all exchanged a doubtful look.

“You are serious?” Drake asked Matt.

Matt nodded.

Drake was silent for a moment before announcing, “I believe you.”

Dan and Nick looked at Drake in shock for a moment, then they both took a seat beside him. “If you believe him,” Dan said. “That’s good enough for me.”

“We’re here for you, Mathusela,” Nick said. “What do you need us to do?”

***

San had finished drawing out a wide chalk circle on the ground beneath Matt’s paws. All of them had moved to stand outside of the circle, facing Matt. His friends stood behind him on his flanks, while San and Drake positioned themselves to the right and left in front of him. Right before his snout was Ren, looking up at him, hopefully.

“What are we meant to do?” Nick asked.

“You need to give him your support,” San explained. “Wish him well.”

“I’m not sure about this,” Dan said. “I mean, if this succeeds, won’t that make us into humans? I don’t like the sound of that.”

“If it’s what we are meant to be,” Drake said, “then that’s what we should be. I trust Mathusela.”

“Me too,” Nick said.

Dan sighed. “Very well, then. I’m going to miss my wings, though.”

“Thank you,” Matt said. “All of you.”

“Hurry,” San said. “I can feel the aether shifting. We won’t have much more time to affect it.”

“Do it,” Drake said. “Wish everything back to the way it was.”

Matt was about to do that when he realized what it would mean. “But, then you’ll be leaving home again. I’d be losing you all over again.”

“It’s alright,” Drake said. “You know I won’t be away forever.”

“But…” Matt said.

“I don’t want to lose you, either,” Ren said to Matt. “I want us to stay friends.”

Matt liked the idea of being Ren’s friend, or something more than friends even.

If only there was some way he could keep them all close…

“No more time!” San yelled. “Make your wish.”

Matt shut his eyes and focused his mind on returning the world to normal. However, he felt his heart desiring something else.

A rush of energy circled around him like a tornado and the rocks beneath his feet seemed to soften as if all of reality were becoming like a thinning fog. Anything felt possible. All it would take was the will to make things come true. Matt silently whispered his wish to return to his human life as it had been. He tried to believe in the words, wholeheartedly.

He sensed the magic respond to him, conforming to his deepest desires. The energy around him settled down in harmony with him, the world becoming what he wanted it to be. Feeling the rocks solidly beneath his feet, Matt opened his eyes.

Drake was still a dragon and Ren was still a human.

“What happened?” Dan asked. “Did it work? I don’t feel any different.”

“Oh,” San said. “I feel odd.”

“Me too,” Ren replied, looking down at her hands. “Something’s happening to me.”

Matt watched as the twin humans began to grow, their bodies stretching longer as they became bigger overall. Their clothing tore away, revealing skin that was quickly being covered in scales. Their hands and feet became clawed paws as their faces stretched out into toothy snouts. Meanwhile, long tails stretched out behind them. Soon, they were nearly as large as Matt and the other dragons. However, their bodies seemed much more elongated and snake-like.

Ren’s body became covered in golden scales with a line of red fur running down her back from her horned head to her fluffy tail tip. San’s body changed similarly although his scales were a sapphire blue color. Then, the changes to them slowed to a finish, leaving the pair of them as twin Chinese dragons.

“Whoa,” Nick said. “That was… unexpected.”

“What have you done to us?” San cried out. “I’m a monster!”

Ren looked over her body in wonder, shocked and amazed by her golden scales and lengthy form.

“That’s not what I wished for,” Matt explained. “I kept thinking that I wanted to return to the world as it was.”

“Maybe that’s what your head was thinking,” Nick said. “Your heart might have had different desires.”

Ren’s gaze met Matt’s eyes, and she gave him a half smile.

“Seems to me,” Drake said, “that you found a way to get exactly what you wanted, afterall.”

“My head,” San said, swaying a little. “I’m feeling… woozy.”

“Me too,” Dan replied. “What’s happening? I’m… confused. What are we doing here?”

“We were…” Nick said, trying to make sense of the situation. “We were greeting these new arrivals from the East, right?”

Everyone paused for a moment to decide if that was true.

“That’s right,” Drake said, sounding certain. “Welcome to our lands,” he addressed the twins. “I am the one known as Drake.” He bowed his head.

“Flare,” said the next dragon and bowed.

“Danger,” said the third.

Mathusela hesitated before speaking, overwhelmed by the beauty of the female in front of him.

“This is my nest brother, Mathusela,” Drake said. “He seems to have misplaced his tongue.”

“I am Foom,” declared the blue Eastern dragon. “And, this is my nest sister, Fang.”

“What a great pleasure it is to meet you,” Fang said, her eyes fixed on Mathusela.

“L-likewise,” Mathusela replied, having found his tongue at last. “The greatest of pleasures.”

They smiled, feeling that something wonderful had just begun.

***

Epilogue

Matt drifted in the air with the clouds far below, taking his time to head back to his lair. He felt no hurry to return, although he knew there was a nest full of eggs waiting for him, ready to hatch anytime now.

Up here, above it all, he felt able to think more clearly. His mind cast back to long ago days, recalling a time hundreds of winters ago, his first meeting with his nest mate. It seemed impossible that there had been a time before they had known each other. She was his whole world, and they had shared many joyful days and pleasurable nights together. Still, deep in his memory, he could sense a time before all of that. Things had been very different then. The two of them had been different. Somehow, he pictured them as humans, living small human lives. What nonsense! Still, the image hovered in his mind a moment before drifting away like the clouds below.

Even if that other life had been true, it was such a brief experience compared to the adventures that had transpired since. Flare and Danger had been ranging far and wide, but they always returned to the mountains to see Mathusela. They had battled invading giants with Danger leading the charge. They had hunted great beasts in the deep woods guided by the perceptive senses of Flare. While those friends had settled down some distance away, there was no doubt that they would visit someday. For now, though, Mathusela was drifting on his own, thinking about a new uncertain future.

Soon he would be the sire of a brood, his first. Fang, his love, was waiting to care for her hatchlings. How had they come this far? It felt like only days ago that they had been hatchlings themselves. Now, they were in their own cave with their own nest. It would be a big change, but when he thought of what the change would mean to him, he felt no fear. He looked forward to what came next. Smiling, he folded his wings and dove down, feeling the wind rush past him as he plummeted towards the mountains, only slowing his descent as he approached his lair. He landed with practiced swiftness and galloped inside the cave mouth.

“How soon, my love?” he asked, finding Fang laying beside the eggs, warming them with her breath.

“Soon,” she said.

He settled in beside her and watched as cracks formed in the shells.

One-by-one, the nestlings emerged, darling unique creatures. Some had more length, taking after their mother. Others were broader and more leggy, like their father. Mathusela could never have imagined loving any creatures as much as these little ones, but they were firmly a part of his heart now as much as Fang had been for all of these many winters they had spent together.

“I’ve never felt so happy,” she said and nuzzled up close to him.

He had no words, but she already understood his heart better than anyone.

In the seasons to come, the little ones would grow. Mathusela would awaken to them crawling over him, playing at fighting and hunting, stretching their little wings, dreaming of flying.

Drake would be by often to see the new kin added to their clan, and they would love it when their “Uncle Drake” would visit. Over all the centuries they had lived, his brother had not strayed far from Mathusela. Often, other dragons would comment on how they had never seen a pair of nest brothers closer than them.

What a life he had! It was all Mathusela could have dreamed for, so he dreamed very little anymore. When he did dream, though, they were happy dreams for sure.

The End