Chapter 13: Evolution
Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Year 8 : Home | The Nest
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Eight years.
As a human, it would have been quite a long time. Even after becoming a dragon, I didn't expect that to change—at least until I got older and my perception of time accelerated.
But that wasn't the case at all.
At any moment, I could ask myself what time it was, how long it had been since an event, or how much time there was until nightfall, and my mind would spit out a number accurate to the hour, and nearly minute.
According to Mother, it was a normal thing for dragons. We practically had an internal atomic clock—and as we got older, it'd only get sharper.
But just like looking at a clock on the wall, time only seemed to pause when you looked at it.. and outside of checking when I felt sleepy, I never looked…
Whether exploring the nest and digging through piles of treasures, or learning about the innumerable things Mother considered meaningless, I had so many distractions that I'd forget to look for weeks, or even months at a time.
And well, squeezing weeks or more into what were basically human days like that made time fly.
Before I knew it, I had grown to a monstrous 15 meters tall—an inconceivable size by Earth's metrics—with Krystallo standing at a whopping 7 meters, and Ilios at 2.
By Mother's metric, we were all huge compared to the norm for our ages, but perhaps even crazier, the gap was only going to widen with our future dragon sleeps—the next expected to be in our teens.
At least that would have been the case if we were normal…
Having consistently voiced my growing hunger over recent months, Mother decided to be extra cautious, and had begun stockpiling food for the event even though she struggled to believe it was already coming.
With every passing day, the pile of food grew, and the skepticism followed until a literal mountain of frozen bodies taller than me stood on the terrace over the Nest.
It was quite a jarring sight, and made me question how I could ever possibly need so much. Truthfully, it seemed like Mother was overpreparing, especially since even she wasn't certain the time had come.
But then, it did.
Sitting on top of the mountain, watching the sky turn into a prism with the sunset just a few months after I turned 8, the hunger hit like a wave.
Feeling my whole body tense and twist, my pupils thinned to needles, and claws dug into the ground with a gravelly crunch.
Mother picked up on what was happening instantly. "Krystallo, go all the way down to the Nest! Vasilias, I need you to focus and follow me!"
"Grr…" A muffled growl-like groan slipped out as I gripped my head with my paw and forced a nod.
Almost immediately, Mother hopped over the edge of the mountain, and I forced myself to follow—gritting my teeth during the descent.
It felt like it took everything I had to simply stay in control of my own body. For every hundred meters we descended, it felt like the air pressure multiplied—energy that felt like adrenaline surged, and with a growing, splitting pain through my spine and skull, I started drooling and snarling.
Until finally, just after Mother elegantly landed to start defrosting the mound of bodies, I slammed into the ground like a meteor. *WHAMMM*
The terrace splintered, cracks spread, and after nearly tumbling over the edge, I found a moment of stable footing and lunged at the mound of frozen meat.
The thick ice that encapsulated it all became meaningless in an instant. *CRRRACKK*
Smashing through ice as indiscriminately as bone, I tore into the bodies like a feral beast—my stance low and devoid of the dignity Mother had taught me.
But with every sequential bite, it became harder to stay in control. With Mother giving me more and more space, heat began radiating off me so ferociously that the air steadily filled with steam, from ice, snow, and blood all the same.
I was simply burning up. It felt like my skeleton was being shattered with every breath, and my muscles felt like they were being torn apart with every tiny movement.
Until eventually, I couldn't keep it together any longer, and my consciousness snapped…
Continuing entirely on its own, my body tore through the mound of carcasses for hours, eventually slowing as the sensation of my organs boiling eased, the air began cooling off, and I stumbled back, completely covered in dried blood and seared flesh.
But even as I appeared to regain control for a moment, it was only to lay my head gently before my body slumped to the ground, and I drifted into a sleep deeper than I could ever imagine…
That day, I was to experience my second true dragon sleep.
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- Zachari ~
Watching him stumble back before limply slumping, I flinched with an instinctual jolt that only eased as I watched his chest rise with a breath.
"Hooh…" Letting out a weighted sigh as my heart pounded, I closed my eyes, looking up into the sky lit saffron by the setting sun to pray.
But the words were hard to find…
With how much he ate—amounting to several times his bodyweight—it was clear it was going to be another long sleep. -Just like his first…- But, seeing him breathing, and feeling the air suddenly begin shifting with a suction toward his body, I managed to find some ease. *inhale* "Hooh…"
All that was left was to put my faith in fate once more, and wait.. no matter how difficult it was to make the descent back to the nest, and leave him alone on the mountainside.
*Woosh.. Woosh-Thump* Returning to the doors to the nest where Krystallo was sat staring up the mountain in awe, I landed as gently as I could manage.
It was her first time seeing mana dense enough to be visible.. with faint hues of green and blue warping and rippling with the turbulence of a growing vortex centered around Vasilias.
But.. she didn't seem to pay it much mind. "Is Brother's appetite normal..?" She turned to me with an unrelenting innocence.
"Hah," A scoff slipped out instantly. "Not at all, sweetie. But that hunger is a sign that he's going to grow big and strong!" Trying to force a smile through my lingering anxiety, I turned my gaze up the mountain as well.
But the bright glint in Krystallo's eyes dug into me like nothing else. "Does that mean if I eat more, I can grow as strong as him?"
My expression warmed as my snout fell. "Of course!" Turning to her, my smile turned prideful with a wash of ease, "If you eat and rest well, one day you'll surely stand on top of the world with him!"
A wag instantly found its way into her tail as she looked back up the mountainside with a wash of excitement.
It was a sight that seemed to almost ease the burden on my soul.
But our ease, pride, and excitement didn't last forever.
Watching the vortex of mana continue to grow and compound, eventually even reaching us at the base of the mountain, the worries returned.
"Is.. is he really going to be okay..?" Perhaps reading the worry off my face, even Krystallo was wavering.
"He'll be fine, sweetie… He'll be fine…" Refusing to move my eyes off the deepening blue and green haze around him as I felt a faint breeze growing from the suction of mana, I felt doubt in my own words. -Surely he won't get mana poisoning.. right..?-
Krystallo was hardly different. Despite not really knowing what was happening, her intuition told her it was something ridiculous.
And ridiculous was an understatement…
The strength of the mana suction he was forming was in the realm of adults becoming elders. It was an amount of mana that even I struggled to wrap my head around.
But we weren't frozen with awe forever…
Hearing several small rocks tumble nearby, I snapped out of my trance to see Ilios climbing the mountain, jumping and dashing between rocks and ledges no inexperienced pup could move across.
"I-Ilios!" Krystallo immediately jolted, sloppily spreading her wings to fly up and get him before he reached Vasilias, only for my wing to suddenly shadow her.
"Leave him be." I spoke coldly with a skeptical glare locked on the pup. -What are you up to…-
Something about him seemed.. off… Compared to normal, his demeanor seemed.. sharper… He was moving with purpose beyond what a pup should know…
Yet, while ready to leap into the air and retrieve at a moment's notice, I let him climb.
Instead of stopping him from climbing into the vortex of mana that'd surely kill him.. I just observed…
Until finally.. after reaching the terrace Vasilias laid on, his demeanor wavered, before shifting again rather jarringly...
Tucking his tail and slicking back his ears, his posture sank, and while clearly knowing he should run.. that with every subsequent second, the pain of his flesh melting would grow, he tried to creep closer…
Until.. with one large swing, the sharpness returned, ears flared, tail rose, and he bolted off the cliff-like terrace.
"ILIOS!" Krystallo's scream pierced my skull like a beam from the heavens.
But seeing the sharpness in that puppy's eyes, I hesitated.. watching as he moved his body to control himself in the air before slamming into the sloped mountainside and tumbling. *Thump-crumble*
It was only then I moved. *Woosh* Bolting up to him, still tumbling, gaining speed in his descent, I caught him with a net of aura.
By then, Krystallo was already in tears, but it was hard to pull my eyes off that dog.
He was poisoned with mana, his body was stiff, and his blood was thick like slime, but he didn't give in.
Though quivering, while in the cradle of my mana, he fought. Opening his eyes, his tail, firmly tucked between his legs, wagged with innocence that was absent a moment prior,
It felt.. wrong… -Just what exactly.. are you..?-
But I hardly had time to question it.
Seeing Krystallo, balling her eyes out, ready to leap into the air to come to me, I descended again, laying Ilios on a bed of fur, hide, and feathers we had made for him.
"I-I-Is h-he going to b-be okay..?" Running up to him, Krystallo pressed her nose to his neck, trying to feel for a pulse and breath.
But before I could speak, it happened. *Woom*
Feeling the direction of the air twist faintly, my eyes widened.
Ilios was forming a mana vortex of his own, similar to Vasilias.
While deeply poisoned.. he wasn't going to die, or fall to sickness…
…He was going to evolve…
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