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All pages and content copyright Wolphin, 2004
Please do not use without permission
Sheep go baa; Cows go moo.
Keywords: Transformation, Magic
Species: Dragon, Human
Dreams of Dragons
My first posting to the list. I think they liked it :)
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Dreams of Dragons
By Wolphin.
It was a different dream tonight. He was some kind of griffin,
flying low over the landscape. On a distant hill his keen eagle
eye-sight detected a sheep, grazing peacefully. He adjusted his
wingtips slightly and began a lazy circle above the unsuspecting
prey. When everything felt right, he started to dive. He pulled
his wings in and began to plunge towards the target. The sheep's
sixth sense kicked in too late and with a scream of triumph, he
grabbed it with his claws. And sneezed.
David woke then, clutching the remains of the pillow and noticed
the feathers drifting about his room. He sat up and looked
around, his mind still covered with a sleepy haze. The room was a
mess, there were feathers everywhere. Obviously he had been
stalking an innocent pillow. With a sigh he began to untangle
himself. Ever since he had found the book, his dreams had been
getting more and more dramatic, graphic and, dare he admit it,
exciting.
Suddenly, the sound of cloth shredding brought him back to
reality. His fingers were caught in the remnants of the pillow.
With a hefty tug, he ripped his fingers free and started in
amazement. Instead of nails, he had long talons. As he watched,
they slid back into his fingers with a very strange, but not
unpleasant feeling.
His mind could not handle such things at this early hour and cried
out for coffee. It was two in the morning, but David knew he
wouldn't be able to sleep again tonight, so he got up and stumbled
to the kitchen. As the kettle boiled, he stuck his head into the
shower which woke him up pretty quick. He wandered back to the
kitchen and made a coffee - extra strong. David took the coffee
into the den, found the book and collapsed into a chair.
The book was very impressive looking. Bound in leather, embossed
in gold and with an imposing logo on the cover. The logo was
similar to a druidic pattern, full of interleaving and
interlocking loops, nice to look at but serving no logical
purpose. The book would not look out of place in a wizard's
laboratory, which was the main reason why he bought it. He was
somewhat disappointed when he opened it.
Instead of the spidery, hand written script he had hoped for,
there was neat, machine printed type. He didn't even read what
the book was about, but paid the $12 the stall owner was asking
for it and left.
When he arrived home, he started flicking through the pages. It
was strange, sometimes he would swear the words moved around each
time he turned the page.
"Just a trick of the light," he thought.
Now he wasn't so sure.
The book contained short stories. All of them fantasy and all of
them involving some kind of animal. There seemed to be a trend of
lots of mythical beasts and people turning into strange creatures,
but there were some tales of heroics and true love mixed in there
as well. He started flicking through the pages, but grew more
absorbed in them and began reading each one in detail. That
night, he had his first dream.
The first story of the book was about a warrior who was turned
into a minotaur by the one of the Greek gods. Only his love for
his betrothed saved him. David didn't think much of the story,
but that night dreamed about being a minotaur, searching for his
one true love.
Next in the book was a tale of a wicked merchant, who was trapped
in a tree by a witch who he swindled. The morning after, David
woke to find himself standing upright in his bedroom. Strange,
but David was prone to sleepwalking.
The remainder of the week had followed suit. On Wednesday he had
dreamed he was a fisherman turned into a dolphin after falling
overboard. Thursday, he was a centaur wandering through the
forest. Friday he dreamt he was bitten by a dog and transformed
into a werewolf. Each of these corresponded to the third, fourth
and fifth story in the book, respectively.
With a groan, David opened the book and read the sixth story. It
was called "The Griffin's Tail." Surprise, surprise, it was about
a man who was transformed into a griffin. So, that explained the
dream, but what about the talon? David flipped to the beginning
of the book and began scanning the printing details and
acknowledgements.
Nope, nothing new about the acknowledgements, the author thanked
some mailing list on the internet for their contributions and
support. ;-) Hang on. That was something. In tiny print down
under the copyright and publisher information.
"No responsibility taken for alteration to reality brought on by
the words within this text..." It then entered some legalese
before concluding with : "...the author and publisher are not
responsible and accept no liability for readers while the reader
is in an adjusted form."
What was that??? Alteration to reality, adjusted form??? Just
what was this book about. It was time to get serious. But first,
he thought, he had better read the next story, so at least he new
what was coming.
By this stage, the caffeine had kicked in, and the healthy swig of
bourbon he had poured into the brew was helping to. He picked up
the book and settled back into the chair. The seventh story was
entitled "Warning - Dragons Lie Beyond For All Who Enter Here."
The story started simple enough. Daveo, a lowly page in the
King's court, had volunteered for a dangerous mission. David
didn't like the familiarity between the two names, but kept
reading. It seemed that the castle was under siege by the evil
baron, who was camped outside the gates. It was up to Daveo to
leave the castle, sneak through the enemy lines and make his way
to the dragon who lived in the mountains and beg for the dragon's
help.
Under the cover of darkness, Daveo left the castle by a secret
tunnel. He stealthily snuck past the Baron's forces and
disappeared into the forest. By morning he had reached the base
of the ranges and began the long climb up to the dragon's cave.
It was mid-afternoon before he reached the lair.
"Hello?" he cried in a nervous whisper. There was no reply. No
sound, no movement, nothing. He slowly crept towards the mouth.
Still nothing. Gritting his teeth, he tentatively entered the
cave. A few feet from the mouth, it was pitch black. Still Daveo
continued undeterred. Suddenly, his left foot his something which
clanged. He breathed a sigh of relief. Well, at least it wasn't
the dragon and it was too hard to be a body.
So absorbed in the story, David had failed to noticed how all the
lights in the house had dimmed. The only light not affected was
the desklamp he was sitting under.
Meanwhile, Daveo had felt around to find a metal box, inside was
what felt like a steel, flint and a pile of shavings. He gave
them an experimental hit together and was rewarded with a small
spark. Soon he had the shavings alight and by the light of the
fire, discovered a torch, ready to be lit. He stuck it in the
fire and was rewarded with a bright, yellow flame.
This easily gave off enough light to see by and he scanned the
inside of the cave. It wasn't what he expected a dragon's lair to
be like. On the downside there was no treasure, but on the upside
there was no dragon either. This confused him somewhat. The king
had said that on previous occasions, many years ago, men had been
sent to summon the dragon. The dragon had always came and the
dragon rewarded the men in its own special way. He had said that
with a smooth, greased voice. Daveo had remembered he didn't like
to sound of it then and it sounded as if he was going to be a
sacrifice. But, at least it would save the castle. The only
problem was the dragon wasn't here.
Hang on, there was something engraved on the wall, near the
entrance. Daveo walked over and under the flicking torchlight
read the message. It was written in Latin and translated to "Seek
the monster within thy self."
"Pretty strange," thought Daveo. "I wander what it means?"
Just then Daveo felt his legs begin to lengthen. A second later
his shoulders moved apart and his arms began to grow. His clothes
were quickly reduced to shreds and the torch fell to the floor.
Back in the house, the book fell from David's hands as they
quickly reformed into talons. A tail began to grow from his back,
forcing him out of the chair and onto the floor. Strangely, his
brain noticed that instead of carpet, the floor now felt sandy.
The bones in his legs reformed and muscles grew around them. The
same happened with his arms. He could feel his neck lengthen and
his head grow heavy. A pair of wings sprouted from his shoulders.
With a shock, he felt the change start to affect his manhood, but
he relaxed when it grew in size, and retreated into a newly formed
sheath.
He face felt like modelling clay. His nose and mouth were drawn
outwards, forcing his eyes slightly to the sides. Razor sharp
teeth extended from his gums and his eyes changed to slitted orbs.
He felt himself grow inside and a ridge of spines extend from the
top of his head, down his back, to the tip of his tail. Finally,
a covering a scales sprouted from his skin, hardening to armour
plating within seconds.
Then all was still.
The beast which had been David, slowly moved its great head from
the sandy floor of the room. It didn't like this place, it was
too cramped. It needed to get out. It watched as one wall
dissolve away, revealing an opening, not unlike the mouth of a
cave. The dragon crawled towards it. Behind it the room slowly
faded and was replaced by a normal rock wall.
The dragon reached to opening and launched itself into the late
afternoon air. From somewhere within its mind it remembered
something about a castle begin attacked. It had to scare the
people on the outside. It sighed, human problems were always so
petty. As the dragon rode a thermocline the castle came into view
with the baron's tents spread out around it. With a battle cry
which struck fear into all who heard it, the dragon began to
attack. Just before the battle rush set in, the dragon decided
that after this it would have to find a nice new lair, possibly a
mate, then he could settle down and begin his new life.
As David dove down onto the terrified mass of men, the book lying
on the floor of the den began to hum. After a short while, a
faint glow began to emanate from the logo on the cover. Then,
abruptly, with a small pop it vanished.
Coincidentally, a few seconds later, a new book appeared on the
shelf of a second hand bookstore in New York. A young woman
browsing the shelves pulled it out and admired the cover.
"Just what I need," she thought. "A good set of fantasy stories,
something to inject a bit of excitement into my life..." She paid
the shopkeeper the $12 and headed for home.
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Legal Stuff: All pages and content copyright Wolphin, 2004 Please do not use without permission Sheep go baa; Cows go moo. |