Dragon Reincarnated

Bears and Snakes are Scary

The next couple days were, admittedly, hard.

To say that my coming to this would had been far more traumatic than I would have ever suspected, would be putting it mildly.

But life had to go on, and I quickly realized that my dragon abilities to compartmentalize was far greater than when I had been human.

It wasn't that I was not sad about my dead mother and my little brothers, because I was. In fact, I was sad, and angry. But I was also, apparently, more logical in my processes, and was able to put those emotions aside enough to survive.

So what I first did was pretty gross, in retrospect.

One of the few memories that Verona had managed to give me was that there was something I had to remove from her body.

A magic stone, knows as a Dragon's Heart.

It was the source of a dragon's mana and every dragon had one and it was extremally valuable.

Mother left me this memory, almost above all others, so that I would be sure not to leave her Dragon Heart there. The bandits may come back for it, and even if they didn't another monster or person may come across it and take it. It was not for them to have.

It was gory work, using my small, but sharp, claws to cut through my own mother's flesh and finally extract the beautiful, crystal clear, red stone from next to my mother's huge heart.

For some reason, I had expected it to be huge, just like my mother, but it wasn't. I'd say it was about the size of my fist... er, my former fist. And some what spherical in shape.

I couldn't do anything with it now, but eventually, when I got just a little bigger, I would eat it. This stone held a great deal of my mother's power, and it was this power and my new name that she was able to leave me. I would not look down on either.

But for now, I was too small to eat the stone and absorb the power it held. But soon I would be big enough to swallow it with out choaking. For now, I would concentrate on surviving and growing big and strong, just as Mother told me too. I'd need all the size and strength that I could get.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't tempted to rush after Verona's murderers right away.

But I was smart enough to know that a baby dragon could do nothing to a group of people who had taken out a dragon, like my mother.

Even if they only defeated her because they struck at the one and only time she was weak. Spinless monsters that they were.

It took me some time to climb out of the dried up river bed that mother had chosen to make her nest. It would have made for great cover while preventing the forest catching fire when she heated our eggs, but in the end it was the cage that ensured her death.

Once I managed to get myself and the Dragon Heart out of the nest and up to the thick forest above, I was a little lost for what to do. A rumbling tummy told me I needed to eat, and I knew, instinctively, the basics of hunting... but I still felt stuck.

'okay' I said to myself, mentally. 'Find a place to hide Mother's stone first.'

I couldn't just carry this thing around, after all. I could use my front paws to hold things better than I thought I could, but I couldn't walk on two legs while holding it... And I definitely could not fly yet.

I glanced at my wings. It was hard to tell what color I was. It had turned night and apparently Dragons did not have night vision. Not this dragon at least. But I could tell that my wings were too small to carry me, and instinct told me that it would be a couple months before I could even try it.

At least I was big enough to hunt small prey, but I was still too small to be invulnerable. I needed a place to spend the nights and to store the stone.

I spent a while wandering through the forest, stone firmly clasped in my teeth. I didn't think i would miss my gripping hands so soon... But I wasn't going to leave the stone. No way. So, sore neck and jaw aside, I was going to make sure it was safe.

A bit of wandering later I came across a rather twisted tree that seemed to have some branches that could hold my weight. Hopefully it could keep holding it till most predators thought twice about messing with me.

Still clutching the Heart in my jaws, I sank my claws into the bark of the tree and started to climb. It was slow, and it was painful. Freshly hatched as I was, my claws were still softer than I would have liked when scaling a tree. Still, it was necessary.

I'd say it took a good ten minutes to get up to the desired branch.

Hopefully, with practice, that time could be greatly reduced.

The at about three minutes in I had started to hear the startled screams of a bird.

I felt bad scaring it, but it was too late, and I was too exhausted, to go look for another tree.

Once I got to the branch I had selected, I nestled the Heart as best as I could in the crook where the branch met the trunk, and then settled myself on top of it. It wasn't particularly comfortable, and I was still quite hungry, but it would do.

I looked out along the branch and saw the source of all the bird noises: A nest. Momma bird was gone, probably abandoning the nest when she realized that her squawking was not scaring me off. Maybe she was near by, hoping I would leave.

I saw that there were three eggs in the nest. My belly rumbled, and I could have eaten them.

.. but they would hardly even be a snack.

Besides, given my most recent trauma over the smashing of eggs, I really did not have the heart to do it.

Maybe, if the mother never returned, I'd eat them. But not right now.

I decided that, given food was not likely, that sleep was the next best option. And so, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to relax enough to sleep.

I woke up to the sound of birds and the sun in my eyes. Squinting out into the world I was disoriented at first, but saw it as a good sign that there was now a white, pigeon like bird, sitting on the nest.

My light heartedness faded as I recalled the loss of my mother and brothers, and my anger at the capture of my siblings.

But the goal for now was survival. Revenge would have to wait till I grew up a little more.

Luckily dragon eggs were sturdy and it was unlikely that they would break accidentally.

I could only hope that my siblings stayed in their shells till I could locate them.

Who knew what might be done to them if they hatched before then.

I stretched out my stiff and achy body and let out a squawking yawn, much to the displeasure of my new birdy neighbors. Momma Bird flapped her white wings angerly but stayed on the nest this time. I ignored her, hoping she did not abandon them.

In the light of day I could now see that my scales were a rosy pink color.

In my previous life I was never a huge fan of the color pink, but I had to admit that it was pretty fetching right now.

I shook myself when I realized that I was simply sitting there, admiring my own paws.

Dragons were pretty self absorbed creatures, so I had to work at not being that way.

I looked over the side of the branch and saw that I was about thirty feet up. The ground was brown and strewn with twigs, ferns and thistles growing between the tree trunks. Sniffing activated some of those genetic memories, telling me I was smelling various forest scents, but also water.

Water was good! I was thirsty, yes. But I was also rather filthy with dried egg goo and my mothers blood.

It was gross and itchy, and smelt pretty bad.

I wanted to wash. And not just for vanities sake either.

The smell of blood and eggs could very well attract monsters looking for an easy meal.

No doubt Mother was already acting as a morning meal for a few of them.

I contemplated backing down the tree but I just did not want to do that. Instead, I was going to try my wings at gliding. Flight was out of the question, but I should be able to glide my way down to the forest floor. It was a very short trip, after all.

I was nervous, but I was more eager to be clean, so it won out.

I spread my wings out, admiring the play of light through the pale membrane, before crouching and leaping.

I was pretty sure that the former me would have been a lot less hesitant about the act, but the dragon me had very little worry over it. I trusted that it would all be fine.

And it was. Better than fine, in fact. Maybe it wasn't true flight, but it was as close to it as I had ever experienced. For a few brief seconds I was weightless and air born, and it just felt right. The air is where I belonged!

Too soon I was back on the ground. The landing was anything but elegant, but at least I hadn't crashed. Silver linings and all that.

It occurred to me then that the whole, gliding from on high, might be an effective way to hunt going forward.

A flash of irritation coursed through me then, as I knew that all of that knowledge had been denied of me, when the bandits killed my mother, making it so that she could not transfer all the memories she would have.

No doubt Mother had many helpful memories on hunting techniques and much else besides.

I followed my nose toward the water. I did not have to go far before the forest opened up and I stood on the mossy bank of a small pond.

There were 'ducks' out on the still surface, though I had never seen ducks with horns on their bills.

.. My guess was that just about every animal would be strange to me.

Maybe there was no deference between animals and monsters.

My guess was that all animals were monsters, rather than there being both.

I snaked my neck down over the side of the bank and sniffed the surface. As a human, drinking this water would not have been smart. But the strength of a dragon tummy was no joke. There was nothing in here that could even cause me gas.

That didn't mean it would taste good, however. But a girl needed water to live, so drink I did. And it was, indeed, nasty tasting.

Hydrated, I now needed to find food. I tried not to think to hard about the fact that I was about to kill something for the first time, and then eat it.

.. raw. Human brain told me that it was gross, but dragon instinct said that it was just what a dragon did.

When I got older I could roast the food with dragon fire, but raw was just as good.

Even better when I am small, as the iron and other such necessities were needed for a growing baby dragon.

Looking around, I found another sturdy tree and took to the branches.

There I sat and waited. Normally, a mother dragon would provide for her little ones for the first few weeks, even though we were viable right away.

She would bring in a portion of her kills for her hatchlings to eat.

It made it more likely that her young would survive to the point where nothing with a brain would dare try and make a meal of them.

But I was on my own, so it was ambush hunting for me. Yay...

Still, it proved to be a prime opportunity to observe the forest. It was much quieter here than I would have thought, but it was peaceful.

The duck like monsters were about the only animal I saw for a good long while.

Then, I caught a glimpse of some other kind of bird high up in the blue sky.

It was too far away for me to get a clear look at, but it looked big.

Bigger than me. And therefore, I hoped it stayed well away.

If it was bigger than me, then that meant that I was a meal to it.

After about two hours with my tummy nearly eating itself, I saw another animal. But this one was also not going to be my breakfast. It was a bear. And what a bear it was! It had reddish brown fur, small black eyes, and paws so massive that one swat would have broken my neck.

I watched it lumber to the water, take a drink, then head back into the forest. But then it froze, and I heard another noise. It was like something being dragged through the brush. The bear did not look confused, however. It looked mad.

As I watched it got up on its hind legs and roared. The sound shook my branch and I had to dig my claws in to prevent myself falling off. The bear had to be will over ten feet tall as it towered over the under brush.

I watched as another creature rose up. This one was a snake, its scales so well camouflaged that I had not even seen it before it exposed itself.

And there was no snake like this one on earth.

I watched as it kept going up and up. Soon it was even taller than the bear, the trunk of its body as big around as the tree I currently sat in.

That snake could easily reach me in this tree.

If a dragon could go pale, I was sure that I was. I had thought myself pretty safe here, but as the snake and bear faced off it was clear that I really had to reevaluate the monster situation on this planet. I may be a dragon, but I was a long way off from being a top predator right now.

The bear roared again, swatting at the snake.

But the snake wasn't about to take that sitting down.

I saw two huge fang spring out of the serpents upper jaw, and it flared a camouflaged hood, like a cobra.

I watched, wide eyed, as the colors of the serpent changed, its underside turning a bright, acid yellow.

I suddenly got the feeling that this was not going to end well for the bear.

Sure enough, as the bear made another swipe at the cobra it jerked back. Then, faster than I could follow, it lunged forward. One last roar escaped the bear when the snakes massive fangs sank into its shoulder, almost engulfing the entire arm of the bear.

The snake must have been venomous because the bear shivered, then immediately slumped. Dead or unconscious, I didn't know, but it didn't matter. The snake immediately began engulfing the bear, dislocating its jaw to do it. And it did it faster than I would have thought possible, too.

I remember watching nature documentaries and I was pretty sure that this process was supposed to take a couple hours depending on the size of the snake and the size of the prey. But this cobra like monster got the job done in less than fifteen minutes while I watched in fascinated horror.

Then, meal consumed and its slender body now deformed by a bear corpse, it slithered away. I couldn't imagen it getting too great of a distance before needing to stop and digest, but I did hope it got far enough. I just wanted that thing far away from me.

It was a long time before I could even think about getting back on the ground, that's how afraid I was right then.

Day one and I had already seen so many things that could and would kill me.

Apparently, in this world, being a dragon didn't automatically mean you were at the top. especially if you were a baby dragon.

Eventually, I did risk coming down. I still hadn't eaten, but I highly doubted much of anything would be found after the bear's roars scared everything off. All the prey would be hiding just as I had been doing.

I did decide to clean myself, however.

I probably should have done it before trying to hunt, really. The smell of me would have scared anything off. Heck, it may very well have been what had drawn the bear and cobra so near in the first place.

So I glided out of the tree and dragged my pink body to the lake.

I gazed down at my reflection briefly but wrinkled my nose in annoyance.

I was a mess. I slipped into the lake without really thinking.

I almost panicked, think that I had no clue how to swim as a dragon, but I needn't have worried. My body knew what to do.

In fact, it was almost like I was meant for the water nearly as much as I was meant for the air. I found myself pulling my legs up and moving my body from side to side, much like the snake I had just seen, moving slowly and smoothly though the water.

Then, if I felt the need to go faster I moved my tail faster or paddled with my paws, which were partially webbed between my toes.

Heck, I could even swim with my eyes open! It felt like I had a second set of eye lids. Unlike the bony outer lids, these were thin and clear. My nostrils also sealed automatically.

I played like that for a while, spinning and diving in the somewhat murky water. I found out that I could hold my breath for quite some time; at least five minutes! No doubt, as I got older and practiced, i could go even longer.

It was when a silver form darted near my face that my body hopped into action.

Without even thinking I spun around and chased after the thing, that I now saw was a fish.

As I neared my jaws parted, water rushing in.

But my neck snapped forward. Before I knew it there was something cool and wriggling in my jaws.

I pushed through to the surface and tossed the fish up at the same time, before catching it mid air and swallowing it whole. It slithered down my gullet swiftly and easily.

More.

Again and again i went after the fish. I think it was about ten fish before I was satisfied. But, when I clambered none too gracefully out of the pond, I felt a great deal better. It was amazing how a full belly could affect a girls mood.

At least I knew that for the next few days i wouldn't go hungry. The fishing was pretty simple. No doubt I would soon be too large for the small pond to be able to support me, however. Sooner or later, i would have to hunt a proper meal.

I shook off the water droplets from my scales then approached the water once again.

Looking down I saw an adorable little pink dragon staring back at me, bright green eyes the same color of the leaves above me.

My belly and wing membranes were a lighter color and I also seemed to have a set of pearly white horns on my head too.

I looked pretty good, if I did say so myself.

I was still worried about the snake, and what ever other monsters were laying in wait within this forest. But I needed to dry myself off, else the folds of my wings would grow damp and smell, maybe even encouraging mold or rot.

Wing and scale care was, apparently, one of the genetic memories I had been able to receive.

So I chose a near by boulder that was high enough that I could see my surroundings reasonably well, and was still in the sun light.

I settled against the warm stone with a satisfied hum, and spread my wings out flat, allowing the afternoon sun to do its work.

It really did feal great, and, had I not been terrified I'd be eaten alive, I may have napped there.

Twenty minutes later, fear won over comfort, and I decided to make my way back to my tree. I wanted to explore more, but it was getting late and I didn't want to get lost in the dark. Verona's Dragon Heart was in that tree and I would not risk loosing it.