Slowlying walking over to my broken off arm, I tripped over my own feet, stumbling and falling face first into the gravelly sand.
Give me a break, it was my first time walking unassisted in almost ten years, in an unfamiliar body no less.
Luckily the ground was relatively soft, as anything harder would’ve likely resulted in a broken nose and a bunch of bruises, at least in my old body. I was something much harder now, it would take something like a fall from several stories to injure me. As seen earlier.
Picking myself off the ground, part of my cheek cracked and chipped off, falling into the imprint I had left in the sand.
Or not.
“Uh oh.”
That wasn’t good, if I could crack from just falling over, then I would have to be much more careful than I thought I had to be before. Looking at the piece of me in the sand, I realized something.
Why wasn’t I panicking?
I was some sort of glass or crystal now, when those things break, you can’t put them back together again, at least never in the same way they were. I had already lost two pieces, and quite an important one at that, despite both of them being right in front of me, they should be gone for good.
Is that not reason enough to panic?
Somehow still calm, I got up enough so that I was kneeling, then tentatively picked up the teal shard in the sand. Inspecting it closely, one side was round and smooth, and the other was angular and sharp. It really had come from my cheek, I could just barely see the difference at the bottom of my vision.
Not even an hour into this new world and I was already disfigured.
I clicked it back into place, holding it there for a moment. Unlike my arm, this piece wouldn’t be moving, so if I could find some way to keep it there, then I could at least look semi-presentable. I would need some sort of glue though, and with my transparency it would still be noticeable.
Pulling my hand away, I prepared to catch the shard once it fell, but it didn’t. It stuck, and remained stuck to my face even after tilting my head around to try and dislodge it. I tried to grab at it, but it wasn’t even loose, and I had to dig my nails into the crack just to get a grip and leverage it out.
Crick
It rebroke.
I held my cheek shard in my hand again, staring at it. Feeling around my face, there weren’t any new cracks or loose pieces, there wasn’t even anything in the sand below. Something broke, but everything else was fine, so it must’ve been the shard again.
I slowly pressed it into place again, and I felt it turn rigid. Once again it stayed in place, even though the crack was still there.
What was going on? Crystals don’t just stick together like that, and with the way it felt it was almost like the two pieces had fused.
Tracing the crack with a finger again, I stopped. It was thinner.
Was I healing? How was that possible? Crystal shouldn’t work that way, not even glass does that. Would that work with my arm?
What am I?
And why did I feel like this was the expected outcome?
I could figure that all out later, right now I would prefer to be whole again. Shuffling over to my arm, I grabbed it by the bicep and tried to stick it against the stump on my shoulder. It didn’t fit, and looking around there were a few smaller shards littering the ground.
“That’s going to make this harder.” I stated the obvious.
Puzzles were one of the few things I could do before becoming fully incapacitated, but three dimensional puzzles were a far cry from the traditional jigsaw, and there was the fact that I was working with only one arm, my non-dominant one, and on my own body.
Still, some shards were more obvious than others, and I could get them to stick to my severed arm as opposed to working from my shoulder down. It was a relatively clean break too, so it didn’t take too long to fix all the pieces in place, and I was left with a completed arm, if not still detached from my body.
Placing it against my stump, I waited for a few moments.
Phosphophyllite! That’s what I was! That’s who I was! That’s why the crystal was acting the way it was!
I remember-
Upon letting go of my arm, the weight of it broke whatever bonds it made, and it immediately fell back off.
…
What was I just thinking about? Phos… something? Crystals? I don’t remember.
I looked down at my broken arm again, I guess it was too large and complicated for it to simply stick, I would need to hold it in place until it fully healed.
No time like the present, I grabbed my arm again and-
Something growled behind me.
I froze, listening as heavy footsteps entered the sandy patch at the base of the cliff.
What was it? What was behind me? Whatever it was, it was large. Was it a bear? I think there was a forest nearby. Was I about to be mauled by a bear? But why would a bear maul me? I was crystal now, I was about as appetizing as a rock. Was its den nearby? There weren’t any caves I could see along the cliff. Would it even see me as alive? I certainly don’t look like a regular person, and I highly doubt I smell like one.
It wasn’t leaving. As far as I could tell, it had rounded the side of the cliff and stopped, and was currently just standing there. I could hear it breathing, I don’t think I had ever been happier to not be able to breathe myself.
I waited and waited and waited, but the mysterious creature just remained where it stopped, and I slowly turned to look at it.
It was not a bear, and I started wishing that it was.
Rather, it was some giant lizard, easily as big, if not bigger than the grizzly bear I was imagining. It had deep crimson scales, gigantic claws, and some gnarly horns on its head. It stood on all four legs, and had a long tail trailing behind it, lined with darker spines.
And it was staring right at me, with bright yellow eyes.
Again I froze, but it didn’t do anything else, it seemed content with just watching me.
“Okay…” I said slowly, getting up to my feet even slower, “I’m just going to… go now.”
It continued to watch me.
I took a step back, it took a step forward. My heart fell.
“You uh… You don’t want me,” I began, tucking my arm under my other arm and putting up my hand, “I won’t taste good.”
Another step back, another step forward.
“I’m made of yucky crystal, you’ll just break your teeth and… and…”
The lizard’s eyes widened at that, and it took two steps forward, opening its maw to reveal a bunch of sharp teeth.
That was the point where I turned and ran, booking it for the forest at the edge of the area. The lizard jumped into action behind me, snapping forward and clamping down on my hand.
The hand that wasn’t currently attached.
I felt my broken arm slip out of my grasp, and I quickly stopped to turn and grab at it.
“Hey! That’s mine!”
I caught it on the upper arm and pulled back. I didn’t get very far, considering I was now playing tug of war with a creature larger than a bear.
It growled at my defiance, and pulled back, dragging my feet across the ground. I managed to stay standing, and started trying to wrench my arm out of its mouth. The lizard followed the movements, and pretty soon I was being swung back and forth as it shook its head. Cracks started appearing around my good arm, but I refused to let go.
“Give it back! I’m not losing an arm right after getting a new one!”
The lizard, didn’t care, but it stopped shaking to slam me onto the ground. Both of my legs cracked, which continued all the way up to my pelvis and midsection, small chips breaking away and falling down.
Despite all that, I yanked on my arm, and it snapped at the elbow, sending me sprawling backwards and the lizard off balance. I hurried to my feet, set down the piece of my arm I had, picked up a stone, and threw it at the lizard.
The rock just bounced off its snout, but it squinted at me, then it proceeded to lap up the rest of my forearm and crunch down on it, shattering it into pieces and swallowing it.
I was speechless, staring at it with wide eyes as I fell on my butt.
It licked its lips, smoke billowing out of its nostrils. Large wings then unfolded from its back, and it took several more steps forward, baring its teeth.
“A-A D-D-D-Dragon?!” I shouted,
I tried scrambling away, but didn’t get very far in the sand, and the dragon continued its approach.
“St-Stay away!”
My hand slipped, and I fell flat on my back, the dragon stepping over me.
It breathed hot air across my face, and opened its mouth, a bit of saliva dripping down onto me. I held up my arm to cover my face and braced.
“Watch out!” Someone called from off to the side.
I opened my eyes just in time to see an arrow bounce off the dragon’s snout. It snarled, snapping upwards to look at its attacker. I looked up as well, watching as the bushes around us rustled, a clattering of hooves coming from each one.
I was saved! I hope. Whoever it was was going to need all the help they could get against a dragon.
Spying the arrow from before in the sand, I grabbed it and swiped at the dragon’s neck. The arrow head immediately broke off, and so did my index finger. The dragon turned its attention back to me and roared.
“Eep!” I covered my face again.
There was a clash of metal, the twang of a bowstring, and some sort of sparkling sound. The dragon roared again, and I felt it step away as it was attacked. Taking a moment to make sure it wasn’t focused on me, I rolled to the side and began crawling away, only to stop. I still didn’t have all my pieces.
My forearm was in the dragon and shattered. I don’t think I was getting it back anytime soon, but the rest of my arm and finger were still on the ground between me and the dragon. I turned around and started crawling towards it instead.
“Get back!” Someone called out,
Hoofsteps sounded out all around me, but I was focused on my task, I did not want to lose anything else. The dragon roared as it was pushed back even more, and bright light filled my vision as it spewed fire. I ducked for a moment, then continued onward, keeping my head low.
My finger was easy enough to find, it had dropped where I was stopped before, and it sparkled in the sunlight. My arm piece was further ahead though, and much closer to the dragon, which had begun to turn and snap at the approaching hooves. Shouts filled the air, which were quickly drowned out by another roar. I saw the dragon rear up on its hind legs, and a great gust of wind swept across the area.
Being so close to the ground, I was fine, but that didn’t stop one of the assailants from being blown into me. Since I was crawling, and they were thrown backwards, it was more like they landed on me, but we still tumbled through the sand a bit. I didn’t get the liberty of coming out on top, and as we came to a stop the back of my head knocked against a rock.
My face quite literally split in two, the large crack travelling all the way down my neck and into my chest. I had trouble keeping my vision focused, and suddenly lacked the strength to even lift my head, so I could only watch as the horse that landed on me picked itself up.
There was no rider, or saddle for that matter, and it looked a little small to be a full fledged horse, more of a… pony? It was wearing armor, a mix of cloth, chainmail, and plate, and as it stood up straight to dust itself off, it took a moment to fix its helmet and grab a dropped sword from the ground with its mouth.
This just went from strange to stranger.
Before charging back into battle, it looked over my fractured body and snorted, “There goes our profit.” It said in a gruff voice.
Stranger to strangest.
I couldn’t even lift a finger to stop him, and I was left alone in the battlefield. Looking over, I could see the dragon at the edge of my vision with more of the riderless ponies attempting to surround it. They were playing it safe, keeping just out of range while holding position and applying pressure in pairs. Their coordinated movements reminded me of wolves with large prey, only the roles were flipped, and it didn’t look like they were going for the kill.
Slowly but surely, the dragon was backed out of the area, and when it realized how much ground it had lost, it flared its wings and roared, only for the ponies to double the pressure. They jabbed spears at it, shot arrows, and swung swords, forcing it off its feet. It roared again, then huffed, and simply took off, flying into the sky and over to the smoky mountains I had seen earlier.
It was gone, just like that, and here I was paralyzed and missing an arm because of it.
There were some minor cheers from the ponies, but a shrill whistle cut through them, and they immediately fell in line just out of view.
“Captain Morningstar, sir!” A new voice called out,
“Report.” A third ordered, I could only assume it was this ‘Captain Morningstar’
“We drove it off, sir.”
“Good, thankfully it was only a juvenile this time.” Captain Morningstar said,
That thing was only a juvenile?! I shudder to think what an adult dragon would be like.
“Any casualties?”
“No, sir.”
“Just a few cuts and bruises from the crystal, captain.” A familiar voice cut in, the swordsman… swordspony
Right, because it was my fault you landed on me.
“Survivors?” Captain Morningstar continued,
“None, sir. I’m not even sure there was anypony here to begin with.”
What? But I was right here! Could they not see me?
“I swear I saw somepony getting attacked by that dragon,” Another new voice joined the conversation.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just the statue it was eating?” The swordspony asked,
Were they referring to me?
“It moved though,”
“Yeah right, and I bet it was the one shouting ‘give it back!’ and ‘stay away!’ too,”
They were! Did I really look like just some statue to them?
“I think some poor sod thought they could get away with harvesting gems from this deposit, not knowing it’s prime dragon territory.”
“Why the weird statue then?”
I could tell I wouldn’t like this guy already.
“An estranged artist maybe? One that couldn’t afford to buy the gems outright. I know I would be pretty upset if a dragon decided to munch on my things.”
There was some shuffling as the group crowded around me, all of them were ponies.
“They sure picked a safe place to work.” The swordspony said,
“How would they even sell it? There’s no way they could trade that much crystal and not get investigated.”
“Maybe they weren’t looking to sell, at least not here anyway.”
“Guys, I hate to break it to you, but we’re not detectives. What does it matter who made it or why? It’s broken now.”
“Even still, it looks like it could still fetch a pretty high price.”
“And how would we sell it, smartass?” The swordspony demanded,
“The next state?”
“Like we wouldn’t get searched at the border. How would we even transport this much crystal anyways?”
“We could break it up, move it across in pieces. It would be easier to hide that way.”
They were going to sell me?! Nevermind that, they were going to break me into pieces to do it! I had to let them know that I was alive, but I still couldn’t move.
“That’s not our job and you all know that.” Captain Morningstar interrupted,
“But nopony would actually know that this was all here.”
“What about the alleged artist?”
“What would they even say? ‘Oh me oh my! Some mean dragon ate my priceless work of art that I was making in secret! I just have to be reimbursed!’”
“It’s more trouble than it’s worth,” Captain Morningstar said, “Our job was to scout, not to collect, we’ll be checked when we return, and the entire area will be investigated afterwards.”
“Not even a little piece?” The swordspony pleaded, “As a reward for fending off that dragon.”
“The only reason we fought that dragon was because somepony may have been in trouble. With no casualties or survivors, they must’ve fled, you can ask them for a reward when you get the chance, now let’s clear out.”
The swordspony huffed, but stayed silent as the group began packing up to leave.
They were leaving…
Have to let them know I was here…
“I… I-I… I’m… h-h-here…” I choked out, barely a whisper in the breeze. I put all my focus into moving, managing to lift my hand a few inches.
It was all for naught however, as none of them took notice.
“Umm… Captain.” A voice directly behind me began,
I couldn’t look up at them, but I could see the others turn to look, then all their gazes landed on me.
“I-I… I s-sur… surv-vived…”
To Be Continued…