//------------------------------// // Jlatak - Jiilral Tafiaf // Story: Fatum Fortis Vocat Redux // by Kromulus Regulus //------------------------------// Jlatak Jiilral Tafiaf “Second Meet”         I awoke feeling a calm breeze wash over my bare scales. The tickle of wheat grass against my lower legs brought a smile to my face; a memory of my childhood briefly flashing across my minds eye. I opened my eyes, slowly, taking in a deep breath as I saw an endless landscape of wheat. They moved like the ocean tide, ever flowing as the wind cast its hypnotic dance over their stalks. I watched my surroundings for what felt like an eternity, feeling an all consuming calm flow over my soul. My eyes drifted forward; my expression grim as the light of an eternal hellfire played across my form as the scenery changed abruptly..         I saw before me now the raging inferno consuming several cities. I was standing on a cliff, overlooking the landscape below, yet the light from these flames reached me without difficulty. I recognized the landscape, my own mind having formed it long ago for my imagined world. In the distance was the Tiberium Mountains, its twin peaks reaching high into the atmosphere. Before them, in the expanse of hills, forests and flat terrain were the seven cities that made up central portion of Anagonia. What was once lush and green had now turned into darkness and destruction; the flames consuming the cities even reaching the many forests beyond.         I felt a deep, twisting pain in my heart. I fell to my knees, my emotions having already been abused enough that my grim expression remained. This was my world, my land. Not a single hint of life was to be seen, only the inferno of fire and crumbling buildings and the scorched landscape beyond. I didn’t know what to think, I couldn’t even fathom how to comprehend what I was witnessing. Had this been the end result of the Changeling invasion, as Havok had hinted? Was this all that was left of my dream? How many countless lives had been lost? The entirety of the situation was lost to me; I feeling my heart breaking from the devastating in view and the ramifications of it.         The breeze returned, briefly, the direction making it flow towards me. My jaw clenched as I smelled the scent of burning homes, landscape and....flesh. As if on cue, the breeze intensified to a gale, the flames in the distance visibly turning in my direction as the scent of burning flesh intensified. I coughed, gagged, falling forward as my hands reached out and supported me against the ground. My head sagged, my mental state cracked and a flood of emotions washed over me. My eyes burned as tears streamed down my snout, falling as droplets onto the grass below me. The stinging caused my eyelids to shut tightly, quiet sobs emitting from my form as it heaved and I struggled for breath.         All gone.         I could literally feel the agony around me, as if my soul was directly connected to whatever suffering had taken place. I knew it was all lost, I knew that not a single person was left alive. I finally fell to my side, curling into a fetal position as my sobs intensified. Everything I had dreamed, everything I had written, all gone. Undone by the changeling horde, eradicated by their cursed desire for power and blood. The clear evidence of their destructive capability had been mine to see, and mine alone to see the end result of.         With the change of direction in the wind, the putrid smell of death lingered only shortly before disappearing. I cried myself to sleep on the ground, feeling the tendrils of rage begin to grasp my heart. *                *                *         For the second time, I awoke from my slumber. I was cautious at first, not wanting to open my eyes for fear I had entered yet another lucid vision of death. The smell of grass beneath my nostrils quelled the fear, giving me the courage to slowly open my eyes to view the source of the scent. I realized then I was laying on my stomach against the grass, the morning light having just arrived to bring clarity to the world around me. I then smelled the dirt, soft and easily disturbed. I had a view of my clawed hand against the grass, just inches before my snout, clenching my fingers slowly as the claws dug into the soft dirt. I took a slow breath in, allowing myself to fully embrace the feel of the dirt; its wet texture crumbling easily against my fingers as it was forced into clumps.         It felt....real.         I exhaled, seeing a few blades of grass sway from my breath. I released my hold on the dirt, gently sliding my palm against the grass to cleanse my skin of it. Something rumbled close to me. A deep and soothing rumble, coming from within a massive body. I rolled onto my side, then pushed myself up into a sitting position. I looked from my left, then right, seeing nothing but the bland texture of the forest around me. I noted how dead it seemed, how the very life and vibrancy from its form was taken away; a thing I had not noticed until now. I shuddered involuntarily, a glimpse from the apocalyptic vision from before flashing before my minds eye.         The rumble occurred again, thankfully shaking me from the view of fire that consumed my thoughts. I turned my head to the side, the eye on the side of my head allowing me to view behind me as the other closed. I saw, laying but feet away, the slow rise and fall of a reptilian body. Massive wings lay curled against its side; a green coloration flowing across the membranes. My eye trailed along the body, noting the further continuation of green across the scales that made up its form. This extended to the small ridge scales along a path down its spine. I was viewing the back of a dragon’s body, I realized.. A dragon that I, specifically, had once dreamed up. Yet here, as if seeing things for the first time, it looked completely real. Every texture, every break in the scales, every spot of dirt and discoloration was seen. The imperfections that one shies away from in their imaginations was clearly present.         My body turned, allowing my head to move enough to where both of my eyes could take view of the draconic form. “Lazarus,” I silently breathed in astonishment. My eyes widened at the implications. Before, I had assumed it all a dream, something to disregard and simply take light recognition of. Now, with the form of a creature that clearly belonged elsewhere, I was forced to understand that with its existance I no longer had the excuse of dreaming. I started to stand, trying to make my movements as slow as possible as to not wake the slumbering giant. Against my better judgement, I moved forward, my expression still one of awe.         As I neared Lazarus’ form, I reached my hand out. Gently I began to touch back of the creature, looking in wonderment as my imagination became reality to my sense of touch. The scales were smooth. Like my hand was gliding across the surface of polished marble. They also connected perfectly, like a form of skin. I could literally feel muscle beneath them. I stopped briefly as Lazarus’ breathing shuddered suddenly, then resumed when it continued in what I believed to be a normal pattern. My hand continued its journey, caressing across the back, over hard yet bending ridge spines, then up to the large muscular wing joint. There, my hand stopped, feeling beneath the bone and brief spasm of a muscle there.         “You’re more beautiful than I could have ever imagined,” I said softly, my thoughts coming out in audible words. It was true, for I had imagined Lazarus to have a thicker hide and a more cartoonish texture. Not this real, living creature before me. Not this moving flesh and bone. No, what lay before me was something completely different than anything I could have ever formed into words. Yet, instinctively, I knew it as if it was a part of myself. Like I had seen it before. I had, truly. Though the mind was a horrible translator for reality, apparently.         “Your compliment is duly noted.”         I was shaken from my awestruck thoughts as I looked up and to the left, seeing two reptilian eyes glare down at me from a draconic skull. My hand began to fall to my side as I was once again stricken with wonder, viewing Lazarus’ head as if it were completely alien to me. The contour of his skull, the way the scaled flesh molded with bone, was beyond any detail I had ever placed into his description. I gazed further, noting the beginning of his ebony horns against the sides of his skull, how they reached further back like spears towards the morning sky. How every tooth along his jawline seemed to mold firmly along the lines where his lower jaw met his upper. How the ridge spines began at the fore of his elongated snout and progressed further back in height. Even how the permanent expression forced upon his face held a wise and elder demeanour.   It was, in a way, extremely breathtaking. For me, at least; for Lazarus, I quickly noted, it seemed quite disturbing to have oneself being looked at in such a way. “Are you well?” he asked, his voice a guttural rumble, similar to the sound of his breathing before. I could only nod, feeling myself take a step back as his head lowered to meet mine. I absently noted how flexible his neck truly was, being twisted in such a fashion. It looked natural and very alien at the same time. My eyes met his, able to see for the first time the reddish hue of his irises, almost smirking as I saw how the cat-like pupils dilated. It reminded me very much of a curious kitten. “Why do you look upon me so?” Lazarus asked, his body lifting slightly so as to bring himself upon his stomach. His fore and hind legs curling under his form as his wings briefly fluttered back into a rest against his body. “Are you fascinated with dragons?” “I-” words failed me then. I felt my jaw remain open despite my mental commands to speak. He was real. Everything I had seen was real. Not some lucid dream, not something fabricated from a tired mind, but real. How was I to take this but to be wordless and dumbstruck? I took in a breath and gulped down the lingering saliva in my mouth, feeling myself regain some composure over my voice. “You’re real,” I said. Well, that was genius. I swear I saw Lazarus eye ridge raise. How it was possible, I didn’t know. “Yes,” he said. “I am as real as you, lizard creature. Does this confuse you?” “Very much so,” I replied. Lazarus head tilted lower, his snout just below mine but a few feet away. His eyes gazed upwards to me, then around me as he seemed to be examining something. Then, in a swift movement, his neck raised as his head followed, once again looking down at me. He seemed to ponder at me for a few moments, the brief silence filled with his slow rumbling breaths. Then he quickly snapped his jaws, emitting a loud clicking noise as I heard a slow chuckling noise emit from his throat.         “What’s so funny?”         “You,” Lazarus replied. “You are funny.”         “Why am I funny?” My head tilted. Oh God, I was starting to emulate him.         He chuckled again, “Because you are. You have amused me, something which you should be proud of.”         I squinted my eyes. “Why?” Lazarus then rumbled a laugh, mouth opening slightly as he did so. “Because those that do,” he said after his laughter subsided, “are not considered food!”         “I am not a pet,” I said after a moments pause.         The dragons head tilted, tongue flickering out briefly across his snout. “That you are not, moxt ir.”         The language transition caused me to do a double take. “What does that mean?” I asked. I watched as the curves on his cheeks folded slightly upward, giving the appearance of a smirk. “It means ‘little one’,” he translated. “For you are little, and you are but one.”         Great! I’ve manifested an asshole in the form a nine foot tall, forty feet long pile of scales and claws. If I didn’t have half a mind, I’d believe my subconscious was punishing me for something. I grunted in reply, receiving another chuckle from the dragon. He then proceeded to lower his head so as his snout was touching mine, my eyes forced to gaze into his as his pupils became slits. His voice emitted with a dark hiss.         “Should you ever touch me as you did again, moxt ir, you will be food.”         I gulped, “Understood.”         “Ilieh! Now I may resume my slumber, unmolested.” He snarled at me, quickling rolling onto his side again and curling back into his previous position. The rumbling of his breathing once again presided over my surroundings, I left a shaking wreck. I did an about-face, trying to walk as fast as possible away from my probable source of doom. In the distance I quickly made note of the form of the Time Turner and Havok, speaking with each other as they seemed oblivious to my encounter.. My walk became a run, having learned a very valuable lesson this day.         Touching a dragon was bad, Mmkay?         “Ah there you are!” the Doctor proclaimed as I came to a stop near him. I was panting, a crazed look on my face. “Are you alright?” he asked.         “Sure thing, boss.” My reply was instinctive. I was still coming to terms with how close I had been to being eaten alive.         “O...kay?” the Doctor blinked, briefly tilting his head at me before looking back to Havok. “Anyway, the Lord Emperor and I were just discussing our next plan of action.”                  “Indeed my good equine brethren,” Havok confirmed, then looking at me he added,“Though I am quite curious as to why you decided to sleep near the Drekamythian.”         “Oh no reason,” I said, the panic subsiding somewhat as I resumed a proper, somewhat less scared shitless posture. “Just, you know, had a vision of hellfire and brimstone and BAM, there I was!”         Both the Doctor and Havok gave me a worried expression. Then briefly looked to each other, then back at me. “Right,” Havok said first before looking down at the Doctor. “Mister Turner, are you sure he is not insane?”         “Nope!” Whooves said with an all too happy grin. “Now where were we...oh yes! We were going to tell you our plan of action!”         I heard Havok mumble something as he rubbed a hand across his forehead. He took a deep breath in, letting it go as he shook whatever had ailed him off. “Right,” Havok said as he cleared his throat, looking towards me. “Mister Turner has informed me of finding a camp just to the north. From what the Drekamythian has revealed to me, it is not our intended destination. I desire your opinion on the matter.”         “My opinion?” I asked, somewhat confused. Wasn’t he the Lord Emperor? Wait a minute, we had a destination? Why am I saying we?! Oh bother, I’m beginning to feel like I’m tipping over into insanity again. “Quite so,” Havok replied. I simply gave a shrug.         “Sounds.....okay? I guess?”         Havok shrugged, looking to the Doctor. “The Drekamythian does not seem to mind and neither does the lizard man. Does this satisfy you?”         “Not in the slightest,” Whooves said flatly. “I told you we should go around it!”         “I am terribly sorry,” Havok said as he raised an eyebrow at the earth pony, “I was assuming you wanted to investigate.”         “Oh alright,” Whooves said with a roll of his eyes, “You’ve convinced me. We’ll investigate.” He then proceeded to head away, straight towards the forest. Havok was left speechless for a moment, looking towards me, then back towards the earth pony. “But I didn’t-” he started, then groaned as he shook his head and followed.         It was the most amusing sight I had seen all day. Well, next to the dragon. Then again that had turned out to be the most frightening. Taking one last look towards the still slumbering Lazarus, I followed the duo into the forest. Behind me I heard a loud snarl and some grumbling words, then a heavy flap of wings against the wind. Stopping to look back, I noticed that Lazarus was no longer there. I took a quick glance around and above me. Seeing no sign of the dragon, I resumed my path, doing a jog to catch up with Havok and the Doctor.         It didn’t help that I had a very real sense of danger lurking in the pit of my stomach. We entered the forest proper, the grass shifting underneath us for the rough dirt and clumps of leaves and sticks as we crested the boundary. It was a sudden change, one I was not accustomed to. I then heard a inhuman screech to my right, twisting on my axis to see something out of the corner of my vision. Another screech filled my hearing, extremely close. I gazed upward.         My breath nearly caught as I saw a blur of darkness and green lunge towards me from the tree canopy above.