//------------------------------// // Enlivenment // Story: Enlightening Circumstances // by ExoskeletalEccentric //------------------------------// Chapter 3: Enlivenment The dragon growled contentedly, as it was time for his favourite time of month. The time to sort out his hoard. Oh, how he loved seeing all the delicious gems and beautiful rare metals adorning his cave in the forest, and knowing that they were all his. His mood darkened as he remembered the foolish baby dragon that he had found in his cave snacking on them. And then he had the audacity to call him his "Brother". The scaled beast snorted in derision. As if such a pitiful dragon would be his family. It was lucky the unicorn and its pet had shown up to rescue it. And then, his mood turned positively black as he remembered the strange creature from earlier, the insolent insect that had dared to even try to wound him. He rubbed his chin gingerly; it still stung slightly from the impact. Two intruders in one century and both had gotten away. He must be losing his touch. But no matter, anymore. He had his hoard. He let his eyes roam across the jewels and trophies, each unique, each with their own story to tell. Ah yes, his hoard was his greatest treasure. The little creatures always thought that he wouldn't miss just one jewel, one gilded necklace. What they didn't understand, was that the hoards beauty lay in its completion. Separate from each other, the various parts were merely pretty trinkets to be admired for a day or two, and then forgotten. When combined in the beauty of the hoard, they became something magnificent, a wonder to fit to be beheld for thousands of years. A good thing, considering a dragon’s life-span. He ran his clawed hand along the pile, feeling the familiar treasure beneath his fingers. Ah, but his hoard was magnificent. And it was his, which made it more so. Each goblet, for the finest of occasions. Each ring, a family's most treasured heirloom. Each gem... Wait. Something was wrong. The dragon moved its hand back to where he felt the disturbance. There! Near the bottom of the pile, a treasure, gone! He saw glimpses of his past in his mind. Flying past the mountain, seeing a beautiful gleam, flying down to see what it was. In between the cracks in the mountainside, a glorious deep blue gem. A gem, gone. The dragons eyes narrowed, and it reared up in anger. One of his gems, gone! Stolen! The insect! It must have taken his precious gem! But he would find it, oh yes. Find it somewhere among the forests trees and caves, and when he did... He spread his wings, faced the heavens, and roared fire above. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" My scream filled the isolated cave in the forest, marking my awakening. It was daytime now, if earlier than I was used to. At some point during the night, the fire had died down, and it was now just some embers. I jumped to my feet, and looked with horror at what had been so close to my face when I was sleeping. It was a spider. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind spiders. I'm not a total wimp. But then, those were normal spiders. Small, spindly, not-very-likely-to-eat-you spiders! But this, this was not a normal spider. It was huge, for one thing. Bigger than my hand, with orb like eyes... My, god those eyes. They stared into my soul. "Go away! Shoo! Out of my cave! Bad spider! Bad!" I managed to herd it back outside, and sighed in relief. Last nights sleep was surprisingly good, aside from the rude awakening. Although I think I was just tired; a lot had happened yesterday. There had been the hunt for this cave, the fight (sort of) with a dragon, and the subsequent discovery of my powers. Oh, and the actual transferral itself. Although to tell the truth, I hadn't really thought of home at all. I was rather enjoying myself in this new place, where ever it was. I haven't heard of any forests with dragons in them before. Maybe I was in Switzerland, or something. More likely, something more fantastic was in play. And it was fun. And speaking of fun. I thought to myself, looking back at my wings. I need to learn how to use these babies. My stomach growled, and I realised that I had nothing to eat since two days ago. But first, I'll have to find something to eat. I looked out of the mouth of the cave, and peered dubiously at the forest. An unidentified creature howled in the distance. How am I meant to find anything to eat here? I don't know the first thing about what to eat in a forest! Warily, I crept out of my cave, looking around for danger. Seeing nothing, I began foraging. Almost immediately I spotted some mushrooms growing by the tree. After brief consideration, I decided that anything quite that shade of purple probably wouldn't be edible. The rest of my "foraging" went much the same way. I saw some likely looking fruit, but after picking it, I found it was impossible to crack its hard shell. It was as if this forest was designed to be as inhospitable as possible! I decided that I could try again after collecting water from that spring I had seen earlier. "Ooooh." I moaned in hunger after my 6th failed attempt to extract an edible meal from the stingy environment. "I'm so hungry!" "Chirp!" I heard a bird calling. Looking up, I saw a brightly coloured bird of some sort; (I'm no ornithologist, okay?) blue, with an orange crest. It was surprisingly large, and it looked at me with intelligent eyes. "Heh. Well, aren't you cute?" And indeed it was. Too cute for a place like this. It seemed out place. "Chirp!" The bird called again, in the same unerringly cheery tone. I tentatively reached out a hand and stroked its head. It didn't shy away. "Awww, you are cute. Such a pretty bird, with pretty feathers, such big, strong wings... large... plump... body..." No! I internally reprimanded myself. You can't eat this bird! It's too adorable! For shame, self! "Grooowwwl". said my stomach. "..." After a delicious meal of inexpertly spit-roasted bird, I decided that now would be an excellent time to make good on my earlier plan. To fly. I stayed in the cave to practice. I started by testing how muscle movements affected my wings, utilising the pool of water I had gained from earlier. Once I thought I had figured it all out, I practiced fluttering the wings. It took rapid rotational muscle movements, which felt strange, but natural at the same time. I moved them faster and faster, fluttering soon fading from sight into one blur. I felt myself get lighter, and my feet started to lift off the floor. "Yes! Yes, I'm doing it!" I began to practice circles at the caves ceiling. Then something occurred to me. "Wait, how am I doing it? These wings shouldn't be able to support me, even if I do feel lighter!" My face had a brief affair with the hard stone floor. Apparently there was some kind of Tinkerbelle logic at work here. If I believed I could fly, I could. If I doubted it, then say hello to floordom. "Ow, damn that hurt. I won't try that again. But, staying in the cave is boring." I turned to the exit. "It's time to do some real flying." Donning my non-existent shades, I near skipped outside, and took off without a thought. I had tried the other way, after all, and it was painful. "Woohoo!" I cried exuberantly. This was a thrill I had never expected to experience. Well, maybe through skydiving or something, but the thought had never really appealed to me. I mean, throwing yourself out of a helicopter and just falling? No thank you! It probably didn't even compare to this, though. The sense of freedom that came through being propelled through the air by your own means was immense. I flew over the treetops, when something made me stop in shock. "What..is that!" Over in the distance I could see buildings. No, more than buildings, there was what looked like a whole town there! "Should I head over there?" I wondered aloud. Then I realised that even with wings, the journey would still probably take a few hours. I wasn't sure I was ready to make that trip yet. Besides, one more day in the forest couldn't hurt. ...Right? Turning back, I reluctantly flew back to my cave. However, when I was there, I realised that I had another problem. "I really need a shower." The strenuous activities I had been taking part in had not been kind to my aroma, and I felt really grimy. Living in a forest will do that for you. I groaned as I realised I would have to take another trip out back to the spring, the only source of water I knew of around, besides my drinking supply, and I was not bathing in that. I started to leave, then as an afterthought, picked some of the same kind of large flat leaves I had used to make my makeshift bedding. It was odd (and cold) washing outdoors in a pool of water, but I managed it, folding my filthy pyjamas in a pile next to the spring. As I did so, I found in my pocket a sapphire. The gem I had taken from the dragons cave! I set it down next to the pyjamas. Using the leaves I scrubbed most of the dirt off, and emerged feeling a lot cleaner. I looked at the dirt-caked pyjamas, and knew that wearing them again would leave me as dirty as I was before. Besides, they were not the most practical of forest going garments, that was for sure. But I couldn't exactly go naked. Well, I could, but I wasn't very comfortable with the idea. Besides, it would be cold. And so I washed the pyjamas in the spring, then as they sat drying on a rock, pondered what to do with them. I stood up, and clicked my fingers, an idea lighting my face. "Got it! But I'll need something to cut it with..." Looking around, I saw a jagged piece of stone lying on the ground. "That'll do!" Picking it up, I grabbed the pyjama bottoms, and using the stone, I cut off half of the length of the legs. I set the strips to the side. Then I did the same to the arms of the pyjama top, again setting the strips to the side. Now I had a more functional, if no less unattractive, pair of shorts and t-shirt. They looked very... bare. My eyes fell on the leaves and flowers around me. I guess I won't be doing much else! And this is a good time to see if those arts and crafts lessons mum told me to take really were worth it like she said. Half an hour of decorating and wrapping later, I now had a much more brightly coloured outfit. I nodded appreciatively. "Not bad, if I do say so myself! Very Natural Chic!" I looked at the strips of fabric left over from the pyjama cutting, and wondered. My creative side was in full swing now, and I pondered what I could craft with these forlorn scraps of fabric. Of course! I arrived in my pyjamas. I have no underwear! Eyeing the strips, I started to feel doubtful. But I have no idea how to make any. Maybe I could just improvise... Shortly, I had myself a matching pair of underwrappings, (Trademark) top, and bottom. I slipped on the entirety of my new ensemble, and was quietly pleased at the job I had done. I looked up, and seeing that it was getting dark, grabbed my gem and rushed back to the cave. I began the task of collecting firewood, and got another fire going. I had collected more leaves (Those things were useful) to be used to cover myself when I slept. I didn't want bugs crawling all over me in my sleep. I turned to the sapphire I had kept. It certainly looked valuable, but it would be difficult to carry around with me. Plus, the more I looked at it, the more it seemed to fit me. That crack was starting to look almost like a lightning bolt. I tried to think of a way to keep it with me, but I produced nothing. I guess I was all crafted out. Yawning, I decided that I could think of something tomorrow. Then I would head to that town I had seen, and find out who was living there. But for now... I pulled myself into the bed, and drifted into sleep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Authors Note: Okay, yeah, I chickened out about the characterisation. This was just a chapter to get some necessary things out of the way. But it will happen, I promise! Maybe when she meets the ponies, and has a nice, long, angsty chat about her feelings. If she even meets the ponies! After all, as the author, it is my duty to neither confirm nor deny this. Not because I don't know yet. But because I am both cool and mysterious. In any case, the next chapter should hopefully be more exciting. Thanks for reading, please comment, even if you didn't like it! After all, I can't change anything if you don't tell me what it is! Predator20 out.