Running, skidding then tripping, Spike tumbled onto the path of what resembled a forest. He laid there for a moment as he gathered his strength. Despite his best efforts, all he could manage was to push up, off his face and into a shaky sitting position. His vision wasn't quite right: everything was a bright, almost blinding, monochrome. So he shut his eyes as tight as possible. When they opened, the image remained monochrome. It only darkened as the glare wore off.
There were tree-shaped objects on all sides, but they weren't trees. These tall, branching growths lacked leaf, brown and bark; they were smooth, painted in nothing but light and shadow. Where one would expect to see knotted root systems, the bottoms sloped gently into monotonous ground. As far as he could tell, each of them beyond ten paces were melting into the landscape.
The sun was a black pinpoint on a white canvas sky. Its blue border shining as the only source of light and color. The azure glow softly washed over the ground, meeting the eye but not much else. Not a spot of darkness dispersed. It was like water passing over dried ink.
" And another milestone," Spike whispered to himself. "on the highway to nowhere."
He looked back. The way he had come differed drastically from the way he was going. Spread to his rear was a plain of wavy, fluid limestone that didn't part underfoot. Walking on it had been easy. It was made treacherous by what came out of it: Briar-like bolts of bronze crackling out of the milky, solid waters. They snaked and arced like sluggish lightning and menacing the air with dull flashes and metallic clashes. Even far off, Spike could taste flakes of corrosion and sparks in the air. The sourness of copper and the rottenness of tarnish was as noxious as ever and he was glad to have put it behind him.The chaotic quarry smoothed into the indistinct grayness of the quiet wood.The two places had never been meant to meet ,but there he was sitting sitting on the seamless junction of both.
For days, if not weeks, this had been his journey: drifting through a dream where moving --in any direction-- was to run in circles while the world unraveled all around, often degrading into lesser forms .
His toes twitched. His talons tapped. 'Keep going', anxiety pleaded. 'Keep running', instincts demanded.
The unnatural forest was peaceful and that was reason enough to keep moving. It was a sign of change.
It was definitely an improvement on all else he'd seen.
Over the endless course of this nightmare, through warping, torrid wilderness, he had fled from monsters unlike anything he'd seen before. They weren't even comparable to the creature's of the real world's Everfree. Each was unique in deformity and depravity. They embodied every sort of wrongness: Restless pursuers. Wanton destroyers. Incessant manipulators. It was from a dream such as this that he clutched life for death remained real.
When he was ambushed he had to fight them. When he was backed into corners, he had to kill them. When he came close to starvation he had to eat them. When none of those things was happening he tried speaking to them. Each and every one raved the same word: 'Nomad. Nomad. Nomad'.
The bronze lightning ceased and silence crept in. Spike looked back. The previous world had disappeared.
The bare minimum environ was all that was left. It was like a sketch. all one color, one contrast, a framework of outlines and so calm not even the air moved. All the realism had gone out of the dream. There was no way it could be made any less.
" This has to be the end."
Or so he thought.
Instead the landscape began to shift around and beneath him.The tree-forms dissipated into mist. Spike fell prone. Everything was going wild now.It was only the beginning. Far down the path breathed. It was a wondrous inhalation that began drawing away the light and the entire world to consume it.At the heart of this upheaval was a roaring silence.
Spike's ears perked at the strangeness of such a noise, but his heart was drawn to its origin. He felt a sense of connection.
It was a dragon's roar. Spikes ear tufts perked at a familiar voice.
"That's him!"
Spike broke into pursuit of the sound on all fours. Bounding down the undulating trail, He filled into his new, gangly physique. He was no longer a hatchling.
When he dreamt at first, he thought himself as an infant, but the harshness of this experience, the onslaughts of violence, had made him more, made him different. He was larger, leaner, a true animal.
Lithe and hot-blooded, Spike tore down the gray road even as it transformed under his sprinting gait.
Bulging and slithering, the path challenged his progress with spires and crevices. The further he ran, the more numerous the obstacles. The faster he chased, the steeper the incline.
"Come on! Come on!" he roared.
Breath was expelled in harsh energetic rasps. The forelegs pulled up the body; the hinds fired it forward in rhythmic lunges. The path's incline increased. It to sloped up and up, eventually flying straight into the air, changing from what was once a strip of ground into a tower and it continued to rise. Running instantly fell out of favor; Climbing took it's place.
Cracks in the tower served well as finger-holds, but but they didn't last. The cracks spread and fractured the gray surface. The entire layer of gray peeled and unveiled a dazzling array of scales. This forced Spike to scrabble further up to avoid slipping off with the flakes, leaving less gray and more scales.
After a desperate, fumbling struggle, when everything had been revealed to be scales, Spike fit his claws into a chink beneath one of the reflective plates.
They uniformly reacted with a maddening flare of light that cut at his eyes, but he didn't lose his grip.
"You monster, let me go!"
The pulsing scales admitted awareness and pierced his mind with their reply. It wormed into his thoughts and began to expand, forcing them out and making a hollow of Spike's mind.The emptiness expanded infinitely inside him and was filled with a voice like a boundless bell. There was no way it could ring but it did. It rocked his being with a cacophonous, but soothing resonance that hovered below a strike tone that never struck.
"Little kindred, elder to myself, you are constrained by naught but your own indecision."
"Cast off Time. Shed the Universe as old skin. Leave it to rot behind you and be free of your evil."
" I've told you, no! Never!"
"Remember that I would not have come to you, had you not begged me to. Why do you resist now? I've made you stronger. I've brought you the death you asked for."*
Spike wrenched his claws free of the living monolith and fell away. The trance overcome, he watched the wall continue ascension. It rose on, a serpentine trunk ending at a head. And it was not through a neck, but bearing down on the body with its immense maw. The head latched onto it's own tail with a booming like the hour knell on a titanic clock.
The fanged cavern was the source of the howling that called to him and there were others like it.
On either side, through mists cascading upwards as they were sucked away, he could make out two mirror images of the scene. What went unseen,but he still heard was the same repeated scene of the leviathan head and tail meeting in other stretches of the body.
This sight across from him seared into memory as a horizon turned vertical. This monster assaulted itself over and over in a horrid fusion of hunger and indomitable power while eschewing sentiment of past and future destroying each other. It was negation.Twisted dragons could be seen racing up to the wretched summons.
Spike, on the other hand, continued his descent. The dream: every sight, form, and all of the remaining light was scattered and eaten. It became like dust, flew into the multitude of mouths, dwindled like small points of white fire behind the horrible teeth and then sputtered out.
Only darkness remained.
Spike sank deeper and deeper into it.
The dream completely unraveled.
And Reality ensued.
--------------------------------------
The adolescent dragon lifted his head from the stone of his basement floor where there were marks left from his impact.
At long last, he was awake.
~~~~~~~~
notes:
picture: (Ansel Adam's "black sun")
I had to split Chapter 1 in half and make the first half another prologue. It will make more sense that way. the true Chapter 1 will be posted later. It will be larger. I promise.
anyways. let the EDITING begin!!
Good Morning! What a lovely gift to wake up to. Now, To read, then to re-read, then to read and edit.
414091 Sorry about the size of the update. I cut it off the top of the true chapter,which is not ready for publishing yet.
414153 That's Fine. I'm certainly not complaining. The Re-read part of my comment is just something I tend to do, to let it sink in a little more, if that's what you're worried about. I do it no matter how long the chapter. Now, having done my whole process, Time for me to get to working
In order of appearance:
(" Yet another dream.")
(" I guess this is the end.")
( didn't resound.Instead the )
A few Spacebar mishaps, once again
(Come on! come on!)
(panting. the fores pulled) You've really improved in relation to your Capitilising. Just remember, Exclaimation marks, Questionmarks and Exlamabangs (One o' These suckers: http://a1.twimg.com/profile_images/281383239/203D.gif They aren't common, but Obscure exlaimation marks are fun) count as Fullstops as well as Tonal modifiers.
(" I've told you no.)
(fell away) Double spacing here, just in case you were wondering what was wrong with that
(Spike ,on the other)
And those are the lot that Lordly did spot. Have a nice day. Or Night. Or whatever time of day it happens to be wherever you are.
Lordlyhour, Lordlyout
Hey it's me. Really, Really like your story!

Hope you finish it! Can't wait for chapter uno.
414803 I'm glad you like. please rate and follow. i work slow but I intend to finish this!
YESH
418088
It means 'yes', which also means this is awesome
418468
430297
It will go A LOT of places.
to all you comic artists out there, I'm going to b writing some CRAAAZY stuff! I dare ya to illustrate it!
Exciting, promosing, and fascinating
Can't wait to see the real first chapter and if its not already in the story somewhere could we get a more descriptive version of spikes new build helps with the visualization and what not as the doctor would say (even if its just a comment responce)
435283
Don't worry! I'm trotting down the first chapter as I'm writing this to you.
I'll have spike fully described and in action before you know it!
If I don't get too busy I'll have it up by the Weekend.
435462 amazing and fantastic on all accounts my good man and heres hopeing you don't get too busy
Whoa... This is pretty deep. Tracking!
460311
Thank you!
Good
to see ya writing, 'opai. Can't wait to see where this goes!
467115 I can't wait either!
490460 I am honored Time father!
Don't you hate it when you have to face the demons that want your soul? I can tell that this is going to be bad ass and if I could spell then I would give you a lot more bigger words, as it is....I honestly can't wait for more of this, this is one of those stories that I honestly would not care if it had any pairings of romance or not in it, you got me on the edge of me seat with your writing, perfect job...kepp going with this plase, I hope to see of what matter of sins Spike must face later on in time and what enemies threaten his life, family and home.
Well, aside from formatting inconsistencies, I would say this chapter is EQD-ready. No, that doesn't mean send it off to EQD, that means that the grammar and spelling would probably get past their pre-readers. More consistent paragraph spacers would be all it needs. I like the rewrite, it gives more of a feeling of just how long Spike has been in there than the old version. Shame, too. From what I understand, he was just supposed to be going into a sleep growth, and instead got his head invaded by a non-being from the space where there is no space.
Anyway, as much of a big project as this is looking to be, take it easy. Focus on getting more of the main story out before you start doing too much of a rewrite. That way your audience can help you when you do go to refine it.
"The two places had never been meant to meet ,but there he was sitting sitting on the seamless junction of both."
Duuuuuuude, gotta get that D out of... wherever it is XD
Still a lot of weird spaces around punctuation, too, or lack of correct spacing, if you prefer :p That's something that'll probably get you a kick in the groin for a thing called "consistency" from the EQD pre-readers.