The Embers of Humanity

by StarChaser01

Prologue: Like a Dragon out of Hell

A humanoid dragon with sapphire colored scales stood at the end of a dimly lit hallway, staring into the darkness ahead. To a passerby it would have appeared to be a statue, albeit a rather lifelike statue, but a statue none the less. A more observant individual might have noticed the small movements as it breathed.

‘Where are you?’ it thought as it continued staring into the darkness as if it was willing the veil to reveal the universes secrets.

The dragon’s name was Ember, and the hallway was just one of many in the abandoned laboratory that was hir prison.

Shi was the result of a series of genetic experiments on, what the scientists called “brave volunteers”, but the “volunteers” were anything but voluntary. They had been attempting to further understand genetic modification though trial and error, and Ember had been the first, and only one, to survive.

Hir genetic code was now comprised of humans, lizards, spitting cobras, bats, cats, and pieces of DNA that didn’t belong to any known thing, including a small piece that made hir a hermaphrodite, both male and female. As a result, shortly after shi escaped confinement and into the lab proper, shi decided that normal pronouns just didn’t fit hir anymore.

‘After all, ‘he’ is for male and ‘she’ is for female, but I’m both now.’

Shi shook hirself from hir thoughts and memories to focus on the task at hand.

‘If I miss it this time, I’ll have to wait another month, and my food supplies won’t last more than a few!’

Suddenly, on the far side of the hallway, a strange light appeared. ‘It’s always on the other side of the hallway…’ shi thought to hirself before charging down the hallway.

Ember ran down the abandoned hallway like hir life depended on it.

‘Just keep running, you’ll make it this time,’ Ember thought to hirself ‘you’ll make it to the light before it disappears!’

Shi still didn’t know what caused the light to appear and disappear, just that it was somehow linked to the event that caused the scientists and guards to abandon the place, leaving hir alone with slowly dwindling food supplies.

‘It’s amazing how long food supplies meant for 500 can last when only one person’s eating from it,’ shi thought to hirself as shi ran before shaking hir head and putting on an extra burst of speed ‘less thinking, more running!’

As shi passed various rooms a few memories came unbidden to hir mind. If shi wanted to, shi could easily identify in which rooms which part of hir was changed in.

Turning hir attention back to hir goal, shi noticed that the light was slowly filling up hir vision. ’20 meters,’ shi estimated ’10 meters, 5!’

The edges of the light seemed to flicker, a sign that shi had learned meant that it was about to close again for about a month. ‘Oh no you don’t!’ shi thought as she leapt at it, and just as shi passed the boundary shi and the light disappeared, leaving the hallway dark and lifeless once more.

Author's Note:

Don't worry, we'll get to the ponies in the next chapter!

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, leave them in the comment section below, I read every comment I get!

If you find something wrong, please tell me what in the comment section below, and if you downvote this story, please say why, it will help me grow as a writer!

Also, I did not come up with the pronouns, I got them from Chakatsden.com (Warning! Mature themes contained within that site!)

Comments

[I_am_catkid]

MORE NOW!!!

[furryman]

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