House Domina Personalities
Svedok, Lucas' dragon son
Svedok spent another few days moping around, becoming keenly aware that all the humans around him were still very much on two legs. Without wings. No tail. No horns, claws...
Until they started actually working on their Transformation spells, at which point there was one minor disaster and a couple mishaps - but on the whole it looked as though Lucas had really gotten them to learn.
Natalia, however hard she tried, could not budge even one feather off her arm. Svedok had tried in private, so he knew what he was capable of doing. He hesitated to do so in front of this class, where everyone was now somewhere between human and critter-du-jour.
"Well?" Lucas asked his son, his student.
"Well, I've got more to practice. It's harder going this way."
"It is not harder," Lucas said, low and softly so that the other students didn't hear him. They were too busy chattering away with beaks and muzzles and snake tongues. "You're stalling."
"Natalia will want to kill me," Svedok said, "so I just... I don't know."
"I know you can do it, Svedok," Lucas said. "And if you prove it to me, you'll pass this course."
"And if I don't, it won't matter anyway because they don't give O.W.L.s to people like me." Svedok rose and swept to the wall, his wings folded down hard, and his tail stiff.
"Petrafactus Extremitus!" Lucas yelled, pointing his finger (why bother with a wand?) at his son. Suddenly, Svedok's legs were like ice, held hard with a spell that allowed him to turn or move a little, but not to walk away.
His wings, too, were stiff. Impossible to fly off.
Worry crept over Svedok's odd face. "Why are you doing this to me?" He hissed, as Lucas came forward.
"Because you've yet to show the class what you've learned. And you will not go walking out of my class, when I know you have learned something." Lucas was stern, but not angry. He was right, of course. But...
When Lucas broke his enchantment over Svedok's limbs, the dragon child lowered his head and his wings went kind of limp. "Fine," he said.
With a brief flurry, hardly a spell word spoken, his shape wavered a bit, and his tail vanished, his wings shriveled down to nubs, and his hind legs finally seemed to creep up to his backside.
Svedok was left standing, with difficulty, on two legs. He stood close to the wall, and held himself up with his arm. At least he still had arms. But this two-legged thing was almost too much for him. He was dizzy, the effort of the spell left him confused, and the sudden feeling that he couldn't steady himself with his legs or wings or tail -
Naked.
Svedok sat ungracefully on the stone floor, to the laughter of about half the class. The other half weren't laughing because they couldn't figure out how to stop being an animal.
"Exceptional," Lucas said, and turned back to his notes. "The rest of you still working on parts - just tell me when you've managed to either give up or complete the spell. Those of you who've gone back and forth, you're free to use this class as study hall in the future. Congratulations."
Some of the kids applauded themselves, or their friends, and others moped and grumbled. Natalia had given up already and left in frustration, and fortunately hadn't seen Svedok's transformation. Svedok was done with this two legged thing. Now that he knew he could do it at all, he didn't really even feel like trying any more. Walking? Hah! That'd be a laugh!
Why walk when you can fly, anyway?
***
Svedok felt a breeze, motion behind him. He didn't raise his head from his studies.
"Why haven't you been at the class, Svedok?" Lucas asked, placing his hand on his son's shoulder.
"Well, I figure I've learned enough. If I need more I'll come back." He tried to concentrate on his charms work.
"Svedok, there is much more to your transformation than you want to believe," Lucas said.
"But I don't want to do it any more. It's not as fun as I thought it would be."
"Do you think I learned how to fly overnight?" Lucas stated, harshly. "Do you think it was easy for me, a mere human man, to figure out how to speak Draconic tongue? Or how to use dragon tactics in a war?"
Svedok was silent.
"It was very time consuming. And, it was harder because I had to be outside surviving at the time. I didn't have a nice castle to live in, books to read, and friends to keep me company when I wasn't feeling like studying."
"Maybe that's what I need, then," Svedok said, standing and slapping his book shut. "Maybe I need to get out of here, and back into the wilderness where I can really learn what to do."
He tried to squeeze by his father, but Lucas blocked the doorway. "Svedok, your magical studies should be coming first."
"My studies weren't important when I was living with mother, why should they be so important now?" He spat back.
Lucas was about to get very angry, but then suddenly his face calmed, and he looked away with a bit of a smile. "You're right, Svedok, of course. I keep forgetting that you are not only half a dragon, but my son at that. Why should you settle for these fineries when there are libraries with forbidden lore, treasures to keep. Damsels to fry."
"I wouldn't fry a damsel. That's not what they're for."
"And do you think that dragons don't know that?" Lucas stated carefully. "Dragons who keep damsels in distress are doing it for two reasons: one, it keeps them on their toes, when the knights come to rescue the girl. And two, many of them want to practice their own shape shifting."
"You are so full of shit," Svedok said, but he grinned.
"I am so right," Lucas said. "So get your things, if you want. Lumiere has been tittering about some new place she's found. You might want to look it up."
***
"It doesn't look like it's going to be comfortable," Svedok said, of the big fur object that Zora wanted to give him for his trip. "I'm not used to wearing other creatures skins."
"Just try it on, and see." Zora said, and finally Svedok slipped his arms into the wide openings in the furry vest. Once it settled onto his back, he could feel the magic enchantment on it working. It apparently went around his back, joining itself on his chest, and then around to his torso.
"I look like a gigantic ... winged tribble!" He exclaimed, and only about half the people there even knew what he meant.
"You do not, you look warm. Now, you'll be able to wander around properly and not catch your death of cold." Zora said, ruffling his hair. While she was trying to be motherly, unnerving him in the process, other folks were busy gathering around to see where he was headed. This had become kind of an event, since people started finding their draconic friends.
"Okay, well, I'll come back when I'm ready." Svedok said. "Thank you," he bowed to Zora, and then turned to his father. "And thank you, I'll remember your lessons."
"You had better," Lucas said. "Now, go. Find what you need to find."
Svedok stepped through the portal that led to a towering bunch of snow-capped mountains.
The portal closed behind him, and Svedok was left with a strange swirling in his guts. Had he done the right thing? He knew where he should go, there was a kind of keep nearby where elves, humans or some other kinds of sentients lived with their draconic bonds. But...
That wasn't where he was being compelled to walk. Indeed, it wasn't just a "teenage" thing, he really didn't want to go there. Well, he did, but he didn't think it was where he was going to learn anything new. Not about himself, not about magic, anyway.
So he began to walk, his clawed feet sinking into the inch or two of snow that had fallen perhaps the night before. It would have been nothing to just fly into the hazy sky, soar overhead. But then people might see him, and he didn't honestly want that. Not yet. So he clung to the tree line, able to somehow blend in with the motion of the branches, leaving a trail that might have looked like an odd deer or lizard if no one knew that dragons lived here.
But he knew that they did. He could smell them. And more, he could sense them in his mind. Mind magic wasn't his strong point. He inherited a portion of his father's will power, surely, but there was still a weakness he had to the powers of a superior mind. That galled both father and son.
Would these dragons accept him? Were they wild things, or all bonded? Svedok realized he knew little about them, here on this world of Eien.
Svedok paused, his foot just about to set down, when he looked closely at the snow. There were other tracks. Large ones, like his, with the faint occasional brush of a long slender tail between them. One dragon, alone, out here.
Sounded familiar enough...
Taking a deep breath, and a mighty chance, Svedok began to follow the tracks.
***
Led around several large stone outcroppings, and finally into what looked to be a big cavern, Svedok followed the tracks to the end of the snow. Muddy tracks washed out near the entrance to the cave, an equal number of them going in and heading out. He could tell that the last time the tracks were made, they were headed into the cavern. So he knew, unless there was another exit, that the dragon who lived here was alone inside it.
For the first time in many years, Svedok's stomach twisted in fear. Dragons of earth weren't friendly when approached without warning. He didn't much know about these here on Eien, but he knew that they studied magic - they must be intelligent, more so than those found on his own home world.
He bit his lip. What if this dragon didn't want company? What if it was an outcast? As though that might change his desire to know who lived here... It didn't. He wanted so very much to know, who would be out this far in the middle of nowhere when there is a perfectly good outpost to reside in nearby?
"... Hello?" Svedok said, hesitating. He repeated himself, a bit louder, when he heard that his voice echoed weakly into the cavern. After a moment, he heard movement inside. Shifting, a distinct four-footed sound. A sound he was quite familiar with after having lived so long with his mother and siblings in their own cavern.
"Hello? I'm ... My name is Svedok. I'm ... a traveler."
There was a pause, and then from deeply within the cavern, "why would you come here, traveler? There are better places to be. Do not interrupt me."
The voice was powerful, deep, not angry but ... might have been a bit miffed. Svedok knew he would be, if he was interrupted.
"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to, but ... I wasn't planning on taking the typical routes around here. I'm more interested in... well, finding magic to practice."
At that, the sound within the cavern stopped, and started again shortly. A ball of light (lumos, thought Svedok on instinct) came wobbling near, and then he could see the long narrow face of a large black dragon. He had long horns, but the impression that Svedok was getting, was that this was a younger dragon than some.
He looked tired, though. His eyes, though piercing, if they had been human eyes, they would have had dark circles below them.
"Are you all right?" Svedok said, when the dragon came into view. He realized that he'd seen the dragon long before this inhabitant saw him.
Somewhat shocked, the black dragon tilted his head back, and half-squinted into the sky.
"I ... am fine. You say you want magic. I say, I want to be alone." He looked at Svedok, and adopted an odd expression on his long draconic face. He was confused. This was not a dragon, though it smelled of one. This was no human, yet it had a torso and arms like one.
"I think you're wrong -" Svedok said, taking a chance. "I think you can help me, and I know I can help you. No one wants to be alone, for long."
The black dragon sighed, deeply. "I am Dairruinth."
"Svedok, nice to meet you."
"So you say."
Dairruinth turned, sweeping his wings close to his sides, and then seemed to beckon Svedok inside. The cavern was large, but had a low ceiling. It seemed to sprawl, below the surface. And everywhere were the smells and tingling sensations of magic. There were books - tons of them - in a large shelf that had been made of stone. Items were scattered around, some laying broken and some obviously too dangerous to weild.
"You need a maid," Svedok said. Dairruinth turned his head, and snarled. "Hey, no offense, I know bachelors aren't that tidy."
Dairruinth began to grumble something about keeping up appearances for no good reason, but then stopped. Eventually he turned and watched Svedok who was busying himself looking over the dusty volumes near the bottom of the shelves. Dairruinth had long since learned all their secrets, and had no true use for those anyway.
"You have the smell of man on you," Dairruinth stated. "And you are of no appearance I have ever seen."
"That's right," Svedok said, barely looking up. "And you wouldn't recognize my sister, or my other brother just hatched."
"So... what are you, then?" The black dragon asked, curiosity finally growing in him.
"Half dragon. My father mastered his dragon shape a long time before I hatched. My mother is a full dragon, he helped heal her wings up." Svedok said, almost as though it was perfectly normal for him to say.
This obviously piqued Dairruinth's attention. "Half dragon. Half? So... shape shifting magic that powerful does exist?"
At that, Svedok turned and put down the book he was sifting over. "... Yeah, yes, there is. I mean, I wouldn't exist without it. I just barely learned how to become human. But I don't even know if I want to do that any more."
Suddenly the black dragon rose to his feet, and his wings flared with some urgency. "Show me!"
Taken off guard, Svedok had adopted a bit of a defensive posture, but then softened, "what?"
"Show me! I want to see it, it's a rare talent, quite a gift. You can do it, you say?" Dairruinth asked quickly.
"Okay, okay, but I'm not really good at doing anything with it..." Svedok admitted. He brought another light into being, lumos spell again, and concentrated a bit. Shortly, he'd begun to lose his limbs, wings and tail. He eventually stood there, not as he had in the class, but with the warm fur wrap that Zora had enchanted around him. However, he hadn't yet conquered the 'standing up' thing very well. He wobbled, and pretended he wanted to lean on the shelf for no other reason than to look good.
"So, what do you think?" Svedok asked. His horns were the last things to go, leaving his head light and in his opinion somewhat odd looking.
"Amazing!" Dairruinth exclaimed, "just amazing. I can see that you are still yourself, but you ... are you all right?"
Svedok was wobbling, unable to keep from locking his knees. He was about to pass out. Finally he swept back into his normal form. That seemed much easier for him to do, and he wasn't about to try keeping it up.
"I'm fine. Now, are you sure you want to be alone?" Svedok shifted around, sitting.
"I will have to think on it. I find myself intrigued. This magic, can you teach me?"
Svedok grinned, widely. "I can try. It's not something anyone can do, but if you already have a good idea of what you want, that's a start."
"Then stay here for a bit. I notice you are interested in some of my books."
"They don't have these where I'm from. They look really interesting. Herbalism on a foreign planet. Weird." He flipped open one and then another. "So, I can stay here?"
"For a bit." Dairruinth assured him.
***
to be continued... At the Ring of Fire Summer Flame Flight! (he paired up with a lovely furry dragoness, the white-gold Shannon Aridan, and his daughter is black-gold-silver furry Shurai Aridan of Seevi
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