Old Man Dragon - Chapter 4 Choice

Luis woke up…again… and was greeted with a massive headache. An unknown amount of time had passed and he could see fading twilight through the roots. Sitting up, he shook off dirt that had collected on his scales. Everything hurts… Examining his body led to many unpleasant discoveries.

The skin and scales on his left hind leg were dyed dark red and black from blood, and it hurt to move it in any sort of fashion. Several scales had been sheared off his back from the struggle.

His throat felt raw and dry from both dehydration and roaring nonstop in pain. Having not eaten in many days left his body felt drained of all energy. He could guess that whatever miracle he pulled before also contributed to his lack of energy.

Looking over, he finally started to examine the corpse of the wolf that had been sitting motionless nearby.

The first thing Luis looked at was the small black hole where he had burned through the wolf with some sort of… power. How did I do this?

He recalled the fuzzy memories from before, remembering that he had somehow released the warm current of energy that had once healed him in the form of an attack… a beam of light that melted through the wolf’s defenses. It was like… magic. The two instances of using that strange warm current had produced results unexplainable by science.

What an amazing power… Luis wondered if he could still use it. Feeling nothing stirring in his chest when he concentrated, he put that train of thought on hold. Using his claw, he shifted the cold body of the dead wolf to get a closer look at its face.

He soon discovered that the green patch of fur on its forehead that had produced the light wasn’t fur at all. It was a diamond shaped gemstone embedded in its forehead.

It was quite fascinating to Luis. How did this produce that light and protect the wolf? Poking at it with his claw yielded no response. If he wasn’t in the condition he was in, he would have spent more time trying to reveal its secrets, but for now he had other worries to deal with.

So hungry… Luis’ stomach grumbled in protest as he squeezed his body through the roots to get outside, carefully maneuvering so that he favored his uninjured right hind leg. This was quite difficult with him missing his right arm.

He returned to the clearing where he first emerged from the egg. Having the luxury of not being chased by a terrifying wolf, he was able to examine his surroundings closer.

Not far from where his shell was, he discovered a flattened space with the remnants of smashed eggs, similar to the one he hatched from.

There were two pairs of massive footprints as well, one of which had the same pattern as Luis’ claw, only much much bigger. All at once the clues came together, and Luis was able to vaguely guess what occurred on that fateful day.

Whatever creature laid the egg he was hatched from…His mother? Luis shook his head, the thought too bizarre to really consider.

Whatever laid the eggs got into a fight with an equally massive creature, and the resulting conflict had rocked the earth, causing that earthquake. From the remains of the other eggs, he must have gotten lucky and rolled away before being smashed, at the cost of breaking his arm.

You poor souls, may you rest in peace… Luis said a quick prayer for the other eggs that were not so lucky. He wondered where the two colossal creatures went. Hopefully they don’t return… After the fight with the wolf, he was not looking forward to meeting any other larger predators.

Limping around, he found a pile of snow, which he began taking large mouthfuls of. Snow was water after all.

Luis hadn’t a clue what to do. He was stuck in a foreign place in a foreign body. He couldn’t even speak anymore, only able to make animalistic sounds. What am I going to do from now on? Luis was thinking hard when his stomach protested once again.

Sighing, he returned to the dead wolf and pulled it out of the pit into the open, which was quite difficult due to its weight.

Luis sat there on his hind legs, staring at the corpse. Minutes passed, but it was hard to overcome his misgivings on what he knew he would have to do. Its meat is cold, not to mention raw… Two very important details preventing him from just tearing away and eating his fill.

After testing it, he found the skin was no longer reinforced, and it would have been quite easy to rip open with his sharp claw and teeth.

Just before giving in to the urges of hunger, a familiar scent wafted into his nostrils. Smoke. It had been many days since the battle of giants, and the smell of smoke had all but disappeared. For it to suddenly appear again this strongly could only mean one thing.

Someone had made a fire! There were people nearby! Luis continued to sniff the air. Whatever type of creature he was, its senses were far stronger than a humans. Soon, Luis singled out a pungent order among various smells. It was the smell of a person who hadn’t bathed for a while.

Never thought I would be so happy to smell body odor… Luis laughed internally, the joy of finally finding someone that could help him flooding his veins. Pinpointing the direction of the smell, he happily began dragging the wolf by the scruff in its direction. However, he only made it ten feet before reality smacked him him in the face.

I’m not human anymore. What if…what if they try to kill me? This train of thought dissolved away all the joy Luis was feeling previously. He began to seriously consider his situation once again. Realistically, he only had two choices.

One was to forget about meeting people, eat the wolf, and live like an animal trying to survive in the wild. The other was to risk meeting people in this form and try to convince them to help him. It was quite possible they would simply try to kill him.

Having lived an entire lifetime as a man, he found the former choice to be impossible. Living with no human contact or interaction would be like subjecting himself to hell, especially after living so long in isolated darkness.

He would have to take the risk and make himself seem harmless. Filled with new determination, he resumed dragging the wolf towards the source of the smells.