From the Ashes. . .

[Byzannce]

"Scaley?"

"Spellworm?"

"Are you TRYING to tick me off?"

"And what do you mean you don't eat meat raw... you RUIN your meat by cooking it all?"


The revulsion at that thought shimmered through his mind.

"You know, we're going to have to work on your tastes! All those fruits and vegetables are NOT healthy."

[Nithhogr]

He continued to watch quietly. For a dragon his size, even transformed into that of the human form, he moved quietly and efficiently. He had watched as the young blue had been torn from the sky, and then as her body was sent to the winds.

Yet, something bothered him. He could still sense her.

He watched the man who had launched the projectile that had taken down the blue for days. He was changing… and one could not say that it would be for the better.

He would need to find the Lord and convey this information… if he could get past the rage that he felt within the Lord…

[PslyderFTA]

Shivering on the tile of his bathroom, Opal in hand, it was all the elf could do to keep up his conversation through clenched teeth. . .

"We. . .ain' geared. . .t'eat raw meat. . .y'fraggin' brainraper. . .b'sides, Ah grew up. . .eatin' veggies. . ."

Shakily getting to his feet to stare into the mirror, he continued.

"An' furthermore, it ain' none'a yer damn business who Ah'm tryin' t' tick off. Yer th' one trespassin' heah, not me! Y'want raw woolbush, get'cher own damn body!"

[Byzannce]

"brain raper? YOU are the murderer!!!"

Rage fairly sang through his mind, sending a flush of adrenaline into his bloodstream.

"I HAD my own body you dragon murderer until you shot me!"

A stream of dragon language shot through his thoughts.

[PslyderFTA]

Picking himself back up from the floor, Psly shook his head again to clear it.

"Shut UP!. . . It ain' mah fraggin' fault th' two'a you flyin' spellwyrms had t'duke it out where ya did, but dammitall, Ah's jus' doin' mah job! All you two was doin' was tearin' up whaht Ah's suppos' t'protect!"

Psly continued to stare himself down in the mirror, slowing his breathing as he tried to calm himself down.

"A'ight. . .this heah's gettin' us fraggin' nowheah slow. See, all yer doin' is killin' me bit by bit wit' alla this. An' guess whaht happens when Ah die?"

A ghost of a smile haunted Psly's lips. . .
"Thaht's right, toots. . .If'n Ah die now, Ah'm takin' you wit' me. So heah's th' deal. Ah'll see whaht Ah c'n do 'bout gettin' you outta mah skull b'fo' you split it wide, an' you shut th' frag up fer a while, an' make do wit' yer cooked lamb. Y'scan me?"

[Byzannce]

She pondered his words for long minutes.

"Your job is to slay dragons?"


How could he be dying when his body was changing more into her old form? This puzzled her.

The sheep behind the garage bleeted and her attention focused on that sweet sound.

Reflex took over......

[PslyderFTA]

Much later, after repeated showerings and such, Psly stared back into the mirror, wiping steam from the smooth surface.

"Ah'm dyin' 'cause this fragile mortal shell cain' take much more'a yer influence. An' no, mah job ain' killin' dragons. Mah job used ta be protectin' th' city from random death'n destruction."

More bleating outside caused the elf to clench the countertop, gritting his teeth.

"Fraggitall, Ah said no. Ah'll kill th' li'l critters, Ah'll skin' 'em too. But Ah cain' take no mo'a this eatin' 'em while they still cryin'. . .they ain' prey t'me, so back off!"

[Byzannce]

Torment! Dinner was just outside, and the elf wouldn't go.

"Well, if you let the change complete, you could use proper teeth to do your slaying more quickly. Then they wouldn't cry so much. Usually that's over quickly, and you can eat'em in a couple of quick bites."

She worked hard at picturing hunger in his mind.




He clung to the counter tenaciously.



"You no longer protect the city? Why not? And you do realize that is what I was doing when you killed me."

[PslyderFTA]

"Mah. . .mouth. . .ain'. . .big enough fer no. . .fraggin'. . .sheep!"

Psly kept his hold on the countertop, willing the hunger away. . .not so hard, really. . .his stomach was already roiling.

"An' no, Ah din't. But y'know, y'din't 'zactly go 'round advertisin', now did'ja?"

He pushed off from the counter, slapping his bare back against the wall and sliding down to hug his knees while sitting on the floor.

"An' if'n yer gon' gimme thaht 'Let th' affairs'a dragons be dealt wit' by dragons' thang, y'all shoulda kep' yer dragon affairs outta downtown."

By now, all he could do was grumble, having not slept since before the challenge match.

"So fer th' las' time, knock it off. They's roast'a lamb inna oven, an' thaht'll be done by th' time Ah'm ready t'eat again. It's mah body, dammit, so quit tryin' t'remake it in yer image. 'S been done already."

[Byzannce]

"Well, if you let the change finish, you WOULD have a mouth big enough for sheep," she grumbled.

"and the right teeth to eat'em too!," she added spitefully.

A sheep bleeted as he slid down the wall. Her attention focused intently on it.

"And since when should we advertise that we're helping you silly mortals? You wanted to take on Lord Momus yourself? Kill the Dragon Lord? Bring the entire populace upon you for such an action?"

He was muttering as exhaustion began to claim him.


Yeah, it was his body, but only because he'd denied her of her own.

As for that roasted lamb... he wouldn't be keeping THAT down! YUCK!

[Shard]

Shard carried the only two boxes of things that she owned. She figured since she was staying there anyway, there was no use paying weekly rent on a place she wasn't staying at.

Psly's behavior had gotten decidedly weirder, but at least she understood why, now. Before heading back to the garage, she stopped at a library, digging through books on possession to see what she could find about the current situation.

None of them had anything she was looking for. Mostly, it was myths, and incantations. Silly things to do to protect from possession. But nothing to rid someone of whatever it was they were possessed with. Or how to, at least, keep the person possessed from totally losing their mind.

Apparently, exorcists didn't like to share there information with anyone.

She had a bad feeling.

Shard grabbed her things, and headed out the library's doors. She started off at a quick trot towards Psly's garage.

The sound of bleating greeted her, but she was starting to get used to it. And the smell of roast lamb... Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten at all today.

Psly was talking to himself again. Or to what was possessing him. She cringed, hearing the tears in his voice, but not going in. He had made it clear that this was his battle... She was just the moral support.

So she waited, with the boxes on her knees, until she heard him sit, and his soft snores. She creeped in, and set her things down on the table. This was not what she expected of love.

Shard shook her head, and walked to where Psly had slumped. She picked him up, easily, and carried him into the bedroom. She covered him up, and pulled up the chair next to him, finding her place in the book she had been reading.

[Kor Jon]

Jacob could feel the touch of Byzannce's mind leading him onwards. He sped over the roof tops of the city calling out to her again and again not wanting to lose the connection. Finally he landed in front of the building he could sense her in and knocked calling through the door, "Can Miss Lady Dragon come out and play?"

[Byzannce]

The elf was dreaming as I rummaged around in his memories. He was changing quickly, but he could not digest the sheep I so loved, and the bathroom floor was hard and uncomfortable.

His dreams took a turn and he invited me to join him - he pictured us in a field facing one another, and he pictured me in my old body. His speech was clear and his aggressive attitude was missing. "Now then, shall we talk? And this time without threats, loss of temper, or any other such interruptions?"

A quick lash of my tale. This elf had killed me and he wanted no temper? "I'm listening." I told him, but my tail continued to thrash in agitation.

He sat in the long grass first, "very good, here is the situation at it stands at the moment. I cannot undergo the full change you seek, simply due to the fact that my mortal shell is inadequate for the task and too fragile to sustain your existence."

I narrowed my eyes at him. If he thought I was going to leave because he was uncomfortable, he had another thing coming. I asked him what he thought I should be doing about it since I wasn't the one who killed me! I am what I am. Dragons are not simply magic users, we ARE magic itself. I can no more stop the changes to his body than he can stop breathing.

He continued by telling me that he couldn't continue to eat my preferred diet of raw meat, and that something had to be done, or he would perish, and I along with him. He proposed constructing a new body just for me.

I lowered my head to look him in the eyes. My own eyes looked back at me from the elf. The longer I remain within, the more he begins to look like me. "Construct a new body?" I asked him with as much skepticism as I felt.

"Yes, through DNA manipulation I can have a body force grown for you, and download your directing intellect into it for the purpose of creating the change."

I frowned. His words were foreign, but the basic idea was clear. He wanted to use his basic genetic structure to grow a second body, alter it somehow, and move me into it. I gave him a hard look, "you said you could not survive the change, why would this body be able to?"

He told me that the body would be altered to allow it to subsist on a diet of raw sheep, bones and all, and that it would be created to adapt to the changes, and not already be inhabited. Was it truly that simple? With a quick swish of my tail, "you can make such a thing?" Should I hope?

He told me that he had access to a place that could do this, but that the form would be a protoform that would mean essentially going back to being an infant for about 3 months. I growled at his words.

"If you would but search my memories, you would find a similar experience; I myself have undergone this procedure in the past."

I snapped my jaws together right in front of his face. The thought of being a helpless hatchling again was not something I was fond of. I demanded to know why he didn't simply vacate this body and leave it to me if it were that simple.

"Because I highly doubt you wish to live out the remainder of your rather significant lifespan as a male. And as for your bodily needs, satisfying them is only damaging this body."

He told me that while I was in the proto-state, strangers would care for me, and I had to wonder if they too had a mandate to slay dragons. I stretched my wings, "why do you believe the change would slay you?"

He looked at me, "because my body is not strong enough to handle the forces a dragon's body naturally deal with on a daily basis, and if by some chance the body did not die of shock, you would be, in draconic terms, humanly weak."

It really was too bad Saltera had incinerated my body - then these 'cloners' as he called them could have started with a dragon's body for me.

We talked at length about a truce until the protobody could be created, but I can't eat cooked meat! He claims he can't eat a whole sheep. And fruits and vegetables? SHEEEEESH!

He paused a bit, as though considering, "a few other minor matters to attend to. One, while I do believe you have access to the entirety of my memories, you might want to restrict yourself from viewing too many." I giggled to myself; I had already begun sifting through those.

I gave him a dagger grin and asked why? Was he a murderer outside of dragon kind?

He admitted to killing in his past, but that wasn't what he was alluding to. "Let me put it this way. While I'm quite sure that someday your insatiable curiosity will lead you to attempt to experience human sexuality, I'm just as sure you don't want to have any memories from MY standpoint."

If a dragon could blanche, I'm certain I did. Then, with an insouciant grin, "I'll endeavor to avoid those memories, unless you think I could learn something enlightening about humans?"

He dryly told me to be careful; there were several things I could learn about humans. He said he'd been insane, and that the memories would not likely yield anything important, but what about more recent memories?

I suggested it could still be interesting, and that he might find the female view rather interesting, but he told me he couldn't process my thoughts, too much information.

So, he'd tried too.

He continued on, changing the subject, "I am truly sorry, and yes, the next shot would have been aimed at this Lord Momus if that was the dragon that you were fighting."

His words snapped me back to the present, "you would have brought all of dragon kind to hunt you."

He said that where he came from, dragons were power controlling, evil, scheming villains. Well, what's wrong with that? Well, minus the villains’ part anyway.

He could not tell me where his home world was. It seems he's lost.

We began to argue over the nature of dragons, and that wouldn't help either one of us, and so I waited while he left the dreaming state.

Now, about my insatiable curiosity.....

........................where might those memories be stored??

[Shard]

A knock at the door disrupted her reverie in the fantasy world of her book. Shard stood and climbed down the stairs quietly, so as not to wake Psly.

"Can Miss Lady Dragon come out to play?"

Shard stopped a moment, and took a deep breath, trotting towards the door, her features sliding into Morpheus as she went.

She opened the door cautiously, and peeked outside.

"Yes?"

[PslyderFTA]

Deep in the recesses of his mind, Psly mused.

"Well, secret's out, A. . .I suppose. . ."

While it was true the elf was from where he claimed, the majority of his accent was feigned.

An affectation, if you will, to foster any potential opponent to underestimate the "hick".

But, so far, the only one to know this was the dragon.

And as far as Psly was concerned, it would stay that way.