Keith crossed the road, compelled to see what was in the forest. He crunched through the layer of pine needles, working his way deeper until, looking back, he couldn't even see the road anymore, though he still felt he should continue forwards.
After walking a little deeper, the trees opened up to form a clearing of a sorts. The pines gave way to huge maples that stood in a circle, yet their branches covered the space, letting only a little bit of green light through.
At the center, altar-like, was a huge slab of granite. It was irregular and worn, though the top of it was almost flat, but not quite smooth. There seemed to be markings on the side, though they had long since been worn away by the elements and disguised beneath moss.
There was a potent, almost palpable gathering of energy in the clearing. Holy probably wasn't the right word for it, but almost as moving.
Keith took a breath, realizing he hadn't taken on since he stepped into the clearing. He felt warm and his hand rose to his neck, grasping the chain of his necklace and pulling it over his head almost without realizing it. As he held it out at arm length, he realized that the pendant had changed. No longer gold, it was now a dark crimson and flawlessly detailed with burning amber eyes.
Keith slowly felt his arm lowering, placing the necklace in a slight depression in the granite surface and let go, stepping back almost to the edge of the clearing.
He could almost feel the heat as the pendant melted, the molten metal sitting in the depression. There was a sizzling noise as the dew gathered on the rock surface began to boil and the moss along the side of the granite slab darkened, the maple leaves curling and rackling. Steam gathered in the air and began to coalesce, billowing larger and larger until a shape could be discerned.
Keith stood breathless once more as towering over him was the ethereal shape of a huge dragon, the ruddy molten metal giving the mist a reddish coloration.
A deep voice rumbled in the air like rolling thunder. "Keith... Aloysius..."
Keith nodded. The latter was his name he used for his dragon alter ego. He didn't notice the dragon point to him and then itself.
"There are few dragons left in this world. There used to be as many as the stars, but now we number as few as the digits of your hands. This much change." The dragon seemed to smile a little. "You are the last male dragon. There are nine females. Some, like you, don't realize they are not human, others who are as old as this town in the long-lived nature of our kind."
Keith seemed to realize what this apparition was getting at. "You mean I have to breed with these females?"
The dragon nodded. "They will be quite willing. There hasn't been another male for some seventeen years when your predecessor was killed and you... we were born. Years of estrus can be rough and the young ones will also feel the need soon."
Strangely, the idea intrigued Keith. "So, I suppose you're going to show me how to become a dragon so I can go out and be a noble patriarch?" The apparition nodded and stepped back, sitting on its haunches. He, judging by the bulge between his hind legs, dipped his talon into the molten metal and lifted the mass out, it stretching downwards as if going to drip before the metal hardened, forming a roughly grape-sized jewel on a silver chain. The dragon set the necklace around Keith's neck and he reached up to touch the jewel.
Like an electric shock he felt a sudden burst of energy through his body. It was omentarily blinding, but when he closed and opened his eyes he realized he was looking down on the clearing from a different perspective.
Fifteen feet tall at the top of his head, Kieth was sitting there as serene as a dragon could be. He could feel his wings and tail just as naturally as if they were his own arms and legs and his body felt indestructible, his senses unbelievably keen.
Looking down, the necklace was still around his neck, though proportionally larger with his body. Reluctantly, he reached up and touched the jewel again, expecting the result.
A bit less dramatic, he was a human again, though the energy of the clearing seemed to be inside rather than around him. The image of the dragon was gone, though he knew who it was all along.
"Aloysius," he whispered softly. Sitting serenely on the granite slab was a piece of paper and a package wrapped in parchment.
He looked over the note which said that the package contained something to help him in his quest.
Inside was five necklaces similar to his own, no doubt for the five dragonesses who were yet to be informed that not only were they dragonesses, but they were to repopulate the species with him. The other object was a bit more curious. It seemed to be....
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Tue Feb 08 15:43:59 2005
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