FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Awakening of Dragons

Chapter One

---

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by NomexGlove

---

---

The mountains, a rough and rugged landscape, held many secrets, but none as great as what had occurred in one expedition underground that had opened a nest of new experiences and changes for a certain team. They had only been exploring the cave system with two experienced guides, Alex and Sandra, a couple of their friends and a group of university students, yet things had transformed beyond all human belief.

From skin to scales and arms spreading in the fashion of wings... For them, there had been no going back to human lives once they had become dragonesses, standing tall and proud, even if they had begun, as humans, as males. That had been something more for the men to understand, though every dragoness had had another to turn to, comfort to take where there had been scarce some before.

The wind blew, Kelvin picking up her head, the dragoness blue-scaled, mostly, and splashed through with white, so that she bore a mottled pattern. Things were more settled for her, though she had been through the "ringer", so to speak, and she knew, wholeheartedly, that she didn't want to go back to her old life. It was not so much running from the aches and pains, the relationship that had exploded in her face when she had sought out the love of her life, but understanding that the time to heal was as imperative as all else that had become their day-to-day there.

With light, delicate horns, she was not a dragoness who would have been considered a fighter, a defender, though that was more Jenson's forte, the strong, silver-black dragoness bulky and the most masculine of their flight. Kelvin's watchful eyes swept over the resting dragons, the mounds of their nests where the eggs lay buried, her gaze always patient, waiting for something that not even she could put a name to.

That was something she had learned also. There wasn't always an answer for something and that was okay too. She didn't have to know everything and her past life as a human, as a man, felt so very distant, so very far away, that she couldn't ever imagine not being a dragon, let alone a dragoness, ever again.

She smiled, the tip of her tail wiggling back and forth, playing with her own body, the flexibility in her lithe yet strong form, muscles compacted, a sense of comforting strength under the surface. At the very least, she could be glad that some of the unrest had settled. But she was not the only one who had changed.

Things had changed for the dragonesses, the beings that had begun as humans but had always been meant to be dragons, matriarchs of a species and a new age of the world. In their favoured spots near the nesting ground, they rested, at peace, tails twitching faintly, though not all the dragons were asleep. Anniyah and Jenson sat close with Isla-Rae sleeping soundly, the rusty bronze dragoness preening her partner, cleaning her scales with all the love and care that they had devoted to each other as humans.

"You always get such grime in your wings," she murmured to Jenson, Isla-Rae cracking open a sleepy eye, watching them on the edge of sleep. "Jenson, sweetheart... You must take better care of yourself."

Jenson only rumbled faintly, relaxing in the attention. She had settled a little better than some of the others into being a dragoness, though she had not had the easiest of lives, truthfully, before as a man with dark skin. There were a lot of differences in her experience as an African Canadian man and that of others with paler skin, perhaps even those that could "pass" as white, yet that perhaps set her up the best to see how their relationship with the rest of the world would come to be seen.

No one knew about them, not really, not yet. Well, there had been that debacle in the city, when they'd had to retrieve Kelvin, to bring their sister home again, but that had not gone anywhere near as badly as it could have done. For that, Jenson was grateful, peaceful, relaxing, letting the thoughts go. In a dragoness' mind, thoughts like that didn't have any place. They didn't belong there.

Alan had noticed that all of them, even her with her red-green scales that blended into a soft, camouflaging brown when she shifted just so, had grown larger too, the most studious of the dragonesses. She was always recording, noting, observing, even experimenting, though they had quelled some of that when Alan had gotten a little too personal with them. Not everything could be shared with the flight, after all, but one thing that Alan had noted was that they had changed, even with their increase in size.

A small spine. It was innocuous, not something that affected their daily lives, but it was there, at the base of their skulls. It matched everyone's unique colouration, not a similar shade between the spines amongst them all, and Alan had suggested that it denoted that they had laid a clutch. Of course, it was something that could only be confirmed when they laid a second clutch, she supposed, but she was perhaps the most eager out of all the dragonesses to see what was to come. If someone could have found their life's purpose at the forefront of discoveries, experiencing it all for themselves too, that definition would have fit Alan perfectly.

Far from mere beasts, they had, however, embraced their new, draconian natures, their personalities blending, shifting, finding a new sense of themselves. It had to change, of course, it did, but the moments were theirs to take at their own pace, day by day. They hunted where needed, but also used every part of their kills, treating the land respectfully, giving back all that they took from it. They'd also discovered, through trial and error and Alan's research, down in the cave system, that they could eat berries, roots and other things too. It was difficult to sustain creatures like them on mere vegetation, of course, but it gave them more options, cooking food and finding different flavours and different ways of making it their own. Arya had mused over planting vegetable plots, remembering how she had spent hours cultivating plants when she had had a human life.

Arya, in particular, enjoyed weaving through the trees, flexing the suppleness of her new body. The swing of her tail helped balance her and she paused before a pine that had taken on an infection - a fungus that clawed its way deep. Her brow furrowed and the dragoness crooned softly, nudging at it, though she didn't quite know what it was that she could do. Maybe Alan would know of something, though she didn't think anyone else had spent as much time with plants as she had, even if it had only been a hobby for her.

Brent and Jenson were, most likely, the strongest dragonesses amongst them, their physical activity keeping them strong, the most muscular of the dragonesses, even though Brent had gained a powerful beauty too. She was not a dragoness to back down easily, though she'd only had to scare a pack of wolves off once when they had come sniffing around the nesting ground. They did not know the scent of dragons, after all, and to respect and give them space, though Brent did not fight them. All it took was a good roar and a buffet of air from her wings to send them on their way, a new respect for dragons set in their minds to pass down to the next generation.

In appearance, it was as if their bodies had settled into their new forms, over the few months that had passed with them living away from humanity, near the caves, protecting their land and gently dissuading humans with blockades from scaling the rugged terrain. It was not that difficult, particularly as the weather worsened, to put people off from disturbing them and uncovering their presence, but it was a concern that they had to hold in mind every day. Sooner or later, it would happen, and then everything would change.

For the moment, however, everything was soft and peaceful, all that it needed to be. They preened and they pressed in close to each other, taking comfort from one another. Isla-Rae often sat close with Anniyah, grooming one another with their lips and tongues, though there were certain plants too that they had found could be rubbed into their scales too in tender areas, like between the forelegs, to condition where they needed a little more attention. Bathing together was more difficult through the colder months, though the shock of cold water had invigorated them, rising dripping from the lake, water sparkling from their hides, powerful as they were, their heads held high.

There was no longer a dragoness amongst them that did not take on a regal clarity, as if to slouch would have been to lower themselves, a little bit of their minds coming to accept what had happened to them and a little encompassed in their bodies simply growing stronger as they used them correctly. Dysfunctional movement, such as when they were stumbling and trying to work out where to put their limbs, did not build easy muscle, but the rolling lightness of their gaits, as they grew, allowed them to be far more comfortable as they were.

Alex, Sandra, Anniyah, Jenson, Brent, Santino, Alan, Arya, Isla-Rae and, of course, last but never least, Kelvin. They could not have done what they were doing without each other, without the support of the flight of dragonesses.

However, everything could not remain the same forever, not always, not when they were on the brink of civilisation, the edge of the world that had once accepted them, more or less, as they were, as human beings. The wind stirred, rustling old, dried leaves across the rocks, though the vegetation up in the mountains was as tough and as rugged as the landscape that it was forced to take root in. The valleys were better, dipping into luscious green, fruitful where they knew how to find sustenance, though the dragonesses had had to be savvy to keep themselves going, especially in the early days.

Sandra lifted her head, tongue flickering out, always on alert, even when she should have been resting and slumbering softly. Although they were a good two hours, perhaps even three for a slower, less experienced hiker, from the old trail from which they had diverged to go to the cave system all that time ago, there was still a risk.

The scuffle of feet on rocks... A brush of cloth on a twig, catching, pulling. The dragoness' eyes widened, tail stiffening subtly.

"Someone's coming."

Alex was alert in a moment, the larger dragon clad in red scales, rich and powerful, something of her and Sandra speaking of royals in her regal blue too. Yet there were no royals and no nobles, no queens, not amongst their flight. They may all have had their strengths to step to the forefront at different times, but they were all equals, giving and taking to keep the flight together, to keep them strong as a whole.

Time seemed to slow, her breath catching, the moment taking a step back. She had to hold on, however, for there was no danger there and the small, white scrap of a face wrapped up in a huge, puffy coat and a scarf that was not as well-suited to hiking as the woman it belonged to might have liked appeared over the edge of a rock. They were down in a little hollow of a valley, with their egg mounds, trees framing them, though the woman's eyes shot wide as she looked down on the beasts.

It would have been silly to pretend that they were not there, that they were not dragons, yet Sandra's heart surged. Alex didn't seem to recognise the human, yet Sandra's nostrils twitched and pulled at even the cool chill and nip on the air, sifting through to find that old, pungent aroma of patchouli beneath it all. Heavens, how she had hated patchouli before! Yet it was like greeting an old friend to feel that scent sifting into her and her lungs, taking deep, panting, greedy breaths, her flanks shuddering with every one.

"Dear? What is it? Who is it?"

She shook her head, though brushed her wing comfortingly against Alex's, comforting her. She would be fine, they would all be fine, there was no doubt in Sandra's heart about that.

Yet how was it to be handled? Alex, that day, was the only one so far who had realised that a blue coat on a human form had appeared, a spot of non-dragon colour in a landscape that was still recovering in the prelude to spring. That was when they anticipated that their eggs would hatch, though Alan was still working on the hatching times, how long their young, their sweet little ones, would remain safe in their eggs. There would be time later to go into that, however.

Sandra rose, trying not to disturb the others, though heads lifted, Arya blinking sleepily in a low, languid yawn that set off the others yawning too. They muttered and shifted amongst themselves, news spreading, eyes locking onto the point at which Sandra's eyes were fixed, following the lead of the other matriarch.

"Julie?"

She spoke clearly, the wind carrying her voice, wincing at how loud she must have been. She didn't want to scare her...not her friend, not the woman that had held her so close when they had lost their daughter, her and Alex. Julie shifted slightly, but otherwise gave no other indication that she had heard Sandra, if she even recognised the dragoness' voice at all. Even then, Sandra was acutely aware of how much deeper it was, lower, though not as booming as Jenson's. That raspy, deep tone was not something that Jenson, after all, had lost after becoming a dragoness, keeping herself in the change.

She had to be the one to approach Julie, step by step, up a small incline, though it was gradual enough that she could keep her pace careful, slow, as unintimidating as possible. As always, she was acutely aware of the looks of the other dragons, shifting closer to one another, seeking comfort. Maybe they knew as well as she did that there was no going back from a moment of exposure like that, not when it was someone they knew.

It was the start of pebbles rolling down the hill, bouncing, scrabbling, picking up speed. She only hoped that her family of dragons would not crash at the bottom and knew, in her heart, that they would do all that they could to spread their wings, together, and take flight from it.

"Julie?" Sandra said gently, standing on the same level as her old friend, her face more familiar, if worn, with a few more lines around her eyes than the dragoness remembered. "It's me... Sandra. Please... Please, be calm. Don't scream. Not like that time we were watching the horror film, you know? You scared Alex so badly..."

She tried to make light of the moment, pulling an old memory to the forefront of both their minds, where a jump scare had gotten the better of Julie and her friend had thrown an entire bucket of popcorn in the air. With the scarf pulled across her lips, however, Sandra could not tell if Julie recalled the moment or not.

The moment stretched out between them, a tense silence that could not so easily be broken. Sandra swayed her tail, searching for another tact.

"Julie, please," she implored. "Please, say something. It's me, it's really me... Say something, say anything. Oh... I have missed you."

She shuddered and it seemed to be that little shake of her body that took Julie out of her haze, her lower jaw dropping, eyes suddenly blinking when she didn't even realise that she had been holding them open for so long.

"S-Sandra?" Julie stuttered, fumbling with her words, looking up at the dragoness who, at that time, towered over her, moving her tail to communicate as much as she used her words. "What are you... No... What... No. I've hit my head or something, haven't I? This can't be... You... No..."

She shook her head and made as if to step back, hands at her head, but Sandra gently adjusted her body to block her way, though she intended no harm.

"No, Julie... You're not dreaming, it's real... It's..." Sandra chuckled shortly and shook her head, half-lifting her wings in her version of a shrug. "Well, things have changed. Why don't you come sit down? Alex is here too. In fact...everyone from our expedition is here, alive and well. No one was harmed."

It took a little convincing, though Julie did not say much, wide-eyed and staring, Sandra gently guiding her down, though she didn't take her to where the nesting mounds were. There was something more primal inside her that said she was not to take someone "new" around the eggs, though Sandra was sure too, in the back of her mind, that that could be tamed, that it would not rear its ugly head.

She had to have her friend and, oh, how her heart pulled for Julie, sitting her down near a fire that Anniyah breathed life into, the flicker of fiery breath something that seemed to come most easily to the flame-coloured dragoness. Where she spoke of autumn in her scale colouration, the fire within her burned brightly. They'd learned, at least a little, that they could do "things" with their breath, though not everyone had found their flame yet. Alan had assumed things there and, as always, was trying to find the answers.

It took a while for Julie to stop shaking but, to be fair to her, she had always been quite level-headed, not the sort of woman to be a hindrance in a crisis. There were no cups of tea for the dragons to make her, though they had used some of the clay pots that could be used to at least make hot water over a fire. Alan especially had become one of the most dextrous with her claws, after spending so much time down in the cave system.

The mere act of holding a cup of steaming water between her gloved hands, at the very least, calmed Julie, made her feel like things were a little more normal, even if she was settled down in a frosty clearing with a group of dragons. Actual, living, breathing dragons.

Her daughter was never going to believe her when she told her. No one was going to believe her.

Brushing her brown hair back from her face, her hat and scarf, at least, removed with Sandra sitting close enough to warm her with her body, Julie took a deep breath, cheeks rosy with the cold.

"So, let me get this straight," Julie said, though there was a tremor in her voice that Sandra had never imagined hearing before. "You all went down into the caves...and came out as dragons."

"Dragonesses," Santino chipped in, always quick, a smile on her lips as she waved her purple tail. "All of us. Even Jenson, who really needs a new name now."

Jenson rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I'll choose a name if it feels fitting...shrimp."

"Hey now - that's not fair!"

Santino slumped to the side as if she had been mortally wounded, startling smiles and snickers to the lips of the dragons. It was not out of character for Santino, though it was good to see her acting more like her usual self after being a little quieter since Kelvin's rescue. She'd never quite said what went down when she was the last to join them in the air after causing the dust storm as a distraction, but everyone knew that something had happened. With her well and as happy as she could be with all the changes going on, they knew that they had to wait for her to open up on that one.

"That is the gist of it," Alex added with a tilt of his head. "Not the names and the comedian over there, but that we all ended up as female dragons here. There seems to be a change coming, but a good one, not like all those doomsday films that we all used to be so into."

She laughed, shaking her head, her tail twitching in amusement. Little things like that had become more natural to the dragons over the course of their time transformed, though it was strange being around a human after so long apart. Where they had learned to communicate, more easily, with their bodies, they had to actively think about speaking more, not trusting their bodies to fill in the blanks with little twitches of muscle, pushes of their tails, looks where their eyes spoke louder than words. It was more difficult than they could have expected.

"Could you imagine looking at those and thinking any of what went on in those things was possible now? We're the change that came... I'm not sure what more I can say on that, really..."

It was different, Julie had to agree, though her mind raced, trying to quiet the frantic pounding of her heart. She had so many questions, all tangled into one another, so she was left chasing the tail of one while distracted by another. It was not as if, however, she could do anything about it, parting her lips again.

"I have so much to ask you, but...there's got to be contact details for people, emergency contacts that we should get in touch with... Sandra, Alex - didn't you handle that?"

Sandra nodded, a light in her eyes.

"Yes! Oh, we can finally get in touch with Sara for you, Arya! And your daughter, Anniyah!"

Many must have thought that they were dead and the hunger to reassure them, to finally let them know, safely, that they were well and alive, thrummed through the dragonesses like an undercurrent of electricity. Yet Alan could not sit still for a moment longer, standing as she uncurled her tail from around her feet.

"Yes... We need to do something, to let people know what's happened, now that you've seen us," she began, working her tongue around her mouth as if she, for once, was struggling with the right words. "But... Julie, I think you have to go. You're not down in the caverns, but you're the first person who's been here. We don't know what might happen if you stay here for too long, I need to look into this more, I need to..."

She trailed off, clamping her jaws together. For, through all the research in the world, she could not find all the answers at the tips of her claws at every moment and that was something that made her soul ache. She wanted to know, wanted to have all the answers - and, yet, she did not.

That spurred the others into haste, Sandra and Alex getting Julie up, on her feet, as if she was a child being ushered on and out.

"Yes, yes... She's right, we need to make sure you're safe," Sandra said, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of Julie's safety sooner, her old protectiveness surging. "The second drawer in the study bureau! That's where all the information is, everyone on the expedition, everyone to contact."

One voice, however, as Julie prepared to leave, cut through the noise. In a way, she had learned that she did not need to raise her voice to be heard.

"Julie."

Kelvin spoke quietly, so quietly that they had to strain to hear her. She was more comfortable, however, than she had been with their eyes fixed on her, the attention of her loving family, her sisters.

"Don't call my contact," she said after a pause that had sunk fangs into the old wounds of her heart. "She doesn't want to know me. She already knows we're dragons...and I don't want to know her anymore."

Arya leaned in against Kelvin's side, sharing body warmth, letting Kelvin sigh and relax, a little of the tension slipping from her. The blue-splotched dragoness smiled, grateful for the contact. She didn't know where she would be without them.

"I'll speak to my family... If my parents are on there as a backup, though I don't think they are, they can be contacted. But I'll see them soon, because this isn't all going to stay hidden for long, is it?"

Anniyah sighed and shook her head. The dragons seemed to be doing a lot of that lately.

"I doubt it, Kelvin. But we all knew that this was going to come out sooner or later. What more are we to do? We're as prepared as we can be."

Which meant hardly at all, yet the need to meet their families, their loved ones, urged them on, hustled them into making a change that their hearts yearned for. If there was one thing they had learned it was to listen to themselves, their hearts, their bodies. As dragons, and perhaps even as humans too, it would not lead them astray.

"I'm sure everything will be fine, even if it isn't straight away," Julie said, fussing with her bag, eyeing the descent of the sun. "But you're right, it's time to go. At least I know where you are now!"

Jenson flexed his wings, bobbing his nose to gain her attention.

"We will lead you down."

"No, no..." Julie blushed and flapped her hands at him, the dragon the largest of them all, easily dwarfing her. "I think I need some time...to take all this in. You can't just walk in, find out your friends turned into dragons and just be fine about that. I am fine, I mean, but I need to think about it a bit more. The walk down won't be as difficult, it'll do me good."

"Then we will watch you from the air," Brent said, standing to shake off the tiredness from her limbs, "and guide you from there, so you don't go astray as the light fades. It's the least we can do when you're taking news back to our families, our..."

She broke off, the words choked in her throat. There was a lot to say there, but it would all come in time. Maybe she would get to see her little brother again, but the image of his face in her mind had her guts churning and twisting as they had once before a football game.

They could only hope, however, that it was only the one time, a one-time thing, that had happened to them, that there was not something other to happen to Julie, though Alan had to admit that it was rather unlikely. Surely more changes would have happened to them, after all, being that they had stayed around the cave system, in the surrounding territory, if there was more powerful magic down there?

Yes... That had to be it, she reassured herself, watching Brent and Jenson take flight, watching Julie as she made her way back down the mountain, though being observed by two dragons perhaps wasn't how she had imagined the trek home going. It was a long walk for her, though one that was easier downhill where the dragons also could guide her, taking her on shortcuts that only they knew, the land changing with the course of the seasons. Still, the day was as it was and things would never again be the same, not as the dragonesses at her back playfully joked and squabbled, like sisters, over what they were to eat that evening, for the stirrings of hunger called once again.

Never again the same...though they would not have wanted it to be.