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"Incarna verisusss tal-ah... well, well... the warm-blood finally wakesss..."

What was that sound? Who was talking? Prince Lanniel shook his head and opened his eyes, finding his vision blurred. He looked around, trying to make out his surroundings. A cave of some kind; the walls were painted, and covered in crude, desultory shelving. Candles and incense were burning everywhere, filling the cave with cloying, sweet scents...

He was lying down on hard ground, and felt sore all over his body... which was quite strange given the last thing he could remember was setting off into the desert to hunt sting-tail asps.

"I sssee you opening your eyesss..." the voice continued. Prince Lanniel felt a rough hand take hold of his chin, pulling it up until he was staring right into the muzzle of a lizardman. Part of the creature's visage was hidden behind a black hood, but it's grey, scaly snout and glowing, golden eyes were unmistakable. The creature's outline gradually revealed that he wore a long robe, but it was hard to make out much more in the candle-lit darkness.

"Ugh... where am I..?" The prince shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs from it. Where was the rest of the royal hunting party!? "Guards, guards! Help!"

The lizard-creature began to laugh; a low, sibilant rasp that made Prince Lanniel feel furious. He screamed "Guards!" as loud as his hoarse voice could carry, only to be met with more laughter.

"Mmmm, if we were anywhere near them I'd have gagged you..." the lizard said, walking forward and extending a wickedly-clawed hand towards Prince Lanniel's face. Lanniel reflexively jerked away from it, only to find that a thick collar held his head close to the ground.

"What have you done with them!?" Lanniel hoarsely asked, pulling at the collar around his throat. "Listen to me, *lizard*! You... you're addressing a member of House Ordanar! I demand you let me go! When my father finds out I'm gone, he'll send-!"

"My, my... you are laboring under some awfully strange misapprehensionsss! You are the youngesssst of the Ordanar dynasty; your life is not without price. Wasss, I should say..." The lizard hissed. Prince Lanniel shuddered as he felt the lizard's claws rubbed against the back of his neck. The reptile began stroking his head and playing with his hair. "Mmm... no harm in telling you, I suppose..."

Prince Lanniel's heart sunk suddenly. "What do you mean..?"

The lizard grinned; its maw was lined with sharp, perfectly white teeth. "Your older brotherssss sold your life to me, for a pittance of magical knowledge. They told me where your favored hunting ground was, and slipped a sssleeping potion I provided into your lunchesss."

"What?" the prince asked, quietly. "Why would they betray me like... no, no..." Lanniel whispered, shaking his head. He tugged at the collar around his neck fiercely, trying to find a latch or weakness. The thick, sweet-scented air in the cave made him feel dizzy as he strained against the huge studded leather collar. Each breath he took was full of burning-sweet incense...

"Struggle and fight... succumb and accept... you may do whatever you wish, Prince..." the lizard said, leaning close towards him.

"What do you mean!? What... what are you doing?" For a split-second, Lanniel swore he could see blue fire in the depths of the reptile's great, golden eyes, but the flash was gone in an instant.

In a rush of wind, every candle in the cave blew out and darkness descended on them. Lanniel began to cough as more smoke filled the hazy cave. The only thing he could easily track were the reptile's golden eyes, which seemed to pulse and glow in the dark cavern. Lanniel saw them flit around and disappear as the lizard moved through the smoky darkness like a shadow, lighting more incense. The young human tried to hold his breath as the pungent, cloying smell overwhelmed his sense of smell, but it was little use.

"What am I doing, you ask..?" the lizard finally said, kneeling down in front of Lanniel. "Hmm... do you know anything about your great-grandmother?"

"My father said she was... uh... a princess, or something..." Lanniel said. His thoughts felt fuzzy; it was hard to think in the oppressive smoke.

"Mmmm, mmmm... well, it doesn't matter that you don't know. Everything is going to be quite alright, Prince Lanniel. Everything..." the lizard said. Lanniel felt a scaly hand brush the hair away from his brow, and then stroke the sides of his cheeks...

"Everything?" Lanniel asked. He coughed a few more times, blinking tears from his eyes. He weakly tried to pull the lizard's claws off his head, but the reptile kept patiently stroking him the whole while. The smoke in the room was burning his lungs and the lizard's eyes were almost too intense to look at, but he *did* feel calmer than when he'd woken up. The lizard's sibilant voice was soothing...

"Everything. I promise not to hurt you, prince. I ssssimply need someone of your lineage for a little test. All you need to do is... listen to my voice... look into my eyesss... and relax."

"A... test? What kind of test?" Lanniel replied, gaze wavering back and forth between the ground under his hands and the lizardman's eyes.

He saw the lizard grin. "I will do the testing. You don't need to do anything. But if you'll listen and allow me to tell you a story..." he began, stroking Prince Lanniel's head affectionately.

The lizard's scales were cool; his strong, long fingers made Lanniel shiver whenever they touched his skin. He felt warm... why did he feel so warm? "A story?" the human said, after a few moments.

"There wasss once a great city, right in the heart of the great desert..." the lizard began, walking away and disappearing into the shadows. "It wassss led by proud warlock; a student of the ancient Corvus coven. He usssed his magic to call rain from the skiesss and bring health to the ssssoil, and brought life to the desert..."

Golden, slitted eyes appeared in the darkness, open wide. The lizard continued to speak, in his measured, sibilant voice. "Under the warlock's rule, the city thrived. He was both wissse and just, beyond his age. Thought the warlock was a human, he tolerated all creatures within the wallsss who ressspected his rule. Trade prossspered like the world had never ssseen before, or since..."

Lanniel began to grow more placid and calm as the lizard told his story. He was starting to enjoy the pungent, spiced air inside the cave; it made him feel better, though he wasn't sure why. Both his arms and legs felt warm and tingly now, too relaxed to move...

"But." The word was spoken harshly. The lizard's eyes began to creep closer, narrowing slightly as they approached. "After a very long, magically lengthened lifessspan, the warlock died. His students were not his equal. They could maintain the wondrous water-portal fountains and lifessspark gems he left behind, but they had never learned the secrets of artifacy themselves. They were doomed to lose against the encroach of sssand before long. But the demise of their city occurred far, far sssooner than any had predicted..."

The young prince blinked slowly, losing sight of the lizard's eyes for the first time in ages. When he re-opened his eyes, he found himself staring right back into them. They were so close now; inside the slim, reptilian slits Lanniel thought he could almost make something out. There were shimmering images of a sand-swathed ruin, a group of black-cloaked figures; the hint of blue fire...

"They were brought low by war. Ransssacked by a coalition of three greedy borderland kingdoms, who had long feared the warlock but envied his creationsss. They attacked suddenly and without warning. The city's defenders fought bravely, using powerful arcano-weaponsss that had been left behind for the purpose. But they were sorely, sorely outnumbered and unprepared for war; in thirty daysss of fighting, the three kingsss ruined what should have lasted for three thousand years."

The lizard blinked.

"However..." he continued, from somewhere behind Lanniel. "The last studentsss of the warlock found a small measure of revenge in a mighty curse of vengeance. They swore the pillagers would never leave the desert with their blood-sssoaked plunder, and ssso it would come to pass. Though not in the expected manner..."

Something warm poured down through his sweat-matted hair and down his forehead. Lanniel couldn't see what it was, but it smelled sweet and a little like blood. More of the bloody ointment was poured over his back, where it soaked through his undershirt and made him shiver when it struck his skin.

"The three kingsss and their men left the city and set off for their homes in three great caravansss. But the sands themselves seemed to be against them, swallowing their cartsss in great ssstorms. Their mapssss were useless in the shifting sands, and their waterskinsss boiled in hellish heat. Soon, the ssstinging sirocco drove them to leave behind their plunder and flee for their livesss... but by then it wasss far too late for them."

Again, the reptile's yellow-golden eyes danced near him. The lizard hissed a series of words in a language Lanniel didn't understand. "K'nrass atal termia volasss. A curse infused with the dormant powersss of creation itself. Every last one of the pillagersss who'd shed blood or shattered stone found their bodiesss warping and their skin hardening with each sssandstorm they endured, terrified and witless until it called to their mindsss..."

Lanniel blinked. What had the lizard just said? What *were* those words? They made him shiver involuntarily. He took another few slow, deep breaths and felt the worry dissipate. It was warm and dark in the cave, and he felt safe.

"Men dropped their weapons and fell onto their belliesss to crawl like serpent-folk... they grew long tailsss and forked tongues like... like lizardsss." The lizard's grin was shark-like in the smoky air. "Othersss became ssssimple-minded drakesss and thornback lizardsss... still othersss creaturesss of myth. One of the three kingsss, one who had led his men in the most violent purgesss was turned into a dragon, and in the process was driven mad. He turned upon the other two and devoured all who were unchanged, according to legend."

Lanniel shivered briefly. The lizard was laughing in the darkness, glowing eyes heaving up and down. Inside them, he could see burning fires, clouds of sand and constant, flickering images of men becoming bestial reptilian creatures.

"Other storiesss say that the two remaining kingsss left bulk of their army behind as the curse asserted itself, and fled madly from the desert. They swore the survivors to secrecy under penalty of death, and never returned."

The human prince watched the lizard's eyes closer now; colors of every hue seemed to dance within them. It was so bright compared to the darkness...

"Do you understand why I told you the story..?" the lizard asked, leaning even closer to him now.

"No..." Lanniel said, licking his dried lips. They tasted faintly of ash, and strongly of blood. The taste was terribly bitter and sweet at the same, and made his tongue and lips feel numb.

The lizard's grin was sly. "I told you because I suspect your great-grandfather may have been one of those kingsss. I suspect that his curse lays dormant in your blood..."

Prince Lanniel shook his head. "What? But I haven't... I haven't done anything like that! And my family would never have... never. We've always been good reagents..."

"You've had thisss curse in your blood since you were born..." the lizard whispered, smiling. Lanniel could hear the reptile's long tongue flicker with each word. "You and your brothersss... you all enjoyed hunting and ssstalking through the desert, day and night? Alwaysss felt the call of the endless sandsss and ruinsss? How issss it that your pale ssskin is unburnt and untanned, human?"

Lanniel felt his heart thud. "No..."

"Shall we find out..?" the lizard queried, nodding as he smiled.

"No... it can't be true..." Lanniel said, still slowly shaking his head. But his eyes continued to follow the lizard's. Unconsciously, he began to nod, and then smiled as well.

A gray-scaled hand left the darkness, wreathed in blue fire. Lanniel shivered as the lizard's hand approached his forehead, feeling a cold fire lick across his skin. The lizard touched him on the top of his head, and Lanniel suddenly felt...

...felt a leak bizarre, phantom sensation leak into his head like warm tar. The warm, sluggish feeling soaked into his thoughts and muddled them. The prince felt his eyes lid as he suddenly became more relaxed than he'd ever felt in his life. Confused, the young male let out a low, rolling moan and sunk to the cave floor, too comfortable to move in the slightest. Prince Lanniel had never slept on any bed quite as comfortable as the ground underneath him...

"Well... isn't *thisss* interesting!" the lizard rasped. "The curse yet lives, in your very blood!"

Lanniel shivered against the cool stone underneath his cheek. The warmth in his body was spreading, and he felt intensely pleasant tingles follow the warming feeling everywhere. All he wanted to do was... lay there on the floor and enjoy the feeling...

"W-what... is... happening?" he whispered, barely able to focus his eyes. His body felt heavy, and growing heavier still. It was impossible to lift his head up off the ground, let alone one of his arms or legs. He felt so *warm*...

"Shhh... it'sss going to be alright, prince. You're not going to be harmed." The lizardman said. The creature smiled slowly, and then laughed. "Everything... will be alright."

"What?" Lanniel asked. He could barely speak. His body had grown completely warm and numb everywhere, and it took all his will to say that single word.

The lizard's repeated his command, narrowing his golden eyes as he did so. "What happensss next. It will be alright. Everything about it will be alright. Now... and forever..."

Lanniel had to swallow before he could say another word. "Warm..."

"Yes." The lizard repeated. "You're meant to be warm. Now stop talking."

'But...' but the prince realized he couldn't muster the strength to speak any longer, and the word never left his lips.

For the longest time, he laid on the ground unthinking and unmoving. He could do nothing but think of how nice it was that the warmth was spreading out into his fingers and toes. It was later followed by a rush of sensations; some of them nice and pleasant, and others strange and unreal. Lanniel felt as though he was melting into the ground like packed snow, but he could hardly care...

"It isss going to be just fine..." the lizard said, whispering and walking closer...

Lanniel felt an explosion of cool tingling sensations spread out across his face as the lizard leaned down and kissed him on his forehead. Confused, Lanniel blinked slowly and tried to think. Why was he being kissed? He looked up into the reptile's golden eyes...

The lizard smiled at him; Lanniel smiled back. Yeah; there was nothing to worry about...

"Get up. Surely you're ssstronger than this..." the lizard suddenly said, taking hold of the prince by his face. "All fours. Now."

Lanniel shivered; the need to rise felt like a magnetic pull in his head. The young human male closed his eyes and slowly pushed himself up off the ground, onto his hands and then his knees. He turned to look at the lizard expectantly, and found himself staring into the reptile's golden eyes once more. "Good." He said, growing silent once more.

The lizard did not speak any further.

Lanniel stood in front of the lizardman on all fours, though slowly he began to find the position more comfortable. Though his thoughts came to him slowly when he bothered to think hard at all, the young prince could certainly feel his body changing. He could feel his limbs and muscles growing. His skin hardened and grew layer after layer, turning into a thick coating of flexible, armored leather all around his growing body...

The prince smiled. He could feel himself growing, changing, and yet not a moment of worry touched his contented mind. Everything was alright. He didn't need to look down to see that his hands were growing heavy and his fingers were beginning to splay apart. He felt his neck crawl as it grew longer, and he felt his spine throb as it stretched his body backwards.

His hands... his arms felt so heavy! Lanniel felt his upper body slouch down lower as his fingers continued to grow and change. Leathery webbing stretched between his fingers as they pulled apart from one another. Lanniel could feel more and more of the stone floor underneath his forearms as he stood there, smiling happily as he enjoyed the raw, physical pleasure of the transformation. The prince's feet were undergoing a very different change; he could feel each of his toes growing stout and powerful, cracking apart one by one as talons grew through them. The muscles in his thighs and legs felt sore and hot as they grew larger and larger; the prince felt his handwoven, silk undergarments start to tear around his growing rear...

Lanniel's eyes opened slightly wider. Those were thirty five silver! He was going to destroy them, and become disrobed in the lizardman's presence! The realization nearly pulled him out of his trance, but he looked into the lizard's eyes and suddenly...

"You don't need to worry about these anymore..." the lizard whispered, sliding a claw down the back of the prince's undergarments. He pulled it against the fabric, which slid his finger just between the changing human's leathery cheeks.

The fine silk didn't quite yield to the point of the reptile's claw, but the pressure of the lizard's knuckles on his backside made Laniel's ass throb and tingle with pleasure in the most alien, erotic way. "G-g-" Lanniel gurgled, despite holding his lips shut as hard he could. His face contorted in the most lewd ways as he held in his feelings, trying to simply enjoy them. But the sensation was so *intense*! He could feel the oddest sensation of his spine being pulled / his tailbone being pushed from his backside, along with a thick, hot lump of flesh...

The prince felt his legs stretch and crack; bending backwards. Lanniel shook his head and held his webbed forepaws firmly against the ground as he hiked his rear upwards, trying to balance properly on the front of his talons. He couldn't tell how much he'd grown, but his once-loose undergarments were threatening to rip along the legs, waist and the back from his growing body and sprouting tail...

But everything was quite alright again. Why did he care about clothes if they didn't fit him? He felt quite warm and safe in his thick, leathery skin; he could already feel patches of it turning even harder, into armored, scaly plates. This was especially so along his taloned feet and arms... well, if they could even be called arms any longer. The prince smiled again. He could feel his penis pressing out against the tight silk, straining against the soft but firm covering. Indeed; why did he care about clothes at all?

The lizardman leaned down, his golden eyes disappearing from view. Lanniel blinked for what felt like the first time in ages as he felt the reptile's tongue lick his ear. The wet kisses made him shiver in the darkness. Oh, the darkness! The darkness of the smoky cave was a yawning void after having lived in the blazing fire of the lizardman's eyes, but in a way the relief was calming.

Lanniel shook his head as he felt his undergarments stretch around his rear, tearing around his growing waist and then falling off his backside with a short flick from his stubby tail. He grinned and closed his eyes, savoring the feeling of power in his changing body. His undershirt was already beginning to feel awfully tight in the same way, and it was all...

Alright...

"Grow..." the lizard whispered.

A simple word; a simple command. The prince nearly his eyes in ecstasy as he felt warm waves of magical energy flow through his body as he unconsciously obeyed. His expanding upper body tore the shirt off his back before his webbed arms began to grow into proper wings. Lanniel bent them at the joint and found that he still had a pair of small, almost vestigial claws at their tips. Though they seemed almost delicate was easy to balance on them because he found his center of gravity continually being pulled backwards by his growing tail. The cavern-like room around him was beginning to feel a lot smaller as he grew taller and his neck began to stretch upwards, the changes starting to finally overtake his mostly human face. Lanniel kept smiling happily as his mouth, cheeks and nose began pushing into a draconic muzzle...

"Mmmm... good drake..." the lizard said, patting Lanniel on his flanks. The lizard leaned forward and touched a claw to the chain attached to the drake's collar, causing the metal links to fall free. Laniel left his head low to the ground as he felt his ears grow out into scaly fans, but soon found his head being pulled up by the lizard's scaly hands. "Drake..."

Drake? Eye to eye and muzzle to muzzle with the lizard, prince Lanniel's muzzle hung slack open. Was he a drake? His teeth were still slowly sharpening and some hair still covered his leathery scalp, but apart from that the drake felt... good. The knot of tension that had always throbbed like a knife in the back of his mind was gone; the instincts that had always called to him subtly now riotous and passionate and clear. The smoke in the room was almost sweet enough to gag his sensitive sense of smell...

"Speak, drake." The lizard said.

Okay. "Awrgh. Awwwwrgh. Rrrawwwgh..." Lanniel growled. His lungs were powerful, but the words seemed to shake apart in his throat. He was worried for a moment, but the lizard kept smiling. Everything was surely alright.

"Good drake..." The lizard said, his voice dropping into a low whisper. "Sssssuch a handsome sssand drake..."

Again, the word came back to him. Drake... drake... had he always been a drake? He knew how to fly, how to hunt... everything felt natural to him. But the question only lasted in his mind until Lanniel felt one of the lizard's hands press against his snout. It covered his nostrils with something sticky, and he was suddenly flooded by the muskiness of the warm, wet scent...

The lizard smiled at him. "My drake..."

The lizard walked away, leaving Lanniel's head hanging free. The drake blinked slowly, sniffing the pungent musk that had been rubbed against his nostrils. Lizard musk; male-scented. The drake felt an odd sensation from his crotch as more of his draconic member slid out from his new slit, stretching the leathery lips tighter...

"Roll onto your back..." the lizard commanded, stroking Lanniel's tailbase.

The drake obeyed immediately, rolling over and splaying his wings out to the sides, leaving his neck exposed and his taloned feet dangling awkwardly in the air. This felt like a very submissive position to Lanniel, and he felt a bit of instinctual shame flood through his body in hot gusts as he waited for what would come next. His tail thumped nervously against the ground as his drakehood quivered, erect in anticipation and moist with his greasy slitfluid...

Strangely, it was only when he looked between his legs and saw the lizard's climb ontop of his tail that prince Lanniel realized just how much he'd changed. He was so large, the other reptile could comfortably sit ontop of his tailbase!

But those thoughts were soon gone. Lanniel leaned his long neck forward, drawn again to the lizardman's eyes. Underneath his robe, the lizard-shaman was naked. On the underside of his tail, Lanniel could feel the other reptile's muscular tail and rump, and both of his warm, stiff penises...

The young drake felt his mating instincts going wild. He could still smell the pungent musk smeared over his snout with every sniff. His enormous pillar of dragonmeat was throbbing, and a curious, irrepressible energy filled his whole body as he stared at the lizard. Lanniel wasn't sure why the lizard was doing what he was, but it was driving his instinct-driven mind mad with lust.

Smiling at him, the lizardman slid his robe up and off his body, letting it fall into to the ground. Lanniel could make out much of the creature's taut, gray-scaled body now that his own eyes had changed, and could see in the darkness. The shaman's breathing was heavy and flecked with languid hisses; the drake could even smell the drops of oily preseed leaking out from the other male's hemipenes...

The lizard rose up and sat against the very base of Lanniel's tail, holding onto the drake's thighs for support. The prince feels curious tickle around the underside of his tail as the other male starts to hump against his rear, grinding both his members against the soft scales surrounding his tailhole. The prince feels the lizard push into his body, hissing and hugging himself against the much larger drake as his twin shafts easily enter the drake's tailhole together.

"Rrghghl..." Lanniel growled appreciatively, as the lizard thrust in and out of his tailhole. The pleasure was torturous; the lizard's slick cocks spread his leathery, sensitive entrance in the most wonderful way, but couldn't reach deep inside him, where he felt an unbearable need to be filled...

"Good drake..." the lizard whispered again, as he picked up the pace of his thrusting. Lanniel closed his eyes and savored the pleasure as best he could, concentrating entirely on the throbbing hemipenes in his tailhole and the sour, salty musk of the lizard.

After many minutes of impassioned thrusting, Lanniel's tailhole was slimy with lizard-pre and his shaft was hard and quivering with arousal. The shaman was breathing heavily and chanting something under his breath, but the words meant nothing to the pleasure-addled drake. He turned his head from side to side and gasped quietly in pleasure...

Lanniel felt the lizard's grab hold of his drakehood, stroking the slimy shaft with both hands before suddenly starting to suck on the tip with his muzzle. The young drake had been aching for stimulation; he felt the lizard's scaled hand and warm, wet muzzle embrace his engorged cock for mere seconds before he felt his breathing slow and his member start to become almost painfully sensitive...

The drake felt two hot jets of lizard-seed gush into his upturned tailhole as the naked lizard released into him with a hiss. But it was little compared to the feeling of his own thunderous orgasm. Lanniel cried out in wordless, babbling growls as he humped into the little lizard's eager muzzle, cumming heavily and repeatedly down the other male's throat...

Lanniel howled as the lizard pulled away, releasing the last of his seed over the lizard's chest, hands and muzzle. The shaman pulled out of the drake's tailhole and rubbed his naked, seed-covered body against the drake's still-leaking member, hugging it and licking the length...

"There... wassss your jussst punishment so terrible to endure?" the lizard hissed, humping against Lanniel's enormous drakehood with his split lizard-penises. "Only now isss your fate; your dessstiny fulfilled. And... you are a beautiful creature, worthy enough to be my mount..."

The drake shuddered. He felt as though he'd woken from a strange dream, in which he had been a human born to idle nobility. Lanniel shook his head, trying to clear the strange memories from his mind. Whatever they were, they couldn't have been as important as the feeling of love he shared with the lizardman. Mount and rider; they were bonded together as surely as mates...

"You shall help me sssspread the curse of the sandsss... and deliver your kingdom to its fate. It'ssss punishment. The will of a magi'ssss curssse cannot be denied. I cannot deny the will of fate..." the lizard whispered, climbing atop the drake's thighs. "But who can? You'll have some company sssssoon enough; it's only a matter of time before your brothersss try out the sssspell I taught them..."

The prince grinned.

"But... that will have to come later. My plansss must be subtle, for now. Ssso sleep now, drake. Sssleep..." the shaman said.

The lizard kept idly stroking Lanniel's drakehood, even as the young male laid his head back against the cool stone, hugging his tail between his wings. Slumber came to him almost immediately, for the new drake was completely at peace. He was just barely conscious enough to hear the shaman say one last thing...

"It'sss alright. It'ssss how thingssss were meant to be all along..."

**** ****

Few would ever know the reason the ancient curse landed upon House Ordanar. After the disappearance of Prince Lanniel on a hunting expedition, both of the older Ordanar brothers disappeared in the middle of the night. Terrible rumors concerning their disappearance spread through the pavilions and ale-houses of Ordania; that they had been torn apart by wild beasts, or carried away from their homes by a pair of ferocious drakes. King and Queen Ordanar did everything in their power to hide the nature of their children's disappearance, but all hope of that was lost when the royal couple themselves began turning into dragons in the middle of their own throne room.

The history was eventually discovered through the frantic work of the royal scholars, but by the time they'd learned what had befallen the royal family the curse had spread to their closest advisors and confidents. Most of them sprouted long, sandy-scaled lizard tails and turned into lizardmen, but the arch-templar and the royal sorcerer both turned into nagas. Many of the king's trusted bodyguards fell onto all fours and grew thorny shells, turning into spiky-scaled thornback lizards...

By the third day, it was impossible to hide the commotion inside the palace from the outside. Guards, maids, cooks; everyone seemed vulnerable to the strange curse that warped them into desert-dwelling reptiles. But it was only in the long weeks that followed that the full burden of the curse became clear to the people of the land. Some of the royal mages could have told them- had they not all been turned into speechless hydras, warp-lizards and basilisks- that the blood of the ancient armies had spread all over the land in the hundreds of years since their flight. Spread far and wide enough to cover all but a handful of new immigrants...

In the months that followed, Ordania and the other borderland kingdoms crumbled to dust, their people returned to the sands.