Chapter 1: A whole new dawn

I wasn't sure if I was awake or not. Maybe something in between. Not that it seemed to matter. I could neither see nor hear anything. And now that I came to think of it, I couldn't even feel my own body. It was as if all that existed was my own disembodied consciousness, floating around in an infinite black void.

I wasn't sure how long I had been here, or even if time itself had any actual existence. Had I been here forever? Would I stay here forever? Had there ever even been such a thing as an external world? Maybe that was something I had just dreamed up a very long time ago. Maybe things such as a "universe" and "other people" where just barely remembered figments of my imagination, and nothing besides my own mind had ever truly existed.

Maybe. But something else told me that this wasn't the case. But if there really was an external world, where was I? Was this some kind of prison? Had I done something wrong? Or maybe I was dead, and this was the afterlife. But who had I been when I was alive?

I struggled with my drowsy mind to remember. At first, I couldn't remember anything at all. But as I concentrated more and more, some vague and distant memories began to take shape in my mind. They were however very blurry, and seemed to mostly consist of general factoids. And no matter how much I tried, I couldn't remember anything personal about myself, save for the most trivial things. And that was assuming my memories where even real. Whatever the case may have been, I could certainly not remember how I had ended up here.

However, these tiny fragments of memories made me at least somewhat more certain that the place I was trapped in wasn't all that there was. If I had memories, no matter how vague they were, then they must have came from somewhere. I probably hadn't been here forever. And if I hadn't been here forever, then maybe I would eventually leave?

I waited. I don't know exactly when I realized it. But when I listened intently, I discovered that I could actually hear something. At first I thought that it was just my imagination, but the more I listened, the more certain I became that it was real. It was a faint and slow beating sound. And as I realized what it was, the beating increased it's pace slightly.

So I had a body! Or a heart, at least. In any case, this realization gave me at least a shred of hope. If I had a body, then maybe I wasn't entirely powerless over my situation. Maybe I could somehow find a way out of here. Even though I had absolutely no clue were "here" was. And as I waited, it felt like the rest of my senses slowly started to wake up from their sleep. After what felt like several hours, I could not only hear my heartbeat; I could actually feel it. And that was not the only thing I felt.

As I had waited, I had gradually regained a sense of my body. The sensation was still weak, but it felt as if my body was somehow different than what I was used to, although I guess that such a sensation wouldn't be to surprising in a situation where I was barely conscious and wasn't sure if my memories about how my body used to feel were even real. And oddly enough, it also felt as if my body was compressed inside a very cramped space.

If that was the case, then there must likely be something on the outside. But how could I get out?

I didn't take long for me to realize that being able to move would be a great start for my escape.

Tentatively, I tried to move what vaguely felt like my legs. The only response I got was the feeling of a faint twitch in my muscles. Still, I felt that even that was a step in the right direction. I tried again, with a similar result. I repeated the procedure several times. For each attempt, it felt like I got a little bit more control of my legs. Then I decided to do more than just twitch the leg muscles. I tried to move my legs up towards where it felt like my chin was, only to feel my legs lock into a cramp as my nerves overcompensated for the continuous motion. Thankfully the cramp soon subsided, but it made me realize that I should take it a bit more easy.

When I had recovered, I decided to try again. This time a bit more carefully. My movement was somewhat jerky, but I could at least move my legs with some control.

I practiced moving my limbs for what must have been at least several hours, often taking a pause to rest. And some uncountable cramps later, I had gotten at least a basic control over my limbs. They where still jerky and could occasionally lock into cramps, as if my nervous system wasn't conditioned to perform it's function. But at least I could move. Now I just needed to find a way out. And somehow, almost as if by instinct, I knew that the only way out was to break myself free.

I contemplated how I would break out. My arms where rather poorly positioned, so I couldn't use them effectively. And my head was already pushed against the wall, so any attempt at headbutting my way out would only have a limited effect, at least if I would do it head-on. I could however still change the orientation of my head with my neck, albeit in a rather limited way. My instincts told me that this was the way to go if I wanted to get out.

I pushed my feet against the wall to brace myself. Kicking would probably just result in more cramps. Then I flung my head upwards, resulting in both my nose and my forehead smashing into the wall above me. It didn't hurt, but it felt odd, as if my nose was strangely shaped... and longer. I decided not to dwell on this further. The important thing now was to get out. And besides, a longer nose would make my escape easier.

I continued to slam my nose and forehead into the wall. Every time I struck it, it felt as if my prison shaked slightly. Whatever I was trapped in, it wasn't something heavy.

As I proceeded with my battering, my body started to ache from the exertion. But I also felt the wall give way slightly, so I ignored my straining muscles.

When I had cracked the wall quite a bit, I pushed my feet against the opposite side, and pressed my nose against the weakened spot, hoping to push it open. A heard a cracking sound. And suddenly, the darkness was replaced with a blinding light.

I paused for a moment. I could feel cold air against my nose and upper body, making me shiver slightly. Realizing that I would soon be free, I grabbed the edges of the hole I had made with my hands, and tried to pull myself out. As I started to move my body, everything started to rock. I continued to pull with my hands and push with my legs. When my head and upper torso had passed the edges of the hole, the rocking was replaced with a full-fledged tipping. Before I had any chance to react, my chin hit something soft and slightly moist as I fell forward. Was it grass? My eyes where still blinded by the bright light, so I couldn't tell for sure.

With the last amount of energy I could muster, I crawled the rest of my aching body out of my prison. Completely exhausted, I collapsed on the grass and fell into sleep.

I could hear the sound of a river in the distance. My body was still aching, but on the inside I felt relaxed and fulfilled, as if I had just won a great victory. I didn't really want to get up. Lying in the grass and feeling the sun shine on my body was just too comfortable.

Then I remembered what had just happened.

I opened my eyes. They had still not quite adapted to the light, but this time I could at least see. In front of me was a large grassy field with a mountain range towering up on the other side. But what really caught my attention was not what I saw, but how clear everything was. While I didn't remember much about my past, I was absolutely certain that my vision had never ever been this good before. Then I suddenly discovered that something was obstructing the lower parts of my field of vision. Something red.

With a shock of surprise I jerked my head back, only to discover that the red thing was firmly attached. I had a muzzle! What had just happened to me?

Then I got a creeping suspicion sneaking up on me. Slowly, I turned my head around and looked behind me, partly curious, and partly afraid of what I might find.

Behind me, there was a large, hatched egg. Then it dawned on me what had just happened. For several minutes, I could do nothing but stare blankly at the egg, my brain completely unable to accept the implication. Was this for real? How could this have happened? What the heck was going on here?

I snapped out of my daze, and turned my attention towards my body. With feelings of both bemusement and fascination, I started to examine myself.

I was clearly not human any more. Not even close. Most of my body was now covered in red scales, save my underside that instead had bands of light yellow scales. I had two bat-like wings on my back, and a darker red ridge of short spikes running down my spine and out on a tail. Instead of nails, I had four dark grey claws on each paw, and an fifth one higher up on my heel. Well, this explained why I had felt so strange. But it didn't explain the "how" of it. My thoughts started to race with increasingly crazy attempts at an explanation.

Maybe I was dreaming. It didn't feel like it. But on the other hand, dreams rarely do. Or maybe this was some kind of experiment? But who would be able to conduct such an experiment? It would require technology that as far as I remember humanity wasn't even near. Could there be an alien intelligence behind this? Or maybe I was simply insane, and where in fact just imagining everything. Or maybe, or maybe, or maybe...

Then a more pressing question came to mind: What was I going to do now? How where I going to survive?

I looked around at my surroundings. I noticed that the field was situated inside of a mountain valley, with some low-flying clouds stuck between the mountain ridges. The field sloped slightly towards a river at the base of one of the mountain ridges that framed in the valley. On the other side of the valley, trees lined the base of the other ridge. There where also some occasional trees dotting the field itself. I would probably have considered this a nice and beautiful place, if it weren't for my predicament.

As I looked around me, a thought suddenly struck me. If I had hatched from an egg, did I have a mother?

I looked at my surroundings a second time, but I didn't see anything that could have been my mother. The only living beings I could see where a few birds flying around and occasionally landing on a cliff.

I listened intently for a few minutes. I heard the river, the wind, grass and trees rustling, a few bird-cries, but no sign of a mother.

That was rather strange. The egg that I had hatched from was situated right in the open, easily detected and without any protection whatsoever. What kind of mother leaves her offspring like that?

Should I wait and see if she showed up? Something told me that could be a very long wait. No... I had to move.

Carefully, I took a few steps. It felt a bit unusual to walk on all fours, and my body still ached, but at least I didn't fall over. Carefully, I walked down towards the river and out on the gravel beach. After some searching, I found a relatively calm spot of water. I stared straight down into it, and saw two yellow eyes with slitted pupils attached to a reptile-like head staring back at me. Two dark-grey horns curved slightly from the back of my head. Where my ears would have been, there where instead some kind of red frills.

A dragon... Didn't they just exist in myths? How could I possibly have been reborn as one?

When I was done inspecting my reflection, I bent my head down and drank some of the water, slowly to avoid getting convulsions.

After having sated my thirst, I finally noticed my hunger. I realized that I had been so occupied with my situation that I hadn't even noticed how hungry I was. I looked around to see if I could spot something edible. My guess was that I was a carnivore, and therefore only could satisfy my hunger with meat. I would need to find some prey. For this, my first thought was the birds that I saw earlier. I quickly dropped this idea however. There was just no way I could possibly catch those, unless I could fly. And I suspected that learning how to fly could take a while. Maybe there were fish in the river? These would also be very hard for me to catch. I would probably have to find prey that was a lot simpler to hunt. But there didn't seem to be any here. Maybe if I explored, I would find something that I could eat. And after having eaten, I maybe would be able to find clues about what had happened to me.

It seemed like exploration was my best bet. Both for survival and for answering my questions. I looked up at the sky. Based on the position of the sun, I guessed that it was near noon. But I didn't know how far from the equator I was or the cardinal directions, so this was just a guess. Still, I did likely have a lot of daytime left. So I turned away from the river, and started to walk through the valley.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's notes (WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ CHAPTER FIRST!)

The "limbo-like" state of mind of the main character at the start was mostly inspired by real-life anomalous and surreal states of mind, such as hypnagogia. It's what I would imagine it would feel like to wake up for the first time before being born, if you would have the mental capacity to reflect over it (In real life, you wouldn't of course). The state of mind would be so different from what we are used to, that concepts that we take for granted (such as space and time) wouldn't make any sense in such a state. The thinking processes would simply be to "messed up" to understand such concepts.

The main character asks a lot of questions. This is because I have a passionate hate for the "Apathy killed the cat" trope, where a character discovers some strange phenomenon, but never actually contemplates how it works, or considers the implications of it's existence. This questioning from the main character will likely be a central theme of the story.

I will probably continue this story, although I can't promise anything. I do have a lot of backstory in mind, and I wouldn't want it to go to waste. For example, the identity of the main character, and the reason he was reincarnated as a dragon. I don't want to reveal to much about it, but I will say that it's not through "conventional reincarnation". In fact, the reason he was reborn is as far as I know rather unique, and I haven't seen it used in any other story before (Yes. Shameless self-advertisement here :P).

I hoped that you enjoyed my first story. I'm looking forward to writing more.