Page 5 of Scaled Hearts

“Me?”

“Yes, you. I can sense the spirit inside of you, the potential. You and my other chosen children will defeat them, the monstrous ones.”

Monstrous ones. “Do you mean the vrakken?” I ask, tilting my head.

“Yes. Those who seek to destroy the dark elves of Protheka,” she nods. Her own body is engulfed in the same flames as mine.

But I am a dark elf. Is she going to destroy me? I don’t understand. “What will happen to me?”

“You’re already changing,” she says, voice soft. “You’re becoming one of my new race.” I look down at my skin. There’s a sheen over it, like glittering scales. I hold my arm up, examining it closer. There’s scales!

“What am I?” The word comes into my head, unbidden.

Dragon. You are dragonkind. You will rule the skies.

A burning pain overtakes me. It’s the pain of a thousand knives in my back and I scream as large, leathery wings erupt from my shoulder blades. My spine shifts, elongating. I feel my gums split and bleed as fangs grow.

My body aches as new joints and bones form. Gnashing my new fangs, I feel my nose and mouth twist and morph. My jaw lengthens into a snout.

Panicking, I scream again but fire bursts out of my throat, scorching the air.

My body continues to grow until my spine can no longer support my weight in the upright position and I fall forward on all fours. My fingers stretch and grow into claws, razor-like tips scraping the floor of my home.

“You are so beautiful,” the Hearthkeeper coos as I feel horns painfully burst out of my head, curling upward. “Your transformation is nearly complete.”

Nearly? How much longer can I endure this pain?

I grow larger and larger until my home breaks apart, unable to accommodate my new size. Wood scrapes my soft underbelly, nicking the skin there, drawing more blood.

I continue to morph, the agony of the change nearly unbearable. I almost pass out a few times. After what seems like hours, the transformation is finally, blissfully complete.

Dragon.This is what it means to be a dragon, I think to myself as I look down at the wreckage of what used to be my home. I tilt my new head back, letting out another scream of fire.I am dragonkind.

“Look at how magnificent you are!” The Hearthkeeper raises her arms over her head, palms facing upward. “Worship your mother, your goddess!”

My life is irrevocably changed with this transformation. I no longer recognize myself. My body is long and lithe, like a likar. I extend my claws out, digging into the earth, ripping up huge chunks of dirt and grass.

“No!” I scream, but it comes out as a roar instead, loud enough to send me reeling.

I lurch backwards, body unused to maneuvering in this form. I try to run but I stumble, my limbs crashing to the ground. I weep—for my old life, for what I have lost.

“My child,” the goddess steps up to me, petting my snout as I gaze at her, fat tears rolling down my nose. “You mustn’t look at this as a curse. It’s a gift from me to you. You are special to me. You are divine now. You have been blessed by one of the Thirteen.”

I sniffle, as much as I can in the form of this dragon, resigning myself to my fate.

I should be grateful. I want to help my goddess, I desire to please her, but it is an enormous request to spend my days as a dragon. I am still quite young in elven years.

“As a reward for your obedience to me, I gift you the ability to move between worlds. You will only have this form part of the time. When you want, you can concentrate and bring yourself back to your former state.”

I exhale and a great cloud of smoke rises from my nostrils, making me go cross-eyed as I watch it lazily drift to the skies. So I can shift back into my own body? I close my eyes, concentrating.

It takes a minute, but soon an icy chill steeps through me as everything begins to morph once more. It doesn’t hurt this time, though, and when I open my eyes, I am much smaller, inside my own body once again.

Except I’m not the same as before. I spot a shard of mirror hanging from the wall and rush over, examining myself. I have a sheen of scales and my body, now naked, looks more dragon than elven.

My ears are longer, more tapered than the typical elf. My white hair now has red streaks near the temples, which sport the horns of the dragon. And my once piercing blue eyes are now crimson.

It’s quite a lot to take in but the goddess comes up to me, enveloping me in a crushing hug. “You must do your duty to me now,” she murmurs in my ear. “You must use this form to fight. The monstrous ones will not stop without your help.”

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