Music for today:
morning run
https://youtu.be/sFDTemJMM4Q
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Chapter 488: Life
N/A - N/A : Year 39 (??? Year in Void) : Within The Void
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- Zachari ~
"Nnnngh..." My voice, fundamentally different from what I knew, escaped through a grimace as I forced my body to move and stretch through the unfathomable tension.
But it only led to pain.
"Ack-!" *Crackle* Muscles tore, ligaments strained, and mana sheared, but as the stretch lengthened, that pain eased with an intoxicating wave of relief.
It was like I hadn't moved or stretched in millennia, and for a brief moment, my mind couldn't move past the wash of comfort.
At least that was until the relief began fading and revealing places of tension in my hide, skin, and ligaments that I.. didn't recognize. -H..Huh..?-
The shape of my stomach, length of my limbs and wings, and even the width of my shoulders and chest were all.. different... -W..what in the...-
But opening my eyes didn't ease my confusion.
*Woooom* It was a word of color.. an ocean of blues, greens, oranges, and reds that seemed to stretch infinitely like you were submerged in the middle of open ocean.
An ocean of mana...
"What.. is.. this..." My voice escaped barely above a whisper as my mana-glittering eyes lost themselves in the view—the ebbs and flows of color.. the ripples and echoes of glittered darkness akin to washes of the night sky.
It was simply.. enchanting...
"What.. is this place..?" The question slipped off my tongue like drop of dew on morning grass—a question meant for myself, spoken only to raise it above the noise in my mind.
Never did I expect a gentle, almost ethereal voice to respond. "It's the void."
My mind froze in a blink.
The voice was warm and soft, yet felt like it came from the depths of eternity.. like it came from the realm itself rather than something within it.
"The.. void..?" I responded reluctantly, uncertain whether it'd understand, let alone hear me.
But that was the moment the air shifted. "Its the origin of space, matter, mana, and now I suppose.. you too."
My body tensed. -That voice...- I.. recognized it... "Va..sil..ias..?" Tears flushed into my eyes before I could even turn—memories washing back like a tidal wave before my eyes landed on a wall of darkness glittered with stars, and found a warm smile shining through a wall of anxiety.
"Welcome back, Mom..."
He was no longer the young hatchling that felt so familiar in my mind.. no longer the tiny being that could fit in my paw...
Now, stood before me, he held himself as a being tempered by eternity.. a dragon of black scale and fur, with eyes of sparkling amethyst.
-This.. must be a dream...- "This.. must be an illusion..." He was so different from what I knew, but I recognized him instantly.
Under all those years.. perhaps millennia of stresses and burdens.. my son was sat before me.
Vasilias.
"Hah..." As if letting a mountain off his shoulders, his posture sank with a relieving scoff. "This is real, Mom... I promise..."
I.. didn't believe him...
But I didn't care... *flap-WOO—WHAM* Darting into him, it felt like I slammed into a wall of steel, but no matter how convinced I was that it was just an illusion, I made myself sink into it.. into that bed of fur on his chest...
...And into the lull of warmth that filled my body as I wrapped my unfamiliar wings around him.
He was different... I was different...
But in that moment of embrace, it felt just as it did when I sent him out of the nest...
This.. wasn't an illusion at all... "Am I..."
Pausing as recollection of my final moments returned.. of a blast tearing through my body, of Osto's muffled voice nearing, and of my final stretch to say goodbye to Vasilias one final time.. I pulled away to look him in the eyes through a wall of tears. "A-re you really.. real..? H..how am I here..? How am I.. alive..?" Recalling the state of my body from when I held myself on the edge of reality, disbelief tinted my thoughts.
But his smile quickly widened with a nod and another, greater wash of relief. "You won your fight against death."
Having the vivid image of my body, mangled and ruined, still printed into my mind as if etched into my soul itself, an untraceable anger welled. "N-No. I died... My body wasn't recoverable..." My body was dead... -I gave it up to maintain my consciousness...- Even in memory, the horrifying sensation of my physical senses and conscious mind vanishing remained vivid. -This has to be an illusion...-
But Vasilias just lowered his gaze. "Y..you're right..." Paused as if struggling to find the words, he held his breath before returning his eyes to mine. "But instead of letting death take you.. you held on." In his eyes, I found tears for the first time ever...
-That.. string...- The tether I felt my consciousness step through time to grab... "That was you... You.. reconnected me to my body..?"
His eyes quickly shut with an awkwardness. "W-Well, not exactly the same body per-se..."
-Huh..? What does that.. mean..?- Finally looking through my aura, the image of my old, mangled body was overwritten with something entirely new...
A body unlike any I had ever known...
Standing nearly sixty meters tall, a blend of feathers and scales whiter than any I ever knew covered me—my crown, spine, wings, and tail covered with down that clashed and blended with scales on my side.
But my changes weren't so surface level. With long, forked, curled horns like none I had ever seen, and two new, small but nearly purely feathered wings by the base of my tail, I was slimmer, but longer—my wings, tail, and neck all stretching further than they ever knew them to.
Finding my eyes falling to my chest, I even found ripples of an arctic blue glow flowing beneath my scales and through my feathers just as amethyst flowed through Vasilias.
I was simply.. unlike any dragon I knew to possess the blood of...
I was.. a unique being...
"You're a new you..."
Looking back up at Vasilias only to find my reflection in his eyes, my breath paused.
"It was a body I made to be a clone of what you knew, but even though I made it identical.. it.. changed somehow..."
He seemed almost nervous.. as if anxious that perhaps I would be upset.
But that could have never been the case. Not only was I simply grateful to be able feel the brush of someone's touch again, now devoid of the endless, encapsulating chill I only ever knew my flesh to hold, "This body is.. warmer..." I was.. comfortable...
I truly just.. didn't know what to say... I didn't know how to thank him. No amount of words would ever suffice.
But the longer I stayed there, holding him so tightly I was almost afraid I'd hurt him, I felt ease wash through him.
Instead of thanks, he just wanted comfort...
Even if only for a moment, he wanted to go back to when he was young, and rest beneath my wing.
Though, he had long-since outgrown me.
Even in his convincingly natural, similarly sized form to me, I could see it.. the hulking body he squeezed to size.
To most it would have been horrifying. A dragon his size should hardly be allowed to exist, let alone be capable of shrinking down so cleanly.
But in that moment, all I felt was pride; and pressing my snout into his fur, I chose to simply bask in it.
He had grown up... He had become the King he was fated to be...
But even as the embodiment of eternity, in my arms he was still my son...
My little Vasilias.
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- Vasilias ~
Time passed by so quickly in her embrace, it was like my mind was shutting down.
Granted comfort for the first time in millennia, while in her embrace, every blink seemed to drag more than the last. My perception of time warped, and like I was falling asleep, reality began slipping from me.
Until eventually, after a blink that could have been either a second or a decade, I felt myself snap awake with a wave of rejuvenation.
When I awoke, Mother was still holding me—holding my head in the plush feathers between her wing and shoulder. "Oh, you're awake!" She spoke so cheerfully it nearly brought me to tears. "Did you sleep well..?"
Refusing to move, I further buried my face into her soft down. "Better than I have in a long.. long time..."
"That's good..." Her whisper was so gentle.. so caring it made my chest tighten...
It really happened... -She really pulled through and.. remembered...-
It felt like a dream... One I never wanted to wake from...
But thankfully, I'd never have to.
"How are.. the others..?" Finally showing the worry I knew would inevitably come, her body tensed.
"They're okay..."
Her grip on me tightened by magnitudes.
"They're.. waiting for you to return with me..."
It was like she was trying to crush me.. terrified that if she'd let go, I'd vanish.
But that wasn't going to happen. "We have a lot to catch up on, as well as some.. other things I'd like to discuss with you... But when you're ready, let's leave the void and meet back up with everyone, okay?"
She was quick to nod against my back before speaking weakly, "Only when you're sure..."
Her voice carried a faint quiver, but reciprocating her firm grip, I had no plans to tell her to let go.
After all, what she needed wasn't reassurance from me.. she needed it from herself...
From the world...
*Vwoop* Returning to reality through a gate, the sky instantly swallowed us—the deep blue hue of nitrogen and oxygen almost blinding me as warm sunlight reached us from the afternoon sun millions of kilometers overhead.
It was.. life...
Plummeting through the sky, feeling the air ripple our fur and feathers alike, Mother's grip on me eased, her eyes opening to see the expanse of ocean, forest, and mountain beneath us.
It was what it meant to be alive... To be able to see the world.. to feel the air, and touch the sky...
Mom was back...
Slowly standing on my chest, she looked up, over the distant, icy mainland with glacier-covered mountain-tops, and slowly spread her wings until... *Woosh*
She lifted off, slowing her descent and beginning her first flight in her new body.
It was different from what she knew—her balance was wobbly, and her wings almost seemed to twitch and shake as they further spread with the canard-like wings by the base of her tail flailing without strength.
But quickly catching myself and moving just below but in front of her, I used my wake to hold her up.
Until.. she flew...
Following my bank, we turned, slowly circling the mountain, centering the island below us, while letting the air whip through our fur and feathers.
It felt incredible... It felt freeing...
But while I wanted that moment to last forever, after having used my aura to tell Hera and Father to come outside, the time remaining before we needed to acknowledge the darker side of reality dwindled.
-Though perhaps.. just a moment longer wouldn't hurt...-
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'King' being capitalized is not a typo. Hats off to those who know why
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