Thank you for the kind reviews, especially Garneau :D Your reviews are always awesome and so detailed! XD On another note, I hope you find this chapter just as interesting as I did. ^^ Enjoy!

- 17 -

The burning magma seemed to be staring back at me as I watched it swirl from afar. I was standing on a high cliff on one of the mountain tops. The journey here wasn't an easy one, but I suppose I made it somehow. Only to jump down like a suicidal maniac. I frowned slightly as I surveyed the mountains and cliffs beneath me. Soran was not lying about those flying serpents. I could see their nests from here, as well as the winged creatures themselves. They were circling around the cliffs, letting out screeching shrieks from time to time.

I suppose I'm not very welcome here, huh. Still, this needed to be done. Perhaps. Maybe. Possibly.

Did I really have to do this?.. I mean… really really?

I let out a sigh and glanced at the vial I was holding in my hand. At least it could look a bit tastier. The brown colour with swirling pieces of something I didn't even want to know about wasn't very welcoming. And all I had to do was gulp this down in one shot and then jump towards the abyss of burning lava! It just couldn't be easier!

Should I just run away?.. I could, after all. It's not like there's a sword pointed at my throat. And yet, something was telling me that this was it. This was the time to make the choice. THE choice. Furthermore, it's not like being a dragon is all that bad, is it?.. I'll be a huge pretty dragon and I'll have lots of scales! I can always pick my scales and sell them on the market… Oooohhhh. Here's an idea.

I grinned as I already started planning my future business deals and calculating my profits. I could finally buy my own house! Oh goody! And a horse, too! Oh, wait, wait. I'll be a dragon, so I guess I won't really need a horse any more. But I could still buy it, just for fun. Just cause I can, you know.

And then, I forced myself to come down to Earth. First things first. I needed to drink the potion.

"I sure hope this works," I said as I gripped the vial with my fingers and took out its cork. A mixed smell of rotten eggs and vomit reached my nose and I frowned in disgust. "Ewww, it stinks!"

For a moment I stared at the vial with a deep frown on my face, and then sighed, "I must be out of my mind to be doing this."

And then, I shut my eyes close, pinched my nose as not to breathe in any of the disgusting concoction and gulped the liquid down in one shot. One huge gulp. I will not begin to describe its taste, but trust me when I say that if I had known of it beforehand I would have seriously reconsidered the drinking part. Yet, it was too late now and as the last drop travelled down my throat I let go of my nose and took a large breath of air.

"Daaamn," I whimpered as I sputtered and brushed my tongue with my fingers fervently. "Oh, Gods of Amyron, what was in that drink?! Eww, ewww, ewwwww!"

I frowned and ran my tongue over my teeth in an attempt to get rid of the bitter after-taste, yet, it persisted. For once, I was glad I listened to Soran and skipped breakfast for I could already feel the remains of whatever was in my stomach rise up my throat. I could taste bile in my mouth and I gagged slightly, feeling sick. Something was burning inside me and I felt my head sway. The view in front of me blurred and my body got heavy as lead. I took a few steps forwards disoriented and realized I had just stepped off the cliff…

The next moment I was falling, but it wasn't like a normal fall. Everything seemed to be in slow motion. I could see the dark wall off the cliff pass by my eyes incredibly slowly as if I wasn't even falling, but rather hovering in the air heading slightly downwards. My body temperature shot up once again and I felt every cell of it burn and scorch as if I was set in flames. Weirdly enough, it did not hurt. I felt no pain at all. The heat seemed to enwrap me from inside out, but it caused me no harm.

No, quite in the contrary, it felt soothing and warm. It felt good. My body felt light once again as the heaviness disappeared somewhere. I was floating in the air, feeling as light weighted as a feather. For that single moment I felt so free and so relaxed. My eyes trailed down to look at myself and I saw that my body was glowing in a bright silver light. It was almost as if I couldn't even feel it at all. There was just my own consciousness, my spirit, my soul.

And then, something burst inside me and I felt the gravity once again. It pulled me down so abruptly that I found myself plummeting all the way down. My vision cleared and my ears picked up all the sounds around me. They flushed over my senses in one huge gush and I shook my head, trying to get in control of what I was feeling and what I was.

Something silvery white flashed in front of my eyes and I gurgled as I thought it was a tail. Yet, I did not have time to wonder about it as my ears got attacked by loud and annoying screeches. I tried to turn my head that way and saw flying serpents come down after me. They were flying down in a spiral and their beady eyes dug into me angrily. Signals of alarm rang in my head immediately and I tried to gain control over my new body rather fervently. I failed. It just refused to listen to me and as the Wyverns were getting closer and closer to me, all I could do was plummet down uncontrollably.

So, yeah, if you thought turning into a dragon was all fun and cool and that flying skills just came to you all of a sudden, then think again. Apparently, growing another pair of limbs in a form of wings is not that easy to comprehend and control and control was what I needed the most. I felt as if I was a rock falling down and all I could do was glance around frantically.

But as I did so, my panic only rose. Great going, Aleta. What a perfect choice of a cliff to dive down from. As my eyes looked beneath me, all I could see was the red burning magma. Did I mention it was burning?.. I was tumbling down towards what seemed to be an entire ocean of hot lava with such intense speed that I had trouble thinking up a solution. The only thing I could do was try to regain control of my own new body. As soon as possible. And so I tried moving some part of my body, ANY part of my body before it was too late.

To my surprise, I finally did it. Yet, instead of flapping my wings, I seemed to be frantically shaking my fore paws or claws… or whatever. I desperately tried moving my other limbs, and my long silver tail whooshed in front of my eyes so strongly it created a gush of wind. Lucky me, it hit one of the wyverns that had gotten too close to me and it was pushed aside with such force that it surprised me. The other serpents screeched and another one tried biting into me, but once again I managed to flick my tail at it and the only harm I suffered was a mild scratch on my side.

Still, it burned with a sharp pain and I whined in my head as I glanced up. The winged serpents were circling around me just a few meters away unsurely, as if they wanted to lunge at me, but were scared for some reason. Perhaps, they were bewildered by my weird actions, but what else was I supposed to do? Scream at them?

And then, I thought that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea and I screamed out loudly in an attempt to scare them away. To my surprise, I actually heard a weird mixture of groan and screech. So, it did turn into dragon gurgles and roars or groans and whatnot. Just to try it out, I screamed again and that actually seemed to work on the wyverns for they halted and circled up towards the sky, casting confused glances at me. Or, it might have had something to do with the burning lava that now was mere meters away from me. I turned my attention to it yet again and as my heart thumped loudly in my chest in fear for my life, I strained my mind and brains to the point where my head seemed to be splitting in pieces. And yet, it actually helped for at the last moment I finally managed to flap my wings the way I wanted to and raised my body up just in time to save myself from the scorching red mass. Still, I was yet to know all the peculiarities of flying and my incredibly long tail trailed down towards the lava, touching it slightly. And yet, that was enough.

The burning sensation scorched the tip of my tail and I actually howled in pain as I lifted the impertinent limb up. It was burning! My precious tail was smoldering in a small flame of fire!

I completely panicked again and tried blowing a gush of air at it. Bad idea, especially when you're a dragon. Cause instead of air I blew out a stream of pure red flames and managed to set my tail on fire yet once again…

"OUCH, OUCH, OUCH!" I yelled out and whooshed my tail back and forth, trying to get the fire to die down. It hurt like hell.

"Haha… Hahahahaha!" Suddenly, I heard laughter inside my head and as it was not me laughing at this dire situation, I turned my head around, completely forgetting my burning tail. Well, the flames were almost gone already, anyways.

Up ahead of me there hovered the black dragon I had met before oh so many times in my dreams. And he had the gall to laugh at me! His scales glittered in the dim light coming from the burning magma and he wagged his tail from side to side, at the same time slowly flapping his majestic black wings while his bloody red eyes stared down at me with mock.

"A dragon that sets himself on fire – now I've seen it all," he said in a low mocking voice and I shook my head, trying to dispel myself from his magnificence. He really did seem to be a lot bigger and more intimidating than in my dreams. Moreover, his voice rang right inside my head so much clearer than before… How queer was that?

Anyways, now was not the time to admire someone else's scales and sizes. But… Oh the almighty Gods of Amyron… He was bigger than me! WHY?! Why am I so small?! I looked down at myself and flapped my wings stronger, lifting myself up and away from the magma river. Really… I am so… puny!

"If that is your idea of 'something big', then I suppose all hope for Amyron is lost, after all," Blacky said matter off factly. "Did Tanek really send you? Are you sure he chose you?"

"Why are you saying that again?" I whined, narrowing my eyes onto him. Only a gurgle seemed to escape my mouth, but I suppose he got what I meant in some magical way. "And what are you doing here?"

"Ah, but we had a date, remember?"

"Whaaaat?" I drawled confused and Jeth chuckled.

"Don't you recall? You told me you'd be turning into a dragon today no matter what, so I got curious."

"Oh," I gave him a dull look as I retorted, "Curiosity killed the cat."

"Indeed," the dragon inclined his head slightly. "Poor kitty."

"Yeah, hm," I mumbled unsure as to what I should say. "Um…"

I looked down at myself once again trying to see how I looked. I seemed to be of silver colour. Seriously, silver?.. Weren't dragons supposed to be red or brown? Or black, at the very least? Definitely not silver! Moreover, my frame was really small compared to Jeth's. I believe I was barely half his size, but I noticed my tail was incredibly long and my silver wings seemed to be pointier. His were wider, for once. I wondered what that meant and tried to fly up a bit higher just to be in his eye level. I did not like to be looked down at. In any sense.

So, I flapped my wings as I finally got the hang of some simple movements and my body seemed to be listening to my brain commands. Reluctantly, but sill, it was listening to me. I flew up rather clumsily, having some problems with my long tail. It seemed to be in the way, for some reason. Gee, I didn't even know where to put that thing. What do you do with a tail when you have one?..

"Your flying skills are simply… amazing," Blacky commented mockingly and I glowered at him.

"Yeah, the flying manual was not included," I commented dryly and the dragon chuckled at my response.

"You amuse me, young one," he said and I stared at him dully.

"Uhuh, that's my goal in life – to amuse big bad dragons!"

"Haha," he let out a chuckle again and then cocked his head sideways as he looked me up and down. "On another note, how old are you? You sound like a child."

"Excuse me?" I gaped at him. How dare he ask my age?!

"What are you, like 15? 16, perhaps?" Jeth asked and parted his mouth in what seemed to be a grin. It had come to my attention that he had a lot of teeth. A lot of sharp canine teeth. I wondered if I had such teeth too. Did I?..

"You know, if you side with Soran," Blacky continued, "you'll never get a chance to become a real man."

Now it was my turn to cock my head sideways in confusion, "Whaaat?"

"You're rather slow too," he noted. "I just said that if you try to fulfill Soran's and Tanek's joint quest to kill me, you will be the one doing the dying."

I stared at him starting to feel really stupid. A quest to kill him? Heh, now that I thought of it both Soran and Tanek had mentioned something about that. But… how in the freaking world do I slay something twice as big as me?!

"Ah, I admit I was expecting something more," meanwhile, Jeth continued as he looked me up and down again. "You are so young, a mere child."

"Wha-" I stuttered flabbergasted. One second he talks about me never becoming a man (as if I'd actually want that) and then he's saying I'm a child!

I bubbled with anger as I growled at him, "Well, excuse me for being young!"

"Why? There is no need to apologize," Blacky noted and I fumed again. Is he making fun of me?!

"Damn right! There's nothing wrong in being young, you hear? And for your knowledge, I'm already 19!"

The black dragon merely chuckled at my reaction, "Is that so? You see, I merely thought that the wisest of the Dragons would have chosen someone more fitting and more experienced to be the hero of the world. And yet, looking at you now, you are even too pitiful to kill."

"Uhhh…" I furrowed my brows in thought as my anger dissipated with his last words. This is not the first time he is threatening me with death. He couldn't be serious, could he? "That's a… good thing, is it not?"

"Hahaha!" The dragon laughed out again and replied, "I suppose I can let you live for now."

"For now?" I echoed quietly, a bad feeling growing in my chest once again. What was Soran saying? Something about Jeth killing me if we were to meet?.. Surely, he was exaggerating.

"Seeing as you are far from a threat to me or to my plans," the black dragon continued, "for you seem to be more of a threat to yourself than to those around you, let alone me, I'll let you off with a warning this time."

Before I could actually realize what was going on, he flapped his wondrously huge wings and a hurling fireball flew my way. I tried evading, which would have been really successful if I was in my human form, but being the recently turned and still very clumsy dragon, I barely managed to move sideways and was hit by the flaming ball straight into the left side of my body.

It burned and scorched my skin and I groaned in pain as I was sent back by the force of the hit. This was nothing like the fire I was used to. Oh no, this was the real deal. I glanced at the black bastard Jeth and saw yet another fireball coming my way. Is he seriously trying to kill me?! I flapped my wings frantically and raised my fore legs in defense. It was all in vain and I was hit again so strongly this time that I flew back, turning in the air as I went down. Seeing the impending magma I quickly gathered my composure and flew up as hard as I could. To my utter surprise I shot up so quickly, I lost my control once again and when I tried turning sideways to evade any possible oncoming fireballs, I instead turned the other way than I wished to and slammed hard into a mountain wall.

That… hurt. I felt my body slid down and, finally, luck was on my side this time, as I fell down onto solid ground. I turned and tried lifting my body up again, not wanting to get hit by some fireballs if any were coming at me, but a sharp pain at my neck thwarted my plans.

I felt lack of air and my lungs contracted frantically as I gagged. The pain did not go away and pressure was added to my neck just below my head. I strained to look at what was causing such torture and found black claws, pressing down onto my scaly neck.

"I shall let you live, young one, for you have amused me greatly," the black dragon said and his head leaned towards mine, his red orbs staring down at me coldly. "But heed my words – the play time is over. Do not cross my path again and do not attempt to complete that silly quest of killing me and, perhaps, I shall take pity on you."

The pressure on my neck grew even stronger and I felt losing my consciousness as darkness seemed to enwrap me in a pleasant veil of nothingness. And just like this, my first time as a dragon ended very painfully and completely not like I imagined it to.