Black

To Be a Dragon

One more week passed between the time Tallulah learned Kelwin was marching towards Aria by means of connecting with his allies from the south. Tallulah was not keen on meeting her previous captors, they were not kind to her after her shift.

Small things about that evening were coming back to her. The way they groped her body before she even began her changing of forms and the way the irons felt as her form broke through them. She remembered the fear lancing off of the other dragon lords in that tent. She remembered the cruelty Lord Faustus displayed in the slashing of her right wing, an injury meant to maim her for life and the stopping of it by the other lords, but not without some damage. The resulting scar on her back hooked under her right shoulder blade, that she knew. That was why Kelwin had been enraged when Tallulah was brought to him, or at least that is what she deduced.

She remembered little else or didn't want to dwell upon it. The scar healed just about as bad as her chest and the wolf bite. The wolf bite she would argue, healed the best of any injury she ever recieved. Her knowledge of healing plants was not extensive and apparently the person's skill upon her back was great enough that there was no lasting pain from the injury as she didn’t know of it until looking in the mirror. She could feel the hard edge of her flesh from the scar. She wondered what Atlas would say when he saw how destroyed her body was.

Lunea was helpful in teaching her to change forms. Her dragon was so small and petite, but with daggers for claws and teeth, and Tallulah, in the instances she could shift, was a towering beast over the older dragon.

Lunea remarked on the size of her form every shift and while it should not have gotten to Tallulah like it did, she couldn't help it. In every way she stuck out like a sore thumb, she was a woman, she was half dragon with a scale pattern to rival the most battle-feared dragons. Her dragon form was larger than normal females and the list could go on with how queer of a being she was.

Tallulah insisted they do the practice under the cover of night, so every night Lunea would sneak away from Lord Kelwin in order to come meet her.

For the older woman, this could mean her death and while Tallulah expressed this before they began she didn't seem to care.

"What about mykel, and Mariah? And your little boys?" Tallulah did not recall the names of her other girl and the little boys so easily. Mariah had stuck out to her because she was as shrewish as her father.

"Their distaste for their father is like mine, they will listen to me before they listen to him on most matters, it infuriates him, but he cannot say something else the people learn of our lack of a proper bond," at this, the woman with the purple scales grinned and Tallulah could not help but grin back in return. Perhaps she misjudged Mariah, but only time would tell.

The first day that Tallulah took lessons under the stars was the hardest. Having shoved back every basic instinct her body held, summoning the raw power of her dragon side proved extremely difficult. By the end of their time together that first night she was able to call her second form forward but she could not push her from her body yet as she'd done so easily upon shifting for the first time despite the exploding pain in all of her bones breaking and twisting into shape all at once.

The second night proved better and she was able to sustain a shift for half an hour. And after a week now she could fly for hours on end, the cut the generals had tried to perform was negligible. Although she was still working out the basic movements here and there. She had a hard time letting her dragon side be in control for she knew what they were doing while Tallulah was still very new at it and desired that control.

On her fourth day, when she could control her shift for several hours Lunea and her went on a flight to the nearest lake. It was one thing to fly as a dragon, but another matter entirely to swim. Tallulah loved the water on her scales and was given the elation of her dragon side at the adventure. Toward the end of their trip to the water Tallulah glanced at her reflection. She didn't know what to expect upon first recognition but what she saw both empowered her and tore at her soul. Where her flesh was scarred on her human form so too was it on her dragon.

Pale blue skin stretched from her shoulder down to her chest, bare from any scales that would have otherwise covered the sensitive area. Likewise, with the wolf bite, it appeared enormous on her dragon form. Tallulah supposed it had to do with bodily proportions because the same could be said about the scar under her wing and shoulder area.

She hated her appearance she then decided and refused to look at her body in reflection. It was worse as a dragon she thought. Her shame was more evident and could not be hidden.

Lunea could sense the emotions rising within Tallulah and gave a huff to remind her to control those emotions which were severely heightened as a dragon. Taking several deep breaths Tallulah let the calm wash over her.

Once shifted back Lunea said, "Do not hate who you are. You were born with a purpose and any dragon can see that," and those words resonated within her. She had spent so long hiding who she was because she was a mistake. Or because she thought herself a mistake for so long she believed it.

Both women were naked, as their clothes did not, or could not survive the shift so they landed where their clothes lay in order to change into them quickly once human again. Tallulah was glad for the coverage of her body but Lunea didn't seem bothered either way. When Tallulah inquired she merely responded with, "when you've had as many children as I have the naked flesh will not bother you," as true as Tallulah wished it would be, she would be forever shamed naked and would avoid it at all costs. After their nightly routine, both women took to their separate chambers to rest only to repeat their actions the next day.