Dream Walker✔️

7.2

Saefera let me ride on her back through the void, but it was still terrifying. If I didn't press myself against her back, the unnatural cold sliced through my winter clothing. After what felt like an age, we burst into a world of blinding light and hot air so wet that I immediately felt like I'd been dipped in a hot bath.

Eyes scrunched closed, I slid off Saefera's back and started peeling off my outer clothing. Judging by the squawking birds above us, we'd come out somewhere significantly more tropical than Southern Glacier. It took a while before my eyes adjusted to the bright light and vivid colors of the jungle.

"The greater spiny dragon should be near here." There was an odd nervousness to Saefera's tone as she shifted from foot to foot.

Part of me wanted to ignore her nerves as her just being uncomfortable in such a warm environment, but she was from Kadelt--a tropical island. This was something else.

"What aren't you telling me about this dragon?"

She flinched. "I- uh..." Her tail swished back and forth as she scanned the trees. "Sorry, I didn't think Aster would let you come if he knew everything, and if you knew, he could sense it. But if you want your powers back, this is the only way I know of, so... yeah."

I raised an eyebrow. "That clarifies nothing."

"Well, uh, the greater spiny dragon may or may not be a cannibal." The last few words came out so quietly that I barely caught them.

"Tell me you didn't just say he's a cannibal."

"She has a habit of-" Her ears flattened against her head. "-eating smaller dragons to fuel her powers. Usually, she farms them, but she's been known to eat outside dragons as a delicacy. She's not interested in humans, though, so you should be fine until you convince her to turn you back to normal."

"Uh huh." It sounded like she wasn't coming with me. I wouldn't have wanted to come with me either, seeing as greater spiny dragons were enormous and terrifying even when they weren't canniballistic. "And how, exactly, am I supposed to convince her to-"

There was a rumble in the distance, and Saefera disappeared into the void with a shriek. Wonderful. Not only had she left me alone, but she'd taken my bag of supplies with her. That meant no weapons until I transformed. Then again, it wasn't like a hunting knife would've done much good against a dragon.

The rumble in the distance sounded like a rhythmic thumping, so I headed toward it in case it had something to do with the greater spiny dragon.

My legs were sore after several hours of riding, and I had to stop several times to rest before a fence made out of thick logs came into view. Though, 'log' was a misleading description, as it looked more like someone had taken whole trees from the ground, plopped them in place, and laced their branches together. The fence stretched on in both directions before disappearing into the trees. As far as I could tell, the rhythmic thumping was coming from just beyond the fence.

An ear-splitting squeal cut off abruptly with a crunch that turned my stomach. I fought down the horrid images that rose in my mind at the sounds.

"Great dragon?" I shouted at the fence.

The crunching stopped. Slow thuds moved toward me. Three massive goat heads rose above the fence. Vivid crimson blood dripped from their muzzles.

"What is it?" the left head asked.

"A mudling," the right head said, "no good for eating."

"Could be fun to play with."

"Nah, too fragile."

The middle head scoffed. "Have you no sense? This one stinks of the void. It's no normal mudling."