The Dragon of Dreams

Chapter 15: What am I..

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“Mmmm..” As I slowly opened my eyes, I found myself in a familiar, time-frozen field. -So it was real..-

I looked over and saw that the floating island had moved much closer, but I don't see the 'woman' anywhere around it. I didn't see any creatures for that matter.

-If I could avoid running into anything that'd be great..- I just wanted to look around and explore some.

Double checking to make sure nothing was around I checked myself out.

My body was much more defined than last time but was still only in shape.

My body was much more human shaped but I had two pointy things on the top of my head and a tail of some kind. -Are those horns or animal ears?- I tried to reach up and touch them but my hand simply phased through them.

“Haah..” -What am I even made of..-

Even though my body was somewhat humanoid now, it was still just an amalgamation of 'black lines' so I had no clue what I was. -But.. if anything its an improvement from the last 'dream'..-

After finishing checking myself out, I started moving away from the floating island as fast as I could. I simply wanted to avoid that 'woman' at all costs.

-I'm way faster now..- An odd feeling of euphoria filled my body as I was zooming across the open plain.

I was moving far faster than a jet, the islands behind me quickly disappeared over the horizon and only a few minutes later, I found something new. It was a large forest with extremely thick trees, similar to live oaks except without the drooping branches.

As I got closer to the forest though, time started to flow again. -What causes that.. Does it mean I'm approaching another creature?- Although a complete guess, looking at my past experience with the woman, it was entirely possible.

On top of that, the forest didn't feel as dead as the field.

There were definitely living things in the forest, I could feel their presences but none of them seemed dangerous so I didn't hesitate to explore.

As I was moving through the forest, time continued to speed up until it seemed to pass like normal.

*CrAsH*

-What was that?- It sounded like a tree fell in the distance but it was just a guess.

To go check it out, I quickly flew up above the canopy and dashed towards the source of the sound.

Only a short moment later, I found a collapsed tree and an opening in the canopy.

As I flew back below the shield of leaves, I found a large black creature. -It looks similar to me..- It was made up of the same seemingly random black lines just like me, but it was in the shape of a big bear.

I could also see everything in its body. Although it was made of the same black lines, I could see it had several familiar organs mostly only being vitals.

The disgusting part was that I could see everything inside each organ all at once too. It was a surreal but disgusting experience.

As I was trying to figure out what to do about it, it glared at me and let out a deep growl before lunging at me.

-He feels really slow..- I easily moved to the ground to let it just slam into the tree but at the last second it turned and jumped off the tree towards me.

It caught me a little off guard so I wanted to punch it, but my intuition told me that would be beyond overkill.

Instead, I just tapped my hand on its head.

*CRA-WHAM*

The ground shattered and trees near us had all of their bark stripped off from the shockwave.

The 'creature' had been completely obliterated, the black lines that made up its body dissipated and its organs were all shredded and spread all over the ground.

I couldn't help but stare at the scene wide eyed for a moment. The power of my hit was so far out of expectation it made me freeze but at the same time it felt truly incredible.

-My god… Now I know why all those villains in those stories would get drunk on their powers.. that feeling is.. addicting..-

I ended up standing there for a moment longer trying not to get hooked on the incredible sensation that filled me but after a minute or so, I got moving again.

-Was that the only creature here?- I had been looking around for several minutes and couldn't even sense anything living nearby.

-I guess I'll look somewhere else..- Flying back above the canopy, I tried to look for anything interesting and flew around for a while before I stumbled across a small clearing a few kilometers away.

As I got close to the clearing I could see a small building in the middle and sensed a couple presences. The hut looked like a simple small cottage, something like a witch's hut.

I flew around and looked at it from a few different angles before figuring it was best to leave someone else's property alone.

Before I could leave though, I felt the two weak presences nearby start approaching and heard someone talking.

"Grandfather, did you hear that explosion earlier?" A distant youthful voice filled the air.

-It sounds.. normal..- Thinking back to when the 'woman' talked, it was a completely unknown language, but here, it sounded foreign but familiar.

After digging through memories for a moment, I remembered. -It’s english!-

With my interest and curiosity piqued, I got closer until I could see them. There, walking down a clear pathway through the forest was a young girl and an old Dumbledore looking guy.

"Yes, it's my first time feeling such a powerful shockwave, we should put up some extra barriers to help hide us... Whatever made that noise is on a completely different level from anything I can even think of.. it could probably destroy nations, let alone my old self."

"But you're so strong gramps!" The young girl's voice was full of admiration.

"Haah, you were from a world without magic so of course you'd think I am strong, but there are several creatures in this forest alone that could kill me like I was a bug." The old man casually glanced up in my direction but it didn't seem to be able to see me.

My mind got caught on several other things though. -Wait, ‘the world she is from’?!- My mind was in a complete mess as I tried to think of the different possibilities.

It wasn't until I took a deep breath and calmed my thoughts that an idea came to mind. -Wait what if this is the same world that my actual body is in? What if the 4th dimension just layers the 3rd in an invisible blanket?-

It was only a theory, but it was entirely possible.

I took a bit of time to think more about it before realizing a major problem. -Wait.. if this is the world I know of.. then what am I?!- I was once again set back to a basic question I still couldn't answer.

-My body isn't physical and I can't seem to interact with things like the trees directly, but that creature I blew apart.. the shockwave from it being slammed into the ground damaged the trees and ground. It also clearly had momentum but I don't.. Even when I let time flow..- The more I tried to answer questions, the more that surfaced.

"Haah, whatever.." Letting out a deep and agitated sigh, I gave up on trying to think of answers for a moment and floated over to the hut.

-I guess it can't hurt to take a look, maybe I could get a clue.. to.. anything..- I was honestly desperate for answers of any kind but just before I got to the edge of the clearing again, time suddenly froze and I heard a voice I was all too familiar with.

"A?r???e???n???t??? ???h???u???m???a???n???s??? ???i???n???t???e???r???e???s???t???i???n???g????" The mature voice resounded through my body, sending a chill down my spine and scaring the hell out of me.

-Good lord.. I need to calm down..- As I tried to catch my breath, she started talking again.

"I like the look in your eyes~ You look at them like ants, just like you should."

-I guess I learned whatever awful language that is..- Finally managing to catch my breath, I decided to just play it cool as if I didn't nearly sh*t myself. "What do you mean by that?"

"You look at them as worthless beings, ones that are far inferior to yourself."

The meaning in her words was simple, but a part of me resonated with it. "Of course I would, I'm a dragon after all." I had moved on from the mindset of a human many years ago, I had become a dragon through and through.

"Oh? You should look down on dragons too though, they are inferior to you too~"

-Welp you lost me..- "How could I think my own species is inferior to me. I may be a dragon but I'm not that self confident.." I was genuinely confused, my fear had already dissipated and now I was just trying to get some answers out of her.

"That's because you're only a dragon on the outside cutie~, and unless you somehow modified your body to handle it, even a dragon's body won't be able to handle what you really are.” She reached out and set her hand on my chest. “Your vessel [1] would crumble before you could do anything since you're a rather.. special existence"

She just made me more confused, with every question she answered, she just raised 5 more for me to ask. "What does that mean?"

"Well~, you'll find out in due time. Here.. before you leave." She slowly moved her hand up towards my neck before a soothing sensation coursed through me as my body became stronger and more defined once again.

The sensation felt heavenly but I was too nervous to enjoy it. "What did you just do.."

"Hmm~ Let's call it.. some repairs" She said it with an innocent smile, but it just made me all the more suspicious.

"Why are you being so nice to me.. I know you're strong enough to simply dispose of me.."

"Well let's say I find you interesting, how about that?" She leaned down and looked into my eyes with her void-like pupils.

It felt like she was looking into my soul, they were so dark it was terrifying. I felt like I was going to be swallowed by the darkness in them but she blinked and broke the trance.

"Well your growth was good, but it should be better, so I'll leave you with one last present." She casually reached out towards my face but my body screamed at me to move.

I was frozen though, I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried until she grabbed my face and everything returned to black.

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