Whispers rippled along the dark corridor, buzzing in her ears and swirling through her head. In her chest, her heart pounded wildly, faster than she'd ever felt it go. All around her was empty darkness.
Breath slipped in and out of her lips in shallow gasps, trying desperately to keep up with the pace of her heart. Cautiously, she moved forward, fingers trailing along the tiny bumps and dips in the wall.
Something was ahead. A glow sliced through the darkness, dazzling her eyes. Warmth came with the light, a wave of heat that washed over her, seeping into her bones.
She took another step forward, then another and another. A feeling in her chest drove her on, pushing her faster and faster until she was sprinting, her feet pounding against the ground and her heart beating so fast it seemed to be leaping from her chest.
She was going so fast, she couldn't stop. The light closed over her, painting a dark shadow on the wall behind her and enveloping her in heat. In the centre of the light, a tiny flame flickered. It was far too small for the heat and light that was there, but she knew that the flame was the source.
One moment she was running, the next she was crouched beside the flame, gaze fixed intently on it. It sat in a small bowl on the floor, no candle or wood in sight.
Her breath made it flicker, and she instinctively reached out to cup her hands around it. Nestled between her palms, the flame flared brighter, then brighter again, filling the bowl with dancing fire. The heat roared against her skin, then before she could react, it leapt onto her hands.
She screamed. The fire roared, racing up her arms and over her body in a matter of seconds.
Panic filled her mind, and she stumbled away from the now empty bowl as the flames danced along her arms, searing her flesh, her hair, her bones -
She stopped in her tracks, eyes wide and staring at her arms. Slowly, in wonder, she turned her hands over, watching the flames flow over her untouched skin. It wasn't hurting her. In fact, it felt more like it was meant to be there. Like she had been born with flames curling off her body.
Her chest rose and fell with a breath she didn't need to fight for.
"The dragons are coming."
She jerked her head up, searching for the source.
"One from the east, one from the west,
With wings of life, with fangs of death."
The voices came from nowhere and everywhere, murmuring words that she somehow knew and felt to her very core.
"With breath of terror and might."
She gasped.
As air rushed into her lungs, the fire followed, vanishing into, beneath, her skin. The pain as her knees hit the floor was nothing compared to the agony that ripped through her as the flames seared tracelessly into her flesh, into her bones, vanishing deep within her.
"One from the water, one from the fire,
Both born to lies, both born to truth.
Born to make all quake in fright."
The voices echoed all around her as she curled up tightly on the ground, the darkness pressing in.
"Unyielding, unbroken, one shall fall,
Fallen, broken, the other shall rule."
She didn't want to be here anymore. This was too much. Time to wake up.
As she struggled to force herself from the dream, the voices spoke two more lines.
"When the world does change,
Then the dragons do rise."
Carys was out of bed and in the middle of the room before she was even aware of it.
Her senses snapped abruptly into focus. Grey sunlight seeped through her curtains, casting a pale glow into her room. Rain drummed a consistent beat against her window.
Head spinning, Carys looked down at her shaking hands before wrapping her arms around herself.
"What the hell?" she whispered into the dim room. Heat seared through her body, but she couldn't seem to stop shivering.
Her hand fumbled for the lightswitch and a moment later the room lit up with the steady, static glow of an electric bulb. Nothing like the dancing flames in her head.
"It was just a dream," Carys told herself. "No need to freak out."
It still took several minutes and a hot drink later for her hands to stop shaking. The buzz in her head wouldn't go away however, nor the sense that something about her was different, in a way she couldn't quite explain.
Carys paused in the middle of spreading butter on her toast, shooting a furtive look at the second bedroom door. She pursed her lips and continued, only putting her knife down when the toast was evenly spread.
The fabric of her trousers was coarse against her palms as she rubbed them on her thighs. She wasn't sure why she felt so nervous, it wasn't like anything was going to happen anyway.
She licked her lips quickly, glancing quickly at the closed door again before holding her hand up out infront of her. A deep breath served to steady her a little before she focussed on the centre of her palm, willing the strange energy she could feel buzzing through her to coalesce into that one spot. A long moment passed. Carys could feel a headache building from her concentration.
"Morning."
Carys dropped her arm instantly, hiding it behind her back. "Nothing!"
The young woman standing in the doorway of the previously closed door frowned blearily at Carys. "What?"
"Nothing." Carys gave her roommate a big, only slightly fake smile. "Good morning."
"Hm." Jenna yawned as she ran a hand over her hand, fingers getting tangled in her curls. "Oh fuck's sake."
Carys grinned for real this time, taking advantage of her roommate's distraction to move back to the kitchen bench where her toast had been abandoned.
By the time Carys had gotten ready for university, Jenna had downed a cup of coffee and was much more alert. She leaned against the breakfast bar, sipping her second cup and watching as Carys struggled into her slightly-too-small raincoat.
"Bye!" Carys gave Jenna a wave.
"See ya." Jenna lifted her cup to Carys briefly. "Say hi to Chen for me."
"Will do!"
The energy under her skin flared up again as Carys stepped out of the apartment block and into the rain. She gasped in surprise, loud enough to earn a puzzled look from a stranger on the sidewalk.
Everyone she passed seemed to be watching her, eyeing her, like she was in a spotlight. She kept her gaze down, walking as quickly as she dared without running. The rain turned the world hazy and grey.
Her shoes splashed into a puddle as she entered the university grounds, cold water soaking through in moments. The rain was pouring down, but Carys was sweating as though in full sunshine.
She was halfway across the courtyard when it happened. An intense, burning heat blossoming in her chest.
The strength of it made her stagger, coming to a halt in the pouring rain. She shuddered as a ripple ran down her spine, pain flaring in her ribcage like thousands of tiny needles stabbing into her body.
"Shit." The word barely made it out through her gritted teeth. "What the fuck -" What was happening to her? She was too young for a heart attack, surely - and she hadn't done anything to break a rib -
Suddenly, she couldn't take it any longer.
The backpack splashed into a puddle beside her, and she yanked off her rain jacket to toss it aside as well. Her shoes followed quickly, then her socks as she tried to use the frigid water to slow her rising temperature.
Heat spread through her limbs, and with it came a tingling burn. She was trembling again, head buzzing with pain and panic. Steam hissed around her as the droplets evaporated against her burning skin, shrouding her in a cloud. It was no longer clear whether the haze across her vision was real or in her head. Thought was impossible.
Her heart had picked up speed, pounding frantically in her chest. She curled her fingers into fists against the ground, hardly registering the pain as skin was scraped off her knuckles.
Then something inside her cracked. She felt it, a sensation like broken glass inside her chest. Raw, hot power blossomed out from the remains, leaving her gasping in surprise. It hurt, but it also felt wonderful.
Her own wildfire blazed within her.
Something ripped as the world around her spun and shrunk, the fire cascading over her in flaming waves as her bones broke and stretched and burned, being remade into something new, something amazing.
She lifted her head to the sky and roared. Her head was filled with fire, the membranous limbs on either side catching at the air. It would be easy to leap up, up, into the sky, to glide among clouds.
She felt powerful. She was powerful. She was power and fire and might. Nothing could stop her.
"Enough!"
The word, the voice, it sliced through her flames, cooling her mind. She blinked, and her vision focussed, her body went still. She became aware of the rain sizzling against her skin, aware of the steam that billowed up around her.
And she became aware of herself.
Carys staggered, stumbling over unfamiliar limbs. Her head span as she tried to work out what was going on. She had four legs! Folded clumsily at her sides were a pair of massive wings, and her back felt oddly long, stretching out past her -
She had a tail.
Carys tried to scream, but it came out as more of a whimper. Heat bubbled under her skin, threatening to overwhelm her again.
"Focus," the voice commanded her. She tried to, dipping her head down.
A few meters in front of her stood a man, looking back up at her. The rain seemed to divert around him, and his knee-length coat flapped in the ripples of energy that flowed off him. It may have been a trick of the light, but Carys saw his eyes flash a brilliant green.
"You are human," the man said. "Focus."
The breath that Carys drew in shuddered through her massive body. She tried to do as the man said, picturing herself as she'd been in the mirror this morning. She thought about how she walked on two legs, how she cradled a mug of tea in her two hands, how the weight of her backpack pulled down on her shoulders.
The fire inside her changed. Cooled. Softened. Flames drew back from her limbs. The world spun around Carys as her body changed again, leaving her shivering and gasping on the cobblestones of the courtyard.
Fabric draped over her, and she clutched at it gratefully, fingers trembling as they did up every button they could find. Her clothes had disappeared - burned or shredded, Carys didn't know.
"Oh god," she whispered. "Oh god oh god oh god oh god. Shit. What -"
The words she wanted to use fell limp on her tongue, sentences incoherent. Her head spun, and she could feel a strange heat in her chest, wild and intense. What was happening to her? Had someone slipped her drugs? Had she knocked her head and hallucinated?
The only thing she was pretty sure of was that she was going into shock. The shivering was uncontrollable, and there was a haze across her vision that she'd only experienced a few times before. The cold, wet cobblestones beneath her legs dug into her skin, and she clung to that sensation, to something she knew was real.
"Breathe, just breathe," the man's voice murmured. "No one can see you." His hand rested on her back, rubbing slow circles between her shoulder blades. The sensation reminded her of the times her parents would do the same thing when she was upset.
Carys sucked in a breath, feeling it shudder through her body. This man - who the hell was he? She lifted her head to look up at him.
He stared calmly back at her, fathomless green eyes telling her nothing. His short beard was a very ordinary brown to match his hair, and both were greying at the roots.
"What the hell is going on?" Carys whispered. "What happened?" Had someone slipped her drugs? She'd been on edge the whole time to the university and no one had gotten close enough to her.
Something inside her still felt broken. The ragged edges of a vessel nestled inside her, heat and power lapping at the sides.
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked, tilting his head to one side.
Carys breathed out slowly, looking away from his gaze to glance around the courtyard. No one seemed to be bothered by them, in fact they hardly seemed aware that Carys and this strange man were sitting on the cobblestone in the pouring -
It wasn't raining. At least, not where they were. There was a small clearing around them, while the rest of the courtyard was being soaked. But that was impossible.
"I don't understand," she whispered. But a small part of her leapt up and down in excitement to be in the presence of what could only be called magic. "What the actual fuck?"
"Here." The man handed her a pair of shoes, which she instantly recognized as her own. Her socks were tucked neatly inside. "You'll want these."
"What? I - Who are you?" Carys curled her fingers around her shoes, gripping them tightly. They were the most real thing in this crazy moment.
"Does it matter? Your manifestation has been curbed. You can carry on with your life now."
Carys's confused gaze followed the man as he rose to his feet. His expression was unreadable, but he seemed serious.
"My manifestation?" she repeated. "What the fuck does that mean?"
He sighed heavily. "Your pure form manifested itself, and you Shifted into a Western dragon. Welcome to the razerni."
"Uh, what?"
The man's expression finally changed, shifting into a scowl. "How difficult is it to understand?" he complained. "You. Are. A. Dragon. Shifter." He punctuated each word with a bounce of his hands, the fingers pointing straight at Carys. "You can turn into a dragon - a Western dragon - at will, and you have magic. Are there any other questions?"
"Yeah, actually." Carys stood up, clutching the heels of her shoes. The heat was bubbling inside her again in sync with her annoyance. The cool breeze rose goosebumps on her bare legs beneath the coat. "Quite a few. For starters: who the fuck are you?"
He pressed his lips together so they disappeared into a thin line. "My name is Myrddin, if you must know. Professor Myrddin Williams."
"Professor," she repeated. "Okay then, second question: what the hell did you give me?"
"I didn't give you anything," he answered.
"You must have!" The tightness in her chest was making it hard to breathe. "You've drugged me, or gassed me or hit me over the head or something." Carys stumbled back a pace, feeling rain splatter against her bare heels. "This cannot be real!"
"Well, it is," Myrddin said shortly. "It is very real and it will most likely happen again." He turned on his heel, leaving her to gape after him as he strode away. "Keep the coat," he called over his shoulder. "I've got others."
His bubble of rainless space moved with him, and Carys gasped at the abrupt deluge of freezing water.
The cold snapped her out of the shock, reminding her at the same time that she was wearing nothing but a coat.
"Wait!" Carys stuffed her socks into her sopping backpack as she jammed her shoes onto her feet. "Myrddin, wait!" She swore under her breath as he continued walking away.
He was fast, and she had to run to catch up with him. "If - if what you say is true," she panted out, "if I'm a - a -"
"Dragon-shifter."
"Yes, that - are you - are you one too?" She said it all in a rush, as if saying it quicker would make it less of a question she was genuinely asking.
"No," he answered shortly, without sparing her a glance.
"But - you - you have magic?" Carys pressed her hands against the coat, quietly relieved it was wet enough to hang heavily even in the wind.
"Do I have magic?" Myrddin sounded incredulous. "Girlie, if I didn't have magic, would you be human?"
"So you do have magic?" she confirmed cautiously.
"Ding ding ding! A prize for the young lady, if you please."
Carys wasn't sure which she hated more; him not giving her answers, or him giving her stupid answers. "Then can you stop this, this, Shifting from happening again?" she demanded.
Myrddin shook his head. "Girlie, only one thing can stop your Shifting." He stopped abruptly and turned to face me as I stumbled to a halt. His face was serious as he spoke.
"Lift your hands up, point two fingers into the sky and say: Abracadabra!"
Carys had her arms at her shoulders before she realized what he had said. She scowled at him. "That's mean! I just want answers!"
He was mocking her, Carys was sure of it. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears, pounding in time with the rising heat in her chest. Why wasn't he telling her anything?
"Who's to say I'm not lying?" Myrddin asked. Carys wanted to punch the eyebrow that he lifted questioningly. He turned again, continuing on towards the buildings at the far end of the courtyard that was rapidly becoming less far.
Carys steamed for a moment in the rain that crashed over her before running after him again. As irritating as the man was, he was the only one she could get answers from right now.
"What am I supposed to do?" she demanded when she caught up with him. "You've just thrown this all at me and you're not even going to help?"
"I don't do help," he said. "Stopped that a long time ago. You're going to have to figure your own path out, same as everyone else."
Carys was snapped from thoughts of punching his face by the last two words. "Everyone else - there are others?" she asked eagerly. Not that she believed this. She wasn't a dragon-shifter. That was dumb. Other people that had been dosed with the same weird drug as her might be good though. Maybe they could actually help her.
"Of course. You didn't think you and I were the only razerni, did you?" He raised his stupid eyebrow at her again. Carys had never figured out how to move just one.
"I don't know what to think!" she replied furiously. "Because you aren't telling me shit!" The swear word slipped out unintentionally, but she was preoccupied by the rising heat in her chest and the tingles running along her limbs. "I turned into a dragon." Screw the drugs. She knew she'd turned into a dragon. She knew it with some strange instinct. "A real, live, fire-breathing -"
"You didn't actually breathe fire," Myrddin pointed out calmly.
Carys gaped at him wordlessly. Her body was humming with energy, and talking to him was only making it worse.
"Fine," she said. She drew in a deep breath in an effort to calm down. "If you're just going to make sarcastic comments and be generally unhelpful and unkind, then I'm leaving," she told him, feeling the heat slowly ebb away with each breath.
With that, Carys turned on her heel and stalked back the way she'd come.
The rain had only gotten heavier, and battered down on her as she counted the paces away from Myrddin. At ten, she glanced back, expecting him to have followed her. Surely he wasn't so callous that he would just let her walk away?
He was gone. The rain fell in sheets around her and the only people to be seen were the ones dashing across the courtyard to shelter.
Carys blinked, feeling droplets flick off her eyelashes. "Bloody hell."