FicWad

When I came to, my eyes felt heavy, as though an angel were pressing their feathered fingertips against my raw lids. I wanted to open them, to see where I had awoken. As I strained to raise my lashes, however, a thin, ethereal voice spoke next to my ear: Don't. Wait. Now is not the time, it said. There was something inherently calming in the voice, and I stilled my momentary struggling. I instead spread my awareness to the rest of my body, which rested in a fetal crouch. I lifted a frail arm experimentally and found it moved as though through congealed water. I was surprised to find no words of caution followed my movement, but I was none too relieved. The consistency of my surroundings had my curiosity piqued. I kicked a leg, which was not rested on firm ground, or indeed any ground at all. My efforts rose me a way, and then returned me to my original position. Suspended in some aqueous fluid. How then was I breathing? As I became more in tune with my body, I next came to the realization that I was in excruciating pain. Although I knew this fact, I seemed utterly detached from it. I may have been watching the proceedings from outside my body.

What is this?

You are growing, the voice assured me. The pain will pass. Again I felt a sense of comfort at the words, as though it was right in everything it said to me. Perhaps I felt this way because what it said was true. For my arms were growing, changing. My spine was elongating like a cat newly awoken. I felt the muscles in my thin legs rippling as they knitted and reknitted. My arms suddenly felt too heavy and they dropped sluggishly to rest at my sides. I clenched my hands into fists, felt the nails dig into my hard palms.

And my shoulders and backside were on fire, and I cried out in pain. The sound was piteous, muffled by the thick liquid which seemed so constricting. I scrabbled helplessly around my back, trying desperately to stem the pain in my shoulders, but still the burning persisted. And then what could only be an extra limb extended from the end of my spine. Devils gouged into my skin, turning it inside out. I roared in agony again, for this pain was truly real now, and the sound was feral, beastly. Where was that reassuring voice when I needed it the most?

As suddenly as it began, the immense pain ceased.

I breathed heavily, gasping for more, more, more of whatever it was that was keeping me alive in this accursed cage. Although my hearing was muffled, I felt the liquid of my prison draining, and I was sinking with it. As soon as it had drained passed my ears, voices exploded all around. Voices, voices, everywhere. But these were not those of my otherworldly angel. These were harsh, ecstatic, giddy, and human. The hum of their conversation had my head fit to burst. Why wouldn't they just stop?

I opened my eyes for the first time and in that moment, I knew everything. All the knowledge of the world, and it was there at my disposal. Forgotten languages, esoteric formulas, recipes--secrets. Astonished, I gazed down at my hands. My eyes widened and I shifted my gaze to my girth of a belly, my misshaped fit, my...tail? The impossibility of what I was seeing left me breathless. Surely a being that new everything should understand such a simple thing as what it was, right? I turned the head that sat atop my long, agile neck and found myself staring at a pair of magnificent, leathery black wings. And they were mine. My scaled hands traced the snout of my face, and I laughed. The sound was forbidding, mythical, and amazing. Congratulations, said my voice.

A man in a white coat whose name was Rowan Shaw approached the glass surrounding me none too spaciously. He was frightened, I noted, but his voice was strong. "Glad to have you with us," he smiled, "Dragon."