Best Laid Plans of Dragons and Men

As she was enjoying her flight, a flicker of motion in the distance suddenly caught her attention. It was not on the ground, but in the air—could it be? It was!

Another dragon!

What a pleasant surprise. Izagor changed her heading and started beating her wings to match her course with this new dragon who was flying from the plains and heading towards the mountains.

Her race was not as social as the humans were, so living a solitary life was especially common amongst younger dragons who had yet to take a mate. Izagor had no plans to settle down anytime soon—travelling and roaming was just too much fun, and there was so much of the world she had yet to see and explore. Nevertheless it had been many weeks since she had last seen one of her own kind, so she curiously flew over to say hello.

As she got within intercept distance, Izagor saw that the other dragon was a male, and he had scales of pale grey with an underbelly of white. The drake appeared to be about the same age as her, and he seemed healthy enough; his wingbeats were steady and smooth as he flew to wherever he was headed. Some sort of leather harness was wrapped around his chest, which might have been the craftsmanship of humans—how interesting!

Izagor let out a cheerful squawk just to let him know that her intentions were friendly, and she rocked her wings from side-to-side in a wave. "Skr-yah!"

--

This, Mason decided, is not according to plan.

The afternoon sky was free of turbulence and his flight to Akosta had been largely uneventful for the first hour, right until the very moment a wild dragon had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started heading towards him.

Mason had not anticipated such a scenario. Dragons were rare creatures, so he hadn't thought about what he would do if he somehow encountered an actual wild dragon. This wild dragon had scales of a reddish-brown like the colour of oak wood, with pale splotches on its side which looked like spots. Now it was flying along beside him and making squawking noises.

Mason had no idea what he was going to do. He didn't know what this dragon wanted, so he just tried his best to ignore it and hoped that it would get the message—go away!

--

Izagor felt her neck crest drooping sadly as the grey-scaled drake refused to acknowledge her presence. They were flying too fast to talk—their high airspeed meant the wind would drown out more subtle conversation, so all she could do was try to draw his attention with squawks, chirps, and repeated waving her wings by rocking her flight pattern left and right.

She never got any response. In her travels Izagor had encountered grumpy elder dragons who roared at her to leave their territory and tried to snap at her tail, but this was even further than that—it was like she was invisible to this drake! Even if he was in a rush to go somewhere, he could at least just let out a quick squawk in reply. It was beyond rude to ignore someone like this.

Izagor let out one last warble, hoping that the drake would finally respond, but still he remained silent. He didn't even rock his wings—the most basic of draconic gestures. Izagor let out an irritated sigh, then she rolled over sharply and pulled away. The acceleration tugged hard on her body as she rapidly turned, until she had reversed her course so that she was heading in the exact opposite direction. Fine! She got the message. Her presence clearly was unwelcome, so she would gladly leave this antisocial drake to go on his way alone.

--

Mason breathed a sigh of relief as the reddish-brown dragon finally gave up and stopped harassing him. He watched the wild dragon as they turned away and headed in the opposite direction, much to his delight. Mason continued to glance back over the next ten minutes or so, but the wild dragon continued on their course away from him.

"Good riddance!" Mason muttered, but his words were snatched away by the wind. He continued flying towards the Akostan border, heading for the mountain cave where he would stash his Marlander contraband and swap out his pack for a different pack of smuggled goods to bring back home.

The plan was back on track.

--

Izagor was feeling more and more dejected as she kept flying. It must have been at least five weeks since she had last seen another dragon, but now this grey-scaled drake had completely shunned her for no apparent reason. Had she offended him in some way? Did he find her presence repulsive? Or was her appearance so objectionable that he did not even want to even look at her?

Izagor growled and snapped her jaws as her sadness flashed over into anger. "Jerk!" she exclaimed, yelling the words into the wind. What sort of rude person couldn't even take the effort to rock their wings and respond to someone?

It didn't matter. She couldn't care less about some idiot drake. Izagor kept flying, but now it felt like her pleasant afternoon flight had been soured by this confusing encounter. Soaring on thermals and taking in the scenery just didn't seem to bring the same joy as before—Izagor felt a sudden stab of loneliness, and she wished she were many leagues away, back in her clan's home territory surrounded by friends and family.

Sliding her wings into a dive position, she spiralled down through the air, only straightening out her flight at the last moment to avoid hitting the trees. She had left the mountains now, and was clearly flying over forested terrain. Perhaps she could find a lake and take a swim.

Something down in a forest clearing caught her eye briefly. Izagor looped around to retrace her flightpath, and sure enough there was a strange marking on the forest floor, looking like a series of geometric shapes and patterns drawn in a burnt and blackened circle. This was mildly interesting, so she descended into the clearing and landed to take a closer look.

Once she had dropped out of the air and furled her wings up, Izagor realized that there were several other things in this forest clearing—human belongings? Was this a campsite? Trotting over, she went to take a looksee. There was what appeared to be a portable table and chair placed right next to the circle burnt into the ground. A set of human clothes was on the table, as well as an empty document briefcase.

Izagor nosed at the clothing—it must have been placed here very recently, since there was no evidence of exposure to the elements. Inspecting the burnt circular mark revealed it to be summoning circle, for consorting with demons. All dragons were naturally able to use magic even without training, but as a rule they did not dabble in the otherworldly plane—humans, on the other paw, had no such common sense.

Izagor idly speculated that a sorcerer had come out here to summon a demon, but maybe they had done something wrong which allowed the demon to attack and drag them back to the otherworldly plane. That would explain why there were all these things out here but no trace of the person who much have so recently brought them. This hypothesis also explained why there was clothing on the table—perhaps the sorcerer had tried to summon a demon to fulfil some perverse sexual desire.

There was also some sort of weak spell gently poking her scales. From what she could sense of the magic, Izagor suspected that the spell would cause humans to feel an instinctive desire to avoid this place, but as a dragon her magical blood rendered her immune. She didn't feel a need to be cautious—there were very few spells which could affect magical creatures such as dragons.

As she walked around the clearing, Izagor spotted something else lying on the ground—a leather satchel was leaning against one of the table legs. The satchel was now lying open on the ground, and a large white crystal was resting on the forest floor.

That's pretty. The gemstone was glinting in the late afternoon sunlight, almost like it was calling to her. Izagor crouched down and sniffed at the crystal. The moment it touched her nose, everything changed.

Lightning exploded out from the point of contact, running towards the ends of her wings and the tip of her tail. Izagor collapsed to the ground with a scream as her whole body began to convulse and twitch. Everything felt wrong as immensely powerful magic started to ravage her flesh, stretching out her forelegs into arms, while her hindlegs extended and grew closer together as her tail got shorter and shorter.

There was no place on her body left untouched by the transformation. Her scales shrank down until they had disappeared, leaving behind raw pink skin which seemed utterly inadequate to protect her from the elements. Her muzzle was pressed backwards and into her face, and her teeth shifted around and jostled as they too were changed. Her tail kept shrinking further and further until it had disappeared entirely. Her crest dropped against her neck and merged with it, and in its place came long brown fur which sprouted from the top of her head.

Izagor had no idea what was happening to her. She could see changes occurring on the outside of her body, and she could only guess at what terrible things were going on to her insides. The worst part of all was when her wings started to shrink. She had always been proud of her wings, proud of how graceful they looked and how they could draw the attention of drakes when she chose to show them off, but now her flight muscles were cramping horribly, compressing her wings impossibly tight against her back. Not her wings—anything but her wings!

This was finally too much to bear—without having to cast a spell, the magic that ran in her blood instinctually fought back against the power emanating from that cursed white crystal. The transformation halted for a brief second, then intensity gave way to pain as the crystal's magic overwhelmed her. Izagor collapsed on the ground senseless; her strength gone and her body feeling unnatural and weak. The world faded into sweet darkness.

--

Mason was on the lookout as he flew back to the forest clearing. His journey across the border and back had gone mostly as planned, with the one exception of that reddish-brown wild dragon that had harassed him earlier. Now the sorcerer carefully watched the skies around him in case the wild dragon showed up again, but he made it back to the clearing without seeing any trace of the creature.

Feeling pleased with himself, Mason used a forepaw to pat the pouch strapped to his chest—he would be making good coin from this endeavour! There were few pleasures in the world like a careful plan perfectly executed. But just as he came in for landing, his heart turned to ice. There was someone else in the clearing!

It looked like...a woman? The stranger had long brown hair that covered the upper part of her back. She was lying right next to his table, on her front with her legs and arms awkwardly sprawled out, and head twisted to the side.

Mason was so shocked that he stumbled as he landed. Although he manged to skip forwards and avoid falling, he froze in position, not knowing what to do. They were so far from the nearest town! What was this woman doing all the way out here? He hesitantly approached to get a better look.

It was definitely a woman. She appeared to be unconscious—but why? And how had this woman even gotten here? The repulsive spells he had put on the place ought to have created a strong, dreading sensation that this was a place to avoid. Mason felt his tail swishing from left to right in nervousness. Perhaps this woman had somehow ignored his spells and walked closer until the magic had overwhelmed her and caused her to faint? This would conveniently explain why she was asleep.

However, it would not explain why she was naked.

Mason let out a soft mewling whimper as he tried to come to grips with the situation. He could still come up with a plan if he could just understand what had happened here. Maybe this woman was a nudist on a summer hike in the forest (did people actually do that?), and she had come across his summoning circle then fainted after exposure to his repulsive spells? Did that make sense?

No, that didn't make sense. But then again, nothing made sense about this scenario.

Mason slowly approached the unconscious woman, moving as quietly as he could. He could at least confirm that the woman was alive and not a corpse—her chest was moving slowly as she breathed in and out, but her eyes were closed. Yes, it was definitely a woman; and yes, she was definitely naked. Mason felt a surge of embarrassment and he averted his eyes from the woman's exposed form, but he could not avoid noticing that she was pretty. Her limbs were lean but muscled, and her hair was like a curtain of reddish-brown.

After another minute spent anxiously doing nothing, Mason had come up with a new plan. He needed to turn himself back into a human, hide away his pouch full of contraband, and then he could wake this strange naked woman and ask her what she was doing here. There was nothing inherently illegal about summoning—Mason was an accredited sorcerer registered with the Guild of Magicians—and the belongings left in the clearing did not give any indication that this was a smuggling operation. So this woman, whoever she was, would have no reason to suspect him of any wrongdoing.

Mason unbuckled the pack of smuggled goods from his chest and slid it under the table, and then he picked up his satchel. When he saw that it was empty, he frantically turned over the bag and searched through it for a few panicked seconds before he realized that the crystal was lying on the ground, almost in reach of the mysterious naked woman.

Mason bent down and grabbed the crystal with a forepaw, breathing another deep (but silent) sigh of relief. For a moment he had been terrified by the thought of forever remaining a dragon, but there was nothing to worry about! His contract with the demon had even included protections against such a rare event as someone else touching his artefact. Mason had specified that after the crystal had been activated the first time to turn him into a dragon, it would not have any effect when picked up by another human. The only thing it could do was if he touched it again—it would change him from a dragon back into a human being.

Then Mason realized that nothing was happening, and all his calm shattered. He grasped the crystal more firmly with both forepaws, and even tried rubbing it against his chest and muzzle, but all to no avail.

"No, no, no! NO!" It wasn't changing him back! How could a magical artefact created by demonic power not work?! His contract had been perfect! Yet the crystal had somehow gone inert as if its power had already been used. Was it something to do with this mystery woman? Well obviously she must be the cause of it—these two events could not be coincidences! But how? Was she a powerful magician who had somehow interfered with the crystal? Or a rival sorcerer intent on blackmailing him?

Right as Mason was thinking about her, the naked woman suddenly stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing irises of the same reddish-brown colour as her hair. His voice must have woken her, but Mason hardly cared if she saw him now. He had to change back—he couldn't be stuck as a dragon forever! He had to fix this!

--

Izagor slowly blinked her eyes open. She had been in a strange nightmare, but now she came back to reality where things were...wrong. Reality was the nightmare. She couldn't feel her wings or her tail, and all four of her limbs felt strangely proportioned. Her neck was far too short, so raising her head was a challenge. At first her vision was blurry and indistinct, but as things cleared she realized she was lying on the forest floor. The sight of her body was immensely disorientating.

Her forelegs had turned into lanky arms, and her forepaws had become hands with five dextrous fingers. Izagor ran her hands over her body, taking in the shocking sensation of smooth sensitive flesh where there should been scales. Her muzzle was completely gone, as was the crest fin that usually ran down her neck from the top of her head. The fur sprouting from her head kept irritatingly getting in the way of her face, and she had to brush it aside. Her long slender tail had been replaced by a curvy pair of buttocks which looked ridiculous, and there was fat in the most abnormal of locations—forming two strange lumps on her chest that felt even more sensitive than anywhere else. It was so...so different. She was in a body that got everything wrong.

Then she glanced upwards, and sitting right in front of her was that same grey-scaled drake who had rudely ignored her before. Seeing him again made Izagor so angry she forgot to be scared or worried. "You!" she spat. Her voice sounded crisper than usual, lacking the rumbly harmonics of a dragon's voice.

The drake stumbled backwards, apparently taken by surprise from her sudden intensity. He tripped over a tree root and landed on his side with wings half open.

"You!" Izagor tried to walk after the drake, but her body's proportions were off and she tumbled to the ground too. Even though her forelimbs were longer than before, her hindlimbs had stretched to an even greater length, and it felt difficult to use them in unison. The dirt felt painful against her palms, as if they weren't meant to be pressed hard against the ground. "Did you do this? What do you do to me?! Is this some sort of joke?"

--

Mason scrambled to his four feet and hurriedly backed away from the mysterious naked woman who was now proving to also be angry and crazy. Something about how she looked clicked in his head, and a horrible realization dawned on him. There was an alternate explanation for this scenario—one which seemed unlikely, yet far more probable than an insane masochistic nudist just happening to stumble upon his summoning circle. This woman's reddish-brown hair was of a colour he had seen before—the exact same shade as the scales of that wild dragon he had encountered just a few hours ago. Oh no, she couldn't actually be...?

His contract with Kurzadakathan had been almost flawless, but Mason realized now that all his dense specifications might still have had one tiny ambiguity. The mistake seemed so obscure that Kurzadakathan probably hadn't deliberately tried to bend the contract; who could have known this might happen?

After being triggered the first time, Mason's transformation crystal was required to immediately transform him from dragon back into his normal human body when he touched it a second time, but nowhere had he specified that this transformation must apply only to him. It had to transform the dragon who touched it into a human—but he failed to specify that this dragon must be him, and him alone.

And that was exactly what had happened. A wild dragon had stumbled upon his summoning circle, found the crystal, and accidentally been transformed into a human—a naked and very angry woman.

This was very, very not according to plan.

--

"Ok I think I know... Makes sense, but I didn't consider... Just...just hold on for a minute here!" sputtered the grey-scaled drake, as Izagor got to her feet and advanced on him. Her new body was clearly designed to be bipedal, not quadrupedal, and somehow it was easier to balance on two limbs instead of four.

She wanted to growl, but the noise sounded more like a hiss and it wasn't anywhere near as threatening as she had hoped. "Rrrss! How did you turn me into this thing? Are you working with the humans? What did they pay you? I'll kill you for this!" Anger was running hot through Izagor's veins. She wanted to bite the drake's neck to throttle and shake him, but her mouth couldn't open wide enough for this to work. Instead she settled for using her hands to grab him by the horns. Despite looking thin and weak, her upper limbs now had excellent reach and surprisingly good grip strength. "You will turn me back, or I swear on my ancestors that I shall do everything within my power to make you regret the day you were hatched!"