Chapter Text
Tremors shook the land in which he slept. Even far away from his physical body, he could observe the wounds they threatened to leave it with; cracks and gashes that pained the earth, violent shivers that tore even sturdy trees asunder.
A desire to protect grasped him, and he pushed his mind to where his body failed to reach. Yet the quakes ceased too little and the lands suffered more still. He cried out with a bellowing roar to end the surge of madness preying on his beloved lands, yet his dreams kept him imprisoned, drowning out his song.
In his desperation, he fought what felt like with claw and teeth, ripping at the confines of his sleeping consciousness, suddenly finding himself not merely dreaming, but imprisoned, forced to be but a powerless observer that could do no more than agonise over the sight he could not turn his gaze from.
He saw the destruction spread mercilessly. No place was spared, no building left intact. Both creature and man ran towards a hope that did not exist. Fleeing to a sanctuary they could never reach. And he, the protector of this place, could but stare into the abyss that swallowed them one by one.
He tried to squint his eyes shut, but found them forced open. He tried to claw at them, but found his limbs unmoving. No matter how fierce his attempts, he could not do anything at all.
Days passed with him feeling the pain of the land as if it were his own. Despair ate away at him, leaving him hollow, nihility his only protection left for his slowly fragmenting mind. He could no longer focus on any single one of his aches and woes, so numerous had they become. The only intensity that remained was how much it hurt to exist, powerless as he was.
A nightmare so vivid he'd long forgotten it to be one.
And-
Light.
A breeze. The scent of flowers. Spring.
His eyes, though yet unmoving, drank deep of the wonderful sight before him.
A human. Safe and sound. Naught but some dirt on their little nose, and some greenery stuck to their hair. They were close to him, so very close. He could smell a certain sweetness on them; a fresh, youthful sense of promise. A desire he recognised to be much like his own; to protect, to aid.
“It should stay on like this. But it's strange - it doesn't just fit perfectly, it is almost like it fused together on its own.”
Their voice chimed through the wind like that of a songbird. His eyes took in their smile; sheepish, uncertain, but with unrestrained joy that pierced through the remnants of his nightmare like a budding flower.
In that moment Caldarus, guardian dragon of Mistria, awoke from his nightmare into a lovely dream.