Wind In My Scales

SnakesShadow

Chap. 1: Stories Of Old

POV: ?

Dragons have been around for longer than humans. Most people think that dragons are either devil spawn or some form of deity, but they didn't have the understanding that I do. They first came into existence during the Paleozoic era. Back then, they weren't more than lizards, but when that era ended and the Mesozoic era started, they evolved. The world was changing, entire continents were moving, seas forming, and reptiles were starting to take over the world. Of course, the dragons weren't at the top of the food chain to start with, most being smaller than a Terrible Terror is now, but they had almost 200 million years to change.

The first thing that changed was their wings. Some like to say that the dragons first started to change from land animals to sea animals, but that happened a bit later since some, what we now call Tidal Class dragons, have wings and are able to fly. Of course, there are some exceptions to this change, one of the more popular ones being the Speed Stingers, and the few Tidal Class dragons that are able to breathe fire.

After that came different habitat adaptations. This is seen in multiple cases, Scauldrons being able to spit scalding water, Snow Wraiths being able to see heat, and the Flightmares need to eat algae. There isn't really much to talk about here, these are somewhat normal adaptations that every animal goes through. Like snakes and their amazing stomach muscles, apes and their opposable thumbs, and humans with their frontal lobe, which dragons also have, both having the same average level of intellect.

Lastly, they evolved their different defensive and offensive abilities. A lot of people will say that they evolved the ability to breathe fire first since many different types of dragons have this ability, but I disagree since while there could have been a common ancestor that breathed fire, there are some dragons that have no reason to not have this ability. This is mostly seen in Speed Stingers, Death Songs, Changewings, and Flightmares, they all have special abilities that differ from fire-breathing for no reason other than they never had the ability. Plus, the dragons that can breathe fire, have totally different ways to do it that never could have come from one type. Boulder Class dragons are known for their lava-like fire, made from rocks they eat and the natural crucible like stomach they have. Stoker Class dragons tend to have a gas building gland or tissue that can also secret a flammable liquid that they cover themselves with, most notably the Monstrous Nightmare. Most Tracker Class dragons have a natural magnesium making gland or tissue that makes excess magnesium to fuel their fires, this is why they have some of the hottest fires of all the dragons. And finally, Strike Class dragons tend to have a plasma like fire that they can shoot as blasts and use for other purposes, specifically Night Furies and their echolocation ability.

That's not even touching on the subject of specialized abilities. Like Changewings and their acid saliva, Razorwings and their razor-sharp scales, Bonenappers and their armor made of bone, and the Hideous Zippleback with its ability to make gas with one head and light it with the other. This also indicates that they learned to breathe fire later on since these dragons have specialized abilities that can't be from the same ancestor. Zipplebacks especially, since they have no reason for their ability if their ancestors had one head, since most dragons do, that could breathe fire.

There are other abilities that only specific dragons or types of dragons have that can support this fact. Mainly the Alphas and Betas of the dragon world. Alphas, usually being Bewilderbeasts, but also Night Furies and a few other types, have the ability to fully control other dragons. Betas, usually being, what I can only describe as an impersonation of death, have the ability to somewhat control dragons, unlike Alphas, they don't have full control and some species can even break that amount of control. Of course, there are some dragons that even I don't have much experience with, mostly that of very secretive dragons, Foreverwings, Shellfires, and Submariners.

I just realized that I haven't told you one thing about myself. Well, I have, obviously, been around since before dragons came into existence. I have no parents, I wasn't born or hatched, I was created by something. I have no idea what though, I spent millions of years wondering before I gave up. I just woke up one day, no knowledge of what I was, but enough instinct to make sure I survived. I slowly learned more about myself as time went on. My first discovery was that I never aged, I watched as all the animals and plants around me died, but I stayed the same. I still needed to eat, drink and could get hurt easily if I wasn't careful, but I learned to protect myself. The second thing was my appearance, clear water gave me my first look at myself. I was tall, my hair was a pure white color, I had a strong build, and my eyes were pitch black. The only thing that really made me wonder was my eyes, there was nothing else like me so I didn't know what I was supposed to be like, so I compared myself to animals. I was as tall as some of the taller animals, so I had to be tall. My hair was the same color as some of the mammals' fur, so it was normal and I had to be a mammal. My build was almost equal to those of the longer running animals, so I had to be fast and have a lot of stamina. But, no other animal had my eyes, they all had some color and a black circle or slit at the center, but mine were completely black.

I only ever saw my back once, it was in the reflection of a waterfall as I was washing the blood off of me from my last fight. That was another thing, a lot of animals tried to kill me since they thought I was easy prey, there was a reason I survived this long. But anyway, I noticed something on my back, at first I thought it was more blood, but it didn't come off. I went over to one of the clearer parts of the waterfall and got a good look at what it was. Going down my spine were six markings, five black, and one green. At the top was an animal that looked like me and it was in green, so I knew it signified me, but as I went down I recognized less and less. The next one was a canine-like animal, but none I recognized, I didn't really recognize a lot of them, it had the same kind of build that I did so I guessed it was a running animal. Then, there was a cat-like animal, but it didn't have any of the major things that I knew them by, it seemed sleek and stealthy, it obviously was made for sneaking up on its prey. After that was an animal that had wings, it had a beak and two legs that looked like they had claws or something, I compared it to the other two-legged animals I had seen and it looked about the same. I actually recognized the next one, it was a serpent, I had seen a few of them and they ranged in sizes and speeds, some of them even had venom. The last one though was something special, it looked like a reptile since it had scales and a tail, but it had wings like the other animal. I didn't know it back then, but the last one was going to be very important.

I learned a while later that I could change into these forms. My first shift was into a snake, I had white scales and the same eyes. I was the size of the bigger snakes I had seen and learned everything about them and the power instantly. I learned that the power I had was connected to the markings on my back, I could turn into any of these forms and the same markings would show up on my back in the new form except the one I was in would be green. I could change the size of my forms, being anywhere from the smallest of that species to the biggest, but my color scheme would always be the same. Later I would learn that these specific forms would exist for years, wolves wouldn't be around for a while, panthers even longer than that, birds wouldn't fly until after dinosaurs were gone, and dragons were just coming around.