Birds chirped, the sun shone bright, a cool breeze drifted through the air and in the middle of the woodland that surrounded Happy Tree Town, the newest resident was just waking up…
The first thing Lily noticed was that she was not where she fell asleep last night, if the forest that surrounded her was any indication. The second, despite her half-asleep state, she should have noticed first was that was definitely not human.
"What… the?" She asked herself out loud and shakily sat up and ended up flat on her back as her new form couldn't handle bipedal movement. The action caused a twinge of pain in her wings and she hastily moved into a sitting position more fit for a dog than a person.
Shocked and a bit confused she peered over a small pond and took in her new appearance. The cartoony, mirror-like surface of the water revealed a white-furred dragoness with pointed, canine-like ears, blue eyes and sky blue scales covering the front of her neck and trailed down her stomach. Two gold horns fixed in a wave-like style were on the top of her head and a third horn, which resembled a unicorn's was in the middle of her forehead.
She ran a forepaw through the quill-like hairs that made up the shark fin shaped spines running down her body from the top of head down. Her wings twitched in response to her agitation as she tried to keep her breathing at an even pace.
"Th-This is a dream right? I mean its cool being a dragon and all, but this feels too real to be-I can't be-"
A childish voice chuckled as something gold dropped from the sky.
"Afraid not" the disembodied voice said as Lily took one look at the object lying on the forest floor and scrambled away from it. It was a small golden statue of an anthropomorphic hedgehog or porcupine curled up in the foetal position with a look of fear carved into its face. It was the Cursed Idol.
"Aw, you remember me" the voice replied cheerfully. "I knew it was a good idea to bring you here ".
"You're the voice of the idol?" Lily asked sceptically. "Wait you brought me here?!"
"A god such as myself can get bored from time to time" The idol explained. "Watching those poor pitiful creatures in town get killed on a regular basis is amusing, I just think you could mix things up a bit".
"Please tell me you're joking…" Lily whined.
"Nope! Besides I've given everything you need, a unique form and knowledge how to use it". The idol replied. "Just follow the path to reach the town".
With its piece said an eagle swooped down, picked up the idol and carried it away.
"Hey wait!" Lily called out. "That didn't explain anything!"
She sighed as nothing but the sounds of the forest answered her. With no choice she trudged down the path towards the village. As she walked the knowledge the idol mentioned appeared and she took note of what she could do.
I can fly and breathe fire, ok that was expected…Wait magic is a thing here? Doesn't look like I can do much if it's a morality based system…Levitation should be doable though. She thought. At least this unicorn horn is good for something.
Past a small opening in the trees Lily saw the town in the distance and as she neared the path to the main road, the full weight of her situation crashed down upon her.
"I'm in Happy…Tree Friends" she muttered as her ears fell flat against her head and her tail curled around her hind legs. "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna frickin' die…"
(Scene shift)
The entrance to the town loomed ahead of her. Streets were lined with cottages and cute, yet simple houses. Small shops and a few taller buildings were in the distance and a variety of colourful, cute creatures went around in their daily routine. Pedestrian pathways were lined with grass, flowers and the occasional tree and there was even a park on the right side of the street.
With her ears flattened and her tail between her legs, Lily walked into Happy Tree Town. As she walked by the inhabitants paused in their day to day business to stare at her and mutter amongst themselves. Some looked in fear, others in curiosity and others choose to simply run into the nearest building.
The newly transformed dragon laughed nervously and continued walking in a vain attempt to ignore the onlookers.
"It's ok, you'll be fine" she muttered to herself nervously. "Just...try to find a police station, or the town hall or something, they'll accept you…eventually…maybe".
"E-excuse me" a quiet voice asked from her left. Lily turned to see a red porcupine with white flakes in her spines approach her with a nervous smile. "My name's Flaky, you looked a little lost so um I thought I'd see if you needed help…"
"I'm Lily and uh, I just sort of appeared here" Lily explained. "I don't know what to do or where to go and um I'm a dragon, so hi?"
"if you're new then there'll be town meeting so you can introduce to everyone and get a proper welcome to the town, it'll be fi-"
An explosion interrupted Flaky as smoke rose into the sky and various tree friends ran around screaming, some were on fire, and others were a bloody mess. The screeching of tires cut through the noise and Flaky screamed as a green jeep barrelled down road and headed straight for them. The last thing Lily saw was a pair of yellow eyes and the green camouflage jacket that belonged to the driver.
(Scene shift)
She was stirred from sleep by the sound of voices. Her mind tired and hazy, Lily did her best to ignore them.
"Is she ok Sniffles?"
"Well she doesn't have any external injuries and internal bleeding would have killed her long before know, I guess Flippy was right"
"Thank goodness" a third voice sighed in relief from further away.
Lily opened her eyes to find herself in a bedroom with green walls and floor. An end table was beside the bed she was laying on, a round window to her right and a closed door to her left. Crowded at the end of the bed in front the doorway was Flaky and Sniffles the anteater.
"You're ok!" Flaky exclaimed in delight.
"What happened?" Lily asked sleepily.
"Uh, well…" Flaky began.
"It was me" A green bear wearing an army uniform, dog tags and beret said as he walked in. "I'm Flippy and I sort of ran you over…Sorry about that"
"Well no harm done right?" Lily replied.
"We brought you back to my place afterwards, you looked ok, no visible injuries" Flippy explained. "But we called Sniffles over to look at you just in case".
"Now that you're awake" Sniffles said and moved the other two out of the way. "We can do further tests, we've never had a dragon in town before, so we'll need some DNA samples, some blood samples should do".
"How about we skip that?" Lily asked nervously.
"Don't be ridiculous, this is the discovery of the century! We should get you to the hospital to ensure you're healthy and once you've been given the all clear we can see what you're capable of, what you can eat and so on" Sniffles rambled.
"Sniffles, you're scaring her" Flippy politely pointed out, as Lily was trembling in fear.
"Uh…Perhaps we should get the town meeting over with first" the anteater replied. "I'll go and set that up".
"Are you ok?" Flaky asked as Sniffles left.
"No" Lily whimpered. "I've been pulled from everything I know to a town we everyone dies on a daily basis! I'm homeless, broke and-and…"
I'm alone she thought as the tears began to fall.
Author's note- This chapter has been edited, hopefully I got all the typos this time.
and so the story begins. If you spot any typos, please let me know. As for our heroine, Lily may start of nervous and a bit of flaky clone, but that is simply because she is out of her comfort zone, you'll see more of her character as the story develops.
Next chapter- Town massacre!