CHAPTER 2.

She was in peace. She didn't feel pain anymore. She would have smiled, if she could have still felt a connection to her body. But she couldn't. It was somewhere else, she didn't know where. She couldn't even think about where it might be, or where herself was, because she really had no thoughts. Not the ones she would have identity as thoughts at least. Just something she could not quite reach or control.

There was only this emptiness, that somehow were at the same colour as pure water. Or colourless like it. No shapes, no dimension, just nothing. Only her and she really wasn't there either. The questions did not exist. Everything and nothing just were. It was very calming. She could just stay there forever. To rest. Forget. Just be.

But suddenly everything went to splinters. Invisible world was shattered and flushed away by the pain. She screamed inside her head, somewhere far away. The scream and the pain lasted for eternity.

Then everything went away, and lightness come by. She felt heavy. She had returned to her body and it felt like weighting thousand kilos. She opened her eyes and were blinded by the bright light. She slit her eyes and tried to blink them, but it was hard because they were so try, that her eyelids had stacked up to her eyeballs. She felt like being pressed hard in a thick cotton. She would surely drown into it soon.

"Alright. Welcome back, young lady" said deep, soft and old sound of a man. Haruka felt herself being lifted up, and someone poured water to her mouth. She drank it so fast that most of it went straight to her lungs.

"Slowly, slowly" said the voice and waited until she had stopped to cough, then helped her to get the water to where it belonged. She stopped for air and someone take the water away from her. She desperately reached towards she thought it might be, and that someone take her hand to their own.

"You will have more later, miss" the voice said and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Haruka had started to shake, and tried uselessly to get her brains working. She didn't remember where she was, or why. She didn't know what was wrong with her, and it made her scared.

"I can't see" she wheezed.

"It's because your eyes are dirty" the man said and poured some water to her face. Then he carefully tried to wipe away some of the dirt.

"No, no! You are not helping at all" gentle voice said with a sound of a silent smile, when Haruka lifted her own very dirty hands to touch her eyes. Haruka let her hands to fall, and tried to ignore the smart in her eyes.

That was when she realized that pain was gone. Every inch of her body was aching, but the madness-driving pain was away. She blinked few times and slit her eyes, trying to make her sight clear. At first she was able to make out bright spot rounded by darkness. The light hurt her eyes, but she kept staring at it. Slowly it started to get more dim, or maybe her eyes just get used to it. It was the moon, she realized.

Then she discern dark figure next to her. A man's figure that was. Haruka lifted herself to sitting position and looked at the all time clearing image of an old man. An old man with long silver beard and hair. He was wearing a long dark green travel cloak and his black eyes were looking at her own dark-teal once with sympathy, sadness and little bit of pity ness.

"Who are you?" she asked quietly, although she wasn't sure if she could keep herself awake during the conversation.

"We will talk later. Now we need to get you to safe and warm" he said while getting up, and holding a hand for the girl.

Slowly Haruka pulled herself up to her shaking legs. She didn't see the dragon, who had stood still and quiet, before she walked towards her side. The dragon sneered with slight amusement, her voice echoing through her huge body, making Haruka to feel the sound waves in her own stomach. She rumbled backwards with wide open eyes, full of fear. She had never seen a dragon, although she had heard many kid-scaring-stories and drinking-tales about them.

"Don't worry. You are way too skinny and bad-smelling to be my snack" the dragon hummed and smirked revealing her white teeth, smallest of them at the size of Haruka's hand. The old man had already climbed to the dragon's nape, and was holding out his hand down for Haruka.

'What the heck...' was the only though in her exhausted mind when she drag herself up and sat before the old man, who kept her from falling when she quickly after their rising started to slip to the deep sleep.

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When Haruka awoke again, the sun had already risen. She was in huge cave's duskiness, but was able to see light coming from it's entrance. Next to her was about dozen buckets of water, and she drank from one of them with hurry, fearing that the water would might be taken away from her again. The cool liquid felt strange in her very empty stomach. She felt nausea growing inside of her and shivered. Haruka take a fur witch had covered her while her sleep and folded it around her weak body, curling up to hard stone-floor underneath her.

For hours, or so she felt like, she lied there breathing hard and staring to emptiness. Finally she started to feel like she would be able to rise up without vomiting, and crawl to the buckets to wash her face from dirt and cold sweat. When she was done she realized what covered the rest of her body, and quickly tried to ripe the dirty clothes away. It was hard because while drying, they had become stone-hard. When she managed to twist and turn out of them, she throw them as far as her powerless arm was able to, and started to wash herself. The water felt icy cold now and made her shiver even more, but she poured it more and more on her body, while rubbing her body all over with fury, trying to get the smell away.

When water-buckets were empty and her body was clean, she still felt dirty, and hoped that there would still had been more water left for her. She hugged her naked, shivering body, sat down and tried to catch one clear thought from inside her head. Her thoughts were running and changing so fast and being so confusing, that she was only able to understand little parts of them from here and there.

She startled when she finally realized, that she had been hearing some sounds from deeper inside of the cave. Talking. She rose up and take the fur, covered her body with it, and slowly started to walk towards the somewhat familiar sound of the old dragon lady. She come to a very large space where thick skin of the dragon was shining in the light of camping fire, and the smell of some food come to her nose.

"Ah. You have finally awaken, young lady" the old man greeted her. "Come here to warm your self up. I will get you food and then we can talk" he continued catering meat and vegetables to big plate.

Haruka walked to them and sat down taking the offered plate.

"You will just get your stomach hurt with that speed of yours" thee old man remarked while watching her to devour her food, but she didn't care. When she finished her stomach was indeed hurting, but she felt much better and calmer than before. She drank the glass of milk that the man offered to her and eyed her companions with slight interest.

"My name is Yoshiyuki Arakawa and I am the mage of Naimenteki Wa, and she is Kaizoe, the mountain-dragon from Yari-gatake" the old man introduced.

"And you were heap of broken bones and injured organs when we found you" Kaizoe pointed out eyeing calmly the human female from the other side of the fire.

"Do you want to tell us what happened?" Yoshiyuki asked glancing the dragon and then focusing on the girl.

Haruka stayed silent looking the flames to play.

"Why did you heal me?" She then asked with a silent voice not lifting her eyes.

"I could not just leave you there now could I?" Yoshiyuki said with a gentle voice.

"You should have" Haruka whispered.

For a while there was just sound of the fire and deep, calm breathing of the dragon.

"You may feel like that now, but in time you will be glad, that you stayed alive. Believe it of not, but if the time does not heal, it at least lessens the pain. And maybe someday, it will compensate some of your sufferings. But only if you keep alive and have strength enough to keep going until then" in his voice she could hear that he had his own experiments of the subject as well, but she didn't care right then.

"You know nothing! I don't want to see another human being ever again in my life!" she shouted tears flowing down along her cheeks.

"You have been hurt. That is very understandable" the calmness and slight pity ness in Yoshiyuki's voice was very irritating and somehow made Haruka's hate for humans to grow even wider. She gritted her teethes and grips while more tears flowed down her face.

"If I would offer you a life far and safe from any human beings, would you promise me to live untill the pain starts to get smaller?" Yoshiyuki asked looking deep into dark-teal eyes of the girl.

"I don't promise anything" she said with very unfriendly tone, but the though of being safe sounded tempting.

Yoshiyuki sighed tiredly. Slowly he got into his feet's and closed his eyes. Quietly he begun to mumble strange words in language, that she had never heard, and power started to accumulate around him. It got thicker and thicker, growing more and more fierce until it begun to tremble, slowly at first, but growing faster and faster, making Haruka's skin to go to goose flesh.

Yoshiyuki raised his hands to point towards Haruka and the trembling, striving for freedom, little electric shocks relieving line of power, started to flow slowly through the air to the direction of the girl who stared it with wide eyes, but didn't move. The power rounded Haruka and absorbed inside her body. It filled her whole and she felt like flowing in the energy-sea. It was incredible feeling. She felt she would be able to do anything she wanted, anything, but soon the power started to organize and accumulate to her organs. Then it started to work.

She was pulled in to fog that numbed all her senses and dimmed her connection to her body. From somewhere deep, she felt the chaos and storm inside her body that raged there ripping apart her internal organs. She hardly recognize that the feeling inside of her, filling her whole, was pain. She closed her eyes, which couldn't see and focused on breathing. Every part of her begun to jerk nastily. It engreased all the time making her feel uncomfortable. She had no control at all over herself anymore. Something was very wrong inside of her, but she couldn't find out what. The pain was getting bigger and more clear, and it was harder to get her lungs full any longer. She pressed herself flat against safe cool stone floor and tried to stay conscious.

Then it was over. The fog and the pain were gone. She was breathing hard and felt the same as when she had done hard work for a long day. Something had changed, but she was too exhausted to figure out what.

"Now young lady" Yoshiyuki's voice sounded tired too. "Now no one will hurt you"

Haruka opened her eyes and stared at somehow shrinked man.

"What?" she breathed and was shocked to hear her deep husky voice much louder than before. It echoed weirdly and sounded strange.

"What have you done?"

"Can you see your nose?" Yoshiyuki asked with a wink and laughed to Haruka's shocked face when she looked to where should have been her nose, and realized that instead of it she had a muzzle.

Haruka stood up and was about to rise her hand to touch her face when she noticed herself being standing on all of her four limbs. She looked down to find strong, muscular arms, covered with light brown skin, much thicker than her earlier one. Her long fingers ended to dangerous looking mauler-claws.

"You are one of us now, young one" not that much larger Kaizoe hummed friendly.

For a while Haruka just stared at the two in front of her. Then she started to realize just what had happened and turned to look at her back noticing that her now longer neck gave in much more than her old one. In there she saw two huge leather wings tidily fold into three along her back and sides.

"You made me a dragon?" she breathed shakily.

"Yes" was the only calm reply she got.

She wasn't able to do anything but to stare at the small human in front of her.

"You will need some energy to keep that form, so you need to eat a lot, but you can change yourself to human and then back to dragon by yourself, by imaging the form you want to have, and focusing all of your thoughts to it. You will be half human, half dragon for the rest of your life unless you will find a mage to take the spell away from you. Now do you have any questions? No? Okay. Now if you don't mind I would like to get a little nap. That spell gets me so exhausted..."

Haruka stared the old man with her huge mouth open, not able to get a word out from it. Yoshiyuki started to snore immediately after his head touched the ground.

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In time come winter, new spring and then, summer. Haruka spend them by learning how to be a dragon. How to use the wind to fly, how to hunt the food without a bow and how to save the energy by warming yourself up in the sun. Kaizoe lived quite near to the place she choose to be her new home in Yari-gatake, and she helped her in every way she new to adjust to her new way of life. She tried very hard to forget about ever being a human being. Sometimes she was able to be for weeks of not think about her previous life, but always the thoughts of it came back, and some nights she spend just crying and remembering it all.

At the end of the summer, Haruka's longing for human company started to grow too strong and on one night she ended up flying back to her old home village.

The sun had just gone beyond the horizon and darkness was falling above all. Somewhere far a dog was barking and light sighing of wind filled her ears when first buildings of her birth-village come to view. She landed outside of settlement and turned herself to her human form for the first time in almost a year. Chilliness of the night wind on her naked form making her stir. Carefully she scurry from building to building, staying in shadows, fearing of being seen.

After a while she come to a small familiar house, where Ayame had lived, and crouch next to it. She hesitated, not being sure if it would be wise to look inside, but she missed her so much! Warm, inviting light was coming from small window she knew to lead to kitchen, and slowly she rise to glance inside from it.

Ayame was there, in her favourite dress, hair tied up on cute ponytail, making a late dinner. She looked a little pale and tired, but very beautiful. Almost forgotten longing and need come back to Haruka, making her throat strangle and wetting her eyes. How much she had missed her! Just being able to see her former lover made her feel so good. Perhaps she could go inside. Would she be allowed to take her in her arms again? To feel warmth of another human body against her own one. Her body trembled slightly.

Then she heard a new voice. Baby's crying? In the house Ayame bend down to gently pick up tiny bundle and pressing it against her body, rocking slowly she comfort the child. Baby's cry stopped and a man come to room, hugging both Ayame and her child into his embrace. He said something Haruka couldn't hear and Ayame laughed slightly. She recognized him now. He was one of her childhood friends from time before her parents had died. He had grown up so much. He was a man now instead of a boy she remembered from a year ago. He lifted the baby to his lap and they shared a gently kiss before Ayame turned to continue her cooking.

A dog begin to bark somewhere behind Haruka, and slowly she release her grip from window's frame, which she had squeezed without noticing it. She blinked her eyes wondering why the dog continued its warning-barks. The dog come closer and when she turned to look at it she saw it staring at herself. Why the dog was barking to her? Their job was to keep intruders away. She wasn't one now, was she? Other dogs begun to unite the warning of the first one. She stared the animal until she started to hear human voices from the village too.

To get away.

It was the only thought in her mind. All other was forced away. She turned herself back to dragon right there, in front of Ayame's house and rise in the air, hearing surprised cries around her. They soon changed to frightened warning shouts, but she didn't care about them. She just rise higher, disappearing in to the darkness of the sky and set her course to her cave. Her home.

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Thank you for reading chapter 2!

If there is someone with better english, and some waste time: I'm looking for someone to proof read my chapters. If you are interested on helping me, please let me now.

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Tell me what I could do to make my writing better!

Or send me a rewiev concerning something else!

usagimoon2: Can you tell me on what parts you didn't understand who I was refering to? I try to change them more clear.

papapapuffy, miharu, petiyaka, and Ruka K: Thanks! I will

apl85: I change word slalom to word weave. I hope it's more clear now.. :P And no you didn't dishearten me. I'm strong enough to take all cind of rewievs. ;)

Rushingwind: I'm not telling you:D Michi will come on the beginning of the next chapter. Sorry for making you to wait for her this long. :)

HardKnoxLife: Thank God you mention medieval time setting, I forgot to tell about it on summary! Phew! I'm glad you liked my story's beginning:)