Don't get onto me for starting a fourth multi-chapter fic and running it simultaneously with the others. I already know it's a bad idea lol.

Bit of a disclaimer here, but this story is rated M for language mainly, but I will be tackling a few heavy topics. And because I do not wish to spoil chapters in advance with trigger warnings before they happen, this is your one and only trigger warning for the rest of the story. I don't want somebody to get angry at me later when something happens that triggers you irl, I don't want you to get hurt either. So read with that in mind please. If you're really worried, PM me and I'll warn you in advance.

Anyway I'm Fiygon, welcome, hope you enjoy it.

Emereri: "to serve out one's term,"

Chapter 1

"The Beginning After The End"

I never entertained my thoughts about death.

I assumed, as most did, that it was the ultimate end. That everything would come grinding to a halt, just as time had passed infinitely before you were born, so too would the rest of time pass after you died.

Believing in a higher power was another thing.

You could tell me all the different religions in the world, yet all of their deities couldn't erase the finality of death. Each one could offer you their hand and you'd still end up in some radically alien world. Heaven? What would life be like when nothing could go wrong? And the opposite, hell, would pain even have a meaning if it was constant?

Yet for all of my curiosity in what could happen after death, I don't think a single part of me considered reincarnation.

Reincarnation didn't make sense to me. How were you the same person as before? If it was a new body, the old you was gone and dead still. There was no me anymore, yeah sure your body or 'soul' made up this new person or animal. Did that really mean it was you in the end?

I wasn't prepared for what death was actually like. The first moments after your death, your life is still flashing before your eyes. And then after that, nothing. But why was I still able to even recognize that there was nothing? My body was gone, physically I was unable to move any appendage, I didn't have one any longer.

Floating in an endless void, still hanging on to my consciousness. It was not something I realized I was doing. I could barely remember my life now, almost like an old dream you still remember from your childhood. Faces were blurry, reasonings were nonexistent, and that life you just lived felt like a failure. Then you would remember how much of your life you still had left to live, that you hadn't had time to make your own family. That you left your parents with the corpse of their own son, something no parent ever wanted to see.

And then you would become angry.

Why did you let yourself die? What could've possibly have been worth all of that? Life was such an innumerable gift, unquantifiable by petty things that you'd fight over. Wealth, fame, religion, your country… That was the one that stood out to me the most. I was just a statistic, someone that died for the 'betterment' of his country. A "hero" to his country! It all felt like a spit in the face now.

"How curious…"

I didn't know what had said something, how I understood it or why. Just that the voice was there, like a low humming chord in the background of nothing. I regarded the voice with whatever I hoped would reach them, "Who are you?"

I didn't get a response immediately, though at this point, what was time to me anyway?

"Still conscious… and after so long as well."

I felt myself grow irritated. If this was a deity, or "God", then why was he ignoring me? "Just do your thing already. Or leave me alone…"

For the first time in a while, it felt like a bit of me was stirred, as if a long nap was over. And I felt warm suddenly, everything was still nothing at all. But I realized quickly that the voice was messing with me in some way.

"Such a troubled soul… That won't do at all…"

"What are you doing?" I asked with a hint of worry. Visions of my past life flashed through me again, the gun shot, the mission and my comrades, the explosion… It hurt, the memories felt more real than ever. And if I could've, I would be crying, or worse.

"Hush child."

The warmth grew, and I felt lighter than before. It felt like a warm embrace, and slowly, the memories washed away. So much so that I couldn't recall them, what had it been that had made me feel so upset just a moment ago? "Can I go?" I didn't know where I would be going, just that this voice could take me there.

"Not to where you assume."

"Then… should I stay?"

"It's already been long enough. Have patience, child."

I did as the voice told me and waited patiently. I had no clue what I was waiting for, or how long I must wait. Only that I had to do it. The warmth from them grew more and more, until eventually, I felt them leave. The warmth dissipated and once again I felt alone, and cold if that was even possible. I couldn't be sad, only curious. "Where are you going?"

"It is not I who is leaving."

"Well… will we meet again?"

I heard something almost akin to a chuckle, "You will. When you're ready to."

I felt myself drifting somewhere. I didn't know how I knew I was drifting, only that it felt quick. And then, the most unsuspected thing happened.

I felt myself stir awake. The sounds of leaves rustling, and animals chirping in the distance, wind blowing against me. My limbs felt useless, tired and new, the first thing I tried to move was my leg. But both legs were only just barely working as they bumped into my other appendage between them, but that didn't seem right.

I moved my arms, in hope of bringing myself to a sitting position, but they didn't feel right either. Finally I sighed and opened my eyes, and something definitely wasn't right. I crossed my eyes, but I don't remember having such a long nose before. And after yawning instinctively, my now massive nose was connected to my mouth.

I shook my head, and forced my front appendages to work until I was sitting, kinda. That's when it became very apparent that I had something else on my body, right above my behind, that I was definitely not used to sitting on. I felt the slow building of dread begin, as I looked down at myself.

'Well, that's just a fucking dragon…' I thought to myself.

I lifted one of my front appendages in response, and after nearly falling and catching myself, it became very clear. That dragon was just simply me now it would seem. I looked backwards, to see a white tail coming out of my body and sitting in the grass, rhythmically swaying left to right as if to mock me. And on top of that, a small set of wings folded against my back.

My head began to ache. Why was I here? And why was I so confused at being a dragon? After a moment I sighed, checking my surroundings. It was a forest, yep, there was the entire description of my surroundings. Tall, pine-like trees, vibrantly green grass and bushes, some mushrooms and fallen tree trunks, a blue sky even. The whole nine yards of a quality looking forest I might say.

I knew that this was wrong, I wasn't supposed to be here, and I damn well knew I wasn't supposed to be a dragon either. But the reasonings for why were not immediately apparent to me. Attempting to remember something, anything at all, was worthless. The memories felt like dreams, and so distant at that.

I grunted in annoyance, but it didn't exactly have the ominous oomph to it I would have liked. "What the hell…" my voice was… very light. It sounded more akin to a child, but beyond that, it seemed to be more of a little girl's voice.

I became frozen, this wasn't right, 'No no no this can't be happening!' I thought frantically.

I dared to lower my head, the only thing I could do was check, slowly lowering my eyes with growing dread. And with a red flushed face I quickly looked back up and into the sky with a horrified look. "This has to be a joke!" I'm a female dragon, but why did I know that this was wrong?

I allowed myself a moment of peace, to come to terms with that fact. There's no use dwelling on something I can't change right now. I breathed slowly, in and out, and in that quiet I heard water nearby. 'Alright, first test.' I thought to myself.

Slowly, I put one of my legs down, followed by the other. Then I slowly lifted myself onto my back legs, I wobbled precariously like a newborn lamb, but after a bit of perseverance I was able to at least stand. Then I would try walking, remembering how animals on all fours would walk with an interchanging gait. But trying to replicate something from memory and actually doing it are very different things.

I couldn't get more than a few steps without immediately faceplanting, or falling to my side. This felt so unfair, I know I used to be able to walk, why can't I do it now? After falling for a solid five minutes in a row, the anger in me continued to grow, boiling over until I released it, "Damn it! Why won't these legs work correctly!?" Hearing my voice say those words was almost amusing if I hadn't been too angry.

But I wasn't raised a quitter, if I couldn't walk that put me at the bottom of the food chain, and I wasn't about to be somebody's midday snack. Very slowly I made progress, wobbly progress but it was better than nothing. I got confident enough to be able to get to the water nearby, even if I might fall once or twice along the way. And that's exactly what happened.

But regardless, I did eventually make my way to where I heard the water. It was a gentle stream slicing through the forest, but I felt that even I would get washed away in its current. Because the thing I was realizing as I walked more, was that I was small. I didn't feel it made sense to assume everything else was gigantic, so there was really only one explanation for it. I was a very young dragon.

Looking over the edge and into the water gave me a lot to think about. The dragon staring back at me did so with purple eyes. I had white scales, and my underbelly was silver, and it glinted in the sunshine. I had a cream colored horn at the end of my muzzle, and two cream colored horns that sat behind my ears and slightly turned back forward. I imagine one day that they would look much like ram horns and point forward entirely. I also had some hair on the top of my head, that glinted silver just like my underbelly. I turned around, and my wing membranes were also silver. My tail was like half of my body mass, and at the very end of my tail sat an odd formation of horns in the same color as my head ones. The horns jutted out both sides of my tail. It was the shape of a sword, but split down the middle with my tail between it. The bottom edge of each horn curled out and upward once again as well. It was extremely dull as I touched it, more blunt than anything. But if sharpened I would have a perfectly usable weapon.

With a better look of my proportions, it was clear I was young. Which again, felt wrong, and I didn't know why. It was a bit maddening to know you weren't supposed to be here, or to be this dragon, but have no explanation as to why. I sighed, "With scales like these, I might as well be a beacon of my prey's next meal." I cracked a small smile at that.

However, dying again was not in my plans. Wait… again? What did I mean by that? Nevermind, I need to get my bearings, find out where I am. Taking a quick sip from the river, which I'm almost certain I did wrong for my species but it can't be helped. I raised my head up and scanned around me, looking for anything. I could follow the stream in hopes of finding something worthwhile, but where there's a stream, there's predators. So all in all this was a terrible situation to find yourself in.

The crack of thunder had my head turned skyward, there was a large ominous storm cloud in the distance, and in my current state it almost seemed to resemble a beast threatening to catch me. I had to find shelter, and not any later than I could. So aside from my best judgment, I followed the stream. The stream didn't exactly go downhill, there was a slight decline but overall I was walking rather straight. And becoming increasingly frustrated with myself in the process. 'In the middle of nowhere, I can barely walk, great, what else can go wrong!' I thought bitterly, only to feel my stomach growl in protest. "And then of course there's that…" I mumbled to myself.

After a while I felt the first few drops of rain, and sighed to myself, "Bathtime coming early today, I hope dragons are more resistant to the elements!" I shouted futilely towards the sky, "You better not hail on me damnit." I growled while squinting at the growing storm clouds. Hail would probably feel like a meteor crashing on me with how small I seemingly was.

About thirty minutes had passed, and while I was lucky there was no hail, I was doing no better with my walking. I hadn't fully learned how to walk, and now I had the added detriment of trying to walk through mud! After faceplant number fifteen or so, I was sick of it. With my muzzle firmly planted into the mud below me, I didn't even feel like moving. "This sucks." My muffled voice said into the mud.

"Are you in need of shelter, young one?"

My head shot up with wide eyes and I looked all around, "Huh? Who, what?" I forced myself to stand and scratched my head confusedly, 'Now the psychosis sets in…'

"It's nothing like that young one. I am speaking telepathically."

I raised my brow, had it just read my thoughts? Well, now it's probably reading my thoughts of it reading my thoughts and… what the hell. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Very cautious, smart of you."

I rolled my eyes, the voice seemed feminine, "Listen lady… I'm not stupid. Sure I've never talked telepathically to someone, but a stranger is still a stranger."

"Yes yes, I meant not to insult you. Here, I will show you the way to me."

I felt information pass to me, and it was as if I already knew where she was. The path was laid out in my mind, yet I still felt suspicious. "And how do I know you aren't gonna hurt me or something?"

They paused for a long while, "Do as you feel is best."

I groaned, looking up into the sky again, the clouds weren't even at their darkest, the worst of the storm had yet to come. They weren't trying to coax me anywhere, it seemed like a genuine enough offer. After a head shake I shrugged, they weren't too far away, so I might as well risk it. The walk felt shorter than I expected, but maybe that was because the one talking in my head was finally something to distract me. She told me mainly how she was contacting me, that she had a sort of "ward" around her cave, which alerted her to anything to enter or leave it's wide vicinity. And that from the moment I entered her area she could hear my thoughts, and she thought she would at least offer to help me.

'Why are you so cautious, anyway? If you can make a ward, I imagine you can defend yourself…' I thought, straying away from the stream finally and entering back into the forest.

"You can never be too cautious. Would you rather know something with ill intent is approaching before or after they've already gotten the first strike?"

'Yeah I see your point…' I pushed a branch out of the way, and it came back and slapped my face, causing me to curse a few times. 'Why do you live in the forest?'

"It's peaceful. I don't usually have to deal with intruders or other annoyances."

'Like me?' I thought smugly.

"I like to help, I often do not get the opportunity."

I heard another thunder crash behind me, and the rain seemed to pick up. So I picked up my pace in turn, walking through quite a heavy density of bushes and trees. 'You know, you could at least have a usable path to your home.'

"And show others exactly where I am?"

She was really cautious about others, I was dying to know just why. 'Hey, are you human? A dragon?' I asked inquisitively.

"You're almost here."

I sighed, 'That's not what I asked. But fine, I'll play it your way.'

Finally breaking through the thick foliage, I came upon the side of a cliff. The cliff had one long crack going from nearly the top to the bottom, and had a very clear entrance. I cautiously approached, looking at the overwhelmingly large cave entrance, and shook my fears away. "Come, the storm is growing strong."

I made my first few steps through the crack, it had a small incline upward, and I continued up the path. Until I came upon a larger hallway of cave, and inside there were lanterns strung against the cave wall, I examined them a bit more closely. They seemed to not be fueled by fire, but some sort of energy I'd never seen in my life. "Hello, little one."

I jumped, turning towards the voice. "Holy shit." I muttered in my panic.

The sight that met me was beyond anything I had previously imagined. What stood in front of me was a magnificently large white fox creature. She stood at least seven to eight feet tall, and had sky blue eyes that had a rather piercing gaze. Her fur was almost seemingly whiter than my own scales, her fur was fluffy, and her tail gracefully swayed behind her lithe form. I looked at her in wonder and awe, and she released a small chuckle, "It's nice to meet you too." Her voice was old and wise, yet gentle all the same.

I stuttered, shaking my head as I stood up, "H-Hi, um… W-What are you?"

She gestured for me to follow her, and I obliged as she explained, "I am what you dragons would refer to as an 'arcane beast'."

Wait so there were other dragons here too? I'll ask later. "What's an arcane beast?" I said with a tilted head.

"Arcane beasts are simply animals that carry an affinity for the arcane. There are many of us, you have been wandering through the arcane forest, I hope you know."

Wow I was in more danger than I imagined. "Are the other arcane beasts just like you?"

She paused for a moment, but she did not show me her face so as to gauge a reaction, slowly she sighed, "No. My kind are barely sentient, if not feral. I would advise that you stay away from them if you happen upon them."

I hummed in acknowledgment as I thought about what to ask next, "What is the arcane anyway?"

She turned slightly with a raised eyebrow, and hummed curiously. "Let's save all of those questions for later or we'll be here all day. In the meantime, what's your name, little one?"

That single question made me stop walking, and gave me an entire identity crisis. What was my name? Did I have one before? My large companion stopped, and turned to look at me curiously. I shook my head, "I don't think… I have one." I said in confusion. I looked up at her concerned eyes, "What's yours?"

She continued walking, a bit slower now to allow me to keep pace, "My name is Estrella."

We entered into the largest part of the cave, dimly lit by the lanterns but still visible. There was a large bed or pillow made of various different materials on the left side of the cave, and on the right side of the cave seemed to be a hot spring, as the water was steaming and looked cyan. The room was noticeably warmer than where I had been before, and I felt instantly more relaxed. Estrella hummed, "You're welcome to stay as long as you need, child." She looked back down at me and eyed me with a raised brow, "I think the first thing you need is to wash up. I tend to keep my cave as clean as possible."

I looked down at my body, realizing I was caked in dry mud all over my body, I laughed sheepishly and blushed. Then my eyes widened, "I… don't know how to swim."

Estrella nodded and leaned down, grabbing me by the extra fat on the back of my neck, "H-Hey, let me down!"

Her muffled chuckles made me grow irritated as she sat me down right next to the hot spring. She made her own way into the warm water, and before I could react she pulled me in with herself. I yelped as I hit the water, but she quickly supported me in it before I could start drowning. "The hell was that for?" I asked angrily.

She began to gently scrub my scales with her own tongue, which weirded me out personally, but it was removing the dirt quite quickly. "You have quite the… vocabulary, for someone of your age."

I crossed my forelegs, "What's that supposed to mean?"

She moved on to scrubbing my tail, "It means you curse too much."

"Why… Does it bother you?" I asked curiously as I averted my gaze.

She sighed, "No, but it certainly raises an eyebrow when a hatchling dragon says those words." Her piercing gaze was soft, but even still I felt like she was scolding me. I don't know why I said those words either, only that it was some habit that I might need to reign in a little bit.

"Well… sorry. I'll try to stop cursing as often…" it was silent for a bit after that.

"I must admit, you are much younger than I had previously thought before guiding you here." I nodded at her words, but she didn't press further on the subject.

She finally finished cleaning my body, and it certainly felt much nicer than before. I relaxed into the warm water, and felt some of my worries wash away. My companion seemed amused as she slowly released her grip on me, allowing me to float in the spring. Then she got to work on cleaning herself.

After a long bout of silence and relaxation from everything, I began to grow drowsy. While at the same time, my stomach growled. Estrella nudged underneath me, pushing me to the edge of the springs. "Alright. I will go get food, I sense another beast. You dry off."

I slowly pulled my pudgy hatchling body onto the rocky shelf, "Yes ma'am." I said absentmindedly.

She nodded once again before leaving for the hunt. I watched her slink out of the cave with effortless grace, and felt great ease that she was on my side. I used my time to attempt shaking the water off of me as I've seen animals do. It partially worked, but not entirely. I followed my gaze around the room, coming across a bookshelf. I slowly sauntered over to it, scanning the book names. Many of them made little sense to me, but one intrigued me as it was the largest book. I pulled it off the shelf with my teeth, which took a load of work with my small body. Thankfully it was on the bottom shelf.

The front cover read the words; "Dragon Realm History" I rifled through to the index page, and read the sections. Races, magic, early history, the great reformation, purple dragons? I shook my head confusedly at the overload of information, and chose to simply go to the page about dragons. Seeing as I am one.

Other than describing the anatomy of dragons, which again confirmed to me I was a female, which I did not immediately like the idea of… Dragons are apparently the most common and prevalent race in this world. Something I felt I should already know, but for some reason didn't. Apparently dragons had multiple towns and villages, with one outlier being the massive city of Warfang. I gawked at the illustration of the city in the book. The walls were said to be taller than some of the mountains…

I looked at some more illustrations, skipping over the words mostly. Then I skipped multiple pages to the magic section, which was what really intrigued me. On the page were many symbols, representing the elements. There was fire, ice, lightning, and then earth. Categorized as the "core" elements. And then there were four more, wind, shadow, poison, and fear. They were categorized not as elements but as something you could only learn after doing away with your core element. They were called "primal affinities", which certainly made them sound scary.

It was apparently normal for some hatchlings to unintentionally or otherwise rid their element in favor of the shadow or wind element. Which would usually come about if they had trouble tapping into their core element. However fear and poison elements had a large stigma around them, and dragons wielding them were often deemed untrustworthy. There was a long debate on the page about the two elements but I glossed over it.

There was another section though, they did not have symbols but they were called "deviants". These were dragons that had harnessed their core element in a way that others could not, such as being able to manipulate water, magma, plants and other things. Usually a deviant was giving up on their core element by becoming a deviant, but if they so choose they could give up on deviancy and return to being a core elemental.

Other dragons that were considered deviants were dragons that could control more than one element. It was very rare but possible for some to be able to control a core element and a deviant element. And extremely rare for somebody to have two core elements. But it was completely unheard of to be able to control a core element and a primal affinity. And it was theorized, but not proven, that someone would be able to wield two deviants at the same time.

This was all extremely interesting for me, and made me wonder just what element I could possibly have. The possibilities were endless! Maybe I'd be a two core elemental? Or a deviant, that would be amazingly cool! I was getting excited, flipping the page over to the dragon color section, where it would make educated guesses on your element based off your color.

Most dragon's primary colors would indicate their element, but occasionally their underbelly color would indicate their element, especially if their primary was a dull color. The only exception color to this rule was purple, as purple dragons were exceedingly rare. I heard a dragging sound suddenly, and turned to the entrance to see Estrella dropping a large elk-like creature in the center of the cave. She looked at me curiously and approached, "There is food, if you wish to eat." She tilted her head down at the page, and her eyes widened at what I was looking at.

"What's wrong Estrella?"

She caught herself and composed, before clearing her throat, "Nothing at all. Come, little one."

When I got near the corpse, something inside of me was looking at it in pure disgust, and I may have stuck my tongue out as well. Estrella looked at me curiously, "Is something the matter?"

I shook my head and leaned down, taking the first bite of the deceased creature's flesh. I expected to puke immediately for some reason. However, instincts kicked in right after the first bite, and soon enough I was eating it as if nothing was wrong. I didn't eat very much however, only a dozen bites or so and I was completely full. My small stomach only had so much room, and immediately after eating I felt myself yawn.

Estrella smiled down at me, leaning her muzzle down and licking the blood staining my own muzzle. "Go get some rest, little one." She said nuzzling me in the direction of her large bed.

But before I gave in to her advice, I turned and looked up at her, and she waited expectantly for me to talk, "Estrella… Why are you being so nice to me?"

She smiled, but it was clear she had a lot on her mind, "Are you implying you'd like me to be rude?" She asked with a head tilt as her piercing gaze studied me.

I groaned, "N-No? Ugh, nevermind… forget I asked." I said turning back around and heading for her pillow.

I heard a short huff of a laugh, "Sleep well,"

I obliged quite easily to the statement, walking wobbly over to the very large pillow-like bed. I found a nice fluffy spot along the outside and spun a few times before finally settling myself in. Everything felt so wrong to me deep down, like I was forgetting things, but my yearning for sleep was far too strong. Soon enough I was consumed completely in the embrace.

.

.

END

Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you thought in the reviews. Follows and favorites are appreciated obviously! See you next time.