Rise of the System Lords (Semi-SI OC, kinda PF)

[Moochy]

Okay, so... let's get the party started. Let's see where it goes. This is about as beta as beta gets, so if I'm Doing It Wrong, let me know, okay? I welcome (constructive) criticism and corrections, and man do I thrive on attention like a fish thrives in water... Apologies for length, girth and problems with formatting. Now, on with the show.

Prologue

This is the story of how our world ended.

I guess many thought it would be some gigantic meteor from space, or some kind of death ray from an exploding star that leveled our civilization.

No.

Many others would have said some plague, wiping out humanity one sputum-laden death rattle at a time, or by us drowning in our own filth and waste, the very air turned toxic.

Not that either.

Oh no, what caused our civilization to crumble, to collapse like a skyscraper made of so much wet tissue paper, was visitors from beyond our plane of reality. These Titans, these Gods-with-a-capital-G, took one long, greedy look at our existence and decided we looked tasty, just right to be scooped out like so many balls of ice-cream into a big bowl and devoured then and there.

Our civilization fell, of course, so you could say they won.

You could say that, but nothing's ever quite that clean and simple.

Let me start at the beginning.

Awakening

A kaleidoscope of sights and sounds played through my mind as I drifted, unknowing, in the arms of Hypnos. Without any clear end to the eternity of selflessness, I suddenly realized I was flying, with my arms… no, my wings outstretched above hills and valleys full of green and brown.

All my life I had had four limbs, but now I arguably had seven. Two great scaly hind legs, their digitrade claws trailing behind as I swooped through the air. Two forelegs with equally wicked talons at the ends of my claws. No thumb, but I could feel some form of dew claw further up my muscular extremities. My wings, wide and bat-like, had wicked curved horns at the joints, and the seventh limb, my tail, had a whip-like set of equally webbed spines at the tip.

Below me were prey animals, and I swooped lower to pick out which morsel would next feed me. Cows, sheep, pigs, goats… humans.

Time seemed to stop, space to stretch as I dove and backwinged to snatch at—

Suddenly, there was pressure; voices, clamoring in my head, driving out all sense.

The Gods of the System Come! Rejoice! You have been chosen! Worship them! Fear them! Obey them!

It was a tumult, a ceaseless roiling mass of noise that echoed inside my skull until there was no more room for any other thoughts, not even my own. At first they had been soft and enticing, but rapidly their tone changed until they were screeching, screaming, howling their words, each syllable like a hammer-blow that threatened to shatter my soul to pieces as if it were made of crystal.

We give you power, we feel such rage, take it, revel in it, rip and tear, break bone, rend flesh, spatter blood, you—

And then, just as suddenly as it came, it ended, the sudden silence almost painful. A new voice broke through, a single voice, strong and clear.

The System Gods lie to you! Their gifts are chains, their promised power naught but shackles! You are free! Stay free!

And with that, both presences were gone, and the blinding light of morning accompanied a splitting headache which sent sunbursts through my brain. I fell out of bed… or rather, fell onto my bed. No, I fell around my bed. The distinction was meaningless; the mattress was in tatters, the frame in splinters, the whole damned thing looked like it had just exploded.

At the sledgehammer realization that my dream was no ordinary dream I shouted out in shock, of course, but my 'what the fuck!?' came out like sandpaper had lost a bet with a coffee grinder.

I tried to get up, but the world's worst case of vertigo slapped me in the chops at mach speed and sent me sprawling across the room so hard I slammed into the wall and almost took it out. Standing like I used to stand wasn't working, and if the way things looked weirdly small held true, it wouldn't at least whilst I was inside.

With more shouting and more exclamations spewing out in less than wordless grunts and rumbles, I managed to finally, finally, drag myself on all fours to the bathroom, destroying much of the furnishings as I went, to find a monster staring back at me from the mirror.

"What the fuck! Fuck! What! No, no, no!" I shouted again, or tried to. It didn't work any better now than it had five minutes ago, the words wouldn't come out right. In a sudden daze, it was like the world itself took a back seat. I could see, but it meant nothing. I could hear, but all around me was silence. I could feel my body, but the huge, slick, scaled, muscled form was just wrong, wrong, wrong!

I threw myself backwards in a panic, naught but a tumble of limbs and claws, pulling out the bathroom's door frame and crashing through the opposite wall. Completely through the wall, into the apartment next to mine.

Even before the dust had settled, there was sudden screaming and the almost meaningless impacts of normal humans swatting me with all sorts of improvised blunt weapons; chairs, pots and pans, shoes and things. I could do little else, I ran, apologizing in hissing grunts and roars as I barrelled through their front door as if it were made of tissue paper into the hallway, still in a panic.

The hallway hadn't fared any better. Several other apartments had their walls bust open, at least one was on fire. It was a miracle that — yep, there she goes. With a sudden burst of water, the sprinklers came on as the fire alarm blared. As more doors slammed open and more of the residents realized something had gone very wrong, the melee just degenerated further. What looked like a minotaur bellowed, scraped his — or her, I didn't really look for either udders or the alternative — hooves and slammed through a wall and the wall beyond, presumably to see if he could jump the four floors to the ground safely. What appeared to be a centaur cantered towards me, screamed, then flailed about to turn around, crushing several hapless humans as she did so. It didn't look much less painful for her, as the corridor wasn't made with livestock-sized creatures in mind, and at around eight feet tall she certainly fit the bill.

"Monsters!" shrieked at least one resident, though I paid the human no real mind until a distinct 'chk-chk' noise reached what passed for my ears. The ensuing loud retort of a shotgun confirmed my suspicions. As the screams renewed, louder, I had only one thought on my mind, piercing the haze of confusion I'd fallen into: that it was time to get out, and fast.

The minotaur might have had the right idea, and me? I had wings. They had to be useful for something. I didn't even hesitate, and I smashed through the walls, heading for the outside world.

Now that I was moving, the world snapped back into relevancy, into focus. There was screaming, the wailing of alarms, the insistent spraying of water. I couldn't stop for any of it, and just threw myself bodily and directly towards the street. I heard more gunshots, distantly, and felt the impact of what had to be birdshot or maybe rock salt.

Suddenly, I was… elsewhere.

Not bodily, but mentally.

I may as well have been in a massive, dark cave, as all around those sibilant whispers redoubled. This time they were wheedling, pleading, promising. All there was, was the voices. All I had was their words. They promised power, authority, abilities… all I had to do was everything they wanted.

Return the world to us! Crush your enemies, see them driven before you! Claim your place in the pantheon. Take the key, stake your claim to this world. Fulfill the will of the Gods of the System and they will reward you…

I snapped back into my own head with a jolt as something very, very hard impacted my snout. The ground. I sprawled and rolled, hissing and growling as I fouled my wings. That had hurt… but I seemed to be intact and uninjured. Now, if only I could stay that way.

 

[Moochy]

This story does have some 'dark' material, but nothing explicit on camera just for the sake of it. There's some graphic detail, but I'm aiming for what would be a 12 or maybe tops 15 rating if it were a movie. Just so you know. This isn't a gore-fest. I hope it's not a snore fest. Enjoy. Let me know if you do. Or if you don't, constructively why not.

---

Rumble in the… Jungle?

The world had gone mad. If I'd thought the hullabaloo in what was left of my apartment building had been a lot, outside was worse.

Something was wrong with the world, and the inhabitants were letting their issues with this be known. Cars and other road traffic were careening to and fro, with many in burning heaps as they had run rough-shod over curiously stretched parts of the blacktop. Many humans had turned themselves into little more than smears on the pavement, others had found their way onto the menu for a number of vicious looking creatures that may or may not have once been human themselves — if I had only my experience to go by, I wasn't sure if my sanity surviving intact was an outlier or not — and the screams and shouts and pleading for mercy flew thick and fast.

Not that the creatures had things their own way; I could see a number of dead and dying animals, fantastic beasts and non-human-humanoids as well, most from what appeared to be gunshot wounds, but others from bladed weapons.

"A dragon! Kill it!" came a sudden shout from behind me, followed swiftly by the barking retort of some kind of gun. The impact from the bullets stung, but either did no real damage or whatever passed for adrenalin in my body wasn't letting me feel the real pain. I spun, snarling, bladed spines instinctively flaring as I whipped my tail out. An impact. A cry. Relative silence, swiftly broken by more hurled insults and cries to attack.

"Kill the beast!" shouted one of the people before me. "Kill it! He is touched by the system! We have defied their agents, destroyed their access to this world, but with creatures like that still breathing, they have another way in! End it, and end their threat!"

Gee, thanks buddy.

Yesterday, 'people' would have exclusively meant 'human'. This one? This guy was… well, an elf. Pale grey skin, long ears, silken silvern hair, tall and thin… and apparently with a hard-on for ending my life. So basically an asshole.

"You're an elf!" I tried to say, but with the amount of teeth I had and the way my muzzle was different to before made that impossible. Besides, none of the humans accompanying said elf seemed interested in what I had to say, so it hardly mattered. The ring-leader of the human mob that was attacking me swung his baseball bat again. I dodged it, desperately, and swung a claw out. "Please! Don't hurt me!" I shouted, or tried to.

My claw, my big, black-scaled, razor-sharp claw, swung out like the fist of an angry god, and slammed into the slugger. I both felt and heard things pulp in his ribcage. He gurgled, screaming wetly in a spray of red, as his body tumbled through the air like a puppet with no strings in a hurricane. And that's when the screaming really started.

"No! I'm sorry! Please! You all saw! He… he attacked me!" I protested, but my speech was still garbled, and with the edge of desperation I was even less intelligible. As they raised their makeshift — and in several cases not so makeshift — weapons, I made my choice and turned to run. Six or more on one wasn't something I wanted to experience, thick armor or not.

Bolts from what had to be crossbows bounced off my ebony scales, and what felt like a punch from a heavyweight boxer made me stumble, the loud retort of a gun taking several seconds to percolate through my brain.

They shot me! Somebody actually fucking shot me! Point blank! Again! With something big enough to feel!

It took several more seconds — an eternity in the panic I now dwelled in — to understand that it hadn't really injured me. Sure, it had hurt, but… bruises were the worst I seemed to have suffered from it. Still, I didn't want to stick around to let them try again.

More guns went off, with bullets ricocheting to and fro as I ran for my life back across the park I found myself in — where had I left my apartment building? — and tried to cross the road. I was heading home, I dimly realized, already halfway there, as if that former abode held any kind of security for me anymore. Unfortunately, looking left, right, left had fallen by the wayside. With a screech of tires, over a ton of angry metal slammed into me.

Honestly, I'm not sure which of us came off worse in the altercation. The car was flung off into the sidewalk, where it impacted with a final-sounding crunch and the discordant, one-note song of a busted horn, whilst I was thrown down the road, to roll helplessly, my wings fluttering and my tail whipping to and fro, to come to a stop in a circle of people.

"Kill it!" came the chant once more, taken up by several of the would-be assassins.

I didn't wait for an encore of the situation in the park, I turned tail and fled, my sinuous and spiky rear appendage sending several 'innocent bystanders' to their probable deaths.

"Sorry! Kinda!" I roared sarcastically, the words nothing but unintelligible guttural growls and snarls.

More bullets, more other thrown, and shot, projectiles. I had to get away!

I ran swiftly down the road, shouldering aside cars, sending them careening into other things, like screaming people, trees, buildings and street lamps. Reaching an intersection, I leaped, unfurling my until-then forgotten wings. I had wings! I had to be able to fly! …Okay, I could fly, I just didn't know how! But it didn't matter, I'd learn on the job.

Gaining just a few scant feet of freedom from the ground, I slammed into a truck, and dug my claws in as glass shattered under my bulk. Immediately the vehicle juked left and right as I hauled myself to the roof, claws shredding furrows through what felt like tinfoil. It swerved violently all of a sudden, hard, and I found my grip just torn away with the roof. I spread my wings again, the speed giving me lift, and sailed across another intersection as a bus sped towards me.

Almost ripping my foreleg off, I grabbed at it, somehow swinging around as the two of us accelerated down yet another road, but it wasn't to last. The bus, too, started swerving. Suddenly, it jack-knifed, and I was briefly spun through the air like a glorious, black-scaled catherine wheel, only to find myself being slowed by physical application of brick, glass and steel.

More bodies — most but not all human — pulped beneath my mass, but I couldn't stop, couldn't grieve, couldn't care, because more shots, bricks, bottles and other missiles impacted my back and sides. I scrambled deeper into the shop, sending tins of cat food and bags of dog food flying.

Food? In some distant, half-crazed part of my mind, I realized I was hungry. I hadn't eaten all morning, and after all the exertion, I was feeling it. The pet food, it… well it smelled kind of awful, and yet… kind of enticing. The screaming of humans seemed to draw distant, the sounds of gunfire muted. I breathed for a moment, my heart rate slowing.

Food!

I bent my head and ripped at the pile of kibble. Taking first a single tentative bite, then another and another, larger and larger, I shoveled muzzle-full gulping mouthfuls of the stuff, I gorged on the crunchy, meaty, dry foodstuff. The sky was raining indoors, so getting a drink was easy too! I swallowed muzzle full after muzzle full of water, it tasted metallic and dirty, but I was thirsty and had little choice.

I probably could have stayed there longer, but the whispers started first, and then the loud thunder-crack of bullets. I turned to face my attackers, rattling my scales, then leaped over them, the whip-crack of my tail knocking the guns — and probably a few fingers, but fuck them — flying, before I scuttled my way up some treacherously feeble shelves.

"He'll be trapped up there, no way out!" said one of the jokers.

"I'm not trying to get out," I rumbled — still, nothing but animalistic roars and snarls, though I no longer really cared — in return, then flexed my foreclaws and tore the ceiling apart before hauling myself up onto the next floor, shouldering my way through a deluge of plaster, wood, concrete and insulation.

More guns, wielded by more would-be heroes, greeted me. One got too close so I snapped at her, my jaws fastening around her screaming body before I bit down, hard, with finality. She stopped screaming instantly, her corpse twitching in my jaws. I threw her body up into the air, almost instinctively, then snicker-snacked my way through the meal.

She tasted like pork, the juiciest, tastiest sausages, the best steaks… I hated it, loathed it, and yet… I snapped my head forwards on my long neck, swallowing, as her whole body ended up in my gullet, one chomp at a time.

The humans, predictably by now, were screaming incoherently, shouting and shooting more.

What was I supposed to do!? She attacked me! You're all attacking me!

"Leave me alooooonnneeee!" I shouted. As I exhaled, I felt it. Sacks somewhere… under my tongue? In my neck? I didn't know, but I felt them. They… squeezed, and green bile ejected from my mouth.

The screaming, if anything, grew louder. For a moment. And then it grew… burblier, as the unlucky attackers started to melt, along with the floor and anything else drenched in the stuff. I shuddered, then turned and scraped my way up to the next floor. And the next. And the next… and then I turned to look at the escalators. There were… people, coming up them. And they looked like they wanted a piece of my hide. As if all the others before them hadn't wanted the same.

"Come on wings, don't fail me now! I have wings, I know how to fly. I have wings, I know how to fly! I HAVE WINGS! I KNOW HOW! TO! FLY!"

I picked up speed, moving into a gallop, then threw myself at and through the windows.

As I exploded into sunlight, I spread my wings, and beat them, once, twice, three times!

I was doing it! I was flying! I was… I was falling! Tilting! Crashing!

For the second — third? Fourth? I'd lost count — time that day, I slammed through a gigantic bay window and skidded to a stop, aided by the wet, warm cushion of human flesh as their bodies burst beneath me. I stood up, shakily, and shook myself like a dog, cringing away from the noise. Screaming, always with the screaming!

I was tired, hungry, pissed off… okay, well, hungry I could do something about. And I didn't even need to make more of those annoying, screamy humans angrier, because I could smell… meat! Actual meat, as in… cooked meat!

Pulling myself to all fours, my head snapped around on my snake-like neck to fasten my gaze on the distant deli counter. I lumbered over to it, and promptly ripped and tore my way into the display.

Heaven! I was in heaven!

Sausages, steaks, rump, leg, shank, bone, marrow, meatballs! By all the gods, this was amazing!

Mouthful after mouthful of delicious tasty protein went down my…

Stop that!

I whipped my head around and snapped, fastening my teeth around an arm equipped with a large, squarish bladed knife that had been weakly and ineffectually chopping at my scales. I ripped said knife away along with most of the arm holding it, then lunged back at the screaming creature, threw it into the air and… snap! Crunch, munch, chew… loud, but only briefly. And tasty.

Looking around, as my meal options grew fewer, I noticed… pig? As in the oinking kind, not the long kind! I snapped up the leg of pork, barely chewing it as the whole thing, bone and all, was masticated efficiently by my teeth and jaws.

Another leg!

Another!

A… a room full of meat? Why, don't mind if it… wait!

The door to the walk-in freezer slammed shut, and I briefly considered throwing myself against it, but… there was all this meat around just waiting for my full attention. I turned the cold-making machines near the ceiling at the back into so much scrap metal, then set to the task of filling my stomach. The cold didn't really bother me, but that didn't mean I liked it.

I could get out of here easily enough. Eating my fill though… that would be harder. Not that I wasn't about to give things the old college try.

Eventually, I thought to myself that it might be a good time to take a nap. I'd eaten most everything I wanted to, after all. The tins were annoying to open and most of them far too small, or uninteresting, though the metal was tasty enough by itself.

I curled up in the center of the room; the cold didn't really bother me, but it was a bit chilly to really lounge, I guess. I put my head on my tail, fluttered my leathery wings until they were comfortable, then closed my eyes.

 

[Moochy]

Okay, so, this setting is nominally fantasy America, and nominally Pathfinder. I'm not American, but doing my most adequate at making it American. It's going to read a lot like a power fantasy for a while because, well, dragon, but that's not the aim, it's just the consequence.

Also it's tagged 'Semi-SI' because... well, it's essentially portal fantasy, but the MC is not 'me'. It could be, I guess, or it could be you.

---

Awake, Redux

The world returned slowly, and along with it came recollection, guilt, confusion, and… not pain as such, but certainly a pressure. There was a rushing pop and the voices from beyond tittered in my ears.

You have done well! Sowed chaos and confusion, grown your power, all to bring the Gods of the System closer! We—

I threw them off. I owed them nothing. Why had they chosen me, anyway? Had I just been in the wrong place at the wrong time? I didn't feel particularly… worthy to be a dragon. I didn't believe there was any real plan, I was just caught in the crossfire. I was a human.

Although there was the rub. Was.

I looked myself over — large, covered in sharp, ebony black scales, spines, wings, claws… I still vaguely remembered that blunt muzzle with the vertically slit, golden eyes staring back from what remained of my bathroom mirror.

So that was me, huh? Now and forever, I expect. Seeing my coiled body in the thin light projected through the small window in the thick, freezer door, I couldn't find any sign of changing back. If anything, I was bigger. Maybe I was just full.

I burped, felt yesterday's meals settling. What happened before I slept was yesterday, until I found out otherwise. If it even mattered any more what day it was. The power was out, or they'd shut it down. It was dark and cramped, still chilly but warmer than before. Not that it had mattered.

I closed my eyes again. I could still hear them, the screams and cries of my… victims? Assailants? Sufferers of collateral damage? I settled on 'All of the above' and just as easily dismissed them. The cries faded.

I tried to be sorry about it, but really only felt sorry about not feeling more sorry. They'd attacked me! I'd been shot, and by the faint dull aches peppering my body, more than once. Every single person I'd encountered had either been killed by or had wanted to kill me, whether they were human or… other. There was no give or take there, and I wasn't about to stick my neck out for no axeman.

I sifted in my head through the dim yet colorful memories of the previous day; now I thought about it, I could recall tall, muscular creatures with ears and tails, werewolves? Werecats? Werebears, even? Certainly at least one centaur — one less than however many now existed in this world after he or she got in my way — and more than a smattering of those damned elves. Still, most of the people I saw were humans like before.

Were all the changed creatures like me? No, they couldn't be. Some of them were, obviously. I can't have been the only one, but many of the newcomers hadn't come from Earth, they'd said as much. Now, however, they were stuck here. Stuck, like me. Just not exactly like me.

Was I truly some agent for this… invading System and its Gods? Did I not deserve to live? Was my existence here set to doom what was left of the Earth? I doubted my death alone would turn back the tide, and since I wasn't about to 'do the honorable thing'... I snorted.

My maudlin self-examination was brought to a halt as the dim quiet of the now much warmer freezer was intruded upon by muted whispers from the other side of the heavy door, by shadows passing through the light.

"It's in there?"

"Yep, pretty sure. I mean, there's only one way in and out, and it's been locked since I trapped it in there, si-sir!"

"How big is it?"

"Umm… large pony? Medium horse? Small hippo? I didn't really get a chance to measure it… it… it ate Jeb!"

"The… cook?"

"Deli artist, s-sir."

"...Right. That. Well, get back."

I listened as the two initial voices split and then faded, with one of them replaced by a third.

"What do you think?"

"About what?"

"Can we… will this work?"

"I… don't know! That's for… large animals. It's made for horses, with a dose big enough for an elephant."

"If we can't knock it out, we're gonna have to kill it, and I want this one alive."

"If the dose is wrong, or it's… allergic, or something, then you might kill it with that shot."

"I'll take my chances."

Well, shit. What should I do? What do I…

The door slid open, a gun slid in through the crack and a sudden brief bee-sting later, and a large dart of some kind was hanging from my shoulder. How the fuck had they got that through my… I glared. A bald patch? Come to think of it, I was missing some scales, here and there. A new scale was growing underneath it, but they'd hit just about the only weak spot I had. Lucky? Or something else?

No, wait, most of the dose was just running down my foreleg, and what had got into my system didn't seem to be doing much of anything. It made me feel warm, perhaps, but neither sleepy nor befuddled, and I could still feel everything. Was I resistant, or even immune, to poisons? I sniffed at the broken dart, whining. It still hurt, but they'd mostly missed. I pulled it out and spat. I licked at the wound idly, before realizing what I was doing, then sorely hoped it didn't work through ingestion where injection hadn't.

"Do you think it worked?"

"I can't hear anything… maybe?"

"Give it thirty more seconds, then open the door."

Well shit, now they'd try to kill me unless I came up with an idea. Okay, so I was on a timer. What should I do? I spun around, trying to find something, anything, to help… then happened upon a really stupid, gloriously idiotic plan. They didn't know it hadn't worked, right?

I lay down, mouth semi-open, tongue lolling out, and then closed my… nictating? Lactating? Nictitating? Whatever it was, nicti-thingy-membranes, over my eyes. And then I lay perfectly still.

I could win a staring contest with god right now. I was a rock. I was calmness itself. The ocean.

The door opened a crack, and the gun peeked in, followed by its owner.

"The damned thing's really out!" said the soldier.

"Its eyes are open, but… yeah, I think it's out. Good, er, good job."

The soldier narrowed his eyes, then turned and hollered back out the door, "Right, I want it bagged and tagged and outta here in five, ladies!"

There came loud noises, noises like tractors and pulleys and the protesting squeals of metal… and then the entire fucking wall of the freezer exploded away, and about ten men stomp-stomped their way into the freezer. I made damn fucking sure not to move as they trussed my scaly body up like the largest, thickest, most lizardy scaled turkey to ever have a thanksgiving, then tried not to startle as they called in some sort of miniature earth-mover and the damned thing dragged me out through the shop into the street.

Well, so far so good, they hadn't killed me yet, and seemed intent on not doing that. These straps weren't going to hold shit against my spines and claws, so getting away if or when they changed their mind wasn't a problem either.

Go me, plan 'this is a fucking dumb idea' was working perfectly. Just don't jinx it.

"I want this beast secured in… get me something! Anything! A livestock truck, convert a big rig if you have to!"

"Sir?"

I very carefully made sure I wasn't looking at whoever was speaking.

"I want it shipped out to the F.O.B pronto, before it wakes up!"

"Actually," said a familiar voice, the… vet? "I have an idea about that. Get meat, as much meat as you can find. We'll dope it up with the sleepy time medicine, the dragon'll eat the meat, and then he'll fall back asleep, how does that sound?"

"You're sure he'll eat it?"

"I'm sure as shit he munched his way through most of that freezer, the fucker likes food, and besides, what else are you going to do? Try to shoot him every time he wakes up?"

"Well, that had been the plan, Joe."

"Might work, keep that as plan B. Plan A? Give him num-nums and let him send himself back to sleep."

There was silence for a moment, then the… Sergeant? Captain? Fucked if I knew, spoke again. "Good plan, Joe. You heard the man! Get to it!"

With lots of shouting and the continued stomping of boots, and the surprise showing of a tow-truck of some sort, I found myself being winched up onto a large, flatbedded platform and then driven further down the road to some sort of cleared out camp in what had been a small, square park, now swarming with soldiers, warning signs and emergency tape.

I amused myself by being as difficult to transport as possible, whilst still trying to play dead, but eventually they did indeed manage to haul me up into some sort of… covered cattle car, which swiftly started moving out of town.

As the speed increased, I considered ending the charade… but I still hadn't seen anything seriously dangerous to my existence, and the promise of being 'kept alive' clearly also meant 'being fed', and when it came down to it, during the end of the world, the idea of being fed, sheltered and even to some degree protected — even if I didn't really need protecting — was relatively attractive. Why rock the boat? It wasn't like I had anything better to do, and getting my claws on a TV big enough and getting my streaming services set up again seemed unlikely. Being allowed to watch anything in peace seemed even less so.

Let's see where it goes.

 

[Moochy]

Why did I write this? Because the idea sounded fun - I do read a few 'lit-rpg' stories, but the math sucks. I admire the dedication to the numbers, but 'numbers go up' makes very dry reading for me. This is the result: a System that fails its initial incursion, other than completely fucking the entire planet, and a story set around trying to survive that. With dragons, because, you know, dragons.
This chapter's short, so since I'm partially playing catchup here, double post. Enjoy, I hope!

---

Road Trip

Boring! This was sooooo boring!

I slammed my weight into the walls, feeling the truck swerve as the driver and passenger swore loudly.

"Stop that you great fucking idiot lizard! You'll get us all killed!" one of them grumbled as he fought for control.

"Shut the fuck up, Brian! Don't piss off the multi-ton anger beast!"

"Why doesn't it just fucking eat the food?"

"Because I guess it wants out for a piss just as much as I do, but if you think I'm stopping whilst a literal fucking man-eating dragon is in the back you've got another thing coming!"

That was a point. I hadn't yet, to my knowledge, 'done my business' as a dragon, and now things were getting rather… pressing. And I didn't really want to do it in here, did I? Wait, or did I?

Well, alright, I could make this work in my favor. Maybe. First of all, time to snack a bit more.

It turned out my captors had indeed been generous with my food, even if not with the drink. Not that it really mattered so far, there was enough… wet to slake most of my thirst. They'd thrown in some amount of raw meat, and then from somewhere had rounded up some even more raw meat. So raw, it was still oinking. Of course, the damned creatures stunk, but that had been dealt with in short order. I'd culled the lot of them when I'd first woken up from my actual, honest-to-goodness nap and they hadn't stopped squealing. Quietly decomposing fresh meat was a lot more palatable and restful than intensely squealing, fighting-to-get-out-over-each-other hogs.

The nice surprise — for me at least — was that I'd been right. I was seemingly highly resistant, indeed possibly immune, to poisons, and that included whatever drugs they'd laced the meat with that were meant to knock me out, so I could gorge myself on otherwise 'tainted' food and not suffer for it.

I could, however, make them suffer for it. Time to take the biggest, nastiest—

"Aww, shit! What the ever loving fuck is that stench!?"

"I think it's the dragon!" gasped Possibly Brian. "Pete, go look, make sure it's still alive or…"

"Me?" croaked Definitely Pete.

"I'm fucking driving and if you don't, I'm liable to fucking pass out and then we're all going to die."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you too."

The little window separating the front cab and the back bed slid open, accompanied by more swearing and heaving. Some of my best work, really. A huge, pungent pile almost right up to the window, still glistening and steaming from the watering I'd given it right after. And now I could lie down at the other end and pretend to fall asleep. Or even really nap, if I wanted to. Yeah, I could smell it, but with the way things were, those two chucklefucks in front were getting the worst of it, even through the divider.

Well, now it's time to eat a bit more, methinks, so I can once more pretend to be mostly harmless and consequently have a good long chuckle at the buttholes enjoying the fruits of my… I guess I should say labor, but right now, at this exact moment, I want to just say my butthole.

Did I have a butthole? Or was it called something else on a dragon? Ah well, these were questions for later.

***

Fresh air billowed in through the opened trailer tailgate. I relaxed in the probably-afternoon sun as a team of incredibly nervous probably-soldiers, or at least militia, did their level best to clear the small mountain shit from the back of the trailer, moving extremely fast past me.

I, of course, was 'sleeping'. I was half considering 'accidentally' rolling over and trapping one or two, but… no. I didn't want to get shot at now that I was finally getting a break from the constant noise and aggravation of travel, and this whole road trip wasn't exactly awful. I didn't really have anywhere else to be either, so I may as well let them take me to… wherever it was they were headed, until it was time to leave. And the more I cooperated the lower their guard would be for when that inevitably happened.

I people-watched, carefully to avoid detection, all the while sneaking glances at the surroundings outside of the trailer. With every glance, I could tell that my earlier supposition was true; something was very wrong with the world, but I couldn't put my claw on exactly what. Parts of the road here also looked… stretched, like taffy, just the same as back in town, and there was something equally but differently wrong with the sky and horizon. Just what else didn't fit the old normal would have to wait until I had a chance for a better look later.

The two idiots responsible for getting my truck and its occupant to its final destination had pulled over shortly after I'd given them my present, and the useful aspect to my shenanigans had then shown its ugly face. I was part of a convoy, with plenty of other soldiery types at least behind but almost definitely also ahead. Now I knew, any escape attempt from this cross-country drive would have to take into account their ability to follow in vehicles at least as fast if not faster than I was on foot, even over incredibly rough terrain, and even if I did, where would I go?

That's why I punished the stragglers once they'd cleaned enough of the distraction up by 'waking'. The soldiers slammed the gate closed as I stirred, trapping two of their co-conspirators inside with me. Both ran back towards the 'front' of the vehicle, but only one of them was fast enough leaping through a bolt-hole barely big enough for his body to actually escape.

"Sorry, pal, but I'm still hungry," I said, not that any of that came out as human words. With a single, easy tug on his legs, I dragged him back inside. He screamed, pulling himself across the floor through the straw and muck, but I placed one large paw on his neck, bent my head down and… crunch. I closed my jaws easily, slicing through his spine and the back of his ribcage, and pulled. Chewing and swallowing, I then licked my muzzle clean as the noise stopped, to be replaced by momentary gurgling and then naught but gently trickling blood and the steam of boiling entrails. I settled down to feed as cursing and shouting faded away and the convoy started moving again.

It wasn't that I wanted to kill and devour humans, no matter how tasty, but if I was going to eventually escape, then the more I was underestimated as nothing but a dumb, brutal beast, the better. At least that's what I kept telling myself, as I settled down on my belly to dig into the gently twitching meal beneath me and the swaying of the road lulled me to rest.

 

[Moochy]

Mostly because I can, and because I'm playing catch-up a little here, have another slice. Things start to take shape from here.

---

Arrival

The food was all gone and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to indulge in a proper tantrum or not to get more, seeing as that might get me a meal of hot lead instead of pork, long or regular. I wasn't exactly hungry, but it was the principle of the thing. I was a little peckish, but mostly just bored.

Ah, well, in for a penny, in for a pound.

I slammed myself into the sides of the truck once again, harder this time and with feeling, splintering wood and bending the strong, metal cage around the slats, earning another round of swearing and causing the truck to swerve, much as it had every previous time. Always a wheeze with these guys.

"Please fucking tell me we're there soon!" hissed Probably Brian.

"GPS says five minutes," replied Definitely Pete.

"I'm gonna go for three."

I should have been amazed I could hear them above the noise. The truck sped up, which was my cue to cause even more of a ruckus. I slammed into the 'front' of the cab, denting the wall.

"Holy shit! Drive!" hissed Definitely Pete.

"Fucking trying!" wailed Probably Brian.

Mm, yes, this had possibilities. Did I want to punish those two for their part in my kidnapping? Maybe? Ah who was I kidding. Definitely! I threw myself into the ceiling and it all but folded. I threw myself into the floor and it buckled, leaving the truck with a pronounced limp. I didn't know whether I'd burst a tire or just bent the superstructure to hell and back, but it caused a great deal of squawking on whatever passed for their radios as the ride got a lot bumpier. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea, I didn't exactly have a seatbelt.

Shortly after, the horrendous pel-mel pace of the journey came to a screeching, twisted halt and the sounds of two doors slamming open then shut punctuated the sudden silence as I shook my head from doing my best impression of a ping pong ball. Fuckers. They were supposed to come let me out so I could attack them!

I slammed myself repeatedly at the truck's sides, ceiling, back and floor until something finally gave, and then I threw myself out into the middle of a large, fenced-in square of relatively flat ground. Nostrils flaring, I whipped my head around as I glared at everyone and everything, hissing.

I found myself in the middle of a… paddock? Enclosure? Whatever the nomenclature, it was large and spacious, relatively speaking at least, ringed by double layers of what looked like hastily erected, probably electrified, barbed-wire topped fences. The entire installation was split into four. Each area was the size of at least an entire football field, with massive gates between them, and walkways between the electrified fences. There was nothing else in my section other than the wrecked truck.

Makeshift guard towers stood at opposite corners of one side, two in total, one per, presumably each one could cover almost the whole of the area between them, with the other filling in the blanks. Large caliber guns of some sort were mounted under the covered tops. They looked nasty. Fifty cals? Fucked if I knew, but I didn't want to find out just yet. I roared at them anyways, backing up, whip-cracking my tail and rattling my scales in a potent threat display.

I trotted over to one edge, then patrolled around the perimeter. Alright, alright, I could deal with this. One paddock over was food — obviously for me, judging by how it was mooing — and two others were filled with… creatures, some quadruped, the majority bipedal. More were being unloaded from other trucks in the convoy I'd been a part of. What the idea was these humans had I had no clue, but it was clear they were going to try to find a way to take advantage of us non-humans.

Had some or all of them been subjected to the same voices I had? Or the opposing ones? Had they been promised similar, or entirely different things?

"I'm hungry!" I roared, jogging back and snarling as I ran up and down the side of the field between me and my lunch. I wasn't, of course, or at least not really. I wouldn't mind a bite though.

I leaned carefully against the fence, yelping and falling back as the charge running through it jolted through my body. Okay, ow, that smarts. I wasn't immune to electricity. I didn't know if I was especially resistant, but the good news was that it wasn't enough to stop me. Not that I wanted them to know that.

I hammed it up a little, fleeing and squawking in apparent terror, then topped off my performance with a hissing roar of defiance and another couple of 'tries' against the barrier between me and my dinner. I heard the distant raucous laughter of watching soldiers. They were roughly lined up around the far outside of the four fields, watching along with the other creatures in the other two paddocks. That's right, laugh it up whilst you can. Glad you enjoyed the show, fuckers. I'd scope them out later, but for now I wasn't wanting to make friends.

Too bad they didn't have the same idea.

"On my mark, open the gates, let's see if we can get him to behave!" shouted a… Colonel? Lieutenant? Corporal? The head guy, a squat man about five eleven in height but built like a brick shithouse, complete with stubble on his chin. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been smoking a cigar.

"Yes Sarge!" shouted a couple of sprightly youngsters, and the two ran to a nearby gatehouse of sorts.

A sergeant, huh? Okay. And that hut-thing was a control spot for this whole shebang. Good to know. Not that I'd need it to escape I figured, but, you know, plans within plans and all that.

"Now!"

I watched, biding my time, fluttering my wings, as large orange lights and loud sirens wailed, before the heavier gates between me and my next meal split in two. I trotted over to it happily, much to the displeasure of the cows on the other side. Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, open up, that's it, come to Papa…

"That's enough! Hold it, boys!"

The sirens shut off, the lights kept going, and the doors creaked to a halt. Uh huh, power play time, was it? What's your plan, Sergeant Sausage? I guessed it was still my plan to play the big, dumb, hungry brute. And right now, that would be pretty easy. I roared in defiance and stalked frantically backwards and forwards between the two halves of the gate, snapping at the gap between the two which was definitely not big enough to let me through. Sure, I could force the issue, but I didn't want them to think electricity didn't work on me. I darted forwards, then gingerly stuck my head between the two halves.

The shriek of pain as I inevitably made contact with the metal didn't need to be faked, that shit hurt! I fell back, squalling loudly in frustration as I paid half-attention to the boots on the ground behind me. Ten, twenty men? I wasn't really sure how many, but a large number of what had to be very nervous soldiers — or militia, I had no idea if these guys were legit army or just taking advantage of the whole situation — were advancing on my position.

I whipped around to see Sergeant Sausage himself leading the pack, with at least half of them outfitted with makeshift heavy duty spears topped with what had to be a cattle prod. Props to him for putting himself out there, really, but I was going to kill any of them that got too close if I could, fair's fair.

I rumbled low, hissing and growling, as they approached. I didn't even bother with words, none were needed. We all understood the way of things here; I was the big bad monster that the plucky boys in, uh, green had captured. They intended to break my spirit and get me to dance to their tune, and my job was to punish them for the attempt and their hubris. I'm sure their interpretation of things would come out slightly differently, but truth was, I was planning on playing the subdued, cowed, good little pet as much as possible… for as long as it suited my plans, at least. Once I'd made them pay for it, of course, it can't be too easy, after all. I might not know what my plans were yet, but that was for future-me to deal with.

"Alright boys, now we're going to teach this critter that he eats when I say he eats! That he sleeps when I say he sleeps, and he shits when I say he shits, just like you pukes, ain't that right?" called the sergeant.

"SIR YES SIR!" came the massed reply from the men.

"Weapons ready! Cut 'im off! I don't want him even looking in the direction of dinner! Not until I say so!" The sergeant motioned for his men to spread out. I leveled my gaze at all of them, one at a time, growling, raising my wings and lashing my tail as I turned in a circle. "Yeah, that's right, pay attention… now DOWN!"

He jabbed his cattle-prod spear towards a spot somewhere above my shoulders and I instinctively ducked down. Damn, it wasn't quite supposed to go like that.

"Good, good… keep the pressure up, lads… DOWN!" He jabbed again, and again I flinched towards the ground.

"DOWN!" he shouted, but this time only gestured with his arm, and despite my foreknowledge of the game… flinched downwards.

"Good boy, that's right… right, right, alright… now open the gates! But keep the fucking sirens off! KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME!" His sudden outburst had everybody looking at him, including me. "That's right, Sunshine, I'm the boss, got it? I say what goes here, and the sooner you figure that out, the happier we'll all be… we're going to practice your new trick, boy, and that is… DOWN!"

Spear jab, shout, flinch.

Alright, I'll play along for now, but I'm going to get proper annoyed soon. I snarled and spun in a circle as the soldiers spread out.

"Keep the butts of your spears on the ground if he gets close!" Sarge shouted. "Angle them so he puts his own weight on 'em if he lunges, let him spear himself! And you!" He jabbed his spear at me, breaking from the killing circle to approach by a few feet, behind him the circle closed up. I snarled again as he moved, left and right. "That's right, keep on me! Got that gate open yet?"

There was a loud, clanging metallic crash behind me as the gate between sections opened all the way. I stopped and turned my head, snaking it around on my long neck. Ah, grub's up, don't mind if I do!

As I turned to barrel my way through to the other section, a sharp, crackling pain drew my attention back the other way. He'd… he'd stabbed me! He actually stabbed me! I roared in indignation and turned back. I lunged forwards but the damned electrified spear hurt if it even just grazed me. Not seriously, of course, but still. He may have stabbed me with it but it hadn't penetrated my armored hide. I doubted it would before the shaft would snap, not that I wanted to find out.

I backed up slightly, taking a breath. Okay, let's see… I can play his game and keep my attention on him until he's happy I'm listening, I can ignore him completely and just go, forcing my way through those idiot soldiers, but at the same time show that the cattle prods don't really do much but piss me off, or… well I didn't want to kill him yet, if I was too dangerous they might decide it wasn't worth their trouble to keep me alive and then I'd have to fight my way through the entire base and whatever extra ordnance they had here, and then after that I'd have to feed myself, so how about I just prove my point a little?

What's this? Tasty little human getting too close? That'll do, Pig, that'll do...

 

[Moochy]

Settling in

Jacob Smith, known as Sarge to everyone in the SPA, watched, eyes narrowed, as the dumb beast calculated its ugly face off. It was squirrely, this one. Hungry, as if they hadn't fed it plenty on the way in, and mean, but fundamentally not different to any other beast. It could be taught. Tamed, likely not, but taught? Definitely.

"Hyah! I said down!" He jabbed the spear forwards just as it thought about moving, which caused the beast to flinch and cower away, more or less as he wanted… but then the dumb fucker just had to reverse into a couple of his guys in the kill circle, which set it off again. The beast roared and howled, turning, its tail whipping about, which sent three good men tumbling. Immediately the beast capitalized on it, likely drawn by the motion, and it leaped like an oversized cat, splaying its foreclaws over the unfortunate puke, trapping him there.

Shit. That was O'Malley, a good kid, bit dim, didn't deserve to get eaten.

"Kill a cow, quickly!" Sarge shouted.

"Wha', but sir!" came a reply through the shouts of dismay and anger as the soldiers fought to try to save their compatriot.

"Gut it! Blood in the wind, you puke! Do it! Now!"

Sarge ran forwards, stabbing with his cattle-prod spear whilst several from the crowd ran across the pen. "Get off of him! Off!"

The beast roared and snarled, twisting and turning as the man beneath his claws spat and blubbered, alternately angry and sobbing at his predicament, very much unable to move, the dragon above him lashing out like a cat with its claws at anybody getting close enough.

There was a gunshot, and then the beast stopped, raised its head, and sniffed.

"Get clear, this side! I want it to want to get off O'Malley! Hyah! Dinner's served over there you big lizard! Go on, git!"

***

They had left me an out. How cute. For a long moment, I debated killing this kid — kid? He looked older than I used to! — to teach them a lesson. I bent my head towards his body, curling what lips I had back over my jaws, showing my teeth. How oddly faceless this human seemed to me right now. I knew I should be able to recognize features, but… I wasn't seeing it. Was it eye shape? Hair color? Something about the nose? All these humans looked the same to me. They all smelled of soap and sweat and too much deodorant. They all tasted the same too. It took great effort, or great annoyance, to spot the difference.

The world seemed to pause. The shouting of the other soldiers dimmed in my ears, Sarge's blathering silenced.

"Please," said the soldier beneath me, quietly, "don't kill me, I'll do anything!"

I looked down at him, tilting my head. "Your obeisance is acceptable," I said. "Lie still."

He stilled. Only then did I notice the hand he had on a knife he'd finally managed to pull from a pocket.

"Drop it," I said. "Drop the knife." He did so, though I wasn't sure he knew what he was doing. Interesting.

The world returned to focus. Time I let Sarge have his way. This time.

"-ff him! Down!"

I whipped my head up to stare at Sarge, then pointedly backed off of O'Malley… and turned and thundered my way across the enclosure, into the next pen, where I fell upon the large cow, belly already slit open, digging my head into its guts as I pulled out tasty organ after tasty organ and cracking the bones to get at the juicy marrow.

As I licked blood and more from my chops, I peered about, half because I needed to scope out the place still, and half to make sure nobody else was dumb enough to try to take my food.

Four at least football-field sized open areas, split by doubled up, electrified fences, makeshift gates between them, the two on my 'pen' motorized, other gates leading outside. Something wrong with the sky, something wrong with the horizon, something wrong with the world, something wrong with the sun. Hmm. The more I looked, the less this struck me as a legitimate army, and more as some sort of militia; they were probably one of those 'end-times' prepper groups obsessed with the return of this and that mythical figure. Huh, guess they were half-right at least. Idly I wondered if they owned this land or just seized it during the panic.

I took another few bites from my meal, watching the rest of the cattle as they fought over themselves to get as far away from me as possible but also to not go anywhere near the fences. That had some possibilities. I wondered idly if this section had lower voltages on the fences or not. Or maybe they could turn it up.

Across the way was what seemed to be an exercise yard; some bleachers were set up where the folks who could be sitting on them could be seen by both gun towers, there was what seemed to be some large tires, a court of some sort for basketball or similar, some weights, and a whole host of two and four footed creatures wandering around semi-listlessly, at least where they weren't watching me and my antics.

The other, diagonally opposed section had some tents and a few more permanent looking shacks, some sort of shanty town growing up. If that got any more full, they'd be out of space. That just cemented my idea that whatever was going on here was vague at best and just reactionary at worst. These idiots had no idea what they were doing, that or they were doing things for somebody else and didn't understand that either.

Okay, show's over. Time to go 'home'.

I picked up what was left of my meal — waste not, want not after all — and trotted my way back to my section of the compound, dragging the carcass in my mouth all the way. My quarter had the truck in it, which I tromped up back into, to settle down with my meal and wait for my next opportunity to teach these humans who was boss.

 

[Moochy]

Morning Reverie

The annoying bugle call lasted just as long as it took me to leap out of bed, heave myself down the trailer ramp and roar mightily, throwing myself at the electrified fence. Whether it hurt me or not, I was going to get them to knock that shit off immediately.

After a few minutes of relatively golden silence — I didn't let them have it all their way even then, roaring and complaining and stalking up and down the fences — I padded back to my trailer. Once there, I pointedly began gnawing on the cow skull in the opening of the bed. I saw the way the soldiers looking my way turned green. That's right, fucks, piss me off and this could be you. The last few who'd tried it hadn't lasted as long.

Since I was awake, and didn't particularly feel like getting up just yet, I decided to take up my new sport whilst I finished breakfast; people watching. Almost as interesting as those shitty streaming services, and a lot cheaper. My nostrils flared as I caught the scents of the various creatures milling about; they'd been similarly woken by the obnoxious recorded bugle and were now getting fed and watered and setting up for whatever passed for exercise in the corner section from me.

I peered around to see what specifics I could catch on the far side of the complex. Were-creatures and dwarves? Quadrupeds, another centaur or two, no elves? Informative, if it held true.

The two gun towers weren't really pointed at me either, though I had been rather noisy, so they didn't see anything strange about me or my actions. To be honest, they weren't really pointed at anything in particular, and could regularly be found scanning the horizon outside of whatever this weird base I found myself in was. These silly humans believed they were safe. I would teach them hubris soon enough.

I was coming to the conclusion that this 'base' was actually some sort of commandeered, possibly-ex, mining operation, though when it had been commandeered was beyond me. It could have been really recently, it could have been a long time ago. What looked like coal or at least rubble was piled up surrounding the four enclosures I and the other prisoners here were contained in, to form ridged wall-mounds surrounding what I'd have to call the bailey if I was going to talk about castles at all. They formed killing fields, should anything attack from the 'outside'. I'd bet dollars to donuts that where we all were situated used to be some sort of mass storage yard.

They'd either acted fast or had had most of this ready before everything happened. Maybe they were just that paranoid.

Actually either choice wouldn't have surprised me, so I was going to go with a little of both, to be safe.

I could see what appeared to be sheds for maintenance of various machinery — now filled with jeeps and what looked like maybe a tank or two — and some administration buildings plus a lot of tall cylindrical buildings and long metal-covered tracks of this and that. I flared my nostrils; yep, I could still smell the foul odor that I at least associated with heavy industry; cloying smoke and fumes.

My stomach rumbled, and then so did I. Plans changed. I got up, stretching, then padded down my ramp to take a better look around. Food was still on the wrong side of the fence, this would not do. I paced up and down the barrier between me and the now-frantic cows who seemed determined to stay as far away from me as I could. This too had possibilities.

Eventually my would-be keepers got the message as I got increasingly vocal about my displeasure and some soldiers were sent in to separate a cow from the herd. I watched them as they moved about, so much like the cow. True, their motions spoke of predators rather than prey species, but really… when you're a dragon, everything is prey.

As I sensed — hearing? Motion in my peripheral vision? Tremor-sense? It mattered not — Sarge and a few other would-be wranglers enter my domain, I let my mind wander a bit.

The voices from… whenever it was — a day or two ago by now, my sense of time was screwy — hadn't been back, but I could feel them there, lurking in the dark, watching and waiting. I hadn't really thought about… before. Being human. Intellectually, I could see that it should bother me, but it did not. I'd fought and I'd killed, and I'd roared and spat acid, I was at least a ton of armored killing machine, more likely several, made of teeth and claws, covered in bullet-resistant scaly hide. The fact I'd been a human before was… an observation, no more.

I knew it really should worry me, but when you're a dragon, not much truly concerns you beyond your immediate requirements, and then only briefly before you have what you desire.

What should it be today? The prime lesson of "do not trap a dragon in the corner"? Maybe another general lesson in "meddle not" would be a good one, not that I had any designs on any amount of ketchup, but idle thoughts and all that.

Yes, yes, puny humans, I see you. Oh, look, O'Malley is with them. I could… feel him, somehow. He was still mine. Curiouser and curiouser.

I spun and hissed, roaring and flaring my wings as they got too close, letting their relative positioning lure me away from the gate between myself and my breakfast. It was almost humorous how several tons of angry dragon can get even the hardiest of soldiers to back up a good few feet.

I let them jab and jeer a while, swiping with paws and claws, until once again Sarge felt it necessary to issue the order of 'Down!'.

After the third utterance, I felt it would be amusing enough to see what he'd think of my capitulating to actually do it. I crouched down, though my back was arched like a cat's and my tail lashed dangerously. I could pounce him like this. It would be so easy. It took him a good long moment to properly react, and I fixed my gaze on him when he spoke.

"That's… that's right. Down. Down… Okay, everyone back away, he, uh, needs to know that behaving leads to good things happening… just don't take your eyes off him, he's wiley. Sanders, you got that gate open?"

"Sarge, yes Sarge," replied Sanders, a tall orange-haired soldier with blue eyes.

"Alright, how about the other cows?" asked Sarge, eyes not leaving mine. He kept making 'down' motions with one hand, the cattle prod spear hung behind his legs and gripped firmly in the other.

"Still… still in there, sir, we… didn't really think about that part of this."

"Nothing for it then, let him have it. Kill one for him, split it open, like before."

"Sir."

I pretended to watch him, growling softly, until the wind changed and that enticing, metallic scent reached my nostrils. Sorry Sarge, that's the dinner bell.

Head up, whip the gaze around, flare the nostrils… up and spin and charge my way to breakfast. I tail-slapped two soldiers who were sloppy enough to get too close, sending them flying. Might have broken something, didn't care.

I charged through the gateway to the other side of the fence and set upon the steaming remains of one of the herd. As I pulled squishy, warm, tasty organs out and licked the blood from my muzzle and claws again, I wondered whether even pretending was too far towards actually doing what they wanted. It was all well and good that they knew they had to bring me food, but to let them actually give it to me like they had earned the right to dictate when I ate? It rankled, too much of this and I might as well roll over and show them my belly, I might as well grow fat and useless, warming their feet by the fire, nothing more than a glorified pet.

That was it, then, I'd have to start making them pay for any further wins or I'd have to find a really good reason to continue laying low. I wouldn't set myself any particular time frame for my revenge, but to carry on getting too comfortable was no longer acceptable.

First though, I decided it was time to meet my neighbors. And to do that? It was time for a stampede. I got up and stretched. Then I looked down. Okay correction, first it was time for second breakfast, then it was time for a stampede. And then maybe a snack.

***

Jacob Smith was a man of few talents, but what talents he did have he was pretty good at, and knowing when Charlie was about to Foxtrot was definitely one of them. This was going to be a long day, he could tell, if they could still be called that. Not that he had another name for things. The voices hadn't said, not that he'd trust them to be telling the whole truth if they had. Not that he wanted to listen to them either, they just had ways of making themselves heard and were very hard to ignore. He still wasn't quite sure how what they were doing here was supposed to work, but when the balloon goes up, you don't have much choice but to react.

He slurped his coffee. The ruddy great greedy lizard was sizing up the rest of the herd, even whilst it was still less than halfway through the first cow. Grimly, he wondered whether they'd been lucky the past 'day' given the amount of food it had allegedly consumed back in Stokerville, and whether the Provisional Army would need to source more cattle in the very near… yup, there it goes.

As he drank his coffee — black, the way mother nature intended — he idly watched how the fucking lizard roared and heaved itself into the middle of the entire fucking herd like it was having fun, scattering them. It probably was. He took another long sip as the dragon then happily chased the animals around until he got them good and frothing, then herded them together as he chased them to the other end of the… oh fuck.

"Open the gates!" he roared. Fuck it, he wasn't about to let that creature slaughter the entire fucking herd, or have he and his men be forced to listen as the mortally wounded things shrieked in pain until somebody else put them out of their misery, nor deal with the damage as they slammed themselves up against the only protection he and his men had from the bastards held within.

Somebody, somewhere, had royally fucked up this whole plan. And Jacob worried it was him.

***

The cows were almost distressingly easy to kill. I chased them up the field and down the field and back up and then just obliterated one, almost tearing it in half as I leaped at it. Idiots, did they have any idea what they were doing, these pretend soldiers, when they trapped something like me and decided to keep me alive? If I hadn't been, well, me, they'd have been slaughtered to the last man at least as easily as this cow. I licked my lips, I could still do that… but no. First, visiting hours were open.

After I killed the first cow, I stampeded them back up and around and back down and… ah, finally I got what I wanted. The gate to the next area was opening. I forced the cows back down towards it and I followed them through before they could close it again. I killed another cow because if I was possibly going to be stuck here I'd need a snack anyhow, then set about checking my surroundings.

Several humans attacked me before they could be warned off by their compatriots, whilst many more ran for their lives. I killed the nearest three swiftly, then headed after the fourth who'd attacked, but as this last one was limping, he drew a knife and slashed at a fellow straggler, the smaller creature going down with a cry, his oddly coloured blood darkening the gravel.

What a dick move.

I slowed at the injured figure and peered down at it. Scales, a muzzle, a tail… It was a small creature, kind of draconic in nature — it smelled like me, not that that would have made sense to the me of several days ago — with no wings and a relatively short tail. He — and I could tell he was a he — would have been no more than four or so feet tall at the most, though with said tail he would have counted as longer. The wicked, unlucky slash had opened his belly, and I thought I saw innards poking out.

I won't lie, I drooled.

"Great… great one," he wheezed, the language he was speaking unfamiliar and yet somehow entirely comprehensible to me, "I am here, for you." every breath he took was labored. "Take me into your service, I am…" he coughed wetly, "I can be of use to a Great One in one way, still, even… even like this. All I ask is to avenge me."

He rolled over, fully exposing his belly, where he'd been split open by the fleeing human. I could see him resign himself to his fate.

"You want me to eat you?" I rumbled softly, somewhat in shock, not expecting an answer.

"If that is what you desire."

I tilted my head at him, then made a decision. I had no clue if this would work, and if it didn't, then I could at least put him out of his misery. "Your obeisance is acceptable. Hold your hide together, this may hurt."

"Great One?" he asked, confused.

"Hold your guts together, put everything inside, right inside, then keep your paws as clear as you can. This will definitely hurt. It may not work, but… I will try to save your life."

"Yes… yes Great One." I could sense something like hope burgeoning in him, even through what had to be burning pain.

Who was I to turn down the first willing ally I had encountered in all this madness? I watched as he, tears in his eyes, pushed as hard as he dared with his claws to make sure his boiling intestines were back out of sight, and then I dipped my head, mentally felt around with my mouth closed, squeezed, then as carefully as I was able, dribbled spit-diluted acid from between my teeth onto the wound. Edge to edge and back again, then I turned and spat, then licked the hissing, bubbling scar as it formed until it quieted, sealing the two halves like disgusting superglue.

"Don't move," I said to him gently, "for a while. Let go when it feels… dry. I will return shortly, then pretend to be drooling over your carcass, deciding what to eat first."

I stood and inspected my prize, then ambled back to the three dead humanoids and my second or third cow of the day. I could see other humanoids on the far side of the field, glaring my way but unwilling to approach. The soldiers were tense and watching too, but not interfering. They would probably get annoyed soon enough, but tough luck, I was going to take my time.

The three humanoids were easy to eat, at least once I'd unwrapped them. I could eat almost anything, but didn't really like the taste of clothing, and preferred meat to metal, not to speak of the idea of eating swords being a health hazard. I wolfed the probably-humans down one after another in the space of a few minutes, barely even chewing, then grabbed the cow by the back of the neck and dragged it back to what had to be a kobold. Ah, that had hit the spot. I was feeling much more sociable now that I'd eaten.

The kobold was mine now too, like the soldier; I could feel him somehow, like a piece of food stuck between your teeth, or an itch between your shoulder blades or… something equally noticeable, but far less distracting and unpleasant.

I held the cow down with one front paw, then tore off a hunk of meat. I spat it next to his head. "Try to take what is mine, you will lose your limbs. Refuse what I give, and you may live to regret it. That is for you. Eat it, carefully. Tear it into small chunks and chew properly, if you have injuries to your insides and you are not careful, you may die." I bent my head and filled my mouth, chewing and swallowing with gusto. "You may die anyway, I am not a healer. Call your friends over, I would have words with them." I glared around this part of the facility, and now I could spot two or three more kobolds skirting cautiously around where I lay.

"Great… Great One," he wheezed, obviously still in pain. That wasn't something I could help him with, though since he was still alive I could only hope for him that it would get better sooner rather than later. I watched him idly as, with fresh tears in his eyes, he plucked the hunk of raw meat from the ground, brushed off the grit and dirt, and carefully took small bites, wincing with every wrong movement.

"I will call you Scar," I said, off-handedly. "For obvious reasons."

"Then I am 'Scar'," he answered, enunciating painfully. I could hear the hitch in his breath, his voice dropping off as I rumbled in annoyance. The others were approaching. "They are… with me?" he offered.

I don't think so. Plans change. It was time.

"No, they're with me."

 

[Moochy]

Bold Approach

"You may approach," I said to the three new kobolds as they came within earshot, interested to see if this whole 'understanding me' business was endemic. "I will snap and snarl, so keep your distance, but I wish to talk. We must perform for the crowd."

So saying, I roared and snarled, growling, rattling my scales as I very carefully put my claws over Scar's body. The three approaching kobolds blanched and kept their distance, but after some uneasy glances between each other, one of them stepped a hair closer. I could tell none of us were speaking English even though to me it was as if I was, and it made my understanding and my words… different than before. It was confusing.

"You are a… a Great One? Are you alone? Do you bring any…" I could see the wizened kobold who was speaking to me was searching for words that would not offend me. Wise of him maybe, but at least superficially irritating in how much time he could waste in this manner. He was clearly older than Scar, the fetishes he wore on his person were faded with age, the material threadbare. He hung on a twisted wooden staff nearly twice as tall as he was, the almost gray wood thick and gnarled, the three branches that split from the top gathering into a point, enclosing some sort of gem that dimly glowed yellow.

"I am a dragon, and you are a kobold, yes? Scar here tells me you are with him. He offered himself to me, and I have accepted him into my service. That's apparently a thing I can do now. I would accept you too if you wish."

"He… he has spared my life," moaned Scar, "I do not know if I shall live past this night, but by His grace, I will try."

The elderly kobold ducked his head, thoughtfully. "There are other dragons here in this realm?"

I grinned between playful snaps, unnerving as I knew it could be, before growling again and turning as if protecting my food from interlopers. "There is at least one. This one. I wasn't one before. You still wish to serve?" I watched, unblinking, as our words filtered through the elderly kobold's brain.

"You are… born from this realm?"

I continued to stare, amused, as the kobold pondered. I could tell from his body language and even how he smelled that he wasn't rejecting my offer, he was just… confused. This wasn't anything like what he'd expected.

"I need a good man to tell me of my kind," I whispered. "I will reward where I can, I will punish where I can. I will do what I want in either event, but if you follow me, you will have to do as I bid, even if you may not like or understand what I have to say."

The elder kobold considered my words for a good moment before speaking, leaning on his staff. "As of a score of nights past, we find ourselves trapped in this realm. We have been a tribe without a master for many years before this, many of us never daring to seek out one of your kind, Great One, for they are… fickle."

I chuckled, between continuing our 'dance'. "Understandable."

"And now we are here, with a Great One at claw. We would follow you, if you would have us. We will fight for you, die for you, live for you. This world is… not ours. But it is yours. Lead us. Lead our tribe. If ever we needed a Great One, it is now."

"Your obeisance is accepted. You, my friend, I will call Tucker. One day I may explain why. Go now, fetch me something more filling than little Scar here, place it far enough away that I must move to take it, and then take Scar with you for healing when I do so."

There was a sudden expansion of the feeling from Scar and O'Malley, as the three new kobolds entered into my service, along with a surge of warmth, heat, deep in my belly.

"Ah! My magic!" said the elderly female, a tone of wonder in her voice. "Scar will survive now, Great One, that you have blessed us with your patronage, my Arts have returned!"

I rumbled, confused, even as the matron sent the third — a much younger female — off to the cow to fetch me my food. "Patronage?"

"You, Lord, are our Conduit in this land. Through us, your power increases. Through you, our magic flourishes. With you as our Lord, we will have a fighting chance again against these other lesser races. They underestimate us, prey on us, but now… now we have you."

I gave them magic? They gave me power? Sure, why not? I'll take what I can get.

"In that case, we must speak again later, when it is night. Tell your tribe…" I pondered again for a moment, a wild plan forming, "if you can, I give you permission in my name to induct others into my service, Matron, Tucker, Scar. If they swear to you to follow me, then it is as if I had offered it, and I will accept your decision in my stead."

Matron hissed in surprise. "We are honored, Lord."

"I… I will be able to visit you tonight," croaked Scar, "Your Grace willing."

I looked down at the small creature. "I will be in my section of this prison, are you sure?"

Scar laughed throatily, coughing and wincing, "I have my ways, now."

"Hmm, then prepare for your final performance until we meet again." I looked up. "When the young one brings me my food, you must dart in and save poor Scar here from being eaten as I pounce on the cow. Ready? Go!"

The youngster by now had cut off several large pieces of the cow and was struggling to bring them closer. She chattered to several more kobolds that had approached her to help, and they made a pile of meat and bones just far enough away that I couldn't eat both Scar and it, so, making a huge fuss, I leaped upon the offering and began to devour it. Scar was swiftly dragged away, and then turned my attention on the other animals I'd killed. Finally, almost enough of a meal. I began to retrace my steps, pointedly ignoring as the gates were shut behind me.

After a while, I found myself wandering back to my trailer with the last cow carcass in tow. Scar would come to visit me, he said. I wondered idly how he was going to do that.

 

[Moochy]

Nightfall

As night drew in, it took me a long while to realize exactly what was wrong with the world, which in hindsight made me wonder how I'd missed it.

The sun was wrong. It hadn't moved through the sky properly all day, it hadn't since this had all started, and now it wasn't setting normally either, it was somehow just… receding. The sun shrunk in size and power until it was no more bright than the moon, then less. For a few minutes I wondered if I'd misunderstood what had happened, but then the actual moon came up, or more accurately over… and then I noticed other celestial objects, other planets in the sky. They were all the wrong size, far too big, moving wrongly.

Something was very, very wrong with not only the Earth, but the sky, and with outer space itself. We were no longer on anything remotely resembling a planet, or rather our planet was… no longer a planet. It was something else entirely, something that would take years to untangle, if it was even possible for us to understand without entirely new branches of knowledge.

Still, night of a sort fell and it grew dark and I settled in to sleep, pondering the impossibility above me. I had felt spark after spark somewhere under my scales as time wore on, as kobold after kobold agreed to join with Scar, Tucker and Matron. Each one stoked the fire in my belly, until some kind of threshold was passed, and suddenly I could almost feel exactly where they were, even dimly sensing things around them. And even curiouser, Scar was approaching, at speed. I glanced towards where he was approaching from and saw nothing, but still he moved closer. He was through the fences? How?

Shadows in motion stirred somehow behind me, and then there he was, Scar, looking a lot healthier than he had earlier in the day.

"Greetings, Great One," he said, bowing his head and lowering his body. I hid my surprise as best I could.

"That was quite the trick. Can you teach it to me?"

"I… don't think so?" he replied, scratching at the now-healed scar across his chest. It still looked rather raw, but if I hadn't seen it myself, I would have thought it a much older wound.

"Pity. Your tribe, how goes it?"

"All have joined your service, my lord."

I nodded, slowly. "Good. Good. First you will tell me about them, and then I will have some orders for you all."

There were some thirty or forty plus kobolds all in all in the tribe; maybe a third of the adults were female, more than half the youngsters followed suit. The rest and current majority were males. I got the feeling that this was not normal for them. A handful of each were winged, though I wasn't confident in how far or even if they could fly. Urds, these were apparently called, and they held themselves somewhat separate from the rest. I decided I would put a stop to that at once; if these creatures were all mine now, I wasn't going to have infighting and I needed everybody to stand behind everyone. Unity is strength.

"You must listen carefully, my friend," I whispered to Scar. His tufty ears pricked and his snout turned my way from where he'd been glaring at the gun towers, who now had their searchlights going to at least make it look like they were keeping watch. "The humans here are ignorant of what they are dealing with. To them, I am nothing but a similarly ignorant brute — calm!" I snorted when I saw how angry this made him. "Calm yourself. Even now their suspicions are piqued because even through my roaring and growling at you all today, I did not devour you. However, it will take them a while to change their opinions if I am careful and you are too. You will not do anything to speed that change, as their ignorance is our strength. Am I understood?"

Scar nodded, gripping his daggers tightly. "Yes Lord."

"Good, now tell me more, how is it you are so healthy? The Matron said her Arts had returned?"

"Y-yes, Lord," Scar said, dipping his head once more. "We are kobolds, Lord. We are small under the skies, mere motes, slivers and sparks, of the metal that you were forged from. But some, like th-the Matron, are learned in the Arts. Our Shamans can heal, or th-they can again now, Lord, now that we have you."

"I gave you this power?"

"In this realm? Yes, Lord."

"And with more of you, my power grows?"

"Lord, I… I do not really understand these things, but… you grant us your power, as we grant you our fealty. You grant us the power that is rightfully yours to wield, and we wield it through and for you."

"So when people join my service, my… you called it a Conduit?" Scar nodded. "Grows. And that gives you more power in return. What can the tribe do with this power?"

"We are… not yet that strong, but with even this small amount of power… uh…"

I snorted, as I could see that Scar was now cringing away from me at the unintended insult. "Pah! Above all, I am realistic, Scar. I am not so full of myself that I would punish you for stating the truth. I'm far more likely to punish you, or anyone, for lying to me."

I could see the kobold relaxed, though it was slow going.

"Carry on, tell me."

"With… with the powers we have regained, we can hold our own amongst the others here. We take back our rightful place, as servants of the Great One."

"How? Fireballs? Flight? Invisibility?"

"Y-yes! The Great One is wise!"

Well well well. This could get interesting.

"And these powers had previously been… inaccessible?"

"Yes! Without them, we are… weak. We make traps, weapons, babies, but in this place… we are weak, all we had were our bodies. But now! Now we are strong!"

Ohhh yes, this definitely was getting interesting.

"So do we have healing powers too? Can there be shields? I need a full list, Scar. I will need a full list of all the powers and how many wield them all. And more than that, I need you to answer me one more question."

"Yes?"

"If I get others who aren't kobolds to join my service, and they had magic before, would they get magic again, in my service?"

"Y-yes, Lord, it is… likely."

"Then, my friend, I have a difficult task for you all. I want you to take this offer to everyone who will listen…"

 

[Moochy]

Wheels Turn

Scar stood, semi-crouched, in front of the beastman, Vengis. He shivered, he could feel the Itch that told him changes were coming for him, but he would serve the Great One no matter what. The pantherkin was at least listening, probably because when the humans are oppressing everything non-human, then at least the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

"So tell me again, lizard," asked the beastman, "you are servants of that dragon they've captured," he waved a paw towards the far enclosure, but was interrupted by Scar, who growled.

"He has let himself be caught. You saw how easily he killed those three fools."

Vengis chuffed in acknowledgement. "Agreed. Fine. Your master there is offering… what, exactly?"

"Follow him, and you will get your Arts back."

"Follow? Pledge myself to a dragon?"

"Yes."

For a long moment there was silence. Just a few nights ago, Vengis would have sneered at most of these vermin. He'd known kobolds before, of course, but they made poor servants and odd compatriots at best… but then so did most other races. The humans were generally as arrogant towards his kind as he was to kobolds, even other beastmen thought their own gifts superior to Vengis' own obviously favored state. And now, the pantherkin found himself adrift in an alien realm, at the mercy of alien humans who seemed determined to look down even on others of their own kind, and who wielded powerful guns the likes of which none had ever seen before. They'd paid for his capture in blood, as even without his more treasured abilities he was a competent fighter, but should he regain even a fraction of his skills? He looked over at the dragon. In exchange for service to it, he would bathe this world in the blood of both their enemies.

"And I will get my magic back?"

The kobold nodded, enthusiastically.

Vengis laughed, feeling a fire light in his belly that had been missing since his ignominious defeat. "If this were any other time and place, lizard, I would call you mad." Then he narrowed his eyes, whiskers and black furred tail twitching. "But then the beast did save your life, that is clear. Test me then, ask."

"Do you promise yourself to the Great One so long as you live, to follow these three rules? To never intentionally harm, nor intentionally allow to come to harm by inaction, another of the Great One's servants? To follow the edicts of the Great One save for the first law, in word and spirit thus uttered? And finally, to seek to preserve your own life, save in following the first two laws?"

Vengis blinked as the scarred one recited the orders for the Oath he would take. "That… that is it?" Scar nodded. "Your master is a very strange master. Does he realize I am charged with preventing even the Great One from harming another of his slaves?"

Scar glared, baring his teeth and lifting his daggers. "We are not slaves! I was not compelled, I offered. You will be no slave either. Do not speak ill of the Great One!"

Vengis shook his head. He weighed the three laws in his mind against each other. What kind of creature creates a law to protect its thralls against itself? The more he thought about it, the more he came to the same, crazy conclusion. The kind of creature he would want to follow into battle.

"I do so swear it, little Scar. How do I…" he paused, as Scar grinned. "Ahhh, you are clever, you little bastard." He flicked his paw open, and shadowy claws covered his own. "Well then I guess I am in. Now what?"

"Get more followers. More who will listen, until we have enough to make sure that those do not can be turned away without them getting in our way, permanently if need be."

Vengis turned his head once more to where the dragon was, even now, in the middle of snarling and growling at the humans, seemingly being cowed into submission before batting one or two of the unlucky creatures away as if they were leaves in a storm. It seemed crazy that that beast was some sort of… he caught the eye of the dragon as it whirled and spun, and in that instant, Vengis felt the weight of the dragon's attention settle on him for a brief moment. It was both unsettling and heartwarming. He'd never had a Patron before, had never wanted one. He… was surprised to find that if you'd asked him moments before, he would have tried to deny wanting one, but now he couldn't lie. His Oath was true, and he couldn't not want to have the dragon as his master. The only comfort in that was that he was able to rationally agree with the notion that, as far as masters went, those three laws told him all he needed to know about the quality of his new lord.

Alignment be damned, that dragon wanted him to belong to his hoard, for as long as Vengis could keep breathing. And nobody but nobody was foolish enough to try to get in the way of what a dragon wants. Not for long.

He interlocked his paws behind his head and stretched as he showed his teeth in a wide, wide grin. Kobolds! Hah! At least the Great One's edicts didn't include forcibly living with them, they had a certain odor about them. Then again, humans said the same about all beastmen, beastmen said it about humans… then again then again, by the strictest interpretation of the Great One's orders, these kobolds could be made to bathe properly and learn basic hygiene. This had possibilities for endless fun.

Vengis whistled a jaunty tune as he wandered across the prison yard to various friendly and not so friendly groups to fulfill the dragon's edict to swell the troops, feeling the familiar surge of power within his veins with every note. Soon enough things would change, he could tell, then he'd be able to start getting some payback against… how interesting! A fellow brother amongst the humans keeping them prisoner? Would wonders never cease…