Emerge the Dragonborn | The Hobbit

Chapter 10 - A Fate Inescapable

Finally, with a guttural roar that echoed through the mountains, the merge was complete.
Anaynah, now in her dragon form, felt the weight of her new reality settle upon her. It was a shock. She was powerful, yes, but also vulnerable to forces she didn't fully understand. But, she was in her own mind.

Taking to the skies was a feeling like nothing else. As a kid she dreamt of flying, never did she think of this as a reality. She began to accept what was. She did not care about prophecy, she embraced this feeling.
As she let in the acceptance, she let in someone else into her mind.

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         As days turned into nights and nights into days, Anaynah found herself increasingly drawn to the freedom her dragon form offered. The mergings became more frequent, the pull of her dragon nature growing stronger with each passing moment. At first, shifting back to her human form was effortless, and she revelled in the exhilarating sensation of flight, exploring the vast landscapes with a newfound sense of liberation.

However, with each transformation, she noticed subtle changes in herself. Merging back into her human form was draining.
Memories began to fade, slipping through her fingers like grains of sand, leaving her feeling disconnected from the world around her. At first, the loss of memory didn't trouble her—she was too captivated by the thrill of the skies and the raw power pulsing through her veins.
But as time went on, the lines between right and wrong began to blur. The weight of the prophecy that had haunted her for so long seemed less pressing, its demands growing increasingly distant and irrelevant.

"The prophecy can damn itself," she would find herself muttering, dismissing the responsibility that had once weighed heavily on her shoulders.
As doubts and frustrations simmered within her, Anaynah began to question why she should bear the burden of being the world's saviour.
If the world saw her as nothing more than a beast, then why should she try to be anything else? The allure of embracing her dragon nature, of surrendering to the primal instincts that promised freedom from the complexities of right and wrong, became harder to resist.

Unbeknownst to Anaynah, each merging transformation was drawing her further away from the path of light and deeper into the shadowy realm that threatened to consume her. With each passing day, the struggle between her human conscience and the beast within grew more intense.

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Anaynah awoke with a start, the morning light filtering through the trees, casting an eerie glow on the frost-kissed ground. The first thing she noticed was the unsettling silence that hung heavy in the air, broken only by the distant call of a raven.
Her eyes darted around, scanning her surroundings until they landed on the lifeless form of her horse.

The once-vibrant chestnut coat was now matted with dark, clotted blood, pooling beneath the grotesque tableau of torn flesh and shattered bones. The horse's eyes, once bright and full of life, now stared lifelessly into the empty void, frozen in a final expression of terror and pain. Deep gashes marred its body, the cruel imprints of talons that had torn through muscle and sinew with savage ferocity.
A gut-wrenching realization washed over her as she took in the gruesome scene before her. The once majestic creature that had carried her faithfully through the rugged terrain now lay broken, its body bearing the unmistakable signs of a violent end.

A wave of nausea surged through her as fragments of memories began to piece together in her mind. Images flashed before her eyes—claws tearing through flesh, a roar that echoed through the mountains, and the raw, primal satisfaction that came with it. The horrifying truth began to dawn on her: she had transformed in her sleep, her dragon form unleashing its savage fury without restraint.