I glance down at my watch. It blinks back twelve-o-four, which means I've been on this wild goose chase for six hours. Crest wouldn't let me sleep, so I ended up waking up earlier than I wanted, five. Normally I'm up at seven, thanks Crest.
My report so far, is, I've found nothing even after visiting all of the main club and bars, whatever name it is called by, and not a lead. Now I'm looking into the lesser chance places. I admit, I've had to sneak into some because they weren't open.
It's all been a bust. After grabbing a sandwich, I'm on to the next pack. Napkin in place, In the Uber I comfortably eat my swiss cheese and mushroom sandwich. This guy, I know is just raking in my money after all this trekking back and forth. Originally, he wasn't going to wait for me at some of my longer stops. Calling a new Uber after every place would have wasted time, so I made it worth his time to stay.
He shuts my passenger door and gets into his drivers seat. My veins feel like they're sizzling and popping like a campfire thanks to how fired up Crest is. It doesn't hurt, it's just one of those uncomfortable feelings, like your leg falling asleep, or hitting your funny bone.
I watch the passing scenery as I eat. By the way the Uber driver looks back at me, I get the feeling I wasn't supposed to be eating in his car. Oh well, it's lunch time and if I'm going to completely search another city, It has to be on a full stomach.
My sandwich free hand pulls out the map I've been using. I place it to the side, and tug out another map, Ghost Packs map. They are states away, almost on the other side of the country from where I am. No biggie, just a longer flight. This packs location is nicer thanks to the mountainous region bordering their city.
Hours later, I'm back at the national park. I stare up at the huge sign as we approach. EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK. Stepping out of the car, I narrow my eyes at the name. Everglades? Where? Dumb name...
"Dumb humans."
I shrug to that. 'You've been quiet.' She snaps back,
"Sensing all the essences from a radius of fifty miles takes concentration."
'Right.' I trudge on, deeper into the park, hopping over fences as I make my way to a secluded area. As I'm about to shift, my muscles spasm, and my breathing gets caught in my throat. 'Oh my god, not again.' On all fours I drop to the ground as a wave of pain shoots prickles up my spine. It feels like a bathed in a bucket of glass. I bite back the screams.
After twenty minutes of labored breathing and almost blacking out twice, I managed to survive through it. I pant, taking notice of the sweat beads lining my hair line. I shakily make it up to a sitting position. Crest takes control and shifts us.
I feel slightly relaxed as we take flight, beating away a few trees in the process as we sweep straight up into the sky. 'Crest..what if we hadn't made it to the clearing?'
"Do not be scared."
Even though she replied in an all-knowing way, I can tell Crest is deeply frustrated. My kind, they are dragons, not halflings but dragons. As long as the blood flows in us, we are a whole burrito. While Crest takes charge of flying, the story of how my kind came to be, makes my mind wander.
Dragons centuries ago, were just another species along many. They weren't like me, a human looking figure with a dragon living inside my mind. The dragons were almost like god's on the world before, that is, until they decided to leave. Where, no one knows, not even the dragons inside us.
But as fate would have it, one dragon wouldn't let go of its earthly home. Records etched of a lone dragon, wandering aimlessly mourning his friends and family. The dragon outlived generation after generation of his new found friends.
Until one day, he shattered his soul instead of dying. His presence quickly soaked into compatible ones, gifting them to be his eternal generation.
The other dragons hearing this went livid. The ones whom the lone dragon affected were tainted and now turning sickly. So upon everyone's agreement, they tore small fractions of their own soul and sewed it into the affected earthlings.
The first affected generation did not get any benefits from this. The dragons watched sadly as the sickness killed them off one by one. But the ones who managed to have offspring before their death were the ones who reaped what was sewn.
It was like planting a seed and watching it grow. For the first few years the seed took root and budded giving birth to dragons who live inside the persons mind, to soak up the lone dragons soul making them whole.
That explains why dragons are such a diverse race.
It's such a sad history lesson. Our history teacher got choked up because she got really into it which no one else did. Sure, reading that as a bedtime story to a whelp would probably make them cry.
I view it as a story of tragedy, and to this day I'm not really sure if the lone dragon meant well or not. No one does. There is much speculation, and many arguments and debates on that very subject. Did he mean to make everyone sick, causing his friends and family to step in, sacrificing pieces of their souls?
It sounds all bad to me. But loneliness can eat up a person, loneliness and death.