A serial tale of a hero/ine whose Manifestation offers hope to an entire mythical species, and gives promise to many awakenings in a sleeping world very much like our own.

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Hope everyone is enjoying where this is going, and stays with me for the ride that's going to commence. Another couple parts and we'll finally be done with the set-up, and can get into the fun stuff.

-Arianrhod.
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For a long moment, I thought that Ice was going to leave me invisible so that I would have to try to figure out how to use my powers on my own, but I was quickly greeted by a shimmering as the blurred, sunglass-like effect fell away.

Shrugging, I decided that I would definitely have to put some time into learning how to manipulate my various abilities a little better. I peeked out a window to verify that the cop had indeed left, and then joined my family downstairs.

They were clustered around the kitchen table, in various stages of preparing their food. At my arrival, they all looked up and greeted me.

"Hey Annie," they all chimed together.

I probably looked a little taken aback, because I was. I mean, I'd expected it coming sooner or later, but it still served as a reminder of just how much my life had changed in a day. That left me with only one question left to ask:

"Why Annie?"

"It's what we would have named you if you had been a girl," my mother said simply. "And besides, it suits you."

I thought it all seemed a bit lame, but as I mulled it over, I realized that I couldn't come up with anything better, so I let it pass.

"So, did you hear what that cop had to say, Annie?" my dad asked me.

"Yeah. It leaves us with a really simple problem. We need to come up with an explanation of Roger's disappearance." It felt weird talking about myself like that, but I ignored it. "It's obviously that I'm not going to be able to go back to school or get a job, not looking like this and not without any legal records of my existence."

Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were looking at, but I kept going. "I can hide myself pretty well, I think. The real problem is going to be making the cops stop sniffing around."

"You realize what you're saying, right?" Mom asked.

I nodded. "I have this...presence in my mind. I call her Ice...I don't know what her actual name is. She says that something is coming. Some kind of rebirth of magic in the world. A couple of days ago I wouldn't have believed it, no matter how reliable the source." I paused and gestured at my altered body. "Now, though, I find it pretty easy to plan for."

"Your plans don't have anything to do with humanity, do they," my mother stated as much as asked. "Look, I know you've seen some pretty ugly people. Yesterday, you saw probably some of the ugliest examples that humanity has to offer. But just because you've had some bad experiences doesn't mean that you need to write all of us off."

For a strange, interesting second, I felt Ice's presence watching me curiously. Almost...almost as if to see how I was going to handle the situation.

"That has nothing to do with it," I said perhaps somewhat coldly. Then I reconsidered. "Actually, I guess it does have something to do with it. When this Time of Renewal that Ice spoke of happens, I want to make sure that people like Will don't stomp it out again. A good share of mankind isn't going to react favorably when...entities like myself start appearing.

"I won't pretend to assume that there won't be conflict, or hatred, or even all-out war. I'm not that ignorant. But when the dust settles, I want all sides to still be present on this world. From the history that Ice showed me, I'm pretty sure that when some of the elder races re-emerge, there's going to be a lot of pent-up anger towards humanity. My plan is not so much to diffuse that, as shield those who are deserving from it."

"Do you really think that you'll be able to make that distinction?" Michelle asked quietly. I understood the implication behind what she actually said, and it worried me.

"I'm not going to pretend that I'll get it entirely right. I'm not some kind of god, passing judgment on who is worthy and who isn't...and I don't ever want to become that. At the same time, though, I recognize that I have to at least try. If I don't try, there's going to be a lot of very, very angry ghosts of the past that will succeed at extracting their revenge in not mere pounds, but tons of human flesh. If I can't create a coalition to protect at least some of humanity, the species will cease to exist. And I can't do that with the government still hunting for Roger Nebel. He has to die, with a cleared name."

"Perhaps if you could redirect suspicion elsewhere, then provide a suitable alibi..." Dad mused.

"You actually agree with all of this nonsense?" Mom exclaimed. Dad winced, but didn't say anything. "Roger, have you actually tried to shift all the way human yet? It'd be easy enough to make a cover story that you're secretly transgendered and that they found out and beat you up or something."

I realized that I actually hadn't tried yet, and was shocked to discover that I was already that comfortable in my new body, when getting back to a human standard of normal should have been my first goal.

I consulted with Ice briefly, and then nodded my head. "It should be possible to do, but only for very limited periods of time. From what Ice says, I'm both dragon and female now, through and through. I can maintain an illusory form that is female but human, or one that is dragon but male...to fashion one that is human and male both is going to put quite a strain on me, apparently."

"How does Ice classify that form that you're currently in, then?" Mom asked, curious.

I checked, and replied, "According to Ice, this form is a natural derivative of my full draconic form. I think there's more to it than that, but she won't tell me yet."

"So, let me get this straight. You can assume your former body for a a very limited time, or you could assume the body of a human female for a longer time, but you can stay as you are right now indefinitely?"

"Roughly, yeah. See, there's this weird scale thing in my mind that acts to show me how balanced I am between the human and draconic realms. When either side gets out of balance, I start getting warped. I think that's why this particular form feels so natural to me...it represents balance between human and dragon."

She furrowed her brow in thought. "Could you make an appearance as Roger long enough to make a statement to the police alleging that you're going to be moving to a relative's for the summer?"

"I suppose so, but that would still leave us with several problems," I countered. "First, they'll want more information on what exactly happened on the roof, and what with the whole gang/neo-Nazism thing that they're worried about, they're going to want to keep track on my movements. I can't say that I'm going out of town and then never show up or be seen there. Second, I don't know how long I could actually hold that form. It may well be for only a few minutes."

As we kept talking and bandying options around, I began to realize that Dad had the right of it. If I could implicate Will's cronies with enough evidence, I could get the police to think that they had killed Roger Nebel and hid his body. The cronies would deny it, of course, but if I did a good enough job, they wouldn't be believed.

Sighing, I decided that it was a project for later in the day. Everyone was getting a little too worked up at the moment.

"I'll be back a bit later, everyone. I'm going to go out for a fly...I need to clear my head a bit."

Mom looked like she was going to protest, but Dad quickly intervened and bid me a good flight. Michelle looked slightly disappointed about something, but knew enough to keep her thoughts to herself.

Frowning, I asked Ice if I could change forms while invisible, and when the answer came back affirmative, I quickly asked her how to do it. She seemed slightly exasperated, but she walked me through the process...and honestly it seemed pretty easy.

Waving to my family, I cloaked and walked to the back yard, where I spread my wings to their full size and, with Ice's assistance, took off. Flying is hard.

Flying in my human-ish form was a lot different than when I was a full dragon. As a dragon, I could pretty much just think about where I wanted to go and barrel my way through any opposing winds that got in my way. My reduced power and size made every little gust a nerve-wracking experience. Looking down, I realized that I was far enough out of town that I could safely become visible again. No sooner than I switched back to the realm of the visible, though, I felt something behind me approaching -- and fast.

My reflexes begged me to swerve to the right, and I obliged just in time to see a scorching blast of fire blaze through the airspace that I had occupied seconds before. Wheeling around, I spotted another dragon fifty or sixty feet away from me, racing through the air in a manner that told me plainly that it was a much, much more experienced flier than I was.

Ice! I yelled mentally.

I see him. You're going to have to fight him. He's more experienced, but you have vastly more raw power than he does.

Nodding, I grit my teeth and willed myself into my full dragon form. I finished growing and changing just in time to have to dodge another fire attack. This one was close enough to me that it managed to sear a couple of scales on my shoulder. My attacker overshot me, and began to turn around for another pass.

I wasn't sure what exactly I could really do about him, but if nothing else I at least had my claws and teeth. Flapping my wings unceremoniously, I accelerated towards my opponent, claws outstretched and at the ready. As I raced through the skies, I had to dodge several blazing orbs that he sent my way instead of the streams of fire that had been his modus operandi before.

I closed to melee range, but he ducked back just out of my reach before my claws could even scratch him.

Let me take over Ice said mentally. Without waiting for an answer, she assumed control of our body once again.

Ice proved to be a much better fighter than I was. Now that I was merely watching the fight as opposed to participating (kind of), I noticed a couple of things about our enemy. He was a brilliant red blended with orange in such a manner as that he appeared on fire himself...and he was also almost twice my size. I also saw to my surprise that he was wearing jewelry -- several golden bracelets adorned each of his arms.

Ice made a peculiar motion with one of my arms, and the other dragon came slightly closer, but did not attack.

"Explain yourself, Pyrandon. Why do you attack this youngling?" Ice asked through my mouth. I noted that even as in the memory-land where we had talked earlier, she was most definitely not speaking any language of men.

The other dragon -- Pyrandon, apparently -- replied, "Your breed was cursed to extinction centuries ago, Aryllia. This Manifestate is no exception. The ancient laws still stand."

"Did your master set you up to this callous display of dishonor, or were you drawn to it by your very nature?" Ice sneered. Hatred dripped from her voice like acid.

"Our lord convened with the other seven as soon as your presence was felt corporeally. They agreed unanimously that you must be silenced before the Renewal. I just had the good fortune to stumble across you first."

Ice spat, and utter darkness issued forth. "Your fortune was anything but good, Pyrandon. I have no more use for you. Die."

Enraged, Pryandon charged, spewing fire as he flew. Ice wheeled to the side, and took a deep breath. As our opponent screamed by, she exhaled, and that exhalation took the form of a stream of darkness so black that it seemed to drink in all the light around it. The blast hit the red dragon square in the side, leaving a wound that seemed to be almost an erasure of existence.

Where the scales and flesh had been, now there was simply...nothing. It was as if someone had taken a gigantic drill and punched a hole through his body. As he screamed in anguish, I noticed with sick interest that I could actually see through him, where the beam had punctured his body. The sides of the hole seemed to be perfectly smooth.

Although Pyrandon was grievously injured, Ice did not stop there. Screaming her fury to the mountains, she bore through the sky with ungodly purpose. I knew what she was thinking, and my mind recoiled from it. Tearing through the sky, she stopped just in front of where the red dragon was heading, and breathed an beam of darkness that dwarfed the first one in power and intensity. This beam removed Pyrandon's neck and most of his left wing from this plane of existence, sending his body plummeting to the ground and his head shooting off through the sky.

As Ice followed the body to the ground, intending clean-up, I asked her what manner of energy that was.

"To put it simply, it was actually a lack of energy. As a black dragon, the elements that we manipulate are void and shadow," she replied.

Those don't sound like traditional elements to me.

"They aren't, by man's standards. Human mages have always had a very dim understanding of how magic really works."

As we landed by the corpse of our slain foe, I felt another of those strange twisting sensations, and once again found myself in control of my body.

I want you to dispose of this trash Ice said. If what Pyrandon said is true, we can expect more challengers in the near future, and you need to be able to fight on your own without my assistance.

"Alright, tell me what to do," I replied.

Start off by taking a deep breath, then picture the purest shade of black that you possibly can. Don't allow any imperfections to seep into the image. No matter, no light of any kind, no sound. Absolute nothingness. Imagine yourself as one with that void, then let the breath go.

It took me three tries before I finally got it. Ice told me after each failure that my imagined void wasn't pure enough...that I kept letting little bits of color find their way in. When I finally got it, though, it issued forth with such fury that not only way Pyrandon's body consumed, but about a hundred yards of the woodland behind him, as well.

Somewhat overkill, but not bad for a first effort Ice said, amused. We must find his head, now, as well. We cannot leave any sign beyond a mysterious scar in the woods.

I nodded, and took off in search of it. "Ice," I said while I looked, "Why did he call you Aryllia?"

As I said, I have gone by many names over my existence.

"Can I call you that? It sounds nicer than Ice...ice is such a old, ugly word."

I could almost feel her amusement. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a cold, ugly type of being she said dryly. But whatever makes you happy, youngling.

After a couple minutes of searching, we finally found Pyrandon's head, and erased it. As we flew back towards my home, I had a worrisome thought.

"Aryllia, is there any way I can disguise my presence from other dragons? I mean, Pyrandon found us. We were lucky that it was out in the middle of nowhere, as opposed to when I was with my family."

As a matter of fact, there is. Let me show you...

A little while later, I cloaked and landed in my back yard. Following the steps that Aryllia had mentioned, I transformed first from dragon into human-ish, and from there into something completely new.

I walked into my house, and was immediately spotted by my sister. Her face split open with a grin when she saw me. As a full human, I looked roughly the same as I did in human-ish. I was still short, and I still had long, black hair. What I didn't have, however, was any sign of a tail, wings, or scales...unless you counted the strikingly detailed tattoo of a black dragon that occupied my left shoulder blade, that is.

I grinned back, and cracked my knuckles. "It feels kind of weird not having claws, now," I remarked casually. My parents had come to welcome me back, and Mom charged me and hugged me almost as soon as she saw me. When she finally let go, I said grimly, "Time to get to work."