He can’t remember much other than the sun warming his back, the scent of Nayl on his skin as he listened to her gently snore. They had just had a mock tussle in the salty waves of Nerine, nipping and driving at one another in a roguish ballet before beaching themselves to dry. He does not know how much time has passed before his own eyes drew heavy and he was soon slumbering beside his lover, his queen.
It is nightfall when he has awoken. No longer on the beach, no beautiful Nayl at his side. He is in his cave with the fresh teardrops of condensation the only sound within the hollow womb of the earth. He lay near a small burning fire, his own creation, with the soft purring and occasional pop of a dry knot to echo the cave’s depths. Had he been dreaming again? The dark stallion sighs heavily with the pang of longing disrupting his heart beat for a few moments flutter. He thinks, perhaps, he should leave his cave and see what lay just beyond the mouth of it.
Sunlight has began to drip through tangled tree limbs at the entrance. His silver-white eyes focus with a slight twinge of anxiety. How long since he had roamed Nerine in the daylight? His home now filled with strange scents, the faces no longer know as he watched them. Lior had been happy to slip into the unknown and to be forgotten…but in this day, a feverish desire to move along the tree line, to be seen, grips him.
The stallion emerged from the cool cave, dusty and tangle-haired. The gunmetal blue of his skin glinted in patches where dirt and dust had covered the rest. He can taste the salt in the air as the familiar crush of waves on the white sand drew an absentminded smile to his dark lips. In one fluid movement, he leaps into the air to shift to a black dragon except something is different. He is used to the feeling of his body becoming light, bones becoming something fluid as he would take to his usual dragon form but this time, as he casts a silver eye to the ground, his shadow is huge and rippled by scale and horn. The dark dragon blots out the sun as he opens his throat to expel a roar except now hellfire rips through his belly and shatters the sky.
Lior titters in the air, losing his balance to crash into the ocean before. The power that ignited his blood sears in his bewilderment and suddenly he is a black hippocampus, an ink stain upon the pristine water. His mind races and he thrashed wildly. What sorcery is this?! The dark male inhaled the water as he struggles to understand but instead of a sweet and murky drowning, Lior can breath easily. His body feels foreign and unattached despite his brain screamigg bf to hold his breath. He splits the water rapidly as the nature hippocampus in his blood takes over. He races under the glitter water to break the surface, hurtling up and out and once again the dragon cracks the sky on thick leather wings.
Lior behind the wonder what else he could do. In a series of humorous shifts, he finds theee is nothing out of his reach. Mythic or equine, he devastates his strength before having to find himself once again upon the solid ground of Nerine. Panting, he returns to his cave to rest. Tomorrow, he would try it all again.
The days past as he hones his new skill. He does keep to far off shore to not frighten the residents of Nerine for he does not wish fear or devastation but he would only come to them when he himself no longer feared this magic. With the passing of another few weeks, he will finally be able to rest easily and comfortably in this new body.
Lior wakens from a dreamless slumber and leaves his cave, unsure if he will return, feathered feet plodding thickly along the deer paths as he scents the air. His senses are acute and he can pluck something masculine from the molecules. There were others near as well but not many.
Good.
Lior finds the edges of their civilization to offer a few baritone notes, not looking for war or surprise. He has darkened himself in inky black, thick haired and heavy but nearly as natural as the day he was born. The silver-white eyes seem to glow and float against his skin as he soon sees another. Lior offers a low nicker of greeting. ”Hello there.” His voice feels grating, tongue thickened, but he approaches the other calmly enough with ears politely flicked forward.
but i can still remember just the way you taste