Rage, an emotion that burned so much brighter than anger, yet fiercer than the coldness of hatred. It filled his heart as he stood staring down at his now human hands. “Curse those heroes…” he clenched both hands into fists, as he ground his teeth with one another. “How could…A human? Me?”
With a clear tone of disbelief, he fell to his knees. “No! This can’t be true!” he shouted. “I am Erikathyr! The White Drake! I shall not stand for this!” He fell even lower, holding himself up with shaking arms, his fingers digging into the dry earth “I who burned cities, I who bathed armies in fire and turned them to ash, I am now a human!?”
His eyes shook as he stared down at the ground. He noticed a sudden shift in the soil beneath him, forming hollow eye sockets and a mouth. “That you are, Erik.” Grim’s voice came out with the moving lips made of dirt, “A human male, age 19, 5’6 tall to be exact. No tail, no fangs, no claws and no scales. And no wings will be growing out of your back anytime this millennium.”
“Erik?” He asked in a rage, confused and insulted “You dare humanize my draconic name!?”
Grim chuckled, “You are no longer dragonkin; your ancestors disowned you for your weakness and foolish acts. Your very family looks away in shame when they look upon you now.” The ground rose, forming a head and a neck, “Look at what your actions have caused to this world.”
Erik’s gaze rose with the earth, as he now noticed the scenery before him. A valley of death and rot lay beneath the cliff he stood on. Dried up trees, ashen greenery, barren earth, and wisps of violet energy he knew too well to be miasma.
“You, Erikathyr of the White-Blood Dragons. You, who failed your bloodline’s oath to safeguard the nature of this world!” Grim continued to speak as the face of dry earth moved in front of Erik’s face to stare at him accusingly. “You did this.”
Erik shook his head, “No…No, the heroes and their people did! That’s why I purged their lands! Burned their factories! The dwarves! The humans! Even the elves! They betray the nature that created them! I sought to burn that betrayal!”
Grim’s earthen smile twisted into a grimace “Fool. You passed through their creations like a maddened beast and brought destruction upon what they, as younger races, would’ve learned from, growing from what those mistakes taught them. You almost brought extinction to the elves. You sent the dwarves hiding underground. You made the humans see your kind like monsters!”
“Shame.” Grim hissed, “you bring shame upon your blood. If only your kind weren’t so proud of their blood, another drake or dragon would’ve slew you before you made the first step.
“Dragons do not kill other dragons unless they fall to Chaos, do they?” he spoke with amusement. “Ironic, as your actions brought Chaos to the entire world.”
The head of earth moved out of his view, showing him the dead lands once more. “You who looked upon the other races, thinking yourself a God, thinking destruction upon them was a mercy. The hatred you created in their hearts, birthed the heroes that slew you in the end. But it did not stop there.
“Look closer…what do you see?” Grim urged him, as Erik rose.
He looked at the barren land more closely…
Noticing a shape, an outline. “No, no, that’s…” His jaw dropped, his eyes opening wide in utter bafflement at the sight.
“Zyndreth the Black’s carcass, the last to be slain by the Slayers a thousand years ago. Her bones still remain, marking her fall.” Grim spoke grimly, before turning back to face him. “You ignored the wiser words of your elders. You sought destruction upon Man, Elf, and Dwarf. You, Erikathyr, White Drake! You started the Dragon Wars!”
Erik looked away from the ancient body, closing his eyes as he pained for the death of someone he knew “D-Dragon Wars?”
“I’ll spare you the details. You can imagine them either way. Erikathyr, no…Erik, you brought war between your kind and the rest, creating the Great Draconic Extinction where humans, dwarves, elves, lizardmen, mer and even fae, hunted your kind down to the last.” Grim explained.
“I…Did I do this?” Erik asked in disbelief.
“Oh, and it doesn’t end there,” Grim chuckled as a wicked smile formed on his face. “With the fall of your kind, the most powerful singular beings in this world, a path opened for something else to seek it for their own.”
Erik did not have his draconic senses anymore, but the scent was something even a human could smell, a vulgar and intoxicating whiff of miasma. “Demons.”
“Worse!” Grim raised its voice. “The Devil Kings themselves walk this earth now, warring with the other races.” The head of dirt began descending back into the ground. “This is your punishment. No matter how many times I must revive you, you shall experience what you have caused to the very last.
“Enjoy this world, human… Erik.”
