Somnus

The scent of burning incense, lit from a source askance from typical usage of dragonfire wafts from the corridor you enter. Betwixt you and the dragon inside, there is a tangible unease; a constant thrumming in the back of your mind that settles uncomfortably close to the rhythm of your heart in your chest the longer you linger within. Stacks of tomes line oaken shelves, stained deeply from aeons of smoke and arcane impression. Some are older than others, most of the spines lovingly torn to tethers due to their extensive use and reference. Through the haze, you can see the shrouded face of a dragon, her darkened snout wrought in a soft grimace that peeks beneath her fabric covers. The rest of her remains just out of sight, shrouded in the shadows of her hovel.

'Hello, child.'

Her words crawl through your mindspace, cosmic fingers poring over your open mind with the delicacy that one would expect from someone so innately keen in their craft. Though the violation of your mind brings you discomfort in a visceral manner, you feel a cooling calm left in her wake as she determines the reason for your arrival to her place of respite. Wrapped in the comfort of her control, you can only offer a lazy blink in a last-ditch effort to maintain control of your thoughts; your body you have long since lost the feeling of.

In this room, you are ephemeral, existing outside of yourself.

The feathers atop her head shudder slightly, enthused with the sudden lull that clouds your vision as she wrests control of your faculties. She seems at peace with you and finds you to be of minimal, if any at all, threat to her and the work she completes here. A soft warmth coils about your feet and, glancing down, you see a small feline making themselves content to use you as their rubbing post. They offer you a timid note of appreciation for being seen, and then scamper off back into the darkness. Three pairs of multi-colored eyes peer at you from within the darkness from the direction in which the small creature has scurried off into, also feline in nature. Their call to you is more primal than tame, and a shudder runs over your scales at the very sound. A calico ferberus lay comfortably atop a nest of bones, and though they peer at you from their post with a careful curiosity, they make no move to investigate, stayed by an unknown hand. You realize then, with sickening clarity, how lucky you are to be on the other side of the lair, and the good side of this stranger.

You find, rather quickly, that the elder has approached you, circling you with a keen, quiet, observing eye. Though you cannot see her eyes beneath the shroud she wears, you can tell you are facing her inspection. Nervousness holds you by the throat, fearful of not meeting her standards. Despite her closeness to you, you still cannot make out any features of her body, save for the glowing wisps that follow closely to her side and occasionally illuminate the garb she wears. Still, you're able to track her movements by listening to the skidding of her claws against the stone flooring.

'Should you find yourself in need of some...otherworldly assistance,' She purrs, rescinding her grip from your mind and sending you jarringly back into your body. The sudden weight compared to the weightlessness you had been experiencing up until this point leaves you stunned and dizzy, your legs feeling like stones beneath your body and your muscles tremble from the sudden shifting of your weight, throwing out your wings in an attempt to stabilize yourself. You feel sick. The remaining details of her proposition to you are lost in your attempts to place as much distance between yourself and this dragon as possible and you can hear her pealing laughter echoing off of the walls of her home.

For several nights after your encounter with her, you can still see her visage flicker across your tired eyes whenever you close them and it sends a chill up your spine. Her name was Somnus, and she kept odd company.

After several nights of fitful rest, you find yourself again at her door. She looks up from her tome and smiles.

She knew you'd be back.