Rainwashed asphalt reflected the harsh glare of headlights as traffic crawled through the downtown streets. Cactus kept his head down, hands shoved deep into his pockets to escape the biting autumn chill. He had always felt out of place among these humans, as if he were wearing a costume that didn't fit. Every day was the same endless loop of concrete, noise, and people who looked right through him. He couldn't shake the feeling that he belonged somewhere else, somewhere far away from the smog and the skyscrapers. Cold rain fell in sheets, blurring the neon signs of the city into smears of red and blue. Cactus pulled his thin jacket tighter, shivering as the wind cut through his clothes. Nobody was looking for him. No one even knew he was gone. He had spent his entire life feeling like an absolute ghost, walking through crowds of people who looked right through him. His memories were a tangled mess of things that didn't make sense. Vast, empty deserts he had never visited in his human life would flash behind his eyes when he slept. He could taste the phantom flavor of roasted prey over an open fire. He could feel the phantom sensation of hot, dry desert wind blowing across skin that felt far coarser than human flesh. Psychiatrists called it an overactive imagination, a coping mechanism for his deep-seated isolation. He knew it was something else, something far more real. Walking down the narrow, garbage-strewn alleyway behind his apartment, he expected nothing but the usual quiet misery. Instead, the air hummed with a strange, low frequency. A vibrating energy rattled his teeth and made the hairs on his arms stand up. He stopped dead in his tracks. Directly ahead of him, a tear had ripped open in the empty space between two brick buildings. Swirling vortexes of deep purple and liquid gold spun in a silent, violent storm. Ozone filled his nostrils, sharp and electric, mixed with the ancient scent of sun-baked earth and dry heat. It was terrifying. This anomaly shouldn't have existed in a world of concrete and logic. Yet, he felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to step closer. That void didn't feel dangerous; it felt like a door. A door to somewhere he might actually belong, a place where the persistent ache of his loneliness might finally fade. Without a second thought, Cactus took a long stride forward and threw himself into the swirling light. --- Reality tore apart instantly. Nausea hit him like a physical blow, twisting his stomach into a tight, agonizing knot. He tried to scream, but the sound was ripped from his throat by the sheer pressure of the vacuum. Colors blinded him—not just purple and gold, but wavelengths of light he had never seen before, exploding in his mind. Then came the pain, pure and unadulterated. It started in his spine, a white-hot iron rod snapping his vertebrae and stretching them. His skin blistered, peeling away as thick, golden-yellow scales erupted from beneath. He watched in mute horror as his fingers fused, growing thick and heavy, ending in deadly black talons. Bones cracked and reformed in a sickening rhythm. His jaw elongated, pushing outward into a heavy snout filled with razor-sharp teeth. Two heavy, curved horns sprouted from the back of his head, tearing through his hair. Along his back, a ridge of black spines burst through his flesh. Most agonizing of all was the sudden pressure in his shoulders. Muscles ripped and tore as two massive, leathery wings forced their way out of his back, unfolding like sails. At the base of his spine, a heavy tail whipped outward, tipped with a thick, wicked barb that throbbed with a deadly venom. This golden, reptilian body was taking over, erasing his human shell. Smell of burning ozone and dry desert sand filled his new, incredibly sensitive nose. Just as the agony became too much to bear, the void spat him out. --- Gravity returned with a vengeance. He plummeted through a thick canopy of emerald-green leaves. Branches snapped against his new, hardened scales, sting after sting of dull pain echoing across his body. He hit the jungle floor with a deafening crash, rolling through thick mud and crushing a bed of massive ferns. Silence settled over the forest, broken only by his ragged breathing. Cactus lay there, completely paralyzed by shock. His head spun violently. Vomit rose in his throat. Pushing himself up on four unfamiliar limbs, he retched, vomiting hot, yellow bile onto the damp moss. Smell of it was sulfurous and sharp, burning his throat. He stared at his front talons, trembling. They were pale gold, the color of desert dunes under a midday sun. He had wings. He had a tail. Slowly, carefully, he reached up with a clawed hand to touch his face. His snout was hard, covered in smooth, overlapping scales. Near his neck, his talons brushed against a thick, jagged line of raised flesh. A scar. It ran from his throat down to his chest, throbbing with a dull, rhythmic heat. Tangled in the scales near his right ear was something small and metallic. He gently pried it loose with a claw. It was a heavy silver earring. Three beads hung from it, catching the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees. One bead was deep blue, like the ocean. Another was fiery red, like a burning coal. A third was pale, milky green. He stared at the jewelry, a sudden wave of intense longing washing over him. He didn't know where it came from, but he knew it was his. It was the only piece of his true self he had left. --- Heavy thuds and savage roars suddenly echoed through the trees, shattering his daze. Cactus flinched, his wings flaring instinctively. This sheer volume of the noise made his sensitive ears ring. He dragged his heavy, awkward body behind a massive, moss-covered trunk. Parting the thick leaves of a giant fern, he peered into a wide, muddy clearing. Two dragons were locked in a brutal, fast-paced spar. One was a massive, deep blue SeaWing. Her scales shimmered with patterns of glowing light, and her powerful tail whipped through the air like a club. Opposing her was a bulky, mud-colored dragon with massive shoulders and a kind but determined face. They clashed with a deafening roar. Lunging forward, the blue dragon snapped her jaws inches from the MudWing's neck. He dodged, using his heavy weight to slam into her chest and send her skidding across the mud. "Nice try, Clay!" the SeaWing laughed, her voice carrying a fierce, commanding edge. Clay grunted, shaking the dirt from his brown wings. Tsunami didn't hesitate. She leaped into the air, her massive wings buffetting the wind, and drove her talons down toward him. Cactus watched, his breath catching in his throat. He had never seen anything so beautiful and terrifying. This power they possessed made his human mind reel. He was one of them now—a dragon—but he felt incredibly weak, his muscles trembling from the agonizing transformation. Exhaustion washed over him in heavy waves. A sudden cramp seized his hind leg. A loud snap echoed through the clearing as his tail shifted against a dry branch. --- Though quiet, the sound was a gunshot in the tense clearing. Tsunami froze mid-spar, her wings snapping back to hover. Her head whipped toward the bushes where Cactus lay hidden. Clay stopped too, looking confusedly at his friend. "Tsunami? What is it?" he asked, his deep voice rumbling. She didn't answer. Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground, her talons sinking into the mud. Her eyes narrowed into sharp, dangerous slits. She began to walk toward his hiding spot, her steps deliberate and silent. Cactus tried to pull himself backward, but his wings caught on the thick brush, pinning him in place. He was trapped. She was coming right for him. Every instinct screamed at him to run, but his body refused to move. She stopped just yards away, her snout twitching as she caught his scent. It wasn't the scent of a normal SandWing. Earthy and rich, the scent carried the faint, impossible smell of rain on asphalt and modern smoke. Her eyes locked onto the exact spot where his golden scales peeked through the leaves. A strange, alien aura vibrated off him, and her eyes narrowed as she sensed something fundamentally wrong about him. Miles away, deep within the stone halls of Jade Mountain, another dragon gasped. Moonwatcher clutched her head as a sudden, chaotic wave of foreign thoughts crashed into her mind. She closed her eyes, trembling, and whispered, "He’s here."

Chapter 1: The Drop