dragon transformation · body horror · elemental powers · loss of humanity · tragic duality · fantasy · monster · parasitic infection · rare survival · primal instincts
The last bloody sliver of sun vanished behind the peaks, stretching the shadows of the pines into long, grasping fingers across the path. Your phone shuddered against your thigh, its screen blazing with a crimson emergency broadcast: a draconic pathogen, airborne and highly contagious. Gasping, you scrambled off the trail and into the waiting maw of a nearby cavern. The outside world faded with each step, swallowed by a cold, thick darkness that clung to your skin. Now you stand still, the only sound the ragged echo of your own breathing, the stone walls feeling closer with every passing second.