I didn't slow after leaving the passage, even when the tunnels narrowed enough that I had to turn my shoulders sideways to keep moving. The stone pressed close on both sides, rough and uneven, scraping along my fur as I forced my way through gaps that were never meant for anything my size, and every step carried sound farther than I liked.
Behind me, the keep should already be stirring for another day, but I don't have a whole day.
I slowed when the tunnel opened into a narrow junction.
At first I thought it was just a shadow, until the shadow blinked.
A child crouched in the corner where the pipes met, thin shoulders drawn in, a slate clutched tight against his chest. Soot covered his face and hands, and the way he held himself told me everything I needed to know. One of Varys' little birds.
He hadn't expected me as such neither of us moved. The space between us felt too small for anything else.
Then I stepped forward, slow enough not to startle him, lowering my head as I let the heat gather low in my throat. I didn't release it, didn't let it flare into flame, but I let it build just enough that the air changed with it, and when the low rumble came it carried through the tunnel.
That was enough. He scrambled back without a sound, his bare feet slipping against the stone as he forced himself into a side duct and vanished into the dark.
Good, He'd run, and someone would listen.
Which meant I didn't have much time. Those boot lickers will soon come for me.
I pushed forward again, forcing my way through the last tight stretch until the passage opened enough for me to move properly. A rusted grate blocked the exit, half-set into the stone. I hit it once with my shoulder, felt it strain, then hit it again harder until the iron gave way with a sharp snap.
I dropped through into the space below.
The sound disappeared almost as soon as I landed.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but as the darkness settled into something I could work with, the shape of the room began to reveal itself. The ceiling stretched far above, lost somewhere in shadow, while rows of massive shapes lay scattered across the floor, half-buried in dust thick enough to dull even the faint light filtering down.
Dragon skull.
Not the ones I saw last time, some of them are much bigger.
I moved through them slowly, my steps leaving clear marks in the dust, the stillness of the place broken only by the faint scrape of my claws against the stone.The largest of them all waited as a centre piece.
Balerion.
Even stripped down to bone, it dominated the room. The skull alone was massive, the lower jaw rising high above my head, the teeth thick and dark, worn but still sharp enough to matter.
I stepped closer without thinking.
My paw caught on something sharp.
I slipped, my claws scraped hard across the surface as I shifted my weight, catching myself before I went down fully, and for a moment I just stood there, steadying my footing against something that didn't feel like stone. It was too smooth, too cold to be stone.
I lowered my head and looked.
Dragonglass.
Not a shard like the last one, rather a slab.
It was embedded deep into the floor beneath the skull, rough-edged and dark. Even through my paws, I could feel it pulling heat away.
I stood there longer than I should have. Why didn't I notice this before?
Behind me, far above, I heard distant shouts.
They will reach soon.
I lowered my head and set my teeth against the edge of the stone.
It cut immediately. The taste of blood followed just as fast.
I didn't let go.
Instead, I forced the heat inward.
Everything in me resisted it. Every instinct pushed toward release, toward fire, toward burning outward the way it was meant to, but I held it back and drove it the other way.
[Evolution Begin]
Heat built too fast, too deep, spreading through my chest before it flooded my spine, pooling there until it felt like it had nowhere left to go. My muscles locked, then tightened further, forcing my body into a shape it didn't want to hold.
My ribs pulled inward before they pushed out again, shifting against each other with a grinding pressure that turned sharp a second later. Something cracked. Then something else followed.
I lost my grip on the stone and dropped against it.
The heat didn't stop.
It climbed higher, forcing my muscles to stretch and thicken under pressure, my legs shaking under the strain before giving out completely as my weight changed beyond what they had been built to carry.
Breathing became harder. The air felt thin, useless against the heat building inside me.
My skin burned. Fur along my back scorched away in uneven patches before something heavier forced its way through beneath it, thicker, coarser, built to hold what I was forcing into myself.
Time stopped making sense.
It stretched, broke, then returned in fragments I couldn't follow.
At some point, the pressure peaked.
Then it broke.
Not cleanly, not all at once.
I lay there for a while, pressed against the base of the skull, breathing hard, the stone beneath me warm now, cracked where the heat had been strongest.
When the shaking eased, I pushed myself up.
It took effort.
More than it should have.
My limbs felt unfamiliar at first and heavier, slower to respond. But they held as I adjusted my stance, claws digging into the stone for balance, and when I lifted my head, the world didn't line up the way it had before.
The floor felt farther away.
The skull felt closer.
I stood there for a second, letting it settle.
Then I moved.
The sound of my step was different. It felt much heavier than before.
The weight followed with the next step, then the next, settling into something that felt solid rather than foreign.
I drew a breath as I felt the sensation of fire building up violently.
I turned toward the doors at the far end of the chamber.
I didn't need the tunnels anymore.
So I walked toward them, each step certain, the sound carrying across the empty chamber as the dust blew under my presence.
I didn't look back.
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