Vyll woke up slowly, her head pounding as though it had been pummelled into the ground. Her vision was hazy, and her stomach roiled with discomfort. There was a warm body pressed up against her, and an earthy green wing over her flank, accompanied by the disgruntled snoring of a dragon in her hearing gland, every sound making her piercing headache all the worse. A groan left her as flashes of the previous night fell through her mind. Flashes of laughter, pleasure, and drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.

"Oh, why do I do this to myself," muttered the dragoness.

She lay still for a moment as she waited for her wooziness to reduce enough for her to get up. She carefully pushed herself to her feet, the earth drake beside her letting out a disgruntled murmur at her movement, but not waking up. That was good, she didn't really want to talk to him. She staggered, her purple wings flaring slightly for balance as she paced toward the exit of the cave. She took a moment to lean against the cool rock, allowing herself to relax as she looked out into the canyon ahead of her.

It was still dark outside, with the hint of light touching the sides of the canyon. No one else was up yet, besides the several humans rushing along the floor of the canyon toward their master's homes, dodging past the many pieces of broken boulders and fallen rubble. She didn't envy those who were supposed to be the ones to clean up after the previous night. After a celebration like that, there was certainly a lot left to be done.

A smile found its way to Vyll's mouth as more memories of the previous night came back to her. The exhilarating rush of a drunken dive from the top of the canyon to the bottom. Dipping her muzzle into a large bowl of bitter drink and sculling it down like she hadn't drunk anything in years, out drinking a large earth dragon in the process much to the joy and laughter of the others around her. Allowing herself to be wooed by that same earth dragon later into the night and coming back to this very cave. A sigh escaped her. At the very least it would be another decade or so before she could have eggs again, so she wouldn't have to worry about that.

But the more she thought about the previous night, the blander it became. The headache she had right at that moment certainly made it far less desirable than it had been the day before. And while the night before had been fun... all it left her feeling was dull and slightly miserable. Not that she was surprised. Everything she did left her feeling that way. It was like nothing was enough. Having nearly reached her second century, Vyll was rather knowledgeable on the world, having explored it to its fullest. She had experienced excitement, joy, misery. The thrill of the hunt and the fear of death. The fulfillment and pain of rearing hatchlings. Love, and the spiking agony that it brought down when taken away.

No place on earth had been left unexplored for her. She had been in the darkest parts of every nation. Landed at the bottom of the ocean and sparred atop the highest mountain. She had even gone as far as to touch the moon with her paws and feel the searing heat of a star. As one of the most powerful rift dragons on the planet, nothing seemed out of reach for her. Anywhere she could picture, she could go. She had even seen other dimensions, one where time didn't move, another where matter ceased to exist, and more. Each a new and exciting discovery that held her interest for a small while, before becoming as bland and mild as the rest of the planet.

Even the hedonistic pleasures of drink and the flesh had lost their appeal. Sure... they were fun in the moment, but all it left for her was deep despair that she had already experienced everything that was possible within the world. She was yet to even reach the halfway point of her life, and she felt she had done all that was possible. Or at least, everything that seemed of mild interest to her.

Even now, as the sun rose on the horizon, she couldn't help but think that she had seen something very similar before. It was beautiful, glorious, and an enrichment of the true power of nature. While once it would have done something for the dragoness, now it left her with but a sigh. Supposedly every sunrise was different from the last, but she had given up looking for the differences.

Feeling as though she could now walk without falling over, she paced toward the edge of the cave, glancing at the metal door which had been left open the previous night, and stepped out into thin air, not even bothering to open her wings. She fell toward the ground, streamlining herself for increased speed, the wind whipping against her dark purple scales and serrated horns. The rush was once exciting but now made no difference to her than a casual stroll through an empty field. She pulled at the air in front of her with her power, reaching into the energy that separated dimensions, and opened a portal into nothing but darkness.

She flew through without hesitation and was engulfed in blackness. There was nothing to hear, nothing to see. Blistering cold shrouded her with temperatures lower than even the vacuum of space. She was forced to close her muzzle shut, as even breath was impossible in the darkness. But her body was used to the cold, used to the breathlessness and sightlessness. Once you got over those things, the void was a rather peaceful place, one that she could stay in for hours at a time if she could survive such a strain. But alas, as the cold began to creep into her bones and spike pain in her blood, she forced another portal open in front of her, launching her back into the warmth of planet earth.

She opened her wings, catching herself in the air as she looked down at the ocean below her. Night was still shrouding the sky, day probably still several hours away if the sun was just beginning to touch the edges of the earthen nation. She was beginning to feel quite awake, the shock of cold the void gave doing wonders for her woozy head and upset stomach.

Up ahead of her was her destination. An island in the middle of nowhere, with a large dormant volcano rising from the middle. A tropical forest curved around the outside, which bordered by white beaches, which now glowed almost blue under the light of the moon. Several tunnels had been excavated into the side of the mountain, leaving doorways for the occupants to come and go as they please.

There were a couple of other dragons gliding around the mountain, patrolling to make sure no strange visitors came without them knowing. They called out a greeting to her, to which she responded in kind.

"How was the festival Vyll?" one of them asked.

"Fun," she responded truthfully enough with as much a smile as she could manage, "Probably not as good as last year though."

"Eh, unfortunate that. Well, go get some rest. I imagine you are quite tired."

"Haha, I'll try," the dragoness responded.

She pulled in her wings, shooting down toward the entrance of the mountain, before disappearing into the void once again, this time coming out inside a small cave. She hit the ground with a running skid, her claws sending sparks over the stone. She halted herself with practiced ease. She would have come here straight away, but it was common courtesy to let the other rift dragons know when you were arriving back at the mountain or leaving.

Her cave was just big enough for only her. It had a nest made from giant green palm leaves, a basin for eating, and a small stream of fresh water cutting through the corner before disappearing into the side of her cave. The most unique thing about it was a small hole in the far wall which was covered in green vines. When Vyll pulled them open it allowed for the morning sun to shine directly into the cave, letting an almost celestial light come upon her when she was sleeping. Beautiful, but again another thing which she had gradually lost interest in over the years. She rarely stayed at the mountain anymore.

She hopped into her nest and curled up, trying her best to fall back to sleep, knowing she would be lethargic for the rest of the day if she didn't. But sleep didn't come easily for the elder dragoness, her thoughts continuing to run around and around her head in a never-ending cycle.

Had she really done everything there was to do in her life? As a hatchling, she had had so many life goals and ideals. She was going to explore the world, which she did. She was going to become one of the most powerful rift dragon alive, which she did. She was going to find a handsome mate, and they were going to have many hatchlings together. Again, something she had done, though her mate had died nearly a century ago now, and she didn't have it in her to find another. The only thing left was maybe be the first-ever rift dragon to reach equilibrium, but she had given up on that goal very quickly. It became apparent that whenever a rift dragon was about to reach that point some mysterious force killed them before they did. Maybe figure out what that force was? She had been trying for decades and had come up with nothing.

So what was left? Maybe she could find the source of the Living Mountains. She had been one of the few dragons that had managed to survive its dangerous peaks, but once she had seen what it looked like and realized that there really wasn't much else to see she had left, after playing a bit of a dodging game with the moving rocks of course. That had been fun, and reckless, so much so that she had done it a couple of times. After nearly dying two years previously from such an escapade she had decided that it would be best not to do it again.

But that again left her with... nothing. She had no more hatchlings to look after, they had all grown up and now had their own lives, and in another fifty or so years she would likely not be able to have any more of them. That meant she really only had time for one more clutch. But even then... she had already raised twenty children to adulthood and doing so again felt like just another grab for some fulfillment in her life.

"I wonder if this is what they call a 'mid-life crisis'," she muttered to herself with grim humour.

Maybe she could work toward becoming the representative of the rifts dragons. But Dansion already had that job, and he was rather good at it. Besides, it seemed like quite a tiresome position, being the voice of so many other dragons and dealing with the other leaders. Not all of them were hospitable. Maybe she could work toward becoming the most powerful dragon in the world? But without equilibrium that would likely be impossible. But what else was there for her to do?

"Maybe meet with all the elements?" she wondered out loud, but there usually had to be a reason for such a thing to happen, and why one would want to speak to her specifically she couldn't think up. It was rare for a dragon to even meet one of them in their five-hundred-year lifespan.

She just wanted something new. Something exciting, something unexplored and undiscovered. A new ability, a new species of dragon, a new world, anything. There had to be more that she hadn't seen yet. More than was possible for her to see. Otherwise, what was the point of being alive anymore? The thought shocked her. She quickly got to her feet, shaking herself out. She couldn't afford to be thinking like that. If she did she was afraid of where it might lead.

She shook herself down, gave her wings a flap, pacing in several circles as she worked to get her blood rushing again, 'Something new. Something new. Where can I find something new?'

It was like a need within her, greater than even hunger and thirst. She didn't understand why she was so obsessed. But the fear that there was nothing left in the world for her to experience seemed like a fate worse than death. She didn't care what it was, whether it be bad or good, evil or righteous, blissful or terrifying. She just wanted something else. An idea suddenly hit her. A dangerous one, but it was all that was left in her arsenal.

She stopped her pacing, sitting down on her haunches, and reached for the rift energy surrounding her, opening up another portal in front of her. For a moment she simply sat, looking into the portal with trepidation. What she was going to do was always a frightening prospect, dubbed by the dragons that taught her as unseen travel. As a rift dragon, it was important to always have a picture of where you wanted to be before you travel, otherwise, you could end up in some frightening part of the world with no way back. But if one went into the void without a desired destination, you could end up in some exciting areas. Vyll had only done this three times before, two of which had nearly ended in her death. One of those times she had appeared somewhere dark and cold, not unlike the void. But almost immediately her body was quite nearly pulled apart, as though gravity had been so strong that it could crush her in an instant. The second time she had arrived on some far-off planet or world and was nearly suffocated by the poisonous gasses of that world. She would prepare herself slightly this time.

She pulled at the rift energy around her, letting it shroud her in its power. The energy became visible and began curling around her, basking her in a purple aura that covered her entire body. It would act as a slight shield in case she ended up somewhere that could indeed end her life. Taking a deep breath and shaking out her tail and wings, she stepped into the void, allowing fate to take her where it will.

When she reappeared from the void, her entire body was tense, her heart racing as she prepared to fight or flee depending on what she found. She held her breath, gazing around the unfamiliar landscape with trepidation. It seemed she was on a planet at least and not in the depths of space. The sky was covered in dark grey clouds. Lightning flashed in the distance. The ground below her was cracked and broken in a way that reminded her of the valleys within the living mountains. The rock was scorched and burnt, as though a massive fire had spread over the surface and as far as the eye could see.

There was one spot of colour which caught the dragon's eye, and as she glided down toward it, a thread of dread sprung through her. It was the body of a dragon. An acid dragon, though its body was so burnt that they only way Vyll was able to tell was because of the poisonous barb at the end of its tail. But how would an acid dragon be here? This certainly wasn't Earth. There was nowhere on the planet that looked like the area where she was. She could say that with almost certainty.

Her dread continued to rise as she found another body, or rather what was left of one. This one was a fire dragon. It looked as though it had been crushed into the ground by the stone, with only its head untouched, eyes wide open in lifeless disbelief. Vyll couldn't help but let out a gasp of shock, not realizing that she had just breathed in the air of this new world for a moment. But as the air filled her lungs and it quickly became apparent that she could indeed breathe the air of this world her horror began to grow even further. Surely this wasn't the place of some battle she had missed? There wasn't any war that was going on was there? She would have heard about it if there was.

The shield of rift energy she had built around her disappeared as it became quite apparent that nothing in the immediate vicinity was going to kill her. She rose back into the air, looking over the landscape with greater horror as her eyes quickly found other bodies of dead dragons, crushed and burnt. She even saw some bones of a dragon that must have been incinerated entirely.

As she flew over the unexplored landscape a sudden silvery glow encompassed the air around her, and in a brilliant flash of light, a being appeared. Vyll let out a startled yelp, hovering the air startled as she stared wide-eyed at the creature in front of her. This being was a dragon but was unlike any dragon she had seen before. He had large silver scales covering his back, wings and flank, and a purple underbelly that reminded Vyll of peering into the night sky. He was over three times her size, a substantial amount larger than any dragon she had seen before. The power that radiated from him was unlike anything she had experienced as well, much like equilibrium but more constant and dangerous. She felt frozen with awe and fear.

"You shouldn't be here," his voice boomed with all the authority of his size and power.

"I... I'm sorry... I'll be leaving," she stuttered, not for a moment considering disagreeing with this dragon, whoever he was.

But as she turned to leave she found her body frozen and unable to move. In a desperate panic, she tried to struggle out of the hole, but her body refused to cooperate.

"If you believe I will just let you leave after what you've seen then you are mistaken," the drake growled angrily.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! It was an accident! I swear!" she cried out, slightly surprised that her voice was still working.

"An accident?" the dragon narrowed his eyes, contemplating for a moment.

"Yes! I'm sorry. I didn't know where I was going or what I was doing. I won't come back here. I promise."

The silver dragon narrowed his eyes, "It doesn't matter if it was an accident or not. The fact is it seems you have become capable of such an ability."

"What?" Vyll said, panicked, "What ability?"

"Do you know who I am... Vyll?" the dragon asked with a rumble.

She shook her head, part of her wondering if he was some sort of mind dragon with how easily he was holding her in place and keeping her still with no physical power.

"I am O'hen, the element of time," he stated simply, his voice shaking the world around them, "And now that you are able to break through time, I cannot allow you to continue."

"Breakthrough time?" her eyes widened as she looked down at the earth around them, her horror increasing, "Wait... this is the future?"

"It is," O'hen responded simply, "But you will never see it."

"Wait! Stop, please. I promise I won't do it again. No one saw me. I... I... please. I won't try and change anything," she begged as the dragon flapped toward her.

"I cannot risk you damaging the timeline," he said.

"I won't! I won't! Please!" she begged.

She saw him hesitate for a moment. He didn't seem like the type of dragon to want to go through with this. But then again, if what he said was true, he wasn't exactly a dragon. He let out a sigh, grumbling something intelligible to himself before giving a nod.

"Very well. This is an accident so I will give you leniency this time. However, if you do break through time again, I will kill you," he threatened with a growl.

There was a flash of white light. Vyll landed back in her nest, in her cave, grunting with a huff as she landed on her back. Her heart was racing, the fear and horror of what she had just seen racing through her. She quickly rolled onto her stomach, forcing her racing breath to calm down, the images of what she had seen flooding her head. A scorched and broken Earth. Dead dragons everywhere. A threat of death. She gulped, looking at the cave around her warily. Time was everywhere after all.

"Thank you," she whispered to the air, not knowing if O'hen heard her or not.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. Vote if you did and comment on what you thought on it. What was the character of Vyll like? I found her a rather strange character to write about. Certainly an interesting one. Anyway, the next Chronicle will be A life Dragon's Purpose! Look forward to it, as it will be out a little earlier than usual next week. See you then!

Pennator^^