CHAPTER 36: CHAPTER 36: EERIE FLOWER

When his vision cleared he found himself in a shallow body of water filled with vines and flowers. Purple and green clouds were floating in the sky and above them was a beautiful warm sun.

The place was filled with water as far as he could see. ’ Where am I?’ it looked like a swamp, a giant swamp that stretched to the horizon.

He swam forward slowly and vigilantly, his body felt comfortable which made sense, he was a swamp Dragon afterall. This was his home ground.

He could see toads and insects but all of them were normal animals without an ounce of essence. However he could smell very powerful poison on them.

Although powerful they were not enough to increase the potenty of his own so he let them be. He continued swimming slowly while occasionally sniffing the air for a scent of essence.

After a few hours he finally caught it, from afar he saw a tree with red leaves, around it trunk was a giant centipede, probably 5 metres long.

It cerapace was red and it had a scorpion like stinger. This was a rank 2 beast, while he was certain he was stronger, a fight with a poisonous creature was not necessary decided by brute strength.

Although an inner voice told him it was pathetic for a noble dragon to cower and run from suck a weakling he ignored it. He was not immune to poison unless he eats it.

The reason he was sniffing for awakened beasts in the first place was not to fight them but to avoid them for now. He didn’t know anything about this place and until he did, he didn’t plan to risk his life.

He turned and swam away from the tree, a few days passed. During the past few days he has been forced to change directions more than 10 times and two of those times were because of rank 3 beasts.

Rank 3 poisonous beasts sounded way too dangerous to mess with. Fortunately this place was filled with fruits and edible flowers.

They were all poisonous ofcourse but he was able to satiate his hunger without risking his life. Right now he was lying on top of a giant floating leaf basking on the warm sunlight.

His nose was suddenly assaulted by a suffocating scent of essence followed by a powerful savage aura. He saw a shadow flying towards him from the distance.

It speed was so fast the air exploded wherever it passed. He didn’t think twice and jumped into the water then swam down as fast as he could.

That was a rank 3 hawk and it bloodline was not any lower than his. He wouldn’t be able to fight it even if he tried and the fact that it hunts around here meant it was probably resistant to poison as well.

So his strongest weapon would probably not even work against it. The water exploded above him but he was already too far deep, his speed underwater was incredible.

Even the hawk would not be able to match him. It seemed to realise this as well since it flew up and gave up. After a long time he peaked his head above the water.

He saw the hawk cutting through the clouds, he was about to dive back in when he realised it had something on it talons. It had caught some unlucky fish.

He relaxed a bit but he still did not swim out,infact he swam even deeper. It was time to look for a new place. He could either go back to the shallow water or continue forward.

The further in he swam the deeper the swamp got but the stronger the denizens became as well.

If he went to the shallow parts he wouldn’t have to compete with stronger creatures but if something like that hawk showed up he wouldn’t have any place to hide either.

It was a hard choise but he chose going further in. While that place had stronger creatures than him he had a better chance of survival there.

He could smell them from afar and avoid them. A few days passed, he was swimming leisurely with the speed of a snail so he hadn’t gotten far.

While swimming and humming a tune he caught the scent of something delicious. He felt his body get drawn towards it but he stopped himself.

As far as his experience went, anything that smelled this delicious was guarded by a powerful beast if not a group of them but the scent was too enticing.

’ Let me check it out for a little bit, I’ll retreat if it’s dangerous.’ with his ability to smell essence he was certain he will know if something dangerous is there and he can retreat in time.

From the distance he saw a giant white flower whose leaves and vines swayed underwater like a dance. The flower was beautiful through and through.

The scent originated from this flower, he sniffed but did not catch the scent of anything dangerous or anything at all. The flower swayed on it own like a lonely maiden.

He was overjoyed, to land upon something like this without even having to fight for it. He swam towards the beautiful flower as fast as he could, ’ Wake up’.

His heart beats grew faster and faster the closer he got to it ’Wake up’, he couldn’t wait to take care of it ’ Wake up’, to feed it and help it grow stronger and spread it beauty.

’Wake up.’

He couldn’t wait to nourish it with his body so it could grow stronger and others could witness it beauty ’ Wake up’ ’ Huh?’ he stopped ’ What was that?’

He felt something was wrong then a floral scent washed over him and all his worries disappeared. What’s there to worry about when he was about to serve such a glorious purpose? ’ wake up’

’Huh?’ he had that thought again, he was confused about what’s happening, what was he doing here again? Oh right, serving his mistress as nourishment.

He was about to swim forward but then he stopped. ’ Something is wrong, something is very wrong.’ ’Wake up’. ’I can’t wait to serve my purpose’. ’Wake up’. ’To help spread such beauty’ contradicting thought appeared in his heard vying for dominance.

’ WAKE UP VED ZHAKRII’ the moment he thought of his true name his thoughts cleared but it was too late.