Arlie recognized the massive shape immediately. It was Aurora the dragon that had sent her out here, and now she was beginning to understand why. That prophecy she had been made to give was why she was out here. Suddenly Aurora spoke up, and she felt her body stop responding to her as she just walked out of the doorway, and towards the large dragon.

“Glad to see you passed that first trial. I am sure you understand why I asked you to take it now, right?”

She nodded, as Aurora made her sit, “I think I am beginning to figure it out. My family and I in particular have a connection with the Last First Lord.”

The dragon seemed pleased and said, “Very much so. Now I am sure you already know, but I want you to take the trial of the Blue Temple next. You can find that temple in Ukova. It is on an island just a couple days sail off the coast, and not far from the capital.”

“The blue temple? Can you tell me anything about the trial? Or will I have to go in blind there too?” asked Arlie as the others settled nearby. She could even hear the twins talking to each other, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. As for the boys, they seemed quite nervous and barely made a noise.

The Dragoness shifted a bit, and replied, “That trial is different, and no you don’t have to go in blind with this one. The Blue Trial will test your understanding of your aspect, your faith, and your ability to use mage sight. Mage sight will likely be most important, as it is basically a treasure hunt in a magical maze. This time you will have to take the trial alone.”

“At the end of this trial, I met a goddess. She mentioned something about me being able to take on her aspect and use a breath attack,” said Arlie mostly to herself.

Aurora regarded her like a child and told her, “You will likely meet her again. In the meantime, I surmise you need to learn how to use that aspect and your breath?”

She nodded, “Yes, she told me to ask you to teach me.”

“In a way, you already know. I will help you remember. Now first, try to access the knowledge of your blood, and focus. Don’t worry about the mana cost, I will help supply it.”

Arlie did as she was told, and quickly the knowledge of how to use her aspect, and even a breath attack filled her mind. She did realize that this new knowledge was temporary and she would need to make it her own. Suddenly Aurora moved, and in the clearing made from her moving away, golems sprang from the ground.

Before Arlie could even think about what this meant, she found herself walking into the field. She approached a golem, and suddenly unleashed a breath attack on it. A stream of blue-green flames ripped from her mouth and engulfed the construct melting it. “That is how to unleash a breath attack, now why don’t you try to use one without my assistance?”

Arlie coughed a bit, a bit more flame came out, and said, “I’ll try.”

Suddenly she felt control of her limbs return, and she was quite happy about that. She didn’t really like being controlled like a puppet. Moving towards a golem, she tried to copy what she had felt Aurora do. Drawing upon her mana, she channeled it into her chest and did the same motions Aurora made her do. Well, she tried anyway, but she didn’t exactly get it quite right. Regardless, a burst of flame erupted from her mouth. This time her breath wasn’t blue-green but a reddish-orange the flame barely engulfed the golem, and it emerged slightly singed.

The Dragon sighed, and said, “Not bad for a pup, but we are going to need to work on your technique.”

Those words proved to be the start of a rather exhausting series of exercises. Aurora didn’t let her leave the little clearing in front of the temple until she had the basics of the technique down. By then she was tired to the point that she could barely stand, but she had a feeling that this would have been harder if she didn’t have access to that ancestral knowledge. Between Aurora and her ancestral knowledge, she had managed to get to a passable point with the technique. Still wasn’t perfect with it, but like any spell practice was important.

That proved to be all she thought about on the subject, as her tired mind focused on the prospect of bed. She was barely aware of Lily helping her to the temple inn, and she didn’t even remember the trip to the room or getting into bed.

Arlie tried to shift away from the light streaming into her face, only to bump into an obstacle. Confused and not entirely awake, she moved an arm and felt out the obstacle. It was soft and warm. Being mostly asleep she didn’t think much of it and buried her face in the soft warm object. Comfortable she drifted back into sleep.

The source of that warmth watched her drift back to sleep and sighed. She couldn’t exactly bring herself to wake Arlie. Especially given how exhausted she had seemed last night. Then suddenly Arlie muttered something strange. Something that she didn’t really understand, but she dismissed them as words from a dream. Arlie would ultimately wake a couple hours later.

Around the same time out on the temple grounds, Aurora was doing something she hadn’t done in a long time. She had been at it most of the night, but given her size, it wasn’t easy nor quick to do what she was doing. She knew Arlie would be quite surprised when she woke. She couldn’t wait to see her face, but she knew Arlie needed more instruction with using her aspect. Not to mention that she would need help adapting to her newfound level of power. Something as her long time guardian ultimately fell upon her to do. That is why she had begun working a magic she had not had cause to use in so long that she couldn’t even remember the last time she had used it.

Finally, the ancient Solean symbols locked into place and she began to channel mana into the circles she had drawn on the ground. Nine circles of symbols written in Ancient Solean began to glow in the early morning light. Quickly they began to rotate as she focused her will into the symbols, and the world began to grow in her vision. Slowly at first, and then more quickly. The temple before her swelled in size before, and before long the large temple that had been barely larger than her began to dwarf her in size.

Of course, the reason for this was not because the temple was getting bigger, but she was getting smaller. Then she felt her scales warm up as they retreated into her body. At the same moment, her bones snapped and shifted, but thankfully she felt no pain. A sign that she had remembered the ancient spell correctly. Instead of pain, she felt a bit of pleasure.

Next, her snout began to restructure as her body continued to shrink. Her tail and wings shrank as well, shifting rapidly to suit the new body structure that the spell was giving her. The one she had programmed the spell to give her. Well mostly programmed, anyway. There was only so much she could tell the spell to do given the time. So she had told it base her new form off her own genetic code. Given whose code her own was based on, she had a few ideas about what she would look like when it was done.

 As her scales were completely disappearing fresh pale white skin replaced it. It lacked color given how new it was, but the spell quickly granted it pigmentation and it began to take a creamy color. Then new scales began to sprout on her arms, legs, tail, and wings. All of them much smaller than her old scales. They sprouted out as pure white scales, and they too quickly gained color. Taking on vibrant light purple and blue hues much like her scales looked when she was younger. Not the dull colors she had now. Then suddenly her chest began to swell, growing into a pair of breasts. At first, they were small child-like buds, but they quickly grew into a nice rounded pair appropriate for her age. Well for the age she appeared to be. There was no mortal equivalent to her actual age. Dragons like their counterparts the Skylords stopped aging physically around five hundred years old and kept their youthful appearance throughout their life. 

Finally, the swirling light and glowing symbols settled down. The circles on the ground vanished one by one as the spell erased itself from the ground, and a much smaller Aurora stood naked in the middle of clearing. Stretching her arms and legs a bit. She began to get a feel for her new form. Glancing towards the inn, she decided to get a good look at her new body before checking in on Arlie.

She took one step forward and proceeded to plant her face in the ground. Groaning, she muttered, “Good thing no one saw that.”

Pushing herself off the ground, she began trying to figure out how to walk with her new sense of balance. Sure, she could control humanoids but she used their own instinctive understanding of their balance when she made them walk. Her own was suited to a much larger and very different form. She stumbled a few more times before she managed to figure out how to walk without tripping over her own feet.

Before long she made it into the inn and asked one of the golems to show her a mirror. It led her down a short hall to a bathroom with a lovely floor-length mirror, and then the golem asked her if she would like a bath. She produced a coin and told her that it would be nice. Her body was rather dirty from all the stumbling. As the golem went about drawing the bath for her, she regarded herself in the mirror.

A lovely young girl stood in the mirror, a human would place her around fifteen years of age, maybe a little younger. Her wings were much smaller, and had retained their basic shape. Though they had shifted a bit to suit her new form. They were covered with lovely feather scales, not unlike the ones she had seen on Soleans. The inner part of the wings were colored various shades of blue starting dark, and transitioning to lighter hues as they moved lower. The other side of the wings were purple and transition through hues in the same fashion. Her arms were coated light purple and blue scales that formed a lovely pattern and looked like gloves. Her feet and legs were coated with scales as well, but they stopped just past her knees transitioning to skin around her thighs. Her tail was coated with scales up to the base of her butt before transitioning to skin. Her face, chest, and belly were all devoid of scales. Well, mostly devoid. She did have a few lonely scales that dimpled her cheeks, and a few scales that came around from her back creating a frame around her stomach. She even had three little scales on each side of her labia that she found kind of cute. Like her cousins they Skylords she didn’t have any body hair. She did have some long dark brown, very dark in fact, hair cascading down her back. It was almost dark enough to be mistaken for black in poor lighting. Her hair was a bit unruly, and tangled in a few places. At least that she had an idea of what to do, and thankfully there was a comb nearby in a basket with several other combs and a few brushes.

Taking one she began to work on her hair and quickly cursed when it caught on a tangle and pulled on her scalp painfully. Adjusting the comb she tried again, and more carefully. Every so often a tangle would get caught, and it would pull painfully. Thankfully she managed to straighten her hair out before too long. At least she had done this before, even if it had been a very long time, and her skills were rusty from long disuse. With her hair straight she regarded her face in the mirror again. She had a rather cute face, with a lovely strong nose, a sturdy jaw. Yet these features were soft in the right places giving her a wonderfully cute and feminine face. What she loved most were her eyes, they were large deep and expressive, and they were the same black color that was common in the Contrey family and the clan of Skylords they were connected to.

Just then the golem came back with a few water stones, and began to fill the bath. Some fire stones in the bath were used to warm the water, and very soon she had a lovely bath waiting for her. She slipped into the bath and enjoyed the heat on her skin for a moment. It had been a while since she had a bath, and thankfully the golem hadn’t left. Gently smiling she asked the female construct to wash her off.

Like most dragons, she wasn’t exactly used to cleaning herself. Her own large body made that kind of awkward. Granted now that she was smaller and in a humanoid form she could do it herself, but she was not used to it. The golem was quite helpful, and before long she stepped out of the bath quite clean.

Thanking the golem, she then asked about Arlie, as she wanted to go see her now. The golem led her upstairs, and when she got there she heard moaning through the door. Looking through the door, she saw three girls one of which was Arlie engaged in an act of passion their bodies glowing with ancient magic. Magic that was coming from deep within Arlie. Sighing, she said to herself, “I knew I forgot something. Well, at least she likes those two. I guess I’ll have to train them as well.”