Dreamer's Awakening (Open)

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake groaned. Where was he? His eyes opened, and he saw... Okay, that wasn't supposed to be what he looked like. He didn't have any dragon forms that looked like that, and it certainly wasn't his human form. "What happened?" he wondered aloud. He tried standing up, but found that it was slightly different than normal. His knees were backwards, strangely.

He managed to get up rather easily after the first clumsy attempt, it wasn't really especially difficult. He sighed "Something weird always has to happen, doesn't it?" he complained aloud. His powers were gone as well. He could feel it. He would still be able to sense if he was suddenly about to be attacked, and his eyes would still change when he was angry... And he wasn't even sure how he knew that. Once again, he just knew something he didn't have much reason to. Of course, as usual, it was only relating to his power. Not anything that would ever actually be useful in anything...

He looked around at what was around him. He was in a forest. Everything looked pretty green, except the bark, which he... Okay, seriously? he wondered Why must it get weirder than it already was? He felt like eating the bark off the trees. It wasn't anything gross like if he'd suddenly wanted to eat dirt, but at the same time, it was definitely weirding him out.

He didn't bother resisting, this whole thing was too weird anyway. This was not something that normally happened when he entered a new world. He idly noticed as he was cutting the bark off of trees with his arm-blades that things were a bit too quiet... Apart from the rustling of the leaves in the trees from the light breeze blowing, and the scraping sound as the bark came off of the trees, everything was silent. No birds, no bugs, nothing.

He ended up starting to eat the tree bark he had cut off of a few trees. It... Tasted pretty good actually. Not that he would be planning on eating tree bark if and when he actually became human again...

[Random NPC]

(NPCer: Aximili/Crimea)

Drake just happened to be near a human camping site. He'd smell it: the scent of wood burning, from a campfire. That was about it, though his senses were superior to that of a human. But the real reason he had been teleported here...

A voice boomed in Drake's mind, a powerful, omnipotent voice.

BE WARY, DRAKE AURELIS. DANGER LIES IN THOSE LIKE YOU.

The voice dissipated, as a young girl, rubbing her eyes wearily, still in her PJs, walked up to Drake, and looked up at him. "Huh...what are you...?" she wondered, not looking afraid; sometimes, the innocent are capable of comprehending these things without freaking.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake smelled something. It smelled like... Wood smoke?! Was there a fire?! No, wait... It wasn't a forest fire, it was more like a campfire. Suddenly, Drake heard a voice in his head, booming. Great, probably some telepath with a god complex he grumbled in his head after he heard it. He did wonder what it meant though. "Danger lies in those like me...?" he wondered aloud.

Suddenly, he heard a voice. It was a girl, a young one, just a small child. He looked down at her. She was asking what he was. He said "Er, I'm... A dragon? No, wait, that's not it, I'm... Not quite sure myself..." He had no idea how to answer her. He had never been exceptional in normal conversation, and he was even less sure of how to deal with little kids...

[Random NPC]

The little girl clung tightly to the bunny she had in her hands. "I know what you are!" she exclaimed excitedly. "You're a dinosaur!" She squealed with excitement, jumping up and down.

All of a sudden, a space-ship passed over them. It looked like a giant cockroach, only with serrated spears under it. It floated almost effortlessly through the air. It was flying low, as if scanning the area.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake laughed, "Sure, we'll say I'm a dinosaur." The little girl was so innocent... He hoped she wouldn't get caught up in any battles, like the inevitable insanity and battle that would always end up coming when he was there.

Suddenly, he noticed something flying overhead. It looked like some sort of spacecraft! Drake had a feeling that it probably wasn't friendly. He said to the little girl, "I'll protect you, don't worry!" and picked her up, carefully making sure none of his blades pierced her. He get behind the tree he was next to, on the opposite side from the ship, but was prepared to move quickly if something happened.

[Random NPC]

"What is it?" she asked, then, she was picked up by him. She wasn't scared, even though he was quite the scary creature, with his low, guttural voice, great size, gorilla-esque strength, and blades. She was awed at being so high up...that was, until they heard the screams.

When they did, the girl started crying out for her mommy and daddy. Something rustled in the bushes up ahead. A big something.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake heard screaming! He had to go help! No... He had the little girl there with him, he couldn't put her in more danger than she was already in. Drake quickly glanced around, and found a hole under the root of a tree. It was empty, and large enough for the girl to fit into. Drake put her in, quickly, and said "Stay here, and be quiet so they don't hear you. I'm going to go see what's going on, and maybe I can find your mommy and daddy."

He then ran towards where the screams had come from. Hopefully he could stop whatever was happening before it went too far. Without his powers though... No, he couldn't think about that. He'd do what he could, he had to! He would save whoever he could from whatever monsters attacked! Little did he know how apt the word "monsters" was...

[Random NPC]

Hearts beating. Taxxons could sense this; they could smell flesh. And not even their Yeerks could control their insatiable hunger.

Hork-Bajir, much like Drake, but with green blades and lesser size, spilled from a large vehicle. Seven-foot tall living weapons of death.

Human-Controllers, Dracons drawn. Nothing really remarkable about them...unless you counted the fact that they were humans, controlled by aliens.

Needless to say, the campers were startled as the small army of aliens came upon them...but were quickly grabbed up, dragged away to a portable pool. That was what Drake would see. And there were so many, that if he tried to do anything, he'd be killed...or worse.

He didn't see the Taxxons scramble off, eager for meat. It was a small squirrel, but it was too fast for the Taxxons. Luckily (for them, that is), there was meat. As a ringed mouth full of gnashing teeth descended upon her, the girl screamed, before her flesh was torn from her bones and swallowed by three hungry Taxxons.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake couldn't believe this! These creatures were just taking people away, and he couldn't do anything! There were too many of the creatures... He stared in horror, as well as infinite frustration at his inability to help.

Suddenly, he heard a scream from behind him! It sounded like the little girl. Drake immediately began running back towards her... The sight he found was horrible.

There were three of the worm creatures, with their strange mouths surrounded by blood. There was blood all over the ground too, and... A tiny skeleton. Once it sank in that it was probably the little girl, Drake let out a cry of rage. His roar echoed through the forest. Drake charged towards the nearest of the monsters, delivering a vicious uppercut as he jumped. He also slammed his spiked tail into the next one as he landed. Both fell to the ground, dead, right next to each other.

Now there was only one left. Drake charged at it, slashing with his right arm. This alone injured it enough that it would probably die, but Drake wasn't done yet. He took the clawed fingers of his right hand and thrust them into the cut he had caused. He jumped into the air again, taking the creature with him. Drake then did a backflip in the air, slamming it to the ground right with the other two. He shifted in the air, and then almost dived at the three corpses, unleashing a raging flurry of blade attacks on them, until they were broken and shredded beyond recognition of having ever been something even remotely alive.

Drake eventually stopped, panting, covered in Taxxon blood. He was still in a feral rage however, he wanted to destroy more of these monstrosities! He let out another roar, which once again echoed through the forest.

[Prince Garrafor]

The Short-tailed eagle flew over the forested area, or rather, it soared, with great agility. Its wings were made for these thermals, and it knew what it was doing. But it was no normal eagle. No, this creature wasn't in fact from this planet at all.

And it spotted it, using its eagle eyes. A black ship, which looked like a giant insect with serrated spears on either side. The enemy. He had been looking for them ever since he'd come here.

Yeerks, the Andalite thought. They are here.

At least the blue box was well-hidden. They wouldn't think to look for it where he had hidden it during his stay here.

Garrafor noticed something else as the ship landed: a Hork-Bajir. No ordinary Hork-Bajir. A massive one, with oddly-coloured blades. It seemed to be protecting a young human. The elder Andalite began to circle downwards; he wanted to talk to the Hork-Bajir, but he had to first find out what these Yeerks were up to.

As he circled over a human camp, he noticed the humans being infested. He couldn't prevent it from happening, and he was woeful because of this; however, he needed to remain calm. He noticed a swarm of Taxxons being assaulted by the Hork-Bajir. A human saying repeated in his mind. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. He landed in a meadow and demorphed, then ran to where the Hork-Bajir was, keeping a short distance from him.

<I do not know who you are, but that will have to wait. Come with me, please,> he said. <Before the Yeerks send more.>

If this Hork-Bajir actually turned out to be a Controller, it would be difficult for him to take him down, though Garrafor was sure he could do it.

[Drake Aurelis]

Drake heard a voice. Well, not heard exactly. It was... Telepathy, that was it. Drake wasn't exactly new to it, so it didn't faze him as much as it might most people, but it did startle him enough to break him out of his rage.

He looked around, to see if he could tell where it had come from. He then noticed another creature standing there. At this point, he had calmed down enough that his eyes changed back into normal. He hadn't noticed earlier, but they had gone into what he liked to call "dragon mode" They had golden irises, and slit pupils that appeared to be windows looking into a world of endless flames. Might be a slightly corny way of describing it, but it fit. The creature would see Drake's eyes in this state for a moment, before they changed back into their normal color and shape. There was nothing special about them now, they just had green irises, and normal shaped and colored pupils.

Drake was slightly astonished when he saw the creature. The first thing that came to mind was a centaur, but that didn't quite work. It was more like a deer than a horse, Also, the fur covered the humanoid torso as well, though it wasn't as thick. It had more fingers than a human, and it lacked a mouth, having instead where the nose should be, three slits. Also, in addition to two normal eyes, there was a set of swiveling eyes on stalks.

Drake replied to what the creature had said "Alright, I'll come with you, since I don't really know what's going on. Would the Yeerks be those other creatures I've been fighting?" He wasn't actually as trusting as this might make him sound. He was prepared to go into combat at any time if he was attacked.

However, he wanted to know what was going on, and that was certainly of a higher priority than getting himself killed by trying to go on a berserk rampage against an entire army. In fact, he would say that dying was not high on his list of priorities at all, or even qualifying to be on it.

He had a strange, vague feeling, like he should already know what was going on. He couldn't make any sense of it, so he paid it rather little attention however.

[Prince Garrafor]

Garrafor did, indeed, notice the change in the Hork-Bajir’s eyes, as it turned to face him. They flickered golden for a few moments, slanted in a way that was not natural on a Hork-Bajir. Fascinating... the Andalite prince thought to himself. What are you? He hoped that it wasn’t something of Yeerk design; so much had already been done to these poor Hork-Bajir, from their enslavement, to their genocide. Sadly, both Yeerks and Andalites were at fault for this. It was their quantum virus that had been released upon the world...and the slugs they had released upon the galaxy that were now flattened into the brains of every Hork-Bajir, warriors for their Empire.

The creature showed astonishment upon first laying eyes on Garrafor; the Andalite could make little of this. Either he was surprised to see him...or he didn’t know what he was. And then...the creature spoke. He spoke with intelligence, not the mish-mash of language or simple speak of a normal Hork-Bajir. He brought a question before Garrafor: “Would the Yeerks be those other creatures I’ve been fighting?”

<If you are referring to those creatures that appear to be giant carnivorous insects, yes. Follow me, and I will explain as we run.> With no doubts that he would be following him, the Andalite turned in the opposite direction of the invasion, and began to run, remaining only slow enough for the Hork-Bajir to keep up – which wasn’t very slow. Hork-Bajir were fast. Additionally, this was unfortunate, because there were Hork-Bajir that would soon be chasing him. <I will assume you know nothing of the Yeerks. They are blind, grayish-green slugs; they inhabit the bodies of other creatures and control them completely. They can access their memories and knowledge, passing themselves off as that creature perfectly. Of course, with Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, that is not necessary – both races have been completely enslaved by them.>

He kept a stalk-eye on the creature as he explained. <That is what you are: a Hork-Bajir. I assume you are not a Yeerk. The Hork-Bajir were enslaved, and the Taxxons are the Yeerks’ allies – I’m assuming you can tell why. They have enslaved several other races, but those are the most common. The third common species they have enslaved are the creatures that inhabit this planet – humans.>

His stalk-eyes were distracted as a Bug fighter passed over. <That is a Yeerk fighter. Come.> He leaped over a bush, and continued on his path out of the forests.

[Drake Aurelis]

The creature told Drake to follow. He did so, and listened to what was said, as they ran through the forest. The creature began, <I will assume you know nothing of the Yeerks> Drake replied, "That's right." As the centaur creature continued, Drake shuddered. Then there was more. "How the hell do they actually enslave entire races?!" he cried, shocked and disgusted.

Then, "I'm a Hork-Bajir?" he asked. "Well, at least that means that the entire race can't be enslaved, right?" It was sort of weak, but the idea of what was being described here... Horrible. He didn't disbelieve it however. He knew of many, many horrible things in many worlds. And what he had seen here...

Then, the creature said that the Taxxons were the Yeerk's allies. "Wait... They all volunteered?!" That was... Horrifying. An entire race of beings that vile... Were the Yeerks all that vile as well, in their enslavement of so many different creatures? Or perhaps, maybe in all cases, there were exceptions. He found it rather hard to believe that any entire race could all be entirely evil... Or entirely good either, but that was somewhat irrelevant.

And then, more bad news. Drake didn't cry out in shock this time however. He was no longer at all surprised at what he was being told. He said, not really a question, "So... Humans are being enslaved too..." Drake originally had been human after all. Even after he got all of his powers, which were mostly gone now, he had considered himself human. This news somehow managed to make it all click in his mind.

His eyes changed again. Not for long, just a flash this time, at the exact moment all of it registered in his mind. Slavery... All of this. He couldn't stand it. He had always fought against this kind of thing...

A ship passed overhead. A Yeerk fighter, which the creature made sure to point out. Drake had already guessed that, but he supposed confirmation never hurt. His now clawed fists clenched. He didn't realize how hard until he felt blood running past his fingers. He didn't care. He ran after the creature, who had just leaped over a bush. A few branches of the bush fell to the ground, as Drake's blades went by and cut them off.

[Prince Garrafor]

He knew nothing about the Yeerks, but seemed disgusted by the idea. That was good; Garrafor didn't want to work with someone who actually accepted Yeerks. He wondered how they enslaved other creatures. "How the hell do they actually enslave other races?!"

<They are parasites,> he replied. <They crawl into the ear canal, and wrap themselves around the brains of sentient beings.>
"I'm a Hork-Bajir? Well, at least that means the entire race can't be enslaved, right?"
<You may very well be the only free Hork-Bajir,> Garrafor explained. <The last free Hork-Bajir died years ago.> He did not mention that had been done by an Andalite. It wasn't exactly something to be proud of, of course.

"Wait...they all volunteered?!" He was horrified by the thought.
<Taxxons are vile,> Garrafor replied. <Their hunger is so great, that if they are injured, they will even eat their own bodies.> The disgust was evident in his thought-speech. Taxxons. Disgusting creautres.

"So...humans are being enslaved too..."
The Hork-Bajir's response to this mystified Garrafor. It was almost as if...he was a human, responding to the Andalite telling him something obvious, but that affected his race.

<We Andalites tried to save this world, but our efforts failed,> Garrafor told him. <There are other Andalites on this world, and they are trying to stall the invasion. But the Yeerks have expanded to other locations. The Andalite forces on this world can only focus on one area at a time. This area has no resistance - I am hoping to change that.>

[Drake Aurelis]

The alien continued explaining. The Yeerks... crawled into other creature's brains?! Drake shuddered again. He did say however, "That was more of a rhetorical question, my astonishment at entire races being enslaved." And then, yet more, "I'm the... only one?" he repeated back, slightly stunned. The more he heard, the more he hated this.

Then the explanation of Taxxons. Drake shuddered yet again, "That's... disgusting..." From what Drake was hearing here, it seemed likely that the Taxxons were literally just monsters, certainly not sentient. Even the vile Yeerks appeared to have thought to their actions, or so you would expect if they could build ships like the fighter he had seen earlier.

Then, the creature said more. Apparently, his race was known as Andalites. They were trying to help save this planet. And this one, was trying to help mount a resistance in this area. Drake said to him, "If you're fighting these Yeerks, I would be willing to help any way I can. I have always hated and fought against such things as what the Yeerks are doing." He paused, thinking, as he vaguely still felt the blood running down his hands from his clenching his fists too hard earlier. "My name is Drake." he said to the Andalite. "Consider me an ally from this point on."

No doubt the Andalite would have a number of questions for him by this point. Drake doubted his eyes were normal for a Hork-Bajir. And then, he had said he'd always fought against such things as the Yeerks did, but he hadn't known about the Yeerks at all until now. (Although he kept having strange feelings he already knew all of this information, if he did, he had definitely forgotten, and wasn't remembering where he got it from or anything even when he heard it here. It didn't blunt his astonishment either.) It wasn't like he could have walked into human cities, could he? Was there even slavery or anything that similar anywhere nearby?

If Drake was a Hork-Bajir, how had he become free from the Yeerks, who had all other Hork-Bajir captive? Also, even his name probably wasn't one you would expect from a Hork-Bajir. Of course, there were other questions Drake didn't even realize...