The sound of a panicked voice brought Rahar’s mind to its senses. His eyelids twitched, and he felt a faint spasm in his left paw. By instinct, he rumbled softly, the sound far softer than normal- which certainly spoke of the weakness he was feeling. Pain flooded through each movement, each breath he took sending a fiery lance through him. The fire inside was dim, but still flickering, which was all he could hope for after what had happened. Belial, the demon’s soul gem, and a lot of pain….

A rather embarrassing squawk left his maw, as his eyes snapped open. Bright sunlight shone above, his claws digging into the earth below as his third eyelids blinked rapidly, clearing away smoke, blood and dirt. He heard the startled yelp of someone nearby, a hiss emanating from his lips then. He felt his pupils constrict, tail twitching, ready to lash out at whoever was nearby. Had he been successful? Was the stone destroyed? If so, how was he still alive?

He rumbled softly, the growl tearing through his throat, thirst clawing at him. But the thirst could wait until later. First, he had to observe the world around him, and determine if whatever was nearby was a threat. He was too weak to fight anything off- but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try if he was attacked first.

Unfamiliar, unintelligible words stumbled out of their source, and Rahar turned his Amethyst eyes in the direction of the petrified voice. Its owner was a giant of a man. Rahar’s eyes widened, the fire in his stomach nearly flickering out at this creature’s size. He had a form similar to his own two-legged one, or even a demon’s. His teeth were flat, though, and Rahar could smell no magic in his blood at all.

A giant? He had only heard tales of such a creature. But even sitting on the ground, the creature was bigger than him. He might have even been human- if only he hadn’t towered over Rahar even while sitting.

“Who are you?” he tried to growl out, but it came out as more of a squawk than anything. His scales rattled with shame and embarrassment, his wings still drooped down at either side, bent at an awkward angle. Ah, what a sight he must look, a wounded and bedraggled prince.

The giant man looked at him in horror, and simply stared with wide eyes. Wide, pretty eyes. For a moment, Rahar was distracted. His left eye was green, the right eye a crystal clear blue which reminded him of the lake outside of his den. And then Rahar blinked, and let out a light puff of smoke. The giant’s clothes were weird, as well. Made of an odd material, and painted with what must have been the creature’s language.

The giant creature flinched, and then scooted back a few inches, lifting a hand to point at him. Once again, unfamiliar language jumbled from the being’s mouth, and Rahar’s tail twitched slightly, this time in irritation. Why was this…thing, so scared? He was weak, and so much smaller than the creature. Rahar snorted, giving the being a once over, before deeming him no threat. At least he thought they were a he- they certainly smelled that way, but Rahar couldn’t be sure. Dragons were polite enough to ask, after all, they weren’t monsters! But he couldn’t make heads or tail of the odd language the being spoke, and didn’t have the energy to gain the knowledge.

Disregarding the giant and their muttering, Rahar turned his head slightly, testing the limits of his body by lifting his head up about an inch or so. His body protested, and a soft whimper echoed through him. He hated to appear weak in front of this giant, but was unable to help it. He shuddered briefly, knowing it was too risky to use any of his fire to heal his wounds. After what happened in the demon palace, he was lucky to be alive. As far as he knew- he still wasn’t quite sure what happened.

Giving up on looking around him further, he lowered his eyes to the ground beneath him. It was scorched all around him, as if some sort of fire raged through the area and razed everything down. He flexed his claws in the earth- something was off about it. But before he could pinpoint exactly what had changed, he saw a faint glimmer from the corner of his eyes. His attention snapped to it, his heart both lifting and constricting in his chest. There it was- the Demonic soul gem. A small crack ran down the center of it, but the energy within still swirled. It moved like a slow storm, now, compared to before. But the demon energy still flowed within the stone.

His lips curled in distaste that it still held magic within, but he was nowhere near any demons. He could only hope they wouldn’t find him before he recovered. If he held their stone and they couldn’t return it, then he was successful. He could only take pride and satisfaction in that.

Rahar stared at the necklace, and then blinked slowly as something occurred to him. When he had taken the gem from the demon palace, it had barely been big enough to wrap around one of his horns. Right now, laying only foot away, the gem itself seemed to be the size as his paw. Blinking yet again, Rahar’s eyes shifted from his paw, to the necklace. And then back again. It wasn’t likely that the stone had grown. Demonic magic could be unpredictable, but that didn’t seem very likely at all.

Shifting his gaze around again, without moving his head, Rahar took in the sight of the enormous trees that had toppled over in the wake of…something. He remembered being pulled back into something- a portal, perhaps? Demons could rip open portals in the fabric of space itself, to travel great distances. That was probably what had happened. But where had the gem taken him?

Rahar huffed, and then glanced back down to his paws briefly, before movement distracted him. He hissed softly, as he saw the human –now that he knew the boy wasn’t a giant, human was the only thing he could be- slowly crawling towards the gem. “Don’t touch it!” He growled out, giving a chirp of alarm as the boy reached out for it. There was no telling what the demon gem would do to the human. The magic was leaking out, and the kid had no magic in him whatsoever to protect him.

The chirp and growl ended in a bit of a coughing fit, his throat too raw and dry to yell so loudly. Rahar hissed in pain, eyelids closing tightly, bracing himself through the pain. His wounds and the trip through the portal had weakened him, and left him in this diminutive state. He was hardly bigger than a baby dragon, freshly hatched.