Newborn Island

Hera looked around, confirming that she indeed was in control of the direction her head was turning. But it was the only thing she could move by herself. Everything else was moving on its own, almost as if it was on autopilot. She was inside a dragon. Or at least, the vision was making her perceive the world as the ancient Feywyrm did. And she had barely enough time to organize her thoughts when a voice echoed in her mind. It was a feminine voice, somewhat young, even if that word might not have much of a meaning for dragons.

"The first time I saw this place, I was filled with excitement. It was such a perfect environment nestled inside a singular island. Full of life and with young creatures first learning about the world. About everything. And it was brimming with magic. Never before had I tasted such a unique blend of life, progress, and nature mixed together in perfect harmony."

Hera felt her body tilting to the left as the dragon descended onto the island below. She flew from side to side, taking a panoramic view and noticing magic flowing everywhere. It was a very similar feeling to what happened when they were dealing with the curse. The moment when she used Pool of Styx on a nest of billions and billions of mantises. 

Hera couldn't just sense magic in the air but see them, see each small droplet, and understand what they were doing. Each moving particle of mana shifting and creating impossible effects. All the while following specific sets of rules in order to recreate what was asked of them. The energies of this island were working to improve everything that existed on this land and make them better and better and better and better. It was nature in its most pure and unbridled form, following the rule of survival of the fittest to the letter. But it did not talk only about predators, but also about personal growth and evolution.

She felt a sense of admiration, of inspiration, but those feelings were not just her own. As a matter of fact, most of them were coming from the dragon and not from her. The Feywyrm believed this to be a promised land for her. And she was the one who decided to land inside a massive cave in the middle of the valley. The location had been the same place where the nest of the Nactra-Vall was located, or at least Hera assumed that was the case, but it was hard to tell, since this version of the island was so different.

Landing back on the ground, the Empress felt her body moving. Claws and tails twisting and shifting, grabbing something and placing it back on the floor. At first she couldn't understand what was going on, but when her face turned to the side, she noticed a small pouch by the dragon's neck and various items being taken from it. There was a brief instant where the Ophidianite thought she was seeing some sort of subspace pouch as she had read in many stories, but that surprise only lasted for a second.

In reality, the pouch had two different spells that she intuitively knew about, not because it was knowledge that she herself possessed, but because it was something ingrained in the dragon's mind. The first effect was to miniaturize all objects that were placed inside and then turn them back to the original size once they were removed. It also had a minor teleportation effect, where any item inside the bag could be sent to the opening by following the intention of those reaching out to grab it.

Focusing again on the objects that were being removed, Hera watched as countless body parts were taken from the pouch. Wings, tails, claws, beaks, horns, and even full arms or torsos were slowly being retrieved and placed neatly in small cases made of wood as the dragon prepared its laboratory. Once more, the voice came again, still just as young as before.

"As I set my lair in its rightful place, it was time to continue the work that I had started eons ago."

The dragon looked outside, and with a snap of its tail, a lizard appeared in front of it. It was a tiny thing with brown scales and no thoughts behind its eyes.

"My work always was and always would be one of growth, one of progress," the voice was filled with pride, but also with some notes of regret.

There was a small flash over the creature and as the light dimmed out, magic was covering it. Not just its body, but also the surrounding area. Almost like an armor made out of mana to protect the creature. It became larger, its arms stronger, and the back now had a few spikes, but the creature was not moving. The lizard stood still, almost as if it was dead. But that wasn't what was happening. Hera slowly understood that magic armor she was seeing was in fact a blueprint. Something the dragon created and now was forcing the lizard to follow.

The sun and the moon outside shifted back and forth showing the passage of days until the small lizard that was captured by the mighty Feywyrm was now a larger creature with deep red scales, large claws, a bifurcated tail, and eyes that showed some sort of sentience. It didn't have that spark of intelligence, but it was much more advanced than the creature that first arrived in this cave.

Hera was filled with a sense of satisfaction. Of pride. And then watched as more and more animals started to enter the cave. But they were not coming willingly. Most of them were being dragged by spectral versions of the Dragon. That wasn't a skill or something the dragon could do, but instead a way to represent the many times the creature left its lair in order to hunt for those who would be part of its next batch of experiments.

"Some might say I was playing god. While others that I was simply accelerating a natural process. But the reality was, this was just something I wanted to do. There was no grand plan or thought behind the reason for my work. All I ever wanted was to simply improve nature. And so I did."

The dragon's voice was now a bit older. Still young, but didn't sound more like it was in its teenage years. More like maybe somewhere around 20 to 30. But by the number of creatures and of flickering lights, it had been hundreds of years, even thousands, since the first lizard was changed.

"Eventually, nature caught up," the voice continued, now even older still. "I was beginning to see changes, mutations, evolutions that were not created by me. But instead born out of necessity by those I changed. This was a humbling experience, and it was supposed to be a wake-up call. Yet, I only saw it as a challenge."

The vision changed again. Now there were more creatures inside the lair. Each of them experimented in a different way. Various lizards with tails of different sizes, spikes that grew from different angles, bigger arms, bigger legs, stronger necks, tiny differences from one another that compounded into the creation of a completely different creature that may not even be able to be called a lizard again. They were not alone, various other species were there. Horses, monkeys, birds, fish, snakes, crocodiles, elephants, wolves, tigers, and countless more. 

The area had changed during this process. It expanded, becoming not just the lair of a dragon but what looked like a full-blown laboratory. But instead of machines and vents, everything was made out of wood, twisted into pipes and capsules to house the creatures that the Feywyrm was changing with each passing day.

Hera saw a few that she recognized, or at least that had some recognizable attributes. Horses that seem to be crackling with light, a gorilla with a magic blueprint over it indicating it would grow much and gain a pair of horns, a large dinosaur-like creature surrounded by floating rocks inside its cocoon that let out a thin layer of black smoke. But before she could continue looking around, the voice spoke again. This time older and a bit raspy.

"Time had passed, but I failed to notice the repercussions of my actions. For every single success was only created thanks to thousands of failures. Experiments that I discarded and never gave a second thought. Yet, from those failures…'

The dragon was still looking into one of the experiments when its neck turned backwards. The Feywyrm didn't move, but Hera was no longer sharing its body. Instead, she was now as a smaller version of the ancient being watching from the side and her head automatically shifted to the entrance of the lair. It was pouring rain outside and it was pouring out, but aside from that, there was nothing.

"A day like any other. I never considered what would happen if a creature that never had my touch feasted on the carcasses of those I created. What would happen if someone were to take all the decay and magic that I left behind and managed to take it as their own even without my input?"

There was a flash of thunder, and a shadow appeared at the entrance. A large spider-like creature, but the only reason for it to be called a spider, were the eight legs. Two rows of vertical fangs emerged from the mass on the center of it and surrounding them, there were hundreds of tiny black eyes staring in every direction. Its mouth opened in a triangle, revealing even more of those retractable fangs from within. Each dripping a different type of venom. 

Every single part of the creature seemed to be something else. There was no harmony in the body or its limbs. Yet, they were moving with a singular intent.

"Not once I ever considered the possibility of something resenting me. Never once I considered that any of my experiments could have feelings. To me, they were all simply attempts into perfection. Something that I knew I would never achieve, but the journey is all I cared about. Had I at any moment paid attention, I would have noticed the signs. The missing corpses, the low growls, the tangible hate. To make matters worse, the attack happened in the most inopportune of time. Or I suppose it would be the best opening for my attacker."

The vision shifted again, now facing the back of the lair. Where a large egg was sitting in the middle of the area surrounded by various wooden tubes that seemed to be pushing something inside of it.

"Attempting to create something entirely new had taken my strength from me. Leaving me vulnerable to my enemies. Enemies that I thought would never find me here. Enemies that did not find me. But it seems I had a talent for creating new ones," the voice now was even raspier, showing that the dragon was struggling to even exist.

"A creature that I ignored decided to attack," just as the voice said that, the spider launched at the dragon, its legs and fangs snapping viciously. Hera felt the urge to fight back, but she was now just a ghost watching from the sidelines as the two giant creatures brawled in the cave.

The spider attacks were vicious and extremely fast. She could barely keep up, and that was through the eyes of the dragon. Every thing was followed by another dozen, every leg was used with the one singular intent. To kill the Feywyrm. The hate that the spider felt was so intense that it even choked Hera up in her ghost form. She couldn't understand why this creature would detest the dragon so much. What could lead someone to have that kind of aversion to someone else?

Almost as if understanding her question, the voice continued.

"I have wondered the reason for such hatred over the course of the years. And my pondering resulted in an answer. What you see right now is the result of one of my earlier attempts at evolution. The one time I attempted to change an arachnid or something that was not a reptile or a mammal. It quickly became clear that there were too many differences for me to be able to change the subject properly and so, my decision was to abandon it, tossing it into the valley below together with the remains of the other failures I left behind," the fight grew more intense, now both creatures little more than a blur. Destroying not just the laboratory, but the cave itself.

"But due to my lack of knowledge about the anatomy of such creature, the spider did not die before leaving my lair. It was still alive and remembered everything I had put it through because its body was still filled with my energy, the energy of life, the energy of progress. It was able to devour the corpses of the experiments I abandoned. And thanks to my magic, the magic of a dragon, still inside not just the spider but also the millions of corpses in the valley below, my biggest failure evolved into something that I would never have been able to create. A predator so powerful that it was almost able to kill me. Almost," Even without seeing the Feywyrm's face, Hera could tell that it was smiling when it said that last word. 

The dragon snapped her head to the side and breathed a wave of flames into the spider, causing it to screech and pull back. Not letting up, the Feywyrm slammed its body against the attacker and ripped the monster to shreds using its claws, but victory didn't come without a price. The dragon was covered in deep wounds and bruises, with even chunks of its scales gone, leaving the wooden skin exposed. It was a sad sight, but one that did not mean certain death. Even with the poison still burning its body from the inside, it could still survive. That was if the spider was the only one going after its life.

The giant corpse suddenly started to move. It jerked almost uncontrollably and stood up even with its mouth ripped apart. Its legs snapped closed, seemingly forced together by unseen power. The spider jumped on the dragon once more, forcing the Feywyrm to fight back again, but it was different. It didn't matter how much the dragon attacked, the spider didn't let up. Almost as if all the damage that was being dealt amounted to nothing. It couldn't feel any pain, it couldn't fear the mighty dragon. The spider's singular goal was to kill, no matter the cost. 

But at the same time, it had become much weaker. Its attacks were clumsy and awkward, its movements mechanic and predictable. If the Feywyrm was in a slightly better condition, it would have no trouble fighting the creature off. 

Unlike the other fight, this lasted for much longer. Not just mere minutes, but hours on end and every time the spider seemed to be destroyed, it would snap back up again, its wounds would close while blood still dripped from them, and continue the relentless assault. The Feywyrm did its best to defend herself. But it was clear she was fighting a losing battle. The more bites the spider was able to hit, the more of its venom entered the Feywyrm. And eventually, it was too much, even for a creature such as itself.

As the dragon laid on the ground watching the spider get closer and closer, knowing that she had nowhere else to go, no way to survive this, the creature collapsed, revealing strings that connected them together, strings that were created by two creatures. A pair of Nactra-Valls. Both much younger, much smaller than the ones that Hera had fought. Each of them smaller than a baseball. But they were clearly the same ones.

"And as if one wasn't enough. I managed to create three new enemies. Two who I couldn't even recognize," the Feywyrm's voice was weak and struggled. Clearly the last words of a dying creature. 

The creatures delivered the final blow, killing the Feywyrm and throwing the Empress out of the vision and back to the museum.