((This is taken from a dream I had. I blame too many hours spent on Aion. However, while winged, the characters have nothing to do with Aion. I wish I could find pictures of the place that was in my dream, it was beautiful. The front was this big stone castle/palace thing, covered in ivy and vines. The back crumbled and melted away into a forest. I’m expanding on this somewhat, once I get my second computer up and running.))

We were traveling across a dark land, vibrant green with the frequent rain. Everywhere around us were rolling hills and dark forest. And along the road, on my left, came the ruins of a large stone castle. All that was left of it were the walls facing the road. It looked as if it had been grand, in its time. It was huge, though now it was covered in vines and grass. In the centuries since it was last occupied, it hadn’t quite melted back into the landscape. When I saw it, I felt my heart swell with pride and longing.

We saw the lights in the ruins, heard the echoes of the intruders’ voices, and I took to the skies as our car carried on, through the entrance of the castle. Down I swooped. We had been taught, centuries ago, that the best way to cause mayhem and fear in the masses was to attack from the air, and I relished the wind flowing through my feathers as I fell towards an unsuspecting intruder.

They didn’t stay unsuspecting for long. I drug the first one up with me, screaming, then let him fall back to the earth. He hit with a wet thud. The others screamed. Oddly, none drew weapons, but the bloodlust was upon me, and I swooped after a second one, using my claws to rake her neck so I could drink some of her blood as we ascended. I heard growling and snapping from below as my driver returned to his natural form and leaped into the fray.

It didn’t take long before we, my brother, my driver and I, stood before the last two survivors of the archeological party sent to study my old home.

“It only takes one to sow chaos, my lord.” The large mastiff’s jaws didn’t move, he didn’t didn’t speak out loud, but in my head. I nodded at my driver.

“True, but which one?” I sifted through their memories, startled at the passage of time since my last wakening. “The heiress or the assistant?”

“The assistant, most definitely. Too many people might listen to the heiress.” My brother grinned, and he looked as gruesome as I, covered in the blood of the archeologists.

I nodded. “Very well, quickly,” and I gestured for him to do the deed.

I did, after all, have a town to visit soon.