Home Day 1

[Inspo words: Dart Window, Frighten Row, Hope Day]

Delilah flew over her new home on powerful wings. She banked once, swimming in the sky's currents, feeling the force of her body as it cut through the wind that craved to buffet her about. This would be the last time she would be able to fly like this for some time. She stayed well out of sight of the small neighboring village. She didn't want to panic her new neighbors. Even those looking her way from this distance would think she was some sort of strange glittering bird.

Beating her wings slowly, she sank to the ground. As her claws met the ground, she exhaled deeply. She shrank, from a multi-ton elder dragon to take the form of a distinguished woman, with silver-streaked amethyst hair, she could have been any age from 30 to 60. Delicate wrinkle lines shaded her eyes and the corners of her mouth without overwhelming her face. Her wings were not so easily hidden. The clothes she had magicked around her form had holes for the great sweep, large enough to carry her human body, although without the strength and stamina for the weeks-long expeditions she had set out on to find this little home. It would take some magic to hide her wings; magic she no longer had. Her eyes were also inhuman, fully purple with a black cat's eye slit down the center. Her fingernails were long and sharp, they gleamed in the low light, almost the ways her claws once had. Still, this form would allow her to interact in the world of Man as her last could not. She stretched, feeling bone and muscle settle into unaccustomed configurations. Her wings flapped gently of their own accord; the wind from them mussed her short haircut.

It was time for her to make a new home, without the expectations, burdens, and privilege of her last. She had found this small, dusty cottage abandoned near a village that was just about large enough to support a tavern. It had a small amount of cleared space beside it, but she had acres nearby that she could shape according to her will. She'd done the typical cave in a mountainside thing for the last hundred or two years. She was ready for a change. She'd been watching those strange humans from her perch and she wanted to try life as one, at least as best she could.

[Let's figure out some ground rules? Do I have to worry about feeding my dragon? Nah. What's her goal? Wickham! [2, 8] on his character motivations table gets Order.] She eyed the pristine chaos of the little proto-farm and smiled a little at the thought of organizing it, with paths leading to fields, a well, a cozy gazebo. A library where she could read inside a bay window. Maybe she would allow a cat to take up residence. But most of all, it would be all hers.

The interior of the cottage was full of enough dust it launched Delilah into a sneezing fit. Little licks of purple fire even escaped from her nose, but she snorted them back in. [What kind of animal is in residence? Snakes!] A nest of snakes is disturbed and they scatter outside. [Do any transform? 2: No. Does she like her guests? 5: Yes. Haha, she's a snake lady, not a cat lady.]

She spent the remainder of the day beating the interior of the cottage into shape. She cleaned the chimney, washed the bed linens--she supposed she'd try living fully as a human while she was here--swept, dusted. By the end she was almost as dirty as the cottage had been and disappointed by how little progress she had made. The snake nest was moved to an out-of-the-way corner. Still, she had clean bedding although her belly rumbled from hunger. She didn't have any food in the house. She supposed she'd have to fix that. It wasn't like she'd be able to swoop in and seize a plump ram.