"Come, little thing, the dawn awaits no one, and I would see you gleam in her blessed light." The large dragon looked down at her (comparatively) tiny and fleshy companion. Their cheeks were stained red from the shapes of various coins, gems and treasures which were embossed upon the human's skin.
"I'm not little, you're just massive, you overgrown... legged snake!", the human stamped a boot against the ground, coins clinking off of leather soles on to the hard and cold stone of the dragon's lair.
The dragon's silhouette glittered against the slight light that heralded the arrival of their star. Iridescent blue scales gently caught the light of flames within the cave, but the most striking feature to the human was the dragon's violet eyes. They shimmered, almost unnaturally, in the way that light refracted through the facets of a gem, and at the heart of that gem a perfect slitted void, swallowing light entirely.
The human shook her head as if to free themself from the pull of that void, mumbling, "I don't see what's so special about it, anyway. It's a sunrise, same as any other."
Iridescent scales now parted upon the dragon's snout, and sharp white daggers unsheathed themselves in their wake. A smile, a grin, absolutely delighted. "Not this one, little thing."
"This one promises to be much grander."
Mimicking a gesture she had seen the dragon before her make earlier in the night, the human tilted their head. "You seem to love speaking in riddles, wyrm."
A paw shot to the dragon's chest, a very human gesture in turn, this one of offense taken. Growling with sarcastic delight, "Me? Perish the thought, little one."
"Now." A massive paw advanced toward the human, "I believe you and I were to watch the sunrise together. And witness the birth of Dawn on a new day." The thump-clack of paws and the claws upon them advancing. The dragon leaned down, long neck swooping downwards, and an eye nearly the size of her head stripping the human bare. "Won't you join me, little thing?"
Realizing this was not a request, but instead a statement, the human acquiesced to the proud beast before her, and strode towards the mouth of the cave with the dragon.
"You've always loved the dawn haven't you, little thing?" The dragon lets these words roll off her tongue like licks of flame from her throat, "Felt a longing you couldn't quite place." The pair were at the mouth of the cave and set towards the grand open cliff that dwarfed the taiga below.
"A yearning not for the dawn but to be the Dawn. To glow with the light of the morning sun. To be the warmth upon the face of the creatures and humans below." The dragon paused at a place short of the cliff edge. What was once a light blue had now become lighter, yellower. The herald of the star upon the horizon.
"But that's not all, is it?" the dragon's words were sharp. Meant to slice deep. "You've felt something deeper than that. Something inside you yearning to grace the world with its presence." She was pacing now, circling her charge as she spoke, "as you sat, something just didn't sit quite right with you." A claw delicately touched the small of the woman's back, pressed in ever so slightly then retreated.
But the pressure didn't abate... something was still pushing. And it was pushing out. The woman's back arched as the foreign sensation of a tail, thick and alien pushing from her spine. She gasped with surprise, hands grasping at it, taking in strange new sensations with breathless awe.
She pulled her hands back, and discovered that warm, golden scales had begun spreading out from the edges of her palms, slow-rolling waves of iridescent amber overtaking pallid skin.
A delighted growl reverberated from the dragon's chest as the light upon the horizons glows ever so slightly brighter. "And lo, my Dawn alights the world."
Recognition flared in the eyes of the woman as the dots connected. A look cast towards the serpent towering above her, met precisely by its own gaze.
"Wha- " the woman began "-What are thu dthooing thho mmhe?", a quizzical expression as the woman's tongue explored the inside of her mouth for the traitorous mass causing her to slur her words. With a start, her tongue found purchase on teeth that seemed far too large for her mouth, far too wickedly curved. With a slight prick of her tongue she discovered they were also far too sharp.
The taste of copper spilled throughout the woman's mouth, and as she spat the gob of blood and spit onto the ground below her, she felt that her tongue too had betrayed her. Confirming with her hands, she was fascinated by how her tongue was now forked, split right down the center up until about halfway- no a quarter-way- wait no even further up? As she stuck that forked tongue out to properly examine it by licking her lips she discovered that it was significantly longer.
"Howw tham I thuppothed to thalth lith thith?", her tone was desperate, trying with everything she had to control the foreign muscle within her mouth, but still falling short.
"You were always a clever one..." A grin once again splayed across the dragon's snout. "You'll figure it out."
Grimacing, the woman looked back at her hands, shimmering gold scales replacing skin, feeling her body strain against the change. Her clothes felt too tight, and something in her legs ached, strained, and snapped.
She yelped as she was thrown flat back on her tail and watched as her legs bent into harsh angle. Distinctly inhuman. It was exhilarating. Wait... exhilarating? The expression must have been written upon her face because the dragon chuckled, rumbling in a soft growl. "Surprised, my Dawn? Shocked by how much this feeling excites you?" mighty thumps as paws paced around the woman in the growing light.
"You've always felt something... deep in the pit of your stomach, haven't you?" A gentle purr rumbled through the dragon that was pacing circles around the woman. "A longing. A want. A need"
Another crack. The tingling of scales forming from skin, the woman looked with ecstatic horror upon her legs twisted themselves into new shapes. Those reminiscent of her captor's. Her heels raising upwards, scales spreading down her feet, rounding her toes, sharpening nails into wicked golden claws.
The woman stared in disbelief, feeling each step of the dragon stalking her like a shark circling its prey. Sh-She had paws? With this realization a shiver traveled down from the top of her head all the way down to the tip of her newly grown tail. The scales. The paws. The tail. It was undeniable. The dragon was making her into one like her.
Fear filled the eyes of the woman. A domesticated fear. One that shook every cell in her body. She was too cold. She was too hot. She was freezing solid, she was burning up. She was hyperventilating, she couldn't breathe. She choked, coughed, and a gout of flame erupted from her throat.
Bug-eyed, the woman stared at the flickering slag between her newly changed legs. "Is it setting in, my Dawn? This isn't just outside. You are changing inside and out." The dragon paused its pacing to pluck the changed thing to its paws. The woman, to her credit, barely managed to find her balance, natural instincts balancing the weight of her tail versus her posture. She couldn't believe what she was feeling. How her legs appeared. How they bent and worked and flexed.
The scales upon her legs glinted with golden iridescence. Part of the woman was horrified, but a louder part of her was burning with desire. The woman's eye were hungry, and the dragon could sense it. "Come now, Dawn, I see that look in your eyes... let go of that fragile form, and free what you've kept chained up inside you."
As if responding to the thought, the woman sight blurred. Colors gained distinctness, new hues revealing themselves before the woman's now golden-amber eyes. A blink, and slitted pupils took their place, sharper vision rendering her glasses useless.
A paw on the woman's back surprised her. "Now" the dragon paused, pacing with delight around her prey, "my Dawn~. With your interests, you understand as well as any that we are not bipedal creatures." Force, applied lovingly but firmly. The woman gasped with surprise, "But that doesn't make us any less proud or beautiful~. Your eyes have never left my hide, so I know you agree."
CrrrACK~!, and the woman's back bent inwards, her arms instinctively attempting to break her fall. The woman's tongue lolled from her mouth, panting from the shock. The crack didn't hurt per se, but it had felt... odd. Like her mind knew it should hurt but didn't. Like being numbed in a medical procedure. The dragon's doing? This thought was interrupted by the now-familiar tingling of scales spreading upwards from her legs. Golden iridescence crawled along her torso, smoothing and reshaping it in its wake.
Tingling was overtaken by warmth, warmth like standing in the sun on a cold winter day. The woman felt this warmth ripple across her chest, that warmth claiming her heart. Pale yellow scutes formed along her barreling chest, further scales spread down her arms, eventually reaching her hands. Cramps flared up, and her hands contorted, fingers cracking as they shortened. Her two outermost fingers on each hand fusing into a single compact digit. Nails atop the fingers gave way to the same golden claws on her hind legs.
Paws? Claws? Her mind ran through the possible names, but her mind buzzed with frantic disbelief. As her mind raced, searched through pages upon pages of memories trying to make sense of what she was seeing, sense of what was happening to her. "Shhhhh, my Dawn." A paw upon the back of her head now. "If the memories still escape you, allow me to loosen time's grip upon them." A feeling like the breeze on a cool night swept through her mind. A stillness to the hurricane of thoughts swirling within.
Dawn blinked tears from her golden, draconic eyes, and for the first time could see clearly. See what the dragon had seen in her. The shape of it. Her proud form. Golden scales like a sunrise strewn across rippling waves, majestic and powerful wi- RRRRIP! two muscular appendages wrapped in golden scales forced their way out from Dawn's shoulder blades, an amber membrane spreading between long claw-tipped digits. They were exactly how she had imagined them, like they had been plucked straight from her mind.
Dawn flexed the new muscles, first clumsily moving her wings, flapping wildly like a newborn whelp, except with full size and strength wings. Powerful and clumsy- wing-born winds rustled the grass on the cliff-side Dawn and the Dragon found themselves on. Dawn attempted to speak but tripped over her still too-big tongue, spitting out lisped words almost as clumsily as she had used her wings.
Blushing, Dawn wished that she could hide from the adoring and patronizing gaze of her companion. It was when she realized her point of view was rapidly changing perspective that she yelped with surprise. She looked down and saw her lengthening neck, iridescent scales keeping pace with its growth. Disoriented, Dawn couldn't find her footing. She wanted to hide her face, hide the grin she couldn't control, a grin belying her true feelings towards what was happening.
Fervor grew within her as she felt scales prickle at the base of her head. The sun was nearly cresting over the horizon, the sky tinted gold as Dawn felt the need to roll her neck. Pressure pushed from all over. The most forceful pressure came from behind her nose, her mouth. It hurt at first, but it felt right, the affirming kind of pain only too unique to this situation. As the pain built, Dawn's jaw snapped, teeth and bone pushing outwards in what should have been searing pain, but instead felt like the warmth of daylight. A feeling deep in her throat began growing with the feeling of pushing outwards. A pair of sensations spoke to the crown of horns growing atop her lengthening and now-draconic skull.
Dawn could feel everything shifting. She could feel her fangs growing in, lengthening, surrounding her once-too long tongue. Her nose melded into her snout, and she could perceive a whole new dimension of scents. Every sense was heightening, her sight had already sharpened, and her ears had lengthened and split. Two triangular ears on each side, a crown of horns, golden eyes now finding their new home upon a snout. True certainty flowed through Dawn, the last vestiges of memories long buried now unearthed, tears glistened golden against Dawn's scales as a roar finally escaped her new maw. The sun's first light now shone upon the horizon, setting Dawn’s hair alight, a golden-white mane flaring upwards from her head and trailing all the way to the tip of her tail. The cresting light splayed across Dawn and the dragon as Dawn shook herself off.
Dawn shuddered with realization. Finally seeing the whole picture. Finally understanding, and finally remembering the dragon across from her. Her mate. Her truest friend and longest companion.
"My Dusk..."
Black tears streamed across Dusk's scales. Finally. Finally Dawn remembered her.
Dusk ran head-first into Dawn, and the two embraced, spinning joyfully in the morning's first light. The Dusk setting on one life, and the Dawn breaking upon a new one.

