My eyes twitched. Losing a petal was devastating to me, before I have a sufficient manner of replenishment, it seemed I had to avoid any situation whereby I exerted my supernatural prowess.

As far as I could judge I had lost little to no energy cleaning the cave floors, and moving the bones, even when I broke them into pieces, that meant that for mundane task I was pretty much okay. But any strenuous activities took too much energy.

Although I thought this was fair, it was not natural to be able to dig through rock with your hands, without paying a suitable price in return.

For me though, it seemed that price was these energy petals, and if I lost all of it, I was going to die. My body will eat itself alive. Harsh

This was troubling. To ensure my survival, I needed more than to just scrape by, I needed to flourish. And in this new world I found myself, being weak was opening up a host of problems that could drive me under.

I couldn't assume I would be welcomed, or face favourable circumstances. Without sufficient strength, I was helpless, and could be easily swept away by the whims of faith.

But before I made any assumptions, I needed to confirm how many more petals of energy I could form. If I could create an infinitesimal amount or even in the tens, or hundreds my worries would be useless, and judging from the Blue mushrooms I ate, there were other sources of energy in this place, though of their abundance I had no way of knowing.

Suffice to say, this query should be my utmost priority, before I could make contacts with the natives. If I was ever going to take that action, it must be in a position of strength.

I Looked at the page in my hand, I must have acted too quickly before, unlike the previous page I tore apart, this one slowly lost its glow, soon it was a dull parchment paper. The writings on it, dull intelligible scribbles.

What should I make of this?.

I ran my hand over the page, it felt like paper. I turned it over, the other side was the same, the entire page was filled with unreadable words. The words were written in a manner I did not recognise, even blurry it was written in what I fancied was a form of hieroglyphs.

Perhaps I should look at it over the light, a thought suddenly struck me, It could reveal something in the papers like a cypher.

I was a little excited at that prospect, this thing was still very fascinating to me, and it seemed every new day brought something unknown to me.

Even through my excitement I hoped I wouldn’t be surprised. I was. Silly me.

Walking to a beam of light that pierced into the cave from the opening, I held up the paper to the lights, and something amazing happened.

As the light touched the paper it scattered into many colours—red, blue, green, yellow, orange, indigo and violet. A whole spectrum of colours shone from the paper, far brighter than the light that hit it.

And the cave lit up.

I gasp in awe, the light was very bright, yet it did not hurt my eyes, it was almost soothing in a way.

Somewhere deep inside, something hurt, and a tear slipped from my eyes...

The light resonated with something Inside me. Something I thought lost in the chaos of my shedding’s.

It shone over the scars in my soul.

In my mind, I thought I saw a warm light, and I wanted to pull it closer to my heart, I wanted that warmth inside my soul.

for with the warmth, came music, and every note of that music was a colour, and every colour was a feeling. Each was indescribable but palpable in its soothing intensity.

Like an awakening breeze, a voice so like mine spoke to me:

“Tell me. Why does a Dragon cry?”

I shook my head a little, I was far more messed up, than I gave myself credit for. Did my damn trauma grow a personality?

‘What is.....%@[email protected]%^......

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Time to munch on them ol’ bones, I will try hard to imagine I’m eating crackers.

Walking up to the pile of bones, I sat.

Unconsciously I shifted my hair to the sides, it was dusty and filled with murk when I previously scrambled for survival, but it was now spotlessly white. The pile of bones stared at me, remains of once living, breathing creatures, the last of their remnants soon to be my replenishment.

There were meaning in these thought, but on the fields of survival, the ones left standing were not always the smartest, or the strongest.

Sometimes. The one left standing are the malleable.

The silence of the cave was broken by the grating sound of bones being crushed.

Slowly the pile of bones left in front of me lost a third of its content, and the consumed fourth petal returned in a shifting haze inside my stomach, almost as if it altered reality and became!

At the halfway point of digging into the bones, the fifth petal formed, i slowly lost sight of the bones in front of me, and my hands just mechanically scooped them into my mouth, I shifted all focus on watching the petals form.

Half of a sixth petal was created, but the pile of bones in front of me was no more, as my hands reached for empty space.

The humanoid skeletons beckoned me, it was an effort of will to drag my eyes away, I should forage and hunt for my sustenance. Anything else was falling to my baser nature. I refuse to admit to myself if that reasoning could be skewed, afterall not all intelligent lifeforms can be humanoid.

I did not care, it was nothing else but that. And I would rise above my instincts, if I was to be truly free, and cognizant of every choices I make.

I looked at the page in my hand, the little motes of light merged into it. They had been floating around my hand all these while. The lights all dived down at it, Melding into the page, it got darker, the colour of the page turning from a light brown to a darker hue.

Millions Of Nights, was a befitting name for such a treasure, I would have to hunt down every single pages, but I needed more sustenance if I was going to do that, digging through this rock took too much from me.

Obviously it was now daylight, the night passed without me being aware. It would be unwise to forage during the day. My risk of being discovered was higher, moreover my eyesight was excellent, daylight and night-time, was indistinguishable to me.

I had no need for sleep for the moment, the vitality flowing from my stomach made me alert, and fatigue was like a distant memory, with all this energy inside me, it was like my body had no idea what tiredness was. It could not properly express that sensation for me.

I walked over to the farthest side of the cave and sat down, I tried to keep thoughts away from my head and slow down my breathing, it was easier said than done.

There was too many things I was still unclear about, I was placed into different scenarios without the proper time to understand or appreciate my situation.

I don’t know how long I had before I was seized again by another unfathomable powers, but before then I should try to gather information and understand my place in this new world.

I hope it still had something for me. This life of mine.

I squeezed my hands together until I felt pain, I slowly unclenched my fist, my fingers were clear and pointed, they had dug into my palms, yet it did not bleed and in a short while closed up.

I cursed under my breath at my wasteful actions.

Energy for me was a matter of life and death, I had to scrimp for every last drop.

Slowly but surely my breathing stabilised and the wandering thought drowned in my lethargy, my eyes slowly closed.

And I wondered, how I could still sleep.

Thankfully I did not dream.