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OOC: Spiritwolf- we haven't met you yet, so jump into the plot anyway that seems appropriate to the story's integrety

Aaron turned to see the two strangers again. His golden body seemed to gleam in the barely visible sun. He sighed slighly, almost inaudibly. Quickly, though, his body morphed back into that of a human being. "It's alright. I probably shouldn't have jumped to conclusions either, but I tend to do that." He paused, thinking of how else to carry on the coversation. "So... am I in your group now? How come you guys have to find the mayor?"

Lyllii bore a hole deeper into the soft earth between the cobblestones with her toe. "Well, I don't know, actually," she sheepishly admitted. "To make a long story short, Kasha and I ran into each other in the forest, and ended up escaping a volcanic erruption. We sorta decided to try help this town on a whim; neither of us are particularly comfortable around civalization, but it would be irresponsible to not help when you hold the power to make a difference... Anyways, we figured that the mayor would be the only one these people would listen to; we haven't had much luck even finding him, as you already kno-"

She suddenly broke off. The nymph suddenly had the strangest urge to scratch her head. When she did so, white flakes rubbed off onto her hand before the wind whisked them away. Dandruff? she thought, a cold sweat running down her nape. No, wait... it's just ash; that's a relief. Wait! ASH?!? She suddenly tilted her head, observing the sky; grey-white flakes drifted lazily down as the distant eastern sky gradually darkened to an infected black. "Come on! We can finish this later! It's now or never!" she said, her voice nearly a shout due to excitement.

Lyllii's staff remolded into a flexible shape, the excess wrapped around her forearm, and without another word, quickly picked the gate's lock. As soon as the gates swung open wide enough, she and the other two quickly dashed through the narrow opening, dashed past several startled gardeners in the courtyard, and made a bee line for the heavy mahogony doors that guarded the entrance into the main house.

Kasha coughed lightly. Her lungs were a bit stronger than they would be for a human, but she was still breathing in a small amount of ash...which no lungs were made to breath. She ran after the light-footed nymph, muttered words under her breath. She did not enjoy being around crowds; and today seemed to be the exception. The approaching enemy was not making the stress knot in her neck any better; they made it worse, quite obviously.

The smoke grew heavier, filling the air with it's unimistakable scent. Her sensitive ears twitched; she could dimly hear cries of surprise, and fear. As they reached the heavy, glossy doors, Kasha did not hesitate. She unsheathed her staff, using both that and her foot to make the doors creak open. She did leave a rather large crack running up the surface, but there was no time to be polite or apologetic. "Come on, move it!" she cried our impatiently, ushering them inside.

Aaron nodded and proceeded to follow them but got stopped in his tracks by an invisible force. "I... can't.. move." He groaned. He fell to the floor, almost powerless. It was like the ash and smoke was causing a chemical change in him. His transformation came about once more, even thouhg he wasn't controlling it. He winced in slight pain as the pain came in the aftermath. He was in his dragon form, but it was not the same one he had been in a few moments ago. This form was tainted with evil, being controlled by unknown forces. It's like the fire was using evil mind control. And Aaron was virtually powerless to stop it.

Kasha reflexively held her staff out in front of her, the small concern in her eyes tainted by wariness. She took a step forward, not striking yet, but waiting to see what Aaron, now a dragon, would do. His tail brushed the wall, his head almost reaching the ceiling. It was a good thing this was a large house. Normally, Kasha would be able to appreciate the details, if Aaron had retained some of his trustworthy demeanor. BUt now evil seemed to crackle in the air like electricity, and Aaron seemed to be almost possessed; which was not a good thing.

Even though she considered herself a warrior, she could not take on a dragon and live.

OOC: this will be my last post for a few days...

BIC:
Lyllii whirled around to see Aaron struggling in dragon mode. "No.. not now. Please no!" she murmured with almost chant-like quality, her face paled to alabaster from a bronzed olive. Somehow, his body seemed bigger, terrible, verses the awesome golden figure that she and Kasha had glimpsed only a few moments before. His new onyx scales pierced the ceiling's white plaster like obsidian daggers, pieces large and small alike flaked off and fell to the ground, nearly crushing some servants and causing many to choke from the resulting dust. The burning sensation Lyllii experienced before become overwhelming; within a moment, she would burst into flames like the trees, her serogent parents.

Her vision became tainted with red film; she just managed to witness the mayor's personal guard march into view, javelins and spear tips bared at herself and Kasha and aimed towards Aaron's armored chest and largely unprotected underbelly before she blacked out after one final white-hot flash behind her eyes.

Aaron struggled to keep the evil out, to get the controlling feeling out of his mind, but it just wouldn't leave. Every time he'd push it back, it'd shove it's way to the surface again. He roared in anger. Eventually, it became too much of a fight. He couldn't stand to resist it any longer. It was slowly becoming more powerful, enraging his brain more, making him truly evil. He roared again. This time, it was audible as a mix of a dragon's scream and a human's plight. You could just barely hear "NO!! PLEASE NO!" In the ear peircing sound. But alas, it was too late. When the spears started coming his way, they did nothing. After all, what are measly wooden stick with a small metal tip going to do to an enormous dragon? Nothing. That caused an instinctive reaction. Fire spewed out of his mouth, a deep burning sensation gathering in his throat. The fire was mostly a spectrum of red, orange, and yellow, but was tainted with blue at the tips. Those blue tips made it burning hot. Direct contact meant death for a normal human. It was now a fight to the death, and that meant both physically and mentally....

Kasha dived underneath Aaron's burning, panting. If she were human, she would be sweating profusively from the heat. As it was, she was panting so hard she could barely breath, the room becoming sweltering. She could almsot feel the chaos raging inside of him, a battle taking place in his own mind, a struggle between evil and good. It was only when she looked up,s he noticed Lylli, collapsed on the floor, barely out of reach of the flames. She made a dash for it, grabbing the nymph and pulling her back under Aaron's stomach.

It was right underneath him, so they should be safe. With that, Kasha placed her paw-like hand on Lylli's forehead. She felt like she was burning from the inside out, her eyes jittering behind her eyelids, accompanied by the occasional twitch. To the anthro, she looked delirious. Kasha took out a small pouch of water she had forgotten about until now, and in a desperate effort to wakke her friend, dumped it all over the nymph.
"Come on, Lylli," she muttered fervently, the sound of fire and screams outside becoming louder.

Katha sat in the grass beneath a tree just outside the city. She was playing with her knives, obsessing about their sharpness and shine. 'Oooooo. What pretty little friends I have here!' she thought to herself as she ran her claw along the edge of the blade she was holding. All of the people that she could remember from her more recent past thought she was insaine for loving her knives so much. She wondered what her life had been like before she had gotten her head screwed up.

The water poured over Lyllii's body evaporated into steam, but some of its coolness reached her, temporarily creating a breach in the wicked fire's barrier, and allowing the nymph to shove it back with one final, feverish shove. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Hello, Kasha," she croaked. "Why is it so cold? What happened to summer. Huh? Wh-whah?" Lyllii noticed the writhing underbelly they were encamped under, for now. "Why are we under a dragon's belly? Oh..." Her face quickly changed as realization slowly crept back from its subconcious corner. "Right."

Lyllii gripped her staff, knuckles white, but fingers feeling both cold and numb, as if she could never get a firm hold, as she slowly sat up, other hand pressed against her left temple. Blood pulsated through her veins in a massive headache. "Time to soothe a dragon. Kasha," she whispered horsely, turning to the first loyal friend she'd known in an age, "I'm sorry I've dragged you into all of this. If it wasn't for me... well, you may be several leagues from here, and no doubtably safer." A grim smile cracked between her parched lips.

"Save your breath, Lylli," Kasha commanded. "You still look like you just rose from the dead. Take it ea-" her demands were interrupted by the sound of splintering wood; the relentless flames seemed to be having an effect on the foundations and supports. A worried look crept into her feline eyes, and she reflexively gripped her staff tightly, loosening it, then tightening it, over and over again. Her tail twitched as a deep, sickening feeling of dread sunk deep into the bottom of her stomach. The house would probably collapse soon, and they would be trapped inside with a possessed were-dragon.

Aaron's eyes flitted towards where the anthro and nymph ran. They were looking for a place he couldn't get them. His mind still retained enough of his good self to recognize them and try not to do any harm towards them. His eyes flitted back towards the spear throwers. Besides, even if he wasn't able to recognize them, why would he burn himself?

After a few more minutes of fire, most of the soldiers and guards were on the floor. They weren't dead, but their weapons and ammunition were all used up. They had nothing left to fight with. He roared once more. Suddenly, the evil force got weaker. Now that a lot of Aaron's strength was used up, the possesion wasn't working right any longer. It was almost as if it were malfunctioning. Turns out, the evil can only posess you if you have enough stamina. Otherwise, it wouldn't work well. There would be cracks in its work.

The minds behind this knew the possession needed work. It needed to be fixed so that it was a full out take over. And with that, they just dissapeared. Aaron morphed back out of weakness. He groaned and in a few more seconds, he collapsed to the floor. He was almost completely unconscious.

Kasha knew that Aaron had only acted the way he did because of what seemed like a possession. But she was still releculant to go get him, even if he was almost unconscious. She finally left and got him, carrying her staff with her. She would have to be completely insane to leave it behind. She grabbed Aaron's limp body and dragged it to Lylli. "Lylli!" she called. "We gotta get out of here! This building sounds like it's going to collapse!" People were already running towards exits.

Katha was carving into the tree she was by with one of her daggers when she smelled panic galore. 'Huh,' she thought,'I wonder why I dint notice the panic before, its been stewing around for a while...'.

She sniffed the air and looked aroound only to find the source being the nearest town. Or at least thats what she thought it was, but she still got her groups of buildings messed up. Although she didnt really care, she had to investigate. So she put her daggar in its holster and started slowly tword the town, but quickend her pace when she noticed the ash.