So I went to the tavern inside the Mall and got
royally drunk.
After all the medievel looking bartender was selling
me gallon sized kegs of mead for
a penny a keg.
So after a few hours I staggered out of the tavern,flopped onto a Mall bench under
some palm tree and passed out.
When I woke up hours later it was day again and I could
see that Merlins Mall was just another abandoned
mall,complete with shuttered stores,a huge hole in the roof and cobwebs
along the benches.
It was clear this mall hadn't been operational,not in years
but in decades.
Naturally I thought I'd had a paranormal experience last
night,visiting a ghost mall
the previous night.
However when I walked up to the doors at the entrance I could see my rusted car out there on
the weedy parking lot,shattered windows,flat tires and obviously not been driven in
decades.
It was then I realized that easily a century had passed by while I'd
slept on that bench.
I was a sort of modern age Rip Van Winkle and the world had
passed me by.
However a awakening instinct? told me it was
more complicated then that.
Rip wasn't the only character who'd slept for a long time in a cave.
Dragons did so as well.
Cautiously I openned the Mall door and put out a hand.
As my hand slid out it altered,darkened,sprouted scales and lost a finger as it
changed into a monstrously huge dragons paw.
Hastily I yanked back my dragons paw to inside the door
and as I did so it slowly shrank and reverted back
into a smaller human hand,
Clearly if I left the Mall I wouldn't be human anymore.
Suddenly a huge scaly figure leapt down from outside and yanked
me out into the outside
shouting in her deep throaty voice
"Jacqueline,stop playing at being human"
The changes swept through me as I lay sprawled on that weedy
parking lot
and when I finally responded with my own
throaty female dragon voice
"Arrrrgh,why'd you do that?"
I was Jacqueline the Dragoness again