You hate market days. It meant a long day spent haggling with snooty village folk in order to make enough coin to see you through another week, made only worse by the fact that when the villages saw a young woman living alone, they saw an easy target. You couldn't even protest because until you gathered enough funds to leave this god-forsaken place, you had to maintain civil relationships with your potential customers.
The long day means you only trudge home from the town to your cabin as the sun sets, the forest shadows made all the deeper by the growing dark. Not that you mind the forest. It was much more comforting than the village. But today something is making your hair stand on edge. You hear a rustle of leaves, but it doesn't sound like a wild beast. You look around warily, but nothing moves. Wanting to reach home, you tiptoe gingerly forward, and that is when you see it.
A wisp of ghostly light, playing through the darkness. And there, a little further, another. You know well enough the legends your deceased parents had told you about the fae folk, and all the trouble caused by following one through the woods. You start to back away, determined to avoid the nuisance even if it meant running all the way back to the village and begging shelter in a woodshed for the night. But it's too late.
Just as you turn to flee, an small indistinct glowing figure zooms towards you. Before you can react, it blows something into your face, and your senses start to fade. The last thing you see before your vision disappears is a bunch of the glowing lights converging above you.
As you finally come to your senses, you find yourself in unfamiliar surroundings. You vaguely hear the buzzing chatter of high-pitched voices, but when you try to shift your position, you realize you are bound and unable to move.
"Are you certain you found the correct one?" a tinny voice questions.
"Yes, my Queen, it could see us quite clearly," another voice responds.
You open your eyes to see you are lying in a clearing beneath the moon, a little ways from a strange blue fire. Around you are the glowy lights, each one just above a mushroom. The mushrooms surround you in a circle. As incredible as it sounds, it appears you have been kidnapped by fae folk. You fidget, trying desperately to break the vines which are holding you captive, but your motion attracts attention.
"Do not resist, human, you will be returned to your true form soon enough," the voice which belonged to the one addressed as Queen orders you. You squint and see a figure hovering above the largest mushroom in the circle.
"What do you mean, true form? Let me go, I have nothing to do with your fae magics!!" you try to demand nervously. None of the legendary encounters you had ever heard of regarding the fae ever ended well.
"Your soul knows magic quite well. It is the soul of the great dragon, the protector of our forest realm. When your potential is released, you will return to your rightful place!" the Queen says to you quite haughtily. "No longer will outsiders dare to trespass upon our kingdom!" You don't know what is going on, but something stirs in you when you hear about a dragon. However, you push it aside as mere trepidation.
"I'm no dragon! You are making a grave mistake!" you call out desperately, trying to convince your captors. "Release me!"
However, the fae have no intention of complying with your wishes.
"Proceed!" you hear the Queen cry, and a dozen small hands push you until your body rolls down a small slope and into the blue flames. You prepare yourself for the heat and nearly scream in horror, but the flame does not burn you. Instead, you feel a strange sensation welling up inside you and you start to writhe as your body contorts.