In the quiet of her subconscious, Milly's dragon form soared through a vast, empty plane of thought. Her silver-and-red scales shimmered faintly in the ethereal light, and her golden eyes glowed with intensity as fragments of memory flickered around her.
Basei. A bath. Shared laughter. The warmth of familiarity.
Arthianos. His dragon presence, powerful yet loyal, his sacrifice and the bond they shared, even if her current self could not fully remember.
And then… the young Silver Dragon. The prideful, wounded challenger. The one whose memory surged through her only moments ago the sage.
Milly's claws scraped the void beneath her as the frustration of fragmented recollections welled up. "Why… why can't I remember anything else?" she growled in thought, her voice echoing like thunder across the emptiness.
Her tail lashed in frustration, sweeping across the barren plane. She felt the need to assert control, to break the pieces of this mental prison.
Then, with a roar that echoed through both her subconscious and the real world, she slammed her massive claw against the floor of her mental plane, shattering the lingering fragments that danced just out of reach.
Back in the real world, her unconscious body lay on the floor of her room, silver hair spread around her like a halo. Simni, in her true form, knelt beside her, blue eyes wide and attentive, her hands hovering as if ready to intervene.
Without warning, Milly's unconscious arm raised. A sudden, overwhelming force surged from her body. Her golden eyes flickered beneath closed lids, and her fist slammed downward.
A blinding light erupted in the room. A meteor, seemingly summoned from the very heavens, hurtled toward the ground. The floor trembled. Simni's hair lifted with the energy surge, her expression a mix of awe and alarm.
The students, teachers, and the surrounding area were untouched, but the sheer display of raw, uncontrolled power left a shiver in the air a reminder that even in sleep, Milly's true self, her dragon instincts, and her accumulated powers could not be contained.
Simni whispered under her breath, "She's pushing herself… even while unconscious."
And somewhere deep within Milly's subconscious, her dragon form exhaled, the roar of frustration now mingled with the thrill of power, as if challenging herself to uncover every memory and every ability she had yet to reclaim.