I remember feeling hot. Very, very hot. I remember trying to flop onto my side and air my wings out, but I couldn’t muster the strength. I couldn’t even kick the blankets off. I didn’t feel feverish. Just hot. Hot and very strange. I remember feeling like I was being pulled; you would think when your body evaporates that it would be more obvious.

It took me nearly five minutes to realize I didn’t have a physical body. I’m sure that Mr. Kye or Miah or Mom would appreciate it if I tried to describe what the whole thing was like, but I’m not sure I’d be able to in a way that makes sense. It was like tasting the color orange. And there was a lot of orange. I was orange. I wasn’t anything else; just orange, gold, a little red…I thought I’d be darker colors because of my scales.

I remember floating over my bed for several minutes. I can’t say I was looking down at it, because it was more like looking in every direction at once, but not really looking at anything at all. It was like all of my senses were using my entire body, like smelling with your fingers or tasting with your tail.

I remember feeling uncomfortable the longer I floated there. It felt very…naked. Vulnerable. The dragon side of me railed against it, immediately looking for a defensive position, a safe place to get my bearings. My Hyur side agreed. I remember flowing through the door, crashing into it like a wave, flowing through the tiny holes in the door, over and under and around it, through the keyhole (tasting the gear grease was something I could’ve done without). I could feel my body, or what had become of it, being pulled down.
But I heard mom. She was asleep, but it wasn’t a good sleep. Try to wake her, my Hyur side suggested. She can protect me. My dragon side…Agreed, to a point. She could protect me, but not in this state. This state had a goal. But I could take just a moment.

I flowed through her door, over, under, around it. I floated to her. I wanted to tell her I was okay, that it was just time…But I had no mouth. I wanted to hug her, cuddle to her, tell her I’d be back soon, but I had no arms.

The dragon inside me raged at that. I had no physical form, no body. But I’m a dragon. I’m of Nidhogg’s brood. And more importantly, I’m of Faine’s Brood. And I’m far too stubborn to let something as small as not having a body stop me.

I grit my teeth. Or would have if I had teeth. I focused all of my will towards coalescing. Time is meaningless when you’re a cloud; I have no idea if it took minutes or hours. For me, it felt like weeks of effort; taking a physical form isn’t something aether just does. It was exhausting, but I did it…To a point.

It was like being made out of a cloud. And I didn’t exist from the waist down. But I didn’t need to. I flowed down to her, I touched my cheek to hers to tell her I love her. Then I pressed my forehead to hers; as she does when she tucks me in and says good night.
I don’t know if she noticed. I don’t know if she felt it. I don’t know if it really happened or I imagined or dreamt the whole thing. The same could be said about this entire account. I can’t prove that I was made of aether, but I think I was.

Anyway. After I wished mom good night, it was too much to hold myself together. I melted into fog again, exhausted. I began drifting downwards…Or maybe I was being pulled. I flowed through the floorboards and the ceiling, through the common room and into the basement. In the corner, hidden behind Our’s bedding, there was a thick, heavy box. Ours was, as usual, sleeping peacefully but snoring like a beast. As my body flowed past, I mustered the strength to form my arm one last time, giving him a boop on the snoot. It seemed to wake him up for just long enough. He saw me. I know he did. And he gave me a farewell snort, before falling right back to sleep.

I remember being pulled into the box. Through the box. Everything looks solid when you’re solid, but when you’re aether, you can see how full of holes everything is. The world is made of Ishgardian Cheese, even Valen’s lockbox that was keeping my egg safe. My egg. I remember being pulled to it. Drawn into it. Slurped up and swallowed by it. A lot of the aether that was me was me was pulled in, and just held by it. But right in the middle, deep down in the center, where it was warm and safe, a tiny bit of aether gathered up.

I remember feeling sleepy as my body came back into existence within my egg. I remember feeling like I was floating in the ocean. I remember feeling…Tiny, like hundreds of me could dance on the head of a pin. But I felt safe. I felt safe, and I felt warm, and I felt exhausted.

I remember curling into a ball and falling asleep.