Melisma was sleeping when she first heard the approach of the raiders. At first she thought it was part of her dream--a very odd vision of talking coral, whose voices suddenly grew coarse and hard as the group approach and the sound filtered into her sleep.
The dragon blinked her eyes open slowly, cracking her jaws in a wide yawn as she lifted her head from her forepaws. She was curled up in the open courtyard of her temple home--well, she thought it was a temple, once. These days, it was mostly just an outline of carefully carved buildings that had been all up swallowed up by the jungle. The "courtyard", in fact, may once have been a central chamber of some sort; the roof had long since collapsed, leaving it open to the sky, and vines and trees had crept in over the stone to create a lush, green carpet.
She fanned her wings, shaking herself a bit as she woke up properly, then cocked her head. It sounded like...her visitors seemed to be approaching from the southeast, the direction of the nearest beach. The ruins of her home were essentially a lengthy tunnel in that direction, one that she couldn't even fit through in her true form.
Perhaps she'd best wait here, then...
