Xander expected the lava to cook his flesh while drowning. Except, nothing happened. The dragon felt fine. The lava didn't feel hot to him in all. In fact, in felt relaxing. Xander had no explanation as to why the lava wasn't burning him. Was it magical? Xander quickly swam up to the surface and heaved himself back on solid rock.
Xander stood up and looked back at the lava pool with wonder. "What the heck just happened? I should have been dead! I should have been fried alive! I should...I should..." Xander felt a tingle in his stomach. It felt very unusual. He never felt something like it before. However, the tingle quickly turned into an intense cramp. Xander wrapped his arms tightly around his chest and knelt to the hot ground. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Wh..what's happening to me?!"
Xander felt like the lava seeped into his scales and was heating up his entire body. Without realizing, his arms grew thicker showing some slight muscle definition and larger biceps. His chest broadened wider giving him stronger shoulders, thicker pecs, and slight definition in his abs without giving him actual abs. His legs twitched as they expanded more giving him stronger thighs and calves. Xander couldn't explain why but he felt like he was getting taller and stronger but nothing prepared him for what was next.
His back suddenly began to feel really sensitive, so sensitive that it ached. Xander thought something was crawling on his back and begged it to go away but instead it provided more pain. Blue limbs with a thick and armored membrane grew out of his back! Bones grew longer, nerves developed, and muscles expanded while Xander was undergoing unbelievable pain. Suddenly the pain just stopped out of nowhere. It mysteriously disappeared as it first appeared.
The aching dragon stumbles to get back on his feet, barely even taking notice to what just happened to him. He looks around, feeling a little better now that the pain in his body was gone. He looks around and comes across his weapon on the ground. He sighs. "Well, best be getting back to town." Soon as he reaches for his weapon, he realizes that his arm wasn't as bony as it was just before he fell into the lava. To his surprise, it was much thicker than he thought, thicker than he ever could have imagined. He then takes a gander all along the rest of his muscly frame. It wasn't anything he'd take part in a bodybuilding competition with, but definitely well-built to get enough attention. Plus he can finally pick up his own weapon with east, which is a plus one.
He was getting pretty excited with his new body and muscles, but then finally takes notice of something fluttering involuntarily behind him. It was his new wings. It seems another dream had come true for him, owning his own pair of wings, and they were fairly large too. He starts test-driving his wings out, making them flutter up and down, in and out. It wasn't long until was able to fly himself a few feet off the ground. Guess being a dragon and all, controlling a pair of wings is just natural to him. "This is great! I can finally fly!" The next thing Xander had his eyes set for was town. "I'm gonna show them what I've got now." Just before he flies off, he pulls out a small empty bottle and fills it up with the lava he fell in.
He stuffs the bottle in his pocket and then sprouts his wings to take off. He flew up higher than he expected, but handling was a breeze. In a only a few minutes, he reaches his place of birth and catches everyone by surprise. "Townspeople, I have come back from atop Acrid Mountain, and survived!" People of all different species walked up to him as he holds up the bottle of lava he had. Everyone was impressed, though one person speaks up, "Um, wasn't he a tad skinnier before he left?" Xander came up with a simple explanation. "Oh, I, I just got a really good workout climbing the mountain is all." Everyone believed him quite easily being that no one else has been known to traverse up there. Although there was someone watching who didn't believe a word of what Xander said.