I glided up to it, trying to figure out how to wake it without being eaten. Yes, astral creatures have to eat, too. They just don’t eat physical things. Translation: my astral body wouldn’t return to my real body, and they would find me in the forest, dead, naked, probably nibbled on by scavengers, and my passing would go down as another dolt freezing to death trying to “get back to nature”. Not how I want to be remembered.

I started simply. “Uh, excuse me.” Brilliant start. If I woke it up, I would obviously win it over with my witty repartee.

I tapped it on the nose. “Excuse me, could you wake up, please?” Hey, nothing wrong with being polite, so long as it keeps you from becoming breakfast, right?

It too a deep breath, and let out a long, don’t-bother-me-I’m-asleep sigh. By the way, another lesson. Dragons are carnivorous. Even in astral space, their breath makes my doberman’s smell like mint.

I was running out of time. I kicked it in the snout and yelled, “Hey! Moron! Wake up!”

Wait? I did what?!