rework] Minglings - chapter 31: Against the clock

Jake lay curled up against the trunk of the giant tree, enjoying his calm mind and full stomach. The soft wind blew around his body and caused the leaves to rustle. Inside the coil of his tail lay Emma, curled into a small ball, snuggling close to Tir and Ter. A few rays of moonlight illuminated them, their blue and green scales shining.

He sighed, content for the first time in a while, and turned to Mason. His friend was sitting on a nearby root, leaning with his head against the trunk. Though Jake knew he was weary, Mason looked relaxed, staring at the star-filled sky above the treeline.

As if he sensed Jake watching him, Mason turned his gaze to his dragon-turned-friend.

"How are you? Did you get used to taking a dump and not using toilet paper afterward?" he said emotionlessly.

The sly grin that accompanied it reminded Jake of calmer times. He snorted, a lupine smile on his face. He tried to come up with a quick retort, but his weary mind wasn't up to the task. After a few moments, the moment to retort was gone, and he sighed. "Very funny, you just wait until you change into a fat-ass red dragon!"

"Weak, Jake, weak! And it would be a fat-ass golden dragon!"

The two grinned at each other, but it faded quickly, and Mason grimaced. "What are we going to do now? I don't think things will go back to how they were, and even if they did... You're a dragon! Can't actually go to campus like that!"

Jake unfurled a wing, staring at it. He didn't feel any discomfort or great desire to turn back to a human or even a Kobold, which in itself was probably weird. "Yes, and from what we know, all of you will eventually follow. It's not that bad, you know? I feel stronger than I ever have before!"

"Do you think there's anything left back home?" Mason asked, closing his eyes as if he remembered something.

"Earth, you mean?" Jake asked. He'd not thought about it a lot, nor about his parents, family, and friends. As he tried to picture them, he felt little, almost as if they were strangers. He waited, cocking his head to the side as he waited for a rush of worry and fear he knew this should probably cause, but none came. Just a calm acceptance.

"No. I don't think anything remained," he said as he recalled the things the ancient Dragon in the deep had told him.

He was about to tell Mason about it when he heard something.

Soft footsteps came from the area with the small wooden shacks, and the guys looked over to see Sandra head their way. She had cleaned herself, and the dirt, sweat, and blood were gone, replaced by a clean, sleeveless robe that Jake had not seen before. In the pale moonlight, her muscular bronze shape caused a soft thudding to start in Jake's chest. Longing and desire rushed through him, almost causing him to step forward. A rush of energy flooded him as if in response, clearing his mind instantly. Shocked at his own rolling emotions, Jake averted his gaze, looking at Mason to see how the other would react.

The golden Kobold was staring at Sandra with a smoldering look, his eyes roaming across her body before ending on her face. The hell? Jake realized his friend had been acting strange around Sandra ever since he got back, and when he turned to look at the female Kobold, he saw she was staring back at Mason, one of the corners of her reptilian mouth curled up.

Didn't she always snap at him for looking? And what was up with that sensation just now?

She stopped below the dark brown root on which Mason sat. Gazing up for a second, she effortlessly climbed up and sat down next to him, so close that their shoulders touched.

"Err... do you guys want to tell me something?" Jake asked cautiously, his head moving closer to the others, courtesy of his long, slender neck. A whiff of Sandra's scent trickled up his nose, and there was another burst of energy, clearing a second onset of emotions. Though his feelings were instantly back under his control, he pulled back.

Need to ask Mason about that later, he thought.

Mason thumped himself on his chest. "What is there to say? I am irresistible!" A second later, he yelped and rubbed his leg. He glared at Sandra, who had an innocent smile on her face.

"Don't listen to this fool. Tergin said it had something to do with our bloodlines. Apparently, the big oaf and I are rather compatible, and this causes us to be... drawn together. Besides," and she squeezed Mason's leg so hard he winced, "he is probably the only one who won't break on me!"

Mason pouted at her. "Ahh, come on! You said you loved me!"

"I've said no such thing! Now stop playing around. We have more serious things to discuss. Have you told him about what has happened?"

Mason shook his head, "Didn't get around to it yet."

"Course you haven't... Take this more seriously, will you?" She cast a reprimanding gaze toward Mason before switching to Jake.

Her eyes glittered intelligently, causing Jake to wonder about what he'd just heard. Is she compatible with him, or is it something else? Perhaps instead of asking Mason, it would be better to talk with Bolyr first.

"Are you still having those dangerous episodes where you start attacking things around you?"

Jake shook his head. "No. They stopped the moment I took over this body."

"Why-" Sandra began when Mason interrupted her.

"Took over? How did that work?"

"I don't know. At one point, I woke up in intense pain, and then I was drawn towards this body, mixing with the simple mind already in it. As it happened, I could feel my Kobold body dying. It was pretty horrible."

A soft rustling of leaves was the only immediate response he got, and he wasn't surprised. As they would go through it soon, he guessed it was a lot to take in. He waited quietly as Mason and Sandra processed what he had just told them. A long minute later, Mason shuddered and stared at him. "You mixed with the other mind?"

Trying to sound as convincing as he could, Jake tried to ignore the fear on Mason's face.

"Yes! It is not as bad as it sounds. I got a whole set of memories and didn't have to learn how to fly or anything else. Besides, now I have all this hereditary knowledge, not that I can really access it, but still! It just pops up at random moments."

He could see right away that Mason wasn't relieved at all, and he wondered how far his friend's change was along. "Have you had any dreams yet?" he asked softly.

Mason flinched and looked away, but Sandra just nodded. "He has, and so have I. But surprisingly, the one who is furthest along is Willson. We don't know how or what type of energy he is absorbing to go this fast, but he has been going crazy for a few weeks now. That's why he wasn't with us this time."

"Are you sure it is safe to leave him alone? He could hurt somebody!" Jake asked, but Sandra was already shaking her head.

'Don't worry. He is never alone. Either me, Tergin, or Mason, are with him. Right now, Tergin and Bolyr are keeping an eye on him as he sleeps."

Jake wanted to feel relieved, but something, a memory, was trying to get his attention. He closed his eyes as he tried to find what was demanding his attention. Something from when he changed? Or a memory he inherited from the Dragon? No... something simpler, something... directions!

"Shit!" Surging forward, he uncoiled his tail too fast, causing Emma and his small siblings to scatter across the sand with soft cries as he ran toward the cabins. He started scanning the sky as he did, trying to remember where the sun had set and looking at the stars in that direction. He heard Mason and Sandra rush after him as he frantically searched for Willson's cabin.

"The left one!" Mason barked, appearing to have figured out where he was heading. Leaving the other two in the dust, Jake rushed towards the leftmost cabin. Three Kobolds slept on the ground close to it, and they scrambled up and out of the way, yelling and gasping as Jake sprinted past them.

Jake ignored them and barged into the cabin, which was too small for him to fit.

There were three beds inside, with one end against the sidewall, and Willson was lying on the middle one. He was struggling and grunting, Tergin and Bolyr holding him down.

"Bolyr, I need to speak with him. Wake him up!"

"We can't! We have tried, but he has been like this for the last five minutes. I was about to get you!"

He is merging!

Jake tried to force his way through the door but stopped when he felt the small building shudder. "Drag him outside, fast!" he roared at Bolyr as he backed up.

He backed up to give them space. Mason and Sandra had caught up and were worriedly looking at him. Around them, a dozen or so Kobolds lingered, whispering in panic and asking what was going on.

"Mason, get everyone to back off! Now!" Jake's snarl was so loud that even without Mason, everyone dashed back in fright.

He'd probably get flack for that later, but right now, he didn't care. He kept scanning the sky, searching for something easily recognizable. After a second, he saw a set of three greenish stars lined up with a single big white one at the tip like a staff with a crystal. They were roughly in the direction of the sunset, and he began memorizing them and the stars nearest.

Tergin and Bolyr dragged Willson's heavily muscled, mostly green frame through the door. Jake noticed the blue scales were darkening fast. Moving closer, he pressed his snout against Willson's chest and closed his eyes. He had no idea what he was doing, trusting his body's instincts.

At first, all he saw was the back of his eyelids; then he sensed something was tugging at him- at the part of him that absorbed mana particles in the air. It wasn't the familiar soothing water energy but something more vibrant, alive, and moving in erratic patterns around Willson.

Jake focused on the sensation, slowly becoming aware of a struggle of powers in the heavily muscled Kobold. A shiver ran through him as the echoes of a familiar pain resonated: Wilson was somehow resisting the change!

Jake focused his attention on the small ball of consciousness inside the chaotic mass of energy, trying to connect to it. He still had no idea what he was doing, but the consciousness became aware of him as a mental hand reached out for help.

Jake grasped it.

Suddenly he was somewhere else, whisked into a torrential storm of green energy with dark purple highlights. Willson hovered in front of a surging whirlpool, struggling against the current with arms outstretched as if grasping at something Jake couldn't see him. His mouth was moving, a look of struggle on his face, but no sound reached Jake.

"Willson, can you hear me?" he roared, not hearing his own voice.

This isn't working!

As the energy buffeted him, he roared again, this time adding his own mana into his voice. A dull blue glow appeared, and Willson's eyes widened, and he began nodding. Jake saw the barely suppressed panic in his pupil-less black eyes, but he still couldn't hear Willson.

Not knowing how long he had, he started shouting as loud as he could. "If you wake up with siblings, protect them! And if you wake up on an island, head towards the rising sun! Look for a line of greenish stars at night with a big white one at the tip. They resemble some mage staff! I saw a group of small stars left of it, perhaps twenty centimeters away! This island is part of a chain!"

He wanted to scream more, but Willson was slowly losing his struggle, his astral body drawn ever closer toward the center of burning energy.

Just before the struggling Kobold disappeared inside, Jake remembered something and yelled again. "Be sure to learn how to hunt in the deep sea before-" Willson got sucked away, and Jake's mind was expelled from wherever it had been

The last he saw was Willson's wide-open, terrified eyes amidst the bright energy. Then he heard voices and wind and leaves rustling.

--

"You are sure he is ok?" Mason muttered, standing amid a group of sad-looking Kobolds. They were all looking at the rapidly decomposing remains of Willson.

It was a ghastly sight, the flesh melting away, becoming black and tar-like and leaking into the ground. But even so, nobody had left.

Jake stood next to the corpse, wondering if this was what had happened to his body. Most likely, it had. Glad I didn't see it.

He sighed as he turned to Mason. "He made it through in time, so he should be in his new body now. Let's hope he got my message and can find his way back. Though, no matter if he heard, don't expect him back soon. It might take months or years..."

Or never, he thought in the confines of his mind.

The surrounding Kobolds began muttering, and he turned to them, not interested to see what Wilson would end up as.

It was the first time he saw all of the Kobolds that had gathered her in one place together. Most were green, blue, or a combination of both and looked in different stages of malnourishment. From what he had been able to piece together, they were all saved from Goblin enslavement by Mason, Sandra, and the others. Not that the little green devils were actively searching the jungle for Kobolds. Sandra had captured and interrogated one, and the pests were searching for food.

They just had standing orders to bring in anything not Goblin, resulting in a kill-or-capture-everything scenario, which they seemed to accomplish easily. They had captured all of the Kobolds they came across.

Except for Sam, Jake thought as he focused on Samanta. His eyes lingered on the striking golden scales across the back of her arms, legs, and back. The resourceful Kobold had been wandering the jungle and was brought in by Tergin.

She was leaning on the only other familiar person: Henry, the scrawny green Kobold who stood next to her. They stood a little to the side of the group that was made up almost entirely of green and blue Kobolds. Jake focused on them and saw they were fidgeting about, staring at him and the corpse with trepidation. None of them seemed remarkable, neither in coloring or stature. The most interesting thing that could be said was that they appeared very alike.

And then there's her, Jake thought as he looked at Melissa. She was standing off to the side, away from the group, all dark purple and brooding. From the way she stood apart, she probably didn't feel like she belonged with the others. He could understand that feeling.

A loud throat-scraping sound caused him to turn his attention to Sandra, who stepped forward to address the crowd. Her natural commanding presence immediately silenced the surrounding group, and she stood looking at them casually.

"Right. As you are all awake anyway, we can get the next part out of the way too. You have all heard from us that Kobolds can turn into Dragons, and the living proof is standing behind me," she said, pointing across her shoulder without looking. She continued talking as if she was telling them about a nearby coffee shop.

"Meet Jake, the guy Mason was sobbing about for the last few weeks. He is the first human-turned-Kobold that we know of who turned into a Dragon." She was about to continue when one of the unfamiliar Kobolds interrupted her in a loud antagonizing voice.

"Who the bloody hell cares about any of that! What the fuck just happened to Willson?" A completely green Kobold stared at her with eyes the color of lemons, and Jake could have sworn he was about to spit on the ground.

Sandra stepped forward, her hands clasped behind her back, staring him down. "Stand down, Gary! If you shut up and listened for once, you would have heard me explain that!"

Gary's displeased face didn't change from her overbearing presence, and he just snorted. "So? Tell us!"

There was a little movement behind the group, barely audible, and focusing on it, Jake saw Bolyr stride towards the Kobold, an angry snarl on his face. He was about to pounce forward when Sandra snapped her fingers. Bolyr stopped and stared at her for a second, and something seemed to move between them. Then he took a few steps back.

Gary had turned around, a small frown on his face but showing no apparent fear.

"If nobody else feels like interrupting me? No? Good! Willson just took the same step Jake here took, and he should now be all snug and cozy in his own tiny Dragon body."

Jake almost choked, snorting out loud, as he stared at Sandra. Seriously, what do you mean tiny?

The copper Kobold didn't stop, although his snort had been loud enough for her to hear, and she raised her scaly eyebrows while looking around. "That means that any of us might end up just like that!"

A confused and frightened murmur came from the group, but there wasn't any panic or screaming. Jake wondered if a group of humans would have taken the news this calmly, but he doubted it. More evidence of the change everyone had gone through.

Gary tsked and shook his head before staring at Sandra. "What the hell do you mean? Are you saying we will all die and wake up as Dragons?"

Sandra nodded with a relaxed smile on her face. "Some of us. To turn, you must awaken your heritage, which depends on how much dragon blood you have. So far, a few of us have awoken, but only Jake and Wilson have turned."

"When will Willson be back?" A small, blue-green female Kobold interrupted Sandra, who frowned but didn't rebut her.

"We don't know. It depends on where Willson's new body is. It took Jake weeks to find his way back to us. But don't worry, Willson is a soldier. He can take care of himself."

Jake sighed as more variations of the same questions were asked and wondered how Sandra could keep answering them so calmly. He zoned out until he heard his name. Blinking with all of his eyelids, he saw Sandra standing in front of him. Behind her, the Kobolds were walking back, softly whispering amongst themselves.

"We need to discuss things. Plan for what is to come," Sandra whispered, waving Mason, Tergin, and Bolyr closer. Together they looked at the gray-black smear on the ground.

"So that's what we will all end up like? A smelly ass wet spot of mud?" Mason muttered.

There was no response, and it was quiet for a while.

Sandra was the one to break the silence. "Let's find a spot to talk. We have no idea when the next one of us will turn." She turned back to the tree, and the rest followed her.

When they were all sitting under the canopy of the immense heart tree, close to its trunk, Mason sighed. "Yesterday, I had a dream while in the jungle where I was fighting some enormous rattlesnake in a desert area."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sandra snapped, scowling at him. Still, as angry as she looked, even Jake could see the suppressed worry in her eyes.

Mason just shrugged, absently staring in the direction Willson had been. "Didn't get the chance yet."

A heavy silence fell for a few moments, and then Jake snapped his tail like a whip. Everyone shot up, looking around in fright, before tossing him annoyed and surprised glances.

"Stop being such pansies, you two. You both know there's no way to stop the change! It will happen at some point, so instead of crying about it, we should prepare," he growled, partially trying to relieve the anger he felt bubbling up at the prospect of Mason up and merging away within a few days.

Tergin and Sandra were blinking in surprise while Bolyr frowned. All three seemed reluctant, but Mason sniffed loudly and then began laughing. It sounded forced at first, but within moments became his usual hearty bellow.

"Ah, fine! So how do you propose we prepare for liquifying and turning into a puddle of muck?"

Jake returned the grin, feeling a wave of nostalgia wash over him. It was good to be back with Mason, even if he had no idea for how long.

"Let's decide for now that you will all survive the change! So, that's one down. Now we're all left with two problems. First, you will be in some random place after the change, and you have to learn how to get back here. Look at the stars, and try memorizing as many of them as possible. It's the most likely thing not to change," he said as he pointed with the tip of his tail at the innumerable stars in the night sky.

There was a quick round of nods, but Sandra looked at him. "Is that how you managed to get back?"

Jake shivered when he recalled the time he set out into the unknown, flying blindly forward, hoping to find the others. "No. I wasn't smart enough to memorize them beforehand, though in hindsight, I should have. I'll tell you about what I did another time. For now, make sure you find a way to remember the stars. It is the only way I-"

As Jake spoke, he saw Sandra's eyes zone out while her face became slack. He was about to ask what was wrong when her eyes rolled up, and she slumped from the root, crashing into the ground with a sickening crack. She instantly began twitching.

"Sandra!" Mason shouted, already moving before she hit the ground. He slid next to her, lifting her partially from the ground with a panicky face. As soon as his arm wrapped around her shoulders, Sandra started flailing about. Her face warped with rage, and she slashed around with her nails, slicing Mason, who yelped but didn't let go.

Jake reached them and wrapped his tail around her upper body, pinning her arms to her side. Mason finally took a step back, staring at her. He had a long gash on his cheek from which thick blood oozed out. It ran down the side of his head, but he ignored it as he turned to Jake.

"This is the first time! So far, all she had was dreams," he said.

Jake just grunted, his jaw clenched as he tried to keep his tail around Sandra. The pressure from her arms was increasing at a startling rate, and from up close, he could see a soft glow emanating from her scales. With a tremendous effort, he managed to snarl out a request for help. "Can't hold her much longer! Get over here and help!"

Mason and Bolyr jumped forward and grabbed Sandra's arms where Jake's tail didn't block them. They were just in time as Jake felt his tail start to give.

"Christ, how strong is she?!" Mason began groaning as the full power of Sandra's arms hit him and Bolyr.

Bolyr responded in a strained voice. "That glow! She has Ore Dragon blood in her veins! Let's pray she wakes up soon, or we won't be able to restrain her for much longer. Ore Dragon awoken have an innate ability to increase their strength, and she's using it!"

Seconds stretched to minutes as sweat began streaming down Mason and Bolyr's faces. Just as Bolyr seemed on the verge of collapse, Sandra's body went slack. The two Kobolds stumbled from the sudden disappearing pressure, and Bolyr sat down, his head drooping.

Mason struggled to put Sandra down before sitting next to her, keeping his gaze locked on her face. A few seconds later, she shuddered, and her eyes flew open. She blinked at Mason hovering over her and frowned.

"What happened?"