Chapter 23: Deception
Late Morning - Mid Spring : Year 10 : The Nest | Home
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"That artifact…" Passing a shudder as her eyes were caught by Ilios, Mother mumbled beneath a silent breath, "The ancient fenrir..?" Her expression scrunching with concern.
-Huh?- I almost couldn't make out what she said. -Ancient fenrir?- "W..What's that..?"
Faintly jolting, her eyes finally snapped from Ilios to me with a mix of concern and question before… "Osto, him and Ilios…" She paused with a glance over her wing. "Am I going crazy..?"
But all he could do was shake his head in defeat. "I.. don't know…"
Quickly turning back, Mother's wings settled into her side—her head rocking with a deeply woven worry. "S-Sorry, Vasilias. The ancient fenrir were a pair of gods from ancient times. They were more firmly written in myth than history, but were told to be the gods of day and night—chaos, and stillness… White and black…" Her eyes drifted between me and Ilios with a troubled puzzle.
But after seemingly seeing something I didn't, she pulled away and shook her head.
"R-Right, that can't be right… I suppose when Ilios got too close during your sleep, some of his traits might have rubbed off on you."
Slowly feeling the discomfort numb with confusion, my brows furled with a flutter of my ears. "W..what do you mean..?"
"During our dragon sleeps, our bodies become extremely susceptible to the environment. It's not completely unheard of for dragons that have their sleeps nearly interrupted by another species to have their bodies warped some, but such mutations don't really occur unless the 'attributes' being replaced are potentially superior. Think of it like a dragon having a serpent get too close during one of its sleeps, and it ends up growing fins between its spines, or how it's believed in ancient times that feathered dragons were born by a thunderbird interrupting a sleep."
-Wait, so, a creature just getting close to you during a dragon sleep can cause their genetics to bleed into you?!- It was a can of worms I hadn't even conceived. -If that's the case though…- "Would that mean I'm actually part-"
"No, no, sweetie." She cut me off with a forced smile. "To say that would imply you are a halfie, the offspring of a humanoid and a dragon." A dragon with a shortened lifespan, more aggressive demeanor, and weaker body. "If it is a change from Ilios, it'd be limited to the change in your appearance."
-So it might not be related to the artifact…- Momentarily stirring the foggy memories of my 'dream' from my last dragon sleep, the possibility that it was from that 'woman's' 'gift' was also present.
But whatever the cause, looking into my palm—clenching and unclenching my fist as it felt like a crudely wound rope shifted and twisted within my arm—it was hard to question any of it. -This feels awful…-
Truthfully, regardless of appearance, my humanoid form was nothing short of nauseating to simply exist in. -If pushing through it meant I can follow Father on an adventure outside the nest…- I could perhaps push through it.
But as I fell into that line of thought, I stopped reading the room.
"So, Vasilias…" Quickly shaking off his confusion as he saw Mother slipping into a rabbit hole I didn't, Father stepped forward—his wings raised just off his side with attention. "How does your reserve feel? Does it feel smaller than before?"
-Huh?- He seemed to be in a rush to change the subject, but after raising my brow a moment, I decided not to question it. "It feels…" -Real empty, so…- "About the same, I think."
"And your attribute nodes?"
Having to look at my aura inside my body again, a cringe warped my face. "A little scattered, but all present."
"So it's still a little incomplete…" He mumbled under his breath before continuing after a pause. "Do you think you can cast a spell?"
The request just made me tense though. "I.. uh…"
Even ignoring how empty my reserve was after everything I had done, my senses were flooding my brain with incomprehensible nonsense, leaving so little mental capacity I wasn't sure I could do much of anything.
But, "I can try…"
Understanding it was likely my only opportunity to see beyond the forest in the foreseeable future, I wasn't going to simply let it pass.
-But what do I even try..?- Trying to filter through the static filling my brain, I used my aura to look through the compounds readily present in the air and ground to come up with something simple to make.
-I don't have the spare brainpower to make anything from scratch.- So I needed something easy. Something I could make by just mixing a couple chemicals without any extra thought.
And so, after finding quite a reasonable amount of nitric acid in the soil and ammonia in the air, I settled on it. -That shouldn't be too bad…-
Slowly gathering, filtering, and accumulating a mixture of the compounds with some charcoal scattered about, a messy mass of ammonium nitrate was born within my palm. -This should work.-
Then, turning to the side, aiming the churning black, yet faintly glowing orange orb hovering just off my palm at the forest, I compressed it, used some wind magic to focus the blast like a shaped charge, and ignited it.
*Flash-Snap-PANG* My senses were too blurred to flinch—my feet not budging as my hand recoiled.
But by the time my mind caught up, watching as the line I drew through the air hit a tree and decompressed in a violent burst, my eyes went wide. *CRACK*
The tree it hit simply exploded with a metallic snap—rupturing like a tank shell had hit it—before the patter of splinters showered the forest behind it, and the tree's canopy collapsed into a rapidly dissipating cloud of steam.
For a breath, everyone just stared at the tree at a complete loss of words—almost appearing to show pity for it.
Until Father broke the silence in a rush with a reassuring tone. "Well.. if it wasn't already clear enough you aren't actually a halfie…" Giving Mother a glance, he mumbled with haste, "There's no chance…"
But Mother was stuck—suffocating in her own thoughts as her expression slowly morphed with rage. It was brewing, festering with the likelihood that my race itself had been manipulated, and my abnormalities had come at the cost of my lifespan.
I hardly recognized that like Father, though. "M..Mom..?"
Snapping her eyes to me with a razor-like sharpness, I jolted—pulling back slightly like I was going to run.
But the brief glimmer of fear in my eyes grounded her like nothing else ever could.
Passing a shiver down her spine, she closed her eyes and rustled her head with a heavy sigh. "Hoooh… I'm sorry, sweetie." The air around her couldn't quite find the ease she showed though. "You are from my egg, you aren't a half breed." She spoke like she was trying to convince herself.
And Father was quick to agree with a nod, "Even the strongest elixir wouldn't weaken a dragon's blood after it's hatched. Even if the artifact did change something that fundamental, it wouldn't make sense that it would lower his lifespan."
I twitched as I finally caught on.
But thankfully, Mother was already beginning to cool off. "Right. That wouldn't make any sense…" Finally beginning to ease, her eyes turned back to me, "Vasilias, you said you have memories from right when you hatched, right?"
I tensed before nodding.
"What color were your scales?"
"W..White." I responded quickly with a subtle stutter.
But that one word was all the reassurance she needed. "Hooh…"
In the end, my blood was hers and Fathers.. and regardless of what that artifact had made me.. I was their child.
"I'm sorry, sweetie, I-" She cut herself off as she closed her eyes and lowered her colossal snout to my tiny body. "I wasn't upset at you, I was upset at Delphi." At the world. "No matter what the reality is, I will love you no matter what, okay?"
With the gentle press of her snout against me, a frigid chill pricked my skin, battling an incredible warmth welling from my chest, and I raised my arms to hug her. "Okay…"
But the warm moment could only last so long.
"Urk-" Nearly throwing up again, I pushed myself away to cover my mouth with a frost-covered hand.
Though thankfully, her and Father both knew it was from maintaining my form rather than anything she had done.
"Hah…" Letting out a light chuckle as if seeing her younger self in me, Mother's air finally returned to normal. "Your humanoid form will take some getting used to before you can comfortably maintain it, even if it's barely one step from being a true form."
"I.. can tell…" I mumbled through my hand. "But I'll have to figure it out soon…" Straightening myself up, I turned my gaze to the blue sky before taking several controlled breaths.
"You really want to go with me, huh?" Though still a little awkward, a glimmer of pride peeked through Father's voice. "Think you can get comfortable enough to deal with that form for a couple days straight in two months?"
I paused before forcefully firming myself with a childish pride and a firm thumbs up. "Yes."
…That promptly disappeared as I threw my hands back over my mouth.
"Hahaha, don't worry, even if it won't ever get easier, you'll learn ways to deal with it eventually." Father's posture straightened with pride.
But honestly, I wasn't believing him. "How long can you guys maintain humanoid forms for?"
Mom and dad instantly gave each other a glance as if exchanging an entire conversation before both simultaneously smiling and blinding me. *FLASH*
-Woah that's bright…- It felt like I was staring into the sun for a moment.
But an instant later, the light settled to reveal to irrefutably humanoid beings. The first was Mother, standing like an angel with fair skin, bleached white hair, feathered ears, and two spanning, feathered wings stretching from her back. -An avian, and…- Beside her, a tall, chiseled man with shorter silver hair, and long, pointy, skinned ears. -An elf.-
They were inhumanly good looking, like royalty around their early thirties, with wide smiles like the perfect couple.
"Mom is so pretty!" Krystallo blurted her thoughts out instantly.
And Mother was quick to reciprocate, almost appearing to blush, "You flatter me, sweetie."
But I really couldn't disagree… Though, it was less about the appearance itself. "W..Woah…"
Her and Father, both… -Their forms are.. almost entirely covered with light magic…-
It was almost impossible to tell, even with my inorganically sharp vision, that what I was seeing wasn't their actual forms. -How is that kind of magic even possible…-
Father's wings, or the beginning of their formation, were pulled into his back, yet completely, perfectly invisible—the scales that likely decorated their skin completely drawn over.
It was camouflage taken to a concerningly deceptive level.
And it wasn't just that, either. "The longest I've had to maintain this form for was about ten months." Father said it so naturally it missed me for a breath.
Before… "WHAAAAT?!"
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