Member
Jonathan Veirmos
Even after the portal spit him out and his prison dissipated, Jonathan lay still a little longer. He felt like the school bully had pummeled him a hundred times over. After taking steroids. The pain began to fade, though, leaving in its wake a heavy smell of... Ugh, what is that?...
The strange odor intensified a moment before something made its presence known, sniffing his hair. Jonathan groaned and lifted a hand before dropping it by his head; the something immediately scampered away a few steps. As the pain continued to fade, he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. "What happened?" he muttered, shaking his head before blinking his eyes open. His glasses fell off his face and onto the pavement below him. "Oops." He reached to pick up his glasses, then froze as he saw his arm.
His silver-freakin'-scaly arm, though the scales stopped before his fingertips. Jonathan shook his head. Nope, it must be armor, um, designed to look like...scales. He sat back on his legs and reached for his arm with his other hand, only to jump to his feet as some part of him that wasn't his legs touched the ground. "What the freak?!" After swaying for a moment from the sudden movement, Jonathan whirled around to look behind him and caught a glimpse of something before it moved out of his sight. He turned again, a little slower, afraid to confirm what it was. A tail. It twitched, catching him by surprise as he felt it twitch, as naturally as if his eyebrow or thumb had twitched.
"I must be dreaming, it must be a dream," Jonathan mumbled, mentally exploring the extent of his new muscles. His tail jerked a little, unused as he was to having a fifth limb. He looked back at his arm and poked it. He felt the poke, a little too much for it to be just armor. His arm suddenly started itching where he'd poked it, and without thinking, he started scratching it a little. A couple scales dislodged and fell to the ground, next to his glasses. "Intense dream," he said, shaking his head as he bent down to pick up his glasses. Hesitating, he also picked up the scales.
"Shiny birdy wish it was dream?"
Jonathan jumped back up as he tried to pinpoint where the voice came from. Then he blinked again as he looked again at the area itself. Devastated city buildings everywhere, splattered and pierced with tar and weird... black, sludgy vines. Jonathan jumped as a nearby tar pool exploded into sinister flames. Uhh, this definitely has to be a dream... too much gaming?...
"Birdy is shiny~"
Jonathan whirled around, finally spotting the speaker: a young girl, hiding behind an upended slab of concrete. Only her dirty blonde hair and pale eyes were visible, along with one hand on the slab's edge. Standing in front of her like a guard was what seemed to be a wolf; it began growling defensively as Jonathan looked at them. Its fur was clearly on end, almost looking like...needles...
"Huh?" Jonathan blinked. I can see clearly now. Weird. "Uh, kid?"
The child frowned. "I'm not a kid!" she snapped. "I'll have you know I'm 28!" As she spoke, she visibly grew a few inches, her face turning dark. The wolf growled louder; its fur...needles also grew a bit.
Jonathan stepped backwards and shivered with goosebumps. "Uh, right, my bad, I'm just confused... wait, what birdy?"
The girl stared at him. "You."
Jonathan frowned. "Riiight... Anyway, where am I?"
The girl smiled wide, too wide, enough that with his newfound sight, Jonathan could tell that her sharp teeth weren't exactly human. "Shiny birdy in trappy~"
Jonathan turned to run, only to fall backwards as a second wolf - heavy and earthen - pounced at him and grabbed his arm in its jaws. Scales broke underneath stony teeth as the wolf shook his arm back and forth. On some new instinct that jabbed into his mind out of nowhere, Jonathan focused on his arm-scales and imagined shooting the inside of the wolf's mouth. He yelled in pain as some of his scales coalesced into a small blade that flew down the wolf's throat. The earth-wolf let go of his arm and heaved in pain, collapsing to the ground.
"No!!" the girl screamed. As Jonathan watched, the earth-wolf broke down into dirt and dust that flew towards the girl, who somehow grew bigger and scarier and distinctly less human.
Jonathan turned back toward her and got struck in the chest with a flurry of sharp needles, fired from the first wolf. Growling in pain again and now fully acting on instinct, he flung his arm toward the needle-wolf; somehow, his body translated that into flinging several scales at the needle-wolf, which dodged to one side. Jonathan groaned and fell on one knee, his vision growing blurry.
"Meany birdy is sleepy now," the girl said, stepping towards him. As she passed the needle-wolf, she ran a hand across its back, somehow completely absorbing it into herself. As the girl grew again and more wolf-like, she growled, "Even in New Atlantis, there are meanies. But I will kill them all. Just like you~"
Jonathan felt a pulse of energy shoot through his veins, followed by a surge of strength and renewal. Just as the girl-- no, werewolf, slashed at his throat, he reached up and grabbed her wrist. His fingertips grew scales and claws, and his head morphed into the shape of an angry silver dragon. He stood back up as his whole body grew bulkier, feeling stronger than before. "What makes you any different?" he hissed at the werewolf, who looked frozen with panic. As his arm grew a blade that slid into his free hand, he stabbed the werewolf's chest and let go of her wrist.
As the werewolf stumbled and fell backwards, Jonathan took a step back, finally recognizing what had happened. He looked at his hands, then at the girl, and started to breathe rapidly. He looked at the sky, only just realizing how dim the lighting was, and saw strange sigils streaming across the inky blackness. Jonathan looked to his left and right, and he finally saw why the girl had called him 'birdy': two wings spread out from his back, double the length of his arm-span.
And yes, they stretched more as he tried even more new muscles.
Jonathan finally screamed, only it came out like a loud roar that echoed up and down the street and between buildings. After doing so, he forced himself to take deep breaths. "Okay, okay, calm down, calm down... this is freaky, but calm down..." He pulled out the needles that, apparently, stuck in his scales more than his chest earlier. He felt his body shrink a little, back to what he felt was his normal body. His fingertips and head did the same, turning normal again. Well, as normal as he could be right now, he figured. "Just...just...life or death situation," he said to himself, glancing at the werewolf's body before looking away. "It's fine to fight for survival...right? Right." He felt his arm and chest, only just realizing that his wounds were starting to heal over, faster than any human should've been able to. "Of course. Why should I be surprised at this point?"
Jonathan looked at the ground again, searching for the glasses he'd dropped. Finding them near where the earthen-wolf had attacked, he picked them up and, hesitantly, stuffed them in his pocket. Checking his other pocket, he realized his smartphone was still there. Frowning, he looked at his right middle finger, making sure his ring was also still present. "Shouldn't it have snapped or somethin' when I changed?... Weird. Ugh, this whole situation is weird." He looked around once more, spotting a black backpack that he recognized as his, back where he figured he had woken up. Picking it up, he noticed that it was still empty, just as it was when...
Jonathan felt goosebumps again as he finally remembered what had happened. The strange, otherworldly woman who had somehow paralyzed him and talked about a Seed and finding the truth behind New Atlantis--
Wait, the girl-- thing, mentioned New Atlantis, too. If that was the case, then it should be on the horizon somewhere. Jonathan looked across the cityscape, stopping as he found it: the Atlantean Spire, though it took him a moment to recognize it behind the massive, sludgy, black vines that wrapped around it.
"Oookaaay," Jonathan said, forcing himself to take deep breaths again. "I really hope this is a dream or something after all, but I need to treat it like it's real." He moved to put the backpack on, then frowned as his wing got in the way. After some maneuvering and adjustments to the backpack, he managed to get his wing to fold in enough to let him slip the backpack strap over it. Then he repeated the same with the other side.
"Edgar, if you're not here in this city, I really hope you stay out and stay alive." As if his brother was gonna hear that. Jonathan looked down the street in both directions, wondering which way to go. As his wings and tail twitched, he looked up at the buildings around him. Maybe I can get a better view from up there somewhere. He stretched his wings and crouched, trying to figure out in his mind how to fly now. Instinct hit him again as his body surged, this time morphing until he was down on his hands and feet...well, no hands and four feet. Groaning at the temporary pain, Jonathan flexed his limbs. His arms now felt like his legs; looking down at himself, he noticed they were more digitigrade. His shoes had split open, no longer able to contain his back feet. Great, now I'm a... I'm a...
A dragon.
A wild feeling rose up in his chest, and Jonathan jumped upward, flapping his wings. And he fell flat on the ground.
A flightless dragon. Great. Or maybe he just wasn't used to it enough yet. Jonathan shook himself and started walking down the street, searching for a building that had more floors than the surrounding buildings. More or less. Edgar would probably enjoy this, after getting over how unreal it is.