The day began like any other day. An adventurous hybrid (leaning mage) woke up, still in traveling garb, and sleepily walked outside of the small cottage for a regular morning walk through the nearby forest. She had always admired the outdoors and was often away from home for days at a time. The green of the forest and speckled morning light on the forest floor often brought a smile to her face. Continuing along a random path, she observed the wildlife and fought off the pesky Skeeters. Further along, she saw a Razorwing with a bluish tint in its feathers. It struck her as a strange creature, so she slowly crept closer to observe it—
BZZRT!
The Razorwing, startled, flitted out of sight. The hybrid prepared to chase after it but heard a strange call.
"Lilk!"
She attempted to turn towards the source of the call but couldn't and started thinking to herself. No amount of force would move her at all.
"Harlck!"
A large and angry looking Drakel stepped in front of her. She quirked an eyebrow. "er... back at you? Want to tell me why I can't move? How can I even talk when I seem to be frozen?"
"HRRA— remember Freeze Dragonkind, filthy human?"
"Maybe. I don't pay much attention to those skills. I just observe the creatures, not harm them... unless they harm me without reason first."
"Regardless, we have turned that ability against your kind."
"I was testing it. It works on all humankind, no matter what their sub-race. The skill is far more advanced than that mere "Dragonslayer" skill. It will disable you movements except for speaking and enough to keep you alive. It also prevents any spell casting tricks that mages may have."
"So? You shot me with some beam. What next?"
"This."
The Drakel field agent, toughened by a life of strife and warfare, ruthlessly casted a Drakel modified high power version of Fireball Z upon the helpless adventurer. When it was over, she lay crumpled on the ground in too much pain even to groan; yet, she was just able to force herself into a slumped sitting position by sheer willpower to make it appear as if it didn't hurt.
The Drakel cackled with delight and taunted her about the pain, but the hybrid directed her dark glare at him through slitted eyes and froze him in place with her fury. This rage also masked the excruciating pain she felt that her eyes would have otherwise shown.
A low and distant rumbling approached the two; it distracted the Drakel enough to turn away. The hybrid slumped lower and closer to the ground. Her strength was failing her as time passed, but she turned and caught a glimpse of what looked like a large, red Greater WarBeast. Just as her curiosity gave her a tiny trickle of strength to observe the new creature, an acute pain wracked her body enough to make it leave the ground. The body jumped up in the air and landed with a dull thump. By then, she was already in another world.
The Drakel tied his victims wrists together with one end of a rope and used the other end to tie the ankles together. Then, he lifted the light and limp body and hung it on the pommel of the saddle on the red Greater War Beast's back. Every step the beast took towards the Drakel laboratory jolted the limply hanging body.
Inside the great domed hall, a group of smart looking and rather tall Drakel in magiscientist gear gathered to discuss their new findings. They were one of the few high councils of research. One of them sat alone at the end of the table facing the door. He, Reciel, was the head researcher— calm, logical, patient, and a compassionate zoologist. They were scheduled to being their discussion after a few brief announcements from the head researcher, but an insistent pounding on the door interrupted them.
The doors burst open. Without waiting for permission to enter. Harlck rushed in, dragging the limp and still-tied body behind him. He gladly relayed the entire story to the group of magiscientists, greatly embellishing it, of course, before ending with a large and toothy grin. The magiscientists only stared at him in even more shock. How could a fellow Drakel be so daring, disrespectful, and dumb enough to interrupt one of their meetings with trivial issues?
Reciel glared at Harlck and yelled a reprimand in disgust.
"You DARE to interrupt a meeting AGAIN?! YOU ZARD-BRAINED FOOL!!!"
Harlck's face quickly lost its self-satisfied grin; he looked on in fear, waiting... .
Everything stopped when they heard a faint groan.
"unh"
All of the magiscientists stood to see the source of the sound: a heap on the floor. The adventurer's eyes were open, but she remained motionless, still in too much pain from the freezing, burning, kicking, dragging, and now rope bums around both her wrists and ankles. Reciels eyes widened before narrowing into dangerous slits.
"I retract my last statement.... Your brain is worse than that of a Zard, even a Skeeter. Untie the human before I have your heart. No one would want your useless head."
Harlck quickly nodded his compliance but had to extract revenge before doing so. The adventurer noticed the masked rage hidden in the drakel's eyes. She barely had enough energy to keep her eyes open, much less feel anything emotionally. Still, no matter how sore or exhausted, she prepared herself for the final blow. Her eyes closed.
The revenge-seeking drakel swung back his heavily muscled and clawed left leg. Just as Harlck started the kick, Reciel spoke, yelled rather, once again.
"HARLCK?!"
Harlck toppled, face down on the ground, cowering in fear.
"Do you wish for me to extract your brains? I promise you that it will be one hundredfold more painful than what you have caused this human to experience..."
Harlck hurriedly crawled and tripped his way out the door. One of the junior magiscientists timidly spoke.
"Sir?"
"Yes?" came Reciel's reply through gritted teeth.
"Did you not order him to do field testing?"
"I did order him to do field testing... never to torment a life as we can see here... . The useless fool could not even untie the human. See what fools those from the combat factions are? Others had thought that volunteers from there would be better suited to be field testers, which is true in some ways, but their brains negate any positive effects they could bring."
The adventurer finally stirred, ever so slightly. She was shivering, from what, no one knew. Orders were sent to have a bed and blankets brought.
Meanwhile, Reciel bent down and kneeled before the adventurer to untie her. The eyes of the other drakel widened; their jaws dropped. No drakel had ever seen or heard of such a thing. They had never truly hated humans, but a drakel, especially for one as renowned as Reciel, willingly kneeling before a human was unthinkable. Whispers filled the room, but Reciel simply ignored them, for a life was in danger.
Now that he was closer to the adventurer, Reciel could hear her irregular and ragged breathing amongst her fevered mumblings. Death approached. All in the room could sense that foreboding shadow around the human. He quickly checked for external injuries. A faint smell of scorched flesh drifted to him. The exposed skin of the adventurer was covered with blackened patches and the occasional slivers of ice. Reciel gently placed a claw on the human's stomach but quickly removed It. Blood. It covered his claw. It had hid in the blackened brown fabric that the adventurer wore. The accursed Harlck would pay dearly for kicking her.
Reciel demanded to know where the bed was and ordered away the others before looking through his bag and pulling out various items to ease the pain of the adventurer while cleaning and closing the fatal stomach wounds. For a moment, he wondered if using Heal Wounds would be wise. It was certainly the easiest and most effective way to heal with the equipment that he currently had but often did not mix well with experimental drakel technology. He decided against it and began cleaning the gashes.
When the bed and blanket finally arrived, Reciel smoothly and quickly moved the adventurer onto it. No sound came from her. No movement. He nearly cursed himself for negligence and focusing too much on the wound but then remembered his research. The timing was impeccable. The human had nothing to lose, and the drakel had never had a human test subject before, since the humans kept fleeing before defeat, killing off the field agents, or letting Death take them before the drakel could.
Reciel quickly forgot his grief over being unable to save a life and moved onto starting the grand experiment; he jumped up and sent brisk commands for a large hover cart to be brought. While waiting, the drakel impatiently tapped his claws on the table and laid out his plans.
---
He knew that it would be a fairly simple process from previous experiments. Five eternal marks. That was would be all, just five. Five vials would be used, one for each mark. Each mark needed to be precisely placed. All had to originate from a common center yet not touching, until a final circular mark would combine all five. This sixth mark would be filled with the experimental mixture and combine all of the mixtures. Few, if any, knew the exact contents of these mixtures of no name. Even many of their components were unknown to maintain utmost secrecy.
There remained one problem: the location of the experiment. The adventurer had clearly suffered extensive bums. A proper place would be hard to find.
"Sir? Excuse me, sir?"
A young Drakel stepped forward with the hover cart.
"What is it? I'm busy. Ahh... very good, thank you."
The young Drakel bowed out and returned to his other duties as Reciel lifted up the adventurer. His left claw touched a strange, smooth patch on the adventurer's right shoulder. Knowing that even the Drakel version of Fireball Z could not melt the cloth, Reciel placed the adventurer on the cart before turning her onto her side to observe the strange patch. A small section of unharmed skin revealed itself. The inconsistency in the cloth on the shoulder had apparently protected the shoulder during the attack but was eventually worn down from the adventurer being dragged across the rough ground then torn by moving the adventurer. He had found the perfect place. The experiment could now continue.
---
Directing the cart into the nearby laboratory, already full of the Drakel magiscientists from earlier, Reciel called out commands and quickly checked the inventory. Everything needed for the experiment was there, even all of the mixtures, leftover from previous experiments. While some measured the correct amount of mixtures to pour into vials, others helped Reciel to flip the adventurer onto her stomach and sanitized the shoulder with very dilute mixture of acid from an Acidragon and poison from a Sneak. They used the ground petals of a Seed Spitter as ink to mark the placement of the mixtures.
Once the positioning of all six marks were decided upon, the ink was rinsed off, and the morph sear, an ingenious device conductive at the tip yet able to retain heat well and cool to the touch elsewhere, was heated.
All of these Drakel magiscientists were very precise with their steady claws. One, known as The Sear, the one with the steadiest claws of them all, took the morph sear with a white hot tip. Having been in the group that determined the positioning, she had memorized the exact location for each mark. After checking that the others were ready with the vials containing the proper amount of each mixture, The Sear gradually lowered the morph sear to the adventurer’s shoulder and gently pressed it into the skin, creating a depression in the skin. The still body quivered when first contacted by the blistering touch of the morph sear and only stopped when the morph sear was removed moments later. As soon as the morph sear was removed, the Drakel holding the vial containing the first mixture stepped forward and emptied the contents of the vial into the depression.
The murky blood red mixture turned a translucent bright red soon after reaching the still-hot skin. The same process continued for four more mixtures: the light orange of a Braken's beak to the darker orange of a Fire Salamander's crest, the dim blue of a WhaleZard to the more lively dark blue of a BlizZard, the black of a moonless night to the emptiness of a void, the green of a Frogzard to a green more vibrant than that of a BuumDang.
When that was complete, one mixture remained. The morph sear was heated again. The Sear again took her position and lightly touched the very tip of the morph sear to the adventurer’s shoulder to create a depression more elevated than the other five. With one smooth motion, The Sear spun the morph sear exactly 360 degrees, a perfect circle with each of the five other depressions joined to it.
Right after the more sear was lifted, the clear mixture was poured into the fresh depression; the mixture spread into the other depressions. It flashed.
The combined mixtures had reacted and were now one uniform color: the green more vibrant than a BuumDang's skin. Although the depressions had been seared into the skin, they were no longer there. The seared area was the same as it had been before, save the color of the scar.
The reaction had caused a flash brighter than the morph sear had been even at its hottest, so the Drakel instinctively looked away. After looking back, the magiscientists clapped at their success, since the process had been successful so far. They continued to wait, wondering if their ability to shape shift creatures would work on a dead human. They continued waiting.
Noticing that night had fallen a while later, magiscientists left the laboratory one by one, until Reciel remained alone. He glanced at the test subject one more time. Seeing no visible change, he left somewhat disappointed with the results but proud that the process had been perfected. The lone test subject remained still through the night.
---
In the great hall once again, the magiscientists met for their daily morning meeting, happily discussing the perfected process and expressing their mild disappointment from the night before. The Sear, named Adara, received much praise. She was modest and happily accepted the acclaim but also gave credit to all others who in the room. They were a true team. With their advanced experiments, any step that failed would cause the rest of the experiment to fail.
The discussion then turned to brief recollections of past experiments of transformation and resurrection. There were successes and failures in both. In fact, the Bluish-feathered Razorwing that the adventurer had seen earlier was one of the successful experiments. Still, it was their first time trying both at once, so they were not fully expecting success, but it was still disappointing.
Reciel, normally one of the more talkative Drakel, had been silently thoughtful throughout the discussion. When a natural lull in conversation occurred, Reciel asked for final conclusions and observations on the experiment.
The Drakel magi scientists looked at each other, ashamed that they had abandoned their normally meticulous observations for apprehension over final results. They reached a unanimous decision to return to the lab. Reciel led the way and opened the doors to the connected laboratory.
"WHAT?!"
All of the Drakel magi scientists had shouted the exclamation at the same time. The body had vanished. Only the clothes remained; they were in the same position as night before. However, an observant junior magiscientist noticed something...
"Wait, there's something under the shirt... and it's moving, I think..."
"Impossible."
"Ludicrous."
"Impractical."
"Ridiculous."
None of the others believed the magiscientist. He took a step forward, as if he were going to uncover the small lump but decided against it. The punishment for disrupting the finished experiment and therefore causing incorrect conclusions would be more severe than the punishment of Harlck: worse than stable duties, whatever it could be. It was unimaginable to him. However, another junior magiscientist believed him after paying closer attention to detail, even staring, and noticed very small movements. Unafraid of reprimand or punishment, she took a few brisk steps up to the clothing and placed her claw directly on the lump.
RAWR!!!
The junior scientist yanked her claw back and stood there staring, mouth agape, as the other Drakel magi scientists stood. Their mouths only grew bigger as they watched the small bump make its way down the left sleeve of the adventurer’s shirt. A small reptilian head peeked out of the sleeve. It was... a gecko. Its scales were the same vibrant green of the adventurer's scar. The gecko nictated its right eye.
"Morning."
All of the Drakel leapt back in shock. They did not know what to do at all and stood there motionless.
"Hm..., well, if nothing's going to happen, I'm going back to my snack."
The gecko darted back up the sleeve and started munching on a chunk of dry bread that had been in the adventurer's pocket. The Drakel remained standing, still confused, but their curiosity soon moved them. The magiscientists stood in a loose circle around the hover cart and peered at where the gecko was to try and get a glimpse at the gecko.
Reciel chuckled, finding humor in the strange situation: the mighty Drakel fearing a mere gecko. The gecko popped its head out of the shirt with a small chunk of bread still sticking out of its mouth. Looking around again, the small reptilian noticed nothing of interest and yawned before preparing to continue snacking, but Reciel's claw shot forward. The gecko swallowed the bread before jumping back, landing acrobatically on the floor, and rushing up a wall onto the ceiling.
"That was a nice welcome. Wasn't it? I'm not some lab rat or whatever unfortunate creature you use."
The gecko glared at the Drakel. Reciel frowned; he had wanted to capture the gecko for further observation. Never before had they heard of such a bizarre creature. A suspicion crept into the back of Reciel's mind. Could it be possible? Could the gecko be the adventurer? Had their experiment succeeded? He had to find out.
"Where did you come from?"
"What does it matter?"
"When a random creature appears in our lab with a test subject absent, we want to know. Are you the human?"
"What? No. You--"
The gecko fell. Reciel caught the reptilian in his cupped claws. The body had gone limp. The idea of the human transforming into a gecko was unimaginable for them. Still, they not had a gecko to study. A human becoming a gecko was strange enough, but becoming what seemed to be a gecko with human abilities had made her even more of a curiosity.
---
The gecko awoke later and shook her head, greatly confused. Where was she? She had been in a lab earlier. Then, she knew: she had fainted. The last thing that she remembered was a blinding pain then peaceful oblivion. Where the pain had come from, she did not know. She decided to explore and but it out of her mind. Not quite awake yet, she had tried to roll over but found empty space under her and fell. Just before landing, she instinctively bent her knees to soften the fall.
She heard a strange grunting sound nearby and looked behind her. It was a Chrask. A not-very-happy Chrask. It charged. Before she really knew what had happened, the beast was gone. Vanished. With a bit of amusement, she noticed that she seemed somewhat more full than earlier when snacking. The gecko happily moved along the way before bumping into Reciel. Before he noticed, she had climbed up a tree to meet him at eye level.
"You again?"
"Yes."
"What now"
"I would like to ask you a few questions."
"So? Ask."
"What is your name?"
"I... hm, I don't know... Pae works. Pae Gekkonidae, I suppose."
"Where are you from?"
"Well, the lab, obviously."
"Hrm... what do you remember from when you were a human?"
"I don't remember. In the lab, I only remember a strange chill running through me before some strange flash. I believe that I was left for dead."
"Yes, but... anyway... How do you eat? Reptilians of your kind eat insects."
"I don't know— can't say that I like insects myself. As for eating, I bite, chew, and swallow. Isn't that how you eat?"
"Yes, but with your body, you should not be capable of such things, especially not devouring an entire Chrask in a bite."
"I'm not ordinary reptilian then, am I?"<
"I suppose not... ability to talk, acrobatic talent, and—"
"What was your real reason for coming?"
"This."
Reciel swung a net up onto the tree, but the gecko had been to quick for him and had seen it ahead of time. She was already darting through the forest, trying to find an exit.
Not long after, she came to a transparent wall and followed it. Not being able to find an exit but seeing a forest beyond the wall, she looked around. The complex that she was in was apparently a sealed of section of the forest for testing. She found several tanks of what seemed to be chemicals and got a desperate yet devious thought. She thought to herself.
"Never make the same mistake twice."
Unable to find a way to tip the tanks over, she grew annoyed.
"If only this strange mutation had given me shape shifting too. Although this gecko form is fun, being a human would help."
A blinding pain like what had caused her to faint shot through her once again; she curled up in pain. When she could see again, she started lifting herself up again, then noticed that she had gained shape shifting abilities and was now a humanoid gecko. Not worrying about absurdity for now, she quickly knocked over the tanks after unsealing them and rushed out of the exit that she now saw. Shortly afterwards, she heard muted explosions. Shortly after that, alarms sounded.
She ran, back in the outdoors and freedom that she loved so much.
The Not So Epic Tale of the Gecko on a Tree
by Pae Gekkonidae
