Thank you everyone, I now have almost 300 views and several extra reviews, a very welcome change from previous events; I would also like to apologize for sounding so impatient and ticked off during my note, that was an overreaction on my part and I promise to not let that happen again. I would especially like to thank Megadracosaurus, DragonDude23, New Universe Returns, UltraJohn567, and Bigby the Big Bad Wolf for being the first to leave reviews for this story, and for being some of the first to read it.
Anything having to do with Ben 10 belongs to Man of Action and Cartoon Network, and anything related to Dreamworks Dragons belongs to Dreamworks Animation and Cartoon Network. The stories and situations depicted in this story will be modified by me and are for entertainment purposes only, with no intention of making a profit from these chapters. Reviews, comments, and constructive criticisms are welcomed and appreciated, while any flames I find will be ignored and forgotten; I will ask that no one leaves any flames, and if you don't like this story, then just go read something else.
Now that this is all out of the way, we can get on with the story, and I now present to you the second chapter of Dragons and Aliens 2.0; read and review if you like it, ignore it and don't flame if you don't like it.
Chapter 2: First Meetings and First Fights
"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" Ben had been asking that same question for several minutes now, specifically since they entered the forest, and it was really getting on Gwen's nerves.
"No, no, no, no, and NO! We haven't gotten anywhere yet and constantly asking questions like that isn't helping anything."
Ben sardonically answered with "Hey, you can't blame me for being bored out of my mind. We haven't found anything yet and getting on your nerves is the only way I know of to avoid boredom."
Gwen stared at her cousin with annoyance and slight disbelief etched on her face. "How can you be bored? Just look around you Ben." She gestured to the pine trees and mossy ground around her before taking a deep breath.
"This place is just so peaceful and calming, and the atmosphere feels so surreal. If you take the time to just settle down and look at the world around you, you just might find that it can be surprisingly easy to avoid boredom."
Ben seemed to think for a moment before shrugging nonchalantly. "My mom and dad tried to tell me the same thing, it didn't really work." Gwen face-palmed in annoyance and uttered "I forgot who I was talking to." before continuing ahead. She walked several paces before a thought crossed her mind and she turned back to Ben.
"Hey, how come you didn't just turn into an alien that could save us some walking time?"
Now it was Ben's turn to face-palm, much to Gwen's amusement, and Ben wasn't appreciative of her snickering. "I could just not go alien at all and we could keep walking until our feet go numb." She stopped laughing but the smirk was still there.
Ben opened up the Omnitrix and searched through his current roster before settling on a suitable form. He pressed down the Omnitrix and was instantly enveloped in a bright green light. When the light faded, Ben had turned into a massive, orange, dog-like creature with large teeth and claws, gill-like slits on the side of his neck, numerous small quills covering its skin, a grey-colored Omnitrix symbol on a shoulder pad on the left shoulder, and no eyes whatsoever. That alien is a Vulpimancer named Wildmutt, one of the first aliens Ben ever turned into and one of his personal favorites.
Gwen looked at her transformed cousin with some satisfaction. "This'll work okay, just don't go too fast." Ben, as Wildmutt, grunted in reply, being unable to speak in this form. Gwen climbed on her cousin's back and secured herself before Wildmutt took off at a steady pace.
Having no eyes meant that Wildmutt found his way around with extremely high senses of hearing and smell, supplemented by the slits on his neck. He could hear the chittering of birds and squirrels in the trees, the rustle of plant-life as it was disturbed, the grunting of distant boars far from the path he was making. After a few minutes of walking, Wildmutt stopped when he picked up an unsettling smell, one that he'd only picked up a few times before during his time as a hero: the smell of blood. Gwen noticed her cousin's tensing demeanor and started getting concerned.
"What's going on? What're you picking up?" Ben didn't have time to respond, and instead changed direction and charged towards the source of the blood he was smelling. As Wildmutt got closer to the source, he was relieved to learn that the blood was not from a human, but he was also curious about a couple other smells he was picking up; ionized oxygen, which would only happen if electricity was sparking in open air, and scorched earth, as if lightning had struck the ground in multiple places.
Gwen was confused by her cousins reaction but could hardly speak since he was moving so fast. "Whoa! Ben, where are you going!?" Ben paid no heed to his cousin's shouts, his instincts telling him to head towards the source of the blood as fast as possible. Wildmutt sprinted across the ground and leaped over any obstacle in his path, eventually knocking Gwen off his back without him realizing.
Gwen was stunned by the sudden fall, but maintained enough sense to yell at her rapidly vanishing cousin. "Ben you oversized jerk! Get back here!" Unfortunately, her shouts went unanswered by the boy-turned-Vulpimancer, causing her to growl in annoyance as she picked herself off the ground. "He'd better have a really good explanation for running off like that and leaving me in the middle of an unknown forest."
For Wildmutt, finding Gwen was the furthest thing from his mind. Something about the smells had disturbed him and he's going to find out what they are, no matter how much trouble he might be in. After a few minutes of running, he arrived at the source of the smells, a large sheep ranch with a few people taking shelter in a large barn, and focused on the source of the ionized oxygen: a massive winged reptile, looking a lot like a dragon.
Ben couldn't tell the color of the beast without eyes, but he could discern the creature's long tail, the large wings in place of forearms, the small spines on the creatures head-frill, the much larger spines on its back and tail, and the large head with eyes near the very end of it. Said creature was tearing the ranch apart and eating all the sheep it could find, and it was getting closer to where the people were hiding; there was a chance they could get hurt, and that is something that Wildmutt will not happen.
Wildmutt roared at the beast to get its attention, and the dragon-creature turned its body towards Wildmutt. Despite being confused by the arrival of this strange new adversary, the Skrill roared right back at the creature and prepared itself for a fight. Wildmutt made the first move, charging at the creature and jumping in the air in hopes of pinning the creature to the ground, but the dragon moved too fast and side-stepped just as Wildmutt landed on the ground. Wildmutt quickly recovered and turned to face the dragon, which now had electricity dancing across its skin and looked ready to charge. They charged at the same time and met each other head-on, Wildmutt gaining the upper hand due to having greater strength, but he was was then forced to back off when the dragon generated a large electrical surge. The dragon quickly put that extra range to its advantage and fired off several blasts of electrical energy, which his opponent quickly dodged as it made its way forward again.
It was during the second collision that Gwen caught up with Ben, but she immediately ducked behind a shrub upon seeing what her transformed cousin was fighting. Looking up from her hiding place, Gwen witnessed the dragon-at least that's what she thinks it is-being pushed back by her cousin until it hops back even further, unbalancing Wildmutt and giving the dragon a chance to tackle her cousin. Wildmutt started thrashing its body around in an attempt to get the beast off, but it had a strong grip and held on tight. However, all that thrashing prevented the dragon from getting in a decent attack, making it a question of which beast has the best stamina.
Gwen looked at the barn located near the field and noticed that part of the roof was burning and some of its foundations were partially destroyed, most likely having been damaged by the electrical dragon currently being fought by her cousin. Over the sounds of Ben's battle, she could hear at least a couple people within the collapsing building, unable to get out due to some debris blocking the door...and even more debris was falling from the barn's collapsing roof. Without a second thought, she readied her magic and ran towards the barn and readied to rescue the occupants.
Flinging the door open, she saw that there were some flames spreading through the inside of the house causing a thick veil of smoke to spread across the floor. She forced the debris to one side with her mystic energy and saw a small family huddled near the back of the room, consisting of a little girl with blond hair, a red-haired adult women, and a bald, well-muscled man with a blond mustache on his face and a spear in his hands, and all three of them were wearing what appeared to be traditional Viking clothing. Gwen was mildly confused by their garb but pushed it aside for now and focused on rescuing them; she could focus on who they were afterwards.
Forcing back some of the flames with her mystic energy, Gwen cleared a path for the family to move through the flames. "I've cleared a path for you to move through, but you need to hurry." She had no idea if the understood her language, but there'd be time to work that out later.
The family was understandably confused by the arrival of this girl and the fuchsia-colored walls she generated, but nonetheless took the chance to escape and rushed out as soon as they could. Gwen was about to follow them, but the man with the spear stopped her and gestured to some nearby barrels which were close to the flames. With mild confusion, Gwen blocked the fire from reaching the barrels, after which the man handed the spear to his wife and grabbed a pair of barrels before carrying them out of the burning building.
Gwen couldn't take it anymore and took a chance on them understanding her. "What's so important about those barrels that you're risking your life to save them?"
The man's wife and daughter had left to round up the remaining sheep, but he seemed to understand her question and opened the one of the barrels to reveal a thick black substance...tar. Her eyes widened at the implications of what would happen if any of the barrels caught fire, and she quickly created a platform to carry the remaining barrels of flammables out of the collapsing building and set them down a fair distance away. When all that was done, Gwen uttered the words "Torrentius Aqualias", summoning a deluge of enchanted water to put out the remaining flames without further damaging the unstable barn.
While all that was happening, Ben and the beast were neck-and-neck, Wildmutt's strength and stamina matching the creatures speed and agility, with neither combatant gaining any ground for very long. Their battle had taken them across and near the seaside cliff, which appeared to be increasingly unstable due to the worsening fight that was taking place. The beast had just climbed on Wildmutt's back and was about to bite into his neck, but Wildmutt grabbed the creature and threw it into a large pine tree near the cliff edge. The dragon sagged to the base of the tree in exhaustion having finally become tired out from its fight with Wildmutt, who roared in victory. Despite its injuries, the dragon got up again and growled at its attacker, prompting Wildmutt to charge at it again while the beast readied itself.
What neither of them realized was that the destabilized ground near the cliff combined with the impact from the dragon meant that the tree was near the tipping point, and that one good push would be the only thing needed to send the tree, and by extension the entire cliffside, tumbling into the ocean. That was exactly what happened when Wildmutt slammed the dragon into the tree again. The impact was so great that half the cliff began falling into the sea, including Wildmutt and the dragon. However, the dragon managed to send off one last burst of electricity...straight at the barrels of tar. Gwen saw this and started putting up an energy shield, but it was going to be a close call.
While that fight was going on, several other dragons were flying towards the ranch's general location. However, these dragons are actually being ridden by other Vikings, young teenagers in fact, and those teenagers are looking for the very dragon being fought by Ben, the Skrill.
The lead dragon is a jet-black beast with green eyes and a noticeable resemblance to a common house-cat, albeit with wings and scales, and the green-eyed, brown-haired boy on his back is much smaller and scrawnier then the others, wearing a furry vest over a green long-sleeved tunic, green long-pants, and a furry boot on his right foot, with the left foot replaced by a metal prosthetic. That boy is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, the son of Chief Stoick the Vast and the first person to ever train a dragon. The dragon he's riding is a Night Fury named Toothless, the first dragon to ever form a bond with a human.
To his right is a bright-orange dragon with black markings and a large four-horned head on a comparatively small neck, yellow-orange eyes, a long tail, stocky back legs, and a pair of large wings in place of front legs. The person on his back is a strongly-built black-haired teenager wearing a black fur vest over a tan-colored shirt, a horned-helmet, brown pants, and furry boots.
That person is Snotlout Jorgenson, a typical bully with a large ego, great courage, and secretly a soft heart, and the dragon he's riding is a Monstrous Nightmare named Hookfang.
To Hiccup's far right is a large brown dragon that looks like a 4-way cross between a warthog, a bee, a bulldog, and an ankylosaur, complete with tiny wings, stubby legs, a short tail ending in a massive bludgeoning tool, and bony spikes covering its entire body. On that dragon's back is a rather heavy-set Viking teenager with straw-blond hair under a small helmet, a woolen tunic, forest-green pants, and furry boots.
That person is Fishlegs Ingerman, a nervous but highly intelligent young man and dragon expert of the team, and the dragon he's riding is a female Gronkle named Meatlug.
To Hiccups left is a bright-blue dragon that'd be best described as a cross between a bird and a theropod dinosaur, with yellow-colored bat-like wings, a series of spines ringing its skull, and dozens of smaller spines covering its tail. The Viking on top of that dragon is a fairly attractive young woman with long blond hair tied back in a braided ponytail, long bangs covering her left eye, a leather band on her forehead, a blue sleeveless shirt with metal shoulder-pads, furry boots, and a dark-red skirt with spikes along said skirt.
That person is Astrid Hofferson, 2nd-in-command of the dragon training academy and love-interest of Hiccup, and the dragon she's riding is a female Deadly Nadder named Stormfly.
To Hiccup's far left is a green two-headed dragon with short legs and massive wings on a rather stocky body, the heads mounted on the end of long necks and a long tail that splits down the middle. Unlike the other dragons, this one has two people sitting on it, a girl on the right head and a guy on the left. Both are rather lanky and have pale blue eyes and very long blond hair, and physically share many features other then gender. Their choices of clothing are also fairly similar, both having furry vests over long shirts, furry boots, dragon-tooth pendants around their necks, and decorative helmets with four horns each.
Those Vikings are Ruffnut and Tuffnut, masochistic fraternal twins who enjoy havoc and destruction a little too much, and the dragon their riding is a Hideous Zippleback, the right head named Barf and the left head named Belch.
Since the dragons were first tamed a little over a year ago, Hiccup and his friends have been busy trying to keep the peace between humans and dragons while protecting their home in Berk from wild dragons and hostile tribes such as the Outcasts and the Berserkers. Most recently, they saved a pair of Viking fishermen from a group of marauders from the Berserker Tribe, who were attempting to unleash a frozen dragon from an iceberg. That dragon turned out to be a rare and elusive species known as the Skrill, which has long been feared due to its aggressive temperament and its ability to store lightning in its body so that it can blast its opponents with electricity.
The Berserkers, led by an insane, warmongering young man aptly called Dagur the Deranged, revere the Skrill as the symbol of their tribe, and hope to capture the Skrill for use as a weapon against their opponents. Hiccup's father Stoick ordered his son and the other teens to get the frozen Skrill off of Berk before the Berserkers arrived, but it ended up being accidentally freed from the ice by Ruffnut and Tuffnut. After Stoick told the others that he'd heard stories about Berserkers able to control Skrills, Hiccup and the others began searching the island for any sign of the creature before the Berserkers could get their hands on it; unfortunately, they weren't having very much luck.
Astrid was the first to voice her concerns about the search. "Any idea what we do after we find the Skrill?"
Hiccup's response was in a fairly even tone of voice. "We catch it, we tame it, we train it. Keep it away from Dagur so he never has a chance to get his hands on it, and thus never uses it against us."
Astrid didn't even bother to hide her annoyance at Hiccup's rather vague plan and sarcastically responded with "Oh yeah, that sounds easy enough."
Fishlegs took that opportunity to speak up. "Actually, the Skrill does have some weaknesses. According to The Book of Dragons, the Skrill can't use its lightning if its even mildly wet, otherwise it'll hurt itself with its own stored lightning."
That information brought a small smile to Hiccups face. "Well that's a start." Before he could continue, Snotlout flew up and expressed his annoyance.
"No, a start would be having any idea where the stupid thing is. We've been circling the island for hours and I'm starving."
Hiccup thought about what Snotlout had just said before an idea came to him. "Snotlout you just said something unintentionally brilliant."
"Of course I did." The words were out of Snotlout's mouth before a look of confusion crossed his face. "What'd I say again?" Hiccup noticed his confusion and decided to elaborate. "When you get up in the morning, what's the very first thing you want to do?"
Snotlout thought for a second before he responded. "Well, usually I have to..." Hiccup cut off Snotlout with an annoyed tone of voice. "No, after that."
Snotlout face-palmed before he responded with "Eat of course. Who in their right mind would start the day without a decent breakfast?"
Hiccup responded with "Exactly" before looking at Fishlegs. "Fishlegs, what's the Skrill's main food of choice?" Before Fishlegs could answer, they were mildly startled by the sound of a large explosion occurring not too far from where they were.
Naturally, the Twins were the first to speak after that event, Tuffnut speaking first from his seat on Belch. "Whoa, that sounded like a huge explosion, and for once we didn't cause it."
Ruffnut, sitting on the head named Barf, spoke up after her brother. "Yeah, we're missing out on all the fun."
Hiccup and the others remained more serious then the twins, Astrid speaking first. "That sounded like it came from Silent Sphen's sheep ranch." Now knowing the most probable location of the Skrill, Hiccup and the others turned in that direction. When they arrived, they saw a massive fire brewing over part of the ranch, part of the cliff falling into the ocean, and most surprisingly, a red-haired girl trying to put out the fire by herself while protecting Silent Sphen and his family.
Fishlegs was the first to voice his curiosity. "Uh, who in the name of Thor is that?" Snotlout answered that with "No idea, but she's got a lot of guts."
Astrid directed everyone's attention to the worsening blaze. "All the guts of Thor won't be of help against that blaze."
Hiccup quickly agreed with his friend's statement. "Astrid's right, we have to save those people and help contain that fire before it spreads to the rest of the island."
With that, all the dragon-riders flew down to help the stranger stop the blaze. Astrid and Fishlegs flew down on their dragons to save Silent Sphen and his family while Hiccup and Toothless approached the red-haired girl, who looked up at him in mild curiosity. "Get on Toothless and I'll get you to safety!"
She seemed surprised when he spoke to her but quickly nodded and grabbed his outstretched hand, allowing him to pull her onto Toothless. She spoke in relief as soon as she was away from the fire. "I am so glad you guys came along, and there are a ton of questions I need to ask."
Hiccup looked back at her with a more serious face. "I hope you don't mind me asking a question first, but how did that fire appear?" Privately, Hiccup believed that the Skrill caused the fire, but it never hurt to check otherwise.
"I was helping those people when some sort of dragon shot a blast of electricity at us, but instead it hit a bunch of barrels filled with tar." Hiccup's eyes widened when he heard what she said, and he quickly turned towards his friends.
"Some of the Skrill's lightning hit the spare tar we use for roof-repairs; that's what caused the fire. We need to start a backfire to burn that one out. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, you guys start first and create a smaller fire in front of the larger fire before forcing them together."
The Twins grinned in excitement and flew Barf and Belch towards the blaze, Snotlout and Hookfang close behind them. Once they were close enough, Ruffnut had Barf let out a large amount of gas before Tuffnut had Belch ignite said gas, resulting in a fair-sized explosion. Snotlout had Hookfang add fuel to the fire by spewing a sort of flaming liquid before flapping his wings to push the smaller fire towards the larger one. Both fires started losing energy, but there wasn't enough wind to put out most of the remaining flames.
The new girl spoke to everyone in a confident voice. "Hey guys! I think have an idea to get rid of the fire, you're going to need to back off for a little bit and set me down near the flames."
Most of them looked at her like she was insane, and Fishlegs was the first to make his reluctance known. "You sure about that? Those flames are still pretty big and we do not want anyone getting hurt."
The girl remained adamant about her choice. "Just trust me, I know what I'm doing." Hiccup was about to protest, but one look in her forest-green eyes showed him that she wasn't just willing and able...she'd been in similar situations before and really does know what to do.
With that in mind, Hiccups made his decision and turned towards the others. "Everyone back away from the fire. I'm going to drop her near the flames and let her do her thing."
Astrid was not shy about making her discomfort known. "We don't even know what her 'thing' is! What makes you think she can put that blaze out by herself?" Hiccup's response was a simple "Just trust me."
He then directed Toothless towards the edge of the blaze while the others reluctantly backed off. Hiccup let the mysterious girl off of Toothless and looked at her with a worried expression. "I really hope you know what you're doing." She said nothing as he flew back to his friends, meaning none of them heard her chant "Teewat Ligara", which summoned a silver-colored whirlwind from out of nowhere. Instantly, the fires started to diminish as the whirlwind literally blew them out like candles, while Hiccup and other the dragon-riders watched in awe. Not only had this strange girl summoned a small tornado from nowhere, but they weren't experiencing any disruption from the whirlwind, as if it wasn't even there.
Within minutes, the flames had died out and the barn was still in repairable condition, prompting Hiccup to summon the others to where the girl was standing. The Twins were the first to speak when they reached solid ground, specifically Tuffnut. "That was awesome! Did you guys see that cool tornado she summoned?"
Not surprisingly, Ruffnut quickly agreed with her brother's statement. "Do you know what would've been even cooler?" Tuffnut answered with an excited "If we were in the tornado.", after which they banged their heads against each other.
The girl looked at Hiccup with a confused expression. "Are they always like this?" He answered with "Some days more then others." Any further talk was halted when Fihslegs walked up to them with an expression of cautious curiosity.
"Uh, I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but how in Odin's Beard were you able to create that tornado from nowhere!?"
Gwen sighed in self-annoyance; she'd been so preoccupied with trying to help that she completely forgot to think about what would happen if all these new people saw her use her powers. "It's a really long story and I promise to tell you as much as I can."
Hiccup was the first to bring some calm to the confusion. "Lets start this thing off with each others names." He then looked at the red-haired girl and gestured to himself and his friends. "My name's Hiccup, and my friends are Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut."
Gwen raised an eyebrow at some of their names but didn't say anything. "Alright, my name's Gwen. Gwen Tennyson."
Just out to sea, barely out of sight of Gwen and the dragon riders, the tree that got knocked over during Wildmutt's fight with the Skrill was floating on the endless expanse of the sea, with nothing around it to break the monotony of the waves...until a hand grasped part of the trunk, after which came a soaked, chilly Ben Tennyson. "Cold, cold, cold, cold, COLD! Oh man this is cold water! Very cold, very cold!"
Right after Ben and that creature he was fighting fell into the ocean, the Omnitrix timed out and Wildmutt turned back into Ben, who proceeded to climb on the nearest large object in an attempt to get out of the chilly ocean water. Right before he could do so, he felt something bite the back of his lower left leg right where it connected to his ankle, and he pulled up his foot to see that an eel had attached itself to his leg. Ben slammed his leg and foot against the log until the eel's skull was crushed, after which he pulled it of his leg and tossed it up on the log, at the same time uttering "Stupid eel."
Ben took off his wet shirt and shoes and set them down on a dry portion of the log before wrapping his arms around his body in an attempt to warm up. He just sat like that for a few seconds before he saw something else climb up on the log...something big. That thing turned out to be the same dragon Ben fought as Wildmutt, having been knocked into the ocean along with Wildmutt. Now that Ben has his eyes back, he noticed that the dragon was mostly a dark-grey color with purple markings on the wings and back, a pale underbelly, and red-colored slitted pupils...pupils that were currently focused on Ben.
Ben's breath hitched as the soggy, cranky, hungry creature growled at him and began approaching him. With the Omnitrix timed out, Ben grabbed the only other object that he could use as a possible weapon: the dead eel. He grabbed it by the tail and held it out to the dragon while speaking in an unsure voice. "Uh, stay back."
Surprisingly, the dragon backed away from the eel with wide eyes and a startled hiss, prompting Ben to look at his 'weapon' with a confused expression. Out of curiosity, Ben moved towards the dragon with the eel outstretched, causing the dragon to move back just as much. When Ben backed away, the dragon moved forward towards Ben. Deciding to not test his luck anymore, Ben laid the slimy eel laterally on the log and spoke to the dragon.
"There, you have your side of the log, and I have mine." Ben wondered why he was speaking to a dragon that would sooner eat him then listen to him, but the dragon seemed to reluctantly accept the conditions and settled down on his part of the log, prompting Ben to relax just a little bit. Taking the chance to look at his surroundings, Ben saw that the island where he fought the dragon was getting smaller and smaller, and there were no other islands in sight; swimming definitely wasn't an option. He sighed and looked at the dragon before saying "We're going to be stuck with each other for a good long while, aren't we?" The dragon growled as if in agreement.
Chapter 2 of Dragons and Aliens is here, hot and ready. Come and get it! I hope this was an enjoyable chapter, and I tried to make it as enjoyable as I could make it; to that end, I put in the first dragon, Ben's first transformation into an alien, and some of the first bits of action. If anything seems out-of-place or inconsistent, then I apologize and will do my best to fix it. It was originally going to be a bit longer, but I decided to not make it too long so that I could get it updated faster. Let me know what you thought of everything and if there's anything you think I need to improve on, and I will do my best to fix any mistake I've made.
In this chapter, Ben and Gwen have gotten their first taste of what to expect in this world...Viking farmers and dragons that shoot lightning; that'll take some time for them to get used to, and it'll probably be the same with the Vikings towards Ben and his aliens. Ben and Gwen ended up getting separated from each other and are experiencing different adventures; Gwen's met up a group of Viking teenagers who actually ride dragons, while Ben is stuck floating on a log in the ocean with a very grouchy, very hungry dragon...yeah, that won't go so swimmingly.
Will Ben and the Skrill find any common ground and get back to shore before they starve? What will Gwen think of the dragon-riders and what will they think of her? What'll Dagur the Deranged think when he first sees one of Ben's alien transformations? You'll have to wait to see the answers in the next chapter of Dragons and Aliens; oh, and please be sure to leave a review if you can, they're an important source of critique and inspiration for any author.