The Change, part 2


ULRICH

I woke up to a ridiculously loud squawk that had to be Odd. Rubbing one eye, I protested, "Hey, can't a guy get any sleep around here?" Then I saw Odd and laughed. His whole head had changed to look more like what Karen's head looked like back when she was a dragon, and he looked completely panicked.

Odd tried to tell me off, but no English words would come out of his mouth.

I shook my head and studied my arms. By now, they were scaled all the way to just past my elbows, and my forearms seemed like they'd gotten more muscle on them. That told me what happened to Aelita, at least. "Come on, Odd. Let's get dressed and talk to Karen."


"You haven't lost your ability to talk, Odd."

Jeremy, Karen, Aelita, William, Yumi and I had decided to wait until everyone else was done, so that we could eat with Odd. Sissi hadn't bothered.

"What do you mean, Karen?" Yumi asked.

"Well, just look at him: only his head has changed. His neck hasn't altered at all, and therefore, neither have his vocal chords. The only reason he's having trouble right now is because he's not used to that mouth. It has its good points, though."

Odd got this look of total focus on his dragon face. Then he asked slowly, "Like…what?"

Karen grinned and tossed a croissant in the air. "Catch!"

Odd watched it fly, and then he – whoa! His tongue just snapped out and grabbed it from the air! The whole thing just disappeared into his mouth and he got maybe three chews on it before realizing what it was he'd just did.

"That's some tongue, Odd," William commented, his eyes almost as big as Odd's eyes had become overnight.

He grinned around his mouthful. With those teeth, that grin was a tiny bit unnerving now. But I wasn't going to say anything and ruin his fun.

I mean, what could be worse for anybody than to be told that they can't smile?


ODD

Okay, I might have overreacted a little bit back when I first found out what had happened to my head. By now, though, I thought it was way cool! I mean, check out this tongue! I saw that croissant flying and I just nabbed it right out of the air!

About the only thing I didn't like about my head now was how hard I had to focus, just to talk. "Karen," I asked, "has…any-thing…hap-pened…to you…"

"Yet?" Karen finished, and I nodded. "Well…" She stayed quiet for a minute, looking like she was trying to recall. "Not yet. Though if nothing happens by the time, say, Ulrich's forced out of shoes, I'll be surprised."

Ulrich looked a little confused at being brought up. I cocked my head. "When-will-that-be?" Hey – that one came faster!

"Probably about…" Karen pulled up Ulrich's sleeve and studied where the scales ended. Ulrich was putting up with that pretty well. "Day after tomorrow, thereabouts." She looked at Aelita and went on, "That will be when your hands will become claws. And Odd?"

I jumped. "Yeah?"

"Don't get used to being able to talk. By tomorrow, you won't even be able to do today's method."

Oh, man!


WILLIAM

I laughed. I couldn't help it; Odd's scaly face looked so disappointed. Well, I'd be disappointed too if I knew I wouldn't be able to talk for more than one more day.

"Um, Aelita?" I asked. "Sorry for seeming so dense, but what's changed on you?"

"Same thing as on Ulrich, only on my legs."

"Oh." Karen had been the first to call me dense, actually. She said that was why I'd been caught by Xana in the first place: I hadn't listened to warnings about one of the monsters, and so Xana managed to take control of me. I wasn't offended; she was right. And I had already guessed what had changed on Aelita – the question was just an attempt to make Karen laugh.

Well, it worked. Sort of, anyway; she smiled.


KAREN

Today went about the same as usual, with the exception of Odd stopping at the classes after everyone else had left and going to the lunch room in the same pattern.

We met up together just before parting to go home or back to dorms or whatever: all the Lyoko warriors, plus Sissi and Turner. Sissi spent the whole meeting staring at Odd, who seemed to have gotten used to his predicament enough to enjoy the attention.

"Okay," I declared, "Jeremy, Turner? Status reports on your designated projects."

Jeremy answered first. "I still haven't figured out what program to run to get that bug out of the scanning system yet. I'll probably get it in another week, though."

"I've, um, almost got my speech together, but I'd like a bit longer," Turner stammered. I think he was nervous of Odd, he kept stealing glances in his general direction.

"Don't worry, Turner," I reassured him, "you won't have to have that speech completely ready until I'm a full dragon. Xana can't communicate with the real world until then."

Personally, I just wished I felt as calm as I was pretending to be.