Summary: Ten Years Gone...
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Buffyverse except what I have created in original characters.
Feedback: Rean of the Coilm
Pre-fic Comments:
The creatures detailed here are probably gonna deviate slightly from the original descriptions slightly. For one thing, the draconians resemble elves more than they do dwarves. Some creatures from the Faerun monster manual will be used. Just so you don't jump on me for having nonD&D3rdEd stuff :)
Thanks for all the kind comments for the previous part ^_^
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Xander grimaced as a wave of pain swept through his body. Stepping into that black magic stream to stop Willow hadn't hurt as much as this.
He heard a cracking noise, absently realising that it was coming from /him/, along with a strange sensation that he couldn't describe. The scholar decided to open his eye, then found that the gouged out eye had regenerated somehow!
Lifting his left hand, he found that it was now clawed, scaled, and a blue tinted silver in appearance. He followed the limb, jumping as he saw the great wings and realised that he could twist his neck around to /look/ at the wings!
"German, you get an A for effort but an F for thought," he said, in a deep, rumbly voice.
Looking around, Giles and Willow looked much the same. The students, too, looked human except for a bronze coloured dragon that stood where Jens had been. The Slayers were still roughly human shaped, but were seven lithe feet in height, had scaled skin, and had other draconic attributes including great wings on their back.
"German, I am gonna skin you alive," Buffy growled, as she curled her green scaled fist.
"Ah, go easy on him Buff," Xander rumbled. "It was an accident."
"I'm going with B," Faith frowned, looking at her blue scaled hand. "The only place we're gonna fit in is at the circus."
"Uh, guys?," Willow quavered. "For some reason, I'm feeling really good from all this depressiveness, which is of the bad since feeling good when other people are feeling bad feels bad and I wanna go home and--"
"We get the point," John snapped.
Giles sat heavily on the edge of the dais that the altar was on. "This does put a damper on things."
"Well, I'm obviously a dragon, as is Jens, the Slayers are Draconis Biped, and I don't know what the rest of you are," Xander said. "The only good part of this is getting my eye back. It's nice, not having it hurt anymore."
"Dr-dragon?," Jens asked. His voice was much easier to understand than Xander's voice. "I'm a dragon?"
"I would hazard that Willow is a, ah, mazoku," Giles said, "and the rest of us are split between the priesthood and wizards."
"I'm a demon?," Willow said faintly. "But I haven't done any black magic for years!"
"It must have been stronger than anything else in you," Xander said. "Will, the Gem don't do humanity."
Giles experimentally held a hand out, palm upwards, and said a few words. Effortlessly, a ball of blue fire appeared. "Remarkable. It's far easier than previously."
German, who had been staring in depression at the Tower they'd entered the city through, jumped to his feet. "Guys! We got company!"
"What?," Xander rumbled. "This city hasn't had any contact with the modern world at all!"
A tall figure was, indeed, walking towards them. The man's bloodless figure was coloured blue, and he was clad in a chainmail waistcoat and a tattered cloak that concealed the rest of him. What flesh was visible had faint signs of decay.
"Vamp!," Faith yelled.
"I am no Nosteratu! I bear you no malice," the man yelled back. "I come to ask why you are here."
Xander turned his head towards the figure. "We are simply scholars, confirming records of this city. Unfortunately, we had an accident with ole blue glass there. I don't think it likes us."
The stranger raised an eyebrow. "I'd say it's only those two females it doesn't like. Chromatics, both of them."
"Chrome-whatics?," Buffy asked. "Look, I don't know anything about this. I'm just along to help Giles."
"At least you're still human shaped," Xander muttered. "And who died?"
The figure scowled. "I did, but it isn't polite to bring it up in company."
Giles pulled a book from a backpack that Faith had carried. "Amazing. You don't look like a vampire, or, uh..."
"Lich," the figure said.
Giles and Xander jumped back at this. "Shit!"
"Good lich," the figure continued, rolling what was left of his eyes. "Don't you people know /anything?/"
"Time for some interpersonal introductions," Xander said. "And is there any spells to change me back to my normal Xander shaped self?"
"I'm Lyth," the man said. "You're a dragon, you should be able to Polymorph Self."
"Uh, okay," Xander said, feeling stupid.
"I don't wanna be a Mazoku!," Willow complained.
"Tough," Lyth said.
"Uh, we should probably go and check on Keith and Bill," Giles said. "They're probably wondering what just happened."
"Right," Xander muttered, still in his large dragon form. "You go do that."
The old Watcher got up, taking his cane and the two Slayers with him. The students stayed in a huddle around Jens.
"Now," the lich said. "I'm going to assume you both have very little brains, and will describe this in words of one syllable or less."
"That's me," Xander said. "Found a city lost for several millenia, thicker than pig sh--sorry, Will."
"As I was saying," Lyth continued, "concentrate on becoming human."
"Doing that," Xander said, Jens nodding in agreement.
"Now, think /harder/."
"YES!," Xander shouted as he got back his Xander shaped self, albeit with silvery hair and pale blue eyes. His student Jens similarly managed to recover human shape.
"Crap!," Xander rumbled as he went back to dragon shape. "This could take some more work."
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Post-fic Comments:
The reason I didn't do any gold dragons was due to the gold dragon Filia, from Slayers. I don't think I could type for laughter if I kept picturing Xander as Filia.