The moment after Jim inhaled the gravesand, Strickler knew something was wrong. He had used gravesand on humans enough times to know both its general affects and some of the more rare ones. While it certainly wasn't healthy, one inhaled dose of gravesand was not going to kill a human... Unless of course they did something stupid in their rage or another human saw them and decided they were possessed. Strickler had played a hand in a few witch-hunts over the centuries.
Jim coughed a few times and then doubled over with a sound that was about halfway between a yell and a pained snarl. His breathing was rapid and hoarse. After a moment he fell to his hands and knees and started retching.
In his peripherals Strickler saw Nomura rise quickly to her feet.
"What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know," Strickler said, at a loss.
"You don't know? I thought you said this was safe for humans!" Nomura snarled, eyes flashing yellow.
"It is!" Strickler snarled back defensively. "I've never seen this reaction before."
Just then Jim's eyes snapped open. They glowed yellow and red. His pupils expanded until they took up most of his irises. He turned to look at Strickler and growled. It was a very unnatural sound that a human should not have been able to make.
Jim began to circle Strickler. His movements were slow and careful. He was stalking, the changeling realized.
Strickler wondered if maybe the initial reaction had been a fluke. While strange, Jim's current behavior wasn't entirely unprecedented. He had seen a reaction of this type when a human had actually eaten the gravesand. Maybe Jim was just more sensitive to it?
Jim paused and coughed again, the sound wet and rough. He spat something and Strickler caught the scent of blood.
Yes… That was not good. He needed to snap Jim out of it and get him a medical checkup.
"Jim I need you to talk to me."
Jim snarled in response and lunged. Strickler dodged him. The boy hit the ground, rolled, and came charging back.
"Nomura, something is wrong! I'm going to need your help restraining him," Strickler yelled without looking away.
He leaned to the side just in time and felt Jim's fingers glaze his jugular. He was apparently going for the kill. Jim might not have claws but a good blow there could still do him in. Or at least incapacitate him long enough to finish the job another way.
He saw a flash of pink out of the corner of his eye, but carefully did not look. Jim was focused on him and as long as he stayed that way they had a better chance of restraining him without causing any more damage.
Jim lunged and again. He switched forms and caught the boy's arms just as Nomura brought the butt of her kopesh down on his head. The armor vanished in a flash of blue and the boy crumpled like a sack of potatoes. The amulet rolled a foot or so before coming to a stop. Strickler picked it up and absently tucked it in his pocket for safekeeping. A hint of amusement flickered in his mind. Oh what he would have given to have that blasted piece of metal just months ago. Now he hoped to get it back to its proper owner as soon as possible.
He dropped down to a crouch and pressed his fingertips to Jim's throat.
"His pulse is steady, if a bit fast," Strickler said out loud, releasing a sigh of relief.
He rose to his feet and dusted his pants off.
"Did you have to hit him so hard?" Hopefully that wouldn't complicate his condition.
Nomura shrugged and sheathed her kopesh before shifting back to human form.
"So now what?"
Strickler grimaced.
"Now we need to find someone to check him over both for damage from the gravesand and," He shot Nomura a glare. "For a concussion."
"Has he told his mother yet?"
That was the question. Strickler was fairly certain he had not, but they had been avoiding that particular subject. If he had, Jim would probably not have a lot of good things to tell her about him.
"So…" Nomura tilted her head eying Strickler speculatively. "How bad do you think she'll react if we tell her we gave her son troll narcotics and then knocked him out?"
Strickler blanched in spite of himself. There was no way he was doing that.
"We will bring him to the Janus Order." He decided. "There is a medical bay and the library might have something on his reaction."
Nomura nodded.
"Sounds good to me."
Getting Jim to the Janus Order turned out to be more of a chore than expected. It wasn't too bad carrying him through the sewers, but getting him safely to the car without looking too suspicious was much harder when they couldn't just throw him in the trunk. Fortunately Omnireach Travel Agency was in a rather deserted part of town, so getting him from the car to the building it wasn't too bad.
By the time they made it through the wreckage to the medical bay Jim was sweating and shivering.
Once inside Nomura and Strickler carefully placed Jim on the cold metal table. Fortunately the room seemed to have been spared Gunmar's rampage. Unfortunately neither changeling knew anything about medicine and treatment outside of basic first aid.
"So now what?" Nomura asked gruffly.
Strickler sighed.
"Keep an eye on him, I'm going to archives to see if there's any recorded reactions to gravesand like his."
It took the changeling about a half-hour to find all the records on gravesand. He lugged them back to the medical bay.
Nomura was in troll form and pacing when he arrived.
"How's he doing?" Strickler asked.
"Bad." Came Nomura's curt reply.
She paused and her glowing green eyes fixed on him.
"If he dies you will too," She said in a conversational tone.
Strickler resisted the urge to rise to the threat (or rather promise… he had no doubt she meant it), quarreling would not help matters right now.
There was a quiet ping and Strickler noted that Nomura's phone was sitting on the counter. She shifted back to human form and seized it. Her eyes skimmed whatever message she had received and then she shoved it back into her pocket.
"I will be right back," She said before she turned and left.
Strickler watched her go before turning back to the files.
He was about half through the available material when he hear muffled yelling coming from the corridor. He barely managed to set the file to the side and stand up before Nomura, in troll form, shoved her way into the room to deposit a very angry and frightened Barbara on the ground.
No way…
Barbara scrambled away from Nomura the moment she hit the ground. She had not noticed Walter yet and he found himself wondering if it wasn't too late to make a run for it. Unfortunately he shifted a little as he was thinking about it and she caught the movement and turned toward him. There was a moment of frozen silence before an expression of rage appeared on her face.
"You!" She snarled.
Walter Stricklander, seven hundred year old changeling, master manipulator, and teacher of high school students, shrank back and almost whimpered.
Author Notes:
How people react to medicine and drugs is iffy enough without magic being involved. Strickler was being very irresponsible. (Jim too)
This is a shorter story (Though it ended up longer than I planned). I just wanted to explore this idea a little.
I'm in the editing phase now, so I will be posting one chapter a week until I'm done.
Be sure to leave a comment if you like the story (Feedback is really important to me and keeps me motivated).
Thanks for dropping by!