IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

Do you like Changed stories?!

… Good. So do I. And there's one Changed author in particular I want to give a shoutout!

Over on WattPad, an author by the name of DizzyDwarf25 is currently rewriting his Changed fic, called "Changed – The Awakening". The original version can still be found on the site, plus some bonus chapters and updates about the aforementioned rewrite.

Take a look! And keep an eye on it for updates! Link to the story is right here:

https:[sl][sl]www[d]wattpad[d]com[sl]1007374678(dash)changed(dash)the(dash)awakening(dash)chapter(dash)1(dash)awakened?utm(undrsc)source=rss

Replace the following with the following:

[sl] means /

[d] means .

(dash) means –

(undrsc) means _

Just playing it safe, because this site really doesn't like anything resembling links.

Summary: Protocol is everything! Even if it fails in every respect.

Lights off.

Trying to keep his shaky breath as quiet as possible, Lin snuck ahead, passing more of the masked wolves. They stood there immobilized, looking straight ahead with their dark, cold gazes. Guards.

Lights on.

He froze right in front of a wolf. Its unseeing eyes looked right through him, unable to sense anything motionless. Lin felt sweat tickling his hair.

As long as you don't make any noise, it can't know you're here, he reminded himself as he held the wolf's intense gaze.

Lights off.

Lin continued walking. The end of the office room was close, now. He rounded the final table, passing another wolf as he did, and stepped towards the door. He felt himself shaking more and more as the exit got within reach. He was hoping, praying for just one moment of respite after this. Perhaps foolishly so—

Lights on.

The door slammed open, and another dark latex wolf strode inside. "Hey guys, King said we should—" Its gaze landed on Lin, and it froze.

Lin's heart stopped. So did the rest of his body.

His gaze was fixed on the wolf's. It had seen him. It must've.

Paralyzed, he waited. Waited for it to strike.

Lights off.

Lights on.

Lights off.

The office lights kept flickering in their usual pattern. Lin stood there frozen for at least a full minute, locked in a staring contest with the intruder. Its seemingly surprised expression had made place for the same sternness Lin had seen on its peers.

Had it seen him…?

He didn't dare breathe. Maybe he still had a chance…

With careful movements and timing, he took a step. When the beast didn't react, Lin slowly rounded it and passed through the door. Once on the other side, he resisted the urge to sigh.

That had been too close.

As the human finally moved along, the wolves in the room remained completely still. Only after he quietly closed the door—separating him from them—did they move.

First they relaxed, as if they'd been holding their breath.

Then all eyes turned to glare at the newcomer. The lone wolf, in turn, returned their gazes with an embarrassed one.

One of the guards threw up his hands. "What was that, Lum?! You almost blew our cover!"

Lum raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I didn't know he was already here! He moves way faster than I thought."

"You could've at least checked before barging in," a female said. "And freezing on the spot like that…"

"I was just following the Protocol," Lum defended.

"You would've done better just walking past him."

"Yeah," the male agreed. "You know, because he's supposed to think we can't see him!"

"Point taken, point taken," said Lum. "I just panicked. It won't happen again."

"You're right, it won't—because you're not meeting with him until after he gets to the library."

The female sighed. "Let's just hope there won't be any more hiccups until he gets there."

More wolves. More sneaking. As quietly as he could, Lin snuck past them, using the defective lighting to his advantage just like before. Lights on, lights off…

He did all of this, not knowing he was being watched from all sides.

From the other side of the room, Vexo did his best not to glance at the human, though it was rather tempting. A human, here, in person. Vexo would be lying if he said he wasn't curious about him—not necessarily as a host, just as a…well, as a human.

As the human in question moved forward, Vexo's gaze wandered. It fell on a masked pile of black goo nearby.

Wait…how long had that been there?

It took him a second to realize what was happening.

Oh, no.

The human was getting closer. Only a few more steps…

Making a split-second decision, Vexo darted to the pile of goo. As soon as the human got in its line of sight, it stirred and abruptly reshaped itself into a wolf pup, black-furred and masked like the rest of them. Before it could pounce on the human, Vexo grabbed it and lifted it up in his arms.

He immediately turned his back to the human and trudged back to his spot, pup still struggling in his grip. Once there, he turned back to face the room, keeping his movements slow and predictable.

The human was staring at them.

The pup in Vexo's arms looked straight at the human. It tried to get to him, but there was no way Vexo was letting it go now. Why was there a pup here anyway? It must've snuck in through the vents. If only they'd had more time to prepare…

Vexo felt beads of latex sweat forming on his head as the human continued to stare. Come on, just move along…

The lights flickered off, and the human resumed walking. Only when he passed through the door ahead did Vexo relax a little.

He glared at the pup in his arms. "The King's going to hear about this one," he said. How would a human say this…? "You're so grounded."

The pup tilted its little head.

Vexo just sighed. At least things turned out okay.

Lin stepped out of the large office room and straight into a smaller one, exhaling a breath he'd been holding for minutes now. He had no idea what was happening anymore. He should've been dead twice over now, yet here he was.

He leaned against one of the various tables. Thankfully there were no latexes in this room; he needed a breather, if only for a moment. He licked his dry lips and felt his stomach complain. A mild headache was on the rise.

The silence that had been deafening earlier was now comforting. He could finally think again.

With hands on the table, he took a moment to catch his breath and let his adrenaline settle. His wandering gaze found the lights above him. These didn't flicker, and their steady output reminded him of his goal.

He'd read the files on his way here. Societies crumbling under the foot of a super-virus, failed attempts to find a cure, and monsters whose mere touch would erase who he was. Well, he had definitely seen the monsters.

But crumbling society? No. The lights above him proved the contrary. The building was still powered, and it had been for…he wasn't sure how long he'd slept, but judging from the old and yellowed newspapers he'd seen, it must've been a while. Probably years. There was no way a giant facility with cutting-edge technology like this had run on its backup generators alone for that long! No, the power was coming from somewhere else. It had to be.

He realized he'd been staring into space, and his fingers had gripped the desk tightly. He relaxed them. He knew some humans had survived at least, and it seemed like they were recovering; someone must've been regulating this building's power supply. All Lin needed to do was seek them out.

The door ahead slammed open.

Lin whirled around in full alert. A small creature with a white mask floated inside, carried by small, bat-like wings. It noticed him instantly.

It squeaked once, then made a beeline towards him.

Lin cried out. Acting on instinct, he ducked under a table. The creature landed on it and looked over the edge down at him. Two dark pools with white pinpricks for pupils observed him curiously.

"Get back here!"

The door slammed again. A larger figure hurried inside, ran over and took the creature off the table. It squeaked in protest.

The bigger creature—humanoid in shape, much like the wolves—squatted down. "Hey there, sorry about—" It stopped when it saw him, its wings tensing, its pinprick eyes growing into white circles that filled its mask.

Lin scrambled back.

"Eh?" the dark latex creature exclaimed. "Huma— erm… Hello, uh…fellow…dragon? I hope this little rascal didn't scare— bother you too much. Kids, am I right?"

Lin stared at him, mouth open, blood frozen.

The dragon cocked its head. "You're scared— Erm… Not a talker, eh? Hey, don't worry, you'll get there. I'm sure Puro wouldn't mind giving you some extra lessons if you asked, you know."

Lin still didn't say anything. What was happening. Why could this thing talk.

Better yet, why didn't it see what he was?

"Aaaaaanyway," the dragon said, "It's erm…time to eat, so I should take this little guy back to the nest right about now. You, uh, don't forget to come out from under that table. And talk to Puro! He's really friendly! I hear he's really welcoming towards humans, too. Though he never met one to begin with. And, I mean…he probably won't…anytime soon… Why would he? Right…?" Its eyes darted around. Then it rose to its full height and started towards the door it had come from. "But still, talk to him! Learn the beautiful art of speech! I know you can do it, hu— fellow dragon!"

Then it left.

Lin just stared for a good two minutes before he could bring himself to move again. He slowly came out from under the table, keeping his eyes locked on where the dragon had gone—where, if his scrambled mind remembered the dragon's words correctly, there was a nest waiting for him. A nest. Lin just got ambushed by a juvenile. How was he going to get past a nest of dragons?!

He sighed, but knew he wasn't defeated yet. He just made his way past a den of masked wolves—wolves that could barely even see. If the dragons had the same weakness, he could elude them too.

… Also, that conversation with the dragon totally just happened.

I'm sure Puro wouldn't mind giving you some extra lessons if you asked, you know.

Lin contemplated that for a moment. Puro… That was the name the dragon had mentioned. Apparently he was welcoming towards humans, but never actually met one. Because…that made sense.

Huma— erm… Hello, uh…fellow…dragon?

I know you can do it, hu— fellow dragon!

Those phrases stuck in his head as well. Lin wasn't stupid—the dragon clearly knew he was human…but for some reason it tried to hide that. Why? Was it preparing some kind of trap, trying to lull him into some false sense of security?!

Feeling uncertain, Lin continued on, ignoring the headache that acted up. He had to push on no matter what, regardless of aches or questions or worries.

He passed through the door ahead to see a short corridor that was completely covered in dark latex. Some of it stuck to his feet as he walked over it. The dragon from before was nowhere to be found.

He also noticed the many computer monitors on the walls.

He made his way down the corridor. A sense of anticipation grew in his gut with every step. It was quiet. Maybe too quiet.

The corridor ended in a room. Besides the black crystals that poked out of the ground and the many screens on the wall, the only thing that stood out was a giant swivel chair. Its back was turned to him.

Above the backrest, Lin spotted something—a silhouette of a mass of fur with pointy ears poking out on top, mildly illuminated by the monitors.

He held back a gasp. His hand instantly went to his mouth to silence himself.

He stared at the silhouette. Whatever was sitting in that chair… It had to be at least twice as big as the usual latex wolf, probably even bigger than that. If it realized he was here, if it so much as turned its chair around…

Lin tentatively took a step ahead, keeping as quiet as he could.

The chair swiveled.

Lin reflexively froze when an enormous masked dark latex wolf looked down at him. Not for the first time, he forced himself to stay calm. As long as he didn't move, it couldn't see him.

Then he remembered the dark latex under his feet. The same dark latex as those puddles in the previous areas—the ones he'd intently avoided, because…

Because wolves could sense it when he stepped on them.

No.

He remained completely still under those two dark masses that were the monster's eyes glaring down at him. He felt the urge to flee, to scream…but this thing remained where it was for the moment. Had it seen him?

It let out a grunt. Then it got off its chair and squatted down to grab something from the ground. Its gaze never left Lin.

It had seen him. He should run. He had to run!

Shoulder-high crystals shot out of the ground between him and the only two escape routes.

Lin gasped and stumbled back, completely caught off-guard. Those crystals had emerged at his slightest movement. How—?!

The giant looked on. Then it moved towards him. Lin scrambled to the side. What could he do?! He had to run somewhere, quickly—

It placed a glass beaker with water in the center of the room.

Then it returned to its chair, sat down and swiveled around to face the monitors again.

Silence fell. Lin stared at the wolf ears that poked out above the backrest. Then his gaze gravitated to the exit ahead. The crystals were still there, blocking his path. Could he bypass them somehow?

"Drink."

Lin jumped. This thing spoke…? Its voice was more of a growl, but the word was clear as day.

He eyed the beaker. Was that water…or a trap?

"Drink," the wolf repeated gruffly, glancing back at him with a stern eye.

Lin hesitated. Did he have a choice…?

He slowly walked over and took the beaker. It was cool to the touch. He cautiously whiffed it. Nothing. He stuck his finger in it. Nothing.

He glimpsed the wolf's expectant gaze. No choice. It was either this, or challenge the creature's authority.

He slowly placed the beaker at his lips and drank. He half expected the wolf to ambush him, but it remained where it was, looking over its shoulder straight at him.

His headache faded with each gulp of water he took, but the water tasted off. Was it poison, or was it his mind playing tricks on him?

Finally the beaker was empty. He set it down where he'd taken it and hesitantly looked up at the giant. Their gazes met yet again.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the beast turned its gaze forward and made a gesture with its hand. Lin heard a slight creaking behind him, and he looked to see the crystals blocking the exit sinking into the ground. His heart leaped.

He took one last glance to the dual wolf ears above the seat, then sped over to the exit. Once in the corridor beyond, he took a shaky breath, leaning against the wall with one hand. That… That…

That only gave him more questions than answers. Was he infected now? Was it just water? Could he expect to become one of them at any moment in the next few hours?

That thought didn't sit well with him at all, but there was nothing more he could do except wait. And hope.

With slightly dizzy steps, he moved ahead.

The wolf remained motionless as he left.