"Its on the roof!" "Don't let it get away!" The radio buzzed loudly in my ear, "I'm going after it! No one goes on the roof but me!" I switched the radio off after getting the confirmation and ran up the last flight of stairs. While the majority of Dr. Cuvier's splicers had already been captured one of them had managed to slip away while the others were receiving medical attention while the vaccine did it's work.
I kicked the door open and scanned the roof for the spliced creature. From the files I had seen, the creature had once been a beautiful young woman. I froze as my eyes landed on a twisted creature that stiffed in surprise at the sound of the door being kicked open. "Alright turn around, slowly." I readied the tranq gun fully intending to shoot her but she was on the far side of the roof already, the shot would hit but it would likely send her over the edge before I could get to her, increased speed or not.
The creature growled lowly and opened what I could see were large leather bat like wings. I was certain she would jump but to my surprise she slowly shifted her clearly heavy body and turned around to face me fully. She was large, at least 7ft tall with an enlarged jaw and several spiked horns that lined the back of her head in a ridge with a few on her face. She stood tall and proud with her body bent at an angle as if for balance, along with a long tail that was covered in sharp, thorned spines that were slightly off in color. She was a deep blue that was a shade off from a royal blue, that was offset by her soft golden cream colored underbelly. A pair of set back wings that ended in sharp talons looked like they were set from her shoulders, arms that should have been there were missing leaving her exposed chest, a smooth yet thick hardened ridge of scales wrapped around where breasts would have been, the hardened ridge of scales lead to her large raptor like legs that ended in long sharp talons.
l was so distracted by her appearance, by what she had done to herself when getting spliced that I didn't see her tail raising until it wrapped around her body and flicked towards me, sending several sharp spines flying at me. Reflexes alone saved me from taking one of the spines straight on but several punched into my armor, the suit taking the majority of the damage but a few lucky spines managed to cut through the thin side and graze my skin. Before I could retaliate I felt a disturbing numbness rob me of my strength. My legs gave out forcing me to lean against the wall and slide down to the ground against the building as some poison was taking effect. My arms refused to work as the gun fell to the ground uselessly.
The creature crept forward cautiously. Her bright golden eyes sparkled with intelligence that her form did not betray. I didn't know what she was planning as she slowly walked forward, it took me a moment to realised that she wasn't walking towards me, she was going for the gun. She looked at it as if she knew that it was dangerous but didn't quite know what it was. She sniffed at it for a moment before grabbing it in her teeth and lifting the heavy gun in the air effortlessly. Nothing about this was right, she was walking like she was just learning how to do it. Slow, clumsy steps that seem to take a lot of effort.
She looked at me for a moment and growled lowly, making sure to keep eye contact before she twisted her body and tossed the gun away with a flick of her massive head. The gun was sent flying with her full weight behind the motion. I stared at her in silence as if to ask, 'what now?' She looked at me and her eyes narrowed as if she were asking me the same question but in a mocking way.
"Why?" She cocked her head to the side as if acknowledging the question. "Why would you want to do this to yourself?" The beast's eyes narrowed further as she seemed to consider actually answering the question or not. After a minute she growled lowly in a rhythmic, almost conversational way. As if she had completely forgotten any form of coherent language. After a few seconds she realised that I couldn't understand her, she looked at me as if I was the one to blame for not being able to understand her cooing and growls before she shook her massive head in annoyance.
She opened and shut her mouth several times like she couldn't think of how to start this before she settled on "Kah." I quirked a brow unsure if this was another growl or if this was supposed to mean something. She must have caught on because anger flickered in her eyes before she took a breath and answered with an annoyed grunt, "name." Oh. Kah was supposed to be her name.
"I come here. I change. I happy." She spoke as if it was hard for her to form the words in her large awkwardly shaped mouth. "You're happy? How could you be happy when you look like that?" Anger flared in her face again, I could see little sparks bright and hot in her mouth before she closed it and looked away. After a minute she calmed down and looked back to me again, this time she looked a lot less patient as she addressed me again. "Heard from brother people changed here. I wanted change. I wanted this, I feel like me."
She seem to be fighting for every word, each was either slurred or was pronounced incorrectly. This was making it very difficult for the both of us and I flicked through my suit's settings to see if I could find a translator that would make this easier for the both of us. She clearly wasn't stupid but I doubt she had the patients to try and stumble through a full conversation in a language she barely spoke.
After a minute of looking, I found a universal translator that was mainly meant for deciphering alien languages but it should work for this. I nodded my head to get the spliced creatures attention again, "Try talking now, I should be able to understand you."
She looked at me for a moment before speaking again, this time it was the grunts and growls from earlier. The small radio hissed for a second while it listened to her and translated. "I grow tired of this." I jumped slightly as the programed worked as intended. "I heard that!" She jumped slightly and growled in warning. "Sorry, continue."
She huffed in annoyance and puffed up a little before speaking again. "Always so loud. You asked why I was here? I told you before. I was not happy, I wanted to change myself, so I came here. I got poked and jabbed but it worked." She puffed out her chest with pride as she looked over herself again. "I am truly beautiful now." She caught my incredulous look and deflated slightly before she shook her head and bared her teeth in anger. "You do not know me! You do not know true beauty!"
I weakly raised my numb arms in surrender, her nostrils flared briefly as she turned away from me and growled out a few swear words before she turned back to face me again. "sorry about that." She didn't look very sincere but she continued, "father calls me his fierce little dragoness." Dragoness? Is that what she wanted to be? "Have been raised by Strun and Faad since I was a newborn. My human parents took me into the forest that my father had been hunting in. They took one look at him and threw me at him, screaming for him to 'eat the baby' and spare them. Cowards." She snarled and bared her teeth again, "they threw away a hatchling, a baby as you would say. They were weak and are no family. Strun did not know what to do, he had a crying newborn thrown at him and a pair of humans fleeing for their worthless lives." The words came out bitter and harsh but I could hear the underlying pain in them. "As if I would barely even be a morsel for his belly." She actually sounded slightly offended.
"Strun took me back to his home, to his family where I was taken in and raised as their own. I was shown kindness first by dragons, not by humans." I winced as she snarled again, this time her steely gaze settled on me as if it wasn't me she was looking at but her parents as they ran for their lives. Her gaze lingered a moment longer before she snorted and continued speaking, "I was brought up to be proud young dragon kin. How to act like a dragon, how to live like a dragon." She stood taller and puffed out her chest in a stance of power and authority, pride practically radiating off of her.
I had no idea she was gaining from telling me all of this but she continued with her voice now taking an obvious twinge of annoyance. "I have an older brother Mul, Strun and Faad's oldest hatchling. He is a total ass but is well respected and popular with the other dragons, though I can not see what they find so attractive about him." As grumbled the last part out and I couldn't hold back a small smile. I couldn't help but think of my own little brother Matt in that moment, siblings, no matter the species will always be annoying.
"I lived in the big tower my whole life. I need family to fly me from island to island. Can't get to work without aid." Her stiff face twisted and darkened a little with a flush "I am an adult but I need to be flown around like a child. I work hard, I pull my weight and am not some lazy child, simply a weak human." Her voice was low and thick with loathing as her face resembled something like a scowl. "I hated that I needed so much help. Nadders are proud, strong dragons. We are feared and respected, but I am grounded, forced to watch other dragons enjoy a freedom I would never have!" She growled in agitation, her wings flared outwards a little before they were pulled back tightly against her. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax again but I could see the strain in her face as she fought to keep her rising temper in check. "I have watched for years, wanting, hoping that if I just tried hard enough that I would sprout my wings and fly. I actually jumped off of a ledge to try and force the change to happen" she turned away again but this time with a tint of embarrassment to her face "my father managed to find me and fish me out of the ocean in time. I broke my arm and a few ribs, I was yelled at a lot by my sire for being so dumb."
Her eyes seem to go unfocused for a moment as she recalled the clearly painful memory. She hissed something to herself that the microphone didn't pick up. "I grew out of that. I worked hard, I am an 'almost competent' smith as Master Gelt would say. I was of mating age, I had many suiters come, I chose none of them. Other dragons did not see me as an equal partner, they saw a 'human mate'." Her face darkened again and her tight lips twiched down slightly as she hissed, "I am not a prize. I wanted a partner, someone who did not see a human but a dragon." She shook her head to rid herself of the thought before her features softened and some warmth returned into her sharp golden eyes. I was getting the feeling back into my fingers and toes again and briefly entertained the idea of reaching for one of the darts I keep in my belt for an emergency but I doubt the thin needle would be able to pierce her thick hide.
"Then I meet Vur. She is a proud and tall Nightmare with beautiful scales and a set of gorgeous horns." She practically swooned as she spoke of this 'Vur', I had no idea what a 'Nightmare' was supposed to be but my mind conjured an image of a massive monster of muscles and fury. "She worked as a guard for the colony for many years and was a very well respected dragon. She never seemed to take an interest in the countless other dragons vying for her attention, she actually went out of her way to find and talk to me. I was confused at first, why would she choose me over countless, powerful dragons of good stock? It did not make sense to me, why would she hobble herself by picking a mate who could not give her strong hatchlings? A mate who could not even fly? It was like none of that even mattered to her, it was confusing for me, I could not understand it at the time."
She paused, like she was considered whether or not to tell me this next part but relented after a minute of thinking to herself. "I asked her one day during our courtship, why do you want a weak mate who can't give you proper children? A mate who can not even fly? She told me 'you may not have the body of a dragon but your heart beats strong with the pride of our people. You see yourself as a dragon and so do I.'"
"When we started our courtship I knew I was expected to provide her with children. Dragons have magic that makes it possible." Her whole body stiffened and drooped as if she were suddenly bearing a great weight on her shoulders. "She sees me as a dragon. I should be happy, I am happy with that, but I am not, no, was not a dragon." She puffed up again and hissed "I was a human." She looked into a puddle that lay stagnant on the roof from an earlier rainstorm, she calmed down again in a rather quick manor, this time it was much more relaxed and came on more naturally than before when she had to force herself to calm down.
"I always hated looking at myself. Whenever I saw myself I didn't see a strong Nadder, I could not feel the pride of my people or see the beauty my wife always claimed to see. What I would see was wrong. I would see a weak, skinny limbs, pale, sickly, human." She spat the last word like it had personally offended her. "I would become so upset that I would shatter any mirrors I was looking into. I have lost count of the amount of puddles and lakes I have jumped into so that I may break the image that dared to stare back at me." A small plume of smoke escaped her mouth as a small burst of light, no, a small burst of fire erupted in her mouth at that moment. I felt the urge to grab for the needle again, thick hide be damned but the old man's words came to me in that moment, 'you have to keep your cool. Rash decisions will get you killed in this line of work.'
I forced my body to stay limp against the rough concrete as the dragon huffed and puffed to herself. Now felt like a good time to try and cut in and lead her back into calmer waters so to speak, "so you came here to fix that right?" Her sharp gaze snapped to me in that moment as I regretted opening my big mouth. "Yes! I have come here and now I finally look like I do in my head! I am as close to normal as I will ever be even if I am not a full or natural Nadder!" She growled, sending a puff of hot smoke in my face. She winced as I began to cough from the stinging smoke and backed up immediately. "I am sorry! I did not mean too." She sounded much more genuine this time as she looked away and blew out a long stream of hot smoke.
She turned back to face me, her face had drooped as much as the tight muscles would allow as her voice took on a more anguished tone. "Why would you try and take this away from me?" I couldn't answer her as she continued, "I do not wish harm upon others, I want nothing to do with humans but you seek to take this gift away from me. Why would you try to do this to me?"
I had no answer as her stiff face tried to match the pain in her questions but it seemed almost emotionless from how tight the young skin was. "Why would you deny me this happiness? Why would you try and steal this freedom from me?" I recoiled, every pained word a slap in the face from the force of the emotions behind them. "I… I don't know." She backed away from me, not as a measure to regain control of her temper but out of fear. She was actually afraid of me. A man who was by all means paralized and completely at her mercy was enough to have this proud, aggressive, mutated dragon like woman cowering before me.
I dropped the act and slowly stood up to my full height which was unimpressive compared to the proud creature now cowering before me. She stiffened as if ready to flee at any moment as she waited for my next move, eyeing me like a terrified animal backed into a corner. I could turn her back to the way she was before but was that better? Some cold rational part of my mind told me that she needed to be fixed and locked away in a mental facility as she clearly wasn't in her right mind, but the other part of me couldn't see her as anything other than a tortured soul who's finally found peace. Could I really take that away from her? She had a family, a life. I looked into her eyes, those sharp golden orbs and I had my answer.
"Go." I turned my back to her "I never want to see you here again." I could feel her eyes on my back. A heavy foot step. Another. And another. A heavy flap of air followed by a short gust as she struggled to take to the air. I heard her growl out a last "thank you" followed by a mighty roar. I thought that was the end of it but I heard a second much deeper roar that accompanied the first. I turned to see that even when she was struggling to put every inch of air beneath her that she was flying towards a second much larger dragon who seem to be encouraging her. When the two met in the sky they both turned away from me and flew off together, the splicer having a considerably more difficult time but still going away from the city. I shook my head, turned around, opened the door and left.