Later that night, Thorne, Crocness, and sneaky Shaiden marched off towards the innermost parts of the forests surrounding the castle. Thorne hadn't turned into a dragon yet, but Crocness could tell he would any moment. The fact that he was hunching over as he walked and that his teeth started to stick out over his bottom lip indicated so.

While he was in his lab that day, Thorne discovered that the chemical agent that he had been infected with did indeed mess with his emotions, and that he would only turn into a dragon at night. He concluded that the chemical worked on some type of twenty-four hour cycle. How that was possible, he wasn't sure. The bottom line was that it made him more irritable during the day and turned him into a monster at night...using all the anger he had unintentionally stored up during the day.

Most of the Defenders had found it almost impossible to believe that Thorne was a dragon. Shaiden had even had a hard time convincing Knightriss of the truth. The knight did, however, accept Shaiden's declaration as a fact after the ninja showed her the mess in Thorne's room and explained everything she knew of Moray and the ooze on the red dragon's claws.

As Crocness walked beside Thorne in the dark, she couldn't help but wonder what Moray wanted out of all of this. Most likely, he wanted the crown of Splatalot. That's what the other dragon went after when it attacked. As one can imagine, leprechauns' gold and gnomes' jewels molded into a shimmering crown were hard to come across.

Crocness felt a light breeze sweep past her, then glanced at the surly alchemist next to her. She felt a little concerned for him. What would become of Thorne? Would the chemical wear off or would he be stuck as a dragon forever?

The water monster sighed silently and looked in front of her. For his sake, I hope not.

Suddenly, Crocness heard a quiet groan behind her. She arrested her feet and turned to look at Thorne, who had stopped walking. He was clenching his teeth and holding his stomach.

Crocness's eyes widened. Oh, no.

Thorne groaned again, then looked up at the croc-woman. "Crocness, I'm..."

Suddenly, Thorne gasped out in pain, then threw himself on the ground. He groaned louder than before and began to shake violently and breath quickly. Crocness immediately rushed over to his side.

"Thorne, stay with me!" she stated firmly, kneeling down.

Thorne suddenly lashed at her with a blue, scaly arm, making her leap back. She quickly pushed herself up from the ground and watched as long, silver claws jerked out from Thorne's dark blue fingertips.

No, no, no, no! Crocness thought, cringing.

"Thorne, calm down!" she pleaded, approaching him one more time.

Thorne replied by swiping his claws at her. If Crocness hadn't jumped back in time, both she and Albert would have been badly scratched. Crocness gaped at her friend in horror. Thorne had completely lost control of himself, and was now roaring at and clawing the trees.

Still, Crocness refused to panic. She quickly tried to think of a way to calm Thorne down. What could she do? What would be a good way to get rid of his anger?

Well...when I'm angry, it sometimes helps just to...let it all out...

Crocness suddenly got an idea. She turned back to Thorne, her eyes sparking brightly.

"Hey! Dragon boy!"

Thorne, now looking more like a dragon than a human, whipped his head around and seethed at the croc-woman.

"Show me how loud you can roar, little beast!" she shouted.

Crocness demonstrated by roaring, herself. The dragon lowered itself a bit, and growled, seemingly thinking. A quick moment later, it lifted itself up and reciprocated Croc's fierce cry, but louder. The water monster just laughed mockingly.

"Come on, put some effort into it!" Crocness yelled back.

The dragon snarled, then roared again, even louder than the last time. Crocness roared back just as fierce.

"A female crocodile can do better than that!"

The blue dragon snarled back indignantly, then roared again. Crocness tossed her head, seemingly unimpressed.

"You call that a roar? I call that a whimper!"

The cycle of Crocness challenging Thorne to roar and taunting him because it wasn't good enough went on for about five minutes. Shaiden watched the challenge from the shadows. At first, she was confused. However, when the insane, murderous look in Thorne's eyes left after he roared for the tenth time, she understood what Crocness was trying to do. The more Thorne roared, the less angry he became. All the anger that was bottled up inside him came out in ferocious roars.

Eventually, the dragon wasn't feeling as indignant as before; it was now more interested in winning the croc-woman's approval. Once again, it lifted its head upwards and roared again, louder than ever before. Then, it locked its steel-gray eyes on the reptilian woman.

"Hmm...I'm almost impressed," Crocness declared, crossing her arms. "Roar again! Show me what you're really made of!"

The dragon growled, lifted its neck up towards the night sky, and let out the greatest roar yet. The loud cry shook the trees, the ground, and made Crocness lift an eyebrow. The dragon quieted down, then looked at Crocness, waiting for an evaluation.

Crocness tapped her boot, pretending to think. She then nodded. "That was actually pretty good. I must say, I'm impressed. Well done."

The blue dragon lifted its head up high, feeling quite pleased with itself. It gave a loud roar of victory. Crocness smirked.

Suddenly, the dragon's dilated eyes constricted. It looked around, as if it just realized where it was. The blue beast began taking deep breaths. It stumbled slightly, then sank to the ground and shut its eyes. Crocness watched as her dragon friend slowly began to change back into a human. Just like before, the transformation stopped at an unfinished point, making the English Defender look like a dragon and human mix.

After a silent moment, Thorne opened his eyes. He blinked a couple times, then looked up at the reptilian woman in front of him. "...Crocness?"

Crocness sighed in relief, then offered Thorne her hand. "You alright?" she asked, helping him up.

Thorne realized what had just happened, then nodded slowly. "I'm fine."

Thorne removed his gaze from Croc's face and put it on his arms. They looked the same way they did the previous night. He then examined one of his dark blue hands and long, sharp, silver claws. Crocness blinked with surprise when he managed to sheath them. Thorne looked at her, sheathed the claws on his other hand, then wiped his palms over his chainmail shirt.

"Now that we're out here, what do we do?" he inquired, glancing at the tops of the trees glowing in the moonlight.

An adventurous gleam shone in Crocness's eyes. "Why don't we explore? We're hardly ever out here, and I want to know if there's a lake lying about."

Thorne shrugged. "Why not?"

Crocness smiled. "Great." She turned to her pet. "Sound like fun, Albert?"

The reptilian woman's smile widened when Albert gave her a positive response. She then turned back to Thorne, who was busy staring at her face.

The way Thorne was looking at the crocodile woman made Shaiden lift her eyebrows. Kook sometimes stares at me like that.

Crocness narrowed an eye. "What?"

Thorne blinked. He quickly took a step back and shook his head, disgusted with himself. "Nothing." He started walking away. "Come on, let's go."

Crocness stared at him oddly as he marched past her. After a moment, though, she just shrugged, then followed after him. Shaiden was silently watching them from the dark. She had her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

A/N: Happy New Year!