Chapter 36
A Hand-Me-Down
Roughly twenty minutes had passed since the grisly discovery underneath Michelangelo and Kate's house, and since then, Tyroth and James had arrived to inspect the skeleton in question, while Sephie was helping Michelangelo to comfort Kate, who was currently sitting in a corner wrapped up in a fur blanket.
She still shook from time to time. She could handle people, mutants, even demons, but the living dead was just too much for her.
Over by the hatch, James was investigating the skeleton as best he could without disturbing it, since it was known to move. Using a small dentist mirror, and the light supplied by Tyroth, he currently examined the inside of the mouth.
"I don't know who our… friend here was," the chimpanzee began. "but they weren't human, that much I'm certain of."
"Then what are we looking at?" Tyroth asked.
"Whatever species this used to be, they have a slightly different bone structure compared to humans. What that translates to is beyond me, as I have next to no knowledge on the anatomy of the people of this world. However, they have a pair of rather prominent fangs as canines, and if I'm seeing things right…" James took another look in the angled mirror. "It does seem like they both have a single hole in them, and I'm not talking about standard cavities. It's more like… like snake fangs."
"Snake fangs? So we're looking at a reptilian specie then?"
"Maybe. Some degree of venomous at the very least would be my guess. Hopefully I'll learn a bit more once I dare perform a proper autopsy."
"Whatever, just get that… that thing out of my house." Kate said.
"You said that it moved, but we haven't seen it so much as twitch yet." said Tyroth.
"Trust me, Big T, it moved!" said Michelangelo. "Looked right at Katie. Almost scared the shell off me. I'm really glad that I had been to the outhouse right before we went home."
"I'll... take your word for it." said Tyroth, shifting his focus back to the skeleton, studying both it and the hole in general.
Like he had said, it hadn't moved even the slightest since they arrived, but he could see evidence that it had. There were plenty of scratch-marks on the inside of the hatch, right where its raised hand would reach when the hatch was closed, explaining the scratching noises that Michelangelo and Kate had experienced.
Even knowing that it could move, Tyroth wasn't too worried about it as he was certain that he could easily overpower it should it attack, but he was still vary in case it had some form of magical abilities other than whatever force that kept it 'alive'.
Taking a firm but gentle grip on it's arm, Tyroth managed to pull the entire body up from the hole.
"It's still held together?" James questioned. "I would have thought that the bones would come loose from each other."
"It's because of the energies that animates it, they also binds it into a whole form." said Tyroth as he sat the skeleton down, and as soon as he did, the skull turned to stare at Kate once more, now that she was within its line of sight again.
"Does it have to do that?" the viper complained, shuddering at the mere sight of the bones.
"It does seem to have a fascination with you, Kate." said Tyroth.
"I mean, I don't blame it." Michelangelo said sheepishly. "She's quite the gal."
"Shut up." Kate half groaned, but with a blush on her cheeks.
"Hold on. What's this?" James said, looking closer at the skeleton's other hand. While it and the arm was holding the knees against the chest, the hand was also clenched into a fist, and it was holding something that gleamed green in the candle light.
"Looks like a piece of glass." the chimpanzee continued.
"Or a crystal." Tyroth added.
"Oh man, here we go again." Michelangelo sighed, remembering just how many times they had had troubles and misadventures because of crystals.
"Yeah, best to be careful here." Tyroth agreed, bracing himself as he were to remove the crystal from the skeleton's hand. However, he soon found that the fingers clutched to the crystal like steel, refusing to move at all.
Again, Tyroth was pretty sure that he could easily break the fingers, but he didn't want to resort to that if it could be avoided. There had to be another way.
He thought for a moment, before turning to Kate.
"Kate? Could you come over here for a moment?"
The viper glanced at the skeleton, its eye sockets still fixated on her.
"Do I have to?"
"Please, this will only take a moment. And I'll make sure this thing doesn't move." the dragon assured.
Kate looked at Sephie and especially Michelangelo for support, and saw on their faces that they would be right beside her if she needed them. Steeling herself, and wrapping the blanket tighter, she stood up and walked over to Tyroth, the skeleton following her every move.
"Try to take the crystal." Tyroth said.
Looking at the skeleton, Kate gulped before kneeling down and very carefully reaching out her hand towards the skeleton's.
As she got closer, the skeleton began to shake a little, causing Kate to pull back her hand, at which point the skeleton became still again. Taking a deep breath, Kate tried again, and just like before, the skeleton shook a little, and once her hand was close enough to almost touch the bones, the skeleton slowly moved the hand clutching the crystal, gently placing it in Kate's own.
Shortly after handing Kate the crystal, the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones without warning.
"Fucking shit!" Kate exclaimed, recoiling, thought she quickly felt the warm embrace of Michelangelo.
"It's okay, Katie. That bonehead won't hurt you." he looked to Tyroth. "Right?"
"It doesn't seem like it, no."
"How did you know it would give Kate the crystal?" Sephie asked.
"It was just a hunch, but she was the only one that it reacted to, so there had to be a reason for it." Tyroth explained. "Since it didn't get up to attack her at any point, I guessed that it might have something to do with the crystal."
"But why would it want to give it to Kate?" Michelangelo wondered.
"Who fucking cares." Kate half snapped. "All I know is that I don't want it, and I really don't want that… thing here in my house."
"Don't worry, we'll make sure all the bones are removed." said Tyroth. "They shouldn't be any problem any longer, as it seems whatever animating force has left them."
"All the same, I think I'll lock the door to my clinic." said James, not being too thrilled about keeping the bones over the night.
As soon as everyone had left, taking every single bone with them, and having moved all the furnitures back where they were supposed to be, Kate let out a deep sigh as she slid down in bed once again.
"What a fucking nightmare… so glad that it's over now… and finally, no more scratching… what a relief, huh, hun?"
There was no answer from Michelangelo, instead he was snoring softly, which made Kate smile.
"Sweet dreams, my little dork." she whispered as she snuggled up next to him, quickly falling asleep as well.
The next day, Kate stepped into the office of Dragon Hall, where Tyroth and Ragnir were waiting, the latter holding the crystal they found on the skeleton.
"Good morning, Kate. Slept well, I hope?" Tyroth asked.
"Aside from the scare, last night was the best sleep I've had in a very long time." she responded. "So what did you want to talk about?"
"Tyroth here explained what you found in your house, I think I can share some light on it." Ragnir began. "Based on the description of the bones, I'd say that what you found was a Yuan-ti."
"What the hell is a Yawnty?"
"Yuan-ti. A form of snake people, of sorts." Tyroth explained. "I should have remembered them from the books, but there's so much in them. Regardless, in short, they used to be humans that began worshipping some form of snake deity or spirits, and seek to become more snake like themselves."
"Now they are an evil, crazed culture that see sacrificing other sentients as a way to gain favour from the great snakes, or something along those lines." Ragnir continued. "I doubt I'll ever fully understand them."
"Snake people, huh? But what was this one doing here, if they are so evil? Didn't anyone recognise this guy? Girl? Whatever?"
"You see, the Yuan-ti come in all manner of forms." Ragnir explained. "Some have the head of a snake, some have plenty of snake heads, others still have snake heads instead of hands. And then you have those called pure-bloods, and they look almost completely human, aside from one or two things that they can often hide, like some patches of scales, a forked tongue, or fangs. They are often used as infiltrators, trying to find things of interest, like this crystal, I suspect."
"But why did that… thing give the crystal to me?"
"We don't know." said Tyroth. "There is still a lot that eludes us with this. Who this person was, how they died, how they ended up in that hole, what kept it… alive for all this time. We may never find out the answers, but I do have a few guesses.
It is entirely possible that this Yuan-ti took some form of precautions, in order to get the crystal back to their people. Perhaps, you were snake enough for them to mistake you for a Yuan-ti. It could even be so that this was this world's version of you."
"So even my counterpart is snake?"
"Maybe. We don't know for sure, but we have met counterparts from other dimensions before. Vulstrun being a perfect example, and Mikey have mentioned super variants of him and his brother, and now he have a Karai of this world, so who knows."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. This is more than I really care about. You called me here for a reason, I don't think this was it, right?"
"Well, it's the crystal actually." said Ragnir. "Quite rare, but I've seen these before, it's an enchantment crystal. As far as I understand it, they are easy to bind magical enchantments to, and one can then use the crystal to transfer the enchantment to a fitting object; weapons, armours, jewellery. Seen a few been used by some of the master blacksmiths of my home."
"And what does that have to do with me?" Kate wondered.
"Since the Yuan-ti gave the crystal to you, as far as I'm concerned it's yours to keep." said Tyroth. "Had we not been facing such a threat, I would have recommend that we sell it at some point, but as it is now, I think it's better if you use it on your whip, give it a bit more bite."
"More bite, huh? I like the sound of that." Kate said, a smirk forming on her lips. "So, what does this thing do then? What's its deal?"
"If I've read its energies correctly, it should make it so that your whip will deal poison damage with every hit."
"Now you're talking!" Kate said excitedly, quickly grabbing her whip as well as the crystal. "So… how do I do this?"
Ragnir stepped forward, placing his hand on the one Kate held the crystal in.
"I tried asking the blacksmiths about it, most of them were tight-lipped, like it was some form of trade secret and the only one that did say anything, was rather cryptic. She basically said that you have to will the crystal into the object, but how you do that is anyone's guess."
"'Will it'? Seriously? That's all I have to go on?"
"I'm afraid so, lass."
Annoyed, Kate glared at the crystal, but her gaze softened and she sighed.
"What the hell… let's try then."
Kate pressed the crystal against the flexible handle of her whip while wanting it to merge with her weapon, yet nothing happened.
"Come on. Come on." she muttered as she kept trying, but the results remained the same. The only thing that changed was that she was getting more irritated and angrier with every attempt. "Oh, for crying out loud! Come on, already!"
Eventually, she couldn't take it any longer.
"Work, you fucking little piece of shit, or I'll shatter you!" she yelled, slamming the crystal into her whip.
With a flash, the crystal glowed strongly in the same green as it was, transforming from a solid state into what could best be described as liquid light, and it flowed over the whip, covering all of it in a matter of seconds.
A few moments later, the light faded, revealing the new form of Kate's weapon. The black leather that was woven into the mostly light brown whip, giving it a sort of zigzag pattern, had turned into an intense, yet dark green colour, and the knob of the handle had grown and taken the rough shape of a snake's head, while also being completely green.
"Hell yeah! Percy better watch out now!" Kate said with impish glee.
"I guess that's one way of doing it." Ragnir said under his breath.
"Kate, you will not be using that against Percy." Tyroth said sternly.
"That depends fully on him." she said with a smirk. She couldn't wait to give her upgraded weapon a test run.
If you thought Kate was dangerous before, she's gotten even deadlier now that she has a magic weapon.
Out of all of the Knights, she was the one with the least dangerous weapon. Sure, a whip can hurt like crazy, but it's not very easy to actively kill with it compared to other weapons, but that changes now.
Let's hope it makes a difference when the gnolls arrive.