NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: Missing A Finger
After a minute or so of intense concentration and probably looking like he was badly constipated, Dominic felt a shiver go through him. Then, cracks again began sounding out as his bones started shifting and changing under his skin. Once more feeling nauseous even if it wasn't painful, Dominic closed his eyes and continued concentrating fiercely on himself as a lion – he didn't want to know what might happen if he lost concentration halfway through the change.
Finally, he sensed that he was once more in a stable state and opened his eyes. The whole process rather reminded him of how he switched between human and lion forms in his mental space, though a lot slower and more unnatural. He definitely wouldn't be switching between forms in battle any time soon. Perhaps the transformation would get easier with time and practice? Again, he noted the differences between his eyesight, the changes stark now that he had experienced something different. But his body itself felt just as comfortable as ever.
He also realised something else when the buzz of his Pride members exclaiming over what had just happened flooded his mind – he'd had no access to the Pride chat when he'd been in his human form. That would definitely be a pain in the future.
'Yes, that was me,' he confirmed, answering the question that seemed to be the most prevalent among those hanging around outside the barrier, staring at him. He stepped out of it himself and brushed against first Sekhmet and then his Pride mates. In the time it had taken him to transform from a humanoid form back to a lion, the numbers around the barrier had swollen to encompass most of the Pride. Even his 'little brother' was now there and watching in what looked like a mixture of curiosity and wariness. Actually, those two emotions described what most of the Pride appeared to be feeling.
Nyx stepped forwards from where she had been sitting to rub her head against Dominic's.
'What happened? Why were you a two-leg?' she asked when she stepped back again. Multiple pairs of eyes watched them eagerly – clearly she wasn't the only one wondering that.
Dominic hesitated.
'We should tell them something,' urged Leo. 'Much as I dislike being associated with such a pitiful-looking thing, I do not want to be eaten by accident either.'
'You have a point,' Dominic conceded. 'About telling them something, that is,' he clarified – though he hadn't seen his new form in a mirror, he had a feeling that 'pitiful' wouldn't be a word he'd use to describe it.
'I…when I levelled up last time, I became capable of taking on another form,' he explained after a moment of thought. 'As you see, it's one with two legs rather than four.' He decided that it wasn't necessary to tell them that he'd once been a human, especially since he was pretty sure that the form he had taken on had surprisingly little in common with the body he'd once had. Obviously, without a reflective surface, he couldn't see the colour of his eyes, but his hair hadn't been as dark as his new humanoid form had. And he certainly hadn't had any of the leonine features, or had a musculature anywhere close to what his new form sported.
The Pride members accepted his words with a slightly unnerving silence. Dominic didn't want to remind them not to attack or eat him out of fear that that might appear as weakness and would provoke just that response. But he wasn't sure what else he should say.
'This is a good thing,' Nyx said finally, breaking the silence. 'Now you are able to do anything the other two-legs can.'
That provoked a number of murmurs among other Pride members.
'Well, perhaps,' Dominic agreed slowly. 'Not everyone is capable of everything – many things require knowledge and experience that I simply don't have. But if we're in a dungeon again and we need to do something which is easier with hands rather than paws, then I'll certainly be able to help. Or if something goes wrong with one of our sets of armour, I might be able to fix it.' Though that raised the question of whether his armour would automatically adjust to his human form or, more likely, if it would just fall off him. And if it did fall off him, did that mean that it wouldn't fit his lion form afterwards? He resolved to test it at some point, but only with Sylmar or one of the crafters handy to refit it afterwards if that proved itself necessary. Which then made him wonder whether he wanted to reveal his new form to the elves, and if so, when. He wouldn't be mistaken for another elf, that was guaranteed.
Of course, he also needed to check if he could even access the armour from his human form – he had noticed that his gorget was still there, but not whether he still had the ear piercing which contained his armour. With a sudden swoop of fear, Dominic reached up to brush his ear with his paw. Relief poured through him when he felt the metal loop pressed close to his skull. At least he hadn't accidentally lost the thing during the transformation, which was at least a strong indication that he still had it as a human. He checked the bracelet tied around his ankle – it was there too, and he had a vague memory of seeing it around his ankle in his humanoid form as well.
'Will we get a new shape when we become strong enough?' Jenkins asked, padding forwards and pressing herself along Dominic's length. The Pride members fell silent again from where they had been discussing the potential benefits of Dominic being able to mimic the two-legs in their capabilities.
'I don't know,' Dominic answered after a moment of thought. His first inclination was to say 'no', but that would provoke the questions of 'why not' and 'how do you know'. And the fact was that he didn't. He suspected that it was unlikely: it was only because his nature was that of human and leonine consciousnesses inhabiting the same body that he'd been given a quest which had enabled the transformation. His companions who were purely animal consciousness in their original bodies – or the closest things to those considering everyone had been disintegrated and then reconstituted – were unlikely to be given the same options.
But who was to say that there were no other ways of gaining a humanoid body? After all, Selessa had one too, if only in the dreamspace. And everyone was growing and changing in ways that they never would have pre-System – Jenkins had managed to get wings even without being a chimera. Perhaps it was possible for them to gain humanoid bodies at some point? 'Maybe, but I wouldn't be able to guide you on that,' he continued finally. He didn't want others thinking that they might be able to use the same method as he did.
'Pity,' Jenkins complained with a distinct pout to her voice.
Dominic continued answering a few other questions from various curious Pride members. Most of them seemed to centre around how different it felt to be humanoid, particularly whether it felt strange to stand on two legs instead of four. That, Dominic was easily able to answer honestly – that it felt no more strange than standing on four legs.
Finally, it seemed like his Pride members were mostly satisfied. Dominic decided that it was time to try to transform while outside of the barrier. It was a bit of a risk, but his Pride members didn't seem to be hostile in any way, and all of those present seemed to understand that it was still him – even the other male. That would hopefully stop them from seeing him as easy prey – encouragingly, none had tried before and he was pretty sure most didn't know about the barrier. And even if they did, the fact that he wasn't completely defenceless in his humanoid form should see him capable of scrambling back into the barrier in a worst case scenario.
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And, frankly, there wasn't a better time to discover whether some of his Pride members would like to eat his humanoid form than now. Especially when no one had reported seeing any dungeon beasts yet. They would come, but there should still be a bit of time. Dominic would explore his new form and then, if he still had time, he'd try to contact Selessa.
'Any objections?' he asked Leo, just to check that his companion didn't have anything else in mind.
'No. It is sensible to determine what our capabilities are – since we have the time,' Leo agreed. 'We know from experience that going into battle with untested abilities is a poor choice,' he continued, apparently unable to resist the opportunity to rub some of Dominic's past mistakes in his face – mistakes he had made no suggestions to prevent beforehand, of course. 'Though we should also mate with some females – that should be high on our priority list,' he added when Dominic didn't give him the satisfaction of a response.
Ignoring the lion with a one-track mind, Dominic told the Pride members who had stuck around – most of them – that he was about to transform again. He then tried to ignore the eyes on him as he concentrated on transforming.
The second time around was much the same as the first, though Dominic didn't think he was imagining it being very slightly easier, which was a good sign for the future if so.
Back in his new form, Dominic quickly checked for the earring and then pushed himself to his feet. The Pride members around him backed away slightly, wariness entering some of their gazes, but their curiosity kept them close.
A lioness that he recognised as Sekhmet from the way she was moving approached him slowly. It was an odd experience. Though when he'd first met her and her sisters, he had identified them based on their visible differences, like Hathor's heart-shaped spot. But somehow, that had changed over time. It must have, because now he was using mostly-human senses, he felt the lack of everything else. His eyesight was sharper and able to see the faint dots which she had on her inner legs in a way he hadn't before, but he wasn't able to differentiate her scent from the musk of all the other predators around.
He flared his nostrils in curiosity, and sniffed around a bit, focussing on the different Pride members closest to him. He came to realise that the different species did smell a little different – and he could tell that even with his more humanoid nose. The amesheks were slightly more spicy than the lions; the albuhas were faintly sour in a way he wasn't expecting. But he couldn't pick up the unique scent which he knew as Sekhmet. Very odd and surprisingly annoying to him.
She seemed to be just as disconcerted as she approached him.
'You smell the same, but you look different,' she told him warily, padding closer. Dominic was surprised to be able to hear her, but maybe he shouldn't be – he knew she was able to speak with the elves via Telepathy.
Actually, that was something he should test.
'You look a little different to me and you smell different too,' he admitted, attempting to project his thoughts in the same way as he would do as a lion.
'I haven't changed,' she responded slightly indignantly. 'You have.' Apparently she was able to hear him. That was a good start – without the Pride chat, he'd been worried that he might not be able to communicate with everyone. Going through Sekhmet wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. The lioness stepped close enough to press herself to him.
Dominic estimated from the size of the barrier that he was taller than he used to be – his humanoid head was perhaps a foot above where his leonine one would be. Which was impressive since he knew he'd grown significantly as a lion. Still, that Sekhmet had also grown was obvious because her head reached his waist. If he didn't trust her as much as he did, he would be very uncomfortable to have such a dangerous predator so close to so many of his vulnerable and unprotected places. But as it was, he was only slightly uneasy. And that was mostly because having sharp teeth near his bits would never be relaxing – especially not when they were naked.
She pressed herself against him and he felt how much less resistant this body was in comparison to his lion one as he had to brace hard not to be knocked over. He jumped as a sandpapery tongue licked the back of one of his thighs. He twisted around to glare at her, seeing smugness in her body language.
The success with communicating with Sekhmet had made him wonder something – would he be capable of communicating telepathically with others or had he only succeeded because he'd piggy-backed on her connection?
'Nyx, can you hear me?' he asked, directing his thoughts to the female ameshek.
'I can hear you,' she responded easily, twitching her antennae in an indication of interest. 'Do you wish to tell me something?'
'No, I was just trying to test something.'
Nyx seemed to take that onboard easily enough.
'You look…odd like that. Small,' she commented. Dominic shrugged.
'Sometimes size isn't everything.' Then he gave her a smirk. 'You look extra big like that.' Then he belatedly wondered whether he'd put his foot in his mouth – human women didn't generally like to be told that they 'look big'.
Fortunately for Dominic, Nyx wasn't a human woman. Instead of taking offence, she shifted in a way that Dominic could only call 'preening'.
'Do you think so?' she practically purred then stepped forwards to join Sekhmet in inspecting him, taking advantage of being closer to press her muzzle against Dominic's head. With his added height, he was now almost as tall as she was, but he had nothing on her bulk and was forced to take a step back as just her affectionate caress was too much for him to brace against. The movement of the two females seemed to be the signal for everyone else to do the same with Jenkins leading the charge. Soon, Dominic was at the centre of a load of curious Pride members.
Some of them were a little rough, but Dominic was pleasantly surprised by just how resistant his body appeared to be. Though he was more easily knocked off balance with just two legs than with four, and he'd had to extend his wings a couple of times to stop himself from falling over, he didn't take any damage. His skin hadn't torn and he didn't even feel like he'd earned bruises despite one of the albuhas' attempt to nip lightly at his leg – he'd smacked the offending canine with a claw-filled hand, sending her stumbling backwards with a whimper. None of the others had pushed his boundaries too far after that.
After examining him to their satisfaction, most of the Pride wandered off to settle down for a rest. Only the kesh were left behind – the three kesh who were present in the centre seemed utterly fascinated with his new form, perhaps seeing its similarities to their own. They seemed to be particularly interested in the fact that he only had one pair of arms and in his hands. One of the kesh kept turning his hand this way and that, feeling the claws which were hidden underneath his fingernails and the flexibility of his fingers. Then that one started making sounds which Dominic recognised as concern. A moment later, Sekhmet perked up and came to sniff at his hand too.
'Did you hurt yourself?' she asked Dominic.
'No. Why?' Dominic responded with a frown.
'The primate thinks you're missing a finger.'
'Oh. No, I only have five where they have six. It's supposed to be like that.' Apparently that was enough to satisfy Sekhmet, though the kesh seemed to want to spend a bit longer looking at his 'fingerless' hand.
'You know what,' Dominic said thoughtfully to Leo when the kesh had finally lost interest. 'I think that I've figured it out.'
'What?'
'What has carried over and what hasn't.'
'Well?' Leo asked impatiently.
'Obviously, exterior equipment has carried over – the gorget and the ear stud. We'll have to test what happens with our tail armour, considering we don't have a tail like this. But otherwise, have you noticed that everything we have now are Aspects which we've either earned or upgraded in our lion form? Fur, muscles, mane, teeth, claws, wings…and possibly the upgrades to our eyesight and sense of smell are why it's better in this form than I remember them being as a human.'
'...That's an interesting point,' Leo admitted after a long moment. 'Are we able to see our status like this?'
And that was a very good question.