NOVEL NEXT Ch.12: Home, Home, let it Be
After getting our boba we walked in silence, my mother seemed focused on something else as she was leering into far distance. Her face going from anger to thoughtful to solace as she finally turned to me.
“Listen Oliver… there’s been a slight change of plans.” She paused in thought, thinking about how to word it. “You see our house has just finished its remodel!” She said excitedly waving her hands. "And well I was thinking that we should go and check it out!” she concluded
“You mean our home is different? How? In what way?” I asked confused.
“Well… why don’t we go and see! I’m sure you’ll love it.” She said with a big smile.
I could tell she wasn’t telling me something. Looking around with my eyes, I didn’t see too much of a difference, the people we passed were staring at me. Talking to each other like the devil came for payment early, others paled or rushed into nearby stores. Thinking of what happened in the Armory also replayed in my mind. I went into defense mode almost instantly… I might’ve done something I would regret. maybe it was a good idea to take this route, I had no way of guaranteeing that I wouldn’t freak out again.
Looking at my mother I nodded. “ok, let’s go check out the house.” I said wearing a smile.
Leaving the area, the people seemed to visually calm down. Some even seemed less concerned with their own problems after seeing a dragon. “That pressure was intense!”, “is that how it feels to shake hands with death!”, “I need to change, after seeing mistress dragon Lord.” Came a few comments.
The relief people felt was distraction enough as a random passerby walked through a nearby wall. “yeah, the subject is leaving. We’re safe to proceed forward.” Said the rando to their jacket collar.
The drive home was relaxing as some gentle music played a soft melody. The hum of the car and the sounds of passing cars, reminded me of the beach. The waves cascading over the land making a calming sound. This made my eyes heavy, I tried blinking away the sleepiness but each blink lasted longer than the last one, until nothing.
Something bumped my arm, I just ignored it, I wanted to nap longer. That something then pressed into my arm, it was pushing me, I could feel the edge of my seat. I wanted to move but my sleep hung onto my mind, making it hard to want to retaliate. That was until I was pushed off the edge as I heard a chuckle at my fall, it turned into howling laughter that made the wind move harshly. The wind crashed into me, tossing me into rocks and stone leaving dragon sized dents in them, until I landed onto a hard stony surface. Laying there I trembled from all the impacts and pelting of stone, I wrapped myself in my wings trying to protect myself but my body only shook in pain. That was when something grabbed my head and squeezed forcing me to open my eyes as my head was being crushed. All I could see were ruby eyes, filled with hate as the being held me there before my face was slammed into the rock wall. Blacking out.
“Oly! We’re here! Look at our new and improved house!” my mother called as she poked my nose. It failed to do anything, making her grimace before having an idea. ”I’ll eat all the meat and leave you the bones.” She teased.
“No! not the meat! Anything but that!” I said as I woke up from my stupor. Quickly looking around in worry before noticing her smiling face.
“so easy.” She shook her head laughing to herself. “so are ya ready to see our home!” my mother said as she jumped to the side in a presenting pose. Making the house more visible behind her.
The house was a lot bigger than when I last saw it, almost turning into a two story building and even sat wider as a few rooms may have been added. Even the material looks different, like it was switched out for something more sturdy.
“Whoa.” Was all I could say was we walked up to the bigger front door. It looked like a door for someone with Amanda’s height and size maybe a little taller?
Once inside the hallway to the living room was now split into another doorway to the left. The ceiling was so high up too! I could jump and still have room for even my horns! And in the hallway alone I could almost completely open my wings or fit three to four people on both sides of me. Entering the living room, it looked the same except with the addition of two couches made with white wood that shined like steel. One was a single seat ash gray couch the other was more a lounge couch that was long enough I could use as a bed! Going into the new doorway, I’m greeted by a new room with large treadmill in the back and several exercise equipment and a yoga ball?
I was super confused why there was all this equipment, was I supposed to be building up bulk? “Um… what’s with all of this?” I ask my mother, motioning with my hands to the room.
“Well, since you like to run I thought having this addition would help you out. Especially if you don’t want to run outside as your new self yet. Everything else is to burn energy in case your body needs to move.” My mother said with a sweet smile. She was considering my situation before it could be an issue but…
“Burn energy? Is there something I need to be worried about?” I asked concerned that I might self-detonate like a bomb.
“you could say monsters’ energy builds up faster because of your higher mana. You know everyone has mana frenzy so what better way than to work it off!” she said very happily. Oh, um… did I miss something in class? …no. then how should I know about it?
“alright? Anyway Let’s see what else was done, maybe we have a walk in fridge for extra meat?” I said trying to change the topic and acting out fake excitement. To which my mother stared at me even leaning forward to inspect me.
“…you know, if you want a bigger butt and tail then by all means. Because all that food is going to go straight there, you know.” She teased with a huge grin. “you could say tail is the ass of the reptile world.” She added, giving me a curious look. It seemed she wasn’t too afraid of whether I chose to build muscle or fat.
“I think I’ll just check out my room instead.” I said, trying not to think too much about how my body might attract the eyes of guys. My mother seemed to happily nod at my discretion or her masterful manipulation of the situation as she took off.
Finding my room was little harder, instead I found a bathroom with a large tub. It looked like a three or four person Jacuzzi, I very much wanted to try it out. I could see it relaxing my sore muscles after a long day with heated, soothing bubbling water! Girl body or not I WAS going to use it. This bathroom even had a large sink and vanity combo…. Seeing my female companion, I smiled at her and she waved. Putting my hand down from our wave, I happily continued my search in our bigger house. I was happy to see she was happy… I was happy with how our house was turning out as my steps were more springy then normal.
A little lost I turned to a smaller door, one I’d have to actually bend over a bit to get in, it was cracked open. And well curiosity got the better of me as I peeked inside, the room was dark and had a lower ceiling than the rest of the house. On the walls were posters of different bands, some of which I recalled had songs in videogames. One had a figure holding up ram horns like it was a sacrifice with the words, “Survive the Wrath”, scratched out in white. Another had a girl in a red short skirt and a long sleeve crop top with black belts wrapped from her left shoulder down to her wrist. She stood on a stage with a weird rune holding a spiked guitar, it was captioned at the bottom, “Dreamscape Radical”, in a bold blue font. On a shelf there was several books, game cases and a few cats, one holding a gold coin. A bed lay near a window, its sheets were tossed everywhere and the blanket was half on the floor.
I couldn’t see Cole anywhere in here, I guess he was still at his friend’s house. I sighed as I closed the door, I wasn’t sure how he’d react to his brother having the body of a girl. He might not even try to look at me. I didn’t want to dwell on it too long so I continued my search for my room.
“Finally!” I shouted as I found my room, I pumped my fists close to my chest. “Ow!” I cried as I smacked my weights really hard, the pain only lightly stung like a small pinch but I felt it and that was enough to bug me. Rubbing the pain away, it slowly numbed and went away, only to make me freeze like a statue. I was holding them! I could feel my own hands through m-my, m-my c-chest! W-w-why-y d-does it feel r-relaxing to hold! I could feel my fingers twitch and the heat from my h-hands how it made my s-skin happily tingle and pulse… something is b-b-begging to d-do more- No, NO and more No! pulling my hands away, much to the disappointment of my… needy, aching, hungry….um sooooo my room was much bigger than my old one!
The floor was big enough It could fix twelve of me laying down, it even had a nice soft carpet in the middle just for that! Note to self: must roll on soft carpet later and saved. In here the ceiling was much higher too, how big were they expecting me to get! looking to my left I could a m-much bigger TV replaced my old 16 inch one that was mounted on the wall. Below it was a black console with glass doors with my videogame consoles occupying their own cubby on the top shelf while my games organized on the bottom shelf. Looking to my right I saw a big, a very big, have your seven hot girlfriends with you, bed. The very bed Mark wanted, though he said orgy instead… um does it feel hot in here? Um-Oh there was a long desk next to it made with a black metal type of wood with white large handles. I poked a handle with the tip of my tail before my tail grabbed it and opened it. I see! Oooooh! The sound of the sliding drawers opening and closing was sooo pleasing I had to play with them for a few minutes, gotta make sure everything works after all. Anyway the desk also had a shelf attached to it and a few more smaller drawers to be checked later. Plus a mirror hung on the wall above the drawer in the shape of a half circle, me and my companion smiled at each other again. There was even a large wheeled chair with a hole for my tail with a navy blue color. In another corner was a big dresser with same black wood as the drawer and same white handles, I guess it’s part of a set? The dresser had six columns of drawers going down its body and its corners had been detailed to look like a dragon’s head with lines leaving below it, looking like it was breathing fire.
Turning around I saw an extra two doors, but all I had was a restroom before… going for the nearest one I opened the door to find a long room with two more dressers stretching to the back wall and above it was two poles. Was this a walk in closet? But, I don’t need that much clothing right? What I had was enough right? Wasn’t it? Then I remembered my mirror companion and all the clothes she wore at the Armory she was super cute and something stunning…. Maybe a few more shirts down the line wasn’t too bad? For at home I mean!
The other door led to a much bigger restroom, the toilet was similar to the one the hospital had but there was a lot of extra space around it. Nothing was around it, making it feel like some throne or something else. The sink had a big vanity the same shape as the mirror above me desk but this one was trimmed with strips of lights that looked like LED lights. The sink was oval shaped and had enough space on either side to put soap? That was a lot of space for soap though. On the other side was a standing shower that was wide enough to fully open my wings times three and even a little tiled bench to sit on. The glass was rose red and the tiles were mostly black but accented with white tiles where the wall met the floor.
Walking back into my room I sat in my new chair. I really might get bigger but how big? Turning to my computer on my desk I opened the search engine on a site called Element, to look up info on dragons. First finding dragon height, which showed different heights of dragons. The smallest being only two meters… oh wow, I was close to being considered a small dragon and if dragons worked like they did in media in my world, I was grateful not to be little. They might be insulted from seeing me and roast me… so how about the the tallest? Typing it in, I found my answer and it was eleven meters, not feet- meters! Surely this was a jok- scrolling down I found an old black and white picture of a dragon standing next to a small single story building. And the dragon dwarfed it! The huge wings were spread open leaving the a part of the top portion obscured, the photo didn’t even fully capture the full length of the wings in the shot. What I could see was something else, the dragon had a huge spiked tail curling up into a sharpened long sword like tip. Their scales where sharp like spikes or blades… was that an arm?! Perched by a pointed scale was a severed arm, held limply in the air. All around I could see smoke rising from the dark floor, almost like a fire raged there.
So, I guess dragons are living natural disasters… was what happened in the Rose Armory something far worse than what I initially thought? Like no more store awful?! My counselor even mentioned having high mana, so then how powerful could I get? Like split the sky OP? I don’t know what to think! It’s like I’m a to-
“Oly! Did you find your room!” called my mother, her voice was excited. Worried about what she might say, I closed the page on dragons.
“Yeah! It has an extra room too!” I called back.
“well can you find your way to the dining room? I’m sure you can smell it from there.” She called back. Wait what?
Stepping into the hallway I sniffed the air, there wasn’t a smell. What was she talking abo- that’s when I noticed a some slight odor. Breathing deeply I found the smell was stronger going down the hallway, it seemed familiar too. Something thick and juicy and a few other things. Moving down the hallway I followed the smell like a game of hot and cold, some places didn’t have much while other had more. It became rather strong as I came into a different room with a large table set with plates and utensils. On the plates I saw a nice T bone steak covered in a creamy gravy with a baked potato and butter, a side of carrots, green peas and broccoli. From the doorway I could even tell what my mother used, butter, pepper, salt, garlic and onion? Looking back I saw some caramel onions and not regular onions, these were sweet onions! My mouth drooled at the sight, it’s been years since my mother cooked one of my favorite dishes in my old life. …I miss those days, it feels great to be getting this again!
“I see you foun-“ my mother began stepping into the dining room, before I rushed over to hug her.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” I said with wet eyes, planting kisses on her forehead. I loved her and I wanted her to feel my love.
“Oooh Oly! I love you too!” my mother smiled almost crying at the sweetness of my sudden hug. She hugged back with a gentle squeeze.
We hugged for a short while before we sat down to eat at the table, I was so happy to eat that I cried at the first, third and tenth bite. The flavor was mellow thanks to the gravy, giving the tender steak a calm taste. The potato was salted and the soft fluffiness combined with butter was amazing! The veggies were lightly seasoned and steamed to perfect softness. Everything was beyond perfect and my mom had huge smile watching me eat it.
“This was great! But I don’t know why you made it?” I said. She only did this on special occasions like Christmas.
“Well in all the changes that happened, I realized that we didn’t do one very important thing.” She said walking back into the kitchen with a small smile.
The lights in the dining room dimed as my mother walked out with a chocolate cake with sparkling candles. “Happy Birthday to yoou.” She sang as she put the cake down in front of me.
After she finished singing she gave me a go on motion with her hands, to which I blew out the candles. My mother even took a picture on her phone. What did I wish for? I can’t tell, I want it to come true after all.
