Chapter 4

"look he's waking up!"

"Never knew you could use salt like that."

"Salt has thousands of uses plus it tastes good with almost anything."

Frank then opened up his eyes and was met by a pair of yellow gleaming eyes set in human-shaped bald metal head.

Behind him or her or... it? Frank saw her,

The Tamarin lady from the night before.

Her eyes fiery red contrasting to her naturally green scales and she was wearing a long black cloth dress. The dress also had a hood and there were lots of wears and tears.

The metal one was also wearing a black robe but his had no wears and tears.

"Hello boy, what is your name?" asked the metal one.

"My name is Frank Kirkwall; prince of Yoren; son of Yoran."

"Oh..." said the metal one as he looked back at the Tamarin lady. "You were right, he could be useful."

"And who are you?" Frank asked

"Ah forgive me, I am Boren from the Golden tower, I'm sure you've heard of it and this is Mys Tara my colleague."

Frank then looked around the room that he was in.

It was very light, there were white walls, no windows, the ceiling and the floor lit up where Boren and Mys Tara stood and Frank was lying in a white bed under white sheets.

Franks hands and arms were the same as always except when he checked his face he noticed that he now had very round retractable ears and gills on the sides of his neck.

"Can you stand?" Boren asked while he stepped back from the bed to give me some space.

Frank then pulled off the sheets noticing that he was now wearing different pants then before and instead of feet there were a pair of what looked like penguin feet.

"Oh... " Frank said as he stared at his feet.

"It was quite hard to put those pants on you with your feet like that" Boren said.

"That's gonna take some getting used to" Frank replied.

Frank then turned and planted his feet on the floor. It felt strange wiggling the 3 toes that made up his feet. Frank then slowly stood up towering above Boren. Mys Tara however was nearly as tall as Frank now was.

"Good, now can you walk for a bit?" asked Boren.

Frank then hesitatingly took a couple of steps.

"yeah, much easier than I thought it would" replied Frank.

Seems that these feet will still function fine.

Boren then turned and started walking to an opening in the wall,

"lets go have breakfast shall we."

*growl* - Franks stumache.

"We can talk while having a meal".

Frank then eagerly followed them out into the next room which was much larger than the previous one.

This room had the same floor and ceiling but there was a couch, a fire place, a kitchen, and outside you could see the white tip mountains below.

Ever since the endless war started mankind or any other race for that matter had not been allowed inside the golden tower. The ones that lived here were said to have technology far beyond most peoples wildest imaginations. Some even speculate that the Ancients who lived in the golden tower made the world that we live in and even created all the species.

"So you're an ancient then?" Frank asked

Boren replied

"We both are, only Mys Tara here 'temporarily' transformed herself into a Tamarin to oversee that the people of the forest don't join the war of the humans as the dragoon riders already have.

But due to you breaking the only known transformer machine her transformation has become permanent"

Mys Tara face turned into a scowl for a moment before she walked towards the dining area.

Boren walked towards the kitchen and asked,

"is there anything you prefer to eat, for breakfast."

"I would like egg on toast with some sausage.... uhmm. Or... Whatever is good for this new body of mine. I figure whatever I am now doesn't normally eat things like that."

Turning to Mys Tara with a smile on his face Boren said:

"He is smart too."

Then turning back to Frank:

"Anyways please sit down, we've got a lot to discuss."

Boren pressed on the kitchen-counter a couple times, then as Boren looked up the center of the dinner table opened up and from the opening arose two glasses both filled with some kind of white liquid accompanied by the smell of both meat and fish.

Mys Tara took both and checked which one was fish and which one was meat by smelling and gave Frank the one that smelled like fish as she drank up her.... breakfast.

Frank hesitantly took the glass and just stared at it.

"What is this? It smells like fish but it doesn't look like fish."

"Just try it" said Boren; "If you don't like it I'll get you something different."

Frank then after clearing his throat a bit closing his eyes and pinching his nose to not let the fish smell in he let some of the 'breakfast' into his mouth.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"It actually tasted pretty good."

Frank immediately took another swig but bits of it fell out of his gills onto his clothes.

Boren laughed, which looked very awkward because his mouth wouldn't move.

Mys Tara just grinned and said;

"I had that too the first time, gotta close those gills before you eat or drink or it'll all drop right out again. at least no fish-bones got stuck in your gills like it did for me."

Frank gave a light smile. "Sorry for getting your clothes dirty"

"Ah no worries, besides you can keep those clothes smelling like fish since that will make you popular among the ladies of your current species."

Frank immediately frowned but he let it go.

'So if I understand it correctly I cannot turn back to being a human, due to the transformer breaking, right?'

"That's somewhat true, we can repair what you broke but we haven't even assessed the damage yet. The most we can say is that it'll take at least 10 years to fix it simply because nobody knows how to make those transformers anymore so we'd have to research the thing.

It could also turn out to be irreparable if the hard drive was damaged. There is nowhere to get the software from besides from the central back-up file but we're not authorized to access it and because the transformer was deemed illegal by our new government we can't really go around looking for the people that made the transformers anymore."

"You mean the ones that made the transformer thing are still alive? How is that possible, it looked ancient, at the very least 200 years old. I read once that even giants only grow up to be a 140 at most."

"Well; that is sort of a long story.. in short I can tell you that our people collectively downloaded our conscience to a database and from there we control and live in these metal bodies of ours.

We have to stay in range of the signal but it does mean that we can live as long as we keep the database running. And just in case we made three back ups just in case anything would would happen to the one we are currently using..' Said Boren.

'This is also why the transformer was deemed illegal; because if one were to die while in biological form they would lose all the memories of what had happened during their physical life and go back to their last virtual memory. "

'Okay, but why did you bring me here? How long have I been out?' Frank asked.

"We brought you here because you have to pay for the damages.

Another reason is that since you're able to switch between races we deemed it possible for you to take over Mys Tara's task of monitoring the various races that inhabit these lands. And you weren't out for that long, Mys Tara found you shortly after your encounter in the fields."

"Does monitoring the races mean that I can still go to Jin and look for my father?"

'Why are you looking for your father?' Boren asked.

"My father was heading back to Jin for diplomatic reasons but was attacked by Dragoon riders as was I before I fell into your transformer room. I don't even know if he's still alive."

"He is alive.." said Mys Tara before Boren interrupted her by holding up his hand.

"what if we can tell you where he is; will you promise to help us if we do?' said Boren.

'You know where he is? Tell me!' Frank replied excitedly.

"I will only tell if you promise to help us out of this mess that you've created by blowing up our transformer." Boren replied sternly.

*silent moment*

Franks thought: 'Should I agree? But for what purpose do they keep a watch over the races? Why are they so intent on this? Why are they doing things contrary to their government? Would it be illegal to help them? But then I did cause them to be in this predicament... What to do what to do...'

'Okay how about this. We flip a coin, heads is you promise to help us first and we have you sign a contract but if it's tails we tell you all we know and then you decide if you will help us or not.'

'Seems fair but let me do the tossing' I replied.

Seeing as Frank didn't have any coins on him Mys Tara opened her backpack that had been laying on the floor and from it she took out an obsidian coin which seemed to be from the giant-race,

As it was the size of Franks entire hand. On one side was a single line signifying the lava line where it was forged and on the other the face of the giant that had forged it.

"Heads" said Boren

Frank took the obsidian coin from Mys Tara with great difficulty and threw it up into the air as best he could flipping it. It was quite difficult because it was a big and heavy coin.

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