{Ware behind, Alith!}

Ir'alith responded to her father's warning without hesitation, vaulting into the sky to increase her field of view as she shifted into her new combat form and flicked her helmet back onto her head with a snarl. She halted her forward motion on a block of compressed wind energy and hung off its side, glaring in every direction. Who dares…

There was a loud sound from below her, and when she glanced directly down, she saw that the car had rammed itself into the side of a wide plateau, penetrating halfway through.

{On other occasions, this Vol creature you befriended was capable of steering away, but she seemed paralyzed. As though afflicted by some form of spell.}

Ir'alith kicked off the block and returned to the ground, dashing forward towards the car. "Carl?" she called as she grabbed the rear of the car and pulled. "Vol?"

The car slid out of the rock wall at her continued effort, its front bouncing along over the uneven rubble beneath.

There was no reply to her calls.

She hopped forward towards the right side of the car.

Where Carl had been sitting.

He is not so weak that he would be affected by… Her thoughts stopped entirely when she reached the front side of the car.

There was a bloody splatter that covered entire inside of the car, obscuring her view.

Her hearts pounded, and she felt a sense of despair rising from deep within herself. No…

She clawed at the top of the car, thinking to tear it away, but the enchantments she had placed upon it were too strong. She stabbed at the see-through part which Mina had called glass, but her claws rebounded. The glyphs would take too long for her to destroy, which meant—

"Urgh, that was stupid," Vol said, standing nearby and pressing a hand to her face. "Sorry, didn't mean to—"

"We must save him!" Ir'alith called frantically as she continued to hammer and claw at the side of the car in which Carl was wounded.

Her Carl.

She blasted the thought from her mind. He is not. He is Annie's, and—

"Do you… Do you not know how doors work?" Vol asked. Her arm moved at a speed that was impossible to follow, and the car's door began to swing open.

Ir'alith wrenched the door open to its limit, tipping the car forward with the strength she had used.

Inside was…

"No…" Ir'alith whispered as she stared. She pulled her helmet off to hold it in her hand, but it dropped from her fingers and fell to the ground.

The inside of the car was filled with blood, gore, and pieces of bone. It dripped from the top, it ran down the sides, and it stuck out of every possible cavity.

Carl was not there.

Carl was dead.

She stood motionless, unable to think further.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

Carl was dead.

CARL WAS DEAD.

"Fucking Carl," Vol said with an annoyed sigh. "Such a stupid joke."

A joke?

Ir'alith turned her head slowly to look down at the shorter, human-like creature. "What?" she said, the only word she could manage with her mind in such turmoil.

Vol shook her head and reached out, retrieving a piece of fruit from the space before her and taking a bite. "Obviously just Carl doing some kind of stupid, Carl, side character shit. I hit him way harder than that one time and he was totally fine. Weirdly fine, really."

"Then…" Ir'alith's thoughts lurched into motion. "He… Carl still lives?"

Vol nodded and took another bite. "Yeah, definitely. This is just some fucking… Is he looking at us?" She started looking around. "Carl?" she shouted. "You got me, I'll admit it. Wasn't expecting that at all."

There was no reply.

"Urgh, he's really focused on this, isn't he," Vol said. She brought the fruit to her mouth again for another bite, but this time, there was a brief flash and a crackle, and the remainder of it disappeared. "Okay, might be a while before he comes out then."

"You are certain he is not dead?" Ir'alith asked, her eyes fixing back on the blood-soaked insides of the car.

Vol gave her a look of surprise, then she began to chuckle. "He really got you," she said between laughs. "Now I see why he's not coming out. You should see your face."

My face?

Vol clapped a hand to her shoulder. "It was a little cruel, but it's just a joke," she said as she leaned closer. "A prank. Something friends do. He's definitely okay, I promise."

Ir'alith felt some part of the mountain of despair and anxiety within herself crumble away. "You are certain?" she asked again.

Vol nodded. "Definitely. I told you, I punched him harder than that once. He was totally fine after. Not a mark on him."

"Why would you do such a thing?" Ir'alith frowned.

"I was trying to show him…" Vol stopped speaking abruptly and shrugged. "Doesn't matter. I also watched him fight a giant machine—way bigger than the one you and Mina were trying to kill—and he was definitely getting hit a lot harder than what happened here," she said. "Not even sure how he managed this," she murmured, sounding amazed.

{She seems certain, Alith. She and Carl seem to be close friends, and you have said that she is far stronger than you. She has no reason to lie that I can determine. Perhaps this is some strange tradition of the dragons which we remained unaware of?}

Gradually, Ir'alith felt her mind clear. She sank her axe into the ground to stand upright behind herself and shifted back to a form that felt more comfortable. "If you say this is so, then I will trust in your words," she said, averting her gaze from what was not the remains of Carl. She must be correct on this. Surely no dragon would meet such an end.

Not Carl.

She closed her eyes for a moment and felt refreshed upon opening them. How strange this is. It must be as she has said, however.

{I still can think of no explanation for it.}

Vol was standing to her side when she looked, now appearing entranced by something near the ground.

Ir'alith tilted her head down, but there was nothing to see. She turned to look behind herself, but there was nothing to be seen there either.

"What's it feel like?" Vol asked abruptly. "Uh, the scales, I mean. When you don't have them, and then you do, and then you don't again." She looked up with curiosity in her eyes.

{She admires your talent in changing your form. You should be proud.}

Is she not also capable of such a thing? How little I know of her. "It feels…" Ir'alith began, discontinuing her words when she discovered that she had never before considered the idea in this sense. "Perhaps you would like to feel for yourself?" She extended a hand.

"Can I?" Vol asked. She reached out hesitantly and set her fingers on the offered palm, moving them back and forth a little.

Ir'alith shifted the skin of her palm to the same scales as her combat form, watching the expression of her friend shift along with it.

Vol rubbed her fingers over the scales, and she seemed to be thinking seriously on some matter. "C-can I—I mean…" Her eyes slid downwards. "Do the ones on your legs feel different?" she said, the words flying out almost too quickly to be heard.

Would this be the case? Ir'alith considered the matter. The scales would be harder on my legs, the better to protect against impacts. "Perhaps," she said.

"Can I feel?" Vol asked in a pleading tone. "Just a little? Above the knee there?" she pointed to a spot just above where the softly glowing greaves ended.

{She is very curious.}

Perhaps she is only capable of lesser types of shifting. Or she is—Ah, I understand. If she is kin to lightning elementals, then she likely can only return her form to lightning and cannot otherwise change it, just as a fire elemental cannot become water.

{Your ability to reason and think as your mother did is ever a source of pride to me, Alith.}

Ir'alith felt her father's pride wash over her, and she smiled a little. "I can think of no reason to refuse since we are friends," she said.

Vol's eyes began to sparkle, with small fragments of lightning flitting about here and there. "Okay, so, um…" She reached out with trembling fingers. "J-just gonna touch—"

"My scorpion!" A void boomed out. "It's time once again!"

Vol looked around in confusion, and Ir'alith hopped back, taking up a ready stance in case the one that had spoken was an enemy.

A blurry shape with two blurry legs, two blurry arms, and two blurry horns on its blurry head strolled towards them.

After a moment. Vol brought her hands to her face. "Noooooooooooo!" she moaned, sounding completely defeated. "No. No, no, no! Why noowwwwwwwwww? I was so close!"

"What is this?" Ir'alith said, retrieving her axe and shifting to her combat form as she prepared for battle. "Do we fight?"

"Urgggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh," Vol replied, letting out a sigh mixed with a groan.

"I thought you'd be happier to see me, my little scorpion," the blurry shape said, its voice no longer as loud now that it stood only several steps away. "How long has it been?"

"Fuck you," Vol said as she glared. "You know how fucking annoyed I am that you came here at this exact moment."

"I do?" The blurry thing raised a hand to its head, revealing that it had three arms. "Ah, yes, I do!" Its voice did not use sound nor did it use magic, but it seemed amused.

A deity.