To the west, there was an ocean... perhaps like the Atlantic Ocean? Pacific Ocean?

No one knows, but if we were to describe the climate, it would be African, hot and humid, but with an icy point, the crater of the black mountain, in fact a circus of mountains surrounding an octahedron.

And, between the mountain and the coast, a whole region of at least 1000 kilometers.

In the mountains, bordering the circus, there was a fort made of blocks and built by a civilization that has now disappeared.

But it was a fort and still in use.

It was the fortress of the Wyvern hunters and mercenaries of the former empire, which had disappeared and where only Queen Tarakmis' share remained. It was a duchy that was part of her kingdom but independent and made up of adventurers, small nobles who fought each other for a yes or a name, shamans, wizards but above all rich mercenaries with their semi-barbaric militia who were self-proclaimed barons. It was ungovernable and the queen was only there for appearances, parties and feasts where these little kings had an opportunity to meet, fight and kill each other during jousts or shows or better still executions or arenas.

Everything that was disturbing, strange or not of the races ended up there.

Only bravery and courage gave a chance to please one of the lords who had the right to redeem the gladiator or creature and get it out of this hell hole.

The arena was just south of the "Fort". It was so called because it had been facing the wind and weather since the beginning of time and ...by maintaining it, the craftsmen learned by themselves some of the lost knowledge.

Many of the ornaments that were found there were copied and one could find everywhere stones and sculptures of second choice in the structures of the arena whose style was directly copied.

But in fact, the style was made of rocks that were erected and cemented with sand, straw and lime crushed by the sun and the blows of swords, clubs, claws and dried blood.

Slaves of barbaric origin, Neanderthals, maintained the place and had an enviable fate compared to those who waited for their sad fate in the cages laid out on the ground and just covered with stinking skins and dried out for a long time to offer a meager shelter to the sun.

A ragged child was with other children of barbarians and he was prostrate in a corner, not understanding what was going on. He had a long lizard tail that was at least twice his length. His eyes were slitted and 2 canines protruded from his mouth. Yet he had everything of a human and also his long blond hair.

The barbarians left him in a corner, cursing him, not knowing if they should consider him a child or a monster.

But what brought him closer was that he was crying. Yet no one understood what he was saying, only grunts but sometimes "mom."

A girl stood up and brought a bowl of water, hoping to find some form of protection in the creature. In the face of impending death, anything was good, even the devil's boat.

"Akala!!! Leave it alone! We don't know what it is but it's a tail like the creature that killed our parents!"

"Arp, shut up! I'm trying to find out a little more before the arena..."

Garp: "One of the guards told us that we'd be food for some of the trenchers that they captured frozen and alive. That's why there are so many people..."

Akala "Then you'd better find something or other to be bought before you are eaten alive."

Garp: "Yes, Akala, be careful, they captured a big wyvern, bigger than the one that killed our parents and they keep it asleep with herbs and smoke. It's that smell that stings the nose."

The boy's tail swished back and forth, showing his mood but also his anxiety.

"Why??? why????"

Then he grabbed her tail and pretended to strangle her and wanted to bite her, resulting in a cry of pain followed by tears.

Akala wanted to move back but her hand was seized by the strange creature half human, half lizard...

"I'm turning!!! It's terrible... I don't want that!! nonnn!!!!!"

Her face was in Akala's belly, who caressed it but soon saw that her hair fell by tens and stayed in her fingers.

Yet she understood nothing of what he was saying but she crouched down and stood in front of him to console him.

She tapped her chest to say his name.

"A K A L A"

Me, AKALA!

The lizard boy spat and his tongue lengthened...and he took his two hands to hide his mouth which also lengthened.

Very slowly but he had time to say...

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

"ARNOLD!"

He held the girl by the arm and continued trying to say... "AKALA... ARNOLD.."

Akala: "Arnold??? your name is Arnold?"

He nodded his head in agreement and then pointed to his falling hair

He offered a clump to the girl

His feet became dark and his nails became talons.

There was a cracking sound, followed by crying and pain.

Arnold was breathing fast, very fast and was sick, vulnerable... lying on his side, his tail curled up on his belly, in a fetal position.

Arp: "Let's kill him before he becomes a monster! We will all be eaten anyway..."

Akala: "No! wait...this may be our only chance, if he stands up for us!"

Garp: "He's dying anyway...and when he's a wild beast, he'll eat us here in the cage!"

Arnold staggered on all fours and his nose bled, his mouth twisted and his canines pushed out the human teeth he had. It was painful and debilitating.

He screamed "AKALAAAA!!!" for her to hold his hand.... which she did.. and she began to cry as he spat out a volley of teeth..

"Tyrant's powers...I need to use them to become human again...fast" he thought but another volley of pain threw him to the ground some more.

CRRRRAACKKK.. His knees were inverted! and his feet became legs like the carnotosaurs and with a huge sharp claw like the raptors.

His feet were made of 3 main clawed toes and they were elongated like the limbs of a dinosaur.

Spikes appeared at the tail, forming a mace and a sword while its back arched and like an angry "Hulk", its clothes tore all over.

His genitals went into his belly and his skin fell off, leaving a membrane between his chest and his arms.

He became a wyvern. But the girl kept her hand in his but let go when her hands in turn became talons and her arms lengthened to form a full-fledged wyvern. His neck lengthened, as did his nose and jaw, and within moments Arnold was nothing like a human except for a mound of blond horse hair between the scales on his neck.

Then he began to grow and grow and grow until he took up the entire space of the cage with his 50-foot length.

If he stretched out, the cage would shatter. But the suffering and the effort were exhausting and he collapsed giving a lick to the girl.

All were prostrate and dared not say anything, paralyzed by fear.

When the monster would wake up, he would be hungry and he would only have to open his mouth.

But Akala sang a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her, and she stroked Arnold's head and muzzle.

With all the horror of it all, the storm wyvern's eyes were half open and she shed tears.

He was shaking, the pain still debilitating from his first transformation.

The girl dared, "Are you still Arnold?"

And... the wyvern trembled and with her arm, which she did not control well, she drew a human symbol in the dust...

She moaned, unable to speak...

Everything pulsed, everything was twisted and amplified. Every sound was an acoustic pain. Even the smallest whisper.

The smells were excruciating and came back as if amplified a thousand times.

But Arnold didn't understand... he hadn't been bitten, except years ago by Vermillion, but that wasn't possible, not now.

He prayed "Grandma??? Help!!! Why???"

But Enka turned a deaf ear... She was not in the mood and had like a sleep of divinity. This was a world of difference between mortals, immortal creatures and gods. She also worried about her "children" and most of the Tiamats who had had time to regenerate during all those centuries of sleep. Release them back into the world and this dimension would collapse under the mass of mana. She herself would limit herself like an Eskimo walking carefully on the ice so as not to break it with her own weight.

Answering questions was horrifying and it annoyed her. He was still an avatar of nothingness and destruction. Not pure evil, but not a child at heart either. Enka was a neutral bad alignment with a tendency for chaos and especially destruction.

She was like a spider carrying her eggs in a cocoon and was the only one to decide who would come out and who would stay. At least in this world.

She could feel the calls of the little ones but intervening would cause triggers and unforeseen events. She couldn't stand by and watch the future either because that would test her resistance to insanity, and still...

She looked at the base with Hans and wanted to please him for his fidelity and obedience. She saw in him the perfect model of Tiamat and lower deities who would serve her and weave the universe and her empire in her image.

But she had a "rock in her shoe" ... Louise... What to do with her? Ice and time had affected her and only time and experience could put her back in the wisdom, in the divine ways of the destroyer... The worst thing was that her future was veiled to Enka.. Like a halo of light. She was angry with herself because the damage was done... a bit like a pawn in chess..badly placed, you can't make it go back.. Well, not always.

A few hours passed and bread was thrown towards the cage, no one wanting to see or meet the eyes of children who were about to be slaughtered.

Arnold lifted his head, the pain gone and his spirits back to normal. He now realized his change and immediately thought of Octavia. Erotically...

His instincts jumped and his first instinct was to want to devour the children who were trembling in his paws, but he saw the little human girl caressing him and singing and he stopped short.

All of them were on their knees, begging him not to eat them.

Arnold's head was 20 feet high and he was giving off a terrible scare on the children, like prey...

"GWRRLLL SWISSHHH" then he stopped... it was useless...

Through the holes in the cage he saw that there were archers on the walls of the arena and the first clamors were beginning.

It was only a matter of time before it was their turn.

He tried to move his tail without hurting the children and turn around in the cage but it was too narrow. It would explode at the slightest movement.

Familiar cries rang out, followed by the screams of crushed and shredded limbs.

Gladiator warriors were fighting dinosaurs, raptors mixed with Hypoendocrine Raptors or drago raptors.

Instead of killing each other, the wild raptors lined up with the sentient raptors and followed orders to distract, flank and harass the wyvern killer warriors who dared to confront the new recruits.

One of them whistled and seeing that the gladiators were losing, a gate rose and a heavy step was heard.

A large wyvern with the head of a T-rex, or super allosaurus.

She was confused and didn't realize the situation.

She hissed and called out and... strangely enough, Arnold understood those screams and grunts.

BLAM BLAM BLAM.

The gladiators who were still alive moved away, just long enough for the wyvern to arrive at the raptors to generate a gory, bloody massacre.

BLAM BLAM BLAM

"WIISH????" (Does anyone understand me?)

Arnold realized... it was the voice of Krakou! the former raptor transformed by the horrible machine in the Midway into Allosaurus.

Guards laughed and rushed with spears in front of the big cage gate to get the kids out as snacks for the monsters.

On the walls, some kind of bleachers with rope nets and stretched by perforated stones kept the spectators excited by the bloody spectacle of an arena;

Barons shouted and made bets while their neighbors beat them with lost gold

Which monster to buy? How to train them? How to make them into siege weapons or to exterminate the neighboring tribes?

All these calculations made people mad and excited.

They looked like vicious goblins.