Chapter 16
“You what!?” I yelled, shocked.
“I want to go to a human village. I want to see what they are like for myself.” Merry repeated.
I was speechless. She knew from the stories that I and Carmen had told her that humans were not a force to be trifled with- especially for dragons, whom humans regarded with particular distaste. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand why she suddenly wanted to see for herself if the humans were really such an insurmountable force, I had just expected her logic to overrule her desire.
“Then again, she is a dragon…” I thought, half begrudgingly, half in admiration of her.
Regaining my composure, I said “Merry, I understand that your heart yearns for emancipation- mine does too. But exposing ourselves to humans will do nothing but invite trouble. I can not agree to this idea.”
Merry gave me a determined look and it became clear that she wasn’t going to back down . There was a fire to this dragon that hadn’t been there before seeing the true vastness of the world.
“And I understand why you are so wary of the humans. You know more of their ways than I do- you were practically raised by them after all, but I must still insist that I see their ways with mine own eyes. If they are truly as terrible as you say, then firsthand experience will prepare me all the more for the future, no?”
“Well…I suppose, but if you get hurt-”
“I am not suggesting that we simply walk through the village gate as we are, I do have a plan. Don’t you trust me, Illumi?” she said, her tone softening as she gazed with her beautiful blue eyes up into my red ones.
“I-I trust you, but…”
“My love, Illumen. Please- I must see the truth of the world for myself. It makes me happier than I can ever say that you want to protect me. But I am a proud student of Lady Carmen, just like you. Let me see if freedom is truly out of my reach.”
…Damn it.
“…It looks as though I’ve been defeated.” I thought, turning my head away so Merry couldn’t see my blush “What a troublesome female you are. Fine, I will take you to a village, but only after I approve of your plan.”
That made her happy and,and after nuzzling my head against hers for a moment, the two of us began fine tuning her plan. It was a rather simple infiltration that quite literally involved us walking through the front door and acting like nothing was amiss. Ordinarily I would have balked at such an idea, but the linchpin in the plan was that we were going to use the special magic that Merry had developed for Carmen’s exam.
“It’s called Mimic. It allows the user to change their appearance into that of any creature they have seen before. Of course there are limitations, the creature has to have similar cognitive abilities and when you change you need to keep up a steady supply of magic or else the spell will fail. Ordinarily the second condition would be a problem but since I’m a Dragon Sorcerer and you are a Demon Prince, that issue doesn’t exist.”
“I see. Though that does leave us with a bit of a problem, doesn’t it?”
“Indeed. Fortunately, though I have yet to have ever seen a human, I have figured a way to get around that issue as well….” she trailed off. I waited for her to continue but for some reason she started fidgeting and blushing.
“Merry…”
“U-Um, Illumen, do you think…I could teach you my spell? If you transform into a human I’ll be able to Mimic humans as well.”
Ho hum, so that’s what she was worked up about?
“Of course you can. I’ll be in your care Master Merry.”
“Illumi! You shouldn’t tease like that.” she said, trying to hide her smile.
It took less than a day for me to learn Merry’s spell. To demonstrate its capabilities, she turned herself into a chimera. Peculiarly, her appearance was very different from the chimera I had fought- which I assumed she was using as a base. Her’s was covered in white fur, and the snake-tale was thin, pink, and hooded like a cobra rather than thick and green like a python.
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“I crafted the spell to show Lady Carmen after all. I didn’t think it would be all that impressive if it just copied the appearance of whatever you are changing into. This spell takes into account your appearance in regards to your own race and changes you accordingly. If you’re a big brute of a dragon you would turn into a big brute of a human, or chimera or what have you.”
I’ve said it before, but she really is special. Now it was my turn, though I hesitated for a moment. The idea of turning myself into a human, it hadn’t occurred to me until now just how…awry that was.
But the moment passed and I activated the spell. The transformation took a full minute to complete and the experience was incredibly disorienting. I was shrinking, my feet turned into hands, my back straightened out so that I could stand on two legs. I tried to stand as I had seen humans do so many times, but my mind wasn’t accustomed to the shift in my center of gravity and I collapsed. It took several more tries but finally I was able to stand up, albeit in a wobbly fashion, on my own two feet.
I looked up at Merry, who now towered over me, and said “So, how do I look?”
She didn’t say anything at first, but just stared at me with wide open eyes. Then she said “You’re so…you’re so…so cuuuuuuute!”
My eyes widened and I grew indignant. Cute? A human? She was underestimating them for certain! I had to get her disabused of that notion quickly, so I said “Merry! Did you not say that you would take this seriously? What about this form could you possibly consider cute?!”
“S-Sorry, but..but look at yourself.” she said, conjuring up a reflective surface in front of me using magic.
I had expected to see the chiseled features of a soldier, or perhaps the more refined features of a noble knight, or even the sallow look of a mage. What I did not expect to see was the soft, round look of a nine year old boy.
“But…I thought the spell was supposed to make me look the way I would look as a human…”
No, this was exactly correct. By dragon standards the two of us are barely old enough to have left the nest. Our minds may grow at a disproportionately higher rate compared to humans, but the spell doesn’t take mental age into account. Only physical age.
“Merry, I believe I’ve found a flaw in your spell.” I said, trying not to let my humiliation sink into my voice.
“I figured as much, this is the form of a human child, yes? I will have to rework the spell in the future when we have some spare time, but first-!” she then cast Mimic on herself.
As bizarre as feeling myself transform was, it was even stranger seeing it happen. Watching her horns shrink, her wings fold into her back, her snout and nostrils change into a nose and mouth was probably the most surreal thing I had ever witnessed.
When it was finished she, like I, tried to stand up on her two legs. However she was stuck learning her new body for a bit longer than I was as she had no experience watching how humans move around. She did figure it out eventually however, and then came to stand next to me and look in the mirror.
She stood roughly a meter tall and she had an incredibly slim form. Too slim for her age in fact, which was no doubt a result of her being starved. Long golden hair felt straight down her back and her skin was as pale as her scales had been.
“How do I look…?” she said, once again staring at me with her big blue eyes.
“…Cute.” was all I could answer, earning me a bright smile from her.
As for me, I was ever so slightly taller than Merry, sporting messy black hair and freckles. My body was toned for my age, and my skin was more tanned than Merilyns. Though to me the most shocking thing about my appearance was how similar it looked to…him.
Aside from the eyes, which were red instead of blue, I was the spitting image of Rickurd. I wondered why for a moment until I remembered something the Emperor had told me.
“If one is named by a different species the name itself may impact their growth as well.”
Could this have been the result of Rickurd naming me?
Merilyn, noticing my unease, said “Illumen, is something wrong?”
“…No, it’s nothing. For now these forms should suffice to allow us entry into a human village. In fact turning into children may be to our advantage. Guards are less likely to interrogate a couple of kids entering and leaving a village.”
Merry still looked concerned, but she allowed the subject to drop and we spent the remainder of that day finishing up our preparations.
****
The two of us awoke bright and early the next morning. Merry was practically bouncing with excitement, as this would be her first time interacting with a race not her own. I, on the other hand, was filled with trepidation, but I was able to take my mind off of my worry by focusing on the mission at hand. For starters I had Merry use magic to create two simple sets of clothes for us to wear. She had been surprised to learn about the concept of clothes, but the idea of decorating oneself with cloth and fabric intrigued her and I left her to it. Meanwhile, I transformed into a young dire wolf and searched the perimeter of the forest for a logging village of some sort.
As it would have it, there was a village no more than ten miles north of where we had set up our nest. I marked the place on my mental map and then hurried back to Merry, who had already finished our clothes- simple roughspun tunic for me and an ankle cut dress for her. She wanted to try making more complex patterns, but anything more elaborate would have stood out.
All that was left now was infiltration.
The two of us approached the treeline outside of the village. We were already in our human forms, fully clothed and now used to how our bodies moved around. Though Merilyn was still a bit uncoordinated.
“Are you ready?” I said as we were not only a few moments away from being out of cover and in full sight of humanity.
“With you, always.” she said confidently, exiting the forest alongside me.
We emerged onto a grassy hill surrounded by the stumps of felled trees. On either side of us were rows of yet more stumps that stretched a fair distance. In front of us was a decent sized village composed mostly of log cabins interspersed with the odd brick and mortar buildings.
Even from here we could see them. Humans, everywhere, running around like rats as they scurried from one place to the next going about their daily business. Inside of my heart I could feel an old familiar rage boiling up like a cauldron. Something in my mind was already shrieking the word incinerate over and over and over.
“This may be more difficult than I thought.”
Merilyn, who by now had become acutely aware of when something was wrong with me, grabbed my hand and squeezed, letting me know that she was there and everything was ok. I nodded at her and the two of us started walking toward the village.
“I suppose I’ll never really get over my anger towards them.”
“No, I don’t suppose you will. Nor will I ever forgive the dragons of the Stronghold for what they did to me. But even so, I will never allow that hatred to keep me from moving forward.”
“Then we are of the same mind, my Merry.”
“Now and forever, my Illumi.”
She sidled up next to me and laid her head on my shoulder as we walked, and it was enough to calm my troubled heart.
Until we heard a voice shouting at us from behind.
“Hey you kids, what the hell do you think you’re doing!?”