I can’t dwell on my lost sandwich, but I can make another one! Working on the components, I find myself wondering what it tasted like for Dragon Kira. I’m pretty sure things do have different flavors for our dragon body.
My mind wanders as I keep my hands busy, thinking about how I might bring up the whole soul-stealing situation, but I’m drawing a blank. I am not prepared for a conversation of that magnitude… How would I even do it? I don’t think I can just say, ‘Hey Dragon Kira, I’ve been tearing away chunks of your soul and adding them to my own, pretty wacky, right?’
Yeah… That won’t work. I’ll need to think harder about this whole situation, but one thing is for sure: I need to figure out how to stop doing it.
“Kira, just take your time with whatever you’re struggling with. We’re home, so I’m sure we're safe.”
And just like that, it occurred to me that she can smell my fear… I hadn’t thought of that at all, since I’m usually the one doing that, and I can’t smell any such thing right now. Stupid human body… It’s so frail and limited, and I just want my own comfortable body back.
Whatever she’s thinking about over there, she seems quite troubled by it. And the cause of it is obviously whatever that woman said. It must have been something horrible to cause such a fearful reaction every time Kira looks at me.
She’s quick to learn how to make fantastic sandwiches, though, so that will no doubt help calm her down. I wonder if it is the right move to give her space to approach me on her own, or if I should bring up the subject so her thoughts won’t spiral out of control… I’m not sure why she’s so afraid of me, though; I’m pretty sure neither of us has a reason or desire to harm the other.
We still don’t know what’s going on with this entire situation, getting pulled into some weird depopulated version of my hometown. Oh! That gives me an idea! As soon as she’s done with her lunch, we’re going out to see the sights!
That gleam in Dragon Kira’s eye is making me a little nervous. No doubt she’s thinking about something weird and it’ll affect me soon. I’m just gonna focus on my food for now, since my options at the moment seem to be worrying about Dragon Kira’s weird ideas, how to broach the subject of soul theft, or minding my own business…
Grabbing my food, I go to sit by the hole in the wall. Sitting with my legs dangling over the edge, I watch the horizon and it’s weird. Everything is so square and tall. And we’re so high up, which is a lot more terrifying when you don’t have wings, as I’m learning right now in the midst of regretting having looked down.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it? I have always liked living so high up, because you can see so far. The bad part is having a commute to reach street level, though.”
She’s right, it is pretty. The massive dragon head settles down next to me as we just watch the view. I have no idea how high up we are, but my mountain is taller, so I’ve got that going for me. Unfortunately, my mountain also has bears, which I hope her place doesn’t. Sitting next to her head, it occurs to me just how big I am. I might have to stop laughing at Raya’s height because my dragon head is almost as big as I am.
Giving her a poke, she turns an eye to me and I hesitate again… Why can’t I just speak my mind…
“Hop on, Kira. We’re gonna go do something fun, I know just the spot.”
She does as I tell her, and I rise up and exit through the open-concept window, leaving my home behind for now. Soaring through the city landscape, we weave between buildings. Our target is the local park, and I’m gonna blow her mind! We’ll be there in no time as soon as I turn around because I’ve definitely flown too far. I hope she won’t notice since I’m supposed to know this place, but flying is much faster than walking, so that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking with it.
With the park trees in sight, we’re nearing our target: the playground! She won’t know what hit her! Landing in the grass, I let her down and we make our way to the playground, and more specifically, the swing set!
She doesn’t seem to have any idea what the swings are, but that just means this will be even more fun! She cautiously sits down on the swing, and I instruct her on how to hold on tight and lift her legs, giving her a gentle push with my nose.
“What’s the point of this?”
Just as I ask, she pushes me even harder, startling me. I may have let out a very un-dragon-like yelp, but I’m starting to see the appeal as my belly begins behaving oddly. I didn’t know humans had such a weird bodily function. This is great!
“Stretch your legs when you go forward while leaning back, then when you go backward, curl up and lean forward!”
She gives me some odd instructions, but there’s no harm in doing what she’s telling me. This is amazing! I’m going so fast! I keep repeating what she told me to do and I keep going higher and higher! I wonder how high I can get with this!
As I continue to go higher, this thing does a weird thing that scares the hell out of me, all of a sudden, I’m in a small free-fall as I jerk toward the ground without the support of the seat. It’s surprisingly terrifying even if I’m only a few meters from the ground. I could have died! Bringing the whole thing to a stop, I take a moment to compose myself and calmly tell Dragon Kira that she is being rude.
“Don’t laugh at me, you stupid overgrown lizard! That was terrifying, and now my pants are wet!”
“You peed yourself! That’s even funnier!”
It really isn’t… I don’t know what to do about this, how am I supposed to wash my pants? If I find a river, they’ll just get more wet. It occurs to me that I should have known what happened, but it just makes me sad that I didn’t. It means the knowledge I had on the subject was hers, not mine. How much of what I am is her…
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry. I will try not to laugh at you again. Hop on and we’ll go back home and find some dry clothes for you.”
She's hesitant to get on, but with a nudge, she manages. Taking off again, we fly back home and I point out which door leads to my room. She grips the handle, but for some reason, it won’t open. That seems odd, but I give it a go, and the door swings open like I expect it to.
My room is exactly as I left it, so I open all the closets and drawers, so she can pick whatever she wants. I’ve got a decent amount of clothes, so I’m sure she’ll pick something good!
Instead of checking out my fantastic wardrobe, she sits down on my bed and I guess I should have called dibs on that one as well. Too late for that, so it’s hers now, I’ve still got the couch.
“Kira, we have to talk about what that lady said…”
Oh, I didn’t expect that. I have been curious though, if we got different messages, maybe it’ll shine some light on what we’re doing here. I’m not sure what that amalgamation business is, but it seems tied into why Human Kira is so worried. The thing about wanting to kill her is definitely something we won’t allow.
“She told me that I died and now I’m killing you too, just by existing… She told me that I have been taking parts of your soul to fix my own, and I’m so sorry! I didn’t know! That’s why she called me an amalgamation, that’s why I’m wrong, and she wants me to die. So that I don’t kill you. You’re the important one here and I’m standing in the way. I’m not supposed to exist, I don’t even know if I’m a real person or just a patchwork of broken pieces I’ve torn off you.”
Baring everything, I just let loose and tell her all about how I feel and why I’m so scared. I don’t want to die, but I also don’t want to kill Kira, she’s the real one, after all. At the very least, I’m happy to have tried so many more things than I was supposed to. I’m happy to have met so many wonderful people, but I feel so much regret because of what I’ve done to Kira.
“I felt you in my mind, Kira, but I pushed you away and I’m so sorry. I felt you become stronger as we got closer to our lake, so I stayed away, and I felt your presence whenever we had a moment of peace, so I dove into our instincts until they overwhelmed me. I’m so sorry.”
I have no idea what to do here, but at least the real Kira knows how I feel now. I still don’t want to die, but I understand why she would want to kill me for what I’ve done. I’m so afraid of mind control, and all this time, I’ve been doing something much worse…
Geez, that’s a lot to take in… One thing is clear, though: this will end in violence. I already know that she pushed me away and that I got hurt whenever I tried to push into her mind. But all this soul stuff is way above my pay grade…
I wish I had someone here I could ask for advice. I’d ask Human Kira, but she might be a little too biased right now. In fact, I might be biased too, given that I’m an affected party, but screw that, who’s gonna tell a dragon they can’t be biased?
I need a distraction, so we’re gonna play dress-up! Turning to face my closet, I manage to pull out a lovely yellow sundress and throw it at her. She doesn’t react much, aside from moving it off her face, but a quick command to put it on and she gets to work. Well, she gets to struggling, I might have to give her some instructions here. She’s even struggling to take off her clothes, but with my expert guidance, she still struggles but makes progress! It takes a while, but she manages to change her wardrobe.
With the dress in place, I tell her to go to the mirror and then it occurs to me that I don’t know whether it will work or not. I guess that will determine whether this is a dream or something else, but that’s not important right now. Nudging her, I ask what she thinks.
“I don’t know, I don’t really know what to think about anything right now…”
I have no idea what Real Kira is doing, but I don’t think a change of clothes is going to fix anything. Looking in the mirror, I just see a red-haired young woman staring back at me and… that’s Kira, she looks so sad. Looking over the mirror image’s shoulder, I see the blue eye of Real Kira, just staring at our reflection.
“What do we do now, Kira? I’m still in your way, and a dress won’t fix that. I think you have to kill me to save yourself.”
She doesn’t seem to want to answer, but given how much it affects me, I feel like I deserve some sort of reply. I find myself wondering if I should push the subject until I annoy her enough to lash out, solving the problem, but it should be our choice, not just mine.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Screw that. We’re not killing you and that’s final. And I’m a dragon, so I have the right to veto anything you say anytime I want, so there, it’s settled.”
I’m not sure that’s how it works, but I don’t disapprove of me not getting killed. That just leaves what we’re supposed to do now. From what we know so far, we don’t really have a lot of options for moving forward.
We'll need to teach her to stop all this standing in my way business. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve survived thanks to her, so if she isn’t real, then neither am I. All we have to do is figure out how to co-exist with no knowledge of how to do that, easy peasy. We’ll have it sorted by the end of the day!
We just have to figure out what’s going on, and the first thing to do is sort out our timelines. The last thing I remember clearly is Oakhold and fighting some jerks in the street, but ever since then, I’ve only had momentary flashes, and now we’re bigger than we were back then.
Asking about it, she gives a loose account of how she fought the adventurers and won. It sounds disgusting and makes me want to leave, but I need to stand by her if we’re gonna solve this. Some fighting is inevitable, and I’m still confident that this will end in a battle. Though it is quite scary that we might have to fight that weird and powerful woman to get out of this place.
“So what do we do, Kira? I can’t fight in this human body, so I won’t be any good in a confrontation.”
This whole situation has made quite a mess of me, and I’m lost. I wish someone would just show up and tell me how to fix everything. All I can do is trust Real Kira to come up with some idea and hold on tight to the relief of her not lashing out when she learned what I’ve been doing.
Although I appreciate it, it feels foolish to not just take the safe option of removing me from the equation, but then when did we ever take the safe option? Thinking back on this whole ordeal, it seems bizarre that the weird lady would give us different messages like that and keep them hidden from each other. I don’t really see much reason for that. Which reminds me…
“She also told me that I was destruction incarnate… I don’t think I’m good for the world either, Kira.”
“Pfft, screw that. You’re clumsy incarnate, don’t you remember how you fell when you tried to hit her? It looked hilarious!”
That earned me a Mr. Mightington the Omega Bear to the face. She’s throwing my stuffed animals at me! That’s so rude! Using my most evasive maneuvers, I manage to dodge none of them as I swerve to reach her, which doesn’t take long on account of how small my room is relative to my body. With a mighty flick of my tongue, I subdue the hostile artillery, and the weapons fire ceases.
She scratches my chin as I use my head to press her down. We’ll be fine, I’m sure of it.
Feeling the warm breath of the large dragon head currently resting on top of me, I can’t help but feel comforted, we’ll be fine, I’m feeling more sure of that by the minute.
It doesn’t take long before sleep overtakes me as the gentle snoring of Real Kira lulls me into unconsciousness.
————————
Waking up, I notice that I can’t really see anything, Kira is blocking my view. Tapping her a few times, she stirs from her sleep with a growl, but I know that go-away-I’m-sleeping growl, so I continue my tapping. I know exactly where to tap to achieve the greatest level of annoying. There are these two spots on the side of my nose with much higher sensitivity than anywhere else I’ve felt.
“STOP IT, DANG IT!”
Okay, minor miscalculation on my part. Don’t annoy a dragon resting on top of you, when they move, they might squeeze you. Taking a moment to catch my breath as she moves away, I compose myself and get up, straightening my dress. Her dress, I guess.
“So, Kira, what do we do now?”
“Stop calling me Kira, you’re Kira too, so I’ll be Dragon Kira, you’re Human Kira. I don’t care what some weirdo in a weirdo version of my old home says, you’re just as real as I am. In fact, we’re gonna find that weirdo and tell her to knock it off. We’ll figure things out on our own.”
That’s a plan I can get behind. Simple and direct. But one thing needs to be taken care of first. I can’t just leave all of this behind with unfinished business.
Leaving the bedroom behind, I go into the messy living room and head straight for the fridge. I want to try some more stuff! I might not have an opportunity to try these things again, so I’ll need to make the most of it!
“Hey Dragon Kira, how do you open this box of liquid? The fruit on the outside looks delicious!”
For someone who was deep in the dumps yesterday, she sure is quick to steal my juice. I bought that with my own money! What I see as I enter the living room is pure disaster. The sight is possibly the most horrible I’ve ever come across... She didn’t wait for my instructions and there’s juice everywhere. She wasted it all!
“It’s delicious, but these boxes are hard to open.”
Maybe there’s something to the whole destruction incarnate part. I’ll need to keep a closer eye on this rascal, that’s for sure.
“Dragon Kira! Catch!”
Throwing some sort of fruit for her, she tries to grab it out of the air, but I don’t think she intended to create a large hole in the ceiling. She still needs to get used to our large body, that’s for sure.
I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to throw more things at her, so I’m just gonna grab some things to try myself. The whole box situation has left me both cautious and curious, and stained.
As I’m rummaging through the fridge, I manage to find some more oranges, and I definitely want one of those. Dragon Kira’s mom kept a well-stocked kitchen, and now I’m reaping the benefits. I mostly focus on the fruits and veggies, not bothering to cook anything up, but it’s delicious nevertheless.
“If you aren't too busy with the fridge, where do you think the jerk is? She has had plenty of time to find us.”
Okay, that’s a worrying thought. I had not considered that she might be looking for us. I don’t know how, but I had somehow gotten the thought into my head that she was just waiting out there for us to return. Okay, responsibility time. Limiting my foraging to only a handful of items, I ask Dragon Kira what we’re supposed to do now.
“We find her, we fight her, we win, and we get out of here, easy peasy.”
It’s an excellent plan, if I do say so myself, especially the winning part. Admittedly, I don’t know the finer details, but I have no doubt we’ll sort it out. And as far as this whole soul-stealing situation goes, I can’t actually tell it’s happening, so we only have that jerk’s word to go by and I don’t trust her.
I do feel compelled to take up the fight though, I don’t like that the weirdo lady seemed so sure of what’s going on with us, and that raises my suspicions. If she’s trying to manipulate me into attacking Human Kira, I’ll make her pay for it, with interest!
Telling Human Kira that we should get going, and as soon as I lower my head, she grabs hold of my horn and climbs on. She’s getting the hang of being human, but she didn’t have to bring an armful of food with her.
Now the big question is, how do we find that woman? The obvious first step is to just return to where we started, so that’s what we do. It takes a while, and the flight feels longer than it did getting here.
“You’re getting better at flying.”
It’s remarkable growth for such a short while, I don’t like that Dragon Kira seems to be learning how to dragon faster than me, but I can’t really do anything about it. For a moment, my thoughts drift back to yesterday, but with some effort, I focus on what’s ahead. I need to be ready to help against this woman so we can win.
In an unexpected surprise, she actually is just standing around where we first met her. I know how to handle this situation.
“Hey! You need to leave! The sign says no loitering, and you’ve been loitering since yesterday!”
It didn’t work, and now I have to put in some effort to stay on Dragon Kira as she’s having a bit of a laugh. She gets it.
With my focus back on the lady, I take aim at the ground in front of her and prepare to land. Having a chuckle before a fight feels good, but we need to get serious if we’re gonna win against a powerful opponent like this.
With a gentle landing, I let Human Kira down and we wait to see how this lady reacts, but she doesn’t. She just stands there, looking at us. I have no idea what to make of that.
“Tell us what you want! I refuse to kill Human Kira, and I don’t believe she’s a threat to me, so just leave us alone!”
“Traveler, it has brought you more pain than you have ever known, it has let you become corrupted, and it steals who you are. That amalgamation is a threat to you, and whether you approve or not, it will be put to death.”
Dragon Kira barely waits for the lady to finish her sentence before a large plume of white flame jets out towards her. The woman dodges to the side, but Kira follows her, the scorching heat leaving clear marks on the ground as destruction spreads. Buildings catch fire and the shine of glass beads from the streets.
Watching the scene leaves me breathless as the woman runs around, dodging the fire flawlessly. She’s goading Dragon Kira into losing track of her surroundings, and the plume is turning toward me. I see it, though, so I climb underneath Kira and out on the other side to keep safe from the fire.
I don’t know how I can possibly help in this situation, so I’ll just focus on staying safe for now.
This dang lady is far too jumpy, but I just need to catch her in my fire once and we’re done! For a moment, I feel a tap on my throat and I notice Human Kira duck underneath me, giving me space to continue with the fire. Our surroundings are bathed in flame and it looks amazing.
“You cannot win this, Traveler. I am a god and you are but a child. Just lie down and accept the fate your amalgamation was destined for!”
“Screw that, lady!”
“Screw that, lady!”
Flames aren’t working, so I’m gonna use my claws! Having stopped my fire to yell, I go into a charge and aim directly for the god. I’m still confident we can win this, and I won’t allow anything to happen to my Kira.
She takes my charge head-on and somehow manages to stop me in my tracks. It feels like having run into a brick wall. It freakin’ hurts! In a swift movement, she grabs hold of one of my horns and twists, somehow forcing my entire body to flip. Landing hard, the breath is knocked from me and I’m gonna need a moment…
“Leave her alone, you bitch!”
Before I realize what I’m doing, I’m charging straight at the god. My frail body will likely not be able to do much, but I have to do something. I can’t just watch as she hurts my Kira. Reaching her, I take a swing at her, which she readily blocks. I continue attacking, but none of my pitiful hits land.
“Cease your flailing, amalgamation, you cannot win where the Traveler failed.”
I know that! Of course I know that, but I can’t give up. I have to at least try! Tears well up as I continue my futile effort. At this point, it can barely be considered an annoyance for her as exhaustion hits me, and I struggle to even maintain a semblance of strength.
On a missed hit, she grabs my face and holds me tight, the force of her fingers feels crushing, and I am afraid. Fear becomes overwhelming as I lash out with renewed vigor, but it doesn’t do anything. She isn’t even flinching.
That doesn’t mean I’m giving up! I can’t give up if it means she might attack Kira next!
Looking up, I see the woman holding Kira off the ground. Kira is flailing, and I have to do something. My entire body hurts, but I get to my feet and manage a clumsy charge toward the two. I doubt I can make a difference at this point, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving up! I can’t give up if it means she’ll kill Kira!
Reaching them, I bite at her, and she lets go of Kira, and I move over her to protect her from this monster.
I fade in and out of consciousness, but seeing the belly scales of our dragon body fills me with relief, and I climb out from under her. Putting a hand on her side, I thank her for protecting me and get ready to attack again.
We charge together and somehow I manage to keep pace with Dragon Kira. I hope that isn’t an indication of how wounded she is, but that’s stuff for after the battle. Right now, we need to focus on doing something, anything, to deter this bitch from hurting us.
Reaching the god, I strike out and my claw almost connects. She grips my hand and tries to crush it, but my scales protect me. With my other hand, I aim for her face, forcing her to let go or be hit. Looking around, I don’t see my dragon form anywhere, so I assume she has thought of something clever and no doubt she’ll rejoin soon.
The god lets go, and I bring my tail around to strike at her, just barely missing. She’s struggling more now than she has been since we started this.
I still don’t see Human Kira anywhere, but I’m sure she has thought of something clever, and no doubt she’ll rejoin soon. Returning my attention to the god, I rush at her and strike again, unleashing my flames at the same time. I have no doubt I’ll be fine to endure my heat.
The god continues to focus on defense, much to my frustration. She’s just quicker than I am…
“Kira, stop this childish behavior and do what must be done!”
“Screw that! I won’t let you take me away! This is my home now, and I refuse to leave it behind!”
Her telling me to stop fills me with fury and rage as I run towards her again. I’m not going to let some random bitch tell me what to do! Hits and kicks fly, and she’s struggling more and more to block them. I’m confident that the tide of battle is turning as I continue my assault.
She grabs one of my hands again and, in a swift motion, punches me in the stomach, knocking me back as I struggle to breathe. Looking up, she stands over me, and I can’t tell what her expression means…
My sight is blurry, and I’m not sure I have any more fight in me, which pisses me off. With great effort, I climb to my feet and stand. Being taller than her gives me a little pleasure, but as I try to hit her again, she grabs hold of my arm and holds it in place, clearly marking that she has been toying with me.
Where the fuck is Kira?! She’s supposed to be here to help me! My eyes dart around as exhaustion causes my head to dip down and I get a look at myself. I’m standing upright as I catch sight of my belly scales, the gleam of my black biological armor coating my arms as they end in a sharp mixture of human and draconic hands.
I can’t tell which Kira I am…