“Don!” Nakoda exclaimed, scrambling over to me. I met him halfway and waited for him to climb up into my saddle. He grabbed ahold of my reins with one hand and used the other to point in the direction Alton had gone. “After him! Let’s ride!”
I snorted once in response and took off, leaping off of the boat and onto the dock. Bits of metal were knocked loose and sent into the water, but the majority of it held together as I ran. It stopped being an issue once I got onto proper solid ground. All of the vegetation had begun to glow with soft blue light, making me feel like I was running at the bottom of the ocean.
We didn’t have to go long to find Alton. He’d come to a dead halt, mismatched arms at his sides, head tipped back. He seemed to be focusing on breathing properly, though his entire body continued to tremble with adrenaline, fear, or rage. I slowed my pace before stopping a healthy distance away, so as to not spook him. I felt Nakoda turn in my saddle, back towards the way we’d came. I glanced over. Both Paco and Sapphire had come after us. Hearing them, Alton shuddered and looked over his shoulder. Tears spilled from bloodshot eyes as he asked roughly, “what i-is going on? Where…where are we?”
“On another world,” Paco answered, blunt as ever. He had his pistol out in one hand, but not because of Alton. The gunslinger’s eyes were scanning the trees for any potential threats.
“…So we’re off Smuggler’s Shiv?”
“Affirmative,” Sapphire said. Chrys hovered a foot above her head, also scanning our surroundings with glowing, silver eyes.
Alton released a gruff laugh. “There’s that at least,” he grunted. “…I, uh, wasn’t thinking too clearly back there, before I ran. Wasn’t…here enough to do a headcount. Did all of us make it off? Any casualties?”
“None,” Nakoda reassured him.
“Yeah, but we thought you were a goner for a bit there,” Paco added. “After you stabbed yourself, started bleeding all over the place.”
Alton’s face lost the little color it’d managed to get back. “What?”
“You injured yourself using your…mutation,” Sapphire said, her tone much gentler than Paco’s. “It appeared, to me at least, that you were being manipulated by the ship’s overstimulated drive core.”
“Yeah.” Nakoda shifted uncomfortably. “That water-puking-ball-thing was making you float in the air, telling you things, and you…” His voice became uncertain mumbling. “You asked me to kill you, b-but I couldn’t. So you, um, you stabbed yourself, cut open your st-stomach. Blood spilled out, into the ball and…and-”
He suddenly straightened up and exclaimed over to Paco, “And then, Paco, you did it! You put that monster ball to sleep and saved the day! You’re the hero!”
“I don’t wanna be the hero,” Paco retorted. He released a yawn before continuing. “I just wanna take a nap.”
I returned my attention to Alton. He pressed his human hand to his bare chest. It was fully healed. There wasn’t even a scar. But the dark-colored scales I’d spotted before were growing in number, decorating his neck, sides, and larger sections of his back. The bones of his spine were protruding through the skin, looking…sharper than I think is normal for a human.
And there was yet more wrongness to the ex-first mate that had nothing to do with the physical. Now that he was awake, he was emanating a bubble of energy into the air. It made my skin prickle uncomfortably, as if insects were crawling and nibbling on my body. None of the others were reacting to it, not even Nakoda, so maybe I was the only one who could sense it. Regardless, I shuddered and stepped back from the man.
I focused my energy up into my horn, making it glow. It was getting dark, so maybe the others assumed that’s why I did it. I pushed the ivory light outward, making my own bubble that counteracted Alton’s. The itching stopped, but I was still left wary of the man. Er, man-shark?
“I’m…I’m some kind of monster,” he murmured. “I-”
“You’re Alton,” Nakoda interjected fiercely. “My friend.” He reached out a hand. “Now come on, buddy. Let’s get back to the others before they start to worry too much.”
Alton stared at him.
And then looked away, smiling despite himself. “You’re impossible, Drake,” he chuckled under his breath.
We returned to the boat, and to say it was awkward would have been the understatement of the century. After properly introducing himself and apologizing for his screaming episode, Alton gratefully borrowed a stitched-together shawl from Revalynd, and generally tried to stay as far away from Salim as possible. Salim kept his face blank, but I occasionally spotted the corners of his lips twitch, wanting to form into a knowing smile. Wyrlynd, in contrast, was all frowns whenever Sapphire dared stray too close. The only person who seemed to be truly enjoying himself was Paco. He refused to leave the boat before properly cutting the mama salamander into usable rations. To save time, both Belkross and Nakoda helped him. Once that was finally done, Paco climbed up onto Turtle and Nakoda hopped up into my saddle.
When everyone was off the dock and at the jungle’s edge, the last rays of daylight fading, Revalynd turned to address the group. He was all business as he said, “I ask that you all stay calm during and following what is about to happen next. My son and I are about to change. Yet I assure you that we will both be in full control of ourselves. This will make the journey easier. Now that the sun has mostly set, the jungle is far more dangerous. So, to combat that, we’ll have to be the same.”
“Ominous,” Paco murmured, his hand resting on the butt of his pistol. I didn’t doubt that it’d take him less than a second to put a bullet between Revalynd’s eyes if it came down to it. But he stayed his hand and gave the older elf the benefit of the doubt.
The Yggdrifields’ skin rippled before sprouting orange, white, and black fur across their bodies. The sound of cracking bone filled the air as they both grew taller, broader. The much shorter Wyrlynd only gained a little over a foot in size, but Revalynd became a seven-feet tall, heavily muscled behemoth that made Belkross look scrawny. It was only then that I realized that there were gaps in their leathers, allowing their clothes to stretch without the risk of being torn by the transformation. This left large sections of their bodies exposed, but their vitals and privates remained covered and protected well enough. The weretigers blinked large, yellow eyes at one another and then over at our group.
Wyrlynd stretched and began hopping from foot to foot, clearly happy to be in this form. Meanwhile, minus his swaying tail, his father was as still as a statue. He purposely placed himself between us and his son. If we tried to attack him, he’d pounce. Yeah, maybe Paco would be faster on the draw, but some predators don’t let a silly thing like a shattered skull or pierced heart stop them from what they do best: rending apart idiots who dared mess with their young.
That being said, our group’s reactions ranged from awestruck (Nakoda and Alton) to intrigued (Lilian, Paco, and Turtle) and mostly indifferent (everybody else). Relaxing a little bit, Revalynd said, his voice a booming growl, “Alright. Follow us if a line if you can. Try not to interact with the fauna if you can help it. A good rule to follow here on Castrovel is that the prettier it is, the more dangerous it’s likely to be.”
Everyone either nodded or murmured an affirmative.
“Can I lead, Dad?” Wyrlynd asked. His voice was also gruffer, but not that much so. “Can I?”
“As long as you can do it quietly and tactfully,” Revalynd answered after a moment of consideration, ruffling his son’s furry head.
“Yay!”
Revalynd arched a striped brow.
“Oh, uh, I mean,” the tiger boy dropped his voice down to a hushed whisper, “yay.”
Revalynd rolled his eyes good-naturedly, gesturing him to go ahead. And once we got into the thick of the jungle, I realized that Revalynd hadn’t been kidding. With full night having set in, most of the fauna was glowing, and it was beautiful! Wyrlynd led us away from them, into darker sections. Rockier, less vegetation. Revalynd would occasionally signal for the group to stop. We’d wait for some unseen monster to pass us by before we resumed our trek. Even with these pauses in travel, Alton was struggling. He eventually had to a share a ride on Turtle with Paco so as to not fall too far behind.
“Might as well still be back on the Shiv,” he grunted grumpily, glancing around at all the jungle. “At least we had Aycenia.”
“Hope she’s okay,” Nakoda called over, though he kept his voice low.
“With the Gray God and cannibal ritualists taken care of, everything on the island should return to normal,” Lilian assured him.
I couldn’t be sure if she truly believed that, or if she was just saying it to put the little Rider at ease. Regardless, I whispered a prayer Aycenia’s way. The dryad had only ever been good to us. Especially to my brother and me.
The terrain eventually became mucky. Because the humans (and whatever Salim was) couldn’t rely on using (potentially poisonous) trees for support, the others began to lag behind the weretigers. Lilian in particular seemed to be struggling, only managing to keep up with Belkross’ help. Sensing that, Revalynd whispered quick words to Wyrlynd before disappearing forward into the shadows up ahead. He returned a short time later.
“There’s a small clearing leaning left,” he told his son.
“Rest?” Wyrlynd asked, glancing over at us. He was breathing hard as he spoke.
“Rest. Meet me there.”
“Okay.” Revalynd took off again. As we started towards the clearing, the tiger boy asked the ones right behind him (Nakoda and I), “So, giving you the benefit of the doubt that you’re not Forces scum, does that make you rebels?”
Nakoda stared down blankly at him.
“…Um…meow, meow, meow. Meow! Grrrr!”
Oh, right. I’d forgotten that my brother didn’t understand the elves. Even tiger-elves. Wyrlynd returned the blank stare. Thankfully, Sapphire sent Chrys over to save us from this awkwardness and translate for all parties involved. The silver dragon kept the glow of his body low so as to not attract any unwanted attention. He asked Wyrlynd to repeat his question and then translated it in Common for Nakoda.
“Oh!” Nakoda said. He shook his head. “No, not rebels. Us Riders of the Wing are a bunch of good boys!” He gestured back at Paco, Turtle, and Alton. They were coming up on our rear. “Alton’s awesome and Paco’s a good, sleepy guy.”
With Chrys here I took the opportunity to speak up. Through the dragon I asked Wyrlynd, “So, have you always been a tiger?”
The kid didn’t seem that shocked that I was sentient. Life must get pretty weird here on Castrovel. “Uh, my mom was,” he answered, with Chrys translating. Chrys probably assumed I didn’t understand the elves’ language, too. “My dad wasn’t until she bit him. I was born normal, but then dad decided to pass it onto me so that I could protect myself.”
His shoulders slumped as he focused his gaze straight ahead. “…She was thinking about passing it on to the others. Making them strong. But then she was taken. And now Dad thinks it’s too much of a risk. Especially if they find out.”
“You mean the villagers?” Paco asked. I hadn’t realized that Chrys had been translating and repeating Wyrlynd’s words to the rest of the group.
“…No,” the kid said.
Paco gained a thoughtful expression. “Here’s a question for ya, kid. So if you bite someone, they’ll get the tigerness too?”
“I think so. I mean, I think there’s kind of a want to it. Like, it helps if you want to,” Wyrlynd gestured to all of himself.
“So, it’s only through bite?” Paco pressed.
“Or if you’re born one. I think Mom was born one.”
“Does it have any sort of regenerative powers?”
“It makes us stronger. When I was born, I was apparently super sick. That why Dad did it. It was either tiger or die, literally.”
Paco scratched at his goatee. “What if you’ve got some kind of deformity? Could it heal that?”
“Um. I don’t know. You’d have to ask my dad.”
Revalynd met us a few minutes shy of reaching the clearing. Part of me doubted that he’d left our group at all. During the trek I’d gotten the sense that we were being watched. Tested. The weretiger had likely used his “absence” to see whether or not we could be trusted or not to be left alone with his son. I wasn’t sure if Wyrlynd was in on it, but hopefully we’d passed the test. The “clearing” was actually a cluster of flat boulders that kept most of the vegetation at bay. It wasn’t comfortable by any means, but it was safe.
Yet, before anyone could even attempt to get comfortable, both tigers tensed. Blue-tinged light filled the sky overhead, obscured partly by the treetops. It was accompanied by a blast of wind that shook the surroundings leaves. It parted them just enough for me to see through them, spot a glowing, oval object flying through the night sky. I couldn’t tell if it was small, or if just looked that way because of how high up it was.
It eventually passed overhead, and the air settled.
“They’re heading for the lake,” Wyrlynd whispered to his father.
“I know,” Revalynd replied. “We’ll have to hurry. Go through the cave after all.”
I noticed them both glancing over at Sapphire. She was staring after the flying object, frowning nostalgically. Chrys hovered above her. Judging by its body language, the dragon seemed to be speaking to her, and only to her. Finally, she shook her head and returned her attention to the group.
The Yggdrafields quickly averted their eyes, but they both remained tense. In that moment I couldn’t decide who to trust less.
The weretigers or Sapphire.