Chapter Text
Reunions
A soft warmth pressed against Marcille’s side as her senses returned. Marcille let out a sigh of relief, she’d had such a terrible dream. Laios, Chilchuck, Senshi, and her found Falin. Although it was more like she found them, something had changed her since the ruler of the dungeon opened the floor beneath their feet.
Four large legs encased in red scales with clawed feet. held up a large body that easily towered over Marcille and the party, the front half of which white feathers covered an avian rib structure the legs beneath matching their parent half of the body, and the rear took on a draconic form with powerful muscles and a tail to match. Two large wings attached themselves to the back of her lower body, finally where the head should be a humanoid torso with pale skin underneath patches of feathers. Other than the feathers nothing had changed outwardly about Falin’s torso. Her silver blond hair, while unkempt, was still the same as her rounded face. Her golden eyes, however, while still the same had taken on an unsettling glow in the firelight of the burning buildings.
The fear and despair that roiled in Marcille’s stomach at the thought of such a vision. Falin wasn’t a chimera as far as she knew, and Marcille was safe in a bed of warm feathers, inwardly Marcille let out a sigh of relief as she let her head sink into the pillow against her head.
The gentle rise and fall of the bed beneath her took her towards oblivion once more.
Wait…
Marcille stilled as she became increasingly aware of what Marcile had previously assumed was a mattress or at the very least her bedroll, beneath her.
A thumping rhythm greeted her ears, the gentle sound of flowing air drowning out the beat every now and then. Two objects beat one after the other, the first more distant but from the sound it made larger the second one that beat next to Marcille’s ear.
Marcille’s eyes snapped open, the area around her was no tavern room, nor the ruined courtyard of her nightmare. Natural stone walls arched towards the ceiling forming a cave roof, and moss and lichen covered the surrounding stones as it crept towards the ceiling, Sunlight shone down upon Marcille from an opening in the ceiling. The light illuminated the all too familiar white feathers and red scales of the large body beneath her.
Slowly Marcille returned her head from the side it had been resting on while carefully lifting her head. Falin'sunkempt head of blonde hair greeted the edge of her vision, her eyes gently sealed as they slept. Marcille lay still her eyes carefully deciding. Soft white feathers poked out from beneath the same tattered tunic Falin had worn the night they were separated.
The feathers extended from Falin’s neck to…
Marcille’s eyes trailed down to where her head had been.
“wait... sh*t! Those are her breasts!!!”
Marcille jolted upright on reflex, the realization causing Marcille’s face to redden with the sudden increase of warmth in the cavern. Marcille’s heart hammering in her chest.
“Oh, gods.”
Falin’s eyes snapped open her golden iris locking with Marcille’s. She froze fear quickly replacing the embarrassment, increasingly aware of the giant predator beneath her. Time seemed to slow around the cavern. Neither moved, the air around them so tense that one could cut it with a knife.
Marcille’s breath caught in her throat.
“This is it. This is how I die.”
Then Falin’s eyes softened. The body beneath Marcille relaxed its tension, Falin’s face took on a relieved expression before her brows furrowed in concern.
“Marcille?”
Hope, relief, and joy blossomed in Marcille’s chest one after the other. She hadn't imagined it Falin did recognize her! Something soft rolled down her cheeks as her eyes began to burn.
“Falin…” Marcille croaked her voice breaking, before she flung her arms around Falin’s torso “You are, in there.”
Marcille felt Falin's breath hitch beneath her. They lay there, for a few moments before a soft deep rumbling reached Marcille’s ears.
“Was Falin purring? Cooing? Could dragons or birds even do that?
“I am… now” Falin chuckled roughly, the concern Falling from her face.
Gods how she’d missed that laughter
“Are you… okay, Marcie?”
Marcille pulled back, whipping her eyes with her sleeve “I should be the one asking you that” she half laughed “I’m fine, overly stressed, but fine.”
Falin smiled up at her “Good… didn’t want to… hurt…” she paused to take a breath “Sorry… hard… to speak”
“Let me take a look.” Marcille moved to place her hand on Falin's collarbone. She paused, before slowly raising her head to look at Falin. “If that’s okay?”
Falin nodded.
Marcile closed her eyes. Slowly she let her magic stretch out, and tendrell inside of Falin. Each one carefully mapped the inside of Falin’s body.
Oh…
Marcille hoped that the changes inside Falin would be minimal compared to her outward changes. But this… her entire digestive tract and circulatory system had been modified. The circulatory system in the humanoid torso remained largely unchanged however the lower half had been extended to connect to what felt like a larger set of lungs and heart further down in the nonhuman portion of her body. The latter most likely the dominant force in Falin’s circulation of blood. Her digestive tract from her human body was completely gone instead feeding into a much larger one in the large body beneath.
In addition to these changes new organs had been added as well as a gizzard, an unkown liquid-filled organ, and a pair of-
“What… “ Marcillie’s brows furrowed
“Okay! That's… new.”
“Marcille?”
“Right, Falin.”
Marcille shook her head to push her discovery between the dragon half’s legs out of her mind before focusing her magic around Falin’s air passages.
The issue became clear almost instantly. Whatever or whoever did this to Falin, constrained her vocal cords when reshaping her body. Marcille couldn't help but clench her fist.
Falin was already a quiet thing. But when she did speak, even as children Marcille thought Falin’s voice was one of the most beautiful things in the world.
“Who would do such a thing? Who, on top of such horrid changes, would do something as monstrous as depriving the world of that voice?”
Marcile took a calming breath, from the long list of things to do to return Falin to her original form, this is something that Marcille could fix now.
Probably… Chilchuck didn’t have the fondest memories of Marcille’s healing for a reason. But she was likely Falins only hope for a fix right now.
Gods only knew where they wound up after that blinding flash, or what floor of the dungeon they wound up on, assuming they were still in the dungeon and not on an entirely different continent or island.
Marcille let her tendrils of magic into Falin’s vocal cords. Undoing, as best she could, the mutilation wrought upon them.
She felt Falin fidget beneath her as the magic did its job.
Marcille opened her eyes and removed her hand from Falin’s neck.
“Try now.”
Falin paused as if to consider what to say, before taking a deep breath and-
“You have, really green eyes.”
Marcille let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sigh
“One part down, and too many more to go.”
Marcille brushed a lock of hair out of Falin’s eye a smile creeping to her face.
“And you have nice gold ones.” Maricle paused before continuing.
“I know restoring your voice isn't much. But it’s a start at least.”
“A start to what?” Confusion settled across Falin’s face.
Marcille made a gesture towards well pretty much everything below Falin’s upper waist.
Falin tilted her head to the side.
“What’s wrong with the rest of me?”
Oh…
“Falin…” Marcille took a deep breath “What do you remember before today?”
Falin paused for a moment before saying in a voice filled with a slight amount of fear.
“I remember, this moment of fear and pain, that lasted for what feels like years. I remember this constant whispering in the back of my mind that made me want to harm things. I remember the courtyard, the fire, the other adventurers, and…”
Fallin paused the fear melting ever so slightly in her eyes
“And?” Marcille furthered in a gentle tone she hoped conveyed her support and concern.
A slight warmth came to Falin’s cheeks, in a voice that was just above a whisper
“I remember you.” Fallin paused “Not a lot but enough to recognize your face”
Something in Marcille’s stomach squiggled at that.
“I remember being in the library as children, you told me about some poem you found.”
Marcille wracked her brain for the shared memory. She vaguely remembered that day, some poem in a book that hid more than it showed. A soft sensation brushed against her hand. Marcille glanced down to see Falin’s hand moved closer to her own.
“ And I remember, this feeling of being whole whenever you were near.”
Marcile’s heart did little flips in her chest. She shook her head to clear her mind.
She needed to focus on the task at hand. Besides Falin wouldn’t see her that way, not after what she did, not after she was too weak to stop the Master of The Dungeon from tearing Falin and her apart. Besides Falin’s brother Liaos is practically a brother to her. Falin probably saw Marcile the same way.
Marcile cleared her throat in an attempt to ignore the way her heart clenched at that thought.
“What do you think your body is supposed to look like, Falin?”
“That’s a weird question to ask.” Chimed Falin her head tilting to one side.
“Humor me, please?” Marcile said a desperate note slipping ever so slightly into her voice.
“I…”
Falin squinted, Marcille could almost see the gears Turing in Falin's mind.
“I’m not quite sure, bits and pieces feel right, but at the same time, things seem… out of place. If that makes sense?”
“Like this” she gestured to her humanoid portion “feels right and I like how this looks. But even then things feel wrong or out of place.”
“While this” she gestured to the large portion beneath her “doesn't feel right but I kinda like it?”
“Almost as if I'm supposed to be two things at once. But I’m caught in the middle?”
Marcile wasn't quite sure what to say to that. She took a deep breath before gently sliding off Falin to the cavern floor. her mind raced as she processed what Fallin had said. The dragon Marcile made Falin’s new body from clearly held some sort of influence or control, over her friend. Judging by how the master of the dungeon had acted towards Falin during their encounter it was clear that they held no small amount of control over the dragon that had consumed and then been made into Falin’s body. With time and research, Marcile could sever that connection. But the fact that two souls now inhabited one body…
There was no fix for that Marcille knew of. A sinking feeling grew in the pit of her gut, as she realized that the Dragon and Talman’s souls would be bound together until their time came.
She glanced back at Falin, nerves jumbling in her stomach. She couldn’t return Falin to how she was before her consumption. But maybe she could get her closer to how she was after? Or maybe find a middle ground? Limit the dragon's control over Falin’s body. Falin would likely retain a degree of influence from her “roommate”, but there was nothing Marcile could do about that. Not without risking her friend's soul.
Once you got past the shock factor of the additions, she was still Falin. Marcile was still her friend, and Falin hers.
Besides the feathers certainly weren't an unwelcome change. Inwardly she cursed Laiose, for rubbing off a bit of his strange “lust” for monsters on her. But in the core of Marcile’s heart and mind, Falin would always be a person or creature she cared for deeply. Marcile turned to face Falin as the latter rolled off her back. Marcile stretched out a hand, her palm up as she locked eyes with Falin.
“Okay, want to find out where we are?”
