Zelda's heart seizes at the message. Cured? It's not the weight of the message that causes the issue. What was a withered muscle expands. Growing. Changing. Am I going back? Her hopes are dashed when she feels her wings pull back further on her back. She screeched in pain again. They lock in and settle into their spot. She falls back a bit. The sedative is finally kicking in now that her craze has ended. She flicks a look at her status screen. Arth Dragon. She falls to the deck of the ship. Her body shuddered at her new truth.

  Child, can you still hear me. An alien voice sounded in her head. She loses consciousness.

  -----

  “That sedative isn't going to last. Her heart beat is increasing.” Pamulur says frantically.

  Zelda opens her eyes. She was over the shoulder of Frankie sans mech. Still in his exosuit though.

  “Where you want her?” Frankie asks.

  “Just on the ground, Grants in her bed.” The doctor answers.

  Zelda unceremoniously flopped to the ground.

  “Easy.” The doctor exclaims.

  “I don't feel like easy after she just ate a million exp.” Frankie growls.

  Zelda groans, “Put it on my tab.”

  She earns a shift kick to the ribs for that one. Pamulur glares at the lizard man. He shrugs and heads out. The doctor begins scanning her body. “Shit, your blood is turning, Zelda.”

  The doctor looks at her long term terminal patient. There is sadness in her eyes. Of knowing her inevitable failure is coming to fruition. Zelda's own eyes snapped to her, “Check my heart, Doctor.”

  The green bunny with droopy ears doesn't see the point but she goes through the motion. Her depression becomes confusion. “What the hell is this?"

  “Bleeding blight got cured…by making me a Dragon.” Zelda hisses. Not wanting to acknowledge the truth in her status screen.

  “Your heart is fundamentally different. Larger, it seems like it's not dissolving to whatever your blood is becoming.”

  Zelda winces at the blood vessel her body grows thicker. The places her scales don't cover now have raised veins.

  “Looks like your cardiovascular system is adapting.” Pamulur murmurs.

  Child…

  Out of my head, Dragon. Zelda mentally thinks back. How can I even understand the damn thing?

  You have claimed my child's heart for your own. You are now part of my clutch. The alien voice coos. It seems unperturbed by the events it spoke of.

  Damn you and your kind. The only thing I claim is a vendetta against your species. Zelda is undeterred in her brazenness.

  In time you will accept. I must claim you so that you are properly reared. The voice answered back.

  “Smith.” Pamulur shakes Zelda at her shoulders.

  “Sorry, the mother wants to claim me as its own.” The newly minted Dragon murmured.

  The spaceship shudders. Pamulur gets up and hits some buttons on her tablet. Six screens pop up. The front, a pitch up, a pitch down, the two side views, and one screen showing the tail. Zelda eyes lose focus as her visions shift the screens to how they would look if she was the ship. She sees her mother behind her. Not my mother. The Dragon in question makes a silent roar at her thought.

  There were multiple ships around them. The ship pitches down to avoid an interdicting one. The other ships are not engaging her but each other. That slows to a stop as the dragon enters the mix. They begin to all fire on the Green scaled behemoth, their previous quarrel forgotten. Its body was far larger than any of the other ships present. But there was still more mass on the two fleets' side.

  Soon the Dragon becomes bogged down in fighting the fleets. Zelda watches as they zoom through the gate. The screen shuts off again. There are some feet moving from the front of the ship towards them. The hatch opens to Dagnit.

  “How's our money?” She hisses. She begins to pull her exosuit off.

  Pamulur looks at her tablets, “He won't wake for another six hours.”

  The cat frowns then squats next to Zelda. “Soooo, what made you decide to go to chow town on a million exp pay out.”

  “It can't seriously have been worth that much, I only say it was good as two burgers at most.” Zelda says. A bit euphoric on her new status. I'm going to live…and I can kill them.

  Dagnit was not amused. “I didn't claim that carcasses so you can have a snack.”

  Zelda focus snaps back to the flat eared cat. “Sorry, but my blight…it's gone. I'm going to live.”

  “Bold words for someone on the ship full of people wanting to kill you.” Dagnit eyes narrow.

  Zelda gulps, “Do you?”

  A clawed hand reaches up to Zelda's face, “I hear your eyes can fetch a decent price…I suppose I will wait to see what the money has to say. I'm curious if he is willing to cover for you, or will he recoup his losses.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Zelda flicks a look at the prone birdman. Then to Pamulur. She closes her eyes even as the cat claws tap her scales. “How much does Dragon blood go for?” I can't let myself die for trying to survive.

  “You don't have a claim to the spoils anymore.” Dagnit growls.

  “No…my blood. It's Dragon blood now…I'm surely worth being alive for that.” Zelda eyes open looking at the Doctor.

  Pamulur looks at her tablet, “It is taking on the properties of Dragon blood.”

  “Is it or is it not Dragon blood, Doctor?” Dagnit looks cross at Pamulur.

  “I don't think an appraiser will be able to tell the difference.” Says the doctor.

  Mental calculations happened in the cat's head, “Fine, but you need to answer for your gluttony.”

  “The moment I saw it…I just felt the desire to consume.” Zelda squeaks out.

  Dagnit once again looks to the doctor. She looks at her tablet and then answers the unsaid question. “Mental activity shows loss of higher thinking. It was an instinctual moment.”

  “Is this going to happen every time we take one down? I don't think you can bleed enough to cover the loss.”

  “But I can kill them Dagnit, you saw the exp gain.” Zelda says, a bit excited.

  “You ain't going to make friends killing dragons.” The cat responds.

  "I thought you approved of my quest.” Zelda frowned.

  “No, I approve of the motivation to keep you from giving up. The hell did I think you burn a cool million on a heart. It was only a whelps heart at that. A full size one would be impossible to value.” She groans.

  “Think they taste better?” Zelda grins.

  She met with a glare that suggests her luck is pushed far enough.

  -----

  Grant's eyes flicker open. He groans. It has been countless cycles since he has been Returned.

  He mentally nudges the controls on his bed to incline him. The noise alerts Zelda. She stands up from her squat and looks at her benefactor.

  “You get another aspect?” He groans.

  She huffs a laugh, “You know we haven't taken the time to check after the crew started debating whether waiting on my blood or taking my eyes was the proper compensation.”

  “What?” He asks, not understanding.

  The hatch opens, Dagnit comes in. “She ate the heart, apparently curing herself of her blight.”

  “Truly? I never knew it could be cured. We need to check your affinities so you can start returning your body back to its original state. Oh what good research it will be to return one from the brink.”

  Zelda winces at his words, Dagnit tells him before she does. “Her species is now Dragon.”

  “That is most unexpected, though I should have suspected after your blood comment.” He croaks. “So how long till the Dragon revives. Or have you already jettisoned the body?”

  "Zelda eating the heart apparently killed it.” Dagnit said, a bit tersely.

  The eyes give an annoyed look, “Are we to be pursued by the flock till we are ended then.”

  “We pulled out of the gates into a patch of empty. So far, we have not spotted any Dragons.” Dagnit reports.

  “That seems counter to their nature, we should all be marked and pursued till we are consumed.” He says while looking at the ceiling. That's some strange body language. “Do we have any theories why?”

  Dagnit shrugs her shoulders. Pamulur enters into the med bay, frowns at the overall crowdedness. Zelda speaks up, “The mother wanted to claim me as a replacement for her child.”

  “How do you know this?” Grant looks at Zelda.

  Zelda stoops a bit, “I heard her thoughts before we jumped in the gate. I was able to talk back.”

  “Fascinating. Pamulur, do you have any readings of this going on?”

  The doctor looks up from her scanning of the birdman. “Her language centers lit up at times, as did her stress levels. I couldn't tell you whether she was conversing or having a breakdown.”

  Again the bird man looks up. “I wonder if you can communicate with all Dragons or only this specific one. Tempting to pay for a trip to a different Dragon.”

  “Speaking of pay.” The bird man looks back at Dagnit, “Are you covering for her gluttony?”

  “Ahh yes, you certainly won't disagree with taking on more debt, will you miss Smith?” The bird man looks at Zelda.

  “No.” She answers in a murmur.

  +750000 Exp Debt Update: 1638839 Exp current Debt for one Dragon Whelp Heart

  She winces at the number. She has had many hours of coming down from her earlier euphoria. Now the debt increase only grows her looming dread. Grant speaks up, “Now that is settled, I would like some time to discuss with our Doctor.”

  The hatch opens and Dagnit begins to walk out, she notices Zelda sitting there and grabs her. “He means you too.”

  Oh. Dragged to the hallway, she sits down. Dagnit looks back at her. “What now? Look no one is going to kill you now that we got paid.”

  Zelda looks at the cat, “I thought I was part of the crew but the moment money came up, it was a kick in the ribs and how dare I want to survive. Could you just drop me off at the next planet?”

  “You literally ate a million exp.” Dagnit hisses.

  “Which saved my life. Like literally between the money and my life you obviously prefer the money. No one is happy that I'm alive. Damn it, the Dragon wants me more than my own crew.” Zelda just trails off and starts walking towards the back of the ship. Away from the others. To be physically alone to match how she feels.

  -----

  “Have you not found her yet?”

  “Look Pamulur, we know where she is. She is zipping to a new location on the ship whenever we approach.”

  “I told you not to stress her out. I don't like the look of these numbers. They correlate to reckless actions and suicidal thoughts in her species.”

  “Her species isn't human anymore, doc.”

  “Her physiology, including her brain, is still mostly human, Frankie.” There was real venom in that exchange.

  My vision has warped to see the entire ship's corridors. That I can hear the entire ship is even weirder. Is it really vision then? Zelda huffs out a sigh. Suicidal? There was the thought of opening the hanger and just floating out. The species says Dragon but the vacuum of space still seems like a death sentence. Then I'd be in med bay on the floor next to Grant.

  “Could you just keep trying? She has to run out of mana soon.” Pamulur exclaims.

  “That's actually my worry, if what you say is true she might attempt to use her core. Then this ship is gone.” Dagnit replies.

  Wouldn't want to cause her a loss of money. A deep rage begins to settle in her heart. I trusted her. Thought she understood. Thought she supported me. Zelda winces as her neck feels like it stretched. She knows she is changing further, but her melancholy drives her away from caring. Soon they can just harvest me like my brother. The thought causes her to cover her head with her wings. Her vision snaps to herself. There are feet approaching her. Damn it I lost my vision. I need to focus again.

  “Zelda!” Pamulur exclaims.

  The only one who was sad that I was dying.

  “I don't want to be around anyone at the moment, doctor.” Zelda murmurs.

  She looks at the wound in Zelda's wing. The proto dragon had bitten out the implant used for sedating her. It was the first suggestion made when she zipped away from her former crew. She had not yet committed to removing the Dragon Suppressor implant. Does it even still work?

  “We need to get this treated.” Pamulur says in a slow soothing voice.

  “I'll be fine.” Zelda murmurs.

  “Who's the doctor here, Zelda? I spent far too many years monitoring you to quit on you now. You're still a child.” Pamulur chides.

  “Pretty sure my debt accrues now, making me an adult.” Zelda says in a rather strident tone.

  “You're smaller than the juvenile you just killed, if anything you reset yourself back to infant.” The doctor prods. It earns a hollow laugh.

  “Doctor.” Zelda pauses. “I'm afraid. I.” Another pause. “I feel my mind shifting. It keeps trying to find kinship in Dragons. But I hate them. She's not my mother, it's not my brother in the hold and yet my mind keeps making those stray thoughts. I don't want to give up my quest. I don't want to forgive them. But I fear they are changing my mind as well as my body.” Zelda shudders as it flows out.

  Pamulur simply hugs her body. It is awkward, Zelda wings have webbed across her back at this point, the doctor has to loop her arms around them. Zelda cannot return the hug. The mechanical arm lays on the ground, out of power. The realization only creates more shuddering in the girl.