Transformations

Alex slowly began to open his eyes. They were heavy, so heavy, and every movement was so hard. He was in a bed. Wasn’t he on the ground, in the dirt? What happened?

“Alex? Alex, buddy, you…you okay?”

Everything was blurry. He could make people out. Jake was here.

“Give him time. He’s…going to need it.”

Elysia. She was talking. It wasn’t a dream. Going to another world. Fighting monsters. Getting…

“Jake…”

He tried to talk. Something was wrong with his voice. Why did his voice sound strange?

“Hey, bro. You okay? You feeling okay?”

“Ask the truck. It’s what hit me…” Alex complained. His vision began to come into focus. He was in a bedroom. Elysia was there, as was the guy, Kraelin. The one who kept Hydas off his back. Hydas…

“I…I died.”

“Kinda, yeah. We both were about to. Then…” Alex focused on Jake. What the hell was going on? He was huge. His muscles seemed massive, and he had strange metallic looking lines running across his body, like tattoos.

“Jake? What the hell…”

“Alex, there’s…um…something you need to know,” Elysia said nervously.

“Good news bad news kinda thing,” Jake said.

“Oh god, those are never good…” Alex moaned.

“The good news is, you survived!” Jake said. “Those magic weapon things Elysia gave us saved us after we got our asses kicked. We were apparently real heroes or something. Totally selfless. Cool, right?”

“I’m incredibly  pleased,” Alex said, not pleased at all. “Alright, bad news me.”

“Well…” Elysia said meekly. “You’ve been…changed. The items changed you, from how I understand it, filling you with the energies of the ancient heroes Malitan and Astaven.”

“Yeah, I got turned into this buff dude,” Jake said, looking down at his hands. “Malitan was a real warrior type, I guess.”

“So…I became like Astaven?” Alex asked. Jake and Elysia looked at each other nervously.

“Yes.” Elysia confirmed. “Astaven was a great warrior too! The fastest in the world, stealthy as the night, so skillful with ranged combat she could hit a target with…”

“Wait, what did you say?” Alex asked. His heart started pounding rapidly.

“Um…fastest in the world? Stealthy? Skilled in ranged…”

“No, there was a key word there which I don’t like,” Alex said slowly, sitting up. It felt wrong. His entire body felt wrong. He ran his hands along his stomach, up to his chest and…

His eyes went wide.

He slowly turned his head. A mirror was beside the bed. There he saw a shocked looking young woman grabbing her breasts. He blinked. She blinked. He tilted his head. She tilted her head.

“Okay, Alex? Don’t panic,” Elysia said calmly. “I know this is probably freaking you out, but trust me, we can fix this. Don’t panic.”

“DON’T PANIC ABOUT THIS?!” Alex screamed, pointing at the obvious protrusions on his chest.

“I think he’s panicking,” Jake said.

*

Jake paced back and forth outside the front door of Elysia’s house. He had been going for about fifteen minutes. Elysia and Kraelin were watching him walk, turn, and walk again, over and over.

“Stop it. It’s making me dizzy,” Elysia said.

“I can’t. I wanna…I’ve gotta do something. I can’t sit here and do nothing!” Jake said.

“Alex said he did not want to be disturbed,” Kraelin said.

“I know! But…he needs me! Or she! Or…hell, how do we deal with this?” Jake finally sat down on Elysia’s porch with them.

“You start by respecting his wishes.” Kraelin stood up, stretching. “Repairs need to be made around the village. You need something to do? Come with me.”

“But I can’t leave him alone!” Jake complained.

“Well, I’ve been forbidden from leaving the house by Master Augarium, so I’ll stay with him,” Elysia said.

“See? Come on. It will do you good,” Kraelin said, pulling Jake up. “Besides, I want to see how strong your new body is.”

Jake reluctantly gave in. “Fine. But if anything else happens…”

“You’ll be the first to know,” Elysia said. “Go. Help rebuild. I’ll take care of him.”

The two boys walked away. Elysia sighed and walked back into the house, slowly going up the stairs to her room. She lightly knocked on the door.

“Yeah…come in…” Alex said from the other side.

Elysia opened the door. There he sat, looking at himself in the mirror, taking in each new detail, poking his face like he didn’t believe it was real. The little whiptail was sitting at his side, mirroring his movements.

“I wanted to see how you were doing,” Elysia said timidly.

“Well, if you consider having phantom limb pain for your entire body okay…” Alex said, pulling his cheeks, seeing how they react.

“I never meant for this to happen to you, you know. I’m so sorry this happened, and I swear I’ll do everything I can to…”

“Hey, its not your fault,” Alex said. “I was the dummy who volunteered to do this.”

“So…you’re not mad?” Elysia asked hesitantly.

“Oh, of course I’m mad. I’m super pissed. Not at you, but…life.” Alex held up the broken pocket watch of his. “Jake gets to turn into this hulking, ultra awesome version of himself, and I…I don’t even get to be Alex anymore. Life in general has a way of screwing me. I’m used to it, I guess.” He sighed and laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

“Oh…” Elysia said. “Well, if you need anything…”

“It’s not like I’m going outside,” Alex said. Elysia nodded, shutting the door.

“Why does everyone who helps me suffer…” she said softly.

*

“I’d say it’s at least a hundred!” one man exclaimed.

“Hundred? More like two!” another said.

Jake held the massive stone block on his back. As he walked it over to the pillar where it belonged, he overheard the words of the other workers. They were right. He was lifting these massive weights, not like they were nothing, but much easier than he ever would have in his old body.

“You know…this isn’t too bad,” Jake said as he slid the stone into place on top of the ruins of the pillar. “Pretty impressive, huh Kraelin?”

“I suppose,” Kraelin said, hauling a slightly smaller piece of rubble with no magical enhancements.

Jake placed his blocks, then stood back as two magic users stepped forward. One gestured, his hands glowing green like Elysia as stones levitated in the air and slid into place in the cracks on the damaged pillar. The other had a red glow, and fire as hot as a torch sprang from his fingers, melting the stones together.

“Wish I could be as useful,” Jake said softly.

“Ah. I see. So you’re one of those types,” Kraelin said.

“What types?” Jake exclaimed, not knowing if he should be offended. “Hey, what types?”

“The types who need to be perfect,” Kraelin said. “Jake, I train each day to be a warrior so I can protect my home. When Elysia needed a hero, she didn’t turn to me. I was the…distraction. But I still played my role because I can accept my current limitations. Heroes aren’t perfect. They’re simply people who do all they can when they need to.”

“Huh…” Jake thought on Kraelin's words. He barely saw the little girl approach him.

“Scuse me, you’re the guy from last night, right?” she asked. Jake looked down. It was the girl Alex had saved right before being caught by Hydas. She was staring up at him, eyes wide with wonder.

“Um…yeah…hi,” he said.

“Where’s your friend? The one who saved me? Is he okay?”

“He’s…resting,” Jake said awkwardly.

“Oh. Well, I made him something! Could you please give it to him?”

Jake looked down to what the little girl had and smiled.

*

“Hey! Come down, dumbass! I know you can hear me!” Jake called up to Elysia’s window. “I know you’re under the covers face down in the pillow!”

In Elysia’s room, Alex sighed, pulling the covers off and rolling off of the pillow. “Well, he’s got me there.” The whiptail nuzzled his cheek. “He’s got some trick to try to cheer me up, you know. He always does. But it won’t work this time. I am intent on being miserable.”

“Mister Alex!” the little girl called out. “It’s me from last night! You saved me! I wanted to give you something to show how much I like you!”

“Damn it. Little girl. Emotionally manipulative bastard,” Alex sighed.

A few moments later, the front door to Elysia’s house opened. Alex was standing there with the cloak drawn over his face. The whiptail perched on his shoulder, looking around curiously. “Okay. I’m here. What is it? I have a lot of self loathing to accomplish.”

The little girl stepped up, proudly handing Alex a drawing. In bright child like scribbles, Alex saw two figures looking like himself and Jake standing atop a pile of Twisted bodies as the little girl stood on the side, cheering. The words “To my heroes! Thank you!” were written on the bottom.

“This…this is for me?” Alex asked. He pushed the hood back so he could see better, letting the girl see him clearly. “It’s me…”

“Uh huh!” The girl said proudly. “And those are all the bad guys you and your friend beat up!”

“But…we didn’t beat them up. We lost and got…”

“No, you won! We all got out okay! And you got hurt, but you’re all better now, right?” She looked up at him with big, adoring eyes. This girl saw no wrong in him, no weakness. He looked at her, then looked to Kraelin, Elysia and Jake, stupid loyal Jake, who smiled and gave him two thumbs up.

“Yeah. I’m…I’m getting better,” Alex said.