Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and her reflection ran about and played with each other until they were finally tired out, after which they curled up together to sleep. Emil sat around with his instruments before dozing off himself, after the Shuffle's stopped making noise. Asta was more than happy to spend the night with Jerry, while Poli found a nice corner to settle into, taking the form of a box. Niudisa disappeared somewhere among her thralls, though it wasn't hard for her to do considering they were so much larger than she was.

At the village, Fia pulled together a makeshift nest of whatever she could find, settling down to sleep.

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Adran's shifting made Erina stir. She blinked her eyes open and yawning herself. "Good morning..."

Many of the more bestial members of the party were still asleep, but Emil stretched out his arms as he woke.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Did you sleep well?", Adran asked as he got out of bed to put his pants on.

Jerry sat up and held her ring over the bandages to check what had happened as Veo quietly stole across the hall to come check and see how this new potion worked in comparison to the old ones. "Oh, you're awake," the healer whispered when she saw Jerry moving around. "How's your hand?"

"I don't know," Jerry whispered back.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina nodded as she stretched out, legs included. “Yes, I did. I’m not sure at what point I fell asleep though...”

Asta lifted his head, looking up at Jerry.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran chuckled and leaned over, "Yeah, sorry about that, spend a few years in the second circle and you develop stamina." He gave Erina a kiss on the forehead.

"Here," Veo sat down and gave Asta a polite wave as she started unwinding Jerry's bandage. "Jeez, did you have a fever last night? This is as stiff as a board."

"I don't know," Jerry shook her head as the ball of cloth shrank. "how much cloth is this thing?"

"Enough that it would take an act of the gods for you to displace your bone pieces," Veo shrugged.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina smiled at him. “I can’t complain. I was certainly enjoying myself for the part where I was awake.”

Asta tilted his head as he watched. Poli, having woken up when Veo walked in, peeled around the doorway into the room.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"That's good," Adran stepped away to finish getting dressed. "I enjoyed you as well." He smiled and offered Erina his arm to help her out of bed.

When the final layers of the bandage was removed, Jerry and Veo both looked very confused at what was visible. Instead of skin, there were scales. Blue scales, over Jerry's entire right hand. Some of them had apparently been shed in the bandage, little gemlike blue scales, coming down into five fingers, ending in black talons. It ended just a few inches above the wrist, fusing back into Jerry's normal skin, but it was weird.

"Is it supposed to do that?", Veo asked as she manipulated the hand to make sure it had healed properly.

"No, it, what?" Jerry looked just as confused as she flexed the hand. She could feel it the same, although a little less sensitive to touch on the back of the hand. Veo flinched away as one of the claws pricked her palm, sucking on her finger. 'I'm sorry!"

"You're fine, I'm just... I don't know how this is possible."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina accepted his hand and climbed out of bed. It took a bit of effort to roll her over upright. She let out a grunt as she got to her feet again. “Oof, I am a little sore...”


Asta blinked as well, looking at his own paws to be sure. His paws were normal, so it wasn’t the potion. Maybe.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, whoa, careful there," Adran put his arm around Erina's weight to offer support. "Think you can walk or did I make that difficult too?", he asked with a cheeky grin.


Jerry flexed the claws and tapped it against the stone. "I don't think this is one of my items... I think."

 

[Fangs9090]

"Ah, thank you, but I should be fine. I just need to work it out and I'll be moving like normal again."


Asta looked at the claws for a bit before speaking up. "That alter ego had something to do with a dragon, didn't it?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran chuckled, "Good!" He gave her another kiss and went to remove the chair from the door. "How's your head?" They had been drinking. He'd more or less adapted to hangovers a long time ago, but Erina, probably not.


Jerry blinked. "Yeah, actually, I think Adran said something about the dragon soul latching on." She stood up and picked up her mirror, looking to see if anything else had changed she couldn't see. "Well, that's weird," her hair had lightened as well. It wasn't very noticeable unless you were very familiar with Jerry, but her hair was a few shades lighter in color. Around her back, there was a slight bump on her rear over her tailbone. She touched it and felt something hard. "That's really weird, what?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"A bit heavy and sort of fuzzy, but otherwise alright. I think I chose a good point to stop with the drinking." She glanced around at the floor. "Where did I leave my wrap?"


"Perhaps it's doing more than just forming an alternate personality..."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran looked around, "It's over there, beautiful." He pointed at the spidersilk wrap draped over the headboard.


"Oh, that's gonna suck!", Jerry complained, "I'm a thief, i can't glitter!" Even though the scales were very dull, they had a weak shine to them from the ring's light.

"Trim those claws, too," Emfa pointed to the three inch ebony claws sticking out of the scaled hand. "Before you hurt someone, or yourself."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina looked over. "Ah, thank you." She walked over and retrieved her top before getting dressed. She was walking a little stiffly, but with her multiple legs it was kind of hard to tell.


"I've found that wood is good for trimming down one's claws. It's also very satisfying."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Adran chuckled a bit as she opened the door. He still had it! Beri immediately pounced on the warlock, putting him on the floor. "I hope you enjoyed yourself," the leopard growled, "Because the paladin is angry." Then he looked at Erina. "As am I."


Jerry winced at the idea of dragging her hand across a door. "That just... ugh," wasn't that how you sharpened your claws, anyway? At least that was Jerry's understanding of why cats did it.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina looked at Beri for a moment. "...ah, I forgot to bind him."


"I suppose it would take some getting used to for you. But that's how I keep my claws from growing too long. Yours may be different though."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"You were supposed to tie me up?", Adran asked incredulously. "Kinky."


"I think I'd prefer just cutting them," Jerry reached for a knife for that exact purpose and pricked herself in the process. "OW! Gods, these are sharp!"

"I've gotta go check on the others," Veo stood up to leave, "Emfa slept in her armor and she woke up with a sore back. Stupid cow." She shook her head and left to go check on Emfa. She saw the door to Erina and Adran's room was open. "Make sure you wash those sheets!", she called across the hall, making Beri jump.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina smiled at Adran’s comment, suggesting she agreed, before she glanced away. “Beri asked me to make sure you wouldn’t get into trouble if you got drunk. I suppose it doesn’t count that you got into me.” She glanced towards the door at Veo’s shout.

Shuffle and her reflection were still sleeping in their little cuddle pile, snuggling closer together as they tried to sleep through the noise of people being awake.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, it counts," Beri assured her, "I've had to explain to both of the young ones that you two were in here screwing around. You had one job, spider!"

"hey, I'm not complainin-"

"Of course you would not complain! A leviathan could bite your legs off, but you'd only complain if it didn't have breasts!" Beri climbed off of Adran and picked up the bag in his teeth. "Now, if you excuse me, Joanne has been waiting on this bag since last night," he growled around the strap before padding off.


"Hey," Veo nudged the Shuffle's awake and handed them each a fruit. It wasn't clear where she'd gotten from, but she appeared very tired and there was a bit of bark sticking out of her sleeves.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina rest a hand on her cheek as she watched Beri leave. “Oh dear... I didn’t realize we would upset people with that...”


The Shuffle’s lifted their heads, noses twitching before they eagerly accepted the food, barely untangling from each other before started eating.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Oh, he's fine," Adran waved it off, "With Beri's everything's about necessity, he never understood doing things for the sake of doing them." He smiled as he stood up. "We were pretty noisy though." He winked at Erina as he said that.


Veo smiled and then went around to the others, distributing fruit. Considering Adran hadn't summoned breakfast, apparently she'd accepted that for the moment the plant was here to stay, and was at least using it for something. She went to go lay down soon after, exhausted as the plant leached her life force to accomplish the fruit growing so quickly.

Back in Jerry and Asta's room, there were little black specks on the floor and two of the five claws had been trimmed down to as close to flush as they could be without cutting into the quick. Jerry'd accidentally cut into that twice now and her knife had some blood on it from those accidents.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina looked at Adran and smiled. "Well, back to business as usual, I guess."


Emil thanked Veo for the fruit as he received his. Niudisa was still unaccounted for, but one of her thralls silently offered to hold her share until she was ready for it.

Asta watched Jerry trim her claws, rightfully nervous the whole time.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"For now," Adran winked again and began stripping the bed of its sheets to wash them.


Jerry gave her claws a once over once she was satisfied they were manageable. They were still a bit longer than she'd like, but they weren't in the way as she wiped off her knife and put it away. "What do you think, Asta?"

 

[Fangs9090]

“Can you handle the sheets on your own?”


Asta looked at Jerry’s hand. “They could certainly be useful. And it doesn’t look bad either.”

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Yeah, I've washed sheets before," Adran nodded, "See if you can get Jerry or whoever has it to send over the water flask, will you?"

"I expected it to be more uncomfortable," Jerry brushed over the blunted claws with her thumb, "It doesn't feel like it's not supposed to be there."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina nodded and stepped out to ask about the flask. Shuffle pointed her towards Jerry's room.


"Perhaps because it's still your hand, only changed." He glanced over at the sound of a knock on the door frame.