Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle looked up and squinted as she just stood there. Fia, who was far less fond of water, turned to head back, tired of all the wetness. Shuffle looked over before following after her.

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Asta paused from the sudden hug before cuddling up to her. He was more than happy to provide the comfort she needed.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Soon after the two started running, the thudding started again, shaking the floor as the ceiling cracked, letting in more saltwater, before something punched through and it began to flood into cavern, the roar of something large sounding as it rode the water in

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Jerry held the position for a while, pain tears falling into and soaking Asta's fur. Eventually, Joanne called and Beri sniffed around looking for the others.

 

[Fangs9090]

Alright, that was something to run from, probably. Fia hopped onto Shuffle's back as she ran back the way they came on all fours.

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Asta stayed close and kept quiet, letting Jerry have all the time she could before the others found them.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

The water flooded in rapidly, and then stopping as though whatever had caused it had stopped it, althought that could have been that there wasn't much room for air to escape and water to take its place once they got far enough into the hall and past the fortifications.

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Beri was the one that found them. "I smell blood!", he called to Joanne, who rushed clanking over to find Jerry and Asta embracing with the former trembling and bleeding from the backside onto Poli with the beginning vertebrae of a tail sticking out of the injury.

"Gods above," Joanne didn't have an answer for this one, this was out of her scope of knowledge.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle didn't stop running until they were past the fortifications and back at the edge of the village. She stopped and let Fia hop off before they both shook themselves off.

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Asta and Poli were silent as well. Not much to say that couldn't be seen or assumed.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Beri sniffed the new appendage, earning a whimper from Jerry as his nose brushed bone, leading Joanne to rip the leopard back and kneel next to Jerry. "Tell me what happened," she ordered. Jerry did her best, but it was hard to get a full sentence out with Joanne trying to clean up the wound with a cloth and not being very gentle about it. Gentle didn't seem to be in Joanne's vocabulary.

Beri padded out of the tent and saw Shuffle and Fia shaking themselves off at the edge of town, and went over to them. "You smell of saltwater," he noted.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle and Fia looked over at Beri before Fia nodded. "It's really wet ahead!"

"It comes from the ceiling!"

"But the ceiling broke!"

"So it got more wet!"

"And there was a roar!"

"A big roar!"

"From a big thing!"

"In the water!"

"A lot of water!"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Beri was not eqipped to deal with two children shouting over each other, snarling at them, "Both of you, silent!" once quet was achieved, he nodded at Fia. "Explain."

 

[Fangs9090]

They both straightened up at his snarl before Fia nodded again. "Shuffle was looking down about something so I suggested she do something to help so we decided to scout ahead and there was stuff to climb over so we did and we kept going and it started getting really wet like it was raining but we were in a cave and then there was a big thud and it started pouring down so we turned back and then there was another thud and the ceiling broke and it really poured down but there was something big coming with the water and it roared so we ran back here." She sucked in a breath as she finished, panting a bit.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Beri waited for Fia to finish. "We are miles below the surface, what could possibly be trying to get into the ruins from here?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle shook her head. "I don't know, but it's in now. I didn't see another way through either."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Beri shook his head, "The paladin will not like this," he turned to go back to and alert Joanne, paused, and then turned to Shuffle. "When you... mutate, does it hurt?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle blinked. "It depends on the mutation. The wings hurt, and so did the fins. But the fire breath was just uncomfortable."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Hmm..." Beri looked back at the tent, "Come." He padded towards the tent, where Joanne had at least managed to stop the bleeding, and muscle was starting to creep along the length of the extension of Jerry's spine.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle paused before she Fia followed after Beri. She paused again at the entrance to the tent, seeing the forming tail. "What is that?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Joanne looked up from Jerry to see Shuffle, and waved her over. "The dragon fragment is altering Jerry's body," Joanne whispered, "It has already altered Jerry's hand, now it is forcing her body to grow a tail." The hand hadn't hurt like the tail because Jerry already had a hand, essentially all that the dragon soul was doing was changing the appearance of an existing appendage, whereas Jerry did not in fact have a suitable tail, and it was warping her tailbone and growing a new appendage from it. "We may need Veo's help," Joanne admitted.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle walked over to look. "Veo's back at camp. Should I go get her?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Joanne shook her head, "Not yet," she turned to Asta, "Could you carry Jerry back to camp if you were at full size?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta nodded. "Yes, I could."

 

[Deadwood Deer]

"Okay," Joanne reached around Jerry and picked her up bridal-style, careful not to disturb the exposed flesh as she carried the rogue outside the tent and positioned Jerry's hand on Asta. "All you have to do is enlarge him," the paladin sounded oddly warm and comforting compared to her usual stone cold front.

"I can still use my arms, you know," Jerry replied, "Just because I can't move my- Hey, that hurts!" Beri flinched at being yelled at, having been sniffing the tail for any indication that it might perhaps be another creature attached to Jerry, or maybe some kind of infection. It smelled like Jerry, though, and he'd bumped the thing with his nose. Shaking his head, the leopard padded away. Jerry said the command word on Asta's enchantment to bring him back to full size, where Joanne then began positioning the rogue on Asta's back, between his wings but close enough to his mane she had something to hang onto if needed.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta waited until Jerry was settled before standing up and walking back towards the camp. Shuffle and Fia followed at a short distance.

 

[Deadwood Deer]

With those four headed back to camp, Beri decided to go take a look at this cave in the two little ones had mentioned, padding down the exit hall leaving Joanne to continue to collect from the village. She ended up putting Jerry's kit in the magic bag, the thing having been left there when she sent Asta, Jerry, Shuffle, and Fia on their way.

-----------------------
Down at the water's edge, Beri sniffed the saltwater. It didn't smell stagnant like the other water pools that they had found. It was cold, that was for sure!

-----------------------
When Asta arrived back at the camp, the others were milling about, getting ready to move on. Adran had washed and dried the bedding, putting the cards back in the deck, Emfa was sharpening her axe again despite the edge having not been blunted at all. Veo still looked tired but was putting away her belongings to travel when Asta padded up with Jerry on his back.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina had taken upon herself to neaten Shuffle's belongings while she was gone. She was currently looking at the large holes in the back of her armor and shirt. The wings had poked the holes out when they grew in, but it looked like Shuffle had had to rip the holes even bigger to take it off.

Emil looked over and stood up as Asta returned. He was small when they left, so something must have happened for him to return at full size. Seeing Jerry on his back confirmed that. "What happened?"

 

[Deadwood Deer]

Veo looked up when Asta appeared and saw Jerry on the chimera's back and ran over, hooves clopping on the stone as she scrabbled over to help the rogue off of the chimera's back, and then offer support when she realized that Jerry could not support her own weight with her legs at this point. "What did that paladin do to- what is that?" Veo pulled her hand from jerry's lower back up to her shoulders and saw blood on her hands, looking back to see the slowly growing tail. "Oh, my gods," she looked around at who was there, "Erina, bandages, Emil, get the story out of them," Veo pointed at the others that returned, "Emfa, Adran, boil some water!"

 

[Fangs9090]

Emil nodded and went to Shuffle and Fia to get their understanding of the story. It was roughly summarized to "Jerry has a tail because of the dragon crystal." Anything else was getting into the flooded cavern.

Erina set down Shuffle's gear and scurried off to fetch the bandages.