This comes from the first of two magnificent commissions from drpickelle. It's Umbriel having a little bit better luck than the first time or second time she suddenly and unexpectedly dragonified. Please favorite the original over here; I uploaded a slightly modified version, so you'll have to go to Pickelle to see it the image in all its glory!

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The Third Tale of Umbriel Van Buren

"So you suffer persistent delusions of bodily change," said Dr. Musker, scratching out letters on his pad. "Persisting despite treatment and medication."

"They're too vivid to be delusions," said Umbriel Van Buren, shifting uncomfortably on the psychologist's couch. "At least I think they are. You've got what the other guy wrote, right? How do explain the confetti that was left of me clothes, and what those stupid shallow sorority girls were screaming about?"

"Oh, I've read it," Dr. Musker said with a chuckle. "Seems that those two girls received a suspended sentence for controlled substances baked into their brownies. I don't suppose that had anything to do with it?"

"You're not supposed to criticize the patient like that, Dr.," said Umbriel. "I've read the DSM-IV. And besides, I didn't eat their pot brownies."

"Of course not, your bloodwork came back clean," Musker said, consulting his notes. "It's clear that due to your…delusions…you entered a fugue state and due to their…narcotics…your friends reacted as if it were real. You likely tore those clothes up yourself in the throes of that fugue."

"A fugue's a pretty sedate piece of music, Dr.," said Umbriel. "I'd consider it more of a heavy metal or progressive rock state honestly. But what about the fire?"

"The report mentions candles and incense," Dr. Musker said.

"I…I suppose that's possible," Umbriel said, clutching her temples. But the memories were so real, watching as her human body was racked by changes that had left her a humanoid dragon several times before. "It just seems so real…"

"Of course it does," Musker said, his voice dripping with--frankly, in Umbriel's view, unprofessional--condescension. "That's why we need to continue these sessions, to find out why your delusions aren't responding to medication, what triggers them…to talk them out in general."

"In other words, you want to keep charging my mom's HMO for every session at however many bucks per hour," said Umbriel. "There's a reason that a lot of people consider psychology an extension of Freud's mommy issues rather than a legitimate science."

Musker set his pen down sharply. "And, might I add, that your visits are court-mandated? The more you push back, Umbriel, the harder a time we're going to have."

"I'm just trying to keep things interesting with legitimate information and other points of view."

"Don't worry your pretty head about that," Musker said, eyeing Umbriel's black locks in what she was quite certain was an unprofessional way. "I'll do the interest and legitimacy and viewpoints for both of us."

"And I'll make sure that same HMO supports a malpractice suit if you keep undressing me with your eyes like that," Umbriel retorted.

Out in the waiting room, where Umbriel's friend Halley was seated and flipping through a celebrity gossip magazine, heated words were audible from within the psychologist's office, enough to make both the other waiting patients and the receptionist look up. Umbriel emerged a moment later, her pale face red and her green eyes burning.

"…court order or not, you're a dirty, boring old man!" Umbriel was shouting. "A bigger quack than a flock of mallards!"

Acting quickly, Halley tossed the paperwork at the receptionist before guiding Umbriel out the door.

"Do you have to make a scene everywhere we go?" she said. "That guy's just trying to help, Bri."

"Help himself to the mental image of the twins sans t-shirt, perhaps," Umbriel said, sulking a little. "Help himself to ignore the very valid and interesting points about the history of psychology that I read about in the Oceanside library."

"Help you not have any more problems," Halley added. "I don't want to worry about you anymore, Bri. We've been through too much together."

Halley guided them to the lot, where they piled into her rustbucket Isuzu. "Do…do you really think there's something wrong with me, Ley? I mean, you were there. You saw what happened. It's just too vivid for me to say it's just a-"

"It was the pot brownies, Bri," Halley said. "We were both a little loopy after that, and you just slid right over into your…fantasy."

"But we didn't eat any of the-"

"Pot brownies. Sometimes you don't remember eating them."

"And you saw what happened to me, when I…changed into-"

"Pot brownies," Halley said with finality. "I was hallucinating. It was the thir…the first time I'd ever had them, and I wasn't ready. It's all those damn shallow sorority girls' fault, really."

"So why are we going to another sorority, then?" Umbriel said. "If the last nest of inequity and vapid bulimia turned out so badly?"

"Alpha Omicron Nu isn't a sorority," Halley said, sounding a little defensive. "It's an honor society that used Greek letters before they were cool. This is their annual meet and greet and the best way to get our foot in the door for an invitation."

Umbriel looked out the window at the fading light of the day. "All the same, I'd rather be back at our place reading or listening to some music."

"You'll never meet anyone that way, Bri," Halley said. "See, this is why you and I are friends. We complement each other: I drag you out to places you wouldn't otherwise go, and you say things that I'd never in a million years say."

"And turn into things you'd never in a millions years turn into," Umbriel said softly. "Or at least think I do."

"Well, at least you've convinced you turn into something badass, I guess," Halley said, clearly grasping for something cheerful to say. "Imagine if you had the delusion that every now and then you turned into a…I dunno…a fox? Or a red panda?"

Umbriel forced a smile. "Yeah, I suppose a dragon is way more endangered than any of those."

"Just…try to play it cool, all right? This is a public mixer, so no brownies or nail polish fumes to get us all loopy. Just promise me you'll behave."

"I promise I'll try to be interesting in a way that doesn't make too many waves," replied Umbriel. "You know that'd the best I can do."

"I guess so," Halley sighed. "But it'll be fun, trust me." She seemed trying to convince herself as much as her friend.

The Alpha Omicron Nu honor society had its own mock-Tuscan building on the outskirts of campus, wedged in among a bunch of small businesses and student ghetto apartments. Parking was of the "will a spot to your children" variety; Halley squealed in delight
when she saw that there was valet parking, even as the valets loitering about gave her Isuzu a jaundiced look.

"It's fifty dollars to park your…'vehicle'…for the evening, ma'am," the valet said as Halley pulled up. The fee was mostly paid in ashtray change, with Umbriel discreetly slipping a coupon book into the mass as a tip.

"I think that's more than the car is worth," chuckled one of the valets, who was probably an Oceanside Sate student himself.

"In the old days, a valet was called a 'batman' after the old French 'bât' for 'packsaddle,'" Umbriel replied. "Maybe you should stick to being a batman instead of a joker, huh?"

The valet blinked, his train of thought still at the boarding station, as the girls went in.

"You call that playing it cool?" Halley hissed.

"He learned something interesting and he learned not to make jokes about noble workhorses like the Isuzu," said Umbriel airily. "I can't think of anything cooler, can you?"

Inside, the dress code was casual (to the relief of Umbriel and Halley, who were both in the standard campus summer uniform of shorts and sandals), and groups of young women were milling about with appetizers, chatting. A cohort of fraternity pledges from Sigma Sigma Iota, identifiable by their ΣΣΙ pins, were working as ushers and waiters, though they brushed by without offering the new arrivals anything to eat or drink. The party seemed to be gyrating around one person in particular, a pale freckled redhead with very piercing eyes that wore her "summer uniform" with the driven seriousness of a military uniform.

"That's Zoë Jaszczurka," Halley whispered. "Student head of the Alphas. Nobody gets in without her say-so, and they say she has more memberships and service hours than the heads of the Nine Greek Houses combined."

Umbirel caught Zoë looking at her, and offered a friendly wave; the Alpha turned away without acknowledging it.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather just have a walk on the beach?" Umbriel said. "Or maybe a movie?"

"That's slacker talk, Bri," said Halley. "We need to get ourselves out there, with people that are driven and goal oriented and social."

Umbriel followed her into the crowd, where they joined the orbit of a girl talking about her campus involvement.

"…major protest against vaccinations that they give at the campus health center," the girl was saying. "Students for Healthy Bodies has a very strong local chapter--Zoë's our treasurer--and we're determined to stop the use of the MMR vaccine on campus before more children get infected with bad autism."

There was a general nodding and murmurs of agreement: "How noble!" "So brave!" "You show those pro-vaccinators!"

"That's a myth, you know," Umbriel said.

"Ex-cuse me?" the Alpha said with an extra helping of attitude.

"The link between MMR vaccines and autism is a total myth," Umbriel continued, ignoring Halley's pleading pull on her arm.

"Well, that's what my friend Umbriel thinks, anyhow," Halley broke in. "She loves her interesting opinions."

"It's not an opinion. The study was a fraud so they could get rich suing people, and it caused herd immunity to drop to dangerous levels."

"Well, I believe you're wrong about that," the Alpha sneered. "Enjoy your autistic children."

"Enjoy your children spreading the mumps like Typhoid Mary," Umbriel replied. "Besides, even if there was a link, it would still be statistically less risky to MMR than not to."

The Alpha had no response to that, apparently trying to do the requisite math in her head. Halley quickly pulled Umbriel away and into a different group.

"Don't give me that look, Ley," Umbriel said. "It's one thing to be wrong, it's another to kill babies with diseases because of your wrongess. And it's interesting."

Halley continued to give "that look" as they joined an in-progress conversation about the University Museum Society.

"…with all the money we raise for them, you'd think they would tell us when to go in and see new exhibits," the Alpha at the center of the group was saying. "Zoë and I are on their advisory board, and we should be seen attending every so often, you know?"

Umbriel gave Halley a look and a discreetly mouthed question; Halley shrugged wearily. "They send out a monthly newsletter about their new exhibits," said Umbriel. "By email. The one about their Bast exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts just went out yesterday."

"And probably directly into a thousand spamboxes," the Alpha laughed. "Honestly, who has time to read every email or every text?"

Halley's expression painted an exacting picture of how she hoped Umbriel would respond to that remark. "Well, if you go in there every now and then, you won't miss too many new things," Umbriel said. "Going twice a semester is a good rule of thumb to make sure you don't miss anything."

"Excuse me, you shouldn't use that sexist term," the Alpha said. "It's been perpetuated enough without your assistance. I brought that up with Zoë at the last Campus Feministas meeting--she's the secretary--and we passed a motion on it."

Umbriel was taken aback. "What sexist term?" she said, trying to think what she had said that even had anything to do with sex. Could the Alpha be biased against Bast, the feline goddess of ancient Egypt?

"Rule of thumb! Gawd, don't you know anything?" the Alpha griped. "It means that you can subdue--rule--your wife by beating her so long as you use a stick that's as big around as your thumb or less! And I am a strong independent and proud Feminista who's not ruled by anyone!"

Umbriel looked over the Alpha's trendy ensemble of the latest fashions. "Yeah…that's not true," she said.

"Or is it that the patriarchy has you convinced otherwise?" the Alpha cried.

"Well, I saw it debunked on Snopes, for one," said Umbriel. "And it's on Wikipedia's list of common misconceptions. So you're basically on the same level of not-true as talking about how KFC is breeding genetically engineered chickens."

"You mean they're not?" an Alpha wearing a pin for the Campus Critter Crusaders Party (CCCP) gasped.

"You can make anything up on the web," sneered the Feminista Alpha.

"But you can't fully cite and source it," said Umbriel. "Look it up right now if you don't believe me."

By the time the Feminista Alpha had gotten to the Oxford English Dictionary and stalked off in defeat, the party was buzzing around Umbriel and Halley, and the latter's torn expression showed that she wasn't sure if theirs was good or bad attention. One thing was for sure, though: the orbiting people were bringing them closer and closer to Zoë Jaszczurka at the party's center.

Eventually they found themselves face to face with her, flanked by Alpha members and fraternity serving wenches. Zoë had powerful, driven green eyes, nearly the same shade as Umbriel's, powerfully framed by dark red hair. Her arms were folded, and unlike the tarted-up Alphas around her she was wearing a simple sweater, miniskirt, and sandals--the same thing a student might wear to class rather than a mixer for the most powerful honors society on campus. In fact, her level of dress was more or less exactly the same as Halley and Umbriel (who had been feeling rather underdressed).

"You two have been making quite the splash among my Alphas," said Zoë in a calm, silk-smooth voice. "The Alphas are all about making a splash, as I'm sure you well know. Would you care to adjourn outside with me for a private conversation?"

Halley looked at Umbriel, an expression of unbridled glee on her face. There was never any question of refusing the invitation. "We'd be…delighted," Umbriel said. "Maybe you can clear up some of the things I read about the history of the Alphas."

"Right this way." Zoë led the girls outside and down a staircase off the Alpha hall patio into a little alleyway that was blocked off from the street by a 10-foot-high chain-link fence.

"So, according to Inside the Alphas by Nearc and Palea, your society was founded by male professors from Western College who wanted to keep their female students from agitating for the right to vote," Umbriel began. "Do you know if-"

"Shut up," Zoë said, her voice flint-hard. Too late, Umbriel noticed that only the fraternity pledge waiters had followed them outside; those same pledges now sealed off the alley with a wall of dumb meat.

"Look, we-" Halley began.

"I said shut up!" Zoë snarled. She took a deep breath and composed herself. "The Alphas serve a very important purpose on this campus. They keep powerful people busy and self-satisfied, and they keep ambitious people with plenty of ears to whisper into and plenty of places to get their hooks in. I know your type: lazy, aimless slackers without a shred of a desire to be anything than what you already are."

"You don't know how true that is," said Umbriel. Her heart was beating rapidly and sweat was beading down her face; she didn't like where this was going.

"Quiet!" Zoë approached to within an arm's length of Umbriel. "I'm on my way up. My ambition's leading to power sooner or later, and the Alphas are my meal ticket. I'll do what it takes to keep them busy and self-satisfied and my star on the rise."

"We're really s-"

"Do you know what it does when you mock my Alphas in their own hall?" Zoë continued, interrupting her. "From the valet you insulted to those girls you embarrassed, you've been rocking my boat. It's not enough to throw you out on your asses, no. Discipline is the only answer to that outrage." She snapped a finger, and the fraternity pledges began to advance.

"What…what are you going to do?" Umbriel cried. Her ribcage was a washboard with her heart rattling against it.

"I'm just going to watch," said Zoë. "It's them you should be worried about." One of the pledges removed a piece of boxing tape from a pocket and wound it around his fist; another put his class ring on a middle finger and kissed it.

In her panic, Umbriel was frozen to the spot; a rough blow from a pledge sent her backwards and condensed her fear and adrenaline into a white-hot point of rage. "Don't do something you might regret," she snarled, already beginning to feel something stirring deep inside her.

"I'm petrified, clearly," Zoë said evenly. "Threaten us a little more, it's hilarious."

That familiar feeling was welling up ever more strongly, but it was still a shock for Umbriel to put a hand to her head to find tiny horns budding through her dark hair. She was still hardly able to suppress the urge to cower and run as she felt her face begin to elongate and watched the darkening and sharpening nails on her fingers and toes.

"G…get behind me, Ley," Umbriel hissed through teeth midway through a metamorphosis into sharp fangs.

"What are you doing?" said Zoë, the looks of smug satisfaction draining slightly from her face. The pledges hesitated as well, with uncertain looks exchanged between them.

"Huurrrkkk…" Umbriel clutched her chest as the metamorphosis accelerated. It seemed to come about a little differently each time, but there was scarcely a moment to contemplate that as tiny wings ripped themselves free of her shirt and a stubby tail shredded its way out of her shorts. Expanding claws tore into her shirt, and through eyes squinted in pain Umbriel could see her pale skin roughening to green scales. Her toes became massive and powerful, popping her shoes apart one at a time, giving her extra height as they metamorphosed into digitigrade claws.

Halley's expression was one of mingled relief and horror as she watched her best friend's changes. Umbriel's face was distorted as it shifted into a draconic muzzle, her hair rapidly shortening as it was absorbed between growing horns. The tiny wings pumped outward, growing with each spasm like a newly pupated butterfly, and in moments they were large enough to bear Umbriel in flight, even at her increased draconic weight.

After a final shudder accompanied by the cracking of bones locking into new shapes, Umbriel opened hew now-slitted eyes to regard her attackers. Never a short girl, she now had an inch or more on all of them. Previous transformations had led Umbriel to invest in more durable clothing, so the remains of her shirt and shorts still clung to her changed form. If anything, they enhanced the fearful visage she presented.

"W-what…h-how…?" Zoë could only stammer incoherently at the sight.

Umbriel was able to restrain the panic that had accompanied her former changes, thanks to the danger of the situation; despite the roiling fear and confusion inside her, she projected a confident air and grinned with her new scaly lips and razor-sharp fangs. "I warned you," she growled. Umbriel's voice had taken on a deeper tenor, and it reverberated powerfully off the alley walls. "Now what was that you were saying about discipline?"

No response other than stammers.

"I thought so," Umbriel said. "Now get out of here."

Her assailants were unmoved, regarding her wide-eyed and rooted to their positions.

"GO!" Umbriel's roar was accompanied by a short gout of flame. The pledges broke and ran, shrieking like kindergarteners. Zoë could only topple backwards, hyperventilating and wailing, as a dark stain spread on her immaculate skirt.

Umbriel gave her a curt, dismissive nod before turning to Halley. "C'mon, Ley," she said. "Let's get out of here."

Her friend, visibly terrified and trembling, nevertheless took Umbriel's proffered claw. The dragoness gathered her up and took to the night sky, headed toward home.

Left in the alley, shivering in a pool of sweat and urine, Zoë looked up at the diminishing shape of what she had assumed was another harmless and easily bullied girl.

"I'll get you for this," she hissed. "If it's the last thing I ever do on this earth."