So here it is. The next segment in Monster Brains, ready for reading and appreciation.

Sorry for all the wait, I've just learned that Google Drive doesn't work out for me.

Monster Brains!

Part 6: Grell Brains, Part 1

It was a few days since the group had split up. About a day after leaving Gyrus Village, the small party of adventurers had come to a crossroads. One path, the path that Kiera, Okari, and Gnarla would take, led to Greycleft, and the other led to the port city of Cranion, the capital of the Kingdom of Neuronis- the path that Rhett, Ceres, Bailey, and Shieri would walk. Their brains bouncing in goodbye, the party split off. Now a human mage, gnoll warrior, and winter wolf guard were trotting home, brains exposed and steaming in the early morning air.

Kiera turned to Okari, hardly able to contain her excitement at returning home. “What are you going to do when you get back to Graycleft?” she asked, calmly rubbing her paretial lobes.

“Okari gave a toothy grin. “First thing I’m going to do is go home and visit my parents. I can’t wait to tell them about the stuff we’ve done since becoming adventurers!” He paused for a moment, chuckling. “I can’t wait to go home and swap stories with my big bro- he’s a monster hunter, and I’d love to tell him about the elf brains and gnoll brains!”

“Well, first thing I’d like to do is visit my parents,” Kiera replied, “but the second place I’d go is down to Mr. Gerwar’s to tell him about what we’ve learned!” She suddenly quieted. “First I’m going to have to track him down- I hear he burnt his house down a month ago after he tried to put a wyvern brain into a zombie’s head.”

Okari stifled back a laugh as he squelched around his right frontal lobe. “Sounds like him, alright. But... Gnarla, you’ve never been to Greycleft! Well, not in a human body, anyway.”

Gnarla carelessly squelched her delicate brains around as she cackled lightly. “Me want to go.... um.... to school. Want to learn how.... better think!”

“Anyways, what’s it like, your first week as a human?” Okari asked Gnarla, as he flicked his left frontal lobe gently. Since the time they had met, Gnarla’s brain was hard at work changing her body, and now she had grown at least a foot taller, her ears had migrated to the top of her head, and a coat of fur had sprouted on her skin.

Gnarla smiled, too many teeth exposed. She hadn’t gotten facial expressions right yet. “Me… like human! Easy to… um… think! Hands good for hold things!” She flexed her fur-covered arm and scratched her brain with a muscular and sharp-clawed paw. “Me feel powerful, and like brain scratch!”

Kiera giggled. “Of course you’d like brain scratches, you’ve been scratching the old noodle ever since you left Gyrus Village! Don’t get that thing damaged, though. We don’t have a brain doctor to help you if you stick a finger through your brain.”

Insulted, Gnarla squelched and squashed her fragile brain around with a meaty paw. “Gnarla brain tough! No hurt by just scratch!”



But suddenly, as they crested a hill, Greycleft came into view. “Wait- Gnarla! We’re here! Greycleft!” Gnarla raced forward. “Ooh! New town! What does it….um… look li”

The gnoll tripped as her paw went knuckle-deep in her own brain. With a loud squelching sound, her paw squashed into her brain, spurting brain juices everywhere. She lay on the ground, a derpy expression in her face as all she did was pant in an unblinking, cross-eyed smile.

Kiera and Okari looked at each other, concerned. It wasn’t going to be easy carrying her into town.

Kiera reached down to grab the throbbing mind, and it didn’t look good. The frontal lobes had been smashed, and the corpus callossum had a large gash. She held the damaged gnoll’s brain in her hands, as Okari slung the drooling, mindless body over his shoulders. The two strode off to town. With any luck, the local brain surgery clinic would be open...

“And, done!” Mr. Gerwar wiped his feathery brow as he finished stitching Gnarla’s lobes together. The gnoll stood up, flexing her muscles as a quick incantation knitted her patchwork brain back into a fully functional mind. “Thanks, um... bird-cat, for fixing brain!”

“Oh, it’s not a problem, my young gnoll,” the griffon replied, closing his head before handing Gnarla the top of her head back. “I’m just glad for the experience of exploring a new and interesting brain.”

The two were in the back room of the town’s clinic, smack dab in the middle of Greycleft. A wide barn-style double door was open near the back (the better to let the more monster-bodied townsfolk get their brain examined) as various surgical instruments were strewn around the room. A poster of the human brain adorned a wall near the two. The chair that Gnarla had gotten up from was much like a dentist’s chair, with restraints and straps to make sure that there was a minimum of bucking as a brain was being poked and prodded, and a small table nearby held a needle, sutures, scalpel, and anything else needed to disassemble and reassemble a brain.

Gnarla tilted her head as she turned to the griffon. “Um... Mr... Griffon? Wanted ask something.”

Mr. Gerwar wiped the brain juice-soaked instruments with a cloth before dipping then into rubbing alcohol. “Ask away, my hyena-brained friend.”

Gnarla put her skullcap on, giving an awkward glance at the wizard-brained griffon. “Now I have human body, me want to learn like human. As monster I was stupid, but I wanted to be smart like human. Teach me?”

Mr. Gerwar was stunned for a moment. A monster brain that wanted to be more like a human? Those were rare. Most wanted to just stay as they were, attacking humans or otherwise remaining animals. “That’s.a rare attitude for a monster to have.”

Gnarla went down on her knees and pleaded, trying to make her best puppy-dog eyes. “Me was raised by... um... gnolls. Grew up watching humans being in monster bodies- monsters in human bodies- jealous of those brains! Do anything to... um.... be human!”

The griffon flipped open his head again and squished around the wizard’s brain within. “Well, I could help you with that, but you’d have to do me a favor. I teach at the academy... erm... school nearby, and I’d like to show your brain off. Would you be willing to do that?”

Gnarla stood up and leapt on the griffon, licking his face with a slobbery tongue. “Thank you thank you thank you!” She barked, as the griffon attempted in vain to keep saliva off his genius brain. After a few moments, Gerwar finally managed to push the eager gnoll off.

“Alright, alright already...” Mr. Gerwar replied, annoyed at the display. “I know you’re enthusiastic. The lecture isn’t until tomorrow! Until then, why don’t you go off to Kiera or Okari and rest up? Tomorrow will be a busy day...”

The next day...

Back in the Greycleft Academy, the class was abuzz with activity. Ratfolk, lizardfolk, minotaurs, lupins, and even a few humans were chatting amongst themselves, brains twitching excitedly in the morning air. Mr. Gerwar and Gnarla trotted into the room, the griffon taking a seat at his desk and the gnoll taking a seat in a restraining chair next to him.

Mr. Gerwar cleared his throat and popped the top of his head off. “Hello, class!”

The class, brains a-jiggling, responded back. “Hello, Mr. Gerwar!”

“Today we have a very special treat for you. We’re going to be exploring the exciting world of monster brains!” He gestured to Gnarla. “This is Gnarla. She’s a gnoll, a human with a crocotta brain in her skull. Though she may have a monster’s brain, she’s as civilized as you or me! Say hello, Gnarla!”

“Uh... hello?” She waved, accidentally baring her teeth as she tried to smile. “Uh... I happy to see you?” The students tittered, slightly worried at the mixed greeting.

Mr. Gerwar took the top of her head off and directed her to a chair. Next to it was a metal tray, and a human skull- with the top taken off. The gnoll’s brain twitched with curiosity as it noticed the straps on the chair, designed to hold a struggling victim still. “Sit down, please. The straps are so you don’t thrash around while I’m examining your brain.”

Gnarla sat down, apprehensive, as the griffon strapped her in. “Now, class, today we’re going to be studying the phenomenon of brain-body transmogrification.”



Gnarla twitched and bucked as Mr. Gerwar poked and prodded around in her opened skull, preparing her brain for the demonstration to come. The entire classroom watched intently as the griffon gestured behind them. Displayed on the board was a diagram, a cross-section of a human and a crocotta brain.

“As you can see,” the griffon announced as he affectionately scritched the gnoll’s brain, “the presence of a monster brain in a human body can significantly alter its overall structure.” With one claw, he lifted up Gnarla’s pulsing mind out of her skull, careful not to damage it. As her stem stretched, the gnoll jerked and bucked wildly, the straps holding her down being the only things keeping her from falling out of the chair. With a soft *snikt!* he severed her stem with a talon and placed the twitching brain on the metal tray, as her body went limp and still, her eyes staring ahead mindlessly.

Mr. Gerwar then handed Gnarla’s brain and the open-topped skull to the nearest student. “Please, pass her brain and the skull around. As you can all see, her brain and the human skull do not have compatible shapes.” It was true. Gnarla’s throbbing mind would fit in the skull only with difficulty. After a few minutes, the helpless little brain was passed back to the front.

“Now, I need a volunteer’s brain for this next part. Kiera? Would you be so kind as to help me with this?”

Kiera stood up, nodding, as she moved her way to the teacher’s desk. She looked into Mr. Gerwar's eyes as Mr. Gerwar prepared to remove her from her body.

The griffon took off the top of Kiera’s head and put it into the lap of Gnarla’s drooling, brainless body. He put a hand on Kiera’s shoulder, then reached up to her jiggling brain. With a sharp tug and a snap, Kiera’s delicate mind was freed from her skull, pulsing forcefully in the griffon’s claw. Her now unoccupied body was lowered to the ground gently, the griffon’s strength making the matter trivial.

“Now, class, I’ll be projecting what I'm seeing into your brains- just a fair warning." The griffon wizard closed his eyes, his brain glowing and pulsating faster. With a sudden flash, everyone in the room- including the two brains being examined-could suddenly see what Mr. Gerwar saw and feel what he felt. He plopped the two minds down unceremoniously onto his desk as he picked up Kiera and Gnarla, Kiera's brain pulsing with curiosity at the differences between their brains, and Gnarla's brain wriggling with amazement at the spell Gerwar had cast. The class felt a pleasant warm and squishy sensation in their hands as Mr. Gerwar sat down at his desk and squeezed the human and gnoll brains appreciatively. After letting go, he clapped twice, and Sparky entered the room. “Sparky? Could you get me the crocotta brain?” Sparky nodded and panted, her tiny doggy brain bouncing about in her fluid-filled skull. After a few moments, the marionette-brained servant bounced cheerfully into the room, holding a jarred and pulsating brain in greenish preservative fluid.



After thanking his doggy-brained servant, Mr. Gerwar unscrewed the jar’s lid and pulled the now angrily throbbing mind out of the jar. He picked up a pair of calipers and began to measure the feral monster’s brain, eventually getting a good measurement despite its angry wriggling. “Now, class, let’s take a look at the monster brain compared to the human brain.” He moved over to Kiera’s brain, taking care not to damage Kiera’s delicate mind. “The human brain and the crocotta brain, in this case, are adapted perfectly to their bodies. The human brain has a bigger visual cortex and significantly larger frontal lobes, while the crocotta brain has a larger olfactory cortex and smaller lobes. However, the gnoll brain, or the brain of a crocotta which has spent some time in a human body, is different.” He showed Gnarla’s brain in profile next to Kieru’s and the monster’s brain, and the differences became apparent. “As you can see, the gnoll brain has frontal lobes nearly as big as a human’s, but no significant adaptations or differences otherwise.”

The griffon scratched his left frontal lobe thoughtfully. “Now that we’ve looked at the typical human brain, the typical monster brain, and the transmogrified monster brain, let’s take a look at the transmogrified human brain.” His brain glowing with magical energy, he grasped it with both his claws. With a subtle *snap!* his brain stem gave way, his dripping mind held aloft his empty skull. He casually tossed his own still-glowing brain onto the desk before picking up the calipers again. “Like Gnarla’s brain, my brain has been changed by the experience of being in a different body. However, the changes have been largely confined to my motor and visual cortices, and my frontal lobes remain as large as ever. So far, it is unknown why monster brains in human bodies develop sapience while human brains in monster bodies do not have their cognitive capacities affected to the same degree.”

The brainless griffon plopped all four brains on the table, side-by-side. He measured his brain with the calipers now. While his olfactory cortex had shrunken considerably, and his auditory and visual cortices had swelled, his frontal lobe size had not increased or decreased at all. “As you can see, my frontal lobes haven’t changed for the better or worse, even though my cerebral structure has been changed drastically.” Picking up his brain, he placed it back into his head with a faint squelching noise. As his stem reconnected, he blinked and shook his head. “Are there any questions?”

Fifteen minutes later, the class had ended, and the students began to file out of the class. The brains sitting on the desk now pulsated more calmly. Mr. Gerwar picked up a brain and placed it into the strapped-down body of the gnoll. As the stem reconnected, Gnarla’s body began to stare at the griffon with a savage intensity, and began to snap at him while struggling against his restraints. He quickly yanked out the brain, and giggled as the gnoll’s body slumped over and began to drool. “Oops. Sorry. Wrong brain! And after I spent so much time talking about how different your brains were…”

Mr. Gerwar looked down at the now very dried-out brain of Gnarla, took it in his talons and plopped it back in her head. Gnarla gave a surprised yelp as her brain reconnected with her body, then gave an annoyed look at the griffon. “Griffon! Why were brains… um… alone for so long?”



Mr. Gerwar sat Kiera up and squelched the disembodied brain back into her body. Her eyes refocused as she stood up, looking at the griffon. “Whoa. That was weird...” She moved over to the gnoll and began to unstrap her from the chair, as Mr. Gerwar took the feral crocotta brain and tossed it back in its fluid-filled jar.

“So how did you two ladies enjoy the demonstration?” the griffon asked, as he gave a pensive scratch to his right frontal lobe.

“I thought it was entertaining, even if it was all stuff I’ve learned already,” Kiera replied, sticking a finger in her head and wiggling it on her cerebellum.

Gnarla looked at the griffon with a big, goofy smile. “Me loved it! Learned so much about brains!” She thought a bit, her almost dried-out brain wriggling weakly. “But brain was alone for so long!”

The griffon reached into a bag on his desk and pulled out some dried meat. He tossed a bit to Gnarla, who tore at it greedily. “Consider that an apology,” he said. “But it was necessary for the lecture.”

He patted the gnoll’s brain lin a fatherly way. “It’s a few hours until my next class, so I can teach you more things if you want.”

The gnoll looked up from her jerky, alert and excited. “What? Learn now?” A big, toothy smile crept across her face. “Me would love to!” She moved as if to lick the griffon on his beaky face, but Gerwar held out a claw.

“Alright, alright, my little brainy gnoll...” the griffon responded, with a wry smile. “We’ll have plenty of time to fill up that bright little brain up with knowledge- we’ll start with reading.”

Just then, as Kiera turned to leave, Okari burst through the door. He looked like he had been running on all fours for some time, panting and wheezing wildly. He stood up on two legs, and barked out a worried message. “Kiera! Gnarla! Mr. Gerwar! The village was attacked!”

The group turned to the winter wolf. “By what? What’s happened?” Kiera asked, worried.

“Some of the houses along the edge of the town- come on! I’ll show you!” Okari knelt over, offering to carry Kiera on his back. Too surprised to say no, Kiera got on, and the two bounded off with Gnarla and Mr. Gerwar in hot pursuit. Clutching her skullcap to her brain as whe hung onto Okari’s back, she gasped when she got to the town’s edge. Armored guards were stationed everywhere. Houses were in ruins. But it was what lay dead on the ground that worried her.

Giant, tentacled brains were strewn all over the ground. Cruel, tearing beaks protruded from their surfaces, gaping open as if to swallow their prey whole. Their appendages werw covered in cruel barbs. As Okari skidded to a stop, she got off and turned pale. “Oh, no... she breathed. “Grells!”