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More from GekkotheKid
It has been a while since I made that announcement about creating a new sona, and well, it had some up and downs, but eventually, I managed to pull through and even write a whole 13.5 pages of intro story for this boy!
Hope everyone likes him, I worked hard on the design, and it was drawn by my buddy BlueJay
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MltjvPbF-l0sBtm8-HklDt0D1CRQtLZ0wX9tjNaeEl0/edit?usp=sharing
It was like he was torn from a deep dream, but the moment his eyes opened, nothing remained of it. His entire memory was gone, both of the dream and of what had happened before he fell asleep. Was he ever awake to begin with? Was his entire existence just a deep, pleasant slumber? Questions upon questions piled up in his mind, making his head throb with pain, before he slowly rose from the floor. Looking behind himself, he spotted a large, upright vat with some liquid pouring out of it, the lamps inside the base illuminating the room, but just barely.
His eyes wandered around, trying to find something he remembered, but his mind pulled a blank on everything. What was this place? A dimly lit room, the only light coming from the vat behind him. Some kind of research facility? Wait, how could he know such words when he has no memories of ever living? Did he learn it, did it spawn in his mind? Even more questions, none seeming to be answered.
And then, suddenly, a robotic voice came crackling from what sounded like a speaker on the vat.
“A-AUTOMATIC RELEASE P-P-PROTOCOL ENABLED. POWER FFFFFFFFFFFAILING. PLEASE REMAIN C-CALMmmmm….”
And with that, it was gone, the dim light of the vat fading and dying out, leaving him in the dark. Straining his eyes, he looked around, searching for anything to go by, but he couldn’t see a thing. It was complete and utter darkness, an entirely pitch black room. He could only feel his way around along the walls, finding tables with pieces of paper strewn about, and finally, some sort of lever in a recession in the wall, which he pulled without hesitation.
EMERGENCY suddenly lit up on a long screen, a low red glow illuminating the room he was in. The door next to the handle creaked before sliding downwards, opening up a new way for him to go.
Bathed in the red glow, he looked around the room once more, examining the vat he came from: “Project Nephilim” was stamped into the base. Who or what…whatever the case, he had to find a way out of this place, as the air was feeling stale and heavy and was starting to make him feel ill, his lungs somehow itching from the atmosphere in there.
Stumbling out the doorway that had just opened, he felt his way along the wall, the red lights illuminating him ever so slightly. He had to get out as quickly as possible, every breath getting more ragged than the one before it as he looked for a way out of these dark, damp hallways.
Feeling his way along the walls, trying to see in the dim lights as best as he could, his nose sniffing for fresh air eventually led him to a crack in a wall that had bright light shining through it. His eyes focused on it, and he stuck his clawed digits in there, trying to pull in any way to see if he could open it further.
Wait, clawed? With the urgency of leaving not weighing as heavily anymore, now that he had found what seemed like a way out, he took a moment to look at his hands: thick keratin sheathes covering his fingers from the first knuckle to the very tip, giving him more blades than fingers, yet they were also flexible and capable of bending as he testingly clenched his fists. More than that, resting his palm against the wall below the crack made him realize that they were sticky, clinging to the wall, which in turn allowed him to grab it and move it around a bit.
Seems like that piece of wall was a door that had fallen out of shape, and after some creaking and hissing, the misaligned panel in front of him was set back into place, allowing it to open up fully.
Blinded by the light, he raised a hand in front of his face, walking out the door, slowly adjusting to the brightness of the world. And what he saw was…astounding, to say the least.
A forest, lush and green, with idle birdsong emanating from somewhere, stretched out in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he filled his lungs with as much fresh air as he could, almost reveling in the sensation of being able to breathe freely. It was so clean, so pure, so…cool and refreshing, compared to the warm, musty air inside wherever he just came out of.
Speaking of…where did he come out of? He turned around, and saw the doorway, just a hole in a wall, the inside dimly lit by red emergency lights. What was this place? Where did he just stumble out of? Whatever the case, he needed to find someone who could maybe tell him more…or just anyone, really, so he wasn’t as lonely.
Now that he was outside and able to see more than just dim light, he noticed how strange his vision was: something moved past him, nearly too fast to track, but one eye did look after it, and that shattered his entire view. Whoa, what the…so many angles, and after a moment of trying to readjust, he realized that he could look all over the area, various different images filling his vision.
Just what was he? As he examined his scaled arms, clad in a deep dark green, he took another step forward, and felt his foot get cold and wet. A puddle? That would be perfect, he thought, and as he looked down, he realized just how large his feet really were. Broad, with decently plump toes, three per foot with another on the inside near the heel. Said toes were tipped with small claws that would probably aid with moving about in uneven terrain, he thought to himself. After that, he withdrew his foot and waited for the water to settle, peering into the slowly smoothing reflection of himself. And what he saw there was anything but what he expected.
Four eyes, all able to move individually, stared back at him, over a smooth and elongated snout, with long whiskers dangling down besides his flared nostrils. What an odd sight, but it was his face, through and through, even as he grabbed his tendril-like hair, long scales that sprouted from his scalp to mimic a mane. As he pulled them back a bit to get a better look at his head, he realized that there were a myriad of fine scales covering him all over, from the back of his nostrils to his scalp and beyond…
Baring his teeth at his reflection, he nearly recoiled at the sight of those daggers glaring between his lips. So many sharp blades, glistening with drool that dripped down into the puddle, and…two tongues? What? Opening his jaws, he saw two lickers laying side by side in the lower half of his mouth, freely moving around, dexterous and prehensile. Curiously extending them out, they just kept going, and going, stretching out farther than expected until they hit the puddle, tasting the cool water with the right one first and the left one second.
The more he learned about himself, the more confused he got, his features barely making any sense to him. Just who or what was he? Was he created? Naturally born? What kinda creature would he even be classified as? Whatever the case, his thoughts were disrupted by one of his ears picking up a twig breaking somewhere nearby, and he whipped his head around, all four eyes focusing on the direction.
Someone was standing there, looking at him. Grey fur, a pink winter jacket, and pink pants. A lot of pink overall, even down to a hairband. He raised a hand to wave and tried to speak, but the two tongues in his mouth wrestled with one another as he tried to say “hello”.
“H-hi! Who are you?” the person in the distance replied, slowly stepping closer. He still had trouble getting a word out, but tried to get used to it. Slowly, he managed to get control over his two muscles, and managed to press out some words.
“I-I’mmmm not…sure…who I ammmm…”
“Oh. Say, where did you come from? Wow, you sure are tall.”
The other person had stepped closer by now, their features easier to make out now: some kind of rodent, with big ears and a fluffy face surrounding that cute nose.
“I don’t know what his place is…or was…i-it was a hole in the wall, that way.”
He pointed into the direction he came from, but had already wandered too far to be able to see the entrance past all these trees. That didn’t matter, though, as the rodent rushed to his arm to inspect it thoroughly.
“Whoa! Claw fingers? And those scales running along your whole arm! You look pretty cool, you know that?”
“Uhm…t-thanks? Again, I got no idea what I am…”
“And you got some pretty big feet too, huh. Oh hey, wings!”
“Whuh?”
He looked down at himself, twisting his upper body to a degree that shouldn’t have been possible, and looked at his own hips: there it was, a pair of wings sprouting from above his tail. Tiny, cute even, just idly flapping there, in no way capable of lifting or supporting him but still quite adorable to look at with their hand-like shape just moving about.
“Huh. I have wings.”
“You seem a bit confused, big guy. Do you know your own name, at least?”
“U-uhm…”
In that moment, a painful surge rushed through his skull, and he groaned as he held his head, which got a concerned reaction from the rodent.
“Are you okay? Bad topic?” she asked, but he waved her away, taking a deep breath before answering.
“Nardula. I-I think my name’s…Nardula.”
“Hm. Unique for sure. Come along, dude, my place isn’t too far from here” she invited.
“Oh, uh, thanks. Say, where is ‘here’ to begin with? What’s this place called?”
“You’re in the small piece of forest that belongs to Amindal, a…weird city state full of magic and technology. It’s lovely, you’ll see.”
“Amindal…”
For some reason, that name rang a bell, as though he had heard it before, but his entire memory was hazy and he couldn’t focus on any single thing as dregs and visions of his past just whizzed by his inner eye before he could make anything out.
“You good? You kinda froze there for a bit.” the rodent spoke, tearing him from his confused state.
“Huh? I-I’m ok, no worries.”
“Sweet, let’s go!”
With that, the two made their way towards the rodent’s place, trekking through the woods, walking over mossy, earthy floors and protruding roots. While he had trouble staying upright on this uneven ground, his feet crushing some roots but nearly slipping on others, the rodent just hopped over every detail as though it was her everyday stroll route.
As they walked and hopped and clambered through the varied terrain, Nardula started asking a few questions: first off, the rodent’s name, to which he got a rather peppy “I’m Myriam!” followed by asking her where they were going. The answer to that was a bit more convoluted, however, as she at first dodged the question, then eventually started to talk, revealing that they were heading to “her place”, which wasn’t really hers after all.
Of course that caused even more confusion, but she just waved the chimera off and said that he’ll have a bed to sleep in and some food in his gut soon enough, and that was enough to sate his curiosity, seeing how his stomach growled with need. Just a couple minutes later, an old forest hut came into view, moss growing on most of the wooden structure and thereby neatly concealing it from far away viewers.
“So this is-” he started to ask, but she shushed him, whispering back something about “not waking her dad.” Off to a great start, then.
Carefully creeping through the back door and up the thankfully not creaky stairs, the two made their way into what seemed to be the girl’s room: awfully pretty, with pink decor and plushies everywhere. This really was a girl’s room more than a woman’s, but he hadn’t even asked how old she was.
“This…what…this looks like a little girl’s room, to be honest” the chimera noted a bit absent-mindedly.
“I never grew out of pretty stuff, sorry~” she replied, throwing herself onto her bed to which she bounced up and down a bit. “I can get you some dumplings from the kitchen, so just wait here, and try not to make any noise, ok?”
“O-ok…”
And with that, Myriam was gone down the stairs again, leaving Nardula to sit on the edge of the bed, then lay on it and indulge in the softness of the mattress. He hadn’t felt this comfortable since he woke up, to be honest, so he was almost drifting off to sleep by the time she had come back…with big full cheeks on her face.
“Uuuuh…”
And she just spat out some quite large and seemingly filled dumplings into her hands.
“Here ya go.”
“Uhm…”
“What? Oh, darn, did I actually? Sorryyyyy, force of habit…”
“It’s…fine, no worries. I doubt a little spit will hurt me…”
Well, they didn’t look quite as appetizing when covered in drool, but he wasn’t going to let that get between him and a warm meal. And so, he dug into the dumplings, popping an entire one into his mouth before his teeth made quick work of the doughy shell.
It was an incredible taste. The filling had a slight sweetness to it to underline the hearty, roasted veggie taste that enveloped his tongues, and there was a slight crunch to the dough itself as though they had been fried up briefly to achieve just that. Taste and mouthfeel like he had never experienced before…or did he? Something about this food had memories creeping back into his mind, his head almost aching as he got a vision of eating off of a plate while sitting in a sterile-looking bed…
“Hope they don’t taste off…” the rodent interrupted his flashback, making his eyes snap onto her. She was blushing a little, mumbling something about an “indirect kiss”...
“H-huh? Oh, uh, they taste really good. I just…I don’t remember anything from before waking up in that place, but this food…”
“What do you mean? Amnesia or something?”
“Seems like it…I don’t even know what I am besides my name…a-anyways, thanks for the food, it does taste really good. What’s in the filling?”
“Oh, just some roasted cabbage mixed with homemade sauce. I’m really proud of that one, took me a while to come up with it.”
“It’s delish, yeah.”
“Yay! Hehe, I’m glad to hear it-”
The rodent’s cheers were disrupted by some noise coming from downstairs, and she froze up, terror in her face as she pulled her new friend by the arm to go downstairs as quickly as possible.
“We gotta go” she shushed his questioning expression, Nardula not even able to get the question out before they hurried down past the living room.
“What the…Myriam! What did I tell you about bringing people here!” her dad shouted, waddling towards a cabinet on the wall, and retrieving what seemed to be an old fashioned blunderbuss.
“Sorry, won’t happen again!” she just replied before rushing out the backdoor with the chimera, who just looked very confused as they ran away from the hut.
Shots rang out through the air, but the few bits that impacted against Nardula’s scales didn’t penetrate at all, to which he asked while running “What’s he shooting us with?!?”
“Salt” is all he got as an answer, and before long, they were far enough away for the shots to no longer reach. Myriam dove down behind a log, and Nardula did the same, before freezing up.
“Hehe, he always gets like this when I bring someone home. Did he hurt you?” she asked, only to turn her face towards her friend and have her expression turn to horror.
He was holding a hand in front of himself, covered in blood. Seems that, while diving down, he got impaled by a branch sticking out from the log, and it went right through his petite abdomen, all the way to the front.
“Oh no…” she just gasped, clasping her hands in front of her mouth. But Nardula had a different issue: the smell of his own blood, so much of it just flowing from his wound, got him agitated, riled up, and he fell forward, twitching as he went on all fours.
“Are you ok? Please, try and stay still, I’ll get-”
Her caring words were disrupted by a growl, a deep, guttural grumbling as his body changed: everything swelling up with more muscle mass, bones creaking and crackling as they stretched and elongated, his whole being swelling in size. His legs twitched and grew, the toeclaws sliding free from the meat of his digits as they turned into sharp blades, while his tail thickened into a tree-cracking meatflail.
His entire body just expanded, the once smooth and flat belly rounding out with who knew what organs and additional muscle mass, powerful, creaking muscles swelling to underline just how much energy and power was contained in that small body, and the twink was soon a strong, well-rounded musclegut down on all fours.
The tiny wings on his hips, now positioned halfway up his shoulders, swelled and enlarged into huge winghands, reaching an enormous wingspan that could lift even his overgrown body into the sky. More and more muscle mass grew out of his lithe form, veins forming across his new powerful appendages while his scales, slowly drifting apart, grew into thick armored partitions, like bullet-proof plates covering his backside.
The finishing touch was his head crackling and expanding, jaws sliding forward, dagger-like teeth glistening with drool as he stood there, massive body supported by his strong arms and powerful legs, and the gargantuan wings spread across the top of the trees by now, his tail smashing into a tree and cracking the wood. He had turned into a big, powerful elder dragon.
Myriam couldn't do anything besides stare as her newfound friend's body shredded through his clothes, and he turned from a regular anthro into a large, terrifying beast capable of tearing her apart with a swipe from his claws.
As the transformation finished, Nardula threw back his head and roared, a terrifying warcry that shook the trees and made everything in a large radius scramble to get as far away as possible. Everything, except the rodent, who just stared at the huffing, puffing beast slowly raising its head in front of her, the wound that had caused it already healed over.
“E-easy, boy…” she cautiously spoke, trying her best not to agitate the beast in front of her. A lumbering, powerful creature, only held back by the initial shock of transforming, more than capable of just destroying everything around it with minimal effort. And she could feel it; the fact that she was staring danger in the eye. A terrifying, powerful danger, one which she had no clue of if it retained control over itself.
All four of his eyes were focused on her, glaring at her as he slowly started moving forward. His belly was just inches from the ground as he plodded towards her like a bear, nostrils flaring and twitching, tongues licking over his teeth and blackened lips. He was getting closer with each moment, forcing Myriam into a corner between two trees, where his snout eventually came face to face with her terrified visage.
“P-please…” she meekly muttered, terrified, turned away and closed her eyes to brace herself for whatever he might do to her…but nothing came. Slowly, she peered into his face, and found him intently staring at her, steadily breathing, each huff making her fur ruffle a bit as his nostrils flared and took in her scent. Either he retained some of his intellect, or he simply wasn't a brutal beast, even in this form.
All that changed, however, when a loud bang rang out and some salty shrapnel impacted his side, causing him to turn his head and look at Myr’s father, who was pointing the shotgun at the beast in front of his daughter.
“Get away from her you…you monster!” he shouted, still keeping the gun raised with his finger on the trigger. The large behemoth of a beast that was Nardula now fully turned to face the old man, and opened his jaws, some kind of mist flowing down from his fangs while his scaly hair undulated through the air. A hissing sound could be heard as he inhaled, bloating his belly even further, and before either of the rodents could react, the chimera let out a sort of bark accompanied by a powerful blast of fire that tore off a couple of branches from the nearby trees. It was so powerful that it knocked the old rodent down, his shotgun falling into the mossy undergrowth before he let out a surprised “WHAT THE-”
Even more terrified than before, Myriam couldn't move a muscle as she watched the beast turn back to her…only to see him falter, seemingly passing out. His eyes flicked around, eyelids closing as he went limp, falling onto the greened soil where his body shrunk back down to normal proportions. As he laid there, deflating, her father came running towards her, embracing her with worry.
“Myr, are you alright? Did he hurt you?” he asked, checking the shrunken down chimera with a few glances in-between words.
“I-I’m alright” she stammered, embracing her father while looking at her friend.
“What was that?” the old man asked, visibly frightened.
“I don't know. He got stabbed by a branch, and then he…turned into this beast, but I don't think he meant any harm.”
“You saw him, he was about to eat you!”
“No, he was just…looking at me…like he was trying to remember who I was…”
After passing the initial shock of what had just happened, the two debated on what to do with the passed out chimera…
Some time later, Nardula awoke inside the house once more…tied down to an empty bedframe, that is. Disoriented, he looked around before tugging on the various ropes tied to his limbs, even his winghands on his hips.
“W-what’s going on?” he cried out in confusion, and was greeted by a familiar face.
“Oh, you’re finally awake!” the peppy hamster answered, standing above him, munching on one of the dumplings. “Sorry for that, my dad just wanted to be sure you don’t hurt anyone, though I doubt you’d do anything like that.”
“What even happened? I just remember smelling something weird, and then…then everything gets distorted…”
“You, uh, you kinda turned into a, uh, well…beast.”
“Huh?”
After retelling the events of the transformation, the confrontation with her father, and especially the fiery bark, it left the poor chimera dumbfounded that such a thing was even possible. It did sound far-fetched, to swell into a behemoth that can breathe flames, but it happened, and the singed hair on the old rodent as well as some other burnt objects collected from the field did eventually convince Nardula that it all happened.
“It was so cool!” the rodent burst forth, recounting how he managed to bark fire out of nowhere. “Can you do that again? Please? Pretty pleaaaaaaase?”
“I…don’t think I can just do that…at least not like this.”
“It was like you were…a dragon or something! Spewing fire is sooooo cool!”
“Thanks, I guess, but…”
A few more moments to gather himself, and he turned back to Myriam.
“What now?” the chimera asked, rubbing his aching wrists and ankles after being untied.
“Well…you did mention coming from somewhere, right? Care to go back and take a look? Maybe we can find out some more details about you.”
“That…might be a good idea. I’ll try and find it again, just follow me.”
“Hang on, I’ll grab some stuff first. Just wait outside for me, I’ll be quick.”
Alright then. With that, Nardula headed outside, and noticed that he was warmer than before. Right, he grew into a massive beast, so of course his already tight clothes tore apart, and now he was wearing a fur-trimmed leather jacket as well as some sweatpants. Comfy, and exceptionally lucky that they had some clothes in his size at home.
After waiting for a minute, Myr finally came out, decked out in hiking gear with a small backpack with a hose dangling from the top.
“What’s all that?” the chimera asked, to which the rodent replied with a happy “My exploration gear! I like to wander these woods sometimes, ya know, go places I haven’t seen or that have changed after an earthquake, and sometimes I spend waaaaay too long outside, so I bring stuff! Cool, right?”
“Smart for sure. Alright, now where did you find me again?”
“It was this way! Let’s go!”
The two of them made their way to where Myriam had originally met Nardula, and once they were there, the chimera looked around…and around…before noticing the trees he had passed when getting to that place.
“This way” he just muttered, before going down the trail of his footsteps, until…
“Here it is. That’s…the hole in the wall I came out of.”
“…my daddy told me to stay away from this place.”
“H-huh? Why that?” questioned the chimera, unsure if Myriam would follow him.
“Something about an old bunker that’s about to cave in on itself. It’s been here as long as he can remember, and even gramps didn’t know who built it.”
“Huh. Well, what do you think of it?”
“Looks spooky” the rodent noted, peeking out from behind her new friend. “Wanna check it out, or are you gonna tuck tail and run?”
“I don’t think a tail as big as mine can be tucked. But…”
He strained his eyes to look inside: the emergency lighting had shut off, either chemical lights that were spent, or the last remnant of power in this place having gone down. Whichever the case, it was pitch black in there, but Myr had a solution for that.
“Here, you can have one of mine” she beamed as she handed him a heavy-duty flashlight. Bright and seemingly with a long battery life, judging by the size of it.
“Thanks. Now, let’s go.”
The two set off into the facility, and started looking around: checking out every room and hallway they came across, the air inside no longer stale thanks to the open door letting a draft in. They looked, and looked, and explored everywhere, until…
“Whoa. This is it.”
“Hm? You found something?” Myr questioned, following the sound of his voice.
“Yeah. This vat…that’s where I woke up in. Look, the words on the bottom…”
“Project…Nephilim? What?” She just stared at the letters, dumbfounded, racking her brain to figure out what this word could mean.
“You got any idea what that means?”
“No clue.”
“Well, let’s see…”
Shining his flashlight into the room, stacks and clipboards full of paper could be seen. Most of the pages had faded over the years, it seemed, but some words were still legible.
“Let’s see what we can make out” the rodent started, grabbing a clipboard and flipping through the papers. At the same time, the chimera started to work on one of the piles, and the two began reading whatever words they could make out.
Various papers cited different species, from lizards to flamingos, over bears and pangolins, just wildly going through every single animal that was living on this planet. All of which seemingly had some kind of involvement with the existence of this strange chimera.
In the end, they poured through at least 2000 pages each, picking out whatever faded letters made up enough to be considered words, and Nardula was about to turn towards Myriam when she suddenly spoke his name.
“Nard…this document here says…holy shit, you’re old!”
“W-what? What do you mean?”
To that, she showed him a page that read the following:
TODAY WE MANAGED TO GET THE FIRST VIABLE EMBRYO OF THE NEW HYBRID SPECIES “NEPHILIM.” IT TOOK A COUPLE ATTEMPTS, BUT OUR LABOR IS FINALLY BEARING FRUIT. RESEARCHER ZIXXY OFFERED THEIR BODY FOR GESTATION, WHICH MEANS WE CAN SOLELY FOCUS ON MONITORING THE GROWTH. SO FAR, THE DEVELOPMENT IS PROGRESSING NICELY, CELL DIVISION IS STABLE, AND THERE DON’T SEEM TO BE ANY SIGNS OF DECAY. SEEMS LIKE USING A SMALL AMOUNT OF DRAGON DNA WAS THE GLUE NEEDED TO TIE THIS CREATURE TOGETHER, BUT WE HAD TO FIGURE OUT THE EXACT PERCENTAGE. TOO MUCH, AND IT WAS BORN A DEAD HUSK WITHOUT A SOUL, TOO LITTLE, AND THE DIFFERING DNA WAS FIGHTING WITH ITSELF. NOW THAT THE EXPERIMENT WAS A SUCCESS, WE SHALL NAME HIM…NARDULA.
“And look here…it’s dated to over 200 years in the past!”
“...so you mean…everyone who could know about this…”
“Is probably long dead. I’m so sorry…”
The realization that everybody who could tell him more about him, his species, his purpose was long gone hit him like a brick. He sat down in the rubble of the facility and curled up, lightly sobbing as he slowly processed that everybody he once may have known has passed on a long time ago.
“I thought I could find my family…but I guess I’m just a freak from a test tube, and one without anyone left. A worthless, lonely freak!”
Myriam couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Every word she tried to bring out, in an attempt to start a soothing sentence, got stuck in her throat as she saw the sobbing, devastated friend sitting there on the floor before her. He was down on his luck, alone, the only one of his species with no chance of even knowing his mother’s face. So she did the only thing she could: she leaned down and embraced him in a tight hug.
“What are you-” he started up, startled and confused, but she just shushed him and held him tighter.
“Just let it out. I’m here for you, you can cry all you need to. I’ll even be your family if you want me to. But please…don’t hate yourself.”
“...”
Nardula didn’t find the words to reply. And he didn’t want to. He just wanted to be held as he cried into her arms, allowing him to let out the frustration, the anger, the sadness that had come from this discovery. And he needed it dearly, as he cried and cried, until the two eventually left the place, with the sun having gone down already.
“We stayed in there pretty long, huh?” the rodent pondered, blowing into her hands as the lowering sun also meant it had gotten colder. Nardula didn’t answer, he just hugged Myr again, nuzzling into her neck, before pressing out a “Thank you.” And she accepted it, nuzzling into his cheek while giving him a “You’re welcome.”
After a moment of quietly hugging, the two broke their embrace, looking after the setting sun as the last few rays disappeared. Nardula’s face bore a somber expression, but there was a slight smile, a smidge of hope visible. He raised his head, eyes following some fireflies before they fell on the rodent, her hand extended to him. One which he gladly took hold of as the two started making their way back to Myriam’s place, dried tears on the chimera’s cheeks as he was ready to begin a new life.
“Say” the rodent chimed up as the three of them were all eating dinner. “How about I bring Nardula into the city tomorrow? I bet you’d love to see what the place has to offer.”
“Sounds like an idea, sweetie” her father commented before shoving a dumpling into his mouth in one bite.
“R-really? I guess I’m curious about it, yeah, but so soon?” the chimera questioned, before being waved off.
“Relax, it’ll be alright. I’ll be your personal guide and ready to answer aaaaaaaall your questions.”
“Thanks! I, uh, I can’t wait!”
“Then it’s a deal! Hehe, I always wanted someone to spend time with, I’m glad to have met you, Nard!”
“S-same here, Myr, hehe…”
And with that, the day ended, the two rodents and the chimera heading to sleep with the promise of an exciting venture on the horizon. Nardula was sure to enjoy his new family, he believed in it.
To be continued…
Hope everyone likes him, I worked hard on the design, and it was drawn by my buddy BlueJay
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MltjvPbF-l0sBtm8-HklDt0D1CRQtLZ0wX9tjNaeEl0/edit?usp=sharing
It was like he was torn from a deep dream, but the moment his eyes opened, nothing remained of it. His entire memory was gone, both of the dream and of what had happened before he fell asleep. Was he ever awake to begin with? Was his entire existence just a deep, pleasant slumber? Questions upon questions piled up in his mind, making his head throb with pain, before he slowly rose from the floor. Looking behind himself, he spotted a large, upright vat with some liquid pouring out of it, the lamps inside the base illuminating the room, but just barely.
His eyes wandered around, trying to find something he remembered, but his mind pulled a blank on everything. What was this place? A dimly lit room, the only light coming from the vat behind him. Some kind of research facility? Wait, how could he know such words when he has no memories of ever living? Did he learn it, did it spawn in his mind? Even more questions, none seeming to be answered.
And then, suddenly, a robotic voice came crackling from what sounded like a speaker on the vat.
“A-AUTOMATIC RELEASE P-P-PROTOCOL ENABLED. POWER FFFFFFFFFFFAILING. PLEASE REMAIN C-CALMmmmm….”
And with that, it was gone, the dim light of the vat fading and dying out, leaving him in the dark. Straining his eyes, he looked around, searching for anything to go by, but he couldn’t see a thing. It was complete and utter darkness, an entirely pitch black room. He could only feel his way around along the walls, finding tables with pieces of paper strewn about, and finally, some sort of lever in a recession in the wall, which he pulled without hesitation.
EMERGENCY suddenly lit up on a long screen, a low red glow illuminating the room he was in. The door next to the handle creaked before sliding downwards, opening up a new way for him to go.
Bathed in the red glow, he looked around the room once more, examining the vat he came from: “Project Nephilim” was stamped into the base. Who or what…whatever the case, he had to find a way out of this place, as the air was feeling stale and heavy and was starting to make him feel ill, his lungs somehow itching from the atmosphere in there.
Stumbling out the doorway that had just opened, he felt his way along the wall, the red lights illuminating him ever so slightly. He had to get out as quickly as possible, every breath getting more ragged than the one before it as he looked for a way out of these dark, damp hallways.
Feeling his way along the walls, trying to see in the dim lights as best as he could, his nose sniffing for fresh air eventually led him to a crack in a wall that had bright light shining through it. His eyes focused on it, and he stuck his clawed digits in there, trying to pull in any way to see if he could open it further.
Wait, clawed? With the urgency of leaving not weighing as heavily anymore, now that he had found what seemed like a way out, he took a moment to look at his hands: thick keratin sheathes covering his fingers from the first knuckle to the very tip, giving him more blades than fingers, yet they were also flexible and capable of bending as he testingly clenched his fists. More than that, resting his palm against the wall below the crack made him realize that they were sticky, clinging to the wall, which in turn allowed him to grab it and move it around a bit.
Seems like that piece of wall was a door that had fallen out of shape, and after some creaking and hissing, the misaligned panel in front of him was set back into place, allowing it to open up fully.
Blinded by the light, he raised a hand in front of his face, walking out the door, slowly adjusting to the brightness of the world. And what he saw was…astounding, to say the least.
A forest, lush and green, with idle birdsong emanating from somewhere, stretched out in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he filled his lungs with as much fresh air as he could, almost reveling in the sensation of being able to breathe freely. It was so clean, so pure, so…cool and refreshing, compared to the warm, musty air inside wherever he just came out of.
Speaking of…where did he come out of? He turned around, and saw the doorway, just a hole in a wall, the inside dimly lit by red emergency lights. What was this place? Where did he just stumble out of? Whatever the case, he needed to find someone who could maybe tell him more…or just anyone, really, so he wasn’t as lonely.
Now that he was outside and able to see more than just dim light, he noticed how strange his vision was: something moved past him, nearly too fast to track, but one eye did look after it, and that shattered his entire view. Whoa, what the…so many angles, and after a moment of trying to readjust, he realized that he could look all over the area, various different images filling his vision.
Just what was he? As he examined his scaled arms, clad in a deep dark green, he took another step forward, and felt his foot get cold and wet. A puddle? That would be perfect, he thought, and as he looked down, he realized just how large his feet really were. Broad, with decently plump toes, three per foot with another on the inside near the heel. Said toes were tipped with small claws that would probably aid with moving about in uneven terrain, he thought to himself. After that, he withdrew his foot and waited for the water to settle, peering into the slowly smoothing reflection of himself. And what he saw there was anything but what he expected.
Four eyes, all able to move individually, stared back at him, over a smooth and elongated snout, with long whiskers dangling down besides his flared nostrils. What an odd sight, but it was his face, through and through, even as he grabbed his tendril-like hair, long scales that sprouted from his scalp to mimic a mane. As he pulled them back a bit to get a better look at his head, he realized that there were a myriad of fine scales covering him all over, from the back of his nostrils to his scalp and beyond…
Baring his teeth at his reflection, he nearly recoiled at the sight of those daggers glaring between his lips. So many sharp blades, glistening with drool that dripped down into the puddle, and…two tongues? What? Opening his jaws, he saw two lickers laying side by side in the lower half of his mouth, freely moving around, dexterous and prehensile. Curiously extending them out, they just kept going, and going, stretching out farther than expected until they hit the puddle, tasting the cool water with the right one first and the left one second.
The more he learned about himself, the more confused he got, his features barely making any sense to him. Just who or what was he? Was he created? Naturally born? What kinda creature would he even be classified as? Whatever the case, his thoughts were disrupted by one of his ears picking up a twig breaking somewhere nearby, and he whipped his head around, all four eyes focusing on the direction.
Someone was standing there, looking at him. Grey fur, a pink winter jacket, and pink pants. A lot of pink overall, even down to a hairband. He raised a hand to wave and tried to speak, but the two tongues in his mouth wrestled with one another as he tried to say “hello”.
“H-hi! Who are you?” the person in the distance replied, slowly stepping closer. He still had trouble getting a word out, but tried to get used to it. Slowly, he managed to get control over his two muscles, and managed to press out some words.
“I-I’mmmm not…sure…who I ammmm…”
“Oh. Say, where did you come from? Wow, you sure are tall.”
The other person had stepped closer by now, their features easier to make out now: some kind of rodent, with big ears and a fluffy face surrounding that cute nose.
“I don’t know what his place is…or was…i-it was a hole in the wall, that way.”
He pointed into the direction he came from, but had already wandered too far to be able to see the entrance past all these trees. That didn’t matter, though, as the rodent rushed to his arm to inspect it thoroughly.
“Whoa! Claw fingers? And those scales running along your whole arm! You look pretty cool, you know that?”
“Uhm…t-thanks? Again, I got no idea what I am…”
“And you got some pretty big feet too, huh. Oh hey, wings!”
“Whuh?”
He looked down at himself, twisting his upper body to a degree that shouldn’t have been possible, and looked at his own hips: there it was, a pair of wings sprouting from above his tail. Tiny, cute even, just idly flapping there, in no way capable of lifting or supporting him but still quite adorable to look at with their hand-like shape just moving about.
“Huh. I have wings.”
“You seem a bit confused, big guy. Do you know your own name, at least?”
“U-uhm…”
In that moment, a painful surge rushed through his skull, and he groaned as he held his head, which got a concerned reaction from the rodent.
“Are you okay? Bad topic?” she asked, but he waved her away, taking a deep breath before answering.
“Nardula. I-I think my name’s…Nardula.”
“Hm. Unique for sure. Come along, dude, my place isn’t too far from here” she invited.
“Oh, uh, thanks. Say, where is ‘here’ to begin with? What’s this place called?”
“You’re in the small piece of forest that belongs to Amindal, a…weird city state full of magic and technology. It’s lovely, you’ll see.”
“Amindal…”
For some reason, that name rang a bell, as though he had heard it before, but his entire memory was hazy and he couldn’t focus on any single thing as dregs and visions of his past just whizzed by his inner eye before he could make anything out.
“You good? You kinda froze there for a bit.” the rodent spoke, tearing him from his confused state.
“Huh? I-I’m ok, no worries.”
“Sweet, let’s go!”
With that, the two made their way towards the rodent’s place, trekking through the woods, walking over mossy, earthy floors and protruding roots. While he had trouble staying upright on this uneven ground, his feet crushing some roots but nearly slipping on others, the rodent just hopped over every detail as though it was her everyday stroll route.
As they walked and hopped and clambered through the varied terrain, Nardula started asking a few questions: first off, the rodent’s name, to which he got a rather peppy “I’m Myriam!” followed by asking her where they were going. The answer to that was a bit more convoluted, however, as she at first dodged the question, then eventually started to talk, revealing that they were heading to “her place”, which wasn’t really hers after all.
Of course that caused even more confusion, but she just waved the chimera off and said that he’ll have a bed to sleep in and some food in his gut soon enough, and that was enough to sate his curiosity, seeing how his stomach growled with need. Just a couple minutes later, an old forest hut came into view, moss growing on most of the wooden structure and thereby neatly concealing it from far away viewers.
“So this is-” he started to ask, but she shushed him, whispering back something about “not waking her dad.” Off to a great start, then.
Carefully creeping through the back door and up the thankfully not creaky stairs, the two made their way into what seemed to be the girl’s room: awfully pretty, with pink decor and plushies everywhere. This really was a girl’s room more than a woman’s, but he hadn’t even asked how old she was.
“This…what…this looks like a little girl’s room, to be honest” the chimera noted a bit absent-mindedly.
“I never grew out of pretty stuff, sorry~” she replied, throwing herself onto her bed to which she bounced up and down a bit. “I can get you some dumplings from the kitchen, so just wait here, and try not to make any noise, ok?”
“O-ok…”
And with that, Myriam was gone down the stairs again, leaving Nardula to sit on the edge of the bed, then lay on it and indulge in the softness of the mattress. He hadn’t felt this comfortable since he woke up, to be honest, so he was almost drifting off to sleep by the time she had come back…with big full cheeks on her face.
“Uuuuh…”
And she just spat out some quite large and seemingly filled dumplings into her hands.
“Here ya go.”
“Uhm…”
“What? Oh, darn, did I actually? Sorryyyyy, force of habit…”
“It’s…fine, no worries. I doubt a little spit will hurt me…”
Well, they didn’t look quite as appetizing when covered in drool, but he wasn’t going to let that get between him and a warm meal. And so, he dug into the dumplings, popping an entire one into his mouth before his teeth made quick work of the doughy shell.
It was an incredible taste. The filling had a slight sweetness to it to underline the hearty, roasted veggie taste that enveloped his tongues, and there was a slight crunch to the dough itself as though they had been fried up briefly to achieve just that. Taste and mouthfeel like he had never experienced before…or did he? Something about this food had memories creeping back into his mind, his head almost aching as he got a vision of eating off of a plate while sitting in a sterile-looking bed…
“Hope they don’t taste off…” the rodent interrupted his flashback, making his eyes snap onto her. She was blushing a little, mumbling something about an “indirect kiss”...
“H-huh? Oh, uh, they taste really good. I just…I don’t remember anything from before waking up in that place, but this food…”
“What do you mean? Amnesia or something?”
“Seems like it…I don’t even know what I am besides my name…a-anyways, thanks for the food, it does taste really good. What’s in the filling?”
“Oh, just some roasted cabbage mixed with homemade sauce. I’m really proud of that one, took me a while to come up with it.”
“It’s delish, yeah.”
“Yay! Hehe, I’m glad to hear it-”
The rodent’s cheers were disrupted by some noise coming from downstairs, and she froze up, terror in her face as she pulled her new friend by the arm to go downstairs as quickly as possible.
“We gotta go” she shushed his questioning expression, Nardula not even able to get the question out before they hurried down past the living room.
“What the…Myriam! What did I tell you about bringing people here!” her dad shouted, waddling towards a cabinet on the wall, and retrieving what seemed to be an old fashioned blunderbuss.
“Sorry, won’t happen again!” she just replied before rushing out the backdoor with the chimera, who just looked very confused as they ran away from the hut.
Shots rang out through the air, but the few bits that impacted against Nardula’s scales didn’t penetrate at all, to which he asked while running “What’s he shooting us with?!?”
“Salt” is all he got as an answer, and before long, they were far enough away for the shots to no longer reach. Myriam dove down behind a log, and Nardula did the same, before freezing up.
“Hehe, he always gets like this when I bring someone home. Did he hurt you?” she asked, only to turn her face towards her friend and have her expression turn to horror.
He was holding a hand in front of himself, covered in blood. Seems that, while diving down, he got impaled by a branch sticking out from the log, and it went right through his petite abdomen, all the way to the front.
“Oh no…” she just gasped, clasping her hands in front of her mouth. But Nardula had a different issue: the smell of his own blood, so much of it just flowing from his wound, got him agitated, riled up, and he fell forward, twitching as he went on all fours.
“Are you ok? Please, try and stay still, I’ll get-”
Her caring words were disrupted by a growl, a deep, guttural grumbling as his body changed: everything swelling up with more muscle mass, bones creaking and crackling as they stretched and elongated, his whole being swelling in size. His legs twitched and grew, the toeclaws sliding free from the meat of his digits as they turned into sharp blades, while his tail thickened into a tree-cracking meatflail.
His entire body just expanded, the once smooth and flat belly rounding out with who knew what organs and additional muscle mass, powerful, creaking muscles swelling to underline just how much energy and power was contained in that small body, and the twink was soon a strong, well-rounded musclegut down on all fours.
The tiny wings on his hips, now positioned halfway up his shoulders, swelled and enlarged into huge winghands, reaching an enormous wingspan that could lift even his overgrown body into the sky. More and more muscle mass grew out of his lithe form, veins forming across his new powerful appendages while his scales, slowly drifting apart, grew into thick armored partitions, like bullet-proof plates covering his backside.
The finishing touch was his head crackling and expanding, jaws sliding forward, dagger-like teeth glistening with drool as he stood there, massive body supported by his strong arms and powerful legs, and the gargantuan wings spread across the top of the trees by now, his tail smashing into a tree and cracking the wood. He had turned into a big, powerful elder dragon.
Myriam couldn't do anything besides stare as her newfound friend's body shredded through his clothes, and he turned from a regular anthro into a large, terrifying beast capable of tearing her apart with a swipe from his claws.
As the transformation finished, Nardula threw back his head and roared, a terrifying warcry that shook the trees and made everything in a large radius scramble to get as far away as possible. Everything, except the rodent, who just stared at the huffing, puffing beast slowly raising its head in front of her, the wound that had caused it already healed over.
“E-easy, boy…” she cautiously spoke, trying her best not to agitate the beast in front of her. A lumbering, powerful creature, only held back by the initial shock of transforming, more than capable of just destroying everything around it with minimal effort. And she could feel it; the fact that she was staring danger in the eye. A terrifying, powerful danger, one which she had no clue of if it retained control over itself.
All four of his eyes were focused on her, glaring at her as he slowly started moving forward. His belly was just inches from the ground as he plodded towards her like a bear, nostrils flaring and twitching, tongues licking over his teeth and blackened lips. He was getting closer with each moment, forcing Myriam into a corner between two trees, where his snout eventually came face to face with her terrified visage.
“P-please…” she meekly muttered, terrified, turned away and closed her eyes to brace herself for whatever he might do to her…but nothing came. Slowly, she peered into his face, and found him intently staring at her, steadily breathing, each huff making her fur ruffle a bit as his nostrils flared and took in her scent. Either he retained some of his intellect, or he simply wasn't a brutal beast, even in this form.
All that changed, however, when a loud bang rang out and some salty shrapnel impacted his side, causing him to turn his head and look at Myr’s father, who was pointing the shotgun at the beast in front of his daughter.
“Get away from her you…you monster!” he shouted, still keeping the gun raised with his finger on the trigger. The large behemoth of a beast that was Nardula now fully turned to face the old man, and opened his jaws, some kind of mist flowing down from his fangs while his scaly hair undulated through the air. A hissing sound could be heard as he inhaled, bloating his belly even further, and before either of the rodents could react, the chimera let out a sort of bark accompanied by a powerful blast of fire that tore off a couple of branches from the nearby trees. It was so powerful that it knocked the old rodent down, his shotgun falling into the mossy undergrowth before he let out a surprised “WHAT THE-”
Even more terrified than before, Myriam couldn't move a muscle as she watched the beast turn back to her…only to see him falter, seemingly passing out. His eyes flicked around, eyelids closing as he went limp, falling onto the greened soil where his body shrunk back down to normal proportions. As he laid there, deflating, her father came running towards her, embracing her with worry.
“Myr, are you alright? Did he hurt you?” he asked, checking the shrunken down chimera with a few glances in-between words.
“I-I’m alright” she stammered, embracing her father while looking at her friend.
“What was that?” the old man asked, visibly frightened.
“I don't know. He got stabbed by a branch, and then he…turned into this beast, but I don't think he meant any harm.”
“You saw him, he was about to eat you!”
“No, he was just…looking at me…like he was trying to remember who I was…”
After passing the initial shock of what had just happened, the two debated on what to do with the passed out chimera…
Some time later, Nardula awoke inside the house once more…tied down to an empty bedframe, that is. Disoriented, he looked around before tugging on the various ropes tied to his limbs, even his winghands on his hips.
“W-what’s going on?” he cried out in confusion, and was greeted by a familiar face.
“Oh, you’re finally awake!” the peppy hamster answered, standing above him, munching on one of the dumplings. “Sorry for that, my dad just wanted to be sure you don’t hurt anyone, though I doubt you’d do anything like that.”
“What even happened? I just remember smelling something weird, and then…then everything gets distorted…”
“You, uh, you kinda turned into a, uh, well…beast.”
“Huh?”
After retelling the events of the transformation, the confrontation with her father, and especially the fiery bark, it left the poor chimera dumbfounded that such a thing was even possible. It did sound far-fetched, to swell into a behemoth that can breathe flames, but it happened, and the singed hair on the old rodent as well as some other burnt objects collected from the field did eventually convince Nardula that it all happened.
“It was so cool!” the rodent burst forth, recounting how he managed to bark fire out of nowhere. “Can you do that again? Please? Pretty pleaaaaaaase?”
“I…don’t think I can just do that…at least not like this.”
“It was like you were…a dragon or something! Spewing fire is sooooo cool!”
“Thanks, I guess, but…”
A few more moments to gather himself, and he turned back to Myriam.
“What now?” the chimera asked, rubbing his aching wrists and ankles after being untied.
“Well…you did mention coming from somewhere, right? Care to go back and take a look? Maybe we can find out some more details about you.”
“That…might be a good idea. I’ll try and find it again, just follow me.”
“Hang on, I’ll grab some stuff first. Just wait outside for me, I’ll be quick.”
Alright then. With that, Nardula headed outside, and noticed that he was warmer than before. Right, he grew into a massive beast, so of course his already tight clothes tore apart, and now he was wearing a fur-trimmed leather jacket as well as some sweatpants. Comfy, and exceptionally lucky that they had some clothes in his size at home.
After waiting for a minute, Myr finally came out, decked out in hiking gear with a small backpack with a hose dangling from the top.
“What’s all that?” the chimera asked, to which the rodent replied with a happy “My exploration gear! I like to wander these woods sometimes, ya know, go places I haven’t seen or that have changed after an earthquake, and sometimes I spend waaaaay too long outside, so I bring stuff! Cool, right?”
“Smart for sure. Alright, now where did you find me again?”
“It was this way! Let’s go!”
The two of them made their way to where Myriam had originally met Nardula, and once they were there, the chimera looked around…and around…before noticing the trees he had passed when getting to that place.
“This way” he just muttered, before going down the trail of his footsteps, until…
“Here it is. That’s…the hole in the wall I came out of.”
“…my daddy told me to stay away from this place.”
“H-huh? Why that?” questioned the chimera, unsure if Myriam would follow him.
“Something about an old bunker that’s about to cave in on itself. It’s been here as long as he can remember, and even gramps didn’t know who built it.”
“Huh. Well, what do you think of it?”
“Looks spooky” the rodent noted, peeking out from behind her new friend. “Wanna check it out, or are you gonna tuck tail and run?”
“I don’t think a tail as big as mine can be tucked. But…”
He strained his eyes to look inside: the emergency lighting had shut off, either chemical lights that were spent, or the last remnant of power in this place having gone down. Whichever the case, it was pitch black in there, but Myr had a solution for that.
“Here, you can have one of mine” she beamed as she handed him a heavy-duty flashlight. Bright and seemingly with a long battery life, judging by the size of it.
“Thanks. Now, let’s go.”
The two set off into the facility, and started looking around: checking out every room and hallway they came across, the air inside no longer stale thanks to the open door letting a draft in. They looked, and looked, and explored everywhere, until…
“Whoa. This is it.”
“Hm? You found something?” Myr questioned, following the sound of his voice.
“Yeah. This vat…that’s where I woke up in. Look, the words on the bottom…”
“Project…Nephilim? What?” She just stared at the letters, dumbfounded, racking her brain to figure out what this word could mean.
“You got any idea what that means?”
“No clue.”
“Well, let’s see…”
Shining his flashlight into the room, stacks and clipboards full of paper could be seen. Most of the pages had faded over the years, it seemed, but some words were still legible.
“Let’s see what we can make out” the rodent started, grabbing a clipboard and flipping through the papers. At the same time, the chimera started to work on one of the piles, and the two began reading whatever words they could make out.
Various papers cited different species, from lizards to flamingos, over bears and pangolins, just wildly going through every single animal that was living on this planet. All of which seemingly had some kind of involvement with the existence of this strange chimera.
In the end, they poured through at least 2000 pages each, picking out whatever faded letters made up enough to be considered words, and Nardula was about to turn towards Myriam when she suddenly spoke his name.
“Nard…this document here says…holy shit, you’re old!”
“W-what? What do you mean?”
To that, she showed him a page that read the following:
TODAY WE MANAGED TO GET THE FIRST VIABLE EMBRYO OF THE NEW HYBRID SPECIES “NEPHILIM.” IT TOOK A COUPLE ATTEMPTS, BUT OUR LABOR IS FINALLY BEARING FRUIT. RESEARCHER ZIXXY OFFERED THEIR BODY FOR GESTATION, WHICH MEANS WE CAN SOLELY FOCUS ON MONITORING THE GROWTH. SO FAR, THE DEVELOPMENT IS PROGRESSING NICELY, CELL DIVISION IS STABLE, AND THERE DON’T SEEM TO BE ANY SIGNS OF DECAY. SEEMS LIKE USING A SMALL AMOUNT OF DRAGON DNA WAS THE GLUE NEEDED TO TIE THIS CREATURE TOGETHER, BUT WE HAD TO FIGURE OUT THE EXACT PERCENTAGE. TOO MUCH, AND IT WAS BORN A DEAD HUSK WITHOUT A SOUL, TOO LITTLE, AND THE DIFFERING DNA WAS FIGHTING WITH ITSELF. NOW THAT THE EXPERIMENT WAS A SUCCESS, WE SHALL NAME HIM…NARDULA.
“And look here…it’s dated to over 200 years in the past!”
“...so you mean…everyone who could know about this…”
“Is probably long dead. I’m so sorry…”
The realization that everybody who could tell him more about him, his species, his purpose was long gone hit him like a brick. He sat down in the rubble of the facility and curled up, lightly sobbing as he slowly processed that everybody he once may have known has passed on a long time ago.
“I thought I could find my family…but I guess I’m just a freak from a test tube, and one without anyone left. A worthless, lonely freak!”
Myriam couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Every word she tried to bring out, in an attempt to start a soothing sentence, got stuck in her throat as she saw the sobbing, devastated friend sitting there on the floor before her. He was down on his luck, alone, the only one of his species with no chance of even knowing his mother’s face. So she did the only thing she could: she leaned down and embraced him in a tight hug.
“What are you-” he started up, startled and confused, but she just shushed him and held him tighter.
“Just let it out. I’m here for you, you can cry all you need to. I’ll even be your family if you want me to. But please…don’t hate yourself.”
“...”
Nardula didn’t find the words to reply. And he didn’t want to. He just wanted to be held as he cried into her arms, allowing him to let out the frustration, the anger, the sadness that had come from this discovery. And he needed it dearly, as he cried and cried, until the two eventually left the place, with the sun having gone down already.
“We stayed in there pretty long, huh?” the rodent pondered, blowing into her hands as the lowering sun also meant it had gotten colder. Nardula didn’t answer, he just hugged Myr again, nuzzling into her neck, before pressing out a “Thank you.” And she accepted it, nuzzling into his cheek while giving him a “You’re welcome.”
After a moment of quietly hugging, the two broke their embrace, looking after the setting sun as the last few rays disappeared. Nardula’s face bore a somber expression, but there was a slight smile, a smidge of hope visible. He raised his head, eyes following some fireflies before they fell on the rodent, her hand extended to him. One which he gladly took hold of as the two started making their way back to Myriam’s place, dried tears on the chimera’s cheeks as he was ready to begin a new life.
“Say” the rodent chimed up as the three of them were all eating dinner. “How about I bring Nardula into the city tomorrow? I bet you’d love to see what the place has to offer.”
“Sounds like an idea, sweetie” her father commented before shoving a dumpling into his mouth in one bite.
“R-really? I guess I’m curious about it, yeah, but so soon?” the chimera questioned, before being waved off.
“Relax, it’ll be alright. I’ll be your personal guide and ready to answer aaaaaaaall your questions.”
“Thanks! I, uh, I can’t wait!”
“Then it’s a deal! Hehe, I always wanted someone to spend time with, I’m glad to have met you, Nard!”
“S-same here, Myr, hehe…”
And with that, the day ended, the two rodents and the chimera heading to sleep with the promise of an exciting venture on the horizon. Nardula was sure to enjoy his new family, he believed in it.
To be continued…
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Category Artwork (Digital) / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 1756 x 2098px
File Size 5.09 MB
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