Back to Nature?

"Huh?" Unseelie Fred asks, perplexed.

"It has a bit to do with this Key....and a great friend we call the Doctor," pixie Fred begins, "As I understand it, that device in Jarlath's hand is still locked onto the transporter that had teleported them here...despite the fact that a bit of time travel is involved due to....."

The pixie explains about the TARDIS....and Unseelie Fred begins to nod, remembering hearing something about "Time Lords" and "Doctor Who" back in the Red Pyramid before everything went to pot during the rescue attempt....

The pixie then goes one to quickly explain what the TARDIS can do and why they need to do it this way. That and who he is, why he is as he is now, and a few other things along those lines.

Understandably, Unseelie Fred is worried about the whole affair, and is eager and ready to be on the way with the others. First, a minor illusion is cast to disguise Unseelie Fred's features (Fred the pixie is hard enough to explain to Dr. Vincent). Another spell is cast upon Arthema to freeze her in place as still as a board and then disguise her as some type of gaudy golden statue (a naked woman with a clock in her stomach....something a tourist like Jarlath and friend hope that Dr. Vincent will believe they'd buy during the honeymoon).

Jarlath looks at his timepiece, mutters something scatological in disgust, and knows that if they delay much longer they'd run the risk of arriving during their earlier selves' arrival back on Terra Prime with Thessamar ix'latl in tow.

Greetings are made but pleasantries made minimal as Dr. Vincent sends (by request to the adventurers) back to Nantucket Earth.

"What the heck?" Dr. Vincent mutters when the transporter activates again.....and Jarlath's group appears AGAIN on the platform.....with a young woman with them this time.

"Didn't I just teleport you already?" Dr. Vincent asks in an odd voice.

After a fast dash to the holding facility to keep ahead of their earlier selves and special arrangements made for Arthema to keep her prisoner as well as safe from the other Astras, the adventurers then meet with the Docotr and make yet another trip back in time (to save time lost in arranging things and such).

Another call made to Terra Prime (placed just after their earlier selves had left for Nantucket Earth)......and yet another world where their query lay....

Belinda shakes her head to try to clear it. Somehow, she is no longer in the Pyramid, but alone in the middle of dense jungle. As she wonders which direction to take, she rubs an area on the back of her left hand, which has developed a patch of coarse skin that is a much darker colour than her normal coloration and is itching.

The dark coarse skin now covers both of Belinda's hands and has spread up her arms almost to her shoulders. There are also patches of it on her thighs. It itches so abominably that she has stripped down to her underwear the better to scratch at it, and also because the steamy jungle heat means that that the less she wears the more comfortable she will be.

She then pauses as the oddest....feeling overcomes her.

Her stomach growls and she sniffs the air.....smelling something....delicious....

She moves off silently, on the hunt.....instinct in control at this moment in time. It's far away....several hours....but worth the time and effort.....

And who or what is the prey?

(Author's Note: This is taken from episode 10392 by SmartGamer, episode 8535 by `IEN, and a bit of episode 8642 by Bill L.).

Belboz shakes his head and sighs as he settles down to give a lengthy explanation about the different types of dragons. Fred, there are red, blue, black, gold, silver, green, purple, white, amethyst and faerie dragons.

1.A red dragon is made of muscle and fire.
2.A blue dragon is made thunder and lightning.
3.A black dragon is made of acid and hunger.
4.A gold dragon is made of brains and good-will.
5.A silver dragon is made of god-like intellect and a whole lot of spunk.
6.A green dragon is made of spite and gas.
7.A purple dragon is made of pure energy and a small powerful spirit.
8.A white dragon is made of bone and the icy chill of death.
9.An amethyst dragon is made of force and relaxation.
10.A faerie dragon is made of fun and frolick.

Fred thought about it for a little, then made his decision. "Faerie."

Belboz raised his eyebrows. "You sure? I suggested it only for completeness... I don't recommend it..."

"I have chosen. Come on, start the spell..."

"Idiot." Belboz, while personally disagreeing, waved his arms. "HAJIRI!"

A box of pure energy enclosed Fred... he was trapped. "Hey, what's the big deal?!"

"Sorry... if you move out of my range during the spell, it might backfire and kill us both. Necesary precaution."

"Oh."

Continuing his spell, Belboz waved his arms, spoke in an arcane tounge, spoke in a modern tounge, spoke on a cell phone, waved his arms, waved his hands, waved his fingers, waved his hair, and finished the spell with one final, gastrointestinal inflection... "BuUuUrRrRrP!"

Fred felt a wrenching on his form, heat and cold at once, pain and comfort at once, stretching and contracting at once. "Whoa!"

He was a dragon... a dragon with a question. "Hey, Belboz, when did you turn into a 300 foot tall colossus?"

"I didn't, why?"

"OH NO... now I see what you were warning me about..."

Fred was indeed a Faerie dragon, and a large one at that...

six inches long.

Fred frantically asks of Belboz, "Change me back! Change me back!"

"I think not," Belboz says sadly, shaking his head slightly, "Wasn't easy to....adulterate your supplies, Fred, with a potion to make you...susceptible to my suggests.....to trick you into becoming a dragon willingly (needed to make the spell effective and irreversible)....."

He then goes on to explain to the shocked faerie dragon that the very dragon he'd been tasked to slay hadd hired Belboz to take care of him. Now that Fred was a dragon forevermore....he'd now see the other side of the game.....as the dragon and not the slayer.....

"'Tis justice, really." Belboz finishes up, overriding Fred's objection by freezing him in place by spell, "The evidence had been planted to frame my client, anyway, to justify the quest in the first place, my little dragon. Enjoy your new life and home. Understand, I plan to arrange it so you'll never pose a threat to the dragon again. Nothing personal, you understand - although I've never had much use for knights and so forth. So - away with you!"

Belboz sprinkled an odd dust around the still frozen Sir Fred, chanted something arcane sounding, then made an elaborate gesture - and with a soundless flash, Sir Fred vanished from the chamber.

1. ......and into the midst of an uncharted jungle......

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