literature

The Dragon Lady - Part 2

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Lady Riddle was soon brought to someone who hopefully could help her. It was a pity that Crystal was not around. Her expertise on everything usually reduced strange events to a retrieval of the cure. But the archive was still absent. The half-demon Aslansa had some expertise on magic, but his diagnose was disillusioning.
"Riddle is cursed", he announced.
"Sadly, I have no idea what caused her transformation, so I am not sure I will be able to reverse it. But the good news is that the spell only affect her appearance, not her mind."
"So what do we do?", Angel asked. The demon shrugged his shoulders.
"Unless we find a clue of what happened, I think we have to wait until Crystal is back."
"I don't like this...", the seraph muttered.
"We don't have to sit around. You know the saying: if the mountain won't come to the prophet, the prophet ... stops making such demands, I guess", Scratch announced. Aslansa and Angel looked at him, slightly confused.
"It's 'then the prophet must go to the mountain'...", Lady Riddle thought, but nobody of the present pirates was currently reading her mind, something she normally appreciated.
"I think it means so much as that we should go and search for another bookworm who can help us", the nightmare demon explained.
Lady Riddle yawned. She was currently resting on a desk at a sunny spot. The warmth made her sleepy, even though she really wanted to listen to the conversation. But the lizard biology had something else in mind and decided it was best for her to take a nap.

The captain woke up not much later with a tense feeling. Her skin was itching and dry. When she scratched herself, parts of her skin came of. But strangely, the progress didn't hurt. It fact, it was relieving. Her new activity was not unnoticed by the three pirates around her.
"What wrong, Riddly?", Scratch wondered and picked up parts of the old skin.
"I think she's growing", Alsansa answered.
"That's a good thing, right?", Angel asked worriedly.
Scratch took a closer look at Lady Riddle and helped her shedding the skin.
"She is not only growing. Look here", he said and touched the lizard's back.
"What's there?", Lady Riddle asked, but again, nobody heard her thoughts.
"I'm pretty sure those stubs weren't there before", the nightmare demon stated.
"I going to inform the crew", Angel decided.
"They need to know what happened to me Riddle."
"Maybe someone has another idea what we should do as well", Aslansa agreed.

Aside from the unusual high amount of magic user and supernatural being among the pirates, the crew had another, unique ability: On the ship, news and rumours were faster than light. It was almost impossible to keep a secret for longer than it was necessary to word it. This was mostly due to the natural curiosity of most crew members and a slightly twisted perception of the idea of ownership. However, the intend behind this was never malicious. But every secret that turned into common knowledge among the crew still was eagerly kept hidden from outsiders.
Therefore, it was not much of a big surprise that the crew already knew the captain had become a lizard. The witch and seamstress Leelu had even managed to crochet a little black hat. However, much to her dismay, she had to discover that Lady Riddle continued to grow so rapidly, that the hat soon became to small for the scaled head. The stubs on the captain's back turned out to be a pair of limbs, though it was still unclear what they were doing on her back or why they started to grow there in the first place. Another effect of the captain's new form and rapid growth was an increased appetite. Luckily, this was easily dealt with as she now was hungry enough to devour the kitchen scraps. Still, the only sounds Lady Riddle could make were hissing, which annoyed her to no end. The fact that Scratch decided to become her interpreter was not helpful either, since he turned into a black rat and rode on her back as soon as she was tall enough.
In the afternoon, Lady Riddle had grown into the size of a Komodo dragon and aside from the strange pair of limbs on her back, black spikes began to grow as well. She spent her time either napping in the sun or eating. Her skin was still mostly white, but during her growth, black marking began to appear as well. They imitated the make up she used to wear. Below her left eye, there was a red diamond. A black, vertical stripe, almost looking like a scar, ran over each of her eyes, as well. Another blurred shape began to appear on the left side of her chest.
"Riddle?", Leelu asked, carefully approaching the lizard captain, who opened one of her slitted, still grey eyes and look lazily at the witch.
"I hope you don't mind me, but with all the shed skin you leave behind... well, I was curious and decided to see if I could make use of it. I mean, by now,we do have quite a large supply of those", she began. Lady Riddle grinned, or at least tried to. The result looked rather intimidating. The black rat on her back chuckled.
"She tries to smile. If she could, you would tell you she's sorry for the mess", Scratch explained. The white lizard head nodded.
"I see. Well, I found out your scales have similar properties to dragon scales, their magic is just a little weaker", the witch explained.
"You mean Riddly is turning into a dragon?", Scratch asked.
"It could be. There is only one way to be sure", Leelu said and grinned.
"How do you feel about hoarding gold?"
Lady Riddle shook her head. If Alsansa was right, her transformation shouldn't affect her personality. Though Leelu's discovery could explain what was growing on her back.
"Say Riddly, do you feel like breathing fire?", Scratch wondered.
The captain gave it a try, but there was no fire coming out from her mouth. Instead, there was only a dry cough.
"Why do I have the feeling a breath of playing cards would be more accurate?", Leelu joked. Normally Lady Riddle would answer such a suggestion by sticking out her tongue, but in her current form, her tongue was slithering out regularly anyway, so that lost its effect as well.
"A dragon captain would be awesome. Why are we wasting time with searching for a cure?"
"Because I want to be a human again, thank you very much", Lady Riddle thought, but her interpreter ignored her.
"Aye, that would be pretty cool", Leelu agreed laughing.
"Fiddle's a dragon? Awesomesauce!", Sparky cheered loudly, appearing apparently out of nowhere.
"I'm not sure", Leelu began, but knew it was already too late. The thief's announcement had turned the assumption into a fact.

In the evening, Leelu was proven to be right. Lady Riddle had grown taller than any normal reptile would be and also, the stubs on her back had become black wings. A row of black spines ran down her back as well and more marks resembling the symbols of cards adorned her white body. Still, she could not talk or breath fire. Also, her size now prevented her from entering the lower decks by other means than the cargo hatch. As a result, the captain stayed on the main deck, occupying quite an amount of it.
"You could at least try, Riddly", Scratch insisted. The captain kept her eyes closed and pretended to doze in the red rays of the setting sun.
"What shall me Riddle try?", Angel asked, approaching the white dragon. She and Alsansa had stayed below deck most of the day, trying to find a cure.
"Flying", Scratch announced happily.
"You haven't tried that yet, me Riddle?", Angel wondered. She knew how much Lady Riddle loved to fly with her.
"No, she hasn't. She is just lying around, eating, and wasting space. You're a pretty useless dragon, Riddly!", The demon pretended to complain. Angel chuckled and carefully stroke the white head.
"Would you fly with me?", she asked softly. Lady Riddle opened her eyes.
"Yess", she hissed and her eyes widened.
"It speaks! It's aliiiiiiiiiive!", Scratch announced and added a mad laughter.
"Why iss zat working now?", the captain wondered.
"Maybe you didn't want it enough?", the nightmare demon suggested happily. He was well aware that wasn't true, but it was too much fun teasing her. Lady Riddle got up ina  smooth movement and straighten to an impressive figure. Only the mast prevented her from spreading her wings. If the captain would stand only on her hindlegs, she could be able to reach the crow's nest without any effort.
Angel took off, waiting for her friend to follow her.  The captain jumped off the ship, causing it to jolt and spread her wings. With a huge splash, the white dragon landed in the water. Flying was not as easy as it appeared. But her leathery wings had the huge advantage that they still worked despite being wet and so, Lady Riddle tried again. Her wings flapped on the water, but aside from noise and more splashes, nothing much happened, while the deck filled with curious pirates.
"You need to find a rhythm, Fiddle", Sparky yelled and using her fiery wings, she flew over to the dragon.
Angel ascended while  Seiren decided to not to miss the fun and followed Sparky.
"It's like breathing. Or walking. You go up and down and back and forth. Think of is like ... uhm...", the thief queen instructed.
"Swimming?", Seiren suggested.
"Aye! Swimming. Only that you do that in the air. Also, you don't need to hold your breath or paddle with your feet. But other than that it's pretty much like it."
Lady Riddle knew it was useless to point out that it was not like swimming at all with all those differences. But she remained silent and instead tried to imitate the movements of the wings around her.
For :icondatcloudkat:'s Morphing Challenge: Morphing Challenge ^^

a dragon because of an awesome picture DeeryDeerth once drew for me: Art Trade - The Queen of Riddles

Lady Riddle belongs to me, all other pirates belong to their respective owners. I use those characters with the owner's permission!

Previous Part: The Dragon Lady - Part 1
Next part: The Dragon Lady - Part 3
© 2014 - 2024 Diluculi
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DarlingAngel0565's avatar
I am in love with this story!
Though I want me Riddle back, I like the idea of flying with her.