Jaikal reached the hatchling after Echo and changed into his human form, standing up on the sandy floor of the cave and walking over to the pool. He slipped inside it and ducked under the crystal surface.
A sharp nip on his nose caused him to open his eyes and release a few bubbles in excliamation. He almost leapt back in shock: the face of the small hatchling was right infront of his. It beat its small, not yet fully formed wings around, trying to circle the strange thing and find out what it was. Jaikal started to swim around and show the hatchling how to catch the fish, seeing as it was still struggling with the living ones.
Cira woke up groggily and flopped over onto her back, her arms and legs feeling similarly to flippers. She was incredibly tired, and couldn't remember much about after they knocked her out a short while ago. Cira looked up at the digital calendar to see that another day and a half had gone by. She sighed in frustration, blinking and wishing her eyesight would clear.
Almost immediately her eyesight began to sharpen, and she was able to focus on faraway objects with such prescision that it was unnatural. Her hands clenched together in shock, and her heart skipped a beat again: the skin on her hand was dry, rough and scaly. She didn't dare to look. Is this something to do with the Dragon DNA they were collecting a few weeks ago? Cira thought in fear, unsure of what was going on.
Plucking up the courage, Cira looked down at her hands. She jumped out of the bed in shock. Before her eyes, the smooth skin on her hands took on a pinkish-purple hue, becomeing rough and scaled. Her fingers elongated and the nails started to thicken and curve, becoming what looked alot like claws.
She felt something creeping up her back, and she whipped her head around in time to see a thick membrane-like substance cover the metal on her wings. Her eyes slammed closed and in her mind, she screamed desperately for it to stop, hoping that it was her hallucinating from one of the drugs they'd put into her. She slowly opened her eyes again, and saw that her sight, hands and wings were back to normal. She breathed out with releif, sitting back on the bed, convinced that shehad only been hallucinating. She sat there for a few moments before the sound of heels on linoleum reached her ears.
"You're awake. How do you feel?" asked the same nurse as the previous time, looking alot more relaxed. She had a tray with a cup of water on it, which Cira took gratefully.
"Really bad. I think I'm hallucinating."
"What do you mean?" replied the nurse, starting to look a bit concerned.
"My hands were turning into claws!" she exclaimed, giggling a little bit nervously. "Don't tell me that it's real!" The look from the nurse made her freeze. "It was just a hallucination, right?" Cira's voice shook.
"No."
Cira spat out the mouthful of water that was in her mouth. "What?!" she shreiked, sitting upright.
"The Medics have been working incredibly hard on you," the nurse smiled. Another day and your gift will be complete. We will have a great weapon. You will be so great the dragons won't even see it coming."
"What?! What are you doing to me?! What's going on?!" Cira exclaimed, starting to freak out.
"You'll see tomorrow. Now eat, we can't sustain you forever by merely inserting food through your vein. Then we can get the final phase over with and we can give you your first... mission, of sorts," the nurse smiled. Cira opened her mouth ,to protest, but then felt a cold liquid seep into her vein from an IV that was hooked into her left arm.
"Yes..." Cira agreed dreamily, the drug making her lose most sense of thought. It also made her realize how hungry she was, and she gladly accepted the food given to her. Then she nodded off on her own, worn out by everything that was happening at the moment.