The Calm Before The Storm

20

Nightmare fell, convulsing in pain and agony. Crystal leaped back, startled. He was going to get them caught.

Crystal looked around and touched his shoulder. His body was unnaturally hot, almost to the point of searing her entire foot off. But as soon as her claw left his shoulder, she could sense it was immediately colder. She had an idea.

Crystal blew snow all along his body, disguising it as the regular ice dragon ability. She couldn't risk exposure again.

Nightmare started to calm down. Then something strange happened. His black, scaled body turned pale and fleshy. He shrank to half his size and his snout squished into his face. He looked up, suddenly scared.

"Nightmare! What happened to you?" Tempest asked. He shied away with a confused look on his face. He picked up the necklace he had been wearing. As soon as he touched it, it shrank down to size and enveloped him in some sort of cloth.

"Um, what is happening?" Solar Flare asked. Then she too convulsed in pain. She changed and touched the necklace.

"Ok, seriously. What is happening?" Flame asked, getting a little scared. Then he, Whirlwind, and Tempest followed suit. Soon, Crystal was surrounded by the little creatures that were once her friends.

For some reason, she didn't change. The stones seemed to control the weird morphing and since Labra had hatched, Crystal didn't have one.

Then how come I could interact with Tempest's stone? The Gem Queen said the stones would do many things, like help us communicate, like in my dream. So why isn't this happening?

Crystal took Labra out of the pouch around her ankle. Labra looked up and stared intently into Crystal's eyes. Then Labra shrugged and squeezed its eyes together. Crystal felt the pain and she nearly screamed. When her eyes opened, Labra was a small squishy thing and Crystal was lying on the ground.

Labra crawled over to Crystal and the cloth appeared around both of them. Crystal picked Labra up. Now she could she that it was a boy.

Crystal opened her mouth and croaked, "What just happened?"

"You'll get used to it," Nightmare said, his voice sounding smoother. He had something on his head. Hair. The thought popped into her head. He had black hair.

Crystal looked at Tempest. She had gray hair. Whirlwind had silver hair, Solar Flare had yellowish hair. Flame had a bright reddish color to his hair and Oak had simple brown hair. Crystal looked at her hair. It was white. Very white.

"I believe we have turned into something called a human," Solar Flare said. No one glared at her for that bit of information.

"They are a very rare species," she continued, "found in the most innaccesible of places. They are believed to be either really smart or really dumb. What is on our bodies is something they call clothes."

"Ok thank you for that. WHY ARE WE HUMANS???" Tempest yelled.

"I think it has something to do with the stones," Whirlwind said.

"Yeah, but why? We know how, why?" Flame asked.

"The Gem Queen," Nightmare said. "This has to be some sort of plan of hers."

"Let's forget about that for the moment. Do we know if we can change back?" Oak interrupted.

"Maybe if we touch the stones again," Crystal offered. "Think what we want them to do."

The others did just that and turned back without a problem. Crystal however, was still trying to figure out Labra.

"Can we turn back?" Crystal tried. Labra looked at her. He grabbed her wrists and closed his eyes again. They turned back and Crystal looked at Labra. Now that he was growing, she could see little webbing between his claws. Just a little.

"Hey guys!" Crystal was thrown out of her thoughts by the panicked Whirlwind. "Somebody's coming!"