The Red Moon Always Shines

Chapter 9: Changes

The first thing Grian felt when he woke up was a stinging pain in his left wrist and arm, and there was also a strange weight on his back. By instinct he went to grab at his left arm, but his hand was stopped by what felt like a chill wind. He pulled at it but he the grip remained, "Little one please don't fight me. If you touch your arm you'll just end up hurting yourself more"

That voice, he remembered that voice. That was Death's voice. But Death said he was hurt, but he couldn't remember getting hurt. He groaned out in frustration, he hated not knowing stuff. So in a quest to achieve some knowledge he tried to open his eyes. Only to shut them immediately afterwards, it hurt like hell when he opened his eyes. So now he wasn't too keen on opening his eyes. That lasted for about five seconds before he wanted to open his eyes again. But this time he was more tactical, opening them slowly instead.

He was greeted by Death standing at the foot of his bed, and he had a throbbing pain in his left arm, back and head, "Good morning, little one. How are you feeling?"

All that answered them was a little groan of pain, "Figures, you did hit your head pretty bad. And I didn't make things better after the fact"

Death whispered the last part, hoping Grian wouldn't hear it. Which he didn't, since he was a bit too distracted looking at his left arm. Which was now covered in black armored scales, and he could even see black particles floating around it, "What happened to my arm?" whispered Grian in horror, eyes wide.

Death let out a deep breath and sat down at the edge of the bed, "I'm afraid that's my fault, I tried to grab you as you fell, completely forgetting I'm withering to the touch. And I didn't want you to lose your arm, so I did what I could to save it"

Grian didn't say anything for awhile, simply inspecting his new arm closer. At a closer inspection he noticed the scales had a purple shine to them. The scales only went up to his elbow, and on his elbow was a small spike sticking up. And the claws looked like they could slice clean through obsidian, or at least do pretty decent damage to it. He wonder what type of creature his arm now was, he hadn't seen anything like this before, so that's exactly what he asked, "What creature is this? I haven't seen anything like this before"

"Void dragon, the first creature the Universe created. There ancient beings of raw void magic, and no one can handle the power they posses" replied Death, but something in their voice suggests there was more.

"Death, what are you not telling me?" pressed Grian, not wanting to be left in the dark.

"What do you remember from before you hit your head?" asked Death, completely avoiding the question, much to Grian's frustration.

"Not much," replied the dirty blond with uncertainty, "I don't remember even hitting my head if I'm perfectly honest"

"We were talking about your family, or more specifically what family you were apart of. Does that bring back any memories?" asked Death.

Grian scrunched up his face in confusion, he couldn't recall anything about talking about his family, much less what that has to do with anything. He looked down at his arm again, hoping that it would jumpstart his memory. But he didn't get anything, all he got was a reminder of the void. The void. The void. It suddenly all came back to him with the force of a tsunami, holy shit he was a Void. It was with shaky hands he looked up at Death again, "I'm a Void. I'm part of the Void family"

"Seems you remember" commented Death, voice underlined with relief.

"But, but doesn't that mean I'm related but EX and Xisuma?" asked Grian, hope in his voice. He had a family! A family he knew! He had been alone since he was ten, having lost his memory and family in a freak accident. No one knew what had happened, but maybe Xisuma and EX knew what had happened to them? Either way he had a family again! He was so excited!

"It does" chuckled Death, he was happy that the little one was so excited about this.

"Yay!" cheered Grian, jumping out of bed to do a little happy dance. Only to fall on his back when a strange weight on his back pulled him backwards, "Ow"

"Right, I should have probably warned you about that" winced Death, or at least it looked like a wince.

"Warned me about what?" asked Grian. Sitting up from the, strangely uncomfortable, ground. Instead of answering Death just motioned to feel his back. Confused, Grian did as instructed. He reached out to touch his back, but he couldn't reach it, instead he felt something scaly and leather under his fingers. He couldn't tell what it was, so he resorted to looking over his shoulder. And as he looked his eyes widened, "Death?"

"Yes little one?"

"Why do I have a pair of giant dragon wings, and how the hell didn't I feel them before"

"As I said, I made you into a Void dragon, this is just one of the many traits they have that you'll get. I believe you might get a tail when it spreads"

"When it spreads? But, I thought you fixed it?" asked Grian, fear in his voice, "How is it spreading?"

Death took a deep breath, "My withering effect is one of the most powerful magics in the world, and not even I can fully reverse the damage I do. The best I could do for you is too replace the withering with the Void dragon gen. Which means every party of you that would have been been withered is instead replaced with Void dragon"

"So, I'm going to be part dragon now? How much?" asked Grian, now slightly more relaxed, but still on edge.

"Yes you are, and I'd estimate you'll be around 30 to 35 percent Void dragon when everything's completely finished,"answered Death, regret in their voice, "Sorry for what I did, I shouldn't have grabbed at you arm"

Grian let a little smile grace his lips, "Hey, it's ok. You just wanted to help me, I'm not mad"

Death knew Grian wasn't lying, but he couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure?"

"I am," replied the dirty blond with a wide smile, "Well, I will be mad if you tell me I won't be able to touch anything with my left arm anymore"

"Good thing you can then. You couldn't when you first woke up because the shock of feeling scales instead is skin would have just made you panic. But you can touch it, and it can touch anything else" replied Death, happy Grian wasn't mad at him.

"Nice," commented Grian, touching his arm to see how it feels. And it felt just like he'd imagine, a little spiky but overall smooth. But it was hotter than he imagined, "This is so cool! Now me and Doc can be 'two different arms' buddies!"

"I suppose you can" smiled Death. Not like Grian could see it, but they had a feeling the builder knew anyways.

The two sat in silence for awhile, until a thought hit Grian, "Um, how do I fly? All I've ever used to fly are elytras, but not never wings! I don't know how they work!"

"Thought you might say that, good thing I've got someone for the job" said Death, lifting his hand a chanting a quite chant. Grian was just about to ask what they were doing when a portal opened in the sky, and a dark figure flew out.

As it got closer Grian could see it was the skeletal horse from the first time he saw Death. Now that he could see better, must be the new dragon gens, he could see more closer how it looked. It had a dragon, but still horse like head with razor like teeth. The body was skeleton like, but it looked to be covered in thick black skin and scales. The wings where that if a dragon, the webbing where ripped at the edges. It also had a long whip like tail. And let's not forget the many, many, spikes covering it's back and all the way down to the tail tip. It's eyes where like two bright ice blue glowing orbs, and they looked more like two souls than eyes. And once it landed Grian could see that it stood at 9 feet tall.

"Little one, may I introduce you to Tyrothon. The horse of death, and my most loyal companion"

<> I finished it! Gosh am I proud of this chapter! It was also a bit of a practice for me to learn how to describe things in more detail, so I hope I did ok with this!  And if anyone wants Death's design just go check out my two latest uploads on my one-shot book, you'll find them there. That's all from me for now, so have a nice time everyone! <>