“Hey, wake up.”
Elkay slowly opened his eyes. For the first time in ages, he wasn’t in pain. He felt uncomfortable, but he was otherwise alive. The voice that had spoken to him came from his left, so that was the direction Elkay looked in.
“You’re not having a good week, are you?” the yellow Rethan asked. “I’m sorry I lost track of you.”
Garbled words gurgled from Elkay’s mouth. He couldn’t speak. That bothered him. All that came out was a spray of saliva and slime. He glanced down at the rest of his body, which looked relatively normal.
“Yeah, you’re kinda stuck right now. I don’t know how much you remember… Or whether you remember anything…”
Elkay shook his head. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in a small shelter. He definitely wasn’t in that small shelter now. He seemed to be in a small bedroom, but everything around him had been smashed and broken. Recently too.
“Nothing at all?”
Another shake of the head. Elkay was drawing blanks. Did he managed to send that note?
“Ah… Well, I would say that’s for the best, but I think you need to know what’s going on. I’m going to assume you don’t know where we are either, do you?”
This time, a squelchy ‘no’ managed to slip from Elkay’s mouth.
“We’re in a barn house in the village of Dasi. You… stumbled into the village, all mutated and mindless. When the astynom tried to calm you down, you got vicious. I’m going to spare you the details though. Because you don’t need to know. But things happened, you got shot and your feral self dragged you into this abandoned building.”
“So… I can die…” Elkay muttered. He tried to focus on the being talking to him. It was definitely a Rethan. Someone he knew. Someone who cared. But everything was fuzzy and blurry.
“Well… that’s one option. That you just die here. I’ll be honest with you, from where you’re sitting? You look like you have no nice options. Most of the options involve you going back to being feral and either being blown to pieces or captured and spending the rest of your life inside a very small cage. If it wasn’t for me stepping in…”
Elkay tried again to focus on the being talking to him. It took him a moment to realise that the being wasn’t a Rethan. Not really. They were just taking the shape of one. After some thought, it clicked in Elkay’s head that the Thantophor itself was speaking to him.
“I’ll be honest. This is my fault. You were picked on because you just happened to be my friend. At the time, you weren’t even one of my best friends, you and I would just chat occasionally. That’s why I’m intervening.”
Elkay grunted. “Not your fault.”
“I’m at least partially to blame.”
“Still…”
The Thantophor smiled, then sighed. “Either way, I’m going to help you. You see, everyone does genuinely think you’re dead now. I don’t know if you did it intentionally or not, but at some point (and I don’t know how you did it), you ripped your left arm off. Clearly it grew back because of your current… condition, but as far as everyone else is concerned? You got killed and possibly eaten. Elkay the Rethan and Elkay the big scary monster are two completely separate entities, as far as the universe knows.”
Elkay closed his eyes and grunted again. “So?”
“That means you are completely blameless for all of this. And it gives us some options. Aside from the two options I mentioned before.”
“I… uh… options?” Elkay wasn’t really following.
The Thantophor smiled in understanding and got up, sitting himself in front of Elkay so he could see him.
“Your first two options are simple. You either die here, blown up and set on fire, or you get captured and experimented on. We’re going to ignore those. Your other options…
“Firstly, since no one knows that you and the monster are one and the same, we get you out of here and stick you in a place where the Rethan Stratos will find you, sans your missing left arm. You spend some time in hospital, claim you have no memory of what happened and maybe everything will go back to normal, but not quite, because Yisini did something to you and you’ll spend a good long time in and out of labs trying to fix yourself.
“Your second option is to disappear. Elkay Theanon is dead, there is proof of his death. You can go and live a brand new life. You won’t be able to call yourself Elkay ever again, but you will be free to do whatever you want, live wherever you want, be whoever you want.
“The last option is somewhat similar to the previous one but…”
The Thantophor paused. Elkay looked at him, blinking in confusion.
“I would really like it if you came and lived with me for a bit. Not quite yet. Because you will need to get your new life together, I need to get you a little handbook on how to control your new powers and then I need to do this stupid feminine thing for a bit longer. But I’ll provide whatever you need to get your life sorted out and you’ll also get to keep these cool adaptation abilities you’ve picked up. And when you’re ready, we’ll meet up and spend some time together.”
Elkay hesitated. Was the Thantophor being serious?
“It sounds dumb, I know…”
“I like that option…” Elkay stuttered. “I would like that.”
The Thantophor gasped. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes…” Elkay grunted a little. “But could you please… sort me out here first?”
The Thantophor grinned, little black, needle-like teeth sticking from his jaws. “Sure, but gimme a sec. This might hurt a little.”
Suddenly, everything felt… hot. Boiling hot. Elkay tried to scream, but only feral gurgles spewed from his mouth. The Thantophor lifted Elkay off the ground but somehow didn’t. Where Elkay had been lying, a horrific pile of goo and guts squirmed and wriggled.
“I’m going to send you to a special mix-race hospital. They’ll fix you up and get you sorted out, no questions asked, alright?”
Elkay nodded. The pain was starting to return but not nearly as bad as it had been before. The Thantophor stood him up, then patted him on his back. As he did so, Elkay felt a small scratch across his neck. Everything seemed very bright for a moment, before turning dark again.
“I’ll see you in a couple of days, alright? Just need to work out how to fix you properly.”
Elkay shook his head in confusion. The world around him was bright again, but for a different reason. He was standing in a waiting room, tiled in white and yellow.
Behind him was a desk. At it was a grey and orange Skyavok.
“Ah, he said I would be expecting someone today…” the Skyavok tutted as he got up from the desk and wheeled over a chair. “Welcome to the Hidden Nosokom. Tell me, how are you feeling?”