The Storm King

Chapter 794: Family By Choice

Anzu was taken to a room adjacent to the training hall where he was laid out on a sofa to rest. By Helen’s estimation, he’d probably wake in less than an hour. What might happen after that, though, was anyone’s guess. Leon, however, had a few ideas of his own, and knew where to find a few more.

He didn’t clearly remember his first time transforming. It had been far beneath the Serpentine Isles, and the enchantment array that allowed him to transform had stimulated his blood so much that the power had completely overwhelmed his conscious mind.

However, he could clearly remember his first time consciously transforming, just after bringing the fallen stone giants back home. He’d changed into his Thunderbird form, and promptly fell flat on his face. He hadn’t known how to control a body so radically different from his own that he was hopeless in it, let alone proficient enough to know how to fly or fight. But after several days of practice, he’d managed to learn how to properly balance himself to stand up straight, then fly, and then fight. It had taken a fair amount of time, but less than he’d feared.

Anzu, he hoped, would have an easier time of it. So long spent around humans and not around other griffins, Leon thought that Anzu was as ready as he could be. Given his complete silence, though, Leon couldn’t be sure. He was as certain as he could be that Anzu was fully sapient, but the griffin had still never once managed to speak, mentally or otherwise.

Leon speculated that this was because the griffin had little to no skill with darkness magic and had no idea how to learn. He’d rather assumed that such communication would come naturally, as neither Maia nor Red seemed to have any difficulties speaking in such a manner. Tikos, on the other hand, needed to create a piece of magical amber in order to communicate, so Leon was forced to admit that it wasn’t exactly guaranteed.

As he laid Anzu down on the sofa, he left the griffin-turned-human under the watchful eyes of Helen, Anna, and Marcus, and returned to the training hall where the rest of his retinue were waiting.

It didn’t take him long to evaluate their conditions: it seemed that he and Anzu had the most dramatic increase in power, each of them ascending a tier. Everyone else had grown in strength as far as he could tell, but there had been no other ascensions.

“How’s Anzu?” Elise asked, her voice laced with worry.

“Physically, he’s fine,” Leon responded. “He’s still out, but we’ll see how he is when he wakes up.”

Elise smiled in relief, her expression reflected in various ways on everyone else’s face.

“For now,” Leon continued, “I want everyone to get training. You all know the drill by now: you need to refamiliarize yourselves with your limits, as they’ve just been vastly expanded. Two hours of solo training, then we’ll start pairing off and get to sparring.”

In his experience, fighting with someone else was the best way to test your own limits. Given how much power the Hesperidic Apples would bestow, everyone needed to put themselves through their paces, or else their combat abilities might be compromised.

‘Not much use in growing in power if you don’t know how to use that power,’ Leon thought as everyone slowly broke off, the elation at the results of eating another batch of Hesperidic Apples plain for all to see.

He turned toward Red, but before he could call out to her, Tikos spoke first.

“Leon,” the tree sprite began, “Grew trees one extra apple. How should be used it?”

Leon raised his eyebrows for a moment. “Is that counting the one set aside for Anshu?”

“No.”

He nodded, then said, “Give it to me. I’ll figure out someone to give it to.”

It wasn’t the first time that his trees produced spare apples. Whenever they did, Leon didn’t give them to his retinue, fearing that it might give rise to bitter feelings if he were seen to be favoring anyone unduly since there were never enough for everyone to get two. Instead, he kept those apples to be used as gifts for friends and allies—Penelope and the Director, usually.

Tikos dutifully handed over the apple, and Leon tossed it into his soul realm, setting aside the issue of who to give it to for the time being. Then, he finally turned towards Red, who’d walked off to a corner to sit and play with fire in, her legs crossed and eyes closed.

As Leon walked over, he watched as she summoned four tiny fire snakes and had them fly through the air around her. Despite their rather diminutive size, each of those snakes were extreme concentrations of power, burning with a ferocity that wasn’t quite reflected in their brightness or speed of movement.

Each of those snakes could burn clean through a seventh-tier mage with ease, Leon guessed.

“Hey there, Red,” Leon said as he sat down a respectful distance away. “Let’s talk for a minute or two.”

Red acquiesced, opening her yellow eyes and watching him with interest.

Understanding that he had her attention, Leon asked, “I was hoping to talk about your experience with transforming into human form.”

Red briefly glanced at the door through which Leon had carried Anzu, then stoically nodded as she turned back to him.

“What was it like for you, the first time?” Leon asked.

Red cocked an eyebrow, then glanced upward in thought as her fire snakes danced about her head.

“… Confusing,” she eventually stated. “Aggravating. Infuriating.”

“Were you scared?” Leon asked, eliciting a glare from the wyvern-in-human-form. “All right, I remember now, you don’t get scared, do you?”

Red haughtily raised her head, but Leon didn’t believe her for a second.

“It required… adjustment,” Red explained. “Learning to move my body was easy. Learning to accept that I could do what I could was harder. Learning to accept that I was able to change into a weaker form, that it had its uses, that it didn’t make me weak.”

“Did you have anyone else you could practice with?” Leon asked. “I know that your former mate had his harem and they were all strong enough to shift forms, but you hadn’t fallen in with them yet, had you?”

“That came later,” Red stated. “We didn’t transform in front of one another—at least, not until we decided we needed to get in contact with you and your party while you were hunting our mate.”

“Didn’t want to show weakness in front of your fellows?” Leon cheekily asked, but the way that Red briefly averted her gaze and scowled, he thought he hit the nail on the head.

“It’s… hard to get used to,” Red whispered. “Weaker. Softer. Different senses. Honestly, I don’t know how you humans have survived as long as you have.”

“We’re tough little creatures.” Leon glanced back at the door. Anzu was still out cold, but his breathing was starting to accelerate. “Did you have a similar reaction? Your first time?”

“No,” Red almost condescendingly replied. However, after a moment, her expression turned more thoughtful. “I was disoriented, confused at first as to what had happened. Wyverns don’t write and we don’t teach. I didn’t realize what happened to me until decades later.”

Leon hummed in thought. “You know, that’s not even really something I’ve thought too hard about. I’ve met another Ascended Beast in my time: a basilisk. And that basilisk had taken to kidnapping women and trying to convince them to procreate with him—between bouts of piracy. I guess I wasn’t too surprised that Ascended Beasts continue to act as they always have, not really knowing anything else. It’s just… I suppose it’s strange, then, that the Sacred Bull went and built the Bull Kingdom, isn’t it? And that the Thunderbird built her interplanar Empire. Ascended Beasts fitting into human society.”

Red listened to him ramble utterly expressionless, at least until he asked his next question.

“How are you finding your time here?” Leon had already asked her that question many times over the past five years. Every time, her answer had been largely the same: human society was quite nice and very comfortable, but it would’ve been infinitely better without all the humans.

This time, however, she took some time before responding.

“There’s… a sense of purpose here that I find… fulfilling,” she stated. “I don’t like many parts of human society. Too many demands for ‘currency’, when a weaker one ought to do what I tell them to do. Constant recriminations for attempting to expand my hoard without ‘paying’ for it.”

Leon lightly cringed, having had to shell out some silver on multiple occasions for things that Red had stolen, usually some shiny trinket that had caught her eye as she wandered Occulara. He’d eventually gotten at least the most basic of basics of human economics hammered into her head so that she wouldn’t steal anymore, but keeping her swimming in new trinkets for her hoard was still a large item on his expense report.

“But,” Red continued, “I enjoy the idea that I’m working towards greater power, that there will be a place for me in a higher realm, that the secrets of fire that I have dreamed about are opening themselves up to me.” She snapped her fingers, and the dancing fire snakes whirled about before her, between her and Leon. “I never would’ve grown this strong this quickly had I not joined up with you. I will follow in your footsteps and see what new heights you can reach, and ascend to those heights myself.”

Leon smiled, recognizing this to be as close to an endorsement and encouragement as he’d ever get from her.

“Just let me know if you need anything else,” Leon said. “By the way, Valentina will be coming over next week. She and Xaphan need to meet up in person for something. I was thinking of adding in some training with fire magic. I was going to drag Alcander into this as well, but wanted to extend to you this invitation to join, too.”

As Red smiled, Leon sensed Alcander perk his head from across the room.

“Can’t do that, boss!” he shouted. “Sofie and I have a date!”

“Dates can be rescheduled, can’t they?” Leon only half-seriously complained.

“Not this one! Tickets to an exclusive show!”

Leon glared at Alcander, but he didn’t put too much venom in the look. “You’ll have to catch up, then,” he growled as he turned back to Red. Grumbling under his breath, he said, “Exclusive, huh? What kind of show is exclusive?”

“You could order him to attend,” Red said, drawing a look of ire from Alcander.

“Nah,” Leon flippantly responded. “Any other excuse and I would, but family should come first.”

Red frowned and looked a little wistful. She didn’t look like she wanted to continue speaking in that vein, though, which Leon found all well and good since Anzu was starting to stir.

“Looks like he’s about to wake up,” he said as he rose. “Thanks for the perspective. We’ll talk again soon.”

Red wordlessly nodded as Leon walked back out into the adjacent room, where Helen and Anna were monitoring Anzu as he stirred.

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“Things are looking good,” Marcus responded as he met Leon at the foot of the sofa. “No concerning vital signs; he’s looking good in just about every way.”

Leon nodded in gratitude, then quietly pulled Helen away from Anzu as he sat down next to the sofa, wanting to be the first thing Anzu saw when he woke up.

He didn’t have to wait long. Within five minutes, Anzu’s albino-white eyelids began to flutter, giving Leon a few glimpses of the blood-red irises beneath. Then, Anzu took a deep breath and shifted his sleeping position a bit, though not quite in as smooth a manner as he might if he’d been human his entire life.

After another moment, Leon heard a hitch in Anzu’s breathing, signaling that he’d finally woken up. A second later, Anzu began twitching, then shivering as his eyes opened in panic.

“Anzu!” Leon shouted as the griffin-turned-human bolted upright. He placed his hand on Anzu’s shoulder and pushed him back down into the sofa. Anzu resisted for a moment, but as his eyes landed on Leon and focused, all resistance left his body, and he let Leon push him back down. “It’s all right, Anzu,” Leon whispered. “It’s all right. Everything’s fine. Can you understand me?”

Anzu seemed to need a moment to process before quietly nodding.

“How are you feeling? Good?” Leon raised his right hand. “Bad?” He then raised his left hand.

Anzu’s lips didn’t so much as twitch as he glanced to Leon’s hands, then slowly raised his right hand.

“Fantastic,” Leon said soothingly as he glanced up at Helen, Anna, and Marcus, giving them silent permission to speak.

“Anzu,” Helen said, taking the lead, “you’ve ascended! You’ve managed to transform into a human!”

Anzu’s boyish features remained as still as if they were carved in stone, but his eyes glanced around before turning down to look at his body. He wasn’t naked anymore, Helen having pulled him into some loose training clothes as they’d gotten him settled on the sofa. However, that did absolutely nothing to hide his own body from him.

A low whine built up in Anzu’s chest and his lips started twitching, as if he were having trouble opening his mouth.

“Take it slow, buddy,” Leon whispered. “It’s not a permanent thing, you’re just like Red. You should be able to transform back and forth.”

Anzu suddenly turned his head in Leon’s direction. His mouth snapped open and he began spreading his lips in random ways as a gentle hum resounded from within him.

“Eh…” the griffin sighed. “Heh… Meh… Mo… Mmm…”

Leon let Anzu experiment with his mouth a little bit. The griffin had never had lips before, just a hard beak, and he knew there was going to be a lot of adjustment needed before Anzu was comfortable with his new body.

After several long minutes of Anzu testing out his new lips and vocal cords, during which Leon’s thoughts seemed mirrored in everyone else, he finally began to speak, though his tone was hesitant, plodding, and stilted.

“I… uhm… maaa… Humaahnn? Lyiiiieke… yooo?”

“For now,” Helen helpfully chimed in. “Like Red and Leon, you should now have a power to shift between bodies at will.”

“It’s going to take some time for you to learn how to move like this,” Leon said with a soft, yet didactic tone to reflect his infinite patience when it came to his closest friend. “Don’t rush it. Do you remember when I first started transforming into my Thunderbird form? How many times I ate dirt on the way back from the Border Mountains back in the north?”

Anzu’s eyes narrowed as he thought hard, but then nodded rather exaggeratedly. He began to sit up, though his balance and muscle control still made that clumsy at best. However, he soon managed it, until he was sitting up, looking Leon in the eye, blood red to bright gold.

“Faater?”

“Father?” Leon guessed. When Anzu nodded, Leon slowly sat next to Anzu. “Brother,” he stated insistently. “You know that we’re different?”

Again, Anzu nodded.

“We’re still family, though, aren’t we?”

Another nod.

“We are family by choice, not by blood. And to put myself in the role of father… That would be… well, I love you like a brother, Anzu. It would just be a little weird to think about being in that role, you know?”

Anzu was starting to get the hang of nodding, it seemed.

“So, how about that? Brothers?”

“Brot… Br…” Anzu struggled to form the word. Leon almost tried to get him to stop, but he held his tongue. Anzu needed to learn to speak, and he clearly wanted to keep trying. “Bro… t… t… h… th… ther! Brother!”

Leon smiled and pulled Anzu into a hug. He felt Anzu shift slightly in his embrace, but after some minor flailing, he felt Anzu’s own arms wrap around him.

“I’ve waited a long time, Anzu,” Leon whispered. “You’ve been with me a long time. I can’t tell you how proud I am, no words are good enough.”

Anzu seemed to whine, but it was a sound similar to the happy chirps he made in his griffin form, and Leon felt him shudder slightly. So, Leon pulled back, and found Anzu bawling his eyes out, tears streaming down his face like a waterfall.

“Anzu!” Anna cried out. “Are you all right? You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“Noh,” Anzu hastily replied. Then, his body began to expand, his chest growing as wings burst from his back. The clothes that Leon had set aside for him were torn right off as a tail sprang from just above his rear. Fur and feathers erupted from his skin as his face elongated into its avian shape.

Leon sprang back as Anzu reassumed his griffin form. It didn’t more than a few seconds until Anzu was back, chirping with delight as he leaped off the sofa and began bounding about in joy. He surged toward Leon, rubbing on him like a cat, almost knocking him flat on his back as he expressed his jubilation.

But then, he paused, and his wings folded and started shrinking, his fur and feathers retreated beneath his skin, and body quickly returned to human shape—and, once again, stark naked. But Anzu hardly seemed concerned as he stood there, gently swaying with what Leon thought was a profound difference in his sense of balance.

“Bro… ther…” he said again as he looked to Leon and spread his lips in one of the widest smiles Leon had ever seen. It might’ve seemed fake on anyone else, but Anzu radiated elation.

“Come on,” Leon said as he took Anzu by the shoulder. “Let’s get you acquainted with your new ability. And clothes.”

“You don’t have to rush on that last one,” Anna muttered as Leon slowly led Anzu back into the training room. Leon just sent her a cheeky smile in response. He couldn’t muster any anger in light of his and Anzu’s ascensions, especially since Anzu hardly seemed to care about what she said. He just wanted his new brother to practice with his new form. He’d waited a long time for the griffin to speak, and he couldn’t wait to hear what he might have to say.