Happy April Fool's Day! Don't be mad, enjoy!

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“Look, Borin. I didn’t kill your brother!”

Borin looks at me once, but doesn’t say anything, but instead continues to drag me forward to a building a little larger than the ones surrounding it. I begin to struggle slightly, as I couldn’t find a reason as to why I would kill someone. Oh wait, Borin did say in cold blood…

Borin drags me up to the doormat with my feeble resistance, and pushes open the door. I expected this to be a jailhouse or courthouse of some type, but instead of that, I find…

A group of dwarves with a banner above them written in some different language, most likely written in their language.

Balloons float up around them as soon as I enter the door, and a few kegs of some liquid fall over in the background, as hey all raise their hands with mugs in their grasp.

““SURPRISE!!!””

I stand there shocked before them, my hands and feet not even bound even before the dragging around. I look over to Borin, to ask him a question, but instead, he is sitting at a table with a mug in hand, with the bottom facing up against another exceptionally bearded dwarf.

I could only continue standing there, until a dwarf decided to grab me by the hand-claw and through me over a table, smashing it to bits, with some liquid falling all over me that smelled similar to alcohol but with a more musty odor.

But that moment was short-lived as I was once again made airborne by a dwarf with the musty scent all over him. Various questions kept popping into my head, like the murder, Borin’s apparently fake anger, and the scaly new appendages I received from my ‘progression’.

I land upon another tabletop, this time my face now facing a drunk(?) Borin. His cheeks finally showed enough color to allow me to see them, and figuring I wouldn’t get another chance until later, I had to ask him a question.

“What was that all ab-”

I was thrown once again, but this time by Borin’s drinking partner. He was howling and spitting up a glob of mesh every time he barked out a laugh. His beard was overflowing with whatever crumbs he had from last nights dinner, which spoke ‘spaghetti’ all over his face. I end up smashing into a wall made of stone, my back aching from the impact.

My eyes widen as soon as I recognize some familiarity with the man next to him. I look at Borin, and Borin only grins at my expression as he gets up from his seat, and makes his way over to the man who just threw me. Borin grins foolishly and with a flushed face, while pointing a stubby finger to the messy man.

“This her’ is meh brotha’. Meh lost him to ther’ thing called dementia.”

I can only look on, as the pair walks up to me, with a few steps to the right and left that showed their state of mind. Borin begins to wave his hand frantically, while his brother continues to look forward, as if the wall was more important than a new face in town.

“Now, don’t get meh wrong. Some stinkin dirt licker did do this to meh own brotha’. But ita sure as Vernier wasn’t yer!”

Borin begins to laugh heartily, as his brother begins to dig for gold in his nose. The spaghetti wearing man was indeed a sight not looked forwards to. I quickly look back at Borin, as he was too drunk to continue his speech, but sobered up a little bit to continue his misfortunate story.

“Yer’ see, crystal dust on this her’ planet is extremely potent. It gives yer’ a high like none otha’! Many races on this Vernier have had long, underground wars for this her’ infamous dust, and it continues to this damned day. Meh brotha’ her’ was lucky nough’ to get his grubby hands on ther’ stuff, and this’s what Kareb’s become!”

Borin’s face begins to heat up to a very bright red, and the sight almost makes me imagine steam pouring out of his ears. Almost. He gestures to all of his brother’s body, mostly his head as that’s where most of the damage took place from this dust.

I quickly stand up from where I sat, and slowly approached Borin and Kareb, stretching out my hands slowly and carefully to reassure Borin that Kareb looked fine and dandy. But when looking at Kareb, the spaghetti sometimes fell off his beard giving off a plopping sound.

Ah, I best not reassure him about that. Kareb doesn’t look good at all.

“Look, Borin, it looks like you drank a little too much here. How about you--”

“No, I will not be silent! I will dominate the world!! Swim in a pool of gold! Have sexy ladies all over me! I am a man, and I will have my--”

With a solid thump on the back of his head, I watch as Borin falls face first onto the floor, Kareb following along with Borin’s lead. I watch them begin to hug each other… Borin must have been really drunk, to speak properly.

I look up from Borin and Kareb’s cuddled bodies, to find a female dwarf standing behind where they once stood. Her beard is nonexistent, with no hair that could be seen on her face. Her red hair was tied back in a bun, similar to a samurai’s topknot, and her eyes were as disappointed as a mother’s, the eyes themselves popping out slightly, to show that she was ‘all seeing’. Her eyebrows are in a frown, as she looks down at the snoring forms of the intoxicated dwarven men.

“Hmph, he always has to be knocked out when he begins to spit out worldly desires from ages past. Now then, I guess I have to explain what’s happened to you.” The dwarf woman looks me up and down. “And what’s happened while you were out. Now come, follow along.”

As quickly as she arrives, she almost disappears just as fast, but not without grabbing the brother’s legs and briskly walking away out of the doors of the building and into the bustling streets.

I begin to walk forward to follow her, but suddenly I feel a weight right above my ass. I quickly turn around to find out what it is, but nothing shows itself to me. So I continue forwards, ignoring it. The sound of something sliding on the ground enters my ears, and I can’t help but look back, just in time to see the long scaly blue appendage dragging behind me.

Once again connecting a few dots in my mind, I realize something. I have a tail!

I quickly try to pick up my tail, but I was just like a dog and spun around and around, becoming dizzy from my revolutions in one place. I stumble out of the doorway, and out into the streets, where I feel a slight breeze hitting against my body. I feel an untimely chill, and look down at where my baggy pants should be.

Well, no wonder people stared at me oddly.

I began to hide my exposed side of me, but the tail I couldn’t grab suddenly coils around my waist, similar to that of a belt. It really felt like it had a mind of its own, but I could only thank my new tail as I began to walk out into the public.

Luckily, the trio of dwarves I have become acquainted with in this town weren’t able to make it far, since my height was slightly taller than the tallest dwarf. I could see where they had went, and the amount of distance between us began to shorten due to my longer strides.

The female dwarf and the brothers suddenly enter a house on the side of the street, and I make haste to where they disappeared from my sight. I enter through the doorway to the house, the house itself looking as generic as the house next door. The interior itself was ordinary, if a person could ignore the fact that everything was made of rock. The couch, the tables, even the lamps themselves were made of the same sandstone-like structure as the house was. It was like the dwarves hollowed out a rock to live in.

“Good, it seems like your cognitive functions are working in the correct order. If they weren’t, I’d have to put you down.”

The female dwarf is sitting on one of the stone chairs, her hands clasped together in front of her face and her eyes peering at me from behind it. It made her look like a mastermind behind a bigger plot. She then gestures to one of the stone chairs with a hole in the back.

“Take a seat, there is some explaining to do.”

I follow with her suggestion and I take a seat, my tail uncoiling and putting itself into the hole in the chair. I look at her steady form, as she looks at my face. Seeing her stare at me so intently, I can’t help but blush. This makes her grin, and yellow teeth make their appearance. Apparently, hygiene isn’t that important in this town.

“What you have just went through is a genetic mutation in your gene pool. Specifically, it mostly affects your outside appearance, and sometimes mental capabilities. The Progression is what we all go through after 3 years worth of time is spent on the surface world. Enough time spent on this world allows you to manipulate the radiation that caused your mutation. In Borin’s case, this took several centuries, and it took decades for me to manipulate it.”

While she is talking, I continue to look straight at her, despite her hands gesturing all around her. She continues with her explanation.

“Now, you are a different case. Borin here told me about your sudden appearance on this planet, and how you survived in the crevice. Now the spot you arrived in has a high radiation content, and your human base has no resistance nor immunity towards radiation itself, which allowed the Progression to take place mere days after you arrived. The most amazing thing that has happened so far, is that you have survived an undiluted Progression!”

Her eyes begin to gleam like a mad scientist’s own light reflecting glasses, and I try to scoot my chair away for some safety and reassurance. Sadly, the chair was carved out of the rock itself so it was firmly stuck in place. A question begins to form in my mind.

“Undiluted? Do you mean to say that I had taken in a concentrated dose of radiation?”

With a nod, she answers my question with a question.

“Didn’t you kill a creature in that crevice with nothing but your own power? And did you not take out the gem inside of it’s body?”

I nod my head at her questions.

“Was that gem in fact actually a concentrated form of radiation?”

She claps her hands excitedly.

“Ooo! We have a smart guy here haha! I like that much better than these two buffoons over there.”

She points over there with a wicked grin on her face, her nose pinching up with her widening smile. I look over to the area she pointed to and find Borin in his armor… sitting on a toilet? With Kareb by his side, snoozing on his lap. It would be a lovely scene if it were not for the heavy stench of alcohol that emanated from the both of them.

A caring look enters the female dwarf’s eyes.

“These two have been with me since the beginning. It’s a shame that Kareb is the way he is now, but nothing can be done. There are no known cures for the side effects of crystal dust.”

I look over at the two brothers, then look back at the dwarf before me. I cough once to get her attention, which shakes her back into the present moment.

“Ah yes, sorry about that Tom. Now back onto the topic of you, but more specifically your body. Have you looked at your face? It’ll become apparent as to what you are, or could become.”

She hands me a mirror, as I take it out of worry and curiosity. For some apparent reason, I began to worry even more at the change that could scar my life.

I hold up the mirror just far enough away to capture my entire head. My face was completely normal, well at least half of it. The left side of my face consisted of blue scales, and my original blue eyes had turned into one blue and one green. My green eye had a slit pupil in it’s center, and around it grew scales of a lighter blue. From my left side of the forehead, out of my head jutted one horn, that grew at an angle and slowly curved backwards to lay just above my white hair.

My hair had turned white with dark streaks in it, and had grown at an extreme rate. I didn’t know if my mother would recognize me, with the body I now had. But my determination didn’t give way to this anxiety, and I look at the female dwarf.

“What do you want? You wouldn’t let me know all this information unless..”

“Yes. I want your help in return.”

Her smile becomes an evil smirk, her eyebrows raised.

“I am the dwarven blacksmith Ulia, and I am the chieftain of Dunheim. This town needs an outside… perspective on a certain subject.”

I look at her, curiosity seeping out of me. I gesture for her to continue.

“We need help on cracking down on the crystal dust that has spread around town. Borin said you can do it while you were Progressing, but are you capable now as Progression has happened?”