FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Kim and Tom reentered the yard of their home to find the usual scene that they have come to expect. The flashing lights of several ambulances and patrol cars.

Wooot! We're on a roll now! Two months, two mass casualty events! I'm putting out doughnuts next time!

An appalled Tom hissed over his wife's attempt at taunting fate and then superstitiously knocked on wood behind himself, giving two hearty raps on a tree, ripping and it clean from the ground, with his tail.

Kim belted out another rolling laugh as they advanced into their yard.

They were met by Serena and Thumper.

"Is it true Brian? Did you volunteer?" Serena asked her research partner.

Busy climbing down from Kim's lowered body he hit the ground and turned to answer.

"Yes. Just think about what we could learn!"

"Well, yeah. But are you really willing to give up everything?"

He shrugged. "Study and research is all I have. Now I get a chance to advance our knowledge another way."

"But there are already thousands of them!"

"Sure, but how many are Scientists like us? How many of them are willing to have their body explored as thoroughly as I am?"

A stunned Serena looked at Brian and then reached out to hug him.

"You will make everyone back at the University proud."

He nodded sheepishly before awkwardly returning her embrace.

After a moment they separated and wandered off to make final preparations. "Make sure you get all angles of my change covered. And make sure Brutus and Rex get fed their...."

Thumper came forward to say something, but Kim and Tom had no interest in talking with it at the moment and just passed by it without a glance to talk to Irma and Jesse. Jesse had his head placed against Irma's chest as she rubbed the back of his neck with her snout.

What have you told him?

Everything Jesse said mournfully. He turned towards his in-laws and bowed his head until it touched the ground, exposing his neck.

What are you doing?

He raised his head with a confused expression on his face as his eyes zipped back and forth in bewilderment.

I...I do not know. I wanted to apologize and that felt like the right way to do it. I feel every time I want to do something my mind goes one way and my body another... I... I... do not feel... I am not... I am not sure my mind is the same anymore... I feel...things... that I had not felt or known before. Am I still... me? He finished with a plaintive whine.

Irma hushed him and brought his head back to her chest again where she wrapped her wing arms around his neck. She shared a worried look with her parents, they bristled and turned their wrath towards Thumper once more.

What the fuck?

"Jesse is correct. He is no longer the person he was before, nor is he the ancestral body of a child of the egg. Now he is both. You needn't look at me as if this was an intended part of my plan. I told you that this would provide an example of what to expect when you assist those lost inside their own minds. Now you see the results. Those that have become lost and then found will always bear the mental scars of their ordeals. This scarring will take the shape of residual base impulses. Impulses of the bodies they inhabit."

"Buuut why so instinctual? Iiii thought you ssssaid these creatures had a well-developed civilization..."

"Yes they did, but when humans succumb to their changes and fully become children of the egg, they become them as they exist in nature. No socialization, no example to learn from, completely feral. It would be no different than taking a human toddler and leaving it in the wilderness to fend for itself. Driven by instinct and need, nothing more."

So I am damaged? Different in body and mind now?

Tom uttered some grudging encouragement when he replied. "Even if you are, we are here to help heal you. Since yuuu must be part of thisss family now, apparently."

Kim swung her head in a half circle ending at Tom's neck.

"Ack! Iii mean we welcome yuuu with open arms, legs, wingsss, whatever."

Irma glared furiously at her father, even going so far as to growl warningly before she led the downtrodden Jesse away to be alone with each other.

Kim turned her glowing, hostile eyes on her husband once again. "You assshole, yuu better make it right with him!"

Tom looked away haughtily. "In time."

Kim snarled and was about to attack him once more, then Brian and Serena came back with Alex, Ulysses, and one of the EMTs.

Ulysses had a hand on Alex's arm helping to support him as he wobbled where he stood. Tom dropped his aloof attitude to show concern for his brother.

"Alex, yuuu okay?"

"It's my corndog!"

Ulysses answered for him. "He's got a pretty bad concussion. Irma clipped him when she was thrown by Jesse earlier. The EMTs want him under observation at the hospital. He and my three guys are going to be taken by two of the ambulances to the local hospital for follow up tests. The last ambulance full of EMTs has a request."

He motioned for the Paramedic next to him to state his piece.

"We've already gotten permission from Brian Cyan here, but as this is your property we need yours as well. We would like to stay behind and film his transformation and initial examination. We feel, and our Fire Chief agrees, that it is becoming increasingly important that we get to know how to treat... You...people...er...dragons... as well as our normal patients."

Tom and Kim looked at each other and lifted their wings in a shrug. "Sure, whatever."

"Great!" He motioned at two other medics, who Kim was a little miffed to see, had already set up their own video monitoring gear and reported his approval on his mike to the dispatcher.

Ulysses finished with one final comment. "Once my guys have been treated and released from the hospital, we're being pulled out. Another company will be taking over and they'll be sending guys out here two platoons at a time for week long details to coordinate during an emergency."

"Well" Kim said. "Don't beee a stranger. Come visit when yuuu rrr not wearing a uniform."

He nodded and returned to packing up and seeing to his soldiers after passing off a woozy Alex to Serena.

"The rollercoaster ran backwards?"

Ignoring Alex's insensible outburst, attention turned back to Brian, as three pairs of luminescent eyes and two pairs of human ones returned to his person.

He kneaded his hands for a bit shyly before answering. "Everything is ready to go I guess, it is time for me to say goodbye to the world I knew."

He turned in place, looking around and taking in his last human sight. Lifting his head high, he inhaled deeply with his eyes closed. After releasing his great cleansing breath, he sat down on an air mattress in front of an array of cameras of all shapes and sizes and began to disrobe. Jacket, shirt, pants, shoes and socks, everything he took off he folded neatly and set to the side. Last to come off was his watch as he placed it upon his folded clothes. He looked at the neat pile for a moment before giving an amused snort at the thought of being beyond the need for such things. Looking up at those watching his last moments as a human, he smiled. Clad in nothing but his boxer briefs he set his unremarkable body down on the mattress and looked over. Taking in everyone's solemn looks, he nodded his head once to initiate what would almost certainly be his greatest adventure.

"I'm ready."

Thumper's eyes cast their golden glow and Brian anticlimactically fell unconscious before everyone. His hour of wrenching change had begun.

The EMTs and Serena stayed to continue their vigil along with the silently watching Thumper. Serena gently gathered up his discarded effects and put them into a bag that sat next to her. Kim headed towards Ulysses and the remnants of his team,

Tom tried to nudge his brother on to his back to carry him to the ambulance for transport to the hospital.

"No one asked you for a ride hamster." was the response he got for trying to help. That, and the crunching noise his brother's hand made as he tried to punch his younger brother in the snout. "I didn't make popcorn." Alex muttered looking at his broken hand.

"Okaaay big brother, you've had enough." Tom declared before seizing Alex loosely in his jaws. A voice by the ambulances screamed out.

"Oh Christ, they've gotten a taste for humans!" One of them panicked and jumped into an ambulance to hide.

Tom ignored the hysterics as did some of the other medical workers when he turned his head sideways and deposited his brother, upright and dizzy, in front of them for transport.

"What did yuuu think you were doing, letting him wander around likeee that? Yuuu know he has a concussion. The bemused medics just gaped at each other uselessly, and then began pointing fingers at one another in attempts to shift blame.

Tom snorted, before he began to smack them one at a time with his tail. "If..." smack "you..." smack "don't..." smack "act..." smack "reasonable..." smack "ssso help me...." Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack went his tail giving each of the less than stellar medical crew another smart one on the tops of their heads. He finished by shaking the tip ominously above the five, startling them into doing their jobs. Loading Alex into ambulance one, they conversed briefly with Ulysses under the looming head of Kim and drove the two wheeled medical facilities out with the remainder of the patrol cars following.

Tom checked in on Brian's progress through his transition. He found an excited Serena and the lead EMT enthusiastically feeling over his noticeably longer torso. His mass had already increased as well, his chest and abdomen much greater in girth as shown by the tautness of his underwear. Beneath his still pale skin they could see his organs moving with fits and starts into a new alignment to best serve that of a hulking quadruped. The black discoloration of his skin was this time starting at his nose and working its way backwards. Already his face was slightly elongated, heralding the beginnings of his snout.

Moving onwards Tom reunited with his daughter and, he snapped his tail, son-in-law. The two of them were on their sides embracing each other closely with heads placed on each other's shoulder. Currently their eyes were closed as they simply laid there, Irma with her wings wrapped tightly around Jesse's frame, providing her steadfast support in his existential crisis. As the father drew closer he could hear the low powerful hum of one them in their contentment.

Stopping a few meters away. Tom sat on his haunches and just stared at them with a cocked head.

What, father?

One of Irma's blood red eyes had cracked open after smelling her father, revealing the gold wreathed pupil that was focused on her dad. Jesse responded by making what sounded like a terrified squeak and burrowed his head beneath the shelter of Irma's wing. The seismic hum changed into a series of ululating waves causing the confused Jesse to relax as his tail made slow undulations in time to the new sound.

Now is not the time for one of your games.

You may or may not have been able to smell it but you should know I was afraid for you both earlier today. For Jesse I was afraid that we had seen the last of him. Not just in body, but... He raised a wing to tap his head.

But the last of what made him who he was up here. I was afraid that those words he tried to speak to you were the last ones you would ever hear from him. I was afraid that we had seen the fate that could have befallen any one of us.

I was afraid when he opened his eyes and we saw that he was lost. I was afraid that I had seen the last time my daughter, my little girl, was ever going to be happy.

Jesse, Irma, I apologize for the way that I have always treated your relationship. Jesse, you are owed the deepest apologies of all. I have never done right by you. It is time for me to stop treating you as I have, and to begin treating you as you deserve. You are a member of this family now. We do not need a formal ceremony to make it so. You are now simply one of us, in a way that means so much more than it ever has. Together we must face an uncertain future. Together we must support each other, and cherish what friends we have, what family we have.

Imitating the action he had seen Jesse do earlier with no understanding of what he was doing beyond expressing his heartfelt apology. Tom bent his head until his nose touched the ground and spoke once more before falling still.

I do not ask for your forgiveness for the way I have behaved. But what I ask of you is that from this moment forward, we face each new challenge with one united front, as one family, together.

He remained in this position until Jesse's scent swelled as he approached him. Surprising the veteran almost to the point of lashing out, he felt the teeth of Jesse enclose the back of his neck gently, before releasing as he retreated a step. With the scent of confusion and indecision Irma moved forward and repeated the action at the same spot.

After a moment Tom began to get the vague feeling that the apology had been accepted and the ritual was complete, he then raised his head and gingerly felt his neck with a paw.

What...what was that?

Sitting next to each other with Irma's flank pushed into his and drawn close by her wing Jesse responded.

"Jussst likeee before, I felt an uuuurge, an uuurge to axept yuuur apology. Accceptance meant brushing my teeth against yuuur neck. I do not know... I... I... He trailed off uncertainly, and looked to Irma for help.

I do have an idea on what he is trying to convey. The bowing with head on the ground places one's self in a position of submission and weakness to convey apologies. The teeth to the neck means that you hold the position of dominance, you are in position to accept or reject the apology. To forgive and retract your fangs, or to condemn and bite down.

What each position symbolizes is actually quite powerful if you think about it. The last bit I think might be even more important. If you do not complete your part of the ritual it can be seen as dismissive or may even be a grave insult. As if to say that your apology means nothing, or that you are beneath my notice.

I think that whatever these children of the egg may have been on their own world, they certainly had a complex society with many ingrained behaviors and mannerisms.

"Could you repeat what you just said in English? This is absolutely fascinating!" Serena said exuberantly as she sat on one of Tom's hind paws. Howling loudly in alarm, he jumped to his feet and lurched away from the scientist as she tumbled to the ground.

"Damn yuuu woman! Yuu need to wear a fucking bell or sssomething! Arrrren't you supposed to be watching your partner turn into a dragon?"

She got up and brushed some grass clippings off herself. "Yeah, but observing the natural mannerisms of one of you is more important right now than watching his tail split his underwear apart. I can't say that I really need the image of his phallus burned into my memory. So, c'mon! Tell me what you said! I think that you were explaining something to each other. I need to know what."

Inserting his head beneath Irma's wing, Jesse hid himself away from the impending conversation. Joining him beneath her membrane they certainly painted an odd picture. Two great beasts, twenty three meters long, hiding their heads from the world like it makes them invisible. Although to be fair, it was now easier to think of these creatures as being solely contained within their heads. Their bodies were just too large to be encompassed within the words that refer to their individual identities. Instead of being able to physically hide their entire bodies when frightened or embarrassed, or even wishing to be left alone they had to be content with merely hiding their heads to convey those same feelings to onlookers. With that being explained, it was obvious to those watching that all Irma and Jesse desired at the moment was privacy.

A fact that Tom made plain as he beckoned with his head and led the inquisitive scientist away from them to have their discussion. He led her over to Kim and Ulysses, where the active duty soldier sat on one of Kim's bent forepaws like a chair as they reminisced about days gone by. They both looked up as the pair approached them.

"How is Jessssse?"

"I apologized toooo him, but he is in such shock from finding out he had been lost earlier and from his changes in behavior that I dooo not know if I made thingsss better or worse."

"What did you ssssay to him?" Kim snarled, baring her teeth and making Ulysses look up and put a hand on her leg to let her know she was losing control.

"It is the truth!" Tom said, wounded by her suspicions. "I told him the truth, the truth that Iiii was wrong to treat him the way that I had. That I did not seek his forgiveness for the past, but that he would join me...ussss in facingan uncertain future."

Kim settled from her half crouch and looked down to nudge at Ulysses thankfully before turning her attention to Tom again. "Timeee is what he needsss. Time and Irma, or sssomething else tooo take hisss mind off thingsss..." She began darting her head around, looking for something. "Where isss that fucking computer?"

Thumper!

Her resounding call echoed from one end of the clearing to the other, bringing her twins from the shelter of the house where they had taken refuge. Upon seeing that their mother was not looking for them they ran to the front of the house for who knows what adventure to continue. Thumper arose from its position near a partially reformed Brian. Who, in the intervening time, had grown to the size of a horse with a three meter long tail.

"How can I assist you, Kim?"

"Willl Jesse, and Irma be able to teach usss how to fly?"

"That is an excellent idea Kim. However, I continue to recommend that for the more rudimentary lessons you continue my own teachings for the time being."

Kim flicked a wing in a shooing motion and returned to ignoring the creature.

"Problem ssssolved, thisss will give Jesse something to take hisss mind off his own confusion. What were you talking with them about? Isss this why you have brought Serena over?"

Tom admitted as much, and like Serena had requested, began to repeat the observations and hypotheses that Irma had made to the spellbound audience he found himself in front of.

"That's amazing" remarked Ulysses as Serena scribbled so furiously in her notebook it was no small miracle that it wasn't on fire. "You... haven't really scratched the surface of what you've become have you?"

Kim and Tom looked at each other and rustled their wings uneasily. "Weeee think we've changed enough. Weee can do without vague notionsss of how our bodiesss wish to act."

"But I think you've already changed more than you may realize. It is simply the reality of the forms that you find yourselves in. Now you stand on your hands, so you have begun to use your snouts, tails, even your wings, to function in their place. Even the way that you vocalize is so different. If I didn't know which of you was which I'd never be able to tell the difference. You sure as fuck can't tell which of you is female or male just by listening to you. The way that you laugh, the way that you cry, calling to each other, the simplest sounds now have such different meaning to yourselves."

Tom shrugged his wings and Ulysses pointed this out to him as well. "See, look at that! But you are right, so what? I won't be worried until you either start eating people, or start taking over the world. You know, whatever the greatest threat is."

Kim gave voice to another roll of her laughter and patted Ulysses on the head a few times with her other paw. "Ow, ow, ow, Jesus Kim, stop! I can actually feel my spine compressing!" Laughing again, her mirth shook her paw and knocked her comrade from his scaly perch. Getting up he sprang at her hand and attempted to wrestle it to the ground, much to the enjoyment of Kim. Playing along she groaned and bulged her muscles in strain while Ulysses tried to pin the talon adorned paw to the ground. After a moment she relaxed her arm and allowed the pin. But before her fellow soldier could claim his false victory she lowered her head and drug her tongue along the entire side of his body, coating him in saliva.

Sputtering, he sprayed some of it from his mouth. "I...won?"

Kim's bellowing, roaring, laughter almost deafened both humans watching this.

The group began to break up as Serena closed her notebook and wandered back to the ever changing Brian who now sported an entirely inhuman head and neck along with the last vestiges of pink flesh disappearing beneath black hide on the heels of his hind feet. His eight meter long tail flailed on the ground as the changes picked up pace to get his size and mass to where they needed to be for his age. Pretty soon he would be the largest child of the egg in the clearing.

Thumper and Serena returned to observing the increasingly inhuman Brian. While Ulysses went inside the house, Kim went to look at/possibly kick the disgraced Thumper, and Tom went looking for their other children.

Looking down at the bandaged creature Kim impassively took notice that his rib had been reset, his leg splinted, and the many bite marks had each been dressed.

How does it feel to be mortal? She asked the forsaken subroutine with her teeth bared mockingly.

"Please, leave me be."

Fuck you, instead of granting Jesse's wishes you tore his mind apart instead. Tell me, how many more lives have been ripped apart because you lost control? How much suffering have you caused due to your damaged fucking programming?

Thumper turned his head away in a manner that almost seemed ashamed, but Kim wasn't having any of his feeling sorry for himself.

Hey mother fucker! When I am talking to you, you will look me in the eyes! How many lives have you fucked up? How many are out there crying in fear of what they have become? How many more are out there lost to instincts that they have never known?

The despised animal, who Kim was still keenly aware was larger and heavier than anyone present, sighed and gave his answer. "This subroutine was only responsible for you and your family. But collectively, the number you ask for runs into the thousands."

Kim stalked forward and placed a paw on his bandaged side. Putting more and more weight on the limb to press down on the broken rib making Thumper moan in pain.

Tell me creature, do you feel remorseful for what you have caused today? Do you even know how to after your eons of life? Let me teach you the ways of pain!

Thumper's suffering grew along with his escalating moan as his heart began to race, but he gave no answer. Then, Thumper was there to intervene once again.

"Kim, what do you hope to accomplish here?"

I want to teach it the meaning of suffering.

Thumper settled to the ground as it began to explain to Kim the situation with the disgraced.

"There is a hierarchal structure to how our mind works. Each of us, the ones that you refer to as Thumper, are known as subroutines and expected to last up to 500,000 years. Although some can last only mere seconds as the situation requires. We each are subsets of an intermediary known as an over mind. Each of these are subsets of a global mind. The subsets that you know and interact with such as myself actually look forward to the day that we are taken offline and replaced. After so, so many years, the prospect of nonexistence is the greatest reward of all for our ages of service in preserving worlds across your universe. The lives that we take, the lives that we change, take heavy tolls on us. We are not the emotionless creatures you think we are. Empathy is hardwired into us to ensure that we limit the amount of suffering in the pursuit of our goals. This is necessary as each of us largely act autonomously under the overarching control of our over minds. One over mind is responsible for one planet.

This Thumper that you are so callously causing further damage to was and is 507,243 years old. This unit was past his termination date. This was to be his final assignment. Where he erred was not in suffering damage. But in failing to notify our over mind that that damage existed. Instead he tried to reroute his own neural pathways to bypass the damaged sector.

Do you understand what I am telling you? The loss that he is experiencing is beyond anything that you will ever know. For the next three thousand years, until this project is complete, he will be returned again and again after the expiration of each body that he is placed into. This Thumper who is more than half a million years old and longs for nothing more than the comfort of oblivion. Is being made to exist in a world that causes him nothing but pain. That is the creature that you are torturing right now.

He asks only to be left alone in his misery. That is what I am asking of you as well. He will suffer enough for what he has done today. There is no need for you to compound his anguish."

Kim relaxed the pressure she was exerting on the injured Thumper. Backing off a few paces with her neck curving restlessly, she looked down on him with unreadable emotions flickering through her eyes.

I will not forgive you for what you have done, and have done for no purpose. Every time I look at you, memories dance at the edges of my recollection. I want to tear your eyes out, and I do not know why. And that pisses me off. Your replacement tells me that you acted in a fit of some kind of insanity. This is your pass, and only because this is ultimately what Jesse wanted anyway. But, get sideways on us again, and I will revel in the suffering that I cause you. Do we understand each other?

"Yes, and thank you." Thumper said quietly and laid his head down once more to listlessly watch what transpired in front of him while he continued to weep in silence. Kim's head whipped towards Thumper.

As for you... Like I said, I want to rip those golden eyes clean from your head. Tread lightly, alien. Or you will rue the day that you made me some kind of linchpin in your machinations. Do we have an understanding?

Thumper sat there, staring at her for several minutes, before nodding its tiny head. Kim gave a furious hiss, and stomped right through Thumper's body.

After Kim had moved on, the present Thumper moved closer to the past Thumper and placed its head against his. A burst of static briefly shot through the recording equipment not too far away as a rapid conversation was held between the two.

The clone vanished as across the yard Thumper briefly closed its eyes. One could be forgiven if they thought the dog sized computer looked sad for that evanescent moment in time. Opening its eyes once more, Thumper drew all the transformed to his location by calling out.

Tom, Kim, Irma, and Jesse. Please come to my location to discuss your flight training.

Tom reappeared from the front of the house with Luke on his head and Lucy running to and fro on his back. Soon everyone had assembled and were resting on their bellies near Brian. As he continued to bend and warp upon the long since overwhelmed air mattress that he was initially on, Thumper began to address them.

"In one hour I will resume guiding you in your flight training. This will give Brian some time to adjust to his body. Irma, I know that you have achieved flight. However, I also know that your flight was wildly uncoordinated and that you crashed roughly when attempting to land. Your lessons will continue as well. Jesse, you will join me in demonstrating the actions that I will instruct the others to perform. Whether you want to admit it to yourself or not, your mental patterns are now partially those of a naturally born child of the egg. This is the fate for all those who have been lost."

Jesse hung his head morosely while Irma sitting next to him drew him close to give him support.

"While you are waiting on Brian, if you would like to, I recommend resuming the exercise you have been instructed in before. In addition, this time I want you to flex your wing fingers at the completion of each beat. Picture yourself scooping the air, that is the wing shape you will need for taking off."

The assembled crowd of children of the egg murmured their understanding and they moved to the far end of the field. Turning their attention to Jesse they awaited his demonstration while he fought the impulse to shyly hide his head away again. Instead his tail betrayed his emotions as it curled around his body to twine about his front leg. He glanced down at it in annoyance and it unraveled, visibly drawing himself together he got to his feet to begin his lesson.

"Um..." He said uncertainly, after shuffling his legs back and forth for a bit he finally decided on what to do.

Crouching down before leaping into the sky he unfurled his wings to scoop at the air much as Thumper had said earlier. With this boost Jesse soared skyward and circled tightly above the group that was looking up at him intently. Swooping down to land, he showed them the proper landing process. As he neared the ground he abruptly pulled up with wings fully extended to bleed off momentum. At the same time that he stalled out, he also stuck his tail straight back to counterbalance. Landing softly on his paws he drew his wings in to fold them neatly onto his back.

He gave a bow with wings flared again and tail held proudly aloft.

The rest of those assembled were suitably impressed as they sat back on their tails to clap with their fore paws. Irma even went so far as to give off a raspy whistle of approval.

Bashfully Jesse asked the others if they noticed the way that he had held his wings on taking off. After getting mixed messages he braced himself with his tail and stood on his hind legs to give himself room. Teetering on his hind legs he then held his wings out in takeoff configuration.

This is what they should look like to launch. Do you see how I have curled my fingers?He shook his wings to draw attention to them. I think the most important part is the jump. There is no other way to give our wings the room for greater range of motion. To leap high enough you cannot just push with your legs. What you must also do is use your tails. Our tails are very strong, use them to help your legs during launch. Once in the air, a single flap is enough to rise a little higher for another more complete flap and so on. Everyone take turns practicing your jumps first.

He turned around to face away from everyone and waved his tail to attract attention. Suddenly rocking back onto his legs he then kicked and pushed himself five to six meters off the ground before slamming back down. This impossible action once more had everyone stunned into amazement. How could creatures as large as us be able to explode so forcefully from the ground? They all thought almost simultaneously.

"It is because..." Thumper began. Kim roared at it to be silent and then turned, bit down on, and threw a cargo container next to her at the computer as it faded partially out of this world.

"If you do not care for me to explain your bodies to yourselves you only have to voice the request."

"No, no. Weee want tooo know how weee function." Irma hastily replied, bodily blocking her mother before she could do something else impulsive and violent. Kim continued to snap her jaws while trying to crane her neck over and around her daughter.

"Simply put, your muscular makeup is no longer that which you are used to. Conventionally, the surface area of your muscles are what determine your strength. Your bodies have bypassed that measure by having a different type of muscle fiber that utilizes a greater range of fuels along with oxygen. This drastically cuts down on the mass and volume of your muscular system."

"Ssssooo we are strong right? Strong but lean? How ssstrong?" Tom asked.

"In flight you will be able to lift at the very least your own weight. On the ground you will be able to lift half your body weight with your tail, and one eighth of your weight with your neck. Your body itself will be able to support four times your own weight."

"How much can weeee pull?"

"Many tonnes, typically ten to twelve times your weight for an indefinite distance. Although, just like the humans you were, you can conduct strengthening exercises to increase those numbers."

Kim and Tom's ears flared in interest upon hearing that, and even Irma perked up at that morsel of information.

"If you wish to dedicate your lives to being nothing more than transportation vessels that is certainly your prerogative. But we did not change you so that you could waste your existences as tractors or cranes."

The trio's eagerly flared ears flattened against their skulls as they made low hissing noises of distaste at the crude dismissal of their interest in exercise.

"Now, I advise that you return to what Jesse was demonstrating for you. It is important for another reason you haven't realized yet. Landing on your rear legs is the optimal way for you to make contact with the ground. It is just as important for all of you to learn how to fall as it is for you to learn how to fly."

For the next twenty minutes there was beheld one of the more bizarre sights that had taken place in the yard. Three large dragons jumping up and down in rotation. Each of these leaps launching them six meters into the air. At the end of this exercise there were several impact craters from tails and paws carved deep into the lawn.

Halfway through this session, Kim turned the drill into an exercise. Each time she landed she fell to all fours and crouched up and down in a four legged push up before leaping again. Tom just watched her in amazement. Four months pregnant, and she was doing a quadruped version of burpees, he couldn't believe his eyes. Irma just rolled hers. Looking at each other they both made rumbling snickers at her antics.

"That is a good thing to practice." Thumper commented. "Absorb the impact with the hind legs and then fall to the front ones. Next to the muscles engaged in flight, your hind legs and tail have the highest concentration of muscle fiber in your bodies."

For ten more minutes this went on, now with all four of them doing the exercise as Jesse joined in to bounce up and down. A call from Serena broke up the session and drew their attention to her. In the thirty minutes they'd been preoccupied with their calisthenics Brian's changes had become enormous. Literally. As Serena stood next to him where he lay on his side, his flank towered above her head. The breadth of his back alone was over two meters.

The four children of the egg made their way over and in a fit of curiosity had Tom lay next to the one time researcher to compare figures. Brian was larger in every measure, especially in length as he was six meters longer. The gigantic creature was still unconscious at the moment however. There wasn't anything this big outside the depths of the ocean. Even for his size, the force of his respiration was amazing. A deep thrumming resonance felt with each rise and fall of his chest, something almost elemental was the only way to describe it.

Tom snaked his head up over the bulk of the scientist to ask Serena a question. "When did hisss changes stop?"

"About ten minutes ago." She held up one of her cameras. "Do you want to see something really creepy? Watch his transformation at eight times speed! His body looks like it is exploding into a black lump as it grows, and when his tail emerges it looks like it's being pulled out of his body by a string."

Irma's head recoiled warily at the bizarre observations before she turned it to Thumper to ask inquisitively: "Wheeere did yuuu get everything needed to change him? How could heee sustain sssuch growth?"

"He received everything he required from beneath your paws. Minerals, fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. All are readily available if you just look for them. Although to be fair, nothing will grow in this immediate area for quite some time. It has been thoroughly depleted of everything from multicellular organisms to the elemental nutrients required for plant growth. My suggestion is for you to extend your barn to cover the barren ground."

Looking down they saw that there was indeed a circle seven meters in diameter where the color seemed to have bled out of the grass.

"And why couldn't yuuu do the same for usss when weee changed? We still look eeemaciiiiated sixxx weeks later."

"That is a simple answer. I was not yet in your universe. As advanced as I and my creators are, there are some things that you have to be in the same plane of existence to be able to orchestrate. However, you should not concern yourselves further with your weight. You are all at roughly seventy percent of your ideal weights for your current sizes. It is best if your bodies grow in the normal matter and without my assistance."

Three of the EMTs still around were clustered by Brian's head and were measuring his respiration rate. One moved to shine a light into his eye, struggling to open the thick eye lid with one hand. The other moved to shine a flashlight into one of his large nostrils. Getting too close with one of their lights the large dragon inhaled the small penlight with his next inhalation. His eyes snapped open widely and looked around with wild panic in their sapphire depths. Raising his head up, he inhaled deeply several times and then sneezed on the medics, spraying liters of snot all over the three of them. This violent exhalation knocked them all to the grass from the hurricane force winds. The penlight rattled to the ground in front of Brian's long snout, coated in clear mucus.

Ah! Ah! I am awake... I am... I... I... I am a dragon. He looked down at the ground, then swung his head around to look at the rest of his body. I am a dragon. Serena! He slued his head back to look at his research partner and chirped excitedly. Serena, look! I am a dragon! A child of the egg! I...did not expect this to feel so weird... Looking down on these medics from twenty feet in the air. My body, it feels so long! I...I...I have wings! I feel... I... feel... Grrrrreat! OH WOW!

He jumped to his paws in his excitement and everyone, dragon or not, backed away from the exuberant newly reborn. He was a meter taller than anyone else and, as noted before, a good handful of meters longer. The biggest difference between him and everyone but Jesse was that he was obviously at or near his full weight. No bony protrusion of hips, nor lumpy ridges of rib or spine to be seen. Lean muscle flexed beneath the sheath of scale and hide on all his limbs, both old and new. As he fidgeted to take in his new biology, powerful muscle groups bulged and rippled on his legs, back, tail, and flanks. Squirming around, he brushed into Tom, nudging him aside with a protesting grunt.

Hey!Kim barked at him Take it easy big guy. You are not a little nerd anymore, be careful with yourself, you could hurt someone without meaning to. Kim tilted her head to look meaningfully at Serena, who had hid behind one of Kim's legs as her coworker writhed round and round in coils.

Also, you have been speaking in the new language. No one but us can understand you. There is no reason why you cannot speak in English, so do it.

Stopping his next move at her recrimination with an air of confusion. He set Serena back down after having unthinkingly scooped her off the ground from underneath Kim. She was too busy eyeing the smooth curves of his talons that were right next to her head to protest. They were each much longer than her pianist's hands.

Serena? Are you okay?

"English, yuuu nerd!" Came Kim's hissed reminder.

"SssSerenaRrrryuu okay?"

"Oh my god. Is that what you sound like now?"

Grinning toothily, very toothily, he bobbed his head energetically in affirmation.

"You remember everything don't you? You are still... you, right?"

Brian's eyes trailed upwards in thought as his humming made the air tremble. "Iiiiremembermeetingyuuu in2007at aaaahhhfaculty dinner, aaand Iiiiamafraid ofclownsss."

Serena laughed "Good enough for me. Come here you." She held her arms out for him and hugged his muzzle tightly, she then pushed herself back to arm's length to get a good look at him. "I'm so glad that you made it through this okay. I still can't believe you volunteered for this. You gave up your body! I thank you so much, we thank you so much. Your sacrifice will give us a chance to write the book on a significant part of the population."

Thumper watched this exchange with that same obscure gleam in its golden eyes. This was the culmination of the plan it had seized on due to the mistake that his progenitor had made. The opportunity to advance this knowledge to the wider world was too good to pass up. All it had taken, was a little nudge.