Chapter 11: Chapter 11: *Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Zarak’s Palace, Other Side*

*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Zarak’s Palace, Other Side*

 

Hitomi woke up from the strangest of dreams she ever had, different from the previous hallucination she supposedly has had experienced. A wild fantasy where she ventured to a magical realm and made a deal with the dragon to be his Diva, to protect her friends from wicked Magical Girls and their evil patrons. A dream about the adventure she would have, a strange one, but nice to dream about for a few minutes.

She lazily opened her eyes and gave a yawn, she still felt too drowsy to jump on her feet and rush towards the daily duties. Room submerged to a pleasantly dim, lazy light, perhaps still too early in the morning, weather outside was soothingly dark and overcast, with only occasional flashes of many-forked lightning illuminating the inky clouds. Soft rain trickled down on the glass of large windows, washing away a dull aroma of brimstone, lulling her to sleep.

Hitomi wanted to laze for a little while - snooze for just a few more minutes, she promised herself, then she would go, rushing towards the duties that awaited her. She wanted to roll over and stretch out on the bed, but her wings were in the way.

Hitomi groggily lifted herself up only to pull her one wing under the body so she could lay on her back and then the realization hit her…

Wings! She had wings! Sudden apprehension, a realization of having body parts she didn’t remember having before, woke her up immediately as if an electrical arc just passed through her body, and she scrambled on her feet. Then they noticed she didn’t have those either - she stood on weirdly shaped legs, with additional joins, and with hooves instead of feet, covered in soft purple-black fur. She turned around, she noticed she had a tail too, long with an arrow-shaped tip, lashing nervously against the ground in reaction to her mind dealing with the growing shock.

It terrified her even more, and she let out the panicked shriek and stomped around almost like she wanted to shake off her additional body parts, to cast them away, like the unwanted piece of clothing. They didn’t go off. But what was even worse, paradoxically and against all reasons considering her situation, her stampede calmed her down instead. Her panic was slowly replaced by a weird sense of rightness - she capered around and it suddenly felt like she was always supposed to have wings, and hooves, and a tail. It felt so normal it scared her.

Two strange monsters barged into the room. Slightly smaller than Hitomi, they looked like strange lizards that walked upright, rusty scaled, dressed in dark uniforms and holding rifles. The girl was about to start screaming about the invaders into her privacy, or alternatively about monsters - and then the abrupt realization hit her once more with the intensity of a cold shower. It was all in her dream. Except, she wasn’t a dream, not anymore - so instead of screaming, she gasped for air, a kaleidoscope of emotions turned towards the confusion at this moment. One lizard-soldier checked the room - which wasn’t her room by any measure by the way.

“You all right, Lady?”, the other lizard-man barked out, more a strange speech pattern than an actual hostility, he seemed warier of her than she was of him. He lowered his weapon, and then hung the rifle over his shoulder, asking: “We heard you scream?”

“Who… Where...”, Hitomi asked, but then she paused. She knew where she was, she knew what was happening, it just didn’t make any sense because it was all supposed to be a dream, a fantasy, except it wasn’t. So instead, she answered: “Just a bad dream.”

“I see.”, the lizard answered and straightened himself up, then added: “There was. A disaster. Our forces were attacked. Dimensional alignment shifted.”

Hitomi didn’t understand any of it.

“Attacked? By who?”, she asked. She looked around, the other soldier seems to be searching the room almost like he was checking for unknown assailants threatening the young lady.

“I don’t know. Not exactly. Enemies. Magical Girl.”, a monstrous soldier reported in its strange monotone.

She didn’t understand what was really going on, and what little she knows, what she was told, what she remembered being told, all terrified her. She recalled what Dragon told her.

“What happened to Sayaka?”, she snapped out.

The lizard was confused, or shocked - eye ridges raised, pupils briefly widened, as did the nostrils, while his tail lashed nervously. Or at least something deep inside her told her that; as a reptilian expression was totally alien to humans and she normally wouldn’t fathom how to react. But something inside her felt it was that way.

“A girl. Roughly my age. Blue hair.”, Hitomi tried to describe her friend, and despite the fact she was normally well-spoken, the absurdity of her situation robbed her of words.

“I don’t know.”, the monstrous soldier reported his terse speech pattern, but he doesn’t seem unwilling to actually assist her, as least so Hitomi felt when he asked: “A new Diva? Blue hair? She is resting.”

Hitomi opened her mouth, but no words came through. She wanted to see Sayaka, obviously, to speak with her, to ask her whether she is right, but now wasn’t the time or place to do so, considering the circumstances, considering a whole avalanche of problems she never thought of having in the first place, changes she never expected to happen, ideas and concepts that flooded into her mind threatening to overwhelm her.

So what she ended up saying was: “I need to think.”

“Of course, Lady.” answered the soldier and with a swift salute left the room along with his comrade, leaving the confused girl alone.

She sat on the bed and looked around. It was a sizeable room, noticeably larger than her own, and much more richly looking, with huge windows surrounded by heavy curtains. A large bed, a wardrobe, a tea table, a sofa, a dressing mirror in the corner, all of the foreign design, all trimmed with golden patterns, all of it screamed wealth even if Hitomi herself was from a well-established family.

Hitomi put her head in her hands. Suddenly stricken with sadness, she cried silently. It was a new addition to the wild collection of emotions she was already experiencing. The worst thing about her situation was that she knew what was happening, and why - she remembered all of it clearly, she made a deal with a terrifying Dragon to assist him, to protect her friends against the dangers, and she meant it. Back then, she had thought something different - a dream, a hallucination, a fantasy - but she had wanted it back then.

She raised her head and looked at her hand, retractable claws bursting from her fingers. Hitomi burst into tears once more, scratching her wrist almost like she wanted to wake herself from the hallucination through pain. It hurt. And it was real. Not a fantasy, not a nightmare, but a grim reality of it.

Sharp pain and blood dripping from her fingers brought her back to reality, she clenched the wound to stop the bleeding, and much to her shock a searing burst of magical energies closed her self-inflicted wound in the instant.

Hitomi jumped back on her feet - hoofs rather, and walked to the mirror in the corner, rather thoughtlessly, a cruel curiosity came to pay a visit to her sadness. She looked at the unfamiliar image in the reflection.

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It was still her, in a slightly torn school uniform, but it was mostly her, the same face, the same expression she saw in the mirror in the morning. Same except for yellow eyes, with rectangular pupils, irritated from her crying, yet inhuman in appearance. Same except for curved ram horns decorating her upper forehead. Hair still the same, with an unaesthetic mix of purple creeping into her still natural hair color. She tried to smile, she forced herself to, and found out her cute lips hid the sharp teeth ready to tear flesh.

Her body was still hers, but majestic leathery wings, hoofs, and the tail completed the image of the monster, of a demon. A horrible abomination. Except, she didn’t felt like an abomination. She felt that many emotions, such as sadness, and confusion, even fear, and yet, her reflection didn’t felt wrong as it should. She felt she was always meant to have wings, always meant to walk on hooves, like those were always there despite she clearly remembered otherwise. Treacherous thoughts gave her ideas that different hairstyles would come up better with her horns. She was sure she didn’t look like yesterday, but at the same time, she felt normal. Sad, confused, but at the same time normal - a terrifying paradox.

And it all felt like her fault. Dragon warned her, she had heard him saying that it will change her. And she took it. Foolish, she thought.

She did a few steps back, a few dancing moves in a spacious room; the moves she knew and practiced. And how natural it felt on the legs she didn’t have yesterday scared her even more. Somewhere deep down she wanted to convince herself that it wasn’t her body, that she will trip and fall, but she didn’t. This strange sensation of normality that laced her mind was more distressing than anything else she was experiencing at this moment, because she felt she was home, among her kind, which created a sharp contrast with memories she had.

Fear gripped her once more and she had to run.

So she bolted away. She grabbed the door, let them fly, and dashed into the maze-like corridors of the alien palace without thinking about anything other than the need to run, escape. Except, it wasn’t the hallways with majestic arches and twisted decoration that seem to move on their own that scared her, it wasn’t monstrous attendants with claws and sharp teeth she wanted to get away from. They didn’t scare her - and that was terrifying, but she tried to run away from the only thing she couldn’t ever outrun. Herself.

Hitomi didn’t know how she got out of the building. No one tried to stop her. And here she was, with a colossal gate behind her, she felt on her knees in the middle of a plaza surrounded by the twisted primordial grove, unlike anything she saw in her life, and yet she didn’t felt threatened by it.

The smell of scorching and sulfur hit her nostril, yet her body didn’t protest against it.

In the distance, twisted reflection of the city shrouded in the fog laid, illuminated by the flames erupting from the metallic smokestacks and lighting dancing around the towering spires that married with the perpetual storm raging above. It wasn’t Mitakihara, but somewhere deep down it felt like home.

Three more monsters dropped from the skies. She knew them. She had seen them before, back in the alley, a glimpse of them had driven terror to old Hitomi’s heart. But they didn’t look so terrifying now.

Except, they didn’t change, those were still the same vulpine creatures of nightmares, large as the horse, with sharp teeth and large claws, their eyes burned in azure. They barked, same sound, yet different.

It was Hitomi who changed. She felt them. They were like faithful dogs sensing her distress, wanting to protect her even if there wasn’t an enemy they could fight against. Hitomi was among her kind, she belonged here, that was what her traitorous thoughts offered. She didn’t want to believe them.

One monstrous fox came closer, nudged her with its muzzle. Hitomi wanted to lash away, lifted her hand, but she stopped herself. She couldn’t force herself to do it. She felt she could, she was angry and scared, but at the same time it seemed cruel and pointless - Hitomi was a good soul, she wouldn’t torture her pets.

She stared into the burning blue eyes of vulpine monstrosities. Soft rain showered over her, it made her shudder as she was getting cold and the innate desire sprang the reaction in the form of a semi-fluorescent bubble that swept over her, and her unexpected companions, creating the dome of magic that kept the bothering rain away.

The monsters weren’t bothered by the outburst of energies that shocked Hitomi, who caused them.

“Ka-ka-ka-ka!”, fox barked and tried to shook away the droplets of water.

“I am fine.”, Hitomi lied. She wasn’t fine, there were a hundred and one things that weighed her soul at the moment, but she didn’t want to bother the cub with it. Her dirty, disloyal thoughts offered it could be the puppy she never wanted, never had.

“Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!”, creature woofed.

“No, I will not go hunting with you.”, the girl answered.

“Ka-ka-ka-ka?”

“No burning cows.”, Hitomi sighed.

“Ka-ka-ka!”

Hitomi didn’t reply to that, she had no intention to accommodate more crazy ideas the magical fox had even though her treacherous mind forced her to laugh at it. She forced herself back on her feet - hoofs, really - with the help of her oversized vulpine companion, and started to walk towards the city in the distance. All three foxes followed, seemingly displeased on the bubble that now dispersed no nothingness and water that poured down.

Then she started to sprint. She didn’t know why anymore, as there was nowhere to run from. Or to, she thought, but she wanted to.

Hitomi spread her wings, her majestic leathery wings she shouldn’t have but was comfortable with. She refused to fight off all those notions trying to confuse her and gave in to it.

The Diva took to the stormy skies and flew free towards the city, with her three monsters in tow, chasing each other in the play. And even the raging storm wasn’t willing to strike them down.

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