Whateley: “Survival”

[A Whately Universe FanFic]

By Zapper

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Chapter Three

***

Kate looked down at the tree tops as they moved, in a blur, beneath her. She felt the wind filling her wings and stroked down powerfully before catching a thermal. The hotter air lifted her and she scanned the ground below. Between the trees snaked the blue of a stream. The stream was shallow and the water frothed white over a series of rocks. There! Among the rocks the great short faced bear moved snatching a huge fish from the water.

Kate felt a hot surge of hunger and folded her wings diving silently for the bear. Just as her shadow fell over the beast it paused to look up and Kate snapped her wings out slowing her descent at the last second while striking with her forelegs. The bear never stood a chance. Her full weight and strength broke its’ back as foot long talons sank into its hide. Then Kate snapped her wings and was once again flying easily holding the two thousand pound bear with her claws.

She turned toward the mountain that she somehow knew was her home, and accelerated. In a few minutes she’d covered the distance and a large ledge came into view. Kate knew it was a fine place to eat. It was big enough for two or three of her kind and it got plenty of sun in the afternoon. Nothing would bother her and she’d have a great view of the river valley. Settling on the ledge Kate tore into the bear relishing the taste of the hot fresh meat. Just as she was finishing she felt a presence and then a shadow darkened the ledge.

*How was your hunt, young one?*

Kate looked up and saw the mighty silver beast descend to land next to her

*Fine, I like bear.*

She felt a surge of affection from her companion.

*For your first hunt, you did well. Bear is a good snack. But there are other, better, more satisfying hunts. You have much to learn. Now, come, fly with me.*

Kate didn’t want to move, her belly was full and the sun felt warm on her scaly hide despite the cold mountain air. She sent those feelings to her companion and added.

*The sun is nice, and I just ate.*

The great silver dragon turned faster than Kate thought possible his jaws closed just behind her head forcing her neck down. Kate tried to struggle but she wasn’t strong enough and was easily pinned. Even as she struggled Kate saw that the dragon wasn’t entirely silver. The underside of his wings and belly were the blue of a Chromatic Dragon. Then with a snap of his neck and shoulders he threw Kate from the ledge. She was upside down and falling toward the trees but some instinct caused Kate to roll over and snap her wings out. They instantly filled with air but Kate knew it wasn’t enough and reached into the cold core of power inside and pushed down against the ground. Then she was sweeping forward the momentum and energy of the dive turned into speed as she raced just above the tree tops. After a second she started to climb quickly gaining altitude and threw her head to the sky and roared.

*No, scion of mine will lay around in the sun while there is hunting to do. Now, lad, follow me if you can!*

With that the older dragon accelerated away. Kate beat her wings furiously in an effort to keep up, while feeling puzzled at being called ‘lad’ but then he shook off the confusion and focused on the hunt.

***

Kate woke up and noticed the sun light was shining on her face. Every part of her body ached and her throat was desperately dry. She tried to blink but there was so much gum on her eyes that she couldn’t get them open. A muscle spasm across her back caused her to moan in pain. She tried to sit up and failed. Then she heard the sound of voices from the other side of the door.

“Is she dying?” A male voice said.

“No, you idiot, she’s mutating.”

“I don’t remember my skin glowing like that when I changed!” A third male voice replied.

“It didn’t, but every mutation is unique.” The second voice said.

“Should we call Allura? Maybe she’ll know someone who can help her?” The first voice said.

“NO!” The other two voices replied in unison.

“Shouldn’t we . . . you know . . . give her a blanket or something? We need to make sure she survives, right?” The first voice said. Then Kate heard the sound of retreating footsteps.

Groggily she wondered who they were and where she was. She managed to open her eyes enough to look at her hands. She felt a little surprised when she saw that they were glowing with a silvery white radiance. Then she closed her eyes as a shivering fit racked her body. She was SO cold! For several minutes she shivered and then when the fit passed she let out a sigh of relief and dropped into a deep sleep.

***

Kate was once again flying. The silvery light of the half-moon created a contrasting tapestry of shadows below. The shadows didn’t bother Kate, with a bit of concentration she could zoom in and see everything in a given shadow. A part of him wanted to examine each shadow to test his eyesight against the gloomy depths. To learn the secrets each shadow held. He resisted the impulse.

His ancestor had sent him here for a reason. This was a hunt. But it wasn’t a random hunt. He was here for a specific quarry, a dangerous one, the fact that the prey might turn on him added excitement to the hunt. The excitement was an element that had been missing from earlier hunts.

Then he spotted movement. There in one of the shadows. The beast that immerged had a scaly hide and was bigger than the short faced bear he’d eaten. As Kate circled, high above, he noticed that the beast had another smaller creature on its back. This was curious to Kate, the larger beast should have been able to throw the smaller fleshy thing from its back and devour it. Yet it appeared to be subservient to it. Then Kate noticed a second and a third set of paired creatures. If one such creature was tasty then three would be better. The trick would be to catch all three before they scattered and ran.

Kate flew away from them and started a shallow arcing descent to position herself just above the low hill they’d come out of. At the same time Kate made sure to increase his speed. The hot, humid, thick air slowed him and Kate reached inside, felt the cold knot of power, and added it to the flight increasing his speed. Then he flashed out over the hill coming at the creatures from behind. Kate opened his mouth but some instinct caused him to exhale instead of roaring as he’d originally intended.

A cone of white blasted out hitting the creatures from behind. As Kate flew over them he felt the cold radiate up and knew that not just the creatures but the ground around them had turned white, flash frozen, in an instant. Kate soared up converting his speed into a climb. When he started to slow down Kate folded a wing and tipped over to one side, this allowed Kate to smoothly turn his climb into a dive back toward his prey. Kate let gravity do its thing, increasing his speed, until the ground was rushing up and then he snapped his wings open slowing and controlling his descent.

With a feeling of surprise he noticed that one of the parasites had jumped off the back of the creature it rode. It was holding some kind of long pointy stick and one end of it glowed. Then from the glowing end a focused stream of white hot fire slashed up toward Kate. Without thinking Kate tucked a wing and slid to one side of the fire. The move saved him from being hit but had taken him off his intended flight path. Kate had wanted to land in the middle of his frozen dinner and see what these creatures tasted like.

Angry at the disruption to his meal Kate circled to one side and then came in again. The tiny two leg had resisted the burning cold Kate felt inside, yet he knew he had other options. This time when he flashed over the creature he was ready. A stream of glowing missiles snapped up at Kate. Kate felt the energy that formed the missiles and met it with his own energy. The two forces collided and the missiles exploded several yards in front of Kate. Then Kate opened his mouth knowing he had to do something different. This time the crack of lightning startled Kate as much as it did the creature below him. Then lightning blasted into the two leg parasite frying the small beast, somehow its stick fell away undamaged.

Instead of circling, for another pass, Kate pounced his talons tore the creature in half and he couldn’t help roaring in satisfaction at conquering these beasts. Kate moved over to one of the lager creatures and tore into it. He discovered that the frozen meat was just as tasty as the hot flesh of the bear. Then he felt a presence and spun around ready to defend his kill.

Kate spotted his ancestor, sitting on the hill, looking down at him. There was a sense of amused satisfaction radiating from the elder dragon.

*A fine hunt.*

Kate didn’t feel the need to respond to the comment and focused on eating. After a few minutes the staff caught his eye. Kate froze, mesmerized. On one end of the stick was a large stone. A pretty stone. It was still glowing but the glow was fading.

*What is that?*

*A prize.*

Kate didn’t understand how he felt as he reached out to touch the stone. After a minute Kate turned away to go back to his meal.

*It has been a very long time young one.*

Kate looked up at the great silver and blue dragon and sent the feeling of puzzlement toward him.

*A long time since another of the Eldest Race was awake and even longer since I had a descendant to train.*

*Is that what I am?* Kate asked and for the first time looking down. Kate noticed that his scales were silver but his wing tips were streaked with blue and his belly was as blue as his ancestor’s. This puzzled Kate, and yet Kate didn’t know why he was puzzled.

*I am Dux’Tueor, the one who Watches and Guides.*

The name felt right to Kate and he nodded his head.

*You have earned a NAME.*

This statement also seemed right to Kate so he sent a feeling of agreement toward Dux’Tueor.

*I name you Dux’Primus, because you are the first of our kind to awaken.*

As his sire said this Kate felt his body thrum in response, as though he were a string on a guitar that had just been plucked. His whole body vibrated and the world around him faded.

***

This time when Kate woke up the first thing she noticed was the absence of pain. In fact as she lay still she realized she felt good. Then she noticed that she was on something soft and was wrapped in something warm. A blanket? Slowly Kate opened her eyes. After a second she forced herself to sit up and noticed that a dim silvery light was coming in through the widow, but even though the light was poor she had no trouble seeing.

Kate looked down and saw that she was laying on a mattress that had been dragged into the room and left on the floor. In addition to the mattress she’d been given a blanket. For some reason these items made her feel better. She looked around the room and saw that she was in some kind of basement. Cinder block walls and bare concrete floors were the only features besides the window and her mattress. Then she realized that this was the room where she was being held. At this memories came flooding back, finally chasing away the strange dreams she’d been having and the mental fog. Memories of Peter dying, of the video message to her dad, and her finger.

At this thought Kate glanced down at her hand. When she did she saw that she had five fingers. In surprise she glanced at her other hand to make sure she wasn’t confused. No, there were five fingers on it as well. Then she looked at her hand more closely. The hand was wrong. It wasn’t her hand! It was bigger than it should have been and the fingers were much thicker and stronger looking.

She tossed the blanket to one side and stood up. As she did she almost tripped and fell. There was something wrong with her balance. She stumbled to one side and felt pain in her feet. In fact her clothing felt wrong, constricting all over. She reached out to the wall to steady herself and her shirt split along the chest and shoulders. Ignoring the tear Kate reached for her feet. Her shoes had split apart and her toes were poking out. This didn’t stop her from pulling off the painful things and tossing them to one side. As she did this her bicycle shorts tore.

“What the fuck is going on?” Kate said, freezing at the masculine baritone. “My voice,” she gasped, reaching for her throat. Her hand found the prominent bulge of her Adam’s apple and for a moment she couldn’t figure out what it was. “No way,” Kate whispered, stunned. Then she felt a twitch in her groin. Slowly almost afraid of what she’d find Kate reached for her crotch. The sensation of something touching something that shouldn’t be there sent a shiver up Kate’s spine.

“What happened to me?”

Even as she whispered those words Kate knew the answer. “I must have gone through my mutation.” She was the daughter of two mutants and her parents had told her the odds were good she’d be a mutant. Kate knew that her mutation might change her physically. She could be a monster, or she could get a BIT like her mom and be beautiful, or just be normal looking. One thing Kate had never considered was that her BIT or mutation might turn her into a guy!

“I wonder what I look like?” Kate asked the empty room. After taking a few deep breaths to slow her racing heart Kate began to strip. The shredded clothes went into a pile by the bed. While she was stripping she tried to avoid looking too closely at her body. Once naked she steeled herself, knowing, yet not KNOWING, what she’d discover.

Kate held her hands up and looked at them. The skin was pale, but not pale in an undead kinda way. It was more like her skin now had a slight metallic quality. Her nails barely extended past her finger tips, nothing about them would seem strange but Kate somehow knew they would be very hard and sharp. Next she looked at her chest.

“Well, I’m no longer flat chested,” she joked. Her chest was sculpted with muscle and as Kate’s gaze drifted down she realized that she now had a six pack of abs that would put a Spartan Warrior to shame. Avoiding the “Big” change, Kate looked at her legs. There were just as ripped with muscle as her arms and chest and when Kate twisted around she realized she now had the firm butt of an athlete.

The act of twisting caused her new appendage to swing heavily from side to side. This sent a shock through Kate and she couldn’t resist looking between her legs. There it was, nestled against her groin, a tube of meat that shouldn’t be anywhere on her body. At this thought it gave a twitch. Gingerly she poked it. The touch didn’t hurt but she felt it and knew beyond a doubt that THING was a part of her. This time she touched in gently feeling the velvety skin between her fingers. Then she reached down to her scrotum and lifted the heavy set of balls, “The first time I touch a man’s balls and they’re my own.” Kate said, her sarcasm turned into a giggle at the bizarre nature of her mutation.

Abruptly there was a noise from up starts. Someone had turned on a TV. It was playing the news. Kate concentrated and the sound became clearer. There was the voice of a male news anchor talking with his female partner about the missing Austoria teens and then speculating about the body discovered along the Columbia River. The dead teenager had been identified as one of the missing teenagers and they were speculating that it might have been an accident except that apparently the second teen was still missing. They knew this because the county Sheriff’s office and released a statement. In the statement the Sheriff had said that Kathrine Henderson, age sixteen, had been kidnapped and the kidnappers had contacted the family with a set of demands. The Sheriff had gone on to say that if anyone had any information they should contact the Sheriff’s office, but under no circumstances were civilians supposed to confront the kidnappers. The Sheriff had called them a group of mutant terrorists and said that they were extremely dangerous.

Kate shook her head, “How can I hear the TV all the way down here?” Even as she asked the question Kate knew the answer. It must be part of her mutation. Then she realized that even though the room was almost completely dark she had had no trouble seeing.

“My senses must have been improved. I wonder what I look like.” Even as she said it, Kate thought, based on what she could see, she must be a hunk. “I wonder if I’ve got any other abilities.” Glancing around the room Kate didn’t see any way to test her strength. Then inspired she jumped. The ceiling had to be ten feet up and Kate found that she could touch it easily.

Of course a basketball rim was ten feet above the court and there were plenty of guys who could dunk. So she really hadn’t proven much, except that her junk bounced around distractingly without some kind of support. Then she realized that she was now taller than she’d been and she probably could jump higher. As Kate looked around for something to test her body on she spotted the window.

It was a small window high up, almost all the way to the ceiling. If it weren’t for the iron bars that had been added Kate thought she might be able to squeeze through. She took two quick steps and jumped. Catching the bars was simple and Kate found that without straining she could hold herself up by them. Then Kate spread her feet to either side of the window and started pulling on the bars using her back and legs to do most of the work, her torsos was now parallel to the ground. For a moment nothing happened. Kate felt desperate and then her desperation turned to anger.

These people had taken her by force, killed her friend, wounded her, and were attempting to hurt her family. An icy rage filled her and in the back of her mind she heard a roaring sound. Suddenly the bar in her right hand bent and then the concrete holding it in place crumbled and the bar came free. The momentum of breaking the bar loose caused the second one to give and Kate shot away from the wall. She had no time to think before she hit the ground on her back. All the air was knocked from her lungs and for a second her vision blurred as the back of her head bounced off floor.

Kate slowly stood up. Two bars down, two to go. Then she’d be free! Kate paused for a second to listen. She could still hear the sound of the TV. She focused slowly blocking out every other sense to concentrate on listening. After a moment she heard the slow steady beat of a heart, close to the source of TV noise. Then she heard a second heart in a different direction but still in the house and still on the upper floor. For several more minutes Kate focused on listening and when she didn’t hear any other heart beats she figured that there were only two of the three brothers in the house.

Kate returned to the window and having summoned her rage before, she found it easier to call up a second time. The bars came free and this time Kate used the momentum to flip over and land on her feet. She couldn’t help the savage grin the spread across her face. This was starting to become fun.

Then she sobered up, these guys were dangerous, and they wanted to hurt her dad. She needed to get away and warn him. She had no idea where she was or how often these clowns checked on her but she knew time was not her friend. The window was still a problem. Kate figured she could throw an iron bar through it and break it but would that make too much noise? Slowly she picked up one of the bars and then wrapped the remains of her bike shorts around one end.

She glanced up at the wall she knew she could jump up smash the window and fall back down. But she needed to break it carefully, quietly, and then she needed to use the bar to scrape the window clear of glass. If she didn’t she’d take several cuts climbing through.

For a moment Kate thought about her dreams and the strange roaring she’d heard when they’d cut off her finger. Were they connected? In her dream she’d been a dragon. A dragon’s talons would be helpful now. If they were long enough to sink into the wall to hold her there while she broke the window. After a moment Kate held up her hand and thought of Dux’Tueor. He’d had talons several feet long. Suddenly Kate felt a presence in her head it seemed puzzled and Kate thought about talons and how useful they’d be. There was a wave of agreement from somewhere in her mind. Then a sort of icy energy washed through her and Kate saw her nails turn white, like ivory, and start growing. In seconds she had a set of four inch slightly curved talons extending from her fingers and toes.

This time when Kate jumped she landed next to the window. Her talons sank into the soft cinder block walls and Kate felt a surge of satisfaction. She then used an iron bar and as quietly as she could she broke the glass window and knock all of the remaining glass free. Kate had to fight the urge to try to wiggle though the window. But she knew better. Her father had taught her in a survival situation never to leave behind anything you might be able to use. Kate returned to the room and quickly gathered up the iron bars, tying them into a bundle with her former shorts. Next she took her shirt and tied it around her waist in an improvised skirt. Then Kate threw the blanket over the bottom of the window to protect her skin as she crawled out. For a moment Kate wondered if there was any way she could take the mattress, but knew it was impossible. That window was barely big enough for her, much less a twin sized mattress.

Kate leapt back up to the wall tossed her bundle through the window and then tried to climb through. The window was a typical basement window. Before her mutation Kate would have slid through without any trouble. Now it seemed much smaller. As Kate wiggled through she felt a sting on her back and knew that she’d missed some glass, and then she was free.

A quick look around showed an old farm house with trees across a short lawn in front of her. Kate retrieved the blanket and shook it free of any glass and then wrapped it around her shoulders. Then she picked up her bundle of iron bars and dashed for the tree line. The minute she was among the trees Kate had to fight the urge to roar, her joy at being free was fierce and hot in her chest.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 4