Now what previously reluctant Nate hadn't known was that
meek and mild glasses wearing office mouse Verna
from five rooms down at Omni-Mage Inc was actually his boss
rather then the receptionist who took the folders he gave
her when Nate visited Mail Room
every now and then.
Basically Verna was a millennia old sorceress apprentice
named
Aphro-Verna
who had unwisely asked her boss,the Goddess Aphrodite
to grant her eternal youth so she.Aphro-Verna ,could keep
making the love potions that were a hot seeling item at
Herkules and Hera's Bar N' Grill in Troy.
Aphrodite had granted the naïve young womans request
and slowly 'Verna had figured out over the centuries and then the millennia that although she's always be a 25 year old
her friends,lovers,husbands and children and gret great great great grandchildren she bore would grow old and die,sooner
rather then later.The Gift only had been granted to her,not them.
So she had built many enterprises over the centuries,all of which she outlived,and Omni-Mage was just the latest in them.
Being a sorceress,and having plenty of practise,being often went
about the building camaflouged as her more Office Mouse
persona to check on things.
Which is how she met her employee Nate.He certainly hadn't
fallen in love with her at first sight but they had the odd coffee
and donuts at the CountryMart Donut Shop
so 'Venrna had a interest in keeping Nate around.
So that fateful night 'Verna had been sitting a few seats back
from her employee keeping an eye on Nate.
When predatory Madame had zeroed in on Nate
'Verna had tried to rise from her seat ,her inner
Love Goddess Danger Sense tingling but some bozo of a drunken
crane operator had swung his big meaty arms to get another beer from the usher and knocked 'Verna back to her seat.
So 'Verna had just sat there petrified as Madame had sweet
talked her employee into being transformed into a dragon.
Since 'Verna had learned a thing or two about dragons after
all this time she knew they came in all shapes and sizes.
Ninety five percent of dragon species being no bigger then a
small horse or big pony.
So 'Verna had just sat fretting in her seat as that cocoon approached the size where the creature Nate was turning into
was the size of a small pony.
It was a long show and as the cocoon swelled slowly to the
size containing a large pony 'Verna really began to sweat as she
realized the Madame was going for broke with
'Verna's changing employee-dragon.
Madame never did the 'Final Reveal" and 'Verna realized to her
rising horror and rage that the departing audience didn't even
remember there being some guy named Nate ever there.
In other words Madame had planned this from the start,was
pulling a scheme and had no intention Nate,or whatever thing
he was transformed into
back into good old human Nate,modest
employye from Accounting at Omni-Mage Inc
So 'Verna filed out with the rest of the audience
but doubled back after she was sure the evil doer Madame
had gone
elsewhere
and returned to the Big Tent and slipped under one of the fabric walls and gasped
even in the short time she had been absent the cocoon had swelled to something that could only hold a dragon bigger then a big horse and was still swelling larger .
Settling her rattled nerves the apprentice sorceress fished
out on of Omni-Mages latest inventions
the Mage Sensor Pad
a wondrous device that could be used to detect sounds
take motion x rays and other chemical analysis tools.
'Verna flipped it on and approached the cocoon.
The sound sensor simply confirmed that whatever was inside
the cocoon was doing a lot of skin shifting,screaming and bones
breaking.
Clearly Nate had figured out inside his prison
that maybe a transformation was not a good idea.
'Verna did the chemical analysis ,the readings showed the creature inside was dripping estrogen all over .Clearly
Madame had a fetish she was indulging with
Nate.
Then 'Verna attached the Motion X Ray sensor
to various points on the cocoon.
The ghostly white skeletal image on a black background on the
Pads screen.
It showed what was at this stage essentially a bigger human skull on a slowly lengthening neck on a torso that was essentially that of a big four limbed horse.The tail was still
modest and there were no wings .
The human skulls jaws were wide open ,obviously a scream
and one forelimb was held up to Nate-dragons skull.
As 'Verna ( and Nate-dragon ) watched the forelimbs human like hand stretched and twisted to become something more avia or reptilian in bone structure.
'Vena knew her general dragon skeletal structure.
That avian reptile fore claw being displayed was something from the northern regions.Scandinavia or Russia.
Then as Nates hind feet reformed his hind bones folded in as
he got too big for the cocoons swelling
for a moment.
Then came the big change as all the bones of the front of
that still growing human skull broke off and moved forward.
Although the image didn't catch the empty space in between
'Verna could guess she was looking at a snout forming.
Then the white bones of the missing lower jaw,upper jaw and nasal areas began to materialize on the Pad's screen.
As 'Verna gasped the skull behind that skeletal snout flowed
and reshaped itself into the unmistakeable skull of a firedrake.
'Verna recorded the whole thing,then she fled back to her
offices of Omni-Mage Inc
to plan her next move.
Back in the Big Tent the firedrake finally escaped from
hir prison.There was a scent all around the dirt and cocoon
shell and sie slid hir three forked tongues over the scent to remember the smell of the visitor.
"A FEMALE" thought Nates altered mind(s) "NOT A HUMAN
FEMALE "
Nate easily shredded the thick walls of the Big Tent
with a foretalon then took to the air
to follow the scent.
It led hir to a structure sie dimly remembered from hir past life as NATE
something called a Omni Mage
Sie landed beside the structure .One head hungrier then the
others.slapped a big slimy tongue against one of its
windows till sie found the scent sie wanted
MUTTON
The head butted against the glass till it broke and began to eat the MUTTON.Soon the other two heads joined hir.