US Marshall Sam Rettling was driving into the staff garage at the courthouse.
He was supposed to be providing the food for all the animals in the courthouse when they went on lunch break. It was strange that they’d have a US Marshall do it, but apparently the guy who had been investigating the Troy kid, Barker, had recommended all services be performed by trained guards and agents.
The entrance was a gate that was concealed on a side street, tucked away between the courthouse and a large Federal office building. Both were over 20 stories tall. It was a deliberate design choice that was supposed to make it hard to see who was coming and going from both buildings.
Sam took out his access card and reached out towards the card scanner next to the gate. That was when he noticed a strange thing - green scales were growing up his arm. He scratched at them, wondering if they were something stuck on him But when he tried to use a short black claw to pry one off, there was a sudden burst of pain - like they were attached to him.
As he absentmindedly watched a wave of green spread up his arm, he also began to notice that his arm was shrinking back, away from the card scanner. And it wasn’t just his arm, he realized, as his feet shrank away from the floor and his clothes grew looser.
Szrel felt a growing pressure in the seat of his loose pants and strained, hunching over and gripping the too-large steering wheel with his free hand. As he did, his clothes shrank to better fit him and his growing tail extended through the seat of his pants, where a hole had been cut specifically for it, and back through the car seat, which had lost its lower cushions as though to make way for the tail as well.
“What the hell?” Szrel wondered to himself, voice high and raspy.
A tapping noise on the side of car drew Szrel’s attention away from his own body and back to the card reader. Or, rather, to Master, who was impatiently standing next to the card reader, impatiently waiting for Szrel to hand him the access card.
Master was a big, golden-scaled dragonkin, with wispy tendrils furling from his face in a manner reminiscent of an elegant beard and two handsome horns curling form his scaly brows. Szrel’s mind began to settle into one more appropriate for a kobold working in the government. Well, infiltrating it by using his species as a tactic to garner support as the first kobold US Marshall. They never knew he was loyal to one thing, and it wasn’t his country.
His Master slid the access card against the reader and the light turned green next to the reader and a buzzing sound followed by the gate raising quickly followed.
“Thank you Master!” Szrel chirped happily. “Short kobold arms not good for reaching!”
Master patted his head, then walked around to the passenger side and got in.
“Drive us into the structure, kobold.” Master ordered, voice deep and commanding in a way only true Dragonkin could.
“Yes, Master!” Szrel saluted sharply, a smile twisting his scaly snout, before driving into the Courthouse.