Disappointing to be in the medical bay for all this. Zelda huffs out a sigh.

  “Something wrong?” Pamulur asks.

  “Just missing the take off.”

  The green bunny looks at her, shrugs and taps something into her data pad. A screen pops up showing the view from the front of the ship. It's angled towards the sky. Another below it points towards the ground. The rear view? She can see the settlement and the glacier fields around it.

  “A view screen is not the same as a window.” Zelda grouses.

  “Who puts windows on space ships? Sounds like a quick way to cause decompression.”

  Zelda frowns at that, “There were windows on the shuttles off Earth.”

  “It's pronounced Arth, child. Those were landing shuttles, not deep space vehicles.”

  Zelda squints at the Doctor. Is she messing with me? She decides to watch the screen instead of arguing. The light blue atmosphere slowly goes to black. There are numerous ships, some red, Red Deliverance, others with silver lines tracing around them. Large and bulky. No small ships. The farther away a ship was, the less firing on other ships it did. It was only those close to each other that seemed to exchange constant fire. Not lasers. Instead lightning arced, sometimes fire. A javelin of ice? The ships were engaged in magical warfare.

  “How come the ships farther away don't attack?”

  Pamulur looks up at the screen, “It be pointless, the ship being attacked would have plenty of time to counteract such magic. At best the magic would be wasted, worst still if it's absorbed or reflected.”

  Huh. A non red painted ship peels away and begins heading towards the screen. Us.

  “Is that going to be a problem?”

  “Likely just there to ensure we aren't going to engage in the battle. This ship is an independent. We only have to worry if the second Corp was trying to destroy the settlement and didn't want witnesses.” Pamulur says off hand while organizing things in a cabinet.

  Zelda looks at the bottom screen and sees the ship from before crash into various buildings. When it finally impacts the ground itself dozens of buildings around it collapse towards it as a crater forms at the impact site. How many of my fellow earthlings still lived on the planet. I never really talked to them. My age group all got various magic aspects and quickly paid their debts off. I was a dud. Not worth the time to hang out with. Worse their parents feared I would saddle my debt on their precious little sons and daughters. How different would things have been, if my eye hadn't done a galactic tour before returning to me. Zelda shudders.

  I've started thinking of the damn thing as mine. At least Red Deliverance is going to lose a whole lot of money because of this. Zelda pauses. Holy hell Zelda, people just died there. Even as she admonishes herself, she is not sure she actually cares.

  “The settlement just got flatten, Doctor.”

  Pamulur frowns, then looks at the front screen. The screen itself starts to pivot away from the approaching ship. Pamulur hit some more things on her datapad. A screen to the left of the forward facing one pops up. It shows the silver line ship still heading towards us. The angle was weird when viewed next to the forward screen. It would make more sense if the screen was angled instead of side by side. Suddenly the vision distorts and it is as Zelda imaged it. She winces and it returns how it was. What was that? Before she can ask something blocks the left screen. It's rather close, gold lines on metal. Various seams and indents dot the surface. Functional or decorative, Zelda did not know. The ship gets between her ship and the interdicting one.

  “Ah, it seems your sponsor is playing escort.”

  The view begins to pull away. The distance between the other two ships doesn't shorten. Guess they didn't want to mess with Grant.

  The front view screen approaches some sort of large apparatus. The screens flicker off. Zelda turns to Pamulur.

  “Standard procedure for traversing a portal gate. Best focus on that core. You got quite a few hours before we are wherever we are heading.”

  “You don't know?”

  The bunny flicks her right ear, “Job was to monitor you, a destination wasn't specified.”

  -----

  The door slides open, the calico cat enters.

  “How're you holding up, pet.”

  “Kind of numb to it all. I learned my blight is progressing and the place I was living just got flattened. I fear your hope of using me as a fuel source will be short-lived.” Zelda says, not bothering to look at Dagnit.

  “Losing one home can be tough.” Dagnit says sagely. It draws Zelda attention.

  “My home was lost ten years ago, that closet I was pushed into was a cage.” She says crossly.

  “You lived in that cage longer than you had on your birth planet.” Dagnit countered.

  Zelda simply returns to looking at the cabinets. The doctor had left hours ago. It was almost time to condense her mana again.

  “Was there anyone you left behind?”

  Zelda looks back to Dagnit, “The knuckle breaker.”

  “Truly, that's it?” Dagnit exclaims.

  “There was Marla and the smithy lady.”

  “I'm starting to grow concerned you don't form social connections, pet.” Dagnit eyes the blighted human.

  “Says the one who's only reason for interacting with me was because I had value.”

  “Oh very much so, but that's true of any friendship.”

  “It wasn't my personality you were valuing.”

  Dagnit shrugs, “Not entirely true, I find your pitifulness quite amusing. The persistenceness was rather touching. If I had to consider a flaw it's your inability to be honest.”

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  That earned Dagnit a glare, “Which you decided to curse me over.”

  “Yes, otherwise you'd still be running around with one eye closed.”

  “Instead my blight is killing me faster.” Zelda seethes out.

  The cat winces, “You decided whether to move forward or not Zelda. Has that changed? You can always go and have two robot eyes.”

  “I don't think you understand.”

  “Then explain it.”

  Zelda turns and looks at the ceiling of the medbay. “You want to know why I was distant from everyone. Its cause the year after they took this eye, it got implanted into a small bird person. Everyone looked excited. They died a day later. Their feathers fell out. Their arms misshapen. Their legs bent in odd contortions. I got to watch it all. The child got the eye out of greed and then it was sold to another child out of greed. Every moment my eye was in a box and in transport was a blessing. During the day. I still dream of them falling apart every night. Now it's my turn. Just slower but still to be twisted and begging for death in the end. So thanks for speeding it up. Will you be selling my eyes after I am dead? Will I still see through them even then?”

  Zelda eyes glistening but she just closes them. Her chest started having shooting pains during her speech. She had stopped caring. The door opens before Dagnit can respond. Pamulur rushes in.

  “Damn it, Zelda you better not have fallen asleep. You should be so jacked that it should be impossible.”

  Pamulur peels open Zelda's left eye. Confused at seeing the eye focused on her. She is pushed back by Dagnit.

  “So that's it then, you decided to die. You thanked me before for putting you on the path of a warrior. So weak is your resolve that you wish to kill us all in the face of pain.” Zelda’ eyes snap open. The pale blues stare at Dagnit. “Tell me, what do you wish to do more than anything?”

  “To kill the Calamity.” No hesitation.

  “Does it matter if you are human when you do it?”

  She wants to say yes, her heart doesn't allow it. It doesn't matter so long as that Dragon dies. “No.” She feels something tear at her temples.

  “Then stop trying to blow a hole in my ship and get your shit together.”

  The mana condenses again. Dagnit looks a bit smug over the concession. Pamulur comes up from behind and smacks her in the back of the cat's head.

  “Would you stop agitating my patient? Now I have to do hand scans to see how much you just changed. Are you in any pain, Zelda? Don't think you can slink away from me while I do this, I have more to say to you.”

  Watching the cat get admonished by the bunny while the bunny switches tone rapidly to address her was too much for Zelda. She laughs but also cries. It causes the doctor to only yell at the cat some more.

  -----

  The cat managed to retreat while Pamulur fussed with her hand scanner. She murmured how she planned to get a new FullScan machine out of the over experienced bird. Zelda simply watched this all. Waiting for her prognosis. Waiting to know what new inconveniences she would need to endure. She could already tell what two are.

  “I'll start from top to bottom. You have the beginning of horns. Your teeth are shifting, sharper. More scales. You have a third eyelid forming. Your ears are shrinking. A new vertebrae is in your neck. There is a slight decrease in the size of your lungs.” Zelda squeezes her eyes shut at that.

  “Why?”

  “Which one?”

  “The lungs, figure those would need to grow, not shrink.”

  “As a creature that survives the vacuum of space a large cavity would be a liability. To be honest, biologically dragons don't work. I suspect most of your organs will wither away. Which is what will kill you.” Stated clinically the bunny doctor places a hand on Zelda. She finds no need to push the earlier calmness. Zelda had already cried out her emotions earlier. At this point she was rated muted in terms of emotions.

  “Then other organs as well?” She asks.

  The doctor nods, “Heart, lower intestine, bladder, kidney, colon all lost a percentage in size. The colon seems the most reduced.”

  “But I literally saw Dragons eating.”

  “Did you see them shitting?”

  “That's absurd, you're telling me I'm going to lose the ability to take a dump.”

  There is sadness in the Doctor's eyes. Right, dead way before then. Zelda gave a look for Pamulur to continue.

  “Your breast volume decreased again, your arms are bowing further back. They are also getting longer as are your fingers. The bones in your forearm are shifting as well.” How long till I can't hold a sword and shield. The doctor continues, “The curve of your spine has started to shift. Another vertebrae for your tail. So far its minute changes but we haven't even finished today's cycle…Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.”

  Zelda shakes her head, “I know I have a time limit, Doctor.”

  “Right…are there any changes you noticed?”

  “The only one I can think of is that sometimes my vision bends objects around me. It's not conscious nor does the object distort, just I can perceive them closer or farther away. Like for a moment when you had the left view screen up–”

  “The port view.”

  Zelda squints at the doctor. She just motions for Zelda to continue, “Port view had shifted to be where I would think it should be. The moment I noticed it snapped back to its original position.”

  “Have you noticed this before or after you started your core?”

  “It was when the eye was implanted.”

  She writes something down. More notes for Grant.

  -----

  Mail Notification: Transformation Studies

  Study into life magic has shown a path towards changing physical forms temporarily. A shift in biomass to provide webbed hands or removal of ears when performing high speed maneuvers in the atmosphere to adjusting blood vessels to prevent bleeding out. Practitioners with cores and an aspect had shown the ability to shift their entire body to different species for a time. Limitations always had to do with the practitioner mass having to remain constant.

  I posit it should

  Zelda decides to send a reply instead of reading further. I don't see how this applies to me at all, Grant. She hits send and closes the window. It's nearing the point where she will need to condense her mana again.

  A screen pops up in front of her. The beaked face of Grant is staring at her.

  “If you had read further you would have seen how this could apply to you.” A skeptical look greets the pronouncement. A ruffle of feathers greets her look. He continues, "Impertinent, if you can get a life core you should be able to change your form to how you see fit, at least temporarily.”

  “Oh I can be a mountain sized woman instead of a mountain sized dragon.”

  “Ah I see you at least read the first paragraph but not the second.” Another stare off ensues, “I theorized that your space core could store your excess mass, thus negating the need to change the entirety of your being. In fact the greater your size the easier to change to a human form of smaller mass. It would be akin to morphing your finger tip while hiding the rest of your body.” His cadence grew faster as he delved deeper into his theory.

  Zelda decided to pour a bit of cold water on his enthusiasm, “I doubt my mass will be much larger than it currently is before I die, Grant. Your own posits said I would need a life aspect as well as a core.”

  “Ah yes, well that would have been paragraph three.” He clears his throat, “Suffice to say it's possible to gain additional aspects through the slaying of a magical being possessing such.”

  “So what, I need to go kill a dungeon Dryad or something?”

  “Ah no, I should clarify that the creature in question should be similar to you.”

  “So I need to kill a human with a strong aspect.” Zelda becomes confused.

  “I was thinking of the draconic kind.”

  Now this is a chicken and egg problem, I need to kill a Dragon to buy enough time to kill Dragons.

  “You may not even need to kill one, injuring one has been known to cause people to be blighted and gain a new aspect.” He said quickly, perhaps anticipating Zelda's thought process.

  “I already am blighted, though.”

  “Right…that's why I think killing will be necessary.” He hedges.

  “So your suggestion is I go kill a creature most deem unkillable that is also aspected with life magic which generally makes things even harder to kill.” Zelda frown grows as she says it.

  “Ah yes, that would be an issue except we are in a wonderful era of time in which newborn dragons exist. The juveniles have started to leave the nests. I suggest trying to kill one of those.”

  I didn't consider it so wonderful when they decided to spawn on my home planet. “So, do you know where such a specimen is? I have to assume I need more levels and such.”

  “One has appeared in the further planets of the Gwintamix system. There is a settlement in the temperate zone of the system with dungeons. I propose you try to get as many levels as you can while completing your space core. I will be procuring some mecha suits for you to engage the beast.” There a bit of a pause, “Zelda Smith43, I shortened your life span a great deal by returning your eye. If this life aspect can be imprinted on you, I feel you might be able to prolong your life. I am willing to spend a great deal of Exp to ensure your success.”

  A range of emotions pass through Zelda at his words, cynicism, doubt, hope, ultimately she took it at face value. “If I can kill even one before I pass I at least will be able to hold my head up high at the end. I hadn't thought you would be so eager to help my goal, but then again if I succeed, you'll have a corpse to examine.”

  The eyes of the bird man crinkle at her words.