When Mark was really young, he had a fascination with dragons, decking out his entire room with Eragon posters, figurines, and books, but he since grew out of it. But there was still a lingering excitement; after all, it sounded pretty cool, even if he had stopped pursuing his interest. Becoming a dragon? Well, all he did in life was play games, work out, and get money. And he wasn't really sacrificing much...
"You know what? Being a dragon is cool. Sure, I'll do it." Mark accepted the ten red pills, forgetting the implication Julia had stated earlier. "So these will turn me into a dragon? What do you think about this, Lucas?"
Lucas shook his head, popping out of his mental haze. "Huh? Sorry, I was thinking about these pills. They're really sweet. What did you say?" His voice was muffled behind the mouthful of pills. It was almost comedic.
Mark couldn't help but laugh at the sight. "Okay, sorry I called you stupid. Maybe I was jealous or something, because being a dragon would actually be kind of cool." He still held the pills in his hands.
"Yes, the pills will turn you into a dragon. Why do I have to keep restating this? Is this a hard concept to grasp, or something?" Julia smirked and waited.
Mark stuffed his mouth with the red candy. They weren't sweet; they were fruity. Well, fruity was kind of sweet, actually, but it tasted more like artificial red apples and strawberries.
Julia said, "Okay, now swallow them."
Mark almost choked on the pills. "What? Swallow them all? How am I going to do that?" One by one, he managed to swallow each one. Lucas did the same. By the time they were done, Julia looked about ready to burst into laughter. "What's so funny?" Mark asked.
"Oh, the red pills were for girls, remember?"
"So what, they're just fruity, like girly drinks and stuff. What was yours like, Lucas?" Mark swallowed the last one.
Lucas chewed up his last one. "Mine tasted like biceps and was super manly, of course."
A fiery pain emerged from Mark's belly, and he screamed out. "Oh, my stomach is on fire! You didn't tell me how much it would hurt!" He clutched his side and lied on the ground.
Lucas laughed. "Didn't you see me?" He burped out. It looked like a bit of smoke came along with it. "Oh, I think it's starting! That's exciting." He was incredibly calm yet energetic, confident but suddenly humbled. His skin felt like it was shifting, moving, hardening, and growing. It was the oddest sensation, but it didn't hurt at all compared to the pill that he took earlier.
Mark, on the other hand, was just about ready to pass out from the pain. He had a high pain tolerance, so he stifled his yelps but it still pained him. It would be over soon, though. His skin began to convulse and shift, similarly to Lucas's.
Lucas's shirt began to rip as he grew larger, and his skin now resembled scales. His head was growing more narrow and his limbs growing wide. The torso was the greatest change, ripping apart his shirt as muscle and scales grew from his old body. As he grew taller, he bumped into the ceiling.
Julia took a step back. "Uh, oh. I didn't realize... quick, out here!" She ran to the back door and flung open the door. "If you break the house, mom's going to kill us!"
Lucas looked like some sort of abomination at this point, with patches of flesh and patches of scales. He was still growing larger and larger, almost the size of a bed. He tried to fit through the door, but he became stuck in the frame and easily pulled it with him. The back door was now a back hole-in-the-wall. Julia stared at the hole, but still called out for her brother.
Mark was not faring as well, and sounded like he was on fire. To be honest, he personally did feel like he was on fire, both inside and out. He was growing at a much slower rate than Lucas, but his sister dragged him to the backyard through the back door hole-in-the-wall. But noticeably, although the two mutant dragon-humans were similar, there was one distinct difference: Lucas was a cool, dark blue, but Mark was a red-hot pink, similar to the candy pills. Julia couldn't help but laugh. She knew the color wouldn't be the only difference.
Lucas continued growing in size, surpassing a room, then the living room, then a floor and the entire house. He stopped growing at that point, but his appendages were still shaping themselves. The scales lined up and then re-jaggified, pointing out but protecting him like small shields. His hands became large claw-tipped... well, they weren't hands anymore, but they had three finger-like claws and one thumb-like claw going the opposite direction. His tail became longer and spiked at the end; it was a makeshift weapon, but not the main source of firepower from a dragon. Lucas swore he could feel his brain expanding, both physically and mentally as he accrued knowledge from nowhere: how to fly, how to mate, how to breathe fire. It all became instinct and second-nature. He felt like he was outgrowing problems that he used to find difficult, like old physics equations and calculus.
Mark suffered through similar effects, but with minor visual differences. His tail and claws were both more rounded at the ends, and he was physically smaller than Lucas by a smidgen. And for some odd reason, with the intellect that came with, he suddenly knew in disturbingly great detail how to care for children, mate (a bit differently than what he knew), and how to defend, along with the other regular instincts like breathing fire and flying. But he couldn't spare to pay any attention to that matter because by the end, the pain was so excruciating that he just passed out as an unconscious dragon in their backyard.
Lucas felt really good. He felt really powerful and capable, but he didn't really know what to do with it.
Julia came up to him and said, "You know, I was going to fly over north when I became a dragon. If you keep going a few miles, you'll reach the mountain peaks. They sounded like pretty chill spots to hang out and stuff. Or, you could fly over to the forest if you keep going past the backyard."
Lucas knew the forest she was talking about. Mark and he had lived in this urban area for their entire lives, and often they'd hike into the forest and camp out. Mark really enjoyed it, but Lucas became tired really easy. It was very bizarre to see the tops of the trees, but he could see where the forest expanded forever.
"Uh, I know that it's cool and all to be flying around and stuff, but can you bring Mark with you? Mom will freak if she saw this. And dad's already going to pass out from looking at this door hole. I'll tell them you went out camping like you usually do, if they ask.
Lucas called out thanks, but his voice was a lot deeper and louder. It felt like having a megaphone permanently stuck in his throat. He whispered, "Thanks, Julia. But why's Mark pink?"
Julia felt like laughing again, but stifled it. "Okay, the red pills were literally for girls. Like, they're to be a girl dragon, you know? Oh, Mark's going to be so excited when he wakes up, I just know it. But in reality, it really doesn't make any difference at all. He might just be a bit embarrassed by it."
Lucas frowned at that. His best friend was now a girl? Immediately, piles upon piles of awkward thoughts entered his mind and he shoved them away. If his scales weren't there, he'd be blushing like mad. He'd never do anything like... that. Maybe he shouldn't tell Mark, that might be the best way to avoid all this weird awkwardness.
Well, his options were put in front of him. Of course, he could always terrorize the town, or something, but that sounded like a bad idea. Staying away from human civilization seemed like the best idea.
He glanced to his pink friend. He could carry that, right?
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