Chapter 510: What are you?

Arion had begun wondering what the beasts were supposed to look like.

Not what they looked like now, with their enormous bodies, hardened ridges of corrupted tissue, and limbs that seemed to have been assembled from several different animals.

What they had looked like before the infection.

The twelve creatures from Claudia’s Palace had become dogs after he told them to behave, but those animals had been considerably smaller than the ones currently gathered around him. Even in their corrupted forms, the differences in their proportions suggested they had not all originated from the same species.

The enormous beast beside him had a head broad enough to resemble a bear, although its elongated forelimbs and the ridges covering its shoulders made any comparison unreliable.

Another had the narrow muzzle and long legs of a wolf.

Farther away, a creature with particularly large paws was sitting beneath a tree, watching a bird move through the branches overhead.

Arion looked at the largest animal again.

"What were you before all this?"

The beast nudged his hand.

Apparently, that was not a question it could answer.

Through the communication channel, Nero spoke.

"Are you having a conversation with it?"

"I’m thinking."

"That usually precedes something interesting."

Arion ignored him and studied the animals gathered around the clearing.

There was another possibility.

He had never consciously decided what the beasts in Claudia’s Palace should become. He had simply wanted them to be smaller, less dangerous, and easier to manage.

They had become dogs.

Perhaps that had been because dogs were the most familiar animals in his life.

He had grown up with Boreas, and his mind had apparently interpreted good boys as something resembling the enormous dog that had been following him since childhood.

What would happen if he gave the same instruction here?

Arion glanced toward the observation station.

"Victor."

The physician appeared on his communication screen, seated comfortably in his office with several monitors arranged around him.

"What?"

"I want to try something."

Victor’s expression became immediately suspicious.

"Define something."

"I want to see whether these animals can change their forms."

There was a brief silence.

Hendrik looked up from his tablet.

Nero straightened in his chair.

Dean’s voice came through the channel.

"Arion, I would like to remind you that we currently have twelve dogs because the last time you tried something, you had absolutely no idea what you were doing."

"I know."

"You also brought all twelve home."

"I remember."

"And now you are standing in a forest containing beasts large enough to eat a fucking vehicle."

Arion glanced at the enormous animal beside him.

It was currently rubbing its head against his arm.

"I’m aware."

Victor leaned closer to his monitor.

"Do you feel the neurological suppression returning?"

"No. My mind is completely clear, and my pheromones have remained stable since I entered the territory."

"That does not establish whether you can deliberately activate the transformation."

"I know."

Arion rested his palm against the enormous beast’s head.

"But I want to try."

Victor considered the readings for several seconds before finally nodding.

"Keep your output controlled. If you experience any cognitive slowing, stop immediately."

Dean sighed.

"I hate how reasonable that sounded."

Arion smiled faintly.

Then he looked down at the beast.

He could feel the others watching him, their attention remaining at the edges of his senses without becoming intrusive.

There was no hunger.

No aggression.

Nothing resembling the overwhelming instinct that had pushed him toward ordering Claudia’s death.

Only twelve animals waiting for him to do something.

Arion wondered whether he could simply ask.

He scratched the enormous beast behind its ear once more.

"Be good boys."

The animal stopped moving.

Across the clearing, the others lifted their heads.

Arion felt his pheromones shift.

Vetiver deepened around him while something unfamiliar stirred beneath it, spreading through the air with a warmth that seemed to settle against the corrupted output of the animals.

He knew he could demand the change.

The certainty arrived without explanation, as though some part of his instincts understood exactly how to force their bodies into whatever shape he wanted.

He could make them smaller.

He could make them resemble Boreas.

He could probably make them do considerably more if he pushed hard enough.

Arion did not want that.

He wanted to see what they were.

The enormous animal beneath his hand lowered its head.

Then its body began to change.

Its shoulders contracted first, the hardened ridges along its spine withdrawing beneath the dark hide while its elongated forelimbs shortened and thickened. The distorted muzzle became broader, its ears rounded, and the unnatural proportions of its torso gradually settled into something Arion recognized.

A bear.

An enormous brown bear.

Arion stared.

The animal shook itself, scattering loose leaves from its fur before looking up at him with the same completely black eyes that remained in the transformed dogs.

Then it sat.

The ground shifted slightly beneath its weight.

Nero’s voice came through the earpiece.

"Oh, that is magnificent."

Arion turned toward the other animals.

They were changing too.

The narrow-faced creature nearest the trees lowered itself onto its forelimbs as the ridges along its back disappeared, its body shrinking into the familiar proportions of a large grey wolf.

Another followed, dark fur spreading across its shoulders and down its legs until it stood beside the first, almost identical except for the lighter markings around its face.

Farther uphill, a creature whose corrupted form had barely resembled anything recognizable became a black bear, while another developed the compact body, tufted ears, and broad paws of a lynx.

The transformation continued throughout the clearing.

Arion watched an enormous malformed animal settle into the proportions of a red deer, antlers emerging where hardened protrusions had previously covered its head. Nearby, another became a stocky wild boar, its coarse fur bristling as it examined the ground beneath its hooves.

The forest suddenly looked like a wildlife reserve.

A particularly strange one.

Every animal had completely black eyes.

Otherwise, nothing about them immediately suggested infection.

Hendrik stared at the drone footage.

"What the fuck?"

Nero started laughing.

Dean was silent for several seconds.

Then he said, "Arion."

His husband looked toward the observation station.

"Yes?"

"You made a bear."

"I noticed."

"An actual fucking bear."

"Yes."

"And wolves."

"Also noticed."

Nero leaned closer to the monitor.

"Oh, Dean, look at the lynx."

Arion closed his eyes briefly.

The lynx was currently rubbing its cheek against the trunk of a pine tree, apparently delighted to discover that its new body was small enough to move between the lower branches without destroying them.

Victor was already comparing the animals’ thermal readings.

"Their metabolic profiles are changing, but I am not detecting any sudden physiological distress."

Arion looked down at his hands.

No black lines.

His eyes felt normal, his thoughts remained clear, and the familiar vetiver surrounding him had returned to its usual concentration without conscious effort.

The largest bear approached.

Arion watched it stop directly in front of him.

Then it lowered its head and pressed its enormous nose against his chest.

He sighed and scratched behind its rounded ear.

Nero laughed again.

"You have a favorite."

"I do not."

"The bear disagrees."

Arion looked toward the other animals.

The wolves were examining the undergrowth, the deer had wandered toward a patch of fresh vegetation, and the lynx was attempting to climb a tree while the wild boar investigated the soil beneath it.

They were alert.

Active.

Behaving like animals that belonged in a forest.

Victor interrupted his thoughts.

"The corrupted glandular profiles remain detectable. Whatever you have done, it has not eliminated the infection."

Arion nodded.

He had expected that.

Their bodies had changed, but the black eyes remained, and he could still feel their attention whenever one of them looked toward him.

Yet the animals no longer resembled the creatures that had terrorized Alamina for over a century.