I put a hand up in front of my eyes as I walked up onto the surface. I had been up before and it always took time for my eyes to adjust. I walked with this group to the town they had gone to the cave from, the shortest one taking an interest in me because I was an ‘oddity.’
“You are fascinating.” The hooded halfling said as she inspected my hands, arms, and legs. “An almost seamless fusion of humanoid and draconic features with magic infused into every part of your body.”
“Thank you?” I looked to her three companions for a hint as to whether or not what she said was a good thing. They seemed to have tuned her out for the time being.
“What made you what you are? Did the mindflayers make you? What were you before? How do you apply the force of your punch into that fire spell?” She pulled out a notebook and got ready to write.
“Uh…” I wasn’t sure how to answer her questions.
“Oh, sorry, I asked too many at once. Let’s do one at a time. How do you keep your punch with your fire magic?”
“I just… do. I focus my magic towards my fist and it just goes.”
“Ah, so you’re a sorcerer. Wonderful.”
I was confused at what this small creature was saying. I was a defender… I thought.
“Did the mindflayers make you?” She asked, still excited to see me.
“I… suppose that they did. I don’t remember much of my time with them. Is that normal?”
“Well, depending on what your amount of free will was while you were there, possibly. Could you act and think for yourself?”
As if on instinct I said, “Everything I do, I do for the colony.” I reached a hand half way towards my throat because I didn’t even realize I had been saying that.
She recognized the confusion in my face and nodded. “Right, so little to no control of your mind or body. What were you before they took you?”
“Took me?” I questioned. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, right. You’re not quite up to speed. You see, you’re not exactly a… common thing to see walking around. I haven’t seen anything like you before, and I probably won’t be seeing anything like you later. What I have heard about people like you is that you’re made from a base and introduced genetic material. In your case, a red dragon egg that was spliced with humanoid traits, or a humanoid adult spliced with dragon traits.”
“Oh… then, no. I don’t know what I was. All I can remember are bits and pieces of when I was controlled by the… mindflayers, did you call them?”
“Yeah. You know what they are.”
“Right. I just had never heard them refer to themselves like that, only as ‘illithid’.”
“Oh, right, duh. That’s their proper name. I’ve been around these three for so long that I’ve just defaulted to calling them by their common name.”
“I… see.” I was still confused as we got to the city’s gate.
“Hi, George.” The biggest of their group said to the old looking guard standing at the open gate. “We did a little double checking and found this guy down there. Seems fine. Only thing in him from the flayers is dragonblood.”
“Alright, cool. Come on in…” The guard looked at me expecting a name.
I tried to think of the name I gave to everyone I’d brought down to them. And then I reversed it. “Oh, my name is Leengard. Nice to meet you.”
“Leengard, huh? Nice ring to it. Welcome to town, kid.”
“Thank you.” I stuck around this group for a few hours before the largest of them spoke up again.
“I’m going to be heading to the arena to make some cash.” He split off and I looked at the halfling again, hoping for an explanation.
“Oh, the arena is where you can fight people for money. Do you wanna go?”
“Yes, actually. It sounds like I’d fit right in there.”
“Lordron! We’re coming with!” The halfling grabbed my arm and pulled my in the direction that the large male was walking. We arrived at a building that was much wider than other ones and inside we could hear cheering and occasionally clashing metal. “Do you want to fight or watch?” She asked me as Lordron split off from us again.
“Fight.” I told her. I wanted to see how much of that I still remembered.
“Okay, just follow him and he’ll show you what to do.”
I found myself in the pit of the arena with a few hundred onlookers staring at me with my opponent standing on the opposite side, holding a very long weapon with a large and sharp piece of metal on the end. I stood my ground as he charged at me and followed my instincts. He swung the weapon at me from the side and I thrust my fist towards the blade as the scales on my knuckles thickened drastically and the blow bounced off before he swung at me from above and my other hand went above me, catching the blade as the scales on my palm thickened as well. Now, it was my turn to show what I could do. I felt magic surge through me, into my arms and legs as I quickly struck the man once in the ribs and then slammed my foot into his knee with a pair of flaming blows, knocking him down very quickly. I smiled to myself. I still had it.