MHD: Chronicle V - Enter Tartu in the Murky Bog

Elric led a group of three - Taka, Mylie, and Relcia - through the dense, forested Murky Bog. Tenris, Taahnn, and Illeera were all absent from this excursion, as they were exploring an area known as the Great Mountain.

The Murky Bog rapidly became one of Taka's most hated places of all time, right next to the Barren Desert in the middle of the day and the Frozen Wastes' caverns. The ground was muddy and slimy, clinging to his Qurupeco-skin boots and making walking a chore. There was a perpetual mist that hung over everything, making it next to impossible to see. Adding to his frustration were the mosquitoes, which were the size of Jaggi, and the fact that they hadn't seen any new monsters, as Elric had promised them.

"Ugh!" he exclaimed as another giant bug approached him. Slapping it away, he cursed and said, "How can anyone stand coming here for any reason?" Elric glanced back at him and told him, "You might not like it, but the monsters sure do."

Taka huffed, "What monsters? The only creatures I've seen so far are these... god-damned... bugs!" He finished his sentence in a raised voice as he swatted another huge mosquito. Mylie giggled at the spectacle, then suddenly, her good eye bulged. "Taka!" she exclaimed. "When did you have two hands?!" The others turned to look as well.

Indeed, Taka had miraculously gotten rid of his prosthetic arm, and in its place was a real-deal, flesh-and-bone hand. He feigned shock, staring at it in ridiculously phony surprise and flexing his new fingers. "Color me surprised," he muttered.

Relcia put one hand on her hip. "Alright, Taka, enough funny business," she ordered him in a stern voice that surprised even her. "Humans don't grow arms or legs like Carapaceons. What happened?" Taka tried to keep a straight face, and failed spectacularly, dissolving into giggles. "OK, you got me," he admitted, trying to catch his breath. "I'm honestly disappointed that it took you this long to notice."

Taka proceeded to explain; "I learned, just a month ago, that if I concentrate hard enough, I can shapeshift partially. With enough practice, I became able to not only change my entire appearance -" he turned into a Genprey to demonstrate, "- but change only one aspect of my appearance as well." As he said this, the Genprey sprouted Vespoid wings and began to hover above the swampy earth.

Of the three speechless faces before him - which he observed with delicious satisfaction - Elric was the most shocked. "H-he can shapeshift?!" he stuttered. Mylie took him aside and explained as briefly as she could. "He could do that ever since he was born," she said matter-of-factly. "It took him eight years to learn how to control it. And before you ask, no one knows how he acquired this power." Elric only stared at the mutant Genprey, whose body parts went through several individual changes at once before becoming human again.

"I never noticed it before..." Relcia breathed. "But when we were in the Forested Spring yesterday... you had shapeshifted like that! You changed your wooden arm into a real one!" Taka nodded once and grinned at her reaction. "I thought I'd look more respectable on my first date with two fully functional arms, not just one. And I can't believe that you never noticed!" They all began to laugh.

Mylie stopped laughing first and asked, "There's one thing, Taka, that I don't understand. How can you keep a form like that for so long? Don't you, when you lose your concentration or run out of energy, change back to your original form?"

Taka's response was a shake of the head and a chuckle. "Nope," he confirmed. "When I shift, I can be in that form for as long as I want. If I want to become... well, me... again, I simply change again. It's not like my power 'turns off' or anything like that. My current form automatically becomes my original form."

When he said it like that, Relcia realized several things could be explained. For example, when Taka had turned into a Glauturna in order to get revenge on his friends (Relcia winced at the memory, for Taka had seriously injured, and almost killed, her), he had remained in his Pseudowyvern form even after being put into a drugged sleep by Illeera.

Before she could say any of this, there was a hissing roar that emanated from the mist behind them. Taka began muttering, "No... no... I refuse to believe this." Elric's Khezu Shock Sword was already in his hands, and he motioned for the three friends to move behind him. Still muttering, Taka readied Guan, and Mylie cautiously loaded some more Flaming S into her Agnablaster.

REST COMING SOON