Marching towards war

My entire body was still hurting.

It seemed like miss Sarah did the best she could to treat my wounds, but even the mere act of lifting my finger was sending a shivering pain throughout my bones.

"Seems like aunt Ellie really did a number on me..." I muttered.

"Sorry... This was the best I could do with what I had... I'm not exactly a nurse..." Sarah commented.

"It's okay! I'm slowly starting to get used to getting hurt! Haha..."

Her face seemed like it was on the verge of tears. I tried to joke to cheer her up but it seemed like it had the opposite effect.

"By the way... You kinda seem to be taking all this talk about magic and dragons rather well..." I noted.

She glared at me all of sudden, as if I had insulted her intelligence, "I would need to have mental problems if I was unable to believe in magic after all that happened in my store..."

"Fair point..."

"Besides... It's not the first time something like this happened in this town..."

My eyes widened up, "Really...?"

"Yes... Many years ago, the school where my brother used to study got attacked and completely destroyed, and right after that, all the people who lived here ended up vanishing completely only to return a few days later with no memories of what happened. The news tried to cover it up as a terrorist attack, but I always felt it was something more than that!"

Huh... That's strange... I wonder if my mother and her friends know what this is all about.

"Well... Whatever the case is... You still believed in me and tried to help me... Thank you! I... I kinda needed to feel like someone was on my side... Haven't felt like that a whole lot lately..."

Her eyes started to look at me with sympathy, "You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

"Eh... I'm sure it could have been worse!" not that I want to find out if it could be or not.

I raised my face and noticed that someone was watching our conversation in silence, studying our behavior. The scary lady was still looking at me with suspicion even after saying that she would believe in me.

"S- Something wrong... Miss..." I just realized I didn't remember her name.

"...?"

"He's asking your name and why you keep glaring at him..." Sarah translated, in her own 'Sarah' way.

"My name is Dia... Sorry about my face, it's just... For me, you still look like a dragon right now, even after hearing your explanation..."

"What exactly do I look like right now?" I asked, and Sarah translated.

Dia began to move her gaze around me, "You kinda look like a young teenager... But your skin is covered in scales, there are two small horns on your head, your teeth are long and sharp, and your nails appear as that of a beast."

She then moved closer and began to touch me, feeling my skin and pinching me checks.

"Even now, while I try to feel you, your skin still gives out the sensation of a reptile body... This curse must affect not only the vision but all five senses..."

After that, she pressed her hand with her eyes closed, but it didn't seem like anything changed.

"If this is an illusion it's a really good one..." Dia commented.

"You're not doubting him, are you?" Sarah wondered.

"I don't doubt him, but I'm having trouble finding the logic behind how all of this works..."

She then grabbed a small piece of rock that emitted a funny glow and handed it over to Sarah, who grabbed it with her palm.

"What's this?"

"Try to squeeze it..." Dia explained.

Sarah did as she was told and all of sudden she jumped out and slammed her back against the wall.

"Kyaaaahhh!!!" she screamed, almost driving my ears deaf.

"What?? What's wrong??" I asked confused.

"Ah...!" Sarah gasped while looking at me, "I... I can't understand him anymore... A- A- And his body... His face!!"

"I see..." Dia commented while holding her chin and looking at Sarah's reaction.

"What did you do to me?? What is this rock??"

"That's not a rock, it's a magic crystal...." Dia explained, "I gave it to you so that your body would absorb a little bit of magic..."

Oh... I see... That's like one of Marcia's healing crystals! Wait... Does this mean I just lost my only means of communication!!??

"So it's just like he said... This illusion infects the magic in our bodies and forces us to see this little fake appearance..."

Dia then moved closer to Sarah and raised her hand. In front of her palm, a small red mouth made of energy appeared and started to absorb some kind of weird glow that was coming out of Sarah's body.

"Ah!" Sarah gasped again, "He's back to normal!! What did you do??"

"I used my cursed blessing... Spellbreaker. It can devour energy and turns it into power for me."

"Cursed blessing...?" both I and Sarah asked.

"It's a long story... It should have been a blessing, but my body has too much cursed energy and ended up contaminating the ability into something more malicious..."

"Wha...?" both of us asked again.

"Never mind that now... The point is, we now know for sure that this illusion only affects people that have magic in their bodies..."

"So... If you get the magic out of your body... You will be able to see what he really looks like?"

"Maybe... But I'm not gonna just waste all my power, I would be defenseless in case we got attacked."

Defenseless... Mmmm... I think I'm slowly starting to understand the strategy of the dragons now...

This illusion turns the magic of your body into a weapon against you since it makes you see your friends as an enemy. So the only way to see things normally again, would be to get the magic out of your body...

If you're under the illusion, you will attack your own allies. But if you are out of the illusion, you will be open for the dragons to attack you.

So... There is no way to win??

I am someone that is hosting a terminal being, something that is very dangerous to them, but I'm completely inexperienced and barely know how to fight, so they used me as a perfect test subject to see how good this plan could work, an easy to be contained threat.

And now that they saw how effective it was... Won't they start casting the illusion on other people as well? People like my mom? Or aunt Evlin? Or aunt Ellie?? What if they use this thing on them and they all start attacking each other?? And the moment they run out of power and finally realize they were fighting their own family, the dragons will use their confusion as an opening to show up and finish the job!!

"I have to stop them!! I need to get out of here!!" I announce after having my realization.

I try to leave the bed but my whole body is still hurting from the beating I took from aunt Ellie.

"Ugh!!"

"Where exactly do you think you're going?" Sarah asked me, "You're injured! You need to rest for now and recover!"

"But... My family!! They might be in danger!!"

"What's he saying...?" Dia asked.

"He's saying that his family might be in danger..."

"Ah!! That's right! If this whole thing is a plan of the dragons, they might be making their move right now!"

Dia then stood up and moved to the door, much to Sarah's surprise, "Where are you going??"

"I have to warn them and explain everything that you told me! You three stay here and don't leave under any circumstance!"

"Three... Ah!! Marcia!! I forgot about her! Where is she??"

"She's sleeping in the other room, don't worry..." Sarah explained to me, "But you can't just- Oh..."

She was about to tell something to Dia, but the woman had already left before she noticed.

"That woman... I was going to suggest she take a picture of you two so she could show to her friends... "

Oh... I didn't even consider that... I wonder if the illusion affects photos as well... But since Dia is from another world, I wonder if she even knows what a photo is...

"I'm really sorry for all the trouble we are causing..." I whispered.

"Don't mention it... I'm just happy to help!"

"If it's not too much trouble, could you take me to see my friend? I'm worried about her..."

"Sure thing!"

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-------

Sarah did her best to carefully help me move to another room as I continued to feel every inch of my body screaming at me to get back on the bed.

But no matter how much it hurt, I had to see Marcia. I was pretty sure that I would not be able to rest until I saw she was okay.

"Here we are..." Sarah explained as we entered another room.

Marcia was covered with a blanket on top of a bed with her eyes closed and breathing very softly.

Her injuries didn't seem as bad as mine, so that's a relief, but it seemed she was more tired than me from the way she was sleeping.

"She stayed up all night by your side waiting for you to wake up... I finally managed to put her on the bed after her exhaustion knocked her out."

Marcia was awake while I was sleeping? "Why didn't she talk with Dia? If she was awake, she could have explained the situation much better than me..."

"She was so weak that she barely had any energy to speak, and on top of that, all she could think about was keeping you safe... She kept saying something about how it was her job to protect you or something..."

Right... Her job... I keep forgetting how much she is dedicated to following in the footsteps of her parents. Her same parents that probably don't even remember that she is their daughter right now... All because of this curse...

"Sarah... Could I stay by her side for a while? I want to wait for her to wake up..."

"I guess... But just a bit. If you're hurt, you have to tell me so I can bring you back..."

"Thank you..."

She helped me sit down and took a look at her phone.

"It's getting late... I'm gonna make some dinner for us... Anything you want to eat? Soup? Rice? Pasta?"

"... ... Can I ask for some hamburgers...?" I murmured while still looking at Marcia, "She... She likes hamburgers..."

"Well... This is probably not the best idea for injured people but... I guess Just once in your life won't kill you..."

"Thank you, Sarah..." I replied as she left the room.

A couple of seconds after she left the two of us alone, my body started to be taken over by a sense of tiredness.

I was just about to fall asleep in my chair if it wasn't for a sudden voice coming out from the bed.

"Mmmm... L- Lance...?"

"Hey, Marcia..." I whispered in absolute relief after seeing her speaking again.

"Are... Are we dead...?"

I smiled a bit, "Sadly no... You will still have to deal with me for a little longer!"

"Damn... Seems like the universe really won't give us a break..." she laughed back.

"I guess not... But it could be worse..."

"How so...?"

I moved my arm to grab her palm and stared at her for a moment.

"We could be going through all this alone..." I answered.

"Yeah... I guess I'm glad we can at least have sucky lives together!"

"What are friends for if not to contemplate how much life sucks together? Hehe..." Ugh... It hurts to laugh...

"So... What are we gonna do now...?" she wondered.

"Now...?" up until this point we have been dancing in the palm of the dagons' hands, acting like a bunch of clowns in their little game and being laughed at while we tried to kill the people we loved and watched them trying to kill us.

I'm tired of being their personal little joke. They harmed me. They harmed Marcia. They tricked our families and messed with our bonds and memories. I never want to see the image of my mother holding a sword against me ever again!

Even now... I still recall that anger... That moment of rage boiling up inside of me, screaming to find and kill every last dragon.

I know it's petty. I know it's juvenile. I know it's probably not the best thing to do right now... But I want revenge...

I want payback... For everything they did to us!

"Now it's our turn!! We are taking the fight to them!"