Charron Armen

"Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative"

- Charron Armen

Charron 'Crondis' Armen is a 49 year old human, with occupations including Wizard, Slayer, Adventurer, Champion, Sailor and Summoner, his skill at runelink is unmatched. He is one of the founding members of the 4 questers and was known as 'Croc'. He is roleplayed by the user magejake50.

Appearance
Charron has grey ragged hair with a beard to match. He looks more like a warrior then a mage and tends to wear clothes that match this. He is often seen wearing a set of battle mage armour made from crocodile leather, usually accompanied with a set of elemental gloves, and a hooded cloak. He is also often seen carrying his Staff of Light, and is usually followed by some sort of Familiar.

Personality
Charron is a friendly, polite guy once you get to know him, but this hides a gruff bitter old man buried deep inside. He enjoys long walks, fishing, summoning and adventuring. He doesn't like to wait or be told what to do, and if he is shouted at, he will shout back just as loud. He has never been known to back away from a challenge. Popular conversation topics of his are: Magic, non Human history, Animals and adventuring.

Abilities
Charron has a great degree of knowledge about magic. He knows most of the modern spellbook and even a few spells from the Ancient spell book. He is also quite physically fit, which comes with the constant travelling he does. He also has good endurance compared to most people. Able to withstand pain more effectively. He is also a skilled summoner, allowing him to summon familiars to fight for him, this also gives him the added bonus of being able to communicate with animals.

He also has a deep connection with a Crocodile called Caedis, Which came about during a spell that involved Charron's father and Caedis. This connection allows him to communicate with him using telepathy, and also share dreams and swap bodies with the creature. The bond also allows Charron and Caedis become 'whole' resulting in Charron becoming a crocodile humanoid creature, capable of great strength. He can also grow stronger becoming a giant dagganoth type creature at the cost of a large amount of energy from Charron. The creatures are known as Crocor and Dagger respectively, it is unknown by Charron is an even stronger form exists. However this is only made available through the use of several machines and spells devised by Maxwell Raines, or through emotional inteference. The inteference has been destroyed and Charron refuses to use the machines anymore. Meaning it is very rare, for him to use the ability and is unlikely he'll use it in the forseeable future.

Charron also has a deep knowledge of slaying and menaphite culture and religion. This knowledge has proved helpful before. He is also a better then average fisherman, though he doesn't practice often so this makes him sligtly rusty. In a combat situation Charron tends to stay back casting damaging spells, whilst a summoned familiar goes up close to attack. He also uses the staff as a meelee weapon sometimes, using it to deflect blows and knock opponents down.

He also has a beard.

History
"What! You think cause I'm old, I'm gonna be spending ma days whining about my life in some dingy old bar?!"

- Charron

Push baby Push
In the 5th age, year 120 in a house in Ardougne, Avvarocka Armen the female archaeologist gave birth to triplets. Their father, the mage and archaeological researcher Scabaras Armen was as thrilled as a guy could be when he realised he was the father of triplets. Avvarocka had passed out so Scabaras got to name the children. Now Scabaras was proud of the name his father gave him, so he wanted to continue desert pantheon names. He called the 2 son's Het and Crondis, and the daughter Het. When avvarocka woke up she wasn't happy. However she got over it. Eventually.

Crondis my boy, you'll be roasting people alive in no time
At the age of 3 all Het and Apmeken knew what they wanted to do with their lives. Het spent most of his days practicing his swordfighting in the garden. The willow tree was no match for his mighty swipes and slashes. Apmeken wanted to be a chef, she had already mastered toast and was now on her way to adding topping that wern't butter. Crondis however spent his day's lounging around, just eating and drinking, barely talking. This worried Scabaras, he knew if Crondis started now he could acheive anything. Scabaras decided to teach Crondis magic.

As crondis shot the air out of his hand Scabaras knew he had potential. He wasn't the only one, Avvarocka decided to press her archaeological skills onto Crondis. She told him of huge monsters, ancient unknown gods and lost temples. On Crondis's 6th birthday Scabaras sent him to one of his relatives in Taverly. Crondis was taught the art of summoning, Crondis spent almost 8 years of his life practicing magic and summoning. At the age of 14 he managed to succesfully set fire to the willow tree with a Fire Blast. Annoyingly for Scabaras, all his runes he was giving Crondis were running out, quicker and quicker. Luckily however, a tower representative spotted Crondis and took him to the tower. Crondis was use to travelling now, he still barely talked.

Remember, if an older wizards asks you to look at his staff, decline
Life at the tower was good, Crondis spent most of his days alone in the library reading. He left people alone, so they left him alone. Crondis excelled at the spellbook and at the age of 18 he had mastered the wave spells, as well as the teleports and binding spells. However Crondis left the tower. He simply wrote a note saying, he had no desire to excel any further in this field and was attempting to broaden his horizon's in other areas. What his mother had said to him finally got through to him, he was on his way to Taverly to gather his stuff when he noticed a slayer contract attatched to the wall. There was a job offering for a mage required to help on a slayer assignment in taverly dungeon. Crondis packed up his things, his charms, runes, robes, bat wand (nananananananana) and other supplies. He headed south towards the slayer master.

I've heard Rock's talk more than you kid
Upon speaking to the slayer master he was told his task. "Listen kid, down in the dungeon there is a cauldron, cauldron of thunder they call it. Any how its a important artifact to the druids, used in incantations and herblore and stuff. However the dungeon is filled with all sorts of weird monsters, normally I'd send one of my swordsman down there, however theres reports of enchanted armour. Swords don't do much damage against magic stuff like that, so we just need you to go down there and take care of the armour. Good, see ya soon."

Crondis walked down into the dungeon where he saw spiders, bats and skeletons. Eventually he came across the suit of armour. The suit of armour attacked, so Crondis simply stepped back and launched at fireball at the armour. The armour then came apart and pieces flew across the room. 'That was easier than expected' Crondis thought to himself, normally at this point something bad would happen, but it didn't luckily. Charron went back up to the slayer master. He was impressed and asked Crondis to join the slayer's, Crondis nodded.

Crondis spent the next few few years training his summoning and magic skills against various slayer creatures. He would often be assigned tasks in Taverly, Trollheim and other various places throughout asgarnia. He preferred the experience to sitting in the wizards tower. After 5 years in the slayer business, Crondis was reccomended for the Champions Guild entrance exam but he turned it down as he wasn't interested in much other than killing monsters. 2 years later he had taken one of the longer lasting jobs in Kandarin to deal with some hellhounds in Witchhaven, during this time he met once again with his Father and learnt what had happened to his relatives.

Apmeken had changed her name to Apmek and had decided to move to Varrock to open her own restauraunt, and Het was serving in the Ardougne military. For his 25th birthday Scabaras gave Crondis his old book on Ancient Magiks. Crondis responded with his usual silent gratitude.

They say the student learns more from the teacher, so listen up.
For 6 years Crondis spent the time practicing magic on various slayer creatures, he also practiced summoning from time to time. Depite the master pressuring him to try for the champions guild Crondis simply ignored him and continued his work. He was now beginning to learn to use ancient Magiks, at first with no success but eventually he was able to do basic combat spells. However he preferred the standard book as he was more adept at it. One day Crondis had a nasty surprise waiting for him.

Crondis walked down the market road, he glanced at the wares quickly but noted nothing of interest. However he did note a person of interest. He was a teenager with wild brown Hair and a stylish hat, but that wasn't the interesting part. The way he looked didn't suggest he was rich, however his clothes seemed rather modern and expensive, he also sported what appeared to be 2 mithril swords on his belt, and he was also on a collision course with Crondis. The teenager barged into Crondis almost knocking him over before coming to a stop at a nearby stall. "Hey, I'm a fortune teller." He said to the girl at the stall. "Pick a card and it will show you our future...". Crondis considered bashing him with his staff but thought against it and head down towards the slayer master.

When he had made his way to the slayer master, he was directed to a pile of papers. It was the usual contracts, Trolls raiding a farm, revenge on a hellhound, and even a joke vampire neighbour one. However Crondis was directed to a smaller pile, this was the pile for expert slayer masters. These were tasks involving demons, dragons and other creatures. Were they finally realising his potential. Crondis took the top contract as instructed. "Wanted, Blue Dragon hide, bones and Teeth, will pay well. If performed well then more contracts will be issued." Crondis had never seen a dragon before, just read about them. He'd also seen paintings and toys of them before, but to actually meet one.

"Crondis, I'm too busy so you'll be taking one of the more expert jobs. Standard merchant wants to make some quick coin flogging dragon materials. Ah yes, heres your help now."

HELP!

The boy from before walked from behind one of the houses, his hat was now crooked and he had a bruise on his face that appeared to resemble a womans hand. "Oh its you, Hello I'm Ruthven Galand, slayer extraordinare, well soon to be, won't take long."

WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HIM!

The slayer master spoke up again. "Yes this is the Misthalani Merchants son, you heard of the Galands, Ruthven Galand sr. is known for selling rare antiques at discounts noone else is able to acheive. His sons taken an interest in slaying and Rathven 'Persuaded' us to take him on.

'He means bribed'

"What happened to your face Boy?" the master said. "Goblins, but it was no trouble." Ruthven replied, with a smile that annoyed Crondis even more. Crondis looked up at the master with a face that said 'No way'. "Could you excuse us one moment Ruthven." But Ruthven had already gone to assist a female slayer with her packing.

"Look, he fights better then he looks and you'll need help. You ever skinned a dragon before? I thought not, his father say's he does. Look we need these contracts. Think of him as a student and you as the teacher."

"Yeah Teach me all you know" said Ruthven coming from behind them, clearly not knowing what privacy was.

The next thing Crondis knew he was heading into taverly dungeon, with a boy 13 years younger then him and 130 times more annoying. They were both given some food, water and a bottle of antifire potion. Ruthven spent the whole way there talking about how this was his first great adventure and other things Crondis wasn't paying attention to. They were soon heading into the area full of skeletons. It was rumoured that the Chaos Druids practiced necromancy in this area and that had resulted in hundreds of ghosts, zombies and skeletons praying on the travellers that walked the dungeons.

Crondis reacted calmly, ignoring the skeletons, they didn't seem to bother him, Ruthven bothered him. Crondis was experiencing a kind of bubble in his head, that was slowly filling up the more Ruthven did. It gave him a feeling he had never had before, and one he would continue to have for the rest of the journey. 3 of the skeletons interrupted his train of thought when they went to attack him with 3 rusted swords. Crondis moved out the way parrying the blows with his staff, he was about to charge a spell when the runes in his hand were knocked to the floor by Ruthven charging through.

How am I meant to keep him safe if he charges like that!

Crondis thought Ruthven would die, and that would be the last of his Expert contracts. However Ruthven stood and faced the 3 skeletons, his left hand behind his back his right hand on one of his swords, which he waved in front of the skeletons. One of the skeletons met the challenge and raised their sword in the air. The sword then fell down to the ground with the skeletons hand still holding it, the rest of the bones shortly followed. Crondis had blinked and Ruthven had appeared to move towards the skeleton, chop off his hand and then cleave through his ribs all in a space of time he thought almost impossible for a human. He fumbled the runes again, this time it may have been on purpose just to see what Ruthven would do next. Ruthven charged towards the other 2 skeletons, slicing the blade off the hilt of one of the swords and knocking the other out of the skeletons hand. He ten cleaved through the ribs of one of the skeletons whilst the other ran off. "You're meant to be protecting 'me' not the other way around, because my fathers rich obviously means I'm not skilled." The bubble in Crondis's head grew bigger, he threw the runes into his pocket and carried on forward, ignoring Ruthven.

They took a route given to them by the slayer master, that supposedly bypassed the demon's that roamed the caverns. It was largely empty route, it was protected by a gate at the front, Crondis unlocked  the gate withthe key they were given and then they carried on down the caverns. Someone had made a crudely drawn picture of a dragon in what appeared to be blood and a old pack that was heavily singed laid against a wall. At the other end of the hall was the gate into the area where the dragons roamed. Ruthven suddenly barged past Crondis to examine the bag. The key Crondis was holding proceeded to fly through the air before falling into a small crack. Crondis then also remembered he didn't have any law runes with him to get it out.

The bubble burst.

"YOU IDIOT!!! WHY MUST YOU RUN INTO THESE SITUATIONS, WHY AM I PAIRED WITH YOU, WHO CANNOT COMPREHEND THAT I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU OR YOUR STORIES, WHO IS SO PIGHEADED HE PUTS OTHERS IN DANGER, WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS, WHY AM I PAIRED UP WITH YOU..." said Crondis, then following up by comparing Ruthven to several things, alongside several swear words and expletives. At last Crondis ran out of breath and bent over and got his breath back.

Ruthven's personality didn't change one bit after that and he immediatly said "Thats some voice you've got there..." Ruthven looked towards the gate. "You shouldn't shout so loud your gonna get the drag.. "


 * Crack*

Ruthven's nose was broken, he stumbled around a bit holding his hands towards his nose, shouting into his hands. Blood poured all down his face and onto his armour. Crondis spent this time reexamining his life, wondering what he had done to deserve this and feeling a strange feeling encouraging him to talk more. Crondis was silent for about a hour whilst Ruthven slowly managed to bandage his nose and clean up.

"Your a real piece of work, you know." Crondis said. Ruthven produced a lockpick from his sleeve and walked over to the gate. 13 seconds later it was open. "My name is Ruthven Galand, I've been slaying monsters since I was 5, I am a master swordsman and I am also a piece of work." He said with a smile. Crondis  shook his head. "I am Crondis Armen, master Mage, Summoner and Slayer, and I've got a Dragon to kill." "Well what're you standing around for then, come on." Ruthven said. The 2 men headed off deeper into the cave, Crondis talked to Ruthven about Slayer Technicques and magic Theory's, whilst Ruthven nodded his head and mentioned that he knew this stuff already.

Eventually after about a hour they reached an area surrounded by lava. Crondis spotted an egg, and above it a blue reptillian creature about 3 foot tall. "That must be what were after." Crondis said. Ruthven shook his head. "Have you not seen a dragon before, thats much too small, must be a baby." A loud roar followed this and the baby dragon ran away, a much larger dragon moved into the light provided by the lava and roared again.

Ruthven and Crondis both took a large gulp of anti fire potion. "Ok, now summon a demon to kill the dragon." Ruthven said. Crondis looked at him funnily. "You know literally nothing about magic do you?" Crondis replied. "I do, you must not be advanced enough, now boil his insides or some...". There was a loud roar, the dragon had seen them. The dragon shot a large volume of fire in their general direction, Ruthven managed to dodge out of the way before it reached them but Crondis was not so lucky, he tried to dodge but his back got the full force of the flames. Fortunately the anti fire potion had done its job so the fire didn't do much damage. Crondis looked towards the dragon and saw Ruthven lunged his swords into the dragons shoulder. The dragon roared in pain and then went to take a bite out of Ruthven, who fortunately got out of the way in time by jumping onto its back. Crondis charged an earth spell whilst Ruthven stabbed his swords into the Dragons back. "Look it can't get me when I'm on its back." The dragon responded to this by backing up into a wall, knocking Ruthven off in the process. But whilst the dragon was recovering from this Crondis sent a giant ball of earth at the Dragon. The earth pounded into the dragons head and the sound of bones breaking was heard, then through the dust shot Ruthven, plunging both his swords into the dragons neck. The Dragon let out a final roar before falling flat into the earth.

"We did it!" Ruthven yelled, not noticing the 3 other dragons behind him. Crondis thought fast though and whilst the dragons made their way towards Ruthven he pulled out a pouch and summoned a Spirit Mosquito. He sent the mosquito to distract the dragons and then Crondis ran towards Ruthven. "We need the dragon's corpse, if we can drag it over there I don't think they'll be able to see us." Ruthven nodded and grabbed one of the dragons back legs, whilst Crondis grabbed the tail. The spirit mosquito meanwhile was succesfully managing to dodge the dragons attacks whilst getting in a slash at the dragons now and then. Ruthven and Crondis succesfully dragged the Dragons corpse for about 3 minutes before the Mosquito perished. But by then they were out of sight of the dragons. After about 20 minutes of corpse dragging and listening to Ruthven complain, they found a cave that looked like it had been used by humans before, so they decided to make camp there. Crondis started a fire going with some roots and moss he found, with the help of some fire magic as well. "You ever skinned a dragon before?" He asked Ruthven. "Can't be that much different from skinning a snake" he replied. "I didn't know there were snakes in Varrock." Crondis asked curiously. Ruthven ignored him and got to work skinning the dragon. After almost 1 ½ hours the dragon was now skinless, except for the head which Ruthven left alone. "You know how much one of these is?" he asked. Crondis decided to go back to being silent for a while. "This is a collectors item, also I think I'll debone the guy as well, the bones are worth quite a bit as well." Crondis's stomach rumbled. "How does it taste?" he asked. "How does what taste?" Ruthven replied. "Dragon." "I don't know, it doesn't produce any toxin so it shouldn't be poisonous." Crondis managed to take some flesh off the dragon and prepare to cook it. Ruthven managed to cut off some to and took a bite of it. "Doesn't seem poisonous" he said. "The taste isn't that good either." Crondis ignored the fact that the son of a merchant was eating his meat raw and kept cooking his meat. After it was done he managed to eat the whole of the cooked flesh. It wasn't that good but he knew he shouldn't waste food.

"You need to get out more" Ruthven said after they had finished resting. "What do you mean?" Crondis replied. "If you continue being a slayer it won't be that interesting forever, you should be an adventurer like me." Crondis chuckled, it was weird, he'd never laughed before. "You mean like Dionyssius, Radimmus and Xenia. I prefer the stable life of slaying, knowing my target before getting into trouble." "At least go on one adventure before disprroving it, look take this." Ruthven produced a screwed up piece of paper that appeared to be a ticket. "What is this?" "Its a ticket to a boat, they're attempting to restart trade in the eastern lands, go you'll enjoy it. I've got other things more important to do." Crondis held the ticket in his hand and pondered wether to go or not all the way until they made it back to Taverly, where the slayer master greeted them. Ruthven handed over the hide (Hiding the bones and head in his bag) and rushed off towards white wolf mountain. Crondis meanwhile headed towards port Sarim, after all, he had to prove to Ruthven that he wasn't capable of adventuring.

I can't even pronounce half these places
Crondis handed the captain the pass, the sea breeze blowing through his hair, many things on his back. The port was dilapidated, drunk sailors looking for work stumbled around, throwing up. The captain was renowned for his superb skill with the wheel, if anyone could find a trade route between the East and West, he could. "This is that Galand's boy's pass, who the hell are you!".

Crondis simply said "I'm his friend, he gave me the pass and told me to tell you he wasn't interested in bringing back trade." "I always hated that kid" The captain replied.

'''Last call, All Hands on Deck Lads. We sail East! '''The captain shouted.

"Your a mage right, if you spot any Monsters out there, make sure to get them away from us" The captain said smiling then suddenly looking serious. "What have I gotten myself into" Crondis said.

The ship set sail, the closest Island, was Tuai Leit, which was several hours journey away. Crondis pretended to be on the lookout for 'monsters' but stared along the coastline of western Gielinor, watching the different places. He saw the Wizards Tower, The swamps, and the Desert. It looked so vast, one day he would travel to all these places. The ship sprung a leak at one point so the ship stopped for supplies at an uncharted piece of swamp land East of Sophanem. Crondis took this chance to explore. Whilst examining what appeared to be a giant Insect, a scream was heard from the ship. Crondis rushed over to find the hugest crocodile he had ever seen. It was the only crocodile he had ever seen, but it was still the biggest one he had seen 10 years later. It was about 20ft long  and 3ft wide with teeth the size of daggers. Its scales were dark green and small spikes rose out along his back and down his tail. However noticing it, filled Crondis with a strange feeling in his head. Without thinking Crondis charged up a Earth Blast and launched it at the crocodiles head. It let out a roar and collapsed. The captain congratulated him and suggested they tie him up to sell to the Eastern Lands.

It was getting late, all the hammocks were reserved for the crew, so Crondis slept in the Hold, next to the crocodile. The crocodile had blood red eyes and eyed Crondis with them eagerly. Crondis stared back at him, he felt the urge to speak it, so he did. He told him stories, the same stories he told Ruthven but with more detail, the crocodile didn't move or react in anyway it just stared at him. Crondis grew tired and fell asleep, with strange words filling his head "story, for you."

The meal will come soon Patience, good things come to those that wait. The men were new, they didn't know the dangers. The armour could easily be pierced, the weapons would not penetrate. Nothing else about them was important, it had been almost 2 days since the last meal. They produced sound, it meant nothing, it would be their last sound however. The light died down, 2 of them rested, one stood watch. The legs were close, 1 swift movement and he would be down.

The bite, through tissue, muscle, blood the taste. A scream, another lunge, the scream ended, delicous but must stay alert. The 2nd one, not fully alert yet, act now. He didn't scream, almost done. Last man, sword, not strong enough. Barely a scratch, he runs, he swims, too slow, drag him back.

Competition, he thinks better, he's stupid, he paid price, he'll die soon enough, finish the meal. Crunch through bones, tear through muscle, best part next. Twice more, great night, not hungry. Move back, rest, can wait few more days.

Pain, stronger, him, connection, revenge?, help?, rest, tired.

New day, must move, must prepare, can wait as long as possible...

Crondis woke up. The crocodile was right next to the bars of the cage, so was Crondis fortunatelly. He still had all his limbs, this didn't look like the underworld. He was fine. He'd had the strangest dream, his head throbbed. The crocodile groaned behind him. Talk again. Crondis wanted to talk when the ship suddenly swerved. "Steady now" a voice above shouted. They had arrived in Tuai Leit.

The port staff greeted them and a small bit of trading went on. Crondis spent some time exploring, his mind full of the thoughts of the previous dream. There was something strange about the crocodile, the size for one thing, crocodiles eyes aren't normall red either. He also felt a strange connection to it. Unfortunately while he was pondering a man in fancy eastern clothes, closely followed by about 5 soldiers walked up to him.

"We don't want your kind here." he said. "Your petty quarrels with the gods can stay in the west, your a mage, give it up. Soon your kind will fall under ours." The man then punched Crondis in the stomach, it wasn't a particularly strong punch, but it was enough to knock the wind out of him. This was shortly followed by another punch, and then several kicks from the soldiers again. When they walked away Crondis was covered in bruises, he though about revenge but chose against it. Crondis was walking back when he saw the men again, picking on a man wearing a long robe, Crondis decided enough was enough and launched a small water spell at the mens feet. They all fell over, there robes getting covered in mud. They then shouted something which Crondis couldn't hear and headed off towards the port. The man in the long robe uttered thanks but ran off before Crondis could talk to him. Crondis walked back, he managed to buy a bottle of wine from a trader who accepted western coin.

Crondis went back towards the ship, the captain was in a huff. "Local reports say 2 monsters are fighting south of here. Were going to head Waiko next, but the monsters will give us a 2 day long detour. "We'll survive though." Crondis headed back to the hold, the Crocodile was still there, still staring at him. Crondis took another swig of the wine. Crondis was told the crocodile more stories including what had happened on Twai Leit before eventually growing tired again. Another story.

In a cave, a man, hooded. A large stick, something else. Words, colour, stones, blood, fire, pain, strength, flash, darkness.

Crondis woke up, it was still dark. The waves lapped against the ship still, the crocodile was still there. Crondis was able to remember it more vividly. There was some mage with a book and a staff, he had cast some sort of spell. He would have to research the spell more. But what if it 'was' just a dream, he'd learnt that summoners could speak to animals but nothing about seeing into their dreams. Maybe it was all just a dream, that weird eastern food had a bad effect on him. Crondis went back to sleep.

He was in a blank landscape, clear sky, flat grassland whereever he looked. He turned around. It was the mage from his dream before, his face was black. "You share the blood" he said. "His and mine". He then promptly vanished. Crondis turned back, confused, walking out of the cave, out into the swamp. He knew this was a dream so he accepted the fact he was now in a swamp.

The mage appeared in front of him, this time he looked like the hooded man from Twai Leit. "Who are you" shouted Crondis. "How could you forget me?" Ruthven said, swinging his rapiers in the air like the idiot he is. "This is your fault, I didn't go crazy until I met you! Now I'm having strange dreams and dealing with huge monsters and... this doesn't matter your just a dream." Crondis shouted again. "Hey, this is your dream, You can just make go away whenever you want, but if I go you'll have to deal with..." Ruthven said, getting cut off when he disappeared.

"We don't need your kind here" the man shouted. The punch landed straight into Crondis's stomach, knocking him to the floor next to the fire. It was a dream but it still hurt. Then he fell straight into the ocean. The waves splashed against his face, he coughed and spluttered, he lifted his head out of the water, he saw the men again next to the fire, he was in the swamp again. Next to him was the crocodile, it growled at him. You must wake up, use my strength.

The red eyes flashed, Crondis was back in front of the men. "Your going to die here filth!" the punch landed against his head and Crondis fell toeh ground. He was repeatedly getting kicked on the ground. "Use my strength" the words appearing in front of him. A great pain erupted across his body, blood filled his mouth. The neck of one of the men was clenched in his jaws. The kicks now felt like soft touches, he was much bigger then them now, his skin turned green and scaley, his vision blurred red, his teeth replaced by razor sharp white daggers, he was the crocodile. He wanted revenge.

His jaws closed with immense forced, breaking through bone, seperating the head from the body. He grabbed the next mans leg pulling the man down, he then chomped through the torso like it was paper. He looked up, another man brought down a sword against him. The sword drove into his back, piercing the scales. Another sword from the other man pierced him, then another, the men kept driving the swords into him. HIs vision was fading from red to black, a voice filled his head "Wake up, Wake up". Words floated past him again, "Use my strength" it said.

The men pulled away from him going for the finishing blow, the sword came down, he saw it clearly. The sword deflected off him, he felt a surge of strength rise within him, his vision came back to a darkish red, he looked down at them, they couldn't even reach his head now, his teeth were now the size of swords. The men raised their swords, but Crondis grabbed them in his jaws, their screams erupted out as they were torn apart by his teeth. Then there was 1 left, but he was running, in fact swimming away, he was back in the ocean. He swam after him, he could have reached him in seconds, however he let him keep swimming. "Wake up" the voice kept saying, he ignored it. He was going to make him suffer tearing off each limb at a... "Wake up". The waves splashed against his face, his vision faded. He couldn't let him get away, he swam closer, he opened his jaws, then a ship crashed into the side of his face.

A sailor with a bushy beard was slapping him in the face, "Wake up" he kept shouting. The sailor pushed him to the ground, Crondis was staring at the ceiling. He had a splitting head ache, he appeared to have bit his tongue, blood slowly filling his mouth. He spat it out against the floor. "What happened?" he asked. "The wine you were drinking is infamous across us sailors, it causes weird dreams you sometimes can't wake up from. You were lucky, one guy I knew drowned in his own vomit while under the influence." Crondis then threw up in the bucket next to him, the sailor left him alone. The crocodile next to him growled again. Crondis thought it said something but he was too busy vomiting to notice.

2 days and I'm already insane!
Crondis considered taking another drink of the wine, but after remembering the last dream, decided against it. Crondis instead decided to keep a journal. Everything he wrote he said aloud, sitting next to the crocodile. Most of the crew now tended to stay away from him, thinking he was going insane. "Day 1." Crondis said aloud.

"I have been travelling for 2 days in the eastern isles, and I am going insane. I am sane enough to know it though. I am currently sleeping in the hold next to a very large crocodile that appears to have magical properties. Actually I might be going insane again, it might just be an ordinary crocodile. The seas around me are filled with monsters, my dreams are just as mad as I am. It turns out I might be a bloodthirsty killer on the inside, on the outside I'm still normal though. I think."

Crondis struggled with what to write next, he was tired, he had been tired this entire journey. His vision blurred and went white. He thought he heard a laugh behind him.

He was in a pure white landscape again, in front of him stood himself. However this version of him spoke in growls and with a harsh rough voice. "Your in danger" he said. "Who are you?" Crondis asked. "I was given a name, but I have long since forgotten it." he replied. "However, you have shared stories with me, you have treated me like a friend, even though you only met me a few days ago, when you captured me." "I must be going insane" Crondis said. "So your the crocodile, tell me whats happening."

Crondis's double's expression stayed blank. "There is a spell. A dark spell designed to create a bond between human and animal. The hope is that both become more powerful from this. I was snatched away from my parents and hatched in unfamiliar territory. A man was hoping to cast the spell, hoping to increase his power. I don't know the specifics but I know the spell didn't work. It was painful, a surge of pain as my whole body was bombarded with energy. I got most of my power, however it took its toll on the man. He was dangerously weak, but the bond didn't latch hold of him. He fled. I fled, in time. I was in a swamp, I wondered around, it hurt every step, I was hungry. I remember seeing my reflection, I was bruised, battered, weak. A hunter noticed this and chose me as his target. At first I was prepared to accept death, the arrow went into my back. "

Crondis continued to listen, curious and concerned. However the landscape changed to this swamp, a featureless man with a knife and bow looked at Crondis, following the instructions his other self spoke.

"My life should have ended there, but then the hunter walked forward to finish me off and he tripped. It happened in slow motion for me, the mans bow broke from the force, his knife flew into the swamp below, then his leg was cut and bruised. The blood slowly crept down his leg. The pain grew again, this time though I embraced it.

Crondis coughed and wheezed, blood splurting out from his mouth. His robes faded away, leaving him naked in a cold swamp. "The pain brought change." Crondis grasped his hand, it contorted and changed. It went dark, green, scaly. "The smell rushed into me." The hand had become a claw, a smell of blood overwhelmed him, his arm grew fatter, stronger, the scales began to appear all over his body. The pain was immense. "The smell was followed by the shriek of the blow, the words ringing in my ear. Crondis's legs changed, causing him to fall on all fours, he hated the pain but It made him feel stronger, shrieking in delight, the pain once more increased and the changes grew stronger. "The man noticed me." Crondis's leg were now fully transformed, his back erupted into pain as he felt his whole spine change shape. Small dark green spikes shout out, each bringing another spike of pain. "He struggled, but slipped once again." His back was now covered in scales and spikes, growing to accomodate his new limbs. His chest now big and yellow. "He shouted" Crondis was in pain beyond his wildest dreams, his eyes cried blood, which dripped all down his face. His jaw cracking and extending. "He screamed." HIs teeth grew sharper and more numorous, his jaw now fully extended reached only a few feet away from the man. "He became paralyzed with fear." A sharp pain as a long spike tail extended from his back, the blood flow from his eyes stopped, leaving 2 big red orbs in its place. Crondis looked at his reflection in the river, he saw what he had become. "My eyes met his, he was now the helpless prey." Crondis stared at the man, the pain slowly subsided. He looked helpless, he didn't deserve this. Crondis then felt the pain in his stomach. He was so very hungry, and he had tried to kill him. HIs mind battled between different scenario's coming out as a growl which terrified the man further. "Then I struck." Crondis tried to resist, however the power inside him took control, he grabbed the mans leg, his teeth burrowing into the flesh. The taste was so good, it gave him the feeling the pain did yet it didn't hurt. "The feeling." The jaw closed further, Crondis no longer fought it, he was now the animal. "I forgot everything else" The jaw closed shut, the leg gave way, tendons and bones snapped. The man screamed then fell to the floor, he had passed out. "He made a fitting meal.". Crondis's vision slowly blurred red, his thoughs replaced with feelings of pleasure, however his hunger increase as he ate more, causing him to eat more and more. All that was left of the man sunk down into the swamp.

"You know the pain I felt now". Crondis was no longer hungry, he was content, he wanted to rest. A click happened in Crondis's mind and he looked at the red pool of water that was once a man. He was racked with guilt, the man was slowly eaten away by him, he hadn't cared that fortunately he passed out easing the pain. Worst of all was the feeling he had gotten filling himself. He wanted the dream to end but it didn't. "You've gained your mind back. My behaviour no longer influences you. You shouldn't feel guilty, nothing you could have done would have stopped it. This was my memory, he was doomed to die that way.

Crondis looked up at his doppelganger, he still looked like him, same expression as before. However Crondis was still a crocodile, but he spoke with a normal voice. "Whats happening?" Crondis asked. "Somehow I knew you were in trouble and was able to share our minds. The bond the man was trying to create seems to have passed to you. You are being killed by a man you've met before on this ship. He slips something into your drink." he replied. "Why do we have this bond?" Crondis asked. "I don't know how the magic works." he replied. "How did you know all the stuff before?" Crondis asked. "There may have been a brief bond between me and the man, I may have gained the knowledge there or the spell made me more aware of what was happening around me." "You sound very intellectual for a crocodile, before you spoke very little." "The bond caused us to be able to communicate on a deep understanding, what I'm saying isn't actually what your hearing, and what you say isn't what I hear." "Are you gonna tell me more of your history?" Crondis asked curiously. "Another time, for now we have to save your life." he replied.

This is the man. A man appeared in front of him, he looked familiar. Crondis remembered him as one of the men protecting the eastern man. He also remembered chomping through his neck in his dream but he put that to one side as the urge to do it again started to appear. "I'm going to try something." the crocodile said. "Your body is weak but I can feel like I can take control. I will try wake up and knock the man near the cage. He should be able to be dragged into the cage, where you, in my body, can finish him off." Crondis argued against this saying "I'm not going to kill a man, and not so violently as well." The crocodile shook his head "Would you rather die. Anyway you'll feel like a bloodthirsty killer, it won't really be you willing him to die. Also I havn't eaten in a week." Crondis sighed. "Ok fine." There was a sharp pain and Crondis closed his eyes.

Crondis opened them. He was on all fours, covered in scales and in a cage. He tried to speak but only growls came out. "Shut up!" whispered a man standing over Crondis's actual body said. This was the man trying to kill him. Upon noticing him Crondis checked his body, it was twitching and the eyes were slowly starting to open. "Phew" Crondis thought, then he remembered the plan. His stomach, well, the crocodiles stomach rumbled, causing a pain he felt in the dream to occur. His mind changed, he stared at the man. "Hungry. must wait. soon." he though, his mind slowly rearranging itself to fit the beast he had become. Crondis's jaws just about fit through the bars. The man only had to take a few steps back and he would be his.

The man stood over Crondis's body with a bottle of liquid. "It seems sea life didn't agree with him. An eastern disease took over, killing him from the inside, first sending him into an endless sleep before dying in great pain." Crondis's body groaned and tried to hit the man. Crondis opened his jaws. The man kicked Crondis's body on the ground. "Stay down" He moved a step backwards but he wasn't close enough. "Closer. so Hungry." Crondis thought. Crondis's body then retaliated with an proper punch that landed in the leg of the man. The man stepped backwards, his leg inbetween the crocodiles jaws. Crondis's eyes grew darker. "I'm gonna get you for that you little bas--". The jaws clamped together on the mans leg. The man let out a scream that likely would grab the attention of the upper decks. Crondis pulled and tugged, trying to drag the man into the cage with him. The man tried to resist, pulling himself away from the bars. Crondis pulled harder, the tendons snapping in the mans leg from the pressure, blood pouring out of the wounds. The man tried but the pain grew too much. With enough pulling eventually the man was pulled into the cage. Bones broke as his limbs were contorted to fit through. "Kill. Revenge. Feast." Words circled around inside Crondis's head. THe man screamed, so Crondis let go of the leg and went for the neck. The sound was soon replaced with blood. THe man given enough time would have choked to death on his own blood, but Crondis wanted to make him suffer. He dug his claw into the mans chest, ripping it open, guts slipping over his claw. His other claw went into the mans back. Crondis was enjoying himself, however his head began to throb. Crondis let out a growl, his vision growing white. Just before he lost conciousness he closed his jaws, he heard the head drop to the floor.

Crondis looked up, his head still full of thoughts about killing and feasting. However the throb in his head brought him back to his senses. He wondered what had he done. Why didn't he kill him quickly. Men ran down into the hold, one gasped. The man with the beard came up to Crondis and shook him. "Wake up!" he kept shouting. Crondis woke up, he felt like he had a massive hangover. He checked his surroundings. There was the captain, the sailor with the beard, 2 other sailors, then the cage. Inside was the crocodile snacking on the guts of a fresh kill. "My kill." Crondis thought, who then vomited with disgust onto the floor. Next to his vomit on the floor was the mans head, which had rolled out the cage. He vomited some more.

"This man is wanted in the west." The captain said. "He attempted to poison a whole villages water supply for cash. Looks like you were his next target.". Crondis vomited some more. The sailor with the beard handed him some rum which Crondis drank greedily. The next few moments were spent with the captain interrogating him about details of the man. Crondis told him everything, except the parts about the dreams and the crocodile. "He should have watched where he kept his feet." The captain said. "The blasted creatures tortured him, nobody deserves that kind of death, what kind of monster is he." Crondis felt a sudden wave of guilt. "No matter" The captain said. "You stay down here, have some food, and a good rest." Crondis ate his meal alone, it didn't taste as nice as the meal he was having before, he then got the thought out of his and continued to eat.

The crocodile snapped the bones, the flesh was mostly devoured. Crondis couldn't stop watching. The crocodile faced him, words filled his mind, they spoke with the voice of the crocodile. "I hated the feeling, being inside your head. Actually dreading the sounds, I wanted it to stop. However that needed to happen for you to survive. One day you can repay me." Crondis spoke aloud in his mind. "You don't seem to be feeling that now then?". Another bone snapped in the crocodiles jaws. "I was hungry, he would've died anyway. However I don't usually torture them like that and enjoy it that much." Crondis felt even guiltier. The crocodile noticed and said "Do not worry, having that much power can lead to huge changes in personality. I tried to swap minds back with you and fortunately you let me. You could have ended up torturing him for ages but you had some control." Crondis didn't seem to perk up at the fact the crocodile tried to say 'You didn't torture him that badly'. He didn't have to torture him at all. "Good night" the crocodile said. The piercing red of the eyes vanished behind the dark eyelids of the crocodile. "Night" Crondis said in his head and aloud.

That night Crondis dreamed about the events that happened. He was in the cage with the man again. He was no longer human. Did it really matter if he enjoyed it? Crondis thought about not continueing with the dream. But it would be better if he got the bloodthirstyness out of his system. The mans screams filled Crondis's head, he'd be sane and less murderous in the morning Crondis thought, as intestine wrapped around his claw.

Shut up and put this bag over your head!
Crondis was disgusted about the dream he had last night. The crocodile was still lying down in his cage. Crondis couldn't tell if he was asleep or even dead. The crocodile answered this question by growling again.

Crondis stepped out onto the deck, the light hurt his eyes, he had spent the last 2 days in the hold, in the head of a murderous reptillian beast and in a state of almost permanent sleep. He shielded his eyes and saw Waiko. Despite the threat of monsters, ships still set sail to and from this place frequently. The ship pulled into port, merchants bustling across the port exchanging wares for goods and chimes. Goods exchanged included Bamboo, Gunpowder, Jade and Slaves. Crondis checked his coin purse. He had exchanged some coin for chimes in a port, and had a quite satisfactory amount of chimes. He stepped onto the port, and went to get some food that wasn't fish. Or human...

Crondis found a small inn overlooking the harbour. He went in and ordered something that didn't seem like fish and some water. He took a look at his surroundings and saw a group of wanted posters of men, one of them had a red x over his face and Crondis recognised him as the man he... stopped. He also saw the eastern man who had commanded him, he was on the port searching for something. He hadn't seen crondis, but he was about to disappear from view. Crondis took the chance and followed him.

As he turned the corner he saw a ship, it looked very impressive, contained several cannons and cranes were constantly loading goods onto it. Crondis then looked at the goods. It was mostly crates of bamboo and barrels of gunpowder, but then Crondis spotted something. Next to it was a large cage, in the cage was the crocodile. Crondis saw the men pulling the cage onto the ship and into a large hold. He needed to get aboard that ship. Unfortunately it was guarded by the men from before, he didn't want to have to deal with them again. A man tapped him on the shoulder.

Crondis quickly turned around, runes already in his hand when he recognised the man as the guy he had saved in Twai Leit. The man lead Crondis into an alleyway where he took off his hood. He was in his late teens, he had black hair and striking green eyes. His face showed a few bruises on it, which distracted those who looked at him as they were quite big. "Your the mage they're after, right? The one who helped me before." Crondis nodded. The man looked relieved and said "My name is Charad. I'm a slave to the man your after." Crondis looked confused. "I'm not after him, he has a crocodile on that ship that I'd like to stop him from owning." Charad looked slightly confused as well before explaining about the man. "His name is Ken-Jai. His family own a illegal gunpowder operation in Hanto. He is a spoilt child of a man but he isn't to be underestimated. He's likely to keep that crocodile alive until he can get it to a Taxidermist." The thought of having the crocodile stuffed on some guys mantelpiece sicked Crondis. "How do I get on board?" Crondis asked. Charad looked stumped then finally came up with an answer. "It is a long journey so the beast likely needs food, the last time he had a beast like that on his ship, he fed it a theif. So I was thinking..."

Crondis was annoyed and slightly scared. an hour had passed since the argument with Charad. He was half naked, his belongings smuggle on board by Charad, his hands tied and a bag placed over his head to avoid suspicoun. Crondis couldn't see he could only hear. He was being walked forward. "Ken wants us to put him in the cage with the beast." Charrad said. An unknown man breathed deeply onto Crondis. "You idiot, your meant to knock him out first, the beast is still drugged anyway..." A large blow hit the back of Crondis' head and he passed out.

Crondis was in the white plain again, a sign he was probably near the crocodile. Upon looking around Crondis saw what appeared to be a baby crocodile. Crondis walked up to it. The smaller crocodile opened his mouth and began to speak in the familiar tone of voice. "Caedis" he said. "What?" Crondis replied. The man who had cast the spell on the crocodile appeared, he spoke with Crondis's voice. "I have named the subject Caedis, it rather fits the beast. The power it possesses combined with this spell will grant me unbeliev---" The man faded just as quickly as he appeared. Crondis waited a moment before speaking. "Your name is Caedis?" The crocodile nodded. "The liquid they gave me, and the understanding I got from you has allowed me to relieve the event in greater detail. The man wasn't a wizard, at least not a very good one. My father had apparently been a problem for him, this is what got his attention for wanting me. I was to give him great strength and endurance, however he hadn't read the spell correctly." Caedis breathed deeply before speaking again. "The drug has made me more like you for the moment. Its sickening, looking back at what I did and grimacing at the carnage. My senses are slowly coming back."

"The closer you are to me, the quicker I'll heal, where are you?" Crondis thought for a moment. The scene changed around him, they were in a cage, wooden boards lined the outside, but they stretched into darkness. Crondis then said "Were on Ken-Jai's ship." Caedis shook a bit, seemingly getting bigger. Ken stepped out of the darkness and laughed. Caedis growled. "The man from your dream." Crondis looked at Caedis shocked. "You were watching that?" Caedis growled again, growing slightly bigger, his eyes going red. "I was controlling it, you were going to die if I didn't do something." Crondis ignored the fact he no longer had any privacy and explained the backstory behind Ken. Caedis meanwhile was becoming more and more like the crocodile Crondis knew him as. Caedis' jaw snapped together sharply. "Meat like that shouldn't be left alive." Crondis was alarmed at the sudden change in Caedis. "Whats happening to you?" "The drugs wearing off, I'll soon be back to my former self." The world suddenly started shaking around Crondis. His vision blurred.

Wake up, the Heist begins.
Charad was shaking Crondis awake from the outside of the cage. Crondis took a quick look around. It was dark, lit my a few lanterns, the cage had tighter bars then the one on the ship before, where as Crondis could have walked out between the bars last time, he wouldn't have been able to this time. Charad handed Crondis a bag with his stuff in, and a key to the cage. "The crew are all sleeing, however Ken's guards patrol the decks. Head up to the top deck, the luxurious looking cabin is ken's." Charad then quickly left to see if the coast was clear. Crondis turned to look at Caedis. He was still asleep, however he looked just a menacing as if awake. Crondis was glad this beast was on his side.

Charad unlocked the cage. The gate made a loud creaking sound as it opened, much to the annoyance of everyone present. Crondis stepped out slowly. The sound of footsteps was coming from the stairs, Crondis quickly hid behind a crate while Charad disappeared. It was one of Ken's guard from before. He walked up to the cage, "What the?" he said. Unfortunately before he could say anything else Charad was behind him. Charad reached into his belt, pulled out a dagger and stabbed it into the mans neck. The man let out a silent cry before expiring on the floor. Charad searched the body, taking the armour and a few chimes. "Come on" he said, placing the armour in a crate near the stairs. Crondis nodded and followed Charad up the stairs.

Up on deck there were several cannons, along with the 3 other guards from before. They were patrolling the area around the 'luxurious' cabin, at a quick glance Crondis saw that it would be near impossible to get in. Charad instructed Crondis to follow him, they moved slowly to a closer spot where they could see better. Charad cautioned Crondis. "We'll wait a bit and watch their patrol patterns." he said. Crondis suddenly had a strange feeling in his head, a feeling of release. He'd just realised he'd left the cage open, and that now there was a huge crocodile rampaging around the decks. "Any minute now." Crondis suddenly felt the feeling he got when he eats something. "This is going well" he thought. Charad turned to him. "I think were going to have to take them out." he said. Crondis suddenly had a idea. "Wait here." he said. Crondis got into a position where he could throw something at one of them. Crondis charged a medium earth spell. He launched it at one of the guards, aiming for his head. The blow struck making a dull thud, the guard it hit was knocked out from the blow, unfortunately he fell back off the side of the ship. There was a splash but the other guards didn't notice. Charad walked over to him. "Good, only 2 left." There was a soft growl behind them. "Dammit" Crondis silently whispered.

Charad turned round and ran silently away from the crocodile, whispering curse words as he went. Crondis turned around to face the crocodile, his snout was covered in blood and a piece of fabric was hanging out of his jaw, ripped and blood stained. Crondis, now use to the telepathic talks thy were having, said "Get back in the cage!" Caedis replied with another growl, which Crondis's experience in summoning translated as "no". Crondis started to get annoyed when one of the guards realised there were only 2 of them. He called the other guard over. They started conversing to each other, the talk mostly about the whereabouts of the other guard. Crondis was starting to panic, he told Caedis "Look, we don't want to wake everyone else up so just stay here until we deal with them." Caedis growled. "Fine." Crondis ran over to Charad. "What do we do?" he whispered. "I know, same way as before, you go over there but cast a bigger spell this time. I'll distract them." Crondis ran silently to a point behind the men and began to charge the spell. A large splosh was heard. The guards went over to investigate. Crondis couldn't hold the spell and released it. The large ball of earth sailed through the air, knocking both men over the side of the boat. Their screams drowned out by the wind, Crondis moved up to the large door.

Charad moved up to him. "I've only been in here once, but I do know a few things. The 'business' he does in there needs to be private so the walls are very thick, this makes it relatively sound proof. He gloated that not even a scream could be heard on the other side. However the door makes a loud sound when you open it and close it. You'll have to be quick. Now I need to head over there for a moment, i'll get a lifeboat ready as well." Charad then ran off before Crondis could ask him anything. Crondis turned the crank and opened the door, it took quite a bit of effort and made a groaning sound but Crondis managed it. Unfortunately the gap was wide enough for Caedis to slip through, Crondis tried to tell him to stop but it was too late. Crondis closed the door quickly, it made a dull thud as it closed. The sound of the wind outside ceased.

Crondis smelt a strong prescence of alcohol as he came in, this would make things easier. Crondis hid behind a clothed table, the sound of Ken stumbling about spilling his drink was the only thing he could hear. "I'll show you father you--" was the only real piece of sense Crondis could hear coming from his mouth. Crondis took in his surroundings, the room was split into 2 parts, this room had a large clothed table along with many paintings of ken and several weapons on display. The next room was through a set of double doors, one of them was slightly ajar, allowing crondis to see a Large bed, desk and a shelf full of liquor. Crondis then looked next to him. Caedis was staring at him with his piercing red eyes. He didn't have time for this now, he realised he was actually here to kill Ken. Charad had wanted him to kill him. Crondis had never killed a man before, well not of his own free will, the other time it felt like another force was controlling him. Caedis growled and Crondis turned towards him. He then said "A gift.". Crondis suddenly felt lie Caedis was trying to get into his head, curious, Crondis let him. His vision faded, he suddenly realised this was a bad idea.

Crondis woke up, he thought he was lying down on the floor, he tried to get up but he couldn't. There was a soft ache running from his head to his tail. Crondis then became aware of what had happened to him. He was in Caedis's body. He heard Caedis' voice in his head. "Now you can take care of him". Crondis realised what was happening. "What did you do!". "You couldn't kill him, now you can.". "Why can't you kill him!". "I only kill for food or self defence. Anyway, now you can have revenge". Crondis was livid. Caedis was trying to bring out the killer in him. Crondis looked and saw Caedis was actually in his body. Caedis said "I will leave you alone now, good hunting." Caedis got up and walked towards the door. Crondis realised that Caedis made them switch back last time, he could switch back. Crondis willed himself to switch back, he found himself losing conciousness, Caedis had sunk to the floor too, but then. "What are you doing?" Crondis found himself thinking, his conciousness returning. Caedis got up silently, he said to Crondis "Don't fight it." before going back to the door again. Crondis was about to try again but then he started to think "Why waste the oppurtunity." Crondis hesistated. What was he thinking. "What are you thinking, this is perfect. Now you can kill him." Caedis's idea was beginning to sound more and more convincing. ''"Technically, you won't be the one killing him." "Charad is counting on you." "He beat you up, then tried to have you killed." "Not even a scream can escape these walls" "Caedis has already left, you may as well do it." ''Crondis hadn't even realised Caedis had left, the doors behind him closed with a thud. Ken dropped his glass on the floor. "Yes, go father! Just leave me! I'll kill you and take the busi-- ahh ****!". Crondis had no idea what had happened but then he smelt it. He'd cut him self on the glass. The smell got to him.

Crondis thought to himself. "He's a maniac, he really needs to be killed.". Crondis moved towards the bedroom. "Anyway I can do it quickly, then I can get out of this body faster". Crondis' tail bashed into the table as he moved closer, he wasn't use to being this big. Ken started rambling again, talking high of himself and saying death threats at the broken glass. "Should he really die quickly" he thought. "I don't need to make this go any longer then it needs to." Crondis pushed open the door with his snout, the smell of blood getting stronger.

Ken turned round from his ramblings and stared at Crondis. His face caused anger to rise up in him. Every word he said contributed to this anger, like he was purposely annoying him. "Look its my soon to be trophy. Couldn't wait till Hanto hmmmm. Your going to be stuffed and put on display for all to see." Crondis growled, he edged closer to him." Ken walked round to the side of him, waving the top half of a broken bottle around, a slight trickle of blood flowing down. "It doesn't need to be perfect, a hole or 2 wouldn't matter much". Ken stabbed downwards onto Crondis's scaled back. The glass didn't even pierce the skin it just broke off into pieces on the floor. Crondis growled. "My turn". Crondis used his strength to swing his tail at Ken's legs. The force was more then Crondis expected. The impact came with a sickening crack of bones and the thud of Ken falling onto the floor. Ken shouted and groaned. He'd broken his legs and couldn't get back up. The soundproofing he'd insisted on had proven to be his downfall. But he still had hope. Ken remembered something, he placed his hand on top of Crondis's jaw to stop him. Crondis tried to open his jaw but he couldn't, but he knew it didn't matter. Crondis got his claw and forced it onto Ken's chest. Ken refused to move his hand so Crondis moved his claw. It went downwards, leaving deep gashes along Ken's torso. The pain forced Ken to move his arm, Crondis then made sure it wouldn't happen again. He bit off Ken's hand.

The Crondis of before had gone. He stared at Ken's bloody stump as he chewed through the hand. Thought went through his head. ''"He doesn't deserve a quick death!" "Noone will hear his screams!",'' his mind wasn't his own, nor was it Caedis's. But it didn't matter to Crondis at the moment. Crondis looked at the stump again, it seemed that the job was only half done. He went in for the next bite.

Crondis remembered the detail of everything that happened that day, The horror of what he had turned into. He was even worse then Caedis. He remembered the sights, the bones, the organ draped across the floor, how he'd saved the eyes for later before replacing them with pools of blood. The sounds, bones breaking, muscle tearing, the sound of his screams piercing his brain, until he silenced them. Worst of all was the taste. He remembered the taste vividly, the fact he enjoyed the taste sickened him even more. Eventually it ended.

Crondis turned back, his job done. What's done is done. Crondis tried to close the door behind him with his tail, but no matter how hard he tried it was still slightly ajar. As he walked back out, what he'd done had finally dawned on him, then he passed out.

"I'm being dragged somewhere." "I'm in a life boat, I'm tied up.". There was a splash, Crondis slowly managed to open his eyes. Charad was there, along with some of the possessions that had once belonged to Ken. Next to him was his body, Caedis still possessing it. Charad appeared to be talking about what he'd seen. Crondis couldn't bare to hear, so he decided to just go to sleep.

Its not that noticeable is it?
It was the white plane again, Crondis was already sick of it. He looked at himself, he had a lack of scales, he was back to himself, hopefully. However when he saw Caedis, he looked just like crondis, with scales and piercing red eyes. It creeped him out but Crondis wouldn't dare admit it. "You know." Caedis started. "Life through your mind is very different, your not just thinking about surviving, your thinking amazing things." Crondis stared at him and smiled, he guessed this was his way of complimenting him. "However when you have my mind. I may be a beast, but my prey doesn't stay alive that long." Jerk. "You change my mind, you make it into what you just were. We'll have to deal with it later. I'd wake up if I were you." Crondis had a lot to think about, so he woke up.

Charad was directing the sail on the boat, Crondis was sat back lying on something hard and uncomfortable. It was Caedis, who was still asleep, as he breathed in and out the spikes on his back dug into Crondis' back. "Your awake." Charad said. "I guess I owe you my thanks. I've sent the ship towards where the monsters were last seen. Hopefully that'll be the last we see of that ship." Crondis was in shock, again, this trip wasn't good for his heart, thats for sure. "You mean, all the other crew on the ship have been..." "Were heading to a friends house." Charad interuppted. "My detour meant we're closer to Aminishi, thats where he lives, just gotta turn southwest here." The sun baked down on them, Crondis was sweating. WIzard robes weren't meant for hot climates. Crondis took off his top robe, he'd noticed that he was covered in Bruises, he also thought his back might be bleeding. Charad was probably use to the heat, but he still took off his cloak. Thats when Crondis saw it, at first he thought Charad had been stabbed, but he actually had a Grey fin sticking out of his back. Charad didn't seem to pay attention to it so he thought it must be normal.

"Mind if I ask you a question?" Crondis said. "Shoot." Charad replied. "I've noticed the... on your back." "You mean the fin? Well, it is a long way, guess I can tell you my history."

"I was born Charad-on, my parents were from Goshima. I'm whats called a Sea Orphan, its when you have a part of a fish on your body or something like that." Charad sighed, and turned the sail again. "You probably don't know, but Goshima is a purist colony. They tend to kill people like me. Outcasts. My parents were persuaded to drown me at birth. However my uncle intervened. He looked after me for a bit, however he couldn't protect me forever. Thats when I met the friend I was telling you about. He's western as well. His names Maxwell Raines, but he prefers Max. He's a wizard and Scholor, moved to Waiko about 20 years ago, spent his time exploring the Arc. He met me, asked my uncle if he could look after me, he agreed."

"I started off as a thing to study, then an assistant. He performs interesting experiments. He's also researched almost every magic there is. However he spends a lot of time exploring, looking for scrolls and books. Publishing his theoreom's to send to the other wizards in the west. Unfortunately Ken found me, made me his slave. That was a year ago. Now I'm escaping with his stuff, and whats left of him is sinking into the ocean." "Enough about me. Whats the deal with you and the croc?"

Crondis didn't know how to answer. "I think er... Max, might be able to help answer that. I just know he's special. We share a kind of bond. I can communicate with him, we share pain, and its all just strange." "Caedis" came a growl from behind crondis. "Right thats his name." Crondis said. "What? Did you understand what it said?" Charad said confused. "I'm a summoner" Crondis replied "We speak to animals and understand them." "You a man of many talents, so the crocodiles name is..." "Caedis" "and your name?"

Crondis realised he hadn't told Charad his name. "My name's Crondis." he replied. Charad looked back at Crondis confused. "You mean the god of lazyness?" "He's not the god of Laziness! He's sort of the god for people who aren't greedy, who only take what they need." Crondis replied angrily. "Oh no... you can't have that name." Charad said, sort of scared. "Why not?" Crondis replied. "Max hates the gods, if you share a gods name he's gonna hate you to, and when he gets mad... urghhh." Charad turned away and set the boat in the right direction.

A hour had passed, the only noise came from Caedis' deep breathing. Crondis' sat in the boat with a fishing rod, he'd managed to catch 2 fish, he gave one to Charad who took it with a short "Thanks". "Mine?" came a growl from behind Crondis again. Crondis looked back at him. "You just ate, I should know." "not much." Caedis replied. "You had 2 whole... meals.., I havn't eaten since yesterday." Caedis let out a huff, the deep exhale caused the spikes to jab into his back sharply. Crondis ignored this. He grabbed some runes and attempted to use a superheat spell on it to cook it. Unfortunately it burnt it. Crondis reluctantly ate it, his teeth crunching through it.

After 2 more hours Charad got their attention. See that, the west side of the island, that cove is where max lives. They sailed their way into the cove. In the cove was a basic dock, a cannon was the centerpiece. It was enough for about 2 small boats. Charad however drove the boat onto the beach next to the port. "Max doesn't like the dock being blocked by other boats." Crondis got out and checked the surrounding area. They were surrounded by bamboo forest, however there was a small pink tree grove near the port. Then Crondis saw the house. It was a fair size, 2 stories, made out of Cherry wood and Slate. IT had a greenhouse on the side and what looked like an observatory. There were still building material lying around that suggested the house wasn't finished.

"Come on" Charad said. Crondis got out of the lifeboat, leaving Caedis behind. He followed Charad up to the door, which Charad knocked loudly. There was shouting from inside and a man came to the door. He was dressed in some green wizard robe, cut short probably due to the heat. He had a large beard, glasses and was carrying several books. He dropped them when he saw Charad.

"My boy" Max said. "Your alive, thank the go--. I mean its great to see you. What happened I come back from my 3 month long seminar and find you've been kidnapped. Not so much as a note to say where you've gone. Wait a minute whose this?" He pointed at Crondis. "I recognize those robe's, your from the tower aren't you. Come to take my notes. I ought to melt you into a puddle and-" Max started to get red. Charad grabbed him and said hurriedly "Max its ok, he saved me, he just needs somewhere to stay, and for you to help him with some stuff." Max calmed down. "Well its always nice to have guests." Max shouted inside at someone. "Oy! you bring the tea, the good kind." "Whats your name then boy?"

Crondis suddenly remembered what Charad said. He couldn't think of a fake name, he thought of Caedis, but that might arouse suspicoun later. Crondis reacted fast, he said the first name that came into his head, which unfortunately was Charad's. "Charad-on." However he said it so fast it sounded like... "Charron, I knew a Charron once, why don't you come in Charron." Crondis sighed, he kind of liked the name Charron.

"He's not alone max." Charad said. "He's got a pet he wants you to help study". "I'm not a veterinarian, I don't have time for this!" "it not a ordinary pet its a magic crocodile." Charad said quickly. "A what!". At that moment Caedis decided to crawl through the sand and up to the door. "My go-- oodness, its huge. And errr spiky. Thats some pet you have there." Caedis growled. "Pet?". Charad then said hurriedly "He can also talk to it" Max looked in disbelief at Crondis, or should we say Charron now. Charron just  gave a look that sort of said it was true. Max said with a sigh. "We'll have tea in the menagerie, thank god I updated it to the swamp habitat. Tell him not to knock anything over when he comes in. By the way Charad, you should see what I've updated. The menageries much bigger and your old friend is waiting for you." Charron walked into the house, followed closely by Caedis. Max walked quickly so they didn't have time to look around.

Eventually they arrived in a large room, a large tank dominated one side, which was filled with brightly coloured fish, then there was an area that looked like a swamp, however it looked much nicer then the one where Charron found Caedis. An area that looked like a nest that could fit a dragon sat near a pool, which a waterfall flowed into. A small table and chairs also laid next to the pool. Max sat down, gesturing the other 2 to the other seats. He also gestured Caedis to the nest, which Caedis slowly walked up to, curling up and resting once again.

"A hunter friend of mine is trying to capture one of those 50ft long snakes, I'm gonna have it here so I can study it. However that crocodile looks a more interesting subject." Max started off. "But first Tea. Bring it in, quickly." A golem made of bamboo appeared holding a tray that carried a pot of tea, cups and a plate of small little cakes. He placed it down before heading off again. Charron followed the golem with curiosity, Max noticed this. "Thats bamboozle, he helps look after the place. Makes great tea, also he doesn't need feeding which beats owning a regular butler." Bamboozle later returned with a large gutted fish, which he promptly threw next to Caedis, who slowly got up and began to devour it.

As Charron sipped his tea, he listened to Charad and Max talk. Charad repeatedly mentioned the escapades that happened on the ship, and the goods he had stolen from ken. Max joined in every so often to quote something scientific about what Charad was describing. Max finally quietened Charad down. "After this we'll head up to my research room, hopefully we can find out anything you need to know." After tea, the 3 humans set off upstairs, leaving Caedis to relax in the pool. Before they left Charad ran up to the tank. "He's still alive." Charad said pointing to a Shark with a scar over his eye. "Yes, yes, bamboozle's been looking after him. Nothing'll happen to Charad jr." "Thats not his name!" Charad said in the style of a sulking girl. "His names Glakar." "honestly, I'll never understand why you called him that." They then headed upstairs.

They were greeted by another golem, this one made of Slate. "Thank you Slater. Can you go to the basement and check on the new samples." Max said, sending the golem off. They entered the research lab. There were charts, books and papers everywhere. A collection of magical looking objects littered the shelves and the tables, and a large pile of runes was flung across a table, some whole, some ground up, some with even stranger stuff done to them.

"Ah Slater sorted it. I needed these papers in order. Charron get a golem, no wait, get 10, they are the best assisstants you can get. Anyway lets talk about you and your scaly friend." Charron then explained everything he knew, including the dreams, the ability to change body's and the bloodthirstyness that overcame him when he did. Eventually after about 15 minutes Crondis had finished talking. Max got up and flipped through his notes. "I've heard of a spell like the one you described. Very old, very risky. I actually wrote a report on the man who created it. Dimexius Sowfcoven I believe. Strange way with magic, got killed in a incident involving the very spell I believe. Everything we know about him comes from his son's journal, which fortunately ended up with a museum. Anyways I'm getting distracted. I don't believe I have a book that details that spell. Its in a few, Dimexius actually coauthored about 7 or 8 with a few others It would be in them.

Charron suddenly remembered the book his father gave him, the one Charron had attempted to learn ancient magiks from. Charron checked the binding, it was faded, but he saw the words mexius on it. "What about this book?" Charron asked. Max had a look at it. "Amazing, you actually have one of them. You lucky the tower didn't know you had it. Have a look through it, skip the common spells. Should be near the back." A lot of the back pages were written in some sort of runic script. The book detailed some basic offensive and defensive spells for ancient magiks, however 1 or 2 seemed unique to Charron. Eventually Charron found a picture, that showed a man and what looked like a dragon in flames, with runic words coming out. "Is this it?" Charron asked.

Max grabbed the book and had a look over. I may need to decipher some more of it later, I'll tell you what I can understand. The spell doesn't appear to be in the first page, its a story. It references a man attempting to take the power of a dragon, unfortunately it appears the spell he was using back fired, both him and the dragon died. A few passages appear to decipher what went wrong. It says..." Max spent a while looking at it. "The creature was too powerful and also lacked a few other things." "Both participants require a strong emotional connection, I doubt dragons feel too many of those. It also says you need a catalyst of some kind, something that has a lot of energy. I can't understand the rest." Max turned a few pages ahead before placing the book down again. "Here details a prediction of the effects of what would happen if done correctly. Lets see... subject 2, which I assume is the animal or beast, would get stronger sometimes changing due to other factors. Both subjects gain a smaller increase in power as well, which appears to relate to age. It also states about the gift lying dormant in 1 sides blood, needing to be passed on. It also tells of a state of heighetened awareness between the 2, as well as a 2nd state that requires both subjects. This is a little confusing, I'd have to spend a few days analyzing this. I don't see why someone would do this, there is very little benefit to the human at all, this also puts him at greater risk through the connection they have..."

"What about my complete change in emotion?" Charron asked. "Nothing so far, wait..., something about a strong emotional reaction at the casting of the spell, causing interference, I think this is what your looking for." Max replied. Charad had fallen asleep in a chair at the side of the room. Charron noticed and also felt tired. Max noticed this and called out for Slater. When he arrived Max said "Give Charron the guest room next to the menagerie, I'm gonna stay up and research this some more."

Charron was lead to a small bedroom, it contained only a bed and a wardrobe, but that was all Charron needed. He fell into bed and went to sleep.

That was an unexpected result!
Charron was in the dream plane, as he now called it. Caedis was there in his scaled human form. "Did you find the answers?" he asked. "Apparently I suffer from some sort of emotional interference?" Caedis replied with a brief "What?" Charron tried to explain better. "The caster of the spell was feeling rather emotional at the time of the spell, this caused a build up in emotion to me when I'm in your body." Caedis looked concerned. "I felt this presence a long time ago, I managed to control it, Its dangerous.". The white plane turned red and shaked before settling down again. Caedis then said "I think your recent slaughters have set him off, we need to deal with it soon." The shaking started again, but then Charron woke up, Max was shaking him awake, Charron had only been asleep a hour, the clock said it was 10 o clock. "Come with me, quickly before I forget!" Max shouted and headed off to another room. Charron followed, grudgingly.

They were in a room called the testing lab, it had a glass ceiling which shone into another room. There were steel chains in the other room and the door looked like it was made of  mithril. It contained a window which showed a room full of strange machinary and papers. Max lead Charron into the room with the chains. "I found a way to solve this, I'm going to use a method from a previous experiment. Hold still." Then he put Charrons arms and legs in the manacles. "What are you doing!" Charron shouted. "This is for your own safety, I need you to not thrash about. The last time I tried this, the bear we were using started jerking wildly and broke the equipment, he might have survived if he was more careful." Charron was panicking. He looked and saw a tied up Caedis being carried in by 4 golems. The golems then placed a strange helmet with runes adorning the sides. The door was shut and bolted behind them. What had Charron gotten himself into.

"The helmet will put you back in your dream state as you call it. However we are going to bring you face to face with this emotional interference, its your head, I'm sure you can find a way to stop him." Max said through the hole in the door. The helmets sprung to life and Charron begun to feel even more tired. He then passed out. He was standing in a cave, Caedis in his scaley human form was next to him. In front of them a man with no face and Dark red robes, blood dripping from them. He said in a harsh voice "Your power... I shall have your POWER, I WILL GET MY REVENGE!" Then he lunged forward baring a large spiked staff."

Sweet Ava, I shall get revenge on those who betrayed us
Charron and Caedis both jumped out of the way. Charron reacting went to reach for his runes, but he didn't have any. But if this was a dream surely he could just give himself runes. Charron thought about it and the rune he needed appeared in his hand. He willed it to create a large fire spell, and almost immediatly, it did. A large blast of fire collided into the man, knocking him back. The man then stopped suddenly and weilded his staff in anger before Caedis collided into him, swinging his arms and driving them into the mans stomach. The enourmous strength Caedis possessed caused him to crash into the cave wall, leaving a huge dent.

The man got up slowly, he said in his voice "Why did they do this, what sort of people do this!", and cast a spell at them. CHarron found his head suddenly ache as did Caedis. WHen charron willed some more runes into his hands he found he couldn't use them. Caedis noticed Charrons weakness and ran up to the man ready to land a punch in the mans chest. However the blow did not deal the damage Caedis was expecting. The man knocked Caedis away, slamming him into Charron. However Charron, instead of falling over was able to grab Caedis and keep him upright, his strength had increased massively.

Charron then realized, he had gained Caedis's strength, which meant he had Charron's magical skills. "You have my skills, cast a spell at him!" Charron shouted to Caedis. The man in red ran to launch a blow at Charron, which Charron neatly dodged. "How?" Caedis shouted. "Use the runes!" Charron shouted back. Charron noticing the confusion willed a bunch of runes to appear, they did, and they promptly threw themselves at Caedis in a pile. Charron ran up to the man and launched a punch at him. The man fell back once again. "They're all dead!" the man suddenly shouted, struggling to regain his balance. Charron took this moment to look back at Caedis. He had grabbed a bunch of runes in his hand and was shaking it about, as if expecting something to happen. IT would've looked funny had it not been this moment. "Its not working!" Caedis shouted. "Get 5 of the red ones, 3 of the white ones and one of the ones with a skull on--" Charron experienced a blow to his back and he was pushed to the ground. The man then took this chance to aim a blow at Charrons head. However CHarron managed to get a hold of the shaft and pushed it away from him.

Caedis meanwhile had managed to get a hold of the runes Charron mentioned. "Now what" he shouted at Charron. "Just will a big fireball" he shouted back, struggling to keep the spikes away from his face. Caedis willed a fireball, and it was a huge fireball, it launched quickly at the man knocking him off CHarron and against the wall. The fireball continued to press into him before it exploded in a massive release of energy. The man stood there, motionless. "I need the blood. I'm not finished yet!" he said, before dropping his staff and collapsing to the ground.

Charron found his magical skills return to him. "We did it!" he shouted in delight. Caedis looked delighted as well. "I can feel his hold on me lessening. We actually did it.". Charron then looked at the man his body began to decay into red wisps, the wisps wrapped around the staff, lifting it in the air. "Wait whats happening" Charron said, confused. THe red wisps engorged the staff, becoming a bright red spear dripping in blood. "One more push, I will get my revenge with this one last action!". The spear lunged at them so quickly they didn't have time to react. It flew through the air and into Caedis' chest. It then came out the other side and into Charron chest, it then flew out of charrons and landed against the cave wall, impaling them both.

Charron felt the life drain out of him, he looked at Caedis, he was struggling against it, he was slowly turning into red wisps like the man did. Caedis let out a short cry before his entire body turned red and he dissolved into the spear, flowing through the spear into Charron. The pain was immense, Charron thought he was going to die, he could also feel the presence of the man again, as if he was digging away at his insides. However the world faded around him, he heard shouting "Quickly turn off the machine, he's going into convulsions.".

Charron woke up, the helmet had fallen off him and was left dangling by his side. Charrons looked round, he saw Max through the barred window, turning levers whilst simultaneously writing notes. Charron then looked to Caedis, his whole body was turning to red wisps just like in the dream. They rose up in the air and formed the spear once again. "Caedis..." Charron weakly shouted, coughing up blood as he spoke. It was too late, Caedis was gone, the spear glared at him. Charron looked at it scared "Caedis..." he spoke once again before the spear lunged itself into his chest disappearing at the impact and flowing into his body.

Max shouted stuff through the bars. Charron tried to listen, however the pain of the wisps flowing through into him, causing huge amounts of pain, it was pretty hard to hear. "Charron, listen to me! The interference is on its last legs, we think we can kill it, you just have to stay in control for a few more minutes!" "Control" Charron thought. "Is it going to take over me again?". The pain still went on, the spear almost gone. "You and Caedis are becoming one, that was the purpose of the spell. The POWER comes from the BLOOD you two share. If you just remain in CONTROL and don't KILL then we can REVENGE Caedis back!" The last of the spear disappeared into Charron, leaving a huge bloody mark, that looked like some sort of symbol. However Charron was losing control, the emotional interference was taking control. "I need to FIGHT it." Charron thought. "It can't BREAK through the chains anyway, this isn't a dream I'm no BEAST!" Charron found the pain surge through him again, it was similar to the pain he had felt in the dream shortly before Caedis revealed his origins to him. Charron clutched his chest, the chains creaked against the wall.

Charron's vision blurred slightly, the pain was immense. Charron pulled back his hand, the tips of the fingers were bleeding. His hand was contorting strangey, his skin slowly opening, blood covering it. Charron pushed forward, the chains holding him suddenly broke free of their support at the walls, Charron collapsed to the floor. His hand stopped him from falling to the floor. However Charron felt a surge of strength coming through the pain, he noticed his hand, his finger were growing, the red of the blood cleared away revealing dark green scales. The tips grew claws which dug into the stone of the floor.

Charron pushed off the floor, the claw marks clearly visible in the stone. Charron grabbed his hand before realising the change was already occuring to his other hand. Charron looked down to the floor, coughing up blood, which was slowly collecting at a pool by his feet. Then he noticed the feet, they too were changing, a flow of strength felt like it was slowly moving away from his feet and up his legs. His robes ripped and fell off, too small to contain his massive frame. Charron stepped forwards, the chain attached to the manacle on his foot snapped, he stepped forward again snapping the other one. Charron now had the strength to stand up fully, he noticed the ground getting further away. The flow of strength from the arms and legs met in the torso.

The top half of the robes fell away with the first, his chest continued to expand, his strength increasing as it went. Charron wanted the pain to end, the sooner the transformation was done, the sooner it would end. His back hardened, a spike shot out near his neck, another appeared below that one, and another, each giving a sharp spike of pain to Charron. Eventually the tail shot out, spikes lining the huge new limb. Charron's jaw extended, his teeth grew sharper and more numorous. Blood then poured out Charron's eyes leaving 2 deep red circles. The pain was still there. Charron saw his reflection in the glass, he hated what he had become, what he would do. He let out a roar and smashed the glass, denting one of the bars.

Max grabbed his notes and ran out of the room shouting "Wheres the staff, fetch the runes, we can't let him reach the village and--". A dark sinister voice sounded in Charrons head. "I thought they were poor villagers, they took almost everything, but they left me, I will get them, I WILL KILL THEM!". Charron was forced to watch as he attempted to break down the door, fortunatelly it only dented and didn't break. "But the walls are made out of wood, I don't think its as strong as mithril, it could be broken down." Charron thought. He let out another roar and charged at the wall, he broke through, falling over and landing in the bamboo forest. He could sense a group of people nearby, he didn't know how. He ran after the strong prescence.

Back at the house, Max came down weilding a Staff of Light and wearing an old set of sea singer robes, his puch contained a large amount of runes. Charad followed shortly behind him. "What was that monster?" Charad asked. "Emotional interference, forming a bond through Charron and Caedis causing them to become a much stronger whole. I'll explain later, head to the dock and get the cannon ready, the golems will help."

"I've got a subject to capture!"

They all deserve the same punishment, some just longer then others...
Charron was heading towards the group of people. "They're guilty and need to be punished, just like Ken!" he said to himself. His large frame brushed against the bamboo as he ran through. Eventually he came to the beach. 4 men carrying large swords and torches were heading towards him. They heard the noises from the house and were sent to investigate it. The sinister voice spoke in his head. "They needed supplies, it was a lie, they went after everything, they took our blood, I WILL TAKE THEIRS!". Charron walked towards the men.

One of them stopped and looked at Charron. "Quickly men, arm yourselves. Quins monsters will not defeat us!". Charron charged forward at the man who was talking. He quickly grabbed him by the throat, and lifted him into the air. "I could easily crush his skull in my claws, lets punish him a bit longer first though." Charron thought to himself. Charron squeazed tighter causing the man to choke. However a sharp pain in his arm caused his to drop him. Charron looked at his arm, the men had surrounded him, baring their swords at him, one of them even dared to attack him. Then he saw the blood, his own blood. He didn't like the look of it, He'd give them the same feeling. He knocked the one who attacked him to the ground. However someone behind him slashed at his legs, another one stabbed him in the back knocking him to the ground. The 4 men then pinned him to the ground with theirselves and their swords. Max watched this from afar "Perhaps the beast isn't as strong as I'd expected? No, I'm never wrong." Meanwhile Charron was on the ground "I will not go down this easily." he growled.

Using his force he pushed himself upwards knocking 3 of the 4 mens to the ground, 1 of them was able to keep balance. Charron used his sense to tell the man behind him was upright and about to attack. He wouldn't give him the chance. Charron made sure this time to use not just his new found strength, but his abilities, and limbs. Charron crashed his tail into the man knocking him to the ground, he then smashed his tail into the man repeatedly, listening to the bones crack. He turned around, he lifted his foot up and then put all his weight onto his foot. The foot impacted with the mans skull, crushing it with a sickening crunch. Blood poured out into the sand, Charron could sense the man was definetly dead. He also sensed one of them was getting up behind him. He spun round, using his full strength sent his claws into the man, punching through his armour and reaching through the flesh. He groaned in pain, he wouldn't survive this, but Charron wasn't done with him yet. He lifted him up into jaws, he grabbed his neck in his teeth and pulled the claws out of the man. Then he closed his jaw. The mans body hit the ground first, the followed by what was left of the mans head. Charron roared triumphantly, but he neglected to use his sense. One of the men sent his sword down towards his back, Charron tried to dodge but the blow chopped off his tail. Charron fell to the ground in pain, his tail lay in the sand. "Lets see how they like it!" Charron growled. He turned to face the men who were running off towards the house. "Let them run, I run faster!" he growled. However an large ball of ice hit him the stomach, winding him. Max stepped forward. "Lets end this now."

The 2 men ran up to max and said "Master Raines thank god your here, Quins beast has already halved our group, will you help us slay it?". Max chuckled "Leave this to me, you two stay by my side, I might need you in a minute." Charron growled, the voice in his head spoke again. "THey're leader used his magic to butcher our men, I needed the power to match up to him, to TEAR HIM APART!" Charron roared, but he suddenly found himself bound to the spot. Max used his magic to freeze him to the spot, he then shot ice from the end of his staff, trapping Charron in a block of ice that covered his whole body. Charron tried to move his claws but he couldn't break free of his icy prison. Max chuckled "That will hold him, I can bring him back alive now, you two why--" Max's voice didn't penetrate the ice, all Charron could hear was his own thoughts, and the voice. "I'm weak now but I can GAIN POWER, I JUST NEED TO USE MY POWER!" Charron found this power, a part of him that hadn't been used. He brought the power out, the ice shattered.

Charron's skin turned darker going a sort of greyish green, his body was growing again, his manacles shattered failing to stay around the growing ankles and wrists. All the scars on his body slowly healed, his tail even grew back. His teeth grew even sharper, and the spikes on his back increased in size. Charron let out a roar. "True... POWER...face my true power....". Charron reacted quickly punching max out of the way, sending him flying across the beach. Then he bent over forwards sharply, the spikes on his back shout out at high speed, impaling one of the soldiers, killing him instantly. New spikes grew out of the recess where the old spikes had once been, they had a black sheen to them. Charron then walked up to the remaining soldier, the one who chopped off his tail. He held out his iron shield in front of him, Charron grabbed it in his massive claw and crushed it. The man was paralyzed with fear. Charron then lunged forward and grabbed him in his massive jaws. The teeth easily cut through the armour, chewing up the flesh. Charron spat out some of the armour, blood leaked from his jaws. HE saw max. "Kill... Kill their leader!" he growled. He stepped forward, the ground shook ever so slightly. Then he stepped forward again, crushing the impaled soldier under his huge weight. He kept moving forward, closer and closer to his target.

Max got up, his body was aching. Why had he been so foolish, he should have tried to kill it instead of capturing it. The beast stopped in front of him. Max looked for his staff, seeing it next to him standing up in the ground. However the creature grabbed it, throwing it far into the bamboo forest. Max didn't have any runes, they had scattered along the beach further up. The beast brought his jaws right up to his face, it was savouring his fear. Saliva and blood spilt onto his face. It let out a growl, noticing the reaction it let out a roar. It was about to make its move, Max got up and made a run for it. Maybe he could lose it in the forest, what was he thinking he was dead. However he was propelled forward by a huge explosion.

Charad had been watching from the raised platform the cannon was attatched to. He'd started to load the cannon with one of Max's 'special' cannonballs. He aimed it at the creature, but he'd gotten hopeful that he wouldn't have to use it on Charron when he got trapped in ice. However he broke free, so Charad lit the fuse and aimed it at the beast. He'd made the fuse too long, what if he killed max when the cannonball hit. The cannonball was launched just as the beast began to roar.

Charron saw max run away, he was looking forward to a chase. However a great impact hit him in the jaw knocking several of his teeth out, the cannonball that hit him carried a high explosive charge added by Max's magic. The explosion knocked Charron off his feet, he crashed through the Cherry tree forest, knocking several trees over with his large frame before banging his head on the big tree knocking him out. Before he passed out the voice in head spoke. "Its gone wrong, I need to get out of here!".

I need a drink, a strong drink, several strong drinks
Charron woke up on a cold wooden table, he was clutching Caedis. Caedis was alive! Charron nudged him repeatedly until he eventually woke up with a groan. "Dead. Leave alone." Your not dead, your alive, I'm alive and I'm also...." Charron looked down. He had no clothes on whatsoever. He sat up. Max and Charad were sat in chairs on the otherside of the room. Max was covered in bruises, his beard was singed and his whole chest was bandaged. Charron then tried to remember what happened. He had been impaled, he had turned into that thing, the rest was a blur filled with blood and shouting. Charron then felt like hell. He was promptly sick into a nearby bucket.

"Your awake." Max said getting up. "The experiment worked perfectly... except for the last part. I was hoping you'd stay like that so I could study you, but Charad made me find a way to make you 2 again. Don't worry about the authorities, they believe Quin sent a reptillean creature after them for revenge for not worshipping her. And that I dealt with it and saved the nearby port and village" Charron didn't hear a word of that. He realised he wasn't hungry, then he remembered why. He was sick again.

Max started talking again. "The golems collected the evidence from the how do I put it... experiment last night." Charron got up and had a examine of the stuff. There were 3 plaster casts of footprints. One was of his own, one was much bigger and appeared to be more beast like, the other was even bigger and featured a deeper imprint. There were notes next to them written by Max. Then he saw a black spike, 3 foot long, dried blood along the bottom half, next he saw some teeth, they looked more like daggers then teeth, Then he saw a big jar, in it was a long tail, pickeled. Charron looked at Max. "So I became..."

"Thats right, closer analysis also revealed the beast you became was part Dagganoth. This explained the spikes you see on Caedis as wel as the claws. It also appears that the emotional interference, which we removed and destroyed succesfully, in a desperate attempt tried to use the spells true purpose. To combine the 2 beings into one much more powerful whole. Had you not been stopped, you would have likely trailed the island, killing countless innocents. Oh yes, and you'll be helping me in the lab to pay for the damages to my chains, wall, trees and me. Helping me analyze the evidence will keep you busy.

Charron wondered if he could turn into that thing again, but then grabbed a hold of his senses and thought against it. He also realized he was still naked, he wondered why Charad wasn't talking and staring like that. "Uhhh, where are my clothes?" Charron asked. "They're currently in shreds, seems they suddenly became a few sizes too small for you, woodward will bring you some new ones. You can head into the room over there." Max said calmly. Charron walked over to the room, some fresh green eastern robes, similar to Max's soon appeared from under the door. Charron put them on, they were a bit big but they did the job. He returned, seeing Charad handling one of the spikes.

"Look at the size of it. Its massive." Charad said, he then moved it towards Charron's back. "So it went from here and you just shot it out." "Anyway I have something to show you, you'll love this." Charad showed him to another room. Charron left Caedis lying on the table, what had happened had worn him out massively.

They entered a room, It was a completely smooth room, and also completely empty, except for a small panel in the floor with a circular slot in the floor. "This is a memory viewing room, while you were out me managed to take the memory out of you. Max said this is one of the few of these in the world, he paid a heavy price to get it all. Anyway here it is. Tada!" Charad held out a orb, red mist swirled inside and appeared to form shapes and words, but Charron couldn't make anything of it. Charad placed it in the slot on the floor, it glowed white. The walls around swirled and changed colour. The floor turned a soft white colour, the ceiling turned dark and became a night sky, the walls becoming the backdrop of the scene which unfolded last night. In the centre Charron saw the 4 men from last night surrounding something, it was him.

Time was frozen, however it didn't effect Charron and Charad. Charad beckoned Charron to follow him. They moved in for a closer look, to Charron it seemed strange, seeing himself like this. He reached out to touch his snout however the hand passed through it. "Clever isn't it." Max said, entering suddenly. "It draws out the memory from the user but also somehow is able to build a sense of perspective from others to make a 3D environment. Its not the best, I wasn't able to afford the price of the best. The one she had could also read emotions, thoughts, and also change perspectives to how other people remember it. As my assisstant were gonna be analyzing this thoroughly. I hope to write another paper on this, the tower isn't interested in this sort of stuff, but I have friends I can show off too with this. Of course You'll remain anonymous."

Max said a word in an ancient language and the picture suddenly became alive, moving. It was now showing the memory. The beast growled, before he was brought to the floor by a slash to the leg from behind. When Charron watched it again his leg felt the pain in his leg and had to check it again to make sure it wasn't bleeding. Max started lecturing again "The beast brought down so easily, he obviously didn't know his strengths and weaknesses well enough." Charron didn't like the way this was going. He was going to have his skills poked at for the sake of a report, however he stayed silent to watch.

The room suddenly glew red and the beast had knocked the men off him. Max said another word and the recording stopped. "What was that?" Charad asked. "I believe its the emotional interference attempting to fight back. Because we used the beasts memory as the primary one, I believe thats why it goes red all of a sudden." Charron was annoyed. "I'm standing right here!". Max ignored him and started the recording again, the man behind the beast raised his sword to attack, without even looking at him the beast slammed his tail into him, he then turned round to the man and lifted his foot, Charron knew what was coming up next, he was use to watching him gore people now. Charad wasn't the sound of the skull crunching made his squirm. Max stopped the recording. Charad caught his breath back. "How did he know the man was still standing?" he asked. Max pondered for a moment, "the beast, I mean, Charron, might have possessed some sort of thermoception, being able to detect a heat source that was higher up then it should have been, however I don't believe crocodiles nor dagganoths have the ability." Charron sighed, "I just knew he was there, I could just sense their presence." Max wrote this down "I'll have to study an ability with that description later"

The memory continues, Charron watched as another of the men was impaled in the chest with his claws, then lifted into the air and beheaded in his jaws. Even this sight slightly disturbed Charron. The beast roared into the sky, however he was suddenly on the ground, his large tail no longer attatched to him. "The beast obviously felt it wouldn't get hurt anymore, so it taunted the rest of the world, unfortunately he didn't pay attention and paid the price." The memory continued, the beast tried to chase the men who had run off but he was stopped in his tracks by a large ball of ice to the stomach. Max smiled in the memory and in the room. They watched as Max trapped the beast in a block of ice, the creature struggled but his whole body was frozen, however the eyes still moved creepily. "As you can see, my superior skill trapped the creature." Max said proudly. "I have an idea, Charron, just stand next to the creature, there, perfect." Max began to sketch a drawing in his book, he made Charron change places so he could get the angle right.

"The creature appears to be 1.5 times taller then Charron here, but the creature is hunched, which I think makes him almost twice the size. The feet have grown to about--" Max went on discussing the difference in proportions between Charron and the beast. Charron sighed. He would probably have to listen to this for weeks.

"Can we continue the memory?" Charad asked. Max started the memory again, the whole room flashed red again and the ice smashed, leaving the beast kneeling on the ground his claw digging into the sand. Max managed to get the memory to play in slow motion, providing commentary as it went along. The skin was slowly changing colour, upon closer infection, the scales appeared to get more jagged as if they were toughening themselves. The beast was growing in size as well, the manacles made a ping everytime one snapped off. The scales also grew over the wounds, it was if they never were there, even the tail regrew itself. The next big change was the spikes on the back. Before they were small each about an inch long, now they were growing longer, some up to 2ft long, the beast roared. Max stopped the memory right at the moment the beast was punching him. He sighed, but ignored it.

"This is when we see the dagganoth part emerge. You may not have noticed but if you look at the neck, you can see its grown rudimentary gills. Certain dagganoth possess the ability to heal others through their cries, I suspect you can do this as well but also to yourself. The spikes are able to be launched at fast speed only to be replaced. The increase in size is phenomenal, unfortunately the specimen is moving to quickly to be drawn accurately."

Charron closely inspected what he had become. Even while hunched he was still probably 3.5 times taller then his current size, his jaws alone could almost fit an entire person in them. His claw was also roughly the size of max's torso in comparison. Charron suddenly had an urge to use his hidden power, unfortunately he didn't have hidden power. It was probably for the best, not many people trust huge reptillian killing machines.

The memory continued, Max soared through the air, much to his annoyance. It all happened so fast. The next thing he knew, Charron saw the man suddenly impaled with a spike, firmly attatching the man to the ground. The beast then grabbed the other mans shield, it was crushed until it resembelled a screwed up piece of paper. Upon looking at the back, Charron noticed the spikes slowly realligning on the back. Max interrupted "The sudden transformation, wound healing and spike replacing likely left the beast low on energy. It needed to recharge." Charron knew what he meant, the beast had grabbed the man in his jaws, and he was slowly being chewed up and eaten. Close up it looked horrendous, Charron, who was finally use to this, only just managed to keep the meal down, Charad had almost passed out, he only just regained conciousness and balance. Max was calm.

The 3 watched as the beast moved closer to Max, it actually shook the ground  as he walked. The close up of the beast drooling blood and spit onto Max was horrifying. Eventually there was a loud bang and the room turned red and the memory ended. Everyone was silent. "It was a good shot with the cannon." Charron said to Charad. "I was just lucky." Charad said, smiling. "The amount of force from that cannon shot could've fatally wounded a dragon, the fact you survived and only passed out was astonishing." "What happened next?" Charron asked. Max started to explain "The golems, managed to drag your body into my outer lab. We wern't sure how long you'd be out for so we gave you a whole barrel of sleeping potion as well. Fortunately it didn't kill you. Using some of our equipment we managed to remove the emotional interference, he perished upon removal from the host. Next I used a device to attempt to weaken and calm you. Eventually you reverted to your original beast form. Finally we used a seperating device to seperate you from the crocodile. The whole process took 3 days."

"I've been out cold for 3 days!" Charron exclaimed. "Actually it was 5, your bodies needed to settle, there were still times when you tried to become whole again." "5 days..." Charron sighed. Max said "Come on, you need something to eat. I suspect your pet is hungry as well. We'll also pour you some of our finest --" Max carried on saying. He removed the orb and put in on a shelf outside the room. The red mist inside still showed the creature, staring at them as they left.

I think I've almost cracked it!
Charron had been with Charad and Maxwell for 3 months now. Max had been going through books and studying the memory closely attempting to write his paper on the subject. He was also trying to find a way to get Charron to turn back into the creature again, which Charron hoped would not occur. Charad had managed to take one of the spikes and turn it, into a rough sword. It certainly looked cool, but Charads swordplay usually involved slashing, which Charron believed the spike wasn't designed for. Caedis meanwhile was content with living here, he spent most of the day relaxing in the menagerie, sometimes the golems would put live fish in the pool for Caedis to hunt. In return he allowed Max to continue to experiment on him. Charron and Caedis now had a routine where they talked to each other in the dreamworld about an array of subjects.

Caedis' change from a solitudal crocodile to a creature who sometimes preferred being a human and talking about subjects for hours on end was a surprise to Charron. Their meeting each other had change their lives, Charron was taught techniques by Caedis on how to deal with pain and how to last longer without food. Charron also taught himself not to be sick at the site of gore, often watching Caedis rip fish to pieces, or reliving the scenes from before in his dreams. Sometimes Caedis switched bodies with Charron so he could have a go at hunting, while Caedis found out that magic in the real world worked differently to how it worked in the dream. Caedis gave up on magic and settled with reading books in the shade, sometimes reading them aloud to Charron.

One day however Max burst out of his lab, cheering. "Its finished, the machines are finished!" he shouted. Charron, Charad and Caedis were all brought up to the lab. Caedis didn't undestand a lot of what Max was saying so Charron had to act as an interpreter of sorts. "After studying the memory, Caedis and Charron here, and reading through the book, also analyzing evidence, checking results from the machines I managed to create an idea. I have brought this idea into reality through the use of spells, enchantments, potions and machinery." Behind Max stood the machines, they were quite big and featured crystals and gears and one of them had sparks flying out of it, which later turned out to be a glitch.

"What are they?" Charad asked. Max chuckled "This device here produces the same effect the Emotional interference produced. It allows 2 bodies with a bond between them to have a greater link, almost becoming a whole." Max pointed to the next machine "This one uses magic frequency through the gems to create an effect turning matter into wisps of energy, allowing easy transferrence of material from 1 subject to the next, initialising the step from subjects A and B to subject C." Max pointed to the final machine. "This one is a failsafe, it acts as a mechanism that stores information provided by the wisps to allow seperation to easily occur at a certain point, it also prevents any other nasty surprises as well.".

Caedis and Charad both looked to Charron for an explanation. Charron was annoyed that Max had gone through with actually trying to make him become that thing again, but he left it for the time being. "The first machine basically prepare mine and Caedis's body so we can become one. The second does the actual merging process. And the 3rd makes sure me and Caedis actually survive seperating afterwards."

Charad looked concerned. "So you want Charron to go on another rampage again?" he asked. Charron didn't like the word rampage, but he liked that he wasn't the only one concerned about it. "My paper is almost finished, I just need to provide some more accurate measurements, as well as testing the skills. Anyway, Charron will have complete control this time, and we have a failsafe now incase he does become murderous. Anyway we agreed, you help me with this and we'll be even." "Fine." Caedis growled.

"What do you mean fine?" Charron argued to Caedis. "Great, we'll start tomorrow morning. Make sure you get enough to eat." Max said. He ushered them out of the room as he and the golems prepared everything. That night Caedis and Charron were given a huge banquet of various meats. Charron only finished half of his whilest Caedis ate his and the rest of Charron's and he had 4th's. That night Charron went to sleep, ready to dicuss this with Caedis.

The dream world had become a home away from home for Charron, when they entered it no longer looked liked the infinite white plain, but looked similar to the Max's menagerie. Caedis' was sat by the waterfall, staring into the sky. Charron walked up furious. "Why do you want us to go through that ordeal again!?!" he demanded. Caedis explained "I'm simply repaying our debts, anyways I thought you wanted to become Crocor again?" "Well, sometimes the thought of having that much strength whilst I'm lugging bags of stone comes to mind, but what about you, you practically fade out of existance when this happens." Crondis argued. "But I come back, its doesn't hurt that much, the feeling of becoming whole actually gives me a small amount of pleasure." "But what about me, turning into that beast was the most painful thing I've ever experienced!" "You know how to make it less painful now." Charron tried to argue back but reluctantly agreed to it, after all he wanted to get back to the West, he was hoping to accept his slayer masters offer of joining the Champions Guild, he was going to travel the world, he'd hoped Caedis would understand, so he was doing what he wanted for now.

The next morning, Charron found himself tied to a table next to Caedis in the outer research lab. This time he had replaced the expensive robes with some rough worn clothes they had found lying around, they itched slightly. Max turned on the machines, the first one made Charron feel like he was in the dream world, his mind joining with Caedis's. Max had also given them some potion which was supposed to calm them. The 2nd machine whirled into life, Caedis slowly turned to wisps again and merged into Charron, the experience was painful, but Charron was finding a way to deal with the pain. Eventually the 3rd machine spinned into life, Charrons vision blurred red, he was transforming. Muscles growing, Jaw extending, clothes ripping. Charron had transformed, however this time he was aware, he broke his arms free of the manacles on the table and stood up. Even hunched he dominated over Max, he could've torn him limb from limb if he wanted to, however Charron refrained from doing so.

Charron was lead outside, Charad watched from atop the cannon platform, letting out a wave and keeping Charron in his sights. Max spent 10 minutes  measuring Charron's new dimensions, recording him in the notes. Then he brought out various equipment, using it to measure his strength, speed and other attributes. Charron reluctantly allowed all this to take place, he was well fed and was willing to wait days if needed for this to be over.

After about a hour Max finally had all the information he required about Crocor. "Now subject C, begin transformation into Subject D. Charron wasn't sure how he transformed last time, he growled in response. "I thought this problem might occur, close your eyes, I'll administer the serum". Charron closed them, he could still sense where Max was and what he was doing, he was circling around him, he noticed Charad was getting tired manning the cannon, Max suddenly brought out a sword and chopped off Charron's tail in a quick movement. Charron fell to the ground in pain, however he could feel the power inside him, If it could get rid of the pain he wanted it. Crocor was soon replaced by Dagger, his tail grew back, and Charron stomped the ground in frustration.

Max started with the measurements again, however he had to get a ladder at one point. With the equipment Charron broke it, trying to get a measurment of his strength, he was beginning to get impatient. Max noticed this and ordered one of the golems to come over. The golem brought over a whole raw shark, Charron snatched it up in his jaws, swallowing it greedily. Charron eventually got through all the experiments, it lasted 2 hours, delays appearing due to CHarron's enormour frame. Max attempted to get Charon onto the table but Charron crushed it in a fit of impatience. He was becoming more agressive. Max set up the machine to turn Charron back but it failed. "Dammit, whats wrong" Max said, the machine just seemed to make Charron more and more impatient, The experiments involved him using a lot of energy and he was hungry. Charron smelt the air, he could smell a great stock of food, it was the ice shack, where Max stored all his fresh fish. He was hungry.

Charron barged out of the lab, knocking over equipment, ignoring Max's complaints he headed towards the shack. A large ball of ice hit Charron on the back of the head. "Heh I actually felt that" Charron growled. Charron ignored it, reaching the shack he found he was too big to fit. So he smashed through the walls, Max shrieking stuff, however Charron didn't care. His mind changing to fit the beast he was. A pile of raw Fish lay in a cold pile on the floor. There were sharks, monkfish, swordfish, lobster, tuna, even manta ray. Charron begun to feed on the fish, they all slid down his gullet, Charron finding his energy returning. However all the fish were gone. He was still hungry. In anger Charron knocked down the rest of the walls, Max and Charad had gone, he could sense that. They were with a 3rd man. "Max can get me more food he thought" He walked over to max, Charad was on the dock's half asleep, Max was shouting at a guard.

Charron walked over to Max, he growled. Max stood speechless, the guard suddenly drew his sword and attacked. The blows hurt Charron, every blow required him to use energy to heal. Max was shouting "Stop it now! What are you doing!". Charron thought "I'll make him stop". Charron opened his jaws and grabbed the guard, who dropped his sword in panic. Charrons snapped him up closing his jaws, he finished a few seconds later, feeling rather proud. Max was calmly speaking "Look Charron we can turn you back. Just calm down!". Charron thought about it, why was he listening to max. Charron had just dealt with the problem, max should've been thanking him. "I'm staying this way." he growled. "Your experiments are over.". Max didn't know what Charron said, but he could tell it meant no. He went to grab some runes. So Charron grabbed him, then threw him to the ground away from him, knocking Max out. "The cannon is the only thing that stops me." Charron turned around, his anger formed in his mouth creating a spiral of water, he launched it at the cannon. The forces destroyed the support it was standing on, knocking it down onto the dock, and then falling into the ocean. "Theres nothing more for me here now." Charron walked along the beach and into the sea. Charad was chasing after him yelling "Charron Stop! CHARRON!". Charron growled to himself "Whose Charron, I'm DAGGER" and he dove into ocean, disappearing from view.

GrrrrrrrrrARGHHHHHHH!!!!!
Dagger sensed the men from under the waves, he came up and spied on them for his self. There were only 2 of them, Dagger was still not satisfied from the last meal. He let out a large splash. "That'll get their attention." He though to himself. It did, the man walked closer to the waves, Dagger crouched into position his grey skin camouflaging with the sea bed. They were right next to him, Dagger snapped them both up, in the space of 10 seconds they were sliding down his throat. Dagger was now full, but why let that stop him. He sensed a large group of people out to sea, it would provide an excellent meal. Dagger swam out to sea.

Charron was stuck in a void, he didn't know where he was, what was happening where was he? "Caedis? Caedis!" Caedis appeared. "You should have gained control. Your completely useless aren't you." "Now, any bright ideas about how we get out of this mess?" Caedis asked.

Beaten in the prime of his life by a group of half naked men. How embarrassing. He had failed the queen, he didn't deserve to go back. He may as well just crawl into the sea and die. But a man approaches, he's taking blood from his corpse. "Finish me" he growled. The man understood what he was was saying, he pulled out a knife and ended his life quickly. HIs final words were "Salvation, I'm free". Or so he thought.

"Where are we?" Charron asked. "I have decided to call this place, the void of the whole. A place those not in control spend, slowly growing insane, whilst someone else uses your strength to --" Caedis carried on. "Then why am I here?" Charron asked. "What do you remember happening?" Caedis asked. "Well, I'd become Crocor, did some tests, then Max made me into Dagger by chopping off my tail, after that there were more tests, I remember growing hungry, which made me impatient. The seperator machine didn't work, so I went to get some food." Charron explained.

"Then what?" Caedis asked, looking like he knew what was going to happen. "Well, I went to the storehouse, but I couldn't fit so I....." "So you?" ".... smashed down the walls, then ate everything in there, then a Guard came round to investigate and started attacking me, So I ate.. him... to... and then I knocked Max out and destroyed the cannon before wondering off and blanking out." Caedis smiled, in his current form it made him look really creepy. "Well, you've obviously been taken over. But by who, the red man is no more, and its not me, or you." Caedis said, starting to piece the puzzle together. Charron sighed "Oh of course, the beast wasn't made of just us 2, its part Dagganoth! The human hating reptillian creatures from the far North! And he's currently rampaging around the Island." "Look at this, check this out?" Caedis said. Charron walked over.

Dagger grabbed onto the ship, men with swords and muskets prowled the deck. "Theres 15 on the ship." he said sensing. "How best to do this? Oh look at that Rot. I should take care of it for them". Dagger bashed his claw against the rotted part of the ship, there was a small dent but no significant damage, so Dagger swam away from the ship, and decided to launch a spell at it. The Water spell hit the target, knocking a large hole in the ship, which stretched below the waves. The ship wobbled as water started to fill the Hull. 4 of the 5 men on top went down into the hold to investigate, only the captain was left alone. Dagger climbed to the top deck, his claws digging into the wood, helping to pull himself up. The captain didn't noticed the creaking of the floorboards behind him. He had to concentrate on the ship not the massive open jaws behind him. When Dagger was finished with him, he grabbed the wheel, using his strength he managed to rip it off before throwing it in the ocean. The ship however was heading for a collision course with the island. Dagger descended into the hold.

"Don't you hear it?" Caedis said. "Look just over there."

It was mayhem, the crew didn't know what hit them, the beast had crashed through the walls, one was killed when the claw managed to strike him as well, the others rushed to get their weapons they had left whilst they dealt with the hole. By the time one of them had taken a shot at him, 8 of the crew were either chewed up, or staining the floor. The men fired the muskets at him, it hurt, it actually hurt like hell. The other 7 lasted roughly one minute. Dagger collapsed to the ground. "Must take it out....." The shot was lodged in his chest, he dug in his claws and searched around, spending the next 10 minutes removing it all. His blood was all over the floor, it didn't matter, he would heal in time. There was a sudden crash as the ship crashed onto a pile of rocks. The cargo fell on top of Dagger, he tried to break free but a large crate of cannonballs fell onto his head.

"What is it? The world suddenly turned grey, grey sky, grey sea, grey land. On the beach was a small reptillean creature, it was whining. It was a baby dagganoth. Caedis went up to it, Charron stopped him however. "YOu can't go looking like that! They hate humans." "Well what do you suggest?". Charron thought about it and suddenly pictured himself as Dagger, when he looked at himself he had become dagger, however he was still human sized. Charron walked up to the baby dagganoth and sat next to him. It looked up at him.

"Where's mother, I don't feel her presence?" it cried. "Why are you crying?" Charron asked. "I know, we don't crying is weak, but I was killed, but I didn't die, I ended up in the dark, I can't sense mother anymore." it cried. "Do you remember what happened after that?" Charron asked. "It went red, the human appeared, but he wasn't human, he tormented me, said mother had abandoned me, but then he was killed. Was it you?" He asked, perking up a bit. "Yes." Charron replied. It nustled up closer to him, placing his snout in Charron's arm. Charron didn't know what to do, he was never good with children. He decided just to rub its back with his claw. "I don't like this place" He said, "Theres this place, its full of humans, but they're weaker then back home, the water is warm as well. However I was taken away, mother would've been proud of me, I killed 15 humans" "Wow 15 whole humans" Charron said. "Yeah, I ripped their arms off, and... and... they shot me with banging things but I still carried on. Do you mind if I nest with you, this place is scary, I think theres monsters in here." Charron rubbed his head, all the way down to the back. "I'm sure you'll protect us..." he said softly.

"Why am I tired in the dream world?" Charron thought, he'd suddenly felt rather sleepy, this couldn't be good. Charron laid down onto the craggy beach, it was surprisingly comfortable. The baby Dagganoth nustled up, his head laying on his stomach, his back nestled against his side, his tail at rest atop his leg. "Do you remember the song mother sung?" Charron found himself remembering a song his father sung to him. "She use to sing this one." And he started to sing, it was a song found on a tablet he had found by a pyramid. He didn't know what the words meant but it sounded relaxing. The baby fell asleep, Charron continued to sing. What was his father doing right now? Charron put his arm round the baby and fell to sleep.

I'll do what I can mother
In the real world the ship was crashed against the rocks, Dagger was bruised and being crushed under substantial cargo. Dagger could not heal whilst he was unconcious so his body attempted to prevent him from moving whilst he slowly healed.

Charron woke up, he was in a dream, you can't fall asleep in a dream, or can you? The baby was still asleep on Charron's chest, soft breathing coming from his mouth. Charron missed home. He wanted to meet his father again, the thought had been going through his head. His father had to be the man who had cast the spell, whose emotion's caused him to reak havoc on the island. He had to find out. He just didn't know how to get out of the dream. A wave lapped against Charron's feet. "The tide must be coming in, I suppose some of natures laws are followed here.". He slowly got up, moving the baby Dagganoth off him, placing him further up the beach. Charron went to find Caedis, who had disappeared.

After wondering for what seemed like a hour, Charron realised the landscape looked the same everywhere. There were no distinct landmarks, he was probably lost himself. Suddenly Charron felt something poke around in his head. "Charron, head out to sea." It sounded like Caedis. Charron walked towards the shore then into the water, swimming out to sea. He felt heat rise out from below the surface. He dived downwards following the light. Eventually the water disappeared, he found himself in a cave, drawings on the wall, that appeared to be drawn in blood. Caedis was there examining.

Caedis turned round, suddenly surprised. "Get away from me! Oh right, its you Charron." Charron smiled, he still looked like Dagger. "Where are we?" Charron asked. "I have a feeling this is the Dagganoth version of the memory room Max had." "So it says the history about the Dagganoth thats taken over? Lets have a look." Charron had a look at the paintings. There were no words and the paintings were hard to interpret. "If only this was more like Max's room." Charron said. Suddenly the pictures flew off the wall, creating 3d shapes made from blood that moved, a soothing voice spoke.

"I gave birth to him. When he hatched I knew he had potential, he had the strength and the courage. I helped mold him into a sentinel. When I was trapped he missed me as the rest of them did, he became a guard for the kings." As the words were spoken the shapes formed the shape of Dagganoths, one of them in the corner was big and seemed the most powerful. Caedis took an interest in it. The shapes also formed an egg, from which hatched a creature, next to it a slightly larger creature, then a much larger creature. On the mention of 'trapped' the largest creature let out a cry.

"The humans came, butchering my children, eventually coming to him. He put up a good fight but he was badly wounded, left to die. He had failed me. " The voice said. The largest creature was overwhelmed by humanoid looking creatures before falling to the ground, barely moving at all. The largest dagganoth shaped morphed into a humanoid looking figure wearing robes, he talked in a Harsh male voice. "He thought I would end its suffering. But I would make it suffer more. I took his life but I kept it for myself. Kept in the void he tried to resist going mad, cleary he was strong. However after years, possibly centuries for time had no meaning there, the darkness of the void broke. His power and skills were now mine, I made sure he wouldn't get them back but he had to live." Throughout the speech the creature in the centre was surrounded by more of the man in the corner speaking.

Finally the figure was replaced by a figure which looked a lot like Crondis, however it's voice spoke in a calm male voice. "He'd turned him into a helpless child, no escape he spent his days weeping, calling for the mother that would not come. However the void ended, he was home, or what looked like it. He swam in the sea, he crawled across mountains. However he was still trapped. Then came a cave." It spoke. The blood forming the images the voice described. The room slowly turned redder for the next bit.

"Through the cave there were 2 creatures, unsure what they were. They became 1 creature much bigger, it walked along. He wanted to meet it but it ignored it, he bit it, he wailed at it to no avail. Eventually the creature let out a loud cry, he wanted to help. He opened his eyes and saw a landscape he wasn't used to seeing. He couldn't control himself but he felt another presence. He tried to contact it but it didn't work. After a while it said "I'm bored and hungry". He replied "Stop standing around and get some food". He found himself in control. There was a human, but a voice told him to not kill him but ignore him. He went to get some food. He was still hungry. Suddenly another human was shouting at his friend. His intelligence was great for he tried kill 2 humans with one claw. His friend didn't like that, he persuaded him he was right. He was strong again, taking down the 1 thing that could stop him. The sea called him, he heard a name. He was dagger."

The shapes mimicked Charrons memories of what had happened earlier. Charron was confused about what had happened. Caedis spoke up "It seems that child is or was the dagganoth part, somehow it became in control when it shouldn't have. So if we kill the kid then we can gain control again.". "No!" Charron cried. "What do you mean no?" Caedis asked. "He's just a kid!" "He's a monster." "So are you!" "I'm not the one killing innocent men on the island!". Charron had had enough. He walked out, he don't know how but he was on the beach again. He saw the baby. "Theres been enough killing." he said. He nudged the baby with his snout. It slowly woke up. "Lets find the mother." He said to him. The baby was up quickly after hearing it. "I know we can find her again!". It replied happily. "Hop onto my back" Charron said. Charron bent down to the floor as the baby managed to rest itself on one of the spikes, his arms on Charron's shoulders. "Lets go!" It cried. Charron walked straight on.

"If I keep him happy it won't kill. Caedis was wrong we didn't have to kill it. We'll keep travelling, even if it forever." Charron thought to himself. He could be content living like this, he didn't need the others. He didn't need Caedis or Max, The captain or Ruthven, he didn't need his family, he could go on a permanent adventure.

Life was simple, everyday the sun would rise. Charron would say "This is it, we'll find her today!". Sometimes they would go along the beach. Sometimes they would go over mountains or swim out to sea. The landscape never changed, but still they continued on. As the sun started to set, they would look for food, Charron loved taking him fishing. Everytime he would try and try until eventually he would catch one, Charron would cheer everytime, forgetting he had already caught about 5 much bigger ones. Sometimes they might also have Rockcrab, Charron watching as he jumped to each rock, seeing if they were crabs or just rocks. Then they would sleep next to the waves and look up at the stars. Charron would tell a story his father use to tell him, editing it slightly to make the dagganoth win at the end, with the human usually ending up dead or as supper. The baby would nustle up with Charron each night and they would go to sleep, ready to start the day again.

One day, many day's after Charron had gone off.

The water smashed against the rock, with such force that it shattered. It had come from Charron's jaws, he had recently mastered how to make it as powerful as can be. "Do it again!" The child cried. "Its your turn now." Charron replied smiling. "I can't, its too hard." He said ashamed. "Yes you can, just try to focus." Charron said. The dagganoth opened its mouth ready, but was unable to shoot a spell, coughing instead. "I can't do it." he said. "Look focus this time, close your eyes." Charron said. He closed his eyes. "Draw the power from within." He took a deep breath in. "Now release it!" Charron shouted. The child opened its jaw, nothing happened he just coughed again. Suddenly a spell launched out shattering a nearby boulder. "I did it" the child cried. Charron quickly closed his jaw. "I told you you could." Charron watched as a crab scuttled out from the remians of the boulder, the child saw and chased after it.

Charron walked along the coastline, the child on its back. "Do you think we'll find mother today?" The child asked. "Almost certainly" Charron replied. "She'll be so happy to see us." he cried. Silence passed for a few more minutes before the child spoke up again, he was rarely quiet. "Can you tell the story about the dragon and the 2 Dagganoth again?" he said. "Wait until tonight." Charron replied. "Don't I get a reward for breaking the rock though?" "What about the crab you ate." "But we always eat crab, its not really a reward." "We didn't have any yesterday, remember?" "Come on...." "Oh fine." Charron gave up, this is what usually happened.

"Once there were 2 dagganoth. One was old and had protected the colony from many humans, he had grown wise but silent. The other was younger, he showed skill but lacked discipline and was enthusiastic. The 2 were however the best warriors in their colony. One day a dragon was discovered in the caves along with other monsters. The Mother decided to get the 2 of them to vanquish the dragon. They both agreed but the older one was regretting working with the younger one. They walked into the cave, exploring its depths, the younger one plagued the older one with questions, about previous monsters, about fighting techniques. The constant questioning annoyed the older one. Eventually they were attacked by 3 humans. THe older one prepared himself to attack but the younger one rushed in. He had managed to kill all 3 humans before the older one could launch a strike. This annoyed the older one further. They each ate 1 human to restore their energy, eventually there was 1 left, the older one went to eat it but the younger one barged him out the way, however he also ended up knocking the corpse into a crevice where it fell into darkness. The older one snapped his jaws around the younger ones neck, he drew blood which gushed out onto the floor. He shouted and yelled at him and grew angrier and angrier. EVentually he walked to a corner and rested for a bit. After a while the younger one appeared, he was carrying the human's corpse in his teeth, and he dropped it on the floor next to him.The older one thanked him and started to eat it, he asked if the younger one wanted some too. They shared the meal between them, slowly becoming friends. Then the dragon appeared. The younger one tried to attack it on his own but he was crushed against the wall. The older one then tried to attack it but he was badly burnt by the fire. They decided to work together and eventually both took down the dragon. The 2 were recognised as great dagganoth and were both friends for the rest of their lives. The End."

"I love that story." The child said. "Is it a true story?". Charron smiled "It might be." "Are you one of the dagganoths?" "Maybe..." Charron smiled again. "Are you the younger one?" Charron's smile slightly thinned. "err... yes!". "Wow! You actually fought a dragon! Wait look over there!" Charron had a look, what looked like a mountain stuck out from what was usually a dull landscape. Upon closer inspection the mountain was actually another Dagganoth. "Its Mother!" "It is!" Charron ran up to the Dagganoth Mother. It had been so long he had forgotten what she looked like. Something didn't feel right, Charron could barely remember meeting her at all.

"Mother!" The child cried, it balanced itself on Charron's head in order to get a look at her. "Hello Children. You've finally returned." she said. "I'm afraid I cannot take you back to the island." Charron looked up to catch her eyes, the child slid down onto his back. "Why not?" Charron asked. "Because you two have been selected for an important task. Young one, would you mind heading into the water and finding a bright red fish for me." The child jumped off Charron's back. "Right away Mother." it said before heading out to sea. The mother faced Charron. "I need to speak with you Charron."

The name Charron rang a bell in his mind. Where had he heard it before. "What's a Charron mother?" he asked. "I'm not your mother Charron, you are Charron your a human." She said. Charron was shocked. "What are you talking about Mother, I've always been a Dagganoth, ever since I hatched, I've been looking for you since I left home." "You've spent to long in that form, you've gone mad. It's me Caedis, I've found a way out of the dream. You need to snap out of it." the Mother said. "Are you alright Mother?" Charron said confused. "Don't you remember, you were born Crondis Armen, you were a wizard, then a slayer. You took a boat to the Eastern Isles. You met me, we took down Ken. We met Charad and helped Max out. We killed the interference together. Your name is Charron Armen, your a human, a human!".

"No..." Charron said, his head hurting he collapsed to the ground holding his head. Tears rolled down his snout. He had begun to remember everything. He hated it. He had a life, he could have spent forever in this place, he wanted to. "Why... I was happy, we would adventure forever, this was what I wanted. I love him, don't kill him!" Charron said, fighting through tears. "I've been watching you, I've also been studying, outside of this world your dying. Were dying. I found a way to seperate us, then we can head home. You just need to listen to what I have to say."

The child walked up. "Is he ok mother? Why is he crying?". "Its nothing child, now I need you to listen to me. Your not a child are you your my Sentinel." Caedis said. The child was silent for a bit. "I know...". "I know what you've been through, escaping it all by becoming the child going on an infinite long adventure. But you need to return to yourself." "I know..." the child said. "You need to grow up." "I will...". The child ran up to Charron and hugged him, Charron pulled his head out of the sand and hugged him back. "I love you" Charron said to him. The child was overwhelmed by emotion. "I love you too." They continued to hug, Charron fighting back tears. SLowly the child grew larger, ending up more then twice the size of Charron, he sort of looked like Dagger but smaller and less vicous. After the transformation had ended Charron was still hugging on to the Sentinel.

"Your a wonderful Child." Caedis said to the Sentinel. "I name you Dagger, it was a name held by a great Dagganoth long ago, now I think you are worthy of the title." Dagger didn't know what to say. "Thank you Mother. I've never had a name before." he eventually said. "You are most welcome" Caedis replied. "And you." he pointed to Charron, who was now back on his feet again. "I name you Charron, use your new name well.". "Thank you mother..." Charron said.

"Our war with the humans has ended. We accepted there terms of surrender as they offered us something priceless. You 2 are going to leave the colony for good. I want you to roam the world seeking adventure. However first I will turn Charron into a human. Are you both ok with this." Dagger didn't know what to say. "Will I never see you again mother?" "Not physically. But remember, I will always be with you here." Caedis said pointing at Dagger's heart. "Then I will do as you ask and make you proud mother."

"And you Charron?". Charron stood silent for a moment too. "yes...". "I will not turn you into a human." Caedis said, which he followed up with a massive roar. Charron didn't feel any different, he realised only he could turn human of his own will. He chose to become human again. A Charron with a Naked human body now stood facing the Mother. Dagger watched in awe. "Are you ok?" Dagger asked. "My head hurts, I'll be fine." "Now I must leave you, a crocodile will soon appear in my place, he will help you leave. Goodbye Children." "Goodbye Mother" Dagger and Charron both said simultaneously. The mother walked off, the 3 were joined later by a crocodile.

"We need to join together and think about waking up, in our own body's." Caedis said. Charron and Dagger joined hands, and they both place a hand  on Caedis' back. Eventually all 3 of them glowed red. All 3 of them continues to think of waking up as hard as possible. Eventually the world faded around them, and they woke up."

Charron was stuck, he was also underwater with a Cabinet crushing him. He was in Dagger form and was glowing red. He was losing strength. Charron managed to push the cabinet off with most of his strength, then he was a crack which lead out to the sea. He tore open the boards using his strength but that too was fading. The crack still wasn't big enough when Charron suddenly reverted to Croc form. He had also lost his gills. He felt his strength weakening even further. EVentually, through a rushed panic he pulled the boards away and swam to the surface.

Charron was on the beach, he was human again. Next to him lay Caedis, who was unconcious. Charron looked hopefully behind him, Dagger wasn't there. "Dagger..." he cried out weakly. He'd just noticed his wounds. "CHarron..." Charron heard, shortly before passing out alongside Caedis.

Charron was in a void, he called out for Dagger repeatedly but no answer came. Fortunately though it was just a nightmare. Charron woke up in a swamp, bandaged up and lieing next to a river. This place looked familiar, then he realised he was at the menagerie. He was back at Max's house.

I guess this is goodbye
Charod walked in from somewhere, he appeared to be slightly taller then before and dressed in a fine coat. "Your awake! And your human as well. I'll get one of the golem's to get something to eat." Charad then ran off who knows where. Charron got up, he noticed his old clothes and staff lying next to him. He put them on and went to the familiar table overlooking the menagerie.

Charad sat down next to him, Slator bringing the food in. Charad started the conversation. "So, what have you been doing all this time?". Charron took a sip of tea then began to explain. "Well after the.. incident, I passed out. Next thing I know I'm here." "That a short story for the time you've been gone. You've hardly changed at all in 9 months." "9 months!" Charron said dropping his cake. He sighed, this journery had been stressful to him. "Wheres Max?" he asked. Charad put down his food to explain. "After he recovered he started to work finishing his paper, however he suddenly stopped. He just got bored with the project. He's now be analyzing the creatures of the Isles and cataloguing them. He's currently at the Chimera Straits on an expedition." They continued to chat for about a hour, until Charad left him to go check on the golems.

Charron went over to the river, Caedis was lying down by the pool, his eyes opening as Charron came near. Charron sat next to him and explained everything Charad had told him. "9 months, that means we've known each for a year." Caedis said. "Yeah..." Charron said. Caedis noticed something wrong. "We would've died if I didn't do what I had to." he said. Charron sighed. "He's gone, he was like a son to me. I need to be alone." Charron sat down under a tree, miserable and deep in thought.

Eventually Charron decided. He was going to go home. He needed to get away from here. He also needed to find his father. Charron got up and went to see Charad. He walked into the laboratory, Charad was examining some parts of creatures. "I'm leaving." Charron said. Charad was shocked. "Already... but why?" "I need to see my father, find something out. Can you look after Caedis for me?" Charad still looked blankly at him. He said stuttering slightly "Sure I - I can, before you go take this." Charad handed him a black dagger. "I made it myself... it's actually made from you, well the 'other' part of you. The blade is one of the spikes, the hilt is carved from one of the tooth's we found, the grip's made from the leather of your tail, the pommel contains a jade, something to remember me by." Charad said. "You are coming back right?". Charron accepted the dagger. "Maybe, I just need some time to think. Thanks Charad, say bye to Max for me." Charron waved before pulling out some runes of his bag. He also quickly took the book he recognised as his off one of the desks. Then he cast the spell and teleported, he arrived in the centre of Ardougne, he knew how to get to his home from here. He set off.

I did what I had to!
It had been years since Charron had last visited. Charron approached the door and knocked. "Just a minute"  came from the other side of the door. The door opened, his father looked much older then Charron remembered. "Crondis! Ava, Crondis is here. How're you doing my boy?". "I'm fine father, I just came to chat."

Charron walked into the dining room, sitting down at his favourite chair. His father followed him, Charron realised he used a walking stick. His mother entered the room, she also looked much older and she now wore spectacles. "My boy, I havn't seen you in years." She kissed him and hugged him repeatedly. "You need to tell us what you've been up to, I havn't seen you in years, Apmek visits from time to time but your brother is nowhere to be found, so tell us--" She started saying, his father silenced her with a hand action and they both sat down.

"Well, I killed a dragon for a task, that must've been a year ago now." Charron started. His father and mother commenting now and again. "Then I spent a year exploring the Eastern Lands. I stayed with a sea orphan called Charad and some wizard called Maxwell Raines---" Upon the mention of his name, his mother stood up. "You met Raines. Your so lucky. I've told you about him havn't I Scabby, he wrote the Thesis which got us insight into the --" "Yes, yes" his father interrupted. "We would've been fine to explore the site near Nardah. We didn't need wonderful 'Master Raines'." Ava wasn't listening. "I've got the Thesis upstairs somewhere." She said, then she ran upstairs.

Charron took this oppurtunity. "I also had someone else help me father. Someone you know." Charron said calmly. "Hmmm, was it Simon from the Digsite. He's been wanting to explore that place.". Charron shook his head. "His name was Caedis." The name struck his father like a blow to the stomach. "I don't know any people called Caedis." he replied, breathing deeply. "Well he wasn't a person. More of a Crocodile." His father fell back in his chair. "and also part Dagganoth." Charron said, raising his voice. "And I've had to deal with, emotional interferences, month long dreams and a wizard trying to make a monster out of me." His father fell back into his chair. He motioned with his hand for Charron to be silent. "I'd hoped he would have died by now. I suppose I owe you an explanation."

His father motioned to a painting Charron had seen a dozen times. It was a tomb, discovered just south of Nardah. "That's where it all began. It was a few years before you were born. I was an archaeologist, amatuer wizard and the luckiest man alive. I'd known your mother a few months and we were partners, joint head Archaeologist's in fact on the expedition. I managed to uncover an ancient jewelry box, it contained a ring that caught my eye. It was a bronze ring, with drawings of Kalphites along the edges. It was part of a set of 7, one for each desert god. That night I proposed to your mother, she said yes. I gave her the ring. It was the happiest day of my life."

Charron eagerly listened to the tale. "However a group of men came, ruled by a man named Grohiik. They stole our artefacts and took us prisoner. They dumped us, tied up in the swamp about a mile or two East of us. They left us for the Crocodiles. Your mother had resisted and had been heavily beaten. She was out cold and didn't have to see what I saw. The crocodiles got to our workers before they could escape, I'd managed to break free and carry my wife away from there. Unfortunately I tripped over what I was trying to run away from. After a struggle, I managed to stab the Croc in the head with minor wounds. I looked through the reeds and I saw a group of egg's, about 3 of them. I'd obviously killed the mother, I decided to take the eggs for food and we stopped in a cave I'd found a few day's ago before. Fortunately my paranoia paid off by hiding my most valuable things in the cave before hand. I uncovered the chest, and opened it. I'm going to have to rewind the story back a few years though."

Charron listened carefully. "When I'd discovered one of our families treasures, I'd found it was this book. It was a genuine Dimexius. Before I'd set off to the digsite near Varrock I thought I'd explore a bit first. I managed to translate the book, 1 spell caught my eye. You know the one I noticed. I'd decided I would attempt to create the spell. I was young and foolish then. I'd enchanted a gem to store the energy, which I'd slowly gathered over a year. I'd acquired a special dagger and bottle that belonged to my uncle. It could trap the mind of a creature in it, as well as keeping a blue print of its traits. I kept it with me on my travels, one of them was an expedition to waterbirth Island. I went with a few other's and a group of Fremmenik who had kindly let us join them, whilst they attempted to drive out the dagganoth. I'd followed closely behind, at one point the Fremmenik had picked a fight with a massive Dagganoth, a Sentinel. 2 of them got severely injured and had died a few days later, however they still brought the beast down. It lay there, dying slowly. I'd thought, this would be a great addition to the spell. So I captured it, I'd saved it from death and now I had its power."

Charron thought about Dagger as his father carried on. "Back to the present day, I'd kept this stuff with me. I looked at the blood, then back to the egg's. I could use the spell to get revenge. We stayed in the cave for about a week whilst I got everything set up. All the egg's without their mother to keep them warm, perished. Except for 1, when it hatched I saw a baby killer. I'd named it after the ancient word for Slaughter, which was "Caedis". I'd spent the time looking after your mother, but the spell distracted me. Eventually I was ready. Before I performed it, I explained to her that I was getting revenge. She didn't want that, she pulled the ring I'd given her, out of her skirt. She'd hidden it from them, she wanted us to leave and get married. I ignored her and started the spell. The spell requires concentration you see, however halfway through, I'd felt my anger slip away. I thought of your mother, thats when the spell went wrong. The spell affected Caedis, but not me, I counted my blessings. I quickly packed everything up and teleported us both back to Ardougne. We forgot about what had happened. We were married a month later, then moved into a new home. Thats where your mum gave birth to 3 great children. I never looked back."

Charron nodded then spoke. "Why am I affected by the spell then?". His father spoke softly. "I didn't want any part of the spell, but my blood was involved in it. So it lay dormant in me, eventually coming out in the body of a child. My first born child. It's probably the reason for your silent personality, as well as your skill in magic and your strength." Charron understood, the anger he had felt towards his father had settled down. His mother reappeared from the other room. "Are you staying for dinner son?" she asked, seeming distracted. "Of course." Charron replied smiling.

Charron lay in the guest room, his stomach full, he went to sleep. For the first time in ages he was no longer in the Dream space he had shared with Caedis. His mind was back to normal again. Charron dreamed he was by the sea, a baby dagganoth nustled up to him. Charron stroked it but it disappeared. The sound of the waves was replaced by its crying. Charron wanted to help but he couldn't do anything. Suddenly Ruthven appeared out of the water. He was talking about the Champions Guild. Charron decided to follow him.

When Charron woke up he noticed a box by his feet. In it was a translated copy of the spell, as well as the tools his father had used to capture Dagger. Charron picked it up and put it in his bag. He might need these one day. He stayed for another week before heading back to Taverly. He was going to try become a champion.

Were going to be the 3 Champions!
6 months later, Charron had recieved the letter from the Champions Guild. Full of hope, pride and blood, he set off to the guild. As he knocked on the door he could hear a voice inside say "--and then there were 5 dragons coming after me, naturally I managed to dodge the flames, jumping from--", he recognised the voice. A man opened the door to let Charron in "Welcome to the Champions Guild", he said in a loud voice. Charron nodded to him. "Your the last to arrive, you'll be joined by 2 other participants, I'll let you introduce yourselves." He led Charron into a small room.

In front of him stood the man whose voice Charron recognised. He looked older now, but he still had that stupid grin on his face. He stopped talking and turned around. "Craydos, your alive! The captain told me you'd been killed by slave traders. So, did you enjoy Wushanko." Ruthven said. "I spent 9 month's trapped in a boat under the sea." Charron said. "And my names Charron, not Craydos...". Ruthven smiled. "I know I was just messing, I'd never forget your name Charron." Charron didn't say anything. Ruthven showed him to the other man. "Let me introduce you to Jack".

Ruthven pointed to a man sitting on a chair reading a book. He was about Ruthvens age, slightly shorter though. His hair was long and dark brown with parts going black. He wore black leather armour, which held numerous bolts and knives along it. On his back, Charron noticed a crossbow made of some white material, and a steel buckler. Upon noticing Charron he put his book down and stood up to greet him. He grabbed Charron's hand unexpectedly and shook it, speaking with a strong Burthorpian accent he said "Greetings, my names not Jack by the way, its Jacob. Jacob Southmage. You can call me Jake if you like, or whatever." Charron answered back "My names Charron Armen. You can call me Charron."

Jacob smiled. "Your not related to Scabaras Armen by any chance?" he asked. Charron looked confused "He's my father, how do you know him?" Jacob scratched his head. "I've read his Thesis on Menaphite culture and worship. I spent a few days by the digsite on an assignment and took a short look at it." The conversation was interupted by the Guildmaster walking in.

"You 3 will need to head to Ghost Town. Your looking for a man named Oziach, he handles all our entrance quests. It'll give you a chance to get to know each other." So Charron found himself walking to Ghost Town with Jacob and Ruthven, it would be the start of a long friendship between them. They discussed adventures, Slayer assignments and their combat skills. Ruthven's stories all seemed far fetched and involved him saving damsel's in distress from hundreds of dragons. Jacob wasn't impressed and called Ruthven out several times, making him stumble on his stories. Charron was starting to like him.

They eventually made their way to Oziach's home. He was annoyed by the fact there was 3 of them and just gave them 1 task for all 3 to do. The task was to investigate a mysterious water born disease that had suddenly sprung up in the wilderness pond, and attempt to cure it before it spreaded to the river Lum. With the help of a local lumberjack they managed to make 3 canoes that they could use to sail up river. The 3 canoed up the stream until they came to an opening in the ground nearby.

Jacob examined the area, eventually he came across a peculiar fungi growing around the pond. "Is it edible?" Ruthven asked. Jacob ignored him, concentrating. He ground it up, put it in a vial, added a strange liquid and shook it. It turned a greyish red colour. "I guessed as much, I read a book about this once. This fungi grows near areas where the water has been polluted via magical means." Jacob said, taking another mushroom and leaving the sample on the ground. Charron stepped in. "That means that the source of the problem is likely beneath us, going through that opening." He said, pointing to the hole in the ground. Ruthven was already tying a rope down, leading into the hole. "What're we waiting for then, come on." Ruthven said disappearing into the ground. Charron climbed down after him, whilst Jacob came down after him. Ruthven managed to slide down quickly and land on his feet. Charron heard him say "..eerrrr, hello there. You don't happen to know anything about a curse poisoning the water do you?". "Who are you talking to?" Charron asked. Suddenly a plume of fire launched itself against the wall next to Ruthven. Ruthven managed to dodge it, but the shaking knocked Charron loose. Charron fell to the ground, fortunately he wasn't that high up. Charron got up and looked in front of him. 2 demons were staring right at them, and they looked angry.

The demon charged at him, hoping to kill Charron whilst he was down. However a steel axe launched through the air, and right into the demon's head. Charron looked up, Jacob had managed to save him, he would have to thank him later. The demon removed the axe from his head and threw it to the ground. However Ruthven had taken out both his rapiers and had stabbed them into the demons chest. The demon screamed in agony and went to strike at Ruthven. But Ruthven was quick and dodged it, slashing his swords against the demon. Every strike the demon made was too slow as Ruthven was moving too fast. Charron used this oppurtunity to get up and prepare himself. However Ruthven had forgotten about the other demon, who had ran up behind him and smacked him out the way. Charron slipped some runes in his hand and began to charge a spell. The injured demon was about to get its revenge on Ruthven, however Jacob appeared from above, then rolling across the floor, before bringing out his crossbow and firing. The bolt contacted with the demons head and struck him in the eye. Charron used this oppurtunity to launch the fireball he had been charging at the demon. The spell also struck the demons head, the demon fell back, screamed, then exploded. Showering Ruthven in guts.

However the 2nd demon had used this time to charge a spell, which he launched at the wall at the back of the cave. The wall crumble and a ghostly figure stepped out. It was much bigger and floated above the ground, it was a revenant demon. The revenant shouted in rage. The demon ran up to it, speaking to it. It sounded like it was asking for help. The revenant ignored him and launched a spell at the demon, the demon fell backwards, shortly before exploding like the other demon before. Now they had a new enemy, a much tougher one at that.

A bolt shot through the air almost immediatly and struck the revenant in the skull. However the revenant responded by releasing a blast of energy at Charron and Jacob. Charron managed to move out the way. Rocks fell from the ceiling from the force of the blast. Charron felt in his pocket and pulled out a pouch, a blue horned emblem on the front. Charron had been saving this, but now felt like a good time to use it. Whilst Charron prepared to summon, Ruthven stabbed into the revenant. He tried to acheive what he had done with the first demon, but the revenants reflexes were quicker and he managed to catch him offguard, knocking him away. A flurry of knives were being thrown in the air, towards the demon. Each one impaling in the chest. However the demon noticed Jacob and sent another blast of energy at him. The demon then noticed Charron and attempted to send a blast at him. However Charron was ready. A ghostly figure emerged in front of his, it was a huge form and it sowly began to take shape. It carried a huge blue axe and sported a hide made of mithril. It was a minotaur. The minotaur positioned itself in front of Charron and braced itself. The blast made contact and the minotaur was pushed backwards, however he had sustained little damage. It shouted something that sounded like "Baroo!" to Ruthven and Jacob. But to Charron it said "Finally, a challenge."

The minotaur charged at the revenant, the revenant was about to launch another spell at it, but Ruthven appeared from behind and slashed at its arms. It caused the spell to be delayed, but it was enough. The minotaur charged into the revenant, slamming it into the wall. Charron had used this time to charge a fire spell and he launched it at the revenant. It screamed in pain as the spell made contact, seemingly lighting the being on fire. The minotaur snorted and brought its axe down on the demon's neck. The axe made contact, the revenant screamed and it faded into ghostly essence. "We did it!" Ruthven shouted. The minotaur rasied its axe in celebration of the kill. "Bring me something tougher next time." It said. Charron laughed at the minotaurs words, Jacob smiled and walked over to a ritual circle on the ground. "Charron, do you want to help me break the ritual?" Jacob asked. "Sure." he replied. walking over to the circle. "I see some stuff behind this wall!" Ruthven shouted. "But the walls too strong." The minotaur then walked over and punched the wall, it gave way, revealling some old belongings.

Jacob and Charron managed to break the ritual after a few minutes deciphering and spell casting. Ruthven, with help from the minotaur brought out the loot they found. "I'll take these relics, they look valuable." Ruthven said, stuffing them into his bag. Jacob had already taken the books that had been found. Charron meanwhile found an old set of wizard robes, which he packed into his bag. Charron dismissed the minotaur and the 3 of them headed back to Oziach. He sighed and congratulated them and gave them a certificate each. The 3 then headed to the champions guild where the Guildmaster inducted them.

After the celebrations the 3 of them sat outside and had a chat. "I always preferred working in teams than solo" Jacob said. Ruthven jumped up. "Then lets stay as a team, we just took out 2 demons and a revenant." he said. Jacob jumped up as well. "I like that idea, its just like a storybook tale, what about you Charron?". Charron didn't know what to think, he preferred working on his own, plus he was hoping to find a way to bring Dagger back. And the thought of being with Ruthven all the time sickened him. But he remembered the thrill of the fight, and he did learn something about breaking rituals. He could stay with them until he learnt something new. Charron stood up. "I guess it could mean we can take on more difficult jobs." Charron said. "Then its settled, we have now become the 3 questers, let nothing stop us now." Ruthven shouted "The 3 questers?" Jacob asked. Ruthven spent the rest of the day ignoring Jacob and Charrons better suggestions for names. Ruthven talked to the Slayer masters and champions guild, instruting them that they could give them more difficult tasks.

Look at the size of that thing!
"Did you know, Kurasks have 3 stomachs." Jacob said, sipping his asgoldian ale. They were in the Seers village, they had just completed an assignment to recover the fruit from inside some kurask for the druids in taverly. They had just sent the fruit with a merchant who knew how to keep the fruit fresh. They had been staying in the pub for a few days, all 3 of them were tired. It had been 1 ½ years since they had formed the group and the tasks had proved tiring. Ruthven had suffered 2 mental breakdowns already, Jacob spent nearly everyday fixing injuries and was suffering from fatigue, Charron was the only one not affected.

"After cutting them up carefully for almost a hour, I can tell you. Yes. I did know that." Ruthven said grudgingly. He still had that stupid smile on his face however. Charron was sat in the corner reading the ancient spellbook, he had recently discovered a spell that might actually free Dagger from his 'prison'. Jacob was reading through a book about slayer monsters. "Did you also know, that the younger Kurask migrate in order to --" Ruthven interrupted. "Please shut up Jacob!" he shouted. Jacob decided to read in silence. However the silence was broken by a man running up to them, panting and out of breath. "RSPD" he said. "I've got a contract for you" he dropped it off. Ruthven fished around in his pocket for a few coins and gave it to them courier. "Thanks" he said before running off.

Ruthven sighed. "I don't want to read it..." Charron put his book down and picked up the scroll. He read it aloud as he went along. "You have been assigned to kill a monster that has been rampaging near the mountains by Relleka." "Can't the fremmenik deal with it?" Jacob asked. Charron continued to read. "The Fremmenik lack the proper training and are also busy preparing for a festival." Jacob sighed. "Your target is a Strykewyrm, normally located at the following coordinates--" Charron stopped reading. Jacob looked up "Did you say Strykewyrm, as in the extremely difficult slayer monster" Jacob flicked through his book. Charron nodded. Ruthven sighed. "Well, a monsters a monsters, at least we don't have to gut it this time." "Its weakness is fire magic, this is your moment Charron. Charron nodded. "Lets get some rest first, we can head out in the morning." So the 3 of them went to bed, an idea hatching in Charrons brain. Ruthven was looking through the sextant. It had been 2 days since they set off in search of the Strykewyrm. "So where are we?" Jacob said. Snow was falling fast, everyone was cold, except Charron, who seemed rather comfortable in the climate. "The sun needs to be shining for this to work!" Ruthven shouted. "Were never gonna find this stupid wyrm" At the mention of that, the earth shook slightly. A mound of snow moved slowly in front of them. "Quick Ruthven, do the technique to bring it up." Charron said. Ruthven threw the sextant to the ground before heading over to the mound. He got his sword, tapped the earth slightly then stomped on the ground. The wyrm burst out of the ground in front of him, knocking Ruthven back in surprise. It must've been 15ft tall or higher, Charron didn't stop to count. However he did notice several old arrows and axes buried into the beast, also there was a staff, right near the head. Charron launched the first fireball whilst the wyrm was busy getting its surroundings.

Jacob threw a flask full of a flammable substance over the wyrm, increasing the damage from the fire spell. The wyrm screached in pain but it retaliated by launching a ball of ice at Jacob. Jacob managed to dodge out the way and Charron followed up with another fire spell. The spell contacted and the creature let out another shout. However the wyrm then decided to bury itself underground, extinguishing the flames caused by the oil. Jacob and Charron looked around frantically. Suddenly it burst out of the ground under Charron. The force caused Charrons staff to fall out of his hands. Charron found himself in the air, suddenly without thinking, he grabbed onto a shaft poking out of the wyrm, the jolt caused the shaft to loosen and a set of runes fall into Charrons hand. Charron noticed he was holding onto the staff he had seen earlier. He hoped he had the right runes and tried to cast a fire spell. The staff shone, and fire erupted out of the end. The blast blew Charron and the Staff out of the wyrm's neck, it also caused the wyrms head to be forced off.

The headless wyrm thrashed about, before finally sinking back into the hole it came from, snow covering the entrance. Charron clutched the staff in his hand, it featured the star of saradomin on it and featured a blade at the top instead of an orb like Charron normally saw. He decided to go look for Jacob and Ruthven, he found Jacob healing up Ruthven who had been knocked out during the fight. Ruthven was sat up, drinking mead from a flash. Jacob, upon seeing the staff stood up and inspected. "Look at this, you've got a Staff of Light. They were used by the most powerful of saradomins mages. It might be more than 1000 years old, or even longer." Jacob said. "It must be worth a fortune" Ruthven added. Charron spun it around in his hands, it felt natural to him. The blade and metal shaft also gave him the chance to use his strength in close combat situations. Charron suggested they bring the Strykewyrm head back with them, to exchange for a meal and drink in the nearby fremmenik village.

Time to put the plan into action.
The chief of the village was reluctant at first, but upon seeing the head of the beast that threatened their celebrations, he agreed. Charron had also agreed to another thing as well. He wanted passage to waterbirth island. The chief also agreed to that, and instructed one of the local sailors to take him. Whilst Jacob and Ruthven slept, Charron snuck out, bringing with him the book of ancient magic. The sailor droped him off and agreed to return in 2 hours. Charron had never been here before, but his time with Dagger had given him knowledge of the area. One part in particular was the knowledge of an underwater entrance into the dagganoths lair. Charron took his bag off and dove straight into the water.

The water was icy cold, Charron had taken one of Jacob;s potions to keep his body temperature up, but he knew he had to not send long underwater. After a minute Charron found the entrance, he followed the tunnels eventually surfacing in a cave. There were rockcrabs everywhere, scuttling about. Charron got out and tried to warm up, eventually he saw what he was looking for. A young dagganoth was hunting for crabs, it sniffed at every rock, inspecting them. Charron clung to the shadows and threw a rock into the water. The young dagganoth went to investigate, Charron snuck up behind it and slammed the shaft of the staff onto the back of its head. The dagganoth collapsed onto the rocky floor. Charron grabbed it and swam back out to the beach at the top.

Charron placed it on the ground and read through the book. He found the spell he was looking for, a spell to freeze a person in ice, in order to preserve them. He did all the required steps, then performed the ritual. The dagganoth had been trapped in ice. Next Charron scanned the shore and found an old battered crate, he placed the dagganoth in there. As carrying a frozen dagganoth around with him, might arouse suspicoun. Eventually the sailor came back, he didn't question about Charron's crate and took them back to the village. The next day, Jacob, Ruthven and Charron headed back, first to Catherby, then to Port Sarim.

At the port the 3 of them were having a drink when a courier appeared. He gave Charron a letter before running off. It was from Max, who had invited him back to his estate, where he had some scientific breakthrough he wanted to show him. This was the oppurtunity Charron had been looking for to go back to the Isles. He felt bad for leaving Ruthven and Jacob, however he broke the news to them. The next day they waved goodbye to him from the docks, Charron waved back. His plan was almost complete.

I never thought I'd be back here again
Charron got off at Waiko, and managed to take another ship to Animishi. After a long walk along the beach, Charron saw the manor. The building work was coming along nicely, yet it was still continueing after all this time. Charron approached the door and rang the bell. A deep voice inside shouted "I'll get it!". The door opened,  Charad was there. However he had grown, he was now taller than Charron. "Charron!" he said. "Welcome back". "Hello to you too, Charad". Charad invited him in and sat him down at the familiar table in the menagerie. The menagerie also appeared to have extended, Charron could spot a mock desert habitat next to the swamp one.

Charad sat down opposite him. "So why are you back here?" he asked. Charron was confused. "Max sent me a letter telling me to come, important scientific discovery he wanted to show me." Now Charad looked confused. "He's been on a voyage for about a month. Some man came round, interested in Caedis and some of Max's papers. They've gone to another island to further imrove them." Charad replied. "hmmmm, where is Caedis?" Charron asked. "He's gone with them, they said they needed him." Charad replied. "dammit" Charron said to himself. "Your welcome to stay here until they come back" Charad asked.

So Charron found himself in the spare bedroom, he fell aslee as soon as his head hit the pillow. Charron woke u to the sound of banging, he could hear running footsteps and shouting. He went to get his staff but 3 men burst in unexpectedly Charron swung his fist into one of their stomachs, winding him. But the other 2 grabbed him, before covering a wet rag to his mouth. Charron suddenly felt sleepy and his lifeless body was taken aboard a ship.

Your powers will help me succeed.
A sudden bolt of pain swept against Charrons face. Charron woke up, somebody was slapping him. Charron was still wearing pyjama's. Charrons vision managed to focus on to the man hitting him. Charron was shocked, it was Ken. "Ken? Your meant to be dead" Charron tried to say, but it came out rather slurred. The man understood him however. He laughed. "My brother is a stain on a wooden floor. My name is Akiro." That explained it. "What do you want from me?" Charron asked. "I want you to repay the debt you owe my family." "How?" Charron replied. Aki didn't answer, instead he grabbed Charron up and brought him out on deck.

Caedis was lying on the ground, tied up. A strange woman looking down at him. Max and Charad were also there, being held with swords to their necks by guards. Charron was forced to the ground on top of Caedis, the spikes dug into his chest. "Fancy meeting you here" Charron telepathically said to Caedis. "Don't you know what's going on." Caedis replied. Before Charron could answer, Aki spoke to him. "Now, see that factory over there,Your going to go in, kill the workers, destroy the machinary and finally kill the boss of the place." he said. "How do you expect me to do that?" Charron said. The woman spoke to him this time. "We know you were the subject of a spell, a spell that grants you great power, you will use that." she said. "How do you know about that?" he asked. "We listened to rumours, put 2 and 2 together. Anyone who knew the spell would know it was you and that 'Croc'" Charron knew he was dealing with a expert wizard, who obviously knew about the spell that was used, and probably how to control it. "Theres 2 problem with that plan, I won't do it, and I can't do it." Charron said. Aki interrupted him "If you don't do it, we'll kill these 2, your croc and you. And you don't have to worry about not being able to do it." he said. The woman was chanting something whilst holding a strange pointed staff. The staff glowed. "This will hurt, a lot" Aki said. The staff was impaled through Charron's chest, through the otherside and into Caedis.

Caedis let out a loud growl before turning into red wisp's and flowing through the staff into Charron. The pain was more excruiciating than the previous go's. However the transformation never occured. Charron passed out from the pain. Before he passed out, he did managed to hear Aki express his disappointment at the witch.

Charron awoke in the dream world of before. It had been 2 years since he'd last entered this place, it still looked like the dull beach. Sitting on the beach was Caedis and Dagger. They were both in their normal forms. Charron walked up to them and sat down. "Why aren't you out there, killing everyone?" Caedis asked. "It didn't work, I passed out. " Charron replied. Caedis growled. "Oh yes, Dagger knows the truth now." he said. Charron looked to Dagger, his form dominating over Charron's. "So, you were born a human, the mother did abandon me here. I understand what Caedis was trying to do, unfortunately I'm stuck here. Its not bad, anything I want I can just dream up and it will come true. It would be nice to return to the real world." Dagger said, sighing.

Charron looked at him and spoke. "I found a way to bring you back." Charron said. The 2 beasts looked at him. "How?" Dagger said. "Theres another dagganoth body for you back at Max's house. Unfortunately we need to get to it first." The mood turned silent. "At least you tried." Caedis said. The 3 lay back staring at the unchanging sea. A hour, maybe 2 passed in silence. Eventually Dagger spoke out to Charron. "Why did you travel with me for months?" he asked. Charron had to think about it for a bit. "You reminded me of myself, alone in an unknown place, tormented continuously. I also wanted a simpler life, I gave up the one I had to be with you..." Charron stopped suddenly, at a loss about what to say. "Thanks" he said.

"I've changed a lot since I met you 2." Dagger said. "My minds more open, when I picture humans I don't think of food." Caedis spoke next. "Same here, must be Charron poisoning our mind. I mean I'm actually speaking full sentences." Charron then interrupted. "Yes and what do I get, I'm now more bloodthirsty, which I get from you Caedis! I suppose I get my teamwork skills from Dagger. And the strength of course." "You make a good dagganoth, for a human. I could use another snack though, maybe a boat full of people will sail past." They continued to talk about the developments when suddenly a shock woke Charron up.

Time to unleash the beast
Charron was tied up, a bolt of energy had surged through him, causing him great pain. HIs whole body was covered in bruises and cuts. A guard was controlling a machine of some kind, whilst the woman from before stared at him. "Ahhh your awake. Thats good. It seems your holding out on us, so were going to try a little experiment, either you come out of this a willing beast, or you come out of it several shocks later as a puddle." She signalled to the guard to continue the 'treatment'. Then she left. The guard let out another shock of pain. Charron tried to pass out but he couldn't. Instead the treatment continued, he swore at the guard saying he would kill everyone on the boat. The guard laughed and shocked him again. Charron couldn't handle it. Daggers voice spoke in his head. "I found a way to stop the transformations, if you want I can let you have my power now." Charron screamed again. But this time the guard hadn't pulled the switch.

Charron was transforming. The guard didn't notice, he was busy fiddling with the machine. Charron was slowly being replaced by a giant bloodthirsty dagganoth beast. The ropes that had held him in place snapped under the pressure, the guard turned around too late. Charron was hungry, he hadn't eaten in a day. A claw shot out at the guard, it tore open his chest and removed large amount of bodily fluid and a few organs. The man shouted for help but he was already in Charron's mouth, his skull snapping at the force exerted by his jaws. Charron swallowed, he had missed the taste, though he would never tell himself this.

Charron had to bend down, as his hulking frame didn't fit, he sensed a room with a large number of people in. He skulked towards it, his weight causing the floorboards beneath him to creak. Eventually he found the room, it was the living quarters of the crew, there were perhaps 20 people in the room, though only 1 was awake. He was then sent to sleep again by a spike through the heart. The crew were snoring so loudly that they heard nothing, Charron decided to finish his midnight snack. 10 minutes later Charron detected noone left alive in the crew quarters, it was time to get revenge.

Charron assumed the ship layout would be similar to Ken's. It sort of was, but the stairways were confusing. Charron decided to take the shortcut, he smashed a hole in the ceiling and broke through. He made his way to the top deck where he found he was surrounded by 5 guards. He was about to deal with them when suddenly he found himself unable to move anything but his mouth. The guards picked up his head and made him face towards the captains quarters. Standing there was Akiro and his female accomplice, her staff glistening from a recently cast spell. Akiro clapped his hands. "Bravo! Simply wonderful, fortunately I had my actual guards taken upstairs, those slaves played their part." Charron growled.

Akiro paced up and down the ship. "Did you really think it would be that easy, turn into that beast, plow through my guards and then kill me, on my own ship. Ha ha. And look at you now, fallen to a simple binding spell, no Magic cannonballs or Giant ships needed." Charron knew the bind spell would only last a few seconds more, just as he was becoming free, the woman cast yet another spell on him. He was stuck again. "Or should I say spells. No matter, I know you won't do what I ask. So why not have an army of men like you to do it for me. Men with your kind of power, and me to lead them. Quin couldn't even stop me with all the monsters in the ocean. But the spell is dangerous, perhaps we should test it first.

Charron felt himself get free and he attempted to slash at the nearest guard to him. However he was stopped once again by the woman. Charron watched as two men tied up were brought out. It was Charad and Max. Charad had been heavily beaten. Charron felt a surge of rage, expressing it the only way he could given the circumstances. "You Bas***d!" Charron shouted, in a growling voice. "The beast speaks at last!" Akiri said. "Its good to hear you speak, the strong silent type was beginning to bore me. Is that all I am? My parents wern't married, is that all you have to say about it." He said mockingly. "I didn't say much to your brother either, does it feel strange mourning over a stain." Charron said aggresively. The comment seemed to have struck a chord in AKiri's head. He walked down to Charron.

"Stand him up, I want to speak to him eye to eye." He barked at the men. The woman cast another binding spell on him before he was stood up to face Akiri. Their eyes met at the same height. "Beneath that beastlike armour your still a man. My brother may have been a drunken idiot, but I won't be." Akiri barked. "Will you be a sober stain instead." Charron said. Charron noticed it was the word 'Stain' that hit him the hardest. Akiri was taken back but stood firm. He launched a punch at Charron stomach. Charron yawned. "Stain." he said. "Well I've never tortured a monster before, but I'll give it my best shot. He drew out a sword, Charron could hardly believe his eyes. It was made of Runite.

"I'm told the bind spell should also cause your regeneration to slow down." He placed the sword, point first onto Charrons chest. He then walked from right to left, leaving a big red line in his chest. Charron winced slightly. A new bind spell was also cast on him. Akiri then lifted up his hand, he saw about a dozen guards load their muskets and aim it at him. Charron braced himself. Akiri lowered his hand as the shots pierced his skin all over, causing a huge amount of pain. "I've always wanted one of these spikes" he said. Akiri then pierced his sword into Charron's back, cutting around the area where the spike was, and manually pulling it out. A bloody hole was what remained. "However, I think it looked better on you, let me put it back for you, heres a good spot. " Akiri stabbed the sword into Charrons back, causing huge pain, before taking it out and stabbing the spike into the new hole. The pain was even worse. "And let me just remove this." He brought his sword down on Charrons tail, Charron let out a sharp yell as the tail was removed from his person. His tail dropped to the ground with a splat.

"Now lets see what we can do about that insult problem. I think I preferred the silent type, lets keep it that way. Open his mouth so I can rip out his tongue." 2 guards forced Charrons mouth open, Akari walked up to him. "Stop! He's had enough!" CHarad shouted. Akiri stopped, and then moved towards Charad. "He hasn't had enough, but I guess I deserve a break. Now then I do feel sorry for you, being a monster as well." Charron was bleeding everywhere, he was kneeling in a pool of his own blood. He felt extremly tired, but he was to fight on." Akiri launched a punch at Charad. "They should have drowned you at birth, a few may have accepted you, but we'll show them what a monster you are." Akiri shoved him into what Charron recognised from his dream, it was the ritual circle used in the spell.

"Bring in the other beast!" Akiri shouted. Charron was struggling to fight the bind, he also noticed Max was struggling as well. The 'other beast' turned out to be a shark, being kept in a very small tank. "You should be thankful, were going to make you and your best friend closer than ever. " Akiri said laughing. Guards started to set up the area, Charad, the shark and an enchanted gem laid together in the ritual circle. Akiri got out a book very similar to Charron's. He began to recite the spell. The circle grew red, as did Charad and the shark. Charron knew he had to stop him before he completed it. He had to stop the woman, he suddenly came up with an idea. He concentrated his energy.

The ritual was almost halfway through. The woman was barely concentrating on Charron, however she turned to cast the binding spell on him once again. However she suddenly noticed a large amount of water around his mouth, spinning. Charron released the spell at her. She dodged at the last second and was grazed on the arm by the spinning water. The force did knock her against the wall, and she dropped the staff. The water carried on, catching a musketman off guard and driving into him. The spiral slowly turned red before dissiating, the guard fell to the floor. Charron was freed, he roared in triumph, starting the regeneration process. His cuts were slowly healing. "Distract him! Or I'll remove each of your heads!" Akiri shouted, concentrating on finishing the ritual.

An unarmoured guard attempted to run at Charron and slash him with his Katana from behind. But Charron's sense had returnned and he was able to turn around quickly, slashing his claws into the guard. Charron then ripped out the guards throat with his teeth, before throwing him into his jaws. The meal gave Charron the surge of energy he needed and once the guard had been chewed and swallowed, Charron gave another roar. The men were reluctant to move near Charron after seeing what had happened so they had started to load their muskets. Charron pulled on the spike that had been impaled in him and removed it, the skin healing over in almost a few seconds. Which was enough time for Charron to send it into one of the guards. His Haemoception allowed him to pinpoint where the guards were, where Charron dealt with them either with water blasts or shooting spikes at them. One guard attempted to sneak up behind him, but Charron knocked him overboard with his newly regrown tail. Charron was so lost in the bloodlust he had forgotten about Charad, who was now glowing white as white wispy like objects surrounded him.

Charron charged at Akiri. However before he reached him he heard a bang, followed by a dull Thud as a huge force knocked him against the wall. A few of the guards had come up with the idea of shooting the cannon at him. Charron struggled to get up, the men were already reloading the cannon. Suddenly however the men found themwelves with huge shards of ice sticking out of them. Max had managed to break free and had taken the runes out from his secret hiding place. Charron got up he and max ran up to Akiri ready to stop him. However there was a flash of brilliant white light as Charad and the Shark floated in the air. Akiri turned round suddenly and slashed out with his sword, cutting another gash along Charron's chest. Max jumped down and froze Akiri's feet to the floor. Max let out a silent moan as he realised he wasn't as young as he thought he was. Suddenly they were stoped in their tracks by Charad screaming. The woman had impaled her staff through the Shark and Charad. The shark turned to wisps and flowed through the staff into Charad. Charads blood spilt slowly onto the floor.

Suddenly there was a white flash and Charad was blown away into the water. Max shouted "Charad!" before pushing past the woman and jumping in after him. "Bind him quickly!" Akiri shouted, Charron realised he meant to bind him again, so without thinking he charged and dived straight into the water with Max. Akiri broke free of the ice that held him and went to the side of the ship. He could see nothing in the darkness. He swore loudly. The woman approached him and said "Don't worry. WE don't need them anymore.". And she picked up a small vial and scooped up some of Charads blood on the floor, she also motioned towards the pool of Charrons blood. Akiri laughed, before turning to face one of the few guards left. "You! Get the rest of the slaves and dump the bodies overboard. Then clean the deck, I don't want a single stain left on my ship!". He then took out a pipe and began to smoke it.

No, Go-- I mean No! Why'd it have to be him!
Charron had found Max, he was struggling to fight against the waves. Charron swam up to him and grabbed. Max grabbed round Charron's neck and climbed on to his back. "Find Charad!" he shouted. Charron sensed several creatures, but none of them were Charad. Eventually he detected something which just had a huge change in blood levels. "Hold your breath" he said to Max. Charron dove underwater, the calm of the sea was distracting as Charron tried to locate Charad. Eventually he found him again, Charron couldn't see in the darkness but he was sure it was Charad. He grabbed him and swam back to the surface. Max took a deep breath and shouted. "Did you find him, whats that? What happened to him!" The sun was just rising so Charron was able to look at Charad, he had changed.

Charad was unconcious but his body had changed significantly, he looked like a giant shark creature, his eyes had turned white, his skin was blueish gray and he also had huge rows of Teeth. "The ritual must have been completed. But look at him, he's a monster. The ship was just circling the island, the house should be that way." Max said quickly, pointing in the direction opposite the sunrise. Charron swam, carrying Charad and Max,whilst following Max's directions. Eventually they arrived at the familiar port, with the familiar beach and the familliar house. Max got off Charrons back, the spikes had cut him as he got off he started to bleed. Charad started wriggling about. "He may not be able to breathe, quickly we can get him in the tank in the house."

Max ran up to the house, Charron following behind. Max was searching in bushes "Where did I put my spare key?" Charron growled and used his strength to knock down the door. Charron brushed against various pieces of furniture, breaking or scratching some of them. Eventually they came to the menagerie where Charron rushed to the fish tank and placed Charad inside. Max came in in a huff followed by woodward, the golem. "It's ok, they should be non violent. I hope. Keep my staff and runes on standby in case." Max walked up to the tank and peered through the glass at Charad, who was still unconcious. "Will he be ok?" Charron growled. Max paced up and down. "I don't know, the fact he was joined 'during' the ritual it might mean his new form is permanent. I should have stopped her sooner..." Max said. Slator walked in carrying a tray with a syringe. Max's mood lightened and he picked it up. "I had these made in case you show up again, keep still." Max plunged the syring into Charrons arm, which he replied with a growl. After a few minutes Max's talking became faint and Charron fell to the floor.

Charron woke up, he was human again. Caedis was lying next to him, asleep. Charron decided not to wake him. He got up and walked over to max. "Good your awake." Max said. "I think Charad's about to wake up. It'll be reassuring for him to see you here." Charad's new form was stirring, eventually it woke up. He seemed surprised then suddenly he looked at himself and appeared shocked. He tried to communicate but he couldn't. "How do we communicate with him?" Charron asked. "Well, a few years ago I had designed an orb to work sort of the same way a seasinger uses her voice, to communicate with sea creatures. Unfortunately, it didn't work as expected. Fish don't seem to be the talkable type unless your an actual seasinger. However we can use it to speak to Charad and he can speak to us. I hope." Max said, bringing out a large orb. "Charad, can you hear me?"

Charad turned to face Max again, he let out a reply but it came out as a series of bubbles emmitted from his mouth. The orb picked it up though. "What happened to me!" the orb spoke. Max went through a long and hard to understand paragraph about what had happened on the boat. However the story had slightly changed with Max doing a lot more work in this version. "Long story short, you and your shark were used in the same ritual Charron and his Croc were part of."Max explained "So how do I turn back like Charron?" Charad asked. "I'm working on that, but the spell was designed so you didn't change back. I might have you back to normal in a few weeks. " Max said. "Weeks!" Charad shouted. "Maybe months." Charad scratched at a rock, which broke into pieces. "We'll find a cure, don't worry. Why don't you head off to bed Charron, you've been up tearing people to shreds since midnight. I'll tend to Charad." Charron nodded and began to walk back to the guest bedroom. "Oh and Charron, make sure to put some clothes on." Charron suddenly realised he was naked again. He rushed a little quicker back to the bedroom.

He can't stay in that tank for the rest of his life
"So why can't he change back?" Caedis asked. Charron shrugged. "I think because him and Glaciauueerrr... the shark with a hard to pronounce name, were both impaled on the magic staff during the ritual. I wasn't born yet and you two weren't impaled either. I think max's machine produces a similar effect." Dagger sighed. "Why is a crocodile intrigued by the magical natures of this spell, and not doing standard crocodile things?" Caedies grunted. "Because Charron poisoned me mentally." Now Charron grunted. "It was your idea to switch body's, its your own fault!" And they argued for hours, the night ending as it normally did.

A week had passed since the incident. Max had spent the entire time in the laboratory. Charad had spent most of the time seeing what his new form could do, ultimately though he was bored, and lonely. Charron was having a conversation with Charad when Max burst into the room. "I believe I've created a temporary solution to Charad's predicament, with this potion." Max shouted holding out a vial of a disgusting looking black liquid. Charad cheered, however underwater it sounded strange. "But fish don't drink, How will it work?" Charron asked. "Thats why I injected it into this fish?" Max said bringing out a fish, the scales had turned a darkish green colour of what was once a grey fish. "Looks tasty..." Charad said grudgingly. Max threw it into the tank, where Charad reluctantly ate it.

A few minute passed with nothing happening, suddenly Charad glew white and he started having spasms. The light vanished revealling Charad back as a human, spluttering on the surface of the tank. Charron applauded. Max grabbed Charad and pulled him out. One of the golems brought him some clothes. Charad's fin on his back was now bigger and one of his eye's was white but other than that he was back to his old self. "Its good to be out of the water." he said. Charron agreed "Its a strange sensation isn't it?" he asked. "If you could call it that, however unlike you I'm not a bloodthirsty monster." Charron huffed. "Well, I havn't found a way to remove the shark from you permanently without killing you." Maxwell said. "So how long does the potion last?" Charad asked. "About 4 to 5 hours based on calculations, but if you keep drinking the potion indefinetly every 4 hours, you should stay like that" Max said. Charad sighed.

Many miles away, Akiri was examining some vials. "Are you sure it will work" he said. The woman was busy setting up the spell. "It'll work fine, they won't be as strong as the individual but they'll still be stronger then before." Akiri placed the vial on the ground. "Excellent, lets begin now."

Charron woke up with a shock. He looked around, the bedroom was empty. "Must've been a bad dream." he said to himself. Charron felt like his spirit was trying to leave his body, his heart probably just missed a beat. He went back to sleep, nothing bad would happen. A soft roar echoed on an island far away.

He's got an entire army of those things!
Charron stayed for another week, Charad's new condition meant Charron was too distracted to put his plan into action. Charron and Charad were playing a game of runeversi when there was a loud knock on the door. Charad walked over to the door, eager to get away from the game he was badly losing. A guard burst through before Charad got to it. "Quick get max, theres some kind of crocodile monster out there." The guard suddenly ran back out. Charad looked to Charron. "If your here, what's that outside?" he said. "I had a feeling this would happen." The 2 of them suddenly noticed Max, he was wearing goggles and carrying his staff. "Akiri's gone mad, Charron grab your weapons and meet me by the beach". "What about me Max?" Charad asked. "Stay here, I don't want you out there, it might upset your condition." Charron grabbed his equipment quickly whilst Charad argued. "You need all the help you can get out there!" he said. "Fine, but if your feeling ill or faint run back to the house and take another swig of potion."

The 3 rushed outside, only a few feet away from their house was what looked like Crocor, but for Charron to see it was like looking in a strange mirror. The guard who had knocked was holding out a shield against the beast as it relentlessly slashed at him. Max charged a spell and Ice shot out of his staff, freezing the beast in place. Charad then quickly ran up and stabbed him in the back with his dagger. The creature yelled in pain, and managed to break its arm free and took a swipe at Charad. The claw ripped Charads sleeve and left deep gashes in his arm. Charad winced but managed to side step the beast and slash its throat. The beast spluttered before collapsing. Charad then swore and grabbed his arm.

"You ok?" Charron asked. "I'm fine." Charad said. Charad ripped off what was left of the sleeve and made a makeshift bandage. Max helped the guard up. "Where did he come from?" Max asked. "Over there, a whole pack of them attacked us." The guard replied. "Get some rest, we'll deal with them." Max said. "Come on you two, this way." Max said, leading them down the beach.

They'd been running for 2 minutes when they saw the 'pack'. Charron and Charad got to them first, Max's age slowing him down. There were 4 of them, standing around 2 dead bodies on the floor, one of them in the process of being eaten. Charron noticed one of them was heavily wounded, so he launched a large fire spell at it. When the ball impacted the beast fell to the ground wriggling in pain before shortly stopping. The other 3 noticed them and charged at them. Charron launched a medium air spell at one, hoping to slow it down so he wouldn't have to deal with  at once. The spell hit the legs, the beast tripping and falling into the sand. The other 2 were charging straight at them.

Charad lead one towards the sea, making Charrons job easier. Charron pointed the staff in front of him and as exepected the beast ran into the staff. The point impaled him in the chest, the beast roared in pain, but continued to attack Charron. Charron let loose the fire spell he was charging sending the beast metres away and on fire. Charron looked around, he saw that the beast that had tripped over was in such a fit it was having trouble getting up. Then Charron looked by the sea, in the shallow water Charad was covered in blood, most of it the beasts but some of it his own. The beast was covered in scratches but it still wasn't going down, as Charron sidestepped it again, the beast knocked him over with its tail, Charad suddenly screamed in pain and splashed into the sea. Charron was about to help when he was knocked onto the floor his staff escaping his grasp.

The beast jumped on top of him, going to slash at his neck. Charron let out a kick at the beasts leg, knocking it off balance and bringing it to the ground beside him. Charron noticed Charad thrashing in the water, the beast going for the final blow. Charron tried to grab his staff but was grabbed by the beast next to him. The beasts claws cut into Charrons hand, Charron let out a punch in the creatures eye with his other hand. The creature let go and fell back. Charron turned round to see a icicle land in the sand near him, he also noticed Charad had disapeared under water, the other beast slashing wildly, and the final one preparing to join him. The beast on top of Charron pinned him to the ground, its burnt flesh falling onto Charron. It attempted to bite his neck but Charron managed to put his hand on the top of its mouth, stopping him from opening it. Charron then took out his dagger from his pocket which he suddenly remembered about, he then thrusted it upwards into the beasts neck. The beast spluttered and then collapsed on top of Charron.

As Charron attempted to move the body off, he noticed sea, Charad was still underwater, the beast after him had started swimming out to find him. Icicles shot over their heads where Max was missing his spells. Charron pushed the body off and went to look for his staff when he saw what looked like a shark, jum out of the water and pull the beast into the water with him. Charron grabbed his staff and rushed over. Charad had transformed. The water where Charron had last seen Charad slowly turned red. The final beast attempted to attack Charad as well. Charron watched as the beast suddenly jerked downwards, it thrashed in the water shortly before disappearing beneath the waves, later being replaced with a pool of red water. Max finally arrived next to Charron.

"*pant* You took your time didn't you!" Charron said. "You wait *pant* until your *pant* my.... *pant* age... *pant* *pant*" Max replied out of breath. Once Max had gained his breath back, the 2 of them headed back to the house, where they saw a grey fin extending out the water. "Just a minute, I;ll grab the translator" Max said, disappearing inside. He later reappeared carrying the Orbs he was using before, he threw a kind of orb on a strap into the sea. "Charad this is Max, put the orb around you." There was a moments silence before a reply came out. "This is Charad, the potions worn off." it said. "I can see that" Max replied.

The 2 of them were sat at the docks, Charad was circling the boardwalk beneath them. Max was exlpaining what had happened. "I believe Akiri has been using the ritual spell to create an army. I believe he's using Charrons blood as a template of sorts. He could potentially create 100's of those things that way." Charron was worried. "How do we stop him?" Charron asked. "We kill him and that witch of his. Once done its just a matter of destroying any 'evidence' " Max replied. The orb suddenly spoke "And how do I change back?" Charad asked. Max sighed. "The potion didn't last as long as I hoped it would, your stuck like this for now I'm afraid." There was a silence. "First off we have to find Akiri, we can take the boat but we don't know where he is. The rituals don't always work 100% of the time so he would probably chuck the corpses into the sea. So if we ask around about bodies..." Max was cut off by Charod. "I can actually smell a large concentration of blood near the Rapa causeway, it might be there." Max was amazed. "You can smell the Causeway from here, thats miles away!"

Charron went back into the house to pack, he also told Caedis to get to the boat, which he did reluctantly. A few moments later they were setting sail. "follow that fin, it'll hopefully lead us to Akiri. This boat can get us there in a day and a half at most, with good wind it'll be far less." Max took the first nightshift, Charron sat down in a hammock in a small room and went to sleep. He dreamed of an army of Crocor's, then he dreamed himself and the others laying waste to them all.

Were on the right trail!
The ship cut through the waves like a knife through butter. The sky was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky. Max told Charad to keep an eye out for any monsters before heading to sleep. Charron took over control for the second half of the night shift, he had rarely sailed before but fortunately the sea was calm. Charron continued to follow the fin sticking out of the water, it amazed him that Charad was still going after what must have been 7 hours of continuous swimming. Charron ignored the fact and continued sailing.

6 hours later, Max was awake as was Caedis, they had arrived at the Rapa Causeway. The island was covered in black slate, in some places there were huge columns of it, Charad started to lead them to the southern end of the island, to a cove formed by cliffs of slates. They sailed straight into it, then they saw the familiar ship with the black sails. It was Akiri's ship, and they were attacking a mine. "This is it." Max said. "From here we march onto that ship and kill Akiri and that assisstant of his.".

As they sailed closer Charad said "Around us, you should be able to see it now." Charron headed to the front of the ship, there he saw it. Bodies everywhere, some normal, some half turned into various creatures, various animals had already taken the oppurtunity for a quick meal. Charron was use to sights like that, so he just watched silently. The boat cut through the bodies glancing them away from each other. Suddenly Charron heard something. It sounded like a mans voice, it was Akiri's and he was shouting something. He couldn't make it out but it was coming from the bigger boat, then as he got closer to the beach he saw figures fighting each other, it was the beasts and they were attacking a mine on the coast, Charron could hear screaming coming from the beach.

"THeres people in trouble on the beach!" he shouted. "What about Akiri!?!" Max said. "We've got to help the people first." Charron said. "Charad give me a lift." he said. Charron rushed off the boat and dived into the water, which was surprisingly warm. He swam up to the fin sticking out and grabbed onto it, the fin then sped through the water to the beach, whilst Max shouted at him from the ship. Upon closer inspection Charron noticed it was more Crocor, attacking a man only defending himself with a pickaxe. As soon as Charron reached the beach he ran up to one of the beasts, he pulled out his dagger, got behind it and slashed its throat. The beast spluttered before falling to the ground. There was 1 more to deal with and it had noticed Charron, it turned round to face him.

Charron pulled out his staff and began charging a spell. He suddenly remembered the tactic the woman had used to stop him. Charron thought about using a bind spell but before he got the runes out the staff cast the spell automatically. The beast fell to the ground frozen, Charron began to charge up another spell but the beast was then impaled in the back of the head with a pickaxe. It roared before slowly dying. The man who had weilded it was panting, he was about Max's age and covered in bruises, his robes were torn and shattered. He ran over to Charron. "Oh thank the skies you came, you saved my life. This is not a deed that goes unrewarded, name it I can get it for you." Charron shook his head. "I'm here to help, I don't need a reward." The man shook his head. "My boy don't be so humble, my name is --" Another beast appeared out of nowhere, Charron tried to move out the way but the beast was too close. However the beast stopped suddenly. Charron stopped to look at it and saw a large icicle imaling the beasts throat, it fell to the ground. Max walked up to them, his staff glistening. "Is that you Korom?" Max said. The man smiled. "I see that staff's still treating you well." he replied. They both nodded to each other.

"Charron, let me introduce you. This is Korom On. He's Charad's uncle." Korom huffed. "Is that all I am! What about Korom, Master crafter and Enchanter. You wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for me." Max rubbed his head. "Well I didn't want you to seem like a show off. This is Charron, he's an adventurer from the Mainland to the west. Thats his pet crocodile, Caedis. Coming out of the sea over there." Max pointed to the sea where Caedis made an appearance. "I've seen enough crocodiles today, by the way wheres Charad?" Charron moved away to check on Caedis. "You remember the Thesis I made a few years ago about that spell..." Max began, trying to explain the situation to Korom.

"Why am I here again?" Caedis growled. "We need all the help we can get" Charron said. "I havn't done anything yet, though." Caedis growled again. "Well maybe if you were a faster swimmer--" Charron started to explain but was interrupted by Korom running into the sea. "Charad!" he yelled. He went up to the fin sticking out of the water and looked down into it. "What happened to you? I promise you'll be back to normal in no time." he said, grabbing hold of Charad underwater. After a moment Korom lead the 3 of them to a small building, Charad stayed outside in the sea, keeping an eye on the boat.

This shall be known as the battle of the Mine!
Korom explained to them what had happened. The man, Akiri came to my lord to acquire Black Slate from the mine, probably due to ours being the furthest from any settlement, my lord refused, but Akiri asked him to meet him on his ship to persuade him. I watched through the telescope, they beat him and attempted to cast the ritual on him, it didn't work, so they threw his body overboard and launched an assault on the mine. The workers were either killed, brought back to the ship to be turned, or ventured deeper into the mines. I'm told a few of them are holed up in one of the caverns they've boarded up."

"We'll try to rescue them." Charron said. "Do you have anything that can help us?". Korom thought for a bit then he ran to get something from a crate. He pulled it out and threw it onto the table, it was a sword, it looked very shiny. "After reading your thesis, I believe this is the material used to transfer the energy. Its blessed silver." "of course! why didn't I get this sooner." Max said, annoyed with himself. Korom continued. "The material should also be a weakness to the beasts, use it well. Charron nodded and grabbed the sword. He put the sword in the sheathe he usually kept his staff in. "Good luck." Korom said.

Charron, Max and Caedis descended into the mine, the only light source guiding them came from the small glows of the torches. As they descended they began to hear rushing water flowing above them. "I heard they discovered a vein of gems heading out to sea, the tunnels go for miles, sometimes only a layer of rock between them and a watery grave" Max said. As he said that they passed a walled up tunnel, a sign on it said "Do not enter, heavily flooded. 3 dead.", proving Max's earlier point. They followed the tunnels until they came to a junction. There were 2 tunnels to choose from, Max took the one on the left, Charron and Caedis took the one on the right. Eventually the tunnel opened into a natural cavern, it seemed bowl shaped to Charron, the thought of water slowly filling it terrified him. A large fire had been started in the centre to illuminate the area. Then they saw them.

Max was right when they said he could create hundreds, the cavern was full of the beasts each one snarling and attempting to break through a solid metal gate. "That must be where the workers are, it's probably some sort of defence to stop flooding." "How are we going to do this?" Caedis asked. Charron looked around. There were other tunnels heading in different directions around the bowl. "Maybe we can lead them down one of the tunnels?" Charron asked. Caedis growled but nodded. They jumped down a short ledge quietly, before sneaking round the edge of the bowl.

Charron entered the tunnel when he suddenly heard a noise behind him, one of the beasts had snuck up behind him. Charron tried to unsheathe the sword, but there was barely any room and he ended up getting it stuck between rocks. The beast edged closer to him when suddenly it fell over into the wall. It then fell to the floor, it was about to roar but another set of jaws grabbed it by the throat. Caedis had knocked it over and torn through its throat. "Your welcome." Charron wasn't listening, he didn't like the tunnel he was in, everything was too close together. His breathing became rushed. "Are you okay?" Caedis asked. Charron continued down the tunnel panicking before slowly fainting.

Charron was in the dreamworld, he was out at sea, Dagger was next to him. "Pull yourself together!" Dagger said. Charron shivered. "I can't stand close spaces, the other tunnels were ok but  what if I got stuck, then the water came in, then...." Charron started to panic again. Dagger lunged out and bit Charrons arm. Charron screamed in pain, before clutching his arm. "Thanks..." Charron said. "You've been a Dagganoth, learn to act like one. Were born in caves, live in them  and die in them. If you get stuck push yourself out! I'll be with you in this fight." Charron nodded and woke up suddenly. Caedis was biting his arm. "You fainted, come on down the tunnel, they're following."

Charron walked slowly down the tunnel, the walls seemed to be getting closer. The beasts followed them from behind. Caedis was actually crawling faster then Charron was walking. Eventually the cave widened a bit however they ended up at a dead end. The way was blocked by one of the flooded tunnels. The sign read "Bowl connecting tunnel A, flooded. Keep out!" They were trapped. Charron drew out his sword, Ruthven had tried to teach him some techniques but he hadn't really paid attention, he drew out his sword and pointed it ahead. As the first beast entered Charron blindly thrusted the sword in front of him. It stabbed the creature in the heart, killing him instantly. The sword really did work against them.

Another came in, Caedis managed to trip it up and Charron stabbed it in the neck. As more and more came down they kept to the same method. 10 of them now lay dead at their feet, however Charron felt more claustrophobic as the bodies piled up. Meanwhile up above, Akiri was plotting.

"Have the sharks set up the explosives?" he asked. The woman looked over the side, "Yes, however the original one has been attacking them.", Akiri shook his head. "We'll get some more to recover his body once we set the explosives off. We'll kill the 3 of them and sabotage their main supply base all in one fell swoop. Set off the explosives." Akiri said, then deciding to get a drink. The woman dropped a small box down into the sea. 20 seconds later, the explosives went off.

The whole cavern shook, further up the tunnel the roof fell in and sea water rushed in, Charron and Caedis were pushed back against the wall. The beasts were also forced against the wall, fortunately not the wall Charron was pressed against. Charron took a deep breath as the water flowed over their heads. Daggers voice rang through his head. "Dagganoths do not fear caves nor water, I will help you realise this." Charron knew what this meant, he slowly pushed himself on top of Caedis. "Sorry Caedis." Charron thought. However suddenly a creature similar to Charad appeared and bit Charron on the shoulder. Charron screamed, he knew him bleeding would attract others like it. Charron grabbed the sword and sent it through his chest. The blade carried on through till it reached Caedis. There was a flash of red and Charron removed the sword, the pain of the beast biting into him increasing. Charron moved the sword and attempted to drive it into the beast biting him, it pierced but only managing to make it release its grip, it also took the sword with it. However Charron felt the familiar pain within him.

The fact Charron had gills now, sort of made up for the pain of the transformation. He made sure the other beasts knew that pain. He went up to the Shark and grabbed it, with the other claw Charron forced it into the gills of the shark. Blood gushed out and the beast squirmed before it stopped moving altogether. The other beasts had drowned, so Charron left them alone. He noted that the tunnel he had came down was now blocked. Charron turned round to the blocked off area, he'd remembered reading on the sign that it connected back to the bowl. Using all his strength Charron scratched into it, due to the water, it took roughly 5 minutes to break it down. Charron swam through the flooded corridor eventually coming to the next door.

After 3 minutes this time the door, was knocked down. More water flooded into the bowl and Charron noticed it was slowly filling up. Charron noticed the beasts and they noticed him. One of them came up to him and roared at him, the others joining in. Charron grabbed the beasts throat and lifted it off the ground. He then roared, a roar much more bone chilling and louder than the beasts. The one in his claw trembled slightly, Charron threw him into his jaws, and started to chew him, still alive, his mouth open to show the others, He swallowed the red mess it had become. The blood dripped down his jaws. He walked towards the big flood door, the beasts stepping out of his way and he knocked. "Who's there?" A muffled voice said through a grate in the door. "I'm here to rescue you, the place is flooding you need to get out quick." Charron said. A load of bolts could be heard undoing themselves behind the door. The door opened a group of about 11 men walked out, when they saw Charron they broke into a run. The beasts left the men alone grudgingly, out of fear of Charron.

Suddenly the cieling collapsed, the part of it that had broken off fell onto one of the beasts crushing it. The sea water then washed over the fire in the middle. The room turned black, the beasts roared, they were going to use this oppurtunity to attack him. However Charron knew where they were thanks to his Haemopathy. "Your going to regret this..." Charron said. The first beast didn't see it coming, however his insides suddenly became outsides and it died instantly, Charron also 'cleared up' some of the mess. Despite being able to see the beasts, he was unable to see the walls, which he bumped into several times. Charron, seeing as attempting to kill them at close quarters decided to launch spikes at them. Each one struck its target, they disappeared from Charrons view as they fell into the water flooding in. Once they were all gone, Charron proceeded to the exit.

As Charron walked up to the tunnel he suddenly felt woozy. The tunnel seemed much smaller, Charron didn't fancy trying to fit through it. His claustrophobia had let him down again. Suddenly, thanks to Charron being distracted, something bit into his leg and knocked him to the floor. Charron was dazed, and ended up being dragged down into the waters. Another thing bit him on the shoulder, and then another bit him on the arm. Charron was being swarmed by something, his Haemoception didn't help at all as they surrounded him he couldn't tell where they were. He frantically clawed out in front of him, he struck one of the things but it seemed like 2 more replaced it. Charron thought he was going to die.

Suddenly one by one the things started disappearing, Charron felt the beasts hold on him weakening and soon found he was able to attack them as well. Suddenly they had all disappeared apart from 1. The thing didn't attack him and Charron saw 2 white spots piercing through the darkness. As it didn't attack him Charron assumed it was Charad, which meant there was another way out. Charron kept his claw on Charad, Charad seemed to understand and led him out of the cave. As soon as Charron could see he let go and swam straight upwards, he was out of the water, quite far out from the beach. He also saw Akiri's boat leaving, he attempted to shoot a Water blast at it but he was too far away. Charron growled.

Suddenly a ship appeared from out of Charron's view, it sailed up beside him, before stopping slowly. Max and Korom were on board. Korom peered over the side, "Quick Max, its one of those monsters again!". Max stepped away from the wheel, grabbing his staff and charging a spell. "Who're you calling a monster?" Charron said. "Quickly Max, this one talks!" Korom said, scared. Max faced him ready to attack, but upon seeing Charron his expression changed. "This ones not a threat to us, however since I did use the runes..." Max said, launching a small ball of ice at Charrons head. Charron growled and retaliated with a water spell at Max's face.

After some hasty explaining, Charron climbed up onto the ship, which sagged under his weight. "So that thing is Charron?" Korom said. "Yes..." Charron said angrily. Korom backed off. "Is he normally this aggresive?" Korom asked. "Only when he's hungry." Max said rolling his eyes. As a joke Charron stared at Korom, licked his lips and walked closer. "Max....!". "Charron stop that!" Max shouted. Charron backed off. The orb on the ship started to speak. "i've got Charrons belongings, but I couldn't get the sword." A figure appeared out of the water, dropping Charron's staff and dagger onto the ship. Korom picked up and inspected the dagger. "What's this dagger made of, I don't recognise the blade material, nor the handles, or the leather from the grip." he said, eyeing it up. Charron pointed to the spines on his back, then his teeth, then his chest. Max who hadn't seen it before appeared slightly shocked, but Korom eyed it with interest. "A dagger made from parts of yourself, interesting. I'll look after the staff and dagger while you 3 are gone, be sure to come get it afterwards." Korom said, balancing the dagger in his hands. Max sailed the ship back to the beach, where Korom got off and went over to the workers.

Charron walked up to Max and asked. "So, can you change me back now?" Charron asked. Max looked glum and said "I used up all the serum in trying to turn Charad back, your stuck like this for now." Charron turned round and punched the ships railing, he didn't like being like this unless it was absolutely neccessary, also he felt much safer with magic than with claws. Charron looked down at the railings and noticed the post he had hit had fallen in to the sea. "I suppose theres worse forms." Charron said to himself. Max got his attention. "Theres another problem as well, I just remembered this now. The fact the dagganoth's body wasn't used in the ritual, and the size of your form means you use a lot of energy up. That's why your always so hungry." Charron growled. "What happens if I don't eat enough?" he said. Max's expression dampened even more. "You'll probably grow tired, pass out and not wake up afterwards." Charron growled even louder. "It'd be best if you have a big meal tonight and try get some sleep to conserve energy." Charron growled and wandered to the edge of the ship, he couldn't go back to the causeway as the workers were there. Charrons stomach growled and he looked out to sea, flocks of seagulls had appeared and were feasting on the body's of the slain as well as the bodies of the beasts, which had surfaced from the mines. "It's better than nothing." Charron said to himself and he dived in to the water.

A hour later Charron climbed back onto the ship, he was covered in blood and seagull feathers. Max stepped out onto the ship, he had been resting in the cabin. "Thank god those gull's stopped screaching, the stench has cleared up to." Max looked out to sea, the calm blue sea was empty, except for a few patches of red caused by the sun setting, at least thats what Max thought. "You can't sail the ship in the condition, so I'm going to have to work a double shift. Charad, have you located Akiri?" Max said. The orb suddenly spoke. "I attatched a few corpses to the boat so I could trace the blood, just follow the fin." Max winced slightly, before taking the wheel. He turned to Charron. "Go to sleep Charron, your just wasting energy staying awake. If something happens I'll wake you." Charron nodded and closed his eyes, unfortunately Charron didn't know that this form snored. Max soon regretted what he said.

This is the final stand! (Hopefully)
Charron was in the dreamworld again, he looked at his form and he was back to his old Dagger form he'd explored with Dagger as. Caedis appeared, looking like a dark green Dagganoth and Dagger was with him. "Sorry about stabbing you Caedis?" Charron said. Caedis growled. "Well we both would have drowned if you didn't." Dagger growled. "If it wasn't for me you both would have drowned." Charron rolled his eyes, which looked peculiar when a Dagganoth did it. The arguing between them drowned out the waves splashing against the shore.

After what seemed like ages they settled down. "So, I have to pass some time, you want to go hunt some Rock Crabs?" Charron said. Dagger huffed. "I'd rather hunt some humans." Caedis nodded in agreement. "That sounds good." he said. Charron growled. "I'm standing right here." Charron said. "But your not human, your dagganoth, I think theres a camp on an island out to sea. We don't need to discuss this." Dagger said. Dagger jumped into the sea and swam towards the horizon, Caedis followed. Charron sighed and followed them too.

Charron watched from the sea as Caedis and Dagger tore through what seemed to be a huge fremmenik village. Eventually Charron joined, though he kept telling himself it was just to protect Caedis and Dagger. After what seemed like hours and hundreds or maybe thousands of deaths later the 3 of them were sat around the campfire feasting from a pile of the recently slain. Caedis and Dagger ate greedily whilst Charron stared at his half eaten corpse. "I'm a terrible human being." Charron said. Caedis swallowed his food and said "Of course you are, but tonight your not human. You'd be a very feared Crocodile." Dagger then said "and you could be a Sentinel with your skill, human was a rare treat back home. Surviving on fish and crabs can be repetetive after a few weeks." Charron suddenly found himself tucking in to the corpse in front of him, he then went for a second one.

About a hour later they started to talk around the fire. "So what is a Sentinel?" Caedis asked. Dagger started to look proud all of a sudden. "Basically we have a Mother, and under her we have the Kings. Then its the Sentinels, we guard the Mother and the Kings, as we're the best fighters of the Dagganoths. Other than Mother and the Kings of course." Charron was intrigued. "So what's so special about you that they made you a sentinel?". Dagger growled at him, slightly insulted by what he said. "We possess a gift, that allows us to heal others with our cry's, were also a master of all forms of attack." Charron understood where a lot of his powers came from. "What about--" Charron started to say when he suddenly felt a pain in his arm that woke him up.

The sky was dark, the moon blocked out by clouds in the sky. Max was standing above him, the point of his staff had Charrons blood on it. "Your awake, I was worried you hadn't eaten enough." Charron growled as a sort of mock appreciation and went back to sleep. However Max kicked him, which prevented him from sleeping. "We're here. Akiri's base, I believe." Charron got up to look at it. "Welcome to Thallasia. We better be quick, the Thallasii could be lurking about." Standing in front of them was a huge complex, it looked more like a town than a base. Charron could see ships being loaded with barrels, gunpowder, Charron thought. There were 3 main buildings, a smaller run down building possibly the crew and slave quarters, then there was the factory, and finally a building that looked new and modern. "You two stay here and keep an eye out, make sure he doesn't escape." Charron said. Max was about to argue but Charron had already dived into the water.

He swam around away from the port, as that was where the most people were. He noticed a deserted area filled with trees and other plants, Charron decided to enter there. The complex was walled off around the sides and guards patrolled the walls. Charron chose the darkest corner and began to climb up the wall. At the top, one of the guards narrowly missed him, Charron jumped down landing with a soft thud inside the complex. Charron decided to head to the factory. As it was dark, Charron assumed the workers would be asleep, however as Charron entered silently, he saw they were still working. "He's working them to death." Charron thought.

As Charron entered the factory he noticed the woman who was with Akiri. She disappeared into one of the storerooms. Charron tried to follow her but there were too many workers. Charron noticed a precarius pile of barrels the other side of the room. He sent a water spell at them. The water broke one of them and the whole pile crashed onto the ground. The slaves and guards went to investigate whilst Charron sneaked into the storage room.

The room was dark, but Charron continued forwards. Suddenly Charron found himself unable to move. It had happened again. The lamps were suddenly lit, the storage room was more like a barracks, what must've been 100 of the Crocor beasts were trapped in cages, Akiri and the woman were both standing around a table with a map. Akiri walked up to him. "Welcome Charron. Its nice to see you survived that little explosion of mine. Of course your back to how I like you." Akiri smiled at him.

Was it really going to be that easy?
"Quite a place isn't it." Akiri started to say. "From here we ship gunpowder all across Wushanko. Its all my fathers legacy really, getting the previous owner to put him in his will and then getting the Death Lotus to assassinate him. I'm rich enough to even have my own army of monsters to control. You should also see my estate and my little zoo I've been working on."

Charron wasn't even listening he was just trying to free himself. "Of course its all thanks to her, that this was all possible. A sea witch looking for work, once I gave her the spellbook she learnt all its secrets. Then when we find a thesis about a spell that we think would be very useful, well why let such power go to waste. Of course thanks to her I can now cast the spell without assisstance at all. I can create an army anywhere, and thanks to your blood donation we can keep making these monsters. Of course, there are some jobs that still need a human for." Akiri said, as he finished he snapped his fingers and a bunch of guards came in with chains. They wrapped it all over Charron, even around his jaw. Charron growled through the chains. He was then moved towards the wall and chained there. "We've taken precautions this time".

"Now I'm afraid this is where we say goodbye. You've been great, but our friendship had to end. 100 of your monster brethren will slowly tear you to shreds. " He walked up to the witch. "You've been a great help with all you've done too." The witch chuckled. "Yes, are you going to give me the new life you promised?" she said. "Of course." and he pulled out his runite sword and plunged it into her chest. "I hope you believe in reincarnation." he said, laughing. The witch clutched her chest. "Why..." she asked. Akiri started to walk towards the door. "I can't be seen associating with one of you lot, theres nothing more I need to know from you anyhow." as he left, Akiri pulled a lever, the bars of the cages sunk into the ground. The monsters were free and they were coming for them.

The witch crawled towards Charron. "I'm sorry for everything, I just needed a new life, away from my past." Charron couldn't do anything other than growl, so he growled. "However, the fool didn't know everything." She pulled out a gem, the size of a fist. This has been enchanted to carry a massive amount of energy, and through the work I did with Akiri it is now full. I want you to use it," Charron growled again. She placed the gem on the ground  beside Charron and began chanting. She began charging a spell, Charron and the gem both grew red, the beasts walked closer, cautious of the witch. Suddenly she finished, shortly before collapsing. The gem exploded into wisps of energy, it looked like thousands of wisps each rushing into Charron it felt like he was going to burst. As the last wisp entered, the chains began to rattle.

Charron roared, he was in the worst pain he'd ever experianced, cuts appeared all over his body, splitting open and sending blood all over the floor. Charron pushed forward and slowly the chains broke from its support, Charron fell to the ground, his whole body was covered in his own blood. Then the chains grew tight, and eventually one by one  they broke. Charron punched the ground, leaving a dent slowly filling with his own blood. Then Charron roared again, it was over but he was still in pain. He was slightly larger but it looked like all the skin had been stripped off his body, whereever he walked he left a large red footprint.

One of the beasts charged at him, Charron tried to send a water spell at him but it came out as a ball of flesh. As it made contact with the beast, the beast fell to the floor screaching, it burned him and drained the life out of him. The pain suddenly lessened in Charron. Charron charged at the army of beasts whilst charging a blood spell. The beasts, shocked by the sudden change of events, were reluctant at first but one by one they went to charge him back. As Charron charged the spell, the spell overwhelmed him, it turned from a ball Charging in his mouth to a wave, that formed over Charron's body. Charron was now a wave of blood rushing towards the beasts, as Charron carried on the wave got bigger. Some of the beasts turned back in retreat, but it was too late. Charron smashed into the 1st beast, carrying him along as he continued to charge. The wave slowly picked up all the other beasts as it carried onwards. Eventually all the beasts were being carried along, finally the wave crashed into the wall. The wave broke apart, leaving the broken lifeless bodies of the beasts slumped against the back wall, eventually the blood slowly made its way to the centre, where it slowly convulged to make Charron once again.

There was still pain but Charron could now ignore it. He walked over to the witch, who was lying on the ground. She was alive, just. Charron could sense she wouldn't live long though. Charron roared and blood from his body dropped to the floor and made its way to the witches wounds, the blood healed the wounds and the witch stood up. "Thanks" she said. "Akiri's probably in his estate north east of here, you should be able to sense him." She said, as she walked slowly out of the door. Charron 'could' actually sense him, he was outside with a Ballista, which he was about to fire.

Akiri had been watching from the guard tower near his house, he had seen his entire army wiped out in seconds and he saw the power that Charron possessed, he lit the bolt on the ballista and had it aimed at the gunpowder pile outside. He could always buy another factory, or he could just kill someone else and take theirs. He fired the Ballista. The bolt looked like a shooting star to some people far away however the explosion that followed people thought it had crashed into the island.

Charron had rushed towards the door but the explosion knocked him into the centre of the room, flaming rubble crashed into the barrels of gunpowder, igniting them as well. Explosions occured throughout the factory the guards and workers who didn't manage to get out in time were likely killed, eventually the supports grew weak and the walls fell down, as did the roof. When the roof crashed into ground a pile of dust and unexploded powder was sent through the settlement covering everything. From afar Akiri was laughing. "Who needs monsters when you have explosives." He began to walk towards his estate to plan his next company takeover.

THe guards inspected the rubble, small explosions set them selves off throughout the settlement, followed by more scream and shouts. The guards managed to pull out some survivors and some bodies. Eventually one of them noticed a large trickle of blood coming out of the rubble, the guard removed the rubble hoping to find a body, but there was just more blood which kept seeping out faster and faster, eventually the blood grouped together and slowly formed into the shape of a large Dagganoth, eventually Charron was back to his full form. The guard shook at the sight of him "Your the thing trying to kill Akiri aren't you, I won't say anything, he's more of a monster then you." Charron took this as a compliment and nodded. He then headed towards Akiri's estate.

I didn't want it to come to this
Charron charged towards Akiri's estate, most of the guards had gone to help in the settlement so nobody spotted him, those that did assumed their mind was playing tricks. Eventually they came to the guard outpost just before Charron reached the building. The guard on the ground slowly appeared from a small shack to question what he thought was another guard. As he looked up at Charron he found himself muttering. "I'm here to kill Akiri, move out of the way or I'll rip you apart." Charron said in a blood curdling voice. The guard trembled and found himself running away. There was suddenly a bang and the guard fell over dead. There were 4 guards in the towers, one of them had shot the guard and shouted "Traitor!". The other 3 proceeded to point their muskets at Charron. Charron roared and prepared to attack.

Akiri was in his study that overlooked the complex, including the guard towers. He watched as the monster that had just had a roof dropped on it, was now tearing through his men to get to him. One of its blood spells had missed the target but kept soaring through the air, until it splatted against the study window. Akiri sighed, perhaps explosives wasn't enough. He walked out the study and spoke to one of the guards. "Bring Alpha to the ballroom, make sure your quick." He said in a stern voice. He then proceeded to head down to the ball room, he clutched a gem in his hands, he could still win.

Charron threw the corpse of the last of the reinforcements against the wall, he had spent 10 minutes dealing with them but that wasn't going to sto him. He charged up to the doors and smashed them open. Strangely there were no guards. Charron could sense Akiri was in a large room near the back of the house. Charron burst in, there was a ritual taking place, Charron could see Akiri clutching a silver sword, next to him was a strange beast Charron had never seen before. It looked part lion, part goat and part snake. Charron recognised what it was, it was a chimera. "Glad you could join us, now its time to die." The ritual was almost over, Akiri plunged the sword into himself while also impaling the Chimera. There was a long red glow, Charron was blinded by the brightness.

Eventually the red glow receded, Akiri had become bigger, much bigger then Charron, he now had claws, a thick fur covered hide and 2 heads, 1 resembling a lion, the other a goat. He also appeared to have a tail that was also a snake. The new beast like Akiri roared at him, Charron growled back. Charron charged up to him, but Akiri slammed him to the ground. He then scratched him repeatedly, Charron was pressed to the ground, however Charron managed to form a puddle, which then trickled to behind Akiri. Charron got his form back and jumped on to Akiri's back and sinking his teeth into the neck of the goat head. The hide was tough to pierce but Charron managed to break through, however he suddenly suffered a great deal of pain in his back. Charron roared, he was then picked up and slammed against the wall. Charron got up and noted the neck was slightly bleeding. Unlike Charron, Akiri couldn't regenerate.

Charron launched a blood spell at Akiri, the spell hit him in the Chest but appeared to have no effect. Charron charged at Akiri, this time turning into liquid before reaching him and then reforming behind him as before. This time Charron bit into Akiri's tail, the snake hissed at him. Charron bit harder and he tasted blood that wasn't his own. However the tail whipped Charron, dazing him, Akiri then grabbed Charron with both hands and lifted him up. He dug his claws into Charron, causing Charron huge amounts of pain. He then ripped Charron into 3 pieces throwing each piece at different ends of them room. The 3 puddles that were formerlly Charron lay dormant. Charron was trying to from back but was having trouble. 2 voices in his head said "You don't have to do this alone." Charron understood what they were trying to say. He concentrated on trying to form only 1 puddle into himself. The other 2 puddles gained a life of their own and began to gain forms of their own. Dagger and Caedis had joined the fight, now it was 3 heads against 3.

"Go for the legs, knock him down." Dagger said telepathically. Whilst Akiri was distracted with the arrival of 2 more monsters to fight, Charron rushed forward and bit him on the leg. Akiri screached and found himself knealing with 1 leg. Caedis ran forward and bit the other one, forcing him to kneal on both legs. Dagger then charged into Akiri and ramming his back. Akiri was knocked down front first, right on top of Charron. Charron turned to liquid and then formed on top of Akiri's back. The snake attemped to bite Charron, but Charron got him first, he bit into the neck of the snake and pulled, Caedis and Dagger also grabbed it and pulled hard. Eventually the tail broke off of Akiri and was left dangling in their jaws. They spat it out Caedis grabbed onto the goats neck with his jaws. However Akiri stood up, roared and batted Charron and Dagger against the wall. Caedis was left dangling.

Charron shot blood spells at Akiri, each one merly infuriated him even more. However Dagger was able to sneak round and bite Akiri on the leg. Akiri yelled and bent over in pain. Charron rushed over and repeatedly scratched at Akiri's chest. Dagger then jumped onto Akiri's back and grabbed onto the goats horns, as Caedis bit harder at the neck and Dagger pulled at the horns, the goat was ripped off and fell to the floor along with Caedis and Dagger. Akiri got up and roared, Charron was forced backwards. Charron began to charge a blood spell. Akiri turned round, picked up both Caedis and Dagger and threw them at Charron. Charron started to run towards Akiri, still charging the spell. As Charron charged he turned into a wave, as Caedis and Dagger crashed into him they became part of the wave as well, eventually the wave contacted with Akiri. Akiri roared and the blood flowed directly into Akiri's open mouth. Akiri choked until the liquid had all gone down his throat.

AKiri walked about, slowly panicing. Pain was erupting all over his body. "How could it end like this." Akiri thought to himself. His chest suddenly suffered sudden sharp pains. "I deserved greater." he thought to himself. The pain suddenly eruptred as his chest ripped open and Charron shot out. He landed fully formed in the centre of the room, with Akiri's heart in his mouth. Charron swallowed it in front of Akiri as he fell to the ground. The true monster was finally dead. Charron roared. Charron was about to head back when he saw Akiri's spellbook resting against the wall. He decided to get rid of it so noone else could use it. He grabbed it in his jaws and ripped it to pieces, before swallowing the remains. He then looked towards Akiri. "One more snack couldn't hurt."

Welcome to your new body
Charron hoped to get past without alerting anyone, so he turned to liquid and flowed into a drain. The drain led out to sea, where Charron regained his form upon entering the water. He saw the ship and swam towards it, a trail of red flowing behind him. Charron approached the ship and began to hear a conversation. "--should kill you for what you've done." It was Max, shouting at someone. "And what did you do to Charron!" Charron took this moment to jump out the ship, landing with a soft splat. Max turned around and gaped at Charron. "By the gods! What happened to you!" Max shouted. Charron got a chance to look who Max was yelling at. It was the witch. "She gave me a helping hand." Charron said. Max's expression got a bit less shocked. "And Akiri?". Max asked. Charron growled. "Filling." Max grimaced.

"What do you want?" Max asked to the witch after calming down. The witch rested against her staff. "I want to bring the unpure one back." She said. The orb lit up. "She means me." it spoke. Max shook his head. "And what do you want in return?" The witch stood up. "A new life. I just need his means to get it." she said. "fine." The orb said. Charad jumped out of the water and onto the ship, the lack of water caused him to kneel onto the ground. The witch without saying a word to anyone, began to charge a spell. Max and Charron stood there watching. She then impaled herself and Charad with the staff. They both glew white. Suddenly one of the white glow's jumped into the water and swam out to sea. The glow on the ship vanished and there stood a human Charad, lying next to a broken staff. Max ran up and hugged him. "its good that your back." he said.

Max moved away from him and went to go steer the ship. Charad saw Charron and shouted "Charron!" and ran up to hug him. Charron didn't know what to do so he let Charad keep hugging him. When Charad stepped back he was covered in blood. "What happened to you?" he asked. So Charron explained everything that had happened. He stayed up all night explaining. Fortunately the ship caught a favourable wind and they had arrived back home by lunchtime.

Charron was getting tired, he'd had trouble getting to sleep so he stayed awake, looking up at the stars. As they pulled into port, Charad woke up and ran up to the house. Charron jumped out and followed him, the ship's deck was now red from all the moving about Charron did. Max dropped anchor and followed them, sighing at the mess Charron made. Charad pushed the door, but nothing happened. "Max do you have the key?" Charad asked. Max was walking up to the door annoyed. "I'm sorry If I forgot a key, when I was busy stopping a madman with an army of monsters." he said. "I'll get it." Charron said. Max stormed up to him. "Oh no you don't, I only just got the door replaced--" Charron sighed, turned into liquid and slid under the crack in the door. He formed the otherside and opened it. Max stepped in and eyed Charron. "Nice trick." he said. They made their way into the lab.

Charron got Charad to fetch the dagganoth in the enchanted ice from his room. Charad brought it into the lab and placed it on the table. Max eyed it with interest. "So, your going to get the dagganoth out of you and put it into this baby one. I know the spell to thaw it out." Max grabbed some runes and started to cast a spell, Charron also began to cast his own spell. Charad eyed it curiously. Max finished the spell, and the ice shattered around the dagganoth, the dagganoth let out a screach shortly before Charron finished finished his spell. He grabbed the dagganoth and pulled it into himself, Charron became a bloody blob, which eventually split into 3 blobs, the blobs slowly formed the shapes of Charron, Caedis and the Dagganoth. Eventually the blood flowed off them and formed a gem in the centre of the floor. Charron was back to normal. However Charron rushed over to a bin where he was sick in. Caedis's eyes closed and he fell to the floor asleep.

Charron finished vomiting and went to check on the Dagganoth, it was wriggling about on the floor. Charron shook it and eventually it stood rigid, it opened its eyes and stood up. "Am I still in that Dream?" it said. Charron shook his head. "I've brought you back Dagger." Dagger smiled, then he looked at his new body. "Why am I so little?" Charron laughed. Max looked at it. "So thats the beast that destroyed my cannon and broke my back." Dagger growled at him. Charad walked over to him and rubbed his head. "Awww, he's cute." he said. Dagger growled. "I'll show you cute, Shark boy." he said. He tried to shoot a water spell at him but ended up coughing instead. Charad awwed even more. Max looked to Charron. "This'll mean you'll probably never change again. Are you sure about this?" he said. Charron grabbed his book from the shelf and ripped out the bookmarked pages, he then gave them to Dagger who ate them reluctantly. Max smiled and stretched. "Now I can finally relax, no more monsters breaking me or my possessions."

Charron slept in the menagerie that night, Caedis woke up and was persuaded to sleep there as well. Dagger lay beside him, staring up at the sky with Charron. "So, I have to grow up again." he said. Charron hummed. "I don't have a mother now, I don't think I can go back. They say most who left the group died after a few days." Dagger said. Charron patted him gently. "You've got me. I can be your father-- I didn't mean it that way just..." Charron said, embarassed at what came out. Dagger nustled up to him. "Remember how we use to travel, searching for mother. I think deep down, I didn't want to find her. It went against every instinct I had. You were a great companion *yawn*, friend and... father..." Dagger said, falling asleep. Charron cracked a smile. He too, fell asleep.

Lets go on another journey, we can kill even more things!
Charron watched as Dagger laid by the water. Dagger was trying to catch a fish. Caedis was also watching with interest, always interested in new hunting techniques. When Charron squinted, Dagger almost camouflaged and looked like a rock. One of the fish saw the strange looking rock and got curious. It swam closer towards it. Dagger with quick reflexes grabbed the fish in his jaws, he then proceeded to eat it. Caedis turned away and stared into the water. Charron was still watching, he didn't noticed Charad sit down beside him. "He's good for his size." Charad said, causing Charron to jump slightly. "Makes me feel bad cause I just got my breakfast out the larder." Charad chuckled. Charron looked at the breakfast Charad had brought him, it was toasted bread and butter. "I'm not really a fan of toast." Charron said glumly. Charad tutted. "Well were low on supplies, Max is heading to the local fishing village to try get some more supplies. Anyway it makes a change to human and monster flesh doesn't it." Charad joked. Charron didn't say a word, instead taking a bite out of his toast.

Dagger walked up to Charron and jumped onto his lap. "Want some toast Dagger?". Charron asked. "What's toast, is it a kind of fish?". Charad chuckled. Charron shook his head. "Its a warm spongey thing made from plants and water." Dagger looked confused. "You make food from plants?" Charron sighed. "Just try some." He handed Dagger a slice. He sniffed it and then grabbed the slice in his jaws. His face didn't look like it was enjoying it. Dagger coughed. "It's dry and makes me feel ill, can we go hunting?". Charron stood up off the chair, knocking Dagger to the floor. "A great suggestion, I'm going to get some rods." Charad sighed at the half eaten slice Charron had left. He threw it at Caedis and went to follow Charron. Caedis snatched it up in his jaws, he growled after eating it.

Charron and Charad were sitting down on the beach, holding their rods as they waited for a bite. Dagger was sat next to Charron, looking interested, but bored at the same time. "Why don't you go into the water and catch them?" Dagger said. "Because instead of having claws and gills, we have thumbs. Which means we don't have to get wet or get mauled by a shark." Charron said. "If its taking this long its a wonder how we never managed to kill you all." Dagger said. "And yet you were killed by 'us'." Charron said. Suddenly Charad's rod started to pull. "Woah I think I've caught a Thallasus, we'll be eating for weeks." Charad fought with the rod for about 20 minutes before finally pulling his catch out of the water. It was an eel, a small eel. "I think its one of those fish that change size," Charad began to say. Charrons rod began to pull, Charron wrestled with it for 15 minutes when finally he pulled it out. It was a medium sized bass like fish. "Now thats a fish." Charron said. Charad groaned.

Charad spotted a ship on the horizon, it was heading towards them. As soon as it pulled into port Charad recognised them. "Its Uncle Korom" he said, rushing towards him. Charron walked over to them, Dagger had climbed onto Charrons back and was clinging on as he walked. Korom brought out a sack full of objects. "Here Charad, I got you this knife, the shapes makes it work better underwater than most knives." Korom said, handing Charad the knife.

The history will be continued once we get him to stop complaining and tell us his story.

Things to do before I die
"If I must wait 100 years to complete this list, so be it."

- Charron


 * 1) Visit Sophanem
 * 2) Visit the Kharazi Jungle
 * 3) Visit Morytania (Ruthven almost got us killed... again!)
 * 4) Visit Priffdinas (does it still exist?)
 * 5) Visit Lunar Isles
 * 6) Visit Ooglog (My back feels much better now)
 * 7) Trek to the top of the wilderness and back
 * 8) Explore some Dragonkin ruins
 * 9) Visit the Eastern Isles (The giant sea monsters didn't help)
 * 10) Finish the Fremmenik Bar Crawl
 * 11) Salvage a Shipwreck
 * 12) Join the Wizards Guild (Lots of books to read here)
 * 13) Join the Legends Guild
 * 14) Become a Slayer Master
 * 15) Get something named after me
 * 16) Try Crocodile (Tastes like chicken)
 * 17) Kill a Dragon (I met Ruthven this day)
 * 18) Kill a Strykewyrm (I got a great Staff out of it)
 * 19) Kill a Demon (I'm sure Revenant Demon counts)
 * 20) Learn to summon a Talon Beast (I should've put summon something harder)
 * 21) Get revenge on Ruthven (That'll show him)
 * 22) Get revenge on Ruthven again
 * 23) Take part in a varrock museum expedition
 * 24) Meet up with Charadon again
 * 25) Meet up with Het again (It was a Brief reunion)
 * 26) Meet up with Apmek again
 * 27) Find a way to combine a spell from each book (This Rock magic is certainly effective)
 * 28) Meet an Icyene (I'll never forget the vision she showed us)
 * 29) Meet an Aviansie
 * 30) Have one last adventure with friends.

Trivia

 * Charron got his name from a misspelling of Charos
 * Charron started out as a friend Jacob talked about in a bar, he later became magejake50's 2nd main rp character.
 * His staff of light is green, he had it dyed in the eastern Isles.
 * Charron has taken part in 1 major roleplay session known as "Vision of the future"

Chapter title meanings
The chapter headings are all quotes used by characters in the story, that aren't mentioned in the story itself. The person saying each quote goes:
 * 1) Scabaras Armen to his wife
 * 2) Scabaras speaking to Charron
 * 3) Avvarocka giving useful advice to Charron
 * 4) The slayer master to Charron
 * 5) Ruthven being his usual self
 * 6) Charron to the captain
 * 7) Charron talking to himself life a madman
 * 8) Charad going through the plan to Charron
 * 9) Charad discussing his fin with Charron
 * 10) Max during the middle of the experiment
 * 11) The man in red, spouting out his quotes
 * 12) The man in red speaking  through Charron
 * 13) Charron feeling how anyone else would after that experience