Chapter 35: Offices & Tests

Chapter 35: Offices & Tests "So, giants are real?" asked Misha. "As well as big dragons," replied Bran. "I’d like to meet a dragon..." mused Misha. "I mean, another dragon. I know I’m a dragon." "Don’t worry. You’ll get your chance," said Bran. They walked through a lobby-like area at the base of the building and Bran led the way to a set of lifts being looked after by a bored looking guard with four heads. All heads looked equally bored though Misha suspected the on the far left was more trying to fit in than actually bored. There was a ’ding’ as one of the lift doors opened and the guard raised one of its arms in its general direction. Bran and Misha, along with a handful of other people all got into the small box, pressed their buttons, and, to Misha’s surprised, rattled down the shaft. "Do you know any dragons?" Misha asked quietly. "I know at least one," Bran replied. "Who’s not you," he added after seeing Misha ramp up for another question. The lift dinged, the doors opened, and a winged man and a human sized snake got out. Slowly, the lift emptied until it was just Bran and Misha and a being who was about fifty-percent transparent. Misha tried not to stare but couldn’t help it when the ’ghost’ finally levitated its way through the doors of the lift, leaving the pair alone. A minute or so later, the lift finally arrived at their floor and Misha was about to ask a question about how far down they were when the doors opened, revealing the answer to at least part of his question. The space immediately around the lift was relatively small, just a few metres square, but that was understandable as there were enormous panes of glass that looked directly out into water. It reminded Misha of an aquarium he’d gone to years ago and he couldn’t help grabbing the edge of Bran’s shirt. "Bran..." Misha breathed. "Impressive?" "There are mermaids..." The bright lights installed around the glass were no match for the inky blackness of the inland sea and it took Bran a moment to pick out the swimming figures that Misha had spotted. "Jiaoren," Bran corrected. "Similar to mermaids, in that they look like human-fish hybrids, but they’re native to here." "Wow..." Misha walked closer to the glass and gazed out at the jiaoren as they swam past. They flitted through the water as fast as swallows did in the air and were just as nimble. Bran joined Misha at the glass. "Do you have a thing for mermaids?" he asked in a hushed voice. Misha glared at him. "No," he protested. "But it’s not every day you get to see something so magical." Bran decided to not point out the obvious and instead took his friend by the shoulders, directed him along the glass and down the hall. All the hallways on floor U15 had at least one side, or sometimes the floor or roof, lined with glass. At first, Misha thought this was to allow the people working inside to see outside and appreciate the undersea beauty, but he quickly had another idea: the glass was there to allow the jiaoren, and whatever else was out there, to see exactly who was inside doing what. Bran didn’t seem to mind this though, so Misha put it to the back of his mind and let himself be led through the rabbit warren of passageways until they came to an office that was merely named ’Tuesday’. "Tuesday... Isn’t that...?" began Misha. "Have I told you about her?" asked Bran. "Just mentioned in passing when Helen was visiting." "Ahh..." Bran opened the door without knocking and went in. Tuesday’s office was dimly lit with lights that ramped up their brightness once Bran and Misha entered, throwing the room into a proper level of visibility. The room was large, much larger than Misha expected with a generously high ceiling lined with countless exposed cables and pipes. To the side was a floor to ceiling glass cylinder with a hatch that opened out to the open sea, but what really dominated the room was the massive computer system sitting authoritatively in the centre. There were at least six working monitors with a few more dark ones hanging off the side, and at least three computer towers that whirred to life at the same time as the lights turned on. Misha looked around. "Is she out?" Bran nodded towards the opposite wall and the glass windows. The finned body of a jiaoren streaked past then swirled to a stop inside the glass cylinder. "She’s a-" Bran took Misha’s shoulder and turned them both around. There came some mechanical hissing, a hydraulic press, then a splash then Bran let Misha turn back round again. Out from the cylinder came a woman wearing a set of baggy overalls over a diving suit. She had bright green hair that probably looked like flowing seaweed underwater but now looked like soggy seaweed in the air. She gave a stretch and yawn, and Misha saw that she had sharp canines, not unlike his own. "Bran, have you-" she began. "Already done," said Bran holding up a hand. At some point, a long piece of orange rope had been tied around Bran’s wrist. The rope’s other end was tied to a bar hanging from just above the doorframe. Misha’s heart jumped and his eyes narrowed. Why was Bran being restrained? Misha stepped towards Bran intent on freeing him. "Relax," said Bran. "Tuesday just doesn’t want me getting too close to her computers. There have been some, uh, incidents in the past." Misha’s metaphorical hackles slowly lowered but his tail continued to swish back and forth as he looked around to test the veracity of that statement. Bran patted him on the shoulder. The woman, Tuesday, sauntered over to the pair and gave Misha a once over then turned to Bran. "Not a bad catch," she said. -- The door had hissed shut, making me think the room was soundproof, but it turned out I could still hear you and Tuesday talking outside. Or maybe I just have good hearing from being a dragon. I pulled my shirt up and over my head. Tuesday wasn’t the first one of your friends to make inferences about the nature of our relationship and it made me wonder. The first time I just thought it was the usual playful ribbing that close friends like to do, but what if it wasn’t? Did they know something more about you than I did? No, the answer to that last question was obvious. Of course they knew more about you than me; my point was: did they perhaps know that you... swing the same way I do? Did I have a chance? I hadn’t tried to hide my preferences from you, but I also hadn’t been all that open about them. Even at the conclusion of Coral and Melody’s case I’d merely said that ’I liked my best friend before’ without mentioning that he was a guy. Then again, for most guys, their best friend would also be a guy, and I know you’re smart so... I finished folding my shirt and slid off my trousers. I could hear you and Tuesday outside discussing the strange fluctuations in the currency exchange. Best not to think too more about this, I told myself as I finished stripping off all my clothes then crouched with my hands on the ground. Up to that point I’d only purposefully transformed into a dragon once yet now when I tried again, it felt as natural as walking or breathing. How had I never done this before, even by accident? What felt like a drop of cold water landed on the nape of my neck and ran down my spine and I felt my body relax and when I opened my eyes, my hands were now scaled talons. I stretched and snapped my mouth a few times. That vague longing for you to touch me had returned. I tried to push that feeling to the backburner and tried to nudge the door open with my nose. After failing a few times, I finally managed to hook my lower teeth into the handle and used that to slide the door to the side. I knew opposable thumbs were a big deal but I hadn’t realised how big of a deal until this moment. "Everything go okay?" you asked, cutting off what Tuesday had been saying and coming over to me. I nodded then had my wish fulfilled when you reached up and scratched behind my ears. "He’s bigger than I thought," said Tuesday. Another time I would have blushed at the innuendo (especially after what I’d been thinking about earlier) but I was too busy enjoying your hands on my neck. "Is the testing pod big enough?" you asked. "Psh, it’s big enough to fit a kunpeng, don’t worry. I was just thinking he’d be a little dragon, not an adult one." I looked to you. I am an adult though, I thought. "He’s nineteen," you said as if you’d read my mind. "Nineteen? Really? He doesn’t act like it," said Tuesday. My ears drooped and my tail stopped wagging. You used both hands to turn my head away. "Don’t worry about her," you said. "She’s just a big bully." Tuesday went to her computer set up and pressed a few buttons. "Get a room you two..."