Missing Link

Finally bothering to carry on from the dragon series.

Alfred gazed up at Tim like a wounded animal. When he dared turn his head towards his severed limb as though able to assist it, Tim offered a hard press against the man's ankle, sending a searing wave of pain through him with a crunch of bone. Ever the disciplined servant, he withheld an outburst of pain.

“What...who are you?” He gasped, choking out the words. In the flickering orange of the lantern-light, Alfred saw a dishevelled man. Un-groomed and untamed, and likely unfed for several days. More piercing than the honed, bloodied edge of his curious single claw, was the hatred and determination in the blue flash of his eyes.

Years passed between them in minutes, before Tim acquiesced and let Alfred rise slowly to his feet.

“You're losing a lot of blood, old man.” Tim said with a voice like hot gravel and charred earth.

“That's something you should have considered, if it's information you want.” Alfred retorted, holding a vial of unknown liquid to his wound. It seemed to clot his injury to some extent.

Finding some of his courage, he continued:

“A man with a dragons claw? How curious. What's more troubling is how you managed to breach the stronghold. I must be letting my guard down in my old age.”

“I'm not interested in debating you on your senility.” Tim felt his claw throb and pulsate anew. “I'm here for your master, Lady Maria.”

“Ah yes...” Alfred appeared crestfallen. “Poor Lady Maria. Every day she appears closer to embracing her accursed, wretched fate. At first, she was willing and able to maintain her humanity, but with each slip she revels in the power she wields.”

“Power? We agree that she is to be pitied, but she has become nothing more than a monster.”

“So then, what do you intend to do? Kill her?” Alfred spat.

“I have my own score to settle, servant. This is none of your concern.”

“I see your own transformation has just begun, but perhaps your spirit is not so far behind. In indulging your desires to maim and murder, how can you stand above the 'beast' you despise?”

Before Tim could retort, a searing flash of pain shot through his arm once more. It quickly spread to the rest of his body, electricity and an agonising heat driving through him, scalding and hardening his flesh. Transmuting delicate skin into a right-arm of dark scales, claws and metallic hooks. He fell to his knees.

“Curse those spirits!” Tim roared, slashing a chunk of brick-work from the corridor in an explosion of muscle-energy.

“The spirits...” Alfred wondered aloud. He'd ignored them for so long that they were almost forgotten. So few had passed through those woods, and fewer had ever held any interaction with the spirits within. Certainly, none had ever emerged from an encounter devolving into a Dragon. The only encounters with such spirits would be concentrated in the form of the serum and always...to the opposite effect. Who was this person?

“Lead me to Maria!” Tim roared.

Alfred analysed the half-man half-beast before him, as Tim staggered back to composure. Curiosity, moreso than fear, drove his compliance with his requests.

“Certainly, Mr...” said Alfred, bending down for his spare limb and the lantern.

“Tim.”

“I'm Alfred, servant of this stronghold. Shall we?”

Alfred wondered, as he lead them through the procession of winding caverns, if Tim could be the missing link.