Chapter 3: Alternating Minds

I pulled the small dagger out of the goop. I shook the remaining liquid off of it, and the excess shaking soon proved that this was just a small dagger now. I didn't know how the protean blade had lost its shapeshifting powers, but I did know how to use a dagger well enough. I shuddered at the thought of such a close range weapon in this scenario. Tucking the blade inside my armor, I made my way deeper into the monsters’ nest.

I kept my back to the wall, minimizing the chances of being seen or stepping into the green trail I was following. I could hear the hollers of all the hive residents just a bit deeper in. The louder their voices became, the less slime coated the path. I hesitated to step out of my cover. I slowly crawled up the wall again, noticing how rough and unused the walls and ceilings of the tunnel were. Crawling carefully to keep silent, I soon saw the source of all the noise. About 100 of the creatures writhed in a huddled mass before an area lit up by a fresh coat of green along the walls and ceiling. They growled and shrieked like an anxious mob awaiting the execution. In the light, Boss stood bound in chains. One hundred so-called changelings in a hive and apparently not a single one could form a cocoon.

I kept to the far side of the spectacle. My plain dagger wasn’t sharp enough to cut Boss out of the chains, let alone the mess we would get ourselves into. In the sea of hooves, horns, and eyes, not a single one appeared special beyond the common, dripping green deformity. None of these creatures had the physical stature of a changeling Queen, and yet here they were... Organized. Waiting.

Suddenly the scream returned again, louder than ever. Into the lit area emerged a changeling that wasn’t mingling in the crowd... a big one. Its silhouette fluctuated in the center of my vision. It took me a while to focus on it from so far away, only to realize that most of its body was constantly twitching. It was twice as big as a standard changeling, putting it at about Chrysalis’s height. But the head was twice as big as hers. Half of it shook on its own without cease. I stepped a few feet closer, now I was almost a part of this gathering. Looking up again I had to cover my mouth lest a scream break my cover. The changeling did not have a head bigger than Chrysalis’s... it had two the same size. One was like that of a queen, with a waste of a beautiful eye looking over the crowd through a ragged, unkempt mane. I dodged her gaze. The other convulsed behind her snout and horn. Where her right eye would have been, warped flesh connected the socket to the other’s left socket. Its right eye flickered the common blues of a changeling. As she turned her heads, I could see extra limbs and a wing almost hanging off her side. They shook with the same intensity as the misplaced skull. Her body leaked the same green fluid as the others. It dripped from her extra limbs and the extra flesh between the two heads. The extra one could have been drooling it; it was hard to tell from that angle, and the head shaking so much.

Boss was somehow unfazed. He just looked at the monster and laughed. "So you're the Queen of these zombie pricks!"

The Queen took her time turning to him, and the second head's convulsions intensified. Just as her eye would have met Boss's, the other head shook so violently that the neck of the large beast snapped. The sound of exoskeleton cracking made me reach for my throat. I looked back up to see the Queen's head convulsing strangely. A still, bug-eyed changeling face now looked upon the two blues found on Boss's face. Green juices dripped from its snout.

"WHO ARE YOU TO DARE?!" the Queen's deep voiced other head roared.

For the first time in my career, I saw Boss flinch. He almost tripped in his chains, but kept himself upright. The Queen stepped forward. He smiled again. All eyes were on the two or three up front, but only Boss and I were aware of our assassins. The two remaining assassins readied their weapons from the ceiling.

"I'm Barbarian!" Boss said, stalling for time. "And I lead the most effective strike team in the entire Hive of Chrysalis, you two-faced zombie whore!"

The Queen's royal head convulsions intensified as the two assassins dropped from the ceiling, protean spears armed. The talking head's horn glowed as magic enveloped the weaker of the two assassins. Just as quickly, the horrid crack of exoskeleton had the Queen's eye glaring at Boss as her horn glowed to catch the better of the two assassins. Despite one of the horns shaking from its wielder's convulsions, she seemed to be perfectly in control of the two assassins in her grasp.

"He is a suit of armor," the Queen head said. Her countenance shook until...
Crack. "Hardly worth the life." He smiled. "We'll give them purpose." He turned from Boss, throwing the two assassins into the mob in front of me. He kept their weapons by his side as his other head intensified.
Crack. "Arming the dead to fight life?" Boss and I tried to ignore the assassins' screams and the sound of their exoskeletons being ripped apart.
Crack. "Fuel for the fire!" The Queen's male head let out a laugh that made even Boss's skin crawl.

“They’re eating them like starved dragons! Where’s the line with you freaks?!”

The laugh faded. "It knows about rules," the male voice grumbled loudly to itself. The heads turned sharply.
Crack. “Oh?” the female voice said, her attention fixed on the prisoner. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You keep eating changelings like this and you’ll only end up destroying yourselves!”

Crack. “It thinks it knows us.” The male head smiled. “It is mistaken.”
Crack. “All it knows is destruction.” The female lifted a weapon to its own snout with her magic.
Crack. The male’s snout was now before the weapon. “All it thinks is war.”

It spat its green juice onto the weapon. It bubbled and hissed inside the aura. The weapon fell to the ground a simple spear, its protean power drained. The aura had stayed put, keeping the bubbling juices in the air. Magic pulled the bubbles into the male’s mouth. The female’s horn stopped glowing, but her head kept twitching.

“All you want is life.”
Crack. “You are looking to buy time.”
Crack. “You are out of time.”

Boss shook his head. “You guys are crazy... I mean... you are crazy! Let me out of here!”

The entire body turned. “How many arrived?” The male asked the room, before cracking into convulsions.

The heads in the crowd swirled around as they tried to discern whether or not I could exist. I took my helmet off and tossed it away; no one in the crowd wore one. I shrugged to those who looked toward me, and they quickly turned back toward one another. It was only then that I realized I was still covered in the ooze from before. Somehow it was the perfect disguise. Finally, one of the monsters flew into the air and scanned the room quickly. I kept a straight face, trying my best to hide my fear as the familiar face moved toward the Queen.

"There was at least one more, perfect one," it said in its broken voice to the Queen. "I would have eaten it if you hadn't called us."

"And you are sure it's not here?" she asked, scanning the room again.

It shook its head. "It probably ran."

Crack. "Get the outer guard."

"But he was--"

"Then bring a bucket!" He gestured toward Boss with his right hoof.

The changeling nodded and flew away, out of the area and heading toward the surface. I waited for the commotion to rise so I could sneak out. I hated leaving Boss alone for this long, but I hated the idea of being found out more. As I reached the exit, I could see the changeling scooping his friend into a bucket with its magic. I readied my knife.

"Are you alright, Affection?" it asked the full bucket of goop. "You're looking a little down... Here, let me repay you." It retched as its horn glowed. The quiet assassin's dagger appeared, pulled out of the creature's throat. "You've done the same for me."

The blade turned toward the changeling's eye and closed the distance with a quick stab. It emerged covered in bright blue eye pulp. Green fluid leaked to the ground as magic dipped the blade into the bucket. It lit up as the changeling pulled the now clean blade back out, and the freak found itself hypnotized with the patterns of the shiny goop.

I approached slowly, my knife drawn. It turned from the bucket too soon for me to get close enough. It stared at me with its right eye, its other bled the green fluid all the way down its cheek. It winked at me. Most of its other eye remained in its head with a large hole in the center. But it was still open. It didn't blink or wince a single time.

"Doesn't that hurt?" I asked it, having nothing else come to mind.

It smiled, bringing its lips a little closer to the stream of green. "Pain. That is the body telling the mind that it is damaged. Why would I feel pain?"

"You... You have a body and a mind... Don't you?"

"I gave up my body a long time ago," its voice cracked. "It is but a cage for the soul. Now, without limitations, I can truly be free. Free of pain and discomfort."

This thing wasn't making any sense. "How do you know when you're dying? And didn't a bunch of you scream when we killed you?"

A smile and a frown fought a short battle for the changeling's one-fanged face. "That was a scare reaction. Even the immortals may fear the darkness in the depths of the heartless." It crooked its head the wrong way, allowing juices to touch the corner if its smirk. "Did you think you could kill us?"

"Every creature can be killed..."

"And you believe that?" I nodded back. "Then why are you so scared of blood?" The freak's tongue collected the ooze at the corner of its mouth before receding and swallowing. "You know, if you are not happy with the common mortality... You could join us."

"I pull a knife on you and you offer me an olive branch?"

"Only because you really, really don't look like you want to use it..." It stepped towards me, smiling.

I put the knife away. "What do I have to do?"

"Take the bucket. Be sure not to lose a single drop. The others won't touch you as long as you hold it." It trotted past me.

I approached the bucket, only to discover that the gatherer had left the assassin's blade on the ground. I quickly stowed it in my armor before picking up the bucket with my magic; the goop was heavier than it looked.

As we trotted back inside, I wondered if it would really be this easy. It sounded like I was going to be trotting right up to the Queen, and all I could think of was those two knives in my armor.

It looked back at me. I smiled back.