Page 55 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Hold on!” Orla pulled her goggles into place and took a hearty swig of Skal. A green blade lengthened in her grip, and she brought it swinging down.
It sliced through my wrist, hot and painful. I cried out, but Orla was already pulling me down the alley as the guard gave chase.
“My hand!” I yowled, looking down at my wrist. Where there should have been blood, flesh flaked away from my arm in streams of ash.
“Grow a new one!” Orla pressed the Skal bottle into my remaining hand, and I took a sloppy sip as we rounded the corner in a sprint. The liquid dissolved the weight in my stomach, and new energy buzzed in my limbs as I pushed through the crowd waiting outside of a noodle house.
“Stop them!” the guard bellowed. Bright lights and new smells assaulted my senses from every angle, but I kept my focus on my wrist. I could grow a hand.
Orla looked back over her shoulder, and the panic in her eyes told me the guard was still tailing us through the thick crowd. We’d be easy to track. As diverse as the wardrobes here were, I was the only one with blue hair.
But as I looked down at my growing fingers, I realized my hair was a fixable problem. In fact, I could fix much more than just my hair.
I focused on one attribute at a time. If I changed too quickly, someone might notice. But if I did my hair first, then my eyes, then my nose, my chin, my clothes…
“Put your hood up.” The deep voice that resonated in my throat didn’t sound like my own.
“Who—” Orla yelped. She let go of me, and I raised a freshly grown finger to my lips.
“It’s me! I changed my face! Go that way!”
We slipped down another alleyway. Orla yanked her hood up over her face just as the guard came around the corner. I met his eye, and gave a half-hearted wave.
He faltered, seemingly taken aback by the man standing before him. He craned his neck to look past us down the empty alley, then continued on through the crowd.
Orla sighed, and shook her hood off.
“That’s a neat trick.” She gestured towards my face, and I ran a hand down my cheek, feeling the shape of Liam’s chin. His face was the first one I’d thought to change into. “What isthat?”
I looked down at the perfect replica of Liam’s Von Leer hoodie that I was now wearing.
“It’s, um, a coat. Kind of.” I couldn’t get used to the sound of Liam’s voice coming from my mouth. “I figured that since Galahad forms my clothes when he makes me, I probably have control over what they look like.”
“It’s hideous.”
“I know.”
“You’re hideous too.”
I grinned, and wondered if I had the same stupid smile on my face that Liam had given me so many times.
“Thank you.” I pulled my fingers through my hair, imagining my hair lengthening as I did so and procuring a hair-tie to keep it out of my face. It reverted back to blue with no effort, and my face rippled beneath my skin as my preferred bone-structure returned. “Do you still have the Skal?”
Orla flicked her cloak back, revealing the four bottles secured to her belt.
“I still don’t approve of your methods, by the way,” she said, though she smiled in spite of herself. “Stealing is—”
She cut off, and her eyes flitted to something at the far end of the alley. She snapped her goggles into place, and a green blade fired to life. I whipped around, igniting my silver flail.
A cloaked figure staggered out of the deepest shadows of the alley. His clothes were tattered, and he walked with a heavy limp, but orange irises set against black sclera glowed bright above his dark cowl.
“Blue,” the Grimguard croaked. An orange blade erupted in his hand as he took the first running steps towards us.
And then the orange blade turned to steam, and he fell forward, unconscious.
14. Advanced Sports Medicine
Orla and I stood at the ready with our weapons humming in our hands, but the Grimguard remained face down on the dirty cobblestones. This was the first time I’d seen him in semi-decent lighting, but I was sure his cloak had been less tattered and muddy the last time we’d met.
