Sometime after dinner the same day, Drenar is busy poring over every book and academic journal under the sun he can find online, trying to find something–anything really, that could explain this situation.
The lack of science on people growing scales or other weird anatomy is not exactly unexpected, but he's racking his brains on how this could happen, and why he's not even given Julia a hint on this. If there is anyone who could help him figure this out, it’s her, followed closely by Angela.
He makes sure the bedroom door is locked before he rolls up his sleeve, and takes off the wrap. He'd traced a permanent marker earlier around the area, with the intent to see if it was spreading. And it had, very marginally. Oh, this is bad. This thing is spreading. But I don't feel like death, and it doesn't hurt, and I can still feel it. Wait. Scales with nerve endings? This is getting bizarre. It's organo-metallic, if I had to come up with a word for it. Well, hemoglobin has iron in it, and there are a few other trace minerals we need in our diet.
“Time for some science.” He grabs a pair of tweezers out of his desk from his hygiene kit, and tries to pry one. He feels it, and it hurts. That metallic scale isn't going anywhere. He pulls harder and gasps–that had hurt, and he drops the tweezers. He rubs at the offended flesh gently. “Well, that's not gonna work. Can I cut it? Mutilating myself in the name of science sounds like a dumb idea.”
He does, however, grab his hunting dagger out of his desk. The one his mom had gifted on his tenth birthday, with a soft leather-wrapped handle, a textured grip, and a double-edged blade that is remarkably sharp. A dark thought lingers in the back of his mind. This is different. Stay focused. Let's solve this scientifically.
He applies a little pressure to the scale, and it doesn't budge. It's remarkably hard. It's almost as hard as steel, when he thinks about it. But he can feel the knife point applying pressure to the scale, in a muted sort of way. Not painful. He applies more pressure, and his grip starts faltering. He stops. If it's not budging with that amount of force, I'm going to slip off and stab myself by accident. And that's going to attract too much attention. Next plan.
He takes a hammer out of his toolkit and taps the scaled section of his forearm. It almost rings like it's metallic, and it barely registers as an impact. He hits harder–still nothing, but it looks really dumb, him hitting his arm with a hammer. He puts the hammer down and frowns. He taps the hammer against the scale–he can feel the coldness of the metal, very faintly. He can feel the weight of it, the pressure on the scale. He slides the hammer laterally–and he can feel texture–but it’s muted. Smooth metal against scale, and there’s a gentle ringing sound as he moves it. This is just buzzing his brain with possibilities.
How is this possible? It's organic, but also has metallic qualities. I'd apply heat, but…I don't want to hurt myself in the name of science. He does, however, grab a magnet that he normally uses to clip things to his memo board. He places the magnet on the scale patch and–
He feels it tug. And it sticks very gently to the scale. He goes wide-eyed at this revelation. Either there is an unhealthy amount of cobalt, iron, or nickel in my body that has the grain structure aligned to create a magnetic field, or I'm dealing with magic. And for this to be this magnetized, I should literally be suffering from heavy metal poisoning.
He pauses for a moment to stew on that. Magic. I mean, really? At this point, it's not an unsound assumption. Physics and biology bedrock principles have already been violently broken.
Alright, fine! We’re at the magic step, because I’m too dumb to understand the science of this, and I don’t understand these new rules of physics! He vows to get to the bottom of that lapse of knowledge as soon as he finds a wizard. Or something.
“Drenar, what are you doing in there?” Evan asks from the locked doorway.
“Science. Now let me get back to the sciencing!” Drenar shouts over his shoulder.
“Okay. Weirdo.” he lets out a sigh of relief when Evan opens his own bedroom door and closes it. He's left with several unknowns here, or how to proceed.
Guess I gotta call Julia. She's either going to freak out, or squeal in delight. And I'm sure it's going to be the latter. He pulls out his phone and dials her, wraps up the scale patch, and rolls his sleeve back down. “Yo, Baka-san, why were you looking like a ghost earlier? You barely talked to me in chemistry class today.”
He pauses for a second and takes a deep breath. “I have a query of a scientific nature. And I could use your help.”
“Oh boy, I know that tone, this should be good,” she chuckles. "Alright. Whatcha got?" He took a breath before continuing.
"Do you know anything about iron absorption, specifically ingestion for organic species?”
“Yeah, it’s dangerous to have too much iron in your system, though it is necessary for many internal functions. Something about red blood cells and hemoglobin production. Why?” He can picture her eyes wide and dazzling with interest.
“Any idea how a reptile could ingest enough iron that it could exude said iron content into its scales and make it weakly magnetic?” You know, like me?
“That has got to be the strangest question I have heard from you Drenar.” There is a pregnant pause from her, then she let out a gasp of surprise. “You know what? I remember reading something about this.” He hears the shuffle of papers and the turning of crisp pages in the background. “Ah, here it is. Let’s see here, iron...iron...this thing reads like an encyclopedia of various critters from all sorts of mythology." she paused for a second and he heard a few other pages turn crisply.
“Hey, what book is that anyway?” Drenar asked after a few seconds of silence.
“It’s a compendium of mythical creatures–it’s pretty old fashioned looking, but dude, this sketch art is pretty gnarly. I found it in mom’s room about a month ago. There’s a large section on dragons along with...uh...very detailed pictures,” she adds hesitantly. “Actually, I was reading this when I was trying to figure out your spirit magical creature!”
“Really?”
“Yep! No fox girls in this book, though–but it’s like volume one. The law of fantasy says there must be fox girls!” she cackles.
“That’s not a–you know what, sure,” he sighs. “So, question, are the sketches anatomically correct?”
“Erm…yeah. There’s a few that would be purely for scientific display,” she responds hesitantly. “Oh hey, I found it! Listen to this, and I’ll quote it. ‘Dragon scales on most species are typically made of the same substance, which is an enamel-like composite, formed in a tight layered pattern giving both strength, and lightness of weight. Most dragon species in a juvenile state will ingest large quantities of trace minerals which are absorbed by the body, culminating in an organo-metallic matrix that further strengthens the scales.
She takes a moment and is chewing on something crunchy. "And you accuse me of eating," he states deadpan.
"It's an apple, Drenar! It doesn't count!" He can picture that infectious grin on her face right now. "Species scales will vary due to preferences of diet, but many dragons can also ingest raw mineral-bearing ores when available, due to their incredible stomach acid, and can absorb metals in this way.
"Maridian Silver dragons are known in particular for their ability to absorb mana-laden ferrite in certain volcanic areas, and are capable of polarizing these particles through their body by use of bioelectric currents.’ That's kinda cool, In a very nerdy way,” she added for emphasis. “Wait. So why were you inquiring about this again?” The species name rings a bell, he realizes after a second.
“Um, hey. Have you ever mentioned this book to me?” This can’t be a coincidence.
“Nah, like I said, I just found it lying around. Not sure where mom got it, either. Why the interest, anyway?”
Holy shit.
It’s like he can hear the giant record scratch that is now rapidly becoming his life. Alex had been a Maridian silver.
He’d never read this book before. Ever.
And magnetized scales.
Any chance of this being a cosmic coincidence vaporized like a stellar body standing in the wake of a supernova, utterly inconsequential to the colossal devastation of a collapsing star. “Hey uh, Drenar, are you still there?” Julia asks after a few seconds. He takes a deep breath and shoves his pending anxiety attack down as far into his cerebral matter as he can muster.
“I'd like to borrow this book, and I may have other queries.” There's a several-second pause from Julia.
“You mean like what turns Angela on?”
“Yea–nooooo, not that kind of query!” He recoils instantly. He hears that evil laugh of hers coming through loud and clear. “No, this is something different. Seriously Julia, I don't even think you know the answer to that forbidden query.”
“Oh my god, stop. Something is up with you today, I knew it, James was telling me you were acting super weird! Well, weirder than normal. Like not the lovably weird you, more like the weird kind, like your life took a wild turn.”
He hates how spot-on she can read him. It's like she can read his mind, even without being there in person. “Look, I'll make a deal, I'll drop by, and make dinner.” The giggle of delight indicates she’s on board.
“Yeah, I'd like that, mom's out at work, and I'm just heating pizza pockets. Why the interest in the book anyway? You really want to confirm the pictures are anatomically correct, don’t you--”
“Not in that way!” he groaned in an elevated tone. Her response was devious laughter in the background. Again. “Look, I’ve been on the internet, and trust me, it isn’t my flavor.”
“It’s somebody’s.” She surely must be wearing her biggest Cheshire cat grin right about now. “Flavors come and go, you know. Like the ice cream flavor of the month at Linda’s!”
“Pretty sure this is not a flavor of the month. Now are you gonna assail my developing teenage mind with more bad ideas, or are you going to lend it?”
“I’ll lend it to you, just hurry on over.” She pauses for a minute, then lets out a gasp. “Hey Drenar, I gotta run, I’m burning dinner, I’ll see you soon!” She hung up before he could get a word out.
“Ugh. That girl,” he sighs. She might have been many things, but she couldn’t cook to save her life--unless he happened to be in the kitchen. Drenar had frequently made meals with the rest of the group in the living room at her place a few times while playing tabletop games. Her mom would sit in the den watching with amusement, sometimes with a book in hand, or sometimes with a glass of wine, but she mostly left them to their own devices.
Okay, we have gone off the edge of the map, and there are, indeed, dragons. Brain, I need you to very calmly turn off for the next few hours, and not have a meltdown while I figure this out as fast as humanly possible. He grabs his keys and heads downstairs. “Hey Diane, I have to go out for a bit, can I borrow the car?” he asks.
“May I inquire why?” she asks before looking up from her tablet.
“I’m headed to Julia’s, to grab something from her. We might hang out for a while," he explains to her. Dave looks over the edge of his laptop, and shrugs softly.
“That's fine, just remember! No parties, no girls, no drugs, and no alcohol!” Diane said sternly.
“Really Diane, I’m far more classy than that,” he counters softly.
“Oh I know, Drenar. But I wouldn’t be doing a proper job without a reminder,” she replies warmly.
“Can I hitch a ride, too? I wanted to head out for a movie, Jackie was gonna drop me off afterwards,” Evan interjects. Diane nods politely.
“Be back by eleven, and call us if you’re out later?”
“Fair enough.” Drenar and Evan quickly climbed into the beat-up sedan. “So Evan, when did you two…uh.” he didn’t quite finish his sentence.
“Eh. Jackie wanted to watch some dumb romantic comedy. I wanted to watch something with action and adventure. We had a coin toss, and I lost. And then I went double or nothing...and I have to go to another movie of her choice next week.” Even looks like he swallowed the powder at the bottom of a Sour Patch kid’s bag.
“And what have we learned?” Drenar asked with a goofy grin on his face.
“Don’t rely on a coin toss?”
“No. Well, that first. But your second lesson is, Jackie’s a beast when she doesn’t get her way."
“Don’t I know it,” he sighs.
A short drive later, they’re in the downtown area, and Drenar observes a gaggle of people waiting outside, deep in conversations. One of them is Jackie, a girl with red hair and a frame so light he thought a stiff breeze might knock her over. He also thinks he sees Jonaleth, a never-do-well mixed in the crowd. "So, Evan. Are you guys dating?"
"Not exactly. She was helping me out with an assignment in Earth science, then asked me if I wanted to hang out. It's casual."
"So, this is your shot. Make a good example then, yeah?" Drenar suggests. "She's a nice girl, treat her right."
"Yes, Dad," he replies sourly.
"Hey, we aren’t blood-related, but I still have seniority. It means I have to lead by a good example," Drenar said with a goofy pat on the shoulder.
"Hah. You?" He laughs. "Sure, if I wanted to be boring my whole life."
"Oh hardly. I just keep it on the subtle side," Drenar countered. This was just a smidge too much of a hint.
"You and Angie made out, didn't you," Evan replied smugly.
“How slanderous. Even if that were the case, I can assure you, I adhere to strict professionalism.”
“Oh my god, is your sex drive dead or something?” Evan laughs.
Definitely not. “Hey, too personal. Now scram, ya goober,” he adds with a parting shot. A few seconds later Evan and Jackie greeted each other, and they went into the theater. Drenar did reflect on the exchange for a moment.
If only being a teenager with out-of-kilter hormones were my biggest problem right now. Uh, on that note of this weird cosmic coincidence, what does this make Alex? Is he just a fragment of my psyche splintered off from some massive traumatic event I can’t remember, trying to remind me of who I am? Some kind of wayward soul? Is someone entwined in my dream space?
He really doesn’t like any answer he comes up with.
