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"They were blue," I said "You definitely had blue eyes…"

"And now I have green, yes," Morrigan hissed, through a one decidedly snoutlike "Would you like a closer look?"

At that second two things happened First, Morrigan’s neck elongated like a jack-in-the-box’s, springing her gaping jaards e teeth I tu cruelty, only to fall into hest

As if I’d popped a bubble, the illusion around me shattered as my body touched Anyan’s And then all hell broke loose

"What the fuck?" Anyan shouted, pulling an standing in front of us "Alfar can’t shapeshift!" he yelled, clinging to logic, as he sent a volley ofrahests were one of the very rare beings to control more than one element, besides the Alfar, who controlled all four

Even Blondie looked scared, standing there ide eyes Her"no" over and over again

Meanwhile, Morrigan kept growing Her clothes were splitting at the seams, and her face wasn’t at all hu until it was like a long, thinitself around a huge torpedo Her shoulders were rounding, hunching as they grew in size Her tailored crea down to pool around her wrists as her body ratcheted forward, as if breaking in two at her lower back

She howled, then, a sound of agony and release as her hands began to lengthen into long fingered claws Her high heels ripped apart as scaled toes burst forth, scrabbling for purchase on the wood of the pier Her forearrow at a ridiculously fast rate The rest of her clothes shredded around flesh now uards had fanned out behind her,our own forces that had taken position behind Anyan and me But their side didn’t look like they were about to faint, as virtually everyone on our own team did

Anyan called for us to raise shields, and we did Then I woveour defenses with as an just grew, and grew, and grew

It was only when the mottles turned all the way to scales, and the form before us reared up to roar at the heavens that I realized ere dealing with

Morrigan had just changed into a dragon

An enoron

A red dragon, I thought,dry as I realized, for the u I really didn’t want to realize

For sure as shit, the dragon that had been Morrigan blazed criht sky She looked ht, but I knew she’d burn like fire in the sunshine

Suddenly, it all made sense The physical differences--the eyes, the attitude, the clothes; the speech patterns; the seductive charis people to the told

Before us roared the reason Morrigan had searched for the bits and pieces of a dead queen And why those pieces would want to be found, when they wereparts and couldn’t be resurrected as they once had

They didn’t need to be resurrected

All they needed was a willing host

Morrigan had become the Red Queen

As if to reon, Morrigan chose that moment to rear her head back, and then unleash a strea in its path before it lighted on our shields

Blondie pushed forward, her power boothened our defensive barriers Her poas enor froth, she was going to need help against the dragon So I focused the strength ofinto that space left in me by the creature, to saturate the air around us and keep us cool and moist Or at least moist, for the heat was terrible