Alek came back from her mind when Kiryuu dragged her back. "Are you guys done?" She asked when she found herself on top of Bia'a lap. Her air was being caressed by her sister and, she could see Aether looking at them tenderly.
When Alek spoke, Bia immediately stopped what she was doing and blushed in embarrassment. She didn't expect her sister to wake up just like that. It's a good thing her face was hidden from the sister on her lap. Otherwise, she wouldn't know what she would do. Aether smiled at his baby sister's reaction and replied to Alek.
"Yes. She is the last one. You have been put for quite sometime. How was it?"
"It was okay. How long have I been out?" She was still touching or keeping her hands on where his body was supposed to be. She woke up from the position, still maintaining her touch.
"About three hours." He replied.
"Woah. I've wasted a lot of time. Oh yeah, my..." Alek tried to find the right word to describe Kiryuu. "Kiryuu, my animal, wants to talk to you."
"She is dangerous." Bia replied to her sister instantly.
"Not anymore." Alek told her.
"I'd like to talk to her as well. I mean, I am a ghost. Even if she is dangerous, she can't o anything to me." Aether shrugged his cute shoulders.
"Okay. Also she said she wants to show you guys her true form or maybe a part of it. But I don't want any possibility of her going rampage so can we do it outside?" She asked. Bia didn't say anything but just told everyone in the next room, Alek had woken up.
"Thank goodness you are safe. I thought you were not coming back." Panacea opened the door aggressively and ran to her daughter for a tight hug.
"If you keep doing that, I'm not going to come back. You are suffocating me, mum." Alek told her mother. Her hand was still in contact with her brother, so she couldn't push her away.
"Love, let her go." Robin gently pulled his wife away from his daughter. He then turned to his daughter, who called everyone through minds. "You called us here for what reason, honey?"
"Kiryuu said she wants to show you what she is. She didn't tell me why she couldn't show me in the head, though... weird. She is not going to do any harm anymore. She promised." Alek told them when she felt that they could not trust her beast.
"Anyway, she also wants to talk to me too. Why don't we give it a try? We would know what she is?" Aether chatted in and smoothed the atmosphere in the room.
"I know what she is. She is-" Alek was about to say Kiryuu was an eastern dragon when her own hand, the one that was not touching Aether, came flying to her mouth and closed her mouth.
[I want to tell them. So you, shut up.] Kiryuu spoke in her mind before letting the hand drop off from her mouth.
"Alek?" Panacea called out her daughter, who looked in shock.
"Can your animal take control of your body?" Alek asked.
"Sometimes. When they want to." Jin answered the question for her. "What about it?"
"Nothing." Alek told him with a smile. Meanwhile, in her mind...
[Don't do that again.] She scolded Kiryuu.
[Shut up, human.] Kiryuu then made Alek slap herself.
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There was only orange-red coloured light from the sky river. It must be around twilight. Alek thought as she looked up. She and others were getting outside to see Alek's beast. She touched the cheek where she slapped herself because of Kiryuu. When she had tried to retort, Kiryuu laughed before cutting off the mind connection. Alek didn't know that it was possible but, she didn't like it.
"Alek, are you ready?" Astraea asked her niece when everyone was outside.
"Yep. Remember she is not going to hurt you. So don't be scared." Alek told her family and friends. Aether was looking at her from next to Castor. They were in contact, meaning everyone could see him as she could.
Alek sighed deeply, letting go of her control. Soon, she felt something slipping into her body. Something other than herself. Because she didn't have memories of how Kiryuu took control, she didn't know how it felt. It felt like a drop of juice was dropped in a glass of water. It slowly invaded the pure, clear water with its own colours. But with no pain. She then felt like she was the owner of the body now. It felt as if she was in a different person's body.
When Alek opened her eyes, she found everyone staring at her. She couldn't move her body on her own accord, though. She felt like she was a camera just being there but couldn't do anything on her own. It needed someone to take pictures and videos through her.
"Kiryuu." Robin called out the beast name he heard from his wife's sister. The beast moved her neck to where he was standing. As from her appearance, Alek was shifted just like the first time she had shifted. Nothing had changed apart from the way the beast was looking at them. There was no hatred and anger from her eyes anymore. "You are Kiryuu, right?"
"Yes." Kiryuu spoke. Her voice was not husky anymore but rather deep. It also had the characteristic of shifters animals.
"I am Robin. I am Alek's-"
"Father. I know. I dug up her memories." She cut him off.
"Okay then. So let get straight to the point. What are you?" Robin sharpened his eyes. He was not exactly blindly following what Alek said. After what this beast has done to him and his wife was dangerous.
"Let me shift entirely then." Kiryuu replied to Robin with a smirk before she turned and shifted entirely as she had said.
"Holy sh-" Jin covered his brother's mouth before he could finish it. Small kids were there. They especially didn't want their beloved sister to say what he was about to say.
In front of everyone, a gorgeous dragon stood on its four feet. They knew it was an eastern dragon since the feature of the creature in front of them was the same as the book. Its big and beautiful scales reflected the light from above and shone brightly. The horns were standing tall on her head and, it was larger than the one she previously had. But the most eye-catching feature of the beast was its length and size. They didn't know dragons could be this big. It was larger than Bia's Titanoboa and looked much dangerous than it.
Kiryuu sneered when she shifted. She liked it. Humans get intimidated very easily, and that was one of the reasons why humans were weak.
They had taken a step away from the large creature in front of them. Women were shielded behind men and, they looked like they were about to attack.
[Relax. Didn't I tell you that I'm not going to attack anyone?] Kiryuu spoke in their minds and rolled her big eyes. Aether also heard it through Jin.
"Right. So this is you? You are a dragon." Panacea blinked her eyes to adjust to what she was seeing. Her mother had told her in the past various dragon shifters were there in Minazuki's community but, they were hunted down and ceased to exist. Her mother was supposed to be the last dragon shifter in Minazuki's clan. How did her daughter get this power from? Did Mikoto's lineage go to her?
[Yes.] Kiryuu answered her other half's mother.
"Ooh can I get on your back?" Aether asked excitedly. He never got the chance to ride on his grandmother's dragon because she said it was dangerous. But since he was a ghost and the beast was in her sane state, it could be safe for him.
[Sure.] She answered and lowered her head so that he could climb. Maybe during the flight, they could talk about some stuff they needed to settle.
"You can climb. I thought you would like go through her." Jun widened his eyes when he saw Aether reappearing on Kiryuu's neck. He was holding tight on her horns.
"I'm surprised too." Aether smiled with one of his front tooth missing. Panacea gasped when she saw that. She remembered that her son's tooth was growing when he got into that accident. "Byee." He smiled off as Alek swam in the air like a snake in the water to the sky.
"Wow. So it's true that eastern dragons don't need wings to fly. Grandma had wings, right?" Kai asked his mother next to him.
"She did. She needs them to fly." She answered as she watched her two children having fun like before. Although the image was a bit different.
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Meanwhile, in the air...
[You stay there.] Kiryuu told Alek and closed off all the communication methods with her human. Alek couldn't see through Kiryuu's eyes anymore. Nor she could hear or feel what was happening. She was trapped in the place where the petals of ripped sunflowers were. Looked like Kiryuu didn't clean this place. She didn't try to get out of there anymore. It was not working anyway. Instead, she started cleaning the place.
"I know what you want to say, Kiryuu." Aether spoke before she could. "But I don't think this is the time to tell her yet. She s going through so much. I don't want to add another problem to the list."
[But-]
"Please. And also, he hasn't been activated, right? She will figure it out herself. I want her to do it. And I also want no help from others when she shifts into him. Can you do that?"
[Yes.]
"Thank you."