^^ Vision Alex ^^

— Alex —

I emerged from my room, wearing the scail-mail that Reginald had made for me, and Uncle Ben, -who'd been tinkering with his boots,- nodded to me, then left. I made to follow, but I caught a very different sight than I was used to in the mirror, from the corner of my eyes.

Instead of the smooth, naïve face of the girl I saw in the mirror every day and tried to ignore, young and unmarked, there stood a person, fully grown and in their prime, covered in leather armor and knives of every conceivable type and metal, all over their person. Their hair, pitch-black, was long and braided, and laced with bleach-white portions, along with a few vicious splashes of blood over their porcelain skin. A long scar hooked from the edge of one ear to the back of their skull. They wore a sailor's boots over their leather armor, and I noticed large dragon's scales hidden in plates under the leather, skillfully disguised.

No visible breasts marred their well-muscled chest, almost like a thin mans. A deep-seated happiness washed through me, at the thought of being rid of the useless sacks of flesh whose only purpose seemed to be to make almost everyone I met either ignore or ogle me; the mere suggestion that I could hope to look so... perfect.

"Alex!" Ben called, making me look away from the mirror.

When I looked back, there was that girl again, that useless, annoyingly beautiful girl. "Coming, Uncle Ben!" I called, confused, and caught up with him.

—

The climb up the mountain was a challenge, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Climbing in the rigging was a cake-walk, once you figured out where to grab and how to lean to be stable as the ship moved. But the Mountain was different. There were no uniform knots to grab, no special places to put your feet, and nothing was moving, either, giving you time to think about each move before you made it.

I slipped a number of times on the wet rocks, catching myself by stabbing a knife into a crevice, at one point. Reginald looked down at that one, his eyes gleaming unnaturally. "Watch your hands." He murmured, and continued on without further comment.

Wordlessly, I set my hands and withdrew my knife, setting it back in its sheath though the blade was badly scratched and a little bent.

—

The crossbow was always one of my better weapons. The bow I excelled at, and I could throw knives well enough to pin a fly to a wall, but the crossbow was the most powerful of the three. Still, my hands shook, seeing the beast fly towards us through the cloudy night sky, and my shot went wide. Instead of his nose, it clipped his throat, and he slammed into the cliff face, screeching horribly.

I watched numbly as Ben snapped its neck, and wondered if that meant I'd killed it, or if he had. Either seemed worse, with different arguments. If I'd killed it, I'd killed a dragon, a living, thinking, intelligent creature. If he had, I hadn't killed a dragon. If I'd killed it, its soul was my burden. If He'd killed it, it was his. It was a terrible set of choices.

The cave was terrible, from any angle. Bodies strewn left and right, dozens of them, half-eaten or just ripped into pieces. It was enough to make my stomach turn, but I didn't puke. As much as gore disgusted me, I was no stranger to blood, and I'd long-since mastered my reaction to it.

Still, the addition of more dragons, -Sorry, Hydra,- was enough to rattle me a little, so a few jokes in quite bad taste were the best I could do to center myself.

Reginald saw the confusion and fear we had about the situation, and decided to simply ignore it, clapping at us authoritatively. "It's just a couple of Hydra, they're nowhere near as dangerous as the Sea Serpent or the Black Dog. They don't even have magic!" He shrugged calmly, and stood up, dusting himself off. "Now, let's go, people, chop chop, I expect results!"

With that he walked towards the exit, and I centered myself, looking at Ben. He laughed softly, as if a joke was made known to him, and followed without any further hesitation. Then it was just me and Sir Malcolm. His face was pale and sweaty, from the heat of the burning cave and the fear as well, and he was staring at them with something akin to confusion and horror.

"Yeah, they're a little crazy, ya know? But you gotta be, to hunt demons on purpose!" I laughed reassuringly, smacking his shoulder companionably, and walked after my uncle with the knight trailing skittishly behind me.

The Hydra were not very big, in comparison to a lot of things. Though they seemed big, with the five heads for the female and three for the male, they were only about five or six meters tall at the shoulder.

The female snarled at us, growling in Greek, and Ben chuckled, to my surprise; I hadn't known he knew Greek. He growled a response back, drawing his sword and bone dagger, while Reginald unfolded a metal staff from his pocket, casually blowing my mind, and attached his sword to the end to make a wicked-looking spear.

The female drew back her head, hissing, and I saw a curious fog gathering in the corners of her jaws. I thought for a moment, and then simply threw one of the chemical solutions I had on my belt, -I'd bothered Reginald until he'd taught me,- into her jaws. The fire ignited the fog in her jaws, and then down her throat, so bright that you could see the skeleton of her throat through her hide, and she choked, coughing up blood, before collapsing.

"Huh... what?" I raised an eyebrow at my incredulous uncle Ben and Reginald.

The two males sniffed her, nudging her, then whipped towards me, hissing savagely. I shrugged and applied the same chemical to my sword as I drew it, and they stepped back from the now-flaming sword.

"Very nice, I like the symbolism." Ben complimented me, and then a moon-beam broke through the clouds, and he snarled as his body stretched and cracked to twice his normal size, growing fur and savage teeth in his feline form. "Now let us Walk together, Reginald." He laughed deeply as Malcolm fumbled for his sword, staring at him.

I slapped Malcolm across the cheek, and he paused. "We're saving your life and avenging your dead squire and priest, you ungrateful shit. Keep your blade sheathed unless you'd like to be less of a coward and actually help." I turned and sprinted into the fray after Ben, springing off his back and landing on the larger remaining hydra. The burning sword bit into his scales at the base of his throat, but I wasn't strong enough to push it in further.

Then a ray of moonlight hit me as well, and I growled as my muscles seized, pulsing with strength that I knew would make me sore in the morning, but I used it anyway. With a heave, I stabbed the flaming sword through into the creature's main spine and throat, ripping to the left to avoid cutting the entire head off, because I knew enough stories to know that was a bad idea.

He gave a few last shuddering shrieks, and his secondary heads snapped at me weakly, but I rolled off of him and out of their reach, as he collapsed to the ground.

I turned to deal with the last one, and found Ben casually pinning it by the back of its skull, its wings held firmly in his off-hand. "I've got this one, killer. You killed three of them, take a rest." He chuckled wryly at my eagerness.

"If we can capture that one alive, actually, my father and the Order would be quite happy to study it... we should take it to Jerusalem, where that Sect is quartered. They'll reward us handsomely for the live capture of an adolescent Hydra, and for the corpses as-... well." I looked at what he was frowning at, and Cleo cleaned her paws casually atop the two piles of bones.

"Why don't you eat the bones?" I asked, morbidly curious.

"They give me indigestion. It is terribly undignified." She leapt onto my shoulders and purred contentedly.

"Well, the bones are something, at least, and the living one will prove a better use for them than the dead ones... let's gather what we can from the second cave as well. Ben, take that one back to the IronHeart, if you will, and lock it in the brig, the cell I specifically retrofitted to hold Beasts? It's made of blessed Damascene steel, so it won't be able to break out, and it'll be too restricted to move about properly anyway." Reginald hummed.

"What about the fire breath?" I asked, concerned.

"Yes, that'll be fine; they create that fog by consuming rancid corpses, and allowing them to fester, then a second organ collects the gasses that come off the corpses, and concentrates it, then stores it for use. If you make him puke it all up and then burp up his shot of gas, which shouldn't be too big, he's not capable of producing any more of the gas." He waved a hand dismissively, already walking towards the other peak, dragging the sacks of loot we procured from the cave.

Ben sent me after him with a nod of his chin, and then reached a clawed hand down the beast's throat, making it puke violently.

I shuddered in disgust, and followed Reginald with Malcolm in tow, still shaking and holding his sword like a blanket in the night. "Come along, O'Mighty Templar..." I sighed at him in disappointment.

The second peak was not far away, only a trip up the slope about five hundred meters, and the cave on this peak was much, much cleaner. No corpses laid about, though there was some blood in the corners where they likely hadn't been able to clean it properly, and there was a pile of metallic objects, mostly armor and old weapons, sitting in the middle, around a pile of grass.

"Huh... Reg, is that... a nest?" I asked cautiously.

He nodded, grinning. "Oh yes, Alex, that's a nest, and it's currently housing eggs!" He laughed victoriously, and climbed the pile gently, pulling away the grass to reveal four opaline eggs, like pigeon's eggs if they were the size of boulders. Each one was about four hands tall, and almost perfectly spherical, like big pearls.

He began gently placing them on a cloth, stacking them like cannonballs, and once he had all four, he tied it closed, and then began sectioning the pile of metal out, with my help. I kept an eye on Malcolm and the bag of eggs, which he was staring at with something akin to rage, but I helped Reginald sort the hoard into types of items, and then gathered the most valuable of those, -gems, silver, copper, gold, platinum,- into more sacks to carry back to the ship.

Soon enough, it was finished, and we cleaned out the entire cave, leaving literally nothing behind, not even the useless stuff, which Reginald said he would melt down for other equipment or parts for the ship.

We left Sir Malcolm on the docks, standing there confused, and hauled our loot back to the ship, -one load at a time, because the boat could only handle so much at once,- and then Ben and Reginald went to sleep, telling me I should do the same.

Instead, I found Doctor Cole.

He glanced up at me from the book he was studying when I knocked on the doorframe, and hummed softly. "What can I do for you, Alex?" He asked casually.

I fidgeted a little, and sat in front of his desk, tapping my legs slowly. "Doctor, may I ask you a purely hypothetical question for... Uhm, research purposes?"

He smiled happily. "I quite like hypotheses, yes, and research as well; do go on!"

"If... if a woman gazed in the mirror, and found herself unhappy with what she saw, what would you recommend for her? Treatment-wise?"

He hummed slowly. "Unhappy? How so? Is it an aesthetic issue, such as her looks, or something else?"

"Well, if she was unhappy with being... feminine. So looks, I suppose." I clarified.

He nodded. "Ahhh, Yes, gender dysphoria. I've studied a few cases like it in Rome, you know, going back as far as the early 7th century, when I found myself curious on the subject of differing preferences, genders, and sexualities. As far as treatment goes, there is very little to be done, though some relief can be had in small things... I will give you my book on the subject, for your research." He nodded and walked to his wall of bookshelves, searching for a moment and pulling down a book, small and blue in color.

"Thank you, Doctor... now, I'm not good with innuendos, so I have to ask as confidently as possible; what little is medically possible, can you do it?" I asked bluntly, blurting it out so I couldn't stop myself. The adrenaline from the Hunt was still burning in my veins, and I felt more confident than I had in years.

He paused, gazing at me calmly, and sat down again. "Yes, I can... would you like to discuss this officially? If so, nothing will leave my office, Alex, you have my word on that." He smiled gently, and placed the book in front of me.

"Well... I'd just like to... talk hypothetically, for now. Decisions like these are permanent." I murmured, looking at the diagrams of women's breasts being removed, and men's penises being inverted rather intriguingly, creating facsimile feminine organs.

He nodded. "Of course. Well, the ways to treat Gender Dysphoria are very uncommonly known, amongst even doctors; it is seen as perversion in most 'polite' society, though I use that term with the most vile of derision." He explained, smirking as I laughed.

"I agree, Doctor, wholeheartedly."

"Mm, yes. The issue of Dysphoria is simple; your mind is differently wired than your body. It creates a sense of confusion, uncomfortable sensations and emotions, and even downright depression, sometimes with no discernible cause." He raised an eyebrow slowly at me as he listed the symptoms, likely ticking off how many of them I displayed in his mind.

"And... these treatments would help?" I asked slowly.

He raised the other eyebrow, and rose to take another book off the shelf. "Yes, though each case is slightly different... it is referred to by 'doctors' quite rudely as 'Queer Mind', which is often mistaken for insanity by those who haven't made a study of the subject, and let their religion into their practice." He muttered darkly at the thought, and seemed to brighten after a thought. "But! The treatments that exist are a bit permanent, as I'm one of the only ones whose made any inroads into the subject, so very few could even attempt to undo any changes I did. Still, there are varying degrees of change, and various methods or differing intensities, even."

I nodded, opening the second book, and gasping softly at the female and male bodies that were carefully removed of revealing characteristics; the male had his throat shaved to remove the Adam's Apple, and the woman had her breasts removed, but neither of them had their lower genitals changed. "So... to be clear, this is more about Aesthetics than genitals? It's about Appearance, not the physicality?"

He nodded slowly, narrowing his eyes. "It's... a complicated subject, but in essence, yes, that is generally the main cure for Dysphoria; if you look the way you like, and people respond to you in a way that doesn't cause symptoms, you are largely able to live very normally. I once had a patient who I removed their breasts, and helped them live in Athens as a person of Ambiguous Gender."

"And... that person didn't get jailed for being Deviant?" I asked cautiously.

"In Greece, as in most cultures before the current Christian Puritanical nonsense, there were always more than two genders, and what you're describing falls into a third category; which I like to call 'the Changeling'. To be seen as one or the other, sometimes only a simple change of clothes or makeup is required, and very few will notice that you're the same person! Or, you could be simply Neither gender, which I've seen as well, in France, China, India, and Brazil." He shrugged.

I chuckled wryly. "So I just have to stay out of England for the rest of my life? Wonderful."

"No, I only mean to say that you have options, and many of them. Take those books, study them, and if you'd like to speak in a more literal sense, we may return to the subject." He nodded firmly.

I smiled and placed the two books into my jacket. "Thank you, Doctor... I don't know really what I expected, but this is nice, having people to talk to about these visions."

He glanced at me sharply, frowning. "Visions? When did you experience visions? Do go on, my dear?"

I blinked slowly at his sudden confusion, and relayed my vision from the morning, in as best of detail as I could, and the ones before, all varied in subject matter, but always just a flash of a reflection.

He leaned back in his chair a moment, and nodded. "I see... curious... that seems more of a supernatural effect of your bloodline, and connection to Cleo... this never happened before you came on the ship?" He asked.

"Well, Yes, they have been happening since I started..." I cleared my throat, and croaked out the last word. "Bleeding?"

He smiled. "Ahh, Yes, so a few years now? And have they increased in clarity or intensity? Any dreams or premonitions of immediate events?"

I frowned. "How did you guess that so easily? Is it common for our Kind?"

"Benjamin suffered much the same symptoms, when he was your age, though only when he was... Ahem, shall we say 'otherwise engaged'?" He chuckled awkwardly at the innuendo.

I blushed. "I haven't- I would never-"

"No, no, worry not, it is in response to Adrenaline, I have found. The roaring blood in your ears when you are excited or angry or frightened." He explained calmly.

"Oh... alright... so that's a separate issue from-..." I gestured to the books.

"Oh, most definitely, the two are not remotely associated." He dismissed the question calmly, and I relaxed. "But your visions will fade, in a few years, if Ben is any measure... or, perhaps, now that he's shifted, he'll have a resurgence? And you haven't shifted yet, have you?"

"Not yet, no, that's why I'm... here?" I answered slowly.

"Yes, True... well, be sure to write down all your visions, and I will help you study them. But for now, get some sleep. Trust me, you will need it. Tomorrow is a full moon, after all, and Cleo plans on letting the moon through. If you wish to change your body in these ways, hypothetically, it would be best to do so before your first Shift... reversing the effects on an adult body is far more difficult than a youngling, but neither are impossible." He smiled happily, dismissing me.

"I'll try, Doctor." I nodded, slipping away to my room and lighting a bright candle, immediately reading my new books.