Swapped Life, Flipped Life - Chapter 1

Written and as told by Ryu Darragh.

I was speaking with Kalira in the sandbox in Limbo and she was updating my project list. Nothing unusual in this. I had finished all my other chores for Kath and Eragon and it was time for the IoW. It was during this review that it happened,.. the event.

It was just as I was in the middle of typing a list for some reason or purpose I don't recall that the world went white with that sensation I can only describe as what it must feel like to hot the ground at a thousand miles an hour.

The sensation stopped and the world faded back into view, but something was wrong. Why was the ceiling in my study blue ? And why were there fluffy clouds and birds up there ?

I tried to stand up and fell over. Owww, that hurt. Tried again and got the same results. Something wasn't quite right here, either. I looked at what hurt and saw blue.. and shiny.

After I had closed and reopened my eyes a couple of times, the blue and shiny thing was still attached to me and it still hurt. Uhm.. since when did this old carcass come equipped with blue scaly wings ?

After a few moments all the bits of my mind, which had been floating around disconnected like the fluffy clouds in the sky, came together I realized what I was seeing and feeling.

Somehow, I had become a living model of my Second Life Avatar. My first thought was that in some impossible way, I had been sucked into Second Life in the same manner as the characters in the Anime "dot.hack/sign". "Oh, great. Now I'm a cartoon."

I stood up carefully and moved my limbs about. All six of them. My wings were like my arms in a way, but much stronger. My tail would take some getting used to.

Well, I wasn't uncomfortable. Everything had been refined and changed in subtle ways that it all fit together nicely and seemed to work. This was going to be interesting, however long it lasted.

I wanted to test this new frames abilities. I had a feeling it might become an important issue over time. Fire breath. Did it work ? I opened my mouth and tried to think of what could possibly trigger it.

Did I even have any ? In a moment I had my answer. There was a glow inside my mouth and a strange tingle. The glow wasn't red, however, it was blue. The beam that emitted a moment later looked more like a phaser beam!

Oh, great.. phaser beam breath :P It was, however, very effective and I easily sliced a boulder a hundred feet away into tiny cubes. I tried writing my name on another boulder and stopped.

I had seen to many guys trying to write their names into the snow on ski trips in times past and realized I was doing the same thing. Well, I *am* a guy, even if a bit blue and scaly now.

I tried my wings, flexing them and flapping them. I assayed a bit of an attempt to fly, but got nowhere. I might glide, but I was not just flying off on my merry way, How disappointing.

I tried another idea I'd had about how a dragon would fly. I obviously had no large gut or bladder to make and store huge amounts of hydrogen, compressed or otherwise (silly idea, anyway. Compressed hydrogen provides no lift).

Instead, I concentrated on being lighter. Sounds simple. But, it was a bit like learning to wiggle my ears. I kept trying and before long found the right nerve endings. I found myself floating up off my feet. Now I was getting somewhere.

I flew around and took stock of my surroundings and noticed the landscape was familiar. It was indeed Limbo, but refined, larger and more ancient looking. I had awoken in the stone ring area in the Northeast corner of Limbo.

I looked over into the sandbox area itself and noticed a few shapes that looked familiar. Suddenly, my vision zoomed in on them and I saw one shape that was *very* familiar. It was a large red female.. and how I knew she was female was some sort of instinct I seemed to have now.

I flew over and landed next to them and it was, indeed, Kalira, as I had thought. "Kalira," I called out, "are you Ok ?" She turned and said, in a voice louder, larger and deeper than her normal voice, but somehow still very feminine "Ryu! There you are. We have a problem."

I looked at what she was and saw a collection of limbs, blobs and unrecognizable shapes crying and screaming in obvious pain in a mangled and distorted voice. If I'd had hair, it would have been standing on end. Kalira turned her head and looked at me, saying "I know what to do, but *really* don't want to."

"I know." I said. "I'll take care of this.. I may not be very good company for a while after though, but we need to end his agony." I screwed up my courage and opened my mouth. I put some effort into my beam and sliced the poor unfortunate into several thousand small cubes.

Instead of the expected mound of steaming organic debris, however, the recipient of my ministrations burst into a radiant blast of white. When it had cleared, a young man was revealed laying on the ground screaming "Aaaaahhhh.. huh ?"

He sat up abruptly, looked at his hands and said in a gentle French accent, "Holy shit! What happened ?!? I'm naked!" He looked up, saw me, jumped up and embraced me saying "Ryu! You saved my life!" He stopped, jumped back and covered himself with his hands. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm naked."

"That's alright." I said, "I'm naked, too." and smiled at him. "Jacob ?" I asked. "Yes." he replied with a smile. "Well, what happened to us is obvious. How it happened I have an idea, but need more evidence." I said.

At that moment I saw a small violet-purple dot coming into view and my eyes revealed it to be Talarus. "Talarus is.." I began when Kalira said "Yes, I know. I'm talking to him." I said "Telepathy in place of IM, I see."

Talarus landed, walked up to Kalira and embraced her. I wouldn't have sworn by it, but, for a moment I thought I saw a tear. Talarus turned and smiled at me, "Ryu. I see you made it. Good. We're going to need every sane individual we can find."

"Yes." I said with a nod. "How many more were trapped in mid change like poor Jacob was?" Talarus nodded and said "We need to find them and apply your solution." He turned and opened his mouth and, in typical Talarus manner, proceeded to vaporize a boulder.

When we stopped laughing I said "Maybe a little less effort on that." He grinned and said "Heh. How do we find them, though. Good old fashioned search will take hours. Even days." I said "I have an idea. Something I noticed earlier. Do you see the auras ?"

"Yes, I do." he nodded. Concentrating on the auras I could see, I said "The colors are the key. When Jacob was in distress, his aura was black and red. We need to concentrate and look for black and red auras." Talarus turned in a circle and said "Yes. I see three already."

Talarus nodded once more and said "Right. We know what to do. You take the north and I'll take the south." "Right," I replied. "We'll send the ones we rescued here and Kalira can look after them." Talarus looked a question at me and I said "Like this." I concentrated on Jacob.

Jacob vanished and reappeared 4 meters to his left with a yelp of surprise. "Like that," I said. Talarus chuckled and said "Ah. Of course. Well, let's get started." Kalira groused at us in her mental voice [Oh, great. You guys go off on a rescue mission and leave me babysitting the humans.]

I replied [Hey, nothing has changed, then, 'O Great Wyrm Guardian.] Talarus laughed out loud and Kalira growled and said [Go on. Get to work before I bite you!]

~end