Chapter Text
The first adventures had been figuring out what happened and how to deal with it.
“It appears that the distress beacon we were following was bait to draw us to that gaseous planet of which the atmosphere is slightly infused with raw quintessence. The core of this planet was actually some form of concentrated energy that reacted to the castle when we approached,” Allura offered, trying very earnestly and almost succeeding in hiding her furrowed brow of discombobulation.
“In layman’s terms, you don’t know,” Lance replied, folding his arms.
“The castle scanners have picked up and documented several strange energy patterns that transpired during the encounter,” Coran supplied. “However, their significance has yet to be determined.”
All anyone knew was that a strange energy unknown to even the castle had caused it and even though they valiantly tried, the second trip through that gaseous storm to get out of it did nothing to reverse their predicament.
Pidge had found it curious that the five of them had been transformed into mythological beings from Earth, right after she covered her eyes with her hands upon seeing the reflection of the snakes on her head and small bat-like wings on her back. Keith had immediately felt cold and sluggish, staring confused at the long red tail easily two times his height in place of his legs; the whole length of himself now being the equivalent of three of his human self. He folded his arms, shivering slightly, subconsciously curling around himself trying to keep warm, his snake tongue flicking in and out of his mouth searching for something, weirding him out.
Shiro had startled himself and the others the most with his transformation, becoming a small western dragon about a fifth the size of the red lion's head, with black leathery wings, a long tail and covered with black scales, and the length of his spine from head to tail was adorned with small thick plates, though obviously larger than the typical scale covering the majority of his body. His right arm was the dragon limb equivalent of his cybernetic prosthetic. He had long claws with red tints and massive twisted horns protruding backward from his head that were easily the length of one of his human legs and of course a mouth full of sharp fangs. His eyes remained the same though which helped remind them he was human. And he had a white patch on the center of the area just above his forehead.
Hunk had a calmer reaction to his transformation. Though he had developed a bit of an underbite with thick tusks on either side of his mouth jutting up from his lower jaw, and had grown some shaggy dark body hair along his thick heavy limbs, his first thoughts had been to calm Lance down.
They had all been standing on the bridge beforehand, close to their stations, so when the boy in question had attempted to walk with suddenly four legs, he immediately slipped on the smooth surface and had gone into hysterics made worse by his inability to get back up. “I can’t get up! My legs, they won’t move like they’re supposed to! Why do I have four legs!?”
His lower half was like that of dark chestnut Haflinger and all four legs were flailing in uncoordinated attempts to get underneath the main body. Hunk had approached Lance’s top half which was currently trying to push himself off the floor, putting his massive hands on the boy’s shoulders while Keith had made his way over, through sheer determination, to help calm his teammate down. Once Hunk had calmed Lance somewhat, Keith had guided his front legs to fold underneath his main body so he could at least sit upright. “Calm down, Lance. You’re just making things worse for yourself. Bend your knees, yeah, like that. Okay Hunk, lift him up.” Hunk then helped Lance push himself upright and stayed standing at his side while Keith had inadvertently scrunched his tail up and closer to Lance’s lower half, drawn in by the radiating heat, keeping his top half a respectable distance from his side.
Shiro, afraid of crushing someone, stayed close to the head of the bridge and flattened himself as much as he could so Allura could steer the castle ship away from the storm, which after engulfing them, had strangely begun to dissipate. Once deemed in safe open space, Coran mused out loud what each paladin looked like compared to alien species he knew of. “Well, Number 1, you remind me of a Masduulaagii, though much much smaller. And you, Number 2, you look like a Mogesi, though a bit taller. Number 3, you’re like an Ihhashi and Number 4 I dare say you’re the spitting image of an Ibabi with a rare coloration I must add. And Number 5, my educated guess is that you’re a Gurbi, though no one has really seen one alive.” He twisted his mustache, pleased to have provided some answers at least.
Pidge stepped in then, hands still over her eyes, and explained to the Altaens, “Actually Coran, Lance is what humans call a centaur. Hunk is likely a troll. Keith is most definitely a naga and Shiro is a dragon. I’m what we call a gorgon, and gorgons have this nasty tendency of turning people to stone with just a look. So, in that regard, can someone please find me a blindfold?”
Coran quickly complied and dashed off the bridge.
Upon returning, the mustached man suggested relocating to the lounge. Shiro declined, stating that he obviously wouldn’t fit through the door and that they’d have to figure out some other way to get him off the bridge, speculating that until they can figure out how to reverse the changes, he would probably be taking up residency there. “Yes, let’s move. My knees, weird knees... are these even knees? Whatever they are, they’re starting to hurt. If I have to sit like this, I want it to be on something softer.“ Lance was eager to get moving and off the bridge. Guided by Hunk and Keith moving his legs, he haphazardly stood up, towering over the both of them at full height. Slowly though, as his hooves slid with almost every step, he made it out.
In the lounge, Lance reclined on the back side of the couch after taking several of the cushions to put between himself and the floor. Keith coiled up on the couch on the other side of him, his left side leaning against the point opposite of Lance, arms folded, not minding the absence of the cushions. Pidge was on the floor, engaged in an in-depth conversation about human mythology with a fascinated Coran while Hunk worked at a table on some rubber socks for Lance, adding into the conversation here and there.
“Guys, how are we going to get Shiro off the bridge?” Keith wondered.
“What if we can’t? What if we’re stuck like this? What would our families think? Would they even recognize us? What if they don’t and call some private sector of the government, like the M.I.B. and have us sent to Area 51?” Lance rambled. What he didn’t voice was his worries about his reliability as a team member since he was having so much trouble standing up straight, let alone walking, when Shiro walked in with Allura; a more human looking Shiro who had smaller dragon wings, a shorter dragon’s tail, smaller dragon horns on his head and patches of scales on his face and neck.
He grinned, arms folded, and explained “I remembered a story from when I was a kid in school that there were some dragons who could turn human. So I gave it a try. I thought about what it was like to be human, standing on two legs, balancing on them, moving my fingers and grasping things, stuff like that, and something clicked. The next thing I know, I’m opening my eyes and I’m seeing everything at the normal level.”
“Not quite normal. Thanks to those dragon legs of yours, I’d say you’re about twenty-five to thirty centimeters taller,” Pidge commented, pointing out his bare shins that openly displayed how very draconic they were in their digitigrade fashion. He shrugged, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck when a thought interrupted him, “Wait, how can you see with a blindfold on?”
“Somehow I can see through the eyes of the snakes on my head. It’s migraine-inducing to try and see through all of them so I’m focusing on just seeing through one,” she shrugged. “Downer though is that I can’t see in color.”
“Hey Keith, you’re a snake now. Can you see in color?” Lance asked, turning his head to focus on him, finding the red paladin’s head slumped sideways towards him, nearly asleep. Shiro chuckled and made himself as comfortable as he could on the couch behind Keith, reaching his left arm out to pull Keith towards himself with the intent of acting like a sort-of-human pillow, when he grazed Lance who started, “Shiro, you’re like an ice cube! Almost dry ice cold even!” Shiro immediately jumped away from Keith, afraid to hurt him. Lance reached over the couch to touch Keith’s cheek and found it to be cold, confirming that his teammate was at least in some way ectothermic. Keith leaned into the touch, tongue flicking a few times. Thinking quickly, he scanned the area as Coran jumped up to raise the temperature in the room, double-taking at himself and his lower half.
“Hunk, lift Keith up and bring him over to me. I can try and be something of a space heater for him and maybe warm him back up.” Hunk tried to princess carry Keith over but ended up just dragging the naga’s tail behind him. Lance hugged Keith close, a glad smile on his face when after a few minutes Keith scrunched his long tail closer to rest against Lance’s horse half. About fifteen minutes later Keith came out of his hazy state, eyebrow raised in confusion partnered with a little pout on his mouth. Realizing where he was he tried to push away from Lance, “Lance! What’s the deal?!”
“Chill dude, I’m trying to help.”
“He’s only trying to help, Keith. Until the air in here warms up, he’s your best option to stay warm, unless you want to fall asleep again,” Shiro explained. Keith scowled slightly as he thought about the situation, then flipped a 180 after realizing Shiro was in the room with them. “Shiro! How did you get here?! How are you sort of human?” Shiro smiled and repeated what he had said earlier.
Once he was warmed enough to not feel so lethargic, he gave Lance a shy thanks, who in turn replied with one of is charismatic smiles and started to say, “For being a hothead you sure are-”
“Hey, isn’t it about dinner time?” Hunk interrupted. Everyone nodded.
Food had been the second adventure. Meat wasn’t commonplace on the castle ship and with two strict carnivores and one who was mostly a carnivore on board, that needed to change. First time Keith tried to eat food goo after transforming his stomach made him give it back and then some not even ten minutes later. Pidge faired a little better but had suffered the same outcome.
Shiro didn’t even try.
Lance ate a lot more to compensate for the extra body mass he had gained but said it wasn’t satisfying. He subsequently was often seen with Hunk in the dining hall eating not just food goo but whatever Hunk could come up with using the limited variety of supplies that were available in the Altean pantry to try and sate all of their seemingly insatiable hunger. Some results of Hunk’s experiments yielded a meat substitute that had settled a bit more for Keith, Pidge, and Shiro than the goo but like Lance, it was insufficient for the paladins’ new needs. Shiro had suggested that they set down on a planet to gather supplies and explore to hopefully find that which would be most helpful to them all.