Lith explained to them how Protector had helped him in Zantia and later introduced him to their common mentor, Faluel.
“Wait are you saying that hot woman was a Hydra?” Raaz felt as Mogar had suddenly turned upside down. He had no idea who might be human and who was an impostor. The thought scared him so much that he looked at Kamila in suspicion.
“How can you find hot a girl old enough to be your daughter?” Elina snarled.
“She’s actually several hundreds of years old.” Ryman said, trying to calm them down but achieving the opposite. The room was about to erupt in chaos and panic when Tista said:
“Wait, there’s something I don’t understand. Even though I’m still scared shitless at the idea that some creatures can change their appearance like I change my clothes, I don’t get why Faluel accepted to help you so much.
“I mean, an Emperor Beast teaching to a human is unheard of except that in fairy tales.”
“That’s the whole point of this meeting.” Lith said. “In a few months I will be done with the army and I will be staying at Faluel’s until the end of my apprenticeship. It could last months or even years and I don’t want to lie to you about where I am and what I’m doing.
“To allow you to understand the reason behind my choice of career path and why I can’t trust the Griffon Kingdom, I need to show you something.” Lith took off his shoes and had the shirt of the Skinwalker armor disappear, remaining bare-chested.
He wanted them to witness how deep the changes his body would undergo after shapeshifting and he didn’t want the clothes to hide the scales or the talons.
“Oh gods!” Tista gasped while shielding her eyes with her hands, yet leaving the fingers spread out enough so as to not have any problem seeing.
While his daughter was blushing up to her ears, Elina looked at her son with one hand placed above her heart and eyes full of wonder that Lith would expect in someone looking at a work of art like Michelangelo’s Pietà for the first time.
Rena instinctively felt her husband’s strong, muscular arms typical of a blacksmith before moving down to Senton’s soft belly typical of a sedentary lifestyle.
“I promise you I will exercise, but now please stop comparing me with him.” Senton felt so embarrassed that he wanted to die. He was still a young man yet Lith made him feel an old coot.
“Oh my. I love it when they do that. It never gets old.” Selia’s reddened cheeks while she nudged Kamila made Lith’s girlfriend incredibly embarrassed yet proud, as if she was being congratulated for something she had contributed to making.
‘What the heck is wrong with them? This isn’t anything like I had predicted this would play.’ Lith couldn’t understand why the tension in the room was gone nor why it had been replaced by an awkward feeling.
‘It’s not the first time they see me half-naked. When I was recovering from saving Protector’s life…’
‘You were just twelve.’ Solus cut him short. ‘And you were also all skin and bones due to fatigue.’
‘Oh.’ Only then did Lith realize the extent of his miscalculation.
‘Oh indeed!’ Solus had to agree with Selia. She never got tired of that kind of show.
No impurities meant no imperfections during the growth spurt, no moles, no excess body hair nor fat. Lith had the build of an Olympic athlete at his prime, with broad shoulders and muscles that looked like they had been chiseled rather than trained.
“Goddammit, stop staring! This isn’t a strip-show what I meant to show you is this.”
Lith shapeshifted into his hybrid form, becoming over 2 meters (7′) tall while his pink skin turned into black scales, whose tips were reddened by the inner fire burning within.
The change almost happened as if his body was comprised of domino tiles that were being flipped in a chain reaction. Razor-sharp claws replaced Lith’s nails and talons grew on his toes and heel, making his feet resemble those of a bird of prey.
New limbs came out of his back, with a short tail full of bone spikes growing out of his spine, as well as a set of black membranous wings that erupted from his shoulder blades. They stretched to either side of the room for a second before wrapping around his body like a mantle.
The wings were twisted and unnatural, like the hands of a giant resting on his shoulders. Lith’s face was now a black slate, apparently without a mouth or nose. Two small curved horns came out of his temples while his three eyes looked at those present.
Despite the fact that the house was warm and Lith wasn’t emitting a single shred of killing intent, the members of his family felt a cold shiver running down their spines. Their stomachs were twisted in a knot, each one for a different reason.
Elina jumped up, walking in front of Lith and examining him as if she was seeing her son for the first time.
“Does turning into this thing hurt?” Her face was pale and her breath short. “Who or what did this to you? Was it Balkor? Was it the goddamn army with its experiments? Is this the reason why we couldn’t see you for so many months?”
The last two questions were coated in an unbridled fury that surprised Lith. He would have never expected that a person as kind as his mother could harbor so much anger.
Lith shook his head and told her about his first tribulation in Kandria. How things had started to change, both inside and outside of him, and how those changes had become deeper over time.
“Are you saying that this started when you were still a student? That this is…” She had no words for it, only fear. “What is this thing?”
“It’s not a thing. It’s a part of me. Some say that I resemble a Dragon, others a demon, but they all agree on the term hybrid.” Lith’s voice was calm while he tried to answer to the best of his abilities.
Raaz was incapable of moving from his chair as doubts and insecurities ravaged his mind.
‘I always knew that Lith was too smart and powerful to really be my son.’ He had started doubting Lith’s paternity way before hearing the word “hybrid”.
The moment Raaz had seen Lith shapeshift, ugly thoughts had popped inside his mind like mushrooms in a damp cave.
‘If Emperor Beasts can assume human form, then Elina might have been unfaithful to me and that thing might not be my son.’ Raaz was an honest man, but the paranoia Lith had infected him with now made him expect the worst from people.
Rena didn’t squeeze Senton’s so hard ever since her first childbirth, almost breaking his fingers, yet he didn’t even notice. Rena couldn’t stop shifting her gaze from Lith to Elina and then to Raaz, wondering which one of her parents was actually an Emperor Beast.
‘Mom cheating on Dad it’s impossible and Lith is my brother. I saw him being born and my blood is screaming to me that thing is the same person I held to my chest for years. The only possible explanation is that one of my parents lied to me all my life.’
