The New Chimera

Once Lilith finished her story, Siph stood up, stretching a little. “Well, that’s…certainly something.” She said. “But I suppose the circumstances around a new Perfect Chimera can’t be anything but unusual. Really though, all this does is strengthen my conviction; we’re going to have to train you up more. You’re a target right now, and I won’t stand for that. On your feet, we’re starting now.”

Lilith stood, giving her mother a curious glance. “So, what are we doing, then?”

“Hunting.” Siph replied. “Shift into your dragon form, I want to teach you everything I can about how to handle yourself like that. I may not know how to fight as a humanoid, but I can at least train you in this regard.”

Lilith focused, and after a moment found herself on all fours. While she couldn’t see most of her body, she could see that her legs were covered in lustrous green scales the same shade as Siph’s.

“Aww, you’re so cute!” Siph squealed, throwing her arms around Lilith’s neck. “You’re like…like…the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!”

That was another thing Lilith noticed – Siph’s dragon form was the size of a large house, but Lilith’s clearly wasn’t, she was…probably about the size of a horse from what she was able to tell.

“This is…different.” Lilith said, shaking a leg experimentally. “I’ll be honest, I never expected to know what it’s like to be a quadruped, but…well, it’s not as odd as I was expecting.”

“That’s magic for you, I felt the same way when I first took a humanoid form.” Siph said, letting go of Lilith and stepping back. A moment later two large wings burst from her back, and she gave Lilith a smile. “Alright, I’m going to take you out hunting now.” She said. “I would use my dragon from, but in this environment it’s a lot harder to chase things down if they decide to hide, so being humanoid sends less things running.”

“But what about me?” Lilith asked. “I’m kind of a dragon too right now.”

Siph laughed. “A baby dragon. You’re smaller than a bunch of other stuff that flies around out here. You’re not going to make things too scared of you, even though they probably should be. It’s mostly size that gets things running.” She paused. “Well, gets anything worth catching running, that is.”

She led Lilith to the entrance of the cave, turning around right before they reached the exit. “Go ahead and take off, I’ll catch up and help you look for something, alright?”

Lilith nodded, taking a moment to flex her wings and make sure they worked like her usual pair before taking off into the sky.

A few moments later Siph was beside her, smiling hugely. This is great! She said telepathically. I’ve always wanted to take my kid out hunting! Let me know if you see anything big, I’ll be keeping an eye out as well, but it never hurts to have another person looking.

It took them another fifteen minutes or so before Siph stopped Lilith. Down there, to your left. You see that big cat?

Lilith tried her best to slow down, but her body wasn’t built for hovering in place, so she ended up circling around instead, looking for the cat. Eventually, she found it. Alright, I see it, what now?

Swoop down, melt it with some acid, and then if it’s still moving fly back up and wait for it to die. These things can cover themselves with electricity and shoot bolts of lightning, so don’t engage for too long. Just go down and then immediately come back up. Don’t worry if you don’t get it on the first try, I’ll be right here to make sure it can’t hurt you.

Got it. Lilith took a moment to psyche herself up, then shot down towards the cat, letting out a stream of acid as she descended.

The cat looked up at her as the acid rained down…several feet to its left. Lilith didn’t waste time, immediately heading back up as electricity crackled along some protrusions on its back and a bolt of lightning speared out into the sky just behind Lilith.

It didn’t have much time to do anything else, though, as a focused lance of fire speared through its skull, Siph landing next to it and cleanly slicing its head off with a partially-transformed hand. Alright, it’s safe to land. She said. It’s dead. Oh, uh, right, in the future, don’t land until I say it’s safe. Things out here don’t…die like you’re used to. A lot of the time they have abilities that let them play dead and try to hurt you if you’re not careful.

Lilith landed next to her, giving a dejected look at the acid that was starting to eat into the ground beside them. “I…really messed that up.” She said. “Sorry.”

Siph laughed, reaching up and patting Lilith’s head reassuringly. “Don’t be. You did better than me when I first tried to hit something at that speed. It’s not easy to do, and I didn’t expect you to hit the thing on your first try.”

Lilith reached out with a claw to pick the cat up, but Siph swatted it was a hand, causing Lilith to take the claw back. “Aren’t we going to like…bring this back for food?”

“No.” Siph said. “You’re going to use Assimilate on this one. We’ll catch another to eat, but the focus right now is on getting you stronger.”

“Alright.” Lilith said, using Eldritch Abomination to sprout a fleshy appendage from a foreleg, spearing it out towards the corpse and activating Assimilate. She had never used it before, so she wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the whole process was relatively clean and painless. The corpse just sort of…flowed into her with a sensation sort of like being hit by running water.

And then it was over, and there was a window in front of her. There were the standard physical enhancements she had come to expect from getting new abilities and some stuff that helped her sneak around, but the only really interesting thing was the cat’s electric ability.

Siph nodded in satisfaction. “Good. Now, go on and fly back up, we’re going to keep going until I’m satisfied. And, unless I tell you something is food, I want you to assimilate it right away, alright? I want you to pack away as much mass as you can, since that’s directly tied to how much you can do with Eldritch Abomination.” Siph blasted off back into the sky, leaving Lilith to follow.

After a few more hours they had caught twelve more animals, most of which were of an enormous moose-like species that seemed to be relatively common, though they also caught two more of the cats and a huge bird the size of Lilith’s dragon form. Everything save for one moose was assimilated, and soon they were headed back for the cave.

When they got there, Carmen was waiting at the entrance, a slight smile on her face. “Have fun?” she asked.

Siph, who had shifted to her dragon form to carry the moose, dropped the moose on the floor and changed back into her humanoid form, running over and giving Carmen a big hug. “A lot! What have you been doing?”

Carmen returned the hug. “Not much, just making sure everyone’s alright and nothing tries to come in and attack us while you’re gone.”

Siph laughed, releasing the hug. “Nothing around here’s that dumb. They know this cave houses something way more dangerous than they are. You’re perfectly safe in there.”

Carmen shrugged. “Well, it’s something to do.”

Lilith turned back to her human form as well, and, with a bit of effort, lifted the moose. “I’m going to go take this inside and…I dunno, skin it or something? I’m not totally sure how to prepare wild animals.”

“No.” Siph said. “We’re not done yet. I still need to teach you how to fight.”

Lilith frowned. “Isn’t that why we were hunting?”

Siph smiled. “Partially, but that was all against opponents you outclassed. I want to try and teach you how to fight against something you can’t overpower with raw differences in your abilities.”

“But I –”

“Have all my abilities? Yes.” Siph said. “But I’ve been alive a lot longer than you. If you think you can use raw strength to beat me, you have another thing coming.” She grabbed the moose Lilith was holding and, with a grunt, took it from her. “I’m going to take this to the others to prepare. You wait in the main room and I’ll be there in a sec, alright?”

“Mind if I watch?” Carmen asked. “Just out of curiosity.”

“You don’t even need to ask, sweetie, of course you can.” Siph said, giving the two one last smile before taking the corpse into the cave.

With that, Lilith made her way to the main room of the cave, Carmen following close behind.

---

Carmen lounged against the wall as Siph did her best to train Lilith. It was harsh, and Carmen wasn’t totally convinced of the efficacy of it, but she could tell that Siph was trying, and that was all that mattered, she supposed.

“What’s going on in here?!” Carmen turned to find Raphael standing in one of the “doorways” to the main room, mouth open.

“Siph’s training Lilith, don’t worry about it too much. No one’s actually fighting.” Carmen replied, walking over to her.

“But…” Raphael trailed off, watching as Lilith and Siph tussled.

“We’re family now.” Carmen said lazily. “She wouldn’t hurt Lilith in a million years.”

After a moment, Lilith and Siph ceased their latest bout, both changing back into their humanoid forms. Siph gave Lilith a hug, then walked over to Carmen and Raphael. “Do you need something, child? I’m busy, so if you don’t have anything you need, then leave, you could get hurt.”

“N-no, ma’am.” Raphael replied. “I just was wondering what all the noise was. I thought…well, I thought we were being attacked and I could come help.”

Siph snorted. “Brave, but if there was an intruder that Carmen and I couldn’t handle, you would only be getting in the way.”

“Hey!” Lilith protested, “I can fight too!”

“Absolutely not.” Siph said, giving Lilith a glance. “If there’s a real life or death conflict, you’re not going to be a part of it. If Carmen dies, you can just remake her, but if you die, you both die. There’s no way I’m putting my only daughter in harm’s way, so if the time comes that we need to seriously fight, you’re going to be hiding with everyone else.”

“Just think of it as protecting all of them in case of a sneak attack.” Carmen volunteered. “Besides, mom’s right, there’s no permanence to my death. This just makes sense.”

“Fine.” Lilith growled. “I suppose I can live with that.”

“Now, if that’s all, you need to go.” Siph said. “This could seriously be dangerous.”

“Wait a second.” Carmen replied. “Let her watch the training, I’ll make sure she’s safe.”

Siph was silent for a moment. “If you say so. But if she starts bothering us or things get too intense, you have to take her away, understood?”

“No, wait, I can –” Raphael was cut off as Carmen dragged her away, back towards where Carmen had been watching Lilith and Siph from earlier.

“Listen,” Carmen whispered, “you’ve always really looked up to Perfect Chimeras, I could tell from the way you talked about them in class. So, I’m giving you the once in a lifetime opportunity of watching a Perfect Chimera develop her fighting. Be grateful.”

“Wait, how do you know how I talked about them?” Raphael whispered indignantly. “Besides, I don’t believe this is all you want. What’s your angle here?”

“You’re certainly a cynical kid.” Carmen said. “Can’t say it’s a bad thing, though, that sort of attitude could serve you well later. Well, if you figure out when to be cynical, that is. Look, Lilith and I share memories about our day before bed, so I know everything she does. And as for what I want, I just want Lilith to make more friends.”

And she wanted to help better Raphael by helping teach her that not everything was about power. Raphael was still a kid, and it hurt Carmen to see a kid suffering without even knowing they were suffering. Hopefully this would be the first step in removing her from the situation she was in.

But Carmen wasn’t about to let anyone else, even Lilith, know about that. She had an image to maintain and being softhearted wasn’t part of it. “Besides, you’re pretty much guaranteed that we’re not in cahoots with the Society. If we were, then we would have just taken you and everyone else to them immediately instead of trying to run into the portal."

Raphael stopped, staring at Carmen silently for a moment. “I…suppose you’re right.” She said eventually. “But that being the case, I can’t exactly bury the hatchet just like that. I attacked her, we’re in too deep for that!”

“Why not?” Carmen said. “She’s already forgiven you for what you’ve done. In fact, she’s of half a mind to apologize to you. She’s not a big fan of the way we transformed you.”

“But you can’t just be forgiven like that!” Raphael protested. “You…you…”

“You what?” Carmen prompted.

“I dunno, that’s just not how it works!” Raphael said, frustrated.

“Who told you that? You can totally just bury the hatchet. She’s over it, so if you want you can just…move on. I mean, yeah, you should still apologize, but Lilith is a very forgiving person, it won’t be a big deal.”

“Grandma told me that, and she’s never wrong.”

Carmen raised an eyebrow. “No one’s never wrong. If your grandma was never wrong, why is the Society still a problem?”

“Because…other people won’t listen to her and cooperate.” Raphael said. “She says that if they all just did as they were told then we wouldn’t have these issues.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Carmen replied. “If I were you, I would seriously think about anyone who says they’re never wrong. I’ve never met a single person who’s said that and was right about it. But we’re getting off topic, my point is that Lilith’s a sweetheart. She’s already forgiven you, so you’ve got that once in a lifetime opportunity to make friends with one of the Perfect Chimeras you idolize.”

“Fine.” Raphael said, shaking her head. “But, again, why do you care about Lilith making friends? What do you get from this?”

Carmen laughed. “I think you misunderstand. I am Lilith. We are the same person, just with different bodies and personalities. Anything that benefits her benefits me, at least indirectly. So, I’ve taken it upon myself to do what she’s too afraid to, and I’ll reap the rewards whenever we share memories or whenever she decides to put me away.”

“Put…you away?”

Carmen shrugged. “I’m just another personality manifesting in an artificial body. She can get rid of my body and then I’m back to sleeping in her head.”

“And you’re…okay with that?” Raphael asked, frowning.

Carmen paused. “It’s not a big deal. Eventually I’ll come back out, so I just want to make my time inside her as comfortable as possible.”

They both fell silent, Raphael’s expression showing that she was thinking hard. Eventually, when it looked like things were winding down in Siph and Lilith’s latest bout, Carmen stood up. “Hey, mom, when you and Lilith finish your next round, swap me out for her!” She called. “She’s going to be getting tired and I’d like to get some exercise!”

Siph swapped back to her humanoid form, and Lilith followed suit. “Alright, sounds good!” Siph said. “Lilith, you go take a rest over where Carmen was, alright?”

“Yes, mom.” Lilith said.

Carmen gave Raphael a wink, then strode off, ready to finally get some action.