"I understand," Roly replied as he took a step back.
Dr. Bloor pulled the curtain back to reveal a white mouse in the middle
of the next chamber. The mouse looked up at Bloor and Roly, twitching its
little pink nose.
"This is 'Bragadarth'," Dr. Bloor said in a hushed voice, "He is an
'Arangothian shapeless', better known as 'Bloor's shapless'."
"I did my junior study on the Bloor's shapeless," Roly said, trying his
best to keep his tone calm.
"I know," Dr. Bloor said with a smirk, "That study is the reason why I
have brought you here. As you know, the Bloor's shapeless is a parasite,
needing a biological host in order to keep a solid shape. Bragadarth here
can become any manner of living objects, and unlike other shapeshifters, he
simulates that creature down to its very brainwaves. In fact, the Bloor's
shapeless is so complex that it needs a host with a very high intelligence in
order to maintain its existance."
"How does it, uhm--" Roly stopped himself, not wanting to appear too
needy.
"How does it attatch to its host?" Bloor looked at Roly with a grin, then
down at his papers, "Well, we need to change hosts every two weeks, and we
were just about to try out a new one. Would you like to watch the process?"
"I would love to, Dr. Bloor," Roly said as his eyes sparkled.
"I thought you might."
Dr. Bloor turned his head and looked down the hall, where the Teldanari
warrior was waiting down the corridor. Bloor nodded to the large masked man
and the giant disappeared into the next room.
"Because the Bloor's shapeless is so depenant on an intelligent host,"
Dr. Bloor explained, "Your average human is rejected by the parasite nearly
half the time. The host must be a human of considerable intellect and
stamina in order for the partnership to last more than a few weeks. Dwarves
are almost always rejected, for some reason, and Elves aren't even
considered."
"What exactly do you mean by rejected?" Roly asked as a the rockface
faded away along a portion of the wall inside Bragadarth's chamber.
"You'll see," Bloor replied.
A girl with long black hair was shoved into the chamber by a large
Teldanari hand and the opening was somehow sealed behind her. She couldn't
have been more than fifteen or sixteen, wearing a clean white scholar's robe.
"This is Ulana, one of our Ellurian 'volunteers'," Bloor said as he
watched the mouse approach the frightened girl, who pressed herself against
the rock, "Bragadarth is just checking her out now, making sure she isn't
injured. He has been fed recently, so he isn't thinking about eating her."
"That's a relief," said Roly.
The mouse seemed to melt into a pool of white liquid.
"Right now you are seeing the Bloor's shapeless in its 'true form'," said
Bloor, "You will see this white liquid surround the girl, and once she has
been covered by it completely, it can control her shape as well."
The goo surrounded Ulana's foot, and spread quickly up to her knee and
under her robe. She seemed to let out a cry, but there was no sound; it had
either been blocked out by the field or she was that afraid. The goo quickly
surrounded her whole body and her robe as well, and she stayed still for a
moment, still against the rock, as if she were covered in whitewash.
"Now we are at a crucial stage," whispered Bloor, "Whether or not the
host is accepted or--" white bones went flying from the goo and bounced off
the field in front of them. "--rejected."
Roly screamed like a woman as he realized what had happened. The girl
had been killed, and her bones, picked as clean and white as her robe had
been, were now lying just a few feet in front of him. Her skull looked up at
him with a silent scream.
"You--you..." Roly staggered back as he looked at Bloor in horror, "YOU
KILLED HER!"
"Dulane, my boy," Bloor said as he gave Roly a look of disapproval, "This
is *real* science. Experiments have to be made. Are you saying you don't
have the stomach for that?"
"W-what?" Roly said as he looked at Bloor in disbelief, "I simply won't
be a part of murder!"
"They're just Ellurians, for crying out loud!" Bloor shot back, his face
now red with fury, "I've done their community a favor by relieving it of its
surplus population!"
"You, you monster!" Roly took off down the hallway, past the Ellurian
shapeless, past the lesser common shapeshifter, and past the greater common
shapeshifter. He was suddenly blocked by a white blur and was knocked onto
his arse. He looked up to see the Teldanari warrior towering over him."
"Well, Dulane, my boy," said Dr. Bloor from down the hallway, "If you're
not going to help this project as a graduate student, I'm afraid I'm just
going to have to make use of you in other ways. Brognofrem, prepare him as a
host."
Despite a futile struggle, Roly was seized by the Teldanari and thrown
over his big, white shoulder.
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