The Experiment (Engghaen)

[Valerius Nitrozian]

Fall 71, 513 AV

This particular night’s dream found Valerius in the Kelvic Research Institution where he usually worked as an assistant to Doctor Gaius Alzelin. Now he wasn’t an assistant though, but a proper doctor and a very important member of the Kelvic Research Institution. He was dressed in a pure white lab coat and wore equally white gloves so that he wouldn’t have to touch the test subjects and all the substances he experimented with with his bare hands and risked contracting a disease or accidentially poisoning himself.

The laboratory he currently stood in was nothing short of perfect. The walls and the floor were made of white tiles so that they could easily be cleaned. There were two large windows opposite of the door, and the ceiling was partially made of glass so that the entire laboratory was well lit. In front of Valerius was an operating table that could be lowered, raised and tilted so that he could easily access whatever part of the test subject he wanted to operate on.

At the left wall were several shelves and cabinets that contained a variety of different herbs, tinctures and poisons as well as medical equipment. The right wall was occupied by a large table. An alembic and a small stove stood on it. There were also a mortar a pestle, a sieve and several other things that one needed when brewing potions.

All he needed now was the test subject. They had captured a Kelvic somewhere outside of Ravok, a cat. Since that terrible creature called Winter had wrecked his dining room and murdered an important guest of his, he quite enjoyed experimenting on such Kelvic. He couldn’t punish Winter anymore, but he could make others like her pay. He glanced at the clock that hung above the door.

Where were they? He hoped that the creature wasn’t being difficult. He really wanted to start with the experiment!

[Engghaen]

Feline

The cat shook her head. "No, I didn't... Let me... Ow! Why do you need to-... Hey!" Scowling and heavily muttering she was brought to the KRI. Great. Absolutely perfect. Before, she was wandering around Ravok. It had been rather nice, but apparently this was not going to be a very nice dream. What this was about, who these people were and what was going to happen were all questions shooting through her head. Asking them, however, was much easier than answering them. "Now where are we going again? Stop! I did not do anything to you! Let me go!" Now this was a very white room. It hurt her eyes awfully. Due to that, she could not see very clearly until her eyes had adapted to the bright walls. This was clearly a laboratory. There was a man dressed in white. On the one side of the room, there were all kind of things she didn't recognise. On the other side there was a big table with even more unrecognizable things. In the middle there was a big operation table. Finally, the realisation came. Oh boy. No no no no no. Carefully, she looked up at the man. Before, she had avoided looking at him too closely. Now her attitude changed and she pressed herself against the back of the cage. This was not good. At all. H.. Help...

[Valerius Nitrozian]

As the door opened, and two KRI workers entered the room, carrying a cage with a cat between them, Valerius smiled. He ws pleased. The cat was quite beautiful with her blue eyes and white fur. If she had been a cat – or a normal Kelvic, if he had met her under different circumstances, he might have made an exception and made her his pet, despite his general dislike for her kind. But alas, he had a most important experiment to conduct. He gestured for the workers to come to him and put the cage on the operating table so that he could take a closer look at the creature.

Engghaen would find a pair of brilliant blue eyes inspecting her. Valerius Nitrozian didn’t look like some kind of evil, mad scientist. On the contrary, he looked appealing with his pale skin and copper hair, and what was visible of his clothes under the lab coat was of fine quality. He carefully unlocked the cage, and then he took a small container and opened it. A most delicious smell reached Engghaen’s nose. As Valerius extended his hand she could see that he was holding a piece of dried fish in it. Why was he offering her food?

„There are two ways we can do it, Kelvic“, he informed her. „If you cooperate, come out and eat the fish, this here will be over much faster. If you try to scratch me or bite me however, if you try to escape, you’ll never leave this room again. What shall it be?“ He looked coldly at her as she pressed herself agains the back of the cage and waited for her to make her decision. He almost hoped that she would refuse to leave the cage, so that he would have a reason to hurt her.

While he dealt with the Kelvic, the two KRI workers arranged a few pieces of medical equipment, such as syringes, a scalpel, a needle and a pair of scissors next to Valerius. Apparently they were playing the part of his assistants, in this dream at least.

[Engghaen]

The cat was now confused as a very interesting smell reached her nose. If she would not have been scared, she would have eaten it straight away. Now however, she did not trust the man inspecting her. But what had she to lose? Carefully pulling herself up she made one step closer. It did smell nice. Another step. Maybe it was all just a stupid trap. She did not know. He looked like he was trustable. For as much as she knew of trust, at least. Now the cat looked up at the man. He did not look ugly. On the opposite, he looked like he was important. And to her knowledge, all of those people did not look ugly. She sniffed the fish. Smelled good. Too good. Maybe too good to be true. Then she tried to look for the door they had come in through. It was on her left, just past the man. Maybe she could escape, but she would need to bet on him not having too good reflexes. And if she would, she would be done here. The people that had brought her in were preparing some other things. Some of them looked like scissors and metal things with a small blade on them. What they were or what they were used for, Engghaen did not care at all. Ack, whatever! And with that, she bit off parts of the fish carefully. It was not bad, well, it was actually much better than the regular things she got. Chewing on it, she stared at the pale man in front of her. What was he going to do next? What would she be used for?

[Valerius Nitrozian]

The briefest hint of a smile could be seen on the young man’s face as the creature sniffed the fish. „It smells good, doesn’t it?“ he asked her. „Come here and eat it!“ His hand was still as he waited for her to make her decision. His entire body was still, as if he were but a statue. He noticed the way she looked towards the door as well, but he wasn’t worried particularly about her trying to escape. There was nowhere out. Even if she managed to get past him and his two assistants, beyond the door was just another hallway with more laboratories, more KRI workers and countless strange Kelvic that might just eat somebody like her.

As Engghaen ate the fish, she discovered that it tasted just like fish, without any hint of drugs or poisons. It had just been a means to get her out of the cage without her struggling and trying to scratch or bite somebody. As she was chewing on the fish, she suddenly felt a hand on her neck. Valerius had grabbed her and quickly pushed a syringe into her before he quickly stepped back. For a moment Engghaen wouldn’t feel anything, anything but an unpleasant cool sensation where the unknown substance had entered her body.

„This will weaken you to the point that you won’t be able to defend yourself against anything“, Valerius informed her. The tone of his voice was cool, as if he didn’t mind hurting a beautiful cat like her at all. „I’m going to conduct a few experiments regarding your ability to shapeshift and your healing rate on you. I normally don’t talk to the test subjects, but I thought you’d like to know.“

As he said those words, Engghaen could notice that she was beginning to feel just a bit lightheaded, a bit dizzy …

[Engghaen]

A hand firmly grabbed her in her neck. Before she could realize what exactly was going on, Valerius explained. Slowly a tingling, annoying feeling started creeping from her neck. It wasn't pleasant at all. More like you got a cold all of the sudden. It was not getting any colder though, she realized. It reached her head and now caused her to feel dizzy. She shook her head in an attempt to make it go away, but it did not. Again she tried, still being an effortless try. With a tilted head, the cat looked at the man a bit crossly. Be happy he doesn't kill you.. There was not much for her to read on his face. A cold look was painted on it, but apart from that she could see nothing of his mood. It was probably just some professional trick to look cool. And handy. You would not want to cry above a test subject, would you? ''What did.. Why.. Did you..'' Digging in her mind, she tried her very best to remember what she wanted to tell the man, but this growing dizziness did not help her at all. Apart from that, firstly he could probably not understand her and secondly she had already forgotten what she tried to say. Her body did not join her, and to be honest, her mind did not want to go through the effort of saying something either so she shut her muzzle. Now trying to figure out what exactly happened, her back paws felt awfully heavy so to not make things worse, she sat down. She landed on the table rather plumply, but in her mind it all went smoothly. He had been talking about... What was it again? Something with... shift? Healing? Whatever it was, she didn't really care. Hopefully it wasn't too awful. She could not see very much right now, and all she did see was blurry. Sure, she could recognise Valerius looking at her, and the two helpers, and the wall, the door and the instruments, but they were not as long as bright and sharp as she normally saw them. Then the cat realised what he had said. That she could not defend herself anymore after the stuff he had injected. Well, that was going as planned. Her back paws lost their feeling for a tick and so did her front. This caused her to lay down on the table. Engghaen raised a paw, trying to crawl up. She did not want to give in to the man's intentions. She would not be a regular willing test subject. If she could get up, that is. She realised she couldn't and then just retracted her paw and pulled her head back. The headache and the dizziness were now very annoying. It felt like her head was being beat up from the inside. She could see Valerius still standing on the other side of the table. This is no.. Fair..