Blood Tribe
By Darker

Aimee left the roadside to get a drink of water from a nearby pond, and to check for signs of monsters. As she returned, she heard the sounds of a large cart being pulled along by horses. Silently, she got as close to the path as possible, to see what was coming while remaining hidden. A quarter mile up the path, Aimee saw two men sitting at the front of a cart, pulled along by four horses. The cart itself looked like a prison car, and Aimee's suspicion was confirmed as it drew closer; three of the four sides were made up of thick metal bars, and the top was similarly covered. The back consisted of a large door, and was locked with a padlock. Aimee's curiosity was piqued, so she crept closer for a better look, and waited for the cart to make its way down the path towards the naga woman hiding in the bushes.

In his entire life, Daniel would have never imagined himself in this situation. Normally, he assumed that if this did happen to him, he would have committed suicide. But he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He looked around the clearing he sat in with four other blood mutants, two of which couldn't move without outside help. He felt more sorry for them than himself, he was still the same basic shape, the major mutations being to his head.

Two days past, he had stepped in a red warm pool. Beholder blood, it turned out to be an hour later when his pair of eyes had merged into one and four stalks with smaller eyes on the ends grew from his scalp, pushing aside his dark brown hair. His nose had faded away, and his mouth almost doubled in size and filled with jagged teeth. And the hovering. This had been the hardest to get used to. Even now he floated a few inches above the damp grass, legs crossed, rather than sitting on it.

He looked over to the mutant opposite him. She didn't look back, on account of the blindfold. Her skin was pale green, and her hair thick, rope like and dark green. Daniel noticed it curled around itself, as if the girl's hair were alive. The girl held an oak staff across her lap, and her blindfolded head looked in his general direction.

He coughed nervously.

"You are wondering what I am?" the girl said.

"Uh… yes…" Daniel mumbled, blinking in surprise. Or should that have been winking?

They were interrupted by a tapping. Daniel looked over to the other two blood mutants. If you were to glance at one, you would immediately write her off as 'tree.' This is what you get when you get blooded by a dryad. One of the young woman's arms, her name Daniel learned was Izabel, was a leaf covered branch with a pair of finger like twigs on he end. Her chest was hidden behind a bushy growth of thornless roses, and her hair were clumps of vines. Everything below her waist was solid wood, her two legs rooted to the spot. The seven other, absent members of this bizarre tribe had carefully dug her up and placed her roots in a large earthenware pot. Izabel held a book up to the other immobile mutant, and she turned the page with her human left arm, her human face looked longingly over at Daniel. He suspected, despite his face, she rather fancied him. Just yesterday she told Daniel that, despite the woody growth, she still felt 'that certain special sensation.'

Daniel blushed at the memory, and looked at the other blood mutant. Technically, she wasn't immobile, in fact very graceful in her tank. The poor girl, Angelina, had the misfortune to be blooded by a mermaid, which covered her legs, hands and face with blue scales, replaced both her feet with flippers and her lungs with gills. Now she lived in a large, six foot by four foot by five foot glass tank, filled with water. The tank was mounted on wheels with a harness on the front for Miguel, a ferociously strong alicorn mutant currently out gathering firewood.

Angelina couldn't talk, but she devoured knowledge. Occasionally she would tap the glass to signal to Izabel to turn the page.

Daniel turned back to the blindfolded girl. "But you haven't told me your name yet."

"Sorry. My name is Lacrimosa. But you can call me Lacci."

Daniel watched Lacci's hair writhe. "And… you are?" he said tentatively.

"A medusa."

Ah, thought Daniel. "That's why the blindfold?" he asked gently, unwanting to offend.

"No. Many make that assumption. Medusas can turn people to stone by looking at them, but not me. I am blind, I was since I was born." Lacci smiled. "Lucky, I guess, to be blind like this?"

Daniel fell silent as Lacrimosa stood and, feeling her way with the staff, walked over and sat next to him.

"What got you?"

"A beholder."

Lacci nodded understandingly. Izabel creaked woodenly as she crouched as best she could into a sitting position, and Angelina swum playfully in loops.

The tranquil scene was stopped by Miguel returning with Selks, both of whom were carrying firewood.

If Lacci couldn't see, then Selks couldn't be seen. Partially. His right eye and left hand could be seem floating in midair, as could portions of his torso and legs. Selks wore as much clothing as he could in the midday summer heat to define his transparent form. He used to be a miner in the Northern Gold Mines when he had to defend himself from a Stalker, an invisible cave dwelling beast. Splashed with its equally transparent blood, he didn't notice his affliction until he tried shaving later that day, when his reflection disappeared from view. Surprisingly, he was a cheerful and optimistic chap, fun to know and be around, especially when he did his “puppet show,” holding objects in his see through hand and talking.

Miguel was burly, silent and strong enough to tow Angelina's tank from place to place with no trouble. His head was that of a horse with a spiral horn, and wings hung from his human back. His waist rested on a horse's body where the head of the horse would be. The white fur of the horse parts contrasted with the dark tanned skin. Alicorns were beautiful creatures, unicorns with Pegasus like wings, and Miguel was a centaur version.

"How's the dinner coming?" Izabel asked. Angelina tapped the glass, and she turned the page for her.

"Wazzer caught a boar, and Goom cooked it for us," answered Selks' disembodied voice. Wazzer and Goom were the strangest of the group, along with Tonks. The three were a perpetual argument on legs, given their disfigurement.

"Where are they?" Lacci asked calmly.

"A few loada miles north. You know what they're like, they'll take their time." Selks jabbered as Miguel silently sorted the firewood into kindling, twigs and logs. Daniel wondered if he could actually talk, given that he had a horse's throat. Selks sat next to Lacrimosa and they hugged lovingly. Lacci needed somebody to hold, and Selks needed someone to hold him.

Daniel found himself remarkably at home, in this shape, with these 'monsters,' than he had ever been as a human, where in his village he was bullied, beaten and ignored. He'd already forgotten his human face, and he didn't care. This was his family now.

There was another tap, and the rustle of a turning page.

Half an hour later there came the sounds of a giggling couple as a young man named James and his fiancée Jessica entered the clearing. Both were red in the face. Jessica was obviously a blood mutant. A gargoyle. Her ears were long, pointed and stony grey, and her legs like the hind legs of a horse, ending in sharp talons. Her arms were similar, and her skin below the elbows and knees was grey. To top off the effect was pair of small bat like wings and a tail, all in the same shade of granite grey.

If it were possible, her boyfriend was odder. When Daniel first met James, Daniel could see no changes to his appearance to suggest a blood mutant. When the beholder mutant had floated over to the man last night about this, James' answer was both surprising and to the point.

“I'm human.” he'd said. Apparently physical change to Jessica was not enough to break the strong love bond between the two. The rest of the tribe thought other humans could learn a lot from him.

However, Daniel noticed that James felt out of place in the group, and no wonder. Twice in the last two days Daniel had known them, he had seen him and Jessica holding a small knife and talking in hurried whispers. Daniel wondered if James was going to pluck up the courage to let Jessica blood him, making him a gargoyle mutant as well. Lacrimosa had advised against this, because James, as a human, could go into villages for food and medicine.

"Aren't we going to make a fire?" Daniel asked Miguel.

Miguel shook his head.

"We just wait for Goom and the other two to get back," Izabel translated.

Daniel thought back to when he was chased from his village and he and found Wazzer, Goom and Tonks foraging. He must have fainted when he saw them, for they weren't pretty to look at. Individually, they could be looked at, but not as a whole. They had still been kind enough to carry the beholder blooded to their campsite, and to the rest of the group.

Wazzer, Goom and Tonks were three different people, imprisoned in one body. A body with interesting powers none the less.

The group all looked up to the sound of three voices.

"That wasn't my fault -" one voice growled, and adolescent male.

"- it was -" another voice, this one female nearing middle age, interrupted.

"- I've got to side with Tonks on this one," a third said, sounding like a wizened scholar.

"What! She tried to freeze the pig!" the first shouted.

"You set it on fire!" the woman remarked.

"That's 'cos Wazzer here shocked me!"

"That was an accident, I was trying to set the trap off."

One body. Three minds. Equals chaos. The trio were conjoined. Wazzer in the middle, covered in yellow scales and controlling the legs and tail but with no arms, Goom, covered in red scales and on the right side with a single arm and Tonks on the left, blue scales with another arm to herself. They had been purposely blooded by a Cult of Blood member, who used a mixture of fire, frost and thunder salamander blood.

Slowly, Wazzer, Goom and Tonks clumped into the clearing, carrying a boar carcass. They could all do what the salamanders could, and that was make fire, lighting or ice. All three of them had lizard-like heads.

Mixtures of monster blood wouldn't usually have such an effect, but the three species of salamanders are so closely related it was possible this time. It might have been easier if the three were related, but they were complete strangers just passing each other in the street.

When they did get along, Daniel heard them practising singing. If they were in the mood, they sung in near perfect harmony.

Eventually Goom got the fire going when night stared drawing in, just to keep warm, as Goom had already flash fried the boar.

At midnight, when they had picked the boar clean and watered Izabel, Daniel lay back, still floating, and reflected.

Here he was, half beholder, with five eyes, in a forest clearing, with ten other outcasts. The half there Selks and his partner the blind medusa Lacrimosa. The three headed salamander Wazzer, Goom and Tonks. The silent but strong alicorn Miguel. The immobile half tree Izabel, helping the mermaid Angelina communicate and learn. The gargoyle Jessica and her human boyfriend James. And him. Just Daniel. And he couldn't be happier.