Shaken to my Core.

I couldn't stop screaming. Not until I felt a harsh pressure wrapping around my body. Barely catching my breath, I look down, seeing that a red cloak was the thing holding me.

"Monster! Stop it! Get a hold of yourself!" Begged the cloak, shaking me back and forth.

Feeling detached from this reality; my mind still trapped within the memory of my dream, I cease my wailing. My throat was on fire, having been belting out blood curdling bellows for Gods knows how long. I see objects piling into the the room, but I can't understand who, nor what, they are.

"Hey, what's happening?!" Said the armor.

"Is he o-ok?" Said the hat.

"Does he need healing?" Said the stick.

"Rocky don't like loud." Said the rock.

I pull away from the cloak, fearful it may **** me to change, as the siren did.

The siren... are you there?

"..."

Nothing. I could feel her presence, but no voice spoke.

While distracted, I seemed to have missed a sort of incantation, as a glow of gold is the first indication of any interact between myself, and the things in the room... which slowly become clearer. My friends, each standing in my room, or grasping me in some manner. Clarity, once absent from me entirely weeks ago, returned. Now aware of my surroundings, I began to retch violently, prompting Ashes to quickly grab a bucket; only for nothing to come of my gagging.

I slowly begin to speak, explaining my time in the Seknium, while avoiding any and all details beyond Piper's reveal of this 'need' within me... those memories need only remain with me.

"Ok... lets get you something to drink, and maybe some toast. You're even paler than usual." Said Gabriella, assisting me in standing. "Then prehaps Miss Cilla can provide you an answer of some kind for this 'need' that has you so scared."

However, as we began to leave my room, I could see it on Prissy's face; this was a subject she either lacked information on, or, was afraid to share. Once seated in the main area of the tavern, I was happy to see it empty; bar the barkeep, whom could care less of my previous bellowing. Once given something to drink and eat, I began to slowly transition away from wary and weak at the knees, and to something resembling normality.

Cilla clears her throat, before shooing away all the rest silently; she wanted privacy for this 'lesson', clearly. The other made their way out of the tavern entirely, with not a word spoken once outside.

"So..." Whispered Cilla, her face twisted a worried grimace. "This 'need'. It has every sign of being a Cardinal Urge. Almost all creatures with Cores have it. A desire that overrides the individual desires of a monster, and compels them to revert to their base, animal instict."

"Is it always like this?" I ask, trying my best to keep my mind's own voice from repeating those damn words. "This need to... I don't even want to say it."

"Not that specific urge, no. The Cardinal Urge is unique to the race of the monster. You've seen my urge to... reproduce. That Captain Thrusk's need for rumors, back on the Maiyo's Kiss. Ours, however, have been subdued through years of training to suppress them... not that the snakey bitch suppressed hers very well. But yours... I wasn't even sure if you would have one."

"Why wouldn't I have one?" I ask; nervously I look back towards where the barman would be sitting, only to see he's gone off elsewhere.

Thank the Gods. The less people hearing about this urge, the better.

Cilla looks down, avoiding eye contact; her voice strained with frustration. "Because, uniquely, dragons have no Cardinal Urge. I didn't take into consideration that you're not a normal 'hybrid', where one parentage takes overall priority. Nor did I even know what a Shiftling's Urge would be. They've been extinct for generations, and not a single bit of their history is well kept, aside from the means of their genocide."

My handler squeezes her hand into a fist, before rising from her seat across from me, and taking a new one at my side. Her arms wrap once more around me.

"I'm sorry; for not preparing you for this. I've... I've failed you."

Oh bullshit.

I immediately pull Cilla into an embrace of my own, saying. "No, you didn't! You couldn't have known. I swear to the Gods, if you beat yourself up about this anymore, I'll have to show you just how much you've helped me..."

Before I even process the motion of her arm, I've been slapped clean across the face. "You oaf! Ruining this moment with your perverted fantasies!"

"Yes, but I got you to stop moping." I say, smiling all the while.

"Ugh..."

Cilla grumbles as makes her way towards the exit. "Go get your things. We're having a walk about the town until your Fish-Wife takes her leave to go save a puppy orphanage, or whatever..."

Holding my cheek, I smile at the thought of getting my mind off last night. A fresh day out, no thoughts of murderous Chosen trying to scorch me. No thoughts of my Others plotting to take over the world. No thoughts of sirens...

"...Well, don't speak too soon, freak-show."

Oh... Gods damn it!