7 in 3

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Wight

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I wake up because someone is touching me. I grumble loudly before I open my eyes, looking for the mean person waking me. The only thing in the small room with me is a horrible squiggly thing with a shell. It moves towards me. 

Before the gross leg touches me glowing lights dance around me, pushing back the monster. I look around the dark room for the door, but can’t find it. The monster gets up out of the smashed table, so I just run through the nearest wall. 

Through the crashing of stone around me, I hear faint clicking sounds. I keep running without looking back. I don’t want that monster to get me. After smashing through more rooms, I run out onto a street. 

I smile now that I’m safe. The horrible clicking sound comes from a nearby alley! How did the monster find me that fast?! I run again, hitting as few things as I can. Maybe it was following the sound I was making when I crushed stuff. 

The ground starts closing in on my face. My view slams into the dirt, causing a massive crashing sound. I didn’t trip, someone must’ve attacked me! I look around, seeing if the monster caught up to me. 

The monster is nowhere to be seen, instead a bunch of different monsters are standing near me. One of them tries to hit me with an icky rope thing coming out of it. I grab it, my light stopping it above my skin. The black-shelled monster starts making the awful clicking sounds while trying to blind me with light. 

I run over and grab the flashing monster by the shell. The creature is around three of me if you’re only counting the shell. Without stopping, I throw the monster as far as I can. In the distance the flashing light hits a building, making a big puff of dust. I spin around to face the other monsters. 

That’s enough, Wight! an angry voice shouts in my mind. Is it the monsters?

No, stupid kid! You share a body with me. I just woke up to find you throwing people around! What’s wrong with you!? 

The angry voice is being so mean to me. I didn’t throw nobody, I just stopped the monsters from hurting me!

Those aren’t monsters! They’re people, people who have helped you! You need to stop, now! 

It must be a monster tricking me, the voice is trying to get me to not attack the creatures. I look around to see that I’m surrounded by monsters that are bigger than the one I threw. I raise my fists to fight. 

Oh, no you don’t. Suddenly my shadow erupts around me. The darkness spreads out like flower petals before turning into chains. The wispy bindings wrap around my arms, legs, and throat. Stupid voice, nothing can stop Wight. I flex my muscles to break the chains. 

The breaking sound doesn’t come. I look down at my arms and see that the shadows are going right through my light! I feel myself get pulled to the ground, my body crushing the stone under me. 

Sorry, kid. That’s the last thing I hear before my eyes stop working. 

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Coil

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Once the kid passes out I push my way into the front of our shared mental space. I feel my body quickly shift into mine. I immediately fall to the ground, groveling. 

“I’m sorry, Unraks! Please forgive my little brother, he doesn’t understand things.” I clasp my hands together as I hunch on my knees. 

These people have only helped us, and we repay them by trashing their houses and throwing their citizens. I don’t know if I’d forgive us. 

I feel a warm limb wrap around my neck, pulling me into a standing position. A blush spreads out across my cheeks when I realize that Wight ran out here naked. My embarrassment is smothered by the tentacle around my neck tightening. 

In front of me stands a massive orange-shelled Unrak. It’s the one tightening its grip on me, slowly. They are making clicks at me, probably asking me questions. 

I manage to croak out of my squeezed throat. “I can’t understand you, I’m sorry.” Tears start to well up in my eyes. Why couldn’t this be Scarlet? That brute wouldn’t even notice this much pain. 

I hear loud, frantic clicking coming from behind me. As the sounds come closer I feel the tendril around my airway loosen. Eventually the orange creature moves its tentacle to my arm, wrapping there instead. They turn me around to face the direction of the clickings. 

The Boss comes barreling towards the crowd, tailed by Emerald. The elder Unrak skids into the destroyed square. Once they stop, they walk towards me, clicking and flashing rapidly. Behind them Emerald is doing the same thing, futilely. 

I shake my head at them. “I’m sorry, I can’t understand.” The two beings stop moving to face each other for a moment before continuing. They must’ve clicked something to each other. I hold my hands in front of my family jewels, trying to seem casual about it. These guys probably don’t even have the concept of decency. 

The boss walks right up to me, clicking at the Unrak behind me. They unwrap the limb from my arm, withdrawing to a few feet away. Emerald’s tentacle wraps around my wrist, quickly dragging me away. The huge orange guy follows the three of us. 

After what seems like an eternity of wandering through dimly lit alleyways, we reach Emerald’s house. I whistle, kinda impressed with Wight’s destructive abilities. 

The building looks lopsided, since one half is just a pile of rubble. The stones and dirt are propping up the remaining building. I glance down at the green Unrak, feeling horribly guilty. 

“I’m sorry, Emerald.” My apology gets no response from the person in front of me. 

I look at the building again and notice that most of the chunks are quite large. It shouldn’t be too difficult to repair, if they can move stone that large with precision. I rub the back of my head. It’s not too likely that they can, is it? 

Before we enter the half a house, I spread out my shadow. The sudden blackness spreading from my feet causes the Unraks around me to jump back. The orange guy sends a thick limb flying at me. Sorry, guy, I gotta do something. Just before the arm slams into me, a tendril of my own flies out of my shadow, blocking the attack. I hold the tentacle in place, hoping they won’t attack again. 

Facing the house, I send my enlarged shadow forward. The inky substance spreads out from my feet, slithering into the cracks of the huge stones. I focus, lifting the parts of the house into the air. Once I have all the pieces floating, I start placing them down in order. 

While I work on the building I receive no more attacks. Eventually I place the last part of the house into a hole in the roof. I don’t withdraw my shade, instead continuing to hold the house together with it. After a few minutes of nothing, a large portion of my shadow skids around the street corner. The inky blob rejoins my main shadow, dropping a ton of mud onto the dirt. I sent some shadows to get river mud so I can mortar the stones together. Picking up the mud with tendrils of darkness, I continue fixing my brother's mess.

After a few hours, I collapse into the dirt and mud around me. Using my blessing that much is exhausting, I barely finished before passing out! I feel warmth press against my arms and legs. My eyes open when my body is lifted up. Emerald has picked me up, carrying me inside the building. She gently places me onto the bedding that we had slept on. With a few clicks at me she moves off into another room. 

Without Emerald standing in front of me, I can see across the room to where the crushed table is. Sea sits in a chair by the crushed wood, staring at the repaired ceiling. I call out to them, but get no response. Maybe my shadows doing construction work was too much for them. I chuckle to myself and roll over. 

I smell something good as I drift to sleep. 

 

】〓〓〓〓【

Scarlet

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The smell of something buttery makes me lift my heavy eyelids. The ceiling above me is the same stone as when I went to sleep, but with some suspiciously new cracks running over it. The small change fills my gut with a sense of foreboding. I sit up, pushing aside the rough blanket covering me.

My mind stalls for a moment while I process my situation. I am, for some reason, naked. Hurriedly I look around the dark room, but see no one. Once I calm down some I notice the rough bag that was laying on me is actually a crude dress, woven out of some sort of thin root. 

With a sigh I throw the sure-to-be-itchy sack over my bare form. Sure enough, my skin starts to itch like mad. Where the hell did my clothes go? I’m the biggest so even if I switched no one should have been able to blow them apart. I groan as I get to my feet. 

While trying to keep my head from hitting the low ceiling, I feel my brown pseudo-dress move against my skin. I look down at the wiggling garment. The brown fibers woven across me are slowly melding together, making a smooth greenish texture. As I watch, the texture of the dress changes to the shiny skin of a leaf. Soon enough the entire dress looks as if it had been made out of a large leaf. 

Hell yeah, gotta love the blessing. I pump my fist in my air, hitting the ceiling with a thud. Thank god no one saw that. 

After about an hour I get bored. Tired of pacing in the cramped room, I walk to the front door and push it open. The greenish wood swings easily, until it hits something with a loud crack. 

“Halt!” I see a flash of light through the partially open door. Why is someone standing outside the door? I slide my hand through the gap, doing a little wave. 

“Hey, why are you blocking the door?” I try to sound as passive as possible, but I’m not sure these dudes even have tone. Tension stills the air for a moment before another flash hits my eyes. 

“You… punished.” The gruff voice sounds conflicted. 

Why the hell am I being punished? I just went to sleep a hero of the town. A sigh slips out of me. “Where is Emerald or Sea?” If this guy won’t help me, I need to find one of the friendly Unraks. This time after the moment of silence, instead of another flash, the door swings open. 

Standing in the door frame is an Unrak with a shell that reaches my chin. They’re easily three times as big as Sea or Emerald. I stand, stunned speechless, which allows the slow talker to speak. 

“I… take you to… Emerald.” Well, that’s unexpected. I give the orange-shelled fellow a smile and follow them. 

The moment I step outside, I notice the debris. Houses near Emerald’s have huge chunks busted off. It looks as if a creature tunneled straight into Emerald’s home. What the hell could do so much damage, and how did I sleep unharmed through all that? 

It doesn’t take me long to realize what happened. Wight. It was Wight, wasn’t it? I let out a huge sigh, not looking forward to the damage control I’m going to have to do. I follow the orange Unrak through damaged streets and past smashed shops. Every broken board or crushed stone makes me feel a bit guiltier, until I have to stop looking. 

Walking while looking at the ground, I bump into my large chaperone. I look up, wanting to know why they stopped. 

We have arrived in a large communal space - some kind of square - that is completely trashed. There’s a large crater on one side, with huge swaths of stone cut away from the nearby buildings. Many smaller craters are scattered across the square. What the hell was Wight doing? How did he even make such clean cuts on the buildings? I start to realize why the priest at the temple freaked out so much about our blessings. 

Walking through the remains of the unnatural disaster my sibling caused, I reach the large crater. Down inside the sloped stone are two forms I recognize. Sea and Emerald are at the bottom of the pit, clearing rubble out of it. My heart is immediately wracked with guilt. They let me sleep and came to clean up our mess. 

I jump into the pit, sliding down the gravel side. Skidding to a halt in front of my hosts, I yell out, “Hey, why are you two cleaning up after my idiot sibling?” My voice makes the two shelled people turn towards me. Dropping the stones they’re carrying, they move next to me. They start checking me all over, as if I had been in an accident. 

“Good… you are… okay.” Emerald’s voice sounds relieved. Why has she been worrying about me? Sea just stares at me like I’m an alien. Wait, what’s an al-

I hear a shout from behind me. “Hey! Scarlet!” Turning, I see that the town boss has shown themself. I give a wave to them. The milky-shelled leader rolls down into the crater, stopping just in front of me. Standing in front of me, they begin my interrogation. 

“Who… that boy? Where did you… go?” Anger slithers between their words. I glance behind the boss, seeing the large orange fellow peeking over the mouth of the pit to watch. 

I let out a sigh before answering, “That was my little brother, I’m sorry he did so much damage.” I rub the side of my face nervously. “He has a blessing and doesn’t know his own strength, we’re trying to curb his destructive tendencies.” Looking at the white shell facing me, I continue, “I’ll help repair the damage.” 

The boss’s shell pulses slowly with a dim light. “Fine… can’t be helped… if… blessing.” Man, these guys are too kind, no wonder humans took advantage of them before. I need to get Father to establish relations with them, if they want it. 

“Scarlet… your leg… better?” Emerald’s question makes me realize why she was checking me. I flex the leg that had broken, checking for pain. 

Nothing. The leg’s fine, like it had never broken. Is it because we switched? Does that mean we heal after switching? A wicked smile spreads on my face. That would be very useful in a fight. 

Leaning down, I pick up a large stone. “Alright, let's get fixing, then.”