Vylt: The New Dawn

Chapter 3: The Sleeping Giant

I woke up from a dreamless sleep to the sound of knocking on the door, followed by Anna opening it. She entered the room pushing a small trolley with a blood collection kit, a camera, a measuring tape, and a covered tray.

Setting the tray on the table, her eyes widened in surprise when they finally focused on me. A brief chuckle made its way out before she quickly covered her mouth and looked away.

"Is there something funny on my face?"

My question was all it took for the elf to lose any semblance of control she had, causing her to laugh rather loudly.

She took a few seconds to relax and finally spoke. "I'm sorry, Nora. I was surprised, that's all. Don't you feel, well, different?"

"Different how? Is it so hard to tell me what's wrong in the first place?"

More laughter came in response. I followed her line of sight and brought my hands to my head, trying to see if anything was, indeed, different.

My hair! What happened to my hair!?

I stood up and ran to the bathroom, ignoring the annoying and increasing pain, only to stare at my reflection in abject horror. Not only the top of my head, my eyebrows and eyelashes were also gone! Not a single hair remained on my body.

I slowly returned to my bed, depressed and in pain, and saw Anna collecting all of my hair and placing it in a small plastic bag. She glanced at me briefly, causing her to lose control of herself once more.

"Do you laugh like this with every patient?" I asked, slightly annoyed with her behaviour.

She noticed my reaction and gasped, covering her mouth with one hand. "I'm so sorry, Nora. I... I don't know what happened to me there."

I sighed heavily. "It's fine. This isn't permanent, right?"

She paused and stared at me with a raised eyebrow. "What happened to showing your changes with pride?"

I scowled at her. "Well, you make it hard with how loud you are. Plus, there's a huge difference between cool elf and balding at eighteen, you know."

"I'm sorry, I just can't help it." She stifled another laugh. "Don't worry, it's normal. It means that you are going to become a draell or a vampire. They don't have brown hair like you, so it falls out while the follicles 'reset'.

"Your skin should start changing soon, too. If it becomes lighter you'll be a vampire. For the draell, the most common colours are steel blue and grey, although there have been a couple of cases where it turns mauve."

A dark elf... That's probably the one with the biggest changes.

I could suddenly see myself hiding my appearance like Anna did the night before. Although my skin tone would make that a lot more challenging. Being a vampire was a better option. I was already pale, anyway.

Final looks aside, the present brought a much bigger concern for me. I felt too exposed without any hair. I placed my hand on top of my head in an attempt to hide it. "Hey, since you don't seem to be using it anymore, do you think you can get me that beanie of yours to hide this for now?"

Anna chuckled again, to which I simply rolled my eyes. Noticing this, she cleared her throat and answered. "I'll bring you my hat, no worries. For now, let's begin by getting some measurements, shall we? After that, I'll just take a few pictures and a small blood sample."

I winced at the mention of drawing more blood, though it reminded me of the events from last night. "Any news on my last sample?"

As I stood up, the pain I had ignored when I first rushed to the mirror returned with a vengeance, particularly on my back and the top of my head. It was still nothing to worry about, but I realised I needed to avoid exercise as much as possible.