Darius opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was the smoke stained ceiling boards. He was confused. He turned over and fell off the bed. The god put his hands on the ground to lift himself, but the hands he saw were not his. They were brown and covered in…..
"Scales?"
Darius shot to his feet and looked around him. The bed he had fallen from was a small cot, not his large bed. The room was not his grand chambers, but a fairly large hall with several cots lined against the walls. Some of the sleeping spaces didn't even have cots, just small stacks of hay with hay-stuffed sacks for pillows. The walls were covered with nails holding up dirty bags with cloths sticking out of most of them. Dim bulbs on the walls lit up the room just barely. There were sleeping bodies in the cots and on the hay stacks.
Darius looked at his hands before him. They were not his at all. He had strong black, sharp fingernails. His arms were covered by tough brown scales.
"What sorcery is this?"
"Keep it down! People are trying to sleep!" someone yelled from a bed down the hall.
Darius scanned the room. There were several small windows, but just one set of doors. He rushed to the doors, pushed them open and came out under the night sky. He turned around to look at the building he'd come out of. It was a long structure with a high ceiling. There was a low wooden fence around the building. There were other structures like it to the left and right, fenced separately.
"Where am I?"
The god looked around very confused. He pressed his hands together then opened them and stared at them in disbelief.
"My powers," he mumbled.
There was a wide dirt road outside the low fence. And down the road, a fountain where it split into a cross-junction.
Darius rushed towards the road, leaping over the fence. He ran all the way to the fountain and once there, stared in disbelief at the face that looked back at him.
He had the face of a man, but covered with tough brown leathery skin. There were a set of thick backward-curving horns sticking out of his forehead and two more smaller sets followed behind them. This body still had the long flowing black hair, but this was not his body. He was dressed in a wretched purple tunic.
"Humbeast," said Darius, recognizing the race of what he had awoken as. "But how?"
Humbeasts were a race of human-creature hybrids. They were viewed as lesser than other races.
"Father?" came a voice from behind and Darius spun around.
There was a human boy; teenager, staring at him with a concerned look. Not too far behind the boy was another humbeast, a fox-type this time around. He had the ears, snout and a tail.
On seeing the other humbeast's tail, Darius reached behind him to check if he had one as well and snorted with relief when he found none.
"Father, what is it?" asked the human boy. He had the same dark hair as this body Darius found himself in. Humbeasts could not have human offspring; at least as far as Darius knew.
"I am not your father," he told the boy.
"What did he say, Melo?" asked the fox humbeast as he got to the fountain.
"I think he is confused, Chuki," the boy replied the humbeast.
Darius observed the duo. They were about the same height; about 5ft 8", but the fox humbeast was obviously older. He looked in his mid-late twenties though slender, but fit.
"Where am I and who am I supposed to be?" asked the god heir.
"Kandor, are you alright?" asked the fox.
"Kandor," Darius tried the name. "And this Kandor is your father." he pointed at the boy, Melo.
"And your acquaintance of sorts." He looked at Chuki, the other humbeast.
"What's wrong with him?" Melo asked Chuki. "You think he's got that stress madness?"
"Whatever it is, we need to get back to our quarters," said Chuki. "The sun will be up soon and we don't want the guards finding us out here when they come around."
As Chuki spoke, he approached Darius quickly and grabbed him by the wrist. He made to pull him back to the sleeping hall.
"Unhand me!" Darius roared.
"Shhhhhhhh!" Melo shushed him. "You wanna bring them down on us?"
"I am not this Kandor you speak of," the god explained. "Obviously this is his body, but the mind and soul within is not his."
Melo put his hands on his waist and tilted his head to the left.
"Whomever or whatever you think you are, we really need to get back to the sleeping halls now, Kandor," Chuki spoke with frustration in his voice.
"I am Darius of House Krul, firstborn of Lady Meshka and god-heir to the throne of Somnus."
Melo and Chuki stared at each other for a few seconds then burst into laughter at the same time.
"If you're Darius Krul then I'm the governor of Tenga," Chuki mocked as they laughed.
Darius was infuriated by the reaction of these mortals. He did understand however that they would not believe him. He was finding it hard to believe what was happening himself after all.
"Okay, this is funny, but we need to get your father inside now," Chuki managed, still fighting back laughter.
"I actually believe him though," Melo announced, getting some control over his laughter now.
"You think he's Darius Krul?" Chuki asked, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Don't look at me like that, Chuki," said Melo. "I don't believe he is Darius Krul, but I do know that's not my Kandor Karstiff."
Chuki looked at Darius with some seriousness now. "He does speak quite well and his level of confidence is incredible, unlike your father."
"Come one. My dad has his moments."
Chuki offered a fur-covered hand to Darius. "I'm Chuki and that's Melo, your…the previous owner of the body's kid."
"Humbeasts cannot have human offspring," Darius stated, ignoring the offered hand.
"Obviously adopted child." Chuki still had his hand out towards Darius.
Darius looked down at the hand, then up at Chuki's face. He slowly raised his hand and they shared a handshake.
"Now, look. If you are not Kandor then it's a bit of an issue, but I assure you, you are not Darius Krul. That guy's a god, a very powerful one. Not the type of being any sort of spell can just force out of his body. So whomever you actually are, the body you currently possess belongs to Kandor Karstiff, a slave and property of Master Taren. We need to get back to the sleeping hall before his guards find us out and make an example of us because they think we are trying to escape."
Darius took in all Chuki had said. There was so much wisdom in it. He was not the type of being who could be so easily forced out of his own body. It would take an incredible level of power to pull off such a spell and there was no one alive he knew of capable of it. How then had this happened?
"Karstiff….or….Darius?" called Melo. "We need to go now. The boy pointed at a light coming from down the road.
Darius followed the others back to the sleeping hall where he'd woken up. He had to play along until he better understood what was going on. It was wisdom not foolishness that would get him out of this.
****
Kandor Karstiff was in the lavish bedroom of the god-heir at the Blue Palace. He was standing before a floor-to-ceiling mirror, admiring his new body.
"The body of a god," he spoke. "It's nice and all, but I'm scared."
#Silence, you!# snapped a voice in his head. It belonged to the copilot of this body, Temin, one of the three dark gods of the old world. It was he who pulled off the swap of souls.
"You think his mother and brother won't notice?" Kandor complained. "I'm not exactly god material, my lord."
#I chose this body because for long have I observed this one,# came the voice. #Darius Krul is an extreme loner. He speaks little to very few. Even a simpleton like yourself can play the part of a silent figure. No one will notice the change and that will give us time while I recuperate from this spell. It took all I had to swap out a spirit like his.#
"I'm not sure I want to do this anymore, my lord," Kandor complained.
Dark symbols appeared all over his right arm and that arm grabbed his throat hard. Kandor struggled in vain against his out-of-control arm.
#Pathetic coward!# the voice hissed in his head. #Your soul is mine and you will do as I order or I will destroy you and find another who will take your place.#
Kandor's eyes were beginning to water as he choked for air. The symbols vanished from his right arm and he quickly let go of his neck, dropping to his knees and sucking in precious air.
#You asked for me and now I have come. See this to the end and you will rule at my side when we take back this world.# Temin's words were enticing, but obviously Kandor obeyed him out of fear, not trust. He was a humbeast stuck in a god's body under the forceful hand of a power dark force.
Kandor regretted immediately having put faith in Temin, but he was now stuck with it and the dark god would see that he followed it to the end.