Nony

My uncle was a mad scientist and I was almost always his Beta Tester. I don't know why my parents trust this guy to use me for his experiments. I'm pretty sure a fourteen-year old shouldn't be subjected to unauthorized experiments from an unstable thirty six-year old man. 

I mean, it would be okay if these experiments only involved chemistry with dishwashing soap and bubbles. You know...science things that are actually kid-friendly and safe! Unfortunately, my uncle's everyday mission was to defy every aspect of safety. One time he had me wear these "gravitating shoes". I immediately knew I wouldn't get out of that without having broken bones.

 A few weeks of house arrest after that incident, I was trapped in a room with an ant. At first I felt relieved because my uncle only seemed to want to observe human-ant interaction. Boy, how wrong I was. The ant started to multiply itself repeatedly and within minutes I was surrounded with millions of them. What made it worse was the fact that those ants really loved to bite. I was "extracted" from the room with little red scabs scattered around my arms and I could have sworn I still had some ants in my shirt and pants. I wore long-sleeved shirts to school for a week and I always had to take a shower immediately after getting home to wash off the buckets of sweat I've been coated in.

Thankfully, a month after the ant incident, we had to move to another city which was, to my relief, very far away from my uncle's lab. That was one problem gone, but I had another problem to deal with: my brother.

That 6-year old devil was annoyingly loud all the time. He was loud when he was happy. He was loud when he was sad. He was especially loud when he was angry.

Even though we were in separate rooms, I could still hear his obnoxious singing clearly. Now don't get me wrong, he has the potential to be a professional singer. That potential was not showing at the moment as he was forcing his voice out as loud and as off-tune as he can. I had a very good feeling that he was purposefully ruining his voice just to annoy me.

My parents weren't home at the moment, not that it would make my brother stop. He's their little singing angel. If I complained about his loud singing, they would just tell me that he was just practicing and that was part of his learning process.

All this complaining about my brother has made me hungry. Who am I kidding? Everything makes me hungry. I got up and went to the kitchen to grab some cereal for my snack time. As I was digging into my Lucky Charms and savouring the marshmallows, I heard the front door knob being turned.

Knowing my parents shouldn't be back for a few more hours, I immediately prepared myself for an intruder. I saw my brother peeking from his door across the hall and I immediately motioned for him to keep quiet. I grabbed a frying pan because the movies prove that it is a very reliable weapon, sometimes at par with a gun.

I heard the front door open and I peeked around the corner to see my frying pan's target. What I saw scared me more than any robber or terrorist. My heart raced as I mentally sent prayers to all the angels and saints I knew, wishing that I was just hallucinating. I took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm my panicked heartbeat. I closed my eyes and allowed a few seconds to collect myself. I knew sooner or later I would have to face what went through that door.

I finally gathered enough courage to step out of my hiding spot with my shaky hands holding the pan raised in a batting position. I now stood eye to eye with the source of my shaken state.

It was my uncle.

He stood there wearing a lab coat which immediately sent alarm blaring in my head. He had a huge smile on his face as he sported what seemed like a covered dog cage. I gazed warily at the cage, more than a hundred percent sure that whatever in there is dangerous.

"Please don't tell me you'd trap me in a room with a rabid dog so you can observe which species will outlive the other", I pleaded with my uncle, void of all sarcasm. I genuinely believed that he is capable of doing that if he wanted.

"Nah, don't worry", my uncle said with a small "good doctor" smile.

I still worried. He was calm, too calm. This was the stage I believe is called the calm before the storm.

My brother then raced into the living room into my uncle's arms. My uncle immediately wrapped his arms around his nephew, swinging my brother around before putting him down. I slowly lowered my frying pan but still made sure I could swing it immediately if need be. I stood at a distance where, if whatever was in that cage broke free, I could snatch my brother and run to the next country.

"Hey uncle! Look at my dragon!", my brother exclaimed, excitingly showing his Lego Ninjago Dragon build.

"Woah! Great job kiddo! That's mah man.", my uncle complimented, ruffling my brother's hair.

My brother then puffed his chest and said confidently, "Of course I did a great job".

I rolled my eyes at my brother's ego boost.

"Yup, that's a pretty cool dragon, but...", my uncle trailed off for some dramatic suspense effect

"But what, uncle?", my brother asked, worried that there was something wrong with his build.

"What do you say about a real dragon?", my uncle asked.

My brothers' eyes immediately widened and he dropped his Lego dragon in shock.

"PLEASE TELL ME YOU HAVE A REAL DRAGON UNCLE!", my brother shout-pleaded while grabbing my uncle's shirt and pulling at it, urging an affirmative response.

"Well...not yet", my uncle said cryptically.

"During the months after you left, I've been working on a new project that will sweep the science board of their feet", my uncle declared proudly. I was suddenly worried that those poor people will have their feet literally swept away.

We suddenly heard a metal hinge creak and we turned to see my brother smothered by a fuzz balls. It was literally a white ball of fur that moved and breathed.

My brother, although giggling through the ball of fur attacking his face, stated the obvious, "Uncle...these are not dragons"

"What...is that?", I asked my uncle.

"I'm so glad you asked! Well, it's my new creation scientifically named as Cryptoanimorphia Erioexymius. It is designed as a living ball of fur and upon rightful exposure and nourishment, may evolve into a corresponding mythological creature allowed by the continually morphing cell and genetic makeup of the creature."

"What?", my brother asked, not understanding a thing my uncle said.

"Well, think of them as a mystery pokemon. This is their basic evolution. After treating and feeding them in a specific way, these fur balls would slowly evolve into your chosen mythological creature", my uncle explained

"Oh. So I can turn this into a dragon?", my brother asked holding the black fur ball and staring at it, as if willing it to evolve into a dragon immediately.

"By theory, yes. We are not sure, though. You two will be the first to...", my uncle started.

"...experience my revolutionary invention that will change the science we know as of today", I finish half-heartedly, having heard this line every single time before I would get subjected to torture.

My uncle gave me a look to which I only raised my eyebrows at. He only sighed before turning to get something from his car.

I looked over to see my brother holding the bfur ball against his face while the fur ball seemed to lick him. It was a very cute scene to watch and I felt myself relax until my brother put the fur ball down and the creature made its way to me.

I immediately tensed up but made no move to get away. I thought that maybe my uncle did make something kid-friendly for once in his life. I picked up the white fur ball gently, raising it head-level so I could examine it closely. I was faced with two black teddy-bear like eyes and a very small mouth. It licked my face and the little tongue was so cute. I actually let out a giggle and knew I was falling for the little fur ball.

When my uncle returned with a duffle bag and saw me with smiling while holding the fur ball, he sent a grin my way which I reluctantly returned.

He then motioned me and my brother over before opening the bag to reveal its contents. In it were several plastic containers labelled with masking tapes. I saw names of different mythological creatures like hydra, sphinx, and hellhound. I immediately drew the fur ball close, not wanting it to turn this cute, innocent being into a terrifying monster.

My uncle slowly got the containers out one by one, until all of them were laid out on the floor. I slowly looked them over and saw a few more names hippocampi, dragon, dinosaur, phoenix, and many more. As I read the names, I immediately thought of everything that could go wrong if the fur ball would evolve to be like them.

"So...what would you like your little fur ball to be?", my uncle asked, although he already knew what my brother would answer.

"A dragon!", my brother shouted excitedly.

"No! We can't have a dragon!", I countered.

"No! I want a dragon!", my brother argued

"We're not even sure if this would work. If it didn't we may have bred some unknown monster that could potentially destroy the world. If it did work, we still have a large fire-breeding dragon that could also potentially destroy the world. Do you want to die?", I ask my brother. He quickly shook his head and looked as if he was still struggling to let go of the prospect of having a dragon.

I knew this was going to be bad. I frantically searched the containers before my eyes landed on a container labelled Unicorn. I put down the fur ball and picked up the container.

"What about this?", I asked, showing them what I picked.

"Unicorns, yuck", my brother explained in disgust.

"It may be yuck for you, but safe for all of us. I say we stick with this one", I stated

"But I want a dragon!", my brother said, pouting.

"I'm with your sister on this one, kiddo", my uncle said which caused me to look at him in shock.

"You are?", I asked him incredulously.

"Yes. This is the biggest and most dangerous project I have ever attempted and if I want to develop more mythological creatures, I need to show the science board something scientifically unique but still relatively safe.", my uncle exclaimed.

"Sorry, kiddo. Maybe after I've made final modifications to the dragon formula, you'd be the first one to try it", my uncle tried to amend with my brother.

My brother nodded sadly before asking how fur ball would turn into a unicorn.

"Well, these containers have some pellets specifically designed for each species. These are like buttons that trigger the appropriate cell development to form the species. So, in theory, feeding the fur ball those unicorn pellets would slowly make it evolve into a unicorn", my uncle explained.

"Eating rainbow things would also help, I think", my uncle added as an afterthought.

"What should we name her?", I asked.

"We should name him Nony!", my brother said

"Why should we name her Nony? Where did that come from?", I asked.

"From Anonymous", my brother said in a duh- tone. "It's because we still don't know if it'll evolve into a unicorn", my brother said with some hope in his tone.

I narrowed my eyes at him before saying accusingly, "You're still hoping it would turn into a dragon, aren't you?".

"Nope", my brother answered too quickly, which made me a tad bit suspicious, but I chose to just brush it off.

"Okay so let's see how Nony evolves. It should only take a few months. If it does turn into a unicorn, we can call it a Nonycorn", my uncle added jokingly ,making us cringe and signalling the start of his greatest experiment.

It took a few weeks before Nony showed any signs of evolving. It started with elongating legs, snout and ears. Slowly the white fur turned a bit darker, making me believe we would have a grey unicorn. The fur was also slowly receding which exposed the horse-like shape it was morphing into. It was also half my height. That was for the first few months and everything seemed to go along smoothly. My uncle would always check in every month to note the progress.

It was a few more months in when we started to notice something was terribly wrong. Nony was growing taller than me now and had pure black scales. Yes, scales in her tail. If I remember correctly, a unicorn tail is like a bush of hair strands, not a long scaly snake-like rope. The fur was concentrated to the face and was a very dark brown, there also seems to be two horns sprouting from his back.

I immediately knew who was behind this. I shouted for my brother and showed him what happened to Nony. She was definitely not going to be a Nonycorn even in some distant future.

My brother immediately confessed to feeding Nony with dragon pellets and at one time mixed up other pellets. I was then very fearful of my life as I watched the sleeping monster in my bed. That was definitely not the white fur ball I had decided to care for. I immediately called my uncle over.

When he arrived, I warned him to remain silent so as not to wake the monster.

Once he entered the room, he exclaimed in shock, "Is that a Khimaira?!"

Six eyes suddenly greeted us, and we all held our breaths.