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A Treasure of Time

Part 3

For Nataraj

By Draconicon

The feeling of stretching and twisting and even falling were not entirely new to the lizard. He had been through a few transformations in the past, and the shrinking that had happened with the sea-dragons wasn't even a first for him. But the feeling of it all being combined at once, of falling and rising and stretching and growing? That was something that was a bit new, and not quite a good feeling.

The world warped around him, losing the grassy feeling of the great park under his back, and the pressure of the feet on his face and body disappeared gradually. For a moment or two, he felt like he was still there, fading out, and then the feeling faded with the sight of the feet. He would have complained, but there was not yet anyone to complain to.

He felt like he was getting pulled and tugged and thrown around, yet somehow remained still and centered in this maelstrom of weird tugging energy. He felt stretched, and yet condensed. He felt tight and relaxed. Everything was a swarm of contradictions in feeling and sensation, but above them all, he felt one thing clearly.

Dizzy.

So, when he finally felt something solid underfoot, he stumbled, falling forward. The floor materialized quicker under him, catching him as he fell to all fours, and Nataraj groaned as he slumped down, his forehead pressing against cool metal. He shivered as the chill ran up and down his spine, forcing himself to swallow lest he throw up from the spinning, warping, pulling, twisting, disorienting feeling that he had gone through.

After a few deep breaths to settle his stomach, the lizard slowly pushed himself to his feet. The feeling of cold metal underfoot compared to cool grass was a different sort of feeling, and he had to admit that he preferred the latter to the former. He rubbed his forehead, rubbing at the scales to see if there was any footsweat scent left, but no. The marking had been taken away.

He wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

Well, it was a reset. Not like anything bad sticks with you after that, Nataraj thought, shaking his head. But where is everyone?

He half-expected to hear some sort of snarky response in the back of his skull in response to his question, but there was none. Maybe whatever Salla was using to talk to him didn't work when they were both on the ship? Or maybe the mouse was annoyed with him for some reason.

Well, he would have liked to see someone resist those sexy dragons. They were hot, and he doubted that there'd be many subs that would be able to just ignore those loincloths and what lay under them.

Without a door to leave through, the new room was as good as a cell. Nataraj leaned against one of the metal panels behind him, crossing his legs at the ankle and waiting. Sooner or later, someone would come to get him.

Just wish he hadn't pulled me out. I was having a good time there, dang-it. I wanted to see just how much they could do with me underfoot...

They were a bit rough, yes, and the Atlanteans had been very clear about how they were better than him, but he'd had tops like that before. They were good for a session, and then he could leave and let them believe that they were still better. If they were real jerks, he could sneak off with some of their stuff and remind them that they weren't anything like as good as he was. Of course, they needed to be real jerks for him to be that mean, but he could do it.

Sometimes.

If he got angry.

He was still stewing slightly in the lack of action from the sea-dragons when one of the metal plates at the far end of the room popped off the wall. He blinked as the mouse stepped through, wielding his cane like some magic wand. The gem glowed at the tip until Salla gestured for it to go back to where it was, sealing them both in the room.

"Is that some sort of control rod or something?" the lizard asked.

"Or something," the mouse said, his voice muffled slightly by the vocoder in his mask. "Now, before the debriefing, any complaints?"

"Yeah. One. Why the hell didn't you let me finish?"

"Because there are consequences for letting a 'bad end' continue for too long."

"Bullshit. You just pulled me back when it was getting good. What kind of consequences could there be, really?"

The mouse seemingly arched an eyebrow at him - at least, that was what Nataraj guessed had happened with the face movement behind the mask - and then walked over. The results were...well, a little shocking.

Instead of the lizard having almost half a foot on the five-foot-tall mouse, Salla loomed over him by a couple of inches. The fact that the mouse hadn't changed his shoes or done anything to give himself more height made it clear that there was more than a little bit of change, too, considering that was quite the loss of height. Nataraj blushed, rubbing the back of his head as he felt a bit small, and not just physically.

"Um...oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"Is, um...is this permanent?"

"If you didn't have someone to fix it for you, yes."

"...Second question. Why didn't you tell me about this?"

Salla gave him a level stare, and the lizard winced slightly.

"Right, because I was fantasizing while you were saying it. Right."

"Lo and behold, you have self-awareness. I was starting to wonder."

"Do you have to go to the kitchen and get more salt for these wounds?"

"The waters of apologies soothe many aches."

"Fine. I'm sorry," the lizard said, sighing. "I...I get into these kinds of things, okay? I haven't had a lot of good things in my life for a while, and...Yeah. Sorry."

"And forgiven," Salla said, chuckling. "Now, let's go over the hows and whys properly this time, before I send you in for real."

"That wasn't for real?" Nataraj asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Oh, no," the mouse said, using his cane again to raise platforms of metal from the floor for chairs, and a third, larger one for a table between them. "That was just a learning experience, to drive home the possibilities of what could happen."

"...Bastard."

"Yep."

Well, at least he doesn't deny it, the lizard thought as he leaned back, shaking his head as the table started to display a map. He assumed it was some sort of hologram coming down from the ceiling, considering there was nothing in the panel that seemed capable of transmitting it.

The map itself showed the mouse's ship at the far edge of it, and at the center, there was an island that was bobbing up and down in some sort of energy stream, moving up and down through and along various rips and tears in the image. Between them and the big island were smaller chunks, bits and pieces that were bigger than the ship, but many times smaller than the island itself.

"This..." Salla said, pointing to the big island. "This is Atlantis. Obviously. Due to the problems we're having -"

"You mean the problems you started?"

Bonk went the cane on his nose.

"Don't interrupt. Now, due to the problems we're having, Atlantis is basically sheathed in unstable temporal disruptions, and worse, it is bobbing up and down, in and out of different timelines and realities. I'm not sure how many people have been lost into that, or how much tech has been displaced, but it will be significant. However, that's not the biggest problem.

"As you might guess, every time that it passes into a different timeline, it occupies that space there, becoming real for that timeline. Every time that it does that, it becomes more and more real. More and more...unstable. The rips are growing larger, trying to accommodate the entire island, but that's not going to work for long."

"Why not?"

"Temporal cloning. When you shift into a different time, reality tries to shift to accommodate what shouldn't be there. You are both there and in your original timeline. If you are keeping it brief, the clone eventually disappears, and paradox is both allowed and disallowed at the same time. However...if you continually force yourself into different timelines, occupying the same space..."

"Then you create a clone that lasts too long, and if the two clones meet..."

"Or three, or four, or five, or..." The mouse tapped the eight or so that were floating around the island. "You get where I'm going with this."

"Yeah...wow. You really screwed this one up, didn't you?"

"I did not screw this up. The sundial did. What we're doing is fixing it."

"Right...and you get the sundial at the end of it, I assume."

"That's the plan."

"..."

"I'm not going to break reality again. I learned my lesson from that last time."

"Last time?"

"Long story. Anyway."

The mouse tapped the hologram with his cane again, pointing to one of the islands and tears that were cast further from the main island itself. The hologram zoomed in, showing the lizard under the feet of different Atlanteans. Nataraj smiled as he watched himself get forced underfoot, nodding to himself.

"I'm that good."

"You were definitely showing a fair bit of talent as a flirt. Most of the time, these Atlanteans would have simply shrunk you and then crushed you. The fact that they kept you alive shows just how talented you are," the mouse said.

"Really? I was that close to dying?"

"Hmm, for a moment. Then you fixed it." Salla looked him up and down, chuckling. "Mostly, anyway."

"Yeah, um, about that whole shrinking thing. How the hell did that happen? I thought you said that we'd respawn safely if we ended up in a bad situation?"

"That has to do with the technicalities of the regeneration and respawn process. The reset does bring you back to safety, but it isn't a bug-proof technology, nor is it limitless. The short version is that, pre-departure, you're scanned for a baseline, and that is attached to the computer. It can't regenerate you from that, but it does do a scan for the realities and dimensions nearest to us that have similar 'yous' to that profile, and then creates an averaged-out version of all those different 'yous'.

"The problem is, it still has to base it off of the one that's just been affected by so many transformations, so the average does have a good chance of getting...skewed."

"..."

Nataraj looked at himself, biting his lip. The idea that this body was a combination of all the different Natarajs in the universes around this one was a rather...weird idea, but a rather cool one at the same time. He looked up, opening his mouth -

"It's a physical averaging only. It doesn't take into account the mental states of the different versions of you out there, just the physical body."

"Oh thank god," he muttered, flopping back in his chair as he had that load taken off his mind. The last thing that he needed was to have a Nat that had worse luck than him getting averaged into his brain. He'd gone through enough depressive moments in his life that he didn't need someone bombing him back to the start.

Rubbing his forehead, he sat up again, looking at the map and the image. The idea of being shrunk down again was a hot one, particularly if it meant that he could enjoy himself like that, but seeing the aftermath...well, he'd lost a good chunk of his height, and though he had the same proportion to everything else - his ass was still nice and wide, and his cock and balls looked about the same size on him, even though he knew the inches had been trimmed slightly - he knew that it wasn't going to make it easier to accomplish any sort of physical parts of the mission.

I'm going to have to be careful. I can have fun, but I have to be much, much more careful in the future.

The mouse looked at him through the mask and map, and he realized that Salla was waiting to see if he had any more questions. The lizard sighed, shaking his head. He got the picture of how that worked.

"Alright. Now." Salla tapped the map, zooming out. "When we went to Atlantis before, we used a series of rapidly-constructed underwater tunnels to get there, and in the process, we found a number of outlying islands that the legends had never talked about. Islands of Amazons, islands of high-tech dwarves, islands of mini-people, you name it, we found it. It was like some steampunk writer went crazy, and then brought in a bit of Lovecraft to even things out a little bit."

"Lovecraft?" Nataraj groaned. "We're not running into insect racists, are we?"

"No, just tentacles."

"On faces?"

"More in portals."

"Oh, well, that's alright then."

"Stay with me, Nataraj, stay with me."

"I am, I am. I don't make the same mistake more than..." He tapped his fingers. "Four times."

"Third time isn't the charm with you?"

"I like to think that I am the charm."

"Well, if you want to think of yourself like that, who am I to argue?" Salla shook his head. "Anyway, there's no more underwater tunnels, because these things are floating in time warps. They're essentially in an independent void, but they do offer links between the different sections around the main island. How you get from one island to the next will be up to you and Olag, but you'll need to transition between the different timelines to be able to get to Atlantis proper."

"So, no more sea-dragons until I get to an Atlantean island? Why was that one filled with them, then?"

"Because in that timeline, they'd already conquered everyone. In the others, they're still more isolated to their own island, at least for now. The closer that you get to the main island, however, the more sea-dragons that you're likely to see."

"Noted."

Despite the way that the first mission had gone and the consequences that had come out of it, the lizard had to admit that he was starting to like the sound of this little adventure. It had a game aspect to it that he rather enjoyed, and there was enough around the base concept to ensure that they were going to have plenty of variety from place to place.

And as long as I don't do anything stupid with the campsites and the bad-ends, then I can still have some fun with this.

He stood up, having to stand on the floating panel that served as a chair to get a good look at everything before him. There were a lot of different islands, a lot of points where they could be inserted, but he had to point to the one that was second-nearest to the ship. It was a smaller island, one that looked like it was just big enough for a village or two, but neither of those were what really got his attention.

What got his attention was the big orc that was wandering around on the island proper, almost like a giant that stomped his big green feet in the forests and along the beach.

"Is this an actual giant orc, or is he just a representation of the village there?"

"Just a representation of the village. It's a shamanistic sort of island, the kind where they believe in the old spirits and volcano gods." Salla shrugged. "Probably real gods, when it comes down to it. With everything going on, might as well assume that all the superstitions that people have are real, at this point."

"That's the way of the bard," Nataraj said with a smile of pride. "That's where I want to start."

"How appropriate. That's also where Olag wants to start."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"He likes to challenge himself, and he hopes that the orcs will be...challenging," the mouse said, and the lizard swore that he was gritting his teeth at the end of that. "Try not to let him get out of control."

"What, you mean he's not being sent as my handler?"

"No, you're being sent as his. Much as I appreciate his tactical brain and how good he is in a fight, Olag is...not the most subtle of characters. And he likes to let his urges get the better of him. Not that that's an invitation, Nataraj."

"I wasn't taking it as one."

"Your halo's already been broken into devil horns, lizard. Don't lie to me."

"Ugh, fine."

He crossed his arms and sat back with a bit of a pout. Still, he continued to listen as Salla laid out what he needed to know: that the orcs were quite the tribal species, but still endowed with a few magical things, that they were keen believers in slavery and trials by combat, and that the way out from that island was deep down in the volcano. The last part had him blinking a few times.

"And...how are we going to get through there without melting?"

"Leave that to Olag. There's more reasons than just muscles that I'm sending him along," the mouse said.

"Okay...and when do we go?"

The mouse pulled up his coat-sleeve, then blinked.

"...Five minutes ago, actually."

"We're late? How did that happen?"

"Look, when you're a criminal mastermind, you get a penchant for monologuing and explaining things, okay? I got a little carried away," the mouse said, hurriedly standing up and flicking his cane about. The table dropped, then his chair, and then the lizard's chair. It went down so fast that he didn't even have the chance to stand up before it was gone.

"Oof!"

He groaned under his breath as he got back to his feet, rubbing his bare butt as he followed the mouse out of the room. Suddenly, Salla was somewhere approaching frantic, and it was honestly rather refreshing to see that the rodent could be a little out of control. It took some of the annoying smugness off of him, and kept him from becoming utterly insufferable. Mostly, but not utterly.

Still, it was quite the run up and down different levels of the ship, and more than once, Salla grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out of the middle of the hallway. They dodged a rolling boulder, a Wookie, and an oversized gorilla in silver armor in the process, and more than once, Nataraj stared at the departing figure before he was yanked forward again.

"Just how many universes have you stolen your crew from?" he asked as they climbed down a ladder.

"I've stopped counting."

"Bullshit," Nataraj said in a sing-song voice.

"You're right, but it's better than saying the number."

"Why?"

"Because every time I admit how much I steal rather than invent, I get a visit from a certain dragon that lectures me on originality."

"Black dragon, white eyes?"

"Right in one."

"How dare he? He's the one stealing tropes from everyone else with his stuff."

"I know, right? But let's stop before he shows up. You know how critique summons him."

The lizard chuckled, shaking his head as they reached the next deck. Two more doors down, and they reached the transportation chamber. It was the same as before, with a Star Trek themed raised platform with different circles on it, but now that he had more information, he guessed that they were scanners rather than teleporters. A console was raised up in front of them, and there was the tigress standing at it, wearing a lab coat that barely covered her breasts and -

Well, she obviously didn't have any shame, because it was open in the front and she wore nothing under it. Nataraj covered one side of his head as he walked up to the glowing circles on the transport pad, and glanced up at the polar bear waiting for him. Olag looked down, then cocked his head to the side.

"Did you get shorter?"

"No, you just got taller."

"Ain't happening. I get any taller, and the lady over there's promised to lop my feet off to shorten me again."

"Well, if she steals your feet, I'll just steal them back and attach them again."

"Ain't sure if that's an offer of kindness or just a reminder that ya like feet," the bear said, chuckling. "Either way, I'll take it."

"Lovely. Always good to have a meat shield - I mean, a companion that is eager to go along with my suggestions."

The bear laughed at that, slapping him on the shoulder. Unfortunately, he had both forgotten that his own smaller size and the bear's strength were a bad combination, and the lizard face-planted right into the transporter with a groan.

"Ow..."

"Oof. Sorry, scales."

Letting himself be pulled up by his tail, Nataraj shook his head as he was dusted off. The tigress was muttering something in Russian to herself, and he remembered that she didn't tend to speak English unless she either liked a person or was paid for it. He wondered what she was saying, and if there was anything besides 'idiots' in those angry utterances.

As he shuffled back and forth on the transport pad, Salla tossed them a burlap bag. The lizard caught it and looked inside. It was the same stuff that Olag had packed for last time, and he nodded. Campsites and more. That'd work.

"Good luck," Salla said.

"We don't need luck. We got me," Olag grunted. "And him. If he can keep angry Atlanteans from killing 'im, then we got a sure shot."

"...Was it really that impressive?" Nat asked.

"Yeah. Last three guys that went in died in five seconds."

"...Lovely."

The tigress held up her hand, giving a countdown of five. Nataraj braced himself, remembering the odd, sickening feeling of warping last time, and knowing that it was probably going to be no better this time. He clenched his teeth in anticipation, and then the world went white.

The bright white light faded, and they landed on a beach of white sand above the waterline, and black sand below it. Not mud, but utter blackness. Palm trees swayed behind them, and the air was filled with the mix of smells of coconut, salt water, and the suddenly popping smell of sweat and musk. The lizard rubbed his nose, wondering if it was coming from him, but then he remembered.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw Olag grumbling, the polar bear already wiping sweat off his forehead and grumbling to himself. Every time he rubbed his forehead, the fur matted down that much more, and he was clearly not comfortable, or happy, about the whole thing.

"Not a fan of the heat?" Nataraj asked.

"Fuck no..."

"Well...at least it's not going to be forever, right?"

"If it lasts longer than a day, I'm gonna kill something. Not you, scales, but maybe one of the orcs out there."

"...You do a lot of killing?"

"Try not to, but...yeah. Heat makes me angry."

"Well, you are a polar bear."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"That could be anything."

"...Heh, never heard someone take that literally before," the bear said, grunting as he sat down.

The lizard joined him, enjoying the feeling of the warm sand under his rump as he looked around the beach. The black sand directly under the water was a little disconcerting and made him wonder what the water was like further out, but for the moment, he was a bit more focused on the island itself.

It had been small enough when looked at on the map, though bigger than the mouse's ship by some way. From here, he could see the mountain in the distance, set on the far side of the island. He would imagine it'd take them half a day to reach it, and that was if they didn't get lost in the large palm-tree jungle between them and the big mountain. At least it was big enough that climbing a tree would give them a view to it, regardless.

He dug his toes into the sand, rubbing his feet through it. No sharp rocks, no shells. That was...odd, but he imagined that was also part of the consequences of the time rips and all that. Things were going to be different compared to usual.

As he rolled his head along his shoulders, he could hear the bear grumbling more and more as the seconds ticked on. He glanced at Olag out of the corner of his eye, shaking his head.

"Why don't you take a swim?"

"Because it's gonna fucking suck."

"It's just water."

"Boss didn't tell you what I can do, did he, scales?"

"The name is Nataraj, by the way. And no, he didn't."

"Hmmph. Might as well get this out of the way, then."

The polar bear stood up, pulling his axe from the leather strap that kept it pinned to his back. It was a massive two-handed thing, probably at least six feet from the square, thick butt of the axe to the double-sided tip. The bear held it just under the blades, using it almost like a walking stick as he made his way to the water.

"Why do you get to keep the loincloth, by the way?" he asked.

"Dunno. Maybe the boss just likes ya naked."

"Well, if he has taste, he would."

"Heh. Makes my day better," the bear said, stopping at the edge of the water. He lifted his axe, then brought the butt down.

And just like that, a chunk of seawater for a full square mile turned to ice. Instantly.

Nataraj stared at the deep freeze that had struck the sea, his eyes wide as he realized the chill that came with it. The bear grunted as he pulled the end of his axe back out of the frozen water, but the water itself didn't start thawing out. Sure, there were melting bits from the tropical sun at the edges, but towards the core, and for most of everything in sight, it was completely frozen ice.

...I'm starting to see why Olag's here. That might just get us through the volcano after all.

The bear sat down again, putting the axe back along his back with some care.

"Is that just a thing the axe does, or..."

"Nah, happens when I touch things, too. Got some control of it, but water? Water doesn't like to stay liquid 'round me."

"How the hell do you stay hydrated then?"

"Find stuff that doesn't freeze."

Nataraj slowly shook his head, getting to his feet as he looked at the ice block that had replaced the sea for him. It was something insanely massive, a change that he had almost disbelieved as being possible.

Yet, at the same time, it seemed that his life had just taken a turn for the extraordinary, and this wasn't that bizarre for that. And for all that Olag was grumpy and annoyed, the way that the bear just treated it as a thing that he could do was helping normalize things. At least, it was normalizing it a little bit.

He shook his head at the impossible ice sheet again, and then nodded towards the forest.

"I'm going to take a look around. Are you going to stay here?"

"Yeah. Might take a nap on the ice."

"Sure you want to do that? I'd die."

"You're a lizard. I'm a polar bear. I'll die in the sun."

"Well, as you like. I'll be back later."

And if you keep those feet up, I might just lick them until they're dry and wake you up that way, he thought, making his way towards the palm trees and the jungle that they constituted.

I'd prefer a few less insights into what you want to do with my bear, thank you, Salla's voice said.

Annnnd you're back. Lovely.

It's the easiest way to keep in touch with you. What are you doing, anyway?

Exploring.

And let me guess, Olag is napping.

Well, cooling down. This place is hell for him.

No, the volcano is going to be hell for him. This is just purgatory.

Are you this mean to all your crew members?

Not really, but this is a mission, and he knows what's coming. He's just going to be a grumpy ass about it.

Want me to cheer him up?

I wasn't thinking of you as team whore, but if you want to boost his morale with your body, nobody here is going to stop you. There was a pause, followed by a chuckle. Well, Tatyana would ask that you avoid certain actions, but nobody is going to stop you.

I was thinking something more musical, Nataraj thought, pushing through some of the fronds that clung to the base of the trees. Any type of music he particularly likes?

Viking chants, mostly, as well as anything folksy that's got a heavier drum sound to it. Why?

I'm bard-y. I like to play music. And I don't have any equipment right now, so I have to start making SOMETHING for myself.

And, to be completely honest, he felt better if he had something to do besides just sucking dick and playing with feet. They were fun things, of course, and activities that were well-worth pursuing, but when it came down to actually having something to do, it was better to have the equipment to entertain yourself when someone else wasn't in the mood. Nataraj kept his eyes peeled for fibers that might be capable of stretching, and any loose bits of wood that could be improvised.

Guitar, mandolin...something with strings would be good, he thought, delving deeper into the jungle. I wonder if coconuts have the right resonance for drumming...

The End

Summary: Nataraj is brought back to Salla's ship for a proper debriefing and briefing, now that he's paying attention. Olag and Nataraj are sent to the first island, and Nataraj gets a picture as to why Olag is being sent with him.

Tags: M/M, bear, polar bear, Olag, lizard, Nataraj, mouse, Salla, series, Atlantis, loincloth, sweat, humor, banter, horny, height difference, size difference, fantasies,