Chapter Eleven - RewoP
A warm, soothing light begins to flow from her hands, spreading all throughout my body like a wave of comfort and belonging… I nearly melt from the sensation, it taking all my will power to stand. It's… beautiful, like a bright blinding sun filling me with unconditional love… Like what I was always told God was supposed to feel like.
Syn leans in, one hand sliding around to my back, holding me as I sink to the floor, all the while whispering in my ear, each word sending rippling shivers through my body, “I can’t send you down there as you are.”
Her giggles echo around me as I float somewhere deep in the cocoon of loving warmth I’m now gleefully lost in, “I think I’ll have a little fun with your new shape…”
A boop to my nose makes me chuckle, the warmth now overwhelming even as I feel my body begin to lose its rigidity and flow like water conforming to a new container.
Kaleidoscopic light bursts around me as I feel a pair of soft lips pressing to my forehead, equations, words, symbols and colors spiral fractally into infinity as Syn speaks against my skin, “I’ll be watching, waiting for you at the end.”
Her words enter the chaos of my mind, forming structure from the fractal information, categorizing, linking, and becoming whole new branches of knowledge! I can think in so many weird languages now! I understand the basics of mana channeling and how to use it to reinforce my body! I know how to access some sort of weird world-level UI system? I even see two spells flash by?! “Transmute?” and “Redirect?”
I try to sort through all the information, try to grab onto anything, but it comes and goes too fast! It’s like the goddess is building a whole library in my mind, and I can only read the book covers as they fly by me and onto the shelves!
Finally the world starts to reassemble itself, first the grassy mountain, then the storm, the tree, the black hole in the sky, the… Drog? (dragon dog? No? Fine, I’ll keep thinking about it) and the girl… The now beaming NOT goddess of a girl. Who is suddenly twice as tall as she was a moment ago…
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
Wait.
I look down at myself, green-blue scaled skin peaks out of my stitched together coat, but as shock flows through me I watch as the scales shift to a bright orange-red that ripples from my chest down through my tail…
As I watch the flow of the color dissipate back to the blue-green, I… Oh… I have claws on my hands and feet now… and the tail is… I flex the thing out in front of me, it's long, scaled like the rest of me, but it seems like I could probably use it like another arm… Weird…
Reaching up to my face I am instead surprised to find a long, protruding, fang lined snout… I trace my fingers along the sharp teeth, and then up to the intricate little scales that made up my new face… they are so fine as to be smooth… Further exploration reveals ears perked up on top of my bald head…
Hah… I have no hair anymore… just scales everywhere… That and some ridges near my eyes and down the middle of my head, back, and tail. I shudder and stretch out my wings… WAIT! I flap my wings, feeling the joints stretch, feeling the wind from the storm catch against the feathers. Ooooh… yeah. Ok. I think I’m ok with this.
I stare up at Syn, realizing now that she hadn’t grown, I had shrunk. I put my hands on my hip, barking in a smaller, growly voice, “I suppose you think this is funny?”
She nods brightly as monster-Keats, now taller than me!, trots over and starts trying to lick my elongated face. She definitely takes her time laughing at my dodging and flailing as well as the drog’s persistence before saying, “You turned out way cuter than I expected! I love it.”
Fed up with my monster-mutt, I launch my secret surprise attack ‘under the scales belly rubs’ which now have him firmly on his back with his tail wagging, I look up at Syn and raise my eyebrow ridge, “Is this… Uh… Permanent?”
Syn smiles, “Was your last body?”
I grunt at that, “Fair.”
She kneels down and looks me in the eye, “You sure you don’t wish to claim your boon now? Last chance before I send you down to Endymion as my champion…”
I feel at the scales on the back of my neck, letting go of any expectations of reality, deciding that I was either dreaming, or in a simulation, or dead… Whatever it was? I was going to treat it as real… and if there was anything that I could do to help my friends and family back on Earth live happy lives? It was worth it.
Besides… It sounds like a hell of a lot of fun.
I grin a toothy-fanged smile at her and shrug, “I never liked getting bonuses at the start of games. Spoils the beginning.” I nod to myself then watch a ripple of purple-red flow over my scales as I ask, “Just… Will I see you again?”
She looks me in the eyes, reaches out and scratches the top of my head, sending trills of pleasure through me, nods, blinks, and was gone, leaving Keats and I alone in a dark cave somewhere on a cold, snowy mountain.
