Neska gasped for breath, feeling air enter her lungs. She felt something warm, sticky, and tightly wrapped all across her body. Something felt different about her, but her most pressing priority was air.
She had to free herself! She wriggled her body, as best she could, trying to use her jaw to bite down on something, anything to pry apart her enclosure!
But everything felt off. Her body didn’t move in the same way. It was as though her upper body had stiffened, and her jaw didn’t hinge as widely.
Distantly, she heard distorted sounds. No, it was muffled voices, like the muted sound of being underwater, filled her ears. “She’s waking up! Someone cut her out of there!”
Hadley? Hadley is here? They must have stayed close by. She tried using her [Prehensile Tail] to push the shell away, but it remained fused to her. It was unbearable here; she could feel her lungs straining from lack of air.
“No! Let her do it on her own. She’ll be okay.” Juni’s distorted voice joined Hadley's. Neska pushed harder with her prehensile tail. She felt the sticky substance stretching, like tendons being pulled from bone.
What was strange was that it felt like her upper body had changed; it wasn’t the same shape, the movements and muscles felt different. They moved in alien ways. And there was something else. It felt like...
Were there extra tails on her upper body?
She finally tore out the sticky substance with her teeth, making a tiny hole. She stretched and strained her body, gasping at the much-needed breath of fresh air.
Then, she felt those extra tails snap away at the strands, and she saw light outside. She was almost there, and pushed against the enclosure with all her might.
The strands finally snapped, and part of the enclosure ripped open. She lurched forward, not expecting the shift, and fell snout-first onto a soft carpet of grass.
That hurt.
The scent of fresh vegetation and rich earth dominated her senses, and the air around her felt unnaturally cool. Her body trembled lightly, shocked by the contrast between the warmth of her enclosure and the outside world.
She squinted at the bright light. The sun had just peeked over the mountains to the east, a beautiful red-orange glare that overwhelmed her eyes. She scrunched and tried to–
Wait.
Something moved in front of her, blocking the sun. Bright spots still swam in her vision, making it difficult to see, and her vision was bleary. Something was in front of her, and it looked like–
Her thought was interrupted by a soft voice to her right. “Neska…is it you?”
She turned to see Juni looking at her in awe, her gaze upward. When did the ground get so far away? She’d always had a close-up view of it. Was she lying on a mound or a box?
She stretched her body toward Juni. Then froze.
A scaled arm reached out toward Juni, and at first, she thought it was another monster. It took a second to realize the arm stretching outward led away to her, and her own body.
It was her arm. And then she glanced to her left, and downward, there was a second one.
She had arms. And hands.
“Neska? Say something. Please.” Juni’s eyes gleamed with moisture.
Then, her mind remembered the cocoon. The last-ditch effort to heal her body. The feel of a body with limbs, from a phantom life–the girl who came before.
And a voice.
“Ju-ni…”
Her snout creased, and her long tongue almost flopped out, but through some miracle, she managed to get the one word out. A soft voice that carried the faintest hiss through the air. But…the most powerful part of it…
Her voice sounded almost like Risha’s.
That thought welled up not in her mind, but in her heart, a rising warmth along her body, all the way to the tip of her tail. “It’s…me…”
She briefly examined her newfound limbs. They were covered not just in her normal green and blue scale banding, but large swaths of dull gold scales, forming strange patterns across her arm. Her hands ended with four flexible fingers, each ending in a short claw, and she focused her will on moving them.
They did, clenching and unclenching. First, on the left, then on the right.
Then she looked down at herself. She was not the same shape as before. She had an upper torso now, with smaller, finer-meshed scales, but her chest was still snakelike and flat, unlike Hadley. Her serpentine lower half remained as before, except larger and longer. She could feel muscles tensing; she felt stronger, now. She adjusted her body to keep her torso upright, wobbling unsteadily.
“So, that’s what you sound like.” Juni couldn’t bear it anymore and leaped up against Neska, who caught her mid-leap in her arms, with the mouse girl nuzzling against her. “We didn’t know when you would wake up.”
I'm here now. Juni clung to her, and she lowered her body closer to the ground so it wasn't as much of a strain. She held her for several seconds, with Juni sobbing softly.
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Neska briefly took in her surroundings: the sticky cocoon behind her, the clinging strands and fluids across her body. Jurik, Hadley, and Ragnir looked on in awe.
Then she focused on the trembling mouse clinging to her, clawed fingers gripping her firmly. Neska hadn’t felt…anything like that before. The only thing that came close was Risha, during the quiet hours of the day or just before bedtime.
A year...away from this, unable to embrace someone she cared about. This feeling...it must have torn Risha up on the inside, every day. The fact that memories were still lacking left her with unease. Not knowing her own past…not knowing anything about who she was before.
No. Who she was then was not as important as the person she was now; the person she needed to be, for herself and for others.
"Neska? Little bit of bad news. We might be late for class. Just saying." Juni's choked laugh was joined by Neska's, a rolling hiss that felt like some internal burden had been lifted.
“So…a lamia?” Hadley asked distantly. “How rare is that, Jurik?”
“Rare enough that I’ve only seen one before. Second toughest fight of my life,” he answered casually. He coughed softly to get her and Juni's attention. He took his travel jacket off. “Juni, can you help her clean off? And hand her this.”
“Uh…why?” Juni asked, her voice elevated.
“How does one put this…uh…her form did change.” There was a slight snicker from Hadley, and a slight turn of Jurik's body that indicated Neska probably should understand what they–
Oh. That’s why.
When she looked down, she understood. That feature had been elsewhere before. She took Jurik’s jacket, clenching it to cover up after Juni grabbed Jurik’s water skin. It wasn’t that it bothered her or made her feel exposed–she’d been a snake for a year without wearing a single article of clothing.
It was more for the modesty of the others. Ragnir and Jurik had averted their gaze at her, likely out of respect.
“C’mon, let’s get you cleaned up,” Juni assured her, directing her behind the earthen barrier she’d erected to protect her evolutionary shell. “Can you talk?”
“A…little.” It was going to take some getting used to the flapping tongue, and her instinct was to tuck it back.
Wait.
Could she still taste scents?
She flicked out her tongue and got a sampling of fresh grass, damp earth, a hint of sweat from Ragnir and the others–a scent she could do without–and a slightly pungent odor from…herself, most likely.
Getting this gunk off of herself might not be a bad place to start. Even more so for Juni, who hadn’t said a word about it.
She still had several glaring notifications from the Interface. After the chaos of the battle, she hadn’t had much time to process them. She’d examine them while she cleaned off. Though she ran into one slight problem as she tried to slither forward:
She almost flopped forward again. This concept of a center of balance was both new and frustratingly old. Juni steadied her arm for assurance. "Whoa, easy there. Big shape change, it'll take time to adjust. It wasn't...as dramatic for me, though," she added.
After a little experimentation with flexing her torso, she found a comfortable angle to hold her upper body that did not feel strained. This allowed her to move the serpentine lower half independently to slither forward, undulating like usual.
She was just much bigger and travelled faster, now.
“How long…wass I…” her tongue lolled out, and she let out a resigned hiss. Her tongue was so long, now! Juni giggled softly, and Neska glanced at her, feeling muscles arch above her eyes.
Right, she had more expressions to work on.
“Sorry, sorry,” Juni said while trying to end the laughter, hands raised gently. “I know it’s going to take some getting used to. I was the same after I hit my first evolution. You were out most of the night, by the way. All I know is that when I first woke up? I was grateful to be able to talk again, most of all. I could do without the huge front teeth, though.”
“It’s…fine.” She didn’t actually know what to make of it. She at least had some semblance of social cues, but how to use hers, was going to be a pain. Then again, Juni had cautioned that not every Awakened retained all their memories. Or any.
Yet, she knew they were there, buried. Risha had been there. Other people, other places. They still existed. She just had to find a way to connect them, just like loose threads waiting to be woven into the tapestry of her soul.
She glanced over her shoulder to see Juni scrubbing the funky material off her back. “You mean that?” Juni asked, looking hopeful. "You don't...mind my teeth?"
“Make you…you.” Neska tried to use softer sounding words, as best she could. The mouse girl averted her face away for a few seconds, smiling faintly.
“You know, that doesn’t hold indefinitely for us. We evolve. We change. You are different. Well, mostly.” Juni pointed at her face. “Same banding pattern on your face. And your eyes are the same color. Emerald green.”
Neska’s heart skipped. “I…I haven’t s-seen…my face.”
“Jurik?” Juni called out over her shoulder. “When we’re done? Can you lend me your grooming kit?”
“Aye. Better make it fast. I think I see horses coming from the academy at full speed. Probably will be here in ten minutes. And fliers are taking off now.”
Neska borrowed the waterskin, wiping off the sticky strands. Luckily, her scales cleaned up neatly. But her grip on the skin faltered, and it slipped from her hands after she twisted to get a spot lower down.
This presented a problem. How could she reach it without her whole upper body flopping over? She glanced down at her lower body, flexing her muscles gently, trying to get a grip with her scuttling scales. She wobbled unsteadily for a moment, but managed to curl her body lower just enough to reach for the skin.
So much had changed over the course of a single day. And many more things would follow. She glanced down at her nascent arms, curling and uncurling her fingers. A small piece of the girl she was had returned. She hoped there would be more.
As Juni worked to clean the strands, she pulled up her interface. Vivi. I need a full status update, please. I’m not picking abilities just yet. I need to know where my attributes are at and what options I have.
I can, yes.
It’s…it’s good to have you back. I felt your mind connect at the end of your slumber. You seemed to be highly distressed.
My…protector’s killer visited me. She didn’t know what to call that twist inside her newly formed chest that hurt. A knot of pain that felt like a lump within her body. He spoke to me. Tried to convince me that I was on a doomed cause.
Did he?
Convince me? No. She rubbed her new hand against her scales, feeling the faint heartbeat beneath. Faster, and with greater force than before. Vivi…I don’t know how I can fulfil my promise to Risha. This…this thing is a presence without a physical form I can confront. I don’t understand it.
It's an unknown I have no idea how to fight.
Yet, you will still run contrary to their plans. And find it.
Yes. Because I will learn the nature of this entity. Study it. Find what drives it. What its strengths are. Where its weaknesses are.
And destroy it. Risha's last act will not go quietly into the night, not while I'm still alive, still fighting.
But…what if it’s something that can’t be destroyed? Or killed?
She didn’t have an answer for that. Yet. That’s why we study: to infer data from the foes it utilizes. It follows rules. Patterns. It is connected to the Interface. The interface, too, follows rules and order. Each level I gain is formulaic and has certain predictable outcomes.
Most important is its behavior. It hides. It doesn't want me to know what it is. Its identity and how it connects to the monsters is a weakness, one I fully plan to expose.
Information will be our weapon. It will be what we use to deconstruct this Voice, one monster, one minion at a time. The thought felt ironclad: with enough knowledge, she could face any problem and come out on top.
Well spoken. Bringing up your information now.
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