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Chapter 2

  LesbeanAda

  Some time ter, I awake with a splitting migraihe statiagic drowning out my senses as I y on the ground. Pulling in the magito my body calms the static, clearing up my senses as it did before. The pull of the magic causes me to squirm in pain, though it quickly subsides as more of it enters my body. Alongside it, my migraiarts to recede a little, the over stimution having caused it in the first pce.

  The magiside of me feels different however, it is not just a small ember beh my heart, instead it feels like a raging inferno enpassing my entire body. Though unlike before, it does not hurt me, the sensation of it feels right, natural, like my body needs it to live. It tio squirm underh my skin, it’s hard to tell where the magic starts and my body ends, almost like I am oh it, and it is just waiting for a signal to follow. Almost like it is anticipating something, though I am not sure what, and as to urpose.

  Eventually I start to blink open my eyes, and am happy to discover that the migraine seems to be slowly subsiding, luckily the light is dim and doesn’t aggravate it again. There’s only a little bit of moonshine breaking through the leaves of the tree, though despite the night, I do not feel cold. I slowly get up from where I was yio my wife’s gravestone and take a look at my surroundings. The air, or ambient magic, I am not sure, has a taste to it that I ’t quite pce, and that isly a taste. I decide to ig for now, there are more pressing issues to sider.

  The willow tree seems to have grown a lot, it shadows almost the entire area now, where before it had barely reached above her grave. A small shudder goes through me as I try to figure out just how long I had been knocked out. That is when I notice that raves seem to have disappeared, at least I ot find them anywhere nearby. Whatever happened before I got knocked out must’ve done a number oy much everything it seems, maybe it gave the tree a little bit of a growth spurt. I sigh wistfully, my wife had wao nurture a tree in her death, so I am gd she got her wish.

  As I reach out to the tree to feel its bark, I freeze in pce. My hand seems to have ged as well, not just everything around me. And it’s not just my hand, I am quick to notice, but my skin and arm as well, and probably more. A slight shudder goes through me, the ge feels so natural I didn’t even notice. I try not to lioo long on that thought, and to instead assess the ges.

  The first thing that stands out is that my skin is starkly different, it is covered in a yer of tihers, kind of like scales or the fuzz of moths, yered tightly enough to create a smooth yet soft sensation to my fingers.

  My fingers have elongated quite a bit and moved slightly further apart. The skin of my hand is much more capable of stretg, allowing for much greater flexibility, something that is clearly needed as I seem capable of moving the bohat usually form the palm area. As I flex them a few times, I notice that my skio reflect light in different ways at different angles, as if the scales are some sort of prisms. It is a fasating and mesmerizing phenomenon that catches my attention for a long few moments. It is so different a feels like my skin should’ve always been this way. My hands though seem strao me, they do not look quite human anymore, yet they aren’t sn I am appalled by them, they still feel like me.

  My arms and torso are in a simir state, they have ged but in ways that are not appalling to me, I am slightly more bulky and muscur, and I notice a much greater flexibility in my joints. Stretg my fingers, the movement es to me naturally and without issue, and I feel the muscles shift beh my skin, they’re different, almost squirming in their movement, but irely fn.

  I gnce down towards my legs and notice that they, too, have shifted, into a very digitigrade position at that, and my feet have ged simirly to my hands. As I crouch down I reach much lower to the ground than I could before, or rather, in a much easier manner; keeping the muscles in my legs tight and ready for a. Another feeling es to me too, ohat I follow out of curiosity, pellio get on all fours. It is an easy shift, more so than I anticipated even.

  It’s also quite fortable I note, as I step closer to the tree, my toes bury into the grass beh me with an ease that belies their apparent ck of toe nails, something that is also reflected on my fingers. It doesn’t seem to interfere with sensation or usability, so my ged body must be pensating for it in some way regardless.

  I settle with my back against the tree and my tail around it. A tail I very much did not have before, and failed to notice, somehow, its movement es easily to me, as natural as any other limb, moreso even somehow. And it is long, long enough to around the tree and have the tip of it o me. It is covered in the same little scale feathers as the rest of my body, and I feel the strength teeming in it. I hadn’t beely dissatisfied with how I looked or anything, though there had been a slight gnawing of there being potential for more, even after all these years. The ges my body underwent while I was knocked out are certainly more, a lot more, than I’d have imagined even in my wildest dreams. Ahe ges don’t feel wrong, just slightly fn and foreboding as the magitio squirm i feels almost like the magic is merely waiting for an impetus to act, to ge. Into what, or what it will do, is a mystery to me, however.

  As I sider the magid what to do from now on, I rex mainst the tree, and start to feel a soft warmth exude from it, and a gentle breeze caresses my cheek. I could swear I hear my wife’s voice, though I ’t make out her words; it pulls me out of my thoughts and my surroundings e bato a stark focus. That’s when I notice a small shimmer pass through the air, it is too short to make out the exact shape, but it is soon followed by another. It doesn’t take long to notice that there is some sort of dome surrounding the area around the grave. Slowly getting up, I stalk up towards the edge of the clearing, still on all fours as I do so, my tail trailing behind me. A small shiver goes down my spine as it loses tact to the tree, though it is quickly banished as another breeze brushes through my… fur? I am not sure what to call it quite yet. The breeze seems to carry a soft reassurah it, ohat makes me slow down a little, and I gnce back to the grave. It is still there, standing still and silent as it had before, yet I ’t shake the feeling of not being alone, of her being here with me, and not just in the seal way either.

  As I reach the dome, I quickly notice that it seems to obscure everything outside of it, in some way that I ’t quite prehend. I still see what is outside, a seems quite disected, like a mirage that flees the mind as soon as you focus on it. It is frankly quite uling and I move along the edge to see if it is this way everywhere. The presence I sense follows along, though it is so faint it almost feels like ariy mind, that is until another breeze goes ay body once more, as if to remihat it’s real. It’s odd, I want to speak to whoever this is, yet I knoeaking would maybe break the spell, or just be futile in itself, so I hold my words for now, instead letting myself be soothed by this ghost of days past. Even if it is just an illusion, it helps my mind stay rooted in the now, somewhere I am aware that I am probably in shock, uo fully process all that has happened yet, but I do not yet have the safety to think on it, the pce I am at may have been my wife’s grave in the past, but it is clearly different now.

  I eventually finish a full circle around the dome while lost in thought, no parts of it seem to be quite different to the rest, it is a perfecapsution of the clearing, shielding this pce from the outside world. Or, well, keeping me prisohough I choose to believe it is meant to protect. Making my way back to the ter where the tree stands, I reach a hand out and touch its bark, the warmth fills me once more, it feels almost like the magiside of my body, yet it feels more soothing and calm, I do not taste this magic, like I do the ambient magid yet I want to know what it would taste like. I take a few moments before deg what to do , I o know what is going on, and as relut as I am to break this spell, I know I ot stay here forever, eventually I’d o find food and water.

  Opening my mouth to speak, to address the preseh me, my words e out a garbled mess as for the first time I notice my tongue has ged too, the failure at speaking is apanied by what sounds like a giggle on the breeze, yet it is too indistinake out. I take a moment for a quispe of my tongue, which tells me that it is much longer and more flexible, almost like my tail, though not quite, it is much thinner and feels less potent in its strength. A sigh escapes me as I try to figure out how to speak with the tongue, and it takes me a few long minutes of different attempts before I find my voice again. While I do so, I also notice a few other ges to my mouth, it seems to have elongated a slight bit, almost like a cats snout, and my teeth are much sharper than before, though it’s hard to tell if that is all that has ged with them.

  “Well, I am not sure who, or what you are, but…” I sigh a little, trying to gather my thoughts. “Your presence feels a lot like my wife did, and this is her grave.” I point towards it with my tail. “So, yeah. I holy have no idea what is going on, or what happened, and now I seem to be stuck here, and you’re the only thing around so, if you maybe help me get out of here?” A breeze brushes ay cheek again, it feels like an answer, but not one I quite parse, it is reassuring though. “I’d love to talk to you more, though I am not sure how well you uand me, and I ’t uand much from you.” My head turns to look towards the border of the little area I am in. “ you even bring down that barrier?”

  It takes a few moments before I get a response, whies in the form of the barrier flickering a few times, before the outside world es more into focus, the mirage like effect from befohough the barrier itself is still clearly there, a slightly indistinct haze in the air. Hesitating a moment, I eventually mao break away from the tree and approach the barrier, the clet, the more details I make out. The outside seems to be a wide open field of grass, a mountain in the far distance I barely make out. It takes me a few moments to realize that it is, in fact, still the middle of the night, a I see almost unimpeded, more colors and things greeting my vision than I had ever seen before. As I sider that, I am startled as a rabbit rises up out of the grass in front of me just outside the barrier, before hopping off, leaving a trail of burning grass behind as fmes are expelled with each little hop.

  I stare at the embers for far too long, trying to my head around what I just withe heat that is slowly dispersing into the air does of course not help my fasation, I see each trickle slowly dissipate into the ambient temperature, until it finally is all gone. A magical fire bunny and the ability to see heat. I fight the urge to giggle at the absurdity of it, it shouldn’t evehat absurd to me sidering the other ges to my own body, a, seeing the reality of it in another living being and being able to use a brand-new sense is a stark difference. I take a deep breath trying to calm myself, no point iing into this now, instead, I decide to test whether the barrier still traps me in here. Reag out, I pce a hand against it, and it appears to be quite solid, growing more opaque where I toud with more pressure. My instincts tell me that I ’t break through it physically, no matter what I try, the magic though seems to resoh me in some way. My own magic squirms beh my skin in respoo the tact, wanting to… I am not sure what it quite wants, it feels hungry, I feel hungry in a way that I have never before. Like the magic is a meal made just for me, the smell, which isn’t quite a smell but some other sense, makes the saliva gather in my mouth.

  I cautiously retract my hand for the moment, I want to taste it, but I do not know how, or how safe it would be, nor do I know what is outside yet. Before experimenting, I decide to take another round around the barrier's edge, to see what else I spot, though before I start, I take a gowards the tree in the middle. I had not noticed the thermal sense before, despite the warmth emanating from the tree when toug it. Looking at it now, it looks just as before, no special heat signatures or anything I tell, maybe the warmth I felt was more of a feeling of safety? It’s hard to tell, the magic might also be relevant in it. I shake my head and turn back towards the outside of the barrier.

  The moon is still high in the sky, its dim light shining on me. I observe it for a bit longer, sidering my options. Trying to… eat the barrier might not be a smart idea, but her would be violence, I am fairly sure, though I ’t exactly stay here forever, I will need food and water eventually. My head tilts to the side as I hear a rustle of some sort, that isn’t quite a rustle. It is simir to the taste of magic, my brain processing a new sense in some roundabout way? I hadn’t heard anything from outside the barrier before, evehe rabbit jumped earlier, which makes me more fident in it being magic. Turning towards the source of the sound, it seems to e from the other side of my little circle of safety. Instead of starting to move quickly, I calm my nerves, and quietly start making my way towards the source, my feet, or paws? Softly hit the ground, making barely a sound as I approach.

  Staying low to the ground, I finally see the source of the sound. Someone is outside of the barrier, the sight is too blurry for me to make out exact details, though I tell that their hand seems to be pced oside of the barrier. I observe for a bit, the rustling grows in iy, despite there being no visible movement. That is, until small cracks seem to spread out from where they touch, quickly c the entire barrier. Slinking back, ay starts to grip me, clearly the cracks couldn’t be a good thing for the iy of the barrier, and this person had a clear grasp on their magic, assuming it is magic, which means I am at an unknown disadvantage, should they be hostile.

  Going through my options, I realize I doly have many. I try an ambush, but that would most likely destroy any ces at a versation or help, the same goes for running, assuming I even . Shaking my body, I raise myself up ale down on the ground in front of them, preparing to greet them in the open. They don’t seem to have noticed me yet.

  After a few moments of waiting, the cracks c the barrier seem to pulse, it almost feels like they’re expanding, though trying to watch them closely starts to cause me a headache almost immediately. Before I look away, the barrier breaks apart, into thousands of tiny pieces, all without a sound, not even the magical kind, as if whatever magic was being done just vanished into itself. A shudder goes through me, breaking my fasation with the shards, and remindihat I am not along anymore. My eyes snap back to where the stranger was standing earlier.

  Standing there is a woman wearing a long ade from some kind of deep blue material; she seems to be quite a bit taller than me, even sidering the fay reduced size now, she’d have been taller than me before I ged, and I wasly a short woman before. She has short blue hair with a pair of bck hrowing down from the top of her head, c her temples. Behind her head floats a shifting fractal, simir to the final moments of the barrier, its form overall gives the impression of a halo. This one doesn’t disappear on its own though, quickly starting to cause me another headache, so I avert my eyes downwards.

  Her eyes are surrounded in pale blue scales, which start at the base of a cute button nose, and after c her eyes, start trailing off towards the horns, where they disappear. An old scar leads from the bottom of her jaw line all the to her eyebrows, crossing over one of her eyes, the scales hiding a good part of it, but not the ey. Her eyes have a simir effect to the halo, though in a much less intense way, allowio meet them without shying away immediately. Much like the fractal kaleidoscope of her halo, her eyes are ging at a slow but sistent pace, the color and patterns I see are he same. I am so fixated on her face, and especially her eyes, that I don’t even notice whearts speaking, it takes her closing her eyes for a few seds to break the spell they pced upon me.

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