31. Morph
There was nothing quite like it. The feeling of her flesh betraying itself. Of skin dividing beyond and below. Growing, adapting, and becoming something new altogether. All of it coming with a side of pain. But Celia had grown used to that pain. Numbed to the full effect and rendering it little more than background noise. A distraction to be purged from her mind.
In its place came fascination. Naked awe directed at the transformation occurring within her. Green spines and malformed wooden hands emerging from within her flesh to without. Scales hardening and taking on a bark like texture. Feet likewise becoming more dirt like. Toe nails sharpening into dagger like rocks. All while her hair grew into a blanket of disparate flora. Finally followed by a pair of fangs snaking their way out from behind the cover of her mouth. One pair going up and another down.
Designation: Trueborn Hybrid (Beyondling)
Classification: Feastling
Slots open: 7
1: locked, 2: This maw for Mine, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense, 5: Lash, 6: Hard shell, 7: The camouflage horrific, 8: empty
Modifications available: none
Insight(s): The color of shadow, The weight of self sworn independence
[The Hunger Pained, The Self Fractured]
|Mark of the Belong to None|
Celia was transformed. Flesh taking on the appearance of her surroundings like grotesque mirror. And with but a pulse of will, it was undone. Her form returning to normal within seconds.
And as she did so, the ground spoke.
Or rather, Dreg spoke up from the ground.
"Are done? Hurry please, before worse comes. Sel’ci under siege, and boss needs help. And crew help boss."
For a moment Celia thought of ignoring him. Let that spite get out of her system. Unfortunately, she couldn’t find it within herself to be that cruel. Choosing instead to pick up the slowly regenerating Dreg, and hoisting him onto her back. Arms wrapped around her neck, as her shoulder tentacle wrapped around him.
"Alright. But one, I never agreed to be part of your crew. And two, how would we even get back up there? I can’t fly, and even if you could launch yourself up that high I don’t think you’d be able to carry me with you. So, what’s your plan little man?"
"Maybe we-"
"You think I could grow wings if eat one of those giant wasps?" Celia interrupted him, drool dripping from her lips.
Dreg responded as anyone might.
"What?"
It was confirmation enough. Celia was already on the move. Legs carrying her and Dreg forward. Nose leading the way. Hunger fueling her gait, and partially blinding her to how her hips rocked from side to side. Hid the embarrassment of her butt bouncing up and down. A seat that carried Dreg with it. Something her subconscious took idle note of, filing it in the back. Along with all other secondary thoughts.
A process she only allowed herself to take note of several minutes later. After she found her prize.
The eagle wasp was a mess of parts. It’s body a thing of barely held together chunks. One wing missing. As well as an arm. And a few of its legs. While what remained was held together by strings of some strange glue like substance.
It was disgusting. A hybrid of bird and insect on the outside. But little more than a hyped up bug within. Which she almost wished repulsed her. But whatever part of her that used to be horrified at the notion of eating anything with more than four legs had died long ago.
So rather than turning her nose up at the meal, she did the opposite. Grabbing some wood and using it to start a quick fire.
Much to Dreg's bewilderment.
"What doing? Thought you eat, see if fly?"
"I am." Celia agreed, pulling her latest prize into the flames. "But rush or not, I’m not eating anything raw."
"Ate tree raw."
"That’s different! Now shush, this should only take a moment."
And true to her words, the flame did it’s work. Like the stones she had found in the cave earlier, it burned with a fantastic heat. Cooking the eagle wasp in a little under a minute. Carapace hardening, then softening under the pressure of the flame. While it’s feathers were burned away. Revealing beneath their cover a bounty of meat. A bounty of meat that Celia wasted no time tearing into.
Forgoing any semblance of neatness as she did. Using claw and teeth like a beast. Prying chunks apart. Biting into soft carapace. And even shoveling the parts she had grown fond of down her throat. Till, after what seemed like only a minute or so of eating, her meal was gone. Not a trace of it left but her bulging middle. The organ expanded to the point that it covered her knees, and nearly made her fall forward. It was also hot to the touch. Like her stomach had become a living furnace.
Which may not have been all that far off. As a minute later, she began to shrink. Middle receding in waves. Size diminishing inch by inch. And as it did so, she grew in other places. Thighs thickening beneath her. Butt expanding outward, growing heavier and softer in equal measure. Hips surpassing the width already assigned to them.
By the time it was all done, Celia could feel the difference. And instinctively took a look behind her to see the damage.
Instead she found Dreg doing it for her.
"Big." He - not so discreetly - whispered.
She took his word for it.
Felt it wobble behind her. And then she sunk. Eyes squeezing shut for a moment as a screen popped into view. Words twisting into a new form, and bringing with them a sense of short lived vertigo.
Modification gained!
This anathema My blood > $Plug.in$ < |Mark of the Belong to None|
Creating skill: Consuming modification {output{ !
Skill gained!
Morphology