Celia felt sluggish. Body heavy, and eyes almost refusing to open. There was also pain.
A spot of it, crossing over her middle. Leaving her chest feeling as if it were made of lead, like she had a great weight tied about her. There was pleasure there too. A satisfied feeling that made the whole world feel "bubbly". And then Celia looked down, saw her stomach in a very bloated state and realized exactly why she felt like she was experiencing the best hangover of her life.
An epiphany that was immediately ruined by the beginnings of digestion. Or rather, compounded on. Her entire body burning with an uncomfortable heat as her bizarre biology got to work.
Only for her tremor sense to go off like a bomb not even a moment later.
Something in the cavern all but exploded. Force rippling out from it in destructive waves. A pillar that rose to the ceiling collapsing from the aftershock as whatever it was vanished from her senses.
Intuition told her that meant it was in the air. And common sense told her she should duck.
She barely managed it. Dropping low a second before a blur of black and yellow bolted overhead. Moving too fast for her eyes to track properly. It simply was, and then it was gone. All evidence of its existence vanishing as fast as it appeared. At least, up until her tremor sense flared in warning, painting a picture of continuing destruction coming her way.
And it was moving frighteningly fast. Shockwave slamming its way through the air like a gale wind, dust and rocks flung about in its wake. The force of it all hitting Celia like a trip to the ground. Nearly throwing her off her feet and into one of the rocks she had used for her cover. A cloud of dust following shortly after, painting the world a dull brown.
But Celia didn’t need to see to tell what was coming her way. The thing that caused this, whatever it was, was heading back this way. Slower this time. Fast enough, and on the ground, that her Tremor sense could actually track it. Feel it’s every step in clear, vivid, detail. And she was surprised to find that it wasn’t some giant monstrosity or some sort of fear inducing abomination. No, it was shaped like a man. Arms and legs and a torso walking her way, each step giving her a slightly more detailed picture than the last.
He, if it was a he, was shorter than her. Thin and fragile, height increasing by the barest of margins over the course of the next twelve seconds. Then he was here. Standing beyond the cloud staring her way.
Celia thought about running. But that would be a mistake. Whatever He was, he was too fast for her to escape, and he currently wasn’t attacking her. So there was a chance she could try talking to him. An idea she almost immediately discarded based off the sheer absurdity of talking to what, as far as she could tell, seemed to be a living disaster.
A disaster that spoke first. "No run? Strange, most run? Why not?"
The dust cleared up by then. Cloud clearing and revealing the monster across from her.
He was a slight thing. Skinny like a blade of grass, bones almost visible through the cover of his mottled yellow skin. Black cloak draped over his almost child sized stature, head barely rising over four feet. Eyes like red pits, holding no irises she could see. And in his hand was a long wooden stick.
Despite his size, Celia wasn’t foolish enough to think him any weaker. The evidence of his strength lie in the absolute destruction he left in his wake from moving over here faster than… well faster than anything she could think of. Faster than the fastest of trams.
And he was waiting for an answer.
"I, uh, didn’t really think it would help. You seem pretty fast and I’m kind of weighed down." She said with a laugh, punctuating the statement with a hearty slap to her still bloated middle.
Only to immediately realize what she had just done and flush red with embarrassment.
And the stranger said nothing.
At first.
"You is can talk? But how… you is weak?"
And with those words, Celia was given the distinct impression that she was in more danger than she knew. An insight that instantly got her to start trying to think of an escape plan, and as she did so, her stomach took its chance at getting back to work. The size of her middle slowly reducing in size as her quirky biology slowly began to kick back into action.
Which as it turned out, generated an insane amount of heat. The sudden shift in temperature giving rise to a wave of sweat pouring off of her. Falling from her like brow, and sticking to her arm when she tried to wipe it off. A heat that only got hotter the longer she stood there, the longer her rapid digestion continued, which was… different from the times before. Like her body was struggling to put process her latest meal.
It was distracting to say the least. So much so that she didn’t even notice the strange and tiny not-man move. His miniature form appearing just a foot away from her, head tilted up, his eyes staring into hers.
"Why can speak? Tell or die."
There was a coldness to his voice. The dead serious answer now kind.
Unfortunately for Celia, her body answered for her. Stomach once again shrinking in size, lurching inward and prompting a burp to launch itself from her mouth. Loud and distinctively unladylike.
The short monster in front of her responded with a kick. A kick that disintegrated his own leg. Ground exploding beneath them. The force whipping into her, throwing her. Celia was flying before she even realized what happened. The pain only catching up a second after that and growing in intensity when she hit one of the caverns many stalactites, sinking two inches deep into it, creating a small crater around herself. Body screaming with pain.
Her tremor sense warned her of his approach faster than her eyes did. But, either way, she was too slow to react. One moment he was in the distance staring at her, and in the next he was standing on top of a nearby boulder, leg regenerating as he looked down a malformed beak of a nose at her.
"Is rude why speak? Would fit with other? But, too weak to be rude? So, why speak? Answer smart please?"
Celia’s stomach chose that moment to finish its work. Going close to flat, once again adding strength to her, hips bulking out by an additional few inches along with the rest of her lower body. Screen flaring to life at the center of her vision.
Modification gained: Lash
And Celia immediately dismissed it.
"Ugh, I just always have been." She groaned out, the beginnings of a headache taking hold.
And Mr. child sized stared in silence. No anger, or confusion, or any emotion at all was written onto his bizarre featureless face. He just stared.
Celia took that as her chance to equip her newly acquired Modification.
Modify being?
Slots open: 4
1: locked, 2: Null tongue, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense, 5: Lash
Modifications available: none
Modifications Complete!
Celia only managed a second before the uncomfortable sensation of her body changing grabbed her. Scale and flesh twisting and sliding at the point of her left shoulder, pain blooming to life as an arm length tentacle popped free of her body. Skin colored the same pale white as her scales. It was far smoother however, and felt like having an extra arm. Only it was coming out of her shoulder, lacked any joints whatsoever, and had no bones in it at all. Which wasn’t exactly like a limb, but it was close enough.
And then she noticed how her short and poorly worded interrogator was staring at her. His eyes just the slightest bit wider, like he was just as surprised at the transformation as she was. Which wasn’t very at this point. Honestly she was more confused on why it was called lash when all it did was give her a shoulder tentacle.
But as soon as she thought that, her new pseudo limb lashed out at their audience of one. The arm length limb growing longer in the process of its attack, and moving with a speed Celia herself didn’t possess. Both of which were minor details in comparison to how it cleaved through the boulder he was standing on. Slicing several feet into it before coming to a stop.
Yet it still missed its target. Who, instead of retaliating, just continued to stare at her.
"Interesting. Shape change, how? Tell? Te- AGHHH!" He screamed, body covered in lava from the bug Celia had collected earlier just for this exact kind of scenario.
She ran before he could recover. Bolting back in the direction she came from. Feet hitting the ground with a new weight, butt actually bouncing with the movement. A new and alien sensation, even moreso than the feeling of her newfound tentacle limb dangling behind her as she ran. Well, up until she brought it in front of her just to see if she could.
She wasn’t sure what to do with it then and let it go limp once again. Just in time for a sound like the earth breaking apart to go through the whole cavern. Vibrations painting a clear enough picture for her to realize that her little distraction had ceased being distracting.
Proven a second later by a voice that sounded suspiciously like a very angry child.
"Hurt me! Hurt you! Hurt you!"
Celia didn’t think. Instead she acted on instinct, reaching into her bag of fire starting rocks and throwing a handful behind her. Each and every one of them combusting into flames the moment the either hit the ground or each other.
Another shockwave shook the cavern, and suddenly the almost child sized dart was no longer flying directly at her. He was going straight right now. An arm regenerating as he did so. He still had another limb to destroy before he was temporarily out, however, and he used it for all it was worth. Punching the air with all the force of a mountain and flinging himself at her.
Celia didn’t waste any time and threw herself to the ground. Hitting it chest first before realizing that she actually had a bit more chest than before. A minor detail, one overshadowed by the way her behind wiggled beneath her. Hips meeting the floor beside her.
Meanwhile, her pursuer hit the ground a distance away from her like a meteor. His impact tearing up the cavern floor for a hundred feet around where he landed. Earth cracking and flying away in chunks. New crater birthed in an instant. A crater he crawled out of with a singular missing arm and pure rage in his eyes. Rage that was pointed at her like the tip of a sword.
Intensifying as he braced himself for launch once more.
Celia wouldn’t be fast enough to get out of the way. She wasn’t particularly agile and she certainly wasn’t fast either. If she were to bet on what was going to happen than she’d bet on herself dying before she even got up off the ground. The odds of which increased by no small amount when the living ballista in front of her finally launched himself her way. Air audibly being split by his form as he hurdled through it.
Only for the cavern to begin shifting shape right then and there, less than second before his minuscule form turned her to paste. The shifting geometry suddenly removing him from sight, and taking Celia upward. Ground beneath her rising straight toward the ceiling. The speed at which it did so once again causing her to fall flat against the ground. Leaving her unable to move as the ceiling got dangerously close. It’s face meeting hers seconds before she was smashed into it.
She tried to convince herself it was a better way to go out than being turned into a red crater by a toddler sized living projectile.
But instead of being instantaneously crushed by the ceiling and floor meeting, Celia found herself phasing into the stone above and appearing somewhere else.
Somewhere she could feel wind.