Luke had been walking across Colorado for three days now and was glad for having good boots. If anything he was too well prepared for the summer's hiking; his backpack was a workout to carry. He'd made over fifty miles through scenic mountainous country, taking photos and sketching rocks and trees. He had to pick a major in the fall semester and was leaning toward chemistry, but geology was tempting him on this trip.

In the late afternoon, stormclouds loomed. Luke was about to pull out his tent, but looked toward a cliff a hundred yards away. There was an overhang that'd be good shelter from the rain. He headed for it just in time. The storm began lashing the ground as he got close. He darted under cover, looked around for snakes or bears or something, and relaxed. He sat down against his backpack and watched the rain for a little while.

When he'd eaten a protein bar and fiddled with his phone and the rain was still going, he shrugged. Might as well camp here tonight. He reached for his pack again, then spotted the cave.

It wasn't just a rocky overhang he'd found; it was the shaded entrance to a crack in the hillside. The slanted sunlight had just reached the right angle to show it. Luke crept through the gap, barely wide enough to walk through without turning sideways. Beyond it and a winding passage, he saw something glitter. He took out his phone and shined it into the gloom.

Crystals! They were all over this little cave. Luke excitedly tried to classify them. Watery clear blue slabs of aquamarine grew amid pinkish... what was it... rhodochrosite? Or maybe rose quartz. These weren't valuable gems, but wow, shiny! He had fun shining the light around and watching everything gleam.

One rock stood out. He crouched beside it. It was about the size of a bowling ball, oblong, blue and shot through with jagged white streaks and silver speckles like stylized lightning. "How'd this get here?" he said, poking the thing. It didn't match the stone formations nearby, and it wobbled, loose. He took lots of photos.

He frowned, recalling the weight of food and camping gadgets that he'd been carrying around. He couldn't just stuff his backpack with crystals to put on eBay. Wouldn't be right, anyway, to wreck this place. He did want a souvenir, though. He chipped off a few bits of the rosy gems from unobtrusive spots; he could give his friends some. He was about to turn and leave to set up his tent, when his gaze fell on the round rock again.

It was oddly warm to the touch and had a rough texture that made him think of a giant egg. He laughed at the thought. He'd seen videos of people making decorative "eggs" out of wood and sparkly resin. He didn't really want one of those, but they were cool and he could find someone who did. He tried hefting the stone; lighter than he'd expected. "Eh..." He picked it up and began walking out of the cave, juggling it in his hands. Maybe he could find room for it.

The rain was worse than even minutes ago, so he tossed the rocks aside and set up the tent. He could start early tomorrow.

#

In the morning, the rain had stopped but a thick mist hid everything. He stretched and got dressed. When he tried to heft his backpack he frowned; something seemed off. His shirt hung loosely around his shoulders, stretched out from all that hiking, and the straps didn't fit right. He adjusted them; it was important to be comfortable on the trail.

Around noon, a highway crossing with a truck stop drew near. Luke was glad for it; his feet felt swollen. Inside, he bought a sub as an excuse to sit around relaxing, but then he found he was hungrier than he'd thought, and went back for a footlong sandwich he could snack on later. Meanwhile his number got called for access to the showers. He left his backpack behind. He stopped on the way, though. What if somebody stole it? Luke set the pack down just outside the shower and felt better about that.

When he caught sight of himself in the mirror while undressing, he stared. His neck felt... long. Maybe it was just the mirror's angle or that he needed a haircut. But his jeans were hanging lower than they should, too. He washed up, puzzled, and peeked out a few times to check on his stuff. It'd be a shame to lose the cool rocks.

He dressed and frowned. None of his clean clothes fit right, and his jeans settled low around his hips. Weird. He went back to the restaurant and checked through his stuff, sorting it on two tables. There was no detergent or anything that could've shrunken or stretched his outfit.

"Excuse me; is this table taken?" said a tired trucker, pointing to the one where he'd put the "egg" rock and a book.

Luke startled. "Yes! I mean, no, but let me grab my stuff." He snatched it back and began repacking. He stuffed the rock into the bottom of his pack but thought better of it; he didn't want to break the thing. Instead he repacked his dirty clothes and camping tools under it.

He set out again for another long walk, leaving the highway and its noise behind. Between the clothes and the extra souvenirs he was carrying, hiking felt weird all afternoon, as though he were wiggling faintly and bobbing his head with each step. He could quit doing both, but only until he got distracted, and then it started again. By sunset he'd made good distance but wasn't sure of his position. His phone was acting up, resetting whenever he tried using its map software. Luke scowled at it, then at the looming clouds ahead. Time to camp again. This time he picked a spot beside some pine trees. The tent went up quickly, and it didn't rain after all, so it was a nice night. He practiced making a fire, more for fun than for cooking. He bedded down in his tent with his backpack just outside it.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

In the night, he heard screeching and rustling. Luke opened the tent flap. Three raccoons were sniffing around the backpack, one of them working a zipper. "Hey! Shoo!" Luke scrambled out and kicked at them, scattering the bandits. They watched him from the trees, and he glared back. Luke dragged his backpack into the tent with him and zipped it back up. Had they gotten into his stuff? No, the zippers were still mostly closed. Still, Luke looked through everything again. He was kind of worried about the stone egg, as though the critters would gnaw on it. Ha; if they'd tried they'd have broken some teeth. He felt vaguely proud of that. Still, yeesh, he didn't need to kick them. He'd overreacted.

He set up a metal pan as a noisemaker by the tent flap, tried going back to sleep, and couldn't. His whole spine and back itched, and he was chilly. Maybe... maybe the egg was still warm? He took it out; it was. He lay down beside it and felt its presence like a heater. "Why am I so fascinated with this thing?"

He fell asleep next to it, and woke up cuddling it like a pillow. It was still warm. Luke frowned and sat up, surprised at himself. Then he winced, since he'd sat on his tail. "Ow, what?" He turned and grabbed a snakelike thing anchored to his spine, covered in many shades of blue scales and tipped with a sort of horizontal fin. It took him ten seconds to process this before he panicked, flailed around, and ended up in a heap of collapsed tent.

Luke yelped and untangled himself from the fabric. "How, what?" He crawled out in his underwear and t-shirt, then reached back in to make sure the egg was okay. It was fine, and he sighed in relief. So was the rest of his stuff. But the tail! It wiggled behind him and tickled his legs. He'd bulked up around the thing, too, and there were more scales all over his hips and lower back.

He paced. He was seeing things. Time to get to a doctor and find out what crazy mushrooms he'd eaten and forgotten about. Luke pulled on his jeans again and got stuck. They were caught under his tail... could it be real? And they were just too tight around his hips to even pull up. Luke stared down and realized how strained his underwear was around the sides and back. Something was really wrong, here! He glanced back toward the egg for reassurance; at least that was safe.

"Okay. Cleaning up, then doctor." He recalled a town that ought to be maybe five miles away, so he'd stop there. What about clothes, though? Luke blushed. He had a pair of jogging shorts, so he switched to those. They stretched tight, too, feeling skintight against his scales. "Except I don't have scales," he insisted. He shook his head and packed up, starting with the egg. He wrapped it up carefully in laundry, muttering, "Sorry you have to share space with dirty jeans," and set off again.

He tried to ignore the changes, even though his tail wiggled with each step. After a few miles, the finny tip brushed against his knees. Longer? He caught sight of the town ahead and hurried onward to look for a doctor. A rock caught his foot. Luke crashed down, hearing a ripping noise. He sat up and wriggled his ankles. His boots had torn, despite being made of leather. Claws peeked out from them, and blue scales.

Luke removed the wrecked boots with his shaking hands. His entire feet had changed to match his tail, and even as he watched, the smallest two toes on each were sticking together, their nails joining as they became one clawed digit. A jab of pain from his ankles revealed a new pair of toes starting to grow out backwards like a bird's. Scales covered everything and the claws were shiny off-white like pearls. He wiggled his toes. Scale-less flaps of skin slowly grew in between his front toes.

Luke tried to stand on his changed feet, rocking back and forward to find his balance between the front- and back-facing toeclaws. His shorts' elastic band snapped as he moved, and they fell away.

He might be seeing things. But feeling them too, and having even leather boots break on him? He couldn't dismiss that as a fever dream. He took out his phone... and got no signal. How small was this town he'd reached? He rummaged for any other pants, but had none. All he had left was a towel to tie around his waist. He hoped there was at least a clothing shop! Grumbling, he set out again.

The village didn't impress him. It was... rustic, like his trip to Colonial Williamsburg, and the streets were cobblestone. There wasn't even a Wal-Mart. He did find a shop with a needle-and-thread sign, though, and went in.

A bell jingled. A shopkeeper peered suspiciously from behind the counter of an all-wooden room with just bolts of cloth on display. Luke's tail wriggled free of his towel, and he startled and tried to hide it.

The shopkeeper said, "What do you want?"

"Pants!" said Luke, facing straight toward the man and keeping his tail still. "I'll be right back." He backed out of the store, feeling like a fool, and hid the thing again. He re-entered. "Pants. A large size; I don't care about the style. And is there a doctor?"

"No doc around here; you'll have to go to Highdelve a few miles out north. As for clothes, hmm." He brought out a pair of brown linen pants that looked like something from a Renaissance Faire. "I'll give you these for three."

Luke hadn't seen any town by that name on the map. "Three dollars?"

"What?"

Luke shuddered, and his tail slipped free and flicked nervously. The shopkeeper spotted it and hopped back. "One of you! Look, I don't want any trouble. Just take them." He tossed the pants toward Luke and fled into a back room.