“Check your emails,” Soph said. “The military contract is approved. Basic training starts in two weeks at the Whangaparoa Army Base.”

That was interesting. It was an army base, not a Navy base, and it was Whangaparoa, not the usual army training base down south. Whangaparaoa is at the end of a long peninsula and surrounded by the sea. The usual army training is in the central North Island with no coast in sight, so that is a good start.

I checked my emails, and my Truck can be collected. That's good. Two weeks in Anawahta would do me good before basic training.

“How’s the whirlpool going?” I asked.

“Good.” was the reply.

Both ladies were practising the whirlpool. Carla has found it effective in incorporating my essence. Now, we need to practice and test. I think of the waves to push things out, like foreign essences and essence skills and whirlpool to incorporate things. This is speculation. We need to test, and we are limited in our testing ability at the moment.

Since the attack, Carla has used that as an excuse to withdraw from the social limelight. No pictures have gone up for her since the change. Soph was the focus anyway, and while her appearances have dropped, she is still active. Some foreign ‘Enhanced People’ are making a social media presence overseas. Some have difficult mutations they struggle with and are documenting that for the public and to raise money for treatment.

The US had its first anomaly, and that was a media sensation. Things are now quite public, and over half of Americans think it could be true, finally. China is still being blamed. It really is a weird country.

The Canadians found and destroyed theirs. They are pretty sure there was one in North Korea, but it is hard to get information from that country. Russia has admitted to destroying one, and two have been found in Africa, one in Botswana and one near the border of Morocco and Algeria.

There have been no reports from South America yet, but with seventy per cent of the earth covered in ocean, what has been found is probably less than a third of the true number. That is not even thinking three-dimensionally. How many are appearing in the earth's crust and in the atmosphere? Even if they are not mutating life in the earth's crust, they are still releasing essence.

I can feel the urgency building. We have got to be ready.

“How was the bonding last night?” I asked Carla as she appeared. Carla now had a stubble of hair on her head.

“No success, but it was a great time. We will be attempting this regularly. It is great for our relationship.”

“My truck is ready, so I think I will spend some time at Anawhata.”

“Do you want to take Buck?” Soph asked.

“No, I think he should stay and help you with your bonding. Maybe you should get a normal dog and see if you can bond with that.”

Soph looked at me, “You are sure you want to be alone?”

“It is when I do my best work,” I replied glibly.

Then Carla surprised me. “I want to test my different forms before Basic Training.”

“The Shark one as well?”

“Yes, but maybe we will go back to the scales first and see if we can improve the change. I am not going to get better at it if I don’t try it again. I need to see how the whirlpool works.”

“When?”

“How about we try the Scales tomorrow, and then you go to Anawhata. I will contact you about changing back to flesh or trying the shark.”

That day, I picked up my truck and got supplies for Anawhata.

The next day, no ambulance turned up. “Where’s Amanda?” I asked.

“I didn’t tell her we were trying this. Soph was not happy. She has them on speed dial.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“No bond yet?”

“No, but that is part of this trial. Maybe it will work in times of stress. Soph is stressed.”

We used the same room as before. I wasn’t sure what would happen. Would her skin peel off? This could be a horror show.

“This time, as we are not concentrating on the wave, try to direct the essence to the change specifically. I think this could be more efficient.”

Carla nodded. She started whirlpooling, and I started a small stream of essence through the bond. She nodded at me again, and I increased the flow. This was a problem. I had no sense of how much she needed, and I was not in contact with any of her essence.

“Soph, I need you to tell me when to increase as I can’t sense Carla this way.”

Soph nodded and started giving me hand signals to increase a bit at a time.

Carla started scratching herself and squirming. “Itching again,” she said.

I was not feeling that. Oh, no, there it is, but it is muted, which is probably because the essence is all flowing one way. This method is better for me.

“Direct the essence to the skill. If you need more, let us know.”

She nodded.

Soph indicated more as Carla squirmed and let out a moan.

“Concentrate, Car,” Soph said.

More.

More.

The pain was increasing through the link, but it still felt muted.

Carla let out a cry.

“More,” said Soph.

Skin did start to flake off her as Soph said, “More.”

Then the climax happened, and Scales seemed to push out from her skin as Carla screamed in pain. I felt that.

“Drop it to a trickle,” Soph said.

Carla was not quite passed out but was not quite with it either. The change was complete. She was surrounded by dead skin and what had grown of her hair.

Soph was checking her. It is hard to get a pulse through scales. She was using a Stethescope she had got from somewhere.

I checked the time. “twelve minutes twenty. That’s shaved a quarter off the time.” I checked my Essence Pool, and it was less than half full. “Less essence, too.”

“It is still bloody painful,” Carla said.

“Yes, but you didn’t pass out,” Soph said.

“Fuck.” Carla said as she spat into the sink and sipped some water. Looking at all the skin and hair. “I need a shower. Shit, I am going to miss the fur.”

“Hey, wait, wait, wait,” Soph said, getting excited, “I think I can feel you. It is small. Smaller than the dogs, but I am sure. Can you feel me?”

Carla paused, “I… I don’t know. Are you sure it is not just Rich?”

Soph opened the door and let Rich out. “I am sure. I am awfully excited. Can you feel that?”

“I am not sure, maybe?”

“Ooh, I'm sure that's it. We need to work on it,” Soph said, almost bouncing up and down.

“Well, Soph,” I said, “I would encourage you to really work on this and make Carla your Bitch.”

Soph gave me a thumbs-up, and Carla gave me a frown.

“This will take me about half a day to recover my Essence, what about you Bitch?”

“My essence will be full in a couple of hours, you Bastard. I should have physically recovered by then, as well. I can’t believe how much essence you have.”

“You feed on my lifesaving essence. You treat me like a fucktoy. Now, you are going to banish me to the middle of nowhere. What a Bitch.”

“I am going to be Soph’s Bitch now, so your life is really going to be fucked. It is never going to be a quick and easy change. Nor painless, but I am hopeful.”

“You work on this bond, Soph, and make sure you can get the Bitch in line to ease the transition. I hope you can take the pain because I felt the fucking Shark transition pain back in the hospital. If she wants to try that, she is definitely a crazy bitch.”

“That was the mutation forming as well. Hopefully, this will be easier.”

“Hopefully,” I said without hope. “Soph needs to try to grow the bond and see if she can deaden pain through it.”

“Pain is not a feeling. It is probably the uncomfortable, nauseating feeling and the fear, anger, and hopelessness she feels.” Soph said.

“Fucking hell, don’t you turn your witchy feelings on me,” Then I had an idea, “However, you should practice incorporating all that into your waves. If we can get them out beyond your body like Rich and Buck, then that will be an awesome weapon.”

“And you think I am the scary one. Those ideas are frightening.” Soph said.

“You will undoubtedly be the Scary Witch if you can project that. Everyone will be scared of you, even more than I am. The Scary Witch and her Bitch. Fucking hell.”

“Oh, no,” Soph said, “if I can project feelings, everybody will love me.”

“You are so fucking scary,” I said.

“We will be powered and directed by the Bastard, so don’t you be putting all this on us,” Carla said. “We are definitely a badass fucking threesome.”