To make sure it is not some sort of a trick I’ve been testing the indigo skinned stranger in the reflection for at least a minute. Swinging my arms wildly, touching my nose and sticking out my tongue. I have even done the Bugs Bunny cartoon step out of the reflections frame and jump back in followed by a turn to walk away and “Think fast!” surprise quick turnaround.

“How is this real?” The voice sounds like my own, but not as nasally as I remember. A touch deeper and with a bit of gravel to it. “Do you feel lucky, punk?” Like an action hero. Or the morally ambiguous stars of those old spaghetti westerns I’d spent hours watching with my dad as a kid.

I fire off a few more statements and catchphrases getting more comfortable with the sound even as I take the time to study his... my body. I’m definitely taller. Perhaps six foot three, or even four, where I’d been barely scraping at five foot six before. The slight pear shape that I had been steadily developing over the last year, due to my habit of comfort food binging to battle my ever increasing depression, has completely disappeared.

Now I’m lithe and wiry, with the muscle tone of competitive swimmer that somehow finds the time in his busy schedule to be a heart-throb actor and underwear fashion model when not training in the gym. It’s almost ridiculous. I can’t tell if it’s the fact that I’m still soaking wet from my recent underwater dip or if this body naturally looks like it’s been oiled down for a barely SFW swimsuit calendar photo shoot.

I step forward to get a better look at my face. Golden amber eyes compliment my blue-purple toned skin. Should I call it burple? No, that sounds kind of gross, and I’m looking damn good for a description like that. How about Midnight Indigo? Yeah, a bit pretentious sounding, but much more fitting. Just like with my voice I’m glad that I can recognize a hint of my own features. Though now sharp and angular, instead or round and pudgy. Being able to see myself in this new face somehow makes this whole situation a little more comforting. Less alien. Knowing that it’s really me standing here in the flesh and not some sort of a disembodied dream spirit possessing a sylvan Adonis.

My jawline is much more defined, and like my torso, completely devoid of hair. The hair that does frame my, very handsome, face is stark white and matted down to my neck, stopping just a little past the top of my shoulders.

I see something nearly hidden peaking out on the side of my head and reach up to brush the silky strands back. The long tapered tips of my ears exposed I can’t help but play with them for a moment, outlining the shape with thumb and forefinger.

A weird tingle builds, then shivers down the side of my neck to race across my chest. Goosebumps rise in the wake of the delightfully erotic sensation as it speeds downward toward the lower parts of my new impressively developed anatomy.

Releasing the sensitive edges of my ears with a rather embarrassing gasp, I follow up with a manly throat clearing, and a quick glance about in an instinctual moment of making sure no one was around to catch me doing what I had just been doing.

I spot a shadowed corner a few feet away and move over to it before turning back to the mirror to test a theory.

Standing perfectly still I watch myself in the reflection. For a brief moment nothing seems to happen but then, I’m gone. Well no, not completely gone. I mean if I really concentrate hard enough I can see the outline of my form where the dim light catches the edge of my body but I think it's only because I know that I'm there. I take a step to the side and the sudden stark clarity of my form that jumps out of the shadows in the reflection makes me start and grin with a hint of fear tinged surprise.

“Damn, this is cool!” I try it a few more times, making sure it isn’t some fluke trick of the light. I test moving a bit more slowly gauging how fast it takes me until I pop back. Around the fifth or sixth time, my joy filled knee-slapping laughter makes it impossible to duplicate the effect.

My laughing stops, however. when I spot something behind me, half hidden by a mass of crystal is a skeletal arm wrapped in tatters of cloth.

I step back in the shadows and glance about nervously. Once invisible again I feel a little bit better and start to move in the direction of the remains to get a better look. The length of bone ends in a splintered mass but there are more bits of white scattered about on the floor, forming a sort of path leading further back into the cave. I move to follow, skirting around a glowing block-like crystal growth the size of a washing machine and find the possible once owner of the discarded appendage.

And perhaps a few of his friends.

Strewn around a sort of nest made from of the skeletal remains of fish, small animals and what looks like a few dozen birds are three broken and mangled human skeletons. Or maybe humanoid would be a better description as one of the bodies has an odd bone structure. It’s skull a bit too wide and thick, with a couple of large tusk-like teeth jutting up from its lower jaw.

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Inching my way closer to the grisly display and I can make out other things besides bone  woven into the nest. Along with sticks and twigs are strips of cloth, bits of crystal, or perhaps gems, shiny coins, arrows and a two-foot-long sword in a tattered scabbard.

My hand is just about to reach over and free the blade from its prison when a strange cold shiver runs from the base of my neck to midway down my spine. I freeze and a second later hear a faint scraping sound.

Moving as slowly as I can I glance back toward the way I came. Peering between the crystal obstructions to the water-filled tunnel I see a shape, still half submerged, sliding out of the pool. The water ripples gently around a foot thick serpentine body covered with dark blue-green scales. As it continues to inch out, a large knot appears and I see that part of it is coiled around a waterlogged rabbit the size of a small dog.

I draw my gun slowly.

The snakes' movements stop just as my pistol clears the holster and it uncoils from the rabbit. In a flash, it darts away with a burst of speed that turns my blood to ice. I reorient on it and see it, thankfully, hasn’t come any closer and has instead coiled itself around one of the beams near the tunnel entrance. I lean to the left to get a better look and silently fire off a few F-bomb laden curses.

The thing is leering over my wet boot that’s still laying out in the open.

My mouth goes dry as I get a good look at the creature.

I know what it is straight away. I’ve thrown them at players on more than one occasion. But actually seeing it in person it’s much more horrible than I could have imagined.

Its head is human in only the loosest sense, more of a skull really. With tight drawn skin dusted with a smattering of fine scales over its on the protruding cheeks. Yellow eyes the size of tennis balls continue to study my boot from their deep setting under a sloped brow. A nose, little more than two vertical slits, sits over a mouth so wide that it ends where the ears should be.

“Sssomeone intrudersss my home?” It lowers its head to my wet footwear and a forked tongue flicks in and out.

Watching and hearing words spill pass its lips and over the protruding, eel-like underbite, nearly makes me scream.

A set of frilled spines bristle stick out at odd angles and quiver in agitation as it swings its head about. They give off a strange, low rattling sound that makes my skin crawl. The serpentine body slinks away from my discarded boot. Uncoiling to move toward the mirrored beam I’d shot on my arrival.

What the hell do I do now? Naga’s are crazy dangerous and they have magic too. I wrack my brain trying to think what breed this could be but it doesn’t match the descriptions or pictures from the pages of my numerous Monster Handbooks.

Survival: Success!

Lesser River Naga

These evil creatures prefer to ambush their prey, dropping from trees or striking from underwater to inject their paralytic poison. Though dim-witted they are capable of speech but thankfully do not possess the innate magical talents of their, much more intelligent, and dangerous cousins.

Wait? I get a strange rush of knowledge. I don't so much see the words as... feel them?  Almost as if a Game Master has read out or delivered the breakdown of a monster manual gamebook description directly into my brain.

My fear ebbs ever so slightly. Okay, this thing is dangerous and definitely super-freaky scary, but maybe not as bad as I thought.

“Where isss you?” The Naga slithers around a few of the glowing crystalline growths. “No worry. We make friendsss, yesss? I no eat you very deliciousss sssweet meatsss.”

Funny, I really don’t believe her. Especially by the way she is making loud smacking noises with her lips and dribbling like Wile E. Coyote. I squeeze the grip of my pistol for confidence but then an awful thought comes back and I look about at the glittering crystals everywhere. The last time I shot this thing in here the reflective flashes blinded me. Doing that again now would be would be a definite death sentence.

I bite my lip and reach down to the nest and start to tug a thick strip of cloth free.

Stealth vs Naga’s Perception: Fail!

The material comes free with a loud sshrrrip that echoes off the walls of the chamber. The Naga’s head pops up from the far corner, its bristle beads rattling. Once again I witness that horrible flash of speed as it flies around the obstructions and toward its nest.

Every instinct tells me to scream and run but I somehow force that reaction down. Scales sliding over some of the crystals coating the floor the Naga slams against the wall in its haste but it quickly spins in my direction.

It doesn’t move for a moment, its eyes and head flicking left and right as it studies the darkness where I’m standing some ten or so feet away.

“Isss you here?” It’s jaws open and between rows of needle-thin teeth, two long fangs extend dripping poison. “You isss play hide gamesss?

Careful to move as slowly as possible and not break my Shadow Meld I’ve bought the wad of cloth over the barrel of my pistol holding it firmly down like a sleeve. The Naga is slithering closer now, those glittering yellow eyes searching.

“I will findsss.” Its tongue flicks, tasting the air.

I hold my breath, easing back the hammer with my thumb. It’s only a few feet away now, but it’s leaning its head away. Damn it. It is too low for a clear shot.

“Then I eatsss.” It whispers it low, a stupid grin plastered on its face.

“Naga, please.” I grunt.

It’s monstrous heads whips in my direction, frilled spines bristling with a deafening rattle.

I fire.