The crack spiderwebbed out from the top of the egg and its shell, that was made sturdily enough to even resist the falling of the heavens, began to crumble. Falling to pieces and releasing waves of light, noise and gale force winds. Filling the sky with a turbulent aurora, a swirling rainbow of celestial fire.

Where the egg once lay there was a puffball. Covered in a viscous and mysterious grey fluid. It lay there shivering till the wind had dried it off and the pale tendrils of the tree that stood above it, had finished freeing it from the remainder of the egg shell.

First there was one limb, made of bone, sinew and celestial steel.  Covered in feathers that were colored gold, more radiant than the sun. Then there came the second limb, the second wing.

Together the two wings were wide enough to encircle the entirety of any mortal sky. Only the heavenly plane was big enough and high enough for them to be fully spread, without dominating the whole space.

Then came the legs. There were three of them, long  regal limbs, with three-toed feet, that were tipped with metal claws, that were strong enough to crush an entire planet into powder. Finally the head emerged, it was mounted on a neck that was both swan-like and graceful and bore a beak that was long and sharp, and filled with teeth that made mountains look like mole hills.

The gargantuan bird stepped out from the slimy sack that it had emerged from, and looked around, blinking as its fiery eyes took in the sun for the first time. After taking some time to rest and recover  the energies expended with its birth and adjust to its new existence the great bird shivered, its feathers momentarily shifting in the breeze, revealing a glimpse of structures of that would have been more at home on a machine rather than on any manner of living being.

Poking out from beneath the beast’s skin were metal struts and plates. Mounted along and within those struts and plates was an infinite number of turrets and cannons. As the wind blew harder the crest of fluffy yellow feathers that lay atop the bird's head was blown aside, revealing a structure that looked strikingly like some manner of hollow bodied unicorn’s horn.  

There was a roar, that became a cough, that became a sneeze and with a flash of light and feathers and a final cry of pain  the bird disappeared and in its place there was a woman. Her head was covered with the same luminous, yellow, feathers, that the bird had, had. And on her forehead was a  single silver-black horn.

*****

“Fucking finally, I’ve been waiting for like a hundred years for you, girl.” said a voice, of familiar loudness.

Edna’s head turned to find the speaker, more or less forcing her body to comply. The dizziness that she was feeling from her sudden shift in form and scale brought her down. Knocking her off of her feet and onto her backside.

Edna scowled, shading her eyes, to keep out the heavenly light, that threatened to blind them. She craned her neck and found a pale green woman sitting up in one of the tree.

“Ell? Is that you?” said Edna. Frowning. Fairly sure about her guess, but still wanting to make sure. The woman in front of her was very different compared to the girl that Ed remembered.

There were the small changes, like the fact her purple-pink hair was longer and thicker for some reason. There were larger changes, like the fact  that the green of her skin was now leaf-green rather than olive green. Or the fact that she’d seemed to have grown less muscular, her build seeming to have rounded out a bit, with her curves seeming oddly exaggerated.

Then there were the positively huge changes, like the elephantine tusks that now jutted from her mouth looking like misplaces set of horns, or the second pair of arms that lay folded in her lap, or the hissing snake that seemed to now live rooted to base of her spine.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“No, it’s your other half-orc cousin, that you share a boyfriend with…” said Elena, rolling her eyes.

Edna frowned, not appreciating the sarcasm. Right now she was experiencing whatever one called the opposite of a headache. An experience that was far from being anywhere near as pleasurable as it sounded. It was like a team of very aggressive movers were adjusting and setting up new furniture within the confines of her skull. Riveting things into place and scratching up the metaphorical floors as they pushed things into their proper position.

“Okay, well now that you’ve brought him up, I don’t suppose you know where he is?” asked Edna.

Elena crossed and uncrossed both pairs of arms as she sighed.

She dropped down from the tree and the snake, and tusks shrank disappearing within her body. Soon the second pair of arms began to shrink as well.

Edna found herself feeling slightly  queasy though the resulting Elena was more familiar, the actual changes were downright painful to watch.

“Don’t grimace, I bet you have some freaky-deaky stuff going on too.” said Elena.

Edna opened her mouth, wanting to argue, if only just for the sake of arguing, then she fell silent.

Stunned mute, having suddenly been afflicted with the knowledge that should she want to, she could make a cannon come out of her chest. In fact she if she really wanted to, she could turn her whole body into a living arsenal. An airborne fortress  that reduce everything below it to ash.

Imagining her skin tearing away and her muscles sliding apart to allow that change pushed her over the edge. Edna turned and bent over and a hot steaming spew poured out from her mouth  like she’d become a faucet at the end of the universe’s foulest plumbing system.

Eventually she stopped throwing up and was able to master herself. Plying the ancient art of self-delusion and telling herself that she really didn’t mind the changes to her form quite that much.

Then with a stern face she turned to look at Elena, who stood behind her holding Edna’s hair for her while wearing a concerned expression.

“So...uh...where’s Billy?” said Edna, her voice sounding  a little weak.

“In the tree.” said Elena.

“In the tree?”

“You know? Doing the whole adjustment and power-leveling thing that we all just went through?”

“Power-leveling? Wait...so you mean he’s still not done yet?” said Edna.

“Well, yeah, but of course he isn’t. The big lug spent all his time making sure, you and me and Tam, and rest were all set and going and then he kept watching over the process and making sure that we stayed that way, even though his trees can pretty much just handle that on their own. Hell, he still wouldn’t have started, if I hadn’t made him go and handle his business before celestial energy he was channelling in the half-baked form he was using, fried him extra crispy-like.”

Edna sighed, nodding.

“....Good call.”

“Of course, it was.” said Elena. Ending her words with a snort, that made sparks and smoke come out of her nostrils.

“Okay, so Billy’s going to be out of the picture for the while I guess….so what’s next?”

Time moved differently in the heavenly plane, sometimes flowing in the opposite direction of the currents that flowed through the mortal world. If Billy’s words held true, their little group would have a little over ten thousand years to wrap up the war of the gods, before it was too late.

If everything went right they’d have only been away from Monde for a span of five to ten years. In Edna’s case she found herself feeling both awed and stressed just thinking of it. What bothered her the most was the fact that that broad stretch of time, was apparently only going to be just barely enough for what they needed to do.  And all that time would already be gone and spent before they knew it. Immortals counted years the way men counted seconds.

“What’s next?” said Elena.

“We do what we said we’d do, and move onto step two. The Thousand Ghost have already been dispersed. Ditto for the shades. Now its our job to go and make a few friends.” said Elena.

Edna rubbed the bridge of her nose feeling a slight headache coming on, as she thought of all the work that they had ahead of them. She gazed at the broad, vibrant expanses that lay below the floating isle, feeling a bit of excitement rising within her. She wasn’t sure whether was more anxious or thrilled, but she found herself feeling impatient as she made a pair of massive yellow wings emerge from her back.

“Okay, I’m ready to go if you are.”

Elena chuckled and as she did so, the clouds above her began to sink, gathering at her feet. She rose into the air, carried on a cotton white palanquin.  

“Ready? Girl, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ve been waiting a hundred years for your ass.” cackled Elena. As she zoomed away from the floating isle.

Edna’s brow rose as she watched the girl go, and then she felt a rare bit of childish, competitiveness. Curious to see just how fast her new abilities and body had made her.