Annie, the girl's name was Annie. She was on a cot beside mine on the boat. I recalled seeing her come into the hospital...yesterday? A week ago? A month? I couldn't remember but she'd been there almost as long as me. I'd bought her building and I couldn't remember her name. Guilt washed over me. She looked dead.

Was she dead? So many had already died. How many? There was the old man, the two older sisters, the young freckled boy... more than ten...twenty? We weren't the only hospital. I recalled that much. An epidemic. Whispers from the healers in the halls.

Mother was still alive. That much I was certain of. She was a ranter when she was sick. She'd scream and yell and cause all sorts of mayhem for the healers. Not the ideal patient was my mother.

A salty breeze blew through the cabin when the healer opened the door. It cleared my fuzzy head a bit.

I made eye contact with the man. He noticed and came over. He did the routine checks and gave me a big smile.

"Feelin' better already and we not even ta da Island yet," he adjusted my blankets and glanced over at Annie. His smile slipped a bit and he went over to check on her.

Not dead, so it seemed. Though she looked close to it.

"You be a water one the way you perked up so," he smiled at me again and continued on the line checking the other people. "Will you be wantin' summin' to eat. We been givin' you fluids from that tube ther' but I can take it out if you think you could eat a bit." He smiled again and continued his rounds. Before he finished I'd fallen back asleep.

~~~

"This one is interesting. Code 00938, name is Rille, age 19. Lives in Blue-Palm Bay with her mother, Maple, age 57." There was some rustling of papers. Shuffling of feet. I was so tired.

"Magicless, and with some preexisting health issues that caused extreme swelling of the joints. Skills to note, a level 5 pain tolerance it's why we haven't had to give her as much Vallerian. We have reason to believe 00938 is one of the few water types."

"Can we speculate on why 00938 has survived when others have not?" A low female voice asked.

"I think I have a theory on that," another voice, this one familiar but with the pounding in my head, I was unable to concentrate.

"Her mother has a special skill called Luck Leech," the voice continued.

"Luck Leech," the female," I've never heard of that one."

"It's one of the skills that can only be granted by a certain god."

"Not a Blessing then?"

"No, This is a skill. It took me a long time to get the story out of her mother, but apparently, there is a ritual you do to summon the God Chance. He's the son of Esaias. God of chance, luck, and gambling. Is often the emissary of his father since Esaias is a hermit. He tends to take on the darker sides of gambling while his father takes the lighter. He is the only god able to bestow Luck Leech and that's only after a sacrifice."

"What sort of sacrifice are we talking about and what does that have to do with 00983?" The first male voice asked in a bored tone.

"I believe that her mother summoned Chance and used her husband and daughter as a sacrifice."

"I don't understand. What do you mean sacrifice? Her records show the father is dead, but she's obviously still here." This from the woman again.

"It's not a physical sacrifice but a sacrifice of their overall good fortune. They would have gone through their lives not knowing they'd been cursed with absurdly bad luck. Maple,"

"Subject 13582," interrupted the other male.

"Yes. Anyway, she thought it was a harmless tradeoff at the time. After all, they would never know. Then her husband died, an accident where he was run over by a boat, I believe. Her own mother made it so that she would have a more difficult time in life just so Maple could win a few extra coins in gambling."

"So she was born literally unlucky?" The female sounded skeptical.

"Still doesn't tell us why you think she survived and what any of that has to do with this," the first male sighed.

"The God Chance's power would have leached onto her. Her mother, by using a divine skill, tainted Rille with a small amount of godly power. Not all divine power is flowers and rainbows you know."

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"Ahh, now I'm beginning to see." Someone muttered and more papers were shuffled.

"I can see how that would stabilize the metamorphosis. Do you think we can replicate that? Could you use a small bit of your power on the others?" The woman asked.

"No," said the second man. "She was already tainted when she got the inoculations. I already tried pushing divine power into a few other specimens. It only accelerated their decline."

"Oh, look, I think 17563 is with us. Hello there," the first man said.

"Mommy," a young voice.

"You're much too old to be wanting your mother surely," said the woman. Then under her breath, she started reading off vitals. "Heart rate steady, temperature high, morphosis in bone altering state..." she trailed off. "Heart rate weakening temperature rising. I think he's going to go soon."

"Mommy," the young voice said again.

"Tie him down and take him to the tank. We may be able to save him. I would like at least one water male to survive. We can't very well breed them if they all die on us."

"Yes, Mr. Rience," the woman said.

Mr. Rience...why did that sound so familiar. It wasn't even the speaker of the familiar voice but the first man. Who was the second man? Where was I? Where was my mother? Who was Chance?

A coughing fit overcame me and I struggled to breathe. I opened my eyes but everything was out of focus and blurry. I couldn't breathe. My chest began to burn.

"Tank her too, you know what to look for. Don't submerge her just yet, I think she still has some time before that phase in her metamorphosis begins."

"Of course, Mr. Rience."

I felt something being pulled across my body. Then there was the sensation of moving. There was this warm floaty feeling. The burning in my chest slowly subsided. My coughing fit trailed off. My throat still hurt. Was there something stuck in it? I think I tried to pull it out but my hand was pinned.

There was a small pain in my arm followed by even more warmth. I could feel my entire body begin to relax. Oh, that was V. V made me sleepy. I forgot about the irritating object in my throat and fell back into my dreams.

~~~

"Subject 00938. One of our last remaining water metamorphoses. The only female. Age 19. Note her increase in Pain Tolerance since she was first brought in. As with other surviving subjects, there has been an increase in Physical Power, Stamina, and Defense. Her Agility is similar to the air subjects. She now has a land and water designation. Her agility on land has decreased for obvious reasons."

Someone touched my thigh and patted it a few times.

"Also note that when Subject 00938 was brought in she was magicless. She now has magic and the water magic skill. Like with other subjects these skills were gained during her metamorphosis."

"Would we consider her transformation complete at this time?" A young female voice asked.

"Hard to say since she's the only remaining female.

"Note the physical differences between the female and the male. We have noted that her hair and eyes were both brown. She has gained the secondary eyelid and it has covered her iris and she hasn't moved it yet. From what we can tell her eye color seems to have faded and has become a rather milky gray. Also, as you can see, her new hair growth is silver-white.

"Her aquatic changes are different as well. The males, their legs remain separated around the thighs so that their genitalia are left exposed. On the female, the genitals are covered with a thin layer of skin and everything is expelled through this hole here."

My eyes flew open as someone inserted a finger into my bum.

"COUhhghggg" I coughed and gagged. What the hell was in my throat? Why was someone sticking things in my butt? Oh, gods. What was happening? I reached up and tried to pull it out. Hands descended on me and pinned me down.

"More V, sir?" One of the people pinning me down asked.

"No, I think it may be time to wake 00938. I think at this point we can be fairly certain of survival." A man who looked familiar commented looking down at his clipboard.

Someone began wrapping restraints around my wrists. I couldn't see them, everything was too blurry. Why couldn't I see? My eyes were open and I couldn't see. Was I blind? No, I could see, it was just very blurry.

I struggled, I tried kicking my feet. Water splashed and flew up and got the man and his clipboard wet. A lot of water. I braced myself and tried to sit up. More water spilled out and onto the floor.

Wait, water.

Both my hands were restrained but I'd been able to lever myself up enough to see.

I was being eaten by a giant fucking fish.

"AHHCCOOOUUHUUgGAA" Gods Above. I was screaming and hacking and the more I struggled the more the fish struggled with me.

"Sir?" A soggy female asked. She was holding up a syringe.

Was that for the fish? Yes, kill it. I moved my body out of the way so that she'd have a good shot.

Only my torso was attached...

My legs.

"Yes, but not enough to sedate her entirely. I want to remove the tube and get her eating normally again. Give her a few hours to calm down and then we shall have a little chat," the man with the clipboard patted my thigh, no not my thigh, what the hell was that, a giant black tuna?

"Vitals are dropping, heart rate increase, blood pressure shift...She's going to faint, sir."

"Give her the Vallerian anyway. When she wakes up hopefully she'll have calmed down. In the meantime, why don't we break for lunch, get dried up, and finish rounds in an hour."

"Yes, sir."

The woman stuck the syringe in my arm. A warm numbing feeling flowed over me, then I passed out.

Name- Rille

HP 2145

MP 7894

Level- 13

Age- 19

Race/Species- Human Altered Aquatic

Gender- Female

Occupation- Freelancer

Exp- 228

Physical Power- 392

Stamina- 483

Defense- 598

Agility- 10 (on land) 546 (in water)

Intelligence- 123

Magic Power- 875

Water Magic- Lv 2

Skills

Knife Work Lv 1

Dual Wielding Lv 1

Swimming Lv 2

Fishing Lv 2

Net Lv 1

Rod Lv 1

Pain Tolerance Lv 7

Deception Lv 2

Etiquette Lv 1

Appraisal Lv 1

Harvesting Lv 1

Cooking Lv 1

Cleaning Lv 2

Sewing Lv 1

Knitting Lv 1

Dyeing Lv 1

Soap Making Lv 4

Extraction Lv 3

Dancing

Singing

Leatherwork

Shearing

Spinning

Weaving

Pottery

Painting

Titles- Dedicated Cleaner

Enemy of Sheep

Lover of Baths