My plan was to lay down and have a short nap after enduring the increasing pain from walking. My condition, however, made it so I wouldn’t wake up for the rest of the day.

The next morning, I found myself staring at the mirror. My hair had surprisingly grown around one centimetre overnight, and my eyebrows and eyelashes were back too. Now matter how short, I was glad to have hair again. That said, the colour intrigued me. It was dark blue, like the night sky.

It seems I‘m becoming a dark elf after all.

Still looking at my reflection, I noticed my originally brown eyes had also changed to amber. My face seemed different as well, although I couldn’t tell why. Eventually, I heard the door open, and stepped out of the bathroom to receive my visitor.

“Good morning, Anna,” I said as I saw her getting behind the trolley to push it into my room.

“Morning.” She walked in and left all of her equipment next to my bed before she turned and looked at me intently. “Hm, it seems like Dad was right, the variant won the fight.”

Huh?

“You mean I won’t turn into a dark elf? I thought some of them were blue.”

“Only their skin,” she replied, leading me to the centre of the room. I stood still to let her measure me. “There are no records of blue-haired draell so far. Those who were bitten by bats, however, do display a wide range of unnatural hair colours. Some patients manage to keep their original tone, but you clearly weren’t one of them. Speaking of bats, now we know it doesn’t carry rabies. Not that you were at risk to begin with.”

I was somewhat relieved. It was great to finally have my safety confirmed, even though she told me the MAV eliminated other viruses while active. I stepped onto the scale before saying, “One less worry then. I’m just glad I have hair again, and I dig the colour. My eyes changed too, by the way. They’re no longer brown.”

Anna took note of my weight and led me to the stadiometer. She measured my height and looked into my eyes briefly as she did.

“You’re right, I hadn’t noticed. Thanks for telling me.”

She wrote down some more on her tablet and placed a hand on my back. She seemed to be searching for something under the gown as she led me to the bed.

“Can you sit down and hold out your legs?” Anna asked. “There is something I want to confirm.”

I did as asked, and she rubbed the sides of my ankles carefully.

“What are you looking for?”

Anna grabbed my hand and led it down until I had two of my fingers on my ankle. I felt a hard lump there.

“Can you feel that? That is a new bone. You should have a bigger pair on your back, too.” She opened my gown from behind and used the measuring tape once more. “You do. Believe it or not, these are already five centimetres long. Congratulations! You’re growing wings, Nora.”

My eyes went wide open in surprise. “Will I be able to fly then?” I gasped. “What’s going to happen to my legs!?”

Anna went silent and grabbed a syringe. She calmly replied as she took another painless blood sample. “Regarding your legs, all we know, for now, is that your ankles will develop some sort of extra finger. Unfortunately, we don’t understand what its purpose might be, yet. Bat carriers are fairly new to us, so we’ll have to wait for any of the other patients’ transformation to finish, or at least get close enough for us to speculate. As for flight, I’d say it’s impossible with the changes we’ve seen so far. Then again, we thought the same thing about magic until recently.”

I pictured myself soaring through the skies, looking at the scenery below. It made me smile. “I’d love to fly.”

She chuckled. “Who wouldn’t? Just don’t get your hopes up yet. You’re also growing a tail, by the way.”

I froze briefly and twisted my body, trying to look behind me. Indeed, I was. It looked like the stump some dog owners like their pets to have, but I suspected it would grow longer with time.

“I must say, you are taking these changes a lot better than I expected,” Anna commented, grabbing the camera. “All things considered.”

“Well, I know it’s a bit early to say this, but I was expecting things to be much worse. Being able to fly and use magic when this is over also helps a lot, I guess.”

“I see. That’s good, Nora,” she replied with a smile. “Very good, actually.” After she took a few pictures, Anna placed all of her equipment back on the trolley. “We’re done for now. I’ll take the sample to the lab and return shortly. Why don’t you eat something while you wait?”

She left the room, and I slowly headed for the table as I put the gown back on. The tray with my breakfast awaited.

I was halfway through my meal when I chewed on something hard. I reached for the offending object in my mouth, expecting to find a rock or a very hard seed.

What’s this?

A tooth!?

I used my tongue to feel around until I found an empty spot where one of my canines should have been. There was no blood, only the hole. I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or worried when I discovered the tooth was mine.

The remaining ones were still there, although one of them felt a little loose. I panicked when I tried pulling it and it came off effortlessly; root and all. It reminded me of an old horror movie I saw when I was a kid.

My first reaction to that thought was checking my fingernails and ears. I sighed with relief once I realised I was being too paranoid. My hair had also fallen out, and it had come back. The same thing would probably happen with my teeth.

What kind of bat doesn’t have teeth in the first place?

They don’t have blue hair, though...

Anna entered the room again and saw my nervous expression as I brooded about becoming a monstrous hybrid like the protagonist of that movie.

“Is everything okay, Nora?”

I placed my fallen teeth on a napkin and slid it across the table in her direction. “Will they grow back too?”

She frowned and came closer to have a look. When she saw what they were, she gave me a reassuring smile. “Yes they will, don’t worry.”

I sighed in relief.

“Do you mind if I take them, or do you plan on putting them under your pillow when you go to sleep?”

I laughed. “Be my guest.” I could tell the lack of teeth was already causing a faint lisp.

Before returning to my breakfast, I tried getting additional information from her. It was mostly for my peace of mind. “I know you told me no bat victims were done with the transformation yet, but can you tell me what other changes I should expect for now? If you can tell I am developing wings, it means some of them are already far ahead of me, right? What worries me is ending up as something closer to an animal than a person.”

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“The first bat carrier only appeared twelve days ago, so I can’t fully confirm nor deny that. Sorry.”

I nodded in disappointment.

“If it helps, there’s no evidence showing that you will look like a giant bat. Other than the wings, of course. The changes we’ve seen so far are mostly extra limbs and different pigmentation of hair and eyes. It’s certainly one of the tamer carrier transformations we’ve seen so far.”

It did make me feel better, and I was more relaxed after that.

She sat down across from me and continued, “First, expect the rest of your teeth to fall and be replaced with sharper ones. It won’t be anything too crazy, but your diet might also change with this. Your ears will become pointy, just like a vampire’s, and your hearing might also improve as it did for them. It could be even better considering bats have great hearing. We can do some tests on this today if you’re up to it.”

The pain had gone back to being barely noticeable after sleeping, so I nodded once more.

“Good.” She continued explaining, “Next, your eyes will grow slightly, and your pupils will become vertical slits. They will look and work like a cat’s. They’ll provide you with better night vision without hindering you during the day. This last detail is weird considering bats depend more on their hearing, but you can think of it as a nice bonus.

“Your chest will also grow a little to make space for bigger lungs and some additional muscles. Lastly, bat victims happen to be the other race that experiences heavy rejuvenation. You might want to prepare for that too.”

I had been so concerned about the immediate changes I didn’t think about it. I remembered that she frowned when she looked at my measurements.

“How tall am I right now?”

“1.57 metres,” she answered.

I was 1.60, so I lost three centimetres in just two days…

I’m shrinking fast, huh.

“I’ll grow back eventually, so it’s not as bad, I guess... Well, it depends. How much younger will I become?”

“It’s uncertain. For now, we know every patient of your race goes through the process, no matter how old they are, and it seems to be a greater change than with giants too.

“We can make a few predictions based on the other patients’ notes, but it’s hard to tell by appearance only. Every person ages differently, after all. That said, we believe your biological age will decrease around fifty percent by the end of the third week. The transformation could be completed before that, but we estimate it will need at least one full month.”

I said I didn’t care, but that is way too much!

“Are you telling me that in three weeks I will look like a nine-year-old?”

“Well… Yes. You might look even younger once the changes are over, since it could last more than what we expect.”

This is bad. I enjoyed my childhood, but I can’t say I’d like to go so far back.

People might not take me seriously anymore if they think I’m just a kid.

“No point in worrying about it now. Let’s leave that for when it matters. Say, since you’re done eating, how about doing the hearing test? Is your pain low enough for walking?

Being so small has plenty of disadvantages too.

Plus, if I age too slowly, I will be a child for many years to come.

“Hey, are you listening?”

Mom and Dad probably won’t like it either. Maybe they will?

She probably will...

“Nora?”

I suppose it’s still better than ageing faster.

Hopefully, my friends and family will understand and treat me the same as always.

“Hello?” Anna waved her hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my reverie.

“Huh?” I looked up and saw Anna’s worried face. “Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought.”

“You don’t say!” She replied with a smirk.

“A-anyway. What were you saying?”

She sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I asked if you feel well enough to take a hearing test.”

“Oh, sure. Where to then?”

She walked towards the door and looked back over her shoulder. “Follow me.”

We headed downstairs and entered the first lab section. Anna told me I was allowed in as long as I remained with her and didn’t stray from my designated testing area. She stopped to speak with one assistant before we continued deeper into the lab. The place was a large corridor with many rooms to each side. I could see a bigger door at the end, but we didn’t get close enough for me to read what it said next to it.

The room we entered was completely white and empty save for a metallic table and a few cabinets against the wall. The assistant, named Gary, followed us into the room. He then grabbed a couple of speakers from a cabinet and connected them to a tablet he was holding.

The test was simple enough. He played sounds with different frequencies and volume. I was supposed to raise my hand as long as I heard something. Anna decided both she and Gary would participate too, just to compare my hearing to hers and that of a normal human. Following that, I continued the experiment by selecting pictures matching what I heard.

By the end, I realised my hearing was somewhat better than Gary’s, but it was hard to tell if this was caused by the mutation or not. Anna, on the other hand, kept her hand up seconds after we dropped ours during each stage of the first test. If she hadn’t heard my comment the day before, I would have thought she was bluffing. She wore a smug smile as we walked out of the lab only to blush and cover her ears when I kept staring at them.

Her phone rang as we left, and she walked a short distance away to answer the call. She tensed up after listening to the other person. Despite her visible anguish, it was fun seeing how her ears reacted along with her expressions.

Ending the call, she walked back to me. “It was Jack. We received news of the location of another infected earlier today, he’s already on his way back with the ambulance. Let’s wait for them in the lobby, shall we?”

As we walked, she told me they seemed to have no clues on how this new patient was infected.

“The parents told Jack they were with their daughter the whole weekend and never saw anything resembling the black spores until she spat out her own. There was no mention of any animal attack either, so this could be a lead on how some people are getting infected out of nowhere.”

It didn’t take long for us to hear the ambulance approaching and entering the building’s underground. Jack walked in shortly after, followed by a nurse and an assistant pushing a trolley with an unconscious young girl lying on a stretcher. Noble born or at least from a wealthy family, considering the expensive looking clothes she wore.

Anna joined them as they passed next to us. I tried to run and follow them to the living quarters, but my pain flared up preventing me from keeping up. It became so intense it forced me to my knees.

Noticing my reaction, Anna came back to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Nora, are you okay?”

I slowly stood, trying my best to smile through the pain. “I’m fine. I just forgot I can’t run. I’ll be fine once I get there and rest some.”

She didn’t seem convinced. “I’ll trust you, but don’t push yourself. Tell me if it hurts too much, and I can bring a wheelchair for you.”

I thanked her, but dismissed the idea and began sauntering to the elevator. Despite slowing down, the pain kept getting worse. It was weird considering I hadn’t been all that active until that moment. Anna kept glancing at me, so I had to keep my act up. I feared that I would be confined to my room if she discovered how much it hurt after just a few minutes of activity.

Once inside the new patient’s room, I headed over to the closest chair and sat down to rest. Jack and the nurse seemed to be bothered by my presence here. Anna and Dr. Blake didn’t mind it, so I ignored their stares. This room was closer to the elevator than my own, so it was better for me to rest here until the pain died down, if it did at all. Even sitting didn’t seem to do all that much to reduce the rising flames.

Anna got closer to the girl and gently touched her cheek. “Her skin is too dry. Did her parents mention anything about it?”

Jack walked from the corner he was leaning at and stared at the girl. “She wasn’t like that when we arrived. We found a wound at the tip of her finger shortly after I called you, though. Those two didn’t realise it was there to begin with, so the part about them being with their daughter all the time was a lie. It’s either that or this girl is good at hiding her pain.”

It could’ve been my imagination, but I could’ve swore he glanced at me as he said the last bit.

“The dryness of her skin is most likely caused by an unknown carrier, so I plan on visiting her house tomorrow to see if I can find any clues. For now, I think it was something much smaller than a bat. Maybe an insect.”

Hearing this, Anna’s ears perked up. “An insect as a carrier?”

“Is that strange?” My voice was already shaking from the pain and sudden exhaustion.

“Carriers, so far, are all vertebrates like dogs or cats,” Dr. Blake answered. “If Jack is right, this would be the first recorded case of a… Are you okay, Nora? You look rather pale.”

Anna snapped at me. “That’s it! I’m taking you to your room!” It was almost like a mother scolding her child.

I just wanted to learn more about this whole thing before resting. They were right, though. I was probably pushing myself too much.

I sighed, giving up. “Fine...”

“Good! I’m getting that wheelchair, so stay put.”

She quickly left the room, and everyone else turned their attention back to the patient. It was already difficult to focus, but I learned a bit about her from their conversation.

Her name was Lily Rossendale, and she was only thirteen years old. She lived with her family in a mansion near a lake on the outskirts of the city. Jack commented that, while the house was huge, there didn’t seem to be much personnel, and that the few who were present stayed far from the family. He also mentioned that Lily’s parents were acting a bit too friendly towards him and trusted in everything he said without questioning. He still used magic on them, just in case. I felt his stare as he mentioned this last part.

They continued discussing her medical history and took a blood sample just before Anna came back with the wheelchair. I stood to get on it, and...