Everything she tried to avoid came rushing in. The restraint she built inside her mind had broken down in a single simple sentence. A snake? What does she mean? No! You don’t need to know, just ignore what she said. But as much as she might try, the seed has already been planted.
She spoke softly under her breath, unheard by anyone. “You just had to say it.”
Ixalia tried to fight it, but the last remains of her defiance crumbled when she beheld a genuine wonder in Sidy’s eyes. It can’t be that bad if she’s looking at me like that, right?
Gaze slowly sliding down her own body, she managed to pause just before she could see anything but the fight had already left her. I’ve got to see it now. The sight was terrifying, but beautiful at the same time.
Her sweatpants were a wreck. Her legs were fused. No, that isn’t true. It was more like they were replaced entirely. Gone. And instead, her body just continued down, turning scaly at the hips.
The usual human front was all there, slightly displaced, but present. The backside was different, it was missing, to be precise. Her gluteus maximus was replaced with only a slight bulge that seamlessly continued into a snake’s tail. Or body, whatever you call it. Hips remained more or less the same, it looked like her pelvis was still present, but the femurs and all the other bones under them might have been gone.
A quite sensitive and rather personal question sprang up, but it was not pressing, not right now. She could deal with it later. But eventually she’d have to.
Beating sounded in her ears as her pulse quickened. She followed the new shape of her body to its end. It tapered to a point, ending beyond where her normal appendages would have ended, but only a little.
One thing was for sure, she wouldn’t be standing up any time soon.
Amazement replaced her initial shock and apprehension as she beheld the scales and she now understood her friend’s expression. The bad emotions of anger at being changed or fear of everything happening did not go away, they were just shoved aside for now. Because… the scales. So pretty, Ixa thought as she ran a hand over them.
They were smooth and fine at the back of the tail. And the color. They were iridescent, changing from deep blues to rich greens depending on how the light hit them. At the front were larger ventral scales, just like on a snake, and these were a uniform lighter green.
Ixalia stared, completely transfixed. She just couldn’t tear her eyes away. Lifting some of the scale didn’t hurt her at all, soft skin was still beneath them, even if little was accessible under ‘normal’ circumstances. The protective covering was quite hard to the touch and would probably take some effort to get through by force.
If my legs changed this much, what else is different? She was tempted to go in and scan the body part more thoroughly, to look for any other alterations. She didn’t want to do it for the same reason she didn’t look below until now. She was scared of what she’d find.
A loudly rumbling stomach was what finally interrupted her examination and brought forth another concern. There was more material than she began with and it had to come from somewhere. Magic could have been its source, but if it was anything like the regeneration and regrowth spells she knew of, her body would have been the primary source of the nutrients.
It looked like entirely the wrong time to be thinking of eating, but now that she was aware and paying attention to it, she couldn’t think it away. It demanded action, it required filling.
Luckily, Perry, Jerry and Lubosh seemed to be done with stacking an inordinate number of furniture at all the exits they found. There were two, apart from the main entrance. Both probably used by servants to carry things in unnoticed.
Ixalia took off her backpack and stuffed it under Sidy’s head as a makeshift pillow and stroked her head one last time. “Shhh, I need to move away for a bit, just rest and try to sleep.” She then rummaged through the med-kit and procured a strong painkiller that she administered to her friend, who managed to gulp it down on the fourth attempt.
“Guys, can you help me? Would you drag me over to those tables?” She looked at the three people approaching her and asked, pointing to a veritable feast laid out to the side.
Green shirt frowned a little before speaking. “How can you be thinking of eating right now?”
Ixa pointed to her ‘legs’. “All this new flesh had to have come from somewhere and I’d rather not underestimate it. Should it have come from me, I have to eat something. Not to mention that I am positively ravenous.”
Perry raised a hand. Her own, not the shared one. “Actually, I could eat something as well.”
“Same.” Said Jerry and Lubosh’s belly chose that as it’s cue to chime in as well.
The girl looked about at everyone present, not just the five of them. “Actually, we should all eat. And get everyone something to drink. Force them if we have to.” She furrowed her brows. “Who knows what else the magic did? Better get some fluids and a meal inside them before something happens. Something more. Not to mention we might not have the time to do so soon.”
Nods were her only answer before the conjoined couple managed to come up with more. The man was the one to speak. “So… uhm… how do we go about doing this?”
“I can see glasses from here. Just make everyone conscious drink a little and that over there seems like some kind of bread. Probably the safest bet, and water should be around if there is a feast here. We’ll take care of everyone else later, once we get ourselves sorted.”
“Oh, that makes sense.” Lubosh made to move but Jerry grasped him by the shoulder and stopped him.
“Sure, good and all that. But I was more thinking of how do we move you.”
Ixalia replied without thinking. “Just grab me below the shoulders and drag me, no need to complicate it.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Okaaay, you sure?” Perry, this time.
Ixa looked at her, uncomprehending, until the other woman pointed to her mangled arm and it connected in her tired brain. “Oh, right,” was all she got out.
It took her a moment to find words again, her eyes lingering on the malformed, charred-looking lump attached to her side of similar visage. Both still throbbed with waves of pain, but either it lessened or she grew numb to it.
“Just grab me under the good arm and by the waist,” was her decision.
The ‘twins’ gripped her under the armpit and Lubosh wrapped his hand around her midriff. They had to the right amount of cooperation but soon, they were moving in the direction of sustenance.
As they approached a pair of corpses, one laying on top of the other, the bottom one shifted, proving it wasn’t a dead body at all. It was the woman, who had been rushing at Ixalia, the one Liman almost hit in the head and did mange to strike twice.
So, she’s still alive. The part-snake thought.
Here, in a slowly growing puddles of blood was a source of all their current problems. One that could still be retaliated to and in reach, at least.
Time seemed to slow down and might have paused entirely as the girl stared and debated with herself as to what to do. Before her was a way to release some of the tension, anger and anguish that threatened to consume her, that she had to exert no small amount of effort to keep a handle on.
Do I care? A part of her wanted to leave her there to bleed out. It was obvious she was unable to move from out of the lump of steel pinning her to the ground. She’s die, sooner or later.
What a strange thing, the mind. Never in a million years, would Ixalia think capable of just turning her back on someone in need of help. And here she was, thinking of doing just that.
Is that who I want to be? Will it be someone I can live with for the rest of my life? She didn’t think those thought in exactly these words. But the concept went through her head, nonetheless.
It was an extremely attractive proposition, to stay silent and simply ‘walk’ by. The others were preoccupied with Ixa and didn’t see that she was still alive.
I could do it, I could just…
The thought of having such power over someone’s life was intoxicating and her own mind was now scaring her near to death.
How can I even think this? This isn’t me. Oh, Asha, watch over me and don’t let me become who I almost did just now.
“Stop, stop. Take me to her.” She exclaimed and pointed to the injured woman. Her carriers obeyed and she sent them on after they dumped her on the floor. “Get me a loaf or something as well, as you go by.”
She then turned back around. “Zev! Throw me some bandages. And packing gauze.”
Normally, she’d just use a tourniquet, but she was out of those. She’d have to pack the wounds for now and deal with them more thoroughly later. Neither bullet hit an artery and the one that hit her arm went clean through. The one in her leg probably hit the bone.
That’s got to hurt, Ixa thought as she recalled a lecture where they were told that a femur was the most painful bone to break.
Ixa didn’t move the dead man yet, not that she could. He was wearing plate armor with chainmail protecting joints not covered by the plates and a gambeson underneath. It was all polished and ornamental. Not that it helped him much with the unhealthy angle his head hung at.
The man’s mace was flung wide and was nowhere close, but his dagger was still attached to his belt, as was the woman’s to hers. Her short sword lay nearby where she dropped it.
She had red clothing on, some other kind of armor by how stiff and bulky it looked.
Reaching around, the girl removed all the weapons and threw them out of reach. She didn’t start treating her patient right away, though.
There was something she had to do first. She had to make sure she protected herself first, make sure she was safe from a patient who could do her harm. Who intended to hurt her moments ago.
She was about to do something she twice swore never to do. Once at her school’s immatriculation, then before being taught in class. She’ll probably have to swear a third time when she receives her diploma.
The young girl was about to use her learned medico skills to do harm. Ixalia first used one of her diagnostic spells to locate four specific nerves. One for each leg and arm. Next, she used her scalpel spell to cut the woman’s median nerves and then her tibial nerves, effectively making her a quadriplegic.
Cutting only the nerve was not easy, but she managed it with some effort and made the cut clean. With modern medicine, it should heal perfectly without any lasting effects or complications. The thought that these people didn’t have modern medicine did make its way into her mind, but she quickly dismissed it as irrelevant. If not here, it was back home and she’d do it herself if it turned out she had to.
It might have been vastly excessive, the woman seemed to be hardly able to move as it was. But that was the key word there, seemed. Ixalia didn’t want to take the chances, she’d help her, but on her own conditions.
There was simply no telling what the woman would do or how she’d react.
And maybe, just maybe, a little vindictiveness did bleed into her decision making.
Once she was done and Zev provided the requested items, the now-serpentine healer started working. She had the man help push the body away and then, after giving her painkillers, they began stripping the woman out of her clothing, to get at the injuries.
She moaned and groaned and lost consciousness several times during the process. That wasn’t a good sign. They got her out of her armor, and it was one. There were metal plates sown into the outer layer and the inner one provided hefty padding. Cutting her shirt and pants open, they started packing the wounds and binding them.
As they worked, Lubosh passed them and placed a pitcher of water and a loaf of bread nearby, speaking only a few words. “They’re good, fresh.”
When the duo finished, they tore gloves from their hands that they got from Ixa’s pack at the beginning of all this caretaking.
Then he broke the bread in half and passed it to her, who wordlessly began eating. Zev didn’t get more that four bites in before she was finished and drawing deeply from the pitcher.
“More,” she got out in between mouthfuls.
“Food or water?”
“Yes! Uhm… both, please.”
He got up and brought back more loaves, giving her another one and then another. One more and two batches of water later, Ixalia was finished, panting. He was looking at her with worry in his eyes.
“Are you okay?”
Ixa had to take a moment before she answered. “I think so. At least now that I ate and drank. I didn’t realize how close to empty I was running, on both accounts.”
“Are you sure? I think you just ate more that some people do in a week. Where did you even put all that?”
“Really? One loaf and a glass of water and you judge me?”
“One? Ixa, you ate four and drank two pitchers not glasses.”
“I don’t think this is the time to be joking around.”
He had to suppress a shout, instead he pointed to the two empty vessels on the floor. A platter he used to bring the bread lay nearby, also devoid of everything it once carried.
“No way,” the girl placed a hand to her belly, “I’m not even feeling stuffed. That much shouldn’t have fit inside and I am already starting to feel a little peckish again.”
Zev took a step towards her and placed a hand on her forehead. She felt a little tingling that she associated with magic and his second hand landed on her healthy shoulder.
“Damn, I can’t make a sense of that. Your body is seriously messed up.”
She wanted to put it off, but now her worry won over her reluctance and she cast a more detailed spell on herself. As her friend said, the feedback was a jumbled heap of confusing signals.
“Neither can I.”
“I think you should get some rest, try for some shut eye, if you can. Doctor’s orders.”
“You know what? I think I just might.” She knew first hand that one was rarely entirely objective when it came to one’s well being and health. And while many doctors and medicos wouldn’t heed another’s advice, she most definitely would.
Her plan to have him drag her back to Sidy and then get them both to the other side of the room from the double doors were squashed when a loud bang sounded from said entrance.