The Slums of Euridayl

27: Metamorphosis

(tw: agony, wounds, etc)

Thokre tossed the final ingredient into the base potion a bit flippantly, stirring with an expert flick in his wrist and an almost bored expression. Arius peered over his shoulder, the ever curious student. His initial thought was that when the Sun Peaches went in, the potion would become a lime green in colour. Arius was delighted to find himself wrong when the Sun Peach seeds reacted with the green liquid and the whole cauldron began to bubble until the liquid turned pitch black and came to a rest.

"Woah."

Thokre tsked his teeth and poured most of the liquid into a mug, saving a small portion at the bottom for who-knows-what. The old man then moved to where Kieran sat in the living room and offered him the mug. Kieran accepted the cup, eyeing it suspiciously as Thokre sat down across from him.

"Now then, the potion is finished."

Thokre gestured at the cup between Kieran's hands.

"The taste is horrible and you'll need to drink that whole cup because of the severity of your ailment. Also I'm not sure what will happen when you drink it."

Kieran shrugged and stared at the liquid forebodingly. It did not have any particular scent and that bothered him more than anything else. His eyes washed over the old man and then moved to the young man beside him.

"Alright. Thank you."

Thokre placed a hand on his hip and stared at the man with weary eyes.

"Don't thank me yet, dear."

_________________________________________________

Kieran downed the cup like a proper Dillac resident in hardly any time at all. It occurred to him that even Enid would be impressed. By then, Thokre had hobbled off to check on his "other patient" leaving a curious Arius and Kieran to the sitting room.

Soon enough, Kieran felt the effects of the potion and his face contorted to one of horror as he began to feel as though his tail were on fire. The fire started at the end and licked up his legs, growing hotter the higher it travelled. The man started to convulse wildly, arms and tail thrashing about the sitting room.

Arius' initial shock had halted an immediate action but soon enough he came to his senses and gathered the man into his arms. He held tightly to Kieran's thrashing body and did a half decent job at keeping him still. Kieran groaned through gritted teeth as he bit back screams of agony. Soon enough the thrashing settled as the burning sensation had turned to the literal and physical occurrence of the fleshy tail falling apart.

Kieran had given up trying to halt his screams as the tail had started to melt from his body and the scattered pieces began to imbed themselves in the rug of Thokre's living room. The pain was blinding and Kieran could practically see a searing white whenever he squeezed his eyes shut. Arius watched in mild horror at the melting flesh but became focused in a sort of wonderment when from the tail two legs seemed to be forming.

It was a hellish scene to observe but Arius knew that it would be even more hellish to go through. So he sat and held the man in his arms, brushing the blonde locks from his face and trying hard to think of comforting things to say. The young man wasn't sure if it was doing a damn thing to lessen the agony but he persisted.

Hours dragged on as Kieran's lower half slowly became less tail and more leg. Arius stayed with the man throughout the entire duration. Eventually morning sun dipped through the window and illuminated the sweat on Kieran's forehead. The man had stopped making sounds of pain about an hour before and he looked faint with stress. Arius finally pulled away from Kieran and analysed the success of the potion. Despite the mess of what used to be a tail finding itself over every surface of the sitting room, Kieran now had two legs beneath him.

Arius started the process of cleaning up then. He picked up all the mess closest to Kieran's body first, moving to the rest of the living room after. Sometime when the sky was streaked pink, Thokre finally came out from the room with Enid.

When he saw the state of his sitting room, the man seemed completely unsurprised. Arius opened his mouth to explain he would clean the mess when Thokre shushed him. The old man hobbled over to his apprentice and ruffled the locks of messy brown hair affectionately.

"My boy, you have done enough. Take a rest."

Arius blushed lightly at the words of kindness offered to him before nodding, and exiting the house to give Thokre his space. The old man at first set a kettle of water to boil and then turned back to his sitting room. Kieran had fallen asleep from the fatigue of the transformation, which was to be expected with how painful it had sounded. Thokre settled a throw pillow beneath the man's head before muttering the incantation to suck all the snakeskin out of his home. The mess of red fleshy colour and ash grey scales was a strange thing to watch levitate from his rug but he was content enough with not having to manually clean the mess, and sent it out to the dirt of his garden. Organic material of any kind made for a good fertiliser, afterall.

When that matter was taken care of, the old wizard leaned over Kieran and inspected the situation. Kieran's lower half seemed to be completely restored, though the leg muscles were likely fatigued. Thokre nodded to himself contentedly and moved out into the garden.

________________________________________________________________ 

Comment question: Explain the stupidest purchase you ever made.