Dragoneria (IN REVISION)

Chapter 3: Metamorphosis [REVISED]

Are you ready for a bit of action? Quick warning: this chapter does contain some graphic imagery. Be forewarned. For those of you who don't read A/Ns...well at least I can say I tried. But this is where the plot truly begins to unfold, so hang on for the ride, and enjoy the chapter!

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Aqua retired to her tent at the conclusion of the gathering. It was early enough that the day was not yet dark, but the sun was slowly sinking toward the western mountain range that bordered one side of Autumn Valley and curved up around its northern end. She sighed, weary from the day's events. Making her way across the packed dirt floor, she dipped her hands into a basin of water by the back wall where the bath was. She splashed the cool liquid on her face, then reached for a towel.

"Ah!" She cried out in surprise and clutched at her right foot. A sharp cramp had started up. Aqua stumbled over to the bed and sat down heavily, trying to massage it out. Another sharp pain in her left foot sent her into a quick cry of anguish as she doubled over, and saw the source of her pain. Her fifth toe on both feet was moving, cracking. She gasped, trying not to throw up as the bones shifted and reformed. The two toes were shrinking, and from the heel of each foot another toe was growing. All the while, the gaps between her other four toes were lengthening, almost like the talons of a dragon.

The tent flap swooshed behind her and Aqua's head whipped up, relieved to find it was only Olivia. "What's wrong, milady? I heard you—"

"Olivia," Aqua rasped, choking on another wave of pain. "Tell no one to bother us, and then get back here as fast as possible! I—ah—s-s-something's...happening to me..." She hissed through her teeth. "Go!"

Wide-eyed, Olivia nodded and ran outside. Aqua dimly heard her barking orders, but her attention was soon diverted by a new agony. She glanced back at her legs, which now felt like a hundred needles were stabbing at them from under the skin, and saw she was not far off. What appeared to be dozens of small, blue scales were now piercing their way out of her skin, sending thin rivulets of blood down her leg and pooling on the floor.

The tent opened again, then closed behind Olivia who tied it shut. "Aqua, what's going on?"

Aqua met her eyes, then stood shakily and came around to the other side of the bed. "This." She gritted her teeth again. The scales were now halfway up her legs.

Olivia clapped a hand across her mouth. "My god, what IS that?"

"I don't...I'm not sure—ah!" Now the blue scales had reached her waist, and a terrible pain had started up near her tailbone. More bones cracked, and Aqua's fists curled until her palms ran with warm blood. The tissue stretched and grew longer, and more piercing scales emerged to cover it. Something hard and weighted formed at the end and the pain lessened.

But Aqua's relief was short-lived. As the scales made their way up her chest, eating their way at her beautifully woven green dress, there was another bone-cracking sensation at her shoulder blades. She groaned and dropped to her knees, barely registering the fact that Olivia had knelt down in front of her.

What new horrors await me now?

She arched her back and nearly screamed, her jaw open in tortured silence. This pain was worse than anything else so far. Sharp bones pierced through her flesh and grew outward, with ligaments and tendons to hold them together and leathery skin to to cover them and fill in the spaces in between.

Wings.

She dropped onto her hands as the skin along her spine stretched, an extension of the wings, and she felt a prickly, hairy sensation run along a place where she had never felt anything before.

She had little time to dwell on this before a tearing feeling at her fingertips made her notice that the scales had already covered her arms and were now working at remolding her fingers into claws that she dug into the earth.

There can't be much more! It's changed almost all of me!

She felt the scales rising to her neck and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping for that to be the last of it. Her breath came in gasps, then a strangled moan as the sides of her neck seared and stretched. She grasped at them, her new claws scraping the forming inside of what felt like...a hood. A hood of flesh and scales like a cobra, that began at the base of her neck and cupped her ears, ending just above them past her hairline.

Her ears. The tips angled up to form a point, like an elf's.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.

The scales finally completed their journey up her face as a poking sensation made itself known in her lower and upper lip.

Fangs?

The excruciating pain was gone, and in its place was a slow throbbing ache, as if her entire body was a bruise. Realizing she was sitting in a pool of her own blood, she stood up shakily, using the bed for support. She looked down at her hands, then up at Olivia, who was pressed against the tent pole as if her life depended on its support. Her shocked expression turned the slightest more fearful as she made eye contact with Aqua. Then everything caught up to Aqua in a sweeping tide of darkness and the last thing she remembered was falling backward.

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Haha I left you on a bit of a cliff hanger! So what do you think? I revamped this part to make it more interesting. The old ending of this chapter is now going to be in the next one, which I'm currently working on rewriting and extending. If you're enjoying this book so far, please go ahead and click that star! (Rhyme intended.) It'll help me get discovered by other Wattpad readers so that they can enjoy my stories too! Don't forget to check out some of my other books too (I need more stuff for Ask or Dare), and as always, feel free to correct my mistakes and leave advice. See ya soon!
-Misty, out...