The Space Between the Stars

Prologue

Prologue:

The Change--as she had always called it since the beginning of time--wasn't a beautiful thing.

It wasn't something she'd wish on her worst enemy.

If she had a worst enemy. 

But that would require her to develop a relationship with someone. Which would also require her to know someone for longer than a day. But she had not been granted with that blessing.

Only a Curse: The Change.

It involved excessive amounts of blood, Earth shattering screams, and mind numbing pain.

It involved her.

 Most of the time she passed out from the transformation. Especially when it was a body she had never been in before. One that required all of her energy and strength to create. Sometimes it will be days before she woke up again.

Passing out was the only Blessing she had been given. Compared to the pain her Curse brought, she was relieved when she was pulled into a unconscious state. It was her safe haven.

But for this current transformation, it did not pull her under. No, The Change wanted her awake for this one. 

She gritted her pointy teeth against the pain that always followed with the cracking of her spine. She hated that part. But there were times where she didn't have a spine. Which honestly, she would take the unbearable pain of having one than to have no spine at all. 

When the last vertebrae snapped into place and her body stopped withering in pain, she closed her eyes. Listening to the new body she inhabited.

With small, delicate ghost hands she reached inside herself and felt the body' wants, needs and capabilities. She had a way with reading the vibrations of her body.

It is the reason why she is so good at what she does. 

And why she must bare this burden of The Change.

Trying to adjust to the body's movements was always the hardest part. The majority of the bodies had the same mechanics. Just in different forms. For example, most bodies she's inhabited had legs. But whether it was two or a million was a different story. Getting to move two new legs was a hell of a lot easier than working with a million for the first time.

She has visited planets made entirely of air. Ones where the deepest depths of their sea contained the worlds most populated areas. Underwater planets, planets made of poisonous gas, planets that were dark and light at the same time.

She had been to thousands of worlds in her short existence. Wandering through every waking moment.

It had always been this way. Her waking up in a different body every "day." Which on some planets could be years compared to seconds for others. It was not unusual for her to go to sleep underwater with fins only to wake up with wings to soar the next planet with.

At lest these planets let her have a taste of freedom.

It was only the transition between those worlds where she was a slave in the stars.

Because how could she be anything else when all she knew was pain in this strange space between the stars?

She took in a breath through her gills before she opened her eyes. She splayed her hands out in front of her and assessed the translucent webbed fingers. She knew it was a planet of water this time. She had read the body's vibrations. Knew what to expect. But it was still a shock to see her body even after examining the depths of its soul.