Two Tails, One Rotten Heart

All the stories were true

Nala was dead. Or...at least she thought she was but if so then how could she still feel the water in her lungs? It spread out reaching up to her throat getting into her bloodstream. As soon as the water touched her blood it turned into an inferno, she was burning alive from the inside and couldn't help but wonder if this was what her mother had gone through. Perhaps this was her fate for always being so rude to grandfather and Ula, this would be her eternity.

"...not much to look at."

Who's there?

The words were at the tip of Nala's tongue and would have come out if the fire had not spread to her head. Something was pulling at her hair, her scalp maybe trying to rip her head off and screams echoed inside her. Her fingernails were being ripped off, her mouth unhinged, her teeth being pulled one by one, her arms were being cut off she was sure.

Help me! Somebody help me, please!

Nothing. Had she imagined it?

"...transformation...longer than usual."

"Will she...pretty....no scales?"

"Weak."

More and more whispers assaulted her and Nala felt that old rage building up inside her once again, not even death could kill this anger and she felt relieved that it was still there. Nala was not weak and she would open her mouth and yell it at the strange voices and then demand they help her! She wasn't even able to open her mouth before the fire reached her legs and the worst pain of her existence seized her. Nala convulsed and the screams that were being held down finally erupted. Her legs were melting. They had to be melting. Strong arms held her down as she thrashed and begged them to put an end to this. They ignored her.

Nala's screaming didn't let up until the numbness began to take over and she couldn't feel her body at all although it was much better than having to endure the pain of death not once but twice. Once again the darkness pulled her under.

*

Nala was slow to wake up, eyelids barely fluttering before closing again. It took five tries just to open her eyes and minutes of blinking for the blurriness in front of her to go away only to see...spikes headed right for her? Instinct alone made her body jerk up and she gasped and rolled to the right side. She tried landing on her feet but fell to her bottom with her tail flopping useless in front of her.

...

...tail?

Where her legs should have been a large tail and fin took their place. At the top of Nala's waist where her soft skin dissolved into scales, it was a almost a copper color like the copper brass knobs old man Freddicks would sell in town. Further down it turned a dark reddish and lightened to orange, the color in the sky after a rainstorm when the sun would be just setting and would the skyline would be ablaze with orange colors. It was the color of fire. The appendage ended in a flimsy almost see through fin with orange tints, like a fish.

She had a tail.

A sort of choking sound started up in Nala's throat which turned into laughter. The kind where your body bends over and you hold a hand over your stomach in fear of rupturing something from laughing so hard. It wasn't long before the hysterical laughing turned into gut wrenching sobs that had her noise clogging up and her eyes stinging. Those turned into screams. Horrified screams for her father's disappearance, for her mother's death, for Ula, for her grandfather being alone now, for her own death that she was nowhere near ready for, and for this tail which mean't it wasn't over yet. There would be no rest for her.

Nala didn't even notice when someone walked into the room and clamped their hand on her mouth forcing her to be quiet. She looked at the slender hand covering her mouth and followed it all the way up until she came to perhaps the most beautiful female Nala had ever seen. The girl had brown skin that seemed to glow and pale blonde hair that flowed around her face in a short cut, almost like a boy but slightly messier. It wasn't just her coloring and face that was impressive but the amor that covered her breasts, torso, and tail. It was covered in scales and a blue so dark it could easily pass for black, knives and daggers were all over her person. It was a miracle she could swim under all that weight. What really caught Nala's attention were the girl's eyes. They were so blue they were practically glowing, Nala imagined in the dark those eyes would be just like the moon, lighting up the darkness in a peaceful and memorizing way.