Perkins settled back home. The week had been quite surreal. Dealing with his own change as a turtle-creature wasn't quite so bad. He was more concerned of his wife now as a slug-woman. It was hard not to be a little... intimidated by such inhuman features as a slimy mollusc like foot to stand on. Things got only more awkward when they had not actually slept together since their transformations. It just didn't feel right at the moment. He had feared she had died... and now she was back. It wasn't that he didn't want to... He still loved her... she still loved him... but their bodies felt like strangers to each other as well as themselves. For some reason though his wife was eager today to change that.
"I... just don't know," the turtle-man said looking at his wife. It was the late evening and... the topic had once more come up.
"Come on, we're still married. 'Til death do as part, right?" The slug-woman said taking off her top, showing a very human torso. She toyed with her bra a bit, eager to get her husband's attention.
"Y-yes! Of course we are. It's just..."
"You think I'm ugly?" she asked a little upset, her antenna's moving as she shook her head.
"You know I don't. You're a beautiful woman in my eyes still-"
"That isn't exactly what I wanted to hear," She said sighing. "We are married... we should be able to still enjoy ourselves."
"I- I just don't feel..." Perkins looked sad as he slumped his shoulders. "You know I love you more then anything else in the world."
"Then touch me as you used to... I want to feel that love." She said approaching closer. She rose her slug foot a bit higher as her foot stuck itself onto his green tinged skin.
Perkins gasped. This might be a challenge but... maybe they could work with this.
Lilly looked about in the darkness. She was dreaming. She knew she was dreaming because of one certain fact.
She was a boy again. A human.. a male. She- He glanced down at himself and smiled a little. He was also lost in the void of darkness, not able to know where he was going. He knew he had to find his friends, they might need him!
"I'm afraid of nothing!" Shouted Billy at the void. He just had to... do what? What was he supposed to do in this void?
He walked, feeling very odd to not have tails any more behind him as well as the addition of- a certain other part. He quickly realised this void was suspended on a very narrow path and was getting narrower until it was only the width of his body... then just his foot... it was practically just a tight rope! He didn't know what would happen if he 'fell'. He could just about see the narrow path, it was almost like.. a branch? If he was a squirrel-girl it would be no problem to navigate. But as a boy, he had to take it slow...
Kimi adjusted her hood as she was once more in the thicket of the woods. She tried her best to recall orienteering herself but she just couldn't remember all the things she had learned as a grown up. She couldn't even remember which way the sun set and rose any more! Wasn't that just basic? It was either east or west but which one?
Not that it mattered, she couldn't see the sun. So that meant the moss right? Didn't moss grow in a certain direction? But no... she couldn't remember!
There was still that disturbing feeling she was being watched. It never left her, indeed she felt those eyes behind her, in front of her, everywhere she went. She was trying to tell herself she was just imagining it, but it was just too real!
"S-Show yourself!" She repeated. She was scared. She had to admit it. This thing.. this situation... was insane. Nothing in life presented her that it could ever be a possibility. That she would wind up as this... person.
She tripped...again. Rising up, she glanced at the tree branch that had somehow found itself there. She knew it was not there before. The teenage girl was not that stupid. Yet there it was. It was as if these woods were now taunting her. But that just couldn't be possible. These woods were not alive! Talk of spirits were just getting to her. Yes these woods had a legend of being haunted, but-
Suddenly, a vine just shot down from a tree, grabbing her left arm. Shocked, she tried to pull away only to have her other arm snared by another vine. "Help!" Kimi screamed as loudly as her lungs could. What was happening? What kind of forest was this!
Vines grew out from the ground, grabbing her legs. Kimi struggled as she felt completely trapped, ensnared like she was some kind of animal. She was elevated a few feet from the ground, and completely immobilised. She tried calling on all the strength she had to pull away but... it was no use. She was acutely aware of her prone position which forced a flush on her cheeks.
"Well now... this is unusual," A voice said
Kimi turned her head slightly and saw a dark shadow come out of a.. willow tree? The teen girl gasped. This.. this had to be the spirit that haunted these woods? It had shown itself to her? What did the legend say? Was it going to eat her? "P-Please let me go..." she said shivering in fear.
"Hush little one..." The adult figure approached, her voice was both old and young at the same time. Her clothing inked in black. She wore some kind of veil, as if she had come from a funeral.
"W-Who are you. P-please don't h-urt me" Kimi said her voice trembling in sheer fright. Whoever this person was seemed to command the forest. It was likely she was the one tripping her up all the time too.
"My name... is Morgana," She smiled faintly.
Kimi looked blankly.
"Morgana le'fey," She said staring at her.
"I don't know you," Kimi said wondering if she was supposed to know her.
The woman rolled her eyes, then snatched the hood from Kimi's head. "Oh? I find that very hard to believe..." she said touching the tips of her fairy like ears.
"I-It's true. I don't know you!" Kimi protested. The ghost had to believe her!
"Something is not right..." Morgana said looking up at the sky. "I am awakened... yet it is not the dawn of a new age. Where is the new dawn?" Disappointment and no less then a little rage was under her breath. The plan... Her plan, has gone awry? How!
Kimi shook her head. "I- I don't know what you're talking about. Just let me g-"
Morgana raised a finger and suddenly Kimi found herself unable to speak.
"You are changed by a great power... I can sense it all over you. You will tell me where it is now!" This little fey girl didn't have the elemental Earth stone of Merlin. So what happened? Her own wish was supposed to awaken her when the power touches a human being here for the first time! Her divinations were clear, these woods were going to be the origin point... but nothing had happened! There was no way that wish could have gone wrong. This girl must have made a wish...
"I-I don't have any power. I'm jus' a- I used to be a man- im lookin' for a cure" she explained hoping that would convince her to set her down. Being held like this was just... humiliating.
Morgana blinked then gave a very mirthful chuckle. "A man... you say? Oh my, how very interesting. I wonder what you could have possibly wished for to end up like that... unless..." She then chuckled. "It would seem some of my own powers are still in play. How utterly delightful. Tell me how you changed?"
"There was a- a skunk. It sprayed me."
"You don't recall any light perhaps?" Morgana leaned her face close to Kimi's as she spoke.
Kimi stared at those eyes, blue as ice to her own gentle green shining with a light of their own. "Y-yes.. there was a light. I only saw it for a second."
"Interesting... you saw the new dawn, but nobody else here has. That explains why I've been awakened prematurely... unfortunately, it creates a dilemma."
Kimi swallowed. She didn't like the way she said that.
Morgana gave a little smile. "You see, I am needed in the new age for... humanities advantage. I am its only salvation... Oh if only you knew just what terrible forces exist beyond this tiny small world of ours... humans can become gods... and I will make it so. But not just anyone.. oh no. Only those I choose... only those loyal to me, and those worthy. But I can not do that now... and it's all... your.. fault..."
Kimi felt the vines around her tighten. She started to cry. "W-What are you going to do?" This spirit was mad! Nothing she said made any sense!
Morgana gave it some thought. "It seems the new age will not come by for at least a hundred years... I will be dust by then. It is not acceptable. By awakening me now, I belong to this time. Because you saw the new dawn, you belong to another age now. The age I wish to exist in... so I only see one way to get what I want."
"Jus' let me go..." Kimi said desperately one more time.
Morgana shook her head. "That is one thing I can never do. Once I am strong enough... I'm going to take that body of yours, and you can have this one- for what little time it has left in it once I cast this spell. A portal to the next age is inevitably going to show up and take you... History has a way of correcting itself after all. But you won't be in your head. I will be..."
Kimi gasped. Could.. this witch do that?
Morgana paused to let this sink in, as she reminisced in the past. In truth she wasn't sure if she could create magic with the conditions in place. She would try though. There was too much at stake to let it end now. Centuries of waiting and she was too early? This must not be!
Her own wish.. her desire, for men to be an army, strong enough to usurp the gods themselves... Even in the face of the Romans, Merlin did not see the truth... but she did. She saw it all. She saw how empires were forged, but as great as the Romans were they only thought of their own small world... Morgana knew far more could be gained. She gazed back at the young teen girl. "Be thankful child, your sacrifice will save... many. Few can say that in their life, now can they?"
