One bright flash… that’s all it took. A split second and we were gone, careening through time and space; our bodies being disassembled and reassembled every waking second. Being thrown through space, it takes its toll on the mind and drains the spirit. By the time we had passed through the end, we were far into unconsciousness.
We landed in Tartarus; we had to have judging by the earsplitting screams and the unrelenting burning sensation of my skin. Actually that’s an understatement; it was more like my skin was slowly being peeled away but fighting back. Steadily though I managed to regain my senses. The burning slowly subsided as a cool breeze ran across my scales yet something was clearly wrong. The winds, the air felt different, felt wrong and harsher that I remembered. I struggled to get up and drove my hoof into the ground but even the ground felt wrong. My hoof felt spread out and over several points, like it had been broken into pieces and the ground was unusually soft yet rigid. I had barely managed to flip myself over before my arm gave out, limp and useless. I tried to open my eyes but there was a vicious light battering against my eyes, Tartaran hellfire perhaps but not the harsh burning I expected. Not only that but the light was a warm yellow and not the cruel onyx black or blood red I had expected of Tartarus. I suppose Hell likes to play with your mind before it does you in.
I lay there for a moment, gaining my strength once more. I finally managed to wrench my eyes open and stared into the world, I say. For Hell, it was certainly nice; a wide open wheat field, a sparely clouded sky and a…sun? Certainly, I was just hallucinating, after all my head and mind were screeching in pain. I placed by hoof on my forehead to try and abate the pain but again, those five pressure points and a sensitive touch. As I looked to see the damage to my hoof I was completely caught by surprise. My hooves, once proud and manicured, were now some bizarre, fleshy mass with five tentacles…no…fingers attached to it. I looked to my other hoof, it too this strange new appendage. I then notice my scales were gone too, replaced with more flesh so smooth and elastic. It made me feel vulnerable and exposed, like having freshly shred. I ran my hand down my face in disbelieve only to feel my horns now gone too and I realized my fins were not touching the ground either.
Whatever that bearded bastard did, he mutilated me and probably the others too. With a bit of my scant strength I hefted myself upward, my legs unresponsive but enough to look about. I noticed two figures next to me, one curled in a ball shuddering and the other still writhing on the ground. The first figure was immediately familiar; a blue and gangly thing pathetically trying to mimic a rock on the ground, covering its head with two twig-like arms. It's pathetic mewling, churned my stomach and I would've felt more nauseous if it weren't for the spectacle right next to it. The second was more difficult to observe, as it wouldn’t stop thrashing and kicking about as if being attacked by a swarm of invisible bees. The tortuous screams I heard emanated from the violent creature. Both of them seemed to resemble me or at least had suffered the same changes which, upon looking at the changes long enough, the gravity of how alien we had become finally hit me. A few brief memories of me swimming in the depths, a powerful tail to guide me and illustrious scales to show my worth. All of it, now gone and these fleshy, clumsy forms all that was left. It made me feel weak, naked, vulnerable, like a crab without its shell. It was a cruel fate in and of itself, far more so than I thought we could ever earn.
Then it hit me.
“S…So..nna -” was all I managed to bring out for a moment. My throat was arid and felt like I drank geyser water. I tried to stand up but only ended up collapsing under my own weight, lurching myself forward but into the dirt once more. It proved enough though; Sonata uncurled herself like a startled eel.
“Dagi? Ari?” She yelled, fear abating the burn and weakness the wracked her body. She too could barely stand yet managed a better hobble than I could and managed to scramble over to me. She placed her arm under me, stabilizing my shaky stance. Hearing our voices, Aria stopped her thrashing and calmed down enough to focus on us. Laying on her back, breathing deeply before she staggering to her feet. Both Sonata and I offered an arm in support but she bluntly shrugged the assistance away.
“No worries...mrph!...I’m fine too,” she managed as she lifted herself up. Even in defeat still proud of her independence. How admirable.
Just as we were all about to manage getting on our feet, a sudden, grueling pain brought us to our knees once more; a sudden, overwhelming choking sensation. All the breath was lost from us and stayed from our lungs. Our throats burned and heaved reflexively as the mass, solid like rock, slowly made its way up and out of our throats. It was grueling and gut-wrenching, the sensation to vomit was so overpowering we could think of nothing else. When the sensation of panic and asphyxiation passed, we noticed the small reddish stones we had evicted from our throats. Lying at our feet were our gemstones, bright and crimson yet pulsating and dying. This world was nearly dead in magic and we could now feel it through the hunger pains. A hunger the likes of which we’d never felt, beyond starvation, beyond withering now grappled us with the passing of our stones. It was torturous, plain and simple. We were ravenous, feral almost. Instinctively we looked around, searching for something, anything we could feed from. Off in the distance stood the tall white walls of some haven; no doubt a source of some prey.
Let the hunt begin…
