The sharp pain in your arm drew your attention to the inky-black snake that you hadn't even seen get close. It looked almost shiny.

Your first reaction, of course, was panic. The snake wasn't letting go, and you could feel a chilling pressure grow at the point it had bitten—it was injecting you with something, probably venom.

The pressure and chill spread up your arm, and to your surprise the snake seemed to twist and thrash around until it curled itself around your wrist and forearm. The black form of the snake seemed to flatten and spread out—it was covering your arm!

Real panic hits now. You jump to your feet and start to run. Blindly shouting for help, you watch as your black-coated arm thickens out and the shiny, gooey blackness of the snake seems to solidify around your flesh.

The worst is still happening, however, as you feel that chill pressure spread along your arm—through your very veins—to your heart. One pulse. A slower one. Sharp pressure in your chest is the exact moment when you think you're dying, but then another pulse and your heart is pumping again. Another pulse, then another. They're slower, and you can feel that chill pressure spreading out further in your body.

Like a wave, the sensation spreads out from your chest. The flesh around your upper torso turns black, puffs up, becomes shiny. You can feel the chill work into your other arm and neck, and then it reaches your brain.

The world spins out of control, and you stumble and fall.

Nothing makes sense. Your vision dims for a moment, then comes back. Your other arm turns back and puffy, and more of your body now feels chill. But it isn't done with you. As you lay there on the ground you are forced to feel more and more sensation as your body cools.

It's impossible to move—to get away—and thus you are forced to feel as your body lengthens and grows many times longer than before. The sensation of the goop your body had become firming felt reassuring, at least you weren't going to melt away to nothing.

You look down at your arms—now pony forelegs. It was terrifying at the time it happened, but you know that's just the start. Looking down and back further, the black thing in the middle of your vision becomes more apparent as a long, sinuous body of pitch black reveals itself to you.

Experimenting, you shift your coils, twitching parts of your body (you hesitate to call anything a muscle anymore, given how your new body was built) until you can coil your tail up and heft your equine torso upright.

You're a lamia, but there's something more.

Movement on your head shocks you until one of the black snakes strays down into your vision. You stare at it, terrified, until it dawns on you. You can feel it, move it. It is part of you.

The blind rubber snake is soon joined by more. Slowly they grow while you try to ignore the chill of your huge body.

Learning to slither wasn't easy, but you manage to get to a large rock and spread your coils over the wonderfully warm surface. As you relax, you feel one of the snakes on your head detach and see it slither off into the forest.

Was it hunting someone else?

Author's Note

Originally posted in my Celebration of Clop anthology, I think it fits better in this one.

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