Page 88 of Emerald

Kira is groaning and rubbing at the back of her head at the far side of the cave. Ree is hovered over me, eyes wide.

“What did I do?” I wail.

“Fuck,” Kira grits out. “That was fucking awesome, Livie. You picked the perfect angle to find my soft spot with a fucking cave wall. Ouch.”

“I’m so sorry. I…” my voice trails off as I look at the hands I’m holding up. The ones with some sort of thick, purple hide, and long, curving claws coming out of the wrists. They look like Kroaicho’s claws, except his… zha’s… come from the tips of zha’s fingers.

My hands…

I’m shaken out of my horror by the feel of something fluttering along my sides, right under my armpits. I look down, and there is something moving there and I shriek out in fear, purple hide lighting up red.

Kira gets painfully to her feet. “Take a deep breath and just go ahead and pull the suit back. Do you want us to go outside?”

I shake my head, not wanting to be alone, then will the suit to recede. My mind stutters when I see what it was… a small, stunted, second set of limbs. I gag.

“What the fuck,” I hiss out. “How is that useful, Kira?”

“Just calm your fucking tits,” she replies. “When Ree and I grew tails, it took time. I bet those will be long and strong and kicking ass in no time.”

Ree clears her throat. “Speaking of tails…”

It takes me a moment to catch on and I scramble up, then crash back down to the ground when something heavy attached to my butt swings around and pulls me off balance. I lay there panting for three long breaths as both women stand there with arms outstretched, clearly wanting to touch me, but being respectful.

It helps put things into perspective, somehow, and I close my eyes and calm myself down. If I keep this up, my brain will start burning.

When I open my eyes, I calmly and slowly sit up, then reach behind me and pull my… tail around.

It looks odd, but the bright yellow color gives away where it came from. “Is that a tentacle… or?”

“If I had to guess,” Ree responds, “I would say that’s a mix of Eli’s tentacle, Drasuk’s hide, and Kroaicho’s shoulder spikes on the bottom of it instead of suckers.”

“It’s too bad there isn’t a manticorid tip,” Kira says.

“Give it time,” Ree responds. “Yours took a bit, remember?”

I’m staring at my… first… set of arms, not really understanding what they are talking about because I’ve just now noticed that they are longer than they should be and not just because there is a second smaller set under them. They grew… not just in length, but also in thickness. Purple hide stretches down the top and outside side of each one, with black scales on the inner. Then of course there are the thick, sharp claws that extend out of my wrists.

I experimentally pull my fist back and down and swipe out with them, instantly seeing the appeal.

“Purple hide?” Kira murmurs. “A combo of my red and blue? That seems a bit… kindergarten paint time, doesn’t it?”

“It’s anger,” I murmur. “The color is perfect.”

Kira clears her throat. “Well, can’t argue with that.”

I look down my front, noting that the hide extends all the way down my body, even my breasts. I look like some sort of purple Mystique. The hide transitions to black scales at my ankles, and when I think about it, black claws extend from where my toes… used to be.

“Damn,” Kira mutters. “None of us have changed this much, this fast.”

“I agree,” Ree whispers back. “We should figure out why.”

I push the observation and the apparent need to figure out why I’m a freak aside, still needing to know what I look like. “What can’t I see?”

“You have bone spikes,” Ree shares. “Sort of like Kira’s, but in Drasuk’s shape and Kroaicho’s pattern.”

“On the left part of my skull down to the right part of my spine?” I ask.

“Yes, exactly,” Ree responds. “There is purple hide covering everything except where the spikes extend and your uh… tail comes out.”

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