Page 58 of To Trap a Soul

With their jaw flat against the ground, hooked ram horns grew through the top of their head. Nathair’s entire body then stretched, and stretched, extending in length and height, while their abdomen shrank inwards to appear gaunt. They curled their serpent body around their humanoid torso, rolling into a ball and squirming.

Stepping back in disbelief, she bumped into the closest tree with her eyes wide and her jaw dropped.

“What is happening?” she whispered.

A hand shoved through the mass of limbs, more established and rigid than before. Hard, sharp-looking claws dug at the dirt, and Nathair used them to pull themselves from their own tail as if with force. Their snout poked out, and what was once barely the size of her fists pressed together was so big that she’d struggle to hold the very thing with both her palms.

Lindi hadn’t noticed how much the sun had dropped beyond the horizon until a set of orbs, glowing bright orange, shone in the dimming light. As if they were birthing themselves from their own form, Nathair crawled out in her very direction and eventually straightened up.

When Nathair rested back upon their lengthy tail, she had to crane her neck ever so slightly, since they towered over her byan inch. Somehow, the gauntness of their body, as if they were starving, made their protruding white bones more prominent.

Their chest heaved, puffing in and out with quick, harsh breaths, and each one flared their fins.

Then they tipped their head back to point their snout upwards towards the sky, parted their split lower jaw, and let out a mind-melting roar that had Lindi screaming as she covered her ears. Pain radiated inside her eardrums to the point that her vision blurred for just a moment.

Nathair twisted their skull to her in a rapid and sudden motion like they’d snapped their own neck. Gasping in surprise, the pain was forgotten when she needed to stumble to the side as their orange orbs flared bright red and they leapt for her.

Instinctually, Lindi shifted into her Phantom form right before they could make impact. Nathair’s claws swiped through her body, and they crashed into the tree behind her. It snapped in half, showing the magnitude of their new strength, and broke off thick branches when they grabbed ahold of it. They let it go, their sharp claws leaving deep gouges, and turned on her.

Nathair slithered to the right with a resonating hiss, their fangs bared as they inspected her. The fact that they followed her incorporeal and nearly transparent form told her they could...seeher. That their red glowing orbs were zeroed in on her, and they found her to be a threat or prey.

Nathair gave a quieter, more menacing hiss that had a growl laced into it. They swiped through her intangible torso, then snapped their maw at her.

Something in the distance caught their attention and their serpent skull snapped in that direction. Within the blink of an eye, they disappeared from in front of her to barrel through the forest in search of it. They thumped against the ground, weaving between sturdy trunks and leaving chaos in their wake.

With her mouth open, Lindi was frozen as she stared at the ground, dumbfounded.

“What thefuckjust happened?” she whispered, before her wide eyes lifted in the direction Nathair had just disappeared. “They... they grew!”

“Their soul has fully transformed.”Weldir’s deep, gruff voice swelled within her mind.“It matched the colour that we saw of their eyes.”

Eyes?Weldir was calling those glowing orbseyes?

“What does that even mean?” she cried, turning physical to stamp her foot and cover her face. “My baby grew bigger than me in the span of minutes, Weldir!”

“From what I can ascertain of their soul... it appears Nathair has become an adult.”

She hated how blasé he sounded! Why was she the only one freaking out?! Why was she the only one who ever had a normal damn reaction to the strange and unusual?

“How?!” she growled, trying her hardest not to gouge her face with her nails as she lowered her hands and glowered. “Babies can’t just do that!”

“Humanchildren cannot do that. You’re forgetting they are the offspring of a god.”His tone was stern and detached, and it made her close her right hand into a tight fist with the urge to bash it into the top of his non-existent head.“This appears to be their evolution, although they are not yet fully complete.”

Lindi looked down as anger, confusion, and... andgriefsettled across her shoulders. She bit her bottom lip, refusing to let tears fill her eyes despite how much her nose and cheeks tingled with the urge.

Her baby was gone, and she didn’t even have time to register it. They... theyattackedher, and they never did that unless provoked!

“What do you mean, they aren’t complete?” They looked pretty damn complete to her.

“There is something missing, but I’m unsure as to what. We will have to discover that in the future, however...”Weldir paused for a long while, which only gave Lindiwe time to dwell.

“Should... should I go after them?” she asked, clenching her eyes shut.

What had attacked her was monstrous and frightful. She hadn’t done anything more than stand there, and Nathair had tried to... destroy her. She’d heard it in their roar, had seen it in their claw strike. She opened her eyes to look upon the tree that had been snapped in half, knowing that would have been her – dead within the span of a heartbeat.

She’d never be able to tame or contain Nathair, she knew that. She’d been struggling to do so when they’d been a baby, completely relying on their desire for closeness to control them.

“No. It is best that you don’t,”Weldir answered.“They have found prey, and it appears they are going on a rampage.”

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