It took several hours and a day before Celia felt good enough to stand. Which was much, much faster than she had expected. Granted, that was with the additional healing factor eating provided her. As well as a few helpful hands from amongst Haet’s crew. Beyondlings who were closer to would be doctors than the proper butchers she expected. Which made for a pleasant surprise. As well as her gains from eating after the battle.
Modification(s) gained!
Chimera physique, Candle hearth
But the two shiny and new Modifications were of course not all that she gained. No, Celia had managed to pack on quite a few pounds. Almost all of which were gained from devouring at least twelve of dead eagle wasps. Or as the Beyondlings that made up Haet’s crew called them, Chimeric pests. Either way, they did a number on her figure.
She had a butt that could probably kill now, it was so big. And the hips to match, officially marking her as wider than anyone else in her family. Exactly how wide that was, was something she preferred not to know.
Though, it was hard not to think about when she could feel all that new weight with every step she took. Weight that had settled on both her lower body and her middle. Belly gaining another insulating layer of chub, while her breasts gained an imaginary centimeter. Maybe even two. Which she considered unfair and almost actually pouted over till she remembered that she wasn’t alone and that her time was better spent doing something.
Like checking up on Dreg.
Who was definitely doing better compared to when she saw him last. Which was to say, he didn’t look like he was completely on the verge of dying anymore. Still, he was hardly in any condition to be doing much of anything.
He looked emaciated. Body grown back, but even more uncomfortably thin then before. With not a hint of muscle on a single one of his bones. And his breathing, it was a horrid rasp that reminded Celia of the certainty of death. Like an old man on life support struggling not to breath his last.
It was too unbearable to be around for long. And what was worse was that she felt like it was her fault. That he wouldn’t be in such a condition if she had done better. If she had been stronger. Faster. Smarter.
Which was all sorts of great for erasing that little bit of bitterness she had for him.
"Hey, uh, not sure if you can hear me but I’m sorry about all that. What happened and all, y'know? So, uh, I hope you can forgive me?" She said, doing her best to at least look his comatose form in the eyes.
Only for a clawed hand to fall on her shoulder, again.
Which, understandably, startled her. Body turning around, claws poised to strike, and every bit of her arsenal readied for the next fight. But as always, it was just Haet. Who, as she had discovered, was freakishly stealthy for a giant scorpion monster that was at least seven feat tall at his shortest.
"Good instincts. Always ready for fight. But why speak like Dreg dead, he live. Always lives."
Celia spared a glance back at the impish Beyondling, once again taking note of his appearance.
"I believe you, but I. I just kinda feel like it’s my fault that he’s even like that in the first place. And, well, if my Dad was here he woulda beat me if I didn’t apologize for that."
"Haet not know what Dad is. But Haet know guilt. Good kind, bad kind. You have bad kind. Dreg hit you if saw. So, let go. Prepare for future fight."
And with that, Haet took his leave. Enormous stinger legs carrying him away without betraying a single sound or vibration in the earth.
Which was profoundly uncomfortable.
But he was also, possibly, maybe right. About getting ready for whatever came next, at least. That she was in agreement with him on. So, after sparing Dreg one more pitying look, she went off to go find some privacy. Which, in a 'camp' full of Beyondlings - two thirds of which had no idea what clothes were - was pretty much impossible.
So, possibly against her own better judgement, she left camp. Straying not so far off that if she screamed they wouldn’t hear her. But not so close that someone might see her if she were to get naked.
Which was, well, it wasn’t like she could do that even if she wanted to anyway. Seeing as her 'clothes' were very much also a part of her actual being. Still, it was moreso a principle sort of thing rather than anything actually practical. Not to mention, it made her far more comfortable with what she was about to do.
Designation: Trueborn Hybrid (Beyondling)
Classification: Feastling
Slots open: 7
1: locked, 2: This maw for Mine, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense, 5: Lash, 6: Hard shell, 7: The camouflage horrific, 8: Chimera physique
Modifications available: Candle hearth
Insight(s): The color of shadow, The weight of self sworn independence
[The Hunger Pained, The Self Fractured]
|Mark of the Belong to None|
She equipped Chimera physique.
And promptly felt her flesh turn.
Scales thickened. Growing denser and harder along her upper body. Below they were replaced with a dense mat of black and white fur. And then she felt herself grow a tail. Thin, agile, and with a black tuft at the end. Before she could even begin to try and process that, her transformation was finalized by a flower of tentacled limbs growing out her back. Each one lined with rows of miniature white feathers.
Celia decided not to react, or even think too hard about it till she had seen what her other new Modification might do to her. Though…
It was hard not to notice how it added an extra few pounds added onto her already bulbous rear end.
But again, she would save her review for after. Which brought her to her next order of business: un-equiping a Modification. Which would be a first. As before this, she never had a reason to do so. And in some instances, didn’t even have the ability to. So she was somewhat curious to see if it would be as painful as equipping a Modification. Or worse.
So without any further ado, she scanned her list of equipped Modifications and chose one to remove. And it wasn’t all that hard to decide.
Hard shell was, at least in theory, a fairly decent Modification. The problem was, it just didn’t do enough of what it was supposed to in the grand scheme of things. As almost every time Celia had felt it activate, it was almost immediately always overpowered in the next couple of seconds.
So it wasn’t very hard to justify switching it out.
Designation: Trueborn Hybrid (Beyondling)
Classification: Feastling
Slots open: 7
1: locked, 2: This maw for Mine, 3: These teeth unending, 4: Tremor sense, 5: Lash, 6: Candle hearth, 7: The camouflage horrific, 8: Chimera Physique
Modifications available: Hard shell
Insight(s): The color of shadow, The weight of self sworn independence
[The Hunger Pained, The Self Fractured]
|Mark of the Belong to None|
And the act of doing so was like injecting ice straight into her bloodstream. She froze, and a second later jerked in place as the sensation hit her. Only for it to be immediately followed by a wave of intense heat rising in her core.
It was like her insides were being boiled. A fire that sought to consume her from within. And it’s flames only burned hotter as the seconds passed. Up until at last, maybe a full two minutes after she equipped it in the first place, it began to feel a little less like her insides were melting. And a little more like she had a portable inferno within her. One that she just might be able to control.
And so, after a moment spent to take a breath, she tried to do exactly that. The result of which was that the heat began to spread from within. Branching out from her center. And the temperature kept rising, and soon it once again felt like she was being boiled alive from the inside. And acting on instinct, she tried to spit that heat out.
Which actually worked. A hot globule of molten spit flew out her mouth. Where it hit and boiled through the trunk of a tree, before continuing out to the other side. More importantly the heat within her abated a degree in turn. Prompting her to spit more and more till her internal returned once again to a normal level.
She liked it.
Both because spitting what was essentially liquid chunks of fire appealed to her for some reason. And also because it finally offered her a proper ranger attack. A part of her arsenal that she realized had been non-existent before this.
Before she could celebrate that small victory however, her attention was torn back to the camp by the call of a scream. A loud, long, and tortuous one. She dropped any notion of further testing and bolted back the way she came. Rushing past the trees and bushes that made up the forest - some of which were decidedly not friendly - and back toward the camp proper.
Where she did not find it as she had left it. Instead she found everyone gathered together and staring down an interloper. An interloper shaped like a giant mixture between a colorful parrot, an enormous purple serpent, and a tiger. It’s body a length of serpentine shape, armored in a sheet of purple scales that shifted in hue and were covered with black and orange stripes. And in place of a proper head, it had a parrots body, with a tiger coming out of it. Both speaking in unison.
"So it would seem I did miss someone after all. Well let me explain this again, I am E-10 and you are all my prey."
Didn't know she could unequip mods. Or maybe she can only swap them? At least I agree with her choice to remove, hard shell really wasn't working out.