Miria's consciousness stirred, an awareness of heat and constriction creeping upon her, her body bound up and immersed in some kind of liquid. She tried to gasp, but found herself choking instead, her lungs full of the stuff, leaving her thrashing and struggling as she tried to break free. The material around her strained and creaked, before finally popping open as she ripped her way free to collapse on the floor. She heaved, her lungs spilling the fluid that filled them while her empty stomach protested, choking and retching until her airways were clear, then desperately gasping as she pulled in heavy breaths.

What the actual fuck?

She looked around the room, and found it familiar - she was in her bedroom, the lights out but some slight illumination coming in through the window, blinds up and curtains drawn, a faint smell in the air - rotten meat over damp vegetation. She was kneeling naked on the floor in a mess of some sort. Something made of fibrous strands, densely packed into a leathery envelope, large enough to contain a person, filled with a bizarre sludge.

...Is this a fucking cocoon? Oh god, it is. It's my cocoon. That I just burst my way out of, like some sort of alien...

She considers the idea for a moment, panting and trembling, before her stomach rebelled and again tried to make her empty contents it didn't have.

...It's fine, just keep breathing, you're fine, you can handle this...

She grit her teeth and growled, shaking her head for a moment, before she climbed to her feet and immediately found herself beset by a new slew of differences. She viewed the familiar room from an unfamiliar height, what must have been more than seven feet tall, while her body fought for her attention, her head spinning a little as her mind struggled to reconcile the many demands, four arms hugging herself, before her attention collapsed on that detail in specific.

No, seriously, what the fuck?

She breathed out and stretched her arms, holding them out in front of her - two larger arms above, longer and thicker than usual even in proportion to her newly heightened body, while two smaller, more delicate arms sat beneath them. The top two were armored by chitinous scales, fully covered and left looking like a pair of full plate gauntlets, while the two beneath only had light armoring, smaller plates that covered their backs, but left her palms and her joints free and unobstructed.

...Am I an ant now or something? Really?

Tracing the chitin up her arms, she found it continued, her back and her legs similarly armored, especially her spine, the stuff stopping just before her hair started, though said hair was such a tangled glued up mess that Miria thought it was more chitin for a second. Her exploratory touches pulled away as a touch sent a shock of sensation through her, and then two long limbs slowly peeled themselves free from her hair and stood twitching above her head as she felt at them.

...Antennae? That tracks, I guess. Oh shit, I can smell through them, too, that's so fucked up...

She swallowed and continued her explorations, following the chitin at her spine down and finding it led to a short tail, wide and flat, also armored, about two feet or so long. Her feet were chitinous and inhuman, looking more appropriate on a raptor - digitigrade, three toes facing forwards, one backwards, flexing unfamiliarly on the carpet, her natural posture leaving her leaning forwards slightly and counterbalancing with her tail.

...Yeah, I'm a fuckin alien. Daaaaamn.

More chitin curled around her sides in various places, and a patch added to the protection over her sternum, the heart behind it beating just a bit different from how it did before, her tits resting on either side, a touch larger than she remembered. She paused for a moment, letting the new sensations sink in, breathing and feeling her chitin flexing as her chest rose and fell. Her eyes drifted down to her sex, her mind absently noting it had changed shape slightly, before she shook herself and turned away.

Nope nope nope! Thaaaat can wait til later, thank you!

She shook her head again and stumbled over to the bathroom. The switch didn't bring on any lights, but she was lucky enough to have a frosted window in it letting in just enough light for her to view herself in the mirror - dark chitin on pale skin, bleary eyed, bedraggled and washed up, but intact.

What the hell? How does this even happen?

She growled as she stared into the mirror, wishing desperately for an explanation, any explanation - and was shocked to see lines of strange half light writing themselves across the glass.

*Name*:
- Miria Castlin

*Classes*:
- Tyrvexi Hive Princess, Level 1 [0%]

*Resources*:
- 16/16 HP, 21 Regen per Week.
- 7/7 FP, 7 Regen per day.
- 10/10 CP, 10 Regen per day.
- 2/2 MP, 2 Regen per day.
- 1/1 Eggs, 0.2 Regen per day.
- 0/2 Intrinsic Quintessences.
- 0 Essence.

*Stats*:
- Strength 1 [0%]
- Constitution 1 [1%]
- Vitality 1 [1%]
- Intelligence 1 [2%]
- Instinct 1 [1%]
- Dominance 1 [0%]
- Empathy 1 [0%]

*Abilities*:
- Tyrvexi Princess Physiology 1 [1%]
- Tyrvexi Princess Mentality 1 [0%]
- Servitor Eggs 1 [0%]

You've got to be kidding me.

Her eyes roamed over the text a second time, taking it all in, before finally settling on one line in particular.

...Servitor eggs? Excuse me?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than she was greeted by a faint feeling deep in her guts - awareness where there should be no awareness, flesh in foreign patterns nestled deep inside her, just waiting for her command to spring into action.

Ohhh, no, no not today, thank you. I'll just, uh. Leave that for later, yeah...

She drew her attention away, trying to ignore the impossible feeling in her belly. Her eyes drifted over her stats again, before she shook her head and stumbled back into her bedroom.

Great. I'm a bug queen. Just what I always wanted. Well, it's interesting being so tall, at least...

 She stepped up to the window with an aggressive stride, pulled up the blinds, and threw the curtains open. Beyond her window, she found herself staring wide eyed at a verdant expanse of foliage that hadn't been there previously, the usual street outside completely replaced by a lush forest - trees both familiar and foreign, with a dense understory and an overstory filled with epiphytes. She gawped at it for a few moments, her eyes darting back and forth, trying to find anything familiar beneath the vegetation, but all she was greeted by was more vegetation and the occasional glimpse of the forest floor, not an ounce of asphalt, concrete, or any other artificial construction in sight. Peering at the base of the building, she saw a length of concrete walkway crumble into a stretch of broken rubble and fade out as it stretched away to be swallowed by the forest.

...Well that's fucked. Did my whole building get isekai'd or something?

She looked out again at the foliage, her eyes scanning it, before she saw something stir. She blinked, looking closer, and then a small furry missile erupted from the foliage and streaked through the air towards her, a flash of knowledge writing itself across her consciousness as she looked at it.

[Murder Squirrel, Level 1]

She had just enough time to jerk in surprise and bring her arms up, and then the incoming creature was smashing through her window, hissing and spitting with absolute fury. She got a glimpse of a large, angry squirrel, fur standing on end, a couple of thin webs connecting it's limbs to it's body and allowing it to glide, before it struck one of her armored heavy arms and began futilely clawing and biting at her. She felt it slightly scratching her chitin but otherwise doing no discernible damage. "Ahhh! What the hell?" She screamed and thrashed her arm, flinging the squirrel off her into the wall, where it bounced off and pulled itself to it's feet, while her body stung from a dozen little cuts given to her by the broken glass, more of it crunching beneath her feet but failing to penetrate the chitin covering them.

[-3 HP]

They glared at each other for a second, a deep growl climbing its way up Miria's throat, before the squirrel hissed angrily and threw itself at her again, this time darting at her legs. She screamed and stamped at it, clumsily trying to crush it with her feet, her blood pounding in her ears, before it darted around behind her - and then it was on her back, climbing towards her neck.

She let out a deep, terrified howl as she dived forwards, a hand reaching back desperately, and just barely intercepting it, her other hand soon following and the two of them taking hold of the squirrels head in one hand and it's body in the other and pulling until the two came apart with a rush of red blood. "What the fuck? What the hell? What the actual fucking hell?" She cried, panting and shaking, tears running down her face, only to be interrupted by another strange message.

[Murder Squirrel Defeated! +10 Essence!]

...Why.