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A Yearning for the Burning Sun

By: Nenekiri Bookwyrm

It's an exquisite day outside and you're stuck in your office staring at the same two screens you look at every day. The weather normally doesn't bother you this much, but it felt particularly unfair since it was the Summer Solstice today. The most sunlight you'll see all year and you can only see it through a window!

Beep-boop!

A message from your manager pops up on your screen and you turn away from the window back to your work. The screen emitting a low, dull pulse of light as you type out words into your report for the company. The work isn't terrible, just repetitive. You find your mind tends to wander more now than when you first started. You often dream of being outside and hiking through woods of enormous trees and sparkling rivers. It's always very odd to you that you end up dreaming about being outside. You never were one for physical activity as a kid, but now that you were older there was a bittersweet note to knowing you can't just drop everything. What you wouldn't give to be able to run barefoot and carefree in the grass on a hot summer day. It'd be great to feel free for just a little while.

You shake your head and sigh. The clock on your computer barely moved since the last time you checked it, but you look at it again anyway. Hoping that by staring at the digital numbers you can make them move faster through sheer force of will. When you're sufficiently fed up with Father Time and his lazy ass, you go back to working again. Silently wishing for some way to enjoy the nice weather properly.

Something outside your window moves in the shadows of the bushes and the trees. You adjust your headphones subconsciously when you hear the faint giggle, but keep working. You work for a few hours and when you're satisfied with your progress you decide to take a small break. You get up from your seat and stretch, cracking bones you didn't even know you had. You suppose that getting older has those kinds of perks. You walk over to your office window, one of the many perks of working there for so long. As you part the blinds with your fingers you can feel the warmth of the sun coming off of the window. You squint your eyes and look outside, finding that it's a peaceful and gorgeous day. If the weather held out, you might even be able to go for a walk after work. But then the sun would be low and the world much colder by then. You felt an involuntary shiver travel down your spine as you thought of the sunset. You close the blinds and rub your arms to try and warm yourself up.

When you get back to your seat you see your computer is in the middle of updates. You don't remember giving it permission to, but it seems as though you're going to be waiting a bit. You turn your attention back to the window and look at the sun. Even though it's still early, it looks warm and inviting. You absentmindedly scratch your chest and feel a resistance. Like something fuzzy and soft under your shirt. Must just be your imagination again you tell yourself. Glancing over your shoulder you can see that the update has finished. Your computer screen greeting you with the familiar nature scene you have set as your background. It was time to get back to work.

You sit down at the desk and have a horrible realization. The update closed out your programs. And you didn't save first. Ok, no worries, don't panic. Maybe the computer saved a local copy? It's possible! But when you go to check your files you find that all the progress you made today is gone. Poof, the words and hard work gone forever. You found yourself feeling extremely angry. All that time wasted! Not to mention you were on a roll with how you were explaining the benefits of switching postal carriers for the company. Now you'd have to try and remember how you worded your proposal again! Your pupils narrow into slits and you let out a low growl as you think of all the effort that went into those precious paragraphs. You stop growling when a small prick of pain hits the top of your scalp. You rub at your head with your hands and find two small bumps along either side of your head. You curse the hairdresser in training that you let cut your hair and try to focus once again on your work.

It's slow going, and ever since you looked at the sun earlier, you can't help but think about feeling that warmth on your skin. Letting the sun's rays wash over you and wrap you like a blanket. Thinking about the sun doesn't help you feel any less cold however. It's always a little chilly in the office, but today seemed to be extra cold. They must have the air conditioning cranked to its highest setting or something. You reach under your desk and switch on your portable heater. You put your foot right next to the source of the heat and instantly feel better. You reach down again and scratch your other leg and feel something rough, but smooth. You're going to have to switch conditioners soon, the one you were using made your hair feel like scales!

The next few hours pass by with you fitfully retyping your proposal before it's time for lunch. You go to reach for your water bottle and find that it's already empty. You never usually get through your water bottle until much later in the afternoon. Must be your nerves making you more thirsty. You get up and walk over to the nearby water cooler and begin to fill up the bottle. The sound of air pumping into the cooler is a loud but steady BLOOP, BLOOP, BLOOP as you wait for the water to trickle out. You find yourself staring at the water as it pours into the bottle. There's something mesmerizing about how it flows so effortlessly into the bottle. Before you realize what you're doing, you move the bottle away from the spout and put your head under it, eagerly drinking the water as fast as it's coming out of the cooler. It tastes amazing, much better than you remember. Only after drinking from the cooler for a solid minute do you realize what you're doing. You quickly pull your head back and wipe off your mouth with the end of your sleeve. You grab your bottle and make your way back to your desk without checking to see if anyone had seen your little display.

Sitting at your desk you try to play back the situation again in your mind and can't find a logical reason for wanting to be under the spout like that. You were already filling your water bottle after all, why did you need even more water? But it did taste very good, almost like you were built to drink water. You ran your tongue over your mouth again and it felt longer than usual. Like it could reach teeth all around your mouth. You shake your head and check the clock again. You must be eating too many salty things is all. And speaking of eating, it was lunch time already! You pull out your lunchbox and go to pull out your food but find you aren't that hungry. You close the lunchbox and sigh. You were all over the place today for some reason. Stress never usually affected you in this way, but you guess there's a first time for everything. You rub the back of your neck and yawn. What you really want to do is take a nap, not eat. As soon as you think this, you can feel your body getting heavier. You spin around, eyes half-lidded and find yourself drawn to the window again. It looks so comfortable and, more importantly, warm. You find yourself drawn invisibly to the source of heat. You reach out your arm, but it's not really your arm. It's another appendage that snakes and winds of its own accord. It pulls the blinds up so that the rays of sunshine from outside can come in fully. As the sunlight hits you, you drop to the floor and curl yourself up in the gentle warmth.

You sleep almost immediately and dream of running through the forest again. This time felt different. You're free to do as you please and no one can stop you. You run along the streams and feel the fresh air pump into your lungs with each breath. It was glorious.

Beep-Boop!

A familiar sound woke you from your reverie. It was a message from your manager. One of many. As you blearily blinked your eyes to force them into focus you could see that you had slept well past lunch. Getting up you go to leave the comfort of the sunbeam but find that when you reach your hand out you recoil at the absence of light. It felt too good to be in the sun to be without it again. You try with the other arm, your legs, and even manage to stick your head out slightly. But each time, it's the same reaction. You hiss unconsciously at the loss of heat and something dawns on you. What was keeping you here? You've never felt better than right now in this sunbeam and here your manager is trying to tear that good feeling away from you. He didn't understand what you needed. But the sun knew. It knew exactly what you needed.

And something in you unfurled, like the blooming of a flower. Vines sprouted from your back and lashed out at the computer, smashing it to bits. Your hands grew tough and scaly, and the fingernails sharpened down into claws made of thorns. You ripped at your clothes with your new claws, exposing your already changed flesh to the warm air.

RRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPP!!!

Your belly slowly became covered in a tough brown scale that mimicked the patterns of tree bark as your legs took root. You needed more nutrients and the ground was the closest source. As the roots dig deeper and deeper into the building you can feel the sunlight penetrating your body more and more. The energy building within you as you change. You breathe in deep and find that the patch of fuzz on your chest has taken on a dark green tint and is much larger now. You rub through it lazily, dreaming of all the flowers you'll pollinate using the fluff. You feel something prod at your spine and within seconds you can feel a tail grow out from above your rear. The growth is slow, but steady and in conjunction with this you can feel something pressing at the base of your shoulder blades. The sensations were amazing, but it was taking too long to grow. You were impatient to see the sun with your new slitted eyes. You will the vines to snake around the nearby corner and grab the water cooler. You pull the cooler close to you and the vines take the water jug out of the top. Water splashes on the floor and is sucked up by your roots, invigorating your bottom half. But it still wasn't enough! You needed even more. The vines act on their own and bring the water jug to your lips. At first drinking from the large jug is cumbersome and you spill about as much as you manage to drink. But as you continue to drink, your mouth gets larger and longer. It's not long until you've got a proper snout and a long enough neck to guzzle as much of the water as you can fit inside of you. Your horns emerge from your head as you drink. Long and intricate are the pair that adorn your head, made of bark and scales as tough as the earth itself. When you finish the jug, the vines throw it on the ground and go to massage your distended stomach. As they push and pull the water, different parts of you finish changing. The vines push the water back and your tail pulls out to its full length. The vines pull the water down to your feet and your haunches raise up out of the roots. The vines tug the rest of the water upward and you feel your wings pop into existence! The wings are made of intricately woven vines and with the sudden influx of water they bloom with hundreds of flowers along them. The force of the blooming blows out the window of the office, allowing you to leave this place forever.

With a sly smile creeping on your snout, you take the first tentative step into the sunlight. You shiver with pleasure as the fresh air hits your snout and the full warmth of the sun can course through you. With a powerful flex and a laugh, you take off into the sky. The only remains a few scattered flower petals outside the shattered window.