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Cetacean Transformation

Under the Moonlight

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Roland Latore Speed

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Naia breathed slowly and evenly, the student having settled into her dorm room at Belgrave University, everything that she needed in place the week before classes began. Briefly, she smiled at her swim trophies, the two most prominent ones that she had brought along with her to display, set up on a high shelf. Sure, the dorm room was a little on the small side, though Naia was grateful just to have a little space to herself. It would make it easier to hang out with Devi, someone a little more like her to say the least of it, when they wanted to talk privately. Less space was a small price to pay for privacy.

A moderate height, the room suited her just fine, though she was at her most relaxed in the water, which was understandable – for more reasons than one. Her blue-green eyes grazed those of her reflection in the mirror, though it was not a reflection that Naia was comfortable with, not even with her dark hair, the shade of brown so deep that it may as well have been black. Only in the sunshine could the brown tones of it be seen, otherwise it was as dark as the night itself.

“Hm…"

Yet the water called to Naia, a call that she could not resist, the kind of call that, honestly, she had never been able to resist. Her home was not on land, after all, but in the water.

Thankfully for her, she had ensured that her university was close to the beach. And, being the late afternoon, it would be easy for her to take the last ferry over.

Getting back would not be a problem. After all, Devi had always encouraged her to embrace that side of her.

The ferry was uneventful, though Naia could not shift a sense of disconcerting to be flying along on top of the water rather than within it herself. The soft sea spray on her light-brown skin, reminiscent of her Greek heritage, was nice, yes, but it wasn't right. It wasn't the right skin, not yet, not the skin that she really wanted to feel the soft, light caress of the water flowing over.

But, soon, yes. Soon.

She waited, the little beach that she had found tucked away with steep cliffs, though there was a narrow path down, a bit precarious, that she took. It helped ensure that she would not be come upon unexpectedly, though no one would know who she was anyway, not once the deed was done. It expanded out into a cove, framed and protected from the wrath of the ocean, though she had been down there once before when the waves crashed so far up the cliffs in the fury of a story that fresh fragments of rocks, more like boulders, had crumbled down with a rumbling roar. After that night, the cliffs and the bed of the ocean around them itself had been reshaped, reminding Naia, once again, of the power of nature.

The cliffs, however, held another secret, the river flowing out to the ocean there and cascading down them in a sheer, wonderful fall of water. If one did not know that spot was there they could have been forgiven for missing it entirely, even if they lived in the area, but there was nothing she liked more than the prelude of the grey sand tickling her skin. Briefly pausing, she brushed her fingers through it, drawing the shape of an animal that was close to her – closer than many in her life could have possibly known.

It was for her to know. Her and, of course, those that she trusted.

She smiled faintly, not needing words as she stripped completely, leaving her clothes tucked behind a rock, out of reach of the water even if the tide came in. Her nudity was comfortable to her, though she took everything one step at a time as she walked to the edge of the water, her feet leaving soft imprints in the wet sand behind her. A seagull called and her eyes lifted to follow the path of its flight. Likely they were roosting as a flock on the cliffs there, though it was too late for chicks. They would have taken flight already, though some gull and other seabirds were known to have second clutches of eggs in one single year.

“Mmm…"

She couldn't help the soft sound that escaped her lips as she eased into the water, letting the water tickle over her toes, brushing her feet as if she was not actually going to go all the way into it. And yet that was a falsehood, for it was never her intent. It was only one way in which Naia drew out the experience, taking her time, wading in deeper and deeper as the water first splashed up her ankles and then her calves.

After all, for her, there was no rush. She had learned that long ago. The water splashed further up her legs, deeper and deeper, up to her knees and then higher again. Only when she was waist-deep in the water, however, the waves lapping gently around her bare skin, did she pause. The moment was too beautiful not to relish it, the sun having already set, casting the beach into a soft glow of moonlight, stars sparking to life in the sky so high above. One could navigate by those stars, if they were lost at sea. Sometimes, they were the only way that an ocean-goer could tell their way.

Cold seawater lapped at her, not warmed as much by the heat of summer as one might have expected, though it was the nature of the ocean she stepped into. Her breath pulled at her, though she struck off swimming strongly, heart pounding, ecstasy flowing through her. It was more so than coming home, it was a pure sense of belonging, as if to be anywhere else was to not be true to who she was, who Naia was always supposed to be. Of course, she had been born that way.

She savoured it, ducking underwater and seeing clearly without any hint of strain in her eyes, the water flowing over her, heart beating strongly and evenly. There was nothing like being submerged, like being one with the water, the flow of it caressing her skin, all the way down from her neck and breasts to her abdomen, her navel, the press of her hips and even between her legs too. Swimming with her legs together, she pumped them powerfully, relishing in her power, though it was not enough, no, not for her.

It was time.

Heading out to open water, she sought out the sandbar that she had visited before, though it was covered by water at that time, the tide more than halfway in. That time, however, it was enough for her to stand, dripping with water streaming from her skin, with only her knees and below still underwater. It was more than enough, but her friend was already there for her, brushing all further thoughts of anything other than who she was from Naia's mind.

“Hello, my friend."

She spoke evenly, though the communication between them was more intimate and connected than mere human words. The bottlenose dolphin popped up, exhaling air and a spray of water from her blowhole, clicking as she chattered her beak and bobbed her head above the surface of the water, her long, powerful body submerged beneath. Naia's lips remained in their light smile, the kind of smile that simply felt natural on her face, as if to leave her face bare of it would have been unlike her, as herself.

Some things could not be explained with words, though that was why Naia reverted to her true form. The form of a were dolphin.

With her friend swimming around her, keeping an eye on both Naia and their surroundings in case of any danger or threat to them, she allowed her body to shift. It was not magic, not really, but a rearranging of cells, the water calling her to take on a form that suited it better, the body that she felt the most comfortable in. Just like her mouth.

Breathing deeply as ifs he was about to begin a dive, her body pulsed lightly, breasts gleaming in the moonlight, as if there was something inside her that needed to escape her skin. It could have been said, in a way, that it was her real form trying to escape the tight confines of human skin, though the pulsing ripples were comforting and soothing. There was no sense of pain, regardless of how strange her transformation could look to outside eyes, hands rippling as her fingers pressed closer together.

Fins, she thought. I need my fins back.

Hands were not needed when she would soon have a tail.

Her skin took on a light shine, as if she was wet and dipped in water, even though it should have streamed entirely from her shoulders and back from that point. Her hair clung tightly to her scalp, though that was for far more reasons than simply it being wet. Hair was not needed, after all, for a were dolphin either.

As her hands rippled and bulged between the digits to form her fins (not quite there yet, but building the fin up slowly), becoming smooth and aerodynamic to direct her through the water, her skin shifted tone to grey. Not the kind of grey that could have been repulsive, however, but a soft, alluring grey, the kind that made one want to run their fingers over it, simply to see if it was as luscious as they imagined it to be.

Yes…

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Exultation flowed through her, ecstasy building, though the rumbling, bubbling excitement could not be contained for too long. Not as her breasts flattened softly, receding even as they popped and crackled, fat absorbed to be made better use of by the rest of her body. Even her nipples were not needed, not in that way, for her body would provide milk to a dolphin calf if it ever came to that. There would be an inverted nipple within the mammary slit for that, when she was fully transformed.

Her breath came in short, sharp puffs, though she tried to remain calm – but that was difficult when her open, clear enjoyment of her transformation was as great as it was. Her nipples smoothed out entirely across her chest as if they had never even existed in the first placed, replaced by smooth, grey skin and strong muscle building beneath. It was that muscle that would give the were dolphin her smooth, defined shape, a creature of the water that could never be mistaken for anything or anyone else.

Her ears did not need to be so defined, as the transformation flowed there next, like the current of the water that she stood within. Already, Naia could feel it tugging at her, begging her to swim out with it, to take her leave of the land entirely and to become one with it.

Soon, I promise. Soon.

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Her friend, the bottlenose dolphin, bobbed upright in the water, letting her head press out above in the shiny gleam of the dome of her head, watching Naia curiously. It was a transformation that she had seen before, however, but it was always a pleasant experience, even as a watcher, to observe one of their kind coming home.

Her ears sunk into the sides of her head, leaving the small, barely noticeable indent that a dolphin had. Even if one brushed their fingers over it, they would have had difficulty in finding it, though that was just the way that things were meant to be, at least for Naia. Her sense of echolocation would lead her right, after all, when she was fully transformed.

The start of her dorsal fin itched, aching as it pulled from her back, a small point that rose and rose, though the grey of her skin was not yet deep enough to be the true hue of a bottlenose dolphin. She shifted her hips back and forth, giving a small whine, though even Naia's vocal cords were changing. Her voice would become the one that was given to her in truth, bit by bit. As her dorsal fin inched from her back, the little point, the base of her tail started to form too, just the suggestion of it in the ridge at the base of her back and spine, showing the curve of her body that would come when she no longer had legs but a long, powerful appendage that she could just flick to speed through the water with seemingly no effort at all.

Naia squirmed, panting lightly, her chest shuddering and bubbling, though it was smooth there and she couldn't even bring her hands up to it, for she didn't have hands anymore. Yet all was right with the world, where she was, the moonlight glancing off the water as she exulted in the moment, her transformation, everything she was. Only those that went through transformations, just like her, would understand the sheer exhilaration that came from transforming, from shedding one skin in favour of another, one that better suited them. One could even say that there was an erotic element to it in the prickling tingles searing across her skin as if the water was caressing her all over already, despite her body, mostly, still being out of the water.

Sensation was a wonderful thing, a layer of blubber forming under her skin, easing the edges of everything, for the hard lines and edges of a human body were not for a dolphin, oh no. And that layer would keep her warm when she was in the water too, though she would not have as much of it as some of her brethren that lived in a colder climate. Her natural buoyancy increased with that layer of blubber also, as she wriggled a little, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Already, her legs felt heavier and thicker, the prelude to fusing into her tail, though that was one of the biggest changes in her body to come.

Naia was patient. And she was more than willing to let everything come just as it pleased, enjoying every last moment of her transformation. There was nothing else the were dolphin could have wanted.

Her face was a difficult change to process, for she would be rendered blind for a moment, even as her hair receded, smoothing down into her skin so that it was hard to tell whether it was becoming her skin or if it was retracting into her skull. A dolphin, after all, needed neither hair nor a scalp. Naia grunted as her face softened, becoming a little shapeless, though only for a moment, heavy flesh pulling over her eyes, though they would soon find their new place on either side of her head, her lips and nose melding together. For some moments, it was not all that attractive a look on her, though the rush of need in her, like a warm current heralding warmer waters and times, the encroach of a summer that had already passed there, pressed her on to chase her transformation.

Her hands may have become more fin-like with soft flaps of skin stretching down between her fingers, though her arms did not need to be as long as they were. The tips of her fingers were finally swallowed up by the strong, flexible skin, grey in tone, as her pectoral fins grew into place, her skin stretching and pulling as it strained a little further up her arm, though not her whole arm, not yet. A transformation to revert the were dolphin to her true form, after all, required time, due care, and careful consideration.

Her head rounded out, the bubbling, rippling grey skin becoming more formed, a line of wrinkles above what could have been her “nose" and her mouth at the same time. The lines were blurred when her head was transforming, though she still relished in her perception of the dome of her dolphin skull, how it gently smoothed out and gleamed, her beak starting to push forward more and more. Her eyes were tiny, heavily lidded by skin, though her sight would return to her in time, all in good time. There was no rush when her transformation was not something, after all, that she got to enjoy like that all that often.

Her teeth had been forgotten so far, but, of course, human teeth did not suit a dolphin's beak. They shifted within her beak as it stretched out, pushing forward from the front of her face, her nostrils non-existent, though she was not worried about the lack of air, as it would only be temporary. They had sealed up already, as the channels that allowed her to breathe were diverted to other parts of her body that were yet to form.

Her toes shrunk slowly, though she relished in wiggling them for just a moment longer, relaxing into the moment, even though Naia knew that it would make it much harder to stand when they had been absorbed by her feet. Yet there was still something of a loss in those, a very dextrous part of her body in comparison to what she would have as a dolphin. But it was a small thing to give up, yes, a small price to pay to take on the body that she had always been meant to live as and to live in.

She concentrated, shivering lightly in the cool of the night with the water lapping around her calves, legs a little shorter, the water reaching a little higher. Down and down and down… Oh, the mass from her shrinking legs, absorbed by her body and pushed up into her tail, had to go somewhere, but it was strange, so very strange, to lower herself into the water like that. In a way, her human body and that part of her mind too expected to be kneeling at that point, but it was different from that, better than that.

With her shrinking legs came the rise of her tail from the swelling nub at the base of her spine, allowing them to grow, moment by moment, all in perfect time.

Her tail… Oh, that was her favourite part of her transformation! The sensation of her legs easing away into the mass of her tail came as she slipped down in the water, no longer able to stand, though it was a freeing of her body rather than any kind of restriction. She grunted, clicking through her beak as her tongue softened and lengthened, moving around the inside of her teeth, relishing in the tightening of her body, how her legs joined her tail, the bones in them becoming one long, powerful one, an extension of her spine.

A tail, after all, was far better than any human legs. She would have gone her whole life without legs if she had had the choice, although Naia still wanted the freedoms that were afforded to humans, even if she was a were dolphin. A shudder ran through her whole body as she let out a tiny whimper with vocal cords that were not designed for such noises, wiggling her tail back and forth as the ocean water lapped around her head. With her legs fully absorbed and flat against her sides, they disappeared completely, leaving her with just the tail, the better of the two options.

Her legs were not the only part of her tail forming, however, for her buttocks had to meld into its smoothness too, melting into the powerful form of her tail as they shrank against her own body. They had softened, yes, to allow her tail to push out from that original tiny nub at the base of her spine, but the intricacies of dolphin transformation had to be taken patiently, one change at a time, even as the underlying ones came all over her body at once.

With her buttocks smoothing down, leaving no waste exit from her body on the back side of her body where it had previously been, the powerful muscle of her body could slide into place on her tail, thickening it up, moment by moment, long, sleek lines easing into place, bringing everything together from her tail emerging to take the mass from her legs. Even in transformation, wiggling it back and forth to tip the fluke from side to side, nothing was to be wasted. The ridge of her spinal column became more defined, running up her back, as her tail flicked back and forth, not yet with a tail fluke, but she allowed it all to come as her heart pounded more strongly than ever.

Yes… Yes, being in her dolphin form was better, so much better, wriggling back and forth, relishing in that moment. Her tail stretched and she thought of the flukes, how smooth and lean they were, how the subtle curves of them would be what, ultimately, powered her through the water with the speed, playfulness and agility of a dolphin. Her nature was split, going with the flow of the water, for she was both huntress and playmate, a creature of the wilds who was most certainly best suited to working as a team.

Complementing her tail were her pectoral fins, her arms shortened all the way so that the fins could attach properly to her body, no hint of her fingers remaining. The bones of them remained, however, even if they could not be seen, within her fin, and she all but giggled, wiggling them back and forth in the water, letting the muscles and ligaments settle into place. They didn't make an impression on the exterior of her body, smoothly layered with powerful, sleek lines of muscle, but all the little details, on the inside, needed to be in her body for everything to come together exactly as it was supposed to.

Her fins would guide her through the water in the way that was needed, angling her from left to right, up or down, for it was not all about the tail when swimming, oh no. Those that did not truly know dolphins may well have thought otherwise, but Naia knew it to be true, how those strong pectorals would have a presence all on their own, all so that they could secure to her body, twitching back and forth with the tiniest of muscle movements. And yet those small movements were, sometimes, the most important of all.

In the end, her pectoral fins filled out with a light point at the curved tip, further increasing her ability to zip through the water with the ease of a marine mammal. She clicked happily, chattering at her friend who, of course, was there through it all, watching her, keeping an eye on her, though it was a shift in being that had been seen before.

Her body darkened more, for it was still not quite the right shade, even if the exact details could barely be seen under the sheen of moonlight, her body swaying from left to right in the water. For those smooth lines of a dolphin's body were not quite there yet, water lapping over her as her blowhole formed, dipping down into the back of her head to allow her to breathe, exhaling a puff of air and a soft spray of seawater.

Her friend, the dolphin, swam around her, brushing up against her side even as she transformed, as if she was checking and keeping an eye on her even then. There was nothing for her to worry about, however, even if Naia was taking her time in drawing out her transformation more than usual, but a dolphin was far more intelligent than human beings ever gave them credit for.

Her body was still a little wrinkled as she stretched out, letting everything settle into place, her eyes opening as the thicker skin around them eased back. The smooth dome of her skull gleamed with water as she rocked her body lightly from left to right, enjoying the cool flow of the salty ocean around her. As much as it lifted her up, keeping her from harm or sinking to the bottom of the ocean, she relaxed into it, the arms of a mother that cared for all the little ones in the ocean.

She could be cruel and she could be kind. But the ocean was exactly as she needed to be.

With her transformation complete and settling over her, she floated in the waves lightly, getting a feel for her body, the right body that she had been longing to return to. Who knew how many chances she would get to transform into her dolphin form once her studies commenced again, after all? It was a necessary thing for her to carry on in life, if Naia didn't want to solely live as a dolphin, but Naia still lamented the fact that she had to hide such a large part of herself because others didn't know how to handle it or react to it. She only revealed her were dolphin heritage to those that she trusted.

But there, out in the ocean as a dolphin off the sandbar, Naia didn't have to pretend. She only had to be herself, relaxing into the moment, letting the natural pull of the currents and tides lead her on. Her dolphin senses were so much more powerful than any human ones that she could slip into her new mindset more easily than ever, casting away human wiles and wares.

They weren't needed there anyway, not for her, never for her.

She dipped underwater, emerging again to exhale through her blowhole, relishing in the tiny, simple sensation of water droplets tickling her blowhole as she sent them flying back out again. Of course, they would never reach her lungs, her body ensuring that the hole was closed off when she was not actively breathing: yet another clever little quirk of dolphin biology that she felt was inherently hers.

Always hers.

With her friend, who did not have a name in the human tongue, she swam, flitting back and forth lightly and easily beneath the water, coming back to the surface only when she wanted to breathe or to breach, playing in the choppy, white waves. The sea was lively that night, with the stars sparking to life, one by one, so high above, further populating the sky that had only just been dipping into late twilight when she had first entered the water.

There were more dolphins out there too, more friends of hers, though they had not come to meet her close to the shore. Naia waved her beak back and forth, sending out a burst of echolocation clicks, painting an image in her mind – well, not quite like that. That was the way that humans made sense of echolocation, but she only needed to know where things were with it, the clicks bouncing back at her to show her the layout of the ocean floor, where a shoal of silvery fish were in the water.

Hungry! She was hungry. And there was no reason that she should not satisfy the primal, carnal urge to hunt and to feed, relishing in the sleek power of her body. Brushing up against her friend playfully, the dolphins chattered at each other, communicating in pops, clicks and whistles, yet, to Naia, it was clearer than any manner of human speech ever would be. Their language was more intricate with deeper levels of meaning. Even if she was trying to put it into human words, to explain it to someone else, Naia knew that she wouldn't be able to.

It was not for humans.

She peeked back at the shore with a cheeky flick of her tail fluke above the water before diving down, laughing inwardly. Her mind swam from land along from her body, leaving behind the complexities of human life, the times that she had laughed and hung out with friends, all the little details that made up a human life. Fun and freedom in the deep blue yonder was all that was in Naia's mind, especially when it was easy to set that life aside.

In time, she would have to return to it. But, in that moment, it ceased to even exist for her.

Let her be a dolphin. Let her express herself as she was always meant to.

Ducking under the water, she clicked and pointed her friend towards the shoal of fish, her stomach eager to be filled.

For a were dolphin, satisfying such simple needs would not be a problem.

She woke the following morning on the beach, having rested there the night before, naked and back in her human form, though Naia could have probably done with not collapsing face down, to be fair. She would be fine though, rolling onto her back and staring up at the cloudy sky, the sun appearing briefly from behind one as she smiled up at the great expanse. In a way, the sky reminded her of the sea.

The sand pressed up at her, solid and reassuring, salt encrusted on her skin where it had dried, making patterns on her skin that, to someone else, could have been uncomfortable or even itchy. To her, it was merely a part of being out in the ocean, though Naia ached, even then, to dive back into the gorgeous blue, to immerse herself in all the many, many shades of the ocean and the riches the mother of the sea herself had to offer.

Still, there was a life to be led up on land and her parents wanted her to have the best life she could, especially as a were dolphin. Even then, split between land and sea, Naia could not honestly think of a better way to start her sophomore year, right where she belonged, on the cusp of adventure and challenge.

Exhaling, she closed her eyes with a smile.

Only time would tell just what adventures awaited the were dolphin.