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Merging Transformation

Part one of two

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by anonymous

_ _

_ _

Erandi braced himself, though the members of the opposing tribe grunted and shoved him between the shoulder blades.

“Move!"

“Oof…"

He grunted and stumbled, the long, yellow savannah grass rustling against him, though he'd been only lightly dressed with a loincloth and a wrist guard for his arrows. His bow, however, had been snapped and his skin burned with the humiliation of capture.

It hadn't been meant to work out that way, never. Erandi groaned, lowering his head as it was pushed forward. He'd only just come of age in his tribe to join the warriors, had gone through the ceremony and everything, spoke his vows to do everything for his tribe. He'd thought that meant protecting them at all costs and yet he had been the one captured when he'd fallen behind when his friends had charged ahead.

Outnumbered. Overruled. Crushed. There was little more Erandi had felt he could do about anything, even then, and he ground his teeth again.

The war had been going on for years – for as long as he could remember through his teenage years. Erandi had reached his eighteenth year some time ago, but the ceremony for new warriors was only performed twice per year. That meant he was a little behind some of his friends, who had become of age sooner.

One tribe, however, fought back against all the rest: the Avoli. They were powerful and nearly crushed their opposers – yet it was the combined strength of the other tribes, working together despite their differences, that kept the Avoli in their place. Just about. Slowly but surely, the Avoli were gaining ground and territory, even taking over one of Erandi's tribe's sacred sites.

His tribe. The Teraol. They meant everything to him and his heart ached for those left behind. At least his sacrifice, for surely his life would be taken and his blood spilled, would mean others would be spared. That was all Erandi could hold in mind, the thought that he had at least done his part for the tribe.

He only wished his time was not coming as the trees stretched swaying boughs over their heads, working their way deeper into the undergrowth. No more were they on the savannah plains but easing into the jungle. It was a part of the region that Erandi had never ventured into, for it was not his tribe's territory.

The war had been at a stalemate against the Avoli for too long, only because of the combined strength of the other tribes. The Avoli, ultimately, strove to conquer all nearby tribes to expand their empire. Ironically, they had forced the tribes they wanted to overcome to band together in strength, aiding one another.

Yet that had to change at some point or another and Erandi huffed as he was forced up the steps to a temple. Up and up and up… His bare feet ached on the stone, his mid-tone skin glistening with sweat. The other warriors had a range of skin tones, though none were pale. Like the land that they were a part of, they moved with their environment, blending in and working with the cycle of the sun.

His feet scraped over the stone steps as they shoved him up, though he was strong and fit enough that at least Erandi's thighs did not ache. Besides the cuts and scrapes on his body, he didn't have any other injuries.

Are they taking me here as a ritual sacrifice? Or is it something else? Do they want me to convert me to the Avoli?

_ _

It was a difficult thing to say, one way or the other. His heart juddered in his chest, like it could not at all beat all that smoothly anymore, and his breath rasped in his throat, losing control, bit by bit. Yet not even Erandi could say he controlled his own body as he finally was forced through the large, rectangular entrance to the temple, flanked by twin pillars with feline carvings.

He tried to look at those designs as they passed. Maybe it was Erandi's curiosity that had got him into trouble in the first place, but that was not so much something he was going to think of then. What was done had been done… Yet the carvings looked rather ferocious, boasting the manes of male lions and, supposedly, the more defined, sleek features of powerful lionesses too. They were more often found out on the savannah, but some of their territories were changing too, if only for the availability of prey.

Animals knew how to survive better than people, he thought, burning torches lighting the way as he descended into the supposedly hungry belly of the temple. Maybe it was like being swallowed up by a lion, though he feared that would be a very different, far more terrifying experience indeed.

The warriors brought him to a large room deep within the temple, which was likely another place of worship for them. Erandi could not fault them for that, but he didn't want to be a part of it.

They shoved him to his knees and he winced as his knees connected with the stone floor. It was constructed from stone blocks, though they were smoother in parts, which showed exactly where people had passed over them, smoothed through the passage of humans in time.

Religious figures, clad in long robes that seemed out of place considering the warmer climate there, moved through the room, though most had hoods pulled up so he couldn't quite see their faces. He still caught a glimpse of female expressions, however, and the glint of eyes that had plans for him. He swore some even had an amber hue to them.

Erandi shook himself. It wasn't worth stressing himself. Better to sink into who he was as a person, to remember all he had experienced, to pray to their deity. Only they would save him, or else be waiting for him, hopefully with open arms in the afterlife.

He twisted subtly, trying to see if he could wrench himself discreetly away, though the ropes around his wrists, keeping his arms behind his back, cut too deep. They had been damp when put on him, digging into his skin, and Erandi hissed through his teeth. As they dried, they shrank, restricting him even further.

Hold fast.

_ _

That was all he could do, running his gaze around the square-ish room with the circle carved into the stone. It seemed to be dug down as if it was meant to be filled, like a channel that may contain water, though the carvings and markings within the circle didn't quite match up to anything he knew. It had to be to do with their god, but he knew little else.

A rumbling growl caught his attention and he leaned forward, eyes wide. What he had taken for a mound of furs, perhaps from the lions they clearly revered, shifted and rose. For they had a real lion there in all his glory, his mane bristling as he peeled his lips back from his teeth.

For a moment, Erandi froze. They weren't going to sacrifice him to the lion, were they? But they wouldn't keep something they revered down there in the dark and all chained up, would they? That made little sense, not in the slightest, but it wasn't up to Erandi to dig into their religion and how they worked with one another. It simply didn't matter to him, not in the long run.

He just didn't want that rough end, not as one of the cloaked, hooded figures stepped up to the warriors. Erandi stiffened, the small hairs on the back of his neck prickling and raising as his body responded to some unknown stimuli.

“Priestess Zyan…" The men who'd brought him there all bowed, knees folding and foreheads brushing the stone. “We have captured a war-bringer. It is yours to do with as you please."

The priestess, who was supposedly called Zyan, took a breath and he apprehensively watched. With a large hood covering the priestess' face, he couldn't see who she was under it and his heart pounded, beating so hard in his chest that he thought it was going to burst through. That would be a more dramatic end for him than he could otherwise have imagined, but maybe fitting.

The lion in the circle growled, shaking itself off. Its long tail lashed back and forth, a degree of agitation running through its form. The warriors shrank back, but the hooded worshippers, perhaps other priests or priestesses, didn't react. Maybe they were used to it already.

“Unclothe him," Zyan said clearly, her voice ringing through the air as a crisp, musical note. “Though this one wears…little."

There was something of a note of disdain in her voice and Erandi gulped hard. How could only a few words like that make him feel so small, so worthless? He'd never felt so looked down on, even when he was working his way up through the ranks of the tribe, trying to find his place so he could do his part. That was all that had ever mattered to him: finding his way in the tribe and living his life in tune with the world around him.

The Avoli, however… They'd always seemed out of sync with that way of living, as if they represented a wind that blew the wrong way. The grass grew down into the ground, instead of up from the soil, and flowers closed up, reversing the natural way, in their presence.

They pushed against the natural order. And that was what had set so many on edge around them, even before they had begun attacking other tribes.

He struggled against the warriors as they pulled off his wrist guards and struggled with his loincloth. It was tied around his waist and tucked between his legs too in a second fold of fabric, for that kept his genitals from hindering him when he was hunting or defending his tribe. Yet they worked away at him, sliding knives under the cloth to slice through it, even though their blades were better-suited for hacking away at something more animalistic, to strip flesh from bone, than something as delicate as cutting his clothes off.

“Unff… No… Leave me…"

A deep ache rang through him and Erandi was ashamed to say fear gripped his tongue. It lightened his voice, dropping to a raspy whisper, and he tried to clear his throat. It was like being locked into his body, as if there were far more bonds on him than actually were in place, and he exhaled.

Breathe in… Breathe out…

_ _

He counted his breaths, trying not to let it blind him. All he had to do was let the moments pass. When he knew what was happening, he could act. It was all as simple as that.

“Bring him. Then leave."

Erandi groaned. Who was the priestess to command such attention? He tried to fight back, twisting his shoulders from side to side, as the warriors marched him into the circle, though he noticed they were quick to leave him. He pulled at his wrists and swallowed a sharp cry of pain that bit like a wild beast at the back of his throat. Those ropes weren't doing any favours, although, ultimately, they were the least of his problems.

“Please… I mean no harm…" He tried, forcing the words out even though his throat felt tight with emotion that simply could not have words put to. “This… We shouldn't be fighting this war…"

The priestess, Zyan, ignored him completely, turning away. Her voice dropped into her dialect, thick with meaning, and he struggled to pick up her words, even though they shared a language. Language varied between tribes, however, which was one reason there were disagreements and misunderstandings between them. It was a small thing in comparison to all the blood that had been shed, the wars that raged.

He sighed, shaking his head. No, it was useless. Better to accept his end, her arm sweeping high as if in a ritualistic play, with dignity. Maybe that very essence of dignity, despite his naked body and his genitals on show, was all Erandi had left.

He had to try, however, as he knelt there within the circle, looking behind him. No one remained besides the hooded figures and he heaved, staring at the lion with trepidation.

No one could ever explain what it was like to be locked in the gaze of a lion until that happened to them. He froze, stiffening, breath caught in his throat. Logically, Erandi knew he had to keep breathing, for he still needed to live – at least for the time being. And yet he couldn't keep air moving in and out of his body, as much as it was the giver of life itself.

The lion snarled, their claws out and scraping across the stone. His lips peeled back darkly from his gleaming teeth, dripping with a slew of saliva, a pink tongue rasping, briefly, between them.

But something was wrong. As the priestess' words rang out, raising her voice like the thrall of a rising wind, he jolted. Something was wrong, very wrong.

“Ah… What…"

But Erandi never got the chance to say anything more as his back stiffened sharply, going ramrod straight before bowing lightly. His head tipped back to expose the vulnerable expanse of his throat and he yowled brokenly, a strange cry ripping itself, entirely unbidden, from his throat.

The room dropped away from him – yet he was still present in it. But something shifted, as if he was no longer occupying his body as he had been before, his knees pushed slightly apart, cock and balls hanging slightly between them. It did not matter in the slightest that he was exposed, however, as Zyan shrieked, words blurring together as a wailing wind screeched against his eardrums.

Yet it did not floor him and didn't claim him, not as he wavered and threatened to topple. His wrists ached – and then the rope was gone, simply melting away as if it had never even existed in the first place.

And all he could see were the carvings, the lion – the lion and the carvings, as if they were all blending into one. Dimly, he was aware of his chest heaving, but it was no longer as if it was his chest.

More like…his flanks. He groaned, throat tight, but little sound came from between his lips. With his eyes wide open and head back, somehow he still saw the lion, frozen in the same way he was, though their back was hunched and rounded. The lion's tail had even stilled in the throes of fear, yet it was not the place of such a mighty beast to be lost like that.

“Ah… Rraaaaarrrggghhhh!"

He howled, straining as pain lanced his body, throwing him into turmoil. His back cracked as his spine stretched grotesquely, though he was barely even aware of the true horror that was happening to him. Erandi gasped and heaved, though never managed to drag in the breath he needed to ease the tension in his lungs, feeling his flanks rather than his chest shifting with every snatch of breath.

Everything happened quickly. He twisted and heaved, though it was not really Erandi exerting himself. Snarling, his lips peeled back from his teeth, just like those of the lion, and his hair thickened, spilling down his head and around his neck in a golden-brown mane. It would have been glorious if not for the broken horror of his mutation, his body shifting brutally from one form to another with the priestess looking on.

It was not quite an even shift, however, but a coming together of two bodies and minds. Erandi's body exploded with fur and his body thickened with muscle, falling roughly on to all fours as his shoulder blades pushed back. His bones cracked and ached as they adjusted themselves, making it more comfortable for him to “stand" on all fours, even if he was pushing up on to his toes. Yet even those changed as they crunched down and shrank into the shape of paws, fur thickening all over his body. A tawny hue swept over him and he grunted with a full body ripple of pain, his skin itching and body aching.

Yet that was not the thing that caught his attention the most as his muscles grew and ligaments strained. It felt like he was being broken down and built up again, over and over again.

His vision blurred and he shook his head, even though his head felt much, much heavier than before. His jaw crunched as it pushed out and he huffed for breath that would not come for a moment. With Erandi's nostrils flattening and his nose pressing back into the front of his muzzle.

His muzzle? Erandi tried to shake his head, but he was suddenly facing down to the ground, staring at the stone as his paws spread out.

For Erandi didn't have feet in the slightest anymore, his toes swelling and pads roughening up on the underside of his paws. They were wider than his feet had been and he raked in a breath as his body was forced into the form of the lion.

There was no longer a lion in front of him anymore, but he stood, slowly, tottering on his feet-paws. For there was something different about his figure and form, even though his legs had adjusted just how they supported his body. He stood as if on his toes, pushing up and using his tail for some form of balance.

One thing Erandi had not considered was his shaft and his stomach lurched uncomfortably as his shaft pulled back. Yet a sheath pulled up at the same moment, the thick tawny fur layering his body fluffing up around the base of that sheath, as if it was there to protect his dignity. He huffed and heaved, blocked off from his reality, his mind withdrawing from the present moment just so he could bear through everything that was happening to him a little more easily.

Not that any of it was easy, of course. Not when the lion before him was gone and it was only him standing there, suddenly chained by his wrists and his ankles. Somehow, his fingers remained, but they were a little shorter and more paw-like, with fleshy, rough pads on them too. They didn't look like anything human he'd ever seen – and nothing lion either. He'd not been close to a lion before and he blinked at his own hand, turning it over, back and forth, as if trying to make sense of it.

It wasn't his hand. It wasn't his paw either. And the lion was gone, for he was inside him too.

This can't be happening.

_ _

He groaned, the full mutation settling over him. Yet it didn't feel right, even as his mane wafted down his neck and he tried to raise his hands to the twitching rounds of his ears. He didn't even remember them raising to the tops of his head, but that made sense too, with so much going on.

He wasn't human. But he wasn't animal either. His hand-paws could reach to his crotch, however, and his fingers shook as he felt for his balls. At least those were still in place, although they hung heavily. His sheath felt more than big enough to hold a cock that was larger than his had been and Erandi wondered, with a quiver that rippled down the full length of his spine, just how that would pan out for him. Would his cock…be bigger?

A tail swung behind him, but there was a part of his mind that felt like it was in the right place on him. Despite the chains throwing his balance off in his new, merged body off somewhat, it felt like it offered him some measure of balance, though a tail like that was for communication too. Body language was more important to animals than it was human, who were leaning more and more heavily on verbal communication. Yet the implications of that were lost on him, now that his life had changed forever.

“Feel your new body, the strength in it."

The high priestess stood before him, though the heavy hood still hid her face. His nose twitched, catching something familiar about her. Yet Erandi was not used to his new body enough to be able to sift through and identify the scents in the air. There was something there, however…

“Tense your muscles. Swing your tail. Let everything settle into your paws, your feet. They are here to steady you now, two souls making one."

Two souls making one? What did that mean?

Maybe he wasn't meant to understand, for a part of Erandi's mind turned away from it, disinterested. There was an interesting smell in the air and his nose twitched, allowing him to marvel at how the air flowed through his more slit-like nostrils.

He was like a lion… But a lion that walked on two legs, something like a mutation and merging of both man and lion.

“Wriggle your toes. Sink your roots down into this land. This is the land you are here for. This is the land you are to protect."

“Mmm… Rrrr…"

He tried a growl, though it rose quite naturally from his throat when he didn't think about it too much. Erandi squeezed his glutes and tried not to overthink it, pushing his shoulder blades back. His arms were more or less as they'd been, but there was more muscle on him and his back was definitely more muscular, which affected the line of tightness across his pecs. He felt like he needed to stretch, yet the chains restricted him.

“Good, good…" Zyan praised him. “Now, freed one. Come with me."

She unclasped the chains with a twist of a key in the lock of each one, though it was a crude, rough design. They didn't fit him well anymore, for they'd been designed for only one part of who he was: the lion.

He was a lion, a lion-man. Whole and strong, his chest expanding with every breath. With a twist of his body, seeming to have a lot more flexibility in his arms and shoulders than before, he brought his bound arms around to the front of his body, stepping through his arms to more easily allow him that range of movement he felt he needed. The rope still dug tightly and yet the burn from it, which had been across his wrists, didn't even exist. In fact, his body felt whole and vibrant, closing his fingers into fists and then relaxing them.

He could run… Erandi growled, finding his step as he walked after Zyan, wobbling a little but managing to throw his arms out at the last moment to balance himself. He couldn't help that his centre of gravity was off, everything different. The lion-man's body shuddered the moment he crossed out of the ritual circle, down a moderate hallway also lit with burning torched as he followed the sweep of her black robes.

The swish of them caught his ears, which swivelled forward to catch every twitch of them. He wanted to hear more, to lean after it, though he parted his mighty jaws, panting over a raspy, flat, feline tongue. Oh, there was much that could be done with that tongue. Yet Erandi didn't feel thrilled about that notion, but a kind of contentment. The feeling didn't seem natural to the part of him that was still human, but there wasn't all that much, truthfully, that even was still human and needed to be present there.

His world had changed. He had changed.

His perspective, therefore, had to change too. For he was no longer one or the other… He was both.

Erandi blinked, taking a breath, which helped steady him. Even the little things like that meant he had to be careful about how he breathed, having to think about things that didn't usually require any manner of conscious thought.

Yet he managed it, feeling more settled and steadier in his body with every breath he took, every step he made. Barefoot, he flexed his foot as it set down, wriggling his toes. Even that was an eerie feeling, not quite belonging with him yet. Soon, it would.

Continued in part two of two…