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Of Weres & Transformation

Chapter One

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Roland Latore Speed

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Devi smiled, a young woman of Indian descent, settled and packed, though she'd not wanted to head straight over to the university – not before considering one last hike out to Periyar National Park. She was fortunate to be so close to the national park, to be fair, which was a large wildlife sanctuary, a protected jungle, not far from where she lived in Thekkady. Although she would be heading to university aboard, the Kerala state of India, and all the wonderful flora and fauna to be found there, would always remain close to her heart.

And there was one place that she wanted to visit especially, one place that had held special importance for her family, her lips full as she smiled, though the smile was for her and her alone.

If only she knew then just how important it would become for her… Though, thankfully, only in a good way. So perhaps it was better to sit back, in that regard, and enjoy the ride of the story that was being told.

The richness of the wilderness called to her and she shouldered her pack on taking the bus out to the visitor centre of the national park, the weight of it settling evenly across her shoulders. The place she was heading to would be quiet, she knew, off a track that the tourists did not know, though Devi very much appreciated tourists and the income they brought to their town. After all, Thekkady was rather something of a tourist town and her parents worked in the industry too.

Smiling, Devi tied her dark-brown hair back from her face, all so she could traverse the terrain more easily, fronds brushing her arm as she set off down a path into the jungle, cautious of the wildlife, the elephants and more, that made the place their home. There were big cats out there too, but they were of no danger to Devi. They knew what and who she truly was.

Oh, how she would miss the jungle… But she would have the chance to go back there one day, after she had finished her studies, perhaps. Devi smiled, placing her feet carefully, dawn turning to late morning, though she kept going, ignoring the sweat beading on her skin. Even though her muscles ached, she climbed the more rugged terrain – not quite mountainous but still challenging for someone who knew the area – with age-old stretching tenacious fingers to the skies above.

“Oof…"

She climbed, making her way deeper into the national park, though she would miss the terrain once she was away at university. That area had a bit of an urban jungle around it, so to speak, but, well…hm… It wasn't the same, was it? Not the same even as where she ached to return to. It was not a real jungle, not like the place she had grown up, changed in more ways than one. Smaller mammals scurried away, but it was the bright and colourful birds streaking through the air that made her smile the most, running through their names in her head as she identified them.

I'll miss you all. But I will be back, I promise.

Finally, just after noon, she reached the spot she wanted to. Water streamed down in an endless fall into a plunge pool, though the waterfall itself was at least thirty feet tall, framed by rocks and rugged cliffs. Devi took a deep, full breath of fresh air, lungs expanding, water droplets tickling her face even where she stood, a good distance back from the edge of the water. Even then, the fury of the falls took her breath away.

It didn't seem like early afternoon there, the trees and cliffs offering more shade, a cloud going over the sun, covering Devi from view. It was okay there though, for she was safe there, and she could languish in the coolness of the quiet, no one else around. She was quite confident that no one else, bar her family, knew of this particular spot. Which was a shame for some, as it was quite a picturesque location, with spray from the falls filling the air.

The day was alive around her, but no one would find her, even in the national park. She was far from the tourist tracks and Devi took a deep, steadying breath as she stepped up to the water's edge, a smile ghosting across her lips.

There was no better place to shed her human shell.

Devi smiled and disrobed, putting her backpack aside, taking her shirt over her head and tucking her jacket into the strap of her pack too. Her hiking trousers, a little rougher and tougher than what she would usually wear, joined it, revealing her soft skin, the brown of her Indian heritage. She was only not quite as dark as some as she had not spent much time in the sun, considering that she had been studying, though she was both proud of where she had come from and happy where she was.

She tucked her underwear over a low-hanging branch near the water, crouching down right at the edge of the water where it would be easier to slip away, to relax, to be soothed once more. Her knees pressed into the light mud, conscious of her nudity, and she breathed as lowly and deeply and evenly as she could manage, eyes half-closed.

Concentrate.

_ _

It took a lot of effort to rid oneself of a human skin, after all. Yet it came, softly pulling at her, wriggling and writhing, aching deep into the core of her being. Her skin pulsed and rippled, as if there was a new form within trying to come out, her whole body tingling. Though the tingle did not last, not as the pressure built within her, something true struggling to break free, her nuanced, true form.

Devi tipped forward a little more, rocking back, though it took her breath away to be as she was there, her hands flat on the ground even as they pulsed with energy, skin flowing as if it was suddenly movable, as fluid as water. Her upper back rounded, though her lips parted in ecstasy, breathing heavily but comfortable where she was, every move electrifying as sweat cast a glassy sheen over her brow and down her back. She trembled faintly, feeling how it collected into little droplets in the burrow of her shoulder blades, the new dips in her body, trickling down, called by gravity.

Her back, however, had to make way for the growing vertebrae, pulsating faintly as it extended, bulking out and rounding out, giving way to the shape of a human form. She shifted her hips lightly from one side to the other as need thrummed through the pit of her belly, aware of how her spine was extending, though it was clothed by her skin still as it pressed out from her backside, more and more obvious.

Devi panted. Her tail… Oh, how she had missed her tail!

Her skin changed, though it was not obvious yet, the patterning of a serpent cladding her, for she was not a woman at all but a were python, a reticulated python. Browns and coppers and golds were the colours that her body should have borne and she relished in the moment, the feeling of bliss flowing through her, like her body would soon flow through the pool where she was transforming. The patterning of snakeskin was something to be revered and she moaned very faintly, not wanting to break her trance, as she brushed her fingers across it before they shrank and disappeared. The texture was something truly exquisite…

Her face pulled in a little, though not much, not yet, though the transformation would not be a complicated one for her. Her features smoothed out, everything becoming a little softer, a little more pliable, as if she had lost the parts of her face that defined her, but would reveal the true serpent she was. Her eyelids were heavy, but Devi did not worry about that, not as her nose, softly, pulled back into her face, placing itself such to form a more defined snout, lips expanding and stretching to fit a new jaw. Muffled pops and cracks strained through the air as her head took on a new shape and a skull that better suited her, slowly but surely supporting the bony elongation of her jaw.

Her nostrils enlarged and she sucked in a breath through them, soon to be positioned at the end of her new snout. Though she had not paid them much mind, her arms pulled into her body, smoothing down, the mass of them better put to supplying substance to other parts of her soon-to-be python form. Her hair, slowly, receded into her scalp, not to fall away and be wasted, the dark fall of it popping out the hair band that she had forgotten to loosen. Maybe she would find it on her way back, but it wasn't something all that important in Devi's mind. She rolled her head back, setting her head at a better, more comfortable angle on her neck, her legs squeezing together too as her tail pressed out, taking mass from them.

Her legs… Oh, she did kind of like legs, but a snake's body and tail was so much better, her tail snapping out and whipping free as the vertebrae filled out more and more with all that was taken from her legs. It was better like that, lashing in glorious freedom, rings of powerful muscle filling its girth. Her legs sucked up into it, smoothing out her buttocks so that an easy line ran from her tail into the bulk of her body, though, to Devi, there was really no difference in it. She simply was one being, a long spine of vertebrae, needing no arms or legs or even hands to feel her way around. The snakeskin pulsed and rippled, trying to smooth out further, but there was still more mass to her that had to find a place to go, for absorbing her legs into the strength of her whipping tail had taken a great deal indeed.

Her chest smoothed out, losing her nipples in lieu of the leathery snakeskin, tail curling back and forth all the while as if it could not possibly stay still in its desire to make itself known once more. It was better to hold the leathery skin over them as her body cracked with energy, fading the mammary glands away entirely, every step in her transformation making her vibrate with inner energy, pulsating through and through with it. She didn't need breasts, no, not as a reptile, though Devi luxuriated in the sensation of the transformation, so electric in its prickling tingles, pulling over her. With the loss of her chest came the smoothing out of her underbelly with the slightly tougher snakeskin under there, patterned with thin lines that ran around the ring of her body, only overcome by the reticulated python markings that were obvious when she was slithering around comfortably on her belly.

More serpent than human, Devi held her breath for the part of her transformation that settled her ability to breathe, her windpipe, the length of it stretching down her neck into new lungs. Whereas her face was partially transformed, she had to take on the true snout of a python, stretching out a little more, popping and cracking, though she made not a sound as euphoria flooded her.

Ah, to be in her true form again, her face painted with markings, lines sweeping back from her eyes as her eyelids retracted, neater and tucked over her eyeballs so that she was not tormented with too much human skin for her python face to bear… Yes, it was bliss indeed, her jaw extending out and out and out, though it felt like a lot more than it actually was, at least to Devi. Her fangs tickled as they pulled out, though a python did not deliver venom but would rather use them to hold its prey fast when needed.

Nearing the end of her transformation, Devi's face was encouraged forward into the true visage of a python, broadening slightly, all enough to hold the powerful jaw, the jaw that could be unhinged if ever needed. It felt like there was a lot of weight and power in her cheeks, while her snout tapered to a rounded point, nostrils puckering and flaring, drinking in the scents of the forest to her shifted lungs. Somewhere, birds called, an elephant trumpeted – yet the smaller sounds of the jungle around her did not go amiss either, tongue slithering out of her mouth as a black, forked tongue, a serpent's tongue.

Nearly there…

The full length of her body solidified in rings of muscle, supported by her tail as she “sat up" on it, comfortable and easy, despite the energy that transforming into her were python form took. Her back pulsed and twitched, vibrating as everything about her smoothed down, taking on the lighter, thinner form of a python, stretching out and out, though a part of her body did appear, during the transformation, to show a lump, as if she had eaten an exceptionally large meal. That was a little amusing, even to her, but Devi trembled, resting back on her powerful tail as her body eased into place, every pulsing lump and bump in her body easing down where it belonged, so that every last bit of her was smooth and flexible, right down the rounded tip of her powerful, prehensile tail.

She sighed, relaxing finally into her true feral form. It was exhausting to transform, but more than worth it to the were python. Taking the time for herself, she slithered into the pool, taking care to stay away from the very base of the falls, enjoying the coolness of water flowing around her as she swam, undulating through the water, with her head only staying above the surface.

It was simply so good to move like that, as if sitting around in a human form had been the epitome of clumsiness, had made her weak and unwieldly, while being a serpent allowed her to unleash the raw power inside her – in a move as simple as snaking back and forth across the ground. There was a lot to benefit from taking on a human body, but even more so to shucking that form to revel as a were python too, sliding out of the water to curl through the undergrowth, sensing more than she ever could as a human. The pool called to her again though, helping her regulate her body temperature, even though, like all snakes, she was cold-blooded.

Tiredness, despite the vitality of her python body, caught up with her eventually, however, slithering back to the bank after feeding and taking care of herself for a nap. It was in her dream, however, that she had the first inkling of that waterfall's significance – even more so than Devi had quite honestly given it credit for before.

Sleep drew at her and her dreams pulled her into the soft, wavering form of a colossal Titanoboa: like her reticulated python form but larger, more powerful. Revelling in the dreamy sensation of being a much larger snake, the dream's logic, or lack of it, meant that she did not see it as a form or a body that she should not have been in, looking around the waterfall with her tongue flickering darkly in and out, intelligence shining in her eyes.

“What are you?"

Her head turned. Who was that? It was a human, but not one that she knew, Devi's curiosity raised. She waved her head back and forth as he stepped up to her, taking in his form. He had white skin, paler than hers, of course, and spoke with an accent she could not put a name to, though Devi would be able to name it when she woke again. His dark-brown hair was mussed up as if he had travelled a long way through the jungle to get there, though the detail was not enough to pull her out of the dream.

She curved back and forth, tongue flickering in and out, delighting in the attention. His brown eyes locked onto her as if he couldn't look away and she darted her head out at him, pulling back at the last moment. It was merely a ploy and a tease, drawing him in closer to her, but the bond between them had been struck, an invisible web connecting them even if they did not realise it.

“You're so big…" The man murmured, lifting a hand and then pulling it back as if afraid, though he very well should have been afraid of her. “And long… So smooth… Oh…"

He stepped in as she snaked back and forth, his eyes following his every movement. To her curious surprise, he started to undress, untying his shoes and then moving up to his T-shirt, though his eyes, not even once, did not leave her. It was strange, very strange, but she found herself enamoured by his attention, sinuously weaving from one side to the other, slithering in closer to him still, more than a little flattered at his attention.

Such a large, powerful snake, after all, should be revered. She did too, for the lust and passion of her body, a coil gently brushing him as the man gasped.

“Ohhh…"

He placed his T-shirt aside, though his shoes were less neatly shoved out of the way with his bare foot, her tongue flickering in and out as she danced around him. The art of seduction was something that one could not set aside so easily, no, and she was more comfortable there than she had been in a very long time, the ground seeming to cup and hold her body in just the right way as she snaked around the man.

She didn't touch him again, not yet, not even as he turned and turned and turned to always keep her head and her eye in his sights. There could have been a sense of a threat there, but there was only connection, an electric spark dancing in the night air between the two of them, though neither serpent nor man seemed quite able to put their finger on it. She drew in close to him and away again, as if there was an invisible bond between them, holding them in place, as if they were two ballroom dancers moving back and forth in perfect synchronisation.

Her Titanoboa body was stronger than what she was used to, though she commanded it skilfully, watching his eyes, locking them with hers.

Who are you? She wanted to ask, though, of course, Devi could not speak like a human being in any serpent form. Why are you here?

_ _

She could have asked the same question of herself, though she did not understand the dream, the limits of it: something to be considered when she once again woke. The edges of her dream reality took on a softer, wavier quality, as if the point of her focus was on the man and the man alone, taking him in.

He was beautiful, topless, his slim build boasting athleticism, and he put his hands on her as he ran them down her scaled body, luxuriating in the slight roughness of her snakeskin, though that was just the individual “scales" of it brushing his fingertips. She dwarfed him, her body thick and round, though the man did not seem intimidated by her in the slightest, even with the huge difference in their sizes.

It did, however, end up with him pressed up against her, trying to get his arms around her, Devi pressing in close as she nuzzled in around his neck. He was so warm and so soft and her snake body instinctively sought out that heat, wanting to be close to him. In the cool of the night there, it was necessary to warm up again, though there was more to it than that as he followed every tiny movement of hers, running his hands down her body in awe at the thick coils of muscle that lay there.

“You're beautiful," he murmured, holding her as close as he could, though her head pulled back to study him, his eyes lifting to meet hers, locked on and into her gaze as if he simply could not look away. “So beautiful…"

His curiosity and interest in her warmed her more than any touch and she pressed her head in close to his, acting on impulsion. Devi did not quite know what she was doing, and neither did she have to, considering that she would understand that it was all a dream when she came back to the waking world, leaning in closer and closer. Her dark tongue flickered out, brushing his lips, and the man exhaled softly, eyes alight, fixed on her as if nothing else existed in the world for him.

She didn't know quite how it came to be, but they kissed. Her tongue flickered teasingly, temptingly, over his lips as he held her face gently, reverently, his lips parting eagerly to accept her against him. It was strange to kiss with a head and lips that were very much not designed for such things, though his arms around her tightened, sliding from her face to around her neck, holding her close as if he was afraid that he was going to lose her.

Devi's head swam and yet the serpent kissed him back just as passionately, losing herself in the moment as her coils snaked back and forth, barely able to keep herself anywhere near seeming still. It was impossible as he stimulated such heat in her, embracing the snake as if she was a long-lost lover and not someone that he had only just met, the closeness of them crackling like imperceptible sparks in the air.

She shuddered, hissing faintly, her tongue flickering in and out, even snaking into his mouth as her coils pulled up around him, cradling him, keeping him close to her. Devi broke the kiss, though the man only took the chance to slide a little further back, removing the rest of his clothes, the soft canvas-like trousers that he was wearing, socks off too and even his underwear. It left him bare in the flesh while she, of course, was in nothing but her snakeskin, weaving back and forth as she rubbed against him.

Her heart surged in a way that she had not honestly known it could do. He was fine…the light build of him more evident without his clothes. She didn't know that she had, however unintentionally, put him in a trance, the charmed becoming the charmer, rather than he a snake charmer, but it mattered not one bit to either of them.

Devi simply couldn't help herself, kissing him passionately again, curious as to how his lips would mould to the shape of hers, even accepting her flickering, cool tongue into his mouth. Her mouth dominated his easily, though it was easy for her to keep her fangs away from him, taking great care despite the pulsating need within her.

She had to have him, had to be close to him, her coils winding around him more and more, wrapping him up tightly. But not too tightly, of course not, for he was not prey but a lover, a sweetness that she yearned to keep close to her. The mounting passions in the snake's chest were unfamiliar to Devi – though the grip of the dream carried her on through any concern. Everything was alright there with moonlight glinting off her body, winding around the human to hold him close, to keep him there with her. It did not appear, not at all, that there was anywhere that he wanted to go anyway.

Her nose traced a pattern over his skin, breath tickling his bareness, though he did not seem to mind his exposure at all, not as Devi cradled him tenderly.

“You…" He breathed, as if it was a great struggle to draw words to his lips, chest shuddering, the faintest sheen of perspiration glistening upon his skin. “You… It's you that I have been waiting for."

Her heart skipped a beat: something that should never have happened to her in a were snake form. Something nagged at the back of Devi's mind, the first tiny indication that the dream was a dream, shaking her from her sense of reality. But, for the snake, it was easy enough for her to push aside, to ignore, all as she coiled softly around him.

The man kissed her again, peppering her face and her neck with tiny, soft embraces, every one making her shiver. Closer, yes, she wanted to be closer to him, her jaws parted, though it was in the human remnant of a smile and not intended as any sign of aggression. Again and again, the man stroked her body, her eyes keeping his green eyes locked onto hers, entranced with her, right where Devi wanted him to be.

No more was she flustered, unsure what to do as she cupped and cradled him, relishing quietly in having him there, something that felt quite as if it had all just slotted right into the place it had always been meant to inhabit. Things might have been different to how she had expected them there, the edges of the dream softening and blurring, losing even more focus than they had originally held, trees wavering, though all she saw was him. Still, she did not have the smallest idea of what his name was, though all would come to light in time as the dream faded, leaving her softly slumbering with the impression of him in her mind.

He was there, yes, even if she could not see him. The warmth of his hands, as she slept, roamed her skin, rubbing, caressing, lovingly adoring. His infatuation with her was equally reciprocated as her sleeping body coiled up tightly, imagining that it was holding the one that had enraptured her so, though there was no reason for Devi to be doing that – not yet, at least.

To take that comfort in slumber, however, sent her into peace, her lungs expanding and relaxing, over and over, as she took long, deep breaths, sleeping comfortably and peacefully where no one in the jungle would disturb her.

The waking world could wait. The were python dreamed sweetly.

*

Devi breathed out slowly and evenly, a smile on her lips, waking the next morning.

“Mmm…"

One thing that she might not have expected was to wake in a mud pit, to be fair, but it was strangely comfortable, the mud slick around her, even if she was in her human form again. She didn't quite like the sensation of leaving her snake body, the were python, behind, but she knew that the serpent was always there when she wanted to call forth her true form.

“Hm…"

The dream rose, pulling at the back of her mind, and she blushed faintly, her skin darkening across her cheeks, and she shook her head. That was a strange one indeed, but she would not have minded in the slightest becoming such a large snake, so strong and so long, so very powerful. It was a strange sort of power to hold close to her heart, but she doubted that it would ever be seen. A reticulated python was her heart and her soul and that was where her true self lay. Devi would never have wanted to change that.

It was a good thing, of course, that her family knew of her tendencies, so there was no issue at all in her disappearing for a little while. Back home, however, her bags still sat there, packed and ready for her to move on, though she would always have a home there to go back to. And, one day, she would delve into the deepest of jungles and tangle herself up into the undergrowth, recharging and finding her true self, once again, out in the wilds.

She took a quick dip in the waterfall lagoon to cool herself off, even though the heat of the day had not yet built, though it was more important to at least wash herself off before donning her clothes again. Devi chuckled, quite fortunate that they were still where she had left them – plus on the branch. It helped, sometimes, to keep things off the ground, though she had been so caught up in her keenness the day before that she had not thought about what she was doing with her clothes all that much.

Oh well. It was not as if any harm had come to them.

She hiked back home, taking her time to take in the jungle, the cries of animals, saying her own kind of goodbye along the way, even if she knew that she would return one day. It was still different to leave, very different, though attending college in North America was a dream that she had always held close to her heart.

Her family hugged her and kissed her back home, making her promise to write, to call, to text – they had gotten a little more up to speed with technology, thankfully, though her mother was still a little slower to catch onto things than her father. She hoped that video calls and the like would help with that. But Devi had her life to lead, even if she knew there would always be a home there for her.

Always.

Leaving India behind, she headed to the airport with a smile on her face.

Little did Devi know just what her studies in the States were going to uncover for her and another…