The forest grew colder as they climbed higher into the mountains, the air thinning just enough to make their breaths more noticeable in the crisp stillness. Vivienne moved ahead in a nguid serpentine glide, her dark, scaled form perfectly at ease among the frost-den roots and uones of the trail. Rava followed silently, her wolfish features set in a stoic mask, shoulders taut against the chill. her of them spoke much, kept pany only by the sounds of their steps and the occasional creak of branches in the wind.

  As the day gave way to evening, the light began to shift, throwing long shadows across the snow-speckled ground. When they found a sheltered grove led against a rocky outcrop, Rava stopped without needing to annou. She surveyed the spot with an approving nod before setting her pack down and sing the area for firewood.

  Vivienne coiled loosely he edge of the grove, her rge body settling with a faint rustle. She didn’t offer to help—Rava didn’t expect her to—but her unblinking gaze followed the wolf-woman’s movements with an idle curiosity.

  The fire crackled to life just as the st rays of sunlight dipped below the horizon. Its warmth was a meagre barrier against the sharp mountain air, but it was enough to keep the frost at bay. Rava stretched out he fmes, her back resting against one of the boulders. Her eyes, half-lidded with fatigue, didn’t stray far from the fire.

  “You’re taking the watch again, aren’t you?” Rava asked after a long silence, her voice rough with weariness.

  Vivienne ined her many heads and gave a soft, humourless chuckle. “I don’t need sleep. Don’t worry, darling. I’ll keep you safe.”

  Rava looked like she was about to bite back, her sharp teeth fshing in the firelight through a tired grin, but a wide yawook her instead. “Thank you,” she muttered, her tone begrudging but genuine.

  Vivienne nodded, several heads dipping in tandem before her gaze turned inward. She waited, watg Rava’s breathing slow and deepen as sleep cimed her. Only then did she allow herself to move further from the campfire’s glow, her coils sliding silently across the cold earth.

  Her body began to shift, the ge deliberate and measured. Her heads merged in pairs, their shapes melting seamlessly until only one remained. Her eloorso thinner, muscles stretg and pulling, her many limbs fading away as others reformed in their pce. Her body grew taller, straighter, shedding its monstrous bulk for a lithe, humanoid silhouette.

  Vivienne flexed her hands, now tipped with sleek, sharp cws instead of talons. Her skin shimmered faintly in the low light, a deep, dusky bck with the sheen of polished obsidian. She tilted her head, feeling the new ban her smaller form. Her tail remaihis time, lengthening and thiing until from just above her rear.

  She stretched out beh the night sky, flexing her cws as a euphoric smile spread across her face. This shape felt powerful—fluid yet strong, a form she could mould to her needs. It also felt strangely f to be roughly humanoid again, a reminder of familiarity without the straints of her old life. Still, the idea of going back to being human? No, that held no appeal. Even in her past life, she had never felt truly attached to the cept.

  Vivienne hummed softly, gazing up at the scattering of stars above. If she was going to travel with Rava to her , she’d need something smaller. Something… personable.

  With a deep breath, she focused inward, pulling ohreads of her essend drawing herself tighter. It was more difficult thaicipated, the effort pressing against her will like trying to fold iron. Even this form, as refined as it felt now, had taken many nights of painstaking experimentation.

  The shapes of aetherbeasts came easily to her, as if eae carried a bluepriched directly into her mind the moment she ed them. Their forms were instinctual, ingrained in her essence, ready to be adopted at a whim. The people she’d ed, however, left no such blueprints. Only fragments—impressions of what they had been, shadowy outlines g detail or crity.

  She let out a low, grim ugh. Forty-two years as a human, and she couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be ohe thought stung, though she wasirely sure why. She had always been more of a ghost in her own skin, more at ease as an observer than a partit.

  “Doesn’t matter,” she muttered to herself. “Human isn’t the goal.”

  Vivieared at her t shadow cast by the moonlight, the edges flickering with an almost ethereal haze. She stretched her cws and rolled her shoulders, sav the strength in this form—but strength wasn’t the problem. It was size. If she was going to travel alongside Rava without looking like a nightmare waiting to pounce, she’d o learn trol— to aent, at least.

  With a deep breath, she began to pull herself inward, the sensation both alien and unfortable. Her limbs resisted at first, her body relut to give up its massive stature. It was as if the aether c through her form wao spread out, to cim space. densing it felt like squeezing molten roto a mould too small to hold it.

  Her legs were the first to shrink, but unevenly. Her left leg pulled ily, while her right gged behind, leaving her lopsided and stumbling. She growled in frustration, steadying herself against a nearby tree.

  “Smaller,” she muttered, f her focus. “e on. Just… smaller.”

  The unevenness smoothed out, but her proportions still looked wroorso too long and her limbs too short. She sighed, the air esg her with a low growl. It wasn’t like shifting into her hydra form, which felt as natural as stretg after a nap. This was different. Fn.

  She tried again, this time fog on bance. Her cws shortened fraally, the obsidian sheen dulling as they pacted. Her arms followed, folding into themselves until they were more manageable, though still retaining their sinewy strength.

  The part was harder. Her torso resisted every effort to shrink, the muscles tensing as though defying her will. She closed her eyes, picturing herself smaller—human-sized, but nile. Her form shuddered in response, shrinking in fits and starts. Her shoulders pulled inward, her chest pressing just enough to make her feel trapped in her own skin.

  She growled, barieeth at nothing in particur. Slowly, painstakingly, her torso began to shift, no lohe imposing mass of raw muscle and jagged ribs that screamed intimidation. Instead, her frame softened, her waist narrowing into a gentle curve that flowed into wider, rounded hips. Her chest filled out, being full and heavy, and she ran her cws over the plush, yielding skin. It felt cold but smoother—less like the unyielding armour of her monstrous form and more like somethi to breathe, stretch, and move.

  She paused to admire her handiwork, her sharp talons trag the tours of her nee. The stark trast between her delicate curves and the obsidian-bck scales that still covered her arms made her grin. "Not bad," she murmured, the weight of her new proportions grounding her in this form. "Not bad at all."

  She focused on her legs once again, trying to will them into proportion, though not without difficulty. Pulling them in made her feel unsteady, like trying to ban stilts that kept shrinkih her. Her knees buckled as she adjusted, and she caught herself just before she fell.

  “Too fast,” she muttered. “Slow it down.”

  Vivieeadied herself against the trunk of a nearby tree, its bark rough beh her cws. She closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath to tre herself. This wasn’t about strength; it was about trol. Slowly, methodically, she began again.

  Her legs trembled as she willed them to shrink, fog on each joint and muscle, pulling them inward like rolling fabric around a spindle. Her calves pacted unevenly, one slimming faster thaher, leaviumbling again.

  “Dammit,” she hissed, digging her cws into the tree. The wood splintered under her grip, the noise breaking the silence of the forest.

  She took another breath, this time direg her focus downward. Her cwed toes retracted slightly, the curved talons shortening into something less monstrous but no less sharp. The tension in her legs eased, the uneven shrinking smoothing out as her knees pulled closer to the ground.

  The process sent a wave of disfort up her spine, like the bohemselves resisted her ands. She gritted her teeth, her jaw tightening as she forced her thighs to slim and shorteance adjusting with each slow, deliberate shift.

  Finally, she ma herself down by at least a foot, her legs no longer elongated pilrs of muscle but full, plush and sturdy, though still a touch too thick for her liking. She tested her bance, rog bad forth on her feet. Her toes dug into the earth for stability, the talorag just enough to feel the earth beh her.

  “Better,” she murmured, flexing her legs experimentally. Her form felt less precarious now, but still far from the lithe, humanoid silhouette she envisioned.

  Vivieraightened as best she could, her breath ing in short huffs. Her t form had diminished noticeably, though it was still far from human. She gnced down at herself, her lips curling into a grim smile.

  “Almost there.” she muttered. Her voice echoed faintly iillness, but this time, it carried a hint of satisfa.

  The forest around her seemed to lean closer, as if the arees were curious observers of her transformation. Vivienne rolled her shoulders, testing her range of motion. Her spines shifted slightly, the sharp ridges brushing against each other with a faint chime-like sound. She turned her focus to her arms .

  "Alright," she muttered, flexing her cws. "Time to fix these."

  Her arms hung too long for her smaller frame, the exaggerated length making her movements feel sluggish and unwieldy. She trated on her forearms first, imagining them pulling inward like a rope being reeled in. The ge begaantly, her elbows log and her cws twitg involuntarily as the deher in her limbs fought back.

  With a sharp breath, she pressed harder, visualising the shape she wanted. Her arms trembled, the sinewy muscles trag with eacremental shift. Her cws scraped the dirt, leaving shallow gouges as she steadied herself. Slowly, the elongated proportions shortened, her elbows aligning more naturally with her now smaller torso.

  The spines jutting from her elbows protested the adjustment, creaking as they shifted to match the new dimensions. She winced as one snapped off entirely, the sound sharp in the quiet night. Vivienne g the broken shard on the ground, then at her elbow, where a smaller, jagged rept was already beginning to form.

  “Guess that’s part of the process,” she muttered, shaking her arm.

  Her fingers, however, were another challeirely. The obsidian cws at their tips seemed relut to ge, resistitempts to soften or shorten them. Vivienne scowled, narrowing her focus on each digit in turn.

  One by one, her talons began to shorten, though only to a point, as if stubbornly resisting her every effort to dull their menao matter how hard she trated, the obsidian cws refused to bee anythihan sharp and imposing, their edges catg the faint moonlight with an ominous gleam. It was as though some part of her essence—primal and unyielding—refused to be tamed entirely.

  Vivienne huffed, flexing her fingers. “Fine. You win. For now.”

  Her hips, however, refused to shriirely, their curve remaining stubbornly pronounced. She frowned, pg her hands on her sides as if to will them into submission. But the more she tried to rein them in, the more her form pushed back, maintaining a soft, pear-shaped silhouette that seemed to mock her iions.

  “ly what I had in mind,” she muttered, gng down at herself. Despite her frustration, she couldn’t deny the form felt… banced, in its own strange way, satisfying too. She’d always wao be a bit curvier, even if this was a bit excessive.

  Her stance shifted, the weight of her smaller frame settling differently on her feet. Her cws dug slightly into the dirt as she tested her bance, her movements being smoother with each step. Her tail was still a problem though.

  The tail she retained from her previous transformation was nearly cumbersome enough to topple her backward, its sheer weight an unbanced burden. Fog ily, she began to reshape it—drawing it thinner, sleeker. It settled just above her generous hips, the once-massive bulk reduced to a more manageable form. As she pressed and refis size, the result was a thick, reptilian tail covered in shimmering obsidian scales that caught the light like polished stone. Even in its streamliate, the tail extended long enough to rest lightly on the ground behirailing with a yet menag grace.

  Vivienne’s gaze wao her refle in the nearby pool. Her form, though still monstrous in its details, had bee softer, rounder—almost endearing in its pact symmetry. The faint moonlight highlighted her glowing, asymmetrical eyes, and she he spark of something almost pyful in them. Her lips, now fuller and framed by the jagged lihat hi her true nature, curved into a satisfied smirk.

  But her satisfa was fleeting. The distinct scars trag outward from her lips were a remihat no matter how humanoid she might appear, she was far from normal. Intrigued by the refle staring back at her, Vivieraced one of the lines with a cwed fihe texture beh was an uny blend of smooth skin and pliant flesh, the tter slightly yielding to her touch.

  She exhaled slowly, her curiosity overriding her hesitation. Leaning closer to the water’s edge, she allowed the transformation to reveal itself fully. Her smirk widened—and then split.

  Her lips parted first, giving way to a mouth that opened far beyond human limits, stretg horizontally as the jagged lines peeled apart. Her jaw unhinged, and her head split down the tre, revealing rows of razor-sharp, obsidiah glinting faintly in the moonlight. The refle was monstrous—fangs stretg impossibly far back, disappearing into the dark abyss of her throat.

  A quiet ugh rumbled from her chest, deep and resonant, as she closed her mouth again. The jagged lines along her lips shifted and re-knit seamlessly, leaving behind only the illusion of normalcy. "Cute," she murmured, though the word had a biting edge to it.

  She froze for a moment, her grin widening.

  "Hello!" she said with sudden cheer, her smile spreading across her inner lips. "I want to suck your blood!" Her giggle echoed with euphoria, a pyful insanity dang in her voice.

  "I sound amazing!" She ughed again, almost deliriously. "I've never sounded better. That deep growl is gohis voice is so much lighter, so much... more fun!" Her eyes gleamed with wicked delight. "This is far better than all those years of vocal training! Who needs all that when you just—this?"

  She sat ba her heels, her cws brushing against the cool grass. The bance of this smaller, more densed form was… different. It felt stra to tower over everything, to be closer to the ground. Yet, despite the oddness of it, there was something liberating in her nee. It was a mask, a fa?ade she could wield to fit into a world that didn’t quite know what to do with her.

  “ht! Hair. Duh.” Vivienne closed her eyes, fog ily as she reached inward to reshape herself. A tingliion spread across her scalp, and tiny, fine hairs began to sprout. At first, it was slow and awkward, but as her trol steadied, the process quied. Strands darkened and thied, weaving together until a cascade of curly bck hair framed her face, falling to her shoulders in a slightly wild, untamed mop. She ran her cws through it experimentally, a faint smile tugging at her lips. “Not bad... definitely beats being bald.”

  The night air was cooler now, and the forest was deathly quiet save for the soft rustle of the trees. Vivieood, testing the weight of her new form. Her cws clicked faintly against the ground as she paced in slow circles, adjusting to the ges.

  There was something oddly satisfying about this process. She had no blueprint, no instrus—only her own instincts and will. Each step, each adjustment, felt like reg a part of herself she hadn’t known was missing.

  She goward the sleeping form of Rava, her panion’s steady breaths almost blending into the stillness of the night. “You’ll have a much easier time running from me now,” Vivienne murmured, a wry grin pulling at her lips.

  When she first arrived in this world, she had been smaller than Rava—a fact she barely had time to notice before everything ged. After dev that revenant, her form swelled with new power, and the shift to her hydra shape made her rger still, a t, monstrous figure she had grown fortable with over time.

  Now, though, things had e full circle. She was shain. It was hard to tell exactly with Rava curled up on the ground, but Vivieimated she was at least a head or two shorter than her panion, no lohe giant shadow she once cast.

  Vivienne colpsed to the ground and tumbled and rolled on the ground in giddy abandon, her ughter ringing through the stillness of the night like the chime of a mad bell. Her movements were erratic, almost childlike, as she gripped at the earth, sav the sensation of her newly moulded form. She babbled to herself, words ing out in a jumble of excitement and twisted amusement, like the unhinged monologue of a creature on the edge of delirium.

  “Oh, this feels so good,” she murmured to herself, her voice a melodic trill that sent shivers through the air. “I’m smaller, but I’m… soft now. Smooth. I could just—I could keep doing this forever,” she added with a gleam in her eye, a hint of madness curling her lips. Her ughter bubbled again, rid deep, though it had a lighter, more animated quality to it now. “No, no. I’ll stop for now… maybe. Just a little longer.”

  Her cws dug into the dirt, feeling the texture beh them, marvelling at how the earth seemed to resist her touch just a little less now, as if the nd itself had accepted her new form. She looked up at the sky, the stars twinkling brightly above, her mismatched eyes gleaming with an odd joy, the night no longer a dark void but a vas for her absurd thoughts.

  “I wonder,” she mused aloud, rolling onto her bad staring at the moon, “what else I could ge? How much more fun could I have with this form?” She stretched her arms wide, flexing her cws experimentally, her body shifting as she adjusted the weight, the bance.

  SupernovaSymphony