Rava groaned, her muscles stiff from yet another unfortable night on the ground. Her back ached in protest, and she found herself longing for the warmth and fort of her cot bae. It was a simple thing she missed—just the soft embrace of a proper bed. But she had to admit, the night watch was more tolerable with Vivienne keeping vigil. After all, the unnerving creature didn’t need sleep, a fact Rava had long since accepted as one of the many uling truths about her.

  Rava blinked her eyes open, squinting against the bright m light filtering through the opy of trees. The air was crisp with the chill of the higher altitude, and the forest around them was still, save for the occasional rustle of a distant animal.

  “Good m, sunshine,” came the smooth, dark voice, dripping with a strange mixture of sweetness and something else—something sharp. The tone was unmistakably feminine, but there was an underlying mania to it.

  Rava’s head soward the voice, her heart skipping a beat. There, standing before her, was a woman—a nude woman, but not of any species Rava had ever entered. Her form was short—signifitly shorter than Rava—and her body was oddly plump, with rounded curves that seemed almost too soft for something that didn’t belong. Rava’s gaze lingered, unwillingly, at the generous swell of her chest before it rose to meet the woman’s face.

  What struck her immediately were the eyes—five of them, two where you would expe a lekine or human face. But below each was another eye, and a fifth in pce of her right eyebrow, their glowing irises flickering with an eerie, uling light. The rest of the face was soft and rounded, almost childlike, yet there was an uling edge to the woman’s features. Her lips were plump and obsidian bck, twisted into a manic grin that only deepened as Rava’s fusion grew.

  Rava’s instincts kicked in immediately. Her hands shot to the ground as she scrambled to her feet, assuming a bat-ready stance, her legs braced, and her eyes narrowed in suspi. “Who are you? Where is Vivienne?” Her voice was sharp, the tension clear ione.

  The woman took a step forward, her expression not ging in the slightest, the manic grin still stretched across her dark lips.

  “Oh, Rava...” Vivienne’s voice was a low, smooth drawl, somehow both sweet and menag. “You really don’t reize me?” She cocked her head, the asymmetrical eyes flickering with amusement. “How disappointing.”

  Rava’s brow furrowed, her posture tightening as she sed the smaller, now humanoid figure before her. It was Vivienne, but there was something off—something more... disturbing. Her eyes drifted from the plump lips to the thick scales that lined her arms, the long cws that glinted in the m light. It was still her, but it wasn’t. Not in any way Rava had seen before.

  “Vivienne? What the hell happeo you?” Rava spat, her voice ced with disbelief and wariness. Her eyes flicked over Vivieransformed form, her staill tense, ready for any sudden movements. The sight of her, now so unnervingly different, stirred a faint sense of uhat Rava couldn’t shake.

  Vivienne’s lips curled upward into an exaggerated grin, her eyes glowing with an almost uling joy. “I ged,” she said, her voice dripping with excitement. “Oh, and what a wonderful ge it is.” Her voice rose, filled with pure glee, as if she had just discovered something amazing about herself.

  Without warning, her face stretched open, the lines around her lips splitting to reveal a cavernous maw, rows upon rows of jagged teeth linihroat like some twisted, predatory flower. The sight was both terrifying and mesmerising, a stark reminder of just how much Vivienne had shifted—physically and, perhaps, mentally.

  “I feel incredible.” Vivienne purred, her voice a smooth, almost velvety growl. Her eyes gleamed with manic delight as she looked at Rava, her grin widening impossibly, her cheeks pulling back to reveal more of her monstrous mouth.

  Rava flinched instinctively at the sight of Vivienne's monstrous maw, the rows of jagged teeth glistening like knives in the sunlight. The grotesque trast of a figure that appeared almost huma carried such a deadly, unhinged edge was enough to make her shift her stand rex. She’d faced some of the most horrifying creatures iime, but this... this was something new.

  Vivienne was no longer just a nightmare in a monstrous form. She was something... alluring, in a way Rava couldn’t quite pce. It uled her.

  “I-I see,” Rava murmured, unsure of how to respond. “Well, I’m gd you’re happy.” She wasn’t sure if she meant it, but Vivienne was still her panion, wasn’t she? She had to hold onto that, even if it felt more and more like a distant memory with each passing moment.

  Vivienne’s lips curled into a smile that stretched wider, almost impossibly so. She spread her arms out wide, cws flexing as her form twirled, her motion fluid despite the sharp, alien edges that made up her body. She spun on her heel, radiating a manic joy that left Rava momentarily speechless.

  “Happy? Oh, darling, you misuand me,” Vivienne cooed, her voice lilting with pyful mischief. “This is the body I’ve always wanted—or, well, close enough,” she added with a chuckle, closing the space between them in a blur of motion that had Rava instinctively stepping back.

  Vivieopped just in front of her, grinning up at the lekih gleaming eyes. “I’m so cute!” she excimed, the words dripping with delight. “I could eat myself up!”

  Rava blinked, staring down at Vivieh a mix of uainty and something she couldn't quite define. "Yes... you are," she replied quietly, her words g the usual bite of sarcasm, though the disfort in her voice was undeniable. “Just... terrifying in a way that doesn’t really make sense.”

  Vivieransformation had brought her even closer to what could almost pass as human—except for the nightmarish details that lingered, like the way her skin shimmered, an uling, dark matte grey that seemed almost too smooth for flesh, or how her spine arched slightly, a subtle reminder of the alien form she still possessed beh the more familiar curves.

  Still, Rava couldn't help but notice how her body had softened—rounded in ways that made Vivienne even more... captivating. Her bust, generously sized, made it hard not to notice when she was so close, but Rava forced herself to look away, her face flushing in spite of herself.

  Vivienne’s eyes sparkled with delight, as though Rava’s awkwardness were just another victory. “Terrifying, perhaps. Well, I was a bit terrifying before. I’m sure you’ll get used to this new form, too.” She raised one cwed hand to her chest, tapping it lightly as if examining the nee with a sense of pride. “I always wanted girls like these.”

  Rava’s mind raced, struggling to e to terms with the shift before her. She could see the flickering remnants of the Vivienne she had known—the woman who had carried the weight of her own pain and grief with every step. But now, standing before her, was something else. Something almost alie all too familiar. Vivienne’s new body was somewhat human in its softness, but the energy around her felt untamed, raw, and chaotic.

  She couldn’t help herself. A question slipped from her lips, driven by fusion and an edge of curiosity.

  “Did you not before?” Rava asked cautiously, her voicertain. “Were... you a man in your st life?”

  The air around them seemed to grow thick, the light shifting as Vivienne’s eyes flickered with a sudden iy. Her gaze locked onto Rava, and it was like the air had turo ice. The pyful, maniergy that had once filled her presenow twisted into something sharp—dangerous. A slow, venomous hiss escaped her lips as she took a step forward, her cws clig against the earth.

  "No!" Vivienne hissed, her voice low and furious. "I was never a man. Never. Never never never never!"

  Her words carried a weight that settled heavily in Rava’s chest. For a moment, there was no sign of the giddy, uable Vivienne Rava had seen moments before. This was something more, somethih the surface that had been triggered by the very question Rava had asked.

  Rava reflexively took a step back, her instincts tellio tread carefully. She had seen Vivienne in many forms, had witnessed her fearlessness arange, uable power. But this... this was different. It was like she had uncovered something far more raersonal, something Vivienne had guarded carefully—perhaps even from herself.

  “I-I didn’t mean anything by it,” Rava said quickly, the tension creeping into her voice as she softened her stance. “It was just... a question. I wasn’t trying to provoke you.”

  Vivienne’s gre remained sharp, but she didn’t back away. She stood still, her breathing steady and deep, as though something within her was still simmerih the surface, something she wasn’t ready to release. Her features shifted again, a sudden ge as her maniergy returned in full force.

  With a spin, Viviewirled on her heels, her cws flexing as she twirled faster and faster, ughter bubbling from her throat like a burst of air from a trapped balloon. She danced around Rava, her movements wild and fluid, as though the whole world was a stage and she was the only pyer. Her lips curled into a grin that was equal parts uling and joyous.

  “I could dance all day like this!” she called out, her voice high with an exuberahat felt almost childlike. She spun again, faster, her long limbs stretg out and twisting in an almost impossible way. “Oh my goodness! I dance again! I missed it so much. Would you dah me?”

  Rava stood motionless, watg the chaotic dispy with a mixture of wariness and awe. The wild energy radiating from Vivienne was intoxig, but at the same time, it was uling—like a storm ing on the horizon. Even in this new form, Vivienne was as uable as ever, though perhaps now there was an added yer of power in the way she moved, a force to her presehat made Rava uneasy, a... fasated.

  Vivieopped abruptly, her body ing to a sudden stillness, the rush of her spinning dissipating like the st remnants of a storm. “Oh, how glorious it feels to move like this,” she murmured, her voice soft but ced with a sharp, almost dangerous sweetness. It was a tohat made the air feel heavier, as if the very space between them had thied with her words. She took a step closer to Rava, eyes gleaming, a flicker of something deeper lurkih the surfaething beyond just glee, something almost primal. “It’s like I finally breathe... like I’ve been locked up in a cage and now I’m free to soar.”

  Rava watched her, uled by the iy behind Vivienne’s gaze, yet uo look away. She swallowed hard, f her thoughts bato focus. “Yeah. You are.” Her voice was quieter now, more trolled, as she stood up and grabbed her pilfered pack from the ground where she had slept, the straps digging into her fingers as she hefted it over her shoulder. “We should get going though. The pass goes quite high, and I don’t want to deal with snow any lohan I have to.”

  Vivieilted her head, eyes narrowing slightly as she took in Rava’s tone. A small, amused smile tugged at the ers of her mouth, but she didn’t push the matter further. Instead, she gave a light, almost airy ugh and stretched her arms out wide. “Ah, yes. The snow. How... refreshing,” she said, her voice dripping with mothusiasm.

  Without waiting for a response, Vivienne spun on her heel and started walking ahead, her movements smooth and almost hypnotic, the sway of her hips in tuh the uling energy that hummed beh her skin. Rava watched her for a moment, torween a mix of attra and wariness, before following. She knew she had to keep moving forward, but the feeling in her chest wasn’t just the cold of the air. It was something heavier, like an unsee pressing down, something else creeping in.

  As they asded into the pass, the ndscape grew more barren and stark. The trees thinned, giving way to jagged rod distant, snoed peaks in the distahe wind began to pick up, a sharp bite to the air that made Rava tug her pilfered cloak tighter around her shoulders. She g Vivienne, who seemed utterly uhe cold not toug her. Her eyes sing the horizon with an iy that made Rava’s stomaot.

  “You’re... different, Vivienne,” Rava said after a while, her voice just barely above the whisper of the wind. “This form—everything about you. It’s not just the way you look. It’s who you are now.”

  Vivienne’s eyes flicked to her, a fsh of something unreadable passing through them. She didn’t answer immediately, but the slight twitch of her lips suggested a smile, or perhaps something darker.

  “And who was I before?” she asked, her voice pyful but yered with an edge that Rava couldn’t quite pce.

  Rava didn’t answer, unsure whether she should even try. Instead, she focused oh ahead, the snow g beh her boots as they climbed higher into the mountains. She couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever Vivienne had bee was just the beginning, and that something much more was waiting to unfold.