Page 31

“Nathair!” she shouted, shifting slightly to alter her course.

“Yes. Keep going that way.”

A bird crowed in the distance and a cloud of bats squeaked as they passed overhead.

A balmy breeze shimmied the leaves above, as crickets chirped, only to quieten when she got closer.

Sweat dotted her brow from the overbearing heat that choked the air of moisture, the summer of early January making it harder to take in hot, dry breaths from panting.

A wet snarl followed by a squeaky roar rang in her ears.

Absentmindedly tripping over forest debris and sticks, she followed that familiar little rumble.

Chasing the sound of Nathair guarding their prey from something, she was surprised by how far away it was and how quickly they could achieve such distance in such a short amount of time.

She hated that they were small enough to be swept up easily by some kind of bird, which always worried her when they strayed too far.

But at least they were ferocious enough to battle most small predators like foxes, and could probably get their fangs into the bird if they were to twist a certain way in the air.

All went quiet before she reached them, and a whimper broke past her lips.

“No. Come on. Where are you?” she muttered, frantically turning one way and then the other.

“To your–”

Lindi sprinted when she heard something not too far away.

Lindi’s heart nearly burst out of her chest when a loud roar exploded to her left, and she stumbled that way – heading towards danger rather than away from it. She tripped and nearly fell on her arse, but managed to save herself.

There Nathair sat, their tail coiled around the neck of an animal carcass, with all their fish fins raised in aggression. Their venomous serpent fangs were bared in her direction with a menacing hiss, causing their body to vibrate.

She gave them a wide berth, knowing it was unsafe to approach while they fed.

Nathair stamped their hand against the carcass’ torso, which looked as though it’d already been picked at by many other animals, and they gave her a second warning hiss.

She eyed the milky liquid dripping from their extended serpent fangs.

She’d never been bitten by them since they gained their skull, but she had an inclination about the milky substance.

Some kind of brown bird landed on the ground next to the carcass, and Nathair quickly spun to it. They chased it away since it landed too close, but never removed their tail from the dead animal’s throat.

Then Nathair dug into their meal once more.

Part of her wanted to stop them, since the creature they were eating was some kind of ram. There wasn’t much left; it was obvious other predators had gotten to it first, since there was only a torso and head. But each bite seemed to make Nathair grow even bigger.

Lindi bit her bottom lip with her brow furrowing, but all she did was clench her hands into tight fists.

Although the scene was gruesome, she watched to make sure they were safe and so she didn’t lose them again.

It’s okay. She didn’t mind them getting bigger, but they were already made up of two different animals, and she worried throwing too many more into the mix would make Nathair look even... freakier.

They were already an odd-looking being, with a serpent skull and tail instead of legs, a humanoid torso, and fish fins running down their limbs and back. The scales that lined their entire black body shimmered with rainbows and were the only fantastical part about them.

Otherwise, they looked like an omen of death with their skull and protruding bones.

Wincing when they grew so large they could extend their snake jaw and begin swallowing the head of the ram, horns and all, she couldn’t help the shiver of disgust that ran down her spine. She finally looked away from her child, who had grown to what must be her chest height in the span of minutes.

I won’t be able to carry them anymore. Her heart wept at losing the cute little child she’d been holding onto for nearly ten months. A-at least they’ll be better to cuddle at night though! she thought to uplift herself, despite it not really working.

Immobile as they swallowed the last bit, each passing second allowed for Nathair to grow bigger and bigger before her very eyes. When the carcass was all gone, they lay huffing on the ground on their side for a few moments, seemingly dazed and fatigued.

They shuddered so hard their tail flicked in every direction, and the coil of it grew with each loop they made. Then sandy-brown growths began to protrude through the top of their skull, while the bone of their head thickened, widened, and grew sturdier.

With their jaw flat against the ground, hooked ram horns grew through the top of their head.

Nathair’s entire body then stretched, and stretched, extending in length and height, while their abdomen shrank inwards to appear gaunt.

They curled their serpent body around their humanoid torso, rolling into a ball and squirming.

Stepping back in disbelief, she bumped into the closest tree with her eyes wide and her jaw dropped.

“What is happening?” she whispered.

A hand shoved through the mass of limbs, more established and rigid than before.

Hard, sharp-looking claws dug at the dirt, and Nathair used them to pull themselves from their own tail as if with force.

Their snout poked out, and what was once barely the size of her fists pressed together was so big that she’d struggle to hold the very thing with both her palms.

Lindi hadn’t noticed how much the sun had dropped beyond the horizon until a set of orbs, glowing bright orange, shone in the dimming light. As if they were birthing themselves from their own form, Nathair crawled out in her very direction and eventually straightened up.

When Nathair rested back upon their lengthy tail, she had to crane her neck ever so slightly, since they towered over her by an inch. Somehow, the gauntness of their body, as if they were starving, made their protruding white bones more prominent.

Their chest heaved, puffing in and out with quick, harsh breaths, and each one flared their fins.

Then they tipped their head back to point their snout upwards towards the sky, parted their split lower jaw, and let out a mind-melting roar that had Lindi screaming as she covered her ears. Pain radiated inside her eardrums to the point that her vision blurred for just a moment.

Nathair twisted their skull to her in a rapid and sudden motion like they’d snapped their own neck. Gasping in surprise, the pain was forgotten when she needed to stumble to the side as their orange orbs flared bright red and they leapt for her.

Instinctually, Lindi shifted into her Phantom form right before they could make impact.

Nathair’s claws swiped through her body, and they crashed into the tree behind her.

It snapped in half, showing the magnitude of their new strength, and broke off thick branches when they grabbed ahold of it.

They let it go, their sharp claws leaving deep gouges, and turned on her.

Nathair slithered to the right with a resonating hiss, their fangs bared as they inspected her. The fact that they followed her incorporeal and nearly transparent form told her they could... see her. That their red glowing orbs were zeroed in on her, and they found her to be a threat or prey.

Nathair gave a quieter, more menacing hiss that had a growl laced into it. They swiped through her intangible torso, then snapped their maw at her.

Something in the distance caught their attention and their serpent skull snapped in that direction.

Within the blink of an eye, they disappeared from in front of her to barrel through the forest in search of it.

They thumped against the ground, weaving between sturdy trunks and leaving chaos in their wake.

With her mouth open, Lindi was frozen as she stared at the ground, dumbfounded.

“What the fuck just happened?” she whispered, before her wide eyes lifted in the direction Nathair had just disappeared. “They... they grew!”

“Their soul has fully transformed.” Weldir’s deep, gruff voice swelled within her mind. “It matched the colour that we saw of their eyes.”

Eyes? Weldir was calling those glowing orbs eyes?

“What does that even mean?” she cried, turning physical to stamp her foot and cover her face. “My baby grew bigger than me in the span of minutes, Weldir!”

“From what I can ascertain of their soul... it appears Nathair has become an adult.”

She hated how blasé he sounded! Why was she the only one freaking out?! Why was she the only one who ever had a normal damn reaction to the strange and unusual?

“How?!” she growled, trying her hardest not to gouge her face with her nails as she lowered her hands and glowered. “Babies can’t just do that!”

“ Human children cannot do that. You’re forgetting they are the offspring of a god.

” His tone was stern and detached, and it made her close her right hand into a tight fist with the urge to bash it into the top of his non-existent head.

“This appears to be their evolution, although they are not yet fully complete.”

Lindi looked down as anger, confusion, and... and grief settled across her shoulders. She bit her bottom lip, refusing to let tears fill her eyes despite how much her nose and cheeks tingled with the urge.

Her baby was gone, and she didn’t even have time to register it. They... they attacked her, and they never did that unless provoked!

“What do you mean, they aren’t complete?” They looked pretty damn complete to her.

“There is something missing, but I’m unsure as to what. We will have to discover that in the future, however...” Weldir paused for a long while, which only gave Lindiwe time to dwell.

“Should... should I go after them?” she asked, clenching her eyes shut.