Part 6

What Clarissa had said was definitely true in some way. Even I couldn’t deny that tentacles were a key point of my transformation. When I had thought of never again needing to brush my hair, I had hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Because I no longer had any kind of hair. Neither eyelashes nor eyebrows and certainly none on my head.

Instead basically all of my face and head were wrapped in smooth glistening skin. It was incredibly soft to the touch and like an octopus, it changed colors. I wasn’t even entirely sure how it did so or how I controlled it but it was undoubtedly as freakishly alien as it was incredibly beautiful. It had thought that the ancient one, our so-called Mother, was turning me into a monster and it was true I looked monstrous but what I hadn’t expected to still be so pretty.

In some way, I looked even better than I had before. My lips were lush and beautifully formed and my eyes were larger and very exotic looking with their squares pupil. The only things that I had to truly adjust to, were the fact that my nose was almost none existent and what now crowned my head.

There in the place of my once full brown locks were, well, tentacles. They were eight in total and not all that long but they were very obvious. When in a resting position they streaked back against my head and encircled my now rather pointy ears like a cute fleshy pixie cut. But just like with the ones that had replaced my genitals, these too, seemed to have a bit of a mind of their own. Instead of staying still they just moved all over the damned place if I didn’t concentrate on them. And even more curious, unlike my tenta-dicks, these had suckers on them and they basically attached to anything in reach! My head, my face, themselves, anything!!!

Reaching with my fingers to touch them resulted in immediate tentacle-ation. As if they were the most curious thing to explore, next to all of them sought out my hand and fingers as soon as they were close enough. At first I had thought that there must have been some kind of connection between them and my brain for they didn’t have any eyes and so shouldn’t have known when I got closer. Only once they actually wrapped around my fingers I realized why they could sense so well. I was tasting the chlorine from the water dripping off my hand; my suckers were actually like those of an octopus in that they could taste what they touched!

Clarissa, who had been watching this display with almost morbid curiosity must have noticed my befuddled look too because she just jumped straight into the pool with me.

‘Everything okay, Val?’

‘Obviously not! I have tentacles on my head!’

‘You say that but still, you look more like a blushing maiden than someone who is disgusted...’

‘Uhm, well, I just found out that I can taste with the suckers on them and that is just too weird!’

‘So they are like tongues?’

‘Yeah...’ I couldn’t help but look away to ashamed to face her.

‘So if I do this...’

‘Ah~! What are you doing!?’

I couldn’t see what her hands were up to back there but the sensations I felt from my tentacles were more than enough to imagine it. Like a bundle of weird dicks she caressed and stroked them from base to tip. Even though I tried my best I couldn’t hold back for long and once she began kissing and sucking on one I cried out in pleasure. Yet I didn’t do so mentally like I had done these past few hours but in a lapse of judgment I actually cried out loud.

“Ahhhh~”

The very same moment I quickly clasped my hands tightly across my mouth, after all I knew too well what my voice could do to other people. Fearfully I glanced over to Clarissa, terrified of having hurt her. But what I saw astonished me, instead of being consumed by panic and pain she just looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Huh, so you sound like that too?”

I, in turn, could only look at her in confusion and astonishment. My words hadn’t hurt her, and hers had sounded alien but also unbelievably melodious to me. Did this mean that we could talk to each other normally like proper sisters? I hadn’t lost my voice forever but simply gained a new one. Who cared about what other people thought as long as she could hear me it was just fine! Swept up by the moment I basically jumped out of the water and landed atop my new sister, pulling her beneath the surface with me.

‘Val! I can’t breathe!’ Now I understood, our telepathy wasn’t for talking with humans, but for talking underwater!

‘Yes! Yes you can! Where does it itch the most, quick tell me!’

‘Head... The sides of my head!’ Her eyes darted around in panic but I already knew what to look for. I slid my hands up to her face and over her ears, behind them I found it. The skin there was inflamed and bulging as if something was pushing against it from inside. Knowing how I had freed my own siphons I didn’t hesitate and dug my nails into the dying flesh. I did as any older sister would have done, I helped Clarissa to be born a new. Even if Mother had left us no choice and taken our humanity down to the depths of her insanity, we could still find pleasure in our new forms. We only had to embrace them, truly understand them!

‘Ah, Val, this feels so weird! How... how does it look? Wha- what am I?’

As the skin fell away something truly amazing was exposed. Even if my eyes hadn’t been able to see so far more than before, I would have thought it beautiful. From the sides of Clarissa’s head, almost like a regal crow, extended six identical branches of red gills. Like those of a young salamander, they flared out and pulsated with every breath they took. As my fingers caressed them they twitched up and down almost as if with joy.

‘They are beautiful Clarissa, you are beautiful! Mother may be mad as a hare but I will let no one ever say that she made you less.’

‘Beautiful you say? That might be true... no matter how she made us suffer I can not deny that you too are breath-taking. Hahaha~ I guess we truly are sisters now, aren’t we?’

She cupped my hand with her own and looked me into the eyes almost lovingly so. I couldn’t help but smirk at her continued advances. Sisters in name we might have been now but her more carnal desires were clearly not subdued by this arrangement. But I couldn’t fool myself, my body too was still yearning for her touch.

‘Yes, but oh what naughty sisters we do make!’

Out of impulse I leaned in closer and sealed her lips with my own. Almost immediately I could feel something long and slick invade my mouth, it seemed that Clarissa too had received an upgrade to her tongue. Unlike mine that was split in two and only marginally longer, her was a powerful singular appendage easily able to wrestle my own into submission. Despite the obvious physical advantages of my sister, I did not give up without a fight! I did have a few more hours of practice and soon began holding on to her tongue with one side and slapping it with the other. Though before either of us could rule supreme, the unmistakable sound of a door being opened made us freeze up.

‘I thought you would have locked the doors!’

‘I did!’

The relaxation area of the swimming bath where we were at the moment was separate from the rest of the pools, so I had hoped that we would be undisturbed. Apparently so had Clarissa, because her scared, panicked eyes told me all I needed to know. If we didn’t come up with a plan right now, we’d be seriously fucked! Much to my demise before either of us could act or even think up something the door to the spa opened. We could hear steps getting closer and a male voice calling out to us.

“Hello? Who is in here? What the heck! Are you hiding in the tub?”

‘Val! What the fuck do we do now!?’

‘How should I know? You’re the one in the swimming club!’

After several minutes passed and neither of us surfaced the voice called out again. “Okay, I must say that I am impressed. You held your breath for really long now. So I guess you are one of those fancy mages, how about you get out there and start cleaning up the mess you made? What even is this black sludge?”

Suddenly Clarissa bared her teeth in anger and with a feral growl arose from the water before I could stop her.

“Don't touch that!”

“Yikes!”

Trying to prevent the worst I rose up behind Clarissa and wrapped my arms around her body in a comforting gesture. The man on the other hand just stood there for several seconds, not believing his own eyes.

“Ooookay. I have seen a lot of shit in the past twenty years. Elves, orcs, giant flying lizards but I can with certainty say that I would have never expected to meet naked fish-girls groping each other in the university baths.”

Neither of us had a response to that, Clarissa was still seething with rage and I honestly had no idea about what lies I should tell!

“So, not talking huh? Guess I should have expected something like that... so uhm, the one in the back how about you hold your friend back from trying to tear off my face while I call the police and let them deal with this. Cause there is no way, that I’m getting close to you two, not after that damned blood mage student almost severed my pinky.”

He was just about to walk away when Clarissa seized my arm and pulled me closer to whisper something. “We can’t let him call the police.”

“I know! But what do you propose, murdering him!?”

Clarissa’s response to that was actually rather scary, instead of answering me, she just sniffed the air and her eyes narrowed. Doing this she looked truly looked like the predator mother had made us out to be. And the longer she stared at the increasingly nervous man, the more did my own desire to hunt rise. When she began licking her lips I knew that I had to do something! My grip around her waist tightened and I hissed in her ear.

“Clarissa! You’re not actually considering what I think you are, right!?”

“Hypocrite! You can feel it too, the desire, the hunger! I can’t even fathom how you resisted it so long! I am starving!”

“By mother! Not even five hours and you already want to become a fucking cannibal!”

“Ah! Don’t you try and make yourself a saint! You raped me and didn’t even really try and stop yourself! So what if I give into the desire, it is only one. One of eight billion!”

“Do you even hear yourself speaking? We’ll be hunted down like rabid dogs!”

“Fine! I’ll listen to you ‘elder sister’, does that make you happy?”

“Uhm, don’t know what language they speak where you come from but it’s seriously painfully hurting my head to listen to the two of you. I’m just gonna go... quickly.”

At this moment I knew that we were fucked. If there was one thing you really shouldn’t do in front of a predator, then it was turning your back on them and running away. Clarissa had been strong before but now she was just monstrously so. In the blink of an eye, she had ripped herself away from my hold and rushed the man. Thankfully her transformation had only just begun but by the way, she acted, I was certain that hers would include fangs and claws. He came about four meters before she had reached and tackled him to the ground. I knew I had to do something but my body urged me to just let it happen, to enjoy a... feast.

“NO! STOP!”

The same power like this morning welled up in me and I focused on the only logical target. Just like Sadiya and Tanya, Clarissa too froze up, but unlike them, I could feel and see her seriously strain against my bindings. What ever I were to do now I would have to do quickly. I had no idea if I could hold her for long, not with how inexperienced I was. I stepped towards the two the man was still frantically trying to escape the arms of steel holding him. Calming myself mentally I put on my friendliest smile and keeled down before him.

‘Hello, Sir. I must apologize for my younger sister's actions. She can be a bit hot-headed at times and with you running away her instincts must have over taken her.’

“What- what are you?”

‘Ah, that is a good question. Technically we are just our mothers' daughters but that explains rather little. Considering our appearance and... nature, I think it would be easier to refer to us as abominations.’

“Abominations, alright. Are you... are you gonna kill me?”

‘Hmmm, while my dear sister...’ I looked over to the still bound Clarissa with stern eyes but only received an eye roll in return.

‘As I was saying, while my sister might have sadly come to this conclusion I do not think it will be necessary. If you do not act like prey, she should not attack you again. So, sit still and be silent while I release her.’

When he nodded in agreement, I slowly but surely loosened the hold I had over Clarissa. At first, I almost feared that she would try to mutilate him again but all she did was stretch and stand up. Yet not before leaning down and giving the poor guy a nibble on the earlobe. Honestly I had known that she was a bit rough with her paramours before, but now I had to wonder if she would actually kill someone out of pleasure. I was glad when she stepped away from the man and behind me.

“Ngh, that is quite the power you have Val. I would be jealous were it not for this intense strength of mine.”

“Let me try something before we leave though.”

I walked up to the man now sitting on the ground and cupped his cheek while whispering in his ear.

“SLEEP.”

“Okay, I take it all back. Now I am jealous.” When I turned around she was staring at me with a cross look.

“Why?” I was about to raise an eyebrow but quickly remembered that they too had gone the way of my hair. ‘At least I didn’t gain tentacle-eyebrows. And no, that was not a suggestion mother!!!’

“You just knocked that guy straight out! Fudge damn it, do you even have to be a better monster than me!?”

“Please tell me you aren’t going to make that a competition... because no matter what you say, I still have noodle arms.” To make my point come across I wobbled my arms around.

Thankfully it seemed that this had been enough to consolidate her. Her frown began twitching with increasing intensity. She was good at holding her laugh at bay, but when I began wobbling my arms as well as my head tentacles in her direction it was too much. Sputtering and coughing she erupted into loud echoing laughter. To anyone else, it might have sound horrid but to me, it was like the chiming of bells. Seeing her gills vibrate with her laughs was so cute that I couldn’t hold back and wrapped her in a tight hug and instinctively began tickling her.

“Val. Val! St- stop it, hahaha~! We need to- Haha. We need to leave though!”

“Yeah. Your right. Let’s go.”

“Val?”

“Yes?”

“I’m happy that we could become friends again.”

“Me too, Clarissa. Me too.”

Thankfully it seemed that most of the students had already left and after covering what we could it was an almost trivial task to exit the building. Clarissa had hidden her gills beneath a beanie even though she was constantly complaining about how I was being ridiculous by fearing discovery. I didn’t really see it as quite so ridiculous, there was no telling how society would react once they found out that our “species” could only reproduce by raping and converting another human or meta-human.

Even the least extreme action would already be installing tracking devices on or in us and that was not something I wished to experience. On the other hand, I could understand where she was coming from. It was annoying to hide like this, I could feel my very being protest against it. Yet I wasn’t sure I these feelings came from my self or from mother influencing my mind. And before I figured that out I wasn’t sure how I should actually act.

I was still deep in thought but when we were about halfway across the university grounds Clarissa suddenly grabbed me by the arm.

“Val...”

“Is everything, okay?”

“No, no it isn’t. I wasn’t lying when I said that I was starving. If I don’t get something to eat soon I will go insane!”

“Oh no.” Hadn’t Clarissa been clinging to me so, I would have face palmed. I was so incredibly stupid!

“I’m so sorry Clarissa! They had me on an IV during the initial changes and my mana well is much deeper than yours. I didn’t think. Fudge! Come one we’ll get some food first.”

I quickly guided her off the campus making sure to keep as far away from other people as possible. How could I have been so short-sighted? It was only logical that she’d be famished. The transformation affecting our bodies was similar to other emergence types that went by quickly. To create the new body the material had to come from somewhere, for magical beasts it came from the spirits mana well but for MAV infected it came mostly from the immense amounts of food they began consuming.

A person changing into a ghoul or wendigo often ate entire carcasses in just a few hours, flesh, organs, and often even bones. Their hunger was also what made them so aggressive and dangerous. But as far as I knew they needed a lot less food initially if they were in a mana rich environment. So it was quite possible that it was the same for us. During the start of my change, the curse had mostly fed upon my vast mana reserves but someone like Clarissa whose well was far more shallow would have eaten through that way quicker.

“Uhm, I would ask where you want to eat but considering you almost ate a person, I guess anything with meat is okay?”

“Yes!”

I knew of a place close by that catered especially to eleven and orc tastes, I had never been there being a human high society girl. But I figured that they most likely would also have just what the two of us needed to not go totally bonkers, at least I hoped so. On the way there I quickly send a message to both Sadiya and Tanya. I wasn’t sure if either of them would read it but I had to try. To Sadiya I send some basic lines about how I was studying longer and would take the tram back home. The message for Tanya I struggled to write. On one hand, she was the one person in my life that I could trust blindly, on the other she had something of a 'knight in shining armor' personality. I feared that she would get her self endangered by trying to help me, or worse that she could choose to throw away her humanity for me.

It was odd, the one person I had always thought of as being like a sister to me, I didn’t wish to make her my sister. I feared what it could do to her and that she would not think about it properly in an attempt to get closer to me. ‘No, I already have do deal with Clarissa. There is no way that I can just go around damning people with this as if I was giving out candy! No matter what Mother’s goal is, I still write my own destiny.’ In the end, I didn’t tell Tanya what was really going on but I simply wrote a few pretty phrases of how I was well and anxious to see her again. It felt a bit like I was abusing her trust in me but until my change was over and I knew just where I stood this was for the best.

“Oh, well let’s just fucking do this. Let’s hope we don’t get torched.”

“Stop being so pessimistic Val! There are literally frickin dragons living in this world. I doubt they’ll be all that upset about two ‘fishy looking chicks’.”

“Let's hope so.”

I wasn’t sure where Clarissa was taking all that optimism from; but once I smelled the scent of food wafting up my nostrils, the growling of my stomach said it all. My body needed food and it needed it now! Lead on by my own hunger I practically stormed into the dinner called ‘Freakish Delights’ and immediately regretted my own brashness. Almost as if we were in a bad movie next to every patron looked our way when my over-enthusiastic entrance made the door crash open.

“Smooth, Val. Very smooth...” Clarissa’s remark had been so dry it was a wonder she didn’t turn to wine. I only regarded her with a half-whispered and half hissed answer.

“Shut it and find a dark corner for us to sit. I can’t stand the looks in this place.”

“Sure, whatever you say Sis.”

While Clarissa went around the room searching for a free – and adequate – table, I went to the counter unsure as to how the ordering worked in this place. On my way past the occupied tables, I noticed that most of the clientele indeed where Elves or Orcs and a few other meta-types. And if I did one thing then it was attracting attention. Nobody in here was hiding their otherness and covered up I did look very much like the human I had been before. Even my tentacles seemed to notice my rising discomfort, for my ‘hair’ completely stopped moving around and instead was pressed tightly to my head.

I had already half a mind to take of my disguise and show the people staring at me that I had every right to be here but before I knew it I had already reached the counter. The young woman – this time I had paid attention – behind it was very obviously an elf. Like most elves she was tall, with an athletic build and very handsome looks, her hair was pulled back into a messy bun but on her, it looked just as stylish as it did wild. When I approached her, her face first lit up into a smile, then a frown and lastly a much less sincere smile. Even her body language was slightly hostile upon seeing that I was seemingly a normal human.

“Hello there, welcome to Freakish Delights. Take out or eating in? I must warn you though; a lot of our dishes are not designed for human taste or stomachs.”

‘That is fine. My sister and I will be eating here. For the start let’s go with...’ I gave the advertisement a look over. Indeed a lot of the dishes were rather heavy in meat even if most was grown in a production plant and not from living animals. What disturbed me the most was that I seemed to be instinctively drawn to the meals with less than rare meat? Swallowing my raising anxiety I continued my order.

‘Uhm, the dishes six, four, two, and... eleven.’

“Are you sure? That is quite a lot and none of that is really made for...” A growl from my stomach interrupted her quite quickly.

‘We will be fine. I will pay now, here is my card.’ With a dismissive wave, I flicked over my credit-chit.

“O- okay. If you say so.” She swiped my chit over the register only to immediately frown. “Valerie Sherman? Sherman as in the AFI Sherman!?”

‘NO! Not in the slightest. Now get to it already!’ Why did this have to happen!? I was just here to get food not more! Why couldn’t people just leave it be? The desire to rip off my ‘disguise’ got even stronger, even if only to make clear that I was definitely not related to my parents, at least not any longer. With an annoyed huff, I stomped towards the table Clarissa had plopped down on. It was in a nice cozy corner where no one would look at us. The moment I sat down I had to rip off my muffler and hood. All this hiding and being sneaky was getting to me. Seeing that I was not hiding what I was anymore Clarissa only shrugged and let her own oddities show. Unlike me she seemed to actually delight in the look it was giving her. The entire time we were waiting on the food she checked herself out in the reflection of an adjacent aquarium. Well, that or she wanted to eat the fishes...

“Okay, so what is eating at you Val? You seem more pissed than I knew you normally.”

“Ahhh, I don’t even know really. Everything just feels so overwhelming. First the ritual, then the shit with Mother and now you. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing and this entire cloak and dagger shit I have to do because of my racist parents doesn’t help in the slightest.”

“Val...”

Instead of trying to persuade me or convince me that I wasn’t driving everything against the wall Clarissa just leaned in and cupped my cheek. For a while she just sat there but just when she was about to lean over the table and embrace me, a polite cough made both of us lookup. Before your table stood another elven woman, only this one was around Clarissa's and my age. Not only was she carrying part of our food but she was staring at me in shock.

“Valerie Sherman? Is it really you? Wha- What happened to you!?”

‘And... you are?’

“Holy! Telepathy!? I mean, it is me, Karen! We were friends in elementary school!”

Instead of answering her I just plopped down face first on the table. ‘How by Mother did this day manage to get even weirder!?’