Three more days passed, during which Evan had been running and walking for days in a seemingly aimless direction, until he was completely surrounded by wilderness, with no possibility of rescue. His transformation has only bothered him once since he abandoned his home, resulting in his entire body being covered in swamp green scales. Their dull colour barely reflected the sunlight and his hair had long fallen off.

He relentlessly held on to the desperate hope he could still be fixed and all would be forgotten. Under his clawed feet, the crunching of long dead leaf litter from the surrounding towering pine trees. Inside of him, he could feel himself approaching his destination. Almost there. It would whisper to him, telling him to push on just a little further.

Evan felt relief. Only yesterday he had succumbed to animalistic instincts when he went down all four limbs and hunted a rabbit with his bare teeth. His hunger forced him to do things he would never consider. The copper tang of blood still lingered on his tongue while his belly gave him relief from nourishment. It was only halfway through his meal when Evan realised what had happened and he dropped the remains, wiped the blood off his hands and mouth and ran in the opposite direction, shocked from the horror of his actions.

His legs ached from the non-stop march towards an unknown place. Without hesitation, he lied down on an exposed rock with its surface radiating heat from the only exposed sunlight from the tree canopy. The sun’s warmth brought calm and relief to his body.

In that position, he would be mistaken for some kind of Iguana or large lizard of sorts while in this resting position, Evan realized he chuckled at the thought.

A bit after, his long trek resumed, toward the valley surrounded by nothing more than pine trees and occasional shrubbery. Then out of nowhere, his waist felt sore. From inside, a sharp pain in his spine forced him to hunch over; his heavy chest brought him down to earth, making him place his arms out in front of him.

He was about to walk on all fours like an animal.

His breathing escalated and his hands trembled in fear. Quickly, he quickly straightened out his back and pressed on forward, doing his best in dealing with the pain in his back until it became numb.

His head spun and his throat was parched. He hadn’t had anything to drink ever since he caught that small rabbit and its moist flesh sated his hunger and thirst. He remembered how warm it tasted when he sank his teeth into its soft flesh and how tasty it was, how powerful he felt when he hunted it and how much superior he felt when he killed it-

‘NO!’ He shouted, slapping himself out of his trance. It was wrong, he couldn’t enjoy it! No matter how good it felt.

His ears burnt, but Evan brushed the sensation aside. Soon, pins and needles danced along his cartilage. His hand, brushing his ear, finding small spikes protruding from the soft cartilage. The spines grew longer and firmer, pointing to the back of his head. His ears burnt as the soft cartilage transformed into a soft leather webbing between the spines.

Then his ears rang until it was all he heard. But it lasted only some seconds of terror: the ringing in his ears settled down and his hearing returned to him, sharper than ever. Evan heard everything in clarity like he never had before. He was hearing the sounds of birds flapping their tiny wings from a distance away. He heard things like the subtle movements of a woodland critter nearby.

Reaching up to touch one ear, he felt surprised by the delicateness of the soft membrane between the spines. Strangely, stroking them gave him a small sliver of pleasantness.

Evan felt a strong urge to turn left: something (The Voice?) was suggesting to him it was the right direction. Evan smiled as he walked, his mind daydreaming of the things he was going to do once he got back to normal.

But ashe kept on going, his back ached and burned. At first, Evan assumed it was from being exposed to sunlight for so long and his sun basking session. But he soon remembered what came after feeling this.

‘Oh god, not now, please!’

Sharp pain erupted from his shoulder blades, interrupting Evan’s pleasant daydream and making him grind his teeth and his eyes shut. Something prodded its way from his shoulder blades and worked their way down his back and up towards his skin. Eventually it began to push its way out and Evan yelped in pain as it broke through his flesh. The pain forced him to all four limbs and his back arched up in pain as blood trickled down his scales and onto the ground. His breath became ragged; he tried to brace himself, but it was of no use when nerves began forming in his new limbs. He somehow knew what they were; yet he couldn’t see them.

With each pained breath and grunt he made, the two limbs inched their way out and soon, tiny delicate digits formed at the end of his limbs. The fingers grew while a leathery membrane, similar to his ears, stretched itself taut between each finger. The sensation burned throughout his muscles. Within his mind, new impulses and new sensations came from them as they grew; absurdly, despite all the suffering, deep in his mind a small thought of flying through the air gave him a sense of happiness. A small part of him was happy, telling him: Your wings are born.

Evan quickly snapped himself out of the euphoric thought. Will there be a point where he will no longer want to be human again? Pain filled his head as the wings grew. He turned his head around to look back on them and saw the delicate fingers flexing for the first time. The thought of flying would be freeing, but it was not what he wanted.

His new arms had already grown to over a metre in length and his fingers were already longer than that. The pain had been numbed down to a degree that Evan was able to tolerate. He attempted to get back up on his feet; however, his new limbs weighed heavy on him, sending him to the ground. He desperately dragged himself upwards using his new claws, then pushed off; but when he was high enough, a cramp break in his waist and hips. He hunched forward hoping it would go away until his hips were realigning to a quadruped stance.

‘No no no no! Gotta get up, can’t walk like an animal!’

He relied on the tree once more for support dragging his upper body away from the ground when POP! Wet and dull it sounded off from within his body. In an instant Evan’s spine straightened and his body adjusted itself.

Falling to the ground on his hands Evan felt dizzy and nauseous. His eyes became watery and his mind ran wild.

‘I just want to be normal! Is that too much to ask? What did I do to deserve this? What? What? Whaaaaaaaaat?’

Keep going.

Suddenly, as if his worries were washed away by the tides of his thoughts, Evan remembered the light at the end of the tunnel. He closed his eyes and focused on his heart. He took his first tentative steps with his hands now forelegs and slowly began walking.

‘I can do this, I haven’t got far to go,’ he repeated to himself over and over like a mantra.

The forest was endless. Evan continued until night fell on the land once more. He found a rock surface that was elevated above ground, his new claws letting him climb incredibly easily. Once more, he slept in a curled position, until daytime arrived...

and in front of his eyes was The Voice, looking down on him.

‘Aren’t you looking wonderful?’

All he saw was an entity with his face and body taunting him. He got up on all fours and found he was human once more. But inside of him was nothing but anger and frustration.

‘Why do you do this to me? Why do I wake up Human, why can’t I be human when I am awake? And all I see is you reminding me of what I am losing!’

‘Hm, you know what? You may be actually right, Evan.’

In an instant The Voice stood back from Evan and changed. His form kept growing in size and stature and in a matter of seconds, he had undergone the same change that had plagued Evan for the last six days. Evan stood back in shock while standing before him was a large dull green dragon, whose long neck had craned upward showing off its impressive display of horns and spines.

Evan’s mouth was agape at the sight.

‘Is that much better for you?’

‘Wh-whuh-What are you?’

‘I am you, remember: I am the part of you that wants to help you out.’

‘Why do you look like this? You look more… uhh...’

The Voice had lowered his head down to meet Evans ‘Evan, I would never hurt you. But take a moment to look at me. This is what you have to look forward to, and isn’t it wonderful? Having wings to carry you through the sky with unlimited freedom, powerful muscles and claws to feel superior-’

‘No.’

‘-soon you will be a part of the world around you, you get to be part of something bigger and contribute to the beauty of this world, like the majestic creature you are going to be-’

‘NO!’ Evan spat.

The Voice had cocked an eye ridge in confusion. He looked at Evan with concern. ‘What’s wrong?’

Evan mildly chuckled. ‘What’s wrong? WHAT’S WRONG? I don’t want to become a beast like you! You are taking this body to mock me, to tell me what I am becoming. Well…. Jjokes on you, when I get to that valley I am getting my old body back and I won’t let you stop me!’

‘Your old body ba- Evan, wait. No, I didn’t mean-‘

‘Shut up! I’ve had it with you! You’re trying to make me accept this so I can be “one with nature” like some tree hugging hippie! I want to be human and that’s what’s going to happen when I wake up!’

‘Evan, please listen to me; you got it all wrong. That’s not why you are going to the valley, you won’t be able to- ‘

His eyes shot open and Evan took in his surroundings. Night was still present but, in the distance, Evan could see the warm orange glow on the clouds above him. Daytime was soon approaching. His stomach growled from hunger and a powerful need to hunt crept into his mind. He violently shook his head, refusing to have such ideas inside of him..

Hunt.

Heavy droll escaped his mouth as he remembered his first kill.

Feed.

How moist and warm the rabbit’s flesh was when he first bit into it...

‘NO! I… won’t kill again.’

His ears twitched as he heard small footsteps lightly stepping on leaf litter. Instinctively, he started scanning the area for whatever was causing it. His eyes saw clearly in the dark forest: to his own amazement, there was a small squirrel foraging only what seemed to only be a hundred feet ahead of him.

Hunt.

‘I don’t want to, I can’t do it!’

You strong dragon. Dragon need meat. You must hunt.

‘I…I’ll just find fruits and nuts to sustain myself!’

Dragon need no berries or nuts. Dragon need meat. Dragon carnivore. You Dragon, you must feed.

‘I… I must…feed, I am so hungry. I don’t want to kill’

Dragon must hunt. Dragon hungry. Feed yourself!

His part of the brain that still was human fought hard against the impulse to go hunt another creature with his own hands, fighting the best it could against the new, scary part of him that was simply egging him on to do what seemed to be natural: he was hungry so he needed to eat, but to eat, he has to hunt.

Logic and rational thought became but a blurry concept in his mind. Evan grunted and clawed at his temple. He looked toward the small animal, his eyes focused and his mouth salivated.

‘Just… One little bite, just to stop hunger.’

Yes. Feed. Dragon must feed.

‘Must… feed- No! I won’t do it!’

Evan fought once more. His breath became ragged. He looked toward the squirrel while saliva hung from his maw. His eyes never faltered from it and he took one step toward it.