Dances with Gators

The Alligoth trampled over anything that crossed it’s path. It turned, weaved, and scampered through the dark wood. It was well passed sunset now and it’s vision wasn’t as clear. Despite living in a dark pond it still needed light to see, it’s vision was only slightly better than a human’s in the dark. The only light in these woods was the moon through the crooked branches.

The Alligoth’s tried it’s best to keep track of the buck that had murdered it’s child. It’s nose surprisingly wasn’t much better than an average human’s, perhaps even a tad bit worse. Instead the creature used vibrations in the water to locate it’s prey, unfortunately it was now on land with no such ability available.

It’s sight, hearing, and smell were all on par with a human’s for the most part. That did, in fact, mean that it was wondering around in the dark without a clear idea of where the murderer had run off to.

It knew the creature had ran off in this direction and it was sure that it hadn’t gotten very far, it hadn’t had more than a minute head start yet it still hadn’t caught up.

The Alligoth swung it’s head from side to side trying it’s damndest to sus out where the buck had gone.

Out of nowhere she heard a shrill yell. The Alligoth bolted toward the sound. A particularly large tree came into view with the buck standing at the bass of it.

The Alligoth’s eyes flared red and it charged without fully analyzing it’s opponent. The only thing on it’s mind was vengeance. It came close enough the snap the small, bipedal buck in two. The Alligoth opened it’s jaws ready to bite down on it’s prey. The thing it didn’t register was the missing horn that ordinarily would have stopped it from attacking from this particular angle. In that moment instead of the crunching of skin and bone, it felt a burning sensation through the roof of it’s mouth, tongue, and back. It was suddenly suspended, no, impaled in mid-air.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was perhaps the most intense pain I had ever felt. It took every once of strength I had not to pass out as I ripped the golden horn off my head. I was basically breaking my own bones by doing this, something that was ingrained into my head. I pulled as hard as I could but it wasn’t coming off. I pulled and pulled until I came across this huge tree. I was pressed for time so in the heat of the moment I plunged my antler into the tree jumped. I kept jumping. I felt the antler start to give. The searing pain of it made my head throb but I kept at it until…

Snap. I let out an ear shattering scream. It sounded like an animal howling.

If the Alligoth had lost my trail it was sure to still be close by enough to hear that. I felt so woozy, I thought I might faint at any second. My head ached, blue blood began to stain my hair and drip into my eyes, plus my side hadn’t stopped hurting from my cloud battle.

The Alligoth suddenly appeared so I focused up as much as I could, hiding the broken antler low at my side. My arms and legs shook, but I gathered my strength and faced my enemy. To my surprise it recklessly charged at me, jumping over my head with it jaw unhinged ready to snap me in half. With only a second to react I thrust my golden antler into the Alligoth’s mouth. It’s entire weight came down on the antler bringing it through the back of the beasts throat and piercing it.

I toppled forward slamming the now dead Alligoth to the ground.

I’d somehow managed to win, but the drowsiness from blood loss was starting to overwhelm me. I had to act quick.

“Assimilate!” I hadn’t needed to shout it at any point before but I was desperate and thought maybe it would speed up the process.

A golden light pulsed through the Alligoth’s body and back into mine. My eye level suddenly rose and my skin grew scaly.

A sense of relief flooded in. I willed myself to become bipedal as I had countless times before. My arms thinned out but remained green and scaly and my level lowered again.

I sat up onto my knees. I had webbed hands with talons at the end, my right hand still clutched a golden antler. The Alligoth itself had disappeared as these monster did when assimilated.

I looked down to find my oversized breasts back where they belonged, only they had become scaly and green like my hands, the scales were particularly thick around the nipples making them just censored enough to show on TV.

The pain from my injuries still persisted despite changing forms. The slice to the side, my soar legs, and now my throbbing head. I would not last in another fight despite getting this new form; the cumulative injuries I’d received were too great. I wasn’t in the dire straits I’d been in two minutes ago, but it didn’t mean I could push things any further. Plus I’d just now realized it was pitch dark out here. The whole forest had been aglow when I was in the Buckomondor but now that I was an Alligoth everything was dark.

It was risky to do but I would have to set camp here for the night. There was a chance I might get attacked but in this state I was at a disadvantage no matter what I did. I’d been freed from the drowsiness of blood loss and instead was just plain tired. It seemed I’d finally hit my limit.

Without much additional thought I unceremoniously settled in for a nap.