The storm rages overhead, joined by the roll of thunder and flashes of lightning. You step out from under the protective cover of the trees and are immediately soaked, the fabric of your red shirt clinging to your breasts. The water pours onto your head, running down what you suspect are fins, but you'll take stock of that later. For now you make a run for the cabin, your new webbed feet finding purchase in the muddy soil and propelling your onward, the water running down over your gills filling your body with even more oxygen, your lungs and gills letting you run and jump and move with more strength and stamina that you've ever had before, making you feel strong and fast and alive. Within moments you're at the door of your cabin, and after a second of fumbling with you keys you open the door and duck inside, finally safe at home. You lock the door behind you, just in case, and pull off your shirt and pants as you make your way to the bathroom.
Time for the moment of truth. You close the door and turn around to the full-length mirror on the inside to take in the new you. And you have to say, it's not too shabby.
You've already acquainted yourself with everything below the neck, but seeing it in the reflection drives home the wild beauty of it all. This new form is feminine, but it's powerful and feral looking, shimmering scales and webbed fins built around stocky muscles and strong bones. You could grab a guy and throw him aside without even breaking a sweat. You look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon and a Trout woman had a daughter who took up wrestling. You grin fiercely, feeling incredibly grateful for how this turned out.
And the face that grins back in the mirror is a sight to behold. Vibrant, defiant eyes stare back at you, golden yellow surrounded by a pale, faded green, full of life and determination. You blink, and instead of closing, your eyes are covered by a thin membrane that darts sideways across them, like the protective second lids of a shark's eyes. Below them, the nose is a pair of pointed open slits atop the bump that used to be your nose, feral but feminine, flaring powerfully as you breathe in. And just beneath them, a dark green pair of plump, wry lips that opens as you smile, revealing a row of sharp, pointed teeth that glint in the light, somewhere between shark's teeth and snake fangs. Your grin widens, opening halfway across your cheeks in an intimidating but strangely charming display. It shakes the bright red fins that have grown into your ears, and they flare out like the fins of a beta fish, joined in motion by layers of short, flowing red that wreathe the rest of your head, the replacement for your human hair. You look for all the world like a readhead a punky haircut, but you can feel every strand and fin as it moves in the air. It perfectly suits your new strong look. With a beaming grin and a triumphant full laugh, you flex for the mirror.
God, you're beautiful.
You're badass.
You're you.