“No, I think you've done enough. I'll be fine without another one of your 'boons',” you reply in frustration.
“Really? I'm sorry we weren't on the same page with the first wish, but now that we each know better, I'm certain a bit of specificity can get us there. Are you sure you don't want to try again?” she asks.
“Oh come on, don't give me that. You said yourself that you assumed I wanted to be fully human again. Not a... bird!” You say while gesturing towards your head in anger. “If I make another wish, you'll just 'accidentally' mess it up in a way that I didn't specify and I'll be even more scrambled up. Do I really look that dumb?”
Caelestis's expression abruptly changes to a wry smile. “Now or when we first met? Ha!”
You glower in response.
“Fair enough, I suppose. You've probably made the right choice. What can I say? Feasting isn't enjoyable if it's just overpowering some pathetic critter that isn't equipped to fight back. But a game of wits? Now that's fun. And I get to let my creative side flourish. It's amazing how so many of your kind not only trust the benevolent wish-mistress, but even try to double or triple down. Some keep going again and again until they've wished away all the humanity they have left. Or worse. If you ever change your mind, just find me and make another wish. I'm always happy to give people whatever they ask.”
She examines you one last time before laughing to herself. She then calmly turns and strides away into the darkness as if she's already forgotten about you.
As she leaves, you fish back into your pocket for your cellphone, pulling it back out to examine your newest changes. It's not as shocking this time as you've already had to adjust to seeing an unrecognizable face staring back in the camera, but it's still unsettling. You have to contort your neck to lower your head to an appropriate distance from the phone.
It's more or less what you expected from your first examination. Your head as a whole is still roughly human, though dark blue, made of rubber, and partly feathered. However, where your nose and mouth used to be, a beak now protrudes. You're not sure it looks quite swan-like, though you can't really think of what a swan beak looks like off the top of your head. But it's definitely a beak, and alongside the neck, the effect is all the same. But with your human eyes and brow, you have to agree that you look a bit more like a cartoon character than a flesh and blood bird.
You put your phone away and run your hands along your neck as you bend and flex it experimentally. You find you have much more immediate control over it than you did the elephant trunk, potentially because it replaced a body part that you were already familiar with. At the same time, the wider range of movement is dizzying and hard to reign in. As you inventory your new cranium, you hear the flutter of wings approaching behind you.
“Alright, Human. Give me the details! What did you two say before she morphed you?” Tex immediately demands.
“Well, she said her name was Caelestis, she only likes to change people who ask, and she does so by granting wishes. I stupidly made a wish, and she granted it to the letter, but not the intent. You're looking at the result,” you reply dejectedly.
“YOU MADE A WISH? Did you not forget about my third point of advice?!” She asks, flying up to your face and frowning.
“Oh, I must have forgotten. Oh wait, you didn't get to the third one, remember?!” you yell.
“Because it was obvious! If something is too good to be true, then it is. Don't just accept things or make agreements blindly. There's always an angle. Never trust any of us to do something for a human out of pure philanthropy. They'll always be getting something out of it, and normally, it's part of you.”
“Even you? I thought you said you were helping me out of your infinite kindness or some such.”
“Well I am... partly. But also, you may have noticed I'm basically hiding in your shadow. Your essence helps mask my presence. And I have to admit, it helps being able to get recon on what all is going on before having to expose myself to the shifting tides of power and politics amongst my people. For instance, I'm fairly sure now that 'Caelestis' used to call herself Sphinx. She'd make her self look like the famous monster and ask people riddles to decide whether she would absorb them, convert them, or leave them be. I suppose there wasn't enough sport in it. Or maybe she has advanced and developed some new essence locus that she wants to try out.”
“So I'll just have to trust you that you're the only trustworthy one.”
“I didn't say I'm the only one necessarily, but it's a good rule of thumb. Besides, that's for you to decide. But I can assure you that I've never told you a lie. At least not yet. Anyway, we need to move. We're obviously too exposed here, and it would be best if we at least had the drop on our next encounter.”
You ponder what she said and supposed she's still the best hope you've got at the moment. You agree and make your way back into the deeper foliage in an attempt to find the path or another target.
---------------------------------------
You and Tex trudge through the underbrush. Tex occasionally gives you advice on how to make use of your new animal features, while you adjust to dodging all the extra branches that your head now reaches. But as you carefully pass between some thorny bushes, your shoe gets caught in the mud on the other side. You notice immediately as you set your weight on the leg and feel the ground sink up to your ankle. You grunt in surprise and stumble slightly, but your foot doesn't immediately come free at your tug.
“That's odd.” You murmur. You plant your other foot and begin to successfully dislodge yourself when it starts to sink as well.
“Human! Get away now!” Tex suddenly cries out after she sees your situation.
At first you don't understand her distress, but upon looking back at your feet, the situation becomes clear. What you assumed was a layer of green algae disguising the thick muck beneath actually was the muck that your feet were sinking into, and as you looked closer through the faint light, you realized something else. It had a rubbery gloss.
You then begin to panic, thrashing your legs as you try to free yourself from the puddle of latex. Though your feet move, the puddle clings to your ankles, pulling back oddly. You manage a rough walking motion forward, but the resistance is uneven and hard to anticipate. A sudden tug on your right foot takes your balance and you fall to your hands and knees. Your neck is not prepared for this sudden motion, and your head is whipped to the ground. Though the dirt is soft where your head hits, the impact is still jarring, and you struggle to hold onto your consciousness as your vision tunnels. It's exacerbated by strange waves that pass through you where your new rubbery flesh bends and warps as it absorbs the shock, deforming to a point that would have easily shattered your skull if your human head had been so distorted.
You recover from the daze after only a brief moment, but you didn't have any time to spare as you feel the puddle gaining ground. You're thankful when you feel dirt and leaves under your palms where you caught yourself, but your legs weren't so lucky. You feel that your knees already sunk into the puddle on impact and have only sunk more since. You desperately try to crawl forwards. Your progress is difficult but steady. However, as you advance, so does the latex. It creeps up your legs and soaks through your clothes. Coming to life in response to the new prey that it has ensnared, the latex slowly draws more of you into itself. Before you know it, it's reached your hips. You continue frantically grabbing at the earth and straining forward until the two of you seem to reach an impasse, as the latex ceases its buildup at your waist.
You've only managed to crawl about six feet from where you were first trapped, but it's felt like miles. It appears that the puddle has reached its limit. It no longer tries to draw more of you in, and the pull against you is weakening. You're relieved, as you're having more and more trouble moving your legs. Everything beneath your waist is numb and all you can feel is pins and needles. For the last couple feet, you've continued pulling yourself along the ground solely with your arms, and their strength is quickly waning.
Agonizingly slowly, the puddle starts to recede. Your extended neck allows you to twist back and watch the progress as you shuffle the last couple feet to freedom. To your dismay, you don't see your pants or even your bare ass as the green mass shrinks back. Instead you're greeted by deep blue latex that matches the color of your head and neck.
Freeing more of yourself, it becomes apparent that where your human legs used to be, the puddle has fed on and replaced them with...