On a typical Saturday morning, Ty was expected to clean the yard, the house, and if he was lucky he might havea few quiet moments before Dustin and his girlfriend returned and kicked him out while they made out on the couch.
This Saturday, Ty was emboldened on a brand new adventure with exciting but scary things happening to him. It felt like he was finally doing something.
{ I share your enthusiasm. Believe me. I'm terrified but excited. } Narissa added. Ty could feel her more closely, swimming with desperate hope.
When he reached the highway at the edge of town, Ty crossed it into a forest that he had visited either to hide or enjoy nature. Stepping through the treeline, he was met with thick trees and clearings. Finally, he came to a river's edge deep in the woods. It was early afternoon and the warm sun overhead made him remove his jacket.
"What do you need me to do, Narissa." Ty asked the air. Here, away from the city, he could feel her stronger. Vaguely, he felt the lizard watching him from fifteen feet away. It was a wholly weird feeling.
{ Okay. } Narissa took a deep breath. { This is going to sound crazy, Ty, but I need you to gather up some rocks. We're going to make a circle of them about eight feet around. There has to be 13 and 13 exactly in the circle. }
"Okay." Ty went white. Regardless, he went about his task, searching the riverbed for some good sized rocks to make a summoning circle, which he assumed correctly he was making.
{ If you weren't interested in the occult this would be very awkward. } Narissa laughed, as Ty set the rocks down on the grassy floor of the forest as Narissa had described.
{ Can you make a clearing in the middle? } Narissa asked.
Ty looked at the circle of rocks and laughed. "So I have to cut the grass anyway." He bent down and began uprooting the grass and pulling it away, throwing it outside the circle and creating a clear patch in the circle of rocks.
{ Okay. } He could hear Narissa breathing heavily. She was genuinely scared. { Now... two more things. }
"Ready." Ty said. He was suddenly zapped with an image, or a symbol. Like something you would see in a fantasy movie carved into runes. Only totally unlike anything he knew.
< Can you put that in the dirt of the circle, please? It's going to tell me where to go when I cross over. Otherwise I could wind up anywhere there's a circle with 13 stones. Which... suprisingly, is fairly common. > She paused for a moment and Ty felt the unnverving sensation of something cold suddenly gripping his hand. He raised it in shock and found his arm hairs standing up. < I need to warn you. This is going to be really scary. You'll see why. >
"Okay." Ty gulped. He set to picking up a sharp tree branch and engraving the symbol he had seen onto the forest floor.
< Just be brave. I'll need your help after we're done. > Narissa said nervously.
"Okay." Ty began to break into a warm sweat.
< The last thing is that I need you to summon me. > Narissa said calmly. < I need you to will it. I'm going to vanish from your mind as soon as you do. Don't panic. That means I'm on my way here. >
"Okay." Ty said nervously, standing outside the circle trembling with both terror and raw adrenaline. He closed his eyes.
< Here we go! > Narissa warned. < Oh man, I can feel it, Ty! I can feel the pull already! I'll see you soon. Don't be scared. It's just me. >
Ty concentrated as hard as he could in the peaceful forest, with birds chirping, the river bubbling, and summoned Narissa the lizard woman to the circle he had created. He felt her departure, as if she was suddenly ripped from his mind. He opened his eyes, staring at the circle, and got a cold chill as a strange mist began to rise from the ground like steam.
As Ty watched, the mist resolved itself into swirling white vapours, unaffected by the wind or any environmental condition, moving of it's own accord and slowly billowing out in the circle as it began to puff into a shape. Ty's eyes widened in fascination as the swirling white cloud began to resolve itself into a form. First it gathered, became humanoid, and very slowly it began to resemble the lizard woman. A swirling uncannily moving shadow of Narissa formed, but this was not a physical being. It was a being of pure mist and vapour, condensed into a billowing flowing thing with no legs or tail, floating off the ground but somehow standing there in the circle.
Ty watched with amazement as the pure white smoke lizard twirling in the circle. He watched as she smoldered and billowed in her movement, pressing around the circle and finding she couldn't cross it, as it there was an invisible wall preventing her from moving. She turned her snout back to Ty as it pulsated and billowed, and her featureless cloud eyes stared at him. She let out a huge smile, flowing, and waved excitedly.
Ty waved back with a grin.
Clearly unable to speak, Narissa waved him closer. Ty approached the flowing spirit cautiously, scared he might disperse her, and watched as she gently pointed to herself, then made a motion that she needed him to take her hand. He understood the intent and nodded, watching as Narissa seemed to raise her head and arms up to the sky and wait.
Ty pictured himself taking the lizard's hand and pulling her forward with him. He looked back and saw the lizard smoke vibrating. There was a strange orange flame that lit up around the circle, rising to Narissa's height and bursting into a full blown wall of pure fire.
Ty took several steps back in alarm, and watched as the smoky being within let out a silent scream, tensing and whirling as a solid skeleton began to appear in her form. As the orange flame flickered violently, Ty watched with sudden realization of what was so scary. Narissa's bones clacked among the smoke and fire and the lizard looked over herself as she began to sprout muscle and tissue over her bone. Without skin, the grotesque sight was oozing and bleeding out into the circle. The lizard gasped as her lungs formed and let out a ghastly howl and she tensed in agony, back arching, as she began to grow skin and covering over his terrifying exposed body.
Ty gasped as a completely naked and fully formed lizard woman fell to her knees in the circle, falling down on her hands and gasping. The fire flickered away and died without smoke. Narissa's tail fell outside the circle and the 7 foot lizard woman collapsed in exhaustion, breathing heavily as she fell onto her chest, trembling.
Ty rushed to her side, carefully, and helped her sit up outside the circle. With tears in her eyes, Narissa put her arms around Ty and still shaking, they embraced warmly as her body began to adjust to her new dimension.
"T-Thank you, Ty." Narissa said weakly, still panting slightly. "I won't make you regret this. I swear."
Fascinated, Ty looked over her powerful naked body in not so much interest but examination. He found she had softer different coloured leather down her front, and unlike in the blackness, every feature and line of her scales was perfectly lit by the sunlight. She practically glittered as she reflected he light, ther colours a mixture of greens, and sands, purples, and teals.
Ty took her hand as she began to stabilize, and hugged himself into her side as she put her arm around him.
"Oh my God." Narissa laughed. "I don't think I ever want to phase again."
"I saw your guts." Ty went white.
"Sorry." She said, finally getting her breath back. "I really should have warned you about that."
"Are you all right?" Ty blinked. "Are you... intact? All here?"
"Every last molecule of me." Narissa smiled. She kissed the top of Ty's head gently and he blushed deep red as she rose to her full height and braced herself against a tree, getting used to her weight and movement once again.
"I can't read your mind anymore." She laughed hysterically. "But I can still read your face."
Ty looked away from her naked form and blushed deeper red.
"I don't think you've even seen a woman naked, have you?" Narissa offered, gently pushing herself off the tree and walking over the forest floor with suprisingly soft and quiet footsteps.
"Uh, no, ma'am." Ty averted his eyes.
"Well, modesty isn't something my people have. No point. We don't sexualize our bodies. They're just bodies." She said honestly. She stood no more than six feet away from Ty and stood evenly. "So, might as well get used to this. Come on, now, take a good look. I know you want to. Just respect me. No more than looking, okay?"
"Okay." Ty agreed, and excitedly turned to look over the lizard.