Waking up, Kelsey still felt weak and even moreso, confused. She looked around at her surroundings and guessed she was in some kind of log cabin. Standing a few feet from her was the gold robes stranger.
"Who the fuck are you????"Where the fuck am I??? HELP, HELP, HELP!" Kelsey screamed.
The stranger calmly walked toward her with a cup of tea. Kelsey attempted to knock it out of his hand but the stranger stopped her.
"I am not going to hurt you, I am not the reason someone injected you, and I swear to you, I am doing everything in my power to help you." the man said. "Please just drink this tea, you are clearly dehydrated. I will explain everything to you."
The stranger pulled up a chair right next to Kelsey's bed and sat down. "Before I tell you this, I need you to understand that your knowledge of the natural universe is...limited at best. With that being said, my name is Daru and I am from another universe."
Daru explained that he was a quasi-guardian of his own universe. He stated that there were many other universes in existence, at least 100. However, a person in their own universe could only see just the one, because they are all closed off from one another.
"That is, until your doppleganger escaped from mine." "I don't know what her long term plans are, but right now, it seems like she intends to replace you. That's why she injected a transformation salve into you."
Kelsey tried to laugh this off, but Daru explained it was no laughing matter. The particular strain of salve Kelsey had been injected was engineered to drag her transformation out for weeks and be as excruciatingly painful as possible. More importantly, there would be no way to stop the transformation from happening once injected. The only thing that could be done would be to speed up the transformation and to make it as painless as possible.
"I am so sorry this happened to you child, but once you undergo the transformation, we'll figure out a way to fix this."
With tears rolling down her cheek, Kelsey asked a most obvious question. "What am I going to become?"
Daru shook his head. The salve elicited completely random transformations and there was no way to know what it would be beforehand. Daru went over to his stove, and poured some liquid into a bowl. He brought it over to Kelsey.
"This will start the transformation." Daru said. "Be brave my child, we have a long journey ahead of us."
After a moment's hesistation, Kelsey took the bowl and gulped it. She was terrified, but she didn't want to wait two weeks to fix this, Kelsey rose out of bed and started taking a few steps before she felt her stomach rumble. She looked at her hands and saw that they started turning purple. Soon her entire body had taken on the color. As Kelsey started hyperventilating, she noticed her body parts start to...dissolve? Her fingers started to liquify and drip to the floor. Kelsey felt herself sinking as her body started liquifying. In a matter of moments, Kelsey was just a pile of liquid.
For a moment, Daru believed this was her final form. However, the giant puddle started moving and shaping itself. Whirling around feverishly, it stopped when it had formed a gigantic ball. Solidifying, it sat there for a few minutes before it started to crack. The shell crumbled and crumbled and suddenly a figure stepped out. "Kelsey" stumbled out. Disoriented, Kelsey landed on her bed. Breathing heavily, she asked.
"Ok, what happened to me?"
Daru retrieved a mirror and brought to it to Kelsey. "My child, you have..."