Completely startled, you whirl around toward your potential attacker. You barely even register the ear-piercing screech, let alone that it was coming from your own elongated throat. With a sweep of your forearm, you slap the hand away from your shoulder with a slimy ::smack:: sound. You take your full height, straightening up your legs and raising your head. From perhaps seven feet in the air, you perceive a loping, bulbous form lumbering away. In your surprise, you've fully extended the new addition that was hanging limply from your tailbone moments ago.
Turning your head unnaturally to the rear, you are greeted with a massive fan of thin, blue latex feathers, each quivering slightly as you twitch with adrenaline. On the end of each feather is an iridescent turquoise oval with a dark circle in the middle.
"Wait," you yell toward the departing figure.
Tex returns to your side as you relax, drawing your feathers together into a rigid, tube-like structure that extends from your body, resting on the bare ground. "Human," she says.
"What?" you reply.
"No," she says, "not you, her." Tex gestures in the direction that the creature had retreated. "Mostly, anyway. Her essence is about halfway drained, otherwise, I'd have sensed her approaching us."
"And that thing is a woman?" You ask, surprised.
"Oh, without a doubt," Tex replied. "Human essences convey a lot of information to our kind, even just a brief glance, so to speak. I think you should go after her."
You begin to take off at a light jog, feeling the breeze on your lower body. Only just now do you realize that the thing in the swamp also stole your pants and underwear, along with a bit of essence. You decide to focus on the task at hand, following in the direction you saw the creature last.
You're surprised at how quickly you can move, with your longer legs and birdlike feet. "Whoa, I'm like an olympic sprinter," you say.
"More like an ostrich," Tex replies.
You take a swipe at her with your hand, which she easily dodges. She then flies around your head and sticks her tongue out at you.
You slow as you reach a rotted-out log. You can hear a blubbering sound from inside, but it's difficult to see anything in the darkness.
"Um, miss," you ask, sheepishly, "I'm sorry if I scared you, but I had just been fighting for my life, and you startled me."
A ghostly blue light seemed to appear suddenly. It illuminated something slick and pulsating inside the log. There were wet, smacking sounds on something solid and you saw the light flicker a bit as the creature shifted and twitched.
"help. me." said a female voice, flatly. "please. help. me."
Just as you realize that you recognize the voice from your smartphone's driving app, there is a shuffling as the creature slowly emerges from the log.
The first movement you see is a large, thin-fingered hand grasp the side of the log. The skin is shiny latex in a sickly yellow-green tone. There appear to only be there fingers and a thumb, and they are slightly webbed toward the base of the hand. Each digit ends with a suction cup, ringed in bright red latex. Next, a dainty human hand, comparatively pale, with neatly manicured pink nails, holding a glowing phone.
You take the human hand by the wrist and help the woman struggle to her feet. She was fairly tall, or was, before her brush with a latex beast. She has small feet, one clad in a filthy sock. Her long, smooth legs are toned. She wears short pink athletic shorts around a thin waist, with modestly defined abs. Her upper body made you gasp, and much as you tried to hide your disgust, your bill hung open in mute surprise.
The woman visibly trembled and shrunk away, burbling sounds coming from her bulging throat. Her upper body is grotesquely unbalanced and barely contained beneath some loose rags that might once have been a shirt. Her beautiful human arm is connected to a thick, gnarled shoulder. Folds of latex skin pucker like the face of a pug puppy. Her left breast seems mostly unchanged, but is tinged with the same sallow coloration on her massive upper body. The right breast was comparatively large, and distends almost to her navel, pendulously swaying. Her neck had been subsumed into her shoulders, and her throat bulged out, like a balloon, with each breach. The sack became transparent when inflated, then disappeared under her "chin". Her right arm was long and her fingertips hung almost to her ankle. Bulging eyes, the size of softballs, stared blankly, retracting slightly into the head as she blinked with translucent yellow lids. Her lips were massive, extending beyond where her shoulders would once have been. Flat circles took the place of ears, with speckled yellow latex stretched tightly, like a drumhead.
Meeting her gaze, her thoughts were a complete mystery. The eyes were dark voids, glistening in the low light. She stood for a moment, her throat sack inflating and disappearing, causing deep, regular croaking sounds.
"Hi," you say, "I'm..."
"swamp. danger." said the phone's speaker. The figure pointed to the way you'd come from and her hand shook wildly, shooing it away.
"Yes, I know," you say, gesturing to your legs."
She moves the phone to her frog hand, wiping the screen against her shorts and begins typing. "no. pants." says the voice.
At that you suddenly try to cover yourself as you hear a deep, booming throb come from the frog woman. Her throat sack ripples and she parts her gaping lips, doubling over with laughter. You begin to laugh as well, the absurdity of your situation setting in for a moment.
Tex flew over to your ear and whispered, "there's no going back for her, Human. She's lost about half of her essence and the latex has spread too far. We should leave her."
The woman regains her composure and begins typing again. "reverse. this." said the voice, with no indication if it was a plea to a question. The woman's arms swept over her upper body and extended in a questioning gesture.
"I don't know, honestly. I haven't been able to be sure of much since I changed," you say.
The woman tightly shut her eyes and placed her large hand over her face, defeated.
"But I do know that some of these...creatures...are intelligent. Some of them are very powerful and maybe, they will be able to help you."
"us." says the speaker, "stick. together."
Tex appears in front of your face, about to discourage the idea, when suddenly...