Struck by a pebble, the hand covering your eyes shattered into thousands of ceramic shards. Inside was something far more slender with delicate digits. They were tipped with a cross between long nails and claws that tapered into a sharp point. The inhuman qualities didn’t end there. The patterns of translucent green scales were almost invisible within the sandy swirls against your now ebony skin. But underneath a light-source they’d shimmer like emeralds. You weren’t quite sure how you knew that.
As more of the outer shell was carried away by the sandy winds, nothing came as a surprise. Or not exactly. You hadn’t expected that a few careless gestures leading to you swallowing dry particles would end up with you spitting out a prehensile and bifurcated tongue as you coughed. Or that you would need to navigate several sharp incisors capable of injecting mutagenic or aphrodisiac venom. It just felt natural once they were there. Less noticeable were the lenses covering your glittering green eyes with a glowing viridian corona surrounding the night black slits. You still had eyelids and technically could blink, if you wanted.
The poor harpy standing next to you had his feathered arms clutched tightly against his powerfully built and very naked chest. You could feel the winds abating, but still powerful enough that they could literally send him flying if they caught his wings in a strong enough gust. He noticed and the two of you shared a lopsided and sympathetic smile. Every one had problems, like the tauric and a dozen feet tall sphinx trying not to trample anyone in the crowd beneath her paws. For you it felt increasingly as if you were inside of a Russian nesting doll. Pretty sure that you had broken your sense of existential dread and fear somewhere along the way too.
You poked at one of the hardened pieces of pale and stone-like skin and could only dully watch it crack and fall away. More finely scaled ebony flesh. Making a decision, you started to more aggressively tear away what remained and shed the last of the hollow crust. You had been on the taller side before all of this, but your days of easily reaching the highest shelves were over as a much smaller man with long hair stepped out. And far, far, less masculine.
A part of you suspected the harpy had somehow drained you until you were left as nothing more than an exceedingly cute and serpentine Nubian femboy and then stolen it for his strapping self. You even had the slightest rise to your breasts that set them apart from other men. Then your eyes drifted lower to your crotch. Two ‘snakes’ hung there with a small, though productive, set of testicles hanging underneath. Immediately you adjusted your hypothesis: all of that masculinity had gone into them. Still, they had a feminine air about them, smooth and lithe that contrasted with the bulk and a size that was a hair’s breadth underneath ten inches.
Although they disappeared from sight as your lower body was swept in layers of lightly ornamented white linen. Your upper body had to satisfy itself with the bindings meant to disguise your budding tits but paradoxically only drew more attention to them. The jewelry went perfectly with the emerald scales that now reflected the blazing rays of the sun as the last of the sandstorm spread continued beyond the bounds of the city. Not an overturned palm or even a stray grain of sand visible in the cobblestone path winding its way through the beautiful garden surrounding the immense pyramid.
In the few moments of quiet as people and animals adjusted to their surrounding and themselves it was so tranquil that you could hear the waves crashing against the port and the beaches far away. Then murmurs and a few shouts rang through the milling crowd. More confused, and less panicky than earlier.