You walk step by step across the bridge of light, a cliffside beach behind you, and nothing but the bridge, the vast ocean below, and sky above, as far as the eye can see in front of you. The tingle grows stronger, but you pay it no mind, for now,
The tingle turns into a strangely soft sensation on your back, and a subtle feeling of warmth. The sensation spreads outward from the small of your back, wrapping around your upper body under your clothes like a blanket, though you gradually start to feel as if a down pillow might be a better comparison. You continue walking on, trying to ignore the soft, warm feeling, until it traces down your arms, where, at the end of your sleeves you can finally see the source; dozens upon dozens of feathers are growing from your once smooth skin, enveloping your arms down to the wrists in a speckled pattern.
You old self would have been panicking, scrambling to stop it, to slow it, to find its source. But to you, as you are now, to Espera, the feathers feel right, that they are as much a part of you as your sky-blue hair.
With the beach you started from dwindling out of sight behind you, and the bridge continuing to extend far into the distance, you press on, examining and appreciating your changes as much as you can without slowing your pace.
Firm, bright yellow scales poke through the skin of your hands, coating them from palm to fingertips, while your fingernails painlessly fall away. A little black claw pokes through each fingertip, slowly extending longer, curving as they do so, becoming a set of hooked talons. You reach for your sword, and wrap your altered hand around the hilt. The motions play out seamlessly in your mind, adjusted subtly for the new grip your changed limbs provide.
When the soft sensation reaches your waist, it changes, subtly. Still warm, still soft, but less like a down pillow or a blanket, and more like a fur coat. You weren’t able to clearly see it, beneath the dress and the stockings, but you could feel the new fur growing underneath them. As the fur reached your feet, your pace was slowed, and they began to shift more dramatically than your hands had. Walking on the balls of your feet began to feel more natural as your feet grew longer and thinner, your white boots shifting to match with your changing anatomy. You could feel your toes became thicker, rounder, and more evenly sized, and the soft pads forming beneath them, almost making your boots feel redundant. You feel claws growing through your new paws, as well, but are able to retract them, suggesting your legs are likely feline now.
You feel new bone and sinew forming at the end of your spine, a hole opening in the back of your dress to allow your new appendage through. Already covered in golden fur as it grows out behind you, your new tail reaches out an arm’s length, and ends in the brown tuft of a lioness’s tail, all but confirming your guess as to the species of the lower half of your body.
Brown feathers grow around your neck and face, leaving your blue hair intact, even as your ears begin to shrink to mere holes in the sides of your head. You feel your jaws stiffen and swell, your teeth shrinking away, and your nose being reduced to just nostrils, as your new beak grows out, starting out yellow, before darkening to black at its sharpened, downturned tip. You blink a few times, your sight going blurry for a moment, before suddenly becoming sharper than you can ever remember.
And with your new eyesight, you can see the faint outline of the city from your vision in the distance.
You feel the urge to start running, to return… home? Yes, the urge to return home grows stronger within you.
But before you can pick up speed, a final change comes over you. You feel a breeze as two openings form in the back of your dress, around your shoulder blades, letting two new limbs extend behind you. Wide feathers grow along the length of each, brown on top, and white on their undersides, interrupted by three stripes of black.
You stop moving forward for a moment, no longer simply accepting of your new form, but awestruck by it. You move your new wings around your body, feeling carefully over them, examining your feathers with curiosity and wonder.
You realize, now, that Espera is no mere human woman, but a gryphoness, a mix of two of the deadliest predators alive, in one beautiful and terrifying package. Knowledge of your new form comes to you instinctively, and you flap your wings with glee. Taking a running start, you spread them wide, and flap, and leap, steadily rising through the air, fighting off gravity itself.
The bridge of light fades below you, its purpose no longer necessary as you soar above the ocean waves, towards the white city in your vision. Your city. Your kingdom.