“Well, at least this is an improvement from the last dream.” Were your first conscious thoughts as you awoke for the second time that day(or whatever the hell time it was in the real world). Instead of being stranded out in the middle of the woods, you found yourself on a makeshift cot in some sort of tent structure. Civilization! At least it’s a start.
Once more, sitting up and stretching your marginally less aching body, you notice something on your foot that makes you a little unnerved. It looks like some kind of ankle splint, and it’s right on the foot that you remember spraining in your “dream.”......
To your displeasure, the need for the splint is all too real, as a jolt of pain radiates around it as you press your foot against the ground. Trying again, more gently this time, you manage to slowly step your way toward the entrance of the tent. But then you stop. You can hear voices. Three of them, all sounding like girls or young women. And one of them sounds ever so slightly familiar…..
You take a slow, curious peek as you slightly lift the tent curtain back, looking in the direction of the voices. And for the first time since this fucked up dream started, you see somethings, or *someones* that make you wish that you’re *not* dreaming.
A few feet away, three young women, somewhere around your age by the looks of them, were sitting on rocks around a campfire, chatting while a pot simmered and boiled before them. The first had blue eyes and brown hair. Her hair was short, but longer on the sides, barely touching her shoulders. The second was a blue eyed woman whose raven hair ran past her shoulders and onto her back, although the way the light hit it gave it a slightly blue sheen. The third, you noticed with some unease, was a woman with familiar green eyes and a spiky orange bob cut.
The scene before you would have registered as a normal, idyllic camping trip between three friends, except there was something that was very clearly rather unusual: All three of them were completely naked.
No you weren't seeing things, although you suppose this was probably the least weird thing you had seen today, comparatively. None of the young women before you wore a single stitch of clothing, not even shoes or socks on their feet, fully exposing their lean, athletic frames to the elements of nature.
The redhead, who you *really* did not want to admit looked really familiar right now, turned in your direction and smiled. “Oh hey! You’re awake? Are you OK? How’s that leg doing?”
And just like that, you found yourself relieving the entirety of your experience in the forest, from waking up, to the freakish hellbeast, to the snake woman(who apparently was actually just a normal human girl?). All that, added on top of the fact that you STILL have no idea where the HELL you are….
You stumble again, another jolt of pain amplifying your confusion and frustration as the three girls rush to your side.
“Easy, easy. Let’s get you to sit down.” the redhead said gently. But looking at her fair skinned face, all you could see was the scaly blue visage of a snake..
“NO! DON’T FUCKING TOUCH ME! NOBODY FUCKING TOUCH ME UNTIL YOU EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?“ You bat the redhead’s hand away in fear, anger and pain. “WHERE AM I? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT THING THAT TRIED TO KILL ME? WHAT WAS THAT SNAKE BULLSHIT? WHY ARE YOU ALL NAKED?” The questions come out of your mouth rapid fire, screaming at the top of your lungs.
Then exhaustion takes you again, your rage subsiding as the last question leaves your lips, feeling like you’ve had the wind knocked out of you.
A few minutes of silence, then the brunette speaks up. Apparently it was her time to be angry, for some reason. “You jackass! Talking to members of the Order like that, like how rude can you possibly get? And after Kasumi saved your life from a Misshapen One?”
“Order? ‘Misshapen One?’ What the hell are you talking about?!” You manage to gasp out.
“You’ve seriously never heard of the Order of Fang and Claw? We’re practically celebrities around here!” the brunette said in exasperated disbelief.
But before you could clarify, the raven haired girl spoke up. “He might *not* actually be from ‘around here’ Haruka. Look at his clothes, I’ve never seen someone wear such unusual clothing.”
“Oh yeah, I’m the strange one for actually *wearing* clothes.” You think to yourself privately.
Then the redhead spoke again: “Hikari does have a point. He seems like he’s lost.” Then she turns to you. “Alright. I guess we owe you an explanation. But first can you explain what you were doing in the middle of the forest by yourself?”
What followed was a very confusing and only slightly helpful exchange between you and the three girls. You try to explain your puzzle-pieced memories from before you woke up in the woods but the girls didn’t really seem to understand, and didn’t even know what a truck was. In turn, the girls give you an exposition dump that only served to confuse you the fuck out even more.
“Ok, wait, wait…. So you’re telling me that you’re part of some ancient order of martial artists, ‘The Order of Fang And Claw’, dedicated to keeping the peace or whatever and you’ve been fighting against those… ‘Misshappen Ones’ because they’re threatening said peace and are going to turn the world into a hellhole….and the only way you can fight back is by turning into animal people with this ‘Way of the Beast’?” Every single word you repeat back just sounds sillier and sillier, and you’re just barely holding back a giggle fit when you finish that last sentence. “Okay, fess up. You’re on drugs right? Yeah no, definitely. Nobody outside some weirdo hippies are going to be waltzing around the woods buck-ass naked talking about ‘Inner Beasts’ and that crAAAP!”
That last word turns into a yell as mid thought Kasumi, the redhead and seeming leader of the other two girls, lurches forward. Your stomach begins to churn as her form begins to shift, her entire torso spontaneously elongating several feet, and for a brief moment she looks like a horrifying fleshy slinky as she is forced on all fours. Although “all four” does not last long as her legs begin to seemingly collapse on themselves. Their entire length, from toes to hips, seemingly are pulled in and absorbed into her pelvis as…something fleshy begins to emerge from her behind. To your growing revulsion you begin to realize it’s a tail, and not just any tail. As the new writhing appendage grows thicker and longer with her changing abdomen, shimmering blue and black patches begin to overtake her pale complexion. “S-Scales!” You breathe. Both the other girls look at you and Haruka, the brunette, smirks a little in satisfaction.
The scales already encompass most of Kasumi’s changed form and are finishing up, climbing her neck towards her face. As they arrive, her face deforms ever so slightly, nose nearly vanishing, and her eyes are now slit.
Throughout the entire thing, Kasumi never made even so much as a grunt as her entire form shifted from human to serpentine. Stretching slightly, she “sat up” and effortlessly shifted her length of coils into a “reclining” pose. She catches your dumbstruck gaze and a cocky grin spreads on her snaky lips as she asks: “So, who’s a ‘weirdo hippie’ now?”