“...I do…”
As soon as the words left her lips, Maa’ti felt the cool breeze gently swirl around her, the wind growing pleasantly warm as it moved over her skin like gentle hands.
So, you make your choice. Not a boy, not a girl, and not a man. You wish to be a woman of our tribe.
“W-what… N-no, I mean… I didn’t…” Maa’ti stammered, looking around for the speaker. But deep down she knew exactly who it was, and what it was capable of. “...Goddess?”
You took longer to discover who you were meant to become, but it suits you, doesn’t it?
Once again, Maa’ti saw an image flash in her mind, of a grown woman. A beautiful, lean, tall, and well-built woman who leapt through the trees with spear and bow in hand, with a handsome and muscular man stalking the jungle beneath her. Even the tiny bit of her that was still Martin saw this vision and…
Desired it. To become that beautiful woman, even if it meant years and years of training and proving her skills to the men of the tribe.
“...C-can I? Really…?” Maa’ti whispered, glancing over to the riverside where Saa’rok and Chatok were finally finished with their work and quickly cleaned their tools in the river. There was no response from the voice, only a gentle warmth that filled her body. Somehow, Maa’ti knew what she needed to do.
She reached up and unpinned the feathers that decorated her hair and set them at the river bank, then she took a gentle step into the river, leaving Ruut at the riverside with a curious yet knowing look on his face. The young boy began to quietly chant prayers to the goddess under his breath, confident that he was helping to bring about the goddess’s will though his words. Once she was in the river up to her waist, she cupped the Great River’s waters in her hands and lifted them over her head, letting the cool water flow down her hair and down her back. Over and over, she let the tribe’s sacred river flow over her, and with each handful of water she washed herself with, she felt herself changing.
As the water touched her chest, she felt her flat, childish chest begin to expand outward into a perky pair of budding breasts. Like a seed planted in the earth, these little mounds would one day grow into the mighty bosom that Maa’ti had dreamed of. Her hips narrowed slightly as the fat of childhood began to melt away, giving her just a hint of the womanly shape she would one day achieve. Her legs and arms grew longer, enough to put her at least a head taller than Chatok and Ruut, though still not quite as tall as Saa’rok was. With one delicate hand, she stroked her face, feeling its childish roundness become more angular and womanly. Of course, the sacred river could only do so much; the body Maa’ti was being gifted with still held traces of childhood that would fade with time, the slightly awkward body of a girl at the verge of womanhood. A body that would have to be trained and honed to become the body of the woman she dreamed of being.
In the back of her head, Maa’ti heard Martin’s complaints beginning to grow quieter, the protests that he was supposed to be a man, not a blossoming girl, but at the same time Martin was beginning to like the visions that played across his mind. In the other world, he was always looking for the respect of others, yet his frail body would never let him be noticed among his peers. Now, as Maa’ti, he could be both respected and desired, at least in many years when he… no, she finally came of age as a tribeswoman.
...But, even as Maa’ti and Martin finally became one, the matter of Maa’ti’s promised engagement to the young son of the chief still lingered in the back of her head, a final obstacle keeping her from becoming the liberated huntress that always stalked her deeper fantasies.
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Sarah looked down at the neatly organized heaps of meat, bone, and sinew that were all that remained of the deer carcass she and Chatok had just finished with. She knew she should be upset with what she had just done, but her body had moved on its own without wasting even a single movement, like it was on autopilot. Or, she thought worriedly, as if it were being controlled by a puppeteer. The scent of blood and meat didn’t trigger even a hint of disgust from the formerly vegetarian girl, and as she watched some of the other villagers quickly took the meat to the smoking tent to be preserved she felt herself salivating in anticipation of the taste a piece of the choicest salted and cured venison.
Although, speaking of meat, Sarah felt her eyes being drawn further down the river, where the women of the tribe were just finishing their evening bath, and in particular she found herself glancing at the cute girl with the long, colorfully decorated braided hair. Even with most of the hair decorations removed for her bath, the brightly-colored beads glittered in the evening sunlight, her damp braids framing her gentle face perfectly. Sarah had never found herself looking at another girl like this, but every so often their brown eyes locked and an awkward smile passed between them. A smile that sent a chill down Sarah’s spine and gave her an alien (and yet, somehow familiar) tingle between her legs.
“She’s… umm… that girl over there…?” Sarah asked, her voice cracking once again as it continued to settle into the high yet gruff voice of a boy just beginning puberty.
“Maa’ti? What about her?” Chatok replied in his bright tenor as he rinsed the deer’s blood from his hands in the river.
“N-nothing, just… s-she’s pretty… Don’t you think?” Sarah asked as she crouched at the riverside alongside Chatok to wash herself. Between her legs, she once again felt that odd tingle, but it was soon joined by a pleasant warmth. Sarah let out a quiet pant at the feeling, which grew more intense with each passing moment. Without thinking, she adjusted the posture of her crouch to let her legs spread a bit wider, and unseen by either her or Chatok, the pouch in the front of her loincloth began to bulge forward slightly before a gentle weight seemed to settle down into it. Sarah felt a slight it and reached down to scratch just under her loincloth, where a few wiry hairs had sprouted, feeling relief and even a bit of pride at the proof she would be soon growing into a man..,.
“Maa’ti is nice… and my father wants me to marry her, but… Umm, I guess I have to, but…” Chatok stammered, nervously fiddling with his long braided hair. “W-well, I sort of wish me and her could just stay friends. E-especially since she’s older than me… I-I’d rather marry someone my own age…”
Sarah nodded with understanding, her worry about her changing body seemingly forgotten for the time being as more and more of herself was being lost to the jungle, to the tribe, and to Saa’rok...