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Early next morning.

Nithya shifts and groans slowly awake. Something is not sitting right with her position.

Once again the dreams came. Of vague maybe-memories inside the deer temple. Of searching for clues in there. And then a loud, deep, echoing, feminine voice jolts her.

"... AND YOU WILL HELP ME."

Startling awake and blinking her eyes open, Nithya quickly realizes it was a dream. Or at least, the voice was. Her heart thumping, she lifts a hand to her chest as she takes deep breaths.

And as she now feels her legs going all weird, she takes a deep breath and opens her sleeping bag.

In front of her eyes, her thighs, knees and shins are reshaping. From human configuration to something more quadruped... Or rather, cervine in form. The change is slow, just barely visible, and she gets the feeling she was supposed to sleep through this part as she stares.

Clay does not awake, sleeping deep once more, as he dreams of a similar feminine voice bringing him closer to her, embracing him, surrounding him entirely.

His changes are equally slow and dramatic, as the fur around his neck has spread upwards around his face, His hair has changed color, blending in more with the color of his fur, yet still growing longer, and his ears have grown out, becoming more pointed. His face has begun to creep outward into a snout, tipped by an animalistic black nose.

Down his chest, the fur has spread over his belly, and more of his muscle definition has faded.

He snorts quietly in his sleep, and begins to slowly awaken upon hearing Nithya's movements.

Nithya gives an involuntary bleat of fear as she starts feeling a bit squeamish watching her bones rearrange and reshape themselves. She swallows at the feeling of what isn't pain, exactly, but a very strong feeling that this should hurt, and a lot. Like being numbed at the dentist.

Her legs are strongly starting to look like the hind legs of a deer, except with some human shape to it still.

Clay 's ears perk up at the sound of a cry of alarm from a member of the herd. He bolts upright, looking for danger, before more practical senses analyze what's happening, "Nithya?! Nithya, what's wrong!?"

Nithya continues just staring at her legs. "I um... I get the feeling I shouldn't... Move much... Right now." Her voice is shaky and disbelieving, and she doesn't even look up at Clay for the moment. "My, uh... Legs seem to be kind of... Rearranging themselves..."

Clay blinks, looking down at Nithya's legs and seeing them reshape before his eyes. He puts a hand on Nithya's shoulder to give her some comfort as he watches.

"J-just stay calm... it doesn't hurt, right?"

Nithya shakes her head numbly. Some part of her scientific mind attempts to find something to grasp to. "It doesn't. It just feels, like it should. Some kind of numbing agent to go with... This..."

Clay shakes his head, "I... I think we're well past science at this point. This... this is impossible... except it's literally right in front of me..."

Nithya nods and finally looks up at her friend, double-taking as she does. "Oh. So it would seem."

Clay tries to give a comforting smile, but it fades slightly as she looks at him, his ears twitching awkwardly, "Wh-what?"

He runs a hand up his neck feeling the fur along his face until it reaches the ear, which twitches sensitively under his touch, "O-oh..."

Nithya motions towards her own, so far human, nose. "Your, uh... Face. Your nose." She swallows. "Oh boy."

Clay moves his hand around from his ear to his nose, poking the tip of his snout and letting out a surprised bleat of his own, causing him to stumble backward onto his sleeping bag. "Oh hell... th-that was me? My... face is... is..."

Nithya blinks and a nervous, unwilling giggle escapes, just from the sheer impossibility of the situation. "Y-your... It's... O-oh wow."

Clay blinks at Nithya's sudden laugh, brain still trying to process this (and failing rapidly), "It's that ridiculous?"

Nithya: "Yes! I mean, no, but just... Oh jeez, just... This shouldn't be happening!" Nithya is nearly shaking now, her mind reeling.

Clay crosses his legs on the floor of the tent, sitting next to Nithya as he tries to process the new changes. "I... had another dream too... but I don't remember much of it. I felt... warm. A-and safe, I think. I don't... I don't remember most of it. Just more flashes of us in that temple, and... and the warmth watching us."

Nithya manages to gather herself somewhat as Clay speaks. "I just... Same, but a voice was yelling at me, at us for some reason. Like we did something wrong."

She glances at her hooves and swallows. "Maybe we did."

Clay cups his cheek with one hand, even the cheekbones feeling... different. "...I can't imagine we did anything right if this is the result."

Nithya frowns. "... Yeah, probably not. Whatever we did, someone or something took offense."

She tentatively moves her palm to touch her knee, as it shifts in form. The feeling is positively eerie as her muscles seem to be moving on their own accord. "... I think it's best I sit down here until this has stopped. Last thing I want to do is somehow screw this up by being hasty, and causing permanent damage."

Clay sighs, "How? How did we screw up so badly... We've done this before... We've always shown respect? What did we do in those missing memories to warrant... This."

Nithya shrugs: "Honestly, I couldn't tell you. Maybe entering was enough. Or we accidentally broke something."

She sighs. "Suppose until we have answers, it's a moot point."

Clay slumps down, looking over Nithya's legs. "Yeah... Just worrying over past mistakes doesn't solve them. If we can solve this..."

Nithya gives an encouraging smile, especially considering her current condition. "Even if we can't reverse the current course of changes right now, I feel like we will find answers. Every night we seem to dream a bit more about what happened, and answers never elude us for long."

She refrains from mentioning the few times they have found no answer to their queries.

Clay hmphs, "It's our only hope for figuring this out now." He raises a hand to feel his face, "Gonna be a lot harder to go into a town like this."

Nithya looks at Clay, then at her own legs. "I think... by the time we hit town, we'll have to think of something... something else. Last thing I want is to end up in some Russian military lab and never be seen again."

Clay groans, a noise that comes out as half a bleat from the back of his throat. "Of course this happens in Russia, of all places. These features... They're definitely going to be harder to hide the longer this happens... But it's probably too late for that already... Even if we had followed the right trail..."

Nithya considers for a moment. "...is our better option actually to lean into the crazy supernatural and head back towards the temple? Pray help from whatever caused this in the first place?" She winces: "Assuming we can still find it."

Clay cringes, "Mysterious Deer Goddess who cursed us for some unknown reason... or the Russian government? It's... kind of an easy choice, and I must be crazy for saying that."

Nithya laughs a bit, just from the sheer absurdity of the words describing their situation right now. "Yeah... I suppose a bit. But you might be right." She sighs, looking down. "Well, once I can get up. And if this keeps going as it has so far, another mandatory break from walking when your legs change."

Clay sighs at just how true the 'when' and not the 'if' of that statement is. "...you're going to think I'm crazier when I say I think I know how we get back to the temple. I think... I think maybe instinct will guide us back there if we let it..." He points to the signs of the deer trail once again.

Nithya hums... then perhaps to both their surprise, nods in agreement. "Makes a sort of sense. At least, if the... well, goddess of sorts in my dreams is to be believed... and I don't believe I just said that." She sighs, leaning back on her hands, not moving her legs, not that she is really able to right now.

Clay sighs in exasperation, "This is crazy... this is just absolutely insane. But that's where we are now I guess, huh?"

Nithya nods: "I think while we crossed out actually being insane from the list of possibilities... this is still plenty crazy. But... I do not really see much in terms of other feasible or even believable options for us."

Clay laughs, somehow, in the midst of it all, "Well, throwing ourselves to the mercy of that temple feels like the only real option, and that's... something. But... it also feels like the right option? But, maybe that's the deer brain talking too."

Nithya gives a bit of a shrug of her shoulders. "A bit, maybe. But... if it is, I don't find myself disagreeing." She looks at her legs. "Like, right now, I could maybe still hide these legs and the tail with clothing, but... I don't think I am even going to entertain anymore that this change is going to end here."

Clay shakes his head, "Like you said last night... pattern recognition... it's getting worse... maybe even growing faster... we can't bet that it'll stop soon, let alone stop by the time we reach any significant town..."

Nithya sighs. "Yep." She looks at the fur on her thighs, and can't deny its' smoothness. "It's... maybe it is our best hope. Suppose there's more to know that we just don't at the moment." She glances at her backpack and thinks of the stone tablet in there.

Clay nods, "If there's any additional source of information about this in the world... it's sitting in that temple. On her little wooden throne..."

Nithya nods, giving a small smile. "Pretty much. Whatever we do, we're already in deep. I guess... might as well see this through. I suspect that's what our... influencer, kinda might want."

Clay chuckles, "Guess we have a plan then, huh? It's not even the worst plan I've ever had, I'd wager." He pats Nithya's shoulder and stands up in the tent, "Once you feel up to walking, we'll start again, and uh, follow our instincts... I really hope we're not about to make this even worse."

Nithya hums: "If we are, don't tell me yet. But for right this moment... my legs still feel pretty numb, and I think my muscles are still shifting and finding their place... I don't know how I know, I just feel it, but it's like... sorta my body rewiring itself."

She smiles despite everything: "I'm confident I can walk in a few hours."

Clay frowns, ears dropping, "I... I kind of understand... I can feel that in my face... like, now that I'm aware of it, I can feel muscles moving that shouldn't, and senses that don't feel right... but still feel..."

He pauses, sniffing at the air, ears tilting to listen to their surroundings... "I'm a little afraid of what it's going to feel like as this gets worse... because... it... it..." He swallows, unable to bring himself to admit anything.

Nithya nods as she looks at Clay's motions: "I hear you. We don't know what all this might yet bring. We can suspect and guess, but... I want to know."

She blinks: "...I uh, mostly meant how to get better, of course."

Clay frowns, ...mostly...? He chooses to ignore that, because he can hear the echo of that sentiment in his own mind, and hates it. "I mean... no... I get it. That's the only reason we're doing this..."

Nithya glances aside, silently inwardly frowning at her own choice of words.

She takes a deep breath before continuing. "We need to."

Clay sighs, "Y-yeah... just... rest up. I'll get you some breakfast, and then once you're ready we can... head along the trail. Just... stay focused, Nithya. I... I need you here with me."

Nithya finds her smile again: "I will. I promise I will not lose myself to this." She sighs: "This is absolutely the most insane thing in the history of ever, but we are in this together, and we can solve this."

Clay: "We can. And we will." He pats Nithya's shoulder again and smiles as confidently as he can muster, an expression sabotaged by the changes to his face. He heads out of the tent to retrieve some food to hopefully build up their strength for the return route.

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