Chapter 8
Ashur stepped off the platform and onto grassy ground that vaguely reminded him of the prairie where he and Mera had battled the aboriginal tribesmen so many months ago. The air was crisp in his nose which still felt slightly odd in his rearranged face, but it also had a slight musky odor. The indrawn breath felt strange to his human mind, yet familiar to his new body and he chuckled a little to himself at that.
It had taken most of Mera's patience and several hours of coaching by Xakelle for him to assume this new form. Her assertion that both of them would be leaving "early tomorrow morning" had proven to be a hopeful statement, but not reality. In truth, it had almost reached noon before the Guardian had finally been prepared to venture out on his first intentional solo expedition. His sojourn through Xakelle's world had been accidental and more about survival than anything else.
Morning had come far too soon for the Librarians after their amazing, yet exhausting threesome, but they were rousted out of slumber by a far-too-cheerful Xakelle. After completing their usual ablutions, all three sat down for a hearty breakfast. The maroon immortal soon polished off her food and turned to address Ashur while he was still eating. He could tell that she was eager. Overnight, her demeanor had gone back to the excitable mental butterfly that he had first encountered. During her time with them in the Library, she had been focused and level-headed, but now that she had completed her part of the project, she was obviously ready to move on to the next.
"Okay," she half-babbled at him, "here's the information that you need to know because you are going to have to go into this without a lot of direction." She tapped a finger on her chin and looked up to the ceiling. "Now that I think about it, you are almost always going to go into these without much direction anyway so I guess this is good practice for you!" Her bright eyes dropped back to him and she smiled hugely. "That kinda takes a load off my mind...sort of...I think. Oh well."
Now somewhat worried, the Guardian gave his partner a long look before turning back to Xakelle. It didn't make him feel any better that Mera's expression matched his own.
For the next half-hour, they listened intently as the immortal passed on as much as she knew about Sterora, Couset, its inhabitants, and their culture. Unfortunately, it was obvious that the little that she knew about them was vastly out-weighed by what she didn't. She re-iterated that she had visited the planet less than a handful of times and, of those occasions, only twice had she had dealings with the species Ashur was about to encounter; the Brenpha.
Once her lecture was done, they cleaned up and relocated to the living room, pulling away the furniture at Xakelle's insistence to give Ashur room. Any confusion about the rearrangement was washed away after the first change in his legs. His upper half had remained human which threw off his sense of balance and he stumbled about before finding his "feet".
Sadly, his arms and legs had been the easy part. Even with Xakelle providing conjured images of Brenphan internal organs, some part of his mind shied away from making such a drastic change to himself. He had spent over four decades as human and it would seem that his sub-conscious was determined to keep it that way. To make matters worse, he had never made a full-body change before. This was new territory for him and only heightened his trepidation which made him instantly revert to full human every time he tried to change.
After several hours of increasingly frustrated struggle, Mera finally stopped him completely. She looked to Xakelle for a few seconds and he could see the telepathic conversation between the two women by their expressions. When they were done, Mera decisively nodded her head once, turned back to Ashur, and pulled him to her. She kissed him briefly and then placed her forehead against his. Calm flowed from her mind and with it came something more.
Concepts and sensations moved past his mind's eye and made their way into his thoughts. This was more than Xakelle's images. Mera wasn't simply transmitting pictures, she was giving him the feeling of being something else, something alien. She was teaching his innermost thoughts how to be "other" than he was and the shift, even as gently and lovingly offered as it was, still scared some part of him and his mind rebelled.
*There is nothing to fear, my love*, she said in his mind. Her mental voice caressed and soothed him. Her awareness surrounded his and held it as mother would her child. Ashur sometimes forgot just how much older and emotionally mature his beloved was. Now he relaxed into her care, both mentally and emotionally, and let the serenity she was exuding sink down into his core. Once it permeated all of his consciousness, he opened himself to the changes she was trying to teach him once more.
This time, the mental adaptation was easier. Whatever piece of him that had feared becoming different had been quelled or appeased and his body began reshape to fit the form Mera was feeding him. His body felt liquid, shapeless. Even with Mera's mental preparation and help, it was still one of the oddest sensations he had ever experienced.
Finally, after almost twenty minutes of painstaking effort, he pulled away from Mera and stood before the two women as a fully formed Brenphan.
"Well, that didn't go as well as I hoped, but it turned out better than I was afraid it might," Xakelle commented with her head on one side. She did a slow walk around him, examining his handywork. He started a bit when a prodding finger jabbed him in the side without warning and stumbled to the side. The backwards stilting of his new legs was definitely unfamiliar, even with his earlier practice. The former human wobbled and stumbled about for a few steps in an attempt to get his balance but was ultimately forced to lean against some of the furniture to steady himself.
"This feels a bit unnatural," he chuckled, parroting Mera's comment from the night before. He looked up and saw her grin wryly while trying to fight back a bit of a purple blush.
Drawing a deep breath, Ashur stood straight and noticed that he was now several inches taller than before. He turned to the stand mirror they had brought from Mera's room and studied his altered body. From his new angle, he guessed that he was topping out somewhere in the vicinity of seven feet if he counted the crest of jet-black hair that crowned his head. Most of the sides were either shaved or naturally bald, but there were swirls of white coloring in random spots.
Not quite ready to look at his modified visage, the Guardian shifted his gaze downward. His shoulders had narrowed by an inch, but his waist was even smaller, though the musculature of his thighs more than made up for it. Grey splotches gave him a mottled look. Most of them were light, but he could see some that very nearly matched his hair.
He started to run a finger over one of those and stopped to inspect the longer tapered fingers. It was relieving to discover that the number hadn't changed, but the tips were covered in a fine hair that gave them a sensitivity he would have to get used to. Once he was done, he completed his initial gesture and stroked the dark spots and skin in general. It was covered in fine hairs in the same way his human body had been and he noticed that the coloring of the patches was a pigmentation of the skin and hair.
Xakelle's soft grunt pulled him away from his examination. Nodding his understanding at her interruption, Ashur finally looked at his face. It was almost flat with no nose, but he could see nostril slits open and close with his breathing. His eyes were nearly vertical, oblong, and a bright pastel green. At first, he thought there were no irises, but as he looked closer, he noticed they were simply a less opaque almond spot that matched the general eye shape. The new Brenphan looked around without moving his head and noticed that although he could see much higher and lower than his human eyes, his lateral peripheral vision had been slightly reduced. His jaw was curved with a shallower angle and a wider opening for his mouth. He worked it open and closed a few times to get the feel of it.
He turned to his partner and spread his arms to the sides. "Well," he asked. "What do you think?" The words were uncomfortable in his mouth, but, until he reached Lophicury and Mera was able to learn the language from one of the local's mind, he was stuck with the language he knew.
The blue woman stepped close again and reached out to rub his skin. "It doesn't really feel any different except maybe a little colder." Her fingers trailed down his chest and pushed in a little as though she were trying to examine the muscles underneath.
With a smile, she suddenly pointed down and looked to Xakelle. "Does that work like normal too?"
Ashur followed her finger and gave a guffaw to realize that he had missed the five-inch flaccid penis that hung directly between his thighs. He reached for it, but his hands were gently batted away so that Mera could lift and examine the dangling appendage.
"He doesn't have testicles!" Mera's exclamation bordered on offended and he laughed again. Indeed, his member swung freely without the encumbrance of a scrotum. The Caretaker had dropped to her knees and was staring fascinated at his groin.
