Chapter Text
Cleo crept through the swamp, her diamond sword trailing in the mucky water. A witch’s hut loomed before her, the resident witch distracted by gathering mushrooms. As she turned her back completely, Cleo sensed an opportunity and bounded out of the bushes. In three long steps, she reached the witch, raising her sword. The poor thing barely had time to throw a potion at her before Cleo decapitated the witch in a shower of smoke. Her head fell to the ground as her body evaporated, and Cleo victoriously picked up the head. It would be perfect for the scene she was going to create!
It was only after her task was done that she noticed the potion dripping down her face and soaking into her clothes and skin. Crap, Cleo thought. I don’t have any milk. Oddly enough, though, the potion didn’t poison or harm her. It just tingled against her skin, unlike anything Cleo had ever felt. Well, if it hadn’t killed her by now, it probably wasn’t important. Cleo shoved the head in her inventory and headed back to her base.
The path back home was uneventful, but the pins and needles from the potion only got worse. Her arms clenched every time she had to fire off a rocket, but Cleo didn’t dare walk and slow down her travel. By the time she landed at her base, she could barely walk without the not quite painful yet unpleasant feeling wracking her upper body. She stumbled into her base and flopped on her bed. What was in that potion? She was totally exhausted from even a short amount of travel, but not hungry- munching an apple did nothing to the fatigue.
Even thinking only added to the fatigue. Cleo unequipped her elytra- maybe washing off the potion would erase the effects. She looked down as she stood up but quickly fell back down in shock. Instead of her mint green but smooth skin, her chest was covered in dull grey scales. When she touched them, she realized that her nails had turned into black claws, her hands covered in smaller, paler scales. Pins and needles attacked her waist, and she pulled up her shirt. Red spots peppered her belly, and occasional scales dotted the space just under her breasts. The effect of the potion was spreading!
Cleo blinked in shock for a few seconds, then stumbled up. She grabbed a block of glass, dyed in black, and placed it down. In the dark reflection, she could see the scales crawl up her face as well. She jolted back, tangling her fingers in her hair. It felt stiff- probably from a nervous sweat. Cleo had never seen anything like this potion before. How long ago had she been hit? Usually, the potion would wear off in eight minutes, but it felt like more than that time had passed.
Cleo’s heart pounded- from the potion or from panic, she didn’t know. She obviously wasn’t in her right mind, and there was only one person she could trust to help her with this. Equipping her elytra again, Cleo leapt into the air and flew in the direction of Joe’s base.