Chapter Text
Stiles decided he’s never doing another witch a favor, ever .
Oh sure, she was nice enough when she came to the edge of the lake and sent a call out with her huge magicked seashell thing. She warbled at him in his language brokenly, asked for one of his scales and a drop of his blood, said she needed it to save a life, that she would give him a gift in return. He obliged, and didn’t ask what this ‘gift’ would entail, curious but not worried.
He should have asked.
When it first happened he was caught off guard. The waters lit with the first rays of sunlight and he began choking on the water in his lungs, all around in him. He raced for the surface, collapsing on one of the rock plateaus leading to shore and coughed up the liquid in his lungs. He panted raggedly and stared in amazement as his fins disintigrated, scales melted into his skin. His swaying tail parted and cold water flooded between his legs, freezing against his skin as one of his knees collided with the rock he was braced on.
He cursed--or tried to, a strange, broken string of sound filtered out of his mouth instead, the discovery causing another litany of confused exclamation following in the same manner. He deemed it less important than the situation happening downstairs and hauled himself the rest of the way onto the rock, which was extremely uncomfortable against the back of his new appendages. He experimented moving one at a time, gasping at the smaller set of appendages at the end of each one and giggling as he wiggled them. He spread his arms out, examining his smooth, pale skin and the absence of fins, or gills.
He frowned down at the awkward lump of flesh resting in the center of the coarse hair between them, smooth and floppy, a sac underneath it that reminded him of his bubble-faced friends, though significantly more wrinkly and fleshy, and fuzzy. It didn’t take him long to deem it useless and move on.
He realized quickly that this form was similar to the witch’s. He drag-crawled himself towards the shore, trying to remember how she used them, compare them to how he moved his tail and sort out the differences.
He decided in short order that the air was strange and unpleasantly dry, and hot, dirt was grimy and stuck to him unpleasantly, sticks and leaves were uncomfortable, as was tree bark when it left red rashes on his skin. Also his new appendages were awkward and wobbly and weak, and why did humans need two sets of arms?? He couldn’t make sense of the sounds coming out of his mouth but it vibrated pleasantly in his throat when he hummed tunelessly.
The world around him carried sound instead of motion like in the water. A gust of wind hit him in the face and he froze, heart pounding, expecting some large predator to come barreling through the trees. It was always one way or another with the large waves; sometimes a sharks, sometimes whales, or a school of small fish, just passing through. He waited until it dawned at him that this was not the water and there was nothing like that up here. Though surely land had its own dangers? Other than the ones that made him a danger to himself, he thought mutinously as he tripped over an unseen object on the ground and flailed wildly as the earth rushed to meet him.
Things were dark for a while. When he came around everything was darker and the sky was blue, lit with the moon. His surroundings were significantly quieter. He barely noticed anything back the itching on his skin, the burning in his lungs as he gasped, scratching at his neck and finding his gills returned to him. He tail flopped in panic, and he rolled over and scrabbled at the dirt and leaves.
Howls sounded close by and he cried out in fear, using his arms to drag himself along the dirt. He wasn’t even sure where the lake was, didn’t know where he was going, didn’t know what the sounds were. Maybe they wouldn’t have inspired so much fear in him if he weren’t currently suffocating slowly.
Stiles dragged himself up and propped against a tree base. He dragged in lungfuls of hair that burned and dragged painfully but kept him conscious, when a pair of eyes peered out from the darkness. A pair of blue ones, to be exact. His pulse kicked up again, sky rocketing when another howl broke out and the creature approached. Stiles fell sideways and scrabbled again. He could speak again but his words were distorted and carried strangely in the air. There was a whine behind him, and then a loud bark off to his side.
“Oh gods, oh gods, I don’t know what’s happening but for the love of algae please don’t eat me.”
There was a strange cracking sound off to the side, and he paused when a woman stepped toward him, illuminated in the moonlight, her eyes glowing red as she stared down at him. Her mouth was moving and letting out sounds similar to the ones he made earlier that day, and he realized it must be their language. She definitely wasn’t completely human, but she looked comfortable enough in human form.
A cold nose touched the small of his back and he squawked in surprise, still breathing heavy as he flopped around. He rolled back into fur and found the blue eyed wolf standing behind him, chattering at the woman.
He’s not sure how or why, but suddenly he was in the woman’s arms and the world was flashing by around them, more not-humans trailing behind, the wolf running beside her. He clung to her like a barnacle, babbling against her neck.
“What what’s happening? Where are we going? I don’t know what’s going on but you seem really nice and I don’t know if you’d like the taste of us but I don’t think it would taste that good I mean--”
Noise rumbled deep in her chest and he wasn’t sure but it sounded like she was trying to soothe him. Regardless, he snapped his jaw shut and breathed, accustomed to it even if it still hurt.
They slowed down and he looked up, crowed at the sight in front of him. “Oh! I knew you were nice. Water! Well, it wasn’t his home, he wasn’t sure were that was exactly, but it was large and it was water all the same. He wiggled excitedly, flailing and clinging again when gravity shifted as she leaned down. She set him down in the water and he dived under gratefully, swooping in a circle that breached the surface briefly, inhaling the cool water in relief.
Stiles turned and swam back up, stopped just above the water.
“Thanks so much. I mean really, I have no idea where I’m at but hey, water’s water, right? I mean--” He babbled at them gratefully, all of them crowded against the edge and peering down at him. It was then he noticed that only the wolf had blue eyes, and only the woman had red; the rest of them had bright gold ones.
The wolf yipped and the smaller creatures chittered, the woman shushing them and warbling gently at him. His face scrunched up at her.
“Yeah sorry lady, I don’t speak human. Well I guess I do, I was earlier, but I definitely had no idea what I was saying. I have no idea what you’re saying, I don’t even know what he’s saying and he’s covered in fur.”
The woman frowned. One of the smaller ones scooted forward and reached out. Stiles swayed towards her and smiled at her reassuringly. “Hey little one, whats up, how’s it goin’? Yknow, you’re kinda adorable in your strange, four-arm furry way,” he said up to her. He obliged her pat on his head and she trilled happily, so he reached up and returned the gesture. The webs folded away against his fingers as they left the water, and the small fry gasped and squealed as water dripped all over her, the others trilling happily.
The woman stood up and spoke to them, startling him back into the water. She smiled at him and turned away, the children standing and backing away reluctantly. The wolf didn’t move and she snipped at him, and he grumbled but backed away, giving him one last look as they disappeared between the trees. He stared after them until he couldn’t see them anymore.
When they were gone, he drifted under the water. It wasn’t as dark here, and there weren’t that many places to curl up. There was no seaweed but the sand was lighter, reflecting the moonlight. There were small fish that spooked at the sight of him, alarmed at his size, probably. He spoke to them and they looked at him strangely, but parted for him and didn’t scatter. Eventually he settled, partially burrowed into the sand under a large algae covered rock.