The Spring

“Man, this is boring.” Daniel muttered, tugging at his backpack straps and adjusting it a little. The forest trail that he was walking along bore no point of particular interest, apart from the thousands of trees and other samples of greenery that smothered his view. He could’ve been at home now, playing video games or maybe taking a stab at some of his art, but nooo, he was out here hiking along some stupid trail because his parents thought it would’ve been a good idea to drag him out for some fresh air.

The trail along the mountainside was, apart from being very boring, also damp and muddy, for it had rained the night before, softening the ground below him and reducing it to a brownish mulch that would probably stain his clothes, were he to fall. Trailing his parent’s careful steps along the path, he sighed again, looking to the sky for some sort of divine intervention that would save him from the torment of boredom.

The hike trailed out far and long, up into the late afternoon, where the family of three began to settle down in at least muddy spot they could find, setting up camp and resting here for the day. As the tents went up, our hero found himself with nothing more than a death wish right now; he was bored out of his mind.  Action! Adventure! Those were things that piqued his interests, not a bunch of dumb trees in the middle of nowhere.

“Ma, I’m headed around for a bit, yea?” Daniel sighed, clipping a bottle of water to his belt.

“Where to, Danny?” his mother replied, looking up from the tent that she was busy trying to set up.

“Just a walk around,” he shrugged, “Gonna see if there’s anything interesting around here.”

“Alright then, just don’t go too far out.” Came the reply, before he was off.

Daniel sighed again, taking off from the campsite, kicking a few rocks as he went. Come on, he thought, make something happen...

Our hero strayed off the well-worn path and into the thick overgrowth. Maybe he’d find a snake, or a boar, or something along those lines. Something from World War II? He was sure that Soviet forces had gone through the area before, maybe he’d find a bullet shell or something along those lines in the dirt.

A few more steps, a struggle through a couple of bushes and a bit of swearing later, Daniel pushed through the overgrowth, coming up to something. It wasn’t exactly what he was looking for, per say, but he supposed that it was the better than not finding anything at all. Steam and warm air saturated the atmosphere around him, making him begin to sweat on the fairly cool, cloudy afternoon.

A hot spring. That’s something, Daniel said, smiling inwardly, could probably bring mum and dad over with some swim gear...

Setting himself into the clearing, the young teen took a good look around, capturing his surroundings. The hot spring in itself was a rather quaint-looking affair, being in the middle of a very small clearing, perched against the rock wall of the cliff face adjacent to him. It seemed like something out of a little fantasy tale, or so he thought, until he caught glimpse of a small, metal object in the ground, partially buried under the dirt. Curiosity piqued now, he strolled over it, touching the metal object. It was cold to touch, as expected. Grabbing a small rock, Daniel pecked at the surrounding dirt, loosening it a little by partially digging around it. Once it was sufficiently loose, Daniel gave it a tug, and the object came out with surprising ease. Daniel wiped some of the dirt off it, pouring a bit of water from his bottle onto it to help. It was triangular in shape, a sign, painted in now-faded colours, depicting a dragon’s head and an exclamation mark.

Strange. He thought, What would this be doing here?

Upon closer inspection, there seemed to be some text obscured by a bit of dirt and caked mud, to which Daniel ended up pouring most, if not all of his water bottle onto the sign in an attempt to get it off. Unfortunately, the mud there was ancient and well-stuck to the sign. Daniel frowned, holding it out in front of him, before his eyes shifted and directed his thoughts to the hot spring.

...dare he? Stepping a little closer to the edge of the pool, he squatted down, dipping the metal sign into the hot water, hoping that it might loosen the solidified dirt.

As fortune would have it though, the damp soil at the pool’s edge gave way, and our hero slide into the warm water, yelping in surprise as he sank into the fairly-deep pool. This was bad. He could feel the odd, tingly heat of the water all around him, himself sinking, which as bad. Then, his lungs started to burn. He panicked, gulping in a large mouthful of the hot, slightly-salty water, before attempting to swim upwards in the murky water, unsure if it was even the right direction. Trusting his instincts though, he swam, and in a few strokes, he was at the surface, gasping for breath as he coughed out water while he clung to the side of the pool.

Gasping for breath, he pulled himself out of the water and rolled over, only to land himself on his tail, causing him to recoil and flip over onto his belly, wh- Wait. Tail?! Gasping, Daniel looked over his shoulder and saw a dark blue tail, snaking out the base of his pants and resting lazily between his legs.

For a moment, he twitched-and so did his tail, eliciting a scream. He panicked attempting to get up, but was quickly thrown back to the floor with a crack of his legs and a sudden jerking sensation, throwing him onto his knees. Daniel grunted, half-aware of the sensation, watching from between his legs as his feet had grown in length, his heels raising themselves off the ground as the tail suddenly felt heavier, balancing out the forward lurch. Dark blue scales marched up his legs while toes merged and claws grew, while at the same time similar things began happening to his fingers, though this time, the changes still kept his hands in a somewhat-similar shape, despite the orange paw pads and white claws.

He felt tingly all over again, like he was submerged in the pool again, as blue scales and orange scutes began to form over his body. His hair turned a shade of yellow and grew along his back as his face began to push out into a muzzle of a similar orange-blue colour scheme as his hands and feet, while his hair turned a shade of yellow and trailed down his back, forming a mane of sorts that ended before the tip of his tail.

It was a series of dizzifying changes, to say in the least as it all washed over him quickly, turning him into something far from human. However, just as quickly as it happened, it ended as well, leaving a confused Daniel partially-sprawled out on the floor, panting.

He was no longer human, that he was sure of in the least. A muzzle poked out into his vision and the feeling of a tail kept him fully conscious of everything that had just happened, though he wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened.

The boy, no longer literally a ‘boy’, dragged himself over to the edge of the hot spring in a semi-confused state, half confused and half wondering as to what had just happened. He pulled himself over and looked into the water, catching a glimpse of his reflection in the moderately-still waters.

His reflection was not of him anymore, though it didn’t quite scare him, for he knew that he wasn’t dreaming of what he saw. Still, Daniel’s hands shook as he looked himself over wondering what he had become. He bore the appearance of an obviously-reptilian creature, though not fully one as evidenced by the hair (or was it fur?) on his head and trailing his tail. Sharp teeth, a long sinuous tongue and slit pupils in his originally brown eyes, what was he?

Daniel sat there and stared at his reflection for a while, before the caw of a bird caught his attention to the sky and made him realise that it was almost beginning to get dark. He may have just become something else altogether, but getting lost in the woods was a fate far worse, or just as bad.

He had to find a way to go back to being normal fast, his parents couldn’t (and probably wouldn’t) recognise him like this, and he didn’t have much time before it’d be too dark for him to even consider the possibility of explaining it out to them in this body.

Looking back to the hot spring, he dipped his empty bottle into the water and took a sip of it, racking his brains in an attempt out of this. Daniel set the bottle down and decided- he’d go back and chance it with his parents. There was no other choice.

He emptied his bottle and capped it, getting ready to leave, before he was once again enveloped in a tingling sensation. The creature that was Daniel let out a confused half-trill half-gasp as he fell to the floor again, another set of changes washing over him.

Scales faded to flesh and extra appendages... shrank back into him, so to speak, and in a matter of seconds, Daniel found himself human again, this time in ripped clothing. He was confused, but glad that there was now one less thing to worry about, and without a second thought, discarded the torn remains of his shoes as he set off back to camp barefoot, in light of the setting sun.

-o.=.o-

Daniel made it back to the campsite without further incident, save the confused words of his parents as to how he had torn a hole in the base of his pants and lost his shoes on the short walk that he had went out on. Still, he cheesed it with some weak, far-fetched explanations and retired for the night, changing into a fresh set of clothes and donning a spare pair of shoes that he’d brought along.

Dinner came by quickly as the cold (well, colder) night air began to settle in, and the family of three gathered around a campfire, huddled for warmth as they handed out hot beverages. Daniel himself grabbed a cupful of steaming hot chocolate, offering thanks to his father for making it before sipping on it himself.

The hot chocolate however, had been a tad hotter than Daniel had expected, and as he placed the cup on the floor and opened his mouth to fan it, a long, sinuous tongue much like the one from before drooped out of his mouth, right in front of his parents!

His mother screamed, his father watched in shock as a tail sprouted from his rear again, snaking out and curling out on the ground behind his seat, the Changes beginning to overtake him once more.

He cast a glance to his dumbstruck parents, and at that point Daniel realised that he had a lot of explaining to do.