MermaidsTail
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A Sip of Nectar
🕑 Added 2021-11-02 12:27:19 +0000 UTCWoman: Almudena
Caterpillar & Background: Creative Commons
Chrysalis & Background: Flickr Micah & Erin
Butterfly & Background: Wikimedia
Dannia had heard about the "Change of Life" virus and the terrible effects it was having throughout the Middle East. It was totally inconceivable that a bunch of religious fanatics in the US had managed to produce such a horrific thing. Imagine a virus that could change people into pigs and dogs ... or at least partly into those animals. Never mind the religious aspect. Why would anyone want to do that to people? It was cruel and inhuman. Of course, that was over there and it had been contained by quarantine. Nothing was moving in or out of those areas now. It made the gas prices soar, of course. Everything did. Still, she could do much of her work from home using the Internet and her computer so not being able to join the morning rush wasn't that much of a problem. Besides, she had a slight cold or maybe the flu and probably needed to stay home anyway.
She expected to spend the next few days in bed. Colds usually did that but, strangely, she was over the worst of it in 24 hours. She didn't even spend much time flat on her back as she'd expected. After the first day, she spent time watching the arrival of spring in her garden. One morning she was surprised when a huge cloud of butterflies descended on her wildflowers. She was even more startled when several of them even landed on her hand. They startled when she sneezed and didn't return. The ones in the garden though continued to flit about gathering nectar from flower to flower.
She'd forgotten about the three day holiday her cold had gifted her with soon after. Real life tended to make such fleeting memories fade quickly. Besides, within a few weeks, the news reports began noting the spread of the Change of Life virus to Southeast Asia. Somehow, though, the virus had changed. More and more, it was becoming sex selective. Men caught it but didn't change. Women caught it and changed into whatever creature's DNA had provided the template for the change. Dannia heard with increasing terror how women in Korea and Japan were becoming part shrimp or part lobster or part fish. Some reports even had part cow and part dog women showing up. The thought of changing into some creature scared Dannia greatly. She wondered how she'd know if she were affected. Every tiny bump or roughness was a cause for worry.
After each new report of strange changes, Dannia made it point to look for changes in her own body. She had two fears that were a bit related. The first is that she'd not recognize a change if she found one and the second was that she would and it would be something horrible. She worried she'd become a pig or a vulture or some other creature she loathed. And what if she ended up some slug or something in the water? How could she work? What if her boyfriend hated her after she changed? The worry over whether she was infected or not and what she ended up caused more stress than anything she could remember. She consoled herself that the changes weren't anywhere near her. They'd been report on the other side of the world and surely the government would stop it before it got here.
Dannia was relieved when the government announced a test for the virus. People were soon lining up for blocks at the few sites in each city that could perform the tests. Needless to say, there wasn't enough to test everyone that wanted the test at first. Several riots broke out at one clinic in LA that resulted in several deaths. The irony of the riot was that the fighting over the tests actually destroyed the delivery of nearly 1000 test kits. After that, the government put a stop to things and placed National Guard around the clinics that would be authorized to administer the tests. The regions around those sites were placed under martial law as well. The Test Riot in LA was the first and last in the US but several more claimed hundreds of lives in smaller cities that hadn't made the recommended security changes.
Dannia waffled. She wanted to know whether she was infected or not but was, at the same time, afraid to find out. After all, the tests were antibody tests and would only tell you whether you were infected or not. They wouldn't tell the infected ones what they were destined to become or the degree of the change. Dannia was afraid to find out that she was affected for another reason. Countrywide, cities and states had enacted legislation to home quarantine infected people. Dannia didn't want to be stuck in her home waiting to become some strange creature. The prospect of being trapped in her home was almost worse than the terror of the virus. Eventually, though, Dannia arranged for a test. She was escorted through the cordon by a grim faced young corporal with a machine gun and a surgical mask. Once inside, she had a blood sample taken and was escorted off site by the same unspeaking soldier. Then came the wait.
That wait, and it lasted three weeks for the test labs were backed up beyond belief, was nerve wracking. Dannia discovered, towards the end of the period she was unable to think about anything other than worry about was she infected and what she'd change into if she were. By the end of the third week, Dannia discovered she couldn't sleep at all. She merely dozed sitting in her comfortable arm chair. Whenever she did manage to sleep, nightmares about becoming something she hated would interrupt her sleep. It didn't help that there were worldwide reports of suicides of infected people. Many were rumoured to be murders as well. Silly religious twaddle about being unclean. As horrible as changing into something else was, Dannia feared someone breaking in an killing her in her sleep if it were ever discovered that she was infected. She arranged to have the security on her doors and windows improved but it would take four weeks to even get someone there to do the measurements. The security companies had a gold rush and were working 24/7 to keep up with the demand.
The wait ended with the inevitable results. By the time her tests returned (a week late), the word was out. Nearly everyone was infected. The infection had two phases. One was a mild cold that nearly everyone threw off in record time. Only women, it seemed, now progressed to the second transformation stage. Something in male bodies prevented the switch to the second active phase. Many men ended up carrying the virus and were a continual source of its spread. She was informed by phone that food would be delivered until she was finished her changes. After that, she'd no longer be infectious and could return to her normal life ('if possible') added a somewhat cynical Dannia.
Her daily ritual of searching for changes took on a greater importance to Dannia now. She made it a point to check every square centimeter of her body with a mirror after her morning shower. For many weeks, there was nothing. But, as she feared, there did come a day when she found something and she new her time had come. In the middle of her back and at her tail bone, was a small patch of orange. Over the next few days,a short tail grew. Had the circumstances not been what they were, Dannia might have found it pretty. It was striped front-to-back with bands of black, white, yellow and orange. As the days went on, it grew. Over a space of six weeks, it developed from a small worm-like appendage into a huge sack-like thing that dragged behind her. Dannia found herself with a craving for greens, any greens. The drive to eat plant material was so strong that, despite her incarceration, she dashed into her garden and began pulling leaves of the plants. The patrol found her there several hours later, completely stuffed with greenery and her garden stripped clean. After a group in hazmat suits returned her to her house, they reported the incident. Thankfully, in the days that followed, Dannia discovered ever increasing amounts of vegetable materials instead of meat and fish.
By the end of the eighth week, she discovered she could move the thing, too. Not like a dogs tail, of course. But she could get it to bunch up and stretch out. She couldn't quite remember where she'd seen motion like that before for several days. Eventually it came to her. Her appendage was acting like the caterpillars in her now stripped garden. Once she learned how to move it and twist it more capably, she discovered 14 small ballon-like legs on its underside. Six were at the front end and the remaining eight at the rear. Her caterpillar was soon nearly three meters long and she had to crawl rather than walk as being erect was too tiring. The option for standing erect passed as well. Her legs became thinned and rubbery over the space of a few days until they were completely absorbed in her body.
Dannia, who'd always taken care of herself, panicked when she missed her period. What was happening to her? It was bad enough that her longtime boyfriend had stopped returning her calls and wasn't replying to her eMails either. But to realize that she might be pregnant to give birth to strange worms or maybe lay some kind of awful eggs scared her. She struggled to find out what had happened but could find nothing. Where her vagina had been, all she could find was smooth striped caterpillar. She'd been stripped of her adulthood by a mindless virus. She decided no one, not even her doctor, needed to know. Maybe the virus wasn't finished with her yet and she'd change back or something.
Dannia found herself becoming increasingly tired as the days went by. Part of the problem was the difficulty in moving herself about as a caterpillar. Caterpillars just weren't terribly fast or efficient movers. In the end, it was all she could to to bring the food bundle inside and drag it to the kitchen. She stayed there, consuming its contents until the delivery the next week. More and more of her time, Dannia would simply lie on the floor of her kitchen, a pillow under her head and sleep.
Three months after she'd begun to change, a sense of urgency awoke in her. She needed to find something. A special place. She had to do something, too. But she wasn't sure what. As fast as her puffy little caterpillar legs would carry her, she explored her house. From the bedroom to the front room to the family room, she crawled. She was hunting for something but couldn't quite figure out what it was. She hoped she'd recognize it once she found it.
It was in the basement that her desperate hunt came to an end. She looked up at the solid metal piping that supported the upper stories of the house. She knew what she had to do. She lifted herself to the bar with a strength that surprised her and folded herself double. Quickly, she began waving her caterpillar tail back and forth across the pipe until a solid silk sling took shape. She then grasped the sling with her six front legs and began to writhe. She felt a cold patch in the middle of her back and, between waves of twisting and writhing, discovered a wide spit in her skin. Underneath was a strange whitish skin of a totally different nature than her own skin or that of her caterpillar. It took nearly five hours but she eventually shed her entire caterpillar skin (and much of her own skin the process). The whitish bag, which had absorbed her arms, soon hardened. She'd seen enough chrysalis in her garden to realize what had happened.
She had become a chrysalis! First a caterpillar now a chrysalis She suspect that she'd end up hanging there for several days before anything more happened and wished there was someplace other than her junk and box filled basement that had served the purpose of her newly acquired instincts.
The next day was food delivery day. Unlike past days though, Dannia felt none of the urgency to get to the food she'd felt in past months. A strange lethargy had come over her. Food really didn't matter all that much. The next day, she was awakened by a banging at the door. Someone had noticed she'd not picked up her delivery and had come to investigate. She tried calling out but found her voice strangely weak. Instead of the loud shout, she managed a rough rasp. The knocking stopped and then, after an hour or so, was repeated. A voice she didn't recognize repeatedly asked whether she was all right. When she couldn't answer, she heard some metallic clicks at her door and then the sound of the door opening.
She tried to call out again but her voice was little more than a hoarse whisper. It took them several minutes to find her strung from the ceiling post like some kind of strange laundry bundle. Although it was hard to tell with the men in full contamination suits, they sounded concerned. After many minutes, she told them what had happened and assured them she was in no immediate danger. They soon left her to her perch with a promise to check in on her once a day.
Dannia was so tired by the excitement that she resealed her head back on the hard surface of the chrysalis behind her and fell asleep. The next day, the team returned and discovered her head solidly attached to the chrysalis Her eyes were closed and covered with the same solid white material as the rest of the chrysalis The only way they could tell she was still alive is that they could see her slowly breathe and she would twitch occasionally. True to their word, they continued to check but for nearly 3 weeks, Dannia and her chrysalis were unchanging.
Dannia began to wake. It was a slow process and she wasn't quite sure where she was. She couldn't open her eyes for some reason. It was as if her eyes had been glued shut. She had an overwhelming need to stretch her legs and arms, too. And couldn't do it. Something, some kind of membrane, was blocking her. She began to twist and struggle until she felt a burst of cold on her chest. Whatever had her trapped had cracked! Gathering her strength again, she twisted even more violently, widening the tiny crack into a wide rift. She could feel the chill outside air from her tummy to her chin now. This gave her hope and she twisted and writhed again. Soon she could feel the welcoming cool on her legs and mouth as well.
Pausing for a while because all of this struggling was tiring, she took stock of her situation. Her memories slowly came back to her. She'd become some kind of caterpillar and then a chrysalis She was still trapped in the chrysalis! That's what the white stuff was! She began kicking out with her legs and discovered she had far too many legs. Instead of a pair like she'd had since she was born, she could feel six legs kicking out against the tough skin that held her. The skin soon parted and she found herself hanging by claws at the tips of her legs to the remains of her chrysalis She tried to reach up to clear the skin from her face but discovered that her arms had some kind of huge mass attached to them and it was nearly impossible to move them. Her front pair of legs proved able to clear the offending material. Looking up, she found she now had a pair of feathery antenna growing from the centre of her forehead.
Once again she tried to move her arms and caught sight of them. Her arms were a huge bloated reddish blobs hanging from her sides. They looked like some kind of bloody sacs and were pulsing alarmingly. She tried to climb down from the remains of her chrysalis but discovered her six legs had a firm grasp of the strong central spine and there was nothing she could do to release them. She hung there, passing in and out of consciousness, for over an hour. All the while her heart pumped blood into the veins in the sacs that had been her arms. They slowly expanded until they were considerably wider and taller than she was. Finally, they'd expand as far as they were able and she felt the blood flow back into her body from them. Slowly her vision cleared. She turned her head this way and that to get a look at her new body.
Strange as it seemed, she was now more butterfly than human. Judging by the apparent size of the beam she'd attached her chrysalides to when she started this final transformation, she was considerably smaller in body than when she started out. Although never a tall woman (150 cm at best), she could tell that she was definitely a dwarf now. Without the wings that now dragged on the cement beneath her, her body was barely 100 cm. She let go of the chrysalis attachment point and climbed onto the concrete floor of the basement. Slowly, she learned to work her legs again. It was more difficult than she first anticipated because she had to learn to coordinate six strangely shaped legs. Almost human where they attached to her body, they darkened and hardened towards the toes. Here they became small, far smaller than even the bound feet of a Chinese mandarin's wife. At the tips, they became sharp claws, strong enough to hold the weight of her body and wings hanging upside down from the ceiling! Eventually though, she got the hang of moving her legs in a proper insect manner.
Dragging her wings up the stairs, she felt every bump in the surface. The claws, though strong, weren't terribly useful as hands. It took her nearly 20 minutes to unlock and then open the door to her backyard. She pulled herself out onto the deck at the back and collapsed, exhausted. Only when the sun had risen far enough to light the deck and warm her did she rouse again. She lifted her arms -- now her wings -- and gave a tentative flap. Much else had changed. She felt much lighter than she'd been before entering the chrysalis and the single flap nearly pulled her off her feet. A large smile spread across her face. She might just be able to fly! A quick run on her six legs, a quick leap at the edge of the deck and as powerful a down beat as she was able got her airborne. Once airborne, it was easier to stay airborne. She circled in the confined space behind her house until she was nearly ten meters up and well clear of the houses. There was something she had to do, something important. She just didn't know what.
Dannia sailed high over the houses, her antennae twitching. As she did so, she'd flap only as much as necessary to maintain her altitude. Without warning, she caught a scent, at once familiar and very, very alluring. It said mating and family. She turned side to side to determine its direction. Once she'd located the direction, she flapped at the best speed should maintain on her wings. The scent was delicious and undeniable. It slowly grew stronger and she finally identified it. It was her boyfriend, the one who had denied her. But she was no longer reacting as a woman would. Much of her action was now tied to the butterfly genes that had been merged with her own by the virus. All she knew was that he was her mate and that she must mate. It was the single highest imperative in every butterfly's short life.
He came out of a side door at noon and began to head across the parking lot towards the small strip mall and the restaurant that he and his colleagues favoured. He was alone this time. He'd gotten his project component to a point he could pause for lunch a bit sooner than the others. He decided to get a table at the restaurant for the four of them a bit early so as to be sure that they'd not have to wait. As he walked, he was startled by a large shadow that crossed his path several times. He shielded his eyes looking for the source of the shadow.
Dannia dropped on him before he could respond. Her ardor knew no denial and her strong legs soon had his clothing shredded. Her scent drove him though and he soon found himself rising to the occasion. She drove herself onto him with an insistent rhythm that didn't end until he'd climaxed and she was satiated. She then launched herself into he air, heading towards the nearby forested park. Now she she had another imperative. She needed to find a safe place to lay her eggs.
