“I can’t help you hunt, but I can show you where the birds gather at night and some other spots you can trail some other animals,” Rylus said after their prayer ended. “But before that, I have another thing to show you, travelers.”

Shayla and Tejeda followed him out of the dining cave and into another smaller one. It looked like a regular cavern until Tejeda observed its ceiling. A thick net held green foliage above their heads. Following the braided threads to the sidewalls, he spotted hooks pinning the contraption in place.

Rylus came to a halt close to a dangling braided rope. "A visitor arrived in our community a few years ago. We greeted him like we always do, and in exchange, he revealed a wonderful secret to us. He knew Tejeda Hajar and gave us the means to determine whether or not a traveler is the supreme being."

His hand grasped the rope and yanked it. The hooks in the walls retracted, and the net, together with the greenery, fell loose. Purple sand slid through the leaves, small granules reflecting the sun as they made their way to the ground. The purple dust covered everything and everyone in a matter of seconds.

Tejeda frowned, his jaws clenched. “Nice little trap.”

"Why? What is it?" Shayla asked. His purple eyes stopped her from inquiring any further.

Under the sand, Tejeda's flesh melted, causing an agonizing scream to echo off the rocky walls. The mutation proceeded as his limbs morphed into tentacles, giving way to a fresh purple covering of glistening skin.

“I don’t have much control over myself when I turn,” he said between shallow breaths.

Shayla watched in terror as his hair dropped and his purple eyes grew larger and rounder.

“Don’t stay in my way!”

The deep voice felt as if it carved the words directly into Shayla’s brain. She stepped aside and ducked behind a rock, dragging Rylus after her.

Tejeda dashed out of the cave, hovering over his many tentacles. The same way his body could absorb any DNA, it also reacted in contact with sand from Nubilonia, triggering a shift to his natural organic state. He needed a good bath. Without thinking twice about his plan, Tejeda dived into the fast-flowing river near the caves.

The swift water stream dragged him along with it. He saw a fleeting sight of a fallen tree on its route. Snorting and sputtering, he tried to clean his nasal passages as he grabbed a branch to stay afloat. The minute he regained his breath, something sharp hooked fast on one of his tentacles and pulled him deeper into the water.

The monster, twice the size of a grown human, coiled like a ball around Tejeda's tentacle. Its robust shell, thicker than a fist, protected the softer sections beneath. Unseen jaws engraved agony into his limb. He fought the clinging thing, despite the discomfort.

'I can play this game, too,' Tejeda reasoned as he wrapped the tip of a tentacle around one of the creature's massive fangs. Dark blood spilled within the monster's jaws and into Tejeda's wound as he tugged the jagged tooth.

The Nubilae grew in size, and a thick shell formed around him. As he became that thing, the original one sprinted away, oozing black blood, and vanished into the depths as quickly as it had appeared.

Tejeda felt better after submerging towards the river's bottom. This monster had to like the dark depths, yet it had to surface at some point to look for prey. As he got further, his eyesight cleared, and he realized he had night vision or something comparable.

Although Tejeda was unfamiliar with this setting, he quickly got used to it. He scanned the river ford's black abyss until something grabbed his sight. A device of some type glowed in the dark as if appealing to him.

The apparatus had a button of some kind, but he couldn't use it because he didn't have hands or fingers. Tejeda snatched it with his teeth, slithered to the surface, and spat it on the riverbank. When he had two legs and two hands, he'd go after it. Hopefully, very soon.

Shayla studied the riverside for any indications of activity. Nothing. She walked along the stream all day, looking for any entity that seemed out of place. A titchy green lizard scurried into a gap in the rocks. 'No, he wouldn't have stooped so low,' she thought.

Nervous squawks fueled adrenaline surges in her legs. She had to control her newfound fear for birds. A narrow band of indigo divided day and night at the horizon. Darkness would settle in shortly. The tension in her calves burned as much as the pain in her feet.

Shayla needed to take a break. She sat quietly, resting against a tree. The bark felt harsh on her back, but the ache in her calves and feet went away. A loud clunking sound from behind her cut short her one-minute slumber.

She got up in less than a second, her laser gun aimed towards the approximate direction of the noise.

“Ho-hold your fire. It’s me, Cato,” said the Ferali with her arms raised high in the air. She held a vial between her fingers. “E00 sent me here. Did something happen to Tejeda?”

“Yeah, something happened alright,” Shayla replied, holstering her gun. “Don’t ask what because I can’t say.”

“E00 said he would need this.” Cato gave the vial to Shayla. The red liquid inside glistened under the last rays of the sun.

“Blood,” Shayla concluded. “Good! He will need it. The problem is I don’t know where he is.”

“Isn’t he wearing his uniform?” Cato asked.

“No, he left it in the cave before he ran off.” Shayla shrugged. “Again, don’t ask. It’s hard to explain.”

The Ferali’s ears flickered. “Are you telling me he is running naked through these woods?”

"No." Shayla exhaled a sigh. "If you're truly curious, he's swimming as an octopus." She took a step closer to the water and opened the vial, spilling its contents into the river. "He once claimed that all he needed was to touch any DNA traces to cause the transformation. Let's hope this is enough."