Rowanne awoke to the sound of laughter echoing in her mind for a moment, on the floor of the Wyrmbone seam. The glow seemed brighter now. She scrambled around for a moment searching for that red piece. It was gone, and the brightness here was unbearable now, so she quickly pocketed what she could while making a break for the other end of the seam. What the hell just happened? She thought to herself. But for now, she had far bigger concerns, like making it to the surface.

She burst out into the main workings, and found strangely that her eyes had adjusted more than usual; the darkness ahead looked more like a dimly lit room than an old coal mine. Not that she wasn’t grateful, but she would have deeply appreciated knowing what on earth was happening to her, and what this “awakening” had changed in her. She examined her hands, they seemed normal enough. Then she felt her face and nothing seemed different there either. But as her agitation rose she felt a new feeling behind her, swishing side to side, oh you have got to be shitting me, sure enough behind her a deep blue, scaled tail swished from side to side.

She bit her tongue to distract herself. Screaming, cursing and crying could wait; survival first, and if she slotted those 3 in now she could cancel survival's appointment right then and there. So instead she settled for moving her newfound appendage softly, when she let her attention slip it hit the water, and that feeling was downright bizarre. So she carefully lifted it from the water and tucked it away in her gear. The unfamiliar sensation proved irritating, but if she was outed as a halfblood then her life would be over, as would her little sister's, and she already had enough nonsense about her blood to contend with from being of Cornish descent. Last thing she needed was to be a “blackleg's brat” and a freak.

This damn tail was not cooperating, either. It took her a full ten minutes wrestling the bloody thing to tuck it away; every time she tried, it swished to one side like it had a mind of its own. “Will ye just stop still, damn ye,” she muttered softly to herself under her breath. Then finally, mission accomplished, she headed carefully along the tunnel. Her newfound vision may be scary, but for now it was seeming like a blessing after hours of fumbling in the dark. At least now she could see what was going to try to eat her, thank heaven for small mercies..... well maybe not so merciful but at least it gave her a chance to leg it if things got too close. Given that she had no map of these workings at all, and it had been abandoned before she was even born, she would take what she could get. Most of the props down here were rotted to the point of being ornamental; luckily the hewers back then had done solid work, so it seemed the working had held together nicely regardless. So now it was a straight - albeit long and terrifying - shot to the surface with any luck. She reached down, feeling once again for the water flowing outwards, picked the most likely route headed in that direction, and set off.