So the series continues, this time another sister of Nature gets in on the act. By me and  ajm8888

PDF included
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Isonei’s Menagerie: Sister Act
by born2beagator and ajm8888

Victor stalked through the swamp. The developer was confident in his own presence. No one else had dared come here to this wilderness, but here he was, staking a claim. He’d fill in this wetland, drain the river, and build a beautiful new mall. He stopped at the edge of the river and began taking notes. He saw a family of deer on the edge of the river. Good hunting for his clients, he’d leave a bit of the woods just for that. Further up was a massive pine tree with two eagles nesting. Chicks could be heard there. He sighed. He couldn’t get away with knocking that down, but he could build it the mall around it and charge admission. Nodding, he sat down and began to take notes.


“This one is all yours Shar.” A voice said savagely.


Victor looked around, shrugging, and went back to his work.


Shar looked at this human with what could only be hatred. A mall? If his plans came to fruition there would be a source of pollution right next to her dominion of the river. With Wetlands gone the natural filters of the river would ensure the river water was not clean by the time it reached the ocean. Malls also would bring more humans not with their boat traffic but humans to live in the converted wetlands, they’d destroy habitats of turtles, alligators, birds, fish and many land animals that fell under Isonei’s protection.


Shar’s head popped up from the water behind the human he did not see her. She was going to make sure he never left. He had dared to hurt her river then this human would pay. But first he had to suffer a little.


Under Victor’s foot came a motion as a massive Alligator Gar knocked him into the water. Shar kept her laughter muted.


“What the-!” He gave a muted cry as he fell in. Thankfully it was shallow. “Okay, who’s getting sued?” he yelled.


Victor was bit by a big Catfish under the water. It was odd as more fish seem to drag him under the water of the swamp. Gurgling, the man struggled, but the catfish was too strong, and somehow it was pulling him deeper than the riverbed.


Victor suddenly fell into a...room? Well it actually was a bubble but this was impossible. He was under the river, it was not muddy and sludge filled but clear like an aquarium. Standing outside the bubble was a woman. She had a tail or a very convincing costume. This woman had what looked like fins poking through her dark blue hair. The odd woman watched him from outside the bubble. He was getting some air in his lungs.


“What the heck are you, some psycho cosplayer?” He asked savagely.


Victor’s leg was grabbed and he was pulled back into the water. He looked at the woman before him. She smiled. “I am your judge.” Victor realized she said this underwater and he could understand her. He was pushed back into the bubble. She walked in after him.


“Ha. No one judges but me fishlady.” Victor said cruely.


“I could still kill you.” Sahr said her temper showing as she grabbed him and lifted him a foot off of the ground. “:But my sister suggests I try an alternative.” Shar threw Victor across the distance of the bubble. “I am a torrent, I can drown you so do not think that I am not tempted. But I want to try something on you and I feel you are a despicable human that shall not be missed. Just another lost soul.” Shar laughed. She was not going to be easy on the sleazy human.


“Oh yeah freak? Bring it!” Victor said confidently.


Victor suddenly found Shar was gone. Her blue arm appeared around his neck holding him in a choke hold. “I am the undertow dragging you o the depths, I kill more swimmers that way.” She taunted the human she was making skin contact that would begin some of the mental changes but they would take the longest. She just would taunt the human in her grip. “You are greed personified. Nature has no value to you. To you money is all that matters. All humans must value nature and most do. You are a mistake.”


Shar knew her sister would not like her methods but she was not going to make the same mistakes as her sister. She was going to keep the human contained and unable to escape. She had ensured all the predators would capture this human if he escaped.


“Why do you hate nature so much? Aren’t there good places for a mall in your world?” Shar asked keeping Victor in a choke hold.


“Nature gets in the way of profit of course.” He said. “This swamp will be filled for a massive mall, and you, fish lady, will need to just move out.” Smirking, he continued. “Maybe I’ll go get some venison from that family of deer before I leave, that was a nice buck too. A good rack for my wall.”


Shar let out a small chuckle. “You wouldn’t dare try to harm that buck. You are a cold blooded snake, human. Yet you have less empathy than any reptile in this swamp..” Shar put emphasis on ‘snake’.


“Tell me something I don’t know fish thing. I’ve been called snake all my life.” Victor scoffed.


“Maybe you are a snake?” Shar put the question in his mind. “What else could you be?”


“Human?” Victor asked sarcastically.
“If your fellow humans called you that than why would they be wrong? You picked a hot swamp to build a mall, your tan indicates you like the sun, and you have no problem devouring anything. I think that fits a snake perfectly.”


“It’s just a figure of sssssspeech.” I say, laughing, missing my tongue slurring the words a bit.


“But a figure that applies to you.” Shar said letting her grip go slack. “You like fresh meat and you said you like to hunt. Why wouldn’t you be a snake?” Shar heard the slur and kept her excitement hidden from the human.


“Because I’m human.” I say resolutely. “Now let me go!”


“No. but I will let you enjoy the bubble.” Shar walks backwards with Victor and then pushes him away from her. She goes into the water and vanishes.


“Okay really? Leave me in here. I don’t think sssssso.” Victor stuck his tongue out, a small split at the tip, searching for a way out. Victor realized he may have to swim out of the bubble. It was far from ideal but it was the only way he could escape. The crazy fishlady may catch him but it was best to try and escape. He got down and pushed through, suddenly he was underwater. Putting his arms to his sides he instinctively undulated his body and burst through the surface, crawling out.


At the surface Victor saw a snake, it was a water moccasin, waiting at shore for him it just watched as he came ashore. It seemed very interested in his motions. It smelled him with it’s tongue. But it kept a distance from Victor.


Before it could move, the human kicked it away, and shook himself off. “I can’t believe thisssss.” He said, shaking his head, slightly blackened tongue flicking out.


The snake backed away after being kicked. But it still watched from the bushes. The sun was blazing down. Victor needed to dry off. Maybe some sun would help? A big black rock was a safe distance from the river. Maybe here he could be safe there from the crazy fishlady?


But he shook his head. He needed to get back to the office and get this place bulldozed. He started to walk away, getting colder and colder. He tried to ignore it. Victor saw as he walked another water moccasin, curled in the leaves getting some sun.


As he walked into the shade, he began to get lethargic. He saw yet another snake in the sun. Perhaps the snakes did have the right idea? But he shook his head resolutely and plowed on. He got slower and slower until his body seemed to shut down, too cold to operate.


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Shar had to drag the human back the the shore of the river. She put the water moccasin next to Victor and leaned next to his unconscious form, she whispered. “You are a snake. You always were and always have been a snake. The sun feels good. Blood and meat are good to eat. You to bite your pray and let your toxin kill your prey before you swallow it whole. You love to swim. You are a snake. That is all you ever have been.” Shar repeated this chant several times to the unconscious human before vanishing into the water.
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Victor woke groggily. Where was he. He looked up and saw a snake next to him. Before he could recognize what it was, the cottonmouth lurched forward and bit him on the arm, injecting it’s toxin into him. This woke him. The man jumped up and ran. But once again the cold got to him and he returned to the sun. He sat down and waited for the toxin to do its work.


He saw the slow beginnings of tissue destruction the arm turned brown as if a massive bruise began to form. Faster than this kind of venom should work infact. He saw the arm visibly wither away as bone, muscle, and other tissues were dissolved.


“My arm!!!!” He screamed. His right arm was gone, and not just gone, it was as if it had never been there. There wasn’t even a nub where it should have met his shoulder. His mind did say he never had that arm.


Another cottonmouth bit Victor’s left leg it felt numb but it did not dissolve away. It felt odd. Rubbery.


Shar watched under the water, though Victor could not see her. The mental changes had to kick in hard soon. Venom coursed through his veins. Her sister had the mental changes well along at this point in her experiments. Why was she having trouble with this human? If he was not losing his hair soon she would act.


The human meanwhile, had lost another arm. “Whatever you are! Lady in the water! Help me!”


Shar walked out of the river and smiled at the human. “I know you are scared. I will help you.” Shar put her hand on the back of victor’s head and began to stroke him. She knew he was hostile but he had to have a bit of animal in him now. Just a few strokes.


“My arms!!!” Victor screamed.


“You never had arms.” she calmly told the human. She felt his hair become loose and start to fall out. “You are a cotttonmouth.” she told Victor.


“This isn’t a time for your insanity, My arms are gone!!!” Victor said, still hysterical. “I’ve been bitten by poisonous snakes twice!”
“Make that three times,” as another cottonmouth drives it’s fangs into Victor’s other leg. “My dear Victor why do you pretend you are human? You have been a snake since you were born. You are sluggish in the shade but active in the sun. So, tell me why you think you are human?” Shar has rubbed away all of Victor’s hair.


Victor fell silent, conflicted.


“I found you in the swamp looking for a place for a nest. I mean what male won’t find a place for his female to nest and birth their young? You are the dominant male. You must ensure that the younger males do not get their choice of female. You get the top pick Victor. You were always on top. The best cottonmouth in the swamp.” Shar could see the human having a mental struggle.


It was starting to make sense. He looked at the smooth spot where his arms were. “But I...I look human.” He said in confusion.


“You got sick my young snake. It will be better when you shed your skin. Then you can be back to normal.” Shar cupped Victor’s face she felt scales growing under her palms.


“Shed...shed my skin?” Victor asked in confusion. He could feel his tongue tingling in his mouth, as if morphing.


“Why yes it is what snakes do.” Shar smiled as she saw Victor’s mouth pull into a partial snake muzzle. His pupils started going crazy before pulling into oval slits. Victor’s sense of smell and soon hearing would be conducted through his tongue. “I mean why else would whose things on the side of your body go away? You shed them.” Shar rubbed under Victor’s chin, the beginning of scutes forming on his neck.


Victor flicked his long black tongue out, the end forking away. “That makesssss ssssensssse.” he said, tongue unable to stay in on s’s.


Victor began to feel an itching as he saw Shar helping him. The skin on his head was beginning to flake off. Victor felt the scales getting a pleasant scratch from the water spirit. His scales darkened as they slid into place. He was an older cottonmouth.


Shar saw Victor’s nose upturn and nostrils point in different directions. Sacs began to form on either side of his head, filling with the deadly venom he’d need to catch prey. She began to rub the shoulders of the transforming human. She felt the bones begin to recede in Victor’s body. Every place she massaged scales formed and slid into place. “Victor how do you feel?” She asked.


He moved his legs. “What are thessssse thingsssss?” He asked.


“Oh they will be gone soon enough.” Shar began to work on the useless legs. She removed the human’s shoes, and other garments. Picking up his left leg she began rubbing the toes. She kept rubbing these appendages. She kneaded them into one mass. The toes were gone replaced by a point at the end of appendage. Shar repeated this on the other leg.


Finally Victor was left with two scaly appendages. Suddenly a webbing appeared between them. He moaned as the two lengths pulled together and merged. “Hissssssssssssss!!!” He spat out, flopping onto his belly, feeling wrong on his back.


Shar smiled. This would be much easier now. “Victor move around.”


He tried, but found nothing happening. “I can’t.” He said in a scratchy voice.


Next to Victor a female cottonmouth moved by undulating as it slithered. The snake’s motions were powerful, yet elegant.


“I want that.” Victor said, reveling in the feeling of scales rushing over him now.


“Well Victor you will have it.” she rubbed the merging legs to finish the merge. The scales cascaded over Victor’s body as if they were water. Shar looked at the odd snake in front of her. “Well almost done.”


“What isssss left guardian?” Victor asked, his whole attitude about this place had changed. He vaguely remembered something about doing something human here, but that meant little to him. What matter now was pleasing the water guardian.


“Well you are just a little too wide for a cottonmouth and you can still talk.” Shar did not think a potion to erase the human mind was needed. But milking the venom of one of the snakes nearby was an option. Shar saw a bowl nearby, it was not there a minute ago.


Shar made a slight hiss and had all the cottonmouths, minus Victor gathered around her. One by one she milked four snakes. Too much more would kill Victor. Shar had the remaining cottonmouths go away except for one female. She placed the bowl on the ground. “My proud snake, drink this and you will be a perfect water moccasin.”


Victor slowly undulated his body and scooted forward. “Not long enough. Pull.” He said.


Shar rubbed her hand together and stood at Victor’s tail. She got a good hold on his tail and began to pull. She heard the pops of new vertebrae and the growth of new ribs. Shar kept pulling until Victor was a proper length. “There you go my serpent.”


Now the proper length, he slithered forward and extended his newly grown fangs into the venom. The liquid immediately began sucking into the needle like fangs. When he finished he felt as if something left him. He just sat there in the sun for a moment.


Shar watched the finale of the transformation. Victor shrank as he became the proper size for a cottonmouth. His width narrowed as he became only six inches wide. The iris of his eyes covered the entire eye in a multicolor patchwork. His head shrank as unneeded processes were drained. His jaw could now detach, he could swallow his prey whole.


Shar leaned in towards the snake, “Victor?”


The snake looked up at the strange being and coiled, hissing deeply.


Shar hissed at the snake, it would know she was the river spirit.


It cocked its head at the hiss. It uncoiled itself and slithered off to a area of the river that was apt to have some juicy rodents.


“Well done sister.” A voice sounded from a nearby tree. Isonei stepped out. “Not exactly what I was expecting as far as animal, but a complete physical and mental change is impressive for your first time.”


“Well I strive to improve your process. If we can figure this out we can prevent future problems. Of course there will be stubborn humans we change. But I think this was a resounding success for my first time. I was expecting a monstrosity to be honest.” Shar sighed. “You are right it is tiring turning a human into an animal.”


“Indeed it is.” Isonei chuckled. “Before you go, let me ask, why a snake? I figured you’d want a fish or otter, or something of the like.”


Shar looked at the river and back at Isonei. “He was not right for an otter. He was not cunning enough and far too ruthless with their prey. And he was not docile enough to be a fish, considering how he acted a snake was perfect for that human.”


The two sisters of nature embraced before fading back into their elements to rest.