Sunning on the Wall (Patreon)

Woman: Swift Creek Photos
Lizard: Creative Commons

'Now why would anyone throw away such a beautiful bracelet?' she thought as she lifted it from its case.  Both case and lizard bracelet had been found when she and the rest of her team were draining a portion of the peat bog as part of an archeological dig.  Of course, she'd logged it and put it into the dig's storage.  And, oddly enough, it had been thrown away or buried for the bracelet was in a sealed case and the context was disturbed.

As the day wore on, the beautiful bracelet began to prey on her mind.  Even though she wasn't one for wearing jewelry (especially on a dig site), this piece fascinated her and slowly, as the sun passed into the afternoon sky, she felt compelled to wear it.  She excused herself from the dig and returned to the storage tent.  When she found no one about, she searched a few minutes to find the case and bracelet and, without any further thought, snapped it around her wrist.  Its finely articulated form seemed to eagerly wrap her forearm.

Then other strange and compelling thoughts entered her mind.  She was cold.  Remembering the warm stone of the stone fence, she made her way to it.  Stretching full length, she absorbed its heat.  Something was wrong.  Clothes.  That's what was wrong.  She disrobed and stretched her now naked body along the warm stone.  Fortunately no one was about to see the next sequence for they'd have hardly believed their eyes.

She began to grow a scaly tail.  Longer and longer until, when it finished its strange expansion, it was as wide as her hips and easily as long again as she'd been tall.  She, of course was oblivious, lying naked on the warm stone and very nearly asleep.  The scales spread up to her waist and then, after a brief pause, finer scales continued to develop clean up to the base of her breasts.  Her legs developed the scales of a lizard, too, and shrank, shifting back along her body.  While her legs shrank, her feet changed.  Toes lengthened and developed strong claws.

That's when another of the dig volunteers found her.  He watched in horror as her eyes developed horizontal slits and became a brilliant, vibrant blue.  She turned her head slowly toward him and tried to speak.  That's when she discovered the final change.  Her tongue was now longer and an impossible dark blue.  Instead of speech, all she could utter was a single long hiss.  A hiss that held her surprise, horror and worry.

Soon the entire team had gathered around her.  

"What do we do?" asked a worried dig mate.
"I've not the slightest idea," responded the dig leader.
"How did this happen?" asked another.
"No idea," responded the dig leader, a very perplexed tone in his voice.  "But she can't stay here.  A hospital?"
"What would they be able to do?" asked her horrified friend.
"Well," he said taking off his sun hat.  "It's certain there's nothing we can do."

To that sentiment, all could agree.  As for the victim, she was oblivious as she still soaked up the heat of the stone.  Suddenly she decided she was hungry and, pushing herself up, she bolted from the fence far faster than anyone could have thought possible.  She disappeared into the brush, following the scent of the birds she could smell in the distance.  The chicken coop popped little resistance to her strong claws and she gobbled two down before the farmer even knew anything was amiss.  

Now sated, she returned to the brush to find a hiding place to digest her huge meal in peace.  That's where they found her, nearly stuporous with her belly distended.  Having no other option, they darted her and loaded her into a transport crate usually used for large animals.  They took her to the local agricultural station for observation.  She, in her drug induced sleep, knew nothing of this but, when she woke 12 hours later, she nervously paced the enclosure she was.  Something in her mind told her this wasn't the archaeology dig she'd signed on for but it was drowned by an overwhelming need to escape and be free again.