From the Depths

Chapter 43 - Life must go on.

"Hold still would you!" Henry was attempting to grasp onto the material at her waist.

Her body lulled to the side again, her legs had almost completely fused and the tip of her newly formed tail splashed out of the shallow water spraying them with a fresh layer of salty liquid.

"You try staying still when you grow a god-damned tail!" She protested. "I can barely bend this thing, let alone stay sitting!"

He'd moved her to the shallows so he could better help her remove her underwear. Getting her up onto the ledge had been a feat, the addition of the tail made her extremely heavy and he was barely able to lift her onto the area.

Having enough of the wet nightgown sticking to her still slightly burning skin, she'd stripped it off. The motion made her rock from side to side. He sighed but waited for her to steady herself again before he reached down to grasp the material again.

With her skin fully exposed, he couldn't help but cringe at the scratch marks she'd given herself along her hips when she had attempted to remove them herself. She wasn't used to her new hands yet, if you could call them that anymore, they appeared more like claws at this point.

Ammoungest their struggles, they'd managed to tear one side, but given the situation, both sides needed to be torn before the material could be removed from between her fast-fusing legs. He yanked on the thin cotton causing her to gasp and flop to the side, dunking her into the water with a rather hefty splash.

With a groan, he grasped her flailing arm and heaved her back upright. "Hold on to me will you!"

"But the scales!" She protested.

There she went again worrying about him. Her body was filling out with raver-sharp hardened scales, Ren had been able to control them, alter them. But she figured since this was the first time growing them she couldn't do that until they were fully formed. But all she had at the moment were theories.

"Quit worrying about me and just do it! I'll heal, been through worse." He slapped her noodle-like limbs around his neck while glaring at her.

She winced but complied, holding on to him more firmly than she wanted to. With his next tug, her body was jolted toward him. Tightening her grip and hugging herself to him she heard the material finally tear. Lifting her backside gently up, using Henry as leverage he was able to pull the material free and quickly tossed it aside.

As she was about to disengage from the death grip she had on him he abruptly hissed. That was when she felt it, the sliver of liquid that trickled down her breast and ran off her side. With the gentle sound of a drip impacting the water's surface, her heart sank.

"Careful, careful. I'm okay, just slowly..." His hands rested on her shoulders.

She nodded grimly as she tried to gently remove herself from his embrace. The green-blue scales that covered her breasts now extended down her sides and began to form on her abdomen, extending down her still-growing tail. They clung to the wet material that covered his body threatening to shred the clothing. Where her arms had contacted his skin at his neck was now heavily scratched and lightly bleeding in places.

"Sor-" She watched a small droplet of blood pool at the edge of a wound and slide down his collarbone, only to be caught on the material that was gapping open at his chest. She tilted her head narrowing her eyes on the injury.

Clenching her eyes shut she shook her head, taking a moment she opened her eyes to study the tiny wounds again.

"You okay?" He asked slightly taken aback by her abruptly cut-off speech.

"My sight... It's changing." She muttered still entranced by the area around his neck.

Colours had become more vivid and vibrant, It was an understandable change given that underwater it would be harder to see in the depths than it was on land.