Was it the fulfillment of some grand destiny? Or perhaps, the effects of an ancient curse? An errant wish for a light in the darkness, granted by forces beyond human comprehension? Or simply, being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

These questions raced through his mind as he watched, and felt his body crack, creak and swell outward, the fabrics of his clothes straining, tearing at the seams before falling away, shrugged aside by an impressive set of leathery wings and a heavy tail.

Unsteady and awkward in an increasingly unrecognizable body, he stumbled and fell forward, catching himself with his clawed digits, looking over his shoulder at himself. The sight forced his eyes wide, his mouth hanging open.

He tried to assure himself that he had to be caught in a dream, or some kind of hallucination, but the feeling of his new tail dragging along the rocky surface of the cave floor, and his wings straining as they settled into place behind him denied his mind such comforts.

He was becoming a Charizard. It's... his features were unmistakable, the orange scales wrapped around his arms, the large, round, jutting belly beneath him, the wings, the tail and the fire at its tip, burning brighter, hotter with each, thumping beat of his heart. As he stared into the warm, enveloping flame, he could feel another heat building inside of his chest, violent and uncontainable.

Helpless, he clutched at his breast to try and hold it in, but the burning energy continued to intensify, suffusing itself throughout every fiber of his being as it sought a point of escape. He could feel the now oppressive heat rise up his lengthened neck, gather itself into his skull and push.

His claws rose to his face immediately, his brows and cheeks pressing back against them as his skull reshaped and grew beneath his touch. The sounds of bone being broken and remade anew echoed in his ears, now rapidly losing their human auricles, diminishing into the understated canals of a lizard. With a deep, heavy crunch, his jaws forced themselves outward from beneath his clenched shut eyes, carrying his flattening nose forward with them. He tried to yell out, but his changing vocal chords forced his cries into a low, rumbling growl that reverberated throughout the caverns around him. What was left of his hair fell away from his scalp, no longer needed for a human that no longer existed.

Wispy trails of smoke seeped from his snout, the taste of ashes playing across his tongue. The fires continued to rise in his throat. The pressure began to build inside of his face once again, causing his jaws to creak forward. It was too much, he thought. It was just, all too much. He was too afraid to open his eyes and acknowledge what was happening to him. He was too weak and unbalanced to run, and even if he could, what would he do? Who would listen to him? Could he still even talk? He didn't know what to do. He couldn't think. The pressure. The heat. It was too much. He couldn't hold it back any longer.

Taken by his own frustration, he answered his problems in the only way his new form could allow. He tensed every muscle in his body, planting his clawed feet, spreading his wings to their full span, and thrashing his tail about wildly, before throwing his head back and roaring with all of his might. With his jaws stretched wide and his nostrils flaring, his new features finished growing into place, his muzzle snapping out to its full length, the bony ridges of his brows becoming prominent beneath a compressing, flattening cranium. The fire in his throat rushed into his mouth and exploded outward into searing jet of flame that slammed against the cave wall in front of him, threatening to superheat and melt it into lava. Every ounce of what had been building inside him released itself in a moment of intensity that overpowered anything else. He couldn't think anymore. He could only feel the inferno rushing through him, and out of him.

...

After what seemed like a moment trapped in eternity, the fires, mercifully, began to die down inside of him. There was nothing left. It was over. The flame on his tail diminished, growing weaker with the creeping exhaustion. Finally, the Charizard opened his eyes, looking down at the tattered remains of their garments and at themselves, slumping against the nearest wall, sliding downward, until he could sit.

Silence crept in, and with it, came a fleeting lucidity. He was tired, too tired to do anything else. He would have to sleep, even if it meant doing so in a cave in the middle of nowhere. As a Charizard. An unintelligible grumble left his scaly lips, his head finding a particularly nice mound of dirt and minerals of settle itself upon before his eyelids became too heavy to keep open.

He knew that he was worried of what would come with the morning sun, the looming uncertainty of his future. But, even more than that, the thing that scared him the most about what had happened...was...

...was how good it felt.

---

Originally sketched and abandoned in 2015. Scanned, colored and released in 2023.

I wanted to release a short, flavor text description to go along with it and I ended up spending all night writing and editing this vignette. Whoops?

HELLO WORLD.