Disclaimer: I don't make anything from this. Azurik: Rise of Perathia is owned by Microsoft and Adrenium Entertainment...you get the picture.
Author's Note: This scene among some others will contain strong scenes of abuse and possible rape...so if you're easily frightened off, don't read.
.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
"Ya worthless little bitch! Ya ugly, filthy little slut!"
Her head rang with the angry shout, plus the vicious force of the backhand slap, a flash of pain ripping through her skull as her head went snapping back, more pain blossoming as her head made a connection with the base of her neck where it connected to her back. She found herself staring at the ceiling, seemingly mesmerized by the dark green hue of it, but in truth it was just that she was stunned. The drunken man in front of her reeled sideways, aiming another blow at her again, which connected with the other side of her head and forced her out of his grip, and she stumbled back four steps, her back running up against the half opened window and the wall it was set into which was now liberally splashed with alcohol. The strong scent of whiskey made her choke, and she began to cough uncontrollably. Unbeknownst to her bright crimson droplets flew from her lips, and landed on the palm of her hand, which in turn were absorbed into the once soft and pristine blue curtains behind her, staining the fabric as she sank to the ground like a stone. She was grasping the curtain so tightly in her hand she barely noticed when she brought down the curtain rod and the curtains with her, the soft fabric and the hard, unyielding rod cascading down around her in a shower of dark blue cloth and gleaming brass.
Dizzy and feeling weak, the dark haired young woman looked up at her blood relative, pain, anger, fear, disgust and hatred raging in her small frame as she glared impotently up at her blood relative through tear filled eyes.
"Ya loo' at me when I'm talkin' to ya, ya little bitch," the man slurred as he staggered towards the helpless young woman lying in a broken and battered sprawl on the floor.
For her part, Janelle Solaris made no attempt to move...not that she could at this point in time anyway. Her entire body ached all over from the various kicks, punches, slaps and lashes from the remains of the , she was sure her left knee was dislocated if not broken, and bloody cuts and lacerations covered her right shoulder where a few small shards of crystal clear glass stained with her own blood still jutted out of her shoulder. Her clothing was torn and ripped, half hanging off of her body, and she vainly tried to cover herself by means of a thin gray blanket lying near her.
She was about 5 feet, 7 inches, give or take, and she was a bit on the chubby side, much to her inner chagrin whenever she looked in the mirror. Her features were slightly defined...she had a gentle, rounded look to her features, which were slightly Asian in nature. Her skin was pale, like fine alabaster. Her almond shaped eyes were dark brown, flecked with gold...almost like that of the tiger's eye gem. Her clothes were simple...black capri pants, black and white tennis shoes, and a deep island blue V-necked T-shirt with short sleeves. Her long, dark hair was neatly tied back in a ponytail, away from her face so it would not get in her way...
Or it had been before her hair had been half pulled out of her head...it certainly felt like it...her clothes ripped and stained with blood, her slightly narrow face already showing signs of bruising, her body also showing similar signs of being battered and tossed about...
"Stupid fuckin' slut...talkin' to some other guy...ya belon' ta me, ya hear?"
Outside the house, dark, ominous clouds could be seen through Janelle's open window, and the cold breeze that whispered through the room spoke of a storm coming. The young woman's dark hair veiled her face in a deep brown cloud as she lay on the ground, barely able to move without pain. Just because her uncle had seen her talking casually to the mailman as he had been going about his business he had thrown a hissy fit and pounced on her like a cat would akin to a mouse. It had never been this bad before...why now? Why was he drunk off his ass to begin with...catching her with the broken bottle the second she walked in the door, then had grabbed her and began dealing out heavy handed blows and kicks to her tender flesh, resulting in the state that she was in right now. Her uncle was an abusive, controlling prick...on the outside he seemed to be a strict, controlled man, but it was far from the truth. But it was his niece that suffered his vicious tendencies...when the least little thing went wrong at work he waited until he got home to vent his anger and frustrations...and he had a major jealousy problem, to boot. His wife...Janelle's aunt, had left him four years before for another man, and the result had led him to drink, and drink, and drink until he knew not what was real and what wasn't.
Thunder growled outside, replied by a flare of brilliant white lightning, which laced the clouds above like a sacred spear lancing through the dark sky.
"Now, my lil' whore...come on over 'ere an' let's see whut ya can do ta make up fer yer nonsense..."
Anger flowered within her anew, and she slowly managed to gain her feet, swaying heavily as she managed to grasp the fallen curtain rod that she had pulled down with her when she had fallen to the floor earlier.
"No..." she whispered harshly, barely able to speak through a half bruised throat, but nonetheless, somehow through her uncle's drunken haze, he managed to hear it, and he stared at her openly in a mixture of rage, shock and disbelief.
"Scuse me? Whu--whut did ye say ta me?"
Lightning flared again, but this time the bolt sang dangerously close to the window, blasting down to hit the ground below the house, about three feet away from the window. The loud crack, plus smell of ozone, seared grass and burned soil flooded her ears and filled nose, but it only served to fuel her fury: she was past caring of what would happen to her now. If she died...
Hell, she would welcome the oblivion of death if it meant being free!
"I SAID NO!"
The force of her defiant, angry cry stunned her attacker with shock value alone as she summoned all her remaining strength and swiftly raised the metal rod above her head, clearly intending to strike back at her attacker with it, the surge of adrenaline ripping through her veins despite the searing pain in her torn and lacerated shoulder. Inhuman rage and hate filled her eyes, almost making them glow golden as she prepared to bring the curtain rod back down with the return swing of her primary arm. The force of her drawing back to swing the rod had resulted in her breaking the window, the rod sticking out of it and reaching to the heavens like a bizarre sort of TV antenna.
And that was when all hell broke loose.
Some people say that lightning never strikes twice, some say that it never strikes in the same place. The people who said those things were proven wrong as in the next ten seconds things went completely awry. Whatever the cause, a second searing bolt of lightning screamed from the heavens with a resounding crack, rushing downwards in the space of a split second to strike the rod the young woman held. The lightning roared through the metal rod and shot down the length of it to snake around the young woman with the speed of an angry cobra striking. Her vision was filled with white fire as she parted her lips to scream...yet no sound came out. Oddly enough, she felt light, as if she were floating...or was she falling? She had no clue. Just that, around her, was whiteness everywhere, and yet, it did not seem to be stationary. It seemed to be moving...she wanted to touch it, and yet, she found that she could not move. Vaguely she thought she should be grateful for the fact that she couldn't see the ugly mug of her uncle anymore, she thought with a bitter, ironic smile. Better nothingness, better this ivory oblivion, rather than the twisted, demonic face of her relative.
Then...
"It's time for your lesson, young Guardian."
Janelle whimpered softly as she slowly opened her eyes...then swiftly shut them again as a brilliant white light seared them, now fully aware of the pain she was in. Her head ached, her body hurt everywhere...tears burned her eyes from within as she gasped in a breath. At least...at least he had stopped beating her...that was something, wasn't it?
"Sir, it would be an honor to practice with you."
She froze when she heard the sound...it was a man's voice, and it sounded close...very, very close. Boyish in nature...barely coming into maturity...or was he just beginning entry into the prime of his life?
"Huh."
Despite herself, the young woman froze, cringing in the light that surrounded her. The first man...this voice darker, deeper, carrying a hint of charisma and intimidation within its depths.
A sharp cracking noise, like the sound of a stick snapping underfoot startled her, then the sound of leather striking flesh, followed by a sharp grunt of pain...clearly this too, was male in nature. The sound reverberated through her aching head and she put her head in her hands, taking a slow, deep, shuddering breath as she pressed her head into her hands, weeping despite her efforts to remain quiet.
"You talk too much...a good practice is a real fight," she heard another man's voice say, and she cringed and curled herself into a tighter ball.
Those voices...she had heard them before, sometime, somewhere...they were oh so familiar...wouldn't they go away, and leave her in peace? The sharp clicking of wood against wood soon answered that question for her, and she curled into a ball, closing her eyes as she tried to find some peace in the aching, searing agony that threatened to overwhelm her. Thankfully the voices and odd noises soon left her alone, and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep at long last, unaware and uncaring of her surroundings.
Had she opened her eyes, she would have found herself in an odd circular stone chamber, the only adornment were the odd, unfamiliar runes etched into the stone walls, with herself lying on a large raised pedestal in the center. The medium sized multicolored sphere, which was the size of a small melon, and which was settled on the broad circular altar that she was lying on swiftly disappeared as it was absorbed into her body. Once that sphere was gone, another appeared, part of the transparent globe rising halfway out of her chest like a glowing, shifting translucent multicolored sun before that too vanished.
Since she was unconscious, the pale young woman had no way of knowing of the changes taking place to her body as she unknowingly absorbed the odd orbs, one after the other as soon as they appeared. Slowly, her physical form began to change, as more and more of the strange pulsing luminescent balls sank into the confines of her flesh.
Her body and her skin showed the first change...her skin rippled several times with waves of soft multicolored light before the faint hair on her arms and legs began to thicken and grow, spreading over her entire body in a matter of minutes. However, unlike the color and texture of her hair, this hair was much thicker and much more finer than her long, silky mane...it was fur, thick and fine and soft as clouds, and unlike the dark chocolate hue of her hair it was a tawny, silky golden brown color. Next was her hands and feet...the light spread over them, changing them, too. Her fingers and her toes merged together and then split apart again, but this time they resembled great padded fore and hind paws, each tipped with five sharp black talons, each one of the great claws well over three inches in length, the bones of her entire skeleton also changing to newly accommodate her shifting form. Fat and muscle and sinew rearranged themselves as her inner organs also underwent odd changes. From her shoulder blades, which had spaced out to accommodate her changing form, they itched crazily for a second, before the light coalesced there...and began to spread out, taking a defining shape as it grew and changed. Nearly twenty feet in width and about seven feet in length, the massive pair of golden feathered wings flared wide before settling down at the transforming young woman's heaving, fur covered sides. Now the final changes and defination began...the muscles began to thicken slightly in the neck, a bit more in the arms and legs, the back and the sides, lending her bulk and strength. From her now bowed back, at the very top of her butt, a long, five foot tail grew from there slowly, the very tip of the appendage tufted and the same color of her hair. Unable to stand the strain the girl's clothes burst, falling to the altar and to the floor around her in tatters and shreds of bloodstained cloth and fabric, festooning the floor like the macabre remains of some odd celebration confetti.
The young woman's brow furrowed...though she was unconscious that didn't mean she couldn't feel some of the changes and this, plus the changing of her skeleton...well...it hurt. A lot. She moaned softly in pain as the light lengthened and covered her entire body.
"No...stop...please...I didn't mean to...stop it...stop it...!"
Driven from her unconscious state by the growing pain, the young woman's eyes snapped open wide. But thanks to the strange power of the spheres she had unwittingly taken into herself...her eyes were no longer brown. Now they were a brilliant, fierce golden hue, akin to the sun's rays...and looked more catlike than that of a human's. Her once rounded shell shaped ears had also become slightly elongated and pointed, and her features now sharper, more predatory than her normal, somewhat heart shaped face.
"DAMN YOU STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" she screamed, and hard on the heels of that angry cry came a deafening, vicious, blood-chilling roar...the majestic yet heart-freezing bellow of the mighty lion.
Upon parting her lips to give voice to that terrified and fury filled shriek plus roar, where her upper and lower canine teeth had been had grown and lengthened into a pair of deadly flesh rending fangs, the rest of her teeth also resembling smaller, sharper versions besides the primary and secondary fangs she now possessed. Other than that...the change was now completed.
Where a young human woman had once been, now lay a mighty, fearsome creature. A creature of legend, only seen in myths, with the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle, and the head of a human woman.
Janelle Solaris...had become a sphinx.
