Since Dad wouldn't be home for a few more hours, I decided to use the time to do some testing with my newfound powers. Examining how my body had changed seemed like a good place to start.

It appeared that everything beneath my skin had been removed and replaced with a portal to whatever starry space the sisters lived in, though apparently my mouth still connected to my esophagus.

It seemed that the portal would allow almost anything I tried to put through it in, the exceptions being my skin, hair, and nails, This made a certain amount of sense, as I would be rather unhappy if my skin were to collapse into the portal.

While wondering how I would conceal the numerous cuts I had made on my skin during my examinations, I managed to stumble upon my healing ability. Apparently, if I focused my attention on a wound it would heal much faster. Holding cuts closed helped shorten the healing time for wider cuts. If I cut out a portion of skin it seemed to slow down the focused healing process, though reattaching the removed skin was fairly easy.

As an experiment, I cut out a one inch circle of skin containing half of an old scar I had on my hip. Healing it without replacing the removed skin took about fifteen minutes, but the end result was an unblemished, scar-free patch of skin. The results were the same when I removed the rest of that scar and the other scar on my knee.

Huh. I could possibly fix my eyesight with this.

.o.o.o.

"Alright, I've seen that Aria can extend those tendrils through me. Those'll be very useful. Now, Melody, could you send something through, please?"

"Ah, okay." I felt a soft poking from the other side of one of the cuts on my arm. "It would be most helpful if you could make this one somewhat longer."

I extended it to about four inches in length. "How's that?"

"Ah, longer would be nice."

I added another couple inches.

"Still not long enough."

Another couple of inches.

"Getting there."

Fuck it. I opened my arm from wrist to mid-bicep and held it straight.

"Ah, g-good, that will do. Hold still for one moment."

Something large and black as night forced its way through the incision. It unfolded until its motion was arrested by collision with the ceiling, narrowly missing the light.

I now had a huge, black, bat-like wing extending out of my arm. Which was also pointing the wrong way for use.

In the resulting silence, Melody said, "You were right, sister. This does feel weird."

"... Yeah. That's going somewhere else."

.o.o.o.

Throughout my examination, Aria and Melody mostly stayed silent, watching through the cuts and occasionally asking about things they saw. They seemed particularly interested in seeing my reflection in the mirror once they noticed it. This led to me standing in front of my mirror in various poses so they could see what I looked like, though it quickly devolved into me trying to explain the concept of clothing to them.

"S-so you cover your b-body with bits of crafted dead plants and-slash-or dead plants, even when it does not provide protection and thus is unnecessary?"

"I already told you, society dictates that we wear at least a certain amount of clothing in order to be decent. Also, sometimes you can use clothing to appear prettier."

"Waste of food if you ask me."

Yeah. They didn't really get it.

.o.o.o.

"Look, girls. You got to see what I look like, so it's only fair that you let me see what you look like."

"Okay."

I pulled off my shirt, then pulled my belly taut as I carved a roundish flap into it. I stood up and let the flap flop down as I walked over to the mirror.

With the larger viewing port, the starscape beyond the hole was spectacular. Countless stars stared back at me. Most were white. Many were yellow. Some blue. A few green. One red.

"Alright, could you go to the large hole that just opened up and stand a bit back from it." I considered the hole for a bit. "Or I guess you could just float a bit back from it since there doesn't seem to be any ground to stand on."

"Hee hee, alright, give us a bit."

Soon enough two shapes started blocking out the stars, and it was readily apparent which was which sister.

"So the large one with all the mouths must be Aria," I said. It was rather difficult to judge size without anything to compare against, but Aria was larger than a car at the very least. She was an orb-like mass of beautiful forest-green gel, peppered here and there with tendrils, fang-filled mouths of varying sizes and orientations, and jade-colored eyeballs, which also varied in size and almost seemed to glow.

"Which means that the other one is Melody." Her body was black as night, like her wing was. She was dark enough that I could really only perceive her as a starless patch of the void, though the stars were plentiful enough behind her that I got a pretty good picture. She seemed to be a gaunt, winged humanoid, with inward-curving horns upon her head, clawed hands on long arms, taloned feet at the ends of digitigrade legs, and a long, barbed tail.

She was also, at least from my perspective, upside-down.

"So, do you like what you see?"

"Yes, you are both quite pretty."

Aria rippled in what I assumed was her version of preening. Melody just sort of hung there, slowly turning.

I glanced between them for a moment, before saying, "I assume that you are not of the same species."

"That is true," replied Melody. "Aria here was barely sapient when I first found her floating around in the void, so very long ago. I sort of adopted her as my sister once she stopped trying to gnaw on me."

"Hey! You didn't have to tell Taylor that part!" Aria squawked indignantly.

Melody and I chuckled briefly as I looked for a little while more. Then I pulled up the flap to heal it closed.

.o.o.o.

The only problem I found with the focused healing was that it actually hurt, unlike the distant pain I experienced when I made the incisions. The pain wasn't that bad, well within the range of bearable, but the fact that it wasn't a step removed made it rather distracting. Unfortunately, I had made a number of incisions in easily visible places, and I had to heal them all before Dad returned home. There was no need to worry him further.

.o.o.o.

It would probably be easier to keep track of this stuff if I recorded it somewhere. I should probably go pick up a journal tomorrow.

.o.o.o.

At this point it was getting rather late. I quickly healed all my remaining cuts and went downstairs to gather the ingredients for dinner. Dad had insisted that I leave the effort of preparing dinner to him until he decided I had gotten enough rest, but that didn't mean I couldn't make the task easier for him.

Suddenly, what I'd been doing for the past few hours hit me. I fell against a nearby wall, then slid down to the floor, where I started shivering.

My body had changed so much so quickly, my new friends were apparently inhuman monsters who were far nicer than any actual human I knew, and to top it off I had spent the afternoon engaged in extensive self-mutilation.

And that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that none of it bothered me much at all. I was, perversely, more disturbed by my lack of disturbance than by the things that should be causing me to feel disturbed. It was almost ludicrous.

It was certainly ludicrous enough to draw out a laugh from me that admittedly was more sob than chuckle.

"Ah, are you well?" came Melody's query.

I took a deep, shuddering breath before I replied.

"I'll be fine, it was just a little freak-out. I'll be fine in a little bit, so don't worry."

"Oh. Okay. So long as you are well."

I leaned against the wall for a moment as I collected myself, before getting up to go wash my face and carry on with my task.