As the first rays of sunlight belonging to the new day shined over her closed eyes, Caelwen sluggishly opened them and awoke with a soft mumble. Stretching her arms out where she lied, she unleashed a mighty yawn before noticing a hand wrapped around her waist, and turned to spy her partner lying beside her, still safe in his embrace.

Looking to Se'jash through blurred morning vision, she smiled lovingly and gently stroked a hand over his face without disturbing him. The activity they partook in last night was spectacular. Her body, specifically her lower region, felt very sore from the way he held and pleased her, but it was a soothing pain that made her heart and soul flutter with satisfaction. She did not regret a thing.

Yet... Caelwen noticed there was also another sensation about her. Her entire being felt off. Different. It was not wooziness, drowsiness, dizziness or nausea though. She did not know whether or not it was also from the night before, or something else. Just thinking of it filled her tired mind with bothersome questions she couldn't answer in her current state, and she tried her best to ignore it instead. One thing that was for certain was that she felt very thirsty, and her parched throat was begging to be quenched.

Looking to Se'jash again, she carefully managed to slip out of his grasp without waking him. Still taken by the haze of just waking up, she didn't perceive anything wrong as she silently wandered down the path that led to the pond. Within the minute she soon faced over the clear water, and instantly bent over and dipped her foremost arms into it, scattering the once-still surface into a series of blurred ripples as the rumbling sound of the waterfall went on in the background. Cupping some water into her webbed hands, she brought it up to her mouth and took a long drink of the delightfully cool, fresh substance.

As her hands emptied of the water, Caelwen placed them once more into the pond and scooped up another handful. As she quickly drank the liquid, she happened to let her eyes move downward, and noticed a strange sight.

There was a green, unfamiliar shape reflecting from the pond. She knew it was her own image, but the vague configuration it possessed was alien, to say in the least. Lowering herself with one brow curled, Caelwen's curious face grew closer to the water's surface when the ripples finally began to settle, and what she saw startled her. The visage she witnessed was not elven, but naga. Placing a webbed, claw-tipped hand to her cheek, she turned from the water to her own scale-covered, four-armed, legless body, and then she knew that was she was seeing was no illusion. Stunned by this sudden revelation, a face of pure and abject horror painted itself over her now-pale, green face.

And far too surprised to hold in her terror, Caelwen let out a scream.


Se'jash was brought out his sleep of as a shrill cry pierced his ears. With a start, he jumped up from the ground and spun his head in all directions.

"Caelwen?" he called out loud in a panicked tone, looking around him but finding nothing. Taking a single second to think straight, he pinpointed the sound was coming from down the path far behind him, where the waterfall and pond sat. As he clumsily raced down the trail, still struggling to regain full control of his senses, he could hear a sound like a heavy splash come from the pond as though something large had fallen into it. His mind filling with the worst dread imaginable, he rounded the final corner and looked into the pool, only to see a great many fresh ripples begin to settle over its once-calm surface.

"Caelwen!" he cried out. He was mere moments from leaping into the water, sure was his beloved was somewhere below it, when the surface of the pond broke half-a-dozen feet away. The tip of a sleek dorsal spin connected by purple-blue membrane, followed by the top of a scaly head emerged from the water just enough to show its eyes; both looking directly at him.

It was not an elf, but a female naga, and despite never seeing this naga before, Se'jash found her face very familiar, especially considering the purple markings of kaldorei design vertically resting over her eyes. Her eyes themselves were like glowing garnets, and they both stared at him fearfully. Putting together what was going on, Se'jash came to a conclusion that left his mind blank with disbelief.

"Caelwen..." he whispered from where he stood, just loud enough for the being opposite of him to hear. "Is that... you?"

The naga sitting in the pool lifted her head further from the water until her mouth also showed, before sharply turning it away, as if ashamed. "Yes..." she quietly voiced.

In that single moment, Se'jash knew what had transpired, as the events from last night began to illuminate within his head in a blinding light. His prayer, for Caelwen to be with him, had been answered. "Are... are you o-okay?" he stammered, uncertain on how to react. Caelwen looked away again, searching herself for something to answer with.

"I'm fine," she eventually confirmed, her tone no less shaken and disturbed. "I just feel... different. What's happened to me, Se'jash?"

"A gift." The words left Se'jash with an intense pleasure he could not hide. To that, Caelwen gave him shocked look as a gasp of stale air passed through her lips.

"A gift?" she inquired. She carefully swam a few feet forward, drifting closer to the male naga. Se'jash slowly nodded, before sureness completely enveloped the motion of his action.

"The Old Gods have answered my plea. Last night I prayed to them, asking them to find a way of allowing us to be together. I think... this may be their solution."

Caelwen's face was still in a state of anxiousness. All of her life she had been told in hushed whispers of the demented, eldritch, insanity-spewing beings known as the Old Gods. To have had them use their mad powers to just... rearrange and mutate her body into another shape, as though her flesh and bone were merely toys for their use, made her gut twist and turn uncomfortably.

"There is nothing to be worried about or afraid of," once more came Se'jash's calm voice, leaving some of the desired effect they intended on her mind. "Caelwen, this is the truth that I am telling you."

"But I'm not an elf anymore, yet I still have the mind of one," Caelwen responded with a hint of dejection in her voice. She began to swim forward, approaching the edge of the pond after just a few strokes, and put all four of her hands on the grass and rock-strewn surface. With little effort, she crawled her new form out of the water and onto land, allowing Se'jash to have a full look over her long, green, serpentine body. Anyone could see that she was indeed a full naga. "What does this make me?"

"You may no longer be an elf, Caelwen, but you're still the one I love. The only one I love," Se'jash replied, quickly moving himself to her side and gently putting his arms around her, holding her close in an embrace. She turned her head enough to stare up into his alluring eyes, and he stared back with a consoling visage on his face. "No matter what or who you are now, that is who you will always be to me."

Breaking away from his mesmeric gaze after a few, tender moments went by, Caelwen took in a deep inhalation of air and stared out into the pond, before looking back to Se'jash. "As long as you feel comfortable with this, then I am as well."

"Truly?" asked Se'jash, slowly taking his arms off of her as she motioned for them to be removed, so she could try and stand.

"I said that I was willing to give up anything if it meant being with you, Se'jash," she said to him, giving him a weak, but very much sincere smile. "I meant it when I said it then, and I still do. If that means giving up my identity as an elf in favor for this, then... so be it. It is a minuscule sacrifice."

Grabbing a great hold of his body for support, Caelwen shakily stood up, still not accustomed to the physiology of no longer having legs. When she had a stable hold over her lower body, she firmly balanced herself upon her green coils, admiring the peculiar, powerful strength she felt in them.

"How do you fare?" cautiously inquired Se'jash after a minute.

"It is an odd sensation," Caelwen stated back, as she started to move and slither around a few feet, circling back to him afterword. "I believe I shall get used to it."

Se'jash beamed as he watched her snake her attractive form around the grassy terrain, still seeing the same, elegant elf that had beaten him in the gladiatorial arena and stole his heart away. "Elf or not, you are as beautiful as a glittering pearl in an ocean of blackness to me," he sighed happily. "I know that the rest of Depthweaver tribe will welcome you."

Caelwen could not help but smile at his words. "Your flattery is as sweet as honey, my precious Se'jash." Lifting herself to his face, she planted a small kiss on the edge of his jaw before resting her head and a webbed hand on his chest, the other three enfolding around his muscular shape as her eyes tightly closed. "I still love you, my lord."

A jolt of heavenly warmth, not unlike the bliss he experienced last night went through Se'jash's body as he heard her seductively purr her last sentence. "And I love you as well, Caelwen. My lady," he whispered back, hugging her close and wishing the moment would never end. "Promise me that you shall never leave me, Caelwen. That you will remain by my side and let me be yours for as long as our lives allow."

"I shall," she promised, closing her eyes and savoring the moment whilst contemplating her new life. "For you are all I will ever need, Se'jash, and you are all that I will ever want. And that is a vow I will keep until the day comes where my heart beats no longer."

And for a while the two naga, their love as bottomless in truth as the deepest trench in the ocean, both simply stood there together, safe and perfectly content in the fold of the others' arms.


Author's notes: Thanks for reading, you guys!