Ow...

Each strained breath pushed Sue closer to awareness, more and more senses waking up to start chiming in with their largely unwelcome input by the moment, slowly letting her piece together her immediate surroundings, though the picture being painted only piled on fuel for the fire of growing anxiety.

Smell of wet grass and mud from up close, combined with her inner ear eventually figuring out she was laying down and the sensations of something cold and wet against one side of her body let her figure out that she must've been knocked out in the forest by... something, leaving her laying unconscious on some grassy mud, though any attempts to reach into her recent memory in order to figure out the cause ended unsuccessfully.

Making her way through a hiking trail, looking around for a place to sit down and eat lunch at, then there was a loud bang some distance away, and...

...this.

She definitely didn't remember getting outright knocked out by the blast, if it was even some sort of a blast to begin with- though there was always a risk of some unexploded munition or another around these parts, so it was as good of a hypothesis as any. Plus, if she'd been close enough to something like that to get blacked out from the shockwave alone, she was close enough to have gotten a bodyful of shrapnel and more than likely not wake up to begin with.

Pleasant mental imagery right there.

Regardless of just what had happened for her to end up in this situation, Sue was awake now, the distant bird chirps and rustling of leaves giving her confidence that at least she was near where last remembered being, which just left getting up, checking for injuries, walking either all the way through the trail or all the way back, neither option better than the other considering she was at right about the middle of it, and reporting this... whole blast event to some authorities.

And getting a bath. God could she use a bath right about now.

Well, no time like the present.

With a painful grunt, Sue took in a deep breath and reached her right hand in front of where she was laying on the ground for leverage, slowly rolling onto her front and pulling in her legs-

"AGH!"

The intense cold shock that went through her was only comparable to getting cold water splashed on her upper back when she was a kid, but it felt like it came in from her front, forcing Sue to finally open her eyes-

And scream at what she saw.

Her immediate attention was overtaken by the sight of a large, red spike jutting out of her chest area, some fresh mud now staining its tip, making her briefly think back to the idea of being close enough to the explosion to get her body full of shrapnel as she attempted to push herself onto her back to get a better view of the grotesque piece of shrapnel, only to feel the same cold shock from her back, a loud yelp involuntarily leaving her mouth. She tried to crane her head to get a view of was going on her back, hyperfocus making her ignore weird sensations coming from all over her body, before trying to reach back with her free arm to get a feel of the situation, eyes taking notice of it as it moved before she froze at the sight.

It... was not a human arm. It was... green, a muted shade of green, with the forearm much thicker than the unnervingly thin arm, and three, green, relatively short, currently mud-coated, fingernail-less fingers, middle one sticking further than the other two.

With more than a bit of fear at what she might see, Sue attempted to clench her right hand, with the unnatural limb in front of her obeying, rightmost finger bending at an angle, akin to a thumb, the sensations of her thumb, index and middle fingers rubbing against mud and each other only giving further credence for a horrifying realization that she was attempting to fight off.

Upon looking down at the rest of her body, it quickly became clear that this spike and these monstrous hands weren't the only things that were terribly, horribly wrong, the body she looked down at not human, and definitely not hers. Breasts being gone was the least of her worries at that moment, with the sight below her waist being particularly hard to wrap her head around. There were... flaps? Sue was too aghast to come up with any other word at the time, flaps of what looked like the same white and sometimes green skin, most smeared with mud, long enough to cover the legs and originating at the waist. Thin, white legs, feet tiny and hard to make out, with no distinguishable toes.

Sue had no idea what kind of bizarre alien body it was that she was hallucinating, but it was just that, it had to have been just that, a particularly vicious nightmare, she just had to wake up and she'd be alright-

A gust of wind washing over this body interrupted her panicked train of thought, sensations of cold barraging her from the legs, together with the feeling of something smooth and mud covered brushing past her body in sync with the skin flaps flapping around, from the thin midriff, from the arm and only three fingers- even the same cold shocks from earlier as the breeze passed by the jutting piece of shrapnel, from the front and back alike.

The wind also helped Sue realize something she wasn't paying a conscious notice towards before, brain managing to block it out as effortlessly as it did her nose, namely the lock of green hair that was covering the center of her vision, the gusts managing to sway it lightly before it stubbornly returned to its original position, the girl feeling the hair brush past her cheeks as it did so.

"Whghat-GHA!"

An attempt to mutter to herself in panicked disbelief made Sue realize that not even her mouth was right, the different dimensions of her mouth and tongue making her briefly choke up before she stabilized her breathing again, clutching her eyes closed again.

This couldn't be happening this couldn't be happening this COULDN'T BE HAPPENING!

Any semblance of having a grip on the situation quickly evaporated the more Sue tried to think through it all, breaths becoming shallower and faster by the moment as she felt wind begin to barrage her body again, and warm tears begin to leak down her cheeks.

But this wasn't her body, these weren't her arms, these weren't her cheeks, none of this was real, this was some Area 51 escapee she was seeing out the eyes of, it wasn't her, it couldn't be her! She had a future ahead of her, a shaky one yes, but a future nonetheless, this- this fucking thing couldn't be her!

She couldn't be this, this freakish creature...

Wind continued to barrage Sue as she wept in panic, inhuman body subconsciously curling a bit as it hyperventilated, three fingered fists shaking at the unfairness of it all. She hadn't done anything to deserve this, this hellish form she found herself in, and the inability to recall just what had happened prior to all this only fueled her despairing rage, expressed ineffectually through slamming a deformed hand against the muddy forest floor.

She soon lost track of how long she laid there, the unnatural body getting colder, with only mud and wind to keep her company, despair and anger burning up inside her until there was only ashen numbness left, numbness and surrender. Guess she was a freak of nature now, some incoherent alien that looked like it had crawled out of some anime, doomed to die in here-

No.

Her body tensed up at the thought, a snarl twisting her expression as she tried to banish it away- she might not have had anyone to live for anymore, but she had promised herself that despite everything, she would carry on no matter what, and make the most out of her situation. Granted, she did not have "getting transformed into a mutant" on her mental list of things that might happen to her when she made that promise, but it didn't matter, she was stronger than this goddammit!

Her dad would've wanted her to be at least.

Trying to capitalize on this surge of anger-fueled motivation, Sue opened her eyes and tried supporting herself on her right hand again, keeping mindful of the spike on her chest, sore muscles screaming in protest, but ultimately yielding as she lifted herself enough to engage the other arm and pull her legs in, ending up in a very muddy, very sore, but ultimately successful position on all fours.

Halfway there.

As she gathered her strength, Sue got an all too good view of her arms and hands, three fingers splaying out in an oddly natural way for support, though the sheer size disparity between arms and the forearms was still offputting, making it look even more deformed than it no doubt already was. A thought about trying to get the feel for what caused this extra size was considered and quickly discarded for later, in her current state she was gonna need all the limbs she had to maintain any sort of stability.

Now to actually get up.

Continuing to breathe deeply, she started counting to three, bracing herself for whatever might happen before pushing herself off her hands, rising into a kneeling position, feeling the thin legs wobble painfully underneath. Getting a better look at their thinness, at least from between the skin flaps, she briefly worried whether she'd even be able to stand and walk on them, before putting that thought aside- after all, there was only one way to know for sure. Sliding one leg forward until she could push off of the tiny foot, Sue looked around for anything she could support herself on in her immediate future if needed, a nearby tree looking like it'd perform that task splendidly.

Don't fail me, tree.

With a loud grunt, she pushed on the ground as hard as she could, managing to bring the other foot into step- at least for a short moment before starting to lose her balance, stumbling forward a few steps until half leaning on, half running into the tree she had previously eyed out, glad that laws of physics did not spontaneously break in these ten seconds and the tree indeed held.

And glad she managed to not run into it spike first, which if earlier was anything to go by, would hurt a whole lot.

Legs continued to ache for a bit as Sue got her bearings, shaking arms supporting her against the tree all the while, giving her ample time to think through her next steps in this hellish body. Getting back to the trail was straightforward enough- in theory at least, her current practice suggesting it would be no less a struggle than picking herself up has been- but the question of what would happen afterwards filled her mind.

Anyone else she was fortunate enough to run into would react to her about as well as she reacted to the realization of her new appearance, and if the difficulty of continuing to stand up was any indication, this body was about as suited for any fighting as that of an infant, and if anyone, or anything, were to get aggressive with her in this state, she was as good as dead. Though, maybe with green coloration like that she was poisonous now? Not that it would help her while being attacked, but she'd take them down with her at least, eh?

Eh...

If she wanted to not get shot by the first outdoorsman she ran into, she'd have to at least be able to speak to try to convince them she was an actual person, and while her first attempt at that didn't go particularly well, the situation demanded persistence, though it's not like she had any other choice. With a deep breath, she looked up at the tree she was leaning against, feeling the inside with her mouth with her tongue before trying to mouth sounds out-

"M-mhy n-nhame ish Shue."

Not ideal, but at least she wasn't choking on it anymore, and she figured she was somewhat understandable at least, though something more immediately clear and less like the utterings of aliens from the Independence Day would've been preferred. A few more attempts yielded largely the same results, the tongue of this new form just different enough to make maneuvering it the way she wanted a royal pain, especially when tired.

And hungry.

The chaos of realizing she was in a whole new foreign body distracted her from quite a few bodily sensations, increasing hunger and coldness chief among them, but also several others she had no idea how to describe, fortunately faint enough to be easily pushed to the back of her mind- at least until now, when she was sufficiently not dying enough to properly investigate it all.

It felt like... light tugging at something in her body, faint and ineffable, pointed every which way with varying intensity and, for a lack of a better word, emotion to it, though she had to concentrate to make out what that even meant, closing her eyes. So many of these tuggings going on at once upon a closer introspection, she had no way of individually analyzing every one of them, but she could at least focus on the ones that stood out the most, figure out what it could potentially mean.

Something distant in the direction she was facing... maybe angry?

Another, way off to her right, afraid? Thrilled?

The sensations were almost beyond comparison, she could feel emotions, but these were not her emotions, almost as if existing in a vacuum, independent from anything else, pointing all around, though what any of it meant she had no idea. Guess she could do one more, the one that was the easiest to notice...

Curiosity, nearby... no, not just nearby, behind her-

The abrupt realization made Sue look over her shoulder lest it meant something was sneaking up on her, but fortunately, there was nothing going on of the sort, just a sparrow or some other small bird sitting on a low branch, seeming to be eying her out.

I know birdie, I look like something that took a bath in cartoon nuclear waste...

Guess the weird tugging sensations were nothing important, or even more likely not even real, possibly hallucinated in her exhaustion, assuming her mind was unchanged between the two bodies. She really, really hoped that assumption held true, now that she stumbled upon the thought, but considering she wasn't feeling any cravings for brains and/or whole human bodies, it probably did, thank God.

Only thing worse than taking a body of a monster would be wholly becoming a monster.

With a sigh somewhere between reassured and demotivated, Sue gave walking another attempt, moving her feet around as she continued to lean on the tree, balancing her weight on just two points proving trickier, much trickier than walking should be, but somehow not impossible. Hopefully she could maintain that without local flora's ongoing support. All that was left now was grabbing her bag and heading out on a trek... well, hopefully home.

While returning back to any sense of normalcy in a body like that felt out of the question, and no doubt would catch interest of some government agency or another, it would probably still be better than trying to become what is essentially a sasquatch but with much less fur and much more flaps, trading any ability for self defense whatsoever for... uh... yeah. Though with how useless this body was, at least there would be much less risk of being experimented on, right?

The world's thinnest silver lining didn't improve Sue's mood a whole lot as she took a look around her immediate vicinity in search of her bag, not finding much beyond a monster-shaped mud imprint and some shrubs, anxieties not being helped any. While trying to flash her ID into someone's face to convince them that the somewhat dorky college student on the photo is the same person as this pale spindly thing standing right in front of them would most likely end up with them thinking she got eaten by this monster or something, it would still be useful later once she were to be found by the authorities, and its absence could very well spell doom for any attempt to get reintegrated into any sort of wider society.

She had to find that fucking bag, her life might very well depend on it.

Extra bit of motivation was enough to make Sue finally take the first step after a longer pause, barely managing to maintain her balance, and then another, and another, her march as slow and shaky as it was painful, legs aching as if she had ran a mile. And it would be at least half a dozen more of those before she'd make it back to the nearest village...

Not letting that fact settle in, Sue continued to push ahead in an alien body, each step a small achievement considering the circumstances, though she'd need many, many more if she hoped to make it back to any sort of safety.

Visual scan of the nearby area only confirmed what she was already suspecting, her bag nowhere to be seen, forcing her to change her strategy- make it back onto the path first and backtrack from there, if she got knocked out because of that blast her bag couldn't have been too far away, assuming she wasn't wearing it at the time, which... she could swear she was.

Considering she got turned into something halfway between a martian and a ghost from some small town folklore, her recollection of the events was obviously insufficient, and probably barely useful at this point- though on the other hand, it was the only thing she still had. Not even her clothes-

The abrupt realization made her stop in place, the resulting imbalance forcing her to lean on the nearest tree for support as she processed the fact that she was, in fact, naked. Of course, she was subconsciously aware of it, with there being no trace of her purple tee either on her or on the ground around her, and with the *entirety* of her body able to feel any breeze that flowed past it, but the clothes-likeness of these weird flaps must've made her consciousness overlook it.

Not just a monster, a naked monster. Guess at least she didn't have any breasts anymore to be hanging out for everyone to see, but considering the circumstances it wasn't much of an uplifting news at all, merely a reminder of another bit of humanity having been taken away from her.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed on with renewed vigor, though most of it was just wanting to distract her own brain from another breakdown, and pain worked just as well for that as anything else. As she marched on though, it soon became apparent that even her cobbled together plan would not be as straightforward as she thought, the nearby hill she was sure the path would be on ending up having none of the sort, and neither did anywhere else nearby as far as her eyes could see.

Though, her scan did result in something else being spotted, something much more disconcerting, a small group of gray wolves- no, too small, wolf pups? Regardless of what exactly they were, Sue was rather sure she'd rather not deal with any of that even in her normal body, let alone in this freakish one. Fortunately they didn't seem to have noticed her, allowing for a hasty escape in the opposite direction, at least as hasty as possible with these legs.

Just hope the path wasn't that way...

Left with no direction to follow aside from 'forward', and with an increasingly less stilted walking, needing to support herself on whatever happened to grow nearby only occasionally, Sue could focus more on this new form of hers, splitting her attention between the indistinct forest ahead and the extremely distinct body she now inhabited. The jutting red spike still occupied most of her attention in that regard, and the more she looked at it, the more she got the feeling that it wasn't some piece of shrapnel as it initially seemed- no blood around it that she could see, a somewhat regular shape, and it didn't seem to hurt when left undisturbed.

After pausing briefly to verify it for herself, shoulder leaning against a nearby tree, Sue had her confirmation that it was indeed the spike itself that hurt when touched, the painful sensation feeling like it simultaneously came from in front of her chest as well as from her spine. An attempt to reach over to her back let her know the hard way that there indeed was another, possibly identical ridge sprouting from her back.

Which only raised more questions, what kind of creature would just naturally grow extremities like that, in such an awkward spot, what was their purpose even? On the other hand though, with how unnatural it all looked, all these queries could very well have been answered with "some mad scientists made it this way just to spite her", which while unsatisfying, was probably as good of an answer as anything she would come up with through idle pondering.

Guess if she ran into something chest first she could at least secure a double kill.

Moving on, with the thought making her briefly chuckle by the virtue of just how morbid it was, Sue shifted her attention over to these oddly shaped arms, the limbs not looking any less misshapen than before. Still, she was curious just why that was, left hand reaching over to get a feel for her right forearm, the pointed fingers still offputting to look at, especially with their absence of any fingernails. Two things quickly became apparent- one, the forearm bone, or bones, she wasn't all too certain on the anatomy, were just wide and thin like that, there didn't seem to be much in a way of fatty padding anywhere, and two, this skin was *smooth*. Guess having no body hair at all would do that, but still, the sheer... pleasantness of it caught her off guard.

Her new superpower- being nice to the touch, as long as you didn't prod the ouchy bit. Yay.

As Sue glanced down at her lower half, trying to make out just what was the deal with these flaps, the torso caught her attention, overlooked until now. The green skin to the sides of her chest together with the arms made it probably look like some sort of a cardigan, which as dumb as it sounded, at least fit into the theme of the natural appearance of this thing looking like it was wearing clothes. Moving her attention further down to where her midriff would normally be, the realization of just how thin this creature was struck her- she was hardly overweight herself back in her human self, but this figure almost looked like it was being bound with a corset underneath, and curiously, didn't have a belly button.

An abrupt yank interrupted her mute pondering, making her trip and just barely stabilize herself before looking over her shoulder at the cause, with the culprit turning out to be a small, prickly looking shrub on which one of the flaps got caught up on- and subsequently torn when she tripped, small piece of white and green... something hanging off one of the thorns.

Guess that answers the question whether these flaps can feel anything. And also whether there's any magic in place that would make them not get stained with dirt and grime just by walking, with the answer being negative.

Fantastic.

If she were to find any stream or something else she could drink from, washing these in it wouldn't be too bad of an idea, though if they would only get dirtied again right afterwards, was there even a point to that? Probably not, but... if she was gonna be an alien, then at least she wanted to be a clean alien-

Above her, very alert.

The much more intense manifestation of the tugging sensation from before made Sue snap her head upwards, sensing some strong emotion coming from there- but before she could even think about whether sensing emotions made any sense as a concept, the creature now flying downwards towards her captured the entirety of her attention, startling her backwards with a gasp.

Despite the choice of her major, Sue considered herself a relatively outdoorsy girl, especially compared to everyone else in her class, and most wild creatures were neat to her, even if she knew well enough to avoid most of them. Butterflies were cute, with their many colors and fluttering from flower to flower-

Butterflies half her size though, as she just learned, were fucking terrifying.

Especially the ones that seemed to be focused on her, though it was hard to tell with compound eyes, and... buzzing something at her, at least that's how it felt. And while she knew that butterflies weren't exactly known for being carnivorous, she wasn't about to learn the hard way whether that fact extended to this mutated one, taking off with a frighted shriek, running as fast as her deformed legs would allow. Which wasn't exactly fast at all, but with the discount Mothra not seeming to be following her, merely sending her off with a weirdly toned buzz, not like there was enough non-panicking brainpower left in Sue's mind to notice.

Her flight of fancy was eventually cut short by the devious appearance of a tree root right in front of her, positioned perfectly to lay her out on the ground with a loud thud after her right foot got caught up in it, subconscious reflexes twisting her body to the side mid-fall so as to not hit the grass spike first. It still hurt though, a lot, a loud, strained wince ruining any attempt at stealth she might have had as she dull pain pulsed through her left side, especially the shoulder, staining that side of her body with even more dirt.

Judging by the lack of any further buzzing, flapping, or any other animal noises more unnerving than birdsong in her immediate surroundings, she seemed to be in the clear though, taking a moment to at least catch her breath before she were to resume what was at this point a walking equivalent of desperate flailing. She had absolutely no idea where in the forest she was, how would she get back to the path, or even if she still was in that very same forest to begin with- most of these questions were pushed off to way in the back of her head though, with one occupying most her exhausted mind.

What. The fuck. Was that.

Was her idea about her getting dunked in nuclear waste as actually true and it happened to more than just her here? Were there other fiendish mutants out there, ones that wouldn't be as passive when confronted with what amounted to very easy prey? Did she have any chance to survive in what was increasingly turning out to be hell on earth?

Well she was gonna try no matter what, being eaten wasn't exactly on her bucket list, but the odds seemed increasingly dire even ignoring the difficulty of ever returning to any sense of normalcy. There was always the possibility that the monster butterfly was just a one off freak, just like she presumably was, and that them running into each other was just a statistical anomaly that wasn't gonna happen again, but...

She had a feeling that wasn't quite it.

Speaking of feelings.

The sensation she felt right before that thing appeared, that same kind of tugging as before, the sensation that she'd originally dismissed, was it actually some sort of spider sense? She could feel it even now, pointing in a myriad of directions, most of them too weak to really make out. Did it point out... threats? No, not threats, unless that bird near where she woke up was a threat, so maybe just... living creatures?

On a second thought, did that bird look normal either? She couldn't quite recall.

Living creatures sounded accurate enough at a thought, though there obviously had to have been some sort of size limit to it, else it would point out every individual bacteria or earthworm, so maybe just living creatures big enough to see and which could conceivably pose any sort of a threat? Would be an oddly specific ability, and she had absolutely no idea how any of that even worked, but it could very well be her only saving grace here. Just trying to push on while avoiding everything else that moves.

Behold, the Spindle-Woman, whose power is being even more of a recluse than most computing science students.

The resulting dry chuckle resulted in some further aching in her chest, as well as a reminder to get up and going again, lest something sneaks up on her while she enjoyed the less pleasant kind of mud bath. Well nothing would truly sneak up on her assuming this weird sixth sense worked, but if anything ran up to her quickly enough while she was still scraping herself off the ground she was a goner anyway. Considering how slowly she moved even when trying her hardest though, that would be true even after she was well on her legs.

Let's just... get going.

Soreness did not make for a good companion in getting around, especially in tow with a light limp, courtesy of the root-tripping ankle, but at that point it was either that or getting eaten by whatever else might have lived here. Maybe the blast she heard was some sort of biological weapon that was now sweeping its way through the area? Sounds about as plausible as every other idea she'd had up until now.

Sue's already glacial pace slowed down even further as a result, her attention split between pushing forward and trying to sense everything around her, not having a way to distinguish friend from foe- though in a place like this, there would likely not be much of the former to speak of. What she did find plenty of though, mostly through an astonished realization followed by a stealthy getaway, is much more of those mutants, of all species and sizes. Caterpillars the size of her hand, slowly crawling up trees and devouring decent parts of the nearby bushes all at once? Check. Redeyed birds with one leg each glaring at her from far away every time she looked at them? Check.

Very poisonously-looking purple rodents with fuck off big teeth scampering their way around? Check.

Whatever messed her and that butterfly up had affected most of this place it seemed, though much to her continued existence, most of the resulting freaks were too small to try having a bite at her, or more realistically thought themselves too small for it. In any sort of a one-on-one brawl, she'd likely lose miserably against everything that wasn't that one relatively harmless looking green caterpillar. And even then, that one would likely be a close matchup.

After what felt like an hour but was likely just a couple dozen minutes, the growing peckishness started reminding Sue of its presence, only adding another unpleasant sensation to the mix on top of all the others, while also posing a question of what the hell did this body even eat. Meat was out of the way by the virtue of her not exactly in a state to hunt for any, plus without a fire she'd have to eat it raw and... no. Just no.

*stomach growl*

Not for now at least.

That left either fruit or the relatively abundant greenery, with the latter not arousing any more eagerness in her than the raw meat option, leaving trying to hunt for some berries, maybe edible mushrooms and not poison herself to death while at it, which considering that she had no idea what was poisonous to her new form, was easier said than done. Still probably wouldn't go around trying to munch on a death cap.

As she pondered the ethics of checking the edibility of wild mushrooms by the means of laying them out for those rats to eat and seeing if they'd keel over afterwards, something colorful in her peripheral vision caught her attention, making her briefly flinch before realizing the lack of an accompanying tugging sensation, which corresponded with safety for the time being-

Peaches.

At the very least, they looked like peaches, and while Sue had no idea whether whatever the fuck mutated this whole place had also affected the plants, she wasn't gonna pass up on what could very well be the only edible fruit in this whole forest, staring up hungrily at the treeful of goods. There remained only one problem though, one she was somewhat familiar with, the new form seeming to have not changed her height all that much- she couldn't reach. Even the lowest branch was just barely out of her reach even when attempting to jump, which largely just resulted in the aching ankle hurting even more. If she still had her boots and gloves then trying to climb up the tree would be an option, but with her new body feeling much weaker and much more tired, that wasn't exactly a good option now.

No fucking way she was walking away from that tree empty handed, not with her life potentially on the line. Desperately scrambling to come up with a plan B, she looked around for the biggest stick she could hold and tried to poke whatever branch she could reach off the tree, the wood just bending and refusing to yield each and every time, determination quickly burning up into frustration as she jumped again and again, only tiring herself more and more.

Just break godDAMMIT!

With one last stronger hop and as strong of a branch poke as her tired arms could manage at this point, Sue heard the sound of something snapping above her, stepping back just soon enough for the falling piece of wood to miss her, crashing into the grassy forest floor with a loud thud, mouthwatering bounty hanging off the end of it. A realization that this wasn't even the branch she was initially aiming at left her awareness as quickly as it had arrived, she was really hungry by now and there was a feast to be had, what happened up there was the least of her concerns at that moment.

She didn't know whether it was just the exhaustion and the hunger meddling with her perception, but she could swear these were the sweetest, juiciest peaches she had ever had, juices dripping down her chin as she wolfed down one after the other until most of the branch was picked clean, remembering to keep sensing for anything else that could've been creeping up on her, at least after the first couple fruits were reduced to the seeds spit back onto the dirt.

Clear.

Back to eating now.

It took until there were just a couple peaches left for her stomach to be sated, sweet fruit outright feeling like it relieved some of the by then constant aching, though that might have just been a result of taking the weight off her legs for a bit. Sitting down was not exactly the most comfortable sensation in the world with the almost nonexistent padding on her new thighs, but it beat more standing around. With just a couple pieces of fruit left, Sue could take an actual break that didn't include another mud bath, closing her eyes and breathing deeply as she tried to calm down as much as she could, keeping track of other living things around while at it.

Some excitement decent bit off to her left, nothing else near.

Were these emotions she could sense... actual feelings of these creatures? Not much else would even make sense here, though not like "sensing other living beings and their emotions" was something that sounded reasonable outside of pages of a comic books to begin with. Maybe that was it, she had just been unknowingly thrown into the panels of the first issue of Spindle-Woman and was just waiting for an equally absurd looking villain to present themselves while tossing several pages' worth of exposition at her.

Fantasizing these insane possibilities couldn't have been good for her mental state, though not much here probably would be in the long run.

Trying to clear her mind away from all that nonsense, Sue turned her head skyward, making out the blue sky and the sun's approximate position through the thankfully dense treetops, being pelted by sunlight on top of everything else not exactly sounding particularly pleasant. With lack of awareness of cardinal directions it was impossible to tell just what time it was exactly, but with how high up the sun was it was most likely either shortly before or shortly after the noon, which... made no sense either, considering it was around two PM when she had decided for a break before- before all this must've happened.

Yeah, this was likely the next day, explains why she was so hungry. Still, considering the extent of the changes the remainder of the local fauna were taking it like champs- lack of any self identity or higher thinking capacity no doubt helping on that front. Plus none of them seemed to have drawn the short end of the stick anywhere near as much as she has-

The sudden blur that had passed right in front of her took her out of any more pondering, the sheer surprise almost knocking her onto her back, an arm sliding in for support in reflex to avoid the very painful outcome as she watched what looked to be some dark grey... fox? wolf? Whatever the hell it was, it almost looked like it had red accents in its fur, and it was holding-

"H-phey!"

-it was holding the branch with the remaining peaches on it in its mouth.

After a couple more anger-fueled arm shakes and indistinct shouting in the creature's general direction, Sue had to call it for what it was, a rather embarrassing loss, kicking what was left of the branch away with an annoyed grunt at the little shit nabbing the rest of her meal. Guess at least she had the time to get sated first, but still, inability to save anything for later hurt, and with how hard it was to get just one branch down, another might not even be possible.

And on a second thought, walking around with a branchful of food with exactly zero capabilities for self defense was asking for trouble to put it lightly. She would be truly able to achieve her dream of being a walking full meal, together with dessert, for anything big enough to realize it could run up to her and just start chewing. Staying here, right next to the fruit tree was potentially accomplishing a similar effect now that she thought about it, and the next little thing that ran up could very well opt for a bite out of her to accompany their fruit lunch as opposed to just nabbing some leftover peaches.

Let's get a move on.

Legs still ached a bit as she put some more weight onto them once more, though thankfully less so, and with a quick pat around to get rid of all the dirt of her she was on her way again, destination: out of this place. Before she could let herself fantasize about some other event that might happen on her way through the mutant forest, maybe hopefully including running into some special forces that wouldn't gun her down immediately on sight, something else caught her attention thinking a bit back, something rather unnerving on a second thought.

She didn't sense that off-black fox approach at all- whatever sixth sense it was this new body had was almost screaming at her when that butterfly showed up, but it remained dead silent this time, and a quick check did confirm that it was still working, sensation of a few somethings slowly making their way over closer behind her only urging her on. Were there creatures she couldn't sense at all then? With her frailty that was a scary enough thought, but that one was also *fast*, it could've easily caught up to her by now if it tried.

Mutants that even the mutant-sensing mutant couldn't sense, and fast enough to nibble all the meat off her legs before she could even try to kick them off.

Peachy.

Especially with her speed disadvantage, making it as far away from the little dark colored thing as possible was her top priority, followed by finding something to drink, peaches helping sating some of her thirst for sure, but not solving all of it. Afterwards... well, the day might have still been relatively young, sunset good few hours away at least, but with the potential danger around every corner Sue was more than willing to play it safe when it came to finding shelter for the upcoming night.

She wasn't even sure how would a shelter like that look, a natural cave big enough to fit in would probably be the best option, but any such places would likely already be inhabited, or worse- have their occupants not be immediately visible and crawl out during the night to enjoy an alien-shaped takeout right on their front porch. Served with extra mud and half-digested peaches.

There wasn't a whole ton as far as alternative choices went though- any burrow big enough to fit her would've similarly fit something very poisonous, plus even the larger ones would've had her claustrophobia start screaming at her loud enough to make getting any rest impossible anyway. Trees weren't known for having much in a way of flat surfaces for anything bigger than birds to sleep on, and climbing on one to begin with did not feel very feasible with how frail her body was either. Something more makeshift could potentially work, just some leaves ala tent to hide under in case of rain, or at least that's what she heard from her scout friends growing up. Just take it steady and hopefully something will get figured out.

The only alternative was panicking and she's had enough of that one for a good while after today.

With her stomach refilled, Sue's trek went on relatively calmly, with whoever it was that was getting closer to her earlier having thankfully stopped following her, the lifeforce radar inside her calming down and just pointing out whatever small critters that were in view as she made her way through. Curiously enough, a few of the ones she'd seen earlier- no good purple rats, oversized green caterpillars, and these somewhat disturbing brownish squirrels with permanently full cheeks all seemed to be pretty common, making her resume the train of thought from earlier. Did every critter of a given species get all mutated in the same way and these massively teethed rats all used to be the same species of a forest mice? And more urgently, did that mean that any other humans in the vicinity also got turned into whatever she was right now?

She wasn't sure which of the potential answers to that question filled her with more dread- finding a friendly soul only for them to be just as powerless to stop harm from coming their way as she was and them likely just dying together out there, or stumbling upon someone turned into something much more monstrous, much hungrier, and with much less of their humanity preserved.

Option A sounded less immediately terrifying, but it was nothing if not a close matchup.

Speaking of terrifying things, spiderwebs.

Sue wasn't an arachnophobe or anything, at least not a severe one, simply preferring to keep her distance from spiders, including the smaller, very unlikely to be dangerous ones of her local woods. She almost never ran into them to begin with though, which no doubt helped, mostly only spotting the small landmarks of their presence, glossy webs in between flowers, in the bushes or at the mouths of various small burrows. NOT in between trees good half a dozen feet apart, bigger than her bed, and looking dense enough to be able to immobilize her if she had the misfortune of stepping a couple steps too far.

Her thoughts immediately beelined towards trying to imagine what massive beast of a spider would even be able to spin something this big, cold dread going down her spine and spikes at the sights her mind fed her, creepy crawlers likely bigger than that overgrown caterpillar from earlier, maybe even the size of that humongous butterfly she had a run in with. In hindsight, with how much bigger all the smaller animals here were, she probably should've expected spiders to not be specifically excluded from whatever had befallen this forest- guess part of it was wanting to shield her already tenuous sanity from the thoughts about spiders the size of her head.

And then she looked up.

There were several of them, hanging motionlessly from the thick canopy above her, light green coloration, especially with red mandibles like that, not leaving much of a mystery as far as their venomousness went, which combined with their size, going toe to toe with her favourite pillow back at her place, made it extremely clear that if she got caught or bitten by one of these things, she was a flappy goner. Even if the markings on their backs looked like a smiley face.

Thankfully, despite what had to have been the loudest gulp in recorded history, they didn't immediately all set upon her, giving Sue a very appreciated moment to slowly shuffle off to the side, away from the web, away from these spiders and all the other ones she could barely make out underneath neighbouring trees, and break into a second panicked sprint of the day once she was safely out of the range of their lunge, barring a very unwelcome surprise.

She ran as fast as these legs could carry her until her lungs started to refuse service, loud panting slowing her down to a crawl as she recovered, a nearby tree letting her pause her bodily exertion while her mind kept going a mile a minute about what it just saw. An already tattered sense of psyche was not doing particularly well at the realization that on top of everything else, this place also had massive, lethal and likely actively predatory spiders, making the prospect of sleeping anywhere that wasn't behind a multiply reinforced door even less alluring.

Or just walking around for that matter, since the death could come from above now.

Even after she'd recovered her breath, Sue kept her pace down, partly due to exhaustion and partly so that she could keep scouting around with her eyes in addition to her sixth sense, just in case something she wouldn't be able to notice from a distance also happened to waiting on a branch for her to pass by before deciding to sink its teeth into her. The resulting paranoia did not make for a particularly good walking partner, but fortunately enough, it didn't end up being needed either, the change of direction after running into these spiders sufficient in avoiding any more of their kind, with a couple creepier-looking insects she did spot crawling up some nearby trees given a very wide berth. A distant noise ended up eventually catching her attention, the kind she recognized well enough to let herself get excited in response, her step gaining an extra spring to it as the thrill at least temporarily cut through the increasingly dense fog of fear clouding her reasoning.

Running water.

The stream was deep enough to easily drink from while fortunately being still wadeable through, Sue only briefly checking her surroundings and the internal tugging for anything else that might have been looking for a drink in her vicinity before kneeling on the stream's bank and getting to sating her thirst, the water delightfully cold.

The action didn't go without a couple interruptions though, sixth sense warning her each time something approached, and in both cases it turned out to be something aquatic making its way downstream, once a blue-purplish serpentine creature whose appearance was more than enough to make Sue keep a solid ten feet between herself and the stream until it swam out of view, and once a... lilypad. She could only blink at her arguable superpower warning her of a plant of all things, but still, she got up and backed up a step, eyes glued to the passerby, wondering if it would do anything but be an inanimate lifeform. It didn't.

With a clear stream also came an opportunity for her to inspect the part of her new form that she couldn't quite see normally, the lock that normally rested smack dab in the middle of her face stiff enough to partially defy gravity as she looked straight down at her reflection, staying rather close to her head. The eyes were the thing she noticed immediately, massive and fiercely red, and not even in the fun stoner way. The kind of eyes that if she'd ever seen them on any other creature, she would've assumed it to be some sort of a demon.

Who knows whether that actually wasn't what she was right now either, but at least she didn't feel like one.

After she'd gotten over her own infernal gaze, her attention shifted over to the spike like extensions on the sides of her head, touch test letting her know that either these were her ears, or that's how her brain interpreted them at least. Trying to shift her perspective by turning her head didn't reveal any openings through which she could actually hear, but they were likely just hidden behind these spikes. Spikes which her prior experience let her know could at least lie flat enough against the sides of her head to let her actually lay down on her sides, despite them sticking out a bit normally.

Attempting to imagine how she would sleep if she could neither lay on her front, back, nor sides left Sue just staring blankly off into middle distance. Guess at least she had that bit of mercy to her situation.

With her thirst sated and flaps rinsed of all the mud and grime that had accumulated on them, Sue could start making it downstream, the tiny stream providing an excellent guidance when it came to finding *somewhere* to go. True, it was only about three feet across and more shallow than most kiddy pools, but it would lead to larger and larger rivers downstream, and eventually, to some settlement along them, that's where they tended to get built after all. Paying the modicum of attention in her lower high history classes was finally paying off, though probably not even her sneering teacher from that class would've preferred that knowledge to become relevant under circumstances like these.

Maybe she could even make it somewhere civilized by nightfall!

Alright, that was perhaps a bit too optimistic considering her track record of getting anywhere with sentient creatures in it, forcing her to put that opportunity further to the back of her head, though not all the way through, the tiny ember of hope providing enough warmth to keep her motivated as she marched along the stream, not even running away as things swam down it beside her anymore. She still did slow down a decent bit each time though, and the emotions of most weirdlings that looked at her as they passed by did raise her eyebrow- or rather, lack of eyebrow somewhat. They were curious and confused, which was understandable enough, but also a good few were... reassured by her presence, at least that's what it felt like.

The only creature that could've conceivably been reassured by her current appearance was Marvin the Martian, and only because it meant he could find himself a mate.

Strangling the part of her brain responsible for mental imagery like that just became that much more tempting of an idea.

Despite her really wishing she had some mental eyebleach at hand after thinking all that, Sue couldn't deny that weird thoughts like that made the dull trekking that much less boring, just somewhere for her mind to wander away from the very grim reality in front of her while the spindly creature she found herself controlling made its way forward on autopilot, only occasionally checking her extended gamut of senses for any potential threats.

She sure didn't expect most of her march to be so peaceful considering the sheer outlandishness of everything that moved around these parts, but she absolutely wasn't complaining, wholeheartedly preferring remaining functionally invisible to most of these creatures, especially those with fangs, claws, or venom vicious enough to lay her out before she could even try to scream for help. Guess that since everything else was armed to the teeth, nothing wanted to be the initiator since it'd mean it would itself get wrecked even if it did end up winning the scrap?

Mutually Assured, uh, Devouring.

Intense fear and predatory instinct, ahead and to her right.

Just as she pondered about nothing having tried to eat her during the day, the overwhelming sensations taking up her entire attention, head subconsciously turning to face its origin, strongly indicated that just that was taking place there, and that she should get the fuck away from all that, which she was not gonna oppose in the slightest. With her breathing speeding up, she turned to make it across the stream, the task harder than expected given its tameness, but perhaps not wholly so with how little grip and stability her new legs offered. And as much as its coldness was appreciated when drinking, having to push through the frigid water made the already tenuous sensations in her lower extremities even more numbed.

Before she could even let herself worry with the potential of hypothermia, the realization that the hunting sensations were getting closer and closer shot her eyes open as wide as they'd go, prompting her to break into another sprint, barely able to keep attention to what she was even running into as her head craned to keep track of the approaching chaos, the suspects soon presenting themselves.

Hey, it's that dipshit fox thing that stole her peaches earlier today.

Whatever it was, it was running beside something else, similarly fox shaped but much more eyecatching in color, bright yellow with a red tail tip and... ear fluff, a rather generous amounts of it while at it. Whatever it was, it was lucky Sue was too occupied by running and panicking to consider the hygienic implications of such an unusual fur formation. The gray fox continued to be silent on her inner radar, though a glance at it made it clear that was no less terrified than the mostly yellow one, the sheer terror going through its mind enough to freak Sue out, and she wasn't even the one actively running to her life, the girl just feeling sorry for the brighter of the two.

Their pursuer was much more concerning tho, Sue's legs feeling weaker at the sight, wanting to turn ninety degrees and run directly as far away from it as possible- the previous spiders filled her with a cold dread despite being immobile, this one was much bigger, much redder, looked much more toxic and even had a horn in the middle of its head to underline just how much one should not fuck with it. Quite a few too few legs though, though that observation was quickly pushed aside, Sue not exactly interested in joining its prey in getting eaten, narrowly dodging a tree before deciding to hide behind it and just silently observe the quickly ending chase.

The scant, tattered pieces of knowledge she still remembered from her biology classes included the fact that spiders produced their web from their backs, not mouths, a fact that this one decided to conveniently ignore, spitting out a glob of silk large enough to strike both foxes, knocking them onto their sides, leaving them tangled and feebly trying to break the webs binding their limbs. The screeches of fear from Sue's sixth sense only got louder in response, the beast of a spider itself slowing down as it approached, as if playing with its food and savoring a successful hunt.

Every part of Sue's body wanted to take off and run for the hills, run until she couldn't anymore, away from that beast- but she couldn't. Feeling and hearing this tiny fox, likely a cub even, crying in fear for its own life kept her from running, a deeply subconscious impulse she had no name for or comprehension of forcing her to act, to do something, anything to help this little one in need. She tried fighting that impulse with every fiber of her being, trying to run away and to forget about it all afterwards, but it wouldn't relent, forcing her to take the shakiest and most dreaded step in her life, towards the strife.

The foxes were already making progress in breaking out of the webs, they likely just needed the big spider to be distracted for a moment more before they'd be on their legs again, just a moment of distraction, which if anything, she could provide. Fortunately for her conscious decision making, currently feeling like it was trapped in a car with a maniac flooring it against the traffic, even this inner impulse didn't force her to provide a distraction with her own body, spotting a fist sized stone on the ground near her to use for that purpose instead.

She certainly didn't expect this body to have enough strength in it to throw the oversized pebble hard enough to actually strike the said spider with any meaningful force, though she could only estimate that from the loud screech that resumed, immediately ducking behind the nearest outcropping after committing to the throw, hoping the insect would be dumb enough to not connect the dots.

Mortal fear gave up to an extent as it ran away very, very fast, equally intense relief and joy gradually replacing it as the yellow fox ran further and further away from her, but it wasn't the sensation Sue was focused on. Anger, very intense anger, anger at a meal opportunity being dashed, anger that was quickly making its way closer, freezing dread of adrenaline filling her body at the realization.

Fuck.

Fangs dug into the dirt she was leaning her head against mere moments before she took off, shriek of rage only hastening her, pushing through her body's complaints of already being exhausted, legs aching with each step, an actual pursuing threat helping her run faster than ever before.

Nowhere near fast enough to outrun the fiendish spider though, Sue attempting to strafe around a tree in a last ditch effort to gain more distance, her feeble attempt interrupted with the spider's own lunge, knocking her out onto her side, its screeching head positioned above her legs, rearing for a strike. Sue flailed her legs in desperation, trying to push this massive beast off of her, her own fear of death eclipsing her thought process, making her close her eyes and retaliate with one last kick through gritted teeth. The resulting sensation of something hard cracking in result and an earsplitting cry of pain, in sound and emotion alike, caught her attention for an instant before being wholly overwhelmed by the burning, stabbing pain in her other leg, feeling like it was spreading through her body with every heartbeat.

That's what you get for trying to be a hero...

In not too long it all became too much, the harrowing realization that she was dying filling Sue's fading consciousness, together with some distant cries and steps, all fading together into a muted noise that soon flickered away, together with the rest of her awareness.

And then, there was only darkness.