Gehetag 2, Sixth Lunar Disappearance, 50 CE | The Den of the Bat Queen
"Alright, Luz, are ya ready for your first molt?"
Tre and Luz had left the main park-like area of the den, now standing in a secluded spot full of rocks and fallen trees. Eda and Ivy had similarly gone off to talk about… something, and King had tagged along with the Owl Lady so that manticore couldn't bother him anymore.
"Do I have much of a choice?" Luz responded with a question of her own.
"Eh, not really," Tre replied. "If it makes you feel any better, you're lucky we can do this now before the lubricant starts to dry up. I've had a few bad molts in my time, and they suck big time."
Luz took a deep breath and exhaled. "Whelp, no time like the present, I guess. So, what's step one in basilisk molting? Whenever Reggie would shed, he would always start by rubbing his cute little snout against his favorite log."
Tre looked puzzled at the name. "Who is Reggie?"
"My adorable pet python back home in the Human Realm. He's only the cutest baby green tree python in the whole wide world," Luz answered.
"Yeah, well we're not doing this the Reggie way," Tre said.
"What? Why not?" Luz asked.
"Think about it. Do you want to spend 10 minutes rubbing your head against a log hoping to open up a large enough hole that you can start shimmying out of?" Tre asked, rubbing his hand across his cheek, mimicking the action he described.
"Not really, no," Luz responded, shaking her head.
Tre slithered over to one of the nearby fallen trees and reached his hand inside a large hole that had been carved. He withdrew a small fabric bag, and then from that bag he pulled out an incredibly sharp looking wood-carving knife. He made his way back over to Luz before holding out the blade.
"That's why we have this bad boy." Tre handed the knife to Luz.
"Woah," was all Luz could respond with as she received the knife. She turned it over in her hand, examining it. The handle of the knife had a smooth finish, and it was engraved with the initials CW. The blade itself seemed to be made of steel or something similar. Ever so gently poking the blade into her finger, the sensation Luz felt was odd. It was like she could feel the blade pressing against her fingertip, but it was a dull pressure, like she was wearing those special gloves from woodshop or something.
"When it comes time for Ivy or I to shed, we use this to jumpstart the process," Tre explained. "It lets us make sure that we get a clean separation between the skin we're shedding and the new one underneath. It ain't the prettiest, but it works." He shrugged his shoulders.
"So, I just take this and cut a slit in my face? And then I, what, peel it open like a banana, or something?" Luz wasn't exactly sure if this was the safest way. This felt like something out of horror movie from the 70s.
"No idea what a banana is, but sure let's go with that," Tre said with a smile.
"Titan, my life has taken a turn for the bizarre. If Mamá saw me right now, she'd probably have a conniption." Luz steadied the knife in her claws. She just had to make one small little cut that would only pierce the dead layer of skin that was hanging off her body. Nice and easy. She could totally do this.
"Nope! I can't do this!" Luz held the knife out as far from her as possible.
Tre gently took the handle from her outstretched hand. "And that is totally fine. When I first shed using this method, I nearly took my eye out with how much my hand was shaking. Do you want me to make the incision for you?"
Luz gulped. "Yes, please." She could do this. She could totally do this. It was just like going to the doctor to get a shot. Except this was a person she had just met an hour ago slicing her face open, not poking her in the arm with a needle.
Luz took another deep breath. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's do it."
"Good to hear," Tre said, slithering forward to close the gap between the two. "Now, fair warning: this is probably going to feel pretty weird since this is your first time. Just know that if everything goes smoothly, then you shouldn't feel any pain whatsoever, maybe a little pressure at the most. Are you positive and 100% sure that you are ready?"
Luz nodded.
"Alright. If it will make this any easier, you can close your eyes so you don't see the blade. That helped me through my first few sheds," Tre said in a calm voice.
"Okay, I can do that," Luz said, shutting her eyes. She did her best to remain completely still, but her left hand betrayed her by fidgeting, her claws tapping against the dead skin she was soon to be rid of.
"Remember, this should only feel like a little pressure," Luz heard Tre say. "I'm going to start the incision in 3… 2… 1…"
The blade made contact with Luz's forehead, being pushed in the slightest bit. Oh, Titan this feels weird. Tre was true to his word, though, as Luz wasn't in any pain. The closest thing she could compare it to was someone pushing their finger lightly against her forehead.
Tre slowly moved the knife down until it reached Luz's nose, lengthening the cut. He adjusted the blade before continuing the incision, being especially careful to not give Luz a sudden nose piercing. Then, he was even more delicate around Luz's mouth, barely putting any pressure behind the cut as the blade grazed against her lips. Finally, Tre maneuvered the blade down Luz's chin before pulling back to admire his handiwork.
"And we are done. I'd have to say that was some of my finest work. How was it?" Luz slowly opened her eyes to see Tre smiling, casually tossing the knife into the air and catching it by the handle.
"You were right," Luz said. "That was definitely… an experience. I thought it was gonna be worse, honestly." She felt around her face, able to clearly tell where the knife had been.
"Well, congrats on making it through step one," Tre replied. "However, that was the easy part."
Luz groaned. "Oh Titan, that was the easy part? What's next?" She then thought about what she'd seen Reggie do, and she groaned even louder. "Don't tell me…"
Tre laughed. "Yup, this next part is more embarrassing than challenging or painful."
Luz sighed. "Yeah, well I've been embarrassed enough already at Gravesfield High. What's the most, I dunno, dignified way to do this stage of the process?"
Tre exhaled sharply. "There isn't really a 'dignified' way to shed. If it helps you feel better, know that Ivy and I have both accepted we look silly doing it. That allows us to just laugh about it after the fact. Titan, I'm pretty sure Ivy recorded me during a particularly bad molt and has it listed under 'Blackmail' on her scroll."
"At least that means I won't be alone in feeling stupid," Luz said, letting out a sigh of relief.
"The sooner you accept it looks stupid, the better, honestly," Tre added.
The two stood in silence for a few seconds before Luz spoke up. "Alright, let's just get this over with. What do I have to do to finish molting?"
Tre pointed at a set of extremely long logs placed parallel to each other, laying about three feet apart. "See those logs over there? That's what we use to finish the process. All you gotta do is get down on your belly and slither between those two extremely slowly. If all goes well, your molt should catch on to the logs and come right off. You might have to make a couple passes, though, as sometimes your shed might not feel like coming off in one piece."
Luz was somewhat surprised. "Really, that's all I have to do?"
Tre shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah. Molting isn't as scary as it first may seem."
The duo slithered over to the pair of logs, and Luz examined the setup. She could probably fit though that with room to spare.
"Are you sure that will be squeeze-y enough?" Luz asked.
Tre tapped a claw on his chin. "You are a bit smaller than us. Good thing we can just do this." Tre grabbed one of the logs and rolled it over, moving it closer to the other.
"Think that'll work better?" he asked.
Luz did her best to imagine herself slithering through the gap. "Probably? I dunno, you're the expert here."
"I guess the only way to know is to just go for it," Tre supplied.
Luz positioned herself in front of the two logs. She then went prone, laying on her belly and giving her the appearance of an oddly proportioned snake. Her hands stuck out in front of her, like she was trying to swim on land.
"So I go through like this?" she asked, turning her head to face Tre.
"Close, but you'll actually want to tuck your arms to your side like this, not have them stick out." Tre pinned his arms to his side to show Luz how it should look. "You want your head to go through first so the molt can start sliding off and then everything else will follow after. Does that make sense?"
"Ahh, okay. I get it." Luz copied the other basilisk's stance. "Like this?"
"Yup. Now just start slithering through the gap really slowly," Tre instructed.
Luz nodded, and began slowly inching her way between the logs. As her face brushed against the logs, she didn't feel anything at first. However, as she moved further down the tunnel, she felt what could only be described as having her skin slowly detach from the rest of her body.
It was like that classic trick she would do back in elementary school. She would get one of those glue bottles and splurt it out all over hand hand and spread it around. Then, when the glue dried, she would pick at it until it came off and then she would show her glue skin to the other kids. That was one of Luz's favorites! (Mrs. Brandy didn't like that, though.)
This time around, though, it was her actual skin that was being peeled off. Thank the Titan it didn't hurt. Nevertheless, Luz soldiered on, slowly slithering forward, with more and more dead skin pooling up on her back.
After a few minutes of slow progress, Luz noticed that the skin over her eyes was starting to move. As she slithered forward, the dead eye caps peeled back, giving Luz a firsthand experience of going from shoddy, not very good, and annoyingly cloudy vision, back to her normal vision as the caps peeled away. She didn't realize how bright and vibrant the trees were this deep into the forest! The auburn leaves stood in stark contrast to the brown wood, with small flowers peeking through the foliage to spruce up the scenery. Luz nearly let out an audible gasp at how pretty it all was.
But now wasn't the time to stop and smell the roses, she had a mission to do, and she had some skin to shed!
Refocusing herself, Luz resumed slowly making her way down the log tunnel. More and more of her old skin gathering behind her as she gradually escaped its confines. From what she could see, Luz guessed she was about halfway done, and there looked to be plenty of log tunnel left to go to help her out.
With one last wriggle, Luz was free. Slithering forward a few more feet, she then turned around. There, sandwiched between two logs in the middle of a forest, lay Luz's first shed.
"So," Tre broke the silence, "how do you feel now that you've gone through your first molt?"
Luz took a deep breath and slowly exhaled before answering. "I feel like a whole new person." She then chuckled as she looked at her own dead skin, laying there haphazardly bunched together on the dirt, still all in one piece. She gently scooped it up and cradled it in her arms.
"Look, Mom. I finally shed my pajamas."
