text: Cornelius walked out of his tent, ready to seize the day. The natives had kept him from his prize long enough. “Gerald, get the advance scouts ready. I want to know where the gems are today, and then the rest of the troop will march through the night to start packing them up tomorrow morning.” “Are you sure that’s wise, sir?” Gerald looked up, giving his misgivings in that timid voice the captain had learned to tolerate so well. “The troops have barely slept the 3 weeks we’ve been here, and we don’t know nearly enough about the jungle to be sure the scouts can find these gems today. And, even if they do find it, we almost certainly can’t get the whole caravan through the trees in one night.” Gerald was what some may call a voice of reason, but Cornelius called him a roadblock. He’d been saddled with the advisor after his last exploration lead to the decimation of the military forces, but the captain had no idea how this mole of a man was supposed to guard against bad luck, or how his ability to speak to the beasts was supposed to be useful when they didn’t seem to have a thought besides *kill*. *Swish* “But *he* can.” Cornelius pointed towards the savage that’d been strung up by his grotesquely long arms. “I’m sure you won’t mind leading us to your comrades at all, would you?”. The half man, half beast sneered at the men, but that’s all he could do now. The regulars had thought that stringing him up by his arms would be enough to make him cooperative, but his dexterous legs with hands-like feet became a problem. Now he swung from the pole with two broken femurs, not unlike how he’d swung from trees into the camp to begin with. Cornelius turned back to Gerald. “He can’t walk, but the native certainly knows his way around. If the scouts bring him along and pay attention, they’ll find the natives in no time. Then, the gems must be near, and we’ll be going home with those magic crystals withing the week. So, stop questioning everything I tell you and get the advance scouts ready.” “Y-y-yes sir!” Gerald scurried away to prepare for the advance. Cornelius turned back to his captive and stood onto the box that was needed to hang this freakishly tall creature from the pole. “I don’t know how you got to be like this, but I assure you I’ll extend you the mercy of ending your miserable life as soon as you’re no longer useful.” Cornelius walked away from the prisoner with a push, leaving the man to swing back and forth from his wrists. *Swish* A bloodied scout stumbled into Cornelius’ tent, not 2 hours after they’d left to find the gems. “What is the meaning of this! Do you not know to announce yourself before you even consider coming into my quarters?!” Cornelius slammed his book down and studied the young man, half of his face mangled beyond recognition. He also wasn’t saluting, which the captain quickly forgave after realizing the soldier didn’t have a right arm left to salute with. Instead there was a mangled stump right above his elbow with the bone jutting out , the flesh mangled and almost burned. “Good God, man, what happened? Where are the others?” “Only...one...left.” The scout coughed up blood between each word, then collapsed onto the floor of the tent. After fetching the medic and making sure the boy was being taken care of, Cornelius went to find Gerald. There was no way that soldier was the only one who made it back. Besides, what on earth could have caused him that much damage, besides jumping in front of a train? And there he was, the little rodent looking frightened as ever, staring at something just outside of camp. “What do you know about the scouting trip? The soldier said he was the only one left, but that can’t poss...” the captain stopped in his tracks. The soldier was wrong, he wasn’t the only one who made it back. He was just the only one still alive. Heads, legs, arms, and torsos were scattered just outside of camp. They appeared to be arranged to spell something in the native’s language, but Cornelius didn’t need Gerald to translate to tell him the message. “War” was universal. Then, a flash out of the corner of his eye. There, a woman, probably a meter and a half tall, with grotesquely muscular legs and knees facing the wrong way. She eyed Gerald and Cornelius, looking like a predator who knows its been seen, but is still deciding if it can go in for a kill. And then, nothing. *Swish* And then, everything. Cornelius stood in the middle of what appeared to be a town square, although unlike any he’d ever seen. The huts here were built into the trees, a combination of trunks hollowed out and branches laced around to create dwellings. A man and a woman stood behind him, both with the same diminutive stature and impossibly constructed legs that he’d seen on the woman back at camp just before he was whisked off here. Speaking of, he saw her standing off to the side next to the captain’s former captive, sitting down as a part of a much larger circle. Cornelius saw Gerald on the ground dry heaving. And then Cornelius vomited. After he was done with the worst bout of motion sickness any man had every experienced, Cornelius tried again to survey what was going on around him while staying on his knees. There were easily over a hundred of the natives gathered around him, but in reality he could only assume they were all human. There were a good dozen that looked like the captive, all hanging from their arms and legs 20 feet above the proceedings, and another dozen or so who had the structure of his unthinkably quick captors. There were so much more beyond that, though. Ones with webbed appendages and fins, others with rocky exteriors and permanently hunched backs, still others with thin limbs, padded feet, and huge eyes, and another half dozen one offs scattered about. Behind all of them were several children poking their eyes between their elders to get a better view of the strange man, although none of the young ones seemed to have any of the deformities of the adults. And in the center stood a man with no eyes. The man, shuffling forward with the grace of a king, stopped in front of Gerald and started speaking in the native’s tongue. Gerald stayed on his knees, gazing up at this sightless patriarch with all of the reverence shown to God. “So you’re the one in charge then? I’m the captain of my crew, you’ll speak to me first.” Cornelius got up to stand his ground, and then quickly found himself planted in it. One of the speedsters had her foot placed on top of his back and seemed likely to break his spine if he spoke out again. The blind man turned his attention back to Gerald and resumed speaking. After a while of Gerald’s eyes doing their best saucer impression, the old man gestured towards Cornelius. Gerald turned to him and, with much hesitancy, said “They all are given their changes by the gems. They grow up to look like you and me normally, but the gems change them to give them advantages in the jungle, according to what the tribe needs and what fits the individual. He wants to know if you would like to see the gems.” Cornelius stared at the two pieces of flesh where eyes should be and nodded like a man possessed. One of the rock-like creatures were brought forward, and the patriarch started talking again, with Gerald translating. “At their coming of age ceremony each member of their tribe gazes on the gems and holds them to cause the changes. If anyone except one with the strengthened skin touches them again, they will die a terrible death for their greed for more power. We are the first outsiders to ever see the gems.” The one with strengthened skin opened its hand showing two small, purple gems. Cornelius stared at them rabidly, when all of a sudden, he and Gerald were dragged into contact with the crystals. Heat radiated from the gems, a feeling of fire coursing over Cornelius’ skin from head to toe. The burning sensation grew and grew, both of them screaming out in pain against it until, finally, it subsided. The captain opened his eyes against the sweat coating his face and surveyed his new body. His eyes felt smaller, and yet the light was way too much for him. He closed his eyes and tried to ask what had happened, when suddenly he could see everything. He’d let out a small squeak and was able to see the patriarch standing over him, the rock creature waiting patiently, and Gerald lying next to him. Or, at least, what used to be Gerald. He had a long nose, tiny eyes, and absolutely enormous hands. Gerald, routing in the dirt as he was, had turned into a human mole. The captain turned back to his own situation. He could feel fur all over his body, except under his arms, where there seemed to be a mass of skin. With his eyes still closed, Cornelius stood up, extending his arms to their full wingspan, and tried to piece together what had happened to him. He had fur, he could see with sound, he had flesh under his arms that seemed like...wings. It hit him. Cornelius had turned into a blood sucker. With a few more clicks, Cornelius could tell that his former captive was now being brought over as Cornelius was being pressed into the ground. The man was still towering sitting down, although the being at foot level certainly helped with that. In his lanky hands he was carrying a long, thin piece of stone, a knife. As the man was carried towards Cornelius’ legs, the captain realized what was happening. This wouldn’t be an eye for an eye, but it was certainly close enough. *Swish.