Snake Oil: Chapter 3

Summary: Magical run off from an elixir production plant curses a young woman, and changes her life forever. Her partner stops everything to support her in her time of need.

[Story Listing]

[First Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

Chapter 3

It was hardly an uncommon sight to see Myra and Elle together in town. Over the years, they only seemed to grow closer and closer. Elle was growing into her own, and had adjusted well to her new life in Harmony - and Myra's infectious confidence had rubbed off on her as well. 

The two of them spent their carefree childhood days playing together, exploring the town and the natural trails that snaked around Harmony. In the prime of their youth, neither really anticipated that the good times would ever end. 

Both of them were well on their way through middle school. They shared the same 7th grade homeroom. Myra was elated by this turn of events - Elle was a great study partner, and her report cards always reflected it. 

Of course, there were still assignments that required a personal touch, a better familiarity with the area. For their science final project, the two traveled out to the outskirts of town to catalogue a scrapbook of different kinds of leaves and foliage. 

"Wooow! We're up to forty different kinds now now!" Myra whistled, tapping a pen against a clipboard. "And all the leaves'll look real pretty when we paste them together!~"

"Yeah. Mostly thanks to you, though. Just heading to the usual spots worked out in the end." Elle nodded, clutching a small box. Her eyes drifted from side to side, searching.

"Aww, it wasn't a big deal. 'Sides, you remembered what everything's called. And you even grabbed the samples!" Myra beamed.

"Well, I had to! You were reaching for poison oak just a second ago!" Elle laughed, nudging Myra. 

"Ah, don't remind me, Elle. I lived, right??" Myra rubbed her arm, looking ahead. "Hey, wanna take a loadoff by the river? We're almost done!"

"Hehe. Alright. We got time." Elle nodded. "Let's stick to the trail, then."

Before long, they reached a small wooden bridge overlooking the river. It was newly constructed, only installed within the past few years. The railings overlooking the gentle currents were still solid. Myra hopped up onto one of the supporting beams to overlook the currents below.

"This is the same river that cuts through town. A little further down makes for good fly fishing! Papa takes me down during the fall." Myra explained enthusiastically. 

"And there's the lake at the end, I bet that's good for ice fishing too." Elle kept a close eye on Myra in case she tipped over. "Might be a bit too cold for me, though..."

"Ah, you just gotta huddle for warmth. And use lots of layers and stuff." Myra smirked, swinging a bit from her elevated position. "Papa wanted to be a fisherman, but he wasn't born near any water..."

"Aww. That's really depressing, actually..." Elle empathized. "I'd wanna ride a cool boat over a lawnmower."

"Ahh, he doesn't mind much anymore! Colveil's been real swell to him." Myra turned to Elle. "He says everyone gets full benefits and pensions! ...Whatever those are."

"Oh! Like a dental plan!" Elle realized. "...So they paid for your braces too??"

"....Huh. I guess so!" Myra took a finger to rub at the fronts of her teeth. "Soooo happy those're out now. Stupid things..."

"Well, hey, your teeth look really nice now." Elle said with a nod. "Like out of a magazine!"

"Awww..." Myra blushed, hopping back down to Elle's level. 

"...Papa knows a lot of people who work with Colveil. Says they're doing good by everyone, setting up roads, and buildin' bridges, and... gosh, pretty much everything." Myra leaned against the railing, looking ahead. 

Elle stared across to Myra. She had such a nostalgic look on her face. 

"...Hmm. Hey, Myra, you're a big fan, huh?" Elle inquired, with a tilt of her head.

"Me? ...Well, yeah! They're pretty much heroes!" Myra nodded, smiling wider. "Maaan, I'm jealous, though. Your mom and dad get to go inside all the time..."

"Well, yeah. They work there." Elle stated flatly. She folded her arms as she leaned forward. "Not that they tell me much of anything..."

"Mm... why don't you just ask them?" Myra asked innocently.  "...Ohhhh, is it super secret? That's way cooler!"

"I dunno, but I barely get to see them. They work a ton of overtime, I only see them maybe once a week." Elle slumped against the railing. 

"Whaaa? That's dumb... I guess you could go visit them at work! Bet they'd show you around and everything!" Myra sighed dreamily. "Ohhh, that'd be amazing..."

"...Huh."

Elle tilted her head pensively, thinking on an idea. Smiling, she turned to Myra.

"Hey, Myra. There's this thing coming up..."

---

"...nn..."

Myra stirred awake, slowly opening her eyes. Groggy and dazed, she tried to take in her surroundings.

Her head rested against Elle's chest. The two had been locked in an embrace for the better part of an hour. Their bodies were starting to get sore, sprawled out along the hard bathroom floor. 

"...Elle..." Myra whispered, not moving an inch.

"Myra. Are you awake?" Elle responded, her head tilting to look into Myra's eyes.

"...Please tell me that was a dream. Just... just stress, and panic, and..." Myra looked up, trying to divine Elle's eyes.

"Myra, I... I'm so sorry." Elle frowned pitiable, holding Myra tighter.

"...I don't want to look." Myra whimpered, her voice shaking.

"I know. Just... just keep your eyes on me." Elle raised her hand to take Myra's head by the chin. 

"I can... I can feel it. M, moving..." Myra's voice cracked. 

In the corner of her eye, Elle could see Myra's tail, twisting and writhing anxiously, stretching endlessly. 

Elle inhaled, lost for words. She didn't want to patronize Myra, and tell her she understood what she was going through. That everything would be okay. Silently, she held Myra's head closer.

"...Myra, I... you should return to bed. Being down here isn't-"

"I'm a monster, Elle!" Myra choked out. "Th-they said this was gonna get worse! What's gonna happen now!? What if I lose my arms next!? Or my mind!?"

"Myra, please, you have to..."

"My life's ruined! I-I can't go back now, if someone saw me like this, they'd put me in a lab! Or worse, they'd-"

"MYRA!" 

Elle cried out, piercing through Myra's despair. Myra's expression dropped, staring back into Elle's determined eyes. Elle took a deep breath, pressing her forehead against Myra's.

"Nobody is going to find you. We're alone. And I'm not gonna leave you alone to deal with this, okay?" Elle's voice was gentle, hardly above a whisper. "I love you. More than anything. And I always will."

"...I'm scared, Elle. Scared of..." She swallowed, croaking out her anguished words. "...I don't want to forget you. If this... this is gonna get worse, and I... if I turned feral, I might..."

"I won't let that happen." Elle affirmed with an empathetic look. She drew her head back, looking down at their hands. 

Elle raised Myra's hand. They were both wearing the bracelets that Myra had woven for them ten years prior.

"This bracelet. It's proof, a reminder of everything we went through. You made this... as proof that we'd be together forever." She gripped Myra's hand, looking deep into her eyes. "I know you would never, ever forget that. And I won't let you, so long as I have anything to say about it."

"...Elle..."

Myra stared, her mouth agape. Her eyes were starting to water up, and it wasn't long until Myra buried her head into Elle's chest once more.

"Elle, I'm... I'm so sorry, I... I love you so much and I, I don't want to... hurt you. A-and put you through this, and..."

She hiccuped, spilling out a jumble of anxious words, her body shaking with each word. Elle held her tight, hiding her own tears from Myra's view.

"Myra, it's okay, you... you did absolutely nothing wrong." Elle's voice cracked. She didn't understand all of the physical changes overtaking Myra, but... she understood that she was suffering.

Elle adjusted her seated position, placing her hands on Myra's shoulders, massaging as if to coax bravery into her.

"Myra, please... let's get you to bed. It's not good for you to stay down here."

"...I know..." Myra sighed, her hands squeezing the fabric of Elle's shirt. "...I'm just... I don't want to look at myself right now."

"...Can you walk?" Elle asked reflexively. A second later, Elle realized the tragic irony of her words, and did a double take. "I-I mean-"

"No. It's fine. I... I'm not feeling numb anymore" Myra responded, wincing. "Just... just take my hands, I... I need help."

"Of course." Elle squeezed Myra's hand, rising to her feet. Myra remained collapsed on the ground, her eyes following the length of her tail as it snaked out the crack of the door. 

"...hah..." Myra let out a shaky breath. She was still coming to terms with her alien new body. That her tail was a part of her. She was frozen.

"I can carry you." Elle offered, but Myra shook her head.

"I-I grew a dozen feet out of nowhere, you... you can't carry me." Myra closed her eyes, focusing on the sensory inputs of her tail. How some part of her stretched further beyond what she could see, but she felt it. She could feel power in her muscles, the squeezing and tensing. She felt movement, she could control it.

The mass of Myra's tail began to slither into the bathroom, as Myra's torso rose from the ground. Elle's eyes widened as Myra balanced on the trunk, where her body and tail merged seamlessly together. With the two girls at eye level, Myra looked exactly the same as she always did, if Elle wasn't looking past her waist.

...Elle tried not to look, after sneaking a glance at Myra's newfound slit, resting a few inches below her navel. It pulsated with every movement of the tail, and Myra's hips shifted awkwardly, as if trying to turn it away from Elle. 

THUD!

The sound of a hefty clunk came from the bedroom, surprising both of the girls. While Elle jumped in surprise, Myra's tail darted half a step, and suddenly Myra had gained a foot over Elle. Immediately noticing the sudden height disparity, Myra bashfully looked away, not wanting to be the center of attention. 

"...I, uh... I knocked over the lamp. In the other room." Myra muttered.

Elle stared blanking, her eyes drifting between the door, and to Myra herself.

"...Maybe we can practice that..." Elle wondered. "But not now. C'mon."

Squeezing Myra's hand, Elle guided Myra along. Myra winced with her own slithering movements, feeling strange to her. 

This would take a lot of practice...

---

"Omigosh, Elle! This is incredible! We really are getting to see all this cool stuff they're making! Pinch me, pinch me, I wanna make sure I'm not dreaming!"

"Hehe. It's real. I figured you'd get a kick out of it."

The two girls stuck close together as part of their tour group. Colveil was holding its annual Bring Your Daughter To Work Day. The tour was only open for families that worked directly at the facility, but Elle managed to pull some strings with her father to get Myra in as well.

And nobody was more excited to see the future of technology than Myra. She was easily the most excitable at all the showcases. It invited dirty looks from the other girls, but Myra remained oblivious. 

"I didn't know they made mini cakes you could bake in seconds! Elle, Elle, you still got yours??" She bounced over, grabbing Elle's hand.

"Ah, n-no, I already ate it... sorry." Elle's eyes drifted aside, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Awww... oh well." Myra managed to recover quickly. "Those instant-mending bandages were so cool too! I think. I had to cover my eyes when they showed the footage. D-did they really need a live volunteer...?"

"Ah, it was just a paper cut. You didn't miss anything." Elle laughed along. 

"Maybe I can get mom some of that non-stick cookware they showed off too. She'd save a lot of time on cleaning!" Mya perked up. "Gosh, they really do everything, huh?"

"Yeah! Some things I could do without. Those airship engines are waaay too loud for me." Elle laughed, before trailing off. Her eyes wandered around the hallways. "I'm still not sure when we'll see mom and dad."

"...Mm! You think they're working on the new elixir formula?" Myra's eyes widened.

"What? Where'd that come from?" Elle tilted her head. "I-I dunno what they're working on, honestly..."

"Ahh, just a guess! It's not a big secret! They use a secret ingredient, and they distill it and mix it up. But now they got stronger magical stuff, so they can do more with it!" Myra explained with a nod.

"Wow. How do you know this stuff? ...Actually, dumb question. Talking to a superfan here, hehe."

"Papa told me about it! And he talks to eeeeeveryone in Harmony, so he knows a lot of things." Myra beamed proudly.

"...Huh. Guess word travels fast around here." Elle shrugged, looking ahead to see where the group was going. 

The crowd stopped in front of an office door. A bespectacled man leading the group adjusted his labcoat, turning to face the young girls in the audience.

"Alright, I know you kids are into fashion, so we got a real treat for you. In here, we're making synthetic fabric, combining polymers and carbon for reinforced outfits! We send them to firefighters, police, and even the army, so they can handle bad weather, intense heat... they can even take a punch-"

"Dr. Deidrich!"

A young lab assistant came up to him from down the hall in a great hurry. He was clutching a clipboard, and was already out of breath. 

"Mm? What is it, Peter?" The guide muttered, adjusting his glasses.

"There's a 3092 in R&D! Jean asked for you, immediately.

"Oh, sh-" Dr. Deidrich cut himself off, tugging at his collar as he remembered his company. His eyes drifted across the expectant expressions of the children in front of him.

"...Aaah... right, I'll run over. Sorry kids. Peter here'll set you up in an empty office until we can resume, okay?" Deidrich reassured the group with practiced grace, before hurrying off towards the staircase.

A moment of silence hovered over the group as poor Peter assessed the group. 

"...He... he's just leaving them all to me?? Aww, heck..."  He scratched his head. "Okay, uh... follow me, I guess."

Elle and Myra exchange confused looks. Was something happening? Nobody seemed to be panicking. Neither of them thought much of it, and simply did as they were told, following along with the rest of the group. 

---

"Are you feeling any better, Myra?"

Elle had helped Myra back into bed. She sat upright, her hands hugging herself pensively. The rest of her slipped under the blanket, a large mass that she could, for the time being, make believe that her lower half hadn't been twisted beyond recognition. 

...Even as some part of her, too long for the length of the bed, slipped over the edge and underneath the bed frame. 

"...I dunno if I am." Myra sighed. Her eyes stared across the bed, observing how the bed sheets rose and fell. Her tail was swaying.

Elle held her breath. Myra needed more time to take her situation in. But she didn't like watching this. For once, Myra had nothing to say.

"Are you cold? I could get more blankets." Elle offered, trying to smile.

"...Snakes turn cold-blooded. Maybe that's another thing I can look forward to." She winced, feeling the muscles in her tail tensing up. 

Elle sighed. "I'll get you another blanket..."

She opened a linen chest at the corner of the room, pulling out a thick wool blanket. She fluffed it out, adding another layer to Myra. 

"Theeere we go." Elle cooed. "Nice and toasty."

"...Ah..." Myra's eyes drifted aside, avoiding eye-contact with Elle. 

"...mm. If you want to be alone, I can-"

"No, that's-" Myra closed her eyes, sighing heavily. She turned to Elle. "...Thanks for... for sticking with me. I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"Oh, i-it's okay, I... it's been stressful." Elle wasn't sure how to address the elephant in the room without patronizing Myra.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Oh. Dinner's ready." Elle rose her head, turning towards the doorway. Saved by the bell, at least. 

"Food? When did you start cooking?" Myra's eyes rose quizzically.

"I didn't. I brought leftovers from home, heated it up. Spaghetti and meatballs." Elle made her way over to the door. But just before exiting, she stopped, leaning her head behind her.

"I'll get you a plate too. Just stay put, okay?" Elle called over to Myra.

"...I'm not hungry..." Myra sunk further into the bed.

"Don't be like that. It's your favourite!" Elle was already over in the kitchen, hollering through the house so Myra would hear.

Myra's eyes widened as her lower body rumbled. Not just her gut, but the entire tail seemed to respond. The aroma of spiced meatballs and tomato sauce called to her.

"...Hn... c-can't argue with that." Myra pouted to herself. A hand slipped under the blanket to rub her belly. 

Silently, her hand explored her new anatomy. Her hip bones remained pronounced, but the single column of muscle that comprised her tail was so strange. She felt her smooth skin, but the muscle underneath shifted and clenched in an odd way.

"!"

She gasped as her fingers brushed over her newly opened slit. In response, it only seemed to open wider. She felt her hands slip slightly into her expanding inner walls, and retracted her hands before the heat could build up too much. Her tail writhed with the sudden heat, and she even felt her cheeks light up. 

She planted her hands in her lap, waiting for Elle to come back. In time, she did, with two platefuls of spaghetti. Three enormous meatballs dotted each plate.

"...This is a lot for two people." Myra muttered, astonished.

"You had a rough day. C'mon, eat." Elle lowered one of the plates into Myra's hands, taking a chair across the room for herself. 

"...I guess I have to eat for two, huh..." Myra's eyes lowered, noting her swaying tail under the covers. She went to work on the noodles, balling them up and eating mouthfuls at a time. 

Elle looked up from her own meal to see how Myra was doing. She watched for a bit.

"Wow. You're working through that fast. Make sure you stop to chew, hehe."

"...What?"

Myra paused with her mouth open, ready to accept one of the two-inch meatballs. It suddenly occurred to Myra that she hadn't chewed once during this entire meal.

...As her jaw hung, her tongue lashed out, lightning fast, wrapping around the meatball and bringing it into her mouth. Her jaw snapped shut, with the handle of the fork sticking out. 

"!"

Myra jerked forward, seeing the strange action playing out in front of her. It was too quick, but she could feel the whole meatball sliding down her esophagus. She raised a hand to her throat.

"...Wh... what the fuck...?" She rasped hoarsely, her fork clattering to the plate. "E-Elle! Did you see that!?"

"What? ...Oh, you cleaned your plate!" Elle's eyes lit up.

"NOT THAT! My tongue, it's just went out, like two feet!"

"...What??" Elle blinked, unsure what to make of it. "Th-that can't be..."

"Look, I'll show you!" Myra jabbed the remaining meatball and held it up in front of her. The hand grasping the fork was shaking anxiously; she slowly opened her mouth wider and wider.

...Perhaps a little wider than humanly possible. Myra could feel her jaw unhinge slightly.

"What the..." Elle leaned closer to get a better look inside Myra's mouth. The tongue was raised, and anxiously drifting forward slowly. It was hard to tell the length it had gained while it remained nestled in Myra's mouth, but she could tell that it was narrowed towards the tip, before splitting into a forked prong. It gently moved up and down as it extended a few inches...

Before long, the tongue zipped forward a whole foot all at once, rapidly coiling around the meatball, plucking it from the fork, and retreating back to Myra's waiting maw. She rubbed her throat again, feeling for the meatball-sized lump sliding down.

"W-whoa!" Elle's eyes widened at the strange display of dexterity. "...That's..."

Myra's eyes drifted down, her tail wriggling anxiously. She didn't want Elle to finish that thought. Elle detected her apprehension, but...

"...That's a pretty cool party trick." Elle grinned.

"...What??" Myra's jaw dropped. "P-party trick...?"

"Yeah, kinda. I'm just glad you're eating something." Elle smiled, with a tilt of her head.

"...B-but, that was so freaky, and... I-I dunno what else is gonna happen to me, and-"

"Myra." Elle cut her off. "It's okay. No matter what happens, I'm not going anywhere. Not now, not ever."

"..." Myra silently rose her head to look at Elle. She understood the depth of her sincerity, but it was hard to express in words. 

"Hey, you still hungry?" Elle smiled. "There's a lot more in there."

"...Starving..." Myra admitted. 

"Alright, sit tight. I'll grab you another plate." Elle took Myra's plate and hurried to the kitchen. Myra was left to her own devices.

Myra sunk a little deeper into her bed. Her eyes stared at the door, almost expectantly, for Elle to come back.

Her tongue zipped out on its own by a foot once more, batted up and down, before zipping back in. It was an automatic motion that Myra had no control over... and somehow, it felt natural. She could smell the aroma of tomato sauce and meat from the kitchen... and she could smell Elle.

It was a cozy, familiar smell, and Myra relaxed in her bed. She told herself she could get through this. Elle believed in her and... she had to.

She wanted to make this whole crazy thing work.