"Today we’ll be practicing transforming into other life forms." Lucky met Raymundo outside the door of Star Surfer with their hands behind their back.
"Why?"
"We may need to be animals during the rescue mission." Lucky grinned, and no matter how many times he reminded himself he wasn't looking at the real Becky, Lucky's smiles still lowered Ray's resistance.
"I doubt it," he held up his hands as Lucky raised one of theirs, "but I guess I'll try."
"Good." Lucky raised a finger, "it should have been a lesson your father taught you anyway. Now, what kind of snake is your favorite?" Raymundo was tempted to say green anaconda just for the sheer fun of it. "Doesn't matter," Lucky pulled their hand out from behind them, "because here is a garter snake to copy exactly." Lucky held the wriggling snake towards him.
When Raymundo just stared at Lucky, they walked closer, the snake hissing and baring its fangs at Ray.
"Why are you coming closer?" Raymundo jumped back a couple inches.
"Because you need a sample, unless you know exactly which nucleotides to change in your DNA in order to create a true snake inside and out?”
He rubbed his temples. “Fine, but I don’t know how to take a sample.”
“Remember your phenogland?” Raymundo nodded. “Good. So, concentrate on it, make it extend its tube out of your body. It would be less distance if you extend it out of your abdomen somewhere.”
Raymundo pulled his shirt up over his head and then closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and focused on the phenogland tucked inside him. It felt weird, something moving inside him, but luckily he felt no pain.
It took a minute before Lucky could see the small bulge above Raymundo’s navel before the pale green tube broke through Ray’s skin. This was when he flinched and blinked his eyes open. “Ew.” He muttered.
“Great job!” Lucky held the snake taunt with both hands. “All you have to do is insert the tube, take a sample of blood, and your phenogland will do the rest.”
“This is weird.” Raymundo grimaced. He slipped the tube through a soft spot on the snake’s underbelly, watching the dark blood move from snake to him.
Pulling the tube back into his body was faster, though still strange. Lucky nodded. After another deep breath, Raymundo thought about the garter snake, and felt his body changing.
Thinning and shrinking, appendages being absorbed Raymundo blinked his eyes as he tried to adjust to the different vision of the snake.
“Great!” Lucky crouched next to Ray, “Now, slither over to the other side of the barn.”
It took a while for Raymundo to figure out how to use the muscles and the ribs in order to propel himself across the thin layer of dirt on the barn floor. But once he did, it was almost fun to slither around the barn, flicking his tongue to better understand how snakes viewed the world.
Word count: 499
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