Black, almost tar like, liquid dripped from his flesh. As it moved down his skin it felt as if it was burning away everything it touched, like a hot iron being pilled across the meat and bone of his body. His mouth opened to cry out in pain but nothing came out other than a gurgle. Everything was hurting, everything was bleeding, breaking, burning, hurt, broken, bled, burnt was the sensation that crawled through his skull. The bones wrapped in his meat seemed to be shifting and morphing. Unnatural, odd, strange his flesh changed. A patch of skin too dark or too light. Too heavy others and too light most. From a put he crawled out within a dark and forgotten part of a forest or a cave or a hill or a valley or a lake. Those words he did not know. Ground was soft and mushy, parting too easy to be called earth and too heavy to be called water. The darkness that dripped off him fell into this – polluting it – the mush turning grey or becoming darkened. He reached out to grab hold of it as his throat burned more and more as it tried to form some sort of sound, but yet none did. Hands were too narrow, too naked from hair. As his eyes burned with tears and tar he stared at it and found two knuckle bones moving underneath his skin.

Shifting back and forth they moved as if they could think independent from him. The other hand was much the same but seemed to be stubbier. Shorter than what he thought to be right. The knuckles rolled forward as what should have been toes became longer and more narrow. Claws became shorter as more of the black liquid dripped off his flesh to continue polluting the ground. His eyes came to the center of his face as his gaze became one. His head was becoming more and more rounded unlike the narrow and extend skull his felt that should have been forming. The only thing feeling partially right was his hind legs but they too were stubbier and more rounded than what the voice whispered to him as he remained asleep. He brought back his front legs as they bent the wrong way and looked at the feet that had too long toes. His claws were short, growing only half an inch in front of his long toes, much like what his real feet looked like. The last of the tar dripped onto the mush below him, turning it grey and darker like his skin that was all too naked.

He felt the spots of hair across his body. Top of his front legs that bent backwards, the top of his head that was all too round, on top of his hind legs and his chest. He felt the front of his face and found the hardened portion to only cover the top of it, showing his jaw to the rest. But that was all there was to recognize of his face. Too flat to what he believed to be right. What he felt to be true. He crawled through the mud and his wrong feet went into water that was covered in moss and algae.

His eyes blinked as he pulled back his soft hand and stared at the algae on top of it and shook his hand to have all the mess fly off his hand. He stared at the trees that came up through the water with small spots of earth coming up at different spots. But otherwise it was just wood and water. He looked behind him and found whatever pit he came out of to have sealed itself. He turned sharply back to ahead of him, his mouth opening and closing.

"I don't like this…" He thought. "Wrong. Wrong. Wrong."

He plunged into the water. After a moment he floated to the surface and breathed deeply as he began to swim slowly in a sort off doggy paddle. Moving ever forward. The water and moss parting as he swam. He couldn't think of any other way to swim but he also felt that what he was doing was wrong for whatever sort of body he was now possessing. Too narrow, too slim, he can't grab hardly and of the water but he continued to try to grab more and more. He could feel different plants as he passed over them, along with the dozens of different fish as they swam around him. It felt so weird. Like the level of sensation, he was experiencing was more than what he should have been feeling. For about ten minutes he saw like this before he felt his body getting tired, the way he was swimming was too much work for too little progress.

He climbed up onto the roots of a tree and overlooked the water as he breathed. He rubbed and flicked off the pieces of moss and plants from his body. At the water he stared as he breathed slowly, uncertain of how far he would have to keep swimming till he got anywhere. If anywhere is where he was going. Directions bounced around in his head, slamming into each other over and over again. Trying to follow any of them made his head hurt, so instead he just went straight and ignored them all. He rubbed the plate on his face as well as the smaller ones on his forearms and knees. There were also some plates on his knuckles as well, and he could also feel some sort of plates on his spine that were more rigged that the rest.

"They will grow…" He thought to himself as he was still uncertain of how to make and sort of sound. The water in front of him bubbled. "Yes. Yes. Yes. More plates, more cover, less naked. Hair will also change."

He fell back into the water and once again began to swim as he was before. Then, before most people could react, a pair of jaws came from behind him and rocket at him. He spun around and shoved the jaws off to the side. The long scaly creature didn't seem to care as it came around once again and bit into the lower part of his leg and dragged him under. His hands clawed at the water around him as he could no longer breathe nor could he see clearly. Even as he felt a second eyelid come over his eyes to keep water out the level of foliage under the water was too much. All he knew is that this thing had his leg and it hurt, it hurt a lot.

It began to turn over and roll with his leg in its mouth and he spun with it as much as he could but it felt as if his leg was getting ripped off. Using his other he kicked at where he thought the head was, over and over again. Before it let go and circled around once again. He could also feel the water parting behind him as another one of the things came around. The second one went for his bleeding leg as the first went for his torso. The first one latched on his arm and pulled it away from him as it began to spin again. The second one he kicked away as he way yanked by the first one. His other hand went around and he dug his claws into the underbelly of the creature as it tried to pull off his arm but his nails barely cut through the scales. Underwater most of his power was going to be taken away and he was running out of air.

"Get off me!" He yelled in his head.

He wrapped his legs and body around the creature to allow himself to roll with the monster. He pulled out his second hand, yanking out a dozen different scales as he did and jabbed them into creature's eye and ripped it out. The monster let go of his arm and swam away a bit as the second one came around once again and he punched it in the side of the neck as he went back to the surface and breathe deeply. Back under water he was pulled by the second one as it clamped its jaws around his hips. He wrapped his fingers around the top of its jaw and pulled it off him with a slight crack. The thing began to swim away once again but he had enough so he grabbed hold of one of its legs and ripped it off as he used his other hand to dig into the joint. He tossed the small leg off to the side as it swam away a bit. The first came at him and he dodged the bit and punched it in the stomach so hard that the water shook around his punch and the creature went in the direction of his punch.

He swam to it and began to claw at its stomach over and over again as he wrapped his right arm around the part of its body that connected to the tail. When he broke through all the scales he tore its stomach open and threw it off to the side as the waters turned red as its guts spilled out. The second came around one last time and he swung a fist over and punch the top of its skull as it connected to its body; knocking it out. Air left its nose and he grabbed its tail as he used one of the tree roots to climb up. He tossed the creature onto a patch of land as he breathed hard and dug his nails into the end of its tail with both hand before swinging it into trunk of a tree, breaking its spine and dropping it back into the water. Blood dripped from his stomach, leg, and arm. He looked at his body as he stood on his two legs before crouching back down and balancing himself as he breathed hard. Looking at his nails as they had several scales underneath them.

"Scales…" He breathed out. "Scale…. My name… Scale."