They stared across the abyss that stood between them and their destination. A void empty with breathable gas made up the space between the many masses of mud, grass, sand and everything else that formed the islands suspended throughout this realm. The human stood on the grassy ledge of one of those islands, taking in deep breaths as they readied themselves for the leap. Repositioning their legs to give them a good start, they pushed off with their right and made a sprint to the ledge. And just as they reached it, San Tesir leaped into the space.

As with many prior leaps, the adventurer floated seamlessly through the air as if they were weightless. But as if by their will, a force of gravity navigated by San’s purpose and vision guided them in the direction of their destination, which looked like many of the other islands, save for the large cavern situated on its underside. San had a feeling what they were looking for was in that cavern.

“Please let this be it,” the adventurer pleaded as they approached the island, before smashing onto a ledge, kicking dirt up into the air. Despite the hard landing, San stood up from the cloud and strode out; a landing like that was something the seasoned traveler was used to, as indicated by her thicker legs. San immediately began to search the island for something, anything to suggest something unique and notable. Their orange eyes scanned every square metre of dirt, every large stone, every ledge in the landmass. Until finally, they found a cave.

With a grin, San darted inside. While the floor was covered in dirt, the walls of the cave were smooth yet wavy dark grey, almost with an iridescent shine on them. Almost as if this cave had been traveled to, or was used by someone, or something. Recognizing the potential danger, the novice combatant readied their sword as they progressed through the lit tunnel. The way the floor seemed to angle downward, San had a feeling this might lead them to that cavern they saw earlier. In a few minutes, they soon learned they were indeed correct.

The tunnel opened up to that cavern underneath the island, with patches of ground along the side San came out from and extending out into a point. Something about that point that just ringed “special” in San’s mind.

“Nothing there, but maybe…” San thought, as they walked over and out onto that bit of ground sticking out into the open space.

As the yearning adventurer neared the tip, a powerful breeze swept through the cavern. Red and blue energies came up from below and swirled about San, before settling upon them. Their skin tickled, excited, energized. Surely this must be it! Surely the portal will-

Then their eyes disappeared.

“What the?!” San cried out, before their human spine sprung out from their rear, elongating into a tail, but not! A draconic head soon grew on the end of the tail-turned-neck, with the same colour eyes as San’s. But the mouth was missing.

“That’s better,” San said as their vision returned, albeit from the new dragon head’s perspective. “But… what the?!?”

The changing human gasped as they watched, and felt, their dragon legs… wait… what? No… their arms… their arms had become a pair of draconic appendages. But the wrong ones!

“No, this can’t be happening!” San growled as they observed the bizarre changes. “Uggggh!”

A vast protrusion of flesh and spine grew forth from their head, replacing their hair entirely. But unlike the last one, this one was indeed a tail. It was in that moment that San knew what was happening to them, as they watched red scales form along the new draconic features they acquired. Even a smoother layer of peach ventral scales formed along the front of their body, including the tail morphing out of the human head.

San grimaced with both faces as they felt their human feet adjusting, elongating slightly as if to become… but then they stopped. In fact, everything stopped. San no longer felt the energy in them. The transformation was complete, and it left them very incomplete.

“You have got to be kidding me!” they cried out loud, staring at their misshapen body from their dragon head, but speaking out of the human one on the other end of their body. Front and back were almost mixed up, but at least their tail-neck was flexible enough to let their tail-head look in what direction they needed.

“Great, I could have sworn…” San muttered in disbelief at yet another failed attempt to find the portal to the Normal World. “Now I have to head all the way back to the village and hopefully get this cured.”

Defeated and filled with pure annoyance, San Tesir made their way back to the surface, and with their awkwardly changed body, slowly made their way back home across the many islands that floated in the realm of Arieveira.

---

Doodled this one a few months ago, and loved it so much I wanted to finish them up and write a short tale about them. Similar to my last reverse/backwards transformation, I decided the transformee would be androgynous. Not sure why, but I kind of like the ambiguity, which also plays into how despite their body, they seem to get transformed in any sort of direction.

I was further inspired by that, backwards/reversed/inverse, and created the background with that in mind, with the sky below and the ground as islands in the sky. And from there, I came up with a name, Arieveira, styled after an older fantasy name of mine plus a few other editions inspired by other words I searched.

I'm hoping to explore more of this character, and this strange new chaotic land, in the future sometime. =)