A reward for  draken-zoidian, which I took so long to get to I decided to add more detail. And then that took me longer still! But despite a few little things I could have improved I am not unhappy with it.

Paid for with "scales," my Patreon reward program. Start earning your own at https://patreon.com/ahgjan or commission me outright at https://artistree.io/ahgjan.

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The Ikran Shrine

Some of the skypeople still wanted to learn, still wanted to understand. They learned the language, the symbols, the legends.

One was more curious than the others, wanting to know the secrets of Eywa, and began to search the quiet places and special places where the people would go for new and interesting symbols. It was in the cliffs, where the ikran gathered, that he found a long forgotten shrine.

The vines there glowed, the presence of Eywa as strong as it was among the tree of voices. Beneath the vines was a carving of the same vines, wrapping and connected to the shape of an ikran, the shape of a na'vi within, and an ancient forgotten script below seeming to be some once-important text none but the author could decipher.

The stone seemed to glow, a lure, asking to be touched. The adventurous visitor reached his palm to the stone, and with his other hand reached for his queue.

"What are you doing, moron?!" The man's guide shouted, rounding the corner in time to see him reaching his queue toward the glowing tendrils of the vine.

"I have to know what this really means!" he replied, passionately, as he connected with the vine and the spirit of nature herself, feeling a surge of energy pulse through him from the vine to the stone and back. His body burned and he released both, falling to his knees and staring blankly, his head and vision spinning and his body aching.

He felt a soothing comfort, as if his body had become malleable clay and soft hands were reshaping him. His ears swelled, his nose widened and his jaw stretched and grew taller. Everything seemed to shift and ripple around him as his vision began to change, pupils dilating and the sun seeming to grow warmer and more soothing on his skin and hair.

Slowly his neck began to grow longer, his face began to stretch. As his jaw lengthened, gaps formed in his cheek which grew and connected and opened his mouth wider and wider, and from his upper lip a maxilla began to grow to support that wider opening. Behind these changes, his teeth grew longer and sharper, some fusing together into larger, thicker, rounder teeth made for gripping and tearing.

The changing man dropped to his hands, spreading them out and looking down as the fingers began to stretch and flatten, the tips of three beginning to thin to a transparent film as the rest began to feel heavier and yet sleeker and stronger.

Hair fell around him as his scalp and queue went bald, stretching and smoothing with thick leathery hide. All across his skin a new shade of blue appeared, first in blotches and then spreading like water across his surface, new patterns accompanying it Striking bright copper colored lightning bolts erupted down his back and across his thinning arms, and accented his chin and queue.

Suddenly he felt dizzier still, his spine erupting behind him, steadily growing a tail that swelled and flattened at the copper-colored tip. But before he could react to the new appendage, his lungs purged of air and he tried to gasp for more to no avail. Eyes wide, he grabbed at his chest with the growing web of wing and claw.

Just as he thought he was to suffocate to death, two new organs opened in his chest, opening and inhaling enough of the precious air to cause his torso to expand, swelling with each breath as the malleable ribs stretched and reshaped around his growing lungs. Below those, the rest of his anatomy reshaped, and he could feel the knot of mild discomfort as the remainder of his organs grew, shrank, repositioned, or vanished entirely.

Ground moved away, legs slid across stone, and he could faintly recognize that he had been growing in size and bulk through the process. When his vision had finished enhancing and when he had begun seeing in infrared as well as visible light he couldn't tell. Everything had been happening so fast and yet it seemed like he had been changing for an eternity.

And then it was done, changes stopping abruptly as they had begun. Where a human-based na'vi had stood, instead a full grown ikran tasted the air and took in the scene around himself with renewed vision. Everything looked different. Sharper, more active, more motion and more scents to take in.

He began to panic. The new input was all overwhelming, and he could feel so much power coursing through him that he both feared it and wanted to unleash it before it consumed him.

His guide and friend could tell he was struggling, and knew that there was only one way to calm him and help him. She quickly fashioned a leaf tie and took a position in front of him as he screeched and thrashed across the cliff wall. In his confusion he didn't recognize her, with his new vision she looked so much different, and moved in so many different little ways that his previous form had been unable to notice. She seemed like a threat, a monster that was about to attack him, so he preempted, lunging at her as she skillfully stepped aside and they began their dance.

Eventually they would bond, and he would be calmed. Perhaps the change could be reversed the same way it had been performed, but it would be his choice. They both somehow knew that he would never be the same, even if he changed back. His connection to humanity was now gone and Pandora was now forever his home. And for that, he was happy.