Sitting up here, I try to relax and let the rest of the evolution take its course. But it’s hard. No matter what, I can’t let myself stop looking around me. If something were to approach me right now, I would definitely die.

  It takes a few minutes, but the evolution does finally complete.

  And I’m left in a form that, thankfully, actually has skin. And hair.

  As a matter of fact, I am very hairy. My entire body, barring my tail, hands, feet, face and ears are covered in long, black hairs, each thick and strong like pines. Beneath this hair lies a strong hide. Strong in comparison to moss, at least. My tail - which has actually healed now - is mostly hairless apart from a large tuft of hair on the tip of it. Such a tuft can also be found on both of my ears.

  But my attention is mostly drawn to one thing and one alone.

  ...Why is my nose so damn big?...

  I get that I’m supposed to have a good sense of smell and all, but this is actually ridiculous. I really should have asked the kid to describe the appearance of these evolutions, but-,

  Eh? What is-, is this because I got my tail nipped off as a distraction? Seriously? Why didn’t you give me this earlie-,

  Ah. Is that so? Well, considering I just gained a skill that seemed to do the exact same thing but without the sun part, I can’t exactly complain.

  If that’s all you had to say, I’d like to see my stats.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  It looks like all my stats went up slightly, which is only to be expected. Since my dexterity lost the (+1), I assume that means Cap died?

  Well… Rest in peace, Cap. You probably saved my life, maybe.

  Anyway, moving on, I guess I’d better check out my new racial skills considering that they already seem to have a sort of effect on my stats.

  That would almost be expected, I suppose. I can’t tell how useful this is, but if I use it as a lizard would, then I could easily cause a pretty good distraction to escape under. However, I’m not a coward. Hence, how much I use this depends on the kind of battles I get into.

  Also, the wording seems to suggest that it doesn’t grow back on its own, so if I had no regenerative skills, would I just be fucked if I dropped it?

  Sounds useful. This will probably be even more useful once my stats get higher.

  In other words, if I got this skill higher, I could use my tail as a whip? Or to swing in the trees like a damn monkey? Looking at my tail, I don’t think it’s quite strong enough for anything like that. I can only barely move it in any direction, but I guess that just means I need more practice.

  This is… A little off. I’ve never even heard the word, but it seems to translate to harbour-shift. The real question here is: take the form of what? A human? A child? A wolf? What exactly am I transforming into?

  ...There’s only one real way of finding out, isn’t there?

  But for now, I’d like to finish going over my stats. The final one would be…

  As expected.

  With that, I can focus on the absolutely most important fact of this evolution.

  Why the fuck am I still Oknytt!?

  Sure, I’m only barely bigger than I was before, but I’m still not mischievous! I’m a mild hindrance at most! This is ridiculous. I’m taking this to HR!

  But, of course, nothing answers me.

  I huff. At least I have lungs now. And a mouth. And hands.

  ...The tail is a nice addition.

  Now, since I have a few minutes of calm up here in this tree, it can’t hurt to try out hamnskifte. Or, I mean, technically, should I transform into a larger creature, I may very well break this branch and fall down. But I don’t think that’s my main problem here.

  Alright. Hamnskifte.

  ...Looks like the kid isn’t going to help me here, so I suppose it’s some instinctual thing.

  Let’s see here…

  Maybe if I fold up my legs, and hunch my back, and…

  …

  Nothing’s changed. I’m just sitting perched up here like an owl. This is a bit emberra-,

  Well, there we go. If that title means anything, then it would be that I succeeded in transforming, even if I can’t tell myself. Maybe it’s actually more of an illusionary skill than a physical one? That wouldn’t be all too strange, though I do feel a bit cheated. I wonder what I look like? Maybe I appear to the things down below as a massive, terrible bird.

  Or I look like a stupid troll sitting stupidly on a stupid branch.

  Alright, let’s stop this for now.