Azra tossed a rabbit into his storage this was the ninth one he had managed to hunt which was an amazing feat considering he was still injured. Apart from that, he had managed to catch two ground-dwelling birds(?), a creature that bore a resemblance to a large mouse and five strange creatures whose pelt appeared to be made up of leaves.
The sky was dyed with the colour of dusk alerting Azra that it was time to stop his hunting crusade. Night in the forest was significantly more dangerous than at day. He had seen it on his first night. Strange beasts haunted the darkness and the howls and roars of the forest's nocturnal residents echoed in the shadows, making the already eerie twilight that much more eerie.
Briefly reliving the horror of that night he made haste to his destination hunger plaguing him every moment of the way. When he finally got home he wasted no time relieving his inventory of its load.
*Grrrrrr*
His stomach issued a growl that sounded almost like a plead for food, well that's exactly what it was though. With no hesitation, he dove in madly devouring the bloodied corpses, gone was the 'civilized slithern' that he claimed to be earlier. Cooking? The thought crossed his mind for but the briefest of moments before disappearing behind his feral desire for nutrient.
Guided by appetite he tore into juicy flesh greedily devouring everything until he could eat no more. Blood dripped down the corner of his mouth painting a grim picture. Out of the seventeen creatures he had hunted only two were left. Hunger could really drive a man or in this case, a snake mad.
Successfully curbing his hunger the little slithern drifted off to the land of slumber. This was no ordinary sleep but was something akin to a pseudo hibernation to conserve energy while his growth was in progress. Soon enough loud, disturbing cracking noises of bones shifting broke out in the pitch black of the night forest adding to the abundant cacophony of the terrible uproar that already bedevilled the inky black.
The food he ate rapidly broke down into protein before quickly being absorbed by his body before being converted into muscular tissue. The remainder became fuel for his growth.
The little slithern's body twisted and warped in an uncomfortable manner as his muscles rapidly expanded. His scales shed at a rapid pace before being replaced by new ones only for the process to repeat itself. His stubby little horns extended by a couple of inches and the injuries he incurred rapidly healed. If Azra were to witness the changes occurring in his body his face would warp from shock and horror (though that face itself would be horrifying).
What changes most though, was not his physical appearance but something inside him. To be more specific it was the origin. The usually serene energy violently roiled about his body like a flood slowly becoming more concentrated. About half of the origin rapidly compressed into a translucent blue-gold sphere while the rest actively melded into his muscles and organs.
Whenever the origin fused with these tissues the cells that made them up exploded before quickly being replaced by newer cells that could handle the energy better. It was an extraordinarily painful process evident by the stifled grunts coming from the unconscious Azra.
It was high noon of the next day before the transformation gradually came to a stop. The little- or rather big slithern opened his eyes to an aching and larger than remembered body.
"What the hell happened to me?!" A befuddled Azra questioned.
With his new size, he found that his burrow didn't have enough space to hold him comfortably. His horns scraped the top of the burrow and his long body was squished against the walls. Squeezing out of the tunnel he took the chance to examine his newfound body. His impression...unscientific, absolutely unscientific. As a former biology major, Azra found his current state bizarre this was too big a change to have happened in such a short period of time. It would explain why he was so damn hungry though- anyone would be famished if their body suddenly decided to double in size!
Feeling the need to see his reflection Azra casually summoned a small puddle of water before realising what he had done. Eyes bulging with shock a single sentence managed to leave his mouth: "How the hell did I do that?!"