Chantria awakened with a gasp, her eyes still felt awfully heavy and Chantria could not force them open no matter how hard she tried, but Chantria knew for sure she was now awake.
The first thing Chantria took notice of was the coarse and grainy texture rubbing against her skin, it felt quite like...
'Sand?' Chantria wondered,
And then there was this cold chill that seeped deeply into her bones and the taste of sea salt on her lips.
'What is going on?' Chantria wondered dazedly,
Chantria noted she was lying face down and there was an awfully heavy weight on her legs that made it impossible to move.
' Why can't I move my legs? Was I in an accident? But how?' Chantria thought in disbelief,
Chantria spread her fingers slightly apart and felt the grains of what she figured was sand rolling off,
Chantria heaved a sigh at the fact that she could still perfectly move her fingers, it was somewhat better to be partially crippled than fully disabled,
However Chantria's relief only lasted a moment, her mind was filled with suspicion as she realized she had no business being anywhere close to sand or accidents in the first place.
Chantria recalled correctly that she had definitely fallen asleep on her bed, in her apartment all the way up on the tenth floor, after returning from classes.
There was no event from the previous day with a possibility of ending up in some sandy terrain, and accidents did not ride elevators and trespass into people's apartments,
This realization stared panic from deep within Chantria's heart and it was precisely at that moment that the weight on her lids disappeared and her eyes snapped open,
And just as Chantria had thought, she came face to face with sand.
Chantria frowned, her lips snapping open to let out an exclamation of alarm, however Chantria could not even recall what she intended to say when she watched bubbles floating upwards, emitted from her lips instead of words,
Chantria sat up in alarm and that was precisely when her eyes took in the horror that swayed slightly in a place where her legs rightly should have been.
'Holy Hell! Is that a tail??!' Chantria exclaimed in horror but once again, all that was emitted from her lips were bubbles.
It didn't take Chantria long to understand just why she was speaking out bubbles, and as Chantria looked around the absurd sight of dark, deep blue and schools of fish swimming by,
How could Chantria speak when her words were muffled by water?! Not the water in her bath tub but a vast, boundless ocean with no end in sight?!
What was this? What sort of situation was this?! One moment she had been tucked in her bed, sleeping away a stressful day and now...
Just where was she?!
Thousands of questions ran through Chantria's mind but there was no answer to be found and so Chantria settled for the most suitable reaction in such a situation,
Chantria's lips dropped open and the tons of bubbles emitted was the only evidence of her horrified scream.
The more bubbles were emitted, the more horrified Chantria became as she resorted to screaming within her heart.
She was underwater! Chantria realized.
She was breathing underwater! There were fishes everywhere!
And Heavens! She had a tail! She had become a freaking fish!
'What is this?! What is happening here?! Can someone tell me?! Anyone??!' Chantria's mind exploded with alarm,
Chantria refused to believe this was possible, she refused to believe such a horrifying situation was really happening to her at this moment,
It must be a dream, Chantria could only believe this was a dream...no, some horrible nightmare where she had become a fish inspired by the stress on her brain from overworking.
Chantria decided that must have been it but as she spared another glance at the monstrosity attached to her, she spiralled into full blown panic.
Chantria's head tilted this way and that in search of anything that could remotely serve as an explanation to her predicament,
However there was nothing to be seen, behind and ahead of Chantria was the vast ocean, lonely and devoid of life save for the schools of fish Chantria could sight from a distance,
And what a distance Chantria could see! Chantria realized in disbelief that she could see clearly in the darkness of the ocean and could see on and on for as far as what looked like miles!
What was this?! This was not something that happened to people like Chantria, this was not something that happened to people at all!
In Chantria's panic, the tail attached to her flicked sharply, beating the sea bed and propelling Chantria forwards.
Chantria screamed soundlessly, her hands flailing as she shot through the ocean in a mess of hands and tail, flopping down sharply against the sea bed, now a very far distance from where she had been initially.
Pain exploded across Chantria's shoulder which bore the impact of her collision with the ground.
Pain... Chantria could actually feel pain and pain could only mean one thing, this was not a dream at all.
This horror, this unbelievable situation...it was actually real!
Chantria had somehow appeared underwater as half human, half fish! And what was worse, she seemed to be the only one in this strange underwater world!
Chantria's breath came out in short pants and the reality that she was breathing with such ease underwater only added to her panic.
Chantria wrapped her arms around herself in horror, her upper half was completely bare safe for a bejewelled wrap around her breasts and the little scales littered across her skin.
Chantria dared another look at the horrifying tail, the 10ft long appendage gleamed brightly, a deep blue shade with glittering scales that seemed as though they were made of jewels.
And then Chantria recalled something, she had once read a novel of a man who had been run over by a truck and had then transmigrated into a new world, awakening in a foreign body.
Chantria realized that if this absurd situation truly was transmigration, then did that mean that she had...
'I died?!' Chantel realized in horror and disbelief.