
More than most of the islanders before their first change, Caitlin feels positively miserable that morning following a long series of invasive nightmares.
The next morning, the twinging pains are so bad as to nearly leave her bedridden. The muscles in her abdomen are clenching and rumbling, leaving you naseous and dizzy. The muscles seem to be shifting and rearranging themselves, even the surface of the skin rippling from time to time disconcertingly.
Prickling sensations run over your skin, particularly on your arms and legs as your hair follicles are stimulated and begin to produce thick, but short reddish fur. All the while your stomach is clenching, your ears stretch, small tufts of ears topping them off.
Then, like a scene from Aliens, twin bulges appear in your midsection, pushing out and straining at your skin. It feels hideously painful, and it feels as if they're going to tear your flesh apart as the bony forces push against your stomach.
But instead, a spot on each protrusion that grows longer and longer darkens and hardens on the tip. What first appears to be a black fingernail hardens and grows as you see the bony protrusions bend and form joints, the tips hardening and becoming
hooves on these feeble, naked, proto-
legs.