Metamorphosis

Published in Fifty-word Stories, October 2020

Slurping. Groaning. Mud in your eyes and mouth. Teeth aching.

Clambering onto the riverbank, you cough up a whole fish then a beetle.

Your reptile skin slithers off, glinting iridescent in the sunshine.

You shove and jostle into your human frame and shuffle on trembling legs towards the silver city.