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The crowd gasped. I looked at my hands and realized they weremyhands. Whatever other body I’d been in was gone. I was myself again.
The only reason the monster had missed my head was that I was much shorter than the man I’d been a moment ago. I wore my own clothes again, so I could move more quickly in cotton pants and the loose-fitting tunic. The smell of the beer I’d kneeled in what felt like a lifetime ago rose to my nostrils.
I took the opportunity. I had to act fast. The monster didn’t know what the hell was going on. Neither did I—no one did—but there wasn’t time to ask questions. I was my usual size once more. Small and fast. I knew my body. I could trust it again.
I vaulted out from underneath the large belly of the beast. I rolled across the dust and found the spear gleaming in the sun. When I came up onto both feet, I crouched low, spear pointed at the beast.
It shook itself out and charged with an indignant roar—it was furious it was losing. And I was sick and tired of this. I just wanted to go home.
The thought was fleeting. I was stuck in a dream world, and I would wake up at any moment. If this monster killed me, I wasn’t going to snap out of this nightmare, back home on the pile of rags where I slept. But still, I couldn’t allow myself to give up to the beast.
Either way, this would be the end.
The monster lunged at me, and I dove forward into the same roll I’d used to get away from it. It put me between the creature’s legs. Sharp claws scratched up the sand around me as it spun around, trying to reach me.
I yanked the spear up as hard as I could, slicing into the soft underbelly where there were no armored scales. Everything had a weakness. The leather skin tore open, and the monster screamed in agony as blood poured out. It splashed on my arms, hot on my skin.
I didn’t have time to freak out. I tried to get another blow in, but the creature reared up on its hind legs and spun away from me, getting me out from underneath it. It knew I could do damage there.
It crouched low, and we were back to circling each other, stalking. The wound in its belly gaped and poured out blood, leaving a trail as the beast moved. I pushed my hair out of my face, long and red and in the way. The short men’s cut I’d had a moment ago had been better for battle.
The creature was done with this back and forth, and so was I. I was getting tired. The strength I’d had in the male body was gone. I would lose if I didn’t end this once and for all.
I didn’t know what made me think I could do this, but I’d wounded the creature twice, and I still stood.
As if the monster was ready to finish this, too, it charged again. It limped slightly, trying to step around the pain in its belly. When the monster reached me, teeth bared, mouth open wide as if to swallow me whole, I used the spear as a vault. I ran forward and shoved it into the sand, jumping up. I thrust as hard as I could and ended up on the beast’s elongated face. The teeth were below me.
The monster suddenly turned into a bucking bronco, trying to throw me off. I grabbed onto one of the spikes. It sliced my hand open, but I gritted my teeth through the pain and held on for dear life. If it threw me off, I would be dead.
The beast paused, only for a split second to orientate itself.
It was all I needed.
I grabbed the spear and shoved the tip into the monster’s eye.
It let out a terrifying scream and reared up. I swung around, holding onto the spear. My body slammed against the monster’s scales, and instead of shaking the spear out of the eye, the momentum and my weight shoved it in deeper.
The body went limp and sank to the ground, nearly crushing me. I had to roll out of the way.
When I came to a halt, a cloud of dust surrounded me, and I coughed. I pushed myself up and sank into a battle stance, in case the monster came again.
It was dead.
The lifeless body lay in a puddle of blood that oozed from the belly and eye and turned the sand into a thick, red soup.
When I looked up, the crowd was completely silent. They all stared at me in shock and awe. I gathered no one had killed a beast like this before.
A murmur broke loose as they muttered and mumbled to each other and to themselves. A few words traveled to me on the breeze.
She changed.
That was what they were staring at—not the beast, which I’d killed.
They stared atme.The man who’d turned into a woman.
I still wasn’t sure how it had happened, or why. All I knew was that if it hadn’t happened, or if it had happened a moment later, I would be dead now.
I ran my hand through my hair, the other hand feeling empty without the spear to protect myself.
