Who Sidhomko Was

• Wor: they+red
• Zuhd: they+green
• Dubì: they+gray

The three entities share the body named Sidhomko.

What They Looked Like, Before

Ildoar by TransGriffin

• Four hazel eyes
• Two arms and two legs
• 5'1" tall
• Brown fur with dark-colored stripes along their back

How They+Red Used to Feel

Wor had no words for the dysphoria they+red felt about living in a body with too few limbs. All they+red could articulate was that moving felt so wrong it hurt. Bipedal walking was laborious and agonizing, but quadripedal walking was absurd. Ildoar ancestors had walked on all fours, but millions of years of adaptation set them walking upright. Yet, at home, Wor would indulge in crawling on the floor and relish the solidity and "rightness" of it, but they+red felt the phantom sensations of extra limbs even then.

Zuhd and Dubì did not know how to help Wor. They felt fine in their ildoar body, but they could feel Wor's pain whenever they+red was at the front. It was just something they lived with. Some days, the pain was not so great, and Wor could go about their+red day with minimal fuss. Other times, it was so bad that Wor refused to leave the house and would lie in bed all day until Zuhd or Dubì took over.

The animals still needed tending, and it was all of Sidhomko's job to take care of them.

How It Happened

Wor and Zuhd watched their flock chew grass in the scraggy hills shadowed by the tallest Kugma mountains. Their monotonous routine of taking care of the animals gave Wor ample time to feel the regular discomfort of existing in their physical vessel. As they stood watching, Wor positioned their shepherd's crook closer, as if they could really feel another hand grasp the long staff.

Wor sighed. Zuhd said nothing. Those were not their+green's feelings, and there was nothing they+green could do.

Drowsiness and Wor's disappointment pulled them down to sit under a tree. As soon as they+red really started to feel especially sorry for them+red+self, something agitated the flock, sending the southernmost animals scattering and parting.

Strangers, maybe.

Wor straightened their back and used their hand to shade their eyes as they+red tried to discern who might be approaching. Squinting, Wor saw one fuzzy shape on the horizon split into two.

I+green do not want to meet with strangers today.

Will you+green leave?

And leave you+red alone? I+green will just send them away.

They watched as the figures drew nearer, but their confusion only grew. Teronuras ? Here? Alone?

Wor felt a sick twist in their gut. Teronuras. Who had six limbs.

"Mesi mesi!" one called loudly. They reached up with two arms while the other four scrambled along between the disturbed animals, waved at Sidhomko frantically, and then returned to running on all six limbs. The teronuras' purple fur was interrupted by stripes of blue scales on their back that ran down to their rattled tails, which hissed as they ran. When they came closer, Sidhomko could see that one was nearly twice the size of the other.

After another minute, the teronura arrived panting in front of Sidhomko. They both wore straps criss-crossed over their chest with small containers attached and nothing else.

"Are you lost?" Wor asked in Yìlmuhi. They+red struggled to keep a straight face.

"We here to change you," replied the larger one. The accent was very thick. "You want to change," they said with a knowing smile. They pointed at themselves and added: "Votu." They pointed at their companion. "Pipa. We meet you."

Something stirred in Wor. Change. Change how?

Zuhd huffed, ignoring Wor's growing curiosity. "Who sent you here? How did you find us?"

"From Kugmak. Yio say you want to change."

Yio! Why did they+orange reveal such an intimate fact to a stranger?

"Watch!" Pipa said with incredible enthusiasm. With an approving nod from Votu, Pipa began to pull off some of her straps and, after some consideration, selected one of her many small containers. Meanwhile, Votu pulled a small piece of untreated linen from one of their own containers with a swish and set it in front of Pipa's feet. Pipa leaned down and carefully poured the contents out.

A small green crystal tumbled onto the cloth.

"Kixini. Wormstone."

Dubì arrived all at once.

I+gray remember hearing about wormstone. It's dangerous. They're right: it'll change us. Our body. Permanently.

No. I+green do not like this. They need to leave.

They're priests. They won't just accept 'no' as an answer.

They haven't explained anything yet! Let's hear them out...

"Change us how?" asked Wor.

"See... Pipa? Change for Pemija, our great moon. With wormstone."

Pipa nodded and, with only a fraction of a second's hesitation, picked up the stone and held it in their palm. The stone cast a green glow over Pipa's blue palm as she kept her arm outstretched in front of her.

The seconds passed in silence.

Just before Zuhd said something rude, Sidhomko saw Pipa had broken into a sweat. Her hand started to tremble and she let out a soft whimper, body twisting in a sudden jerk before untwisting again. Zuhd balked, glaring at the stone, but Wor couldn't tear their+red eyes away.

"What's happening?" Wor asked Votu in a whisper.

"Pipa changes."

Pipa gasped in pain, but tried to smile, although the curve of her mouth appeared more like a grimace. On her upper arm, a circle of skin the size of a child's fist started to dessicate and crack. The fur first turned hard and scaly, then flaked off onto the grass. Underneath was a pink wound, a scabless scab, and then...

A lens. Emerging from the pink was a black glassy lens of an eye. The skin around it puckered and then blinked, some membrane sliding over it and then back again. The edges of skin around the eye started to blister, and another circle started to form next to it.

"Stop, Pipa."

Pipa twisted her wrist so that the stone fell onto the cloth. It almost rolled into the dirt, but Votu folded the cloth quickly to swaddle the stone and picked it up. Her new eye fluttered and oil leaked out of the corners, sticking in her fur.

See? Change. Permanently.

"Leave us alone. We do not want these changes—" Zuhd exclaimed, trying to put distance between them and the teronura and hitting their back against the tree.

"Is it just eyes?" interrupted Wor, stepping them forward again.

"More than eyes!" said Votu quickly. "Wormstone changes you." They held up their hands and revealed that one of them had an extra finger.

Wor started to tingle all over. Zuhd continued to protest.

No, no, no, no...

"Is it random?" Wor asked, paying Zuhd no mind.

"Random?" Votu repeated. Pipa was still catching her breath, but she took the folded up cloth in order to put the stone back in the container.

"Do you choose the changes?"

Careful, Wor...

"No, wormstone chooses. You touch wormstone, you change. Sometimes slow. Sometimes fast. Me and Pipa change fast, so we are su vubopa

They can't just fix you+red! We don't know what'll happen.

Anything could happen.

It could fix me+red!

It will change Sidhomko. All of us. I+green do not accept this.

But it could fix me+red!

"What do I+red have to do? To change?" Wor asked.

Pipa lit up at the positive responsive. "Touch wormstone!"

"You touch wormstone, you change," Votu repeated. "Pemija's child comes."

"Who is Pemija?" Dubì asked.

Votu and Pipa grinned. They clapsed their hands together and nuzzled cheek to cheek.

"Pemija is the great moon," Pipa said, letting go of Votu's hand to gesture up at the sky. "Pemija watches all. Pemija is coming." The last statement was in more robust Yìlmuhi than the others, as if she'd spent time practicing it. "Pemija's children are coming. When you touch wormstone, they come."

Their god. I have heard of them, but we do not know this Pemija. They are a stranger here.

"Pemija is coming," Votu agreed. "Wormstone... You change and Pemija's children come."

The two continued their dance while Zuhd started to yell inside Sidhomko's head.

No! We will not touch it! We will not, Wor!

"Can I+red look closer?" Wor asked.

"Can I+red look closer?" Wor asked.

Zuhd tugged at the front, scrabbling for anything to control their muscles again. To stop Wor from talking. To keep their body unharmed.

Dubì listened but did not help them+green.

The teronura separated fluidly. Pipa handed Votu the container.

"Wormstone is pretty," Votu said. They poured the container out into their bare palm. Zuhd scanned Votu's body for changes with darting eyes, but before anything could happen the stone was back on the cloth. "It glows."

No no no no no!

Wor leaned in, bringing the stone close to the edge of their snout. All four eyes were fixed on the polished crystal edges. Thin veins of white streaked through like lightning.

"I+red want to change."

"We know," Votu agreed. "Pemija changes you." They raised the stone closer to Sidhomko's snout.

Wor reached out and took it.

What Happened

Lightning and fire shocked Sidhomko's nerve endings. Axons frayed from the heat, burning coursing rivers between their veins. Every salt in their body popped while their helpless cells tried to smother the flames. Melted arteries burst blood into the slippery places between their organs. Their muscles contracted, and their fist closed around the crystal.

Smoky blackness obscured their vision with tendrils of darkness swaying and looping over themselves. Then, light: concentrated, it erupted from above and shattered sudden glittering stars that rained down on them.

Electricity pulled their eyes to see the moon inches away from their face. Dust and blinding light made their eyes water until there was no edge between the moon and the rest of the world.

The skin over their spine split down the middle, exposing bone and ligament to the open air. They gasped and stumbled, one knee buckling, as dozens of eyes erupted out of their vertebrae and opened under the shadow of the tree. They shut their eyes, but the world kept reappearing as more eyes grew.

They fell onto both knees, still clutching the stone, and squeeled, sound ripping through the air and sending their animals scattering, and then choked on the sound when their throat filled with cilia.

More bulging eyes started to cover their face. Their fingerbones rippled until they fractalized: knuckles grew knuckles grew knuckles. New fingers tangled themselves in knots around the stone. With a slick sucking sound, their free arm disappeared into their body. One moment, there; the next, a mass of flesh absorbed into their flank like a bulbous tumor.

Gasping for breath, their vision cleared and they saw Votu digging around in a long thin container strapped to Pipa's back.

With a wet pop, Sidhomko's shins elongated and the bones forced their way back into place.

Votu's knife glinted in the sun just before it sliced through Sidhomko's fingers.

They moaned as glossy blood gushed out of their hands still chemically frozen around the stone, but Votu hacked through the impossible fingers until they had enough room to pinch the stone and pull it out of Sidhomko's hand.

The chunks of flesh carved off lay at Sidhomko's feet as they tried to unknot the rest of their fingers. Votu took the crystal and clutched it tightly in their hand.

"Kizabu di," Votu and Pipa said as Sidhomko's breathing came in ragged bursts. The eye on Pipa's arm blinked down at them while tears of slick oil streaked down her fur. With a sickening crack, their fingers broke and, limply, untangled as they pulled their hands apart.

"They are coming."

What They Looked Like, After

• 4 hazel eyes and 48 black eyes
• One arm and two legs
• 5'6" tall
• No fur

Who Sidhomko Is Now

• Wor
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's child
• Pemija's chi