Listen to the people
Someone who's dressed more formally than the rest speaks: "It began about 7 years ago, as near as we can tell. Some of our people found themselves growing webbed fingers and toes." Here he raises his own hand; its webbing is nearly complete, reaching from the palm to midway into each finger's third segment. YAs he prattles on, you consume your meat; it tastes like buffalo with a strong garlic sauce. Not bad at all. "As time went on, other… alterations… have made themselves known; patches of scaly skin, unblinking eyes which nevertheless do not dry out, peculiar growths on our necks, and clumsy tail-like growths on our backsides. During the first several years, none of these these marks, shall we say, were anything more than trivial curiosities; they did not interfere with anyone's ability to go about their business. However, as the years passed, these marks became ever more common, affecting ever more of us. As well, the marks became stronger—scales covered more of the skin, or the tail grew longer and thicker, and so on—and some of us who were previously marked have even acquired second and third marks!"
Given the description of what's going on, you naturally suspect that these 'marks' are the external symptoms of a slow, ongoing transformation which will eventually convert its victims entirely into fish. Can these people have failed to make that deduction? Or is it fear which keeps them from speaking of it?
"Of course, great one, you cannot have failed to percieve that we are in the middle of a large, harsh desert. Know that it was not always thus; the drought of ten years past has only intensified, and the land has become hotter and drier, until it reached the state you see here today. At one time there were a number of other villages in the vicinity, but they have all been abandoned, and their former inhabitants moved here. We seem to have the only source of water for tens of miles around, and as the surrounding lands sink deeper into the grip of arid sand, our wells only become more productive! Surely we are blessed! And yet, the marks do endure, and grow, upon our very bodies. Even those who came here when their own villages faded and dried up carry these marks!"
Having finished your first helping, you pick up another chunk of meat—this one the size of your human ribcage—and get to work on it. "And now-" bite "-the marks are strong enough-" munch munch, swallow, munch "-that some of your people-" bite munch munch "-have been crippled-" swallow munch munch "-by their marks."
Written by Catprog & Cubist on 17 October 2010
