4: Evolution

Marlon felt dizzy as he watched the words spin round hundreds, no, thousands of times a minute. They all blurred together to make one big, black, spinning mess with enough colours to make a YouTube thumbnail. He closed his eyes, half to wish and half to stop him from vomiting. He could barely hear Freya stumbling over the deafening click of the wheel spokes as they span. Marlon instinctively grabbed her hand to steady her, and he could feel her shiver in anticipation. Or nausea. Or perhaps both. He heard the wheel begin to slow, and looked up, staring at it with teeth clenched and shoulders tensed.

The wheel slowed to the point where he could recognise the names of the races, and he knew that as far as his future in this world goes, this is a foundational pillar. Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, Beast-men and Mystic Wolves spun past him, gradually slowing. Slower. Slower. Slower... The wheel crawled forward at a snails pace, finally almost stopping near the end of the human section. Marlon felt a lump form in his throat, and had to fight to keep himself from falling to his knees. After all this. After a new world, a new life, and so many new possibilities. He wanted, no, needed a change from his old, dull life. A new life. New race. No more pitying gazes and constant alienation. But nay. He got human. The most unremarkable, boring and normal race. The one that had caused held so much pain. The one tie to the old life he had tried to escape. But no. He could never escape. Stupid fucking wor-

Click.

Marlon looked back at the wheel, and his jaw dropped. As if the magic sky-baby who had summoned them here took pity on him, the wheel turned just one spoke to the right. Just one. Just enough. He looked at the new sector, to which had a word he already owed and loved so much.Just one word. A simple, short word.

Elf.

Elf. Three letters, and so much potential and possibility. This word. It was the best. It was the best because it was not five letters, first letter h, third letter m and last letter n. It was not human. There was a potential to escape. To leave it behind and- "Hey!" Freya whispered. Marlon turned to face her. "What did you get? I got- [Alrighty! Everyone has been assigned a race!] the child said, continuing the chain of interuprion [You are teeeechnically becoming a different species, so some minor... adjustments have to be made to you. But don't worry! They shouldn't hurt... much... I think... Anyway! It matters not! On with the evolution!]

Marlon keeled over almost instantly. A horrible pain wound its way up from his chest to his ears, and throbbed there, burning him from inside out. He saw Freya stumble, clutching at her head. He felt the helix of his ear begin to bend and stretch. His eyes were pulled back a little at the corners, like the typical feline appearance of Elvenkind. He felt his legs start to lose some of his thigh fat, and for his arms to get thinner and yet stronger. His organs and muscles started to twist inside him, and began to adapt to his new, lighter body. The sound near him, which used to be background babble, suddenly became an almost unbearable assault on his eardrums. He turned his newly refined eyes to Freya, and saw her clutching at a pair of wolf ears sprouting from her newly whitened hair, and a bushy tail sprouting out from just above her waist slipped out from under her shirt. Marlon found that his vision was much more advanced with these new eyes, and he could almost hear the trees themselves whispering with his new ears. He almost seemed drawn to them. The pain stopped suddenly, and Marlon turned his attention back to his inventory.