Thyssa woke up in a warm bed, in a dark room. Her first groggy thought was that she must have dreamt the strange doctor. But her body felt strange, and there was a warmth around her neck.

  She clenched her hands – for they were hands, not claws. She put her hands to her face, round and soft, no longer dominated by a maw of fangs. And now with a nose. That was weird. It wasn't as rigid as she expected – she'd never had cartilage in her body before. She just kind of assumed, the few times she'd glimpsed pure humans, that their noses were just bones. She felt foolish about that now.

  The softness was everywhere. She knew humans had skin, but hadn’t really imagined it felt like this. Instead of armour, she was clad in some fabric like spider silk. Light as it was, she wasn't used to clothes, and the sensation of it, on top of the cord around her neck, was overwhelming – fabric clinging everywhere.

  So this was what it was like to be human. Her heart was beating furiously, but she couldn't help an eerie, dizzy feeling – she couldn't process all this. It was too much at once, too much information, but she was greedy for even more surprises. She needed to know how she looked!

  Thyssa crawled out of bed to look for a light. She suddenly found no need, as the room lit itself as soon as she was standing. Able to see her surroundings, she scanned the room. A shelf of books. A desk, with paper and pens. She was struck by how colourful everything was. And then, what she was looking for. A mirror! She crept up to it, and stopped in shock when she saw her reflection.

  Thyssa was afraid to look at what was in the mirror, fearing that there would be some fatal flaw in her new body. She gathered up her courage to glimpse her reflection.

  The girl in the mirror was dazzled at the sight before her, for she beheld a girl not only lovelier than any malform, but lovelier than anything she’d imagined in her weary life. Already, she had an admirer staring back at her, sweet and plump as a ripened peach, her features fierce and androgynous. This was a body full of feeling, full of life.

  And such colours she had! Hair as white as the moon and eyes as dark as the night – human eyes that could see all the beauty in the world. The patient’s gown she wore was a vibrant pink, the very same shade as…

  The Benevolent Heart, around her neck. For the first time, Thyssa could see its colour. A pink radiance shining into the world. Different parts of the stone glowed darker or lighter. The figure’s hair was a deeper pink than its skin, but deepest of all was the exposed heart at the centre of the stone. The colour blazed and danced, and for a moment it seemed almost like the figure was alive, or there was something alive inside it…?

  She looked away, blinking. The glow, gentle in the edge of her vision, was overwhelming if you stared right at it. Strange. But, then, she had other things to look at. Like that beautiful girl! And that was her! She ran her fingers through her hair, smooth and silky – so much nicer than nerve cables. Oh, that felt good! Did hair have feelings? It did! This body was full of surprises, but they were all wonderful surprises.

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  Thyssa lost track of time admiring her new self in the mirror, doing flattering stretches, making fun faces, playing with her long messy hair. She was in heaven, and the heaven was her.

  She was interrupted by the figure in the doorway.

  “Enjoying yourself?”

  It was the doctor. With her new eyes, Thyssa could see her colours, drink in her beauty. She was an older woman with candy-pink hair, clad in white and silver. She was tall and stately – and clearly much more used to walking on two legs than Thyssa was. She was beautiful like a temple, something divine and forbidden: one of the perfect humans. Thyssa felt a heat under her skin, embarrassed that such a dignified creature caught her flirting with herself. She’d felt shame before – all malforms did – but, in this body, it was more intense.

  “No, don’t be ashamed. You were very brave.” Thyssa noticed the voice had a much sweeter quality than before. Had she become more sensitive? Or had she become the sort of thing people wanted to be kind to? Or both?

  “That must have taken a lot out of you,” said the perfect woman. “You must be very hungry.” She opened her hand, which held a bunch of red fruit. “Would you like to try one?”

  Thyssa tried to respond, but her throat and mouth had changed too much to speak from.

  The perfect woman looked disappointed. “I suppose you're not used to speaking as a human, are you?” Her face shifted to an encouraging smile. “Don't worry. I can teach you in time.”

  She placed the fruits on the desk by the mirror. Thyssa grabbed one of them and looked at it. It wasn’t poisoned like the fruits in the Land of Monsters – the vaguely conical shape was too coherent, and it was all a solid, gentle red, no weird gradients.

  “It's a strawberry,” said the perfect woman, a warm smile on her face. “I thought you might like to try some fruit from my garden, since you can eat it now. Try it. It's very tasty.”

  Nervous, but too curious not to try it, Thyssa ate it normally – that is, she lunged her head forward and seized the strawberry with her teeth, then bit down again to break it apart in her mouth. The taste overwhelmed her.

  It wasn’t the first time she’d had fruit. The few fruits that grew back home, around the Lake of Acid, were barely sweeter than the lake itself. Good fruit had to come from raids on human territory. But there was never enough for everyone, and while food was shared, none of them had the self-control to part with fruit. She’d only had fruit once in her life – a present from her mother for her tenth birthday (a special milestone for malforms, since historically most didn’t make it that long). It was the happiest meal she’d ever eaten.

  But this was the first time she’d eaten fruit as a human. The tastes were so much more lively and delicate. The sweetness danced around her mouth. Even the sourness was gentle, not a harsh acid. The leaves were a little unpleasant, but not so much as to ruin the whole thing.

  The perfect woman laughed to herself. Thyssa looked at her, suddenly ashamed, wondering what she had done wrong.

  The perfect woman stifled her laughter. “I'm sorry. It's just, you're very cute.”

  That heat under her skin again. She'd never imagined anyone would see her as cute, especially when going for a bite. She was having trouble processing it all. Maybe she liked being around someone who wanted neither to run or to eat her. Maybe she liked being cute. Maybe she liked it a great deal. She took another strawberry, and found it was sweet as the first.

  She could get used to this.