Snail

The moment Jarren said the word, the world stopped in time. Before Jarren could even voice a sound of amazement, it started moving again, but not in the way he'd expect.

All objects started swirling, as if collapsing onto themselves, shapes started to stack and colors flew around. The policemen lost their guns as a part of them flew away from their arms and merged into clusters which got colored by the winds passing by. Some just flew away. The policemen themselves swirled faster than everything else and completely disappeared.

Jarren observed all this happen in shock before noticing that the color green seemed to become more and more prevalent and his surroundings slowly started looking like a forest.

After a minute or so of things shifting, it finally finished and Jarren found himself in something that resembled a jungle more than a forest. The place, however, wasn't normal as neon purple bugs crawled around, birds with 3 heads flew by and a bush started slowly moving away from Jarren as it noticed him.

Jarren gasped in shock.

"Did I get transported into a different world?!" he spoke excitedly.

"T-this is amazing, was it accomplished by the stone? I-I can't believe this, will I bec-" didn't manage to finish his words as he broke into a coughing fit.

Cough, cough, cough

Jarren bent over, his stomach hurting from the coughs.

"Argh!"

His legs stopped working and Jarren fell on the ground, his body didn't hurt just from the coughing at this point. All of his organs seemed to want to murder Jarren and he noticed a warm current coming from his nose as well as his ears.

Hack, wheeze, hack

Jarren started panicking, this was clearly not normal, could it be because- no, this was no time to think about the causes but the solutions instead. Getting into a hospital? Hardly. He was in a jungle and was dying faster than Nikocado Avocado ate 10 happy meals. Call for help? Even dumber than the hospital idea.

It really seemed like he'd have to rely on the stone yet again. His hand quickly moved to his pocket, touching the stone..

Wheeze, "V-v-" Hack, hack hack.

He couldn't say the word! His coughing fit was too intense! At this point Jarren felt the life leaving his body extremely fast, he had no more than 5 seconds to think of a solution. 4 seconds now. Would it be enough to just think the word? 3 seconds left. Jarren had to try! 2 seconds.. [V-vex-] Even his thoughts felt slower. 1 second left.

[Vexi.]

He did it! Would he go back to Earth and get arrested? Well anything was better than this.

The world started changing once again. But it started becoming bigger? Or was Jarren just getting smaller? One thing was for sure, it got blurrier. And more spacey? He could suddenly see more around him, like he had eyes on the sides of his head.

The transformation slowed down and stopped as a simple word popped into Jarren's mind.

Snail.

[...What?] Jarren tried to say but he had no vocal cords. [....Did I become a snail....?] he asked, dumbfounded.

[Ah, ha, hah, haha, hahaha, AHAHAHAHAHA.]

Jarren started laughing due to the ridiculousness of the situation. Naturally, nothing came out, but it made him feel better.

After he finished laughing in his mind, which was quite the weird feeling, he tried to process the situation and calm down a bit.

[Alright so.. I'm a snail..] Jarren had to take a deep breath after saying that.

[And I basically died immediately after getting here, i assume it's because of the bacteria and viruses that differ from Earth's. The question is: "Can I go back to my human body and survive?"] he thought and decided to "say" the magic word.

[Vexi.]

... Nothing happened. Jarren started panicking slightly.

[Vexi.. human?]

"09:55:23" the stone said.

[Uh, I'm on a limit? But at least I know I can return to my body. Unfortunately, it'll mostly likely be useless as I'll die immediately again.]

[...]

[So what will I do in the meantime?.... How about I think of a new name since I'm in a new world. Umm, maybe Khaorr? Nevermind that's too edgy. I like the 'K', though. How about Kaian? Yeah that sounds good. I'm Kaian from now on!] Kaian thought as a way to keep himself sane in a new land, a new.. form.

Some time passed with Kaian thinking about random stuff, ways to survive and what he'll do if it doesn't work out and he'll have to stay as a snail.

[I need a name for the magic stone too, wait, where is it??] Kaian's snail eyes looked around, moving forward a bit in order to focus. The stone was nowhere in sight, though.

[Hmmm, i did communicate with it though and there needs to be a way to maintain this transformation, or am i permanently a snail and i just have thoughts? How do I have thoughts?] Suddenly, his body felt a sting of pain from under his shell. It was like the stone announced itself to be there.

[Oh... I guess I have it in my shell.. That's convenient. Anyway, let's finish the name. I say Vexi to change so vexastone? Yeah that sounds pretty good. Actually, how did i not get the timer when i said that?]

And even more time passed as Kaian thought about more random things and the questions he had. Hopefully, they will get answered sometime.

...

[Vexi, human.] Kaian thought, finally having finished waiting. His body started becoming bigger and he finally got a mouth again.

"Phew. This feels good." he said as he stretched. "I even transformed with my clothes on, now this is called service."

Kaian also checked his pocket where zmenastone used to be and there it was, sitting in the relative safety of his clothes.

"Well, time to make my plan of finding civilization a reality" he said yet again, used to talking to himself from his snail moments.

Kaian quickly started walking into a random direction. He didn't jog out of fear for some demonic wildlife. What would he do if an alligator that can breathe fire suddenly descended from the skies? Though that would be a pretty weird evolutionary direction, but nothing could be dismissed on this strange planet.

Kaian continued walking before he started feeling weird.

Ahem

"Fuck, it's here again isn't-" cough "-it. I do think I lasted a bit longer this time, or is it just a feeling-"

cough, cough wheeze

Kaian started fighting for air yet again. Should he just hold on or immediately transform? He chose to hold on for a while. Maybe his immune system would work a bit harder that way.

hack, hack

Kaian had to bend over again, this time he immediately transformed into his snail form to avoid further pain.

[Vexi, human] he thought immediately, wanting to check the timer.

"01:59:58," Zmenastone replied.

[Ah, i don't have to wait so long again, could it be because i took less damage? ... The difference is quite significant, bacteria in this place have to be on drugs or something.] Kaian thought as he slowly moved with his snail body in the direction he went as a human, but a lot slower.

And so the cycle of turning into a human, slowly dying and turning back started. Over time the length of his stay in the human form started getting bigger, from a minute to two, from two to four, from four to eight and so and so on.

At this point he could actually be a man for a few hours! It seemed that vexastone didn't just recover his body to some template, but also left him with the positives of his stay as a person.

He also covered a lot of ground, maybe his goal of finding civilization would be accomplished soon. And it would, in a way.

Kaian changed into a snail like normal, thinking that it'll be the same old. Suddenly he felt vibrations coming from his right side, usually he would just ignore them as his shell looked like a rock and most likely was a rock - an interesting development of a snail in this place; and most animals would ignore him, but this time they felt heavier, stronger.

Kaian's antennae eyes turned to look at the direction the movement was coming in just in time to see a beast appearing from the bushes. It was wounded and nervous, ignoring Kaian, as it sat down and started licking its wounds. That was an interesting experience for Kaian as this creature had glowing veins within which a liquid, resembling poison from fantasy games he played, was coursing.

Its head had two plates from very dark wood on the sides and its eyes were glowing purple. It looked like a beast from hell, yet there it was, laying down and licking itself. Kaian felt like laughing. Then the monster looked in his direction and he quickly retreated under his shell. He felt like crying now.

Thud, thud.

Something was coming. Kaian felt the vibrations, the beast was being pursued, but these vibrations felt more controlled, calm, unlike an animal. Kaian stuck out his eyes and he could see the beast panicking as it stood up and ran away. What could've caused it to scram like that?

The bushes moved once again, a man who looked like in his 40s stepped out. He had furs as his clothes and smaller plates, made from the same deep wood the animal had, as what resembled armor. The man kneeled on the place the animal rested and touched the blood which started flying in the air, pointing in the direction the animal ran off to! Was that magic?!

The man took a glance at Kaian before moving his body and disappearing. Kaian was speechless.

[Am- I'm in a world of magic?? Can I do that as well? Does this mean there's people nearby?] he asked himself, ignoring that he could literally transform into a snail, of course there was magic.

[I wonder why he looked at me, better stay as a snail for a while.]

...

And so, Kaian's adventure continued without interruptions until he noticed a structure built from stone amidst the vegetation.

[Civilization?]