A Praying Mantis Becomes a Female

You wake up, feeling groggy. You sit upright and blink your eyes several times to adjust. Strangely, your sight is sharper, more refined. But something else feels off, too. You raise your hand to rub your eyes, but pause mid-way - your hand, it looks...green? As you take a look around, you notice that your bedroom seems different, larger somehow. The objects that used to be normal sized are now giant-like objects towering over you. Slowly, the reality of it sweeps over you, replacing the initial shock. The sweeping sensation trickles down your body, causing unknown transformations. Your body compresses, getting smaller by the second. Your stomach twists and turns, and your skin radiant, verdant. Panic hits, but it's soon overcome by a sense of calm you had never known before. Even though your mind is struggling to hang onto your identity, something else, something primal, is starting to override it. A strong sensation erupts in your mouth. You touch it with your foreign, green hand and...mandibles? They snip together, solid and powerful. A mirror nearby reflects your new countenance. Much to your surprise, you now possess multifaceted eyes that resemble intricate jewels, rings of emerald and jade dancing inside them. Your torso contracts, segments coming into existence, bending where there were no joints before. It's like your very biology is unknitting and re-knotting itself. With each second, your human form is being replaced by an entirely different blueprint. Underneath you, you feel your lower body transforming, your posterior inflating into a long, flexible abdomen. The sensation is strange – like someone inflating a balloon within you. However, it’s not painful nor uncomfortable. It feels natural, somehow. Next, you feel this strange force inside, like you're being pulled back in time. Your body feels leaner, fairer, younger. Most perplexingly, every minute detail about your past life, each memory you once held dear, is beginning to fade away. As the last remnants of human consciousness leave you, you feel this peace washing over you again. Now, you are one with your surroundings; a passive observer, yet an integral part of the grand, beautiful plane of existence. Human worries and priorities seem petty and distant. Now, only a single motive drives you - survival. A ripple of sensation flows through your wing-like form. You don't remember how, but you intuitively know how to spread your wings and take to the sky. This freedom, it's something your old self could never experience, you - no, I realize. From the branch of a skyscraping tree, I watch the world with my all-seeing eyes. Now I no longer think in words but in instincts and impulses - the primal language of nature. I am no longer the person I used to be. I am a praying mantis- of the greenest green and the freest spirit.