The Cricket's Transformation

The sun hangs low in the sky as you feel a peculiar sensation taking hold. An unfamiliar heat sweeps across you, and you suddenly feel light-headed. Your world starts to shrink as you feel your body starting to reduce in size. You're not just getting shorter, you're getting slimmer too. Your feet start to feel peculiarly odd. Then, it hits you; your shoes have slipped away, and a peculiar resilience envelopes your feet. You look down to witness the transformation of your feet into six, thick, exoskeleton-covered legs, each concluding in a pair of slender tarsal segments. Your two familiar digits have multiplied to five, looking like strange, alien appendages framed with rough-looking, slightly translucent carapace shells. They wriggle on their personal accord momentarily, but soon you learn to control them. You use them now, instinctively, clutching at the grass as your change progresses. You can barely comprehend what's happening, but then you feel your chest and back. An intense sensation envelops you; you touch, and the smooth human skin rapidly transforms into a rough, segmented skin, reminiscent of an armor but feels natural to you. It's your exoskeleton, and just how it extends and wraps itself around your torso is astonishing. Your eyes well up, but the sensation isn't of sadness. It's your body altering again-your eyes. They first broaden, then deepen, and you rapidly gain a multitude of new perspectives. Everything seems so vibrant, fast-moving, and appealing now, in contrast to your previous human vision. Something is growing at your mouth area; your lips and teeth feel strangely heavy. A quick brush of your fingers, and you feel your mouthparts. They've transformed into large, sturdy mandibles, the thought of which terrifies you, but surprisingly, it doesn't seem to feel too strange. Something else is changing; there's a growing sensation at the rear end. Round and firm, your abdomen inflates vastly. Your clothes feel tighter around the waist, so you discard them. Now, there's an ovipositor at the end, and you understand your new gender; you're a female. Age changes come less abruptly, more subtly. Your surroundings seem newer, fresher, life seems newer born from a different perspective. You recognize the signs, your mind is shifting, rapidly reconciling these alien thoughts, integrating newer, more cricket-like memories. The last strands of your human memory fade away, your human personality drips away like a stream of water. A strong desire to seek a mate, the instinct to hide from lights, a fondness for warm, hidden places, a drive to keep moving, each thought nudges you towards your new life as a cricket, your mind making peace with every change. Every residual piece of your human existence dims out, making room for your new self. The transformation may have started with your body, but it finally concludes with your mind. The new chirping sound you hear doesn't bother you. Instead, it's inviting, enticing. In the end, it is the chirping that pulls you towards your new life. The last remnants of your human life are replaced by the call of the cricket. In this new size, with this new body, this new mind, you become your new self - a female cricket. Your mind, now a cricket's, forgets the other life. You spring up on your rear legs, ready to explore. The melody of the night calls you, and without another thought, you leap forward to meet the world as your new self.