Lenalee Lee was puzzled. Her left foot had just started to go numb for no reason.

She looked down, and she was surprised. Her black boot had turned grey, around her foot but not yet past her ankle.

'What... Is that paint?.'

She gently kicked the grey  foot into a nearby wall, and was shocked as the boot cracked and splintered into fine marble shards. It exposed, below, her foot.

Except it was grey like the boot had been, and her toes wouldn't move.

'No way....'

She knelt down, careful of her foot as she felt herself grow worried. A tentative prod with her finger confirmed her fear. Her foot, and boot, were solid rock. And more of the boot was turning grey, and as it did hairline cracks and fractures spread out.

She was turning into stone.

'Thank goodness I didn't kick too hard!.' She realised with shock. She could have smashed her foot...

'Wait. What do I do now? How is this even happening?.'

The stony wave had spread, and her boot was cracking away as it petrified now, showing smooth marble in place of her ankle. She tried to stand but found her stone foot locked in place and making balance very tricky.

"Whoa!" She cried out, almost falling. She placed her hand on the wall to steady herself.

And then she saw.

The tip of her finger was grey now.

'It's spreading from where I touch!.' She realised.

She pondered briefly the fact she might have to halt the spread by cutting off the affected areas. By now, halfway to her knee was rock exposed by the vanishing boot that crumbled to dust as it petrified.

'This can't be happening... Wait... Now my hand feels....'

She stared at her hand again, and saw small grey flecks popping up just ahead of the petrification. Each fleck spread out into more marble, about half a centimetre a second, but getting faster. Was the effect spread by touch?

'I'm feeling cold....' She realised. She checked her legs, and saw to her surprise, grey flecks there.

On the wrong leg, and on her unshattering boot.

Her left leg was almost exposed and petrifying now, locking her left knee. She tried to move, but nearly lost balance once more as she discovered her right knee was locked in place too. How had it spread to her other leg?!

She cried out in shock at this, and then felt her heartrate increase in fear.

And so did the spread of the grey.

She tried to force movement in her frozen knees, lifting the locked limbs and waddling forth, only to start feeling the same numb sensation affecting her hips, shoulders and elbows.

'No! Everything's freezing up!.'

She felt the numbness below her skin. On her body, large chunks of her clothing had turned grey, and in a few spots the waddling had caused cracks for form. A good sized portion of her skirt slid down an almost entirely stone leg and smashed into dust.

She tried to cry out once more in horror, but found her face muscles were numb. Her yell was muffled by her own locked mouth. She protested mentally and with muffled verbal cries for the last few moments, unsure of what would happen when it was done.

Finally, she felt things stopping to grow numb, and her eyes were the last to go. She was then surprised to still see, hear, and feel... and feel her own body once more. Except it was motionless, and cooling down. She felt the still-crumbling parts of her clothes slipping away, and even though she still had no idea how or why this had happened to her, her mind raced with questions. How and Why were first and foremost, but she also wondered if she was totally stone. Was the damage to her clothing spreading out? Would anyone find her?

Could anyone save her?

But in her petrified body there were no answers. After all, she was the only one in her mind.

And she didn't know any answers.