Nahiri grit white teeth that matched her skin and hair, watching the target of her ire tend to the wildlife here. After all the woman had destroyed, she dared to cultivate seeds here on other worlds? It was hypocrisy of the highest regard, and Nahiri had to purge-
The Kor shook her head, her white locks bouncing as she cleared her thoughts. “Focus.” She said to herself, envisioning the Zendikar that was. It was her rock, her center.
Her breathing cooled, and a boulder fell behind herself. She hadn’t even realized she’d lifted it. After this, she might need to find someone to help with… Everything. Innistrad had been a mistake. This; however, would not be.
Nahiri gathered her magic about herself, sinking into the ground.
Here on Theros, everything was so much richer, and she momentarily considered letting the elf slip through her fingers in lieu of embracing the terra around herself.
Then the elf began to tap into the plane’s leylines, and Nahiri remembered her purpose.
She rose from the ground behind the elf, twisting her hands the way she’d learned. “Elf.”
It was like someone had spat her race at her, and Nissa momentarily lost her connection to the plane. She turned, arching an elegant eyebrow. “And you are?”
The Steward of Elements didn’t recognize the planeswalker-though she could tell what she was just from looking at her. The woman had white skin and white hair, unlike any of Theros’s natives. No, she struck Nissa vividly of Zendikar, and for a moment the elf felt a pang of regret.
It was a moment long enough for the kor to complete her spell, sending it straight towards Nissa’s heart. It was a moment too short for such an attack to be effective.
Nissa batted it aside, her eyes glowing azure. “That could have worked on me once, but… Things are different now. The trials I faced on Amonkhet…”
The elf trailed off as a wrenching sensation gripped her gut. She looked up in surprise, watching as the figure she’d been speaking to crumbled into the ground, little more than earth and reflective metal.
“The trials you faced still leave you predictable and naïve. Like I was.” A voice spoke from behind, and Nissa turned once more.
It was the Kor, a triumphant smile on her face. “Nissa. Steward of Elements, Death of Zendikar. You don’t know me, and soon you won’t remember. But in case your mind-mage friend happens to come along, allow me to burn a name into your subconscious: Nahiri.”
Nissa groaned in response, her belly aching. She pressed both hands against it and grit her teeth, feeling it begin to bulge. She knew of this curse, one of Theros’s many. Luckily, her enlightenment had left her with some knowledge when it came to counteracting certain spells. All she had to do was keep the kor talking…
“Nahiri? That’s a Zendikari name. You know, I consider it a home.” She summoned as much mental energy as she could spare, driving her every thought into preventing the curse of the swine from assailing her. “I befriended the servant of the plane, its name was”
“ENOUGH!” Nahiri’s eyes blazed with hatred, an emotion so raw and savage that it startled even the elf. “Do not speak of my home as your own! You ruined it, ruined everything!” Large stone columns began to rise from behind her as she railed, and Nissa gasped.
“Cryptoliths… You were there, on Innistrad!” The elf’s gaze hardened. “I saw what you did to that world.”
“No more than what you did to mine.”
“Perhaps, and there will come a time when I am punished for it.” Nissa allowed herself a moment of sadness before glaring up to the kor. “But that time is not now.”
The elf stood tall, casting her counterspell. “This is your punishment, for all the people of InnistREEUAAWW!” Her head jerked as she brayed, teeth broadening exponentially. Her nose bulged on her face, and her eyes bulged in turn.
It was impossible, she’d countered that curse! Panicked, the elf tried to muster another counterspell, but her fingers were stiffening. She looked to them in horror, watching as they coalesced into thick, blocky hooves. Her hands went numb as they became hooves, and her heart filled with dread.
“Not the curse you were expecting? It was tempting to see you as a sow, but I think there’s a far better form for a long-eared animal like yourself.” Nahiri grinned cruelly, lifting an arm. Stone rose from the ground, burrowing up from the core of the earth. It was molten hot, a metal rod clearly visible within the rock.
“WHAAAW! WhYEEEAWWW you doing HEEHAWW EEAUWW!” Nissa brayed more and more, each one causing her form to change further. Her belly bulged, slender limbs broadened. She fell onto all fours, looking up through darkening eyes.
“You know why.”
Nissa sobbed. “UHAWWW!” Her face creaked out into a blunt, clumsy muzzle. Her ears lengthened atop her head, stretching as though someone was tugging hard on them. Her clothes tore from her growing body. All of it was a nightmare made manifest, the elf’s slender grace losing itself to the clumsy body of a pack animal.
Nahiri looked at the changing woman without so much a trace of pity in her eyes. They were blank, as dead as the stone she reached into.
The elf realized at that moment the sheer depths of hatred her foe had sunk to, and in turn her own damnation. She kicked her back hooves instinctively, a numbness overtaking her brain. It was impossible to fight; to deny.
Desperately, Nissa tried to cling onto something, anything. She ignored the Kor, even as the white-skinned woman drew something from the stone. “HEEAWW!” Nissa struggled to retain her mind even as her smooth skin was overtaken with coarse grey fur.
A searing pain met her ass, and Nissa found her thoughts scattered; then overwhelmed. She looked back in panic to see Nahiri smirking, a brand in her hand.
“NAWWW! PUHLEEAWWTHH!” The donkey sobbed, already having lost her own name. She could still remember though, remember what it was like to live on two legs and create wonders with her hands. She knew that all of that was soon to come to an end, and it filled her with unending terror.
“Scream. Scream like my friends, like my family, like my home.” Nahiri spoke coolly, her smile growing. “And die.”
The donkey saw the kor draw a sword, and her heart froze. She desperately turned to run, body moving naturally as though she’d been born to it. A tail spurted from her thick jennet ass as she galloped clumsily away, braying in terror.
Every step carried her further from her old life, from her memories. The last of her intelligence unwound with her frantic hoofbeats, but she didn’t care; had to escape!
She ran… The donkey didn’t know how long; couldn’t even begin to understand the concept of time. All she knew was that she felt safe here, in a field far away. Running had made her hungry, and so she began to eat.
Every higher thought Nissa could call her own had been forever replaced with the instinct of a donkey. There was no further drive to help others, to atone for Zendikar, to protect the Multiverse. All that she possessed was a need to eat, sleep, and one day mate.
Nahiri the Lithomancer; the Harbinger, smiled.