The morning sun hit Alex's face, but he didn't wake up with a yawn.
He woke up with a gasp, his body arching off the mattress as if he had been electrocuted.
"Hah...!"
His skin felt tight. Incredibly tight.
It wasn't just the itchiness from the day before.
It felt like he was trapped inside a suit made of dried glue and sandpaper that was too small on his body.
He sat up, the movement causing a loud, dry crackle sound from his own body.
He looked down at his bedsheets.
The dark grey sheets were covered in fine, white flakes, like a snowstorm of dandruff had hit his bed overnight.
"What the hell..." Alex whispered, his voice slightly hoarse.
He looked at his arms. They looked hideous.
The skin was cracked in a mosaic pattern, like the bark of a dying tree clinging to him.
Large patches of his tanned, rough "male" skin were peeling up at the edges, revealing glimpses of something pale white and raw underneath.
"Status," he sighed, expecting something like this to happen.
[ Feminization Progress: Phase 1/9 (Ecdysis) - 34% ]
"Thirty-four… Damm it, it's happening faster than expected." Alex breathed, clutching his chest, which sent another shower of dead skin flakes onto his lap. "It jumped another three percent while I was asleep?"
"Your body is working overtime to repair the wound from your little joyride on the snake," the Empress's voice drifted through his mind, sounding lazy and amused.
Alex shuddered. She was right.
The urge to scratch, to rip this dead, dry husk off his body, was overwhelming.
He swung his legs out of bed, moving stiffly like a robot.
He checked his body quickly.
Thankfully, apart from the horrific skin condition, his structure hadn't morphed overnight.
His shoulders were still somewhat broad, his hips hadn't widened (yet), and his junk was still present, though currently hidden under a layer of dry, flaking skin.
"I need a shower," he muttered, grabbing a towel. "A good one."
He crept down the hallway, praying no one was awake. The house was silent. Uncle John and Marcus were likely already at the forge, and Elena... hopefully, she was not home.
He locked the bathroom door and turned the shower handle all the way to 'Hot.'
Steam filled the small room instantly.
Alex stepped under the spray, and for a second, he thought he was going to pass out.
"Ahhh—fuck!"
He bit down hard on the towel he had brought in with him to muffle his scream.
The hot water hit his shedding skin like liquid fire.
It soaked into the cracks of the dead "bark," loosening the glue that held the old skin to the new.
He looked down at his chest. The water running down his torso wasn't clear; it was turning a murky grey.
"Do it," the Empress whispered, her voice vibrating in his spine. "Scrub it off. Reveal your true body."
Alex dropped the towel from his mouth and grabbed the rough exfoliating sponge Elena kept in the shower.
He hesitated, then pressed it against his left arm.
He scrubbed.
"Nnnngh!"
A sheet of dead, tanned skin, easily the size of a playing card, rolled up and sloughed off in one go.
The sensation was a blinding mix of stinging pain and an intense, shivering pleasure that made his knees buckle.
Underneath the dead patch, the new skin was so sensitive that the mere pressure of the water spray felt like a physical caress.
"It feels... too good," Alex whimpered, he couldn't stop. The relief of peeling away the tight, dry shell seemed addictive.
He moved the sponge to his chest.
Scrub. Peel. Gasp.
He moved it to his stomach.
Scrub. Peel. Moan.
"Yes... harder," the Empress cooed, feeding on the sensation. "Look at you. You're enjoying it yourself."
He reached his legs. The inner thighs, which had been raw yesterday, had healed overnight into that same impossibly smooth, white texture.
He scrubbed the rest of his legs, watching as the hairy, rough skin of his male life washed down the drain in clumps.
Then, he reached his groin.
Alex dropped the sponge. He couldn't use that there. It was too rough.
His hands were trembling as he reached down.
The skin on his package was already loose, hanging in tatters after the abuse it took from the snake ride and Elena's... assistance.
He used his fingers, gently pinching a loose flap of dry skin at the base.
He pulled.
"Hah... aaah!"
Alex leaned his forehead against the cold tile wall, his hips jerking forward involuntarily.
It peeled away in long, translucent strips, like thin parchment paper.
The sensation of the air hitting the raw, new nerves was electric.
He wasn't touching himself sexually, he was just cleaning, but his body couldn't tell the difference.
His cock hardened instantly, pulsing with blood, expanding against the dead skin that was still constricting it.
"Pathetic," the Empress laughed softly. "Getting hard again?"
"Shut... up..." Alex panted, peeling the last stubborn strip from the underside of his shaft.
He stood there for another ten minutes, letting the water run over him, shaking from the aftershocks of the sensory overload.
When he finally turned the water off and stepped out, the mirror told him the truth he was afraid of.
He wiped the steam away.
The person staring back wasn't the scruffy, slightly tanned blacksmith's nephew anymore.
He was... pretty.
His skin was a uniform, glowing white, radiating a healthy, almost magical luster.
His muscles were still there, but the definition had softened, covered by a layer of subcutaneous softness that gave him a fluid, graceful look.
"I look like a K-pop idol who hasn't seen the sun in years," Alex muttered, touching his cheek. It was soft as butter.
"Phase 1 is not complete," the Empress reminded him. "You have shed the outer layer. But to reach Phase 2... you will need to shed at least two more times. Deep shedding."
"Two more times?" Alex groaned. "I can't handle this again."
He dried himself off, dabbing gently with the towel because rubbing felt like being sanded down.
Then came the problem.
He looked at the pile of clothes he had brought into the bathroom.
His rough canvas boxers. His thick denim jeans.
He reached out and touched the denim.
Zzzzt.
Just the texture of the rough fabric against his fingertips made him remember about yesterday's incident.
"No way," Alex whispered, backing away from his own clothes.
"I can't wear that. I don't want to experience that again."
His skin nerves were currently raw. They needed time to adjust to the new sensitivity levels.
Until then, wearing rough fabric would be torture.
It would overstimulate him to the point where he'd be walking around with a painful erection all day, or worse.
"I need... cotton. Something soft," Alex pondered.
He didn't own anything like that. Uncle John bought the cheapest, sturdiest clothes for work.
Then, he remembered.
Elena.
She had a drawer full of "training gear."
Expensive, high-quality sportswear made of synthetic, smooth blends.
"I can't," Alex thought, his face flushing. "That's... that's being perverted."
"Is it perverted to want to protect your skin?" the Empress reasoned, her tone silky. "Or is it survival? Besides... they will fit. You're smaller, not much different from her."
Alex swallowed hard. He cracked the bathroom door open.
The coast was clear.
He wrapped the towel around his waist and sprinted silently across the hall to Elena's room.
He pushed the door open.
He went straight to her dresser.
"Please, please..." He opened the second drawer.
There they were. Black compression shorts. Spandex.
He grabbed a pair. They were small Elena had a tight, athletic build, but the fabric was stretchy.
He quickly dropped his towel and stepped into them.
"Oh god..." Alex let out a long sigh of relief.
The fabric was cool and impossibly smooth. It slid over his sensitive thighs without a single scratch.
He pulled them up.
They were tight. Very tight.
They hugged his butt, lifting it slightly, and compressed his thighs.
But the front… The compression material squashed his cock flat against his pelvis.
It wasn't painful, but the outline was... problematic.
The smooth fabric highlighted everything.
"It creates a distinct... bulge," Alex noted in the mirror, turning red. "I need to wear the jeans to cover it."