Dema felt herself growing sluggish as her snake-body began to digest the food. She told Sedna, and Sedna walked her back to her room. Dema slid onto the bed and arranged her long coils as comfortably as she could. Then, still a bit reluctantly, she allowed herself to sink more deeply into this strange state of mind and accept it, drifting off into the waking dream as her changed body began to process its nourishment.

After a while it became as if she was watching from outside. She saw her body go through further changes. Just as in her dream, there was no sense of a physical transition, but she saw that her arms were gone, and from the neck down she was now pure snake. Even her face appeared more snake-like than human. She accepted it, and settled her coils more comfortably. For a long while she stayed that way, letting the food digest and restore her body.

Then some time later she became aware that the digestion process had done its work, and the food was no longer a lump in her long stomach. She felt stronger, and more alert, than she had in some time. She decide to go have a visit with Sedna, and slid off the bed and over to the door. She had already reached for the doorknob and turned the handle before she was aware that her arms and hands had come back. Her normal expectation of being able to reach out and open the door had been enough to accomplish the change. Elated, she slid rapidly down the hall and into Sedna's sitting room.

"Sedna!" she said with a grin, "Look at me!" As she said it she realized that she was grinning, which meant that her face, too, had become more human. "A little while ago my arms were gone, but they came back!"

Sedna was grinning too. "You are a natural, Dema. There is no possible doubt of that now."

Dema tried, and found that when she allowed herself to enter that dreamlike state more deeply, she could alter her body without effort. The key was to not let it become an effort, but to simply expect the change to happen as if it were the most natural thing possible. She allowed her arms and hands to disappear again, and coiled up comfortably on Sedna's carpet. But she kept her human face, the better to talk with her.

After a period of idle chatter she raised herself up and made her arms and hands reappear. She couldn't resist the urge to slide over and give her grandmother a joyful hug. The emotion of the moment welled up in her and she couldn't speak, but in her mind she was thankful for how thoroughly accepted and comforted she felt, despite her strange anatomy.

Sedna hugged her back for a moment, and then Dema withdrew to the center of the room. She had the urge to try to regain still more of her natural form, but a twinge of doubt came with it. She was not quite that sure of herself. And she couldn't do it.

Sedna simply nodded understandingly. She knew Dema no longer needed her advice.

Dema realized that another day had slipped by, and retired once again to her bed, allowing her body to go snake-like again as she settled her coils upon the coverlet. No longer resisting, but still somewhat overwhelmed by what was occurring, she retreated into the world of dreams.