Am-lei had been growing stiffer by the day. Her long, green, tubular body was usually lithe and flexible. She could twist her way through the grav-bubble obstacle courses on the Crossroads Space Station playground better than any Heffen children in her class. Their canine bodies couldn't bend in half, twist into a pretzel, or grab onto an extra jungle gym bar with a sixth pair of arms.
Lately though, Am-lei had been barely able to bend at all, and all she wanted to do at recess was drape her stiff, itchy body over her desk and play board games with her two best friends, listlessly moving her plastic tokens over the colorful cardboard with her middlemost pair of arms. She'd beaten Anno and Jeko at Starhopper Supreme three days in a row.
Am-lei didn't think she'd win tomorrow. She didn't think she'd be at school.
For the first time in weeks, her body couldn't stop wiggling. It was the middle of the night; her clone mother was asleep in the other room. But Am-lei had woken up with a pressure in her head and an uncontrollable urge to contort and twist and wriggle about. Her mouth felt gooey and tasted sweet. She moved her mandibular mouthparts and felt the sweet goo overflow and dribble down her face.
Silk. It was her chrysalis silk. It was time. She was terrified and thrilled all at once.
The pressure in Am-lei's head built and stabbed until she doubled over. She needed her head down, down below the rest of her. The pounding in her head insisted on it.
She'd always had the uncanny ability to climb up walls. It was probably normal for children of her species, but living on a mostly Heffen space station, her ability to grip a smooth, flat, metal, space station wall with her six hands and climb straight up felt like a superpower. It made the other kids stare at her with awe.
Alone in her bedroom, Am-lei grabbed onto the wall, climbed up to the ceiling, and spat the sticky, sweet goo overflowing her mouth all over her bottom-most feet. She glued herself to the ceiling with spit-silk, and then she let her head drop down. She hung like a seedpod from a tree in the space station's arboretum. Then she began to wriggle, writhing like mad from the itchiness all over and under her fleshy, green skin.
...