The Ash nectar flowed evenly over his tongue. Taste buds blossoming with silvery sweet sensations and light woody overtones poured down his throat into his stomach. There it began to awaken and rejuvenate him. It was as if he swallowed liquid light and the light was revivifing his celluar tissue.

“Soon you will be one of us!” exclaimed the creature blinking and clapping his hands.

Dan sucked down the nectar to the last drop. Invigorated he began to see with new eyes and hear with new ears. His feet were becoming elongated.

“Quickly we must go to the surface! Follow me! This way!” The creature scampered off thru the tunnel.

Dan sauntered after him. His quickly growing feet slapping the ground looking rather like a duck he waddled forward and then up to an opening thru the side of a hill.

“Come here!” waved the creature on an adjacent hill top.

Dan began to waddle up the hill but he no longer felt like Dan. At the top his feet quickly spread out and grew downward like roots of a tree.