Ursula

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Long ago, Ursula was widely known as the Pirate Queen. She commanded a legion of ships, each armed to the teeth and ready to rob and murder any hapless civilian that they came across. For decades, Ursula feasted on the wealth of the oceans and bathed in the blood of her victims. Instead of being satiated, though, her hunger for wealth only grew.

So, of course, when rumors reached Ursula's ears about a Jewel imbued with magic beyond anyone's wildest dreams, she knew that she needed to acquire it. Information was hard to come by, and those who failed to point Ursula in the right direction never got to correct their mistakes.

By the third year of a fruitless search, many of the Captains and Pirates in Ursula's employ began to whisper in doubt. Her very own second in command worded his frustration to Ursula in person, and it was only the fifteen years of service that stilled Ursula's hand from killing him where he stood.

Finally, another whisper entered Ursula's ears, about an old Seer living on a rock that could find anything if asked to. Ursula lowered the sails on her own ship with a cackle like no other, and set course for the rocky outcropping that the rumors mentioned. After a few weeks of travel time, Ursula had arrived. She took the first rowboat to shore and jumped off, keeping a steady grip on her scimitar.

There was a small shack on the island that was basically a few pieces of driftwood leaning together to form a tiny protected area. Ursula opened the door and immediately spotted the old woman sitting on a torn and disgusting rug within the shanty.

"Welcome, Captain Ursula," The old lady said, tilting her head in greeting, "I was wondering when you would find your way here.

"Oh enough with the pleasantries," Ursula said with a grin, drawing her blade with clear malice, "I need you to point me to that Jewel."

The old lady smiled, showing a mouth with only a few teeth, "You don't know what you lust after, Captain. That Jewel is more a Curse than a Gift."

Ursula ignored this warning with a scoff, and demanded that the old lady tell her where to find it, or be killed. The woman continued to smile, and stood up on shaky legs to where a large oyster shell sat, filled with clear ocean water. She spoke a few words in a language that Ursula didn't recognize, and then leaned back as a picture began to appear on the water.

Ursula practically shoved the woman to the ground as she peered into the oyster, watching as the image showed a beautiful teal jewel sitting in the palm of a skeletal hand. As she kept her eyes on it, the image appeared to zoom out, finally showing the shape of the island that the jewel was on. Captain Ursula recognized it with a grim sense of satisfaction, and stepped back.

"Well," The old lady said, "Now you know where to find your jewel."

"Indeed."

"A word to the wise," She continued, staring at Captain Ursula with cloudy blue eyes, "No gift comes without a price. And some gifts are more expensive than others."

With a wave of her hand, Ursula signaled to her men and stepped out of the shack. She committed the shape of the island to memory as her soldiers made quick work of the old hag and left the shack, cleaning their weapons of blood. She knew exactly where to go.

---

Ursula's entire body thrummed with excitement as she saw the skeleton leaning against the cave wall. She knew what she would find within its dead grasp, and after almost a half-decade of searching she had finally found it.

The teal Jewel came free from the bones with a sharp tug, and Ursula admired the color in the sunlight glinting down through the trees. It just barely made it deep enough into the cave to shine off of the Jewel.

This entire time, Ursula imagined that holding the Jewel would fill her with some type of inane power, and yet she still felt completely normal. Shrugging it off, Ursula returned to her stronghold with the Jewel safely tucked away in a pocket inside her jacket.

On the way back, luck would have it that Ursula's ship ran into an Admiralty ship that decided it wanted to fight back. Ursula felt untouchable during the fight, dodging blows and gunshots with a quickness that seemed otherworldly. She slaughtered everyone on that ship, and felt drunk with the power.

As they passed by an island that Ursula had passed a dozen times in her lifetime, she demanded that they drop anchor. After taking a rowboat across to this small island, Ursula led the way to a small spot of sand, and ordered her men to begin digging. In the hole, they found a large chest filled to the brim with gold.

"This Jewel was worth all of the trouble and more," She crowed, laughing as she watched the jewelry-maker set it into a copper necklace for her.

Her second in command didn't seem to buy it, "Captain, I'm not certain you should be wearing that thing at all times... You remember what the old-"

Ursula waved a hand to silence him and held the necklace up with adoration. She fastened it around her neck and smiled.

---

The changes happened slowly, by everyone else's standards, but they somehow seemed to sneak up on Ursula herself. Parts of her skin began to change coloration, either going pale and sickly or becoming covered in a strange leathery texture. Her teeth changed too, though Ursula noticed the difference immediately and fell in love. They sharpened to points, and some even shifted to poke out of her closed mouth. It worked wonders in battle when Ursula would attempt to frighten other soldiers into submission. The teeth worked even better when Ursula found out that they could be deadly in battle, and bit the throat out of a particularly nasty officer.

Her saliva turned black. Not thick enough to block her throat, but it became enough of an issue that Ursula took to keeping a spit bucket within reach. Unless, of course, she was going into battle, in which case she would gleefully allow the inky spit to spill down her chin and onto her clothing.

The eyes changed next. Her pupils turned to horizontal slits, and Ursula was relatively upset about this change until she discovered that she could see underwater with her new eyes. The fear pumping through the blood of other sailors was so sweet when Ursula burst up from the sea and climbed onto their ships with inky spit and sharpened teeth ready to battle.

The last change had been slowly creeping up since Ursula's skin changed tone close to a year previously. The pain in her back with excruciating, and she boarded up the door to her bedroom to prevent any from coming in and taking advantage of her weakened state. After almost a week of this pain that had basically turned her delirious, Ursula was finally able to stand on her own and draw her own bath.

As she laid there, soaking in the warmth, she noticed that the brown leathery patches of skin seemed to be moving on their own. Ursula stared at one for what felt like hours as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. With a tentative flex of her shoulder blade, Ursula jumped as a brown tentacle shot out of her back and destroyed a good section of the bathroom with its wild flailing.

Ursula practiced until she was certain. the brown patches on her skin seemed to be summoning points of tentacles. She could control them, if she focused very hard, but they mostly seemed to have a mind of their own.

---

While Ursula found these changes fascinating, her little stint locked in her own quarters had allowed the pirates working for her to begin to talk. And so, when Ursula returned to her ship she found that nearly every pirate had turned against her. Her second-in-command seemed sad but determined as he announced that she was no longer the Pirate Queen and to stand down or else.

"Oh my," Ursula hissed, "Poor little things."

The fight that followed went on for a day, with Ursula sustaining substantial wounds and managing to kill a few hundred of her own soldiers with relative ease. Eventually, most of them fled and there was only a steadily bleeding Ursula and an unharmed second-in-command left on the bloodied deck of the docked ship.

"Ursula," Her second-in-command said with a frown, "I don't want to kill you."

Ursula laughed and cracked her neck. Instinct overrode her mind and she made a small gesture with her hand. Her second looked down in shocked horror as tentacles erupted from the deck beneath his feet and trussed him up tightly. He dropped his blade as one of the tentacles squeezed his wrist tight enough to break it. "You always were a bit of a fool, dearie," Ursula said, stepping closer to her suspended enemy as he watched her with wide eyes. Without any more preamble, Ursula leaned forwards, and bit out his throat.

---

-85kt