Resigned in some ways, impressed in others

Doe's tired, but not so tired that she doesn't take a good look at herself in the mirror. She does comment with some surprise that it wasn't painful. She admits that she actually felt nothing at all through the whole procedure. Her first complaint is that her hands are so dainty. Then she complains her eyes look frightening. There are all sorts of small complaints as, in a way, Doe tries to take control of the situation. Or at least tries to make herself feel less powerless. You stay quiet or offer mild agreement as she checks herself over.

After grousing for a while she finally starts looking for the good parts. The way she feels at her hair and looks at it both in the mirror and by pulling some of it over her shoulder to look at it more closely tells you she rather likes this more golden shade. Her previous blonde hair was a duller shade, not shiny and eye catching like these new locks. You can also tell that she looked closely at how her chest and waist have changed, though she doesn't admit anything to you or Linne. It's a good bet those will get checked over in private at the first opportunity.

The first thing she's willing to comment on is her scales. She pokes at a few and then raps her knuckles on them. While they're not exactly plate mail they are sturdy. You know that a sword or dagger could punch through if it hit at the weaker points where the scales meet, but a glancing blow there or a blow directly on the thickest piece of the scale will bounce right off. Doe takes a long time testing how much she can flex her tail. Again, you think she's impressed at how tightly she can coil it and how much strength she feels down there.

She practices raising herself up too, much like Linne did. As a human Doe stood at 5'7". As a lamia she seemed to 'stand' to that height by reflex, probably setting her height off how much taller she should be than Linne and how much shorter she should be compared to you. But she soon finds that by changing where she bends her tail she can quite easily drop down so her head is only an inch above Linne's or she can raise herself up to tower at over 8 feet tall. She's very wobbly at that point, but you imagine it could prove useful, especially if she braces herself against a tree or wall.

Once she's had a chance to explore her new form a bit you offer to help. Her new form is very different from the usual human plus quadruped transformations you've been making, so this is new for you as well. You touch a few parts of her tail about two thirds of the way along, showing her what that feels like now that her nerves have been rewired. She comments that it's awfully weird - in some ways it feels like you're touching the back of her calves, in other ways the front of her calves, in others still her feet.

Even though she's trying to be a little angry with you this experimenting is interesting enough that she gets right into it. Most of her tail is indistinct - you're sure that will correct itself over the next week. Doe does find that the softer underbelly feels much more like the insides of her legs. She gets flustered when you feel the underbelly closer to her torso, which makes sense. She's really surprised to find that her bum, or at least where she feels her bum according to the map of her body within her mind, seems to have shifted to the underside near the tip of her tail. This makes sense to you, since her anus is now about 4 feet from the end of her tail, and you tell her as much.

What's interesting to you is that most of the sensations for her feet and toes are concentrated in the last 2 feet or so of her tail. This area is the most flexible, so you suppose it makes sense. You just expected the map of her feet in her mind to be more stretched out. It turns out the finer scales at the end of her tail also make her more sensitive, leading to her reacting almost like she's being tickled when you rub the tip of her tail quickly.

Through all of this Linne has been like a mascot or a drummer girl. Completely cheerful and supportive, including physically supportive since she's kept her body pressed against Doe this whole time, worried that Doe would lose her 'footing' or that she might overdo it and try to do too much with her new and untested body. And it's Linne who suggests that you should all head home. Doe has refused to admit that she's tired, of course, but with Linne's help you convince her to head for the tower.

Back home, you all eat the late night stew that Linne left slowly simmering and with full bellies and a warm fire Doe and Linne curl up together on the floor of the study. Unable to resist, you hug Doe from behind and for the first time you sleep with her.