by Mel Todd
Run away, no don't move, run away, it'll strike.
Her mind raced in circles as she tried to figure out what to do. As she started to panic, the snake moved. Cass reacted by jumping backwards, then snapping forward as the snake's strike missed. Her long sharp teeth sinking into the neck of the snake behind its head. The movement was so smooth and fast, the snake never had a chance to recoil from its strike. The blood filled her mouth as the head fell on the leaves, making an odd crunching sound even as she swallowed. Her body reacted to the taste and feel of the blood sliding down her throat.
Oh gods, that tastes good! But why?
She felt off balance as she tried to figure out what had just happened. Her body moved, attacked, killed, in a fluid motion that spoke of experience. Experience she didn't have and certainly not in killing animals.
I'm eating it!
As she'd been fighting with the inner turmoil, her body had been delightedly munching on the snake and not much was left. Cass waited for the horror and nausea to hit her; after all she'd just eaten a raw snake.
But nothing came. It tasted good, her animal body enjoyed the protein and couldn't find any horror.
How different am I as an animal?
Shaking her head, which felt oddly good, and ruffling her fur she headed down along the lakeshore, making sure she knew where to come back to for her clothes.
Everything seemed bigger, wilder. She lost herself in just exploring a world she'd never paid enough attention to from a different perspective. Animals were everywhere, she'd never realized before. Oh, she'd known, and could quote stats, but how many of them lived around her that she never noticed came as a surprise. Insects too. They were everywhere.
Time lost all meaning as she sniffed, listened, followed trails, and just existed. The stones and twigs didn't hurt her paws, and other than her nose, the insects didn't bug her, even if her human side still had her skin crawling with the idea of living with that many bugs in her fur.
She glanced up and realized more time had passed than she really expected to spend and she started making her way back to the large rock that marked where she had her stuff. She swam a bit in the lake, but she discovered that while she could swim, her body seemed really dense and she got tired quickly. Besides, getting too far out and then coming back to human unexpectedly could be really bad.
She froze as she approached the area, hearing voices.
Oh shit, if they see me they'll either freak out at seeing a wolverine or find my stuff and think something happened to a hiker. Oh shit, what do I do?
No matter what, she was screwed but she couldn't get home without her keys if they took her possessions assuming they belonged to a missing person. Taking a deep breath, she shifted. Human came reluctantly as the animal slid away and she found herself in not quite waist deep water. She started splashing around making noise as she headed closer to where her stuff was.
That drew instant attention and she sank down even as she cringed at the feeling of the lake soil between her toes. She refused to think about the various life forms that lived in lake water, things that hadn't bugged her in animal form, but now all the various biological creatures that could be coating her skin made her want to gag.
I definitely like the outdoors more as a wolverine. This human stuff sucks but overall, I like my apartment.
Part of her felt an odd feeling of sadness that this is all there was to it. She could turn into an animal yes, but she couldn't do anything with it. Not really.
"Hey, you, what are you doing there?" Two men and a woman stepped on to the rocky lake shore, one of them in a ranger uniform.
Great, this is what I was worried about.
"Swimming?" She said trying not to be too sarcastic, but what did they think she was doing in the water.
"Why didn't you respond when we called for you?" The young woman demanded. "We got really worried. We stopped our day to go find a ranger." The woman, about twenty-five with blond hair in a pony tail, had a petulant whiny tone to her voice as she crossed her arms and glared at Cass.
Did I ask you to do that?
The thought almost slipped through her teeth as words, but she managed to bite it back. Instead she forced a smile to her face.
"Guess I didn't hear you. I've been swimming around."
"Ma'am, can you come up here and talk to us? I'd rather not be shouting." The park ranger, an older man with an annoyed expression.
"Sorry. I don't have a swimsuit on. As you can see I'm fine. So, you can go away now." Cass said even as she felt her face start to heat.
The young man gave her a wink and a half smile, then rolled his eyes as the girl started to talk.
"Oh really. Some people. How could you be skinny dipping in a public place? Don’t you know there might be kids around. What are you? One of those shifter perversions? To think I worried someone might have done something awful to you." Her words came at Cass like slaps.
She tried to convince herself she didn't care about the words of a spoiled stranger but still, the idea that someone thought of her as a perversion when she didn't understand this either, hurt.
"We're leaving, Jason." She grabbed the young man, who looked more than a bit embarrassed at her attitude. He flashed Cass a smile as he let the woman drag him away.
"Ma'am, you do realize this qualifies as public indecency, right?" The ranger drawled with his arms crossed and an unamused look on his face.
"Well there wasn't any public until people stuck their nose in." Cass didn't mean to say it so loud, but the water reflected her voice and the man snorted.
"Point, but it doesn't change the fact. If you'll come up and get dressed, I'll write you a ticket. And I've seen naked women before." His tone on top of everything else snapped her patience, even as she felt her face flame, not sure if it was embarrassment or anger.
Cass glanced down and signed. The crystal clear water displayed everything and even the beach there wasn't anything not on display.
She walked up out of the water, fighting not to cover herself, and not wince at the sharp sticks and rocks that seemed determined to attack her feet.
He didn't stare at her, instead watching the water, but keeping her in his periphery. Swimming hadn't been on her list of things to do and she hadn't expected to be wet. It took her a bit to get clothes on and not flinch every time she stepped down until after she got her socks and shoes on. Cass turned to face the ranger whose name badge, now that she was close enough to read it, said Wilson.
"Thank you, ma'am. Now if you could hand over your id."
"Really? You're going to write me a ticket for public indecency?" Cass winced as her voice rose and cracked a bit.
"Yes. ID please?"
Cass handed it over even as she resisted the urge to beat her head against the tree.
How is this my life? I just wanted to play as an animal. I come to the middle of nowhere and this happens. Really?
He wrote out the citation and handed it and her license back to her. "Just be aware there are a lot of people out here that don't like shifters and finding a single female shifter out there would have been easy prey for them." He didn't look at her and just turned and walked away striding through the woods more quietly than she had managed in her animal form.
Cass stood there, the ticket fluttering in her hand as his words wrapped around her heart and crushed something to tiny pieces.
12
No More
Wolverines are a member of the weasel family, but they look more like small bears than a weasel. They prefer cool climes and can range ten to twenty miles a day looking for food or a mate. They have strong scent glands, though not as offensive as skunks. They have been used as the base of perfumes, though their pelts are more valuable in a commercial setting. ~ Science Article.
During the drive home she turned on the radio to distract her thoughts. After a minute of music that almost started to calm her down, a breaking news story came on, making the late summer day turn icy.
&nbs
p; "As we heard earlier McKenna Largo and the children have all been recovered and they are okay. Sheriff DeSoto will give a press conference later but until that time, a release has been issued explaining the children were taken to be trained as animal body guards and Officer Largo was horrifically abused and forced to keep the children in line. We'll have more information as it becomes available."
Cass's hands locked up tight on the steering wheel and she almost didn't turn as the road did, her breath coming in short rapid pants. With shaking hands and a mind that wouldn’t stay still, she pulled over to the shoulder and sat there trying to get control of herself.
I don't need this in my life. I don't have time. I have a job and my family. That's all I need. This, this was an interesting trip, but it's over now, and best forgotten. I not going to be a pawn to others because of this thing I can do. I don't need it.
Going into the house, she ate because she had to but she dumped the wolverine journal in the trash. She cleared her saved files on wolverines and focused instead on fungus, trying to see exactly what made her new assignment so interesting. Nothing jumped out at her, but she found a few things to follow up on before she went to bed. She spent Sunday doing chores, but nothing interested her. It all seemed like she lived a life that had no meaning, but she couldn’t figure out what to do about it. Setting her alarm, she fell into bed, ready for normalcy to reassert itself into her life.
Her eyes opened to the same familiar room, the white gleaming area annoying her this time.
No, I’m not interested. I just want my life back. I was happy before all this.
The words sounded like a lie even in her own mind and Cass shied away from her thoughts. She ignored the movements of the body she rode, the displays on the screens in front of her. Instead she tried to wake up, not wanting to have dreams that didn’t exist. Nothing she did would wake her up so finally she refocused on the world around her dream and growled. If she had to be here, the least that could happen is she could control the interactions.
"Attention. You are being reassigned. The Commander has need of medical personnel. Your science background will provide a decent foundation for the Commander’s needs. Training will commence tomorrow. Finish all duties here before reassignment."
"Acknowledged." The voice coming from her body startled her. It sounded like her but different, somehow changed in a way. She had no sense of her body, but she could tell from the hands that it wasn’t human, humanoid yes, but humans didn’t have claws and fur.
NO, I don’t care. I just want to wake up.
Something about this dream hurt in ways she didn’t want to acknowledge, but she couldn’t wake up. She couldn’t change anything, so she watched her avatar work on machines that she vaguely grasped and would have been excited about it if she could have explored. Since she couldn’t it just seemed like one more taunt.
Even so she couldn’t miss the figures hanging in canisters that were green and being sent to a big one where the cannisters were inserted and came back out empty. By watching, she could tell the beings were removed to be woken up while she watched the canisters being cleaned and put back. Idly she started to count how many cannisters were in that big room. By her best guess, multiplying what she saw, it would have been over five thousand beings held there.
I wonder how many of these storage facilities there are.
"Over three hundred, this one is for the specialty squads."
Wait what? You can answer questions?
No response. The being kept moving and doing the same motions.
Please talk to me. Why are you doing this?
Again, no response and Cass thought furiously.
The question was directly about the job that it, me, are doing so maybe I can ask about that? How many squads are you decanting?
"Decanting is at 43% in preparation for Kaylid gathering. My duties will be to finish the ten squads I have left."
Why? Why are you doing this?
No response and Cass wished she was solid, so she had something to beat her head on.
Okay, let’s try it this way. What do squads do?
"Squads function according to their designation."
What is your designation?
"Decanter first rank, but I am being redirected to med specialist for the Commander’s squad."
Cass wanted to ask so many questions, but a buzzing distracted her, and she tried to figure out what made that sound.
What is buzzing?
But the being didn’t respond, instead entering data as the buzzing got louder and louder. She turned and saw her alarm clock going off as it had been for five minutes according to the numbers on it.
"What the hell?" She didn’t know if she wanted to scream, cry, or throw things. There was something about that scene, something that mattered, information she had but it made no sense. "This is ridiculous, this is just a dream. I’m not going to spend time on it, or the shifting. I need to get back to my life. Get back to writing articles and doing my job."
She pushed herself out of bed and headed to the shower, wanting nothing more than to run back to the dreams that seemed so different from the here and now.
No one said anything at work, she checked all her requests, but everything still sat in a pending status. Cass closed her eyes and pushed everything away. Pulling on her lab coat, goggles, and hair net, she did her job. She spoke to no one, left on time, and went home. A romance occupied her evening and she went to bed. Her sleep contained nothing she remembered, and she repeated the schedule for the next week, avoiding news, conversation, and anything that would make her think.
The week passed in a blur of boring experiments and research, nothing that gave her any enthusiasm. Saturday morning found her staring at the walls, not wanting to do anything. She’d still lost a bit of weight even not shifting, but it didn’t matter to her.
"Enough, you have stuff to do. Do it."
The weekend disappeared in mundane stuff and she spent Sunday doing a deep clean on her apartment and throwing things away, not admitting she ran from what she craved, being something more than what she was. She collapsed into bed exhausted, hands wrinkled and pruney from scrubbing floors and her refrigerator.
The walls this time were filled with diagrams, and she could sense other people around her, but Cass couldn’t get her head to turn to view them and from the way she was positioned it seemed like she sat at the front of the class.
"Pull up the information on the top of the table in front of you. You will have your class information provided via this interface. When you are ready for practical tests you will be transitioned to the practice room. Your assignment depends on your abilities at this. Keep in mind all Kaylid are only kept if they are worth the expense to keep." The voice sounded around her and in her head as Cass tried to figure out what exactly that meant.
What in the world does ‘worth the expense’ mean?
The vision of the being that flashed red, then the way the canister seemed to be disposed of popped up in her mind and she cringed. She wanted to turn and look and see who else was there, see if they were as tense as this body felt. Giving up she focused on the information being presented. It didn’t look like English, but she could understand it. Against her inclination she found herself fascinated by what she read. It talked about the various nervous, vascular, and spinal systems and what could be done to repair them. But first she had to learn the basic biology behind each of the species.
Wait species? I’m not sure my brain is this creative.
Either way she couldn’t not learn this, and the buzz of her alarm made her cry in frustration as there was so much still to learn, ideas and tools she didn’t think Earth had ever had.
13
In an Instant
Dream research has seen a spike over the last few months, with many more people seeking out dream interpretation. Key word spikes for dreams, surreal, real dreams, and alien dreams are huge. While no one has information on how many people are seeking treatment for
their dreams, the chatters on various boards has risen. In the Furspace community there are entire groups dedicated to the odd dreams shifters have. ~ TNN News blurb
Cass lived for her dreams over the next few weeks. The world, while still in turmoil over the shifters, had at least started to go back to normal but mostly she worked and dreamed. Of the two, she preferred the dreaming. The fungi had nothing interesting about it and while edible, it had a sharp taste that would put off most consumers. She wrote up the findings and filed them when she noticed an email. Clicking it, she wondered what now. Cass had to blink as she read it, to make sure it really said what she thought it did.
"Yes!" Her voice echoed in the office. Late on a Wednesday she figured most everyone else had already left, so she didn’t worry about keeping her voice down.
"Finally figured out how to get a date, Borden?" Chuck’s dry voice sounded behind her.
Cass squeaked and whirled in the chair, almost falling over. She grabbed the desk and managed to not flip over backwards as she looked at Chuck looming over the low cube wall.
"What?" The word came out a bit squeakier than she intended as she tried to get her heart rate back to normal.
"Your yell of excitement? Or have you already forgotten." His mocking smile made her flush a bit, but she sat up straighter.
"I just found out that not only did the injunction I filed get accepted, but the journal submissions were accepted. And my patent was approved. That was the home office emailing me to let me know and say they have filed for my bonus." It was standard when your papers or patents were accepted they would give you a bonus. Granted, given what any viable patent could make them the ten-thousand-dollar bonus was nothing but still, a lot of companies didn’t do that. They just put an ‘attaboy’ in your file and nothing else.
Chuck’s mocking smile morphed into a sneer that radiated contempt. "You just think you are so special don’t you. Your articles, forcing businesses to spend money because you think a fucking plant should be protected. You liberals are all alike, you don’t think how your actions affect anyone else." He pulled himself up straight. "Whatever. People like you always get what’s coming to them. Enjoy your win, eventually everyone will see you for the whiny little loser you are you."