A Teen Thing
A Winds of Change Story By Jon Sleeper I got up this morning, and as usual, nothing had changed.
Not one tuft of fur, not one plume of feathers, not one patch of scales.
Nothing.
I mean, I'm sixteen now. I have been for two weeks. Everyone else my age is pretty far along in their Change. But what's worse is that my thirteen year old sister has the beak of a cedar waxwing. And me, I've got nothing. Nothing but the boring human shape in the mirror before me.
For some reason about eight years ago everyone above puberty became part animal to some degree. They say something about the universe changed and so here we are; born human, remaining so for the first part of our lives, then it hits. No one knows why or how though there’s been a national research project to try to answer that question, but no luck. Take my mom. When she roars "GET OUT OF BED," you DO it. Like this morning.
My high school health teacher says puberty itself is the trigger for the Change, and girls generally start earlier than boys do. My doctor says I'm one of those "late bloomer"-types. They've been thinking about giving me hormones to jump start the process, but I declined. I don't want *anything* to affect what I might become…
You see, for some reason it's pretty much random what species you become. I mean, my sister is going to be a bird-morph. My mom's a lioness-morph, and my dad, well, he's a bottlenose dolphin-morph. Lucky thing he's average Degree, else he could not live on dry land comfortably.
That's another thing. Degree. The short of it is that some Change more than others, ranging from the "furry human" to almost no different from the real thing, only with functional hands and the ability to speak.
But I've still got nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Of course I'm picked on at school. "Hew-man," or "pink boy." They all say to me. That's a real put down.
With a sigh, checking *everything* to make sure I did not miss the much awaited "First Sign" I go to the table for breakfast.
Breakfast. My most hated meal of the day since my sister started her Change. The problem is that my sister does not have a gizzard yet (though the doctors say one is slowly growing), so she's on a liquid diet right now.
My sister has the Surging kind of Change. She changes one bit at a time, part by part mostly spreading down from her head because she got a beak first. She also seems to be one of those fast-Change types. The docs say that her Change will complete in about six months. Most take at least a year.
Dad came in all wet, as usual. "Good morning, Thomas." He says to me.
"What's so good about it?" I respond. He says I suffer from “low self esteem,” but I don’t really care. We all sit down at the table, mom gets out our breakfasts. My sister gets her special drink, with the special straw. The one good thing right now is that she can't talk. Else I just *know* she'd be making fun of me. Especially today. Waxwings have an erect feathered crest, brownish in color, with a black stripe over their eyes. She's got that crest and stripe this morning. What's worse, she says to me, "still nothing yet?" I nod, then she laughs a chirping laugh.
Just my luck.
Of course, dad has fish. *Lots* of fish. And mom, mostly carnivorous, has her meat ration. Meat shortages are rather chronic, meat takes a lot of effort to produce. Lucky thing strict carnivores are quite rare. But my mom is one of them so… It's tough but she gets enough. They have come up with a meat substitute she can eat at least, though she does not like it much.
My dad is rather lucky. His skin has the texture and color of the dolphin, but has enough human skin qualities that he does not need to have it wet all the time. "Don't worry, son." He says through his blowmouth. "You'll get it any day now. At least for you it won't be a complete surprise like it was for me." The problem with my dad is I can't get him to *stop* talking about the day the universe changed. “I woke up with my newly grown dorsal fin jutting me in the back…” I listened to the whole thing once more. Like I wasn't eight at the time and don't remember it myself.
The only thing that saved me from the whole thing was a knock on the door. My friend Allen Zenkin was here. So I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed out the door. "Sorry dad, but I've gotta go."
Before last week, Allen ("Zenk," I call him) was the oldest besides me that had not begun his Change. "Did you get that second opinion you wanted?" I asked him.
"Yeah. And I'm still going to be a bull. Darn it! I wanted claws or wings… and I'm already a ruminant." My friend's First Sign was internal. He has a cow's four stomachs. "I don't *wanna* be a bull!" he says for what must be the fiftieth time. Then he hiccups and gets a disgusted look on his face. "Man!" And starts to chew on something.
All things considered, he's lucky. At least the teasing has really stopped for him. Now I'm the only one my age left at school that *hasn't* started Changing.
I really loathe school sometimes. The teasing started even before we got on campus. "Hew-man" was the least of the insults (the others I tend to ignore). Zenk was still on breakfast. "Bleah," he says to me. Again.
"Is it really that bad?" I ask him.
"Yeah, well, kinda. I've really got no choice anyway, the doc says. So I figure I might as well get used to it." Then he sighs.
Which is actually kind of funny looking. Over the past week (since his First Sign) or so his face had started to push out into a short muzzle, incidentally giving him the right teeth for his new diet. It's really hard to notice, but definitely there. Zenk has another method of Change. He's described it to me like having thick honey being poured all over him, very slowly. "Man, it's sooo eerie! I can feel it creeping all over my head and it's starting to go down my neck! I can feel something else different every morning! My doctor says it's because I started so late. He says I'll be done by the end of next month!" Six weeks in other words. REALLY fast. But it's the rule for we 'late bloomers.' Which worries me.
I'm about half a year or so more overdue than Zenk was. I remember mom and dad Changing in bare hours, like all adults did that strange day.
Anyway, we finally got on campus about twenty minutes before the bell rings. I got my morning donut, Zenk a whole wheat muffin ("bleah," he says), then we both waited outside class for Mrs. Aura to trot up. Even though I'm late in my Change, my counselor thought it might be a good idea to put me in Changeyear classes. Changeyear usually takes place sometime during High School, and was added just three years ago to help people my age acclimate. There are several major classes taken in Changeyear. I won't go into them yet, they aren't important to me right now. I don't understand them besides (not yet at least).
Most of the stuff they're trying to teach me is not yet applicable anyway. I just have to imagine it. Of course my grades in the gutter. Like I care… I rarely say anything in class anyway.
Of course Zenk and I are the first in class. I'm that kind of person. Mrs. Aura is a horse-morph, Low-D (or "Lowddie" as we say) and very human. "Good morning boys," she said to us. "You're coming along pretty well, Allen; and I've got a couple things to give you this morning, too." Zenk got a distressed look on his face. Then he madly scratched the side of his head above his left ear.
We sat down and Mrs. Aura (frankly, she's my favorite teacher) handed a couple of notes to him, the smaller one he looked at quickly.. "Oh, MAN! Now I've gotta take boring Herd Dynamics!" He scratched his head in the same place again, and a little on the other side, too. I'd not noticed before, but after he took his hand away there was a dark spot under his hair. A horn nub. It could be nothing else. He noticed my staring. "They've been bugging me all morning," he says. "Grew in last night." Then I noticed his eyes have changed just a bit, too… I wondered how much he'd Change today.
The other students started to come in a moment or so later. Zenk had started to read the other thing Mrs. Aura had given him, so did not notice. This was one of the new classes. Herbivores only, that includes birds and reptiles and fish, too. Though not so many of the last one. It *is* a large class, though. Fifty students. In the wild herbivores outnumber carnivores greatly.
Class would have started right on time, but for one guy Changing in to a whitetail deer had a Surge then and there (not uncommon, it actually happens at least once a week in this class). He'd had the head before (complete with antlers), now he has the signature tail, too. He'll be a Hiddie, (high-Degree) for sure. We spent the rest of the two-hour class discussing that kind of Change, and the problems of having a body part that we simply never *had* before. Of course I kept silent the whole time, with the other kids sniggering at me. Even the Lowddies who would never get tails anyway.
Not that I don't mind not having a tail yet. It gets me out of the stupid physical and mental exercises they have to do to get used to it being there. The guy who just got his actually *did* them without question. Maybe because he discovered it by sitting on it… Which is why I paid attention myself. It must hurt.
Zenk finished reading the booklet, and he handed it to me with a grimace (it says: "To Err is Human, to Moo, Bovine" on the cover). The booklet was actually an invitation from the local "Bovinity" club. One of the class requirements of Changeyear is being put with like types. So Zenk got to be put with other bovines like himself. He sighs and rests his head on his desk. "Man!" he says quietly.
The rest of class is mostly uneventful. My high school has block periods: 1-3-5 one day then 2-4-6 the next. So classes are normally two hours long. Zenk goes off to his new class, and I go to the carnivore version of the class I just had (I have to have that class too, because they don't know what I'll be yet). I hate that class the most. The class is much smaller. But the insults are MUCH worse. I just grin and bear it, so to speak. I've got another friend who's a Black bear- morph. He's done Changing, and is about average Degree ("Middie," that is) for his type. He keeps the worst comments away from me.
The worst of the bullies are in this class. The worst of the bunch has been my enemy since the third grade. Last year he was ecstatic when he started to get these really sharp teeth. But in a bit of justice he's actually turning into a Hiddie wombat-morph! He's also got Zenk's type of Change. The only thing on him untouched as yet are his feet. I try not to take him seriously, but it's no mean feat. I act like I don't hear him… but it’s painful anyway.
Class ends, and I meet Zenk and Cody (the bear) for lunch. Zenk's horns had noticeably grown, his nose had widened and flattened, his muzzle was longer, and his forehead was a bit lower than the morning, along with a slight fuzz on his face. I had to think a moment before I recognized him. Six weeks might be too long an estimate for his Change. More like four, I think. We have a place where we're basically alone. Then for some reason Zenk picks up a bit of grass and puts it in his mouth. "Not bad," he says. "Not bad at all."
I looked at him kind of funny. "You've *got* to be kidding me?" I say. He just shrugs and all through lunch is picking little bunches of grass and putting it on things. Like his peanut butter sandwich. Yuck. I decided not to ask why he did that… I really don't want to know. If I become a grazer I'll probably find out myself.
My last class of the day is PE. This class runs a close second to the carnivore class in how much I loathe it. It's been modified for both those that can Norm-shift and not. On the roof of the gym is a platform for bird morphs, used for learning how to fly. Fully-Shifted hoofed morphs flashed by me like I was standing still while I ran laps. The comments were as usual very insulting.
But today was the worst of all days. There is one kind of bully I hate the most. The one who uses words to cause pain. He came running up behind me on the track. He's a Middie cheetah-morph with the ability to Shift fully (Norm-shift, that is). I have no idea, and don't really remember what he said to me. All I remember happening is it making me so *angry* I ran after him with all the speed I could muster, of course he's in and out of the locker room before I even get in the door. He'd called me that before, and I have no idea why I got so angry.
On the way home that anger became anguish. ::Why does he DO that?:: I asked myself. Zenk is very quiet on the way home, I think he's starting to get used to the idea of becoming a 'minotaur' as it were. He then starts to speak animatedly about the "Bovinity" thing he's gotten involved with. I pay little attention, self pity can do that.
When I walked in the door I heard what must of been the tail end of an argument. "No, you're NOT changing your name yet and that's FINAL young lady!" My mother was roaring. “But mom!” my sister replies. “What's wrong with 'Cedra'?"
“Nothing. But you've not even started any mental Changes yet. I just don't want you to make a such a momentous choice without thinking about it first.” Mom's tufted tail moved back and forth reassuringly. Then she sniffed a the air a bit, the wind was blowing in the door when I opened it. She turned around and her tail whipped in joy, that turns to disappointment when she sees me. Then even she says, “I guess nothing happened on the way home from school?”
I hate that question, and I always answer it somewhat sarcastically, "Does it look like anything did, mom?" Then she shakes her leonine head. We'd long since stopped trying to NOT to do that daily routine. She sighed. "Well, go and do your homework and then we can go to the mall if you want. I need more meat substitute, anyway."
I did what homework I was able to for the only class I really had the next day. Predator/Prey Relations. Of all classes, both the most boring and the most exciting. Boring, because of the instructor (a lizard of some kind with the most boring lecture tone I've ever heard); and exciting because it's the only class I don't get teased in. Mostly because they're all teasing each other and ignore me. My other two periods (for now) are for two potential classes. One, something like Herd Dynamics or Flight or Instinct Integration some such class, and the other if I have a Power or not.
I decided not to go to the mall, choosing instead to go to bed early.
I felt a draft. When I opened my eyes and turn on the light I find my sheets all ripped up. It had happened before. I mean, mom still forgets sometimes she has those claws and when she puts on clean sheets she sometimes rips them… That does not seem quite right for some reason, so I got up and go to the mirror. Standing before it naked I find nothing different. Tensing my diaphragm I brought up nothing like cud. The doc says it's rather easy to discern any other internal Changes by balance. But I feel nothing at all. ::Still the same old me.:: I thought. Somewhat groggily I changed my sheets without waking my parents and went back to sleep.
I don't have any classes until midday, so I slept in a little. Long enough so I'm the only one at home when I get up. It's nice not to have to have family around all the time. That way I can wallow in self pity all by myself. Yesterday had disturbed me deeply for some reason. It was really just a normal day… but when I think about it I come to the conclusion that maybe it's Zenk's and my sister's Change that is bothering me. I've still got nothing.
I could only have one free period, so I'd opted to add another PE class for my midday class. I'd pretty much put yesterday out of my mind, or tried to. But it seemed my luck was both for and against me today. After last night I felt strangely unsettled. It's the strangest feeling… I mean, somehow I just *know* something is going to happen today.
So, I went out onto the track to do my laps. If it's one thing I'm good at for a human it's endurance. I could be a marathon runner if they still did that sort of thing anymore. But my feline Enemy also has another PE class. After yesterday he's feeling very cocky and pleased with himself. I started repeating to myself, "I will not react, I will not react…" over and over under my breath. It does not work for what he does to me.
Not content this time with a mere *verbal* attack, Spots-for-brains decides I need something physical. Deep in the 'running trance' that I've settled into, I didn't even notice him standing plainly in front of my path, digigrade foot shoved out in front of him in a classic trip maneuver. The strangest thing is… *some* part of me does notice, and I feel a strange tingle all over even as I trip over his foot, jaw clattering as I fall heavily to the ground, with the wind knocked out of me.
The tingle grows. Anger and rage I never knew was in me bubbles up seemingly out of nowhere. Of course, *he's* run off around to the locker room. Then just before I see him go inside, something in me snaps.
All activity on the field stops for some reason as I get back onto my feet and yell, "I'll KILL him!!" Among other things, then dash towards the locker room myself.
I barely notice anyone who tries to get in my way, I merely leap over them like a hurtle. I seem to be going incredibly fast… but again I hardly notice through my rage. The only thing I want to do is rend him limb from limb! I incidentally notice how far forward I seem to be leaning, but again all activity stops as I burst into the locker room, in fact few back against the wall for some reason… ::What's with them?:: I think. ::I did not think humans were all that scary looking when they were angry. Hmph.::
Then I see him, fear in his eyes, putting on a T-shirt that has "Tails from the Blind Pig" on the front, one of the more popular TV drama series (for all the humans are CGI), with the character "Spots" on it. The look in his eyes catches me off guard. I mean, am I *that* scary when I'm angry? Not like I'm the Incredible Hulk or something. But as I move closer to him, ready to punch him or *something* (my feet twitch strangely when I think about that) I notice that in the mirror behind him I see something else where my reflection should be.
The image in the mirror is so distinctive it could--*I* could--only be one thing, but before I figured things out fully I heard a couple of voices from the door behind me. "Do you think he's lost it, George?" said one voice. "I don't know, and I'm too cautious to find out. But I hope not." Then I heard a quiet popping noise, then a prick in my shoulder. I tried to scratch at it with my clawed hands… but they can't quite move up that far. Using my long tail for balance, I try to use a sickle-clawed foot but whatever it is they shot me with makes me lose consciousness and fall over when I lift it up off the floor.
***********
I awoke with a pounding headache, wondering if it was all a dream. I mean, I must of knocked my head when I was tripped or something. What I saw in that mirror couldn't possibly of been me. Could it?
Something did not seem right. I could tell my feet were covered, and they felt strange when I moved my toes. Numb, kinda. "Tom?" said the very familiar voice of the nurse. "Good! You're awake. Your mother is here." I cringed at her last sentence. Mom being here normally meant that I had been beaten up or something. Now, even through my strange-feeling feet, I thought I must of been beaten up by Spots-for-brains. Mom is so overprotective I swear. I opened my eyes.
The look she gives me is one of great relief, by the way her tail is twitching. I sit up and look at the nurse. She looks at me with her sheep-like face. "Are you okay Tom? Do you feel normal?"
"I… think so," I replied. Then I noticed the bandage on my right shoulder; and the muscle underneath aches. Then I look the sheet covering my feet again. She’d placed something on either side of my feet on which the sheet is stretched tautly, and it's pretty tall so I couldn't tell *why* my feet feel so strange. The numbness does not help either.
The nurse saw my staring. "It's about time this happened," she says with a smile. "Want me to pull back the sheet?"
For some reason what she's saying does not quite connect in my head. I don't know *what* she's talking about. Then I got an itch on my ankle (which seems strangely high up…) and go to scratch it with my other foot. With a ripping sound, a grayish claw rips easily through the sheet. "WHAT THE HELL?!?!" I yell, scooting quickly backward on the bed, but the claw follows where my foot should be!
Suddenly there's a pressure on my mind coming from the nurse's direction. She has some sort of projective empathy that she uses to calm her patients down. A good thing for teens in their Changeyear, often there are new instincts that get out of hand and such a Power enables her to do her work easier. My panic subsides. Then it hits me, and I stare at the long curved claw sticking out of the sheet. My heart skips a beat. "You want to see?" says the nurse.
Slowly, to up the suspense level I'm sure, she peeled back the sheet.
My feet felt strange because they weren't the feet I was born with. I was now digigrade, with four toes on each foot. The outer two are long, and have long claws on them, and the innermost toe is tiny and high up on my elongated arches, I now would walk on the balls of my feet. But it was the remaining toe that caught my attention the most. The long, grayish, four-inch curved claw that ended the toe (which was a bit higher up and looked like it would not normally touch the ground) looked like it could cut through anything I put it to. A shiver went up and down my spine. To top it off, the skin was dry, with definite scales that had a semi-glossy sheen to them, their color was a mottled dark brown and yellowish tan. There was only one kind of animal that had that kind of birdlike foot.
"Yes, Mr. Boxhall, you're going to be a dinosaur morph, and probably a Hiddie by your feet. The only dinosaur for fifty miles, by the way. I've not identified the exact species yet, but some kind of dromaeosaur. That's the dinosaur family that includes, velociraptor, deinonychus, and others. From the size of those big claws probably one of the first two. We won't be able to tell without an expert. One thing puzzles me, though. Perhaps I'll just show you the video." Then she clicked on a wall TV.
The picture had obviously been enhanced. It showed me running on the track, I had been on my seventh trip around. The camera clearly shows me in my "trance" when Spots-for-brains runs alongside me for a few hundred feet, yelling something into my inattentive ear. In my trance I don't notice (and the camera mic can't pick up sound that quiet from that far) so then he's clearly thinking about something. Then he seems to come to a decision, and with an evil grin on his face he runs about fifty feet ahead of me and puts his foot out in front of himself, just waiting for me to trip over it.
Then something funny happens. About three feet from tripping my image flickers for a moment. The nurse sees that I saw it, then backs up the vid. She freezes the image on what looks like me, but overlaying my image is what looks like the long-tailed visage of the dinosaur I'm supposed to be Changing into. I gape for a moment, unbelieving. Then I look at my feet again.
"That's not all," says the nurse. "Watch what happens next." I look up, and she plays the vid again. I see myself trip, Spots-for-brains takes off as usual (the coward), then I yell loud enough to be picked up by the mic. Only the word "kill" is discernible because anything else I might of said is an unintelligible bloodcurdling cross between a roar and a scream. I get up amazingly fast, my pants rip and fall off as a long tail grows out. I start running even as my shoes shred to bits by the monster claws that have appeared on my feet, then they fall off. My torso and legs are obviously completely different now, then my shirt rips off too, leaving me completely *naked*. The camera pans and follows me (with someone controlling it, obviously), and then as I sprint (going at least fifty mph the data at the bottom of the camera says) towards the closing locker room door, my arms and hands start to Change as well. Then the angle switches.
From inside the locker room, a scaled hand with three long, wickedly-clawed fingers opens the door. My head is looking very strange and distorted. I smile, cheeks disappearing which reveals teeth that are rather fierce and bladelike. I remember trying to say something like "Where is he?" inside the locker room, which the mic picks up as a loud angry hiss. My head is *really* different now, and as I pass close to the camera I see the pupils in my eyes elongate into vertical slits, the rest of my eye is overrun with a very green iris, with the venation almost visible. I now see why most were backing against the wall, by the look in my eyes I'm out for blood. Then my head loses all traces of humanity as scales take over from skin, my hair is absorbed, and my forehead flattens as my muzzle pushes out fully. ::My god, that *can't* be *me*!:: I think.
As I hiss at Spots-for-brains again, the camera pans back briefly to show the door opening again, revealing the barrel of a tranquilizer rifle. Then there's the *pop* noise, and then the dart in my(!) shoulder. As I fall to the floor, the camera captures something that makes *me* sigh in relief even though I'm sitting right here in a hospital gown. Very quickly, the reverse of what happened in my transformation occurs. My head flows back into my own, torso shifting around, pelvis jostling. The tail looks almost like it's being sucked into my body. Then my legs follow suit, all except for my feet, which change very little. The final image is of Spots-for-brains running from the room in norm-shape as fast as his four feet will carry him.
The nurse looked at me. "I guess Mr. Oxnard won't be bothering you again, will he?" she smiles, then turns serious. "Mrs. Boxhall, your son has had a very unique First Sign. It seems his Power was the first to show up, and we're lucky that he apparently had enough control over his instincts. It's a Shifter Power obviously, but if not for Mr. Oxnard I doubt it would have shown itself this soon. The unique thing is, he is the first EVER to show a Power as a First Sign… and it's something I want to try keep quiet right now." Then I remember my ripped sheets last night, and the nightmare that I'd had just before I awoke. I guess that does not count, because my feet did not stick… I think.
The nurse speaks up. "You've got two days off to get used to things, and see a Change doctor. He should know exactly what into and how fast you'll Change." I scratch a the itching the skin just above my new ankles. Dead skin flakes off, revealing dark yellowish scales underneath. The nurse looks at the newly revealed scales. "Which looks to be pretty fast the way your skin is flaking. Mrs. Boxhall, if you could help Tom stand up and walk to your car I'll give you the address of where the doctor I've already arranged to have look at him. He's very good. Now if you'll try to stand up we'll get you through this as easy as we can."
Mom had brought me some clothes from home, so I put those on. Trying to stand was very difficult. My foot and ankle may of altered, but the rest of my leg had not changed a smidgen yet. Then there was the strange dissonance of feeling in the feet themselves. Numbness had given way to a pins-and-needles feeling. As Mrs. Aura explains it, it has to do with having to do with the way things are connected in my brain. It's because my brain is expecting certain sensations from my feet, but it's getting *other* information that it does not expect to. It almost felt like my feet were asleep, with the pins-and-needles as nerves are rearranging and making themselves known. The result is that I almost fall over when I try to stand, six inches taller than before.
I lean on mom's furry shoulder, conscious of everything different about my feet. The claws at the ends interfere with walking because I can’t feel them, and they tend to kind of push me *back* when I try to roll my foot forward. "Come, son," my mom says. "You can do it. It took me two days to get used to these feet." She flexes her own toes, extending her retractile claws when she does so. Which makes me think about my own monster claws. The toes that they are on have an incredibly long arc of motion, but I've got hardly *any* control over them. I have to be careful that I don't hurt *myself* let alone others. "Then there are those things. Hmmm… I think I'll have to buy you some claw shields on the way home so you don't damage the carpets. At least until you either learn more control." For some reason that sounded very insulting.
"Mom, I can handle it. Really." So I let go of her shoulder, and promptly fell backwards onto my rear. Then I hear some laughing around the corner, "deal with it, pink boy!" someone yelled. That started to make me angry again. A growl escapes my lips and I feel a twitch from the base of my spine for a moment. Then I realize what's starting to happen to me, and quickly tune out the laughing, which had actually stopped abruptly anyway when they'd seen my feet.
My pants are straining in back from the short tail I know I have. Then there are the short claws on my fingertips and the line of scales on the tops of my arms. Feeling the inside of my mouth with my tongue, my teeth feel remarkably sharp and my lips are drawn back somewhat. "Tom! Calm down! You know that responding to their teasing only gives them ammo." She did not even seem to notice what was happening to me. Mom's like that. It takes a lot to get her hackles up.
I'm so used to doing what she wants I *do* calm down. I feel the Changes relaxing. Though the dry feeling of scales seems a bit further up my legs, now. The backs of my hands have kept a slight dark brownish discoloration, and feel drier as well. ::I'm going to have to watch myself…:: I think. With a bit more ease than I was able to manage before, I hobble to the car and we go to the doctor.
All through the drive I'm scratching at the skin above my ankles and the backs of my hands. The itch is quite intense there, and the skin is rapidly and visibly peeling off, kinda like a bad sunburn, revealing more scales. Enough new scales had now shown up on my legs to reveal a dark yellow/dark brown striping pattern above my ankles, with my feet being all dark brown, almost black in fact. I was leaving little flakes of human skin everywhere, too.
By the time we get to the doctor's office the itching was several inches above my ankles, and my bones in that area ached slightly. The numbness had moved up with the flaking area, with the pins-and-needles sensation not far behind. My feet had finally done with *that* uncomfortable sensation, and I could now really feel them.
My outer toes are large enough around and long enough so I can grab one fully with a hand and *still* have a bit of toe left before the claw begins. Other than the four-inch claw (which I cautiously feel, tracing it's outline) my outer toe claws must be an inch and a half long! I flex them a little, in complete wonder over the sensation of having toes that long. Feeling the outermost toe on my right foot, the skin is quite dry, but has a slightly oily feel to keep it pliable. The skin on the underside is tough and leathery, and the area of the toes that still touch the ground is about the same as my original foot. I flex them again… and almost slash my arm as the monster claw sweeps a long arc. I *do* manage to cut an opening in the car's carpet. "Tom!" Mom says. "Quit picking at it! You'll only cut yourself!"
::Geez, mom. I'm *not* a child anymore. I'm sixteen and am finally Changing at that!:: I think. So I sit carefully in the passenger seat and cross my arms (which incidentally makes the tops of my hands itch more) and wait to get to the doctor.
************
"Velociraptor, no question." Says the doctor. "They're one of the most numerous of the dinomorphs for some reason. Though I've only seen two others like yourself. There are only around fifty thousand dinomorphs worldwide, remember."
"How much time until it completes?" My mom asks.
"I give him three days at most, more likely two." I gape at him, then scratch at the itch, which was about halfway up my calves, and my bones are aching. Mom shakes her head in disbelief. The doctor looks at me. He has a kind, ape-like face, (he must be a Middie gorilla) with a voice that one could listen to all day… Under other circumstances.
Two days! A dinosaur! The ability to Norm-shift! Admittedly, the ability to become the full animal shape is the most common of all the Powers, but it's still a Power! He gives mom a holocam so she can tape my whole Change for the record… but that is only a minor annoyance to the excitement I'm feeling!
"As for Degree," the doctor says. "Perhaps I should show you this graph." On a wall screen a bell curve comes up. I recognized it as the graph of Degree for the whole population. "As you can see, the great majority of people are Middies, but this is really illusory because it's a composite of all subspecies." Another graph comes up, one that is noticeably shifted towards the high-Degree end on the right. "This is the dinomorph graph. As you can see, there are practically zero Low-Degrees, and the top of the curve is somewhere between Mid-D and High-D. So you'll be somewhere in that range. I wish I could give you a preview of what you're going to look like, but you're Changing so fast the computer can't get a handle on it. Sorry about that." My shin bones are aching deeply, and I notice they seem to be just a little bit shorter… and my calves have muscled up, too.
"Then there's the mental aspect…" the doctor continues. "It's much, much harder to quantify, and harder to detect. Additionally, it often does not start to show itself for days or even *months* afterward. Along with the physical tests I'm going to give you now, and after you complete Changing, will be dinosaur 'instinct integration' tests devised by the Middle Life Organization. But let's get you into the scanner, shall we?"
With difficulty, I stood naked within the full body scanner, looking at my hands a moment. The scales have taken them over completely, and my middle and index fingers have started to move in unison. I showed this to the doctor. "It looks like you’re going to lose a finger on each hand. It’s no big deal, and the rule for your type. They should start to fuse in a couple of hours. Then you’ll start to get claws on your fingertips. I’ll give you all the information I’ve got on dinomorphs. I normally don’t give these references out, but I think you need as much information you can get.”
There was an uncomfortable sensation from my knees, not painful, but it’s one of those things that strangely feels like it *should* be painful, but isn’t. The doctor uses his hand probe to check the joint. “Well, you should not have such a big problem walking now. Your knee joints have rearranged. You’re getting hollow bones, too. I think I should send you home, familiar surroundings seem to help most. Just one thing more, though. Your Power that the nurse mentioned. I need to see how much control you have over it. See if you can stand up and I’ll show you how to Shift. I can’t do it myself, but I think I can describe how. Take off your clothes first, though.”
It *was* much easier to stand up, but I still had to hold on to a table to keep from pitching forward. Then I take off my clothes. My calves had shortened at least two inches, but the new muscles feel much stronger than my old ones! I’m now standing knees bent a little. For some reason the Changes seem to have slowed down on my legs, but my hands are still itching.
The doctor looks at me when I stand clear of the table. “Look at your hand.” He says. I do so. “Now focus on it. Imagine it as something *else*. You might feel a sort of barrier, try to visualize it. Then push your mental self through it.”
I imagine the barrier as a long hall. A hall, for some reason, that has many doors that are quite similar to each other, except for one. There are HUNDREDS of them. For a moment I’m overwhelmed. ::So many paths to take!:: I think. The meaning of my mental “hall” is a mystery, and I’m really not in any mood to experiment. So I choose the largest, most ornate “door,” the one that feels the most familiar, the one that feels like it’s been passed through at least once before. My mental hand turns that “knob.”
A strange sensation surges through me. I shut my eyes as my skin feels like honey is being poured all over, the scales spreading from my calves and from my hands. Opening my eyes, I see my fingers fuse into three, the tips sprouting long claws the same color as the ones on my feet. I start to lean forward as the uncomfortable jostling starts in my pelvis. A sucking sensation from my groin is evident, as my equipment becomes internal. A tail slides out of my backside, and my torso starts to Change. Additional ribs grow in and my waist disappears, my chest pushes out, thrusting my altered arms down and forward. Then my head starts to feel like it’s in a nutcracker. It squashes forward, my nostrils rotate to point forward, I can feel the edges of my mouth being drawn back into a reptilian grin, with my jaw joint cracking and popping. My tongue grows longer, and my teeth seem to flow into the flashing blades I saw in the video. My senses distort and change, scents growing stronger, vision blurring and widening in view, growing sharper. Lastly, my ears seem sucked into my skull and the surging Change stops.
I’m left standing there, my forepart balanced by a long tail, tiger striped by dark brown and dark yellowish tan, dark gray underneath. My hands are unconsciously held up against my chest, I breath deeply. I shake my long-muzzled head, confused for a moment by the scents. One of which, when I think about it, *has* to be my mother’s. I turn towards her, and knock over a vial of something with my tail. I look at her for the first time. Then I sigh in defeat. Of course she’s *filmed the whole thing*. ::Why did I agree to this?:: I think. I then try to say “Mom, shut that off!” But it comes out as a fierce high-pitched growl.
Strangely enough, she seems to understand and turns the thing off. Then she embarrasses me in front of the doctor. She hugs me around my long, flexible neck. That shocks me for moment (as if I weren’t enough already), then the next thing I do shocks me even *more*. I LICK her on the side of the face. Several times. I decide against trying to return the hug. I’m a little nervous with those long claws. “Tom!” she says. “Stop that! It tickles.”
“Okay,” the doctor says suddenly, clasping his hands together. I’d forgotten he was even there! “Now that we know you can do it, time to change yourself back. Then I’ll give you all the references you can carry, as well as a booklet on the Meso Club, a division of the Middle Life Organization. They’ll probably send someone out to meet you in the next week or so. Everyone needs some companionship from their own type of subspecies.” He smiles.
For a moment I’m taken aback. I mean, this shape feels *great!* I can feel the power infusing every muscle, every scale. The senses are amazing! Then again… the lack of real hands and the ability to speak might be a drawback. ::Well, I can do it at any time I want, so why don’t I Change back?:: I think. I then imagine the door again, this time it’s behind me and open. All I do is step from the “room” that I’m standing in into the “Hall” that I’d originally imagined. I feel the reverse of my Change flowing though me, but I don’t shut off my imagination just yet.
I ponder why my imagination brought up an image of a hall full of doors, one so much larger and more inviting than the rest. So I mentally walk over to the one next to it, and reach for a “knob”. Then I stop and think a moment, having second thoughts. I decide to maybe try one later, but not now. I might not like what’s behind it…
Before I put on my clothes I looked at myself again. My index and ring fingers are starting to be joined by a webbing, on both hands. With the palms of my hands turning grayish and dry, and the Change moving up my legs is now an inch above my knees. The doctor advised me not to eat any solid foods, I’m liable to get a gizzard and any food will probably be thrown up. He recommends a drink similar to my sister’s. Yuck.
We must of taken about fifty pounds of material out of the doctor’s office. Mom’s really strong, though. So she carries it all without trouble. Much of the stuff are computer DVD’s that have all the info I’ll ever need, most of which can’t be found on the ‘net. We put the stuff in fast under a threatening sky that says ‘rain soon.’ Why we decided to move to Oregon I’ll never know. I take out a vidpad to look at some of the stuff while we drive for home.
************
The doorbell rang while I was watching one of the vids the doctor gave me. Dad opened the door, and I heard Zenk’s voice. I was wearing a pair of shorts, and the plastic claw sheaths mom *insists* that I wear. Especially since if I was not careful I tended to cut slashes in things… I heard him walking down the hall, “Tom! Man! You luckysaurus!” he says. “It’s all over school. My best friend Tom, a raptor-morph! Heh.” He was yelling this as he walked through to the living room, then I saw him.
His voice had sounded strange. Now I saw why. His head was probably finished Changing. He had long horns that were each probably almost a foot long, and his old hair was gone, replaced by a stiff whitish hair. His face had a massive square muzzle, large brown eyes that were very expressive, and he had a low forehead. It in no way resembled the face of the friend I’d had since kindergarten. He sees me on the couch. For a moment I’m doubtful that this *is* my friend, then a familiar voice comes out of the muzzle. “Wow, man! Look at those feet! Can I, um, feel ‘em? Kinda?” His eyes have a friendly gleam in them.
It could only be Zenk. I shrug. “Sure, just don’t remove the sheath off that monster claw, that thing is sharp!” I grin, and as he carefully feels the scales. His hand tickles slightly, and my monster claw twitches like I’m going to scratch an itch. Zenk gives me a bovine stare, another odd expression on his face. I’m staring right back at him, though I don’t know why. “Sorry,” I say. “I’ve got little control right now, that’s why I’m wearing the sheaths. About you, though… your head.” I trail off.
His nervous grin turns into a real one, his twitching ears getting into it, too. “Yeah. I had a random Surge in class today. Made me black out, woke up like this. But it’s in my arms and shoulders now! I can just *feel* them getting stronger! My doc says I’ll start to bulk up a lot soon, and I need to eat a lot. He gave me a special drink, the hairy ape. It tastes terrible!”
I grimaced for a moment, remembering the drink he’d prescribed for me. I looked at the parts of myself that are Changing. Apparently whatever-it-is that controls the Change is leaving my legs alone at the moment and working on my hands. Those fingers I mentioned had completely fused, and no longer felt distinct. My hand is pretty much numb otherwise. A good thing, because I can see things moving around in there. I really have to force myself NOT to look. My fingernails are rather pointed, too. Very claw-like, and the scales are halfway up my forearms.
Thinking about Zenk for a moment, I suddenly remember something. Funny, I’d never thought my memory was *that* good. “You’re the one who liked ‘Cow Boys of Moo Mesa’ when we were five!” I say. That surprises him.
Understanding dawns on his face. He stops rubbing my scaled feet. “What? Oh! Oh yeah! I’d forgotten about that old show… I guess I know where my bull tendencies come from, eh? Um… Tom. Quit staring at me like that.”
I shook my head. “Like what?”
“You’re looking at me like I’m dinner or something.”
“I’m sorry I don’t quite know…” Then he starts to laugh.
“I’m only kidding man! Lighten up!” He laughs even more. But I just don’t see what he’s talking about… I laugh a token laugh. “But geez! Can you do anything else? There’s a rumor at school that you’re a Shifter.”
I think a moment… “Well, I *am* a Shifter. I can go Norm if I want to, but I’m not really in the mood right now. My doctor said to wait until I’m done anyway.” A small lie, but I was really not keen on doing something I might regret. My friend *is* becoming a herbivore, after all. And I’m…
He nodded in acceptance. “Personally, I’m hoping for some kind of energy projectile Power, like in that old ‘Street Fighter 2’ game that I found in my dad’s collection. Might be cool.” and smiles. Then he picks up one of the books the doctor had given me. Unfortunately, I’d had to go to video when my hands had gone numb. The DigiDisk player is voice command, so is no problem for me. “What’s this?” asks Zenk.
"A video by some guy named David Smith. He’s the Chairperson of the Meso Club. It’s some sort of informative thing. He's a ‘raptor too. I’ve not paid much attention to it, too busy watching myself get scaly.” To illustrate my point, I peel off a few more square inches of skin from my arms, revealing more of that striping pattern. By now my hands are starting on the pins-and-needles. I’d really not noticed, but I must of had a microsurge a minute ago. My hands were now finished, and they now ended in three-quarter inch claws. I’m glad I did not try to itch too deeply! I might of cut myself! “When did *that* happen?” I asked no in particular
“What do you think I’ve been staring at?” Zenk says. Then he itches at his own arms.
Hardly anyone has a single kind of Change. Most of the time it’s a combination of Creeping and Surging. So the both of us were pretty normal in our *method* of Change, if not our duration. Zenk got up and said he had to go home, dinner awaited he said. So I nod, and he goes out the door. Leaving me staring at and flexing my hands.
My fingers are longer (and thicker) than they used to be, even without the claws. I can see my fingerprints just beneath the claws, they seem no different. The skin there is very sensitive now that the p&n are gone. Mom and sis walk through the door a moment later. My sister is staring at me. I can’t tell her reaction, mostly because avian faces are not that expressive. “So…” she begins nervously. “So you’re a velociraptor then?” I grin, and hold up my clawed feet in response. She backs up just little. “I guess *are* a dinosaur! Well, um… I’ll be in my room.” Then she runs down the hall and slams her door.
Mom just looks at me for a moment. “What?” I say, spreading my new hands wide in defeat. “Did I say something? No.”
My dad walks up wetly behind me. Lucky thing we’ve got carpet that is mildew-proof. “Your sister is jealous, son. I’m sure you can see that. Personally, I was never interested much in dinosaurs for some reason. She’ll come around though. Your mother brought you some of your drink for dinner.”
::Bleah.:: Dinosaurs were very birdlike, and had gizzards. I would need gizzard stones to grind my food. One thing my sister and I had in common. Once I got the gizzard, that is.
I awkwardly stood up. It’s *much* easier to for me to walk, now. My muscles were twitching just a bit, and ached slightly from being on the couch so long. I tended to lean forward just a little. Mom gave me the drink, which tastes like chocolate-flavored sawdust. “Bleah.” I say aloud.
I spent the rest of the night watching TV. My body seemed to be taking a rest from Changing, and other than my arms, which have been taken over by scales completely, nothing else has Changed. The respite is quite, well, restful. Energy for the Change has to come from *somewhere*. I must of drank a full gallon of that drink. Tonight I know is going to be tough if I start up again. I decided not to go with my regular shower, probably too clumsy and really might cut myself if I did try. Probably cut gouges in the enamel, too.
Mom had put some of her sheets on my bed. *Hopefully* the material they’re made of won’t rip under my own claws. These things are going to take much getting used to… I fell asleep after a lot of tossing and turning. Just can’t find the right position for these feet. Until the rest of my body catches up, I doubted my nights would be easy. If the doctor is right about how fast I’m Changing (which just might be faster than he thought), then it might not be all that long. Eventually I fall into a dreamless slumber, too tired even to dream…
I was awoken by an incredibly uncomfortable sensation from my crotch! For a moment it does not *quite* hit me what it is that’s happening, then I realize that my insides are Changing, along with the exterior parts. My stomach burbles and seems to be flowing around like cold molasses. I clasp my belly with my arms. “Oooohhhh.” I groaned. But it stops after a while, and I reach to turn on the light. More than my insides have Changed.
The scales have completely taken over the rest of my lower body to just above my waist. My torso is slightly different, my legs are wider apart, my thighs no longer quite touch each other, and they themselves are much more muscular and just a bit shorter. Between them is what looks like a dip in my ventral outline. I seem to remember in the video that dinosaurs had this dip, it came with the type of pelvis that my type of dinosaur had. I decide to get up and go to the bathroom and take stock.
I notice that I seem to be leaning rather far forward, and I tiredly wonder what the dead weight I that seems to be dragging is, and why I don’t just fall on my face… I find out what when I turn the corner to go into the bathroom.
I have a tail.
I can’t really see it in the dark hallway, and it tends to move when I do (duh), but it must be four feet long! It’s quite numb right now, and I’m not looking forward to the pins-and-needles I *know* will follow it. Like the norm-shape raptor, it must be balancing my forepart. But not perfectly. On closer examination I see that I’m dragging the blanket behind me, it’s twisted around it like a mummy wrapping. Must of really tossed and turned… I try to reach back and take it off, but that proves futile and I almost end up chasing it… Then the pins-and-needles hit.
“Owowowowowow!!!” I yell, then reach back and try to rub it, falling to the floor in shock and pain. I can only reach the base of it, the rubbing seems to help, but not *nearly* enough. I continue my yelling. Not too loud, though.
Loud enough to wake up my sister, though. She opens up her door, rubbing her eyes, feather crest somewhat mussed up. “Tom,” she chirps tiredly, yawning (strange sight with that beak…). “What are you doing? It’s three in the morning…” She flips on the hall light. Then sees what I’m doing, and lets out a surprised squawk. “Mmmmmooooommmmm! Dad! Wake up!”
I can’t rub all that well with those finger claws. What little I *can* do helps a lot. Along with the p&n is a throbbing headache and dizziness. Mom and dad rush in. Mom from her bed, dad from the saltwater tank he sleeps in. I guess it’s because I now have a tail that I really pay attention to *his*. It’s about as long and thick as mine, and has his flukes on the end. Dad stares for a moment, then looks at mom. “Leona, get the massage rollers! Remember how much they helped me!” They rush to get them, then all four of us are busily using them to massage my new tail, which drowns out the p&n.
I don’t really know *how* long it took, but the sun was coming up by the time the feeling subsided enough so I could handle it. The massaging feels really good for some reason, so I act like I’m still in pain just so they’ll continue. They stop when I abruptly say, “Aaaaaahhhhh. Thaannk you!… Hey! Don’t stop!” But they do so anyway. Then I feel the tail without interference.
It’s really hard to describe. My brain had obviously stopped rewiring for the new body part, hence the headache I’d had. I mean, I could *feel* all four feet of it behind me! It’s thick at the base, and tapirs smaller and smaller. I can feel the cool air pricking the scaly skin like so many pins. I notice the last foot or so is quite flexible, and I can move it when I think about it. The rest is very stiff. I decide to try to stand up. I’m very hungry all of a sudden. “Are you okay now, Tom?” My mother says. I nod and smile… then notice the end of my tail is twitching along with my smile.
I stare at it a moment and it stops. “Whoa,” I say. “That’s new.” Then I notice that mom’s tail is twitching as well. Then something clicks in my head. “Guess I’ve joined the ‘no smile’ club, eh?” I say. Carnivores like mom rarely smile because of their teeth. You DON’T want a lioness to smile at you, trust me. My head has not Changed yet, but I imagined when it does that it’d look rather fearsome…
I grab my dad’s bluish hand and he pulls me up. Then I notice I must lean forward at *least* thirty degrees, and my tail, now that I can feel it, *does* balance my forepart. It tingles slightly from the massage, sending shivers all the way up my MUCH longer spine. It feels quite good.
Then I realize that I’m standing in the hallway NAKED. With my *sister* standing there too. I try to move to cover my… my… what? There was nothing there to cover. So I just sigh in resignation of my species. ::Oh well,:: I think. ::Nothing experienced, nothing lost.:: I’d never been particularly possessive over it anyway. I decided to attempt a walk.
Before I’d had to hold onto the wall to keep from pitching forward. Now that I had the tail though, I discovered that with each step it would counterbalance my body exactly. I *could*, however, when I thought about it, make it move in almost any direction. That was almost weirder than having it in the first place… Otherwise it did it’s own thing, and I practically forgot it was there in a few minutes.
But not before I’d bumped it against the wall at *least* ten times. Ouch! In the kitchen, I thwacked it against the refrigerator after I turned around from taking out my nutrodrink. Then there are all the potted plants in the dining room… I won’t *even* go into those. Let’s just say that mom was NOT happy. The nutrodrink *still* tastes like sawdust, but I was so hungry I drank the stuff without really thinking about it.
My sister was sitting at the kitchen table glowering at me. So I just shrugged. “Sorry,” I say. “Not my fault.” For some reason this morning I’m noticing *everything* about *everyone*. My Change seems to have paused for now. So I practice just walking around and around and around, becoming more and more coordinated with everything, and doing all those mental and physical tail exercises from class (I *knew* they’d come in handy!). Until the doorbell rings.
Mom and dad are in my room stressing over my clothes. There were none in the house that would really fit me now. Even dad’s pants weren’t right, his tail is too different. Besides, for some reason clothes seem rather… unnecessary to me now. Redundant, even though I’m not covered with fur. Sure, I’d wear a raincoat if it was raining. A jacket and pants if it was cold. Why the hell else should I wear them? With the rest of my family preoccupied, I opened the door.
It’s Zenk, come to check in on me. He’s rummaging in his backpack, though. So he does not notice me at first. He seems to find something in his pack, then as he takes it out says: “’Morning Mrs. Boxhall I brought this as a present for…” Then he promptly drops the vid-disk he’d taken out of his pack. He stares at me for a moment, gaping. Purposefully, I bend down to pick up the disk. Clearly displaying the tail behind me at the same time, whipping it upwards, and nearly unbalancing myself. Zenk regains his composure. “Whoa dude! When you said *fast* you meant *FAST* didn’t you?”
I smile, my tail doing it’s thing. “I guess so.” I laugh. Then look at the disk. “’Jurassic Park’?”
“Sorry, not my idea though. It’s the original, and not any of those dumb sequels. My mom bought it to give your mom to give you. I did not think you’d be awake yet. When’d you get that tail?” I told him. “Three in the morning, huh?” Then he pauses for a moment, and looks at me quizzically. “You know something seems different about you this morning.”
I kick the bottom of my strongly dark brown/dark yellow striped tail with the back of my left foot. “You noticed.” I say, somewhat confused.
“No… it’s not that. Not *physical*, I mean. Just that… well. I don’t know really how to put it, but you seem a bit more… talkative? I *guess* that fits. I know I’m close.”
I’m still not quite sure what he means. I know I’m the quiet one in class, it keeps others from teasing me. I just shrug. “Why don’t you come in for a moment? You’ve got a bit of time.”
Then *he* shrugs. “Sorry, can’t. I’m meeting one of the Bovinity Club reps in a few minutes, along with my counselor. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Sure! I just hope I’m done by then. I look rather silly like this. Heh.” I ‘tailgrined’ again, and he walked onward to school.
When I walk into the living room and mom says she wants to take me to the doctor again, just to be sure I’m okay. I’m *really* not keen on going, but I see her point. So I just rolled my eyes in resignation and we went out to the car.