Inside the Fire

Chapter 16: Flowing

A current fights against me, pushing me back towards where I had entered, but the weight of my body helps me to fall further into. The texture changes into a feeling of a thick layer of webs, bending away from meuntil I fall out of the portal, one of my legs shoots forward and I catch myself before I can stumble. Air around me is heavier than in the human world, and colors have shifted ever so slightly. My lungs work, but I feel slightly light headed.
A grove of trees surround me, they all look wrong. A base of yellow instead of green for the foliage, the ground is spongy beneath my feet. The trees drip a mysterious substance, and the sun on this world is weaker. I look around the horizon for the sun, until I notice that there is a cresent of blue sky following along the horizon, the sky is a dull redish yellow.
I'm on a planet with a dying sun, it encapsulates the majority of the sky, but barely has enough power to warm the planet's surface. How has it not pulled this planet into itself with gravity?
The stranger steps out from thin air behind me, the portal invisible to the naked eye on this opposite side.
"You go ahead and eat, I'll stay by the opening so you won't lose it." His voice is wistful.
I can feel me within this human shell, he said it would be okay. Will this hurt?
"How long have you held your human disguise?" His voice is surprised.
"As long as I haven't been in the lab, I didn't know if I'd be able to turn back." I reply.
He huffs, exasperated,
"Of course you can," he gently rests a hand on my arm, "This is unhealthy, holding a single form that isn't your own can have devastating health side effects. The longer you hold it, the worse they will be." His face scruntches,
"And especially don't sleep in other shapes. Be yourself for at least a few hours a day, or you will pay a painful price."
"Will I now?" I ask.
"No, not really." His has slips from my arm, "It will hurt to change, but your body hasn't started to feed off of your souls yet. It takes power to maintain appearances, and when you don't eat enough, your body will devour you."

With his warning in my head, I run into the trees. As grateful as I am for everything he's done for me, I don't trust him not to attack me while I change. Once I'm a comfortable distance away, I feel inside myself for the right appearance. Taking off my clothes off carefully, I don't have any to spare to RIP out of,, I wait for the change. Somewhere in me,, my true form resides and I look inside myself for it. It's not there. I can't find where my body is, unless... Unless it isn't stored in me. It is me. Like an inhale, taking off dirty clothes, drinking water late at night, a stretch that hits just right, Iexplode out of my human skin.
Every cell in my body is engulfed in a heat so intense, the ground beneath my feet blackens and simmers. Five fingers become four, 32 teeth double in number. It's hard to stand up during this change, I lurchforward and claw at the blackened grass as my tail elongated and pushes it way out, flicking furiously from side to side.
    It is all over within moments, and I don't remember feeling so alive! I can breath again, I can taste scents in the air, I can hear and feel all living creatures around me, as well as the stranger a quarter mile away. The world around me is vibrating with life! My mouth waters, even burning the surrounding foliage would give me some sort of fulfillment.
    Though their lives is spread thinly, their souls are greater than that of animals. Nowhere near a human's soul, but a great source of power nonetheless. I'm not here to collect the souls of trees, the excruciating pain in my stomach is a constant reminder of that.
    I focus in on the scent of animals, I try to use the shifting wind to find any one of their locations. Deeper into the trees is a stag, it's antlers arrayed with plant fauna. It's fur smells of moss and decay. A heart still beats within the beast, the creature is both a plant and a mammal. What form of evaluation caused this? Whatever it was, I can hardly eat a plant. My nose screws up at the thought, unveiling my fangs.
    There is another animal close by, a bit further than the stag, and more appealing. I follow the sounds of it snuffling, it's clawed hands scraping along the shore of a lake. It's some sort of half bread, more mammal than fish. There are no eyes to it, spines stick out like a porcupine from it's glossy oily fur. The hands are clawed fins, fur clinging to only the barest pieces of boned flesh. It's rotund tail flicks, helping it spur forward. As I watch it, it uncovers a gray crab that flees in fear, the creature lurches forward and crushes the crab in its mouth with sickening wet noises.
    The moistness of this creature is off-putting, but I've already turned down one source of food. It grunts softly as it breaths, it's nostrils one with it's face extending past where eyes normally are. I probe around it's location with my mind, it knows that I'm here in the bushes, but it could not care less. My smell is alien to it, unfamiliar. Anything unfamiliar is more likely to be new source of food vs something to fear.
    Based off of it's evolution, I'd need to be a bird for it to be afraid. I still try to practice my hunting technique, it can smell and feel me, so I place my feet with more care. Though it does not react to me in any meaningful way, by it's mind I can tell that it continues to "observe" me. Since it is without fear, I walk up to it, standing in front of it. It continues to sift through the mud, aware but oblivious.
    With a sickening wet mulch sound, I slam my claws into it's skull, killing it quickly. The animal saw no need to fight me, I didn't want to toy with it before killing it. It's fur is filled with slim, my hand comes away with a string still attached to it. The euphoria is not as strong as it used to be, murdering Tom had dulled my "taste" to killing animals. Wonderful. Scales along my spine shift, grow roots into my back and push out away from my skin, forming similar spines to that of the creature. Teeth in the back of my mouth change into molars, now if I want to eat bones, I can. Smells form a new sensation in my nose, I can smell texture now. The creature is overwhelmed with my ability to see, it retreats into the recesses of my mind, away from the sensory overload. I erect mental walls around it to keep it from interfering with my thoughts.
    After skinning the carcass, with some difficulty, I devour all it's meat. A foul smell comes from it organs, I avoid those and reach up into it's ribcage for it's heart. Again this is my favorite part of the meal, the texture mixed with the sensation of the blood bursting out as I chew on it. If only all of the meat could be so sensationally fulfilling. I am still hungry after consuming the creature, I wash off the extra blood in the lake, to make my presence here less alarming to future prey.
    I wander the world, tracking down prey, but being more picky about which one I want to eat next. Since whatever I eat becomes a part of me, I need to be more careful about what I kill to eat. Having the bunny's agility is great, but the ingrained instinctual fear of the sky is a down side. It wasn't a problem in the city, there's barely a sky. But here in these woods, with only a few flimsy branches between me and what the bunny instincts tell me is a swift death, has me on edge.
    A predator then, something to overcome these prey-like instincts. I follow scents of animals that have crossed my path. There are plenty of predators to choose from, but I want the right one. The wind shifts with the setting of a sun on this world, and a potent scent wafts around me.
    A burly fur covered monstrosity lumbers through the growth. It moves slowly, it's size hinders it's movement. A bear. Or this worlds equivalent. It has long hooked claws, venom coats dull fangs protruding from it's upper lip, and I can smell that it is hungry. It's thoughts are focused on a scent trail the beast is following, the smell has this beast excited. The creatures species has evolved to hunt bigger prey. It's head comes to a point, not unlike an ancient alligator. Though it is slow moving forward, with it's toes dragging limply, it will be faster moving backwards.
    I know now that I have no need for caution, even as smelling it's venom, I can feel fantom hackles raising along my spine. It doesn't hurt to take my time stalking the bear-beast, there's only so much I can learn after the creatures I kill are already dead. What sense of purpose did this predator have? To me, it wanders aimlessly, crossing sents. Like me, it hungers, but it passes up easier prey. Does this animal have a sense of compassion or is it being picky? Like other creatures on this planet, it's thoughts are difficult to understand, the changes in it's scent are the only real clues I have to it's mental state.
    My curiosity grows, the more I watch, the more I want to know, to understand. I broaden my mind, and listen to the creatures around it. They react with fear when they smell him, or not at all. Birds continue to build nests, pick at bugs, showing no fear for the lumbering giant. A Shockwave of fear startles me, a flock of birds alight as the wind changes, carrying my scent over to them. I may not know the language that they think in, but their thoughts were clear enough. To everything that has smelled me, I smell like death. It is a relief that human's sense of smell is so weak, life would be exceptionally lonely if everything feared me.
    Why would an entire species evolve to be so handicapped? All thoughts, no senses, barely able to fend for themselves. Where are their claws, night vision and fangs? It's ironic that they are the apex predator on their planet. I can feel something rise in me, contempt for humanity. It's not mine, I know it's not mine, yet it lurks at the edges of my thoughts. This negativety is trying to taint my curiosity, and lower my sense of regard for human life. I swat the feeling away, I reject it with everything in me.
    I've stopped stalking the bear, it's frozen, it's eyes watching me warily. Fear has it rooted to the spot it stands. The creature is more than double my size,but it's nose tells it the same thing all the animals has smelled in my wake. It's fur is beautiful, a shimering brown with hints of a wildfire red being caught in dappled of sunlight filtering through the lush canopy above. There's a mystical beauty to it, an unearthly glow. I want to touch it's fur, I know it'll be coarse but the way it shimmers. Where had it gained such a color? Looking through the eyes of other creatures, they are unable to bear witness to the spectacle this creature is.
    My stomach grumbles in anticipation, a sound perceptible to only me. Simply killing this creature would be a disservice to it. I know it can't win, it knows it can't win. I won't play with it, but I will give it a chance to fight to the death. That should be fair... right? Who am I even asking. I shake my head as if to clear it and lift my lips in long drawn out snarl.
    Hackles raise along the bears shoulders, a hiss slides out between it's teeth. I lash my tail in anticipation. Perhaps playing with it a little bit can't be all bad. With a whispy below, the bear charges at me. I dodge it's charge, watching it's movements. It's fur truly I'd marvelous, all the hidden tones of color. The bear twists mid charge to swip me with a paw, even with my superior strength and agility, the bear is still quadruple my size. And moved faster than I thought it could. It's paw slams into me and knocks me into the trunk of a tree. I can feel it vibrate on impact, and before gravity takes hold of me, I sink my claws into the bark of the tree. Lashing my tail, I launch myself back at the beast, headbutting it in it's flank. There's a whoosh of air as the wind gets knocked out of the bear.
    It slides in the direction I hit it to, claws scraping into the ground. The bear turns to face me, fear and rage in it's black opalescent eyes. I clack my teeth at it and scrape the ground. Should this be as fun as it is? Questions of morality aside, my stomach grumbles after having my face so close to the bears glossy insides. With the shift of my intent, the bears hostility dies down, and a look that could be mistaken for acceptance causes it's eyes to droop. The carefully focused brain of the bear relaxes, revealing how terrified it had been.
    I see now that I'm not the only predator it's had to deal with, there is something in these woods that caused the growth on these animals. Keeping them alive in the process. I sense no presence, but I also rarely feel the presence of the stranger. Even with it's desire for death, the bear won't go easily. This is something that I'm familiar with.