unnamed piece

The first thing I remember from my new life was the bright light of the morning sun shining through my window.  I was lying on my bed, savoring the soft feel of fresh cotton sheets against my skin.  Though I had not opened my eyes yet, I knew that my cat, Ollie, was perched on the end of my bed.  His quiet presence, as always, was reassuring.  Sighing contentedly, I stretched and slowly sat up. After I had finally adjusted to the light, I opened my eyes. 

The sight of my small bedroom greeted me.  Though it was small, I had thoroughly personalized it until it had become basically a symbol of who I was.  The walls were a lime green color, and my bedspread matched it with a pattern of green and blue.  A dresser stood in the corner, and under the window was a small but comfortable bench to sit on and look out over the courtyard below.  Near the window was a collection of pictures pinned to the wall, mostly of family and friends.

I yawned and contemplated whether or not to get up yet.  It was Saturday, my only day off, and usually I slept in a little later.  Finally I made the decision, and hauled myself up out of my bed.  Stumbling sleepily around my room, I made it to my bedroom door and continued on to the bathroom. 
 
Though I was normally a pretty tidy individual, my small apartment was a mess.  I had been so busy lately that I had no extra time for cleaning up.  It wasn’t like I was going to have any dates come over, anyway.  Maneuvering my way around a pile of books near my small desk in the corner, I thought back to when I had first moved in two years ago.  Fresh out of college, I had decided to move out of my parents’ house and live my own life.  After two years on my own, I had a stable job and a decent place to call home, but no one to come home to.  Sometimes I would get lonely, but Ollie was usually company enough for me.

I made it to the bathroom without tripping, and flipped on the light.  I turned to face the mirror then, and gasped at my reflection.

The face staring back at me was barely my own. Her face was familiar, but with drastically sharpened features. I looked like I had been starved.  My skin was tight around the bones in my face, and my cheeks were thinner.  Even though it looked drastically slim, my face had a sort of beautiful, superhuman look to it.  My nose, a little crooked from having been broken, was now smooth and perfect.  Before today, my hair had been a simple brown color.  Now it shined in the fluorescent light, completely straight.  I reached up to run my fingers through it, and it was smooth as silk. 

But these were not the biggest changes.  My eyes were blue.  The lightest blue, with dark blue rings along outside edge.  Those were not my eyes.  I used to have brown eyes, a plain, mousy brown.  I had hated my eye color before, but losing them was still a shock.

I freaked out.  What do you expect from a girl who’s just had almost her entire appearance changed?  My heart rate spiked so high that I could feel it ringing in my ears, and then I realized that it wasn’t just one copy of my heart beat I could hear. I could hear 3.

I put my hands to my pounding chest and felt my heart beating, right where it should be, but then I moved my hands to the right, and then downwards.  I had three heartbeats, three hearts, all beating strong and clear. What was I?

My heart rate continued to rise until it was out of control.  As I struggled to calm my racing hearts, I heard a man’s voice call out to me, as if someone was standing right behind me.

"Calm down!"

I jumped at the unexpected voice, and turned around to see who it was that had addressed me.  I figured somehow someone had gotten into my apartment.  But when I turned around, no one was there.  Thinking someone was playing some childish game of hide 'n' seek with me, I quickly ducked my head back into the living room and looked around.  No one was there.

There was a deep chuckle, the noise coming from right behind me again. I wheeled my body around, but still no one was there.

I groaned.  "Am I going crazy? There is no one in here!" I thought.

He chuckled again. "No, you're not going crazy. You are many things, but definitely not crazy."

I looked around again, even though I had already come to the realization that no one had spoken the words out loud.  The voice must have been coming from my head.  Though he had told me I wasn’t, I was positive I was losing my mind. 
"Yeah?"  I thought.  "If I’m not crazy, then what am I?"  I had to be hallucinating.  Even so, I continued the conversation.  I felt silly, playing a game with my mind.

There was a pause, but then he responded in a thoughtful voice. "You are perfect."  He seemed to sigh, and I felt for a second a deep feeling of happiness that wasn’t my own.  With it came a sudden realization that maybe I wasn’t hallucinating.  Maybe I actually had someone talking to me in my head.  I knew it sounded crazy, but it was starting to make more and more sense.

"Who are you?"  I asked him in my head.  I could sense him smiling, even though I couldn’t see him. 
"Watch."  He replied.

As I wondered what in the world he wanted me to watch, my thoughts were suddenly cut off, and my mind went blank.  I tried to remember what I had been thinking about seconds before, but then an image came to my mind.

I was thinking of a man.  He was handsome, probably in his 20’s, and he was standing in the middle of a meadow, filled with wildflowers bursting with summer color.  Off in the distance was a mountain surrounded with trees stretching as far as I could see.  Looking up into the sky, the bright sun shone onto his face.  Though he seemed to have fair skin, he had a tan of one who spent much of his time outdoors.  The gentle wind tousled his light golden hair.  Suddenly, he pulled his gaze from the sky, looked straight at me, and smiled.  His expression held a strange emotion I couldn’t decipher, and his eyes sparkled.  Blue eyes.  I focused in on them, and realized that they were identical to mine.  Light blue, with a dark blue ring around the outside.

He continued to smile at me, knowing the similarity I had noticed.  And then he closed his eyes, and his body began to change itself.  He morphed from himself into a lion, then into a bear, then a moose, an eagle, and then finally back into his human self.  He opened his eyes looked at me with a curious expression, measuring my reaction.

I would have loved to have seen my response to this.  If I had to guess, I would say I felt a mixture of wonder, curiosity, and awe.  And I’m sure all of those emotions showed; I am definitely one to wear my emotions on my sleeve.  Then, as soon as this thought had come to me, it went away, and I was back in my small bathroom, leaning heavily over the sink.  My hearts sped up again, and I breathed deeply as I struggled to calm my emotions.

I wasn’t necessarily scared by what he had showed me, but I was confused.  How was any of this possible?  It was the stuff of science fiction, not a part of life as I knew it.  Even though it was hard for me to believe, I think I trusted him and accepted this as truth.  Before long, my heart rate calmed and I relaxed.  But there were still so many questions to be answered.

"Ask away." He replied softly to my thought.  I took a deep breath, and tried to think of where to start.

"What are you?  Are we the same?"  I thought. 

I sensed him smile again. "You really want to know?"  He paused for a moment, but I didn’t say or think anything in reply, so he went on.  "I am a therianthrope.  Most know us as shapeshifters.  And yes, we are the same."

As I tried to let that sink in, I thought of the endless possibilities.  I could be anyone, anything I wanted.  Animals, people… there was no end to the potential I now had.  I wasn’t upset about what he had told me.  I accepted it once again, and maybe even savored the idea of this newfound power.

I was overcome with excitement, and in the midst of my exhilaration, a thought came to me.  I wanted to try this out.  I ran back to my bedroom and found Ollie still lying on my bed.  Concentrating, I tried to figure out how it would work.  I had heard a few old myths from my superstitious grandmother, and remembered that in some stories the shapeshifter was able to assume an animal form after simply looking at an animal.  I studied Ollie; his shape, features, and qualities, and tried to focus my mind on becoming a copy of him.

During this entire time, the man in my mind had been hearing my thoughts and examining my actions with satisfaction.  As I struggled, he chuckled and said, "It doesn’t work like that.  You have to touch him."

I was a little annoyed at his obvious amusement, but I did what he said, and laid a hand on my cat.  There was a soft golden light that flowed into my fingertips, and I staggered backwards with a heavy feeling.  Ollie looked at me uninterestedly, and meowed. 

I could feel the man nodding in approval, but I barely paid him any attention.  I returned my focus to changing my appearance.  I closed my eyes and pulled the image of my beloved cat into my mind’s focus.  Almost immediately, I felt a tingling sensation that worked its way from my toes to my stomach, to my arms, and finally to my head.  The tingling covered me entirely, and I could feel my body rearranging itself.  It didn’t hurt at all.  Actually, it felt natural, and pleasant.  After a few seconds, the tingling began to retreat back from my head all the way to my legs, and went away.  I thought maybe I had changed, but my eyes remained tightly closed.

"You can open your eyes," the man said in a tone filled with wonder and admiration.  I obeyed, and opened my eyes.