Chapter 6: Hunger

“Damn… I’m hungry.” She stated placing her hand on her stomach. Why do you got to be so loud. She thought as she looked around. She was a bit sad that this was a redwood type forest with large trees that blotted out the sunlight. Most underbrush and other vegetation that would produce fruits wouldn’t be located here. Though there was in fact underbrush to be had but they were mostly of the fern and vine verity. Yeah I’m looking at you creeping vine. She thought as she noted one of the vines had started moving towards her foot.

She reached down with the edge of her stick and poked the vine. To her surprise it recoiled back from the stick. The bark actually cutting it slightly. That was actually quite interesting. She mused as she chased the vine back into the bush it came from. There she spotted something else. The vine had retracted all the way back to another few bundles. It looked like a large cluster of vines. To her astonishment when she went to poke the cluster it actually moved away as well.

“Seems like you can at least fight off the oh so dangerous vines human.” Sera stated with a chuckle. She couldn’t do much yet with expressions, that would come later when she started to become more full. For now she was just a haze.

“Its good to know though.” Elaine shrugged and then continued to move on. The floor of the forest was hard packed and she was thankful that the world ended on a Monday and not some other day that she would have dressed up on. Heels where not for this. Thank the people that made sneakers! She thought again as her stomach still protested. Why am I so hungry? She thought with some worry. She knew it had been a day, but still she had ate the day before. Well… now half a day ago. That’s still going to take some getting used to…

She walked for what seemed like forever. Keeping her eyes out and hoping that Seraphion would keep her promise to watch out as well. Surely not everything was out here to kill her right? Something had to be a herbivore right? Something had to be on the bottom of the food chain, and she prayed that it wasn’t her. Though when she thought about how long she had been walking the voice in her head chimed in again.

“One hour and fifteen minutes.” Zee stated… smugly. “I can count too you know.”

“Oh hush, your off by a few minutes anyways.” Sera stated back. “its been one hour and seven minutes.”

“No you count too fast.” She retorted slightly irritated to be called out like that.

“No you just count too slow.”

“Can you both just shut it… lets just meet in the middle ok? Can we do that?” Elaine huffed as she paused and sat on the ground for a moment. Eyeing the log that was topped over thinking how that would be better, but her but may not like the feeling of being cut up. “Seriously… why do you two bicker so much?” Elaine asked pulling off her shoes to rub her feet for a moment.

There was silence for a moment. Elaine wondered why that was and when she looked at the haze she noted that it moved slightly and even seemed to talking…. “Wait. Can you two talk to each other and I not know?” She asked a little upset. How can they have privet thoughts and she couldn’t… that just doesn’t seem fair.

“Well… yes. We were not hiding it from you. You just didn’t ask.” Zee stated “and to answer your question about us bickering, well that’s simple. I’m ----- and she’s ----- of --------.” Zee stopped for a second. “Seems like I can’t say anything either.”

“Well if I could not, what made you think you could?” Sera pointedly stated. “I wonder though… I am -----…. I am --------…. Anger…. I am extremely angry...” Sera started to go down a rabbit hole of some sort as she started to state random words trying to circumvent what ever was placed upon the two of them. That’s when it even got worse….

“Hmm… Tired… -----… lazy… efficient… don’t like to dawdle… hmm…” Zee started too.

Elaines head hurt and was starting to develop a headache. The voices in her head where trying to do something or get around some sort of cosmic rule. Their constant talking started to mingle in her head just making white noise at this point. It seemed that they couldn’t really talk over one another very well so they just started to spout out words faster and faster trying to say whatever word that they couldn’t.

“QUITE!” She yelled as the pain in her head just was compounding too much. Her hands clamped to the sides of her head as if she was having a mental break down. She shut her eyes tightly and waited for the voices to become quite… Which they did, after they realized that they had started to hurt her in some way. They didn’t have material bodies so they didn’t realize that their human could feel these things. “Just… please… be quite…” she huffed as her head slowly started to ease off.

“Human ther---” Zee started but was interrupted.

“I said quiet!” she said loudly once again.

“ELAINE!” Seraphion Screamed in her head as she rushed back towards her human trying to stop what was to come.

She didn’t even have the time to realize what had happened… before she was shoved forward face first into the dirt. It took her a second to realize what had happened. There was a short pause as she opened her eyes and looked around. Something was on her back and the pain….

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She screamed in pain as she noted the large horn sticking through her shoulder from her backside to her front. Her right arm almost immobile falling away from her ear. Her eyes widened as she looked at the red horn. What had a horn? Was it those Rabbit dog like creatures? She did not even realize that they were here and that Seraphion hadn’t noticed them… did that mean… fuck… was I about to die? I don’t want to die.

“someone help me please….” She cried as the large creature placed its front paws on her shoulders in attempt to rip its horn back out. Probably to shove it back in or start to maul her… where they not a pack animal though?

“Grab its Horn!” Sera said like a drill sargent. “If you let it come out it will stab you again!” Sera rushed forward its hazy like hands trying to grab at the animal frustrated that it couldn’t even touch anything.

Elaine did not even think. She lifted up with her good arm getting her feet under her as she gribbed the horn with her good hand. Her other hand she struggled to get up towards the horn as well. It didn’t have much grip as it was covered in the slickness of blood, but since it was closing the wound it would become sticky, but for now it was just slick. She gripped it tighly with both hands as best as she could standing back up.

“That’s right girl!” Zee stated as her human stood up. ”Now all you have to do is fall backwards.” She mentally clapped her hands together repeatedly in excitement.

Elaine did just that. She gripped it as hard as she could, her legs shaky as the forty something pound creature on her back realized that this was not going to plan. Instead it did what any other creature would do… it started to claw at its preys back in hopes to hurt it enough to fall back down. Its horn was stuck for some reason and that surprised it for a moment. Rivulets of blood started to stream down Elaines back as it cut shallow trenches down her back. She cried out in pain as she thrust herself backwards towards the log that was laying a few feet away.

With a sickening crunch the creature had stopped moving. Elaine rolled over to her side as the animal started to twitch its spine broken, but still alive. She pulled at her shoulder and using her hands she pushed at the horn in her shoulder. It wasn’t easy as she could tell that the horn had pierced right through her scapula. The large bone that was on the back side that helped with shoulder movement. She groaned and cursed as she pushed hard, the pain of the spiral like horn not wanting to let go, just got worse as the animal started to die… spasming along her backside causing the horn to move even more.

“Damn you get out of me!” she yelled as she rolled hard and pushed at the horn until a wet popping sound could be heard as the horn finally came free… blood started to run down her back and chest. She quickly ripped at her sweater to wrap her wound, knowing full well that she needed a doctor… Fuck…. Not earth… I’m going to freaking die out here! She exclaimed as she lay their panting on the forest floor next to the dead rabbit looking dog… or dog looking rabbit.

“You will be ok.” Seraphion stated coming closer to her. “I noted that you knew what you were doing when you were playing with that dead cat… should you not know your body better than that of a unknown animal?”

Seraphion was right. She had taken all the classes and knew human biology pretty well, not as well as some of her animal biology classes and knowledge but enough to get by on it. “I’ve… lost a lot of blood.” She panted… She rolled back over to the creature looking at it. “I… I have to close the wound.” She thought out loud as she reached over for her stick. It was rough and had portions of its bark uneven… but it was sharp.

With a grunt she grabbed at the animal and used the stick like a hacksaw on its back side going after the longissimus dorsi, the muscle along the backside of the rabbit. She hoped it had the same body structure as a normal rabbit. Those she had done autopsies on before. Along the backstrap their would be silverish looking fibers that ran along side of the muscle groups. She hacked at the animal til she had a small hole and then shoved the stick inside causing it to get larger and larger til she could se the meat underneath. It wasn’t pretty looking and she really wished that she had a scalpel, that would make this process much easier, she remembered her backside that she could feel hot and it stung a lot. She glanced down at the paws of the rabbit like dog and noted the curved blade like claws covered in her blood.

“Elaine, I wouldn’t do that if… too late…” Zee stated… sighing. “She did it anyways…”

Seraphion sighed as well and spoke to Zeraphine privately. She didn’t want to interrupt the effects or hindrance of her human. “I think I know how it works…”

“Oh do you now?”

“Yes I do.” Sera stated crossing her hazy arms.

“Oh do tell the whole class wont you?” Zee said exasperatedly.

Seraphion waited a moment as she noted that her human had passed out from the pain. She shuddered as she took the time to re-enter her human’s soul. This seemed to be more comfortable at the moment. She had watched the whole transformation, and it didn’t even hurt her this time. Well didn’t hurt Sera… she wasn’t attached to her at that moment. But she didn’t want her to do this alone either, when she realized that Zeraphine had experienced it. She wanted to feel what her human felt. To say the least it wasn’t comfortable at all. Mostly because Sera and Zee didn’t know what it felt like to have a mortal body.

Zee was happy that her human had passed out though as she watched the skin on her fingertips rupture as small black nails sharp as a scapple started to push themselves through. She could feel the bones shift in her fingers to make room for the addition. She watched Elaines bone density decreased using up key nutrients in her body. She worried over her overall health as the fingers bled and the nails slowly pushed outwards destroying the nail bed and draining the body of its Zink and calcium were coming from throughout the body. She would need to supplement these metabolic changes in her future.

“She has to see the animal… touch the animal… recognize her need for evolutionary changes… and understand the “how” the portions of the animal’s biology functions and is made.” Seraphion stated mostly like a question as she stood before Zeraphine. She looked at Zeraphine in her glory. She had hair the color of snow, hell her whole image was just snow white. Only her skin and eyes were a different color as she sat there on a large fluff of immaterial fluffiness. She didn’t look to be over the age of sixteen. She had brown dow like eyes and her skin was a healthy pale flush. Sera didn’t know why she couldn’t seem the for what they were.

“Do you think she will be ok?” Sera asked looking at their human.

“I hope so… I don’t want to die. We won’t be able to guide her if she’s dead after all.” Zee stated as she rolled over and sat up on the fluff. She gave a stretch as if she had been asleep. “Hopefully she won’t be out for too long.”

“But she lost so much blood and her metabolic state is not good either.” Sera stated as she looked back out into the forest. “She’s going to have to eat that thing.” She mused. “Hope she’s hungry.”