Chapter 8: Humans are Animals

She gave the makeshift spear a few practice jabs before she felt like the tip wasn’t going to fall off again. That had happened a few times before she gave up on the shoe strings and instead had used bits of tendon and sinew to tie the horn to the end of a wrist size stick that was roughly straight. Though it was only about four feet in length it was still better than using her own body. She really didn’t want to get that close to another creature.

“That’s the best yet.” Zeraphine yawned. “Think it’ll do the trick?”

“I hope so.” She mumbled waiting for the voice in her head to move. Zee did have a bad habit of making large and extravagant movements while she was in her soul space. That’s what they had agreed to call it. Elaine though just wanted to call it schizophrenia park… but they didn’t like the idea and reassured her that she wasn’t crazy. Typical of those that suffered from that disease, but hey… better than being alone right?

During the time that it took her to make the spear she did ask her two voices what they remembered after being “made”, they were not able to give her full details, but they did tell her that it was a being with unimaginable power and seemed to be able to withstand the void of space with no aid and make the void into a solid with a thought. Even had the ability to hold them in place while speaking to them. When she had questioned them about what he had told them though all they could do was tell her that they were to guide her in their own special way. That it was His wish for them to do so.

Regardless, none of that information really helped her at the moment so she just pushed it off for now to move on to the next location. She found walking a bit tiring. Though when she started to eat the somewhat dried meat she started to feel invigorated bit by bit. Her body was ravenous in its desire for the nutrients. Which gave her a thought as she moved.

Wolves.

Wolves had an adaptation for a strictly meat diet. A typical wolf would have a stomach acidic around pH1 to two. Humans on the other hand had a acidity around one and a half to three and a half. It was to help break down harmful pathogens and to help break down raw meats into proteins faster. These were just a few things that she would need to change… she thought as she placed her hand on her stomach… she was a animal after all so why couldn’t she include herself in this?

“I do not see why not. You are a human after all human.” Sera stated. “Just another animal in the animal kingdom, you might even have a fancy Latin word for it too right?”

“Yes… I think in Latin the direct for human female is Humana Femina.” Elaine stated happy that she could remember such a odd detail. “Though if you are talking about the whole of the humanity then it would be Homo Sapiens… which loosely translates to wise man.” She said as she started to formulate some of the necessary changes she was about to take, hoping that what she was going to use wouldn’t affect her too much.

First… I need to increase the production of hydrochloric acid. Which could be a problem… it will eat away at my stomach lining. So I need to make that better first before starting an increase in… wait why am I trying to do that? She thought then shook her head as she chewed on a small piece of half dried raw meat. “first I need to figure out if I can alter myself without another stimuli.” She said aloud.

With the meat slightly dangling from her clenched teeth she looked at her arm noticing in the failing light that she did have small hairs there. Hair was simple. She stopped moving. Keep a eye out right quick? She asked her voices before turning her attention back to the hairs on her right arm.

With a thought she remembered how hair was made. From root to tip, and what was required to produce hair. She looked at a portion of her arm and formed a clear thought in her head. She didn’t want the hair there any longer. She knew why some places of the body grew hair and where others didn’t and understood the biology of it. So with a thought and minimal biochemistry she watched as her skin slowly pushed the dermal papilla through the skins surface as the arrector pili muscle was reabsorbed into the body as nutrients. She smiled.

“Ha!” she exclaimed as she saw the small patch of hair fall out and then started the process down both of her arms. “We are just another animal after all.” She said smiling and stopped the process. She had so many thoughts go through her head about all the implications of what she was able to do to herself with what the body could do on its own. Like how some people were double jointed or extremely flexible where others where not. They were after all just different genetic traits that any human would be able to get if they are lucky enough.

With that she continued walking as the sun started to crest the horizon. She really didn’t have that much time, but she had an idea as she started to walk back to the first clearing where the scaled jaguar was. She really needed to come up with a good name for that one too, but that was beside the point. She needed to find refuge… and the only one she knew about was her hole in the ground. That would be a good place to hide for the night.

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Ok… so fist… the stomach is coated in a mucus that helps protect the stomach itself, but that would require to develop a stronger bicarbonate buffer. So the parietal cells would need to enhance the production of bicarbonate to neutralize acid. Though the stomach is one part of the body that regenerates tissue cells constantly so that would need to increase as well. Ok… so lets start with that. She thought rapidly as she quickened her pace. As the suns light was nearly gone.

There was a good reason why she needed to do this. For one, raw meat would be easier to get, well if she could learn to hunt properly and not just put herself out there as bait waiting for something to come get her. Lastly because she herself didn’t know how to make fire from nothing. Maybe if a storm happened to come through she and struck a tree and caught it on fire she would have a fire source that she would be able to keep alit, but the probability of that was going to be low. She hadn’t spotted a single cloud all day. Trust her when she said she looked up constantly… that’s where scaled kitties lived after all.

Ok… she grunted as she could feel her stomach get really questionable at the over development of the mucus taking affect. Nothing was being absorbed that was in her stomach and made her want to vomit.

“Almost there.” Zee applauded.

This feels wrong… but… I must endure. She thought as she imagined her stomach in her head and that of a wolves. Parietal cells… I need to increase the HCI secreation to lower the pH further. I need to upgrade the regulation of the H+/k+ATpase in the parietal cells. These cells help transfer hydrogen ions into the stomach, so she had to imagine the very cells and their function in her mind. Thankfully she aced bio chemistry class. She knew her dad would have been proud. Though she pushed that from her mind quickly and continued to work out the processes. Now I need to increase the chloride ion transport into the stomach lumen to combine with the hydron ion s to form the HCI to lower the pH to one.

She felt her stomach start to shift and then settle. She no longer had the need to throw up any more, as she could tell the meat in her stomach was starting to break down faster. Though there was still one more thing she had to do… I must increase my gastrin regulation hormone as well so that this process is more regulated naturally to produce HCI in higher quantities. Though this might also need to upgrade my metabolism as well, soo good bye fatty cells! She thought with a happy tone as the fat cells in her own body was targeted for the energy that would be required to help with hormone production and everything else she was doing. Though this would require her to consume more meats to meet her dietary needs. The new metabolic demand would increase but she felt that she could manage that, and if not she could always change her stomach… Oh shit… I Almost forgot! Wolves have a smaller digestive system!

Wolves indeed did have a smaller digestive system to prevent harmful bacteria from growing in the intestine. Time to preform a bowel resection! She smiled at the thought as she imagined her digestive system in her head as the clearing came into view. She thought about the full length of a wolves intestine which was about half the length of a humans. So all she would need would be half of her bodies current intestine length. So with a thought she started the evolution, this time though she doubled over in pain as portions of her intestine closed off and was rapidly shifted in her abdomen. She cried out in pain as she saw her small hole under the tree and slowly crawled towards it. Her right hand gripped tightly around the shaft of the spear and her left hand digging into the dirt pulling herself once again to the hole under the tree.

Why didn’t I think this through… She thought as her body was wreathed in pain all over. She had been too caught up in the whole idea to worry about the consequences of her thoughts. The idea that she could do this to adapt to her new life style had made her take this leap before seeing how deep the water was. It was around the time when she started to feel her abdomen shift in a unpleasant way… Oh Shit!

Shit was right.

She was quick enough not to ruin her clothing any further as she sighed in relief at the almost embarrassing moment. She may be able to forgive herself for this transgression, but the voices in her soul space probably would never let her forget if she had. She had a nagging feeling that Zee would remember for the rest of their lives and use it against her.

“Most definitely.” Zee responded with a chuckle, “Oh don’t worry I’m building up quite the few jabs for the future.” She laughed again. It wasn’t a bad laugh it was actually really cute and almost like singing.

With that relief she pulled herself into the hole and maneuvered the spear in front of herself. She pushed herself towards the back of the hole… Wait this was a fox hole! She thought as she looked about in the dimming light. Foxes had a tendency to dig under trees to make places to hide that would be relatively safe from other larger predators. She had even remembered watching some old war movies where soldiers would dig holes in the ground for protection and called the fox holes as well. Then it occurred to her that with her current hands she herself might be able to dig out such a hole herself.

Well that’s tomorrows problem. Tonight is to survive. She thought to herself as she pushed her back further into the hole and positioned herself facing the hole in that showed her nothing but clear sky.

Wow… so many stars. She thought she could see almost every light in the sky. There was no light pollution to speak of and this was probably one of the best sights she had ever seen in her whole life. It almost made her want to cry in the pure beauty of it. It didn’t compare to the prismatic rainbow in the skies above earth, but this was most definitely a second. It was a true masterpiece.

That’s when she was warned by Sera. “We are no longer alone… something has entered the clearing looking at the cool kitty you played with.” She stated as she pulled herself out of the soul space. It was really uncomfortable when she did that, but they had discovered that her vision was better when she wasn’t inside. Sera floated out of the hole but quickly ducked back in.

“I think it saw me.” She stated with a worried tone.