Sue wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting in her spot for before snapping back to awareness. It felt as if she’d dozed off into a hell of a daydream before suddenly finding herself somewhere else altogether. She couldn’t say she was unfamiliar with this clearing and the campfire at its center, though.
Nightmares had brought her back here many times.
For the first time in her recollection, she seemed to be alone in here, the only occupant of the benches scattered around the fire pit. Despite that, the soft twangs of a slightly out-of-tune guitar filled the air. Far from masterful, but more than enough to lift anyone’s mood with their simple melody.
Just like she used to play.
Try as she might, Sue couldn’t remember what had happened for her to end up here. She let out a resigned sigh before looking around as the details emerged from the recesses of her memory, one by one. It was so calm, so… jarring. Every other time she had dreamed of this place, it was merely a playback of that fateful evening, of all its tears and denial. But this time? This time it was just a pleasant backdrop, utterly divorced from the trauma that had burned it into her psyche.
She was about ready to start humming along with the ambience, before an unfamiliar sound caught her attention. A closer examination revealed it to be a voice, feminine and dignified. Its words inscrutable, its origin uncertain. It almost sounded like it was coming from—
Above...
The sky was filled with more stars than Sue had ever seen in her life. In the middle, right above her, rested the crown jewel of a full Moon—massive, bright, hypnotic in its radiance. And… speaking towards her, somehow. With that in mind, the voice was adequately awe-inspiring. If she understood anything it was saying, Sue might’ve even been humbled by its words.
But, alas, that was not the case. The few sounds she recognized combined into nonsense words that nonetheless sounded important. All Sue could do was tilt her head in response as she stared up at the celestial body, her gesture making it pause.
Sorry Moon, no hablo whatever you’re speaking.
Just as Sue was about to shrug it off, another voice caught her attention. It too came from the heavens, but in almost every other aspect, it was the direct opposite of the first one. Deep, masculine, cold in its inflections, sending shivers down her spine with its every word. But, unfortunately, just as comprehensible as its counterpart—not at all.
With the Moon already taken, she wondered which celestial body was speaking towards her this time, chuckling as she examined the stars. Her amusement didn’t last long, though, not once she noticed that the entire night sky dimmed whenever the second voice spoke, many stars flickering out of view. It was creepy, no doubt, but to her relief, being creepy was all it seemed to be capable of doing—not even the campfire was phased by its intimidation.
The two voices appeared to converse afterward, though the way in which they constantly cut each other off suggested something closer to an argument than a rational discussion. She might’ve had no idea what they were talking about, but she had an awareness, deep down, that it was about her.
Left with nothing coherent to follow, Sue soon spaced out, imagination taking her for a ride as she tried to figure out what was going on. The range of possibilities was almost endless, but God and Satan fighting for the claim to her eternal soul felt like the most plausible hypothesis. The mental fog of dreams made her perceive all this as more funny than anything.
Moon God and Sky Dimmer Satan are doing a rap battle in my head for dibs on my spanking new Martian body.
As she giggled at the mental images her imagination fed her, Sue noticed the two voices growing urgent, pleading even, redoubling their efforts to talk to specifically her. They hadn’t become any less incomprehensible, though, leaving her to ponder idly some more. Truly, it would be very nice if she could understand literally anything that has happened so far.
Her resignation caused the two voices to go at each other even more fiercely. They grew louder and their words harsher, ever more accusatory. It was amusing to observe the Moon and sky repeatedly brightening and dimming in tune with them speaking, then shouting their parts. At least, it was at first. As the volume of the heavenly argument built up, Sue tried to cover her ear-spike-things to not go deaf—to no results, alas.
Thankfully, before her dreamed-up ears would get blown out by the divine shouting match, a third voice intervened with a drawn-out groan. It was unlike either of the two—squeaky, androgynous, somewhat nasal. Its intrusion caught the attention of the first two for long enough to follow up with a comment that shut them both up, redirecting their focus back to her.
She didn’t notice that, though, entirely preoccupied by the realization that she… recognized that third voice, but from where she had no idea.
The sensation of everyone gathered staring right at her made her squirm; unseen divine gaze brought no less anxiety than the usual kind. As Sue shuddered in her seat, a cold wind kicked up around the scene, rapidly growing in intensity. Before she knew it, it had destroyed the campfire before her—and then, to her shock, it did the same to the rest of her dream.
By the time Sue realized what was happening, the dreamscape came undone around her, falling apart into a colorless void. She turned skyward; the sight of a shattered Moon with a golden star circling around it graced her eyes for just an instant before it, too, disappeared—
----------------------------------------
And then; she woke up.
The dream quickly faded from her mind as she laid still on the edge of consciousness, the celestial exchange she’d witnessed equally awe-inspiring and incoherent. She might’ve had no idea what the two voices had spoken, but knew very well where it had all taken place, at the campfire from the day of—
*SMASH!*
Sue’s eyes shot open at the sudden shatter, the sound speeding up the usual five minutes it took for her to wake up to five seconds, leaving her startled and confused. She looked around the room, realizing she was somewhere else altogether. The wooden walls around her assured her of that much, at least.
As she investigated her surroundings, she realized she was resting on a bed. A primitive one, sure, but downright divine because of the normalcy it represented, the normalcy she had been denied yesterday. Yesterday...
Recollection flooded Sue’s mind as she looked at her hand, her body having disappointingly not reverted to its former self. She didn’t have the time to linger on the unpleasant fact, the realization that soon followed taking up all her attention—
How did I survive that?
With some awkward sliding, she sat up on the soft mattress, examining her blanket-covered body. She braced herself for a gruesome sight before yanking on the covers, uncovering her lower half—and revealing a generous amount of bandages wrapped around her visibly swollen, very numb leg. All the other scrapes elsewhere were cleaned up nicely as well.
Someone had helped her out!
The unbelievable realization poured a can of gasoline into the flames of hope inside her. Someone had found her! There were people here! They had helped her despite her looking like a demon! She would be alright in the end! The sheer joy blooming in her body was almost intense enough to make her overlook the tugging sensation informing her that someone was approaching, and rather quickly at that. As much as she wanted to hug her presumed savior, she imagined her appearance had already scared them plenty.
Plus, her chest spike would… hurt if she went about hugging the usual way.
Sue quickly laid back down and pulled the covers over, pretending to be asleep—just in time, no less. She jolted at hearing the wooden door creak open, followed by two pairs of steps walking into her room. Two voices accompanied them—one boyish, upset, and… chittering, and the other much older, mumbling and soft-spoken. To her chagrin, she didn’t understand either of them, her heart sinking at the realization.
Can I just no longer understand English?
It was harrowing to even imagine, destroying any hopes of her ever returning to normalcy. Thankfully, the more she considered it, the less plausible it felt; there was no way she just forgot the only language she knew. Sure, it wouldn’t be any less strange than everything else that had happened so far, but… Sue found it especially hard to believe.
Her train of thought was interrupted at hearing the older voice shush the younger one after a louder complaint, followed by a whispered apology. Seems they thought she was still asleep. She decided to try her luck and glance at the pair, prying one eyelid open as she braced herself for more of this weird world—
…
No wonder she couldn’t understand them; they were no less irradiated than every other living being around here.
The smaller of the two creatures reached to around her waist, but she sure didn’t want it anywhere near her. Both bats and scorpions unnerved her greatly on their own, and this abomination looked like their unholy fusion—and also like it had been doused in aggressively pink paint and had a comically oversized tongue glued to it.
While the handful of cuts across its front would’ve usually elicited a bit of sadistic glee in Sue because of how terrifying it looked, she didn’t have it in her now. Not in this body. The tugging sense let her feel its embarrassment and pain so clearly that all she could do was feel sorry for it.
From the safe distance of preferably the next continent over.
The demon was being tended to by the other creature, the source of the older voice. It was trickier to describe than its fellow monster, even less similar to normal animals than the bat-scorpion chimera. Bipedal, roughly tall enough to reach to the letter opener on her chest, and split between cream and pink fur, with the latter segment of its coat being shaped like... a coat.
At least I’m not the only creature with a weirdly clothed-like appearance out there.
The bunny-like tail and large, floppy ears were by far the most animalistic of its traits, and even then, the latter looked unnatural because of the weird curls extending from them. They reminded Sue of fancy earrings—at least until it went and grabbed one of them, extending it to press its wider tip to the pink bat’s chest as if it was a stethoscope.
Her history with drugs might have started and ended at the couple cans of booze she’d nabbed at some party while underage, but the sights her eyes were gracing her with were right out of a druggie’s trip.
Afraid she had already been pushing her luck, Sue closed her eyes and resumed her sleeping disguise. It left her relying on her hearing and the tugging sense to make out what was happening around her, but thankfully, they sufficed. The smaller creature was happier after being tended to and soon ran out of the room, the door creaking in its wake.
The bigger one muttered to itself before walking up to her, its approach making her swallow nervously. To Sue’s chagrin, it had clearly noticed even that barely audible sound, speaking up towards her in a questioning tone of voice. Whatever question it had asked was then immediately answered by a quiet barking coming from somewhere close.
A closer inspection of her sixth sense revealed another creature nearby, resting right beside her bed and unnoticed until now. Its gratitude was downright radiant, making for a sensation so pleasant Sue almost overlooked how… familiar that creature felt. Whatever it was, it was much more noticeable to her extrasensory perception now that it was awake, clueing her in to how all that worked.
As the freshly awakened critter and the big pink creature continued to make noises, Sue wondered whether the latter could even understand the former’s barking. Its soft mumbling was about as distant from canine woofs as human speech—and yet, the two appeared to converse for a while afterward, about her.
Sue had no idea how she even knew the latter, but was more certain of that fact than of almost anything else in her present situation.
While she steadfastly pretended to be asleep, worry crept into her mind. What would these two do once they’d realized she was awake? Had they helped her out, or… did they just drive out the humans that had? Were they also mutated humans? Would that even matter when the push came to shove? So many questions, so few answers—
Sue froze solid as a soft paw gently shook her shoulder, accompanied by the bigger one’s voice muttering something again, a worried question judging by its tone. Guess as well as she had tried to hide, it wasn’t enough. She tensed up, bracing for whatever was to come before daring to peek with one eye—the big one was looking down at her.
Its blue eyes softened as it grew increasingly concerned, in emotions and expression alike. It spoke again afterward, no less uneasily, to which she just sighed, unsure what to do. It was expecting an answer, an answer she couldn’t provide, leading her to mutter out in defeat, “I-I chanht undershtahnd yhou, shorry.”
She wasn’t sure how she expected them to react, but confusion wasn’t on the list. The creature stared at her, wide eyed, tilting its head as it muttered something back at her. Just off to the side, a couple of yellow paws reached up onto the mattress. They were followed by the very ear-haired fox from yesterday peeking at her from over the bed’s edge, revealing the woofer’s identity.
The two creatures couldn’t have been more different even if they’d tried, but they seemed unified in their confusion. They both kept trying to talk to her for a while, their words questioning and uncertain. Sue opted to just remain silent, hoping she could make it clear she didn’t understand them. And judging by their reactions, they didn’t understand her either.
Fantastic.
On the upside, they clearly weren’t interested in eating her, even if the fate of whoever had built this building remained uncertain. The bigger one thought about something for a while before sighing and walking over to the other end of the bed. It pulled back the covers, revealing what Sue had already seen—her patched-up leg. Concerningly, she couldn’t move it below the knee. Whether it was temporary, she didn’t know, and could only hope for a positive answer. The big one said something that was obviously meant to sound comforting before pulling the covers back on.
Its actions so far introduced yet another conundrum into Sue’s strained sanity.
Whatever it was, it clearly wanted to help her out. It had just patched up that scorpion bat, and she couldn’t sense anything other than worry and concern for her wellbeing emanating from it. Her leg was in a bad enough state to where she wouldn’t be doing much walking anytime soon, and she was stuck here for now—wherever ‘here’ was.
With these facts in mind, Sue figured she could use a better way of referring to that creature, something that wasn’t just ‘the big one’. Especially since, seeing as it had patched her up, it was likely to visit her again. A nickname wouldn’t help her much with direct communication, and she was well aware. Still, she’d appreciate soothing her tattering sanity through having an actual label to refer to something—no, someone—in here with.
And not think of it as an ‘it’ while at it. Determining the appropriate pronouns for it was rather tricky—even beyond being inhuman, its voice and mannerisms didn’t strike her as either feminine or masculine, prompting Sue to go with ‘they’ for now. Guess she got something out of that LGBT+ club talk at her college in the end.
The only question remaining was what to call them. Their ear-extension-thing made her think of a stethoscope; so maybe something medical? Especially since they had just patched up that pink thing too... ‘Doc’?
Fuck it, Doc it is.
She sure didn’t have enough spare brainpower to come up with anything more sophisticated. And, considering their actions so far, the nickname felt appropriate, if painfully bland.
Doc was staring at her with a distraught expression. In her zoned-out pondering, Sue seemed to have missed them asking a question—though with her grasp on their language being nonexistent, it wasn’t like that made much of a difference. A few moments of waiting for her to respond later, they sighed in defeat.
Before Sue could feel too bad for them, they perked up, ears rising as they excitedly muttered something. Whatever their idea was, it led them out of the room, the glimpse of grass on the other side revealing the door to be the building’s front entrance.
Sue appreciated the resulting silence, letting her collect her thoughts for once. Before she could get a better look at the room, though, she remembered she wasn’t alone in here, making her modesty kick in. An attempt to shield her chest by pulling up the covers was made simultaneously more difficult by the presence of the big red spike jutting out of the area in question, and somewhat pointless without any secondary sexual characteristics for her to hide to begin with.
That didn’t mean she didn’t try, though.
Despite her best efforts, Sue eventually had to concede defeat after her attempt to hold the blanket an inch or so away from the spike ended up revealing everything there would’ve been to reveal, had there been anything in there to hide in the first place. She sighed, let the blanket fall to an audience of one yellow, confused fox, the critter still looking up at her from over the bed’s edge.
It would also need a name eventually, but Sue’s immediate attention returned to the building she was in. In any other circumstances, the wooden hut would’ve been scarcely interesting. Considering what creatures surrounded her, however, one question after another arose as she took it all in.
The most immediately noticeable thing was just how small everything was, her bed aside. The drawers and shelves lining the walls seemed more appropriate for a creature Doc’s size than a human. Even the ceiling was off, only about six feet off the floor.
Her claustrophobia didn’t like that realization.
Vaguely medical-looking supplies and equipment lined up almost all surfaces and a good few walls. Gourds and wooden bottles of unknown substances, pincers, hooks, at least one saw, almost all of it made from wood or stone. Nothing here looked like it was made with any industrial tooling, at least not within the last two hundred years.
Aside from making Sue hope these tools would never have to be used on her, it all made her question her assumption that the structure was human-built to begin with. The ceiling was much too low for that; the furniture was tailor-made for whatever Doc was, and it all looked handmade, rustic even.
So… if humans didn’t build this place, who did?
Unless her eyes were deceiving her, Doc didn’t have enough stamina to handle the logs that comprised the walls. Maybe enough to put the furniture together, but that was about it. On that thought, they sure didn’t look strong enough to have carried her here, either. Which meant they weren’t alone in this general area, and that whoever had moved her here could’ve also helped them out with this hut.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
That was something Sue could try to find out on her own.
She closed her eyes and focused on her tugging sense—and an instant later, a very warm softness brushed against her side, making her jump. The yellow fox capitalized on her distraction, using the window of opportunity to scramble onto her bed and nuzzle her. Its quiet woofs drew Sue’s attention to the sheer gratitude pouring out of it, warming her at least as much as its body heat.
It made sense it’d be thanking her for saving its life, but that only left her more conflicted.
On one hand, she wasn’t all that sure about ascribing humanity to this mutated animal, but on the other, it had communicated with Doc earlier, somehow, and was clearly attempting to do the same with her. Even if it didn’t actually have human intelligence, it came much closer to that than any fox she’d ever seen.
With that in mind, it would also need a nickname and a set of pronouns. ‘They’ seemed even more adequate here than for Doc, considering an absence of any obvious gender characteristics, and looking under their tail was the exact last thing Sue wanted to do right now, which left just the name. A joke at the expense of their generous ear hair felt appropriate, but she didn’t have the snark in her for that, thoughts veering toward something much more innocent. They were yellow with red accents, ridiculously warm to the touch, so maybe something alluding to that... ‘Flame’? ‘Ember’?
Either of those made her feel like a jock that names their dogs ‘Destroyer’ or ‘Annihilator.’ It was hard to deny that her current ideas were much more appropriate here, though—not to mention incomparably cuter.
‘Ember’ it was, then.
With the fox granted a nickname, Sue could pay closer attention to them instead of tripping up over how to address them. Their warmth immediately caught her attention, more consciously this time. While it was undeniably cute and very appreciated to be warmed up by a yellow-red fluff ball, Ember’s body heat went beyond anything normal.
They felt like a sweater straight out of the dryer, which was as curious as it was worrying. In any other creature, being this warm would’ve resulted in it having dropped dead from a heat stroke ages ago—and yet, Ember here showed no signs of discomfort, not even panting as they got comfy beside her. Perhaps she shouldn’t have been surprised by that, considering the existence of creatures as odd as a spider her size, a bright pink scorpion-bat-nightmare-fuel, and whatever the hell Doc was, but this was the first time where the weirdness wasn’t just skin-deep—barring her own sixth sense, at least.
Still wonder how that ties into everything else so far.
Even if she only had a fox-shaped lap warmer as opposed to any answers, they were much better than nothing—or worse yet, hostility at the hands of an assorted bunch of nature’s rejects. Their concern was... well, concerning, and Sue hoped it didn’t mean they had figured out she’d been transformed into whatever this was.
Speaking of nature’s rejects, it was a decent opportunity to give scanning the area with her off-brand Spidey-Sense another go, now that Ember had laid down. Sue closed her eyes and relaxed her body, exhaling and focusing on the emotions tugging at her soul from every direction—
Oh god, there are so many.
Middle of the woods from yesterday had few blips on her radar, but it was dozens as opposed to hundreds in here. Even beyond that, each individual sensation was much closer than what she’d felt back in the thick of the woods, combining into something much too intense to try picking apart.
Still, the emotional landscape seemed to be happy and content on the whole. Sue caught her breath following her glimpse beyond as her attention returned to the world around her to the tune of an intense, if thankfully brief, headache.
There were many creatures in her vicinity, most of them feeling fine. That left a few possibilities. A farm was obvious, but also the one Sue rejected the fastest. All the creatures she sensed felt... different in ways she couldn’t describe, even if she’d tried. Distinct enough from one another to make a pasture with all of them at once feel infeasible. Guess whatever her sixth sense was, it could also feel species apart, somehow?
Go-go Martian Spidey-Sense, find me a human.
A settlement was another option, though the same diversity of species made that similarly tricky to conceptualize. Humans were already going at each other’s throats with just one species; she had no idea how a hundred different ones could ever hope to live together in any semblance of peace. Despite that, she couldn’t think of anything else. The surroundings of this cabin ended up as yet another mystery, thrown onto the pile.
Though, as opposed to the rest of them, she could solve it herself.
The window was a few steps away and frankly, her right leg did not look capable of walking even one of those steps. She could probably just barely limp over there with the support of good ol’ inanimate objects to lean on, letting her figure something out for once. Would be a welcome change of pace, that’s for sure.
Sliding the blanket off herself, Sue turned over to sit on the edge of the bed, preparing for the journey of a lifetime. The movement stirred Ember up from their attempted nap, making them woof at her in surprise and concern.
“D-dhonht whorry Embher, I’ll bhe arright,” Sue reassured. Right as she tried putting weight on her busted leg, though, she felt her hand being gently grabbed by something pointy, making her jump. Ember had taken matters into their own maw, holding her oversized hand in their teeth and pulling it back, together with the rest of her. “H-hey, sh-shtoph that!”
Attempts to yank the limb away from the little fox ended in failure. She couldn’t tell whether that was because Ember was much stronger than they looked, or if her body was even weaker than it felt. That didn’t mean she stopped trying, however.
The world’s most bizarre tugging war continued until her sixth sense alerted her of Doc’s return, somehow picking them out from the outside crowd. With them being unlikely to approve of her going for a short walk with a busted leg either, Sue gave up for now. She slid her legs underneath the blanket, shifting to her previous spot and grumbling quietly at Ember. She had a hard time maintaining her annoyance once the pup had resumed their nuzzling, trying their hardest to push her away from the edge of the bed, ineffectual as they might have been.
I get it; you don’t want me walking because I’ve got a busted leg.
Her expression remained soured as the door creaked open, but seeing what Doc had brought with themselves offset that significantly. They smiled, upbeat, carrying a wooden tray packed with various foodstuffs, a jug of water, and… a couple scrolls off to the side. As eye-catching as that last item was, the treats on display left her unable to mull over it for too long. Sweet buns, rolls, a fruit salad, even some grilled veggies.
The smells alone made her mouth water.
It was almost captivating enough to make Sue overlook the discussion that Doc’s return had resumed. They and Ember chit-chatted while the medic delivered the lavish breakfast right to her bed. Sue wished she had some way of thanking them at the moment, however limited—
The tray being set down all the way over on her calves took her out of that train of thought. The spot, just barely out of her arm’s reach, appeared to be intentional. A couple of dumbfounded blinks later, she turned to look at Doc; the medic having whisked away the scrolls in the meantime. They carried them further into the hut as they chatted with—oh.
Her hunger-fueled hyper-focus led her to overlook the other being that accompanied Doc on their return—an incredible feat considering their appearance.
If Doc was a vaguely mammalian bipedal creature, this one was a vaguely insectoid bipedal creature. Their coloration was split between green and yellow, and parts of their body appeared to be made of honest-to-god leaves. Some of them had visible chunks bitten out of them, without causing them any obvious discomfort. No way that could be healthy.
Though what even is healthy for a crossbreed of a mantis and a fucking bush.
Ember already spat in the face of the entire field of biology with their impossible warmth, and that was peanuts compared to this thing, whose very existence took that entire field of science and choke slammed it across the floor—
…
...and now everyone was staring at her because she glared at the mantis so hard.
Trying to save face, Sue looked back at the tray, thinking about how she’d pull it closer—before going for the obvious method, hoping her arms were longer than they felt like. Her first attempt had her pointed fingertips barely brushing against the wood. She exhaled as much as she could before doubling down, gritting her teeth through the exercise.
Maybe that was the point, to get her to stretch a bit. Quite rude, if true. Then again, it wasn’t like Doc could write down a yoga routine for her, and they knew best what she needed right now.
If only I could just get that bloody tray—UGH!
With one last lunge, Sue’s fingers just barely gripped the tray. Her back complained while she pulled the bounty closer, chuckling to herself at how silly she must’ve looked. Still, she did it; she completed the exercise! Satisfied, she smiled, turning to look over at Doc—only to see uncertainty and feel worry. She couldn’t help but gulp at the sight. They were expecting her to do this, right?
What else was I supposed to do there!?
To her concern, Doc sighed in consternation before turning to leaf-bug-whatever and chatting with them instead, Ember occasionally chiming in as well. They were discussing something about her, but knew that Sue could not understand them at all and didn’t even try addressing her directly. Completely understandable on a rational level.
It sure didn’t help with all the worry that had been germinating inside her, though.
There wasn’t much she could do about that at the moment, left to try enjoying the breakfast as everyone gathered chatted about her. The warmth and flavors helped lift her spirits somewhat, letting her get lost in the sweetness, and pretend none of this was happening, at least for a moment.
That she was back on campus, enjoying a break between classes with treats from the local bakery. That she was re-energizing herself for two more hours of lectures about databases before her evening shift. That she wasn’t god knows where, mutated into a god knows what. That she wasn’t at the mercy of aberrations of nature that could’ve turned on her at any moment.
That she wasn’t completely unable to understand any of them.
Sue’s angsty daydreaming was interrupted by a nudge to her side. A glance through her damp eyes revealed Ember to have resumed their warm, soft affection, woofing quietly. She didn’t understand them, but it was hard to interpret it all as anything but trying to comfort her.
If not for clinging to that thought with all her heart, she would’ve broken down there and then. This might’ve been one capricious hell she had found herself in, but the local demons seemed to have a soft spot for her. Suppose that was only appropriate now that she was one of them. Or… was she?
Her mind latched onto that stray possibility as she reached for the next berry roll. She offhandedly acknowledged that it tasted like no fruit she’d ever had before continuing that worrying strand of thought. While every moving creature here was unnatural in some way, most of them were at least based on real animals—but not her.
Maybe this spindly white thing was just what the humans had turned into, but she had an inkling that something deeper was going on here. Nobody else was dealing with the terror of having their body gotten changed like that. Hell, this very building had been built with Doc’s current proportions in mind, quite an impossible feat if everything had simply been mutated all at once yesterday.
But if not that and this freak show of a forest had existed before her ending up here, how come nobody had ever run into it before? Especially with it being so close to a tourist trail?
There were enough questions piling up in her brain to build an imaginary fort made entirely out of confusion and hide away from all this insanity in there. Before she could attempt just that, Doc spoke up toward her, having just finished drawing something on one of the scrolls. The jolt to her system made her realize she’d been nibbling through this roll for a while now, making her wolf down the rest of the treat as she acknowledged the medic with a nod.
She accomplished that in record time, but Doc’s confused expression was her only reward for that particular performance.
They slid the food tray off to the side and replaced it with the scroll, unfurling it right away. She immediately tried to parse the detailed drawing—but before she could get into it, Doc drew her attention to one spot in particular, a charcoal-stained finger patting it for emphasis. It depicted an outline of her current body with a small, crossed-out swirl next to it.
And then; they pointed at her.
Sue nodded back, confident. That one represented her—simple enough, unless she’d somehow botched interpreting something this straightforward. With that in mind, she scanned the rest of the scroll, starting from the top left and... another outline of whatever creature she now was.
It was slightly different in places, but was inarguably the same species. The stiff hairdo was longer, the weird skin dress was shorter, and there were extra lines drawn along their arms and face, much lighter than the main outline. Probably markings or something. They also had something on their head—wait, was that a crown?
Curiously, they had a swirl beside them too, but this one wasn’t crossed out.
Whatever Sue was, she wasn’t one of a kind. It filled her with hope that she’d meet another once-human in here and be able to figure something out with them, maybe even get out of this middle-of-the-woods wonderland.
That hope didn’t last for long once she gave it more thought, though.
With everything else being unphased by their freaky bodies, a sudden transformation felt less and less likely by the moment, and the other slender creature fit that notion. Their markings and crown gave them a royal appearance, incompatible with them having suddenly appeared in here yesterday like she had.
So, they were a native specimen of whatever bizarre species this was, while Sue was an impostor that had only awoken in this body less than a day ago. Considering her track record of taking care of herself through all this mess, they’d almost certainly be able to tell, which was terrifying.
Could that be what the swirl represented? Being a native creature—or in her case, not being?
What if that discrepancy simply meant that there have been multiple rounds of people and animals getting mutated into this freak show? What if everyone around her, including that other spindly creature, came from an older batch? Though, if that were the case, they’d still be using English, or at least would understand it… yeah, fat chance.
What would that other-her do once they found out she was a fake whatever-this-is?
She had no way of knowing, but none of the ideas her brain fed her sounded reassuring in the slightest. They ranged from exile for being a fake, to... being disposed of right away. Excitement at meeting someone like her evaporated within moments as a mortal fear of that encounter replaced it. And with it, came urgency towards figuring out how to get away from here without running into them.
If I ever run into that other Martian, I am fucked—if my fate isn’t already sealed, that is.
With her head filled with a sufficient amount of dread, Sue shifted her attention to the rest of the drawing before her, starting with the figure next to the other-her. They were also bipedal, and also looked like they were wearing a dress, but the similarities ended there. They were covered in thick fur, had a tail, and their head was like Ember’s—canine, with massive, very furry ears. They also had a swirl next to them.
The similarity between the shape of their head and Ember’s perked Sue’s attention. She wondered whether it was a coincidence, or if there was something to it all, glancing at the mutant fox to confirm her hunch. It would be surprising for them to be related, considering the sheer difference in body shape and size. The bipedal hairy-ears was drawn at roughly the same scale as her, after all. Though, not like creatures here cared about such trivialities as coherent anatomy, anyway.
The little fox eventually noticed her glances between themselves and the drawing. They reacted with excited woofs, scooting onto her lap before patting that particular sketch a few times, punctuating the gesture with more vulpine sounds, commented on quietly by Doc.
Guess there was something to it, after all.
Her brain threatened to fry itself in thinking coherently about any of it, though. Mammals didn’t have that kind of difference in body shape between children and adults; this looked like the result of metamorphosis or something. Sue did not want to live with the awareness that the lovely maybe-fox beside her was actually an oddly foxlike insect.
What’s next, laying eggs?
One more brick for the confusion fort in her mind.
Trying to purge the mental image of Ember being more insectoid than their appearance would’ve suggested, Sue’s attention shifted further to the right. Finally, something she could understand—an arrow. It led from the couple of creatures towards some sort of fortified structure of sorts, maybe a castle? Suppose it only made sense with the crown on the other-her, but the possibility that she’d get ratted out by royalty of all things did not calm her down any. Another arrow came from the castle, curling back towards her outline with several symbols alongside it.
Circle, a small slice of a circle, circle, an even smaller slice of a circle, circle.
The circles and slices along the second arrow stumped her for a hot minute. She was ready to concede and just add this one to the fort-shaped pile of unknowns—before realizing she recognized that odd shape. After flexing her remaining brain cells, the eventual realization made her eyes go wide. Not really at the obvious-in-hindsight discovery, but more so at finally cracking at least one part of this place’s mystery.
It was the crescent moon.
So slim, like it had only a couple of days left until it disappeared completely. If these two were moons, then full circles were likely suns. The arrow had Sun-Moon-Sun-Moon-Sun written alongside it, which meant…
Other-her and maybe-big-Ember had left for that castle and would return in two days.
Not much time to plan her escape, but still infinitely more than she feared she had.
A sigh of nervous relief left her before she finally looked up from the drawing and towards Doc, nodding to acknowledge the message as she returned the scroll. She was glad to be more aware of her situation, distressing as it was. An icy shiver ran down her spine and spikes when she tried putting it all into perspective. In two days, the other-her would return and expose her as a fake whatever-this-is, and none of the potential outcomes of that sounded like something she wanted to be around for.
Two days to hobble out of here with a busted leg and zero awareness of where she even was.
A gentle touch on her shoulder startled her, making her jump slightly, and almost toppling the tray still on her legs. If their emotional disposition and tone were anything to go by, Doc was trying to reassure her, the effectiveness of the gesture very limited. As much as she tried, she couldn’t hide the building anxiety all that well.
Hardly inconspicuous, but what else am I to do?
A glance around the room reminded her of the second scroll, unused for now. There was even a writing implement next to it, though Sue couldn’t say she had ever tried to draw with charcoal. For a moment, she considered trying to explain her circumstances, sketch herself changing from a human to… this thing, visualize yesterday’s events, but…
All that’d do is give her away as an impostor immediately. She likely wouldn’t even have to wait for the king and queen of nuclear woods to come back for judgment to be passed on her. And so, she turned back towards the tray, visibly tense as she pulled it in closer before nibbling on what treats remained. The rest of the room soon returned to chatting amongst themselves, similarly far from upbeat.
Were they already suspecting her of being a fake, and that’s why they crossed out her swirl? Were they just waiting for the royalty to return before executing her? Was she actively giving herself away right now through her skittishness? Would she be driven out of the only safe spot she’d found so far in all this madness?
That last possibility sounded especially likely.
The anxious bind her mind was trapped in took up too much of her focus to let her pay attention to the rest of the treats laid out before her. With her stomach being sated for now, she left the tray as is, her thousand-yard stare drilling straight ahead into the clinic’s door all the while.
Soon enough, the surrounding discussion died out, and the bug-leaf creature took their leave. The other two sent them off with warm goodbyes before heading out for themselves. Ember trailed Doc as they carried the unfinished tray out, leaving Sue truly alone in here for the first time.
The anxious, cornered part of her psyche wanted to get up and run away as fast and as far as she could. The very slightly less anxious rest of her knew she would likely not even reach the front door in her current state. She needed an idea of where she was, where she could run off towards, and, crucially, how she’d accomplish any of it with her leg like this.
Looking out the window would help with at least one of those conundrums.
Sue appreciated the surge of determination that thought brought, fear-driven as it was. Busted leg, a nightstand and a wall to lean on beside her, and enough adrenaline in her system to bring someone back from the dead.
Let’s do this.
Attempts to feel how much weight she could put onto the injured leg resulted in a very unhelpful answer of ‘none’, the limb immediately buckling every time. While it didn’t hurt at the start, eventually a dull ache accompanied every motion, making all this even harder.
Sue racked her brain about how she’d accomplish any of this. Guess she could try pushing herself onto the good leg, lean against something for support, and work from there, as under-specified and likely to result in her splatting on the floor as that plan was. Sadly, that didn’t make it any less necessary.
After reaching her hands out to brace for takeoff, Sue began rocking back and forth on the mattress. One, two, up she went. She immediately tried grabbing everything in her reach, the good leg aching at having to carry her entire weight before she’d offloaded it onto the inanimate objects beside her.
Alright, she was up now, just a few feet left.
Now in a stable-ish position, Sue kept her injured leg as straight as she could while pushing it against the wooden floor, hoping it would let her inch forwards. It worked initially to her joy—each push moved her a bit, though not without stinging pain beginning to pierce the profound numbness in her leg. It got worse with each step along the wall, intensifying until every hard-earned inch towards the window made her wince loudly, tears flowing down her cheeks.
It was too late to turn back; she’d bear through it all.
She had to.
A ton of pain and a couple minutes later, Sue finally grabbed onto the window frame. She dragged her body towards it in a painful, teary triumph. She’d need to bend over to look out of it with how low it was set, the realization forcing an angry grunt out of her. Whatever; she could manage. She had it.
Let’s do it, let’s see what this hell I’ve found myself in even is.
Sue wasn’t sure what she expected to see after looking out the window like this, in the most awkward position she ever had to contort herself into. To her relief, the reality before her roughly fit one of her earlier hypotheses.
A multitude of creatures were making their way around, some of them terrifying, some cute, others still dopey—but none of them normal. None of them like anything she’d ever seen before. Despite the diversity in sizes, colors, and body types on display, they all simply coexisted, talking and playing instead of devouring one another.
Over a dozen buildings were scattered among them just in the area she could see, many similar to the hut she was peeping out of. Many, but not all, and the other kinds of structures caught her attention even more. Burrows reaching into hills or downwards into the ground, overgrown treehouses, larger brick buildings, all mixed with no discernible rhyme or reason.
They all stretched way off to her right, far out of view; this was clearly just a tiny slice of this settlement. She made out a well-defined treeline in the distance to the left—an obvious direction for her to run off towards once the time came. Until then, she could savor just how… insane all this was. An entire village full of mutated animals, every one different and weirder still. They all just casually coexisted despite some freaks looking like mythological beasts that could have had the other ones for dinner.
Including her.
The sight was so surreal she almost lost her balance after staring too intently. It’s not like she hadn’t considered the idea of a village earlier, but had no illusions about how improbable that'd be. And yet, here it was, staring her right in the eyes. It kindly withdrew one brick from her mental confusion fort, only to replace it with a couple more and give her a pat on the head for trying.
There was no way all that could’ve been stuffed away deep in the woods with nobody finding out, right? Not with satellite imagery venturing further inland than any human ever had. Has more time passed than she had thought between her trip and her waking up here!?
Is this even Earth anymore!?
A loud creak behind her cut her idle pondering off. It was immediately followed by Doc’s and Ember’s alarmed squeaks, their approached footsteps making Sue wince as she braced herself for what was to come.
Fuck.