One of Isabelle’s creatures was treading through the forest a reasonable distance from home and, for whatever reason, a boar had decided to size the lone creature up. It turned to face the boar while sending a DANGER signal through its connection with Isabelle. She turned her attention to the creature.

The boar was large. It wasn’t any kind of pushover. But Isabelle’s creature was five feet tall now and not afraid of this threat. It held its poisonous stinger up in the air and bared its deadly fangs at the boar. In response, the boar stomped its hoofs on the ground and charged.

The boar narrowly missed its mark when its target moved out of the way at the last second. The creature’s tail whipped around and stabbed the boar on its back, but its skin was too thick to get through. Unless it could find a softer area to hit, poison wouldn’t work in this battle.

The boar charged up for a second attack. It tore up the ground as it rushed to the creature. It narrowly dodged again, grappling onto the charging boar and using its teeth to dig into its skin. Blood dripped down from the wound as the boar screamed.

The creature let loose and rushed into the forest. The boar chased after it but it was no match for its speed, and it eventually gave up.

Isabelle watched this whole scenario with interest, glad that her creature made it out okay. She chuckled and thought, at least it wasn’t a dragon.

A week later she felt a new connection slowly enter her consciousness along with a flood of information. It felt different than the other connections that would enter her mind. Unique.

What’s this? she thought and took a peek at it. The creature was in the middle of the forest. Odd.

Isabelle told the creature to return to the structure and it obeyed. Once it returned, she took a look at it through one of her other creature’s. It was a boar.

Huh?! Is this the same boar that attacked earlier? Isabelle thought. It must be. So that means my creatures can infect living things. I wonder what would happen if I infected other people…

—

On the way back to the village Fae and her uncle Bara snagged some small game using the traps they set. They picked the animals up on the way back. If the trap was empty, they left it to check on it later, since it wasn’t unusual for small animals to escape the traps or get eaten by something else, usually evident by bits of fur and blood left behind.

They reached the village and went to a home that sat on its outskirts. A separate building sat outside the main house. A skinned deer hung on a hook next to the side building. Isabelle could smell the stench of the skinned deer through Bo. It smelled pleasant. I didn’t think it’d smell pleasant…

The first thing they did was drop off their gear at the secondary building, including the small game and bows. They finished and walked to the main building, their house. Bo followed them to the door. Fae turned around and picked it up, cradling it in her arms, and took it inside with a little side eye from uncle Bara.

“You’re gonna love my room, Bo!” Fae said. Isabelle took over Bo and did a little cheer. Fae smiled and strutted towards her room. She walked in with Bo and closed the door.

Fae's room was… different. Apparently, she was really into bugs and animals. She had many, many cloudy glass jars with different bugs while the wall was littered with animal furs and horns. This wasn’t a typical teenager's room.

"I don't have anywhere to put you… but you follow me around and you're nice so I'm sure it'll be fine! Just no biting, Bo," Fae said.

This girl's a weirdo, Isabelle thought. Eh, who am I to talk? I'm a dead woman who talks through these… creatures, whatever they are.

Fae covered her mouth for a moment and yawned.

"I'm gonna get some rest. Goodnight, Bo," Fae said as she plopped down on her straw mattress, relaxed all her muscles, and closed her eyes.

This girl is a handful. That poor man. I wonder what happened with her parents, it's odd that she lives with her uncle. Unless she's just visiting, but that doesn't seem to be the case, Isabelle thought.

Isabelle’s creatures scouted the forest to prepare for the winter months. They’re looking for anything that could be stored as food. The preparations for the winter were going well. Isabelle had managed to strip and smoke a lot of fish. As much as she tried to teach them how to strip and smoke fish, her creatures weren’t catching on to it, so she had to do the stripping and smoking on her own. They caught the fish. They’re quite good at that.

Building next to the river was a smart move, Isabelle thought. But at the moment, she was more interested in the rate of growth of the blackening soil. It had gone past the boundaries of the field that was her home, continuing to expand on its own. Even the trees were twisting into something else. It was ominous and she was concerned.

This stuff keeps growing every day. Will it ever stop? If it doesn’t stop… it might become a problem, Isabelle thought, wishing it would stop. She felt a connection in her psyche for a brief moment after she thought that.

What was that? she thought, but was unable to explain it.

The next day her creature had gone out into the woods. Isabelle watched as it was crossing the edge of the blackened soil. She had been observing the growth rate of it and noticed that it hadn’t moved since the previous day, which was odd.

Why did it stop? she thought to herself. Did I do this? Was this what I felt yesterday? I suppose there’s not a reason to stop it juuuust yet, so it wouldn’t hurt if it grew some more. Maybe it’ll do something cool when it gets big enough. She focused on re-establishing the connection she felt yesterday and desiring it to grow. The connection returned for a brief moment and she felt like it worked.

Isabelle focused on her creatures for a moment. She was genuinely surprised by how quickly they were growing. The tallest and largest of them all was Betty, who stood around eight feet, a foot taller than the vast majority of humans and two to three feet taller than the rest. She was originally around the same size as the others, but she had outpaced them all. It made sense she would grow larger, considering her egg was the largest to start with at a foot tall. The second largest stood at seven feet tall, while the rest of the original hatchlings stood somewhere around five to six feet. Their sizes and quick growth frightened and comforted Isabelle.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I'm glad I’m in control of these things, if I met one of these creatures before my transformation when I was alive it could kill me faster than I could take a breath. I wonder what the creature that did this to me looked like, it probably looked something like these things.

Isabelle's creatures stood on their hind legs, like people, as well as on all fours like dogs. They were expert climbers as well, she frequently spotted them crawling along the ceiling or sides of the tunnels, wondering how they didn’t fall to the ground despite their size. They were surprisingly flexible and agile for how big they were. However, the majority of her creatures were still under a foot tall or unhatched. Like Bo.

There'll be at least a few hundred of these creatures in a year's time, Isabelle thought. I wish I was alive, that I had a body. It would be cool to walk around in my own body and interact with them. They were creepy as hell at first, but now I can’t help but like them. As if responding to her desires, Isabelle felt a strong pulse in her mind that came through a connection she had with one of her creatures. She turned her attention towards it to find out what was going on. It was the largest creature of the original eggs. It had gone into one of the tunnels and laid down, closing its eyes.

Is it sleeping? she wondered, trying to understand why it had called to her. Her attention shifted away and a few hours later she checked on it again, except she couldn’t. It wasn’t responding. She had another creature go down into the tunnel and find out what was going on. It was then she saw something totally unexpected—its entire seven foot long body was wrapped up in a cocoon.

What? Isabelle asked herself, pondering what was happening but finding no concrete solution. Maybe it's changing to a stronger variant of its type? Evolving? She continued studying it, trying to understand what was happening, but ultimately learned nothing of significance.

With her questions still unanswered, she turned her attention to Fae. The young freckle faced girl was playing with her friends and showing off Bo. There were two red haired girls around the same age as Fae—about 16 to 18—and a familiar young boy. Isabelle wasn't too surprised that the young boy she saw getting hit by his mother was among them, it was a small village after all.

"Where'd you find it?" asked one of the red haired girls that looked a little younger than Fae.

"Me and my uncle were out hunting in the woods and we saw this giant black thing sticking out of the ground! Whatever it was made of covered the whole field. Me and my uncle looked closer and then Bo came out! Then we left and Bo followed us all the way back, so now it's my pet. He’s a good boy," Fae explained.

"I want one too," said the young boy whom Isabelle saw when she first visited the village.

I can make that happen! Isabelle thought and told one of the newly hatched creatures to go to the village. She sent along one of the bigger creatures with it as well, for protection, and to carry it most of the way.

“I’m perfectly happy with the barn cat. That thing is gross and scary,” said one of the red haired girls.

Okay, kind of rude but also true, Isabelle thought.

“Emma! It would be cool to have one. You know, Fae, if you wanted to give it away… I would be willing to take it,” said the other red haired girl.

“No! We don’t want it,” said Emma. Fae smiled.

“I like Bo too much, sorry Reinah,” said Fae as she gave Bo a hug.

“Don’t you think it’ll get bigger?” Emma said. Fae cocked her head inquisitively for a moment.

“I didn’t really think about that. I’m not sure, it might be an adult,” Fae replied.

“It looks like a baby to me. I don’t think you’ll be able to keep it around when it grows up, it could hurt someone,” Emma said to Fae’s saddening face. Reinah punched Emma in the arm.

“Ow! Stop doing that,” Emma said.

“Don’t be so mean and I won’t have to,” Reinah replied.

“You’ll just have to train it in case it gets bigger. That way, it’ll do what you say,” the young boy said. Fae’s face lit up.

“Yeah! I’ll train it and then it’ll listen to me. Plus I can make it dance!” Fae said. The others chuckled, including Isabelle who was technically incapable of doing so.

A few hours later, after night fell, Isabelle’s creatures made it to the outskirts of the village.

Hmm… I should probably have the small one go to Fae, otherwise that boy will just assume Bo got lost or something. The next time she sees him I’ll have the creature switch to following him, Isabelle meticulously thought, then sent the two creatures towards Fae’s house. She made sure to give a cursory glance inside using the larger approaching creature to make sure Fae and her uncle were there, and they were. She looked through Bo initially, but Bo was outside in the hunting shed, presumably left outside for the night.

Through the large creature’s senses which Isabelle was currently focusing on, she heard a yelp. The creature turned its head and saw Fae standing near the hunting shed with a lamp in her hand, illuminating the two approaching creatures.

Ooooookay, this is bad, Isabelle thought. This is what I get for sending the large one so close to her house. How should I play this? I guess I could have it play dead, that’s not threatening. Play dead! The creature rolled over and played dead—which it was very obviously not—with its four limbs raised up in the air along with its tail. Isabelle looked through Bo’s eyes and it seemed as if Fae had regained her composure. Fae slowly walked up to the creature playing dead and poked it with her finger.

“Poke. Poke,” she said as she gently poked it. “Hmmmm.” She turned around and went back to the hunter’s shed, grabbing something and coming back out.

What’s she doing… Isabelle thought. Fae was walking back now with a long leather strip in her hand. She walked up to the six foot tall creature playing dead and tied the leather strip around its neck, then started dragging it towards her home… by the neck.

You can stop playing dead now. Just do what she wants, she told the creature while being completely dumbfounded by Fae’s attitude and actions.

Fae looked at the creature and said, “come on, follow me! You too little one, my friend’s going to love you,” Then she turned to Bo and said, “Bo! Come on, let’s go inside.” The creatures followed her inside as she went to her room. She pushed open the door and looked towards her bed.

“Nick! Look at what I found,” Fae said proudly. The black haired young man in the straw bed was roused and turned towards Fae. His face was groggy as he looked in Fae’s direction but then it turned to utter horror as he saw the six foot monstrosity on a leash standing next to her.

"W-what is that thing?!" Nick said as he reeled back.

"Its Bo's buddy! Don't worry, it's friendly!" Fae said and Nick relaxed a little.

"Where'd you find it?" Nick asked.

"It was just walking around outside. When it saw me it played dead, like a possum," Fae explained.

"I still wouldn't get too close to it, that thing’s feral. Your uncle's not gonna be happy about this," Nick said.

“Pshhh uncle won’t mind,” Fae said and rolled her eyes. Morning came a few hours later.

“FAE!” her uncle screamed. Fae threw off her sheets and Nick and rushed to her uncle, who was standing in the main room.

“Do you have anything to do with this?” he said, staring at the short creature tied up in his house.

“I, well…” she scratched her head, “it’s Bo’s friend. I couldn’t leave it out in the cold,” she explained.

“You should have left it out in the cold,” he said. Nick came walking in.

“That’s what I thought, too,” Nick said.

“Hey! No fair, you guys are ganging up on me,” Fae said. They both stared daggers at her.

“We know how you operate,” Fae’s uncle explained.