🙡 CHAPTER 7.3 🙣
Otherworldly streets
The bizarre creature walked just next to me, close enough that I could see it was no creature at all! Instead it was… well, I would have called it a robot in my old world but in a magic world I guess one would call it a golem? Or a construct? A flat gray metal surface, covered in minor scratches and occasional spill stains, each leg connected to the main body with a ball joint with runes written all over it. It looked very fancy, and yet, due to lack of any additional ornamentation, elegant- all in all giving a vibe similar to that of an old typewriter.
Now that I know souls do exist it makes me wonder if this thing has one… and if it does, does that mean so did computers in my old world? After all, I've personally seen an alien's soul being reincarnated as a digestive parasite! Does that mean that you can get reincarnated as a hello-world script?
While I was busy contemplating the very nature of existence, > Sister < was occupied by more menial tasks. First, she grabbed the three belts connected directly to the tabletop, and opened them up. Then, she grabbed the cage I was in, and with a quiet groan put it on the self-walking platform. Medusa buckled the belts one by one, until all three were done, and then shook my container around.
*Wobble wobble* - only slight, but there was movement. She frowned, dissatisfied, then put one of her legs on top of the cage, and pulled on the belt, this time with the full strength of her body... leaving the other leg next to the bars.
All this force was enough to make my prison-as well as the platform it was attached to- shake and quake. Not wanting to fly around the insides, I laid flat, spreading my tentacles as much as possible, using my suction cups as additional stabilisers, and I must say it worked exceptionally well!
But as time passed, my body started getting restless. Like a student mindlessly playing with a pen, or a passenger drumming on a windshield of a car, one of my tentacles, as if it had a mind of its own, decided to search around. While most of its length hugged the bar of my prison for additional stability, the tip twirled, and twisted, and palpated everything around it, enjoying the sensation of different surfaces… until it found something interesting! Something new! Unlike the rough and hard wood, and cold steel... a tender, warm ,fleshy, naked calf. It was time for the hunter to strike!
> And one… more… <
*Tickle tickle*
*Twitch!* The girl shuddered, her eyes opened as her head moved slightly up. The sudden movement nearly made her lose her balance. Like a furious thunder, she bent down, only to find the creature laying flat like a pancake, looking at her with innocent surprise.
“hm? what happened?”
> …Watch it mister! < she said something angrily, and then slapped one of my tentacles weakly. What was that for?! Where is PETA when you need it!
… wait, don’t they kill the animals they capture? Welp, praise the new world!
Soon after I was buckled tight enough to satisfy the sadistic medusa, and we were about to move. I rolled left and right, to test the stability and it seemed unlikely I could get the cage off my ride, even if I tried. Stupid weak body. Add to my TODO list: Push ups and deadlifts.
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Finally, > Sister < squatted in front of me, with a mocking grin said something I guessed to mean “Be nice”, and we were on the way.
The table-mobile impressed me with its every step. I don’t know how she controlled it, but it always followed behind her, maintaining a constant distance of about 1m. When she stopped, so would it after about a second of delay. And as when we got to the stairs, it managed to keep the cage level when going down, even though it did have to slow down considerably. Pity I couldn’t see how it works, due to its own body blocking my view of its legs.
As we went up and reached the ground floor, we ended up in what I suspected to be the main hallway of the house. Unlike the previous room I was in, its walls were pure white, with wooden beams peeking through here and there. I could see three sets of rectangular western-style doors, and another flight of stairs, pointing towards the second floor. Doors on the left were closed, but the one on the right was slightly ajar, and so I could see an armchair and a coffee table, as well as a low shelf full of books. Curiously, the coffee table had another, smaller table, and armchair on it… a doll accessory? It must have belonged to the > Dummy Shepti <.
We didn’t go into either of them, instead walking towards the sturdier front door, which had two, quarter circle windows above them, letting sunlight in. And yes, they were glass windows (or fantasy glass-equivalent).
The doors opened, and once again, I was outside. I was glad I wasn’t in my human form, as standing with my jaw open, staring at all the sights around me would have been the type of memory keeping me up at night cringing for years to come.
The doors were on the other side of the house than the chimney I exited beforehand, this side opening on an even busier street. Or maybe it’s just due to the later time of day. In front of me a procession of fantastical beasts and creatures going about their normal-yet-fantastical lives.
As we moved outside the gate, we passed by another medusa headed woman, though this one also had a snake's lower body. Seemingly a friend of > Sister< , she greeted her with a nod and excitedly exchanged pleasantries. But the lamia-dusa wasn’t as weird as the third girl they were talking to—a catgirl, with five horned dog-heads for hair… a catgirl-dog-dusa?
What?!
Both of them bent down to look at me with faces full of curiosity. Especially the dogs, their noses pushing against the cage, their horns hitting the bars or my prison, making clanging noises, and smelling of… well, dog breath. Wash your teeth woman! And your hairs teeth!
They were at least polite enough to not try petting me through the bars, not that they would be able to fit their hands deep enough, as I moved away from them to the other side.
Soon we started moving again, and we continued passing by creatures whose biology seemingly made no sense. A jello man o’ war looking thing, with a hat on floated by in the distance. Then there was a pair of centaurs arguing over a crate of vegetables. But neither of these was as… impossible, as a group of people I could see after we passed towards a bigger street.
The ground was covered in flat bricks, with level separations for creatures of different sizes. We were travelling on the seemingly more dangerous path for bigger inhabitants, to my left there were creatures no bigger than human child, about the size of the kid medusa… and even further on the left from them, on what I at the beginning assumed to be highly elevated curb, was a separate lane for mini-humans. I mean, beer-bottle sized! Well, not only humans, occasionally I would also see a fluffy-snake looking thing… but doll sized humans! They were clothed, they talked to each other… Here and there I could even see them talking with some of the “bigger” creatures! How the hell do their brains work? And why would they live in the same place as centaurs or lamias that might accidentally squish them with their bodies when walking?
Among such bizarre creatures, I didn’t expect anyone to pay attention to me, but I was wrong. Many gazes looked at me with curiosity, there was even a goblin-looking fellow that followed after the cage for a while, poking his finger at the bars to get my attention. That is until their parent came by and smacked them on the head, before forcing them to apologise profusely to the Medusa. Hueh. He deserved it.
What about the ride itself you ask? Very pleasant, actually! Especially after I moved on top of the plushy, its soft filling making a great seat. Though even without it, the tool was comfortable enough to make me wonder why the girl herself didn’t just hop on the cage. A weight limit?
We walked on, towards an unknown goal. The surrounding crowd started to change. We no longer walked on the road lane for the “big” boys, now delegated to the side with smaller creatures, while the right was occupied by people herding small groups of animals, and people riding varied mounts (like the lizard person to our side riding a giant slug).
Finally, after about 20 minutes, we seem to have finally reached our destination. A nice looking building, with a paved field in front of it, and stable to the side.
… and once again, I now understand pets' feelings more. A queue of sickly looking animals? A multi-tailed cat with a cone of shame on its head? This is THE VET!