I woke up and found myself on an island in the middle of an enormous lake or a serene ocean. Is it over? How did I get here? Where is here? Is this a dream? Lucid dreaming... this is a new experience.

I looked around to take stock of my surroundings. The first thing I noticed was that I was still in the body of a little girl with furry arms and legs and a tail. I was still caked in mud and blood. I don’t even know what color my fur actually is. And why do I even have have fur? This is a new kinda weird. How is the mud covering every inch of me?

The island I was standing on was small, though calling it an island would have been generous. It was a twenty-five-foot radius, near-perfect circle of sand raised out of a still body of water. Strangely, a single palm tree rose from the center of the land with a piece of paper attached to it.

Can I move? I took a few cautious steps and found that I could walk. I started heading over to the tree.

Walking was a bizarre feeling. My new furry feet were bare, and, with each step, I could feel that they were not the same as human feet. My feet are small, and my heels don’t touch the ground. It seemed my heels had to hover above the ground, and trying to make them go lower felt impossible. It's almost like I'm perpetually walking on my toes and the balls of my feet. I guess I should look at the rest of my strange new body. My feet are probably only the beginning.

I looked down at my hands. Yeah, they're weird. They were a cross between a paw and a hand, leaving my fingers looking short. My hands were completely covered in fur and were smaller than I would have anticipated. There were also callous-like spots on my fingertips and palm. I know what these are. I have pads or “toe beans.” With a flex of my finger, I noticed I didn’t have fingernails anymore. The things on my fingertips were too sharp and too long to be nothing less than claws. I could relax my fingers and retract my claws slightly, but they were omnipresent. I guess I need to be careful not to scratch myself, anybody else, or anything in general.

Oh, that’s right, I have a tail that's dangling from just above my butt. I looked down at the matted and tangled fur of my tail. It looks terrible. My tail stuck out from a small hole in my dress-like shirt, which was brown and covered in blood and mud just like the rest of me. I can’t seem to move my tail outside of just grabbing it. I guess it isn’t usable.

A thought bubbled into my brain after looking over my body. I wonder if I can see my reflection in the water.

I changed course from walking to the tree to the water. know I might not be long for this world, but if by some strange chance I do make it out, I'll need to know about this new body. I peered over the water and gaped at my reflection. Only one word could truly do the description of my face any justice.

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That word was, without a doubt, cute. Of course I’m cute. Why would I be anything else? What are my other options? Ugly? Beautiful? Handsome? Plain? Nobody wants to be ugly. ‘Beautiful’ and ‘handsome’ are more for mature people. I guess if I was plain it wouldn’t be that bad. So, cute it is. But that wasn’t the worst part.

I look like an animal! A cute animal, but still an animal. Large, round blue eyes stared back at me. A tiny triangle-shaped button nose, also covered in fur, sat in the center of my face. Again, more blood and mud coated my hair. And that included the fur on my face and neck. I had a pair of thin lips that covered my normal, human-looking teeth.

Next, I focused on the two protrusions from the top of my head. My ears are on the top of my head? I tentatively touched one with a clawed fingertip and shuddered. They're hypersensitive. So this is why pets always enjoy scratches behind the ears. I can also see some grayish hair, or is that fur? What's the difference anyway? Is there anything human about me anymore? Seeing the hair on top of my head soaked in the bloody mud, matted and tangled, annoyed me. It wasn’t long, and it fell just past my chin.

It's very convenient there's a lake right here. I could clean this mud off and see what color my hair is. I stuck my hand in, but it didn’t feel wet or like I was even touching anything despite being submerged in the water. I marveled at that. I guess I'm not allowed to clean myself up in my dream.

Deflated, I walked towards the tree in the center of the island. That paper on it is likely important. Arriving at the tree, I could see someone had placed a note at my head height. It wasn’t long, but the handwriting was immaculate. I couldn’t find anything holding the paper to the tree, so I grabbed the note, and it released itself with no effort.

First, do you remember how I said even I have rules? I'm able to communicate with you once.

Second, I'm sorry.

The body you now inhabit is not the one I intended for you to have. I know that it likely won’t mean much, but you have my most sincere apologies for the predicament you find yourself in now. I failed to aim your soul correctly, and now you find yourself in the body of a beastkin.

To show you how sorry I am, you are free to live your life in any way you see fit. I will send someone else. Also, you don't need to worry about the orcs that have you imprisoned. You will wake up after you finish this letter and be freed from your confinement.

Just so you know, we wish you good luck and a happy life.

The Voice

I stared at the letter. I don’t even know how to process this information. My second life will be as a female animal-human hybrid. I don’t know how to feel about that. In my first life, there was a fifty-fifty chance of me being a male, so why couldn't I be born as a female this time around? Being a girl doesn’t make me a freak, but looking like an animal might. Although the creatures that captured me make me suspect I might be more normal in this new world than I think. I don't know anything about this world.

As I stared at the letter after finishing it, lost in thought, everything brightened until my vision turned white.