‘Ugh, my head. It feels like I just went through a blender.’ The man started holding his head and groaning. He was nauseous and felt like throwing up. Only after a few minutes his head started to feel a bit better and he opened his eyes.
‘What the hell, I can’t see, why is everything so blurry.’ He tried to look around but all he could see were blotches of white and grey. The brightness was intense so he had to hold his hand to his eyes.
“Wait! What is this.’ He pulled his hand away trying to see it but his eyes still failed him. But he could feel something wrong with it. It felt bigger but also lighter than it was before, like he wasn’t in his own skin. ‘It feels like I’m wearing a mascot… what the fuck? what is this? I’m supposed to be in my bed.’ The last thing he could remember was going to bed after an uneventful day in his home. He wasn’t there anymore and now he just felt wrong, he had phantom limbs and couldn’t control anything.
Calming down, he began to focus, feeling his body. He had two hands, two legs and a head so that was fine. However, his hands had extra joints in them and were far longer than before. His arms felt extra jointed too and were nearly the length of his body. When he wiggled his toes they felt like hands to him as well and his legs were short and stubby but thick as tree trunks. That’s where the similarities ended, other peculiarities began. At the end of each appendage was a savage claw, his teeth felt sharp as knives and his snout was elongated like a baboon. Great amounts of hair coverrd him. Everywhere except the eyes, snout, belly, and the palms of his hands were covered in nearly 2 inches of thick fur. ‘Oh my god what am I!’ He screamed but what came out of his mouth was a juvenile screech.
“Grauah, grauah!” What answered him was a growling purr as he felt himself being picked up, cradled close to something. He tensed at first in confusion but then he calmed down. Something was put in his mouth and by reflex he started sucking. ‘Milk! If this is milk then, then I must be, I must be a baby!’ After his revelation he became far too tired and gave in to sleep.
Sometime later, He awoke and tried once again to look around this time his eyes were much better than before and could make out his surroundings. Above him were rocks and to his sides were white tufts of fur. He felt exceedingly warm and somewhat uncomfortable so he tried to stand up but it was a futile effort he only managed to move his hand again to his face. ‘Dammit it’s still the same’ In front of him was a wide, white furred hand with sharp claws and black palms. They still had extra jonts and it felt to him like he was wearing really comfortable gloves as if his regular hand was inside.
‘It looks like an ape’s hand’ he thought. He then started to think. The last thing he could remember was going to bed in his room. He was just an average college graduate with a minimum wage job and a rented room. His name was Jason drake. ‘Ok That seems right. I can remember my life and times so what happened. Did I die? That’s stupid I don’t believe in a soul. If I’m dead and am in another body, doesn’t that mean, I reincarnated!?’ As this realization dawned on him he was a little miffed. “At least I didn’t meet any gods on my way to this ape body or man would they get an earful.’
Stopping his thoughts, Jason tried once again to look around but it was as futile as before only a rocky ceiling and white fur was beside him so he did what he did last time and screamed.
“Heeeeeaaahhhhh!” Jason tried to say help but it still felt like he was wearing a fur suit and his tongue started flopping around without listening to him. ‘Stupid body. Got to get control of it.’ Jason Reprimanded himself and waited for an answer.
“AaaaaaaaH!” When he saw what came to him he literally pissed himself and started crying. It was a hulking behemoth that towered to the top of the rocky ceiling. Like himself it was a white furred ape like creature but it had two gigantic bladed tusks that stuck out of the top lip of its slightly elongated snout. With hulking muscular arms three times the size of a gorilla’s and sapphire eyes with red pupils. It also had two giant sets of teats that were the only thing that hinted it was female.
It looked at Jason for a moment seemingly curious of his fright even looking backwards to see if the baby had seen something scary. ‘It’s you, you fucking monstrosity!’ He shouted in his mind but all that came out was a whimper. Seemingly shrugging she once again turned back and started a growling purr that he had remembered from before. Now that he had gathered his thoughts he surmised that this was his mother not some huge predator that wanted to eat him and let her pick him up. He was tiny compared to her and his entire body could fit into her palm. But Instead of cradling him she first grabbed a handful of snow and set about washing the pee from his fur.
‘Well this is embarrassing’ He scrunched his nose but then relaxed and let it happen. Then Jason realized to his amazement that the ground was covered completely in snow. ‘Why don’t I feel Cold’ he started to look around more and discovered he was now in a cave. The ceiling was scratch marked rock looking like it had been dug out by claws. And the bottom haft was covered in white snow. Where he had been sleeping was just a corner with three other baby monsters snuggled into white fur balls on top of a mound of snow.
‘Seems my new species thrives in the snow.’ He looked at the entrance but all he could see were rapid winds full of ice zooming past. It was a full on blizzard. He couldn’t see a male so maybe good ol’ dad doesn’t care for the young in this species or he’s out hunting.
His Mothers hands were rough, thick hide that could probably stop a bullet. Finally after she was done with the cleaning she began to feed him once again. It was an annoying reflex of the body and he started sucking vigorously. Then after getting sleepy once more he fell asleep once again.
This same pattern carried on for another week. Jason could barely move and every time he tried to get used to his body he failed miserable. He realized that his soul and mind must be human mainly because of the fact that he kept feeling like he was a full human inside his body. Although everyday a new connection was made and it started to feel less and less like wearing a mascot. He would grow a little bit but it was still hard to get any sort of scale on his situation. After all he could be the size of a human baby or he could be the size of a mountain and his species were titans. Or, he could be an ant, which would suck. His density felt normal and he wasn’t moving super quickly or slowly which would be a telltale sign of size but then again he could be in a completely different universe for all he knew where even physical laws were different.
Eventually he gave up questioning his surroundings because it got him nowhere. His siblings were no help either they seemed docile enough but he would sometimes get a sharp claw stuck in his side or a kick to the face when one of them squirmed, which would hurt like hell even though his thick hide would prevent them from drawing blood. Then they’d screech in his ear and piss and shit themselves right next to him. The mother would always clean them after, it still sucked for him.
Jason also never saw a father anywhere either so he assumed that the male of the species wasn’t involved in child rearing. But he didn’t really care too much even though he was curious to see if a fully grown male looked even more threatening than his titanic mother… although he doubted it.
‘Guh finally I can move!’ After another month Jason had finally gotten a little bit of control over his body and was able to crawl, but he had seen from his mother that this was actually just full blown walking since she was always on all fours like a gorilla anyway. He was now twice as big as he was and could make up the entire hand of his mother. So now he could start moving about as he wished and so could his siblings. During this period he also realized his mother never left the den and always stayed mostly sleeping near the entrance and never left. He could also see that she was slowly starting to lose a little bit of weight becoming leaner and showing even more of the bristling muscles underneath her fur.
‘Ha-ha finally I can start something I’ve always wanted.’ After finally getting enough coordination the first thing that Jason did was go to the side of the rocky wall and probe the stoney interior with his fore claw. Then with a little bit of force the rock gave way and he was able to gouge out a hole. It amazed him at how tough his claws were and how immensely strong he was. To simply gouge out a hole in solid rock was pure exhilaration to him.
‘Yes, yes, yes!!’ He screeched in joy. The word however was still unintelligible. He had tried communication with his mother before, trying to gage her intelligence, but she just gave him wicked grins if she found his antics amusing and growling purrs if he was upset with her. Maybe she just didn’t care about baby talk. But if his newfound family was merely of animal intelligence he probably wouldn’t stay long.
The screech earned him a silent glance from her as well but she disregarded it. He looked at his own claw that didn’t have a scratch on it. It was denser than iron and sharper then the best blade. also he had a cold sweat thinking about how his own siblings had repeatedly used him as a scratching post. This also meant he wasn’t to be trifled with in defense either.
After experimenting with his claws he finally went closer to the cave entrance and his mother. His senses of hearing, sight, and smell were many times greater than before but his taste had been dulled considerably. He realized this from when his milk tasted like water. Maybe this was also an adaptation, but he really didn’t like not being able to taste.
Later he also tried to get a good look outside, approaching the entrance to the cave. However when he got to a certain distance his mother growled a real growl, not the cooing baby talk of before but a threat that shook the whole cave, gaining the fear and attention from his sibligs as well. He got scared at that and fell back on his butt. this was the first time she’d been angry at all and he really didn’t want to piss this thing off.
Once he had stopped she simply snorted and went back to sleep. He got the message to not go passed her so he just stopped and looked past her. But again all he could see was snow and ice. The boredom was going to kill him eventually. He wondered how long the hibernation was going to last. ‘Maybe until I’m fully grown?’
Finally, after another month had passed Jason had nearly tripled in size. Over the course of this month Jason hadn’t been aloud outside by his mother at all and he wasn’t going to risk offending her. So in this time Jason had done other things. He realized quickly how fast he was adapting and how strong he was becoming. He along with his other siblings could use their claws to dig straight through the rock and create tunnels and rooms. His were the best though since he had knowledge of his previous world he was able to shape a cubic room of his own with pillars to reinforce the ceiling, a bench and a stone bed which he packed snow onto to keep it soft. Jason’s family however just shrugged it off and made the same circular caverns as his mother had. 'Hmph, Troglodytes.' They were very solitary as well all of the siblings, although not averse to interacting with each other, would often actively ignore each other. Once the separate rooms and tunnels had been established there was even less interaction, excluding mealtime.
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Jason hadn’t been completely oblivious to them and tried to get along, they were his only source of entertainment after all. He had one brother and two sisters, making them an even bunch. His brother which he had named Tooth had very odd and gnarly shaped teeth which stuck out in many different directions, hence the name. He also had straighter claws then Jason’s own hooked ones that made hanging from the ceiling a bit harder for Tooth as he’d have to always angle them. This resulted in his burrows having lower ceilings then the rest, but a wider interior so as not to be outdone.
One of Jason’s sister’s, he just called hairy, because unlike the other three who had black underbellies, feet, hands and faces, she was completely covered in snow white fur showing only the eyes. Her other features were the same as his hooked claws and good dentistry. His other sister was just like him except her fur was longer around the neck making a mane so he just called her cat. It didn’t matter much though as they didn’t speak and mostly identified each other by scent, as each had their own unique yet familiar one. All of their eyes were the exact same sapphire with red pupils same as him. Jason had once spotted his reflection in an icicle and was once again reminded that he had turned into a monstrous cross between a spider monkey, baboon, gorilla and bigfoot. How the hell was he supposed to talk to anyone with that mug.
Then one day something amazing happened after nearly three months of blizzard the snow outside subsided. When Jason witnessed this he became ecstatic Three months of cave life with nothing but milk and the company of beasts can do that to you. His family didn't seem to mind much, but this only intensified his want to immediately to leave. Then something peculiar happened. His mother who now was starting to show her ribs from how skinny she was walked out with the kids including Jason following her but then she turned around and growled stopping them in their tracks.
"What the fuck, you hairy bitch! let us go!" Jason yelled which just came out in gurgled grunts of anger. He still hadn’t managed to make proper words yet, his vocal cords and mouth structure really didn’t allow for the tone, pitch, and proper movement to make any of the words from his language. His growing tusks didn’t help either.
But she just snorted once more and motioned for them to go back. What followed made Jason’s hairs stand on end. A strange blue glow was emitted from her body and the fingers turned into icicles. She then scraped her finger along the ground which made Jason for the first time in his new life feel cold. From that scrape a glacial ice rapidly spread through the entire cave and sealed of the entrance with a thin, see through, sheet of ice. This startled Jason immensely.
“MABIB!” Jason yelled, once more failing in the attempt at speech but still reeling from this latest discovery, it was the best thing that he had discovered so far. Every one of his dream worlds had magic and he had happily stumbled into one. He was elated he needed to immediately figure out how this was done.
As his excitement over this new discovery died down, he looked out to discover that his mother had already gone leaving, behind small tracks in the snow headed down from the mountain face.
Now that Jason got a good look he discovered he was in the middle of a large mountain range covered completely in white snow. Their hollow was halfway up the mountains and soon all the scenery was blocked by other snowcapped peaks in the way.
‘This is just ice though? is it strong?’ As Jason saw this he reached out and probed the ice.
“TING” As Jason touched it a beautiful note sounded out which momentarily startled him but after that he tried again.
“TING” The same vibration was let off but Jason wasn’t scared and kept pushing with his claw. To his surprise the claw couldn’t even give it a scratch. This claw which could pierce through solid rock as if it were butter hadn’t been able to damage it in the least. The entire cave was covered in the stuff making a nice musical note everytime he touched the stuff. There was no way out!
‘So she keeps us safe while she goes out and hunts. But what the fuck happens if you die!’ The implications made him angry but it was already out of his hands. This ice was obviously magically reinforced but he didn't know if it had a limit, was it linked to her? if she died would it shatter freeing us? or was it permamanent? Magical questions racked his brain, s for Tooth, Hairy and Mane they looked quite distraught as this was the first time their mother had left them so obviously nervousness and fear had set in. No matter how solitary their species was they were still infants.
But Jason merely shrugged it off and went back to his burrow which was now the size of a mansion in the months’ time he had to make the place. He had taken to sculpting and now the underground chamber looked to be almost cathedral like with columns carved out of rock and statues of very poorly done ape creatures and humanoids. He had gotten better at using his claws but it still looked rough around the edges. There were many rock tables rock benches and rock chairs. He had also taken to writing all his thoughts and ideas down on the walls. He still remembered his life back on earth very clearly. Jason had even done his best to remember all of his science, math, and general skills taught to him in school in hopes that they would be useful.
This world had monsters and magic so he couldn't know if there was any normal human settlements but he would settle for anything sentient.. So if he came across humans or there equivalent he would immediately try and make contact. Of course that posed huge problems since now he estimated his full grown height would be about 20 foot tall. He would cross that bridge when he came too it though.
‘That bitch!” Now Jason was pissed though because all of his stuff had been completely frozen over even the free floating oars and other utensils he had made. The only way to stop that was to hold things in his hands or make them magically float. So he couldn’t do anything while she was away. He had made several games over the months including something like bowling and basketball where he’d just make rounded rocks and throw them. ski ball and pool were the most entertaining for him and even his siblings and mother would sometimes play with his creations. It was much better though if they bounced so he had resolved himself to figure out how to make rubber in the future.
‘Magic!’ Jason had almost forgotten in his rage before, that he now had the oppurtunitie. That magic was obviously innate; it was ice magic from a non-sentient ice creature. So now how would he make it his own. He wasn’t randomly making ice so it wouldn’t be that easy but he had his ideas. He only knew stories about magic but they were good enough. So he had decided to do what he thought any magician would do, meditate.
He sat in a comfortable position trying to concentrate. first he went through his body and concentrated on all its parts. He had a lot of difference from a human. Humans had a lot of fine motor control and he knew that was due to how the nerves connected to the muscles and fired of signals. Humans would have many nerves connected to muscles that would fire at different times making it easier to move but the muscles would be more disconnected and weaker. But animals like chimps and gorillas had less nerves that connected to larger amounts of muscle at one time causing greater strength but less precision. This was a problem, since Jason still had the brain sense of a human and would often throw things way too hard or claw straight through a rock when he was trying to write with it causing most of his early troubles with making round balls. Eventually with enough practice he overcame the hurdle.
He systematically tensed every muscle in his body, working his way through looking for a magic trigger or other magical thing but nothing happened. He tried to listen to his heartbeat and the blood pump maybe looking for hidden power, but still nothing. Then, he had tried and failed to look through his organs with his mind’s eye but that failed utterly. Now that he thought about it he had no idea of the inner workings of his species. He could feel he had one heart. Maybe he had three lungs or four stomachs like a cow. Maybe his blood was blue, he still hadn’t bled in this life only scraped his black hide a bit, it was far too thick and now he was a little tempted to see if he could cut it. But before he started mutilating himself he once again tried to do the last thing and clear his mind of thoughts.
“……...AAAHHH!” After fifteen minutes of that Jason quickly became irritated with it and slammed his fist into the ice making that annoying musical note again. He knew he couldn’t do it he was far too excited at the prospect of having magical powers and he kept going off on tangents and thinking about his plans for the future.
Sometime later, before Jason was about to bash his own skull in from his failed attempts, (he was seriously considering mutilating himself to see if he had a monster crystal in his chest) the unbreakable magic ice finally melted. This could only mean one thing. Mom was back. So Jason immediately ran towards the entrance. But what greeted him almost made him throw up his milk.
At the entrance of his cave was a wickedly smiling beast absolutely covered in red blood and holding what looked like 4 mangled dogs. It was dear old mom, back with dinner. Jason tentatively took a few steps forward and sniffed the air the aroma was rich with that familiar iron smell and for a moment his vision turned red with bloodlust and he ran straight towards the wolf and dived head first into one of the carcasses and once his jaws were around the wolfs throat the most delicious taste filled his mouth,after his first gulp though he came back to his senses.
“What the fuck was that!” Jason’s red pupil narrowed and he backed off and looked around. Tooth, Mane and Hairy had dug in with an intense bloodlust in their eyes the same as he had just been in ripping away meat and swallowing bones fur and meat whole. One look and he knew that any attempted theft would result in a lost hand.Jason’s mother had started to look at Jason now with a strange gaze that said ‘Why aren’t you eating’. He was pissed at that and ignored her. Then he tried to study the wolf in front of him. The head had Been eviscerated but the rest was in decent shape It looked to be about 3 times his size which he now new to be around 2 meters tall and 3 long. It was the first other creature he had seen in this world.
“It’s a dire wolf!” It looked like Jason’s mother had found a pack and slaughtered them bringing the rest back after she ate her share based on the red hair she had. But the most pressing matter was that bloodlust. It was brief but he hated it, to not be in control of this body was shitty, He definitely wouldn’t let instincts take over. So he snorted in anger to the beast and then dragged it back to his burrow. This behavior though was very perplexing to his mother. She was a smart beast and although his construction abilities had been noticed by her she didn’t care about it, but for a member of this species to be a private eater was just plain weird to them.
Jason didn’t care though and just dragged the wolf back to inspect it. Although the constant smell of blood hung in the air and his eyes were constantly turning red he just fought back the berserk state with stubbornness and managed to get the wolf back to the layer. There he hung it from the ceiling and let the rest of the blood drain from it. He then gathered all of the blood covered snow on the floor into a large stone bowl that he hastily made. He gulped and with a slow hand brought a handfull of the frozen food to his mouth.
He ate in small bursts each taste would have his vision turn completely red like the first time and he would keel over trying to fight the urge to just tear into the meat eventually the red would recede and he would gasp for air.
“Fuck!” The instincts were strong and Jason constantly had to fight that urge. But each time he banished them it would become a little easier to control. He may have become an ape but he definitely wasn’t a monster and this world had too much too offer for him to fall into insanity.
After hours of agony Jason finally had finished off the bowl and his tolerance had grown considerably. It was like taking a drug that amped up his adrenalin to the absolute limit and then trying to resist the effects. Almost impossible! Fortunately, it was finished but he still had the giant wolf hanging from the ceiling.
His appetite was somewhat sated now though so after he got it down he started to dismantle the beast. Now that the blood was drained it was a lot easier to resist the temptation but it was still strong, so he sometimes had to turn away and bang his head against the wall. He started by skinning it using his claws to cut off the paws, mangled head and tail. He then cut down the sides of each of the legs and then down the middle of the neck to the crotch. Then by using his claws he was able to get a rough skin covered in fur away from the wolf It was rough and several places had holes and tears but he was pround of his accomplishment. He knew he needed to cure it with oil and let it dry. Getting the oil from the guts however, was much harder than just skinning. As soon as Jason opened the sternum to get at the guts he nearly had an aneurism, the bloodlust was so strong. He fell down and started bashing his head against the floor until it stopped.