((Mind if I kick-start this thing?? *gets doctor outfit on*))
I stopped at the first tree and examined it momentarily. Trees had DNA...could they be acquired? Why would I want to be a tree anyways?
I shook my head and wandered deeper into the forest. Further...and further...until I was about a mile in. I had no idea how I was going to get back. Maybe one of the creatures I acquire will have a sense of direction. I sure didn't.
I sat on a rock in the small clearing with a vernal pool, some nice trees and bushes, and a lot of rocks to hide under.
"Where are you, you little critters...", I said to no one.
Yep. My best friends are animals. Great.
But all that might change if I was with these...acquaintanc es of mine.
I saw a bird land a few feet ahead. I knew I had no chance of acquiring it. I'm not very light on my feet. I only had one morph to practice, and I had to make sure NO ONE was around to see it. Seeing a boy turn into a bird or an ant or an anole is bad enough. Seeing a boy turn into a blue centaur? Cover = Blown Big Time.
I breathed deep. There! A beetle. I reached down and scooped it up. It was a usual beetle. Cute for a bug. Well, not that all bugs were ugly but beetles were especially cute. Anyway...I focused on the beetle. Absorb it. It's DNA. I want it's DNA. I need it's DNA.
The bug was still for a moment, and then began stumbling about. That was the acquisition trance. I put the beetle down in a safe place.
I breathed deep again, and focused once more on the beetle. Be the beetle. Become the beetle.
Crrrrrunnch! Hard wing-cases slid out from my shoulders.
"Aah!", I yelled. It wasn't painful, but...well, you try having nice big beetle wing growing from your back. It's creepy and unpleasant. But then my vision was gone! No! I was helpless! Had something gone wrong!? It was replaced by a fractured-glass view of the world.
"Oh of course, compound eye." I tried to say. Actually it came out more like, "Scree click-click screeeya."
At this point I panicked. I was stuck mid-morph and I couldn't take deep breaths.
Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god!
I reverted back to my human form. Bugs and humans are just so...different.
Der-duh-der. You knew that stupid., I told myself.
I sat down again, feeling like a failure. Something more mammalian was how I would start.