Eddie:
Certain memories replayed themselves in my mind as I lay on my own bed that night. I knew I'd never get to sleep until I did something about them... About 10 minutes later I fell asleep with a contented smile on my face.
I had chosen to return to my own home, rather than stay overnight at Alice's safe-house, for a couple of pretty good reasons: For one thing, I needed to reacquiant myself with my 'normal' life; Another reason was that here I could practise morphing with nobody else around to accidentally maul, nor indeed to witness me naked. Speaking of which brings me to my third and fourth reasons for wanting some alone-time: Kasey and Torrence. After what I'd witnessed, I knew what would probably happen while I was sleeping and would still be present when I finally awoke, with god-knows-who possibly witnessing...
When I finally awoke, I realized right away that my premonition had come true, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I'd woken up alone. - Well, not entirely alone; There was Pentium of course. He was curled up beside me on my bed, snuggling into my side, evidently enjoying my body-heat keeping him warm and cosy.
I reached my hand out and stroked him; He greeted me by starting to purr as he cracked one of his electric-green eyes open just enough to recognize his master. The eye soon closed again as I concentrated. - Yes, that's right, I'd decided to acquire Pentium.
Long had I dreamed of strutting around as a cat, jumping insane distances easily, running vertically up a tree-trunk without even slowing down, sleeping where and when I liked... Now, thanks to the gift Alice had given me, this could be much more than just a dream.
As the acquiring trance wore off, Pentium looked up at me quizzically with that same eye. I think he realized something odd was going on, making him space-out like that... I playfully nuzzled my cheek against him as he returned the gesture. - He'd learned to tolerate, then to accept and return this gesture I imparted on him every time he shared my bed. I'd had him forever, or so it seemed. I could still remember him as a little kitten, full of energy, swinging from the curtains and chasing anything small and fast.
A minute or so later, when I felt normal enough to actually get out of bed, I got up and had some breakfast. You know how sometimes you don't realize how hungry you actually are until you start to eat something? That's exactly how I felt when I started eating my cereal - As if I hadn't eaten for a whole week, or something! I soon polished off the first bowl, then I retrieved the BIG bowl and poured myself an extra-large second helping, which just about did the trick.
I brushed my teeth and had a shower, but instead of dressing afterward I had other plans. - Concentrating on my latest acquisition, the changes began:
I felt my spine extending as a tail grew into place. It had no fur on it yet, so it kinda resembled a skin-coloured snake or extra-large worm at first, then the fur started to grow. Jet-black furr rippled up my new tail, down my atrophied legs, up my torso, along my arms, up my neck and finally reached my ears, which slowly migrated toward the top of my head, elongated, grew soft and thin cartilege that I realized I could actually move with my will. It was at this point I began to shrink. Pentium was quite awake now. He was staring at me and hissing in alarm, his heckles raised, yet he neither ran nor attacked. Bravery? Or maybe he sensed this morphing mass carried his master's scent? Either way, I was glad he stayed put.
I felt my vision subtly change as my round human pupils became vertical feline slits. I became aware of how much more brightly my apartment was lit when viewed from a cat's perspective. Well, they do have excellent night-vision after all, so I guess it was to be expected.
Suddenly an explosion of scent assaulted my nazel-passages and awoke the feline mind within! A feeling of limitless energy bubbled up within me; Energy I could dump into my muscles and achieve amazing feats of acrobatics, speed, and strength. Sound joined my sense of smell and suddenly it was as if I could hear absolutely everything around me: The hum of all the flourescent lights out in the hall, the high-pitched whine of a CRT television my neighbours were watching, audio from half a dozen other TV sets in the rooms around me, above and below me too, throught the wooden floor-work.
For a moment I had a hard time understanding how Pentium could deal with such noize all the time, then I realized that I could sorta concentrate on the sounds around me and muffle each one I didn't want to hear down to a managable level, while bringing some subtler sounds to the foreground that I may concentrate on them instead.
As the last of the physical changes completed, I suddenly spotted something moving. Movement! That was the whole point for a cat - Movement meant prey, meant predator, meant kill or be killed!! In an instant, pure liquid energy poured into every muscle in my new feline body; My heckles rose, my tail swished left, then right, my whiskers bent forward to detect subtle changes in air-current that would tell me more about what was around me. I inhaled a deep, slow breath through my sensitive nose - Two major scents were in the appartment: One human, and one feline. I relaxed a bit as I recognised my own feline scent. The human scent meant nothing - Humans weren't prey, and I certainly didn't feel threatened by them.
The other scent though, the feline one, something wasn't quite right about it... It seemed to be coming from more than one source... I turned my formidable feline senses on various parts of the room until I spotted the second source - Another me, up on the bed. I padded over and sprang easily up onto the matress, keeping my senses trained on this other me. I could not feel threatened by my own scent, even if it didn't come from myself... Oddly, this calmed my kitty brain out of the fight-or-flee state it had been in, to be replaced with an insatiable curiosity; A curiosity I couldn't quite ignore. The other me approached, and I let him. We circled each other, sniffing with the same curiosity, and then turned away, curiosity satisfied, both at the same time. The other me curled back up in the little divot he'd made earlier in the duvet. He didn't close his eyes, but he was not interested any more unless I tried to attack him. I knew this because it was how I felt myself at this moment in time.
Drama over, the feline mind passified, I could finally assert my own will. <Wow.> I said, then realized I'd actually spoke in thought-speak without meaning to. I padded along the duvet, ignoring the real Pentium like he ignored me. The spongy material felt so soft to the sensitive pads on my paws... I bent my head and rubbed my cheek against it - Yup, it was soft and cosy. I stretched as only a cat can stretch, then I lay on my side and rolled over, enjoying the soft sensation against my fur, wiggling my spine into it.
I suddenly spotted a fly and decided to chase it - Whee! This was fun! BOING! I sprang from the edge of the bed several feet into the air, swiped at the fly, and missed. <Cool!> I exhaulted as my body automatically twisted and righted itself in mid-air, allowing me to land on my feet... Paws... Whatever. Killing to eat may be the end-goal of a hunt, but the thrill of chasing something is just as important. A hungry cat will hunt just to eat, but a well-fed cat still enjoys the hunt, sometimes not even bothering to kill the prey when it finally catches it, the hunt itself being the reward. Sometimes, of course, the act of catching the prey accidentally sends claws too deep into the target for it to live, and it dies of exsanguination shortly after anyway.
I continued to chase the fly for a few minutes, my paws made contact a few times but only succeeded in batting it a few feet further away. It didn't matter, the hunt was the goal for me, I certainly didn't care whether the fly lived or died. Eventually I got bored, and even the cat's seemingly unlimited energy was beginning to fade - Cats are more like sprinters, after all, they can't keep up the same level of speed and agility indefinitely and are lacking in any true endurance.
When I'd had my fun, and fully explored the appartment from a cat's perspective, I demorphed on my wheelchair. Pentium was up and about by now, so I fed him and let him out of the appartment so he could check out the rest of his territory and do his 'business' etc.
When he was gone, and I'd eaten some fruit, I began a second morph - Clouded-Leopard...
Alice:
I was expertly pretending to still be asleep, yet I'd heard everything of course, and had conversed with my fellow Chee over Chee-net. I wanted to see how my new human friends interacted and dealt with new situations when I "wasn't around", so to speak. On the whole, I was quite proud of their words and actions...
As Torrence and Christina's voices got louder and louder I realized it would be a good idea to 'wake up' pretty soon or else have them wonder how I could sleep through such noise. When I sensed Kasey and Reece returning to the room, I put on my 'groggy-waking-up' act and slowly stirred from my 'slumber', with a bleary, yawning, "What's going on?" Aimed at nobody in particular. I rubbed my eyes for effect and sat up.
When we'd returned last night, I'd told the others I'd be sleeping in the same room as them because my room was otherwise-occupied, that Jenny would be using it.
