Where? Pain, eyes… Liquid? No move… In glass? Light, red… Takhans? Left, female Takhan… No Takhan, different. No Takhan, in glass? Wher-“SKRREEEEEEEOUUUUUK!”
Pain, shock, escape… “SKRRAAEEEEEEEK!”
“SKREAAAAAAAAAAK!”
Left… No takhan, gone? Right… Me? Why is me there… Wait, since when me think like this? No… if my body there, then where am I…
My hands, they look like the non-takhan’s…
I see a takhan get closer to me. “The creature isn't moving, could the procedure have failed? What a waste of a perfectly fine human body.... Well, I would like to avoid being scolded again for my unauthorized experiments, so dispose of this corpse in the usual manner."
As he finishes his sentence, I suddenly see a weird light engulf me, the same one I saw when the takhans took me from my home… And all of the sudden, my surroundings are not those of the takhans’ den, but a blue sky and a ground extremely far from where I am, even though I’ve flown higher in the past. As I slowly approach the ground, still inside the glass I was kept in, I start feeling weird… A rush of energy in my body, as if I was suddenly stronger than ever before…
“SKREEAAAAAAAAAAK!”
Why did the landing hurt so much?? My scales should’ve-
The realization slowly pans over me: I’m not in my old body anymore, now I’m a… human? I think that’s what the takhan called this being… Is that the reason my thoughts are so much more developed? This feels so… weird… wrong… I can’t… Stay awake…
I wake up in a weird, white place. I’m laying on my back, on a nest? It’s very soft, I wonder what it’s made of… I look at my arm and see a weird needle spike in it. This is so unusual, nothing would’ve been able to pierce my scales before, but now-”JANE DOE IN ROOM 34 WOKE UP!” I hear a human female say as she sees me. She’s wearing a weird blue cloth or similar, I don’t really understand what it’s made of.
In a short time, another woman wearing similar spoils, but this time with a white cloth over them, comes near the nest I’m in, and starts asking me questions:
“Hey there! I am Dr. Choi. A girl found you a couple days ago laying naked on the ground next to some glass pieces, but luckily you weren’t cut. I have a few questions for you, if you can answer them. First of all, what is your name?”
Name? What is that? I don’t understand… “...name?”
“Oh… well, if you can’t remember, let’s see, do you remember where you’re from?”
Well, that’s a very easy question to answer “My home”
The human female then says “Yes, of course, but where would that be?”
I don’t know where to point, when the takhans took me they used those weird lights and I found myself in their den immediately… “I’m not sure”
The female seems a bit disappointed, before letting out a sigh and saying “Well, the girl who found you is still here, so if you want to talk to her, feel free to do so…”
As she leaves, the girl she mentioned comes in. Her skin is very pale, she has sky blue eyes and her head fur is a golden yellow. “Hey there! How are you doing? My name’s Adelheid, the doctor told me you don’t remember yours, so what do you say I choose one for you?” I nod, not like I know what a name is supposed to sound like anyways, but I think I understand how they work… “Then what do you think of Vivienne? I think it really fits you!” I nod again. If my theory is correct, a name is the sound humans make when referring to a specific other human. “Great! You know Vivienne, I really like your black hair and eyes. Although, they contrast so much with your pale skin, you kinda look emo. You probably don’t remember, but is that the look you were going for? I could never, I like my blonde hair too much!” Hair… Is that the head fur humans have? No other part of my current body is black, so it has to be. Despite my lack of answers, Adelheid keeps talking, but before she gets out another word, I see her cheeks turn extremely red. “So, uhm, when I found you on the ground, you didn’t exactly have any clothes… I know the hospital will give you something to wear, but they won’t be very nice, so how about you and me go shopping once you’re discharged?” I don’t understand what those words mean, but the girl seems very nice, so I think I’ll just nod again. As I do, she smiles and grabs my hands with hers, saying “Perfect! I’ll come visit every day and I’ll ask the hospital staff to keep me informed then!” The warm feeling from her hands is very nice, I want to feel it forever…
As time goes on, we keep chatting and I slowly try to understand more about humans. To recap, their main form of sustenance seems to be these weird plants called “pasta” and “instant ramen”, with them rarely being able to catch the elusive “pizza” and “sushi”. They can eat so many things, they seem to be omnivores. Although, they do this weird thing they call “cooking”? They use some tools they made to make the food warmer, apparently it tastes better like that. Also, the cloth the humans wear seems to be made of not only skin or fur, but also from plants. These “clothes” as Adelheid calls them look a specific way due to the duty the human has assigned to them, but when they aren’t working, they choose to look however they like.
Days pass, with Adelheid always visiting me. She said that it has been a “month” since we first talked, which seems to be around 30 days. She also offered me to “move in” with her, seemingly offering to share her nest with me. This isn’t something I ever did before, but since I have nowhere to go, I accepted her offer. When she’s not there, I’m able to think about what happened to me. My body is now that of a human, my thermoreactive scales, which I could open to seem larger, are gone, replaced with weak human skin. My tail and my wings are completely gone, with the wings being replaced by arms like the ones the takhan have, although different as these have five fingers. And lastly, I’m a human female, not even a human male… However, I don’t feel very bothered by that? The instincts and urges I felt before don’t seem to be present anymore. The advanced brains of humans and takhans are capable of such… freedom? Before, being a female just meant not being a male to me, but now… So many things feel like they should be considered. From what Adelheid said, it seems human females, or “women” to use her words, especially enjoy accessories and decor, giving great importance to their appearance. They seem to focus on elegance rather than brute strength. Haven’t I been doing those things my whole life? My scales were able to change color and open to various degrees, and the way I soared through the sky… I haven’t met any human males yet, but Adelheid… She has been so kind to me, and she looks gorgeous. I also want to be like her…
Eventually, the doctor I met on my first day here comes back to tell me that I am being discharged. I’m given some poor quality clothes and escorted to the exit, where I find Adelheid waiting for me. She smiles at me and excitedly says “Hi Vivienne! Follow me, we’ll get to my apartment by car.” Cars… I remember her talking about those things, massive tools the humans made to move around easier… Let’s see what they look like.
“Here, it’s this one. I know it’s a bit small, but I’ve been having trouble at work, going up the ranks isn’t very easy…” I smile at her and tilt my head a bit to the side. It seems to be what humans do when they want to make each other happy, and I don’t like when she’s in distress. But anyways, this is a car? It looks like a weird, malformed beast… Its shell seems to be made of similar material to that of some of the animals I had to fight for territory, but… no, it’s much, much weaker. I could’ve probably folded it in half with my previous body. I see Adelheid opening one of its wings and climbing inside it, so I do the same. She puts some cloth protruding from the beast’s interior around her… I think those may be the “seatbelts” she had talked to me about? She complained how her mother never used them, she seemed very angry about it, so I should probably wear one once I get in… I climb inside the car and fasten the seatbelt, Adelheid then brings down the glass on the car’s wings and presses a weird square shaped thing, causing the car to make noises. Was I right all along? Is this just a beast in disguise? No, these sounds can’t be shrieks, they’re too… organized. “What is this noise?” Adelheid looks at me confused “Noise? Have you never listened to music before?” Music? Is this what humans call this assortment of sounds? I like it… “This song is Hazardous by Visualize Wyverns. Once you get a phone, I can show you where to find more.” Phone? No wait, song? More? Does this mean the “music” she speaks of can be different? I must know more…
As I keep thinking Adelheid’s car starts moving. It feels slow at first, but then she starts speeding up. The wind gets inside through the openings in the wings, and as it rushes over my face, I start remembering… This is the exact same feeling I felt when I soared high in the sky, surveying the area for prey… and humans have managed to replicate it.
While the memories flood back, I feel the pants I was given stretch. I look down and see something poking from the outside of my thigh. I cover the one near Adelheid with my hand and use my other hand to check what it is from below my pants… Scales? My scales? They seem to be open, so if I just relax and try to close them… Phew, that was a close call, I’m not sure what Adelheid would do if she found out I was a beast from a different planet, so maybe it’s better to hide this for now. But wait, if I’m in a human body, how do I still have my scales? I… don’t want to think about this for now. I want to integrate into human society before I start taking any risks.
After a short while, we get to Adelheid’s house. It seems many humans share their den with others to save space, but they don’t have the same living space, each one has their own “apartment”. I’ve seen some animals on my home planet do something similar, but my species has never been one for groups, I’ve lived by myself almost my whole life. We walk up the stairs and enter Adelheid’s apartment. To my past self, it would’ve been ridiculously small, barely enough space to fit me, but in this body… It’s so spacious, I’ve never had a den this big. “Sorry, I know it’s not much, I plan to buy a house once I start making more, so I chose something less expensive for now.” Adelheid says. Expensive… I think Adelheid said something about it. Humans all have different duties, called “jobs”, from which they earn “money”, exchanged to obtain stuff and to get other humans to do something they want them to do. It’s definitely an interesting way to go about it, before, I would’ve just killed or chased away whoever had what I wanted. She continues “The bathroom is here, there’s only one so please warn me if you have to do something that takes a while… This is the kitchen. I’m not sure if you know how to cook, but I can teach you! As for the bedroom… This is a bit awkward… There’s only one bed. I don’t have any problem sharing if you also don’t mind, since it’s actually bigger than a normal bed due to me moving a lot in my sleep, otherwise I can stay on the couch until I have enough to buy a new bed…” She’s blushing a lot. I assume sharing a nest is very intimate for humans. I don’t have any problem with it however, so I nod. Adelheid’s face gets even redder “Oh! Uh-uhm, okay then, s-same bed it is! I’ll, uhhh, go make dinner, yes! You’ve just been discharged, so don’t worry, just lay on the bed and relax, or you can sit on the couch and watch something on the TV if you’d prefer!” She hurriedly walks out of the bedroom as I look around. I don’t know what the “couch” she’s talking about is, but I had a TV in my hospital room, so I figure the couch is the soft nest right in front of the TV. I sit down and turn on the TV to watch a thing the humans call “news”, where they can find out what is happening all over the planet. Adelheid mentioned it to me, but I wasn’t allowed to watch it in the hospital as the staff wasn’t sure how a person that couldn’t even remember her own name would react.
“We’re in Toronto, where a pack Kehubo has just been slayed by a talented group of young hunters. In the past months, these monsters have been appearing more and more often, their agility making them extremely dangerous to any unprepared hunter. The research branch of the Hunter’s Association has finally determined their classification, they are on the stronger end of the C Rank, so any hunter that isn’t at least a B Rank should avoid them at all cost. If you spot one there’s likely more nearby, so…” As the woman on the news keeps talking, my eyes open in disbelief. Those “Kehubo” she talked about, I’ve seen them countless times, although I never bothered to hunt them. They were physically weak, but fast enough to outrun me for so long that chasing them would’ve cost me more energy than I’d have gotten back from feasting on them. What are those beasts doing here on Earth? Could it be… the Takhans have been capturing monsters en masse and once they’re done running experiments on them, they drop them on this planet with their weird light just like they did for me? Or are they just getting rid of them to conquer their dens? How could they? Coming to our home and taking it for themselves, I can understand, it’s just how it’s always worked, but being such cowards, not even slay us themselves, but letting us be someone else’s problem? Adelheid’s problem?? Wait, what am I saying? Why do I care so much? Is it because of my human body, or is it-”Vivienne, dinner’s ready!” As Adelheid calls for me, a persuasive smell enters my nostrils. My nose has never felt such… wonderfulness, before. I turn off the TV and walk to the kitchen. I’m not sure how humans eat, so I’ll just try to imitate Vivienne. I think this is the pasta she had talked to me about? The shape is more similar to that of the ramen, but there is no water… could this be, the humans bred the two plants to create something better? Their advanced intellect never ceases to amaze me… “Adelheid, what is this that we’re eating?”
“It’s spaghetti. I put some sea urchin in, it’s my favorite dish when cooked like this. I was saving them for my birthday since they’re quite expensive, but it’s still a couple of months away, and since it’s your first day out of the hospital, I wanted to treat you to something good.” She keeps blushing, I wonder why… She uses the little claw utensil next to her, if I’m not mistaken it should be called “fork”, picking it up in a weird way, and then stabs the pasta and spins it around. The spaghetti are now wrapped up around the fork, and so she brings them to her mouth and uses her lips to keep them in while she pulls out the fork. I assume she’s chewing now, although for some weird reason she’s keeping her mouth closed… It’s probably just how humans do it. I do the same thing she did, and as the spaghetti enter my mouth, I start feeling as if my brain was yet again ascending to a higher intelligence. This taste… is all human food like this? Are these the wonders of cooking? I shall learn more later. “Say, what’s your job?” I ask Adelheid curiously, as she had never talked about it. “Oh, me? I’m a monster hunter, although only D Rank… I never seem to get good parts off of the monsters I slay, so it’s impossible for me to climb up the ranks.” She laughs, looking a bit embarrassed when she says she’s only D Rank. If the Kehubo are high C Rank, and they were mere flies for my former body, I wonder what rank I would’ve been… I’m not sure how the system is structured though, but from my understanding of the human alphabet, the closer you get to A, the stronger you are. So, this means Adelheid is not so different from me. She also hunts “monsters”, as the humans call them, to survive, although in different ways. Maybe I should also be a monster hunter? “Could I work with you, please?” Adelheid looks a bit shocked “You also want to be a monster hunter? It’s pretty dangerous, you know? Plus, you’d have to start all the way from F Rank, unless…” she starts thinking for a couple seconds. So the lowest rank is F? I’ll keep that in mind “... unless I were to give you some of my E Rank equipment. It’s been very hard to sell as it’s from an extremely common monster, but it should still do the job. I’ll let you work with me on one condition: we start from F Rank monsters. I don’t want you getting hurt because of my carelessness.” So, humans go up in rank by killing weak monsters and using their parts to then slay stronger ones? I remember some of the beasts from home did something similar, but I highly doubt the humans’ tools are as undeveloped as the ones used by those monsters. Well, I have to get used to this new body anyways, so I might as well start from the bottom. As I nod, Adelheid smiles “Very well then, first thing tomorrow morning we’ll go to the Hunter’s Association to get you registered. Actually, you’ll probably need documents before that, but they can also take care of that, being a governmental association. We’ll just bring the medical papers you were given and it hopefully won’t be much of an issue.”
Once we’re done eating, we watch the TV for a bit before going to bed. Adelheid is, once again, blushing. This time however, she’s not the only one. I don’t understand why, but being this next to her feels… very warm… I’m too tired to think about it now, I’ll do that… tomorrow…
