Wishful Thinking, Chapter 15.
#13 of Wishful Thinking
Wishful Thinking, Chapter 15
By Mitch Kenzo.
Contains:
Furries. Oh, and other stuff too.
Mmkay, well... I guess the past few chapters have been a little rushed, and that can be attributed to either lack of ideas or too many ideas, both of which I've had. It could have also been excitement to finally get to this part. In any case, it was also slightly intentional to give a feel of running out of time and urgency to Perry's situation, focusing more on his thoughts than the thoughts of the others.
Chapter 15: Who Could Wish for Anything More?
"Hey."
Wh...
"I said hey."
Wha...
"Hey, come on, wake up!"
Mmf. "Hay is for horses..."
There was a whinny as soon as the words were out of his mouth. His eyes opened, to a world of bleary vision as if he'd been asleep for a very long time. Blinking his eyes a few times, his vision cleared as did his mind. Who was he? Perry, his mind replied to him. "Perry..."
"Yes, that's your name, we established that ages ago." That was a voice he knew, but who was it? Again, his mind supplied him with a name: Lila. Slowly, more and more things began to flood into his head, things turning on that had been momentarily shut down. He tried to move but found he couldn't, and felt something press on his chest. "Don't try to move." A feeling of warmth spread through his skin and into his heart. Perry felt it start to course through his body, warming up his limbs and clearing the fog from his brain. The last thing he remembered was coming through the dimensional barrier, and then... It was all blank, as if there were nothing to remember. The warmth reached the flesh of his neck and head, and he found himself able to twist and look about at long last. His head and eyes swiveled down and to the right, where he saw both Lila smiling softly at him, holding a glowing paw on his torso, and a rather large brown horse... No, wait, another anthro, no horse sat in a chair or wore a silvery tunic. It caught his gaze and let out a short burst of neighs, none of which he could understand. Its lips were moving as if to form words, but they were in a language he couldn't understand.
"Lila..."
"Yes, that's my name. Now hush."
"But..." Nngh, still hard to think. "Can't understand..."
"Hm?" The lioness looked at him, and then to where he was looking, before smacking her forehead with her other paw. "Oi, I should've remembered. Don't worry, you'll understand him soon enough. Just relax for the moment, you took the trip a little differently than we'd expected."
Perry did as he was told and let his head roll back to its original position, feeling the warmth soak into his body as if he were dirt and it was a thawing, refreshing water. His curiosity was piqued as he let his eyes roam what he could see. Light streamed from a hole in the wall, but dispersed itself through the room he was in much more effectively than any lightbulb or open window should have. The stone was smooth like marble, but was made of different bricks with strange patterns through them. Some glowed softly with different lines running through them while others had a delicate patterning of swirls and straight lines. It was much like someone had taken and chiseled gemstones, then worked them into a liquid, finishing by mixing them in with the white stone he was looking at. Strange, and yet oddly comforting. The warmth was pulsating through his frame now, and he felt muscles he didn't even know he had start to unclench inside of him. Heck, he didn't even know he was tensed up! Usually when his muscles were that taut, however, it hurt. A lot.
"Okay Perry, this is gonna feel really weird and will probably hurt for a split second."
Aw crap.
For an instant that lasted from before he was born to after his death, Perry felt like someone had run into him with a semi, dropped a boulder onto the semi, compacted it all inside of a cardboard baler, burned it in a fire, froze it, tore it all apart with knives, and then stamped it through a spike pit, before blowing the whole mess to kingdom come with him trapped in the center. There was only one thing he could say.
"SHIT PISS FUCK CUNT COCKSUCKER MOTHERFUCKER TITS! THAT HURT!" But it was done, and now it didn't. Lila was about to cry from laughter at his outburst, but her paw stayed steady on his chest, finishing whatever restoration she was doing on him. The warmth was now in every corner, nook, and cranny of his body, and he felt more refreshed than ever before. Lila removed her healing handpaw and backed up to let him move. He started by flexing his shoulders against the silky fabric underneath himself. Well, it was beyond silk really... It still had enough grab on his body to keep him from sliding around, but it had an unreal quality of softness that held him like a comforting pair of arms, but all over his body. He slowly rose from it, yawning once again, and kicked his legs over the side, getting unsteadily to his feet. The floor had a warmth to it that would have rivaled the best heated floors in the richest homes in America, and he grinned. This wasn't America. He took a step once, and then another, getting used to walking. Sheesh, what HAD happened? The horse gave what sounded like a series of whickering whispers to Lila, which ended in a question. She growled and groaned an answer back in a feline dialect he couldn't make anything of. The horse turned to him and gave two short neighs, the second raising at the end.
He just stared blankly, looking to Lila and throwing up his hands. "Okay, you wanna translate?" The lioness giggled and moved forward, reaching toward his head with her paw and flicking it a few times. All sound stopped about him for a minute until a final flick brought it back.
"I said, what's your name?" His attention snapped back to the musteline as he could now understand it, seemingly.
"Oh, Perry."
"What?"
"I said Perry."
"Er..."
"PER-RY."
"Lila, I think there's more to it."
Lila sighed and grabbed Perry by the throat, squeezing until he couldn't breathe. Gah, why was she choking him? His mouth opened and closed a few times, before he felt a snap in his neck. It definitely wasn't his spine, but it was followed by a few more snaps, and then a harmonious twang. He was released, and he felt at his throat carefully. "Yeesh, warn me next time Lila!"
"You're the only human I've ever had to do it to, sue me."
"Hello, I'm over here! Guy who was asking for your name?" The horse was waving its hands in a mock frenzy.
"Oh, sorry, I'm Perry."
"Perry, eh? Neat. I've been watching you while Lila and everyone recovered. Just call me Doc." The horse held out a hand, and Perry took it. It felt much like his own, but with fur covering his fingers, and instead of fingernails, slanted black material poked out, the same as the horse's hooves. He half expected to get licked or eaten next, but Doc released him without incident.
"Good to meet you Doc. So, I'm really here Lila?"
The feline nodded happily. "Welcome to my world, Perry!"
"Mmm..." He took his first deep breath of the air, and felt a tingling run through his form. His intuitive sense resonated with his breathing, and made him itch his head. "What the..."
"Something wrong?" Doc's nostrils flared as he exhaled from a deep breath, his muscled chest heaving as he took another. Looking at him, the phrase "Built like a horse." began to make more sense.
"No, not really. The air kind of tingles, it's weird but not bad. I could get used to it."
"Oh, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised about that, but I won't tell you why now, that's for you to find out later." The horse chuckled, a whinnying sound coming out in place of human laughter.
He looked about, and breathed again. It made his head feel much clearer than it should have. There was going to be a lot to learn here! He might as well start with what he'd missed. "Okay Lila, so fill me in, please."
"Where to start? Well, as soon as we came through, we emptied out into a shrine that our ancestors had built. Some shrinekeepers ran over and about jumped out of their skins in shock at seeing living relics. They took one look at us and a look at the statue likenesses and just flipped out. Lucky for us some of the higher magic users caught wind and came as quickly as they could. We were drained but fine, but you... Well, nobody knew what had happened to you or even what to make of you. We were in no condition to tell them at the time, so you were brought here and Doc did what he could for you. Keep in mind that 'here' is more or less another room in a building nearby, I don't even know where everything is on this new planet. Anyway, when I got here, you'd somehow been more or less petrified, not quite dead but pretty close. The most I can guess is that the dimensional rift shut your body down with no magical protection, but something inside you kept your soul hanging on... We really don't know what, but apparently you're not the first human to make it through to here, though you are the second."
"The second?"
"I don't know who the first was, that's why we're going to meet up with Emerald, Morton, Avereth, and Jizzal at the biggest library to try and learn more. Also, there's not going to be any vorish activities from us until we know more about how our world's affecting you. I'm sure Avereth's there already with his snout buried in information. Anyway, if you're up for it, let's go." He nodded, and Lila stepped out of a doorway that appeared in the wall with him in tow, down to a glowing portal at the end. He stepped in, and felt himself being pulled around like taffy, no longer shaped like a person, but a ball of goo that was being slurped through light to another place, before he became himself again.
"That... was disorienting."
"Wasn't it though? It's fun!" They stopped at the end of this hall, and a new doorway appeared before them, with tables galore. There were no shelves full of books as he'd expected, just the tables and long, bare walls. Occasionally, other furs came through, stopping to stare at him briefly before moving on. Lila walked past rows of those tables, the wall parting one last time to reveal a solid red energy barrier. She thrust her paw into the center, and it shattered into light fragments that dissipated harmlessly into the air. As they stepped through, both it and the wall repaired themselves. There was a single table, long enough for a large amount of people to sit at, and Avereth and Morton were at the end in front of glowing screens hovering in the air above the table.
As the pair entered, Avereth looked up first. "PERRY!" The hyena scrambled over and hugged him tightly. "Oh, I was worried! You're alright then?"
"Why yes Avereth, I feel perfectly normal in every way, and if you'll excuse me I have business to attend to." Ave froze, looking at him with an expression of fear and horror.
Perry broke into a grin. "Gotcha! C'mere!" He felt Avereth almost melt as he returned the hug which tightened many times over, and was joined by Morton's thin arms and plush frame smooshing him between the two bodies.
"Mmm... Wow, was I really in that serious of a condition?"
"Well, maybe, maybe not. The only problem is that nobody had time to research humans before your arrival, which we've been doing. There's some interesting things you might want to look at." Avereth guided him over to his screen. It glowed brightly, then adjusted its intensity down to a visible level for him. He found that he could read the characters just like he could English.
"Hey, I thought you said you read books, Ave."
"I did, but they've had about a billion years or so to make improvements." Perry nodded at that and turned back to the screen.
The topic displayed was the first encounter with humans. He began to read, finding that the text scrolled with where his eyes were pointing, responding to what he was reading. He gasped in amazement as he read, chuckling at a connection he'd never made before now. "So, that's... that makes a lot of sense. Merlin was the first?"
Lila's eyes narrowed as she thought. "Merlin, where do I know that name... It was in a few books on Earth that I found references to when I scanned your computer systems. He was a wizard, was he not?" Perry nodded as Lila grinned. "But nobody can use magic on Earth." Perry nodded again. "But he did, and was hailed as a fictitious character through time." Nod. "But he wasn't." Nodnod. She shook her head as the realization soaked in. "But how did he get here and back then?"
"Let me read it. According to Merlin, he was just an ordinary man trying to make a living by increasing the quality of life. He'd gone to school to become a chemist, and had just come back from a journey to get some rare ingredients. One of his travels had brought him to an active volcano, where he saw something that glowed to him in a lava flow. He fished it out, risking his life, and saw it was a chipped, tiny part of a rock with markings on it-"
"Part of the gate? But it was whole when we went through."
"Let me continue, he clears that up toward the end. Merlin brought it back with him and began to make his potions. It haunted him for some reason, and he had to try to use it. He began to study the stone, and found that nothing he could do to it made any impression, not burning, not exploding, not water, nothing. However, one evening after he'd been studying it for a very long time, he was looking into a candle and holding it in the air, when it slipped from his fingers and down his throat. Before he could react, the contact with his insides opened a portal to here, forcing him through. He ended up much like me, though they - er, your kind - were able to restore him eventually and get the stone out before they woke him up, good thing too because of the fact that he would have probably created another portal. Anyhow, they gave him the ability to speak and understand furry language, and they began to learn from him, and he from them. He'd also begun tingling when he breathed..." Perry stopped, blinking a bit before reading silently, a look of disbelief on his face.
"...Well?"
"Lila, Merlin was essentially showing all the same symptoms I have, even down to the intuition. Here, I'll read what's got me so shocked. After being examined magically, it was determined that he had a magical ability, which was coaxed into being over a few days after his arrival by the air. The tingles he'd been feeling were the inherent magical powers exuded by this world infusing his body. The way he finally figured out he could use his magic was..." Perry snickered, breaking out into laughter.
Morton leaned over and grinned as he finished the passage. "It was that after being eaten, which he'd agreed to after having seen someone come back, he got overly excited once inside and... Snrrk... And pissed fire." Morton collapsed on Perry's shoulder, giggling madly as Lila and Avereth cracked grins of their own. Perry finally recovered, though he couldn't help laughing more every time he heard Morton try to stop, until they both calmed down. "Okay, anyway, after a thorough study of his abilities, Merlin gained control of his magic and lived on here peacefully for many years until he grew older. He did eventually want to return to Earth to try and figure out a way to bring you back or see if you still existed, feeling he owed the furs a debt. He asked to see the stone and recognized it as a magical element, making duplicates and giving them to the current Protectors, so they too could go on rescue missions if possible, and which were eventually used, though nobody has returned yet. Upon examining the fragment, Merlin realized there were impurities in it which had allowed it to break off, and went to search out the stone on this side. He relaxed as he found it was just that the real gate stone was set into impure stone, and some of the power had leaked into it. The gate stone itself was impervious to harm, the seal on it preventing it. Nice job, guys." The furs took a bow.
"Okay, let's see... After that, Merlin decided to return, confident that he could find you five and reopen the seal, perhaps letting other humans come into this world. Well, we all know that's not happening unless homo sapiens become fireproof. After ingesting the stone, Merlin bid everyone farewell as he went through, and that's where this record of him ends. Though, I think the fairy tales pick up quite well. I imagine that the Sword in the Stone had to do with one of his attempts to recreate the portal that failed, so he used it to direct history instead, letting King Arthur pull it free. I imagine names on our side have been changed, so I don't know who really freed the sword, or what part of the fairy tales are true, honestly."
Morton let out a "Hmm..." before speaking. "Perhaps he spoke about us to the wrong humans, and they turned on him. He could have been too weak and frail to defend himself anymore, and so he was killed before he really had a chance to get on the search or even use magic to defend himself."
"I dunno, but I bet I know Merlin does, maybe I'll check and see if he's still hanging about the afterlife sometime." Perry chuckled. "I think this also confirms that humans are safe to eat, too." The others grinned, not sparing any teeth in their smiles.
"Did I hear someone say eat and human in the same sentence?" Perry turned to see Jizzal stride into the room with Emerald behind, the both of them giving his hair a happy ruffle with their paws.
"Indeed you did, but I still don't think it'd be a good idea." Lila shook her head.
"Wha? Why not?" Jizzal looked confused.
"Because you might end up with heartburn."
Perry thought he was going to die laughing.
Hmm, I'm liking how this is going so far. Don't worry, there's more vore on the way, next chapter in fact. I just needa decide how I want to play it out.
Anyway, I'm posting these up months, if not a solid year after I've written them. I dunno why, I just lost all motivation for any kind of writing based projects.