A New Way of Life
A New Way of Life
Story and characters © DragonLover
Leon was walking down the stairs of his house as he saw his two younger brothers watching TV. He walked past them to his parent's room to find his mother still in bed. She had been sick lately and his father had been on the road driving a truck for about a week now. He sighed and walked back up the stairs to his room and shut the door. Leon was a 15 year-old teenager and was planning on going to the movies to see this really scary, new movie at the cinema theatre. He was a quite kid that didn't talk much, except to his 3 friends. He laid down on his bed and ran a hand through his thick, brown hair. His mom had been bugging him lately about cutting it, but he just kept saying he liked it the way it was. His hair wasn't the neatest hair in the world, but then again, it definitely wasn't the worst he'd seen. He looked out his window at the woods surrounding his house. He lived outside city limits, but it wasn't the boonies.
Leon sat up and looked around his room. He was a bit of a pack rat. His mother kept telling him that it was all junk, but the truth was that everything in his room, one way or the other, had something to do with things he liked. He had posters of videogames and animals on his walls. A small entertainment center next to his bed, which had a nice looking wooden frame he got from his aunt, which housed his TV, Playstation 2, Nintendo 64, VCR, and DVD player. His computer was on the other side of his bed since he used it often. In front of his bed, on the wall, was a full-length mirror, which was usually covered up with piles of papers, folders, or books. Next to his computer he had a bookshelf filled up with his favorite magazines, books, and movies. On the other side of his computer he had a set of drawers and another bookshelf piled in books.
Despite having so much stuff, he never had anything fun to do. He loved playing videogames, but he usually beat a game and then was bored to death with it. He also loved to watch movies, and the house had tons of them in it, but he had watched, pretty much every single one, and he hated to watch them again. One thing he did enjoy doing was reading stories, and sometimes writing them. He especially loved to read about anthros, or animals that can talk, walk, and look like us. He decided to read something interesting to pass the time. He sat down in front of his computer and turned it on. There was the usual two-minute wait, since it was an old computer he had bought off of Ebay for $90.
When the computer was ready he opened up his file, which held the hundreds of short stories he had accumulated from all over the Internet. He also started up his music player and listened as the remix of Dance Dance Revolution played. He looked over his stories again looking for something that would keep his attention for a while. "Equines, foxes, dragons, wolves, dinosaurs, humans, tigers, canines...nothing I haven't read about before," Leon said plainly, "hang on, chakats? I haven't seen you before." He opened up the document and turned off the music. He started reading the story, it was very interesting. It started off with a group of people on a plane getting stranded on a deserted planet and when they woke up they were all turned into hermaphroditic feline taurs. The characters of the story knew little about their situation, but one or two of the younger characters knew what they resembled.
That was how Leon learned about chakats. Leon was a curious boy and once he finished the story, he got onto the Internet and looked up everything he could about chakats, he learned a lot about them, mainly from a website called The Chakat's Den. After that he was quite fascinated with the species and went on to write stories about them. A few years later at the local college, Leon was typing up a report due the next day for literary class when he got an email from one of his friends that was interested in anthros, too. His friend, Ryan, was working over at the science department and was majoring in new technologies. His email said that he had just come up with an idea that could change our lives forever and to meet him tonight at the science department that night around 11:00 p.m.
He didn't have anything besides his report to do and that could be finished in the morning and it was 10:34 right then, so he grabbed his jacket and headed down the three floors of his dorm building to the grassy commons and started walking towards the science department. On the way he saw his friend Kendra, she was a pretty young girl with long blond hair and pretty blue eyes. She was around 20 and she, Leon, and Ryan had been friends for years. He asked her if she wanted to come and see the surprise that Ryan had come up with and she agreed. They got to the science department at 10:50 and opened the door to find the place deserted; none of the lights were on and all of the doors were shut.
"So where is he?" Kendra asked. "I don't know. He said to meet him here at 11:00," replied Leon looking around, "Let's look around, he's bound to be in one of these rooms." They walked down the hallway looking inside the classrooms as they passed them. When they rounded the corner they saw a light on and an open door halfway down the hall. "See, I knew he'd be here somewhere," said Leon. They walked into the room and saw a chubby, black haired boy with glasses. He turned and greeted them, "Hey guys. Right on time and thanks for coming." "No prob., Ryan, but what's the surprise?" asked Kendra. "I'm glad you asked Kenny," he turned and tinkered with a machine next to the wall. Kendra had always been a tomboy and everyone just called her Kenny. "Like I told Leon, this invention will change our lives forever."
"I know that Leon knows about anthros, but do you Kenny?" asked Ryan as he wiped his hands on a rag and walked over to them. "Leon told me a little about them. They're like Bugs Bunny, right?" Kenny said looking at him curiously. Leon chuckled softly and then said, "Yeah, but they can be any kind of animal." "So what do anthros have to do with this invention of yours?" "It has everything to do with it, guys...I think I found a way to make humans turn into anthros!" exclaimed Ryan pointing at the machine. "Come on Ryan, you couldn't have really found a way, " said Leon glancing from Ryan to the machine. Kenny just kept her confused face staring at Ryan, expecting to find some answer there. "Oh, I have. That's precisely why I invited you. We can all get turned into anthros! It'll be the newest discovery! Come stand over here Leon," said Ryan motioning towards a small raised platform near the middle of the machine.
He then started pressing buttons on a control panel and the machine started up. "Are you sure this is safe?" asked Leon as he hesitantly stepped onto the platform. "Of course it is," Ryan said glancing at him and then looking back at the panel. Kenny had walked over next to Ryan and was watching him set up the experiment. "I haven't perfected the device, so you could end up as any kind of anthro." "Whatever," said Leon. He didn't even think that this idea would work, and even if he gets hurt, it'll get him out of having to do that report. When Ryan pressed the start button he and Kenny both stared at Leon as the machine whined and hummed. "Isn't something supposed to be happening?" asked Leon.
Just then the machine emitted a blue beam that surrounded Leon. Suddenly the beam started expanding! It slowly made it's way off the platform towards Ryan and Kenny. Ryan franticly typed at the controls, but nothing worked! "The controls must be jammed or something I can't get it to stop!" Ryan exclaimed as the beam made its way towards them. Then the machine started exploding and the beam leapt towards them so fast they didn't have time to react. The beam encompassed the entire campus. It suddenly started to break apart and finally dissipated. The beam was gone and everything looked the same.
When Leon opened his eyes he was lying on the platform. He didn't feel hurt or anything, there was just a tingling feeling all over his body. He glanced over at Ryan and Kenny and gasped at what he saw. Before him was a orange fox and a beautiful tan dragoness. When he sat up he was surprised to find out that he had become a rather handsome chakat! This was a dream come true! Shi shakily stood up and walked over to hir two unconscious friends. "Hey, Ryan, wake up! It worked, your machine worked!" Leon said with excitement as shi shook the fox. "Kenny, you won't believe this, wake up!" Leon said as shi gently shook the dragoness. "Huh, wha..." Ryan said as he awoke to find a beautiful chakat looking at him and a beautiful dragoness beside him. "What happened?" "I guess it was your machine, Ryan, it did work, but not just on me," shi said as Kenny slowly sat up. "Ah!" she exclaimed as she saw the fox and chakat looking at her. Then she looked at herself and gave another shocked scream. "Calm down, Kenny, it's us." Ryan said. "What did you do to me, Ryan?" Kenny asked still examining her new body.
"Apparently my beam calculations were wrong, otherwise it would have been just Leon that was turned into an anthro," he said getting to his feet and helping Kenny get up. "Do you think you could change me back?" asked Kenny. They looked at the machine; it was beyond repair and was basically a pile of scrap. "Apparently not Kenny," Ryan said examining the machine. "Well, I for one like the way I turned out," Leon said glancing at hir new body. "Let's get out of here then, I don't like this smoke. It smells bad," Kenny said walking towards the door. Leon and Ryan quickly followed. When they got to the door outside they heard a scream.
"Do you think someone saw us and freaked out?" Ryan asked looking around. "It couldn't have been us someone saw because there's no windows. They opened the door and saw that the whole campus had been transformed into anthros of all species. Some people were staring in awe at what they saw, while others were screaming. Some people were even acting normal and talking in groups all over the commons. "Someone has to get everyone calmed down," Ryan said as they walked out onto the commons. "Why don't you try Leon," suggested Ryan. "Alright here goes. HEY EVERYBODY! SHUT UP!" Leon yelled at the top of hir voice. It turns out that chakat's really do have loud voices. Everyone stopped talking and looked at hir.
"O.k. Ryan, go ahead, calm them down," Leon said stepping back. "Everybody, I am very sorry about involving you in my experiment, but please don't do anything rash," he said aloud for everybody to hear. Some people looked slightly angry, while some others just shrugged it off. "I can't fix my machine and I have no other way to turn all of you back to humans, so I suggest that you get acquainted with your new body and learn who and what your friends are now," Ryan said, "Hey guys can you go and make sure that everyone's o.k.?" "Sure," said Leon as shi trotted off towards the nearest dorm house.
"I'll go and try to calm the rest of them down," said Kenny as she walked off towards the female dorms.
Soon after there was a conflict between anthros and humans. The government said that everyone should try to make the best of it. Some people just couldn't take having an "alien race" walk among them and a few months later a war broke out. Parents would chase off there own children because they were turned into "monsters." The anthros tried to reason, but that failed. Even when they fled the city, they were chased. When they tried to fight them back they succeeded, but then the humans realized their potential power. They called in any type of arsenal they could get their hands on and were soon on the attack again. They murdered several of the anthros in cold blood. The rest were slowly killed off day by day. Now, only a few remain and they plan their revenge. They've had enough death and now they're pissed.
One thing you never want to do is piss off a chakat and hir friends. Leon turned out to be one of the best when it came to hunting down humans. Kenny was great for surprising people from the air. Ryan managed to construct several weapons for the anthros to use. The anthros are fighting back. "The humans are becoming frightened. The tides of war are turning. Now is the time to strike. The hunters have now become the hunted," yelled Leon, who had become the leader of the anthros.
The humans had never before seen such an attack. That battle would be known for generations as Armageddon. The anthros wiped out the town that had killed so many of their friends and family. Then they were all destroyed in the blast from the atomic bomb the military launched as a last resort. The devastation was unbelievable. No one survived except for one. "As you may have guessed. I am the last survivor of that experiment. I am telling you this because our legacy must never be forgotten. We were just like you, ordinary humans. All because of the way we looked on the outside you hunted us down and exterminated us. I just hope that killing your own family was worth it all. I was severely wounded by the blast and I was lucky enough to survive, but I won't make it much longer.
Just make sure that you never forget me or my friends, Ryan and Kenny, who died right in front of my eyes. I'm sure that you've also figured out who I am as well. I just hope that this journal helps you understand everything we went through...
I'll miss being a chakat...it was fun while it lasted...