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Darkness. That is my first memory; the darkness of the world behind closed eyes. As I became aware of that darkness I heard sounds, muffled, but audible enough to know that someone was speaking. I don't know how I knew what speaking was, but I had that knowledge. Slowly, I became aware of the sensation of my body as I woke further from my beginning, there was something pressing down over me. My eyes opened, flooding my mind with the new sensation of sight. The light was dim, but still mildly painful for a moment.

I came to realise I was laying beneath a thin sheet cover. The surface I was on was hard, but not cold. My right arm shifted, instinctively responding to my desire to remove the sheet. As I moved it aside the speech ceased with a gasp.

Arching my knees, I used them as a handhold to pull myself into a sitting position. As I did so, something shifted round behind me, affording me better balance. Turning to examine what caused this sensation, I found a tail. Long, mid-brown fur coating it for all bar the final hand length that turned a deep black. Reaching out for it, I touched it in reverence, only then did I start to truly examine myself.

My hand, it did not appear to truly be a hand, more a half way point between a hand and a paw. I liked the sound of that term and mentally ran over it a few times before deciding that yes, it was a handpaw. Five flexible digits, and opposable thumb, the back coated in brown fur, the palm and fingers in white, shallow but strong pinkish pads lay under the end of each finger and on the ball of the palm. I moved my other handpaw to compare them, they were nearly identical.

The division of the fur colour ran the length of my arms, the white spreading over and down my chest, continuing passed my crotch, down my legs and to my feetpaws that matched the fur colouring of my handpaws. The brown, it seemed spread down my back and sides.

As I examined what I could see, I realized that I had a sheath that contained my reproductive organ, something in the back of my mind told me I would not have to worry about decency, though I was baffled by what that thought meant.

I really wanted to be able to see my face, I felt it was important. My handpaws could tell me I had a muzzle, sharp teeth, and curved ears that sat towards the top and back of my head. Looking around I noticed the surface I was on was slightly reflective. It would have to do until I could find something better. As I moved to stand beside the object I felt a tug at my arm, on the inside of the elbow. Only now did I see the tube attached to me there. A bag hung nearby connected to the other end.

Pulling the tube from my arm, I completed my manoeuvre and investigated my poor reflection. I could make out that my head covered in brown fur, for the most part. White fur coated my lower jaw and ran down my neck to meet the fur on my chest. And my eyes, brilliant green, almost shining with a light of their own.

Turning to examine the room I was in, I noticed many setups like mine. Each covered by a sheet to protect or hide what lay there. I made a quick count of about fifty, though there could have been more.

A gentle squeak and thud from behind me caused me to spin around, crouching defensively as I faced the source of the sudden noise. It was a door closing. A creature stood between myself and the door. This creature had a covering draped about it, like the sheets. It's hands were only covered in flesh, the head was also furless barring a wispy grey fur that looked as though it was part way through falling out.

The creature was strange, it just stood there. A thin black square object in one hand. If it turned out to be dangerous I would have to somehow get behind it and through that door. Though I could not tell what may be on the other side, as there was no way to see through the walls.

The creature stood there for a moment before it spoke, "So you are awake. We were beginning to wonder if any of you would wake up."

I opened my mouth to speak, but only a strangled sound emerged, pain shooting through my throat in accompaniment.

"Take is easy," the creature stepped forward a couple of paces before he noticed me backing away. "You have been unconscious for a long time. Your throat will be dry, speech will be difficult without having a slow drink." The voice sounded male, he had a smell that seemed to confirm that thought too. Stepping back to the door, he called out. "Nurse. Bring a cup of water, quickly please." Facing me he held out his free hand in a placatory gesture. "Relax, we will wait."

As we waited I checked over the creature a little more. I noticed by the way he carried himself, there was no threat. Concern, and a trace of fear tainted the air, otherwise he seemed quite calm. I allowed myself to relax my posture, which in turn caused him to relieve himself of the little fear he had. I assumed I must have looked quite threatening.

It was not long before the nurse arrived. Was that a name or a title? I wasn't sure. With ease this second creature handed a small transparent blue cup to the male before swiftly leaving the room.

With gentle steps, the creature approached, and placed the filled cup upon the unit which had been my bed and now stood between us. "Slowly," he said. Carefully I picked it up and gave it a cautious sniff. It did not seem dangerous. A quick test with my tongue and suddenly my body knew I had to consume the water. Curling my tongue just beyond my mouth, I poured the water in, my tongue guiding it into my throat.

I felt the cup snatched from my grasp, "I said slowly."

Though a small amount of liquid spilled to the floor, I saw I had consumed most of the cup. And I regretted it. A pain wrenched in my middle, causing me to collapse to my knees, head arched to the floor, and the water came back out, uncomfortably warm, to splash on the floor. I held that position for a moment, remnants of water dripping from my open jaws.

"It is good to see your autonomic reflexes are working, but drink the rest in slow sips," the creature advised me. I looked up to see him crouched before me, hand and cup extended in offering.

Taking it from him, this time I lapped a small bit at a time, but the cup made it difficult.

"Try doing it this way," he extended a hand, requesting the cup. I allowed him to take it and watched as he tilted it to almost closed lips. Taking the cup back from him, I tried it his way, it was awkward, but I managed it. It felt better to use my tongue though.

Once the cup was empty and I was sure I was not going to have this water return on me, I tried speaking once more. "Where..." the word came out with a slight gurgle. "Where am I?"

"You are in a military medical research facility. Underground. This section of the hospital is run by myself. I am Doctor Halcyon. Do you know your name?"

"I know how to speak, how to move, how to count, but I have no recollection of myself."

"You will find that having a name, a word that identifies you from all others, will help you to know yourself. It may be portentous, but you have woken up just as a storm moved in on us this night."

"A storm? Night?" Those two words had a ring to them. They swirled around my head before they reversed themselves in my mind, a sound that felt like me, so that is what I chose. "Nightstorm," I finally spoke. "My name will be Nightstorm." I looked at myself, half sat on the floor. "I do not recognise what I am," I looked enquiringly at Doctor Halcyon.

"Well, you are a new form of life. Not seen on this planet before. Your overall look was based upon a creature known as a stoat."

"How did I come to be? How can I know some things, but not others?" my tone was almost pleading.

"That will require some time to explain, but we should move somewhere more comfortable. Will you follow me?" He stood, hand outstretched offering me a hold to help myself to my feet.

He led me out of the room, and into a corridor, just wide enough for us to be able to pass comfortingly by other creatures of his type as they moved in the other direction. After a few turns both left and right, we came to another door that he opened before gesturing me inside. This new room was furnished with soft beds, each bed flanked by a soft chair on one side, and a small cupboard on the other.

"This is the recovery room," Doctor Halcyon announced. "You will be staying here until we are certain that you are healthy enough to be moving around more."

"I think I understand the reason behind that."

"Good, now..."

"Doctor Halcyon to the project room, your presence is required urgently." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It sounded wrong.

"That is the room you just came from," he looked at me, thinking for a moment. "Come back with me, it may help, quickly." He turned and jogged out of the room.

I followed as soon as my brain had processed his request. He was already gone around a turn, but I had memorized the route we took to the room and retraced my steps at a trot. As I returned to the project room, as they called it, I saw the creature speaking to another, I caught the last few words as I approached.

"...and have Arco and Draks go there as well. I want to speak to that fox." The other ran off on the errand. "Come on," he gestured for me to enter the room with him. Three others were waking up. One had thrown off the sheet already and was sitting over the side of obviously his unit. The other two were still stirring beneath the sheets. Each of them spread over the nine units between mine and the door.

The one that was sat up was different from me, but going through the same exploration I had. His fur was brown all over, thinning out toward the end of each limb to reveal handpaws and feetpaws covered in pinkish flesh, a darker coloured fleshy tail twitched beside him, it's length more than double that of my own tail. Large rounded flesh coloured ears protruded above his head, the right ear though, was black, not the same pinkish as the other. There was a noise behind me as another came into the room with a tray filled with cups of water.

In the time it had taken me to examine the first of the newly awake creatures, two more had begun to stir.

"Offer him a drink," Doctor Halcyon whispered to me. "I have a feeling he'll accept it better from another with fur."

I had an urge to help, as I had only just gone through all this. I took a cup and walked to this new creature. "Hello," he jumped at the sound of my voice. "You'll need this," I proffered the cup to him. He sat there eying me suspiciously. "Small sips, like this." I showed him the awkward manner of sipping. "It's uncomfortable, but necessary." I offered the cup again and he took it. Copying my instruction. After a few sips, I asked him if he could speak.

His voice was croaky to begin with, "I... I think so. It hurts."

"The water will help. Do you have a name, word that identifies you? My name is Nightstorm" I tried to copy Doctor Halcyon's words as best as I could remember them.

"I don't..." his voice trailed off as he looked at the metal surface he was sat on. A smile parted his lips before he replied. "Blackear, I like that."

"Well, Blackear, I will leave you in the care of this furless one, there are others I need to see. Or you could help. Sips of water only remember." I was thankful that he offered his help as I looked around the room and saw all eight of the units nearest the door were showing activity. I took another cup of water and moved on to the next unit along.

If I had been paying more attention to my surroundings I wouldn't have stopped dead in my tracks as I looked at that unit's occupant. Almost a carbon copy of myself, slightly taller and female, but otherwise, almost identical. She, however had not been squandering her senses. She beckoned for me to pass her the water and carefully took a sip, smiling at the refreshing feeling as it ran down her throat.

As she took her second sip, there was a dull thud from above us and the lights flickered, causing all of us to startle.

"It's ok," Doctor Halcyon's voice cut over the frightened noises. "It was only a lightning strike, it cannot harm you in here."

His reassurance was all we needed to get back to our tasks, of either waking up or helping others. The female stoat before me smiled as she opened her mouth to speak. "You may call me Lightstrike." She drew a finger down the side of her left cheek, it was only then that I noticed the odd marking. A slight curve of white fur amongst the brown.

After meeting Lightstrike, the rest were a blur of repeated instruction. Most had no cue for a name and chose to wait until they had found something suitable. Once all ten of us were awake, I was asked to escort us all to the recovery room. On the way those that had chosen names shared them with the others, both in the hope that the others would come up with something, and that they would remember theirs.

When we arrived at the recovery room I found myself blocking the door for the others. When Doctor Halcyon had mentioned names and said they should be here, I was expecting another two furless creatures. The sight before me held me rooted to the spot. One had fur and was facing away from the door. It was tri-tone, a rusty red, deep grey or even black fur covering the lower half of their arms and legs, including feetpaws and handpaws. A white stripe ran down from the tuft of thicker fur atop their head to their white but black tipped tail.

The other looked friendly but had the potential to be terrifying. Obviously a he, as he was standing facing the door, arms folded. He was red, a very short fur coating his body, with black, pointed stripes on his chest, arms and legs. His hands and feet were almost avian in design, but not quite. The strangest part was his wings. Big, leathery wings, again with stripes along the limb, the membrane between the fingers the same black as the stripes like me he had brilliant green eyes. I wondered at the name of his creature type.

Once I was over my first shock. I turned to those behind me. "There are two others in here that must have woken a while before us," I warned and then led the way into the room. The wingless one turned as we came in revealing a white front similar to my own and revealing the fact they were male as well.

I instructed the group to select which bed they wanted to occupy, which gave them a task until Doctor Halcyon arrived. In that time, the two that were here before introduced themselves. The tri-coloured creature was Arco and identified himself as a fox. The other was called Draks and called himself a dragon.

It wasn't long before Doctor Halcyon arrived. He repeated to the others what he had told me the first time I had been in this room. As he spoke, another furless one, but with more atop their head, came into the room with a trolley.

"Ah, here is your first meal. Now you must be aware, your bodies have not consumed food for a long time. This food may look and smell horrible, but it is best for you right now, just remember to eat slowly. Draks and Arco will instruct you on how to use the implements provided..."

"Seriously? I have important work to do. You took me away from that to baby this lot?" Draks sounded incredibly indignant.

"If it's really that important, then I'm sure Arco can manage by himself," Doctor Halcyon sighed with resignation.

With that subtle permission, the dragon left the room, ducking his wings to avoid the doorframe as he left.

"Excuse me," Blackear piped up. "We know the dragon and the fox, and we know that Nightstorm and Lightstrike are stoats, but what about the rest of us? What are we?" A few of the others seconded his question with nods or sounds of affirmation.

"Well, of those of you that woke up today, I'm sure you noticed that there are five different species of you. Stoat, wolves, rat, polecat, and wolverine," he pointed at each pair as he said their species name.

"What about you?" the male wolf spoke up.

"My species is called human. Now I will leave you in the capable hands of the fox, just after I've had a private word with him." The Fox rolled his eyes as he followed the doctor out of the room.

Barely any time had passed before he was back in the room, giving us instruction on how to eat our puréed food using the object he called a spoon.