The Tent & The Change Series "Earth" - Part 2
#5 of The Tent & The Change "Earth"
The Tent & The Change Series "Earth" Part 2 By thwale
---3 Days 7 Hours 34 Minutes 35 Seconds( 00:00:03:07:34:35 AM )
The next morning we awoke to find that some of the cattle had made their way up to our hiding spot, without startling them we slowly rose keeping low so as not to be seen by anyone who might have followed them up here. Ears twitching and senses sensing, we scanned the immediate area and found that we and the cattle were the only ones here. We relaxed, I happened to notice that the cattle were not afraid of us, further indicating that we were not carnivores, nor were we a threat, maybe we only ate vegetables, I doubted it though.
We slowly made our way out of the gully and moved towards the small cliff, we headed down, it was not as steep as we originally thought and our bodies seemed to control our speed and kept us upright, our claws dug in and further braced us. Once we reached the bottom of the incline we found ourselves at the back fence of one of the small yards behind a shack, we had been watching the actions of the people the day before and decided on this one house.
The owner was a grey haired woman who lived alone, probably a widow. We felt it would be safest to introduce ourselves to someone alone, rather then a family, wherein the parents may have felt we were a threat and so might attacked us. As to why we were so certain, lets just say our new bodies also confirmed on an unconscious level that it would be safe, these new abilities were interesting and seemed to come into play as needed. We carefully hopped over the fence, startling a few chickens as we headed towards the back door, we noticed the paint was chipped and worn further indicating that she lived alone.
---3 days 10 Hours 35 Minutes 48 Seconds( 00:00:03:10:35:48 AM )
We knocked lightly, I told my mate... uh, my friend to stay back since it was better if a female meets a female rather then a male, why this should be so I don't really know, again our new abilities were used. We heard some shuffling of furniture, a small bump followed by a curse, then we heard footsteps coming towards the door and a grumbling from the owner of said feet... "Damn kids why won't they leave an old wo..." she never finished the sentence for at that moment she opened the door and saw me and my friend standing there.
Her eyes grew wide and for a moment we thought she would faint, however she just stared then said. "What are you two doing here, did you escape from a zoo or a circus perhaps?" she just stood there looking at us without saying another word.
"Hello" I said calmly.
She was not expecting a reply, for when I answered her her eyes got large again, this time however she did faint, I quickly moved forward and grabbed her as she fell, catching her and lowering her carefully to the floor.
"I hope she's ok" he said, I just nodded.
Slowly she awoke and looking up at us she quickly got her wits about her, then just stared at us without saying a word, I must hand it to her she handled what for most would be a very traumatic experience, quite well.
"Pardon me? did you say something? no... Kangaroos don't speak it must have been my imagination, an old women who has been alone for to long" she mused out loud.
"Uh, Hello?" I tried again.
This time she looked directly at me and said out loud "Ok whoever is pulling this on an old woman should be ashamed of themselves..."
"This is no trick" I said " I really am speaking to you, you have not gone insane and no one is playing tricks on you."
She never took her eyes from me "did you really speak?" she inquired.
"Yes, Yes I did, me and my... mate..." I was going to change it to friend but felt it would create more questions and I didn't want to be standing outside answering questions and risk being seen, anyway I liked 'Mate' better then friend, it was certainly more appropriate after that first night.
She continued "what are you? you look like Kangaroos sort of, but Kangaroos don't speak, even strange looking ones like you two."
"You are correct we are not Kangaroos, may we please come inside, we don't want to be seen by anyone else just yet."
"Why should I let you two in? Two funny looking talking Kangaroos indeed."
"Well if we are seen by anyone else there is a good chance we will be shot or attacked or reported, and if we had wanted to harm you which we don't we could have done so by now."
I was hoping my logic made sense to her... luckily for us it did.
"Ok come on in then but..." She wrinkled her nose "...if you'll forgive me you do have a smell about you" I had forgotten we had not bathed in a few days, our smell was normal to us so we had given it no thought, "your mate can go use the washroom while you explain how an old women can help you."
Thank you new abilities, I thought smiling inwardly. My mate looked at me, I nodded its alright and he went off to bathe.
"Now why don't you tell me who you are and what you are doing here, after giving me such a shock you at least owe me that."
I heard the sound of running water in the bathroom.
"Its not a long story, however it is a somewhat confusing one."
I explained to her what had happened up to this point, keeping the act of sex (what I could remember) to a minimum and basically ended the story with us standing at her back door.
"So your mate was female and you were male and both of you were human before the change?"
"Yes, I can't explain it but I feel comfortable with this change, I must admit its confusing to me to since I was happy to be both male and human I can only guess that my friend and mate feels the same way."
"Fascinating, when I saw you at my door I had no clue about either of your sexes I just saw two odd Kangaroos who didn't belong there at least not in real life" She laughed at this statement.
I just smiled.
"So what can an old woman do for you?"
"We really need a place to stay until we can figure out what happened and if i'm going to have a child I need a place for it to be safe, on the run is no lifestyle for a baby."
"No... no its not, but why here, or rather to be more precise why don't you ask your families for help?" that thought hadn't occurred to either of us
"Our families?"... our families... families...
Logically that made the most sense however due to the change or some other unknown factor we had not thought about our human families at all and even a bit weirder was having problems picturing them as I spoke about them, like a partial memory or a picture of a memory a voice in my head told me they were not important currently and then vanished.
"Well to be honest we wanted to find a safe place as soon as possible and your village happened to be the first place we found" I felt a bit more information would be in order "the same voice telling me about my family was also the one who told me and perhaps Elden that you would be the person to help us."
I had to try to explain it now "neither of us has given a single thought to our human families since this whole thing started... something about this form or the change has wiped most of the memories from me, maybe they would interfere in whatever is happening"
Then I tried to explain the memory loss away "anyway even if we could remember them it would not help us..."
She didn't look convinced "How do you know this if you haven't tried?"
"I don't I do however seem to feel it on a level that's hard to explain I also have this internal voice that says it might even threaten their well being, I do not want to risk harm to any family even one that I cannot remember" that even sounded strange to me as I said it...
"It does not make a lot of sense" she mused for a second "let me ask an easier question then... why me?"
"Well we scouted out the village and something about our new abilities pointed us here and when you think about it it was the best possible place to come" thank you unknown voice...
"I doesn't really make much sense but if you feel its not that important then let's forget about it for now, how can I help you first?"
"We cannot stay hidden in your house forever, we need some way to introduce ourselves to the rest of the village."
"You can stop calling it The Village, its name is Fainbourn."
"Thank you, that does sound better."
"Do you have names?"
"Well my human name no longer applies since I'm neither human nor male, I will have to think of a new one, friends name when she was human was Aleena, as to what it is now I don't know, we haven't had time to think of things like this."
She said "I quite understand."
I suddenly got inspiration for a name, where it came from I don't know.
"Nuree... My names Nuree."
"That sounds nice, pleased to meet you Nuree, how did you decide on it?"
"I have no idea, it just popped into my head but somehow it feels right I guess i'll keep it!"
I then heard the water stop and a wet shuffling sound, my mate suddenly showed up in the doorway dripping wet "Um, I need to go outside to dry off, your towels are to small."
She just giggled "That's OK, go on out, no don't worry about the water i'll take care of it." he smiled and went outside, I looked out the door and saw him shake himself dry like an animal would do, well now I knew how to dry off as well. He came back in and asked if there was a brush or comb he could use, she pointed to a shelf and told him to use the horse brush, it would work for his fur, he grabbed the brush and started to use it then found it was impossible on his own and just looked pleadingly at me.
"Ok get over here and i'll brush you out, but you'll have to brush me when its my turn" he smiled widely and winked "My pleasure" the old woman saw the wink and covered a small laugh with her hands.
"Oh and I decided on a name for myself... Nuree, what do you think?"
"Interesting and it suits you well" I smiled broadly at his reply.
The curiously "Have you thought of a name yet? your old one wont work anymore."
"Yes" he replied "Elden... its close enough to what my human name was so when its used I will know it's my name."
I began to brush him out, his fur was slightly damp and not tangled at all so it was fairly easy, as I moved to brush his lower half, the women got up and went to get a mop, I soon finished and handed him the brush so I could get my shower, his smell was cleaner but still male.
"I'll be right back." I said as I left the room.
"You might as well take your time dear since it appears I will be mopping up water for a quite awhile" she said this in a playful tone, smiling.
I went into the bathroom, modern fixtures, maybe they aren't as primitive as I originally thought, I got in and turned on the shower, the hot water feeling wonderful, I found what was left of a piece of soap and used it. I started with my tail, I reached around and pulled it forward, from there it went pretty smoothly, I was happy our bodies were so fluid, I was able to bend more then you would think my bone structure could handle. We really could twist and turn in ways that would make a chiropractor faint, apparently our bones were not rigid but could become flexible almost like rubber when needed, another interesting property of this new form.
Cleaning this body was still not an easy job, there were more places that needed washing then on a human and I had never before needed to wash so much hair or in this case fur, my new female anatomy was still not well known to me so I had to experiment there as well, needless to say it was interesting and just leave it at that. Finally finished I went outside to dry off (I noticed he was watching me as I entered the room and I smiled at him and wiggled my hips before exiting) once outside I shook myself vigorously and found then the fur had a slightly oily substance on the hairs that let the water bead off, I was only slightly damp as my mate had been as I re-entered the house.
Elden was waiting with the brush as I relaxed in front of him he began to brush my fur, it felt good and when he did my lower half I was very relaxed, the old woman went about her chores prudently ignoring us. Finally he was finished, we were both clean and groomed and felt wonderful, we both internally pledged to never go so long without a good cleaning and brush again.
The lady returned to the living room "Now that feels better doesn't it?"
"Yes it does" we both replied at the same time, and meant it.
She took the brush and went to clean it off, then placed it back on the shelf.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me about yourselves?"
"Well until we find the reason for what happened to us I don't think we should give out to much information, if they come looking for us the less you know the better off you'll be."
"Just an old woman's curiosity is all."
"By the way my name is Flo" she told us.
"So how are you going to introduce us to the people of Fainbourn?" I asked.
"The best way would be to bring up the subject at the next general counsel meeting."
"Meeting?" we both said at once.
"Yes every few days, we all get together in the large round house on the island and discuss whatever needs to be discussed, disputes settled and a general accounting of the health of the community is discussed."
"And when might the next meeting be?" I really wanted to know.
"Tomorrow evening."
"So what should we do until then?"
Elden suddenly sat up "I hear someone coming towards the house."
I quickly focused on our surroundings, then I heard it to, footsteps getting closer.
---3 Days 8 Hours 27 Minutes 17 Seconds( 00:00:03:08:27:17 AM )
Flo said "Never you mind, its probably a neighbor, nothing to worry about, they check up on me from time to time and even bring me groceries."
As she got up to head towards the front of the house, she pointed to a door "an old bedroom I no longer use, you will be safe there, just don't open the blinds."
We quickly got up and went to the room, closing the door behind us just as a knock was heard, we focused our hearing to listen, then decided it was better not to eavesdrop, although we were uncomfortable not knowing what was going on, we had to trust someone. She came back into the living room "hello? you can come out now"It was just my friend from down the shore, she says there were some official looking people asking about some escaped animals, she asked if I had seen any" "I of course told her no."
We were suddenly very nervous, I turned to look at Elden, he just looked back and shrugged.
"Ok it seems they followed us this far" I pointed out needlessly "but since no one has seen us accept you, no one can give us away, I bet there will be a lively debate at the meeting tomorrow about us though."
She then smiled at me "we won't have to wait until tomorrow, it seems the authorities showing up and questioning people has stirred up a hornets nest, the meeting will be today."
"So how do we do this then?"
"I will of course go to the meeting, I will use my wagon, once there I will ask for a chance to speak, then I will tell them a bit about you, just see what the atmosphere is like."
"Where will we be?"
"You will wait in the wagon underneath some tarps, I know its a bit crude but its for the best" "once I know if you will be accepted I will ask you to enter, just move slowly towards me, I will be on the dais in the middle of the room."
"What if they don't believe you?"
"Then i'll tell them its a story I am thinking of writing and I wanted to see how it would be accepted, worst case they just consider me a bit senile and laugh it off, if that happens we will need another plan."
"How are you going to get a wagon across the lake, we saw no bridges."
"We have a small ferry used for carrying supplies, I will cross on that, no ones going to question me using a wagon, being old I do need help to get around sometimes you know."
We all smiled "this might just work out after all" but internally I felt a bit unsure, I looked at Elden and saw the same look on his face. I guess she noticed the looks...
"Don't worry I have been in this village a long time, I know what i'm doing."
Well we didn't have much choice, so we accepted.
"I hope i'm not being a bother, but would you have anything to eat?" "we have not eaten for a couple of days."
"Oh my yes, where are my manners, um, exactly what do you eat?"
"I have no idea, I guess some bread and vegetables would be fine, if possible I would like to try some meat, cooked and raw, just to find out what our new bodies can handle" "were not putting you out are we?"
"Oh no, its alright I have the food, and its been a long time since I prepared a meal for anyone other then myself."
"Thank you."
"Oh pish... never you mind, be right back."
She shuffled off into the kitchen, we could hear food noises and dishes rattling I turned to my mate, he was the first to speak though.
"Her plan sounds good to me, do you have any problems with it?"
"No, but if it does not go our way we need to have a backup plan."
"Any ideas?"
"Not at the moment, we will just have to wait and see."
"Ok."
She then came back into the room with a couple of bowls filled with fruit and some vegetables, there was also a plate of raw beef, and a small tray of sliced wheat bread.
"I have a roast in the oven it will take a while to cook, is this alright?"
"We both looked at the food, our mouths watering...
"This will be fine, thank you, we are going to have problems paying you back though."
"Don't even think about it, I am not able to eat as much these days so it won't be a problem for me, just you enjoy."
And enjoy we did, the food went down wonderfully, and even the raw meat tasted good, I guess we will be able to eat food raw or cooked, good to know, since its likely when we have to travel there will be little in the way of prepared foods. She later brought in the prepared roast, it went down wonderfully. We had eaten it all, and felt stuffed.
"That was wonderful, thank you again for the food."
"Your welcome, now wait here while I go attach the horse to the wagon, be right back."
---3 Days 13 Hours 25 Minutes 32 Seconds( 00:00:03:01:25:32 PM )
she walked out the back door closing it behind her.
"How do you feel?" I asked Elden.
"Stuffed and expectant."
Before I could answer she returned to the room...
"Time to go, just follow me."
We started to move in our awkward fashion and followed her out the door, she led us to the wagon, the horse looked at us and snorted, we saw the tarps and noticed that the sides of the wagon were high enough to hide us if we laid on our bellies, we climbed up and got under the tarps, she then got into her seat and started the horse moving, it was bumpy ride.
"Are you ok back there?"
"Yes were fine."
"Were almost at the ferry just be very still and quiet or someone may notice you."
We laid there quietly, she talked to the ferry captain and suddenly the wagon bumped forward then was still, we could hear other people around us and hoped no one lifted the tarp.
The trip across was un-eventful, once we reached the other side there was another bump, and we slowly moved forwards, then we stopped.
"We're here, now just wait until I call for you" she said in a quiet voice.
Then she walked off, we heard other people heading in the same direction and just waited, soon there was silence as all the people were now in the building. It was boring lying there waiting for her to return, we had no idea of the time, the wait seemed long.
As I was about to say something I was interrupted for at that moment we heard her call for us.
-To be continued in Part 3- ©2004-2011 thwale