Transitions
#2 of Transition Stories
2)Transitions
This time she did not let herself sink into depression, though someone else may have sunk even lower after such despair. She helped others, volunteered and passed out reminders to those who were due for their checkups, making sure they all got them regularly in her area.
Ene did this straight for two years, before letting other volunteers (not always having personally suffered from the sickness) pick up the slack, leaving her with leisure time she hadn't had in such a long, long time. She didn't wait for them to make her stop going so frequently, she just did it herself, knowing she shouldn't keep up like that forever. She didn't really want to either, unlike how many would wish they could go on forever doing such things. Ene still wanted to try and live normally, as normally as she could in her new life. Even Tab, who helped out himself, was happy he could relax, even though he enjoyed meeting new people through their volunteering, passing out reminders and booklets with locations, times and dates of when next to be checked up.
Ene was endowed with a vast insurance policy from her parents, so she did not have to worry about getting a job to survive, and the house did not need to get paid for as the move included the house free of charge. (They did this to try and help relieve stress to the people during this time).
But she did want a job, Enerva wanted to help the community by contributing her services, just not right now. Not now. She needed to have some time for herself and Tab. Tab was very important to her, she didn't know if she could go on if something had happened to him. He was the last close family she had left now. They had met many of their friends through volunteering, sure, but hadn't come upon any relatives.
There had been a bad incident with a shuttle, she remembered. A small meteor hit the wing. The shuttle was built strong enough to absorb damage from debris at the speeds it was going, but this debris was too big and much too fast going in the wrong direction, and the result was the implosion of the shuttle in the vacuum of space.
She wondered for a moment if anyone she knew were on that shuttle. It would be difficult for them to retrieve the craft, if not impossible, before it zipped far beyond their reach. The most they could do if they were unable to get to it in time would be to wait for the details of that flight to come in (the communication systems had been brought up to speed that last year).
She made sure to keep in contact with her friends, and visit them when she could. The fourth big change was very unexpected by all of Mars occupants, and would change things dramatically from then on. It was noticed almost immediately, but in a very slow way, as if it was hard to comprehend what had happened.
The animals, all of the animals, had changed. They were all anthropomorphic now, like them. There were no longer feral beasts on this planet, only humans. Somehow, all the animals turned human. They were walking, talking, just like regular people. (Well, not exactly, apparently they had to get used to it too, as they were shocked as much as the people were that they were no longer animals).
Unfortunately, this helped mark them out from 'regular' people.
Obviously, many were not taking the transition well, especially when it first started. Those who were once pets were outcast by the 'rebels' who did not take to this new occurrence, no longer wishing to house them, throwing them out on the streets, some even pushing them outside the borders of the city.
Many were maimed by mobs who came to think of them as freaks, some even going as far as killing this new branch of creatures, so very similar to themselves. That was stomped out very quickly after the incident. A large mob cornered some of the mangy beasts and shot them down one by one, ignoring their so human-like cries as they drowned in their own blood.
It turned out some of those cries were indeed, actually human, and not animal converted humans. The families of these people were outraged and demanded something be done of this insanity. So it was made illegal to kill, hunt, maim, or do anything else likewise to these creatures new to the human race, lest they turn out to be one. It was like discrimination, and racial hate crimes. They would be treated as such from then on. But that didn't stop them completely. Just like it didn't stop gay-bashers, or the KKK, or masochistic guys who think women are only good for two things. It was just in secret now, like a deadly drug operation, or slow underground torture chamber factions. They did their work in dark alleys and empty warehouses.
Not all suffered though. Not all oppressed these new furrs. Some didn't mind too terribly much about the change, and got along well with their new neighbors. And some newly converted furrs were, thankfully for themselves, intelligent enough to pick up a few things to keep their true nature under wraps. They could blend in with a crowd of 'regulars' better than some of the regulars.
Enerva was amazed when this happened, waking up to find a stud of a husky male under the covers with her, snuggled up close, kind of like how Tab would do when he slept.
Of course she freaked out at first, as there was this strangely familiar male in her bed, buck naked, sleeping with her!
"AHHHHH!" she yelled out when her brain realized the depth of the situation.
Not until she turned on the news, the male husky cowering in the corner of her bedroom for his own protection as Enerva swung hard at him with the bat she retrieved under her bed, forcing distance between them. He was too frightened still to pay much attention to his new state.
It was on almost every channel, what had occurred of late. She let her mind absorb the information, as it came over her in waves from the T.V. glad that they repeated things so many times for once, as she was not always taking it in the first time.
When she had finished her revelation, she was calmly able to put the two which was on one side of the house with the other two somewhere in her backyard together to see what really happened. Somewhere in there she numbly chuckled to herself that she at least didn't somehow get overly drunk and hop in bed with some stranger. Though that might have been better than this.
"T-t-t-tab-b? Tab, is that you?"
Tab half-heartedly wagged his now longer tail back and forth a few beats, his head down on the ground, ears laid flat against his head, as if he did something very bad, like got into the fridge. He knew that was bad.
"Oh, oh Tab!" she lamented, rushing to him, cuddling up with him, a wave of tears engulfing her, and her thoughts of what she could have done to poor Tab not helping to stop the onslaught.
It took half an hour before she stifled her waterfall of tears, wanting to make clear that Tab understood what happened, which she was unsure that he really did know, as he had not made much reaction. She knew he could adapt pretty well to many things, but was sure even he couldn't adapt that quickly to what just happened.
She cleared her throat before speaking. "Um, Tab, do you know what happened? Uh, I mean, do you know what happened, erm, to you, I mean."
She knew she wasn't doing a bang up job, but she had to force words out of her mouth, so she was doing good enough that she could speak. Tab quirked his head, his ears perked up to her voice, mouth hanging slightly agape, as if he couldn't believe what he heard. He heard what he would usually hear, but, with more understanding, he guessed.
He actually knew the meaning of what she was saying and understood each word individually, even responding,"No, I don't. What happened?"
Now usually he would just think this in his little doggy mind, even though his doggy mind wouldn't be able to understand his master as much as he did now, so he was surprised with his response. His hands flew to his muzzle to shut it, thinking it might help something, somehow, even though he was still unsure what. Hands? Hands! He had hands!
"YELP!" he cried through his newly discovered hands, wondering what happened to his poor paws.
Enerva studied him as he slowly adjusted to his form, and encouraged him to explore further until he saw the full extent of whatever it was that happened to him.
"There's .... more than that Tab. More than, just your hands", she weakly gestured towards his body.
With this odd understanding, he knew what she was saying once again, and looked down. Smothering another series of yelps, he took in what he was seeing before him.
He was still the same color, but he was bigger than he used to be, his chest was broader, his legs longer. He had hands (he whimpered at the thought of it for some reason) but he still had a tail, even though it was longer than before, and wagged it a bit. His feet looked the same, still paws there, sighing in relief a bit about that. There were bigger too, but that was alright, he guessed. He could talk, and wasn't sure what to think about that either, so tried not to think about that aspect.
You could see more definition in his muscles even though they still had lots of furriness covering them from sight. He could tell his bone structure along with his muscle and probably organ placement were different now too.
How could he not have noticed this change?! He thought something like this would be very noticeable, even if he was sleeping really good!
Ene had to get a mirror to let him see his face, and (another grateful sigh) that was the same as well, besides the bigness it took on to stay with the size of his body.
One other thing he happened to notice was his gender. It was in the same place, even had the same look, it was just bigger too. Being, or at least once being, a dog, his ego didn't inflate because of this, as he thought of this as just a regular part of his body. He was glad though, that for the most part, it was unchanged. Now it was tucked away in its sheath, the sack still hanging happily underneath it.
They never thought it necessary to neuter Tab. Enerva, though, being a young female, not to mention unbound by a mate of her own, very much noticed it, and was blushing under her fur as she got up to get some clothes for Tab. Of course the only thing that fit him alright was her brothers clothes. They later found out some of her dad's clothes fit, but for the most part were too big as her dad was full grown, and Tab was not.
"That, that looks really good on you Tab." Enerva stated.
"Um, thanks, E-Enerva." he stuttered.
He was still very much getting used to this talking thing.
"Oookay, we're gonna have to come up with a story for you Tab."
He cocked his head in that loving way only he could do. "Story? What story? For what is this....story?" he pondered aloud, allowing him to get used to the movement of his mouth and the strange feeling in his throat when he talked.
"It's like, eh, for your background, you know? We can't just tell them you used to be my pet husky and now you're a furr."
"Why not?", he queried. "Doesn't everyone know about this? Didn't this happen....to all animals."
She faltered as she thought of what to say. "W-well, yeah, but, you see, some of them, they don't like it. They don't like that you've, become like us. They don't like different, those people, they don't like change. They want to hurt you and those like you. They even, s-sometimes. They s-s-sometimes...."
She couldn't bring herself to say it but she was forcing herself to because she needed him to fully understand what would happen, and he had to seriously think about this and remember. She didn't want to lose him too.
"They'll kill you!", she blurted out, covering her mouth the instant she got it out, tears welling in her eyes.
"They'll kill you.", she barely whispered. "The ones who r-really can't stand this, that's what they'll do."
Though Tab was quite inexperienced with this and was still even getting used to the green short-sleeved shirt and faded blue jeans he was wearing (he really didn't want to put on the boxers), he tried.
All he wanted to do was make Ene happy, he didn't want to see her cry, he wanted to be there for her and comfort her. So he scooted up close to her on the couch and held her close, so close, as if afraid she would disappear, or worse, become one of those people. Those bad, bad, people who could do such cruel and terrible things.
He held her on that couch as they huddled close, in their small house, in their little city, on this no longer desolate planet, floating in their large galaxy, amid all the space, and imagined them together again, happy on Earth, fetching that tennis ball in the pond on that last somewhat normal day.
The last thing he heard from her before drifting into sleep himself was a tiny whimper almost, coming from Ene. "I don't want to lose you too, Tab."
Morning came and Tab woke up to a delicious smell.
"Eggs and sausage! Come on Tab, breakfast!"
Tabb looked curiously at the food in front of him. He only usually ate dry dog food or the tasty stuff like meat in a can, but he rarely got table scraps, and definitely didn't get a whole plate to himself!
"What's wrong? You don't like it?" Ene asked, thinking he might not prefer this as he never really ate it before.
"Is it okay if I eat this?" He was asking permission.
"There's nothing wrong with it!" she giggled. "Of course you can eat it, did you think I was going to make you live off of dog food?"
He didn't know what to think about that. He didn't mind dog food, but he did like human food too, when he could get it. Though he still hoped he could eat dog food though, from time to time at least.
Before he made any move to touch what was on his plate, he studied Ene carefully, to see what she would do. He watched her eat before, but knew it was rude to get up on the table when he was a dog, and so didn't have a good enough view to see the full extent of what was going on.
She was picking up the two funny shaped silver things, she called them -utensils- and was using them to cut up her food and put it in her mouth. He couldn't help but wonder why she just didn't pick it up in her muzzle and snap it down, but then thought, that wouldn't be human-like. So he followed suit and mimicked her, having a bit of trouble holding his fork and knife properly before Ene came by to help him, much to his embarrassment, though he wasn't quite sure why he was embarrassed or what for.
The day went by showing him various things that he needed to know how to do from now on, like how to eat with dishes, including drinking from a glass (which she had to finally convert him to doing this outside, as he would pour the whole thing down his front when he tipped it over in an attempt to drink the water inside), and using a toilet, which was challenging in itself, but sadly, not as hard as getting him to use a glass.
He took some time getting used to having hands instead of paws, but found he could still do what he was able to with his paws with hands, and even better! That he couldn't help but be excited about. The days progressed to weeks after he quickly picked up writing and reading (when they were still on Earth, Tab would join her when she read in her room and she would sometimes read parts aloud to him, even the whole thing when she felt up to it).
He had to keep himself from wanting to chew on the writing utensils, though he never chewed on them before, he couldn't help but feel the need to while writing because it wagged back and forth in front of his nose, like someone offering him a stick to play with. She still played with him, but did try to refrain from doing so like she would a dog (sometimes they just couldn't help themselves!) None of the 'dog-like' actions were done in public though, in case feral-haters were around. They were finding themselves playing it safe and being precautious more and more.
Though the crimes against Tabs kind were lessening, they still weren't by very much. The cops didn't want another incident to happen or they would face great retribution from the public and it could even start a rebellion of mass proportion. Something they wanted to prevent at all costs. One reason why the cops on the more crooked path took it upon themselves to take care of these problems personally.
What more could make anyone on edge? It was hard to trust anyone, besides the ones you knew yourself, and even then you had to be careful. The key was to see how they reacted to the situation in the first place. If they had a pet before it really helped. Either they accepted it or they didn't. And the level the non-acceptance went could be unthinkable at times.
Soon Tab knew by heart many of his actions he had been learning and practicing and also knew his background very well too. He was glad that Enerva lived through the sickness and was able to help him through this transition. He did not know what he would do if it wasn't for her. He thought on it sometimes, possibly having the same fateful end as some of his poor comrades who were once so loved, but now so totally and utterly rejected.
He hoped together, Enerva and him could help the new world see that these new furrs weren't bad after all. The one thing he was glad about was that she still let him sleep in her bed!