FSE

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'Here we go again, another day in COLA. Children of Limitless Ability... life seems pretty limited to me. We get herded around to class after class and have someone talk at us and expect us to learn. We get told when to eat, we have to ask to go to the bathroom... yeah limitless.' Dax sighed as he sat at his desk and pretended to listen to the teacher talk, he didn't even know who was talking he couldn't be bothered to look up and find out, or pay attention to what they were saying.

'I'll borrow Gideon's notes later, if you can call the chicken scratch he calls writing notes. I'm so bored, everything seems so dull...' Dax turned his head to gaze out of the window, it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and there was barely a cloud in the sky. The grassy plains outside seemed to stretch on forever.

"Jones, Dax Jones!" Dax sat bolt upright at the mention of his name and turned to see Mrs Tillimen, a thirty-two year old English teacher with her arms cross with an unimpressed look on her face. She was generally very pretty, her long black hair, her blue eyes and her small nose, she featured in many of his classmates fantasies, but when she made that face she wasn't cute, in fact she was down right scary! "I hope you've been paying attention!"

"Yes Mrs Tillimen, sorry Mrs Tillimen."

"Good, now..." Dax lost interest once she turned back to the black board, continuing the lecture that he hadn't been paying attention to. Dax looked at his hand and rubbed his hand against the wooden table he sat at, unimpressed at the lack of sensation.

'It's so boring being a human, our senses are so... so... dull!' Dax thought absent mindedly. 'As a fox I can hear everything, smell everything... the feel of the earth beneath my paws...' Dax sighed again. 'Why are humans so dulled?'

************

Having made it through his English class without drawing the attention of Mrs Tillimen again, Dax went out and sat under a tree in the middle of the perfectly kept school garden. he enjoyed the feel breeze and the afternoon sun but even that was not enough to satisfy his need. Inhaling deeply Dax let out a sigh.

'Even out here everything's so dull. I can't smell the scent of the flowers from this distance, I can't smell the scents of everyone downwind... why couldn't I have been born an animal and enjoyed everything life has to offer. Humans may claim to be the dominant species on the planet but they lock themselves up, separating themselves from nature, dulling their senses.' Looking around Dax watched the other students go about their lunch breaks, watched as friends gathered to eat together, laugh together.

'Gideon and the others will be here soon, and then we'll all talk about who's had the worst day. If they knew how I felt then I'd win hands down, but they don't, they can't. How can you miss what you've never had? Only I've had it, I've experienced it! I can't even turn into a fox during school!' Dax frowned at the thought. 'If I transform I leave my clothes behind which means I have to be naked when I turn back, and have to get dressed again. If only I could be an animal all of the time... now there's an idea! Turn into a fox, a hawk or whatever and blow this joint, forget about being human! No... I can't do that, I'm no survivor, I'd die of hunger if nothing else.' Dax slumped further against the tree, his few moments of excitement at the idea making him feel even lower than before. 'If only I could have the senses of an animal but be human at the same time, that would be good! Why couldn't I have that? Why couldn't I? Why not? Why not...?'

Ideas ran through Dax's mind and once again he could feel excitement building in his stomach, that tingling excitement when anything and everything seems possible.

'Could I make it so that I could only partially shape shift?' Dax thought to himself. 'Why couldn't I? If I can turn my whole body into a fox or a hawk, then I should be able to change just part of myself.'

Dax closed his eyes and focused, willing his body to shape shift but not enough to actually force it to do so. He felt the familiar tingle in his muscles as they threatened to shift, he struggled to keep it there, his body at the edge of shifting it was more difficult than he had anticipated, but he was doing it for now. Now he needed to focus, make what he wanted to happen happen but not shift all the way. Dax focused on sounds, listening carefully to everything around him, he could hear the voices of students talking and laughing nearby but he couldn't make out what they were saying. He focused on the voices, forcing himself to hear them, what they were saying. His body felt like it was on fire! He had never kept his body at the edge of shifting like this before, it was exhausting but he wasn't going to give up now!

'Listen to the voices Dax, ignore the pain! No pain no gain! Listen to the voices, the voices... the voices... the... voices!'

"... and... said..." A voice, a female voice but he still couldn't make out what she was saying.

'Almost, just a little more!'

"...ha-ha... seriously?"

"Totally! She's been drooling over him for weeks now!"

'I did it!' Dax felt himself smile and continued to listen to the two girls conversation.

"WOAH! That's awesome!" The familiar voice of Gideon broke Dax's concentration and he felt his entire body return to normal. He opened his eyes and looked up to see his friend standing there holding a sandwich and a bottle of water looking at him with a wide eyes and gaping mouth.

"What?" Dax asked.

"Your ears... they were all furry and pointy... like a foxes!"

"Really?!" Dax immediately began feeling his ears, they felt normal, human...

"They turned back when you opened your eyes." Gideon explained finally taking a seat but continued to stare at Dax in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. "What were you doing?"

"I was..." Dax paused as he struggled to explain what he was trying to do. "I was experimenting." He finally replied.

"Well it looked pretty cool, what ever it was." Gideon smiled finally opening up the plastic box holding his sandwich and taking a bite.

'So I partially transformed... wonder if I can improve my hearing without the furry appendages?'

************

Later that night Dax sat alone in his room on the edge of his bed, the lamp on his bedside table was the only source of light since the sun had set a few hours ago,. His father was already in bed; no doubt fast asleep. But Dax couldn't sleep, he couldn't stop thinking about what happened earlier at lunch.

'A partial transformation is possible... I must try it again!' Dax shut his eyes and once again brought his body to the edge of shifting. His entire body felt like it was buzzing, every muscle twitching, ready to change. Dax focused on his hearing again, he listened closely, listening for anything... there wasn't anything to hear, he was about to give up when he finally hear something, the rustling of the tree outside as the breeze rushed through it's leaves. He was doing it! The nearest tree was at least fifty feet from the house and he could just make out the gentle rustling as the leaves rubbed against each other.

Encouraged by his success Dax focused on his sense of smell while trying to keep his new found sense of hearing. It was difficult. Keeping his body at the edge of shifting was hard enough without the added strain of keeping his hearing, but Dax persevered, he wanted this wanted it dearly. He didn't want to be human, a blunt knife in comparison to his animal forms. Dax could feel his face was tense and his brow furrowed from the effort in what he was trying to do, he could feel beads of sweat rolling down his face, his body getting hotter and hotter the longer he kept it on the edge, the gentle buzz was getting more intense now but was far from painful.

'Focus Dax, focus on the smell...' Dax inhaled deeply through his nose but couldn't smell anything. This was his room, but wait there it was, a tingle, almost an itch as a scent he didn't notice before brushed his nostrils but was too faint to make out. Focusing on the scent Dax grunted in effort, he felt his body begin to shift, willing it not too. He could feel his bones begin to change shape but willed them back, his muscles twitched as they too threatened to shift against his will.

'Hold it there, I'm so close!' Dax begged silently to his body as he once again focused on his sense of smell, redoubling his efforts. There it was again but still to faint, it was like when think you hear someone call your name and you turn to see no one there, he couldn't be sure if he was actually smelling it or if he was imagining it, wanting it to be real. The sound of the gently rustling leaves helped him focus. He could smell it again, more clearly now but again his body threatened to shift, he couldn't keep this up. He felt exhausted, like he had just run a marathon, his body was drenched in sweat and his breathing was heavy and laboured, but he was so close now, he didn't want to stop yet.

"What is that smell!" Dax grunted. And suddenly it became clear, the scent, that strange scent... familiar and foreign, it was him, he was smelling himself. His scent permeated the entire room but now he could smell it. He could smell the saltiness of his sweat, the stink of his dirty clothes in his hamper, beyond that was his natural scent, he smelt like apples, that sweet scent after you bite into one but much fainter, like the smell of a flower on a warm summer breeze.

'I did it!' Dax smiled to himself, and then he realised that his body was still. His muscles didn't burn with heat or buzz on the brink of shifting any more. 'Did I shift?' Dax wondered and opened his eyes and looked at his hands... paws? He clenched his hand to make sure it was his, what had happened to his hand? It was covered in red fur, short black claws poked out from the tips and rough black paw pads covered his finger tips and the palm of his hand. It was definitely a paw, but it was shaped like a human hand.

"What the Hell!?!" Dax stood and walked over to the mirror and couldn't believe what he saw, he was walking upright, but looked like a fox. His muzzle was agape as he took in his appearance, he was half fox, half human. He felt something move behind him and spun round in fright, he could feel it against his leg and looked down, it was a tail, he had a tail!

"Okay.... calm down Dax..." He told himself. "So you've shifted, no big deal. You can shift back." Dax closed his eyes and attempted to shift back into his human form but nothing happened. Now he tried to shift into a feral fox and again nothing happened. The familiar buzz when he began to shift never came. He couldn't shape shift back.