Andrew wasn’t sure what to say of her new friends as they all stood on this alien hill… they had no idea what was out there. “W-Why did you come back!” She suddenly said angrily. “You shouldn’t have- I could have found a way back home myself!” She wanted to insist she would be fine though she realised there were tears in her eyes. Damn it- this stupid body was so… weak.
“It’s okay,” Mikey ruffled her feathers. “We can’t leave you here alone.” She looked awkwardly. “Maybe we can try something else.”
Alice nodded. “Yep. Me and Mikey can go back home any time. First we got to get you back home too!” She rubbed her hands in glee.
“How? You don’t know how your tricks work!” The snake girl just wanted to stamp her feet in frustration- though all she ended up doing was face planting herself in the ground. “OWW!”
“It… might take some getting used to,” Mikey said sympathetically. She offered a wing- a bit confusingly to help her up. Andrew looked at her wing, then at her own body as she slowly pulled herself up again. “This sucks- sucks- sucks so much-”
“You’re not going to complain about everything are you? Otherwise we’ll just leave you to it.” Alice mumbled.
“I-” Andrew gulped. They wouldn’t leave him would they? It was true… Alice and Mikey could leave whenever they wanted. Leave her alone- she was the one stuck here not htem. How long would she even survive? How could she run away from anything in this body? She was at the mercy of monsters or whatever else lived here. She needed them more then they needed her…
Mikey seemed to pick up on Andrew’s scared expression. “It’s okay, we ain’t gonna leave you.” She promised. “We’ll find a way to go home together.”
Andrew looked like her pride was wounded at that. “Hey- I don’t need some girl telling me it’s going to be okay!”
Alice had an exasperated look. “Have you even looked at yourself? You look more girly then either of us!”
Andrew was trying so very hard not to look. She was older then these two so… yes Alice was quite correct. “I- um… sorry.”
Mikey looked sympathetically towards Andrew knowing exactly what the ex-boy was thinking. It was pretty much what she went through just a few days ago. Though as much as he wanted to help her own insight and knowledge was just how difficult it was to offer- well- ‘anything’. She just didn’t know what to say… there wasn’t really anything one could say. She knew that Alice was more annoyed by each second, given she had always been a girl- so- this must be pretty insulting if not completely weird.
Andrew looked at Mikey but a look and.. yeah she understood. At least the harpy girl was able to know when to keep quiet about it. The snake tail felt so… heavy. She was dragging it several feet past the rest of her torso. The muscles in it had to be pretty strong though. “So, just what is the plan?” They were lost in some strange park. The area was somewhat untamed with a lot of shrubs.
“Mikey? Can you fly up and see if there’s a town?” Alice pointed.
Mikey nodded. “Uh, maybe..” She started to flap her wings. It felt so hard to do though. What was she doing wrong? Gaining lift like this wasn’t easy as gliding.
“Tuck your legs in!” Alice suggested.
Mikey did so and felt her body become more streamlined. Her head tucked in as she sprung upwards into the air. She flapped for all she was worth, scared but at the same time thrilled. “Ah- I- I’m doing it!” This was amazing. The other two were now ten feet below her. She could still climb up into the air! She started to circle, gazing at everything she could. She saw a river, a large hill… and.. yes! A building?! Yes! A farm house! “I see something!” She said excitedly- and promptly started to lose altitude.
Mikey had practised this- somewhat. A quick gesture of her wings and fanning of her tail and she was back on the ground.
Alice had the biggest smile ever. “You’re doing really well now!”
“Thanks...” The harpy girl felt herself blush. She wasn’t used to complements. “There’s a house over there. Some kind of farm- with a mill-wheel in a river.”
Andrew looked cautious at that. “So- there are people here? We probably shouldn’t...” she gulped.
Alice sighed. “Anne, do you really want to be a snake in the forest and eat mice?”
“N-No- hey! Don’t call me Anne my name is Anne-” She blinked. “What the...” she tried repeating herself again. “My name is Anne… okay- that’s weird. What did you just do to me!” Why- how did calling her a different name suddenly ‘make’ her- in her own head that name? That was just… freaky!
“What do you mean?” Alice asked. “Anne’s a nice name. It suits you.”
“It’s not my name! My real name! I- I just lost my… I mean- I know my old name but...” she couldn’t explain it. “It’s like you just changed something inside me. I feel weird!” she rubbed her head. “My name is Anne…?!”
Mikey looked just as bewildered. “It must be this place. Something’s really weird about it- there’s magic here?”
Anne tried her best not to panic. “So- suddenly calling me a different name changed my name?! Change it back!”
“Uh… what was your name before?” Mikey asked.
Alice rubbed her head. “I- I can’t remember… I know I named you Anne but I don’t remember… it was… uh… something with an.. ‘A’.. uh...” her rabbit ears gave a slight droop. “Okay- so… we learned something new about this world… let’s not call each other weird names right? Okay ‘Mikey?”
“Okay Alice,” The harpy girl replied just as confused by what happened.
“How can you be so calm! I just lost my name!” Anne cried out. “I lost my body, my gender now my name-”
“You still have us,” Mikey reminded. “Maybe the people who live here know what’s going on.”
Anne quietly nodded. It was… going to be a long while. There was also another somewhat pressing issue. “Um- I got a question.. how do snakes… um…”
“What?” Alice asked.
“… use the bathroom.” Anne looked awkwardly. “Do I even have a butt?!”
Anne and Mikey snickered at that- and even Anne found it probably humorous. “C-come on guys this isn’t funny. I might have lost my butt now!”
They laughed and so did Anne. It had not really occurred to her how different this snake-tail made things. She looked awkwardly at them as the laughter died. “Well… I’ll just go behind the trees an’ .. figure it out I guess.”
Alice and Mikey were left glancing at each other and at their helpless companion. Alice leaned slightly towards the harpy. “Don’t suppose you know how this is supposed to work?”
Mikey shrugged. “I ain’t got a clue. Maybe it’s just magic again?” That seemed to be the only explanation.
“Magic.. yeah...”
“Don’t you look at me!” Anne’s voice called from behind the tree.
“We’re not!” Both called back. “Well-” Alice paused. “Just your tail...”
“That counts!” The snake girl growled. “Just turn around or something. There’s not much space here an’ this is complicated enough!”
Mikey sighed. “Well- I’m sure she’ll be fine...”
Biff was… annoyed. The sphinx teen was trying her best to not think about what Sarah had said. She didn’t like her any more.. she didn’t want her. She wasn’t even attracted to her. She liked…
she liked guys.
The implication seemed to be that Biff would also start to like men too. That was crazy! Why would she? So now she had to.. somehow get her files from her computer to Ms Collins. She guessed she had to be thankful that the fox-woman was helping her this much. She didn’t want to be ungrateful.
She was hoping this would be the end but… then she saw James again. He was also with Eliot- the boy she made wet with fear in class- like literally.
James reached out a hand. “Hey...” He cleared his throat. “Look- don’t want to fight...” He glanced to Eliot.
Eliot nodded. “Yeah… look we just want to… apologise.”
Biff looked at the two of them. “What?”
James quickly nodded. “Yeah, we want to bury the hatchet… let bygones be bygones… we don’t have to fight.”
Biff felt her jaw drop. James would normally carry a grudge for a lot longer then this.. she didn’t know much about Elliot but he didn’t seem the kind either. “Okay… I accept your apology.”
“Wait-” James quickly said. “Here...” He gave a small box. “Don’t worry it’s not flowers or some girly shit,” He grinned.
Biff looked at it cautiously. James slowly opened it and inside was a hundred dollar bill. “… you’re serious?” A hundred dollars… he was really giving some compensation?
“Hey, it should help a bit...”
Biff- wasn’t sure. There was a sudden strange flash of light inside her head. This was different though and it felt like it crawled around her. She felt a strange itch that was almost a relief when it stopped. Something- something was telling her not to…
… but she did need the money and they were genuinely apologising right? “This better not be fake.”
“It’s not! Swear its a real bill.. all yours.”
Elliot seemed to be struggling with keeping a grin. “Here- you got a bag or something to carry it in?”
Biff shrugged. “I’ll carry it on my back- I’m not far from home anyway.”
“Great!” Elliot smiled. “I’ll just stick this here for you…”
Biff growled again then slowly walked on.
Elliot and James were cackling.
“Oh GOD YES!” Elliot laughed. “That will teach her! She will rue ever crossing me like this.”
James nodded. “Yeah, pretty diabolical revenge plan,” He was struggling to breathe now. That was such a hard act. “You got balls though. That’s some crazy idea of yours.”
Elliot fumed. “She attacked me in class… made the whole class laugh at me. This is the least I could do to her.” He crossed his arms frowning. “We best take a very strong shower, just in case.”
James nodded. “How long until…”
“A day probably. She’ll be a mess by then. Cat flea’s don’t mess about.”
James laughed again. “How in the world did you even get them?”
“The vet. I said I wanted to see the difference between cat-fleas and human fleas for a project. They gave them to me and I had a microscope- I put a bunch of diseased fur into that box and cut it up into tiny pieces. The fleas will be all over her by now… she’s going to be an infested mess in a day.”
“That’s going to be one sick pussy,” James laughed. “How come she didn’t smell it?”
“Cat-nip. Just a bit of it to disguise the scent. I can manipulate cats pretty damn well.”
“Yeah man.. perfect. Well worth fifty dollars between us...”
Biff was back home. She got rid of the money box, with a faint shrug as it toppled over on the carpet. She snatched the hundred dollar bill. It was.. odd but- if they wanted to make up.. well… maybe it was for the best. She didn’t want to fight either. Right now she had another problem.
“Hello Biff,” Ms Collins smiled. “How are you today?”
“I’m.. okay,” The sphinx girl sighed. “I um.. can I use the computer?”
“It’s your computer Biff,” The fox-girl looked to her young friend oddly. “Is something wrong?”
“I.. I just need to do some work,” she padded up to her makeshift room. At least her computer being on the floor was actually a good thing. Making sure the door was closed she started to do a few searches. “Naked girls,” she thought quietly. Just the thought was making her itch a bit- or was she just itching? She scratched at her back a bit, lashing with her tail. This whole thing was making her nervous.
She loaded up images of hot, sexy girls. Many of them… of all kinds. Something… something didn’t feel right though. She knew they were attractive.. and in some ways she did kinda feel.. something- at least mentally. Though her body.. her body was just not… giving her any of the normal sensations. She knew it should- but.. it didn’t.
“I swear if I’m attracted to lions,” she muttered. She quietly loaded up a safari video, watching a lion. She felt.. strange. There -was- some kind of attraction- not quite a sexual one perhaps but.. an appreciation she never had before. The curious healthy look of that red mane… the powerful nature that seemed to exude strength- a thrill of a shiver went down her tail.
The final test took Biff a long while to actually do. She was to actually look at… at male figures. She took a breath. “It’s fine- just guys,” She muttered. There’s no reason to think.. anything. Right? She looked at them… images popped up of masculine… strong men- and she felt.. her body react to it. “W-What the-” She quickly turned away.
Her mind was in conflict though. She knew she wasn’t attracted- but her body was? Was that even possible?! Damn it- this was messed up! She tried to sneak another odd peak. There was something… strange about seeing guys- watching them she felt an odd sensation… but she didn’t want to think of it now. She turned off the computer in annoyance. “Stupid- stupid stupid lion body!” she growled down at herself. Her huge paws.. her lashing tail.. her wings.. She wanted to just take her head and get out of it! She didn’t want to be attached any more to this thing. It wasn’t human! It wasn’t even giving her any feelings of what a normal human would feel.
“Dinner’s ready Biff!” Called out Collins.
“Uh… coming.. thanks.”
Mikey Alice and Anne continued to wonder around this strnage world.
It was a long trek but they had found a rather large path. The fields looked oddly familiar. Stalks of green-like leaves instead of fields of wheat like what one might expect. Though Something seemed odd as they drew closer and closer to the farm house.
“That looks like a very big house,” Anne observed. “Like… maybe it’s a castle? Some kind of Keep?”
Mikey shook her head. “In the middle of nowhere? That wouldn’t make much sense. Maybe its a boat-house? It is connected to the river… though I didn’t see any gates or stuff.” She didn’t know what a boat house would look like but… it looked like a farm house from the sky.
“This… isn’t right...” Alice looked oddly.
As they approached it was clear that the building was huge. The door itself, had to be over 30 feet high. Yet despite the size it looked quite ordinary. The door opened quite suddenly and the three animal-girls were shocked at what they saw.
A farm boy- probably their own age, only he was over twenty feet tall! He was wearing typical clothes of a farmer anyway. Dark brown stockings and what looked like cobbled shoes. He had a green tunic with rather thick threads on the hemline of the top which might look more a state of fashion then anything else.
“Oh boy...” Anne blinked. “That’s a.. very big …”
Mikey was equally terrified. “Let’s get out of here!” She flapped her wings- though this only brought the attention of the giant boy towards them.
The giant looked curiously and started to run towards the noise.
Alice was quick and started to flee, jumping into one of the many fields of bushes around here. She found a large cavern in the mound- big enough for her, so she ran into it. “Run!” she said.
Mikey flapped to the top of the giant house. She tried to glance around looking for her other friend. “Anne! Run!”
Anne was certainly trying to. She wiggled her snake body, though she wasn’t exactly speedy neither was she stealthy. It wasn’t long before-
“Ah- let me go! Let me go!” Anne was caught by her tail. She felt fingers squeezing it, as her entire body was orientated upside down. It felt weird having these sensations move so far up- er- down her long body and confusing too. “What are you doing! Let me go!”
The boy just smiled- it didn’t look like he understood. “Mom look what I found!” He said as he started to go back into his house.”
Mikey fluttered back to the ground looking for Alice. Soon he saw her distinctive white-ears from the brush. Alice popped the rest of her body out. “He got her!” She cried out. “We’ve got to save her!”
Alice was still shaking. “I- I don’t believe it- I don’t believe what I just saw,” she mumbled. “This was crazy- Mikey I’m sorry I don’t think we can.” This was supposed to be easy!
“I ain’t leavin’ her!” The harpy girl flapped her wings annoyed. “We can’t. It’s our fault she’s here-”
“It’s her fault for being there too!” Alice suddenly snapped- but drooped her ears. “No- you’re right. I’m sorry Mikey. I- I just don’t believe it. Did you see how big he was? If he’s that big what’s his family like? We’re never going to be able to save her.”
“We have to try!” Mikey was not going to give up.
“..Mikey, we’re just kids. We’re not...” Alice feared greatly now the situation. “We could probably go back and... get some help.” her ever instinct was telling her they were way way in over their heads now.
“There’s nobody else!” Mikey once again put her foot- talon down. “We got to rescue her. Please...” the harpy girl pleaded. “I know you’re scared but…” Mikey didn’t know what to say. It was true they had not known Anne that long- but she was still a friend now! The harpy girl was scared too but… she couldn’t leave her.
Alice sighed. Mikey sure was brave- or stupid. She wasn’t sure which. “I ain’t sure what we can do… but okay. You scout around the outside. You’re the flier you got the best chance of seeing what’s going on. I’ll.. I’ll try to make a small camp in the field. Maybe we can sneak in at night...”