Sleep was… not coming easy to Steven.
The events were so surreal over the last 12 hours. What was supposed to be a fun day had turned into something else. Something crazy, wild, fearful and yet… exciting? There was some excitement certainly… but an incredible amount of fear.
When she closed her eyes, the feelings of her body remained… her large fluffy tail was so awkward to sleep next to as much as she tried. Sleeping on her stomach, her tail would slink a bit or rise up towards her head, swaying this way and that… tickling her.
It seemed to instinctively go to her side, leaving her something to ‘snuggle’ into, and while it was quite a nice sensation it was also too alien for her to accept right now. It was large enough to not just cuddle with, but sleep on as a fluffy pillow…
“Trying to make me feel good… for putting you on… and I’m stuck with you.” She lamented her choice, her… fluffy choice. She had no idea why she had even done it. Out of everything, all options hers was probably the lamest costume ever! No powers… nothing!
She closed her eyes again, trying to rest… remembering all the odd people she had seen so far. Humans, monsters, animals, demons, witches, wizards, bird people, assassins… so many of them.
Time passed for the little squirrel… it almost felt like she was having an out of body experience and was watching… herself? She glanced down realising she had just her fur and was naked. This was odd but didn’t bother her as much as she thought it should. She felt so odd… strange…
She was dreaming… right? The world changed around her. She found herself crawling on all fours, upon a branch of a tree. The tree itself was huge… the biggest she had ever seen. She couldn’t even see the top, neither could she see the very bottom. Strange energies seemed to flow across the branches, pulsing from the top like bolts of lightning. Green energy flowing and dancing around what could be fruits. The trunk itself was as equally large, seeming to take up most of her vision.
She breathed in the air… scents filled her senses, strange, wonderful… terrifying… what… was this? She could only smell the tree itself, and that didn’t smell like any plant she knew. It smelled like…
…everything?
Steven was taken aback. The squirrel fell back slightly, terrified. ‘Run away… hide… got to hide from everything-’
She had to get away from this place. It was too much. ‘Everything’ was here… ‘everything’ that could hurt her, ‘everything’ that could be… everything that was.
The morning after came the first people allowed to leave the quarantine zone. There was great anticipation from both sides to get this done correctly. Speakers had been set up to organise the flow of people through the street.
“This is an announcement! The un-changed are now free to leave. Please take your unchanged status cards through the control zone,” A voice announced. “Return will not be permitted so make sure you have everything. Do not take any items you didn’t have before the event.”
Xanadu was starting to return to normal. The unchanged, those who were not wearing costumes and didn’t show any ‘obvious’ change were free to go. There was a hint of nervousness in the crowd. Some of them may have taken an item or two, hoping it would change their luck or do ‘something’ fun. If they could sneak it out, it might even be worth a lot of money.
Among them was Gregory, with his hands in his pockets waiting to be let out. He felt like a ‘caged animal’ and was annoyed at the whole thing. “Man, this is so messed up…” He waited until it was his turn.
“Present your card please.” The guard asked when it was his turn in the queue.
“Sure,” Gregory smiled politely showing he had ‘no powers or abilities’… a regular unchanged human, at least as far as the process was concerned. He was given a quick pat down but eventually allowed to go.
“Heh… well good bye Xanadu…” The teenager smiled. However he found himself glancing at a man who was also being processed. Something felt a little… odd from him. It was like his sense was confused… but he couldn’t work out ‘why’
The other man appeared to be in his thirties or perhaps early forties, it was hard to tell. He had no transformation and appeared to be a normal human- though ‘very’ out of place with how much older he was relative to the youthful crowd. There was this unsettling aura that made Greg realise he had stopped breathing…
“Present your card please.” The guard requested. The man did so, providing the blank ‘No powers or transformations’ with his name and pat him down. “Okay, you can go.”
“Thank you, sir.” However, the man suddenly paused and glanced at Gregory.
“…something wrong dude?” Gregory asked.
The older man stared. “…beware… the full moon…” He said. “Sorry- Gotta go.”
“Huh… that was weird.” Gregory shrugged. Older people were so strange sometimes.
In the hotel, Steven woke up. “Huh…”
That was a strange dream. Clearly, the events of the last day were being processed… how many weird things had she seen, and imagined? Too many to count. “Urgh, when am I getting out of here…” She had to get check out and get to the airport.
…Then she realised she needed to use the bathroom. Not unexpected but… still a delicate issue. She limply got up from the bed, taking a moment to look outside. There were no more weird changed people… the police seemed to have a control now on everyone and everything. The sun was out, and she was briefly startled to see a gargoyle statue on the opposite building that wasn’t there before. “Gargoyle change… yeah. Hope they sort that one out.”
She quickly ran into the bathroom, making a few odd positions working out how best to ‘actually go’. Her tail kept on getting in the way. She in the end had to go back to front, settling herself on her paws to the seat. It felt… so humiliating. She was almost falling in the damn thing with how small she was!
Shakily she took a shower, and nearly gasped at the instinct of acute distress getting her fur completely wet. “AH!” she screamed and quickly jumped to the other side of the cubicle, avoiding the water. “What’s wrong with me…” she shook the water off her fur. Was she not supposed to get wet? But- she had to clean herself!
She adjusted the water letting it go slower, which seemed to do the trick. Maybe it was a little sudden A little more relaxed she lathered up and cleaned her fur, touching the tactile hair awkwardly. She pulled her tail between her legs and up to her chest, cleaning there as well. “I blame you for all this…” She muttered to the appendage. “Well, I guess it’s not your fault I decided to wear you… just… thought I would be fun to be… well…” She felt herself getting sad again. She wanted to be noticed, but not seen wanting to be noticed?
“…yeah okay, I’m messed up.” She best not analysis it. It happened, and that was all it was to it. She had worn a costume on top of her costume… what sense was there in that? She ended up as a female squirrel and no powers at all! “Maybe I can look at some of the news…”
Drying herself with a towel, she winced slightly as she felt her nipples getting rubbed by it. She was startled by that feeling… a slight ‘wobble’ hidden under her fur. “B-Boobs?!” Oh damn it! She did have them! They were just ‘barely’ there but with the wet fur her silhouette was a lot more obvious. The slightly wide hips and pinched in waist… the breasts… shapely legs… a body of feminine proportions.
She poked at her breasts a few times before angrily keeping her arms at the side. It took ‘ages’ to dry her fur off, but at least she felt clean. She didn’t want to be a dirty animal. “Hope I don’t get wet fur smell…”
The squirrel girl turned on the television. It looked like an airport? There was a reporter with curly blonde hair and an eager expression.
“People are now leaving Xanadu. Those without any changes have already left… we are awaiting the first wave of actual transformed people. I’m told the first wave is for ‘human changed’ and do not pose any risk. Some are being interviewed and we are getting a few reactions. Yes- I am hearing now that the first flight from them should be arriving soon and- yes I see them!”
A few people were walking, one dressed as a ballet-dancer. Besides the costume she looked human, but seemed to be walking with an incredible amount of grace, almost more dancing then actual ‘walking’. She gave a light wave before continuing on, as more strange transformations came through. Another appeared to be dressed as the Joker, grinning and laughing.
“Why hello everybody!” The Joker-changed smiled. “Don’t worry! All my toys were confiscated. I don’t plan to hurt anyone! Hahaha!”
The reporter gave an awkward look. “All the ones deemed the least harmful to society are leaving… I’m hoping that’s uh- that’s the case. Yes- so the ones without any powers or magical abilities... includes… apparently the Joker from Batman. We are hoping to talk to a wizard to show us some real magic…”
Steven shook her head watching the TV. “They really rated the Joker guy ‘not dangerous?!’ She held her breath a little terrified. “Okay… well… personality change but no morality change… yeah probably okay… probably…”
She continued to watch. She wondered how they would react to her, when she got on the plane.
“I think we have found our first strangest transformation!” The reporters pounced on someone. It appeared to be a mermaid, being wheeled in a chair. She looked a lot like Ariel, with red hair and lovely green fins. She looked overwhelmed by the cameras.
“Can you tell us if you have any powers? What’s it like being a mermaid? Can you breathe under water?”
“Uh- Please leave me alone!” The girl cried out. “Get me out of here!” She tried to push herself away, but the cameras were relentless. “Just another question! Are you worried Disney might sue you? Do you have to make an agreement with them?”
Steven wasn’t sure she could watch any more and turned It off. “Guess… I’ll make my way out of here too…” Back home, back to her normal, mundane life…
