(retake on rabbit-tricks.. new content here too so hope you enjoy it)
Mikey was feeling a lot better after her talk with Jon.
She wasn’t really sure what being a harpy from now on would mean for her future, a future she still harboured a lot of fears about. Maybe it was just she didn’t like seeing Jon worry about her, or feeling bad any more about things neither of them could control. She could feel a bit more relaxed- maybe the first step towards working out what to do. It was a good feeling to hold onto and reminded her more of being ‘herself’ then when she had stressed out on ‘trying’ to be herself. She had never really understood what being herself meant and while it was a common phrase as a sort of ‘pep’ talk she only now understood it.
She wanted to be normal, for Jon, her parents, her friends… but she couldn’t be a human. If being human was normal, she could never be a normal… to just say that out loud; Mikey the Harpy? Was she really supposed to change her name now? Michele the Harpy? How could being a ‘harpy’ be normal? She wasn’t sure quite what to do but.. even that felt somehow better then doing something that wasn’t working. Being unsure was fine… Jon seemed unsure and for some reason her big brother carried this weird sense of guilt. Mikey had assured him that he didn’t have anything to be blamed for it but Jon had become distant at that.
He then went of to see Biff with that weird guilty look.
Mikey was with her parents at home and doing her homework. She had been relegated to practising her handwriting. Clutching her pen in her talons had taken her almost thirty minutes of experimenting. It was a bit shaky and it felt awkward as she sat on the sofa. A foot stool had been placed for her where a piece of paper was on. She had tried to hold the paper earlier, but all she did was tear it up in her talons. It was weird to know just how strong these things were and she guessed the claws at the end would only get stronger. Still.. she would much rather have her hands back.
“I hope Jon’s okay,” she quietly thought as she dropped her pen on the floor. “Urgh…” she hopped up from the sofa. She really needed to stretch her feet- er- talons. They might be her hands now but she still needed to use them to walk. The talons got all strained when she did delicate work.
Mikey’s mother Mrs Madison watched her harpy daughter work quietly. She had been so worried about her too. “Feeling better?” She asked her harpy daughter. “I’ve been looking at your clothing situation, I think we can find some better things for you soon.”
Mikey looked down a bit at that. “Dresses?”
“Maybe?” Her mother thought. “From a practical stand point, it would be easier for you.”
“I.. I guess,” the harpy lamented. Was she going along with this whole change too easily? A dress.. would be easier to put on with her lack of hands.. and.. yeah, it had advantages. Why not just use it?
There was a knock on the door. Mrs Madison seemed surprised as she opened it, to find what appeared to be a young girl with rabbit ears. “Oh? Yes?” She looked to be about Mikey’s age. A friend of hers?
The rabbit-girl gave a smile. “Hi- my name’s Alice. Can Michelle play today?”
Mrs Madison blinked then smiled. She had not seen the changed folk that often before… and well given her son was now a changed she guessed she would see them more. Still this one looked very cute, with her blonde hair and white rabbit ears poking out. A glance to the side and there was even a rabbit’s cotton tail behind her. “I don’t see why not. Just don’t go too far.” she called out to the harpy. “Mikey, you have a friend here to see you!”
Mikey looked surprised. “Huh? Oh.. you’re that girl-” she looked a bit weird that a girl would come to see her. It just wasn’t really.. normal. “Alice?” Mikey didn’t really talk to her much before. Why did she come?
Miss Madison inwardly giggled. ‘The Mist must have a sense of humour’ she quietly thought. It was nice for her new daughter to make friends though. “Why don’t you go and play? You’ve done more then enough work.”
“Thanks,” Mikey said with a smile.
Alice walked with Mikey down the street and towards the park very excited. The rabbit-girl was looking at her new friend with a lot of curiosity too. “You okay?” She asked realising she had not said a word.
“I guess,” Mikey sighed. “I talked with my brother and stuff- he said things are gonna be different but he thinks it could be even better?” She frowned at that a bit. It was like Jon was saying being her brother wasn’t as good.
Alice seemed to pick up on this though. “I’m sure he just wants to cheer you up,” she said placing a hand on the harpy’s shoulder. “It’s not that bad though, I guess being a girl is probably pretty weird. Most of us didn’t change that way,” She looked a bit sadly to her. “I can only imagine what if I turned into a boy… kind of glad I didn’t. You must be really special for it to happen to you.”
Mikey grimaced at that. “But- being a boy isn’t bad!” she tried to defend it.
“Neither is being a girl,” Alice said with a bit of a giggle.
Mikey felt herself blush. It was like she had walked right into that. She smiled a bit despite feeling so weird and out of place. “I- guess,” she shrugged again.
Together they wondered through the park. Mikey had been here before often to play football or play on the monkey bars. Things that she realised she probably couldn’t do in quite the same way with her talons and wings. There were slides most of which was in an enclosure with other kids playing.
It looked like they were the only changed people in the park. Mikey wasn’t sure how many had changed in the world, but she recalled from class it was a pretty low number. Just a handful of them, and most of them on the younger side though Biff was clearly an exception.
Mikey felt a bit worried about going near ‘normal’ kids. She didn’t want to scare them.. Alice was pretty, but Mikey was a real monster-girl. With claws on her feet. Harpies were.. kind of scary looking weren’t they?
“It’s just this way,” Alice quickly explained as she took off further away from the enclosure and the staring eyes of the other kids.
Mikey felt a bit of a relief as they were walking away from them and towards the hilly fields of trees and shrubs. It was quite a nice place. They seemed to be going towards the trees with Alice getting more and more excited with even a little twitch of her cotton ball tail making it evident much to Mikey’s embarrassment to have noticed.
“I wanted to show you something,” Alice quickly confessed. “Some of us can do these weird tricks… so.. please come see mine? I just have to show someone!”
Mikey looked at Alice oddly. “I heard about it in class. Like when the teacher made those lights?”
“Yeah.. the teacher can do that. I do something a bit different and-” she trailed off. “Thing is, I think you can help me with my trick, once I show you what it’s like.”
They continued to walk into the park where Alice gestured to a bush. She seemed to size it up for a bit and put her hand in it. “Yeah… this one should do.”
Mikey watched her curious still. “What are you gonna do?”
The rabbit girl grinned then stepped a few feet back.. and ran. She ran right into the bush! There was an odd sound like the rustle of leaves and a gentle gust of wind and then.. poof.
Mikey blinked. “A-Alice?!” did she hurt herself? The harpy quickly looked inside the bush brushing the leaves aside with her wings but all she found were twigs and insects nothing of which looked disturbed by a tumbling rabbit girl. “Alice!” The harpy called out. Where did she go?
“Over here!” A voice called out behind her.
Mikey turned around her feathers raised in surprise. “What? Huh?” Alice had just appeared in another bush! The harpy looked stunned as she ran towards her fluttering her wings.“H-how?” Magic? This was.. magic? Real magic?!
The rabbit girl giggled. “I dunno. I just go into a bush and somehow end up in another bush. What do you think?” The rabbit girl smiled her rabbit ears waving with glee.
“I think you have magic Alice,” Mikey replied in awe. The teacher just does stuff with lights but you’re moving from one place to another. That’s.. that’s just- crazy!” The very idea of it- that it was even possible for someone to do completely destroyed Mikey’s world and sense of it.
Alice blushed at that. “Well- try not to be to impressed. I can’t go very far,” She pointed from one bush to the other. “Speed seems to be the trick. The faster I go into a bush, the further I am able to travel.”
“It’s really neat!” Mikey admitted. “You could do all kinds of stuff. How far can you go?”
Alice shrugged. “Well, if I walk into bush I sort of end up in one next to it. I can’t seem to go too far. I haven’t been able to go further then this park.” She looked at Mikey with a gleem in her eye. “That’s why I wanted you here though! I was thinking… you want to try jumping with me? I never took anyone before, and I really wanted to try with you.”
Mikey felt herself gulp. Could she really be part of this magic? “Uh… yeah I’d to see it. Is it safe though?”
“Perfectly safe!” The rabbit girl took mikey by the wing. “Okay, I think if you just hold onto me, we should end up back in the other side of the park. We just need tun run into the bush. Get ready.”
The harpy was lead back a few feet as they began their run. Mikey glanced back. “Um… how do I hold onto you if I don’t have hands?”
“Oh...” Alice bit her lip. She had not thought of that. “Ah- I know. I’ll piggy back you.” She smiled.
“W-What?”
“Just jump on my back you silly girl,” She rolled her eyes. “Come on, and hold tight.”
Mikey was a bit smaller then Alice, though not by much. She tried to hold onto her wrapping her wings around her waist. She felt really.. weird holding onto the rabbit girl like this. They were both girls though right?“Okay- I’m ready.”
Alice clutched Mikey’s scaly bird-like legs. “Okay! here we go!” started to run towards the bush with Mikey running along side her. However for some reason it didn’t work and they both ended up hit by the leaves and twigs. “Ow!” the rabbit girl winced.
Mikey blinked and rubbed her sore body with her wings. “Ow...” She groaned. “It didn’t work...” She had bits of twigs all over her body.
The Rabbit-girl didn’t want to give up. “Yeah, It didn’t work because we were not fast enough.” Maybe she had to go even faster when carrying another? She glanced to the harpy in thought. “Mikey… you can fly right?” Once again that excited look and twitches of her animated ears was starting to appear.
“Uh… I dunno...” She said looking at her wings.
“Well- here’s my idea. Take me in your talons, and we fly into the bush!” She pointed up to the sky dramatically. “We’ll easily get enough speed that way.” Alice looked very excited.
“I don’t think I’m strong enough to carry you.” Mikey frowned.
“Well just give it a go, please?” Alice hoped so much that the bird-girls ability to fly could push her to teleporting further.
Mikey looked at her wings and the bush. “Fine- I dunno though. My talons can hurt you.” she looked worried at them. She could hold a pencil right but.. a person? She started to flap her wings, feeling the need to get a running start.
The sudden sensation of the grass leaving her talons filled her with shock and surprise. “Ahhh!” she yelped- or chirped or- whatever it was a harpy did. She turned slightly and stumbled back on the ground. “I- I flew- I flew!” She was weak in the knees. The flight only lasted a few seconds but it was such an incredible feeling.
Alice ran after the harpy grinning. “See? You can fly! You just need the practice.. maybe once you have it, you can grab me?”
Mikey was still not sure about Alice’s plan. Sure flying solo seemed possible but taking another with her was just asking for trouble. The rabbit-girl seemed insistent and.. maybe Mikey -should- try to use her wings more right? If she was stuck with them..
What followed were a mix of test flights. Mikey wasn’t very good at long distance yet and sustaining flight seemed beyond her. Still she could just about work out how to glide downward in a control fall. She had the idea of trying to hold Alice in her talons by standing on a tree branch while the rabbit girl held onto her legs. Mikey nearly fell at the sudden weight and grabbed her with her talons. At that point she felt.. secure. More then secure. Mikey looked down and seemed very surprised at something. “You don’t feel like you weigh much at all,” she admitted.
“Really?” Alice looked up smiling.
“Yeah..” Mikey flew downward- just a few feet from the ground with Alice holding onto her. It was a fairly control flight.. a lot better then the young harpy girl imagined it would be. “That’s really weird… it’s like you stopped weighing anything when I grabbed you with my talons...”
Alice didn’t know what to make of that. “Maybe that’s your trick?” She asked. “That’s even better! This is totally going to work! Look- don’t worry about the flight. All we have to do is fall into a bush with you holding me. My trick should work then.”
Mikey looked quite scared at that. “Uh- isn’t that really really dangerous? If your trick doesn’t work then… we’re gonna get hurt.”
“Hm..” Alice gave it some further thought.
“What are they doing there?” A young boy was watching the two.. strange girls. He had seen it with his own eyes. They were playing and he guessed they were just doing weird stuff- but they actually seemed to be doing some kind of magic trick? He was looking with a set of toy binoculars though it didn’t give him that much magnification.
He had seen the rabbit girl jump into one bush and come out another, and shared in the gasp of surprise at it.
“Freaky girls,” he thought quietly.
Jon had taken Biff to the bowling ally. The sounds of pins falling and music seemed to sooth the sphinx woman. Jon looked at her in concern. “So.. how’s the wing?” he asked.
Biff glanced to her bandaged wing. “It’s not too bad. I should be back to normal in a few days.” she gave a brief smile.
Of course as Biff approached her favourite place to sit, people noticed her. She glanced back at them, her cat-ears going backwards slightly. Immediately people around the shop started making hurried excuses to leave.
Biff glanced around again again trying not to.. think about it. “Well- at least the line is shorter,” She said.
“Heh… yeah,” Jon gave an uncomfortable chuckle. This was.. weird. Here he was hanging out with Biff… finding her… interesting? She had such a lovely body… why didn’t others see that?
“Earth to Jon,” Biff growled.
“Huh? Oh- yeah.” He went to the counter. “What will you have Biff?”
“A burger and a coke please,” she said feeling angry as she placed her front paws onto the counter.
The man behind the counter stared down at the lion-woman. “W-Will that be extra large?”
“… sure. Why not? he’s paying,” Biff smirked a bit to Jon. “Oh yeah- and ice cream.”
Jon quickly placed a few dollars. “Here yeah- extra large meal, regular for me with ice cream” With the order of food he started to go back to the table and chairs. Most of the people had left the restaurant, not wanting to be anywhere near Biff.
“Weird,” Jon thought.
“What.. it’s quite normal. People see a lion, they run a mile.” She grumbled. “I would run if I were me too.”
Jon shook his head. “You’re not just a lion. You’re a sphinx! You’re.. human.” Jon tried his best to tell her then remembered what that sort of thing did to Mikey. “I mean- okay you’re not a human physically but.. you’re human in your head, not an animal.”
Biff stared at Jon. The weird feeling again.. she felt.. somehow.. odd. “I saw a normal human once twist the arms of a girl for just getting ‘in the way’” Biff coldly reminded herself of that.. incident. “Do you have any idea how dangerous humans are to each other? How dangerous I was as a human?” She glanced down at her changed body. “I was a top athlete. I was strong.. yeah I was an ass hole too. Sorry about that,” Biff quickly added. “I’ve always been pretty good at judging how strong someone is. It’s how I was captain of the football team and all,” she sighed again.
“You could still be a manager maybe,” Jon said. “It’s not like you’re diseased.”
“I lost my legs, my hands, my dignity. Don’t take my words as fishing for pity Jon, you know it’s not like that.” She growled again. “Where is that freakin’ ice cream!”
Jon glanced back in alarm and was glad to see their food finally making it’s way to them. He nodded his thanks and started to eat his meal. “You .. want me to open the container for you?”
Biff stared at her meal. It was making her salivate. “.. yes please.” She said softly.
Jon helped Biff with the meal, though once it was all opened Biff simply dig into it using her mouth. “Not going to.. use your paws?”
Biff shook her head. “I use them for walking.. I’m not really keen on doing that until I clean them up- and no I’m not going to lick my paws to clean myself!”
Jon blinked as he watched Biff. He had eaten up the burger rather quickly and was moving onto the ice cream. The sphinx was eating that rather slowly, though very messily. “You er.. got some ice-cream on your cheek,” he observed.
“What?” Biff tried to paw it off her.
“Um.. still there,” he blushed getting a tissue out. “Shall I-”
“Fine!” Biff growled. It was annoying her.
Jon proceeded to wipe the ice cream off the Sphinx-girl’s face.
Biff watched Jon again as that weird feeling came on her. Her heart was beating faster. Jon seemed… pretty good looking? She.. she was feeling a weird sensation crawling down her body. It felt like ants were running all around her stomach. ‘what’s wrong with me!’ she thought angrily again. ‘I can’t be attracted to guys!’
… but now that she thought about it.. and she thought of Sarah… she realised she didn’t get this.. this feeling from her girlfriend- even that word.. a girlfriend just felt like it didn’t.. fit. Did the mist really take away her feelings? How could it do that! Why! Her body was.. clearly responding heterosexually which was in complete conflict to her mind! She rubbed her head as she glanced to a butterfly that seemed to pass between them...
“I think I got it all- huh?” Jon gasped. Biff’s eyes were… glowing. The cat’s eyes were staring right at him!
Biff stammered at what she was seeing when she looked at Jon. Suddenly she lashed out and smacked Jon. “How dare you!” she growled.
“W-What!” Jon looked scared out of his wits. Did Biff Somehow learn about the stone?! Did she know it was him? She must have gained some weird sphinx power. “I- I’m sorry I didn’t mean it I-”
“YOU KISSED ME!” Biff threw the table. “What makes you think you can kiss me like that!”
Now it was Jon’s turn to look confused. “What? No- I didn’t kiss you!” The teenage boy insisted. “What makes you think I did?!”
Biff.. recalled that vision. It was so real. He kissed her.. actually kissed her lips! He could still feel those lips. What the heck! “I’m out of here- Screw you Jon!”
Jon looked at the sphinx girl… her tail waving behind her and still as.. attractive as ever.
Andrew was still watching the two girls in the park. It was weird watching them as they tried going into a bush like it was a door to some other place. He had managed to get to one of the other bushes.. one that the rabbit girl had jumped out of. He expected to find some kind of a tunnel or something. He started to dig down a bit, but there was nothing but dirt. “How does that rabbit-girl do it?” It made no sense… he knew what he saw.
She had jumped into one of these shrubs and was magically moving to another. There had to be some kind of.. trick to it.
What he really needed to do was follow her into it, to see how the trick was done. Though he wasn’t sure if they would just.. let him. He was a human after all and these were freaky girls! How close could he get...
“All ready for the test flight?” The rabbit girl smiled. “I know you can do it Mikey.”
“I’m still not sure about this,” The harpy girl said quickly. “Sure you don’t seem to weight that much when I hold you… but I can’t really fly that well.”
“You just need to glide downward at an angle.. we’ll go down this hill.. and hit this shrub. If I sense it isn’t gonna work, you just need to pull up a little bit..”
“How close do we have to be until you know it works?”
Alice smiled. “I’ll know. I see this sort of light just before it happens.. and I know I can see the other side. How fast do you think you can fly?”
“I guess.. maybe I can go twice as fast as you running into it,” she thought looking at her wings.
Alice nodded. “Okay well.. I think we got everything ready.”
They started to climb up the hill. The idea was to go down a very simple line and hit the bushes at the bottom of the hill with her being taken by Mikey. Their combined abilities should let them jump to another bush… hopefully one further away then just the park.
Andrew was watching them walk up the hill. Now was his chance. “It looks like they are about to do their trick...” He had to get to that bush and see how it was done! He hung low, crawling through the trees so as not to be seen. Fortunately they were not even looking at him yet. The bush itself looked pretty ordinary if rather large. Big enough for all of them. He just had to see how it was done! There must be something… a tunnel, or lever… something that made them go somewhere else.
He had spent a good five minutes searching when he heard a strange.. whistling sound in the wind. Curiously he peeked through the shrub.
“Oh crap they are coming this- way?!” Crap! They were coming in really fast!
It’s going to to work!” Alice declared as she felt the strange sensation. “keep going!”
Mikey looked a bit terrified but she trusted Alice. “Huh? Alice? Someone’s there!” It was now too late though for her to stop. She couldn’t pull up or do anything with her wings as she barely understood how to lift herself.
A giant spark of light suddenly engulfed the bush and the three kids disappeared…
Alice groaned as she woke up. That was.. not like a normal jump. Something weird had happened. It was like for a moment everything was moving in a circle. “Huh? Mikey?” She called out. Her rabbit ears twitched.
The harpy was next to her. They were on a grassy field. “Yeah I’m here...” She said. “Looks like someone else is here too..” she gestured to the other boy.
The rabbit girl studied the unconscious boy. “That idiot. He was inside the bush!” She glanced around. “Hold on a second.. this isn’t the park...” The field of green grass extended for what looked to be miles. There was nobody around.. just a single tree- a very large tree that looked impossible to behold entirely.
Andrew opened his eyes. “Urgh… ow my head..” he winced. “Huh? Where am I?” He gasped. “Oh crap! Where are we!”
“We’re… not exactly sure,” Alice frowned. “Who are you?”
“I’m.. Andrew,” he said as he got up. He was a young boy with brown hair. A simple face really, staring out the world with deep brown eyes to match. His clothes were a set of shorts and T-shirt. “I saw you doing your magic trick. I wanted to know how you did it!”
“You could have just come up and asked!” Alice rolled her eyes. “Boys...”
Mikey glanced up at something- something that made her heard skip a beat. “Look..”
There was a flock.. a flock of.. harpies? They seemed to be ignoring the trio though as they went off into the horizon and towards the sun. Or at least ‘one’ of the suns. There were two suns in the sky! One looked normal and Earth-like while the other seemed to radiate a curious green in colour.
“No way...” Andrew gasped. “Are..you two really aliens?!”
Mikey whacked her wing against Andrew’s face which made the boy wince. “We\re not aliens! We’re on an alien world though!” Mikey felt scared as she realised that. “A-Alice.. did your trick bring us here.. you could bring us back right?” those harpies.. what else could be here? What if.. monsters were here- or- were -those- the monsters?!
“Uh.. yeah.. of course...” She rubbed her hands a bit. “I.. um.. I just need to find the right bush and..we do the same thing as before… and that should do it.” she guessed it would be that simple. “So you boy should go in that bush, and we fly into it.”
Mikey frowned. “I can’t though! We did that last one by gliding into it. I can’t glide down from here!” She looked down the hill and couldn’t find anything close to it.
“What about the one we came in?”
“What the heck are you talking about tricks for!” Andrew cried out. “We’re on an alien world about to be eaten by alien parasites!” he screamed.
“Shut up!” Alice shouted. “Look we did get here, we can find a way back. I’m sorry I didn’t expect it to send us to an alien world. For all we know you were the cause of it Andrew!”
Andrew started to take a few breaths. Calm down.. just calm down. “So.. it’s like a Back to the Future thing?” Andrew asked wildly. “You need to go fast enough to generate a wormhole to bring us back home?”
“Sure. Let’s go with that,” Alice nodded. “Let’s just try to find something.. or someone.”
Mikey nodded. This was.. going to be difficult...
“AAAH” Andrew winced. “Something’s got my leg!”
Alice and Mikey turned to see it and.. couldn’t quite believe what they were seeing. Andrews legs seemed to have fused together at the hips. His shorts, had also fused at the legs turning into one single opening that resembled a dress more then anything else. The boy stumbled forward in shock and surprise. “HELP!” he screamed.
Mikey watched a bit horrified. “It’s okay- I think you’re changing.”
“Changing?! No make it stop!”
Andrew’s legs continued to fuse. A single fusing of flesh as the skin began to turn all green and scaled. He turned on his back helplessly, trying to ‘move’ his legs causing this strange mass to wiggle and move.
The green started to extend.. it pushed outward growing faster and faster until it was fifteen feet past the boy’s body! It was clearly some kind of snake tail- a very very long snake tail at that.
Andrew groaned as he felt something happen to his teeth. Fangs? It felt.. like his teeth were protruding out slightly. Then came the change of his hair as it became a dark green, with slightly pointed ears peeking out. His eyes also turned green, much like when his hair and eyes matched.. so to did they now.
Andrew was taking deep breaths as something.. happened. He felt- something happen down.. between his legs. “No- Oh No.. AAH!” -she- gasped as her voice turned lighter. She felt odd as there were now these.. slight swellings on her chest. She was older then Mikey at about twelve years of age and.. this whole state was now completely different to her.
Alice whistled. “Wow.. you’re kinda pretty,” she giggled. “That’s an anaconda snake tail. I used to have one as a pet. They grow really long...”
Andrew looked to be in a state of shock. This tail was.. hers?! It coiled far away and she could feel -everything- under it! “Get it off me get it off me!!!” She thrashed her tail madly. “No whatsss !” She even seemed to have a slight lisp now. “Thissss sssuccks!” She groaned.
“Maybe you’ll turn back to normal when we get back?” Mikey said sympathetically.
Alice nodded. “I hope so...”
