Chapter 1
The sensation of chilly air crawling its way into my stuffy nostrils. A cool rush filling my dry lungs and the heaving of my chest as it expanded to accommodate the next haggard breath. Soon after came the feeling of a still atmosphere, pressing down on me like a heavy blanket as the dark oblivion behind my sealed eyes flickered, transforming from the endless weariness of sleep to the conscious recognition of the colour black. The rough touch of felt against my cheek, followed by the sensation of the same material extending down my left side. Sporadic thoughts jump started my brain and everything reignited into some semblance of awareness. The cold gripped me, the scent of smoke greeted my nostrils and the tip-tap of rain against metal filled my ears as if amplified through a megaphone. The incessant din did little to help the thundering beat that thrummed inside my skull. In fact, my whole body felt like it had been through a blender, squashed back together and then stretched like hot toffee. My aching limbs twisted awkwardly, as if they were not my own, my senses stung at every twitch, until finally, I felt the sensation of wrinkling flesh beyond my closed eyes. My brain felt like it had been re-wired to work it all out, control something inhuman, and I knew in an instant, it wasn't natural. My face felt elongated, as did the rest of my body. My shoulders felt as though they'd been broken and shoved upwards, my arms even more so, bending in unnatural directions, as did my legs. There was no sensation in my fingers, my spine felt as if it had been stretched and as the thundering rain continued to ring in my ears, I could have sworn they fidgeted like restless insect wings. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to leap up and scream, knowing I should be in agony, and yet the pain was all in my head. Unless I'd been rendered paralyzed by whatever had mangled me beyond recognition. I considered myself lucky to only be suffering from such simple aches and pains. The only serious discomfort I felt came from the bridge of my nose, between my eyes, the pain there was searing, like I'd been slashed or stabbed, not to mention it was hot and wet too, as if sealed under soggy bandages. The first thing I voluntarily moved was my tongue, feeling around my elongated mouth like a probe exploring a desolate new planet. The back of my throat was dry, and a slight taste of copper filled my senses. Before I could fear the worst, my tongue made a more alarming discovery. Memories were hazy and the more I tried to embrace them, the more they escaped me. Even so, I was sure I wasn't supposed have teeth like those my tongue gingerly tapped against. The large, sharp, almost sabre-like fangs were more akin to a dog, no, a lion's teeth! They were unlike anything I’d expect to find in my own mouth. This horrifying discovery was finally enough to shove my weary mind into action, and my eyes slowly parted. Not to leave me in silent contemplation, the pitter patter of the rain was suddenly interrupted by an almighty rumble. The earth shook as if walked upon by an angry giant, and thunder echoed around me. I'd never gone from half asleep to floundering like a fish out of water so quickly in my life. Which, considering I could only recall the past few seconds, wasn't really saying much. My twisted limbs fumbled and clattered against seats, and I bundled what I could only assume was a loose blanket into an awkward ball under me. I got brief glimpses of grey arms, legs, and snippets of dark-blue fur. A flash of lightning followed the thunder before I could make any sense of it all, and the world turned white for a painfully long moment before I felt my arms smack glass. I tried to grasp with fingers that weren’t there, my elbow rolling in odd ways until my hand slid down and caught on something. For a moment I thought I'd found my fingers as they instinctively grasped at the handle, but like every other feeling I was getting; I was sure fingers weren’t so hard or curved like sickles. They were like lemon wedges glued to the end of my arms, I awkwardly tried to pull them back until the handle caught and came loose. There was a clunk and a shudder before, in my floundering effort to sit upright, I slipped from whatever platform I lay upon and dripped out onto the cold, wet street. Something hard covered my head, like an ill-fitted hat, then what felt like a seat belt released and I thudded to the ground. Only then was I finally able to see where I was. The car was blue, its rear door, wide open, exposing its grey interior to the rain’s onslaught. I had no idea how long I lay on the floor while the deluge roared around me, until I jumped up like a frightened kitten at the next thunderous boom. Instinctively I sat upright, mind set on moving arms and legs in the way I expected. They failed to do so, and I fell forward, shutting my eyes as the flash of blue metal came towards me. My face struck the side of the vehicle, the tip of my nose blossomed with pain, the searing wound cut into its bridge flared as the whole thing wrinkled like a snout. I sat there, trying to control my breathing, the chill made me shiver, while the rain coated me in a swarm of shimmering beads. When I finally opened my eyes, I blinked, staring at my reflection, before shutting them again. Those eyes, that's not how eyes look, not normal eyes anyway! Some clarity came to me along with a voice I could only assume was my own internal muttering. Look again, you must be dreaming. I looked again and there they were, cyan spheres, unlike anything I expected, staring back at me from my faded reflection. Glowing like neon lights, sharp, cat-like pupils ran vertically from top to bottom, expanding into circles as light hit them. I blinked again, so did they, narrowing to slits before blooming like a spring flower. I glanced down to what lay beneath them, a squat muzzle coated in thin grey fur spanned between me and the car's side. Wrinkled like a snarling dog and painful under what I now made out to be a dirty, white bandage. A pair of nostrils either side of its end flared, snorting like a galloping horse as I realised how hard it was to breathe with my face pressed against metal. Dumbstruck, I fell back, but it wasn't my legs that caught me, it was my rear, hitting the asphalt as I continued to stare at the distorted reflection. What peered back was larger than the biggest dog I could recall, like nothing I'd ever seen, it was a quadrupedal beast covered in rough grey fur, like a leopard or tiger. Each one of its limbs ended in claws, more like a reptile’s or mythical dragon. Behind it, a long, grey, fur coated tail, like that of a lizard was tipped with a dark blue tuft. A mane of blue fur extended up the length of its back, along with bony spines. Passing between two large, slightly protruding shoulder blades, to an equine-looking neck. The head was like nothing I'd ever seen, two crooked horns stuck out from under the bushy mane at the rear of the skull, as if it was some weird prehistoric museum exhibit. Either side of the smooth, light-blue protrusions were a pair of ears, long and standing tall like that of a donkey or rabbit. Positioned at the front of the head, were those large, cyan eyes, and under those, the same short muzzle I'd seen pressed against the car door. Oddest of all, was the bandage wrapped over the ridge of its muzzle, and the rugged, slightly torn black coat, clinging awkwardly to its unnatural body. I blinked again and so did the reflection, my breath, a cold vapour in the chilly air, matching the mirror image. I swallowed, feeling the long, alien like tongue snake between my newly enlarged teeth and I saw the ball of dread roll down my blurred reflection's throat. It occurred to me then, that I had no idea, who, where, why or how I was here. Most terrifying of all was the fact that, off all the things I could recall it was that I was a person, not a monster. I realised that at the same moment it finally hit me like a freight train. The creature looking back at me really was me, and it was about the most inhuman thing I'd ever seen! I did about the only reasonable thing any sensible, decent human being should do upon finding themselves in the body of a twisted animal. I screamed, scampering back across the wet asphalt, fearing my reflection would suddenly jump out of the shimmering surface to attack me. I didn't stop until my tail caught under me, and I was sent tumbling backward, thudding shoulders first into a concrete pillar. I stared at my reflection in the door of the now clearly abandoned vehicle sitting amidst countless others. Further away, panting heavily with its back pressed to an identical pillar supporting the elevated freeway, the doppelgänger was still looking at me, blinking as I did, pressing a clawed forelimb to its fuzzy chest as I did. W-what is this, what's happened to me? Words spun in my mind as my eyes dropped to the road, only for me to catch another, much cleaner, glimpse of myself in the water. I'm a monster! This time panic had me jumping to my feet... Or paws. And for the first time I stood on four legs. They immediately buckled under me like they were made of spaghetti, swaying in awkward directions. I took in several deep breaths, my larger nostrils filling my lungs like bellows as the chill in the air bit like swarming ants. The creature peered back at me like a haunting spectre, my reflection glanced up and my eyes darted around. I felt like a deer exposed in headlights, a newfound instinct like a timid woodland animal beating with every twitch of my racing heart.
