Child Of Wolf

I woke up dazed. More accurately, I became aware that I could think. Feeling like I was half submerged in mud, I tried to think clearly.

Each thought stirred the thick medium around me and formed ripples. Small at first, they began to grow larger and larger till they gradually faded away. I worked my mind harder and concentrated.

Soon the muddy denseness diluted into a honey-like viscosity with my efforts.

Sluggishly and slowly, my thoughts began to form and take an undefined shape.

I could hear my heart beat in a rhythm. It was fast and loud; loudly proclaiming that I was alive.

I tried to open my eyes but they wouldn't see. I shifted around feeling with my face.

A comfortable, milky scent and a strong, heavy and slow heart beat nearby was my only direction. I clumsily followed it sniffing and nudging the soft and wet lumps that were on my sides.

Working on instinct, I reached the place where I could smell milk the strongest. I opened my mouth and pushed the large milky wall with my hands, slowly kneading out milk till I felt full.

My body felt sticky and stiff. Something rough began to stroke my back and neck, scraping off the grime and massaging my sore muscles. It was warm and made me feel sleepy again.

I wanted to hold and stop the rough thing that caressed me and doze off. Instead, I nuzzled closer to the milky warmth. Something tickled my nose and I sneezed a tiny sneeze.

Days passed bit by bit. I gained a little strength and my small eyes could see better.

The viscous honey began to feel like gel and my thoughts got clearer.

Despite my sluggish thoughts, one thing kept bothering me.

It was a nagging feeling continuously prodding my brain to think and remember. Like a needle or a splinter or the pecking of a woodpecker; it kept reminding me that something was wrong.

Then I remembered. The gel became water, crystal clear and pristine.

I remembered that I had tasted death. And that I shouldn't be here. And I was supposed to be human.

These strange hands I had had no thumb and definitely did not belong to a human.

As it sunk in, an excitement, an expectation for what was to come welled up inside me. For the first time since I opened my eyes, I began to try to understand myself and my surroundings.

Each observation made the excitement grow and grow till I began trembling. I was reborn. Not resurrected. Not reincarnated. Reborn. I didn't die. I was brought here.

Even though I was no longer human, I felt great. This was straight out of a fairytale. I felt that now I could forget my past full of dreary memories. I would miss being human though.

And then looking around, my joy burst out in floods when I saw it.

I had a tail. A tail!

Amazing.

Small and droopy, covered in fine fur, the little appendage made me so happy I almost passed out. I tried to give it a little wag . Very unused to the new process, my rump moved instead of it.

It took me a while to figure out how to move it. After all, I doubt a human would know how to move their spine. It felt strange to have your back go further than your butt.

Wagging an extension of your spine definitely would feel strange.

Swish to the left. Swish to the right.

Raise it. Lower it.

Swish, swish, swish!

Just like that, I happily kept wagging it all through the day.

Even suddenly finding out that I somehow ended up in another young and frail body did not take my attention away from the excitement of discovering that I had unbelievably and ridiculously sprouted a tail.