Nightmare: Raising Part 2

I wondered what his life was like when he came into this world, so I looked even farther back at this man's past to develop his character. There I did see another Redzilla. This one was much older. It had wandered most of the land going from food source to food source. It had once had a set of mighty antlers growing from its head. For many years it had been someone's pet, but now its horns were broken and fur bloody. Several boys stood over it with wooden swords.

It's companion had been caught in a landslide and it went to find help, but instead it found them. They hit it. They kicked it. They ripped out its claws one by one. They had done this so many times to different animals that they had become skilled at keeping them alive for longer and longer. Next would be the animal's teeth, so they can make a new necklace to add to their collection hidden in a 'treasure box' they kept in their secret fort.

"Look at me," the biggest boy said. He had short red hair and held his sword high above his head. Having just reached age, he might have been handsome if his face wasn't twisted with gleeful bloodlust for the helpless animal below him. "I'm going to slay a monster and become a knight."

The boys paid no attention to the collar around its neck. The bloody scrap of cloth it had taken from its companion had been trampled in the dirt. It's legs were broken and its eyes looked up at me with fading light. "Please," it begged in an animal's whine, "please help me."

"I'm sorry, I..." I wanted to, I really did, but I was just a little frog looking at a twisted fantasy in my head. That's when I felt it. Like a void opening inside it trying to suck me in. The boys didn't notice, but even the grass bent with the non-existant wind. "I can't..."

I felt like this could be the moment. The moment I really could help. But I wasn't one to hand out boons without cost. I knew deep down if I did give this soul to it than this little froggy would die. A poetic trade perhaps? But not one that I wanted to make. Its soul vessel had formed and was now a gaping maw trying to pull me in.

"Please give me the power--" It whimpered.

Something brushed past me. It wrapped around the animal and swept me into its mass of fur like claws pulling me close. The feeling of its breath in my mind was so strong I almost woke up. The skin on my back pin-prickled as if a rough tongue had licked it. It wasn't a lick of love, but more like malicious curiosity to see if this thing was worth eating before taking a bite. My body shivered, too scared to move. I had gone to sleep in the thick warm mud of Aunty Spider's cave, right? Nothing could be there because this was just a dream.

The being turned away satisfied and reached into the void. When it pulled itself out once more something new had filled the animal. A soul from another world. I could briefly peer past the soul's light and into that world. It was a world where electricity hummed everywhere and vehicles drove themselves. It wasn't too unlike my own, but enough to tell that their technology was higher.

The animal's eyes snapped open with new awareness. It stared into mine for a moment and then caught the movement of the boy's sword. As the sword swung down, it jumped up, lunging forward at the boy's neck. The boy's eyes widened at the sight but his action was already in motion. The animal slipped under the wood blade and its jaws snapped down on his throat. With a twist of its body it ripped the boy's throat out and they both landed on the ground with a THUMPHK.

The other boys stared at it for a moment and then screamed. Their leader, the self-proclaimed future hero of the village, was as good as dead. They ran off back toward the town.

As for the animal (Ranger now, I guess?), it continued to rip at the boy's neck and head in a fury of blood as its body began to shift. It's back legs lost their hair as the feet shortened into bare toes and the calves and thighs lengthened. His torso filled out, hunched over the boy's body, while his arms lengthened to stabilize him with dexterous hands in place of paws. Finally, his muzzle shortened into a human face smeared with bits of flesh. It was the boy's face, covered in his own blood.

Ranger slurped up one of the boy's brown eyes before sitting back and looking at himself. His body was fully healed and he was now identical to the boy except for a few details. His eyes were such a light brown that they were closer to the animal's sparkling orange. His hair was fluffier and unkempt with the black tips of two fuzzy ears sticking out of its deeper red. Following down the line of his bare spine a patch of fur began to thicken near his tailbone. Instead of ending at the top of his smooth buttocks, it continued on into a fluffy red tail with black tip. His legs and feet were normal, for a human, but his nails seemed a bit longer and sharper. Another spot of fur trailed down from his belly button, widening to his hip bone, and then formed into the furry buldge hanging between his legs...

A wave of heat swelled up in my body. I couldn't speak for how far the boy had grown into a man, but the animal's former form had filled out the space dangling between his legs appropriately.

Ranger seemed to come to his senses and began hastily stripping the boy and putting on his clothes. The clothes were decent enough with only a few holes. They included a basic tunic, trousers, and okay pair of boots. The belt held an empty sheath, a dagger, and a pouch with a few coins in it.

After adjusting the clothes with his tail tucked down one leg, Ranger looked down the path the other boys had disappeared down. There were no sounds coming back yet, but it was only a matter of time. He wouldn't be able to go back to that village any time soon. He then looked to the sky as if looking for something before giving up. Finally, he headed deeper into the woods to an overgrown path before breaking out into a run at full speed.

A few hours later, he had made it to a small, forgotten mountain pass. Under the thinning foliage, some of the rocks showed the ware of ruts cut into the ground by the traffic of small carriages. However, a large area disappeared under fresh rock and mud. The landslide wasn't as big as some of the ones I heard of on the news, but at the edge laid the still form of a person. Only their upper chest, head, and one arm stuck out of the rocks. The other arm was mostly buried, but there was something wrong with the angle at which it disappeared into the land.

Ranger sighed and kneelt to the ground. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you. May your next life be one of peace."

His face was solemn as he moved the rocks and dug in the mud. It was easier pulling a body out when they were dead. He didn't have to worry about hurting them or breaking them further. Every once in a while he would glance up looking for something, but never seem to find it. With new strength, Ranger pulled and dug some more until the mangled body was finally out.

The clothes the man had been wearing were muddy and torn, but the large pack on his back was intact. Ranger had the memories of the animal before him. The man had saved him, pushing him out of the worst of the slide as they fell down. He had spoken of a hope that they would both make it to 100 and took good care of him to see that day come, but that wasn't going to happen now.

Ranger took the pack and everything valuable from the body, then buried it with a pile of rocks as a marker. He even took the shoes. Even though they were too big for him right now, they were in good condition and he would most likely grow. His world had been full of cheaply made knockoffs compared to the sturdy leather of the hiking boots, so they might even be more valuable than he knew in this world. He wouldn't have the comforts of his world unless he found a way to make them, so he had to take care of whatever he got. Or maybe that was the animal and its caretaker speaking.

"A new world where the wild is still green," he said to himself looking at the road ahead with a smile. "It won't be easy traveling alone in a country that doesn't favor beastmen, but I'll show them what a modern age can do and they'll be begging for my knowledge."

The human in me thought that how he got his human form by killing its owner was grewsome, but the humane part of me sympathized with the many animals that human had viciously killed and the many more that were spared that torture with his death. At least the boy's death was swift.

Yet, how did Ranger get that human form? Was it something special with his species? Did they take the form of the humans they kill? Were there other ways to gain human form?

Yawn. I'll work it out later. On to something different now.