The Puppy

As usual, Marcus's expectations were proven false.

Despite all the astonishment and horror of having laid and egg, he was simply too tired to stay awake for long, and he fell asleep as soon as he crawled back into his improvised bed.

He didn't touch the egg, leaving it where it was. First, he didn't even want to acknowledge that it existed, since it brought a lot of uncomfortable facts about his body in his mind.

Second, even if it hatched, he didn't have the means to take care of... whatever was inside the egg. It wasn't like he was abandoning a baby, after all, it wasn't even born, and it was clearly not humanoid.

And third, he was too tired and shocked to give a shit about anything, so he simply tried to sleep it off and forget it.

But even his sleep was troubled. He had a weird, feeble dream... a dream where he felt somehow warm, suspended in some gelatinous substance. The feeling became clearer and clearer, until he started moving in that dream, trying to free himself from that substance.

Wiggling and clawing he finally managed to free himself, landing on the cold, hard ground. The first thing he did was taking a long breath, taking the air in his lungs for the first time. The air was full of smells so intense they almost hurt. Then he opened his eyes, looking around. He was still in the forest, but somehow everything looked bigger. It was night, but his eyes could see perfectly even in complete darkness. He also felt very hungry.

He started moving towards the field on all four (or were they six?), attracted to the smell of the fruits, but then he stopped. It was very hard to focus his thoughts, but he remembered that those plants were dangerous. He then headed for the remains of the boar.

They were still there, a mountain of raw meat already half devoured, but what was remaining was more than enough for him. With a ravenous hunger, he threw himself on the dead beast, biting off pieces of bloody meat...

Marcus woke up, opening his eyes and rising from the leaf covered hole that was his bed.

He stretched his arms and yawned, looking around. It was early in the morning and the sun had yet to rise from the hills but the sky was already bright, a few stars remaining visible in it.

Still half asleep, Marcus rose on on his feet, thinking that he was hungry.

"Well, the boar is still there... I'm eating it right now, after all!" he muttered "I think I'll go there and eat it by myself too!"

His sleepy mind didn't register the weirdness of what he had said for a few seconds, but then it hit him.

"What!?!" he said, confused "What is this? I am here, how could I be there eating the boar if I'm right here!?! But I'm there too..."

He stopped moving. Something really weird was happening.

Even though he was standing near his "bed", he was also next to the boar, still munching it. It was like he was in two places at the same time.

"What the hell!?!" he cried, and he ran towards the dead animal to see what was the source of this weird double vision he was having.

In few seconds he arrived there, and what he saw left him paralyzed with astonishment.

There was a creature eating the boar, a small animal with six limbs that vaguely resembled a dog, but that had reptilian/insectoid features, and a chitin armor that covered its back.

It was similar to the creature he had imagined, only much smaller (it was barely 30 centimeters long) and somewhat more insectoid: it was the creature that had been inside the egg.

But the strangest thing was that Marcus somehow "was" that creature. He could see through his eyes, experience what he was feeling... it was like their mind were linked.

No.

It was like their mind there one and the same.

"S-stop eating and watch me..." he tried to say, but the creature immediately turned around as soon as he had the thought about giving it an order.

The two stared at each other, a weird thing since it was like looking at himself from two different bodies. Marcus tried to make some movements, and the creatures replicated them. He stepped to the right, lifted his head, jumped... and always the creature did the same things in sync with him.

Ok, now let's try it another way. He thought I'll move and you'll stay still!

He jumped, and the creatures remained perfectly still.

Perfect. Now you jump and I stay still!

The creature jumped, while he remained motionless.

"Ok, this is pretty fucking weird!" Marcus mumbled "I dunno if it's telepathy or some other bullshit, but it seems I can control this thing... but what is it? Will it become the animal I've imagined when it grows up? Will it still be controllable?"

There were too many questions in Marcus's mind, and his stomach was rumbling. So he simply sighed and approached the dead boar.

"Well, I will think about those things after breakfast!" he said in a resigned tone "I think better with a full belly!"

Between the two of them, Marcus and the "puppy" (since it looked kind of like one, he decided to call it so) soon devoured most of the remaining boar, and the man (but was he really a man anymore at this point?) packed the leftovers in some leaves. He also ripped the oversized tusks out of the beast's mouth, since he thought that he could make a pair of knives out of them.

He then left, heading for his cave.

He had given a thought about his destination, and he had decided to go towards the cave instead of proceeding to the tower.

After all, he thought while giving a look at the puppy, he had to process some things now before meeting people.

This time, Marcus decided not to cross the swamp since it was too dangerous, instead trying to go around it.

He walked at a brisk pace, the puppy scuttling behind him.

It was a weird thing, to experience the feeling having multiple bodies. Sometimes, his mind was lost in the feeling and he either tripped or stopped moving entirely.

This was mostly caused by the puppy's sense of smell: it was much more developed than that of Marcus's main body, and the forest was full of interesting, scary and appetizing odours.

The man... no, the main body shook her head. It was hard to focus like this. And in order to survive in this forest, he needed all the focus he could muster.

"Ok, the plan is to get back to the cave and don't leave it until I can make some sense out of this mess!" he said "But to get to the cave I need to concentrate, so don't distract me, you got me?" he looked at the puppy, then rolled his eyes "Well of course you get it, I'm in your head after all... this feels like talking to myself. But luckily I've been talking to myself since I came to this fucking world, so no big difference there..."

Anyway, the sharp senses of the puppy came in handy soon enough. Various times the small animal perceived the smell of dangerous creatures ahead, warning Marcus of their presence and making him avoid areas which he'd have otherwise walked through.

Thanks to this, the journey back to the cave was pretty uneventful, albeit quite long.

It was late in the afternoon when Marcus finally reached the hill were the cave was, leaving the swamp behind him.

During the day, he had gotten much better at coordinating his shared mind. He had discovered that he didn't need to constantly think about the puppy in order to control it, and that greatly improved his concentration. It was kinda like breathing: if you thought about it, you had to consciously control your breath, but normally you would breathe automatically.

So, when he finally got to his cave, he got the hang of it. The awkwardness of having the same mind in two bodies was gone, replaced by the still weird but much more manageable feeling of having an extra body part... like an extra limb or something.

Still, learning this process had been very tiring, and Marcus was exhausted. Luckily, the cave was exactly as he had left it, safe for the fire which had completely died out in his absence.

He could make another one the next day though, so he simply took some leaves and made another bed (the old one was completely overrun by insects), before laying in it, trying to get some rest.

Too bad the cave was as damp and cold as he remembered, maybe even more so, so he started trembling with cold.

Dammit! Maybe I should start a fire right now! He thought After all, it's not like I have a blanket or something else to keep me warm...

A sudden realization came to him. He looked at the puppy, which, following his desires, simply stood a few meters from him.

Come here.

Obeying to his desires, the puppy immediately came, and he took it between his arms, hugging it like a teddy bear.

The chitin of the animal was hard and cold, but the rest of its body radiated a pleasant warm.

Plus, it was nice to experience the feeling of hugging (and being hugged) some living being... Marcus suddenly realized how much he was missing the company of other people, the feeling of communicating and talking to someone else.

Somehow, hugging that weird creature that was part of him made him feel less alone.

"You need a name." he said, slowly falling to sleep "Puppy is too generic... I had a dog named Cooper once. I guess I could call you that."

The puppy didn't really react to that, but Marcus's ease and approval echoed in its mind.