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Life's Little Changes

By: Goliath Wildcat

Chapter 1

'My entire body hurts, why?' I think as consciousness returns. Slowly I open my eyes and see a stone ceiling above and feel a cold stone floor under me. 'Wait a minute, what am I doing inside, the last I checked my party was traveling through a forest headed toward the promise of adventure and reward in the town of Grimain.' I try to sit up, but I am too weak, and when I try to call out I can't seem to get the words past my lips which feel too thick and large to be mine. Only a low moan that almost sounds like a growl comes past my lips. 'What is going on here?'

Something to my left squeaks and I roll my head to look in that direction. A door is slowly swinging open and a small halfling enters with a large plate of food. He looks frightened, weird for one of his race. They really don't fear anything, especially not a mere human. He comes over and holds the plate in front of me so I can see and smell the large amount of food piled on it. "I have brought you your dinner," he stammers in a high-pitched voice. "Master said you would still be too weak to move and that I was to feed you all that he told me to bring."

I close my eyes and barely nod my head. After all, maybe some food would give me the strength to move again. He grabs some food and even though I can't see the food with my eyes closed I can feel him placing it at my lips and I slowly open them to accept the food. I don't worry about what I am eating, don't even look at it. Doesn't matter what it is if I am going to get out of here, I am going to need to get my strength up. Seems most of the food he is feeding me though is prime cut meat, wonder why. He keeps feeding me more than I have ever eaten before, but I don't feel full when he stops and slowly leaves with the now empty plate. I only feel pleasantly full, strange.

As I watch him leave I feel the effort it took to eat catch up to me, and I slowly fall back to sleep as I lie there wondering where I am. The last conscious thought is what had happened to my nose, I could see part of it in my field of vision, and the tip of it was black.

* * *

I am wakened by the sounds of metal clanging against metal and the thuds of impacts against flesh filters through the door that separates me, 'There's fighting in the hall outside my room. What is going on out there in the hall?'

With a crash I find out as an armored guard is thrown through the door, ripping it from its hinges to land on the floor in front of me. A familiar form follows the flying body. A big human looks in and sees me. "Only a big Wemic in here Elain," he yells out the door as he looks at me.

"Well then get back out here," a female voice answers from out in the hall, "we have to find out what they have done with Robert. I can feel his presence near here. He must be in one of the rooms in this hallway."

Elain, my party, I gather all the power I can and try to cry out to the human standing there as he turns away. "Jeff," I barely get it out loud enough for him to hear me over the sounds of battle outside. My mouth still feels funny and my voice doesn't sound right, kind of gravely like my throat is raw from coughing. At hearing his name being called he turns back to me and raises his sword, ready to defeat any foe who dares to move.

"Robert, you in here," he calls out taking a few small steps further into the room. His sword still at the ready.

"Yes," I manage to croak out as I lie there.

He stands there dumbfounded looking straight at me. Then he points his sword straight at me and in a quivering voice asks, "Robert is that you?"

I nod my head slightly, just enough for him to notice.

He takes a step backwards before he turns and runs out through the broken door. I can hear him shouting over the battle noise of the others fighting. Why did he leave like that, that big human could have easily picked me up and carried me out of here to safety? After a few minutes all sounds of battle stop and I can hear a group of footsteps coming closer. Through the dust and smoke still filtering through the doorway I see four shapes materialize. A big muscular human with tan skin and dark hair, Jeff, a small halfling with the ever present grin and a red mob of unruly hair, Kelly, the thin form of an elf with her pale hair that hangs past her waist, Elain, and the half human half wolf form of a gray furred werewolf, Canos. They enter the room one by one and stand in a semi-circle, and all staring at me. I wish they would just pick me up and get me out of here. Away from this place and into some more friendly surroundings would be nice.

Elain and Jeff kneel next to me. Elain placing a hand on my head and softly mumbling a spell in a language that can only be heard then forgotten. In only a few seconds she removes the hand and stares at me with a look of horror again. "Dear gods, Robert, what has he done to you?"

I just look back at her with what I feel is a puzzled expression. She must understand my puzzlement, she and Jeff each grab an arm and sit me up with my back against the wall. That is when I see what they mean.

The body that I have grown used to over the last sixteen years is gone. I am looking out of, and over, the centauroid body of a Wemic. A Wemic has the lower body of a lion with the head of a lion on a humanoid torso totally covered in fur. They are seen on occasions, but not often in these parts, they have their own society with their own cities and laws. They are known to adventure for a few years when they are younger, sort of as a trial of passage, and those are the ones most people get to meet.

When my eyes focus on my new body I realize that if I had taken a better look before I would have seen the short muzzle of a Wmeic when the halfling fed me earlier, and known that it wasn't my black nose at the end of a tan muzzle. But that wasn't the biggest surprise when I could see back to where my rear legs were. Looking down there I expected to see the typical sign of a male hanging from between them at least, I instead saw nothing. Dropping my head to my chest and looking down I see that I am now endowed with a rather large pair of furry breasts too. I raise my muzzle to the ceiling and let out a long roar and promptly pass out from the shock as my friends cover their ears from the echo in the confined space. All I can think as I hit the ground is who would do such a thing to me, and why. It was all just a little too much for me to handle at one time.

* * *

Slowly I regain consciousness and remember what has happened to me. Slowly I open my eyes, hoping that it was all just a bad dream. I am sorely mistaken though if I think this is a dream.

Once more I see my new body laid out, but not on a floor this time, I am on a huge bed that surely could sleep four normal humans. My tail idly flicks its tip of its own accord as I lay there and examine my lower body. Feeling stronger than I have I find the energy to raise my upper torso and stretching my arms let out a large yawn. Looking around I am more comforted to see the insides of a cottage than the inside of the stone room I woke up in earlier. The sound of my movement and yawn must have attracted some attention because the door into the room is slowly opened and the head of Jeff slowly looks in. Seeing me awake he slowly enters with a tray of food and sets it in front of me.

"We thought you might be hungry when you woke," looking down at the small plate and then back to me, "there is more if you need it, but start with this Rob." He sits down on the floor in front of me and I slowly reach down towards the food to start eating.

He watches me for a few minutes before speaking up again. "I thought you might like to know how this has happened." At my nod he continues, "Seems there was an old wizard in this town. He ruled it with an iron fist and considered anything in what he called his lands, his property. That included us when we came through here on our way to Grimain. One night on watch we heard you yell a warning, and then you disappeared. We searched through the night and into the next morning. When we reached the town, we thought we had found out about your whereabouts when the innkeeper told us about screaming that had been heard from the wizards tower and the situation that the town was in."

"We went there peacefully at first to inquire if he had seen you. When he said he had you and that you were now his property for our trespassing through his lands we were less than pleased, and more than slightly shocked. He turned away from us as a dismissal and we decided it was time for a new ruler here. With one swing I took his head with Fellblade, stupid old farts that some of these magicians are, always forget they die just as easily as any other mortal man." At hearing this news it brings a grin to my face and he pauses for a moment before he continues, "Anyway, after he died we started a massive search for you. Elain used her powers to locate your general area in that tower, but she couldn't fine tune your location. Something about you was slightly out of phase with who you once were, seems she was right about that. Some of the guards actually tried to stop us, after we killed the first twenty though they decided to seek employment elsewhere."

"What about what that wizard did to me, has Elain found a way to reverse it yet," I ask as I finish the first plate of food and Jeff exchanges it with another, fuller plate.

I don't even need to hear him when I see the look on his face. "Sorry Rob, we can't change you back. That wizard was more skilled than Elain ever could be, and with what she has learned going through his personal things, he designed this to be irreversible. Not even wishes can change you back to who you once were now. Maybe a deity could restore you, be we all know the risks in such things."

At hearing this I let my upper body lay down again. Slowly I feel the hot tears running down my face and leaving dark tracks through the fur on my face as I lie there. I feel Jeff start to pet my head in what he thinks is a reassuring manner, but I am not in the mood for it, it makes me feel like a damn house cat. I sit up quickly and growl at him with bared fangs, "Don't touch me!" He jerks his hand back and stares at me. "Just leave me alone," I sob as I lay down again. He sits there for only a few more seconds before he nods his head and leaves me to myself.

'What am I going to do? I can't go back to my family like this.' I keep thinking like this for quite a few hours while I let the possibilities for my future run through my head. Finally, I am disturbed from my thoughts by the door being opened.

Canos walks through in his human form, which as far from his bestial shape as it can be, and sets a large plate of food down in front of me. I just lay there looking at him as he squats down to be on level with me and he stares into my eyes as if trying to read my soul. Finally, he speaks up and shatters the silence of the room.

"Rob, I know how you feel, I used to be human too you know. When I was bitten by another werewolf and knew that I would turn eventually I thought about what I could do. I thought of everything, even suicide. But you know what, after I changed the first time and found out how powerful these new forms were, I realized that this wouldn't be so bad. Look at me now, even in human form I am stronger than any human and about twice as fast as an elf." His words slowly sink into my thick skull as I listen.

"Now look at your problem here. Yes, you no longer look human, but who in their right mind is going to fuck with a four hundred-pound feline-taur. Not even I am that crazy no matter what form I am in. You are stronger and nimbler than any normal human could be I bet, and you have the advantage of built in weaponry when you need it that can never be taken from you." He picks up one of my paws and pressing in the right places forces my claws out. "These could easily rip someone to pieces without any trouble."

I take my paw back and snort at him, "Yeah, you were once human like I was," I admit to him. "If that was all there was to it, I could probably live with it. There is just one thing that makes it a little too hard for me to bear." I break down into tears and start to yell at him. "You at least kept your gender. Look at me, I am a female Wemic. If I were a male, I could probably live with it, but this is just so much of a change that I don't know if I can mentally handle this." I drop my head into my hands and just let the tears flow once again.

Canos doesn't try to reassure me or comfort me at least. He simply pushes the plate of food closer towards me and leaves me to my own thoughts. Maybe he does understand a little. I don't touch the food; I just lay there and cry myself to sleep. Probably just what I needed to do anyway.

* * *

A hand shaking my shoulder violently wakes me. Opening my eyes shows me Elain bending over my body. "Come on Rob, you have slept long enough, and it is time we had a little talk about what happened."

"I don't want to talk, just leave me alone." I roll away from her and try to ignore her presence in the room.

"Rolling away from me won't make me go away Rob. If nothing else, you need to get up and eat. I see from this plate that you slept last night without eating anything. If you are to get all of your strength you are going to need to eat quite a bit now."

"I don't want to eat; I just want to be alone. That is the best thing you can for me right now, just leave me alone."

I hear her get up and walk towards the door and lock it. Her voice gains a hard edge of a mother scolding a recalcitrant child, "If you think that is what you need then that is not what I am going to do for you. Because you need to talk now, and if you don't turn over right now and talk to me like and adult, you will force me to use my forces to make you listen to me." I feel the air chill slightly as she gathers the magical forces to bend before her will.

I slowly turn over and face her with a baleful stare, "Are you happy now?"

She sits cross-legged and smiles at me as her voice loses the edge and the air warms again, "Much better. Now, with all that has happened to you I can understand that you are a nervous wreck. I heard you told Canos that you could have handled being a Wemic if you were still male. Well unfortunately I can't help you with this problem. That wizard turned you using at least three unique items he must have destroyed to change you plus several wishes from what I gather from his log. This is the form you will be stuck in for the rest of your life. Even if we could get a god to help you, they might not be able to change you back. That is how powerful the magic is that changed you, so I think you just need to get a grip on yourself and pull yourself out of your misery. You have friends who care and want to help."

She gets up and comes to kneel right in front of me She takes my head and puts it on her shoulder. I can feel her tears rolling down her cheek o trace paths through my own fur. "Just remember that we are all here for you now. And we will try to help you through everything that you will face in the future. When we joined up to adventure and make the world a better place, we agreed to be family by choice rather than blood."

Like this I can't help but feel her willingness to help me. And it gives me the strength to go on, even if I don't want to. After a few minutes we separate, and she hands me a full plate of food. "Now eat. Soon as you are used to your new form and feeling better, we can head out and continue with our lives. Look at it this way, this is now even more of an adventure for you now. And judging from your larger size now I would say you are going to be a very good fighter from now on."

I give her a sheepish grin, "Yeah, I guess I can see what you mean. But this is still going to take quite a bit of getting used to."

As she unlocks the door she turns and smiles at me. "That I can understand, just realize that you are still you, no matter what you look like on the outside." With that she leaves me to finish my meal in peace.

* * *

After finishing my meal, I clumsily get to my paws and stumble towards the door like a drunken man after far too many tankards of dwarven ale. Slowly I open the door and look out. My friends are sitting around a table talking. When I open the door Kelly is the first one to see me and her sudden silence makes my presence known to the others gathered there. They all turn to see me and I give them a little smile, "What does a Wemic have to do around here to get enough food, go hunt it themselves?" They all give me a startled look for a solid minute before they all break out into a laughing fit. Slowly I walk out and join them, steadying myself on walls and furniture as I try to adjust to a four-legged walk.

They all gather around me, pleased to see me out of my mental slump.

Jeff leads me back to the table with a supporting arm and has me sit on a folded blanket they set up as a sort of seat for me. They bring more food and together we eat. Over the meal we discuss what needs doing before we leave again. Jeff brings up the one thing I hadn't thought of yet.

"Rob, it will probably take you a few days to get used to moving around in your new body, but I should start training you now." I give him a puzzled look, 'Why does he need to train me more, I know how to fight.'

"I know what you are thinking, you already know how to fight, but your new form possess a few tactical questions. Now that you are bigger, it would look a little funny to see you using a short sword like you used to. And armor is going to be almost impossible to find. Here," he reaches behind him and pulls out a bundle that looks pretty heavy, "these are for you. Call it a compensation for what happened to you."

I take the package and set it on the table. When I unwrap it, I find two, massive, two handed swords. One blade has a bluish tint and the other a red and both bear intricately ornate hilts of quite high craftsmanship. Looking up at Jeff I ask, "Why two of them, it takes both hands to hold one, let alone swing it."

Jeff starts wagging his finger back and forth at me. "You forget about your new size. I've seen Wemics use two of these at the same time, and with a little work, you will too."

I reach down and lift one of the swords with my right hand. Despite its size, it seems as light as my old short swords. I heft the other one in my left hand and feel the weight of the second sword, also far lighter than it looks. The longer handles with their large pommels counter the weight of the blades easily and the balance is just right. "Where did you get these. They might as well have been made for me the way they balance in my grip."

Jeff swallows his mouthful of food before answering, "The elder of this little village gave them to us when we told him of what we did to the wizard. When we said what the wizard did to you, he thought you could use them. He said they have been passed down through his family for ages. Apparently, he had a weretiger somewhere in his lineage who had a fondness for what normal sized humans considered two handed weapons. They are a matched pair, and from what he knows of them, they are heavily enchanted."

Elain holds out her hand, "Can I see one of those please?" I pass one to her and she mumbles a few words as the blade starts to glow brightly. She gasps and holds out her hand for the other one and I hand it to her too. She does the same thing again and the second blade glows just as brightly as the first.

Reverently she hands them back to me. "You are truly blessed Rob, the first one is a frost blade while the second one is a flame tongue. Together you are now a formidable foe against any who would stand against you. If the foe is strong against one, they will often be weak against the other."

I look down and remember the slight tinge of the blades. She is right, I have been blessed to receive such gifts. I hold them back out to Jeff, "These are too important for me to have. They should be given to a true warrior who can wield them to their fullest."

Jeff though refuses to take them. He crosses his arms over his chest and shakes his head no, "I knew what they were, and I still gave them to you. Each of us has something magical that we use. Elain has her magic and her staff. Kelly has her armor of shadows. Canos has his cloak of invisibility. While I have my own magical sword. You were the newest of us and so had no such magical items, now you do." The others around the table nod their heads at this. Reluctantly I accept the swords.

Canos speaks up next, "Now that we have you armed again, there is just one thing we have to go over before you should leave this building. Even though you are covered in fur, some people will take offense if you walk around with your rather large assets showing for everybody to see. Not to mention I bet you're not used to the weight hanging off your chest yet." I look down at my chest and once again am reminded that I am no longer a male again.

He passes a package across the table to me. "A little something I got from one of the shops here. They were more than happy to make it like I requested, hope it fits right."

Opening it reveals a green leather pull on halter. I slip it on and it fits like glove to contain and support my chest. "It's perfect Canos, thank you. But how did you know what size to get it made?"

He looks a little sheepish at my question. He scratches the back of his head with one arm while he answers. "Let's just say I got lucky and have been with many a lass in my days."

I give him an analyzing look, "Yeah, right."

Jeff breaks the tension in the air by pushing back from the table and picking up his practice bag. "Come on Rob, let's get some practice out of the way while we can. Maybe it will help you learn to control your new body better."

I give him a nod and swallow the last bite of food on my plate before following him outside. The others finish quickly themselves and follow us outside to watch me fight. Besides, they will probably get their chance to fight me so I can learn to how to fight against other fighting styles. Looks like it is going to be a long day for me today.

* * *

© Copyright Christopher Gilman 2000 all rights reserved

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