A "Winds of Change" Story
I stretched my wings once and folded them back. They felt a little warm, but good, from the long flight.
I looked over the side of the platform to see who I assumed was Jon walking toward the café. It was actually the first time that I'd seen a whitetail morph in person, and I had to say that I was impressed.
His antlers were the most obvious feature, they were hard to miss. As I climbed down the ramp, I realized that Jon was going to practically tower over me, even though our heads ended at almost the same height. He'd briefly mentioned that his velvet was coming off in the last e-mail I got before I left. I could see a few small pieces stuck to them here and there, but it seemed to have basically come off. They looked a little darker than I thought they would, certainly not a high gloss shine. But the eight small points each looked sharp as a tack from this distance.
Something caught my eye, though. I focused in a lot closer, but couldn't see what it was. There was something about those antlers that looked…odd. It wasn't the first set that I'd seen on a morph, not even the first deer set. But there was something I couldn't place about them. I'd have to remember to ask him about that if I couldn't figure it out myself.
Physically, he was certainly larger than me, and almost certainly weighed more. I made a mental note not to get into a fist fight with him. His hoof hands could probably leave a bruise just about anywhere on my body despite my Power. I knew that he could shift into a full whitetail, and he almost looked as large around as a young one now.
As he approached, I could tell one thing was going to drive me nuts. His ears. He'd mentioned that they seemed to have a mind of their own, and unless he was putting me one, they certainly did. They stuck out of his head for about four or five inches and kept moving around with little flips and turns. Since the Change, my eyes tend to naturally focus on moving objects when I don't think about it, and I can keep two objects in near focus at a time. I had the sinking feeling that I was going to have to tear my eyes away from those ears more than once in the next few days.
He turned slightly to avoid another diner and I caught a glimpse of his tail. I was glad to see that it wasn't sticking straight up in the air, which I knew from my studies to mean danger sighted. The last thing that I wanted was him to be scared to death of me while I was around. Of course, we weren't next to each other yet, and I had no idea how he'd react once we were in close quarters. I doubted that it would help if he saw me eating live seafood. I'd have to consider cooking some of the fish if it bothered him, since I could take it either way.
I caught myself staring at his ears again and forced myself to move lower on his head. I saw him make a quick swallowing gesture and smiled slightly as I realized he was probably downing his cud before we got face to face.
Then I tried to stop smiling when I remembered what I look liked when I did that.
Jon was through the café and at the entry when I got close to
him. I stuck out an orange talon and to meet his hoofed hand, "Am I safe
in assuming you're Jon 'Buck' Sleeper, or is there another deer around
here?"
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