A "Winds of Change" Story
Normally, I don't mind going to the hospital. The scent of recycled, sterilized, and unscented air as an odd way of rejuvenating the spirit. But this time was much, much different. I hadn't the sanity right now to enjoy the sight of doctors and nurses ailing the sick and injured. All that mattered was getting my friend Todd and his father some help. And the thought of all those white cloaks was giving me the willies.
We drove in my father's Jeep, the only car big enough to hold Dr. Chin, Michael, Dr. Eiriksson, and myself. Dr. Chin and my father attended Todd while his father watched on worriedly, his tail feathers bunched up in worry and pain. The others had driven off with their families, David staying with Jim to make sure that he was ok. Seemed that our keyboardist got his First Sign during the search, and David volunteered to stay with him. I drove the car, with Michael in the front seat, looking back every twenty seconds to check on the unconscious raccoon lying in the back seat, its leg twisted horribly to the right and cracked
I corrected myself, 'Dammit, Mano, HIS leg! You didn't make a mistake on this; that's Todd in the back seat!' It had to be, you could tell by his father. There was something between a father and son that couldn't be broken, or defined. Somehow, Mr. Eiriksson knew his son, he knew. He wouldn't have risked his health for just anyone. He knew that was his son in the tree. I knew. And I wasn't about to go against both instincts.
I was lucky that my limited transformation hadn't altered my ability to drive. Actually, the padding on my feet helped somewhat by letting me feel when the engine shifted, and the claws let me work out my anxiety by digging trenches into the accelerator. The rain was getting harder, and I needed to change lanes. I gave a careless glance back into the right lane, checked my mirror, and merged into the lane.
I was greeted with the bleating of horns and the squeal of brakes that where not my own. I jerked over into the lane reflexively, my paw slamming onto the pedal, the Jeep lurching forward with a jump. Michael *ooofed* and leaned back into the seat while everyone in the back tried to keep Todd and Mr. Eiriksson stable. It didn't work, and the raccoon in the back unleashed a squeal of pain.
I suddenly felt very ill and very angry, and it didn't help when my father yipped in his vulpine voice, "Mano! Watch where you're going! You damn near hit another car!"
I spun around, enraged, my attention diverted from the road, "It's fucking raining, Dad! Cut me some fucking slack, ok?" I quickly turned back and headed over to the exit lane for the hospital. The car was utterly silent, except for my heavy, mad breathing, and the rush of blood to my ears. I felt a crawling sensation over my body, like...
A Surge.
"Mano," Micheal said, "Calm down. You're Shifting." He pointed to my arms, and sure enough, the tell-tale yellow fur was creeping up my elbow onto my forearm. My fingers already felt stiff and were shrinking back into themselves.
I took Micheal's advice as well as a few deep breaths, and soon I felt the feeling subside, back down within me. I sighed one last time and said, "Crutch number one of the Change." The exit lane rose into the overpass, and I turned left, already seeing the towers of the Medical Center in the distance. I felt even more afraid now. Although no one knew it, I was in the same situation that Todd was. One Surge and *poof*, both my mind and body could Change into that of a lion, and as much as I liked big cats, the idea was not very appealing. And now, seeing just how easily I could lose it, and just how much these leonine instincts were playing on my mind, I felt honestly and totally afraid of myself.
I turned into the Emergency Room entry, my mind still floating on the prospect of not having a mind. Michael made some snide comment on my driving, and I growled at him. Dr. Chin scooped up Todd while my father helped Mr. Eiriksson out of the Jeep, making sure his broken wing wasn't damaged any farther. I leaped out of the car and noticed David and Jim and the rest of their group pulling up. They scrambled under the overhang and out of the rain, and we all went into the hospital without exchanging a greeting.
Stripes and Jim split off from us soon after we all entered, and Stripes looked like he had seen a ghost. I could imagine, the scent filters weren't perfect, and his nose had already proven itself to be worthy to pick up the faintest of scents. I heard his mother say something about a special waiting area for prey morphs as they left. At least I knew where he would be later.
A nurse approached us almost immediately after they had left. She was a Mid-Degree lizard morph, one of the many species of gecko, if I wasn't mistaken. She looked up to Dr. Chin and immediately said, "Ms. Jacobson is in Trauma three. She phoned in about Todd as soon as she got word. We're still waiting on the Telekinetic, though, but we can see if we can get his mind back in the meantime."
We nodded simultaneously as Dr. Chin placed Todd on a stretcher and wheeled him into the trauma room. Mr. Eiriksson followed, and the nurse began to talk to him about his injury. I paid no attention to them, or Michael, or even Todd at this point. My attentions were focused on the fox morph standing in the doorway, my father, and the mourning dove morph standing at the side of Todd's stretcher. My mother.
Divorced. In one of those TV movie styles: very ugly, very shameful, very painful to all those involved. Their marriage was already in danger before the Change. I had hoped that it would have brought them back together, but it only drove them farther apart, and so fast that near the end, fights were a nightly occurence. And now, years later, tensions still ran between the two. So much that you would think they would break out in an argument just by them being in the same room.
Like now. Dad strode across the room, never taking his eyes off my mother while she concentrated on the raccoon in the bed. Mr. Eiriksson looked on worriedly, as did Michael.
I saw Todd's father whisper, "OhpleasedearGod... Let him be okay..."
"He's in there," Mom said. "Just, very weak." Mr. Eiriksson instantly brightened.
And then, my nightmare was made reality. Dad spoke up accusingly, "Are you sure?"
And Mom came back, "Shut up. You're not the Inducer here, I am. You think I don't know what I'm doing?"
My heart plummeted into my stomach. Another rush of sickness, and this one, I couldn't suppress. I stumbled out of the room, the shouts escalating, the nurse joining in, trying to calm my parents down. My paws struggled to keep my body erect but failed in the hall as I crumpled to my knees and tried to keep last night's dinner in.
A tear splattered on the floor next to my knee. Never, in all seven years since my parents got divorced, had I even up hope that they would get back together, somehow. Even if it took an act of God, I never gave up on that act. But now, it was all just gone in a flash. There they were, screaming at each other over my friend, who was, luckily enough, unconscious at the time. There no possible way in hell that they would ever reconcile. A dream lay splattered on the floor, like the tear.
The shouting escalated, and the door burst open, the nurse shoving my parents out of the room, hurling a few insults of her own at them, and then closing the door behind her as she went back in to check on Todd and his father. Their fighting was something that I didn't want to take right now. The fact that they didn't even notice their own son, huddled on his knees, clutching their stomach, coupled their inherent ability to make any situation even worse drove me past the point of rational intervention. It was time to fight back.
"I don't give a damn what you think, you sleaze!" Mom said.
"Like that ever mattered to you! All you ever did was leech off me!" Dad retorted.
"Listen you overbearing fur COAT! If it wasn't for ME, you'd be hunting down your own damn food!"
It was here that I came in. I didn't even notice the rage swell up inside me, as well as that creeping tingle that swept over my body, "WILL YOU TWO PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP?!?!?!"
They both froze, and turned to me like I had appeared out of thin air. I continued, my voice deepening as I shouted, "I'm so damn tired of hearing you two fight! Every time you come within ten feet of one another you end up arguing like goddamned children! What the hell ever happened to 'Till Death do Us Part' and all that?" My voice cracked and shifted into a baritone bellow. There was a sharp pain as a tail sprouted from my spine and ran down my right pant leg. I was letting my Change get the better of me, but I didn't care. Right now nothing mattered to me except what I was feeling inside, what I was finally letting out. "Todd is in there, stuck in norm, his leg shattered for Christ's sake, and you two have the fucking gall to start fighting OVER HIM?!? What the HELL is wrong with you?!?"
Another shift I hardly felt. My hands sprouted pads like my paws, the nails swallowed into my shortening fingers, and then reemerging as sharp black claws that dug themselves into my skin as I clenched my fists. Fur sprouted over my chest and up my neck, both of which grew stronger, more muscular. My parents' eyes widened as my muzzle pushed out from my face, my teeth lengthening in my mouth to their new carnivorous form. The golden yellow fur spread over my face, and my lips curled into a snarl.
I stuck a claw in their faces and roared, literally roared, "I'M A JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL, AND EVEN I'M MORE MATURE THAN THE BOTH OF YOU!" With that I stormed into Todd's room and cried into my paws, still oblivious to my Change.
"Jesus..." I heard Michael gasp, "Mano, is that *you*?" Mr. Eiriksson expressed his concern in a painful *caw*.
I nodded, "I let them get to me." Michael stood and took my side, leading me to a seat next to his and placing an arm comfortingly around me.
"Mano, I never knew..."
I cut him off, "No one did, Michael. No one did. I just can't believe that... That they did that here. You'd think there were mature enough. They're adults, dammit, they should know better" There was a glimmer of hope somewhere within me, something that moments before was lost. "Maybe, after I finish my Change... Then they'd see..."
"Mano, in case you hadn't noticed, you *are* finished." He lifted my head, and I looked across the room into a mirror, and saw a morphic adolescent lion staring back at me, the fringes of a mane appearing under my chin and around my head.
"Jesus... I missed it." I said, an eerie feeling of calm sweeping over me. And as it did, I saw my muzzle begin to retract back into my face. I panicked, and out it came again.
"You doing that?" Michael said.
"I- I think so," I stammered. "Remember when I was angry in the car? I think this is the same thing!"
I let myself calm down fully, and was rewarded with my old, partially changed body, but now the Change reached up to my waist, just below where I would have a tail. I had a mini-Surge during my outburst that had totally skipped by me. I couldn't help but feel relieved at the Surge, maybe I was getting out of the red in my Change. But still, I'd have to keep my cool from now on.
My mother entered, crying softly, a wolf morph in tow. She wiped the tears from her cheek feathers and said, "This is Dr. Hathawey. He's our Telekinetic." He gave me a polite nod as they approached Todd and performed their arts. My mother held Todd's head, concentrating her Power on his consciousness, bringing out his rational, human side while Dr. Hathawey held Todd's leg steady as my friend slowly morphed back into his "normal" state. Mr. Eiriksson jumped from his seat, his wing in a brace applied by the nurse before she left. He clutched his son, being careful not to disturb Todd's leg as he hugged him.
Todd groggily regained coherence, "Dad? Where am I? Is it still raining?"
I took this as my cue to leave before my mother had a chance to address me. I ignored my father, his head in his paws and his furry tail tucked between the chair's legs.
He didn't ignore me however, "You're right, Daniel. We both know it, but someday, someday soon, we'll realize it." I didn't answer. I don't think he expected one. Tonight must have set my family back years, and a few thousand dollars in councelling.
For the first time in at least an hour, I wondered how Stripes and Jim were doing.
I knew I owed Stripes a prank, but I
didn't feel in the mood as I turned the corner, and down the hall towards
Jim's room.
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