A "Winds of Change" Story

By Jon Sleeper

What I hated most about my Change wasn’t so much the moving around of flesh into new shapes, but the endless poking and prodding of the doctors and nurses as they examine every single step of the way. I’d long since given up being indignant to every single time I took off my clothes in front of the doctor. Largely since nudity in public is pretty much shrugged off now. But being sixteen years old I was still a bit self conscious.

Besides, since I had feathers instead of fur now, clothes would be pretty much redundant.

Dr. Chin had given me the full exam. We were isolated from the others in the room by a privacy curtain. I winced when he said to bend over, and one phrase confirmed it. "You have a cloaca. And it looks like a healthy one at that. Now, on to the rest..."

To say that "I hate hospitals" is an understatement.

Jim and I were both angry when they said that we couldn’t see Todd until they’d put us through the wringer. So we just sat there and talked with my mother, Amanda, and Mano, who had shown up with a very odd expression on his face. He was getting put through the Wringer, too. Since whatever had just happened to him had made his Change jump nearly up to his waist. Jim was looking at me, taking in how I looked. "How does it feel to have a beak?" he asked.

I thought a moment, using my dry, black-scaled hands that were still human-shaped to feel the pointed numb mass. "I feel like I’m wearing some sort of mask," I replied, looking in a mirror that had been set up. "I guess it could’ve been worse. I don’t think I’d make a very good-looking condor morph." I tried to smile, but I really didn’t have any lips anymore. I did feel something else, however.

"You know that crest of yours just went straight up?" Mano said.

I felt it twitch. "I guess that replaces smiling for me in this form, guys." Experimentally, I also fanned my tail feathers. I was really sitting on a large perch, my bird’s feet were well suited to doing this. And depending on what the Dr. Chin said, I thought I might be spending a lot of time perching. Especially if I couldn’t figure out how to shift out of my avian form.

A Power is useless if one can’t learn to control it.

My mother was looking at me, rather concerned. "What happens if you can’t figure out how to shift?"

I shrugged, still looking at myself in the mirror. "I guess I live this way until I do figure it out, then. I just want to get to the Powers test. Rather, to see if I can norm shift in this form. I really want to fly," I said, my crest going vertical.

I saw Jim smile out of the corner of my left eye. "I’d nearly forgotten about that, until Amanda reminded me of a few things," he nodded to her, "I guess there’s something to this avian thing after all."

Dr. Chin chose that moment to come in, holding a datalink in his right hand. "Well, David, I’m happy to say that you’re at about a midway stage of becoming a rather high Degree blue jay morph. Which is odd, since your zebra form was only mid-Degree. The Powers expert—if she can be called that—thinks that because you seem to be a flash Shifter between your major forms, that each form is almost separate from the others. So you might consider yourself to be Changing into at least three different species at once."

I blinked, nearly letting out a chirp instead of what I wanted to say. I cleared my throat, unused to talking from my larynx. "Waitaminute. What happens if I eat some fish in dolphin form, but then end up shifting to zebra? Zebras aren’t made to digest whole fish."

Dr Chin tilted his head this way and that. "Well, as I understand it, when you flash Shift, whatever you ate stays with that form. And you may not have eaten anything in your zebra form, but your meal as a dolphin still nourishes you but you don’t have to digest it, because your other form is. So watch it that you don’t overeat at lunch times.

"Anyway, before we try to get you into your dolphin form for another exam, I want to see if you can norm shift. If you can’t, that’s a fair indication that you’ll become a flighted morph. Which will tell me which of the computer pics of what you’ll end up looking like to show you. Ready?"

I nodded, excited that just perhaps I’d be able to flap around the room a bit. Blue jays are small birds, so that seemed a nice possibility. I decided to close my eyes, just in case. And pushed through the barrier between me and my norm form.

Falling. I was falling! Even with my eyes closed I could feel the world swelling around me! My chest started to swell incredibly, my center of gravity dropping between my legs, which were jostling around as the keelbone that now dominated my physiology took it’s place. My fingers fused, the tickle of feathers went up and down my arm. My shoulder joints changed, and I was suddenly able to fold my wings comfortably on my back.

I bobbed my tail feathers a few times to keep my balance on the suddenly not small enough perch, eyes still closed. I didn’t want to open them for some reason.

Against my scaly legs I felt something warm and furry briefly touch them, and before I could think about it I stepped from the perch onto what I suddenly realized was somebody’s finger. I felt another finger gently pet the feathers on my chest. Even as I moved my wings ever so slightly to help me keep my balance, I could feel the power in those chest muscles of mine. I heard my mother’s voice very close. "You make a very handsome blue jay, my son. Why don’t you open your eyes?"

I opened my eyes, and what I saw scared me so bad I nearly fell off my mother’s finger.

She seemed as big as a house! Bigger! The room was ten times the size of the high school’s gym! I let out an involuntary squawk of fear! Mother’s eyes, which were the size of basketballs to my point of view, looked concerned. "He’s scared, Doctor Chin."

"That’s not unusual, Mrs. Alden. He weighs about a pound, you realize. That’s a big size difference from the equine form he’s used to. But once I teach him to fly, he won’t even care."

Flying was the farthest thing from my mind at that moment. All I wanted to do was change back, and become "Stripes" again. Flying be damned. Then I heard Amanda’s voice rumble from behind me. "Can I hold you, David?"

I turned my head to see her smiling face. Slowly, I nodded. Her huge finger came up next to my mother’s, then I stepped from mother’s finger to Amanda’s. My toes automatically clasped around them, I spread my wings briefly for balance. Then I flicked my wings to my back and tried to forget just how huge she was. For a brief moment, all I wanted to do was sit on her shoulder and watch the world go by.

That lasted all of three seconds before my fear reasserted itself, and I squawked again to be put down on the hospital bed. Amanda rubbed me gently on my chest once before putting me down, and I initiated the change back. The world was suddenly normal sized again, and I was breathing quickly through my nares.

"Are you okay, David?" Jim asked.

"Not yet, but give me a couple minutes," I took a deep breath or five. "Everything looks to huge when you’re only thirteen inches long," my crest went up ever so slightly.

"Well, I guess that’s something to consider," Jim said. He was still looking over his test results. He hadn’t shown them to me yet, and Dr. Chin hadn’t said anything aloud about them. But I imagined Jim would tell us when he was ready.

It couldn’t, after all, be worse than what still could happen to Todd.

Dr. Chin pushed a few more buttons on his datalink and then held it to his chest. "Based on what’s just happened, I have two possibilities of what you’re going to look like. Here’s one of them." He pushed a button and handed me the datalink.

The pic was basically how I looked at that particular moment. Mid-Degree. But there was a blinking "40% Probability" at the top of the screen. I pushed the "next" button at the bottom. And what I saw made me gape.

"I’m afraid you’re probably going to end up somewhat higher Degree than I am. Which means that you might even be able to fly short distances in morph form. Not far, but it’ll be flying none the less. Now, if you don’t mind, if could find a way for you to shift to your dolphin form we’ll do the examination for that one, too."

The prospect of temporarily shedding my feathers was quite appealing. The dolphin alternate form was something I really wanted to explore. I shut my eyes, trying to find a way to trigger the shift. I have no idea what triggered it, but the next thing I knew, I was on my hoofed feet again. I opened my zebra eyes just to be sure. "I guess you can call me ‘Stripes’ again."

"What should we call you in your other forms, then?" Mano asked. "’Dolph’? ‘Jay’?"

"Just ‘Dave’ is fine, Mano. It’s not like I’m going to be spending most of my time in my alternates anyway..." I saw Dr. Chin shake his head. "Right?"

"I’m afraid not, David. Your different forms seem so balanced with each other, that you are in effect changing into all three species at the same time. Which could explain why you’re having so much trouble getting into the form you want. But, in that case, I’d like to welcome you to the CCC."

"’CCC?’"

"Corvid Companionship Club. Blue jays are corvids, you know. So you might consider me a kind of sometime distantly related Uncle."

Yeah. Right. "Want me to try to change again?" I asked. He nodded, but in three tries, I only managed to change between zebra and blue jay. "This isn’t working," I grumbled. "And I want to see Todd." I was back in blue jay form. At least I could walk like this without needing a support from for my feet, since my feet in this form were basically done Changing.

"Okay, okay. You can go. Just get in contact with me immediately if anything happens. I’m going to give your friend Mano his test results. You and Jim can go see your friend."

Finally released from Dr. Chin’s scrutiny, Jim and I left his office. "Would you happen to know where Todd’s room is, my fine feathered friend?" Jim asked me with the first smile I’d seen on his face in weeks.

"In fact, I do. My fine feathered friend," I replied, my crest vertical. I carefully walked on my splayed feet, resisting the urge to flap my arms. We’d turned a couple corners, going down several corridors, past many people, when I felt a sudden lurch and fell forward, catching myself with my hand. My smooth, bluish gray, webbed-fingered, hands. "Can you do me a favor, Jim?"

"Yeah. What?"

"Tug on my dorsal fin. I want to be sure I’m not just hallucinating this."

I felt a tug on what was probably the oddest body part I’d ever had, though the flukes on the end of my tail came close. It was stiff and didn’t move very much. "How’s that?" Jim asked.

I opened my eyes, and carefully stood up. "Thank you." I looked myself over again. There was a feeling of completeness about this body that the zebra and the blue jay lacked. And I somehow knew that as a dolphin, I would Change no more. My skin was itching a bit. Check that. A LOT. "I think I’d better go some salt water before we go see Todd. My skin feels like it’s on fire!"

With Jim’s help, we found a "Aquamorph Comfort Center" that was really the waiting room for those who had special needs (like myself at that moment). I dashed up the stairs of the tank and dove in as quickly as I could. The itching vanished in seconds. Then I noticed a little problem with my legs.

I didn’t have any.

As soon as I’d slipped into the water, my blowhole had plugged itself and then there’d been this odd tingle from my tail. When I looked down at where my legs should’ve been, all I saw was a dolphin’s tail, with no trace of my lower limbs. I flexed my flukes a few times and got back up to the surface.

Jim was staring at me through the glass on the side of the tank. "Wow," he said, "You’ve got that ‘merman’ thing going. Can you change them back?"

I looked down at my tail, a bit nervous, and concentrated. Sure enough, my legs reappeared where they should be, and my tail shrunk down to a manageable size. "Imagine that..." I said under water. It came out in clicks, and bounced off the walls of the tank. I was suddenly seeing things with more than just my eyes. I peeked my head above the tank. "I’ll be right there, Jim. I’ve just gotta test something." I submerged myself in the water again.

Once under, I shifted to norm completely, and proceeded to have a bit of fun. Though probably for a bit too long...

Mano showed up I don’t know how long later, he spoke to Jim, and took a microphone off the wall. "Todd’s asking for you, Dave. You’ve been here for over an hour, Jim says."

Over an hour? No way! Waitaminute... Without thinking of it, I swam down to the bottom of the tank to see the clock. Sure enough, an hour had passed. I blinked, realizing that a whole hour had gone without really noticing it.

But I also discovered I didn’t really care.

In point of fact, I looked at my feline friend Mano, who was looking at me with the faint air of disapproval. I wanted him to lighten up, suddenly. So I casually made my way over to the side of the tank where he was, and proceeded to use my flukes to try to make him lighten up.

One soaked lion morph.

For some reason, he didn’t look at all happy about it. I couldn’t imagine why...

Landwalkers could be so dense at times.

Mano glared at me and went to find a towel, while I got out of the tank and got my legs back. "Let’s go see Todd now, shall we?"

Jim had backed away, and hadn’t gotten wet at all. "Why did you do that to Mano?" he asked.

My face, of course, was locked in that "wise guy grin" that all cetaceans seem to have. "Why not?"

Jim looked at me critically, then he smiled. "He’s going to have to get you back for that, you know."

I couldn’t help but laugh. "That’s the fun of it, of course," I said, nearly overcome with more laughter. "He needs to lighten up a little."

"Right. Let’s go before he comes back, eh?"

Todd was in the intensive care ward, and the first thing I saw of him was his leg wrapped in bandages. "We’re going to have to do some minor surgery to set his leg," I heard a male voice say. "His Change complicates things, though. We’re going to try to find a Healer and see if we can speed up things before his Change reaches his legs. That won’t be too long, you realize. His... experience accelerated things a bit."

I heard Todd gasp, and a small sob. "I can’t believe this!" he said. "A broken leg on top of... on top of... Mom. I can remember it all. I can remember my humanity slipping away! I don’t want to go through that again!"

The air between the doctors and Todd was heavy with anxiety. Quite obviously, Todd was still in danger of losing it to his Change.

That took the wind right out of the sails of my sense of humor.

There are, after all, time when it’s wise not to be a wise guy.

I walked up to Todd, looking as sober as I could. "Hi Todd, it’s me, Dave."

He was definitely much further along in his Change. His head was basically that of a natural raccoon’s but for it’s size, and he seemed rather shorter than he used to be, even laying there in bed. HE looked a little wide-eyed. "Wow. Your mother wasn’t lying, was she?"

I shrugged, still dripping some salt water. "She wasn’t. I can become a bird, too. But I don’t know how to control it."

Silence. The others came up behind me, and spread out around the bed.

Sometimes words say too much.

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