Caidoz

Chapter 26

I attain consciousness to a stiff cold and tensed shoulders. I heard the storm thundering outside and I felt a twitch of fear. Where was I? My eyes opened and I saw that I lay in a white bed in a dark room and I was pressed up against an icy window.
  
   Dark clouds of lighting lit up the sky and I again felt fear move around inside my heart. If I had any pieces left of it.
   My nose twitched as I smelt the air. I growled weakly as an unsavory scent hit me. Bootes. That rusted piece of clockwork is here. My fur was ruffled under the white sheets that covered me, and I knew I needed to change back to a boy. I turned my head over to see the room which I was in. It was rather small and there was a wooden desk beside me with a purple vial on it.

   A shadowy figure sat in a wooden rocking chair beside me with a curved staff and I whined. It moved suddenly into my view and I growled at the sight of Bootes. "So you're alive. I was half considering giving up completely on you."
   My growls increased in my throat.
   "I would be kinder if I were you. I been taking care of you all day. Only now are you responding to anything."
   I sighed. There were some strange characters out there and it was just hard to respond properly to them. Especially when you could not speak. I needed to change back.
   Bootes seemed to think the same. "Be careful, but you should talk to me. Come back to a human form."

I focused on shifting back.
   My tail shot back into my spine and my spine changes its four legged position with a loud crack! I screamed in agony.
   "Yes, I know it hurts, but keep it down would ya?!" Bootes said.
   I ignored him and forced my fur to shrink into my skin. Similar to the pain of a billion sharp needles, I felt the agony and shrieked as my ears shifted downward. My shredded ear was now felt in a bloody bandage around my head.

   Thus pain forced me to feel more than usual and the expected outcome was horrible. My front paws became hands and my thumbs became extendable. Thus was no least of torture. I then stuck in my snout as I attained a human face. My back legs changed last and with that a fresh wave of pain and a shocking surprise of which I could not place. I wailed as the misery of final completed transformation was finished. I took harsh breaths as my heart was calming itself.

"W-where am I?" I asked as I hid deeper under the covers to hide the fact that my clothes still seemed to be missing. Not to mention I wasn't covered by fur anymore.
"My inn room apartment. I live here actually," Bootes said.
   I didn't understand why he believed he could speak after what he had tricked me into. I growled in anger and turned away from him to watch the black skies above as they thundered. Though I feared storms, their beauty captivated me completely, like an untamed beast of which no one could, and would, ever tame.

   The darkness seemed to hover over into the streets and small flicking lights came from the gas lights trying to survive in the wet weather.
"Um... where are my... you know... my-"
"I don't know what your "I knows" are," He said.
   I felt anger starting to set in, making me frown. Thus man was so irritating at times.

"My clothes then! Where are my clothes, my satchel, and my daggers?!" I was slightly worried now. These were my only possessions. I hoped I didn't lose them in the Colosseum. I shuddered at the name of the deadly place. I never wanted to see it again.
"Oh right. I picked them up for you," Bootes said.
   I looked at the large, blond man with surprise. What in Simeh did he want in return for thus?
   The deadly staff pointed to the corner of the room of which I saw my items.
  
   I breathed a sigh of relief. "Can you look away or something?" I shot back to Bootes.
   He chuckled in a small version of his usual large ones. "We are both men here."
   I gave him an angry look. "I think you a proved yourself a rusted piece of clockwork a long time ago."
   The man scowled my foul language. "I'll get them for you." He got up and walked over to the pile with his staff assisting him. The man returned to my bed side with the clothes as I took them from him.

"...My daggers aren't here. And where is my satchel?"
"Demanding, aren't you boy?"
   I showed him a hateful disdain. He had put my life on the line when it was time to show his true colors. Why he was helping, for thus I wasn't complaining at all, but any help from him was suspicious in my mind.
   "They are downstairs, on my kitchen table. Do you want them now?"
    I shook my head, but it was assuring to know they were nearby. "And my satchel?"