Thornton blinked as Barney licked him awake, the smell of emotion in the air.
Wait– emotion? Emotion didn’t have a smell. At least, Thornton didn’t think so. Maybe Barney could pick up on something like that, but not him. And yet, there the emotions were, reaching his senses. Confusion directly next to him came from his dog, and he could sense four other people resting next to him; three slept peacefully, and one tossed and turned from a nightmare they seemed to be having.
Perhaps people wasn’t the right word though. Instead, animals suited the sleeping creatures better. He could see and sense four… somethings. Horses by the looks of them, at least three. Two looked like unicorns, and one seemed to be a cross between a horse and a moose, antlers stretching up from its forehead where the horses he saw had horns. The moose horse had red antlers and a dark brown coat, and the two unicorns were white, one with a red mane and the other with a bright blue one that contained red streaks.
They looked… well, not like normal horses in the slightest, but the shape of them told Thornton that that’s what they were. Although they had much shorter body lengths and seemed smaller than normal horses, smaller than anything he’d ever seen. One of the horses was larger than the other, seeming like an adult while the other was its kid, and the moose thing looked to be about the same size as the smaller one. The larger unicorn was restless, and tossed and turned in its sleep, negative emotions emanating from it.
The last creature wasn’t a horse, but instead a dragon, one with blue skin and large wings, although it had what seemed like a mane just like the horses did, this mane being bright pink. It was definitely larger than the horses were, although not as large as he would’ve expected from a dragon. All four creatures were curled up on the ground, and kept sleeping despite being in… well, Thornton has no idea where he was.
A forest it looked like, one with many large trees that cast shadows in what was either the first light of dawn or the last of twilight. How Thornton could see in such limited light, he didn’t know. He must have had some sort of night vision. But that didn’t make sense because he was a human, right?
Glancing at his body now, he could no longer say that was the case. In fact, he might have been the weirdest of them all. A slick, blackish-green, hardened skin with what had to be large eyes his body contained. It held hooves like a farm animal, but ones that were covered in holes. It seemed like something buggish, and looked kind of hideous and scary, at least from his perspective. On the top of his head was a sort of curved horn, similar to the unicorns, as well as bug-like wings that seemed much too thin to fly given his size. The strangeness of the situation didn’t even make the fact that he was now naked cross his mind.
He blinked down at himself and glanced around at his surroundings again, taking a second to rub his eyes with his new appendages. Was he dreaming? This didn’t feel like one, so if he was, it was the dream to put all other dreams to shame. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second, then opened them to see if anything had changed. Nothing did, except for his dog, who was now pawing him carefully and tilting his head curiously. Barney pawed at him again and whined before turning to look at the other four creatures, seemingly trying to signal something. At least he looked normal enough.
It was hard to piece together what was going on in his head because he had no idea what was going on. He shouldn't have been a… whatever he was. And this certainly didn’t feel like a dream. But what the heck could happen to turn him into a weird bug thing placed with a bunch of other random fairytale animals in the middle of nowhere?
He had no idea, and didn’t have time to consider it as the larger unicorn woke up screaming.
What happened next could only be described as chaos to Thornton. A moment after the horse screamed– a middle aged woman from the sound of it– the other creatures woke up and screamed, too. Mostly, they sounded like girls, but a familiar sounding deep voice was what cut through most notably. Was that his brother? He couldn’t tell where it came from or what was going on other than immense fear and confusion sweeping through the group of animals.
And once again, he could smell the emotions, and maybe almost taste it, too. It was a horrible, bitter taste that he didn’t like, but one that was forced onto his tongue anyway, and one he could say was fear just from a subconscious response in his brain. Not that he needed more than his eyes to figure that out.
He had no time to consider that either, or anything else outside of the yelling and screaming, voices indistinct and blending in with each other. His dog ran around, going up to each creature and pawing them carefully, seemingly trying to communicate with them that they should calm down. It seemed to work, because after a minute of doing this with each animal, they stopped yelling one by one. They weren’t calm, and in fact were nowhere close to it, but it settled the group a bit as the emotions hitting him lessened. The smaller unicorn was crying, and the dragon seemed like it was on the verge of doing so as well. The larger unicorn stared at itself in disbelief, and the moose thing had a scowl on its face and seemed angry.
The moose was the first one to speak up, the rage and confusion in its voice obvious. From it, Thornton tasted a hint of fear, but more hot, burning anger than that. He could tell that it wanted answers, and it wanted them now.
“What the fuck is going on?” it asked, definitely a male, and even more definitely his older brother. “What the hell am I?” The familiarity that was his brother encouraged Thornton to speak up.
“Reece?” the bug asked, his voice sounding nothing like his own. Instead, it was something more nasally, something that could only be described as buglike. Still, he pressed on, asking, “Is that you?”
“Who the hell are you?” Reece asked. “What the hell is going on here? What the fuck are all of you?”
“It’s me, Thornton,” he responded, getting a look of wide eyes from what had to be his brother. He was shocked by what he heard, but the news got another one of the animals to speak up now.
“Kids?” the larger unicorn asked as its head turned to their direction. It was just as flabbergasted as every creature else, although its voice was a woman Thornton couldn’t say he recognized, and neither could Reece according to the look on his face.
“Who the heck are you?”
“I’m your father!”
Things just seemed to get more and more confusing, an emotion he tasted more of with the answer. The horse certainly didn’t sound like Dad, but Thornton couldn’t say he sounded like himself either, so he had no reason not to trust her– or rather, him. He and his brother’s head turned the way of the other unicorn and the dragon, Reece asking who they were. Thornton though, just based on the answers of the previous two creatures, had a good idea what these two would say.
“It’s me? Carey? Carey Solomon?” the dragon who sounded like Thornton’s mother got out. “What on Earth is going on?” she asked as she looked down at herself. Her wings stretched out, a couple of things that spanned probably twice the length of her body at maximum extension. A fearsome looking creature she was, but she didn’t sound it. Her voice come out jittery and nervous, portraying the feeling everyone had.
“Is this a dream? How in the world did I turn into this… monster?” she asked, her attention directed down at herself. Thornton felt that he was probably the most monsterish out of every creature he saw, even if not the biggest, but kept this to himself for now. Right now, he and Reece turned their attention to the last creature, the latter asking the question of identity to what could certainly only be their little sister.
“I have to assume that’s you, Denver, since everyone else is here, too,” Reece said. “But just confirm for me that it is anyway?”
The small unicorn didn’t speak, but did nod sadly as she continued to cry, keeping her face buried in her hooves. So then Thornton’s whole family was here, all changed into… well, he didn’t know exactly what. Not aliens– at least, not most of them. He certainly was, but that he could identify his moose-horse brother and the unicorns and dragon the rest of his family were, that meant they must not be, right?
He didn’t know, but the bitter taste of fear was pervasive, almost overwhelming. It was not a flavor of emotion he could say he liked– a way to describe emotion that he never thought he would use. At least the fear wasn’t directed at him, as different looking as he was. Thornton had a feeling that they would be nervous of him soon, just because of how uncomfortable looking and buglike he was.
Barney certainly wasn’t though, now running back up to him and rubbing his head against one of Thornton’s limbs, apparently trying to comfort him. His dog was a good way to figure out how large he and his family were now. Thornton was maybe twice the size of him, and probably not much heavier with all the holes in his limbs. They were perfect circles, too, ones that seemed like they were created from a large hole puncher. What happened to him?
Barney licked Thornton’s… he didn’t know what to call it, other than a hoof, since it basically looked like the hoof of an animal. Barney licked his hoof, and then stared up at him intently, sending a look like he was trying to telepathically communicate with him. He pawed at him carefully, and then moved his head as though indicating what direction they should travel.
“And I guess Barney’s here, too,” Reece got out, the frustration in his voice clear as day. He walked over to the middle of the group and stood in front of them, definitely attempting to take charge of the situation. It was what he, and probably everyone in his family, expected, considering his background in the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in both highschool and college and his expected future military career. Thornton couldn’t say he had the skills to be a leader, and didn’t want to be. None of the rest of his family seemed to be moving to take command of the situation either, and so there was no argument when his older brother began speaking with authority and laying out a plan of action.
“The first thing,” he started, the tone of his voice forcing everyone’s eyes his way, “is to find a source of water. We’re not going to last longer than a few days without it. Figuring out whatever the hell is going on can come after that, but we need water first thing. A forest like this probably has lots of it.”
“How is this real?” the dragon asked. “What happened? Is this a dream? There’s no way I can be whatever I am right now!”
“We’re gonna figure out what happened, Mom, but first, we need to find water. After that, we need shelter, and then food–”
“I have a test today in math, and a project due next month!” Denver got out, the first words she’d spoken since the group woke up. “I can’t be here!” she said, her quiet tears from before turning into loud sobbing.
His little sister sounded the same to Thornton, leaving only he and his father as the odd ones out. Although his father had the excuse of apparently no longer being male– a fact he wished he wasn’t able to confirm given every creature’s lack of clothing. Still, it was probably better to be in his father’s position than it was to sound so buggish like Thornton did.
His father spoke up now as the bug finished the silent thought, stepping closer to Denver and looking down at her. That was another thing. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t having any trouble operating his new alien body, as strange as it was. It felt natural enough– as natural as an unnatural looking bug could be. He didn’t feel very clumsy at least, and neither his brother nor his father looked so.
“We’re gonna be– oh, God, this is so weird,” his father grimaced. “We’re gonna be fine, Denver. And everyone. Now stop crying and listen to your brother since he’s probably gonna know what best to do.”
“But how do we even do anything?” she asked. “We’re all… I don’t know! I guess we’re horses, but Mom’s a dragon, and the others are like aliens or something, and I think you’re a girl, and we don’t have any hands or clothes or–”
“Okay,” he interrupted, holding up a hoof to stop her like it was the most natural movement in the world. “I understand that dear, but that’s why we need to listen to your brother until we figure out what’s going on.”
The girl looked ready to continue, but before she could, Reece started talking again. “I already said we need to find water, and then in order, the next priorities are shelter, food, clothing, and civilization. Although if we’re animals, I’m not sure how well the clothes thing will pan out.” Collective group embarrassment made its way to Thornton’s senses, but a second later, his brother continued, “I don’t know what’s going on– not that I think anyone does– but as long as we stick together and be smart, we’re gonna be able to get through… being horses and dragons and weird aliens. I don’t know. But I’m certain we can find a way out of this.”
It was certainly confident words for someone who didn’t know what was happening. Thornton could taste the genuine confidence and self assurance from Reece, the emotion coming off as spicy and tangy. None of that confidence made its way off of his sister or parents though. From his mother and sister, he tasted their emotions changing from fear to despondence, although it was more confusion and embarrassment from his father, mixed with… something. He couldn’t tell what, but it felt like his father was still trying to process what was going on. Not that it was a surprise though. Everyone was.
But standing there and trying to process things wasn’t moving, something that their dog made clear as Barney started forward and pointed its head to beckon them along. Reece quickly moved in front of him to assert his position as the leader as though their dog would steal the position from him. Barney moved back to lick Thornton’s leg softly, then seemed to express his want for the group to get moving through a sturdy facial expression.
A very strange way to wake up, it was. The bug creature could say that much.