Prologue
I sighed as I sat up, rubbing my eyes with my hands whilst yawning. I hate mornings, especially when it's a Monday morning; it's the dreaded day that no one looks forward to, mainly because it means it's back to work for everyone. Mostly everyone, I should say; some people get summers off. Lucky bastards...
You know, now that I think about it, I can't actually feel my blanket. Did I sleep walk again? Ugh, I must have, and I'm probably outside with a bunch of bugs on me. This is pretty common, and I hate it because it means I probably have a bunch of mosquito bites all over me, which also means I'll itch all day. However, I don't remember my home having a bunch of birds chirping. I lived in the big city, Portland, to be exact, and the only thing I ever heard was the angry traffic and the sounds of people cursing at each other.
I finally decided to stop rubbing my eyes after I was sure I got the sleeping dust out of there, and took in my surroundings; lots of trees, really tall trees. They didn't appear to be native to Oregon or Washington, since almost all of the trees were either fir or pines. And since I was in a forest, I'd have to assume that I wasn't in Portland. Longest sleep walk I've ever had, probably.
I stretched my arms, standing up and yawning. Feels like a Monday; body feels tired and different, the usual. Sleep-walking a few hundred miles would do that. Although... I don't think I could accomplish that, even if I'm physically fit. Eh, who cares, I'll just catch a ride with a tourist or something who's going to pass through Portland. From their, I'll just walk home. It is the summer after all.
I began to walk, but when I did, I fell over, my legs failing me. How? I'm not sure, but it didn't feel right... pushing myself up with my hands... wait a minute, my hands look different! Did I run through a radioactive puddle mixed with acid? My hands weren't living anymore, or at least didn't look like they were, instead looking more like something out of the walking dead; decayed and veiny. The only thing that wasn't zombie-like was that they ended in sharp points.
My eyes widened, and I took a look at my legs reluctantly, and I almost screamed when they weren't at all human legs; they had thighs and knees, sure, but there was an extra joint where the foot should be, and it extended down and ended in a hoof. My legs were also decayed, but the knee joints and... lower knee joints seemed to have some sort of spiked kneecap, the special spike seeming too anatomically correct to be real.
I was too stunned for words, and I could hear- wait, nevermind, I can't even hear my own heartbeat. I looked at my arms, and instead of being shocked by their decayed look, I was more shocked by how lean they looked; for a decayed monster-thing, I had a very lean body. I looked like a WWE superstar, excluding the charm, of course.
I reached up to run my hand through my hair, but something blocked the way. I continued to feel the object with curiosity, my eyes widening as I realized they were horns. Huge fucking horns. They were more like a bighorn sheep's, except thicker and ending by pointing up and outwards. I rubbed my hands against my face, and I wasn't too surprised that it wasn't my own. But the fact that I could feel bone scared me; god knows that anyone who sees me will be terrified, unless they can't sense fear of course, but as far as I know that's not possible.
I stood up slowly, balancing myself so I stood upright. I then took the challenge to stand on one leg, and when that was accomplished, I stood on the other. Why did I do this? To get a feel of my legs, of course; I needed to know how to work the new joints in order to move efficiently. It was difficult learning to walk with a new joint in my leg, but after a few minutes of walking in circles, walking in a straight line and walking backwards, walking felt natural again, thank god.
Now for the next step; find out where the hell I am. I for sure did not know where I was, but I'm sure if I find someone and convince them I won't hurt them, they'll tell me... unless they don't speak English or Spanish, then I'll just have to resort to hiding; if the rumors are true, soon some men in black will hunt me down and capture me for study.
I began walking through the forest, clueless of where I was going. It was better than nothing, at least. Besides, I always enjoyed the scenery whenever I went on vacation, always taking the longest path to reach my destination. As I walked on, I looked on at the pure beauty of this place; the air was fresher, the colors were more vibrant, and the wildlife was more prominent; I saw bunnies run when they saw me, birds flew high above the trees, and I even caught sight of some sort of wolf with green glowing eyes running away when it saw me. It was brown, but I couldn't actually tell since it was hiding in the darkness. I shrugged it off, though; I'd be surprised if anything would touch me with a ten-foot pole.
As I continued my long walk through this strange forest, I began noticing a few things; first was the way too colorful colors, which were more technicolor than anything now that I looked closer. Second was the smell of cologne, which I somehow picked up. I guess my nose was now super sensitive.
I raised my arm and sniffed my armpit, which had no smell at all, and I raised a nonexistent brow; I don't smell like cologne, shocker, but I don't have a smell either. But if I don't smell like cologne, then what the hell does? I stopped and sniffed the air, looking for the source of the scent. My head slowly followed the lingering smell, and eventually I saw where it was coming from...
...an anthropomorphic pony? I'm going to guess the government has been hiding a secret species from the rest of the world, and pray that I'm not going crazy. It was really strange, seeing something like this; I was surely at least two feet taller than it, but that was probably because of my extended height because of my extra joints. The pony's fur was a technicolor shade of turquoise, its mane and tail being bright pink. It wore clothing that resembled safari gear; the khaki hat, khaki shirt with rolled up sleeves and khaki shorts gave it away in an instant. If I had to guess, it was either a hiker or a scientist, but I couldn't tell.
He seemed to be, ah, "opening the flood gates" as it were, whistling a happy tune. I looked away until he was done, the embarrassment of seeing that causing me cringe. When I heard his stream come to a stop, I turned my head back to him, blinking a few times whilst waiting for him to turn around.
He turned around after zipping up his zipper on his khaki shorts, and it was then I saw the binoculars that hanged around his neck, along with the pen in his shirt pocket along with a notepad. He seemed to stop, however, when he saw my feet. Slowly but surely, his eyes slowly made its way up my body, before eventually looking into my eyes. His faced showed pure horror, his eyes were pinpricks, and his jaw was opening and closing several times.
He then closed his eyes tightly, hanging his head and raising shoulders saying in a rather hushed tone, "Buck me..." He must be expecting me to kill him or something like that, but I didn't really want to. After all, he was just a tourist or something who got caught with his pants down, in almost every sense of the word.
I opened my mouth to speak, but for some reason, I couldn't, and all I that came out sounded somewhat like a tire running over gravel. It was hard to describe, honestly. The pony, however, raised his shoulders even higher, trying to suck his head in like a tortoise hiding in its shell. I sighed, which came out more like a growl, but it'll do. If I can't speak, perhaps I can act as though I am not a monster, which seemed really easy at the time, until I realized I was a decayed anthropomorphic goat with a skull instead of a face.
I stayed silent, looking down at the pony as he simply held still. After a few minutes of silence, he slowly opened his eyes, forcing himself to look at me. He cocked his head to the side whilst giving me a strange look, "You're... not going to kill me?" Upon not getting a response from me, he continued, his fear dissipating a bit, "Well... you're a new creature, aren't you?" He walked around me a bit while I followed him with my gaze. "Yes you are, indeed... I suppose that this is another one of the Everfree's magic creatures, but then again..." He pulled out his notepad and pen, scribbling what I guessed were words, before putting it back in his chest pocket. "This requires further examination." He looked up at me, raising a brow, "I'll see you soon, creature."
And with that, he turned on his heel and left, mumbling to himself as he did so. When he was out of sight, I sighed again. 'That was... odd.' I thought to myself, popping my neck. That pony was definitely a researcher of sorts, and I hope his intentions are good when he says 'I'll see you soon.' If they're not, I'll need to find a place to hide, otherwise he might send more of his people to capture me.
With that in mind, I decided to turn around and walk away from the path of the scientist, searching for a place that no living thing would look for something my size. I needed something discreet, secret, an unlikel-
I stopped myself abruptly at the edge of a cliff, swinging my arms counter-clockwise so fast it looked like something straight out of a looney toon. When I regained my balance, the first thing I did was take a large step back away from the cliff-side. Afterwards, I looked on, and what I saw was absolutely stunning; a castle of sorts, standing tall and proud. It seemed run down, but it was still massive enough to look like the a gothic church.
I looked around, and surely enough, I saw a rather long wooden bridge that connected one side to the other. I suppose this castle will be my new hiding spot, at least for the time being.