《New nature》 Natural death Raelynn for her post doctoral research on massive millipedes, was looking for fossils in the mountain range. It was getting dark after hours of work and finding nothing, Raelynn went back to area with tents and entered hers. Inside she saw her colleague Jenifer typing something on laptop - Do you know how to position image in LaTeX? - asked Jenifer. - I don¡¯t know. Just google it ¨C replied Raelynn. - I always have some problems whenever I write, I spend more time searching how to do something than actually writing. - Anyway I didn¡¯t find anything on dig site. I¡¯m going to sleep. - Alright, I¡¯m getting tired too, I will finish soon. Raelynn took off her necklace, changed to pajama and went to sleep. In the morning after she woke up and ate breakfast Raelynn went with others to dig site. After some time of working Tom came up to her with dissatisfied look on his face - So far we didn¡¯t find anything ¨C he said. - The more we dig up the more we find out¡­ maybe ¨C Raelynn replied. - Maybe we should move somewhere else? - But there¡¯s no guarantee we will find something somewhere else and if we actually find fossil here the fun will begin. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Their conversation was interrupted by scream. When they turned their heads they saw other colleague, short distance away, with arms spread wide slowly walking back. Man loudly said - EVERYBODY SLOWLY GET BACK! THERE¡¯S MOUNTAIN LION Raelynn¡¯s heart started beating faster, cougar was hissing aggressively and heading towards group. Before she realized others backed away, maintaining eye contact with cougar she tried to back away but mountain lion started sprinting. Startled Raelynn tried to run backwards, because of that tripped and fell on the back. Before she could even pick herself up cougar was already on top of her and bit on her throat. Raelynn tried to scream but no sound came out, she felt warm blood running down. Raelynn could no longer breathe, desperate to catch some air she squirmed but to no avail. It felt like minutes, cougar was still holding her with powerful jaws, Raelynn didn¡¯t know what to do, she tried to use all her strength to get up however laying on back and with big cat on top she failed. Just now she vaguely heard someone yelling - RAELYNN! In corner of her eyes she saw some shapes coming closer. The hold on her throat loosened, finally, she tried to gasp for air but only felt a liquid pouring into lungs. Everything around became hazy, there were sounds of yelling and hisses. Her chest started burning, she couldn¡¯t cough blood out of lungs. In pain, afraid, Raelynn was helpless. Then she felt pressure put on her throat and again sharp pain of teeth piercing neck. Cougar started dragging her away. Raelynn was worn out but with what remained of her strength tried to fight back. World became darker and darker, the only thing she felt now was pain and burning in her chest for more oxygen. The world went black. ¡­ Raelynn suddenly woke up with tears in her eyes breathing heavily, she grabbed her throat to check on it. There was no blood or pain, after calming down Raelynn looked around, she was outside in dark forest. What quickly caught her attention was that leaves on shrubs and ferns were almost black with violet hue - Am I going blind? - she asked herself. - Tom? Jenifer? Alex? Anybody? - Raelynn called but no one answered. She started wandering in unknown place. As she walked she noticed more and more weird things. The plants she have never seen before, weird structures as wide as tree trunks and in a distance a millipede that not only she didn¡¯t know but also one of the biggest she ever saw around 50cm long. Meeting It¡¯s been few hours now, anxiety was growing. Raelynn hasn¡¯t seen any signs of civilization, she came to conclusion she have some kind brain damage due to difficulty seeing colours. Thinking about it made her only more nervous, the chances of staying alive weren¡¯t in her favour. Her mind went back when she was home with friends, when she was studying to satisfy her curiosity. It made Raelynn feel better for a moment but then she started thinking that she could possibly never come back to that life, she might freeze to death or be eaten by animal. Raelynn started breathing faster, she didn¡¯t want to die she just wanted to go back home and forget everything that happened. Her body felt numb. After everything she had done she will end up as a corpse but why? Why can¡¯t she just live happily. Breathing heavily Raelynn sat down and leaned against tree. Her field of view decreased and Raelynn felt sharp pain in her chest. The fear and thoughts of dying wouldn¡¯t go away. Raelynn couldn¡¯t stop thinking about dying, she looked at the sky, comforting colour started slowly calming her down. The pain in chest faded away, taking deep breaths mind started to clear, with tunnel vision and headache Raelynn decided to take break. Still stressed she closed her eyes and took deep breathes through nose and breathe out through mouth, now much more calm her vision returned to normal and her head no longer hurt. She stayed in this spot to rest more - Ok, I¡¯m calm. Panicking doesn¡¯t help. I¡¯m calm now ¨C Raelynn reassured herself - Alright, I need to take breaks. Phew, ok the only thing I need is to find people and I will be good. After a while Raelynn got her strength back and continued marching in random direction focused on her goal trying to reject any intrusive thoughts. To focus on something else she stopped for a moment and picked up some black leaf analyzing it thoroughly, it was rough and stiff in touch. Leaf on its own was tongue shaped with primary vein going through center and many densely packed secondary veins going outwards. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. - This tells me¡­ absolutely nothing. Cool leaf though. She put it in her pocket. Raelynn continued her journey, not having anything to eat for hours she was becoming hungry. Slowly it was becoming significantly darker. Suddenly she heard rustling of leaves nearby, it was coming from multiple directions at once and these things rustling in leaves were approaching. Raelynn¡¯s heart started beating faster, her skin became pale when she heard something like hyena laughs but higher pitched. She turned around to maybe run away but she was surrounded. What shocked her was when one of the critters showed up. It wasn¡¯t a normal anima, it had small posture with long bushy tail, not so small triangular ears and black nose. The fur was mainly purple with pale yellow area on thin muzzle, it reminded her of a fox with weird colours. Raelynn was stunned, soon other fox like creatures came out in front of her, they circled around Raelynn, when she tried to move they started to ¡°laugh¡± louder. Standing for a while one of the creatures decided to carefully approach. It was slowly walking towards Raelynn keeping body close to the ground. Raelynn wasn¡¯t sure if she can run away so the only option was to fight. She raised her shoulders, put arms sideways to make her look bigger and started yelling. Fox-like creature stopped and hissed towards her. There has been standoff with either side refusing to give up, based on their behaviour it looked like they¡¯re more curious than hungry but Raelynn didn¡¯t know if her knowledge about animals applies in this weird place with weird animals. Her scare tactics wasn¡¯t working as well after some time and critter came closer and closer while others stayed back observing. Finally weird fox was at her feet and like a cat smacked quickly her boot with paw - Maybe you really are just curious ¨C Raelynn thought loudly She crouched while critter back away at the same time, Raelynn extended her hand towards animal, it sniffed towards her from a distance and slapped her hand. Transformation After ¡°fox¡± slapped her Raelynn felt something in her entire body. Like energy coming in and out of her resonating with bones and muscles, she heard ringing in her ears and her vision got blurry. Raelynn dropped on knees, her entire body felt like submerged in oil while that energy was flowing in more and more like it tried to fill her body. Energy inside wasn¡¯t distributed uniformly, bones and muscles slowly started adjusting to it. Raelynn could feel changes how limbs were getting shorter, the elongating skull, pushing on the backside from within her. Her entire skin got warmer, she felt like muscles are trying to push out fur from beneath skin. Her entire body shrunk, none of her bones or muscles were at the original length. Her perspective changed, the world around became brighter, image became sharper, she could see more surrounding with wider field of view and everything had colours she haven¡¯t seen before nor could describe them. Leaves were no longer black, fox like creatures weren¡¯t purple anymore. All of the senses were overwhelming, everything became louder as her ears moved around in all directions whenever she heard any sound. New kinds of smells appeared, very flowery, sweet and the stench of rotting flesh. Raelynn felt tingling in her feet, palms and cheeks. She shrunk enough to get covered by her own clothes. Raelynn felt the weight of shirt on her back and new appendage on backside. When shrinking stopped she crawled out of clothes, very confused she looked at herself with her wide field of view. With paws, fur and tail she looked like those ¡°foxes¡± who were standing at attention also dumbfounded at what just transpired. - I¡­ uuh¡­ what? - Raelynn was speechless ¨C Did you do this to me? Raelynn turned towards nearest ¡°fox¡±, he looked at her inquisitively and the rest came closer to inspect Raelynn. In total there were 10 of them who surrounded and sniffed her. After they were satisfied they went past her like nothing happened while Raelynn was sitting trying to comprehend her transformation. After critters went about 10 meters they stopped and looked back at her. She felt little uncomfortable not sure what they want from her. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. - What do you want from me? Go! - She yelled while they didn¡¯t budge. One of them sneezed, Raelynn somehow could sense they¡¯re becoming impatient looking at their body language. - You want me to go with you or something? - She looked at herself and then forest around - It actually might be better idea now that I¡¯m weird ass fox. It would be better if one of you gets eaten instead me if anything happens¡­ She stood up still overwhelmed by all sensory inputs, picked up necklace with her mouth and tried to walk forward towards the group. She fell flat not being used to walking on all fours. - This is so weird, nothing is in the right place. At least I don¡¯t have 1000 legs like some millipedes. ¨C She mumbled. She got up and constantly thinking about how to walk she got over to the group. It was easy to figure how to move around however it wasn¡¯t intuitive. While walking Raelynn started to adjust to new senses, with wide field of vision she could observe surrounding without turning head, with moving ears she could easily point at which direction specific sounds came from. But so far the weirdest senses were smell and sense of touch. Using chemotaxis by moving her head into different directions Raelynn could smell where scents were weaker and where they were stronger allowing to more or less know from which direction smell came from. Navigating through terrain wasn¡¯t an issue at all, she had better understanding of terrain and general shapes thanks to whiskers. Raelynn was fascinated by how she could physically feel her surrounding and doesn¡¯t need to rely on sight as much. She could also feel slight vibrations in ground from group moving forward. - That¡¯s trippy, you can learn all these things about animals but it don¡¯t reflect in the slightest how it feels. Now I kinda wish humans would have whiskers. While she was walking and exploring new sensations before it got really dark group arrived at their destination, Raelynn smelled strong scent of species she was part of now. She saw more of those ¡°foxes¡± where about half of them were young pups. - Finding civilization might be hard. Especially in this state ¨C She remarked while yawning ¨C Maybe this will fix itself when I wake up. Raelynn dropped necklace and tried to use her paws to pick it up, she hooked one of the rings with her claw and managed to put it on her neck then she curled up under a bush for a little bit of cover and went to sleep. Water source A sudden tugging on Raelynn¡¯s back woke her up. She yawned, noticing she really had fur and paws. - Oh, right, that happened. Looking to the back she saw one of the pups playing with her tail. Raelynn stretched and stood up while the pup refused to let go. - You are adorable, but you have had your fun, now shoo. - She said to the pup which ignored her. - Ok, now you are getting annoying! After Raelynn raised her voice, the pup looked up and stared at her with the eyes of a creature with no thoughts. He stared at Raelynn for a few moments, then playfully ran away. Despite very good sleep a few problems became apparent. She still didn¡¯t know how to come back to being human, she needed water and food for survival, lastly, Raelynn didn¡¯t know the area. - First things first, I need to drink something. Mammals can learn where water is from their parents, they can also sense moisture or smell water. - Raelynn paused, thinking for a moment ¨C How does water smell!? She put her nose up in the air and took a deep breath, a plethora of smells entered her nose, but she didn¡¯t know which one was water. Raelynn thought of 2 options: either follow someone from the group until they get thirsty or wander around hoping to find a source of water. - Or maybe they eat some special plant to get hydrated? What''s a better way to learn than stalking one of them. Raelynn laid down on her side picking a target. While waiting, she started thinking about what she should name this species, scientific name should follow the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, but common name doesn¡¯t need to. - Blue foxes? Are they even foxes? And foxes don¡¯t form big packs. While she was pondering, the two of them came close and laid down next to her, basking in the Sun. A bird came down and landed on one of them, it had dark gray-ish feathers with a brighter underbelly. The beak was a bright, vibrant colour, cylindrical with a slight curve at the end. The bird started pecking at fur, eating off parasites. Time passed as Raelynn thought of a name for them to take her mind off being thirsty. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. - False foxes could work, there are false crabs, so why not? As the two false foxes got up and started heading away from dens, Raelynn decided to go with them. They walked for a few minutes when her ears picked up the familiar sound of running water. Happy that she will finally have something to drink, Raelynn started swishing her tail. When they got close to the stream she was shocked at what she saw. - WHAT THE FU¡­ - She barely contained her scream. Getting down on the ground to hide among the foliage she startled the other two false foxes, they stopped, alerted by Raelynn and looked around for any danger. On the other side of the stream there was a huge dragon drinking water. It was at least 3m tall, who knows what the weight of such a beast would be and what kind of bite force it has. Raelynn carefully observed the dragon, aerodynamic head of a dragon with front-facing eyes was lowered down to drink from the stream. Smooth scales on the upper side were the beautiful colour of sky with silvery dots, while the underside looked softer with a pale yellow hue. Very unusual for a tetrapod the dragon had 6 limbs: 4 legs as well as 2 impressive wings tucked into the sides. There are known cases of animals ¡°losing¡± limbs in evolutionary process, like snakes or legless lizards, but she doesn¡¯t know any animal that "gained" an additional pair. Perhaps something similar to Coelacanth took another evolutionary path or a mutation of Sonic hedgehog gene caused the development of an additional pair of limbs, however it wasn¡¯t time to ponder how evolutionary tree looks like in this world. To Raelynn¡¯s surprise, two foxes after looking around for a while, started casually approaching water, ignoring the presence of a dragon. Hesitantly, she also came to stream observing potential danger.? She looked down at murky water and snarled, animals tend to develop resistance to dirty water and Raelynn hoped she somehow gained such immunity when she changed to a false fox. She took a big sniff to remember how it smells for later. The scent of algae entered her nostrils. With a slight disgust she started drinking water, still observing dragon. The dragon raised its head from the stream and without paying attention to Raelynn¡¯s group it turned around and lazily walked away. After coming back to her temporary home, thoughts were constantly running through Raelynn¡¯s head. Others weren¡¯t concerned about giant lizard but she didn¡¯t know if they just weren¡¯t part of the dragon¡¯s diet or if just this particular dragon was on good terms with this particular group. Both scenarios were possible, but for now a new issue has appeared. She was getting hungry. Hunger - So, hey, how about we go eat something? What do you think? - Raelynn tried talking to the group, few of the members paid attention to her, however they looked confused ¨C Do you organize hunting parties or go solo? She got no response. - I am actually going insane, there¡¯s no way they can speak. Defeated, Raelynn laid down and curled into a ball. One of the females from the pack, sensing something was wrong, sat next to her and started licking Raelynn¡¯s ears. A showcase of affection made Raelynn feel a little bit better. - Thanks. So uhh¡­ Yip yip? - She tried to mimic the noises she had been hearing them make. Raelynn tried different noises to establish some form of communication, including high-pitched barks, bad impression of hyena laugh and violent exhaling through nose. She caught the attention of the group and with time more and more false foxes gathered to look at her. Raelynn realized a small crowd formed with her at the center of attention, she felt really embarrassed, even when she knew that most likely it didn¡¯t matter. She stopped making noises to not further make herself look like an idiot. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. When the group dispersed Raelynn got an idea, she ran her tongue through her teeth, she had 4 pairs of long canines separated by smaller, sharp teeth. Trying to determine what kind of diet she would have without looking at the jaw proved difficult. Long canines would be used for killing prey and tearing flesh but Raelynn didn¡¯t know if she could eat plants. She put her nose to work once more, looking down she started sniffing different plants, looking for something that smelled pleasant or tasty. She felt an intense flowery fragrance alongside the smell of freshly cut grass. It was very pleasant smell and the air was very clean, but it wasn¡¯t what Raelynn was looking for. Poking around, she didn¡¯t find any plants that smelled edible, but she noticed a small lizard. It was camouflaging among foliage but movement gave away its¡¯ position. The lizard had a squiggly red line on its'' back, running from head to tip to the tail. - Lucky me ¨C Raelynn put her head close to the lizard - Wait I just eat it like that? Just chewing on living animal? She shuddered at that thought. She was aware animals kill to survive but Raelynn never imagined doing it herself. Not only that she would be eating raw meat and brain, eyes and internal organs. - What if it¡¯s poisonous? Is red camouflage or warning? Raelynn imagined her dying to a poisonous lizard, the thought struck fear in her. In the moment of indecision the lizard, sensing danger, turned to the side and ran away hiding from predator. Raelynn lost the lizard and appetite. She lay in tall grass, hungry and bored. she¡¯s been laying for about an hour when her ears moved in the direction of a short howl. When she looked up there was a small gathering made out of adults. Having nothing better to do, Raelynn joined the group, when nobody else joined after her they started to move out. Predator Raelynn observed carefully behaviour of the group, quickly learning their body language. They were walking spread out sweeping the area, there was 1 leader making decisions while others were communicating if they sensed some source of food or danger. Long, high pitched whimper with slightly raised tail meant there¡¯s potentially food in direction, pointing the direction with their head. Then leader made the decision, if he sneezed group would change directions. Finding prey wasn¡¯t easy, most smaller animals ran away before Raelynn could even spot them. Her ears perked, there was something bigger moving in front of her among bushes. She wasn¡¯t sure if she should yelp out warning signal to others or wait and see what creature hides behind. Before she decided others came closer for safety barring their teeth awaiting for what comes next. From the bushes came out creature standing on 2 legs, it was taller than any of the false foxes with height of about 1m not counting big oval ears. Weirdly, the creature had short white fur that didn¡¯t blend in with environment. with thick tail and short muzzle shape of a body resembled a slug. The creature stopped, with big black eyes it starred at Raelynn¡¯s group observing what they will do. It got down on all fours and very slowly moved forward. - Damn it, this one is just too cute. I am hungry but- Before Raelynn could finish her thought someone rushed towards the creature, however it quickly stood up and threw a rock hitting false fox in the head. He stopped startled and the rest rushed to attack. White animal using few moments of head start ran towards nearest tree and climbed it with cat-like agility. There sitting on the branch it looked down upon a group, tail hanging taunted them. After a while white creature still refused to come down, the group decided to not waste time anymore and move on. Raelynn¡¯s nose caught faint sweet smell, she followed scent until she stopped and looked at a mushroom. Raelynn was considering eating it however she was on a hunt with others who knew what to eat. Despite that she gave the mushroom a lick, it didn¡¯t taste bitter, she stood there feeling like an idiot because she didn¡¯t want to take even the smallest risk. She was anxious, Raelynn probably stood there for too long because female member of a group came up, she sniffed mushroom and in one swoop ate it. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. - Hey that was mine! - Raelynn was more mad at herself for not eating something with such inviting smell right away rather than her meal being stolen. Search for prey continued, but then one of the false foxes tensed up, he put his ears backwards and got closer to the ground. He moved slowly and often stopping, movement resembling that of a mantis. She looked through the bush and saw giant millipede at least 2 meters long, black calcified exoskeleton shined in the sun rays. The millipede slowly moved cylindrical body. - Wow, it¡¯s beautiful. I actually can¡¯t believe I see¡­ the live example of giant millipede! She could not contain her excitement and fascination, only when member of her group moved slowly near her catching her attention, she remembered why they came here. It made her sad that they will have to kill such great animal. - Slow movement is to our advantage, it might be hard to get delicate legs when it curls up defensively we we should easily manage ¨C Raelynn thought to herself The group moved slowly towards prey, giant millipede raised small part of the segmented body and leaned it against brown porous pillar. Group rushed towards their prey while Raelynn tried to follow behind however her necklace was caught up in branches pulling her back. - Damn it! Raelynn spent few seconds to untangle her necklace without damaging it and rushed towards the group. It shocked her that millipede didn¡¯t curl up, instead it moved around with incredible speed and fighting back. She felt her heart beating faster as she was running, she jumped and bit on hard exoskeleton. But it was too hard to pierce, simultaneously Raelynn felt energy flowing in her body. - No, no, no, not this time! She focused solely on blocking that energy from coming, because of that she didn¡¯t notice millipede circling her around. Then she was grabbed with millipede¡¯s legs, she looked up to see tooth, like a jagged dagger, pointed towards her. Raelynn¡¯s heart jumped. She froze in place watching as her demise is coming, millipede was preparing to strike when it reeled back. One of the false foxes pulled off leg changing invertebrate¡¯s focus. Raelynn quickly jumped away to not be in the center, she was breathing heavily and her heart was pounding. From the distance she saw that millipede wasn¡¯t in pristine shape, surrounded by false foxes which attacked soft spots whenever their prey wasn¡¯t looking, with time their targe sustained more injuries. Limb by limb, more legs laid twitching on the ground, detached from the body. Millipede was becoming weaker and slower unable to keep up with attacker from multiple sides. In the final moments, when prey¡¯s weakened reflexes didn¡¯t allow to dodge, one of the males bit on millipedes head piercing large compound eye. Bodily fluids splattered around making top part of body limp. However rest of the body still is dangerous due to ventral nerve cord. It is still moving around. Scared to come close Raelynn watched as body eventually bleeds out and stops moving. The group didn¡¯t wait for her and begun to tear through soft spots eating the corpse. She came up and took a bite of soft warm insides almost vomiting out.