Cheetah
You pick up the suit. The fur feels real, the suit seems almost immaculate, well-kept, and there is a vague animal scent, which struck you as very unusual, even if it were real animal fur. You feel strange, as if you’re just now remembering a half-forgotten dream you had long ago, fragments of memories of running, of feeling different, of seeing a world that was all too familiar, yet still alien to all that you had experienced before. The suit seemed to carry promise of old hidden happy memories.
The desire to analyze the situation leaves you, and you can think no other thought than to slide on the suit. You step inside, and what happens next is a strange sensation, yet something that does not surprise you, as if you knew it would happen all along. The suit clings to your body, and after a few seconds of surprising warmth that fills you from head to toe, you feel shifts in your body that actually do feel strange, that give a moment of discomfort. The sound of joints popping, much like cracking your knuckles, sound throughout the room for a moment, and then it’s over.
The changes all leap out at you, bit by bit, and you take your time to adjust. First is your sense of vision; it becomes more crisp, more clear, and you can see little things in your environment you would otherwise miss, and while you cannot see different colors, you can see variations within colors that before all seemed the same. The second is the sense of smell, as you realize everything has a scent, including yourself. You step forward, to look down at your body. You are struck by the fact that you are now a woman, completely female, yet somehow this does not give you a loss of self; in fact, now you somehow feel more complete, though you never knew you had ever felt otherwise. Long strands of yellow hair falls midway down your chest and back. Your legs are not like a human’s, either, instead bending backwards much like a cheetah’s, though with broader paws to support your bipedal weight. You experiment, first by walking, then by running, back and forth in this strange room, partly to see how the legs feel, partly because you feel this strong energy. You just want to go, you just want to do, to feel the rush of wind in your hair -- in your fur!
You look around, remembering you are trapped in this place. Somehow this has become even worse; all that pent-up energy coursing through your body, the desire to run strong within you, and now…
A doorway you never saw before lays open along one side of the wall. You never noticed it before, and a small glow emanates from within. A part of you, a rational side that recognizes that none of this makes sense, tells you that you should be cautious, but every emotion seems to tell you that this doorway is nothing to fear. You decide to trust your instincts, and step up to the doorway, peering through.
You can see nothing. Just white space. There’s a light warmth that emanates from the doorway, however, and the smell of open air and grass. You decide to step forward…
Written by Lone Wolf on 31 May 2015
