Park
His train of thought was cut by the sudden sweep of a shadow. It blew across the forest floor and blew past him with enough speed to make him duck. He looked up at the canopy and saw what had created it zooming just over the treetops. A bird or… something? Jared hadn’t seen it long enough to tell. Whatever it was, it was big, way bigger than any bird he’d seen during his week as a tigertaur. No way. Was that..? Then came another one, higher up this time and in a different direction. He got a clearer look at its silhouette, like a cat mid-leap, its four legs outstretched, its tail in a straight line behind it. Included were two, massive wings wider than the animal was long. Jared didn’t believe what he was seeing until just a few moments later when another zoomed past, and another not longer after that one.
Excitement building, Jared stormed away from the tree, his four legs thundering beneath him. I’ve got to see more of them. There’s got to be a clearing somewhere. He found one quickly, the trees vanishing suddenly to reveal a sprawling park and the civilization that fostered it. Seated in the fields, walking along the pathways, and flying through the air were people of his own kind. They were sphinxes from ancient Greek and Egyptian myth. Fit, bronzed human bodies were attached to the shoulders of lions with wings like the most majestic of eagles. They went about their day as casually as they would in any other setting. A woman was seated in the grass nearby with a quilt beneath her loafed cat legs. She was reading a book with an intense look on her face. She looked up from it at Jared when he came bursting out from the trees. He realized that he was staring at her, and that she was wearing a white T-shirt around her human torso and a pair of pants on her hind legs. The other folk he saw were also wearing clothes.
It would’ve been a silly sight if Jared’s heart didn’t leap in his chest. Shit! I’m naked! He slapped his arms over his chest, then noticed something odd. Wait. No, I’m not? He unraveled his arms and saw that a black T-shirt was draped over his torso. Emblazoned on the front of it was the logo of his favorite band, one he’d listened to in the universes where there was a civilization. How the hell did that get there? He looked behind himself and saw a pair of jeans on his hindlegs, covering everything up to the hips. His lion tail wagged hung out of it just below the beltline. “Huh…” he said with a smile. I guess that answers that question.
Yet so many more had sprouted around him with the world he found himself in. Was he really able to fly? How did that affect transportation? Surrounding the park were tall buildings like he would find in any other modern city, but here they featured something unique. The buildings had large balconies on every other floor, it seemed. On occasion someone would land on it and casually walk inside. It hurt Jared’s brain just to watch. He pictured himself doing the same thing, though he still had trouble believing it.
“Excuse me.”
The voice startled Jared. It was the woman he had first seen reading a book on the quilt. She had a concerned look on her face. Jared cleared his throat. “Y-yeah?”
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 05 June 2024