Seal
Jared ran as fast as his two stubby legs could carry him towards the package. He snatched it out of the sand with the bottom paper rendered see-through from the water and having grains glued to it. It was big and cumbersome in his short arms, but he managed to lug it over to the nearby treeline where he would have some privacy from any wandering humans. A week of dodging trainers eager to catch him had instilled an instinct for finding the best hiding place. The pond was good for diving, but with this package in tow it was best to retreat into the woods where he could keep it dry.
Deep in the company of trees he found a spot to sit cross legged with the neatly wrapped package in front of him. It came undone slowly and carefully so as not to make too much noise lest he attract the attention of a passing trainer. Though he took his time, Jared’s imagination went wild guessing what he’d find. A new Pokémon? Some other fictional creature? A regular one? Anything was possible with the recent track record of bizarre beings and places Jared had been put in. The only thing he expected was the unexpected.
The string and paper blossomed out from beneath the box without so much a tear before Jared lifted the cardboard lid and laid eyes on the suit within. What greeted him was the mottled, smooth underbelly of a creature covered in fine, miraculously fine fur. A velvet sheen glistened in the dim forest light, waving when Jared ran his hand across its exquisite softness. A closed zipper ran down the center from the collar which he took a moment to run his finger across. What is it? He grabbed the suit by its shoulders and lifted it out of the box, allowing the arms to swing out to the sides. Opposite of the underbelly it was a much darker graphite, though the dappled pattern remained. He still couldn’t piece together what it was, so he stood up with the suit hanging full length from his fists.
That’s when he noticed something strange with the legs, that being there weren’t any. Where there should have been two bottom sleeves for his legs to fit there was only a convergence in the suit, forming something like a sleeping bag. It tapered inwards to a point that had two deflated flaps of skin dangling. Jared pulled the suit further up for a closer look. Upon inspection he recognized a pair of dainty seal flippers complete with webbed fingers. “A seal,” he said out loud to himself. He thumbed the flippers and their bony digits. “Really continuing with the aquatic theme, I see.”
What kind of world would this bring him to? A seal civilization? A sealvilization? Maybe it took place entirely on the shores, or underwater. It couldn’t be on land, not without any legs to walk on. Then again, it might not be a civilization at all. Where I’m at right now definitely isn’t any vaporeon planet. He worried about living in the wild like he did here, having to dodge sharks, orcas, and more humans. The Pokémon world carried the threat of being captured. This world carried the threat of being killed.
But he didn’t know that. It was just his cautious side warning him of what could happen. The past week had been hard on him, drilling him into a permanent state of caution. Around every corner could be a threat, as well as a whole slew of them waiting within the confines of this onesie. Or am I just being paranoid? As always, there was only one way to find out for real. He’d grown tired of all the running, swimming, and fighting for his freedom. I can make it a week as a seal, right? How hard can it be? If he’d been told he would be opting to leave the world where he lived as a Pokémon he would’ve slapped someone. Now here he was pulling the zipper down and bringing the suit down to his knees so that he could step inside.
It was awkward given the lack of legs which forced him to get on his butt and pull the onesie up his body like a sleeping bag. His stubby vaporeon legs couldn’t make it to the bottom, but the tip of his tail did. Nor could he reach all the way through the sleeves without scrunching them up. Jared was left lying there on his back awkwardly, unable to stand up or go anywhere. Fortunately he didn’t have to wait long for the transformation to begin. He looked down at his chest and saw that the zipper had disappeared. On cue, the seal skin sank into his body like shrink wrap. Here we go, he thought per tradition.
His legs and tail were crushed together by the gripping skin. The wrinkles in the sleeves flattened out along his arms and the spines and fins that grew from his head were smushed flat under the hood. His jaw clenched out of discomfort, this being a slightly different process from what he was used to. The onesie made a slow crawl down his paws, covering the smooth blue scales with that dappled velvet. He tried wriggling his legs, only to realize the sensation and mobility had been robbed from them. Trying to move his tail just made the flippers attached to the onesie twitch. A mixture of numbness and pressure ebbed and tugged at his lower body, bringing a grimace across his face which was quickly absorbed by the shrinking hood.
“Ah…” The seal skin fell about his snout and jaw, covering all of what had been a vaporeon. The spines and fins flattened and dissipated into his body underneath the all-encompassing grey. It was especially tight around his arms which he felt were being sucked into his body. With the suit having absorbed all his features it began tugging at the flesh with its usual curtness. More grunts and wheezes escaped through Jared’s clenched teeth as his legs and tail melded into one elongated torso. So too did his arms begin to visibly retract into his shoulders like the reverse timelapse of a sapling.
He tried calming himself through the ordeal. OK. OK. No big deal. This isn’t your first rodeo. Not by a longshot. Trying to lift his feet succeeded in making his new flippers bounce into the air. What had been his toes, now a set of long spines which segmented the webbing, pointed up at the forest canopy in a lazy fan. There was no tail to move anymore, it having been devoured by the length of body that had become his trunk. His arms fared no better, having sunk up to the mid forearm by this point with his hands having become limp and useless too. They stopped at the wrist which was now the base wrung around by a fold of soft blubber. Moving them around created nothing but a hilarious flapping motion which clapped his debilitated fingers against his chest.
Jared was glad he didn’t have a reflection to look at this time. He had to look ridiculous. He certainly felt that way without any agency in the middle of the forest, flipping and flopping like a fish. The final humiliation came when his torso began to bloat like a balloon, his added layer of blubber growing thicker and thicker until he was but a furry meat sausage with a puppy head attached to it. Then the transformation stopped, and Jared was a seal. It left him on the forest floor, on his back with his neck fat folded up as he looked down at his bloated, tubby body. He flapped his flippers around, patting them against his skin while going nowhere. With the pond several yards away, it was going to be a while before he could make any significant locomotion.
Well, this is a pickle. That’s what Jared meant to say out loud, but what came instead was an animalistic grunt that blew out his lips. What the hell? Jared flexed his mouth, flaring the gummy inner pink and sharp rows of teeth in his mouth. Can I not talk with this mouth? Another attempt came with him trying to recite his ABC’s. The results were similar, each consonant rumbling his lips while the vowels were nothing but grunts. Jared laid there flustered and confused. Did the suit turn me into a full animal this time? I guess I should have seen that coming with how the suit was shaped.
But his lack of speech was the least of his problems. His portly seal body was worthless and vulnerable on the forest floor. If he wanted any hope of escaping danger, he was going to have to make it back to the pond, and fast. I doubt there are any pokemon trainers still out there, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a human walking around with a harpoon or a club. Jared rolled over onto his stomach, the prepatory move to push himself to his feet. Of course, he had no arms to push with nor any feet to stand on. Shit! How do seals move? He focused on ol’ reliable: muscle memory. Push yourself forward. This body knows what to do. It did, but it still wasn’t easy. Jared’s upper body would jerk upwards into the air, dragging the rest of him forward before his belly and chest came flopping back down onto the dirt. Whumpf! It took some big effort, but each lift would only drag him forward a foot at most. After just a few flops his core muscles ached. Jesus, it’s like doing the worm.
But he wasn’t about to stop, not until he was at the safety of the pond. Looking forward he saw it through the trees and heard its gentle sloshes against the shore. Something was off, however. The expanse beyond the woods where the pond should have been looked brighter and more open like the clearing had been expanded tenfold. Huffing through his nose, Jared picked up a new scent. The air was thick with the saline smell of the ocean. I’m not at the pond anymore, he realized. Of course not. Seals don’t live in ponds. In the distance there came the high pitched squawk of seagulls. As he got closer to the shore he realized that the lap of water was not a gentle trickling sound like it had been at the pond, but crashing waves that rumbled and roared.
After what had felt like a mile of struggling, Jared made it to the treeline where the sea greeted him. Between it was a rocky shore strewn with boulders and layered with moist, darkened sand. The steely, blue-green waves burst against the rocks into a white froth, boiling across the sand before receding. Above it all was an overcast sky, broiling gray rippled through by the enigmatically positioned sun. The seagulls Jared had heard earlier hovered over the water in the distance, towards another shore opposite where he was.
His attention was drawn there. It wasn’t far, maybe half a mile away, featuring a sandy shore in front of a long horizon of grass flat for as far as the eye could travel. To his right the land jutted into a narrow peninsula strewn with boulders. Flocks of seagulls were landing and taking off there. That wasn’t all there was. Among the rocks he saw figures mulling about, either walking or lazing on the sand. Seals? His eyes could not focus to tell for sure, but many of the prostrate figures he saw moving definitely resembled the portly sausage body of his own. But that didn’t explain those which walked upright and maneuvered through the rocks. That certainly wasn’t something a seal was capable of, nor did their colors resemble anything of the sort. Jared thought he saw the pale flesh color of human skin, but he wasn’t sure. In spite of all the mystery, there was something oddly familiar about the location and its apparent denizens. There wasn’t any concrete memory of the place, but while looking at it there came an odd sense of familiarity, like he’d seen it a million times, like home.
Written by TheGreatJaceyGee on 13 October 2024