Chapter Text
‘Don’t bother with them, [Y/N].’
‘Who needs those stupid humans when you have your own kind? This is your home.’
‘You’ve seen how they act towards your true form. That will never change.’
‘Stay here where you belong.’
‘They’re not worth it. All they’ll do is hurt you because they can’t accept something so wonderful.’
Such words always stuck to your mind, the cold truth always piercing your heart true. Although your hopes were high to prove them wrong, you knew that day would never come. At least, not with the way you looked. No matter how many changes, how many forms you took on, there was simply no escaping who-- nay, what you really were. Though such a form seemed normal to others of your kind, there was but one way you’d come to describe yourself after years of hearing it.
“A disgusting monster…” you sighed, the wading pool haunting you with your true form yet again.
Turning your back on the shameful reflection, you dashed away deeper into the shrouded forest area beneath the desolate mountain where you and others alike made your home. Large footsteps tromped behind and in front of you, your temporary solitude proving they belonged to only your feet and “hands”. Sighing again from the bare facts, you continued on your path back to your secretive woodland home.
With each step taken closer, depreciating thoughts overtook your mind. Now, you recalled a time where you-- as your kind does-- believed yourself to be alright. But, that all changed over time from the first moment you made contact with the thing that peaked your interest the most.
Humans.
Of course, being younger and more naive at the time, you’d failed to take on a more “natural” form that would have appealed to them more than… what it was you’ve actually looked like since birth. Unfortunately for you, the humans during that fateful encounter had no other reaction to your form than pure, unadulterated terror and revulsion. You remembered horrible sounds; loud sirens and terrified shrieks of the different species in unison with your racing heart and anxious breath as you fled as fast as you could.
You tried suppressing anymore horrible memories from that fateful encounter and any others attempted afterwards out of a wishful fool’s hope, but the words and objects they fired at you would never leave your subconscious no matter how hard you tried. Their strange projectile weapons and miscellaneous objects were painful, but the words they also shot at you were just as hard to forget. In your opinion, what they thought of you hurt much more than the injuries you sustained at each attempt to get closer to the other species.
‘What is that thing?! Someone help!’
‘Disgusting monster! Kill it!’
‘Call services! Get it away from here!’
“And yet I’m supposed to believe I’m fine looking this way when I don’t shapeshift,” you scoffed to yourself, laying down on the soil right before you could reach your home. “If this is normal, then why does everyone run and scream? Seems like we shapeshifters have a better reputation around humans when they blend in with the crowd…”
Looking beyond the aging plum-colored horizon, you could see your home not too far away. Still forlorn about how you and humans saw your true self, you pushed aside your hopes of getting closer to the other species and headed on your way. However, your initial plans burned up in smoke when you suddenly lost your footing on an unseen tree root, causing you to tumble into a deep rut with a shout.
“Ouch! Dumb tree…” you growled, rubbing your injured head as you thought about the trip with a grimace. Something shimmered nearby, emitting a slight crimson glow. “What's that?”
Ever so curious, you hauled yourself across the ground until you were close enough to your coveted object. Squinting, you picked up the item: a large black choker centered with a notable glowing bright red gem faceted in a pentagonal cut. Examining it, you had a feeling about the choker, another side of you brushing off superstition as a mere fairy tale.
‘It wouldn't hurt to try it on for a few seconds,’ you thought, giving in. ‘It is really pretty, so…’
Opening the choker, you wrapped it around your neck, the fabric thankfully long enough to complete a circuit around your particular neck. What happened the minute you fastened the amulet choker took you entirely by surprise. You felt your body change again from its true self, this transformation feeling rather forceful compared to most changes from a shapeshifter. Before you knew it, you’d become covered in orange and black fur on all four legs, no doubt a common fox chosen as the random form.
Looking at your new paws with the sensation of the choker around your neck, you decided to clarify something by attempting to change back into your hideous true form. When nothing happened despite all the hard effort made, your heart raced with glee as you realized the choker and jewel’s true potential.
“It's real!” you beamed to yourself in your altered voice for the form. “Looks like that old wives tale about that magic suppressing gem wasn't some story after all!”
You let out a gasp of realization, your brain hatching a brilliant idea. Looking away from the direction that led home and towards where the woodlands ended, you excitedly hurried through the shadowed trees until you reached the thin threshold that separated your kind and the aggressive human race that so long peaked your interest despite all the hostility you’d encountered. While you were more than tempted to thrust yourself out into the civilian world in your more “accepted” form, you started to think that a large fox would stick out too easily to not get caught in a potential secret observation.
“I think I might need a more subtle disguise,” you suggested quietly, “but… what?”
As if on cue, passing you by the woods was a slender creature with pointed triangular ears and a curvy thin tail adorned with light stripes. Examining it from behind, you processed your memory as you recognized the creature as a common feline, or “cat” as most dubbed it. Finally having the perfect idea for a new form, you recklessly started chasing after the initially relaxed cat. As a result, the frightened creature let out a yowling sound and ran with all its might to get away from you.
“Hey now, I’m not gonna hurt you!” you shouted after it, still determined enough to keep running with your false form’s ability. “You’ve just got something I need of you is all!”
Of course, the cat didn’t listen and kept running, eventually stopping in what seemed like a safe spot to it. When you approached it again, looming above it on your own furry paws, it angled its backside upwards whilst the face went down. The cat’s paw threatened to raise itself, as if ready to scratch and slash at its new nemesis. You showed no fear for the cat, instead prowling closer to its face while it hissed and went in for a slash. The claws just barely missed you, but in the end, you got what you needed.
From the second your feline foe opened its hissing mouth, you allowed your own to open and took a deep inhale. Rather than take from the cat its actual breath, your eyes closed as you took in a colored fog that emanated from the now-still feline’s oral cavity. The cat found itself unable to flee, or make any sudden movements for that matter while you absorbed what you needed. When you were finished, the cat wobbled slightly on its paws before hissing at you and running off to who-knows-where.
“Hmm… a cat’s essence,” you thought aloud, licking your lips as a newfound energy coursed through your veins. “Definitely a new one, but kinda… weird. Oh well, I got what I needed! Humans, here I come!” you sang, bolting back towards the separation between your home and civilization.
Before even thinking about taking another step forward, you changed form again as your body became a wispy black blob for a few seconds. Afterwards, you’d become a cat, albeit different from the one whose essence you’d taken. Instead of being the typical tabby, you instead appeared fluffy; gray-brown in coat color with a soft, bushy tail to fit the bill. Quickly adjusting to your newest form, you scurried into the dusk-enveloped city, through the streets as quick as you could until you reached the other side of the area. On your way, you walked past the several feet pairs of many new humans still roaming around the newborn night sky.
‘All of these humans!’ you beamed in your thoughts, not wanting to startle anyone with a peculiar voice coming from what appeared to be a normal animal. ‘And without my stupid other form, they’re not running or screaming! I should have done this years ago; it’s like a dream come true!’
Your little heart raced with joy, striding amongst the other species and observing them from a close distance. Though the majority mostly paid you no heed, believing you to be some mangy stray cat, it still beat being terrorized like the monster you were. With that dead set in mind, you continued on the start of your journey, happily walking beside the humans as genuine interest and joy filled the walls of your heart.