Nix: Identity

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE CREATURE

J

I vaguely recalled waking up in a blanket next to a roaring fire, swaddled in heat and looks of concern. I was shivering and dots appeared in my vision. I felt exceptionally sick and nearly threw up to moment I tried to turn my head. I could only breathe slowly, and found that my voice was extremely weak. I could barely answer the questions the hospital staff asked.

There were moments where I could have sworn I blacked out in the middle of conversations, as I later could not recall several key points from talking. I did remember having several blood pulses taken. From what I could tell in my near comatose state, my pulse was slow, but starting to rise back to normal levels.

Hypothermia, I realized much later. I had near-hypothermia.

For some reason, I found this somewhat amusing. I was unused to being killed by the cold; normally one would find me escaping death by fire.

Nix tried talking to me, though I could barely muster enough energy to form coherent answers. Most of my responses consisted of “yes,” “no,” and “cold.” Nix was still concerned, but refrained from pushing me any further, knowing I needed rest after my frozen ordeal.

Based on the position of the sun when Shadow had teleported us back to the position of the sun now, I concluded that a few hours had passed. It must’ve been evening then, though the sun still shone just as brightly as it did in the afternoon. In spite of my less-than-ideal state, I tried to keep track of time.

I worried more for the creature I had brought in. I heard nothing from the various nurses and doctors regarding his condition, and I didn’t have the energy to try and ask directly.

My impatience grew with each minute, and I found myself wanting to shift a bit. I shuffled around, trying to move my joints out of their stiff position, and ended up flopping onto my side. I sighed. Great; I can’t even change placement.

I heard a soft chuckle from behind me, and I sighed even louder. I couldn’t even turn around to retort back.

“Enjoying yourself, Jared?” Shadow the hedgehog said.

I mumbled something back, though its meaning was lost on both of us.

Shadow shook his head. “I see your voice is still weak.” He walked over. “Here; allow me.”

He righted me and placed me in a sitting position. I could now see that beside him was Twilight with a worried look on her face.

I tried to give her a reassuring smile; it came out more of a grimace, and she was visibly unnerved by it. I dropped my lips back into a neutral look.

They gave me looks of concern, and I tried to return a reassuring look. A doctor came in and took my pulse. “80 bpm,” he commented, looking at me. “Seems like your body’s returning to normal.”

A nurse poked her head in. “Already? We’ve had victims of hypothermia before that didn’t recover for days!”

I managed to say matter-of-factly, “Healing factor.”

They nodded understandingly and left to attend to other matters.

I closed my eyes and waited a bit as my energy returned just enough for me to start talking normally again. I opened my eyes and looked at Shadow and Twilight, who were still giving me those looks of concern. I managed to raise an arm and give a thumbs up, indicating my better condition. Their concern, while still there, was mostly alleviated at the action.

“The creature,” I began, “where is he?”

Twilight got visibly uncomfortable. “It’s—”

“He,” I corrected automatically.

She looked exasperated. “He’s in the other room, getting checked up by the doctors.”

“In that case, we’d better go help them.”

“What do you mean?” asked Shadow.

“He’s been through a lot, and seeing strangers won’t do much to assure him that everything’s okay. Hopefully he’ll remember briefly meeting me, and that should calm him down.”

I got to my feet unsteadily. Shadow came over and carried me over my shoulder. I nodded my thanks. Twilight walked by my side, still uncomfortable, though by what I could not tell. We walked over slowly to the room containing the creature.

I heard a commotion inside the room. We peeked inside. The creature was thrashing about at the nurse ponies. He was saying something incoherent. One doctor commented that he was probably delirious and tried to inject some sort of fluid into him; he didn’t like that and shook the doctor away.

A nurse by the door noticed us. I smiled a bit at her. “Better let me handle this.” She nodded, and allowed me through. The other staff members saw me, and after seeing my determined look, averted to the sides of the room. Twilight and Shadow refrained from going any further. I approached the bed.

“What’s going on?” the creature asked, scared. “What’s happening?”

“Calm down,” I said reassuringly, placing an arm on his foreleg. “They’re not here to hurt you.”

His eyes widened in shock, and he turned to face me. “I...I remember you!” he exclaimed, blue eyes filled with sudden emotion. “You...you’re the one that carried me out?”

I nodded, giving him a tired, but still warm smile. I motioned for the doctors and nurses to clear out. After they left, the creature suddenly seized me in a hug. “I don’t even know you! Thank you!” he exclaimed gratefully.

I squeezed him back. “Hey, no worries. But, I do have some questions,” I added, breaking the hug and sitting in the chair next to the bed.

He gave me a confused look. “Er...okay. Shoot.”

“Alright. First, what is your name?”

“My...name?” He furrowed his brow in contemplation. “My name...my name is…” Suddenly his eyes shot open, and he stared at me with frank shock. “...I don’t know.”

Shadow started. “What?”

The creature’s eyes started tearing up. “Why don’t I know my own name? I’m sure I should be able to remember it!”

I stared at him for a second, before getting up and walking over to him. I tilted his head to the side. “Hmmm…I see.” A large bump was on the back of his head that rose beyond the other features. It was just under the back of the head, located right where the hippocampus might be.

“What...what is it?” the creature asked me fearfully.

I returned to my seat and shook my head. “It appears you’ve suffered damage to your hippocampus.”

The creature blinked. “What?”

“The part of your brain that controls memories. There’s a rather large bump on the back of your head, directly on top of where the hippocampus would be.” I looked at him sadly. “You have amnesia, I believe.”

“No...that can’t be!” He stared down at the bedsheets. Tears began to fall, and his whole body shook. I didn’t try to comfort him; I knew I couldn’t, as I had no idea how.

I cast a glance at Shadow. I knew he had amnesia before. How bad is it?

He responded, It’s one of the worst things for anyone to experience, not knowing who you are.

I sighed, turning back to the creature. “I know that this is a difficult realization for you, and you have my condolences. But, I need information, and you might be the only person who is able to supply it.”

He gradually calmed down, and looked at me and nodded. “Who knows?” he said dejectedly. “Maybe if I say something, my memories will come rushing back?”

Twilight muttered something, though I didn’t hear what.

“You were found by me in a cave with multiple wounds. Any idea what you got them from?”

He furrowed his brow and inspected one of his legs. A bandage was wrapped around it. He pulled it off slightly, revealing a large, disgusting wound on his leg. He grimaced and re-wrapped the bandage back on, then looked at me. “Um...it looks like I was stabbed by something.”

I nodded, then pointed to his chest, where several bruises and hoof marks were just barely visible. “Looks as if you were in some sort of conflict with a pony of some sort. You might have been crushed by a large boulder, judging by the size of the bruise on your chest.”

“And the back of the head?” Shadow asked.

“Something hard hit him,” I responded. “Something hard enough to cause damage to parts of the brain responsible for memory processes.”

The creature gritted his teeth. “If I find out who did this…”

“What were you doing in the caves, by the way?” I asked.

He again furrowed his brow as he tried to search through broken memories. “I...I can’t remember. I don’t even remember ever entering the mountain.”

“Maybe this will raise a bell?” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small radio. I showed it to him. He took it from my hands and turned it around, inspecting every element of it desperately.

After some time he gave a depressed sigh and handed it back. “I’m sorry; I can’t remember anything still.”

I nodded. “Still, it’s curious how it was in the same room as you were in.” I flipped it around. “And I’m still unsure of how it’s powered. No compartment for batteries, no port for plugging in…”

I placed the radio back inside my pocket and proceeded to start rapidly fire off question after question:

“Where are you from?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you have any relatives?”

“I don’t know.”

“What is your profession?”

“As far as I know, I don’t have one.”

I asked him about himself, repeatedly, in a desperate attempt to jog his memory. I had thought that if I asked the same question over and over, only worded differently , then maybe his subconsciousness may provide the information I needed. This proved as a bad method, as it only further increased his confusion.

Exasperated by his amnesia, I randomly asked, “What are you?”

Twilight aggressively and loudly cleared her throat, interrupting the creature’s response. I turned to her. She gestured for me and Shadow to follow her outside the room.

I looked back at the creature. “Please excuse us.” He nodded. We followed Twilight out.

Once we were out of the creature’s hearing range, Twilight suddenly turned and faced me angrily. “Jared, do you have any idea what you are dealing with?”

I raised an eyebrow, confused. “You mean besides an amnesiac?”

She shook her head. “That creature is of one of the most vile races in Equestria!”

“Really?” Shadow snorted. “He didn’t seem that bad.”

“Guys, he’s a Changeling!”

We stared at her. “A what?” I asked.

“A Changeling! Haven’t you ever heard of them?”

Shadow and I both shook our heads. Twilight sighed. “They’re a sub-species of ponies that can shape-shift into other ponies.”

Shadow and I exchanged a look. “That...doesn’t sound that bad,” I said.

“They are extremely dangerous creatures!”

I crossed my arms. “Well, he certainly doesn’t seem like much of a threat now…”

“That’s because he’s lost his memory!”

“And we need him to regain his memory in order to get information.” I sighed. “Twilight, I get that you’ve had...less than exuberant experiences with this race. But you cannot judge the majority based on the generalization of the minority. For all you know, they might not all be so bad.”

“But—”

“Twilight, please listen. He evidently doesn’t know what he is. He doesn’t know that his race is ‘bad.’ Therefore, he is least likely to be a danger to any of us. Let me talk to him; he won’t do anything bad, I promise.”

She grumbled, but eventually consented to letting me go.

I walked back into the room, Shadow following behind. Twilight remained outside, still slightly fuming.

“Is something wrong?” the creature asked. I gave Shadow a look of slight unease; he returned a reassuring nod.

I let out a slow breath. “Maybe...can you tell me what a Changeling is?”

He thought for a few seconds before answering, “No, I cannot.”

“Well...from what we gather, it’s what you are.”

He stared at me. “That’s what I am? This ‘Changeling?’”

I nodded in affirmation. “Yes; but apparently your kind isn’t on good terms with several ponies of Equestria.”

“Really?” he asked, intrigued. “Why is that?”

“I really have no idea. I’ve never had experience with Changelings before.”

The Changeling thought this over for a moment, eyes closed in concentration. I watched him in silence, noting how his eyes shifted as new thoughts entered his brain. “Is that why the alicorn over there isn’t too fond of me?”

“I believe so.”

I turned to Shadow. “I think we’d better return to Ponyville now. So far our leads are falling flat.” The hedgehog nodded his agreement.

“And,” I added, turning back to the Changeling, “you’re coming with us.”

“Really? Why?”

“You might be our only lead. We need to find a way to unlock your memories so that we get the information we need.”

“...alright. Though I guess you can’t promise that I won’t get some odd looks when we get to this ‘Ponyville.’”

“...no, I cannot.”

He gave a sigh of resignation. “I suppose I’ll just have to try to not be a Changeling.”

We all got up and left the room. Shadow walked with Twilight while the Changeling walked with me. We left the hospital quickly and without the staff trying to stop us.

“A name,” the Changeling suddenly said. He turned to me. “I’ll need a name. I don’t want to be called just a creature.”

I shrugged. “You’ll have to choose one on the train ride back.”

A few minutes later, after we had bought ourselves four train tickets, the train arrived to take us back. We got on board and were met with some odd looks from the engineers, which I casually waved away. The train blew its horn and began the journey back.