“Hey!”
I came to awareness with a voice shouting nearby. I quickly caught my bearings; I was lying on my back, my legs curled up to my body, and I could feel cool air blowing on my skin. I opened my eyes. That's pretty difficult since they felt like they were glued shut, but with some stretching they popped open.
I saw a cement outcropping above me, surrounded by the hazy mid-morning sky. A grey face popped into my vision staring down at me.
“You're awake. Good! How long have you been lying here?”
I shrugged my shoulders. It's morning now.
I tilted my head to look down at my legs. Rats. They'd got all stuck to my body. One-by-one, I flexed each of them, slowly pulling them straight as my skin peeled apart.
“Why are you so sticky?”
Man, this guy was nosey. I glared at him as I continued to stretch my legs.
As soon as my legs were freed, I leaned over to the side. Oh, ow! My back was stuck to the ground. I grunted as I rocked my body, my back gradually peeling away from the asphalt I was lying on. This wasn't very pleasant. Next time I slept, I'd try something else.
I guess the guy was watching this whole thing in disgust. I didn't know, I wasn't looking at his face to tell. But he kept quiet as he watched me slowly get up on my hooves. Man, my legs were sore. Once I got standing up, my legs were already wobbling. Then I got light-headed, the blood draining from my noggin. My vision went fuzzy and I clenched my eyes. Jeez. I took a deep breath, hoping I didn't teeter as I tried to regain my balance.
Finally he said something else. “You look in a really bad way.”
You think? I opened my eyes and slowly turned to face him.
He was showing some concern on his face. He was a grey... stallion. Well, my previous assumption that I got put into a completely alien body was probably bunk. He looked more like a horse than me—though that's not quite the best way to put it—with the main difference from a horse being that he was bulkier, even if he was somehow also smaller and softer-looking.
I wasn't going to think about that any longer. That I'm sticky is really enough indication that I'm an abomination.
I smirked at him a moment, then tried opening my mouth to talk. My lips peeled apart, and I wet them with my tongue. I cleared my throat, took a breath, then spoke in a raspy voice.
“I'm—mmm!”
Just like that, my lips were stuck together again. Great.
He burst out laughing, but I already turned my back on him and started stumbling away. I didn't realize I was dumb! Nobody wants to talk to a dumb freak.
He trotted past me and turned back around to face me. “Hey. Why are you walking off? I want to help. How will you do on your own with your lips stuck together like that?”
I walked past him again. He came and faced me, again. “You're covered in dirt and rocks. Let me help clean you off, at least!”
He took a hoof and spat in it. As I tried walking past him again, he pressed it to my side as though trying to rub off some of the grime. I stopped dead in my tracks as I felt it. He half-heartedly tried pulling away, but of course it didn't work. He had stuck himself to me, using his own spit as an adhesive.
I tried walking away from him, but his foreleg was yanked and he stumbled after me. He pulled harder on it, and my side stung as I lost my balance and fell toward him.
“Hah, whoops! I didn't mean to do that!” he said.
Oh, curse my skin. This sucked.
⁘
