“…”

My eyes are shut tight. That’s the first thing I notice. My eyelids are heavy, weighing down like I haven’t slept in days. When I first try to open them, they sting, and I can hear a ringing sound in my ears. So I just lie there. My body kind of hurts anyway. It aches all over. What did I do last night?

“…ca…er me…”

Huh…I can’t really remember. I don’t know why I can’t remember, I wasn’t drunk, I mean I don’t…I don’t drink. Then what’s going on, why’s my mind so fuzzy?

I raise an aching arm to my head, or at least try to. But my arm, it feels weird, and heavy. It’s like the weight of the earth’s been increased or something, because it takes a decent amount of effort to move it. Come to think of it, it feels weak altogether. It’s like I had broke it, and it was just now free again after months in a cast.

It wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but I managed to raise my arm. I then brought my hand towards my face in order to rub my eyes. But instead of feeling my fingers, I felt a hard flat mass collide with my nose, which hit hard enough to startle me awake.

My eyes opened. They were blurry at first, but with some blinking, came back to normal. That’s when I first saw that I wasn’t in my room. I was outside, in what looked like a forest. Dark trees covered the setting sky above me. I could hear crickets chirping, and birds singing.

“Why am I outside?” I question to myself. It’s then that I notice that my face feels different. My nose, feels, larger and heavier than it should. I sit my body up, using my arms to prop myself.

“We…sing…nnection.”

I shake my head, and look around. I thought I had heard something. I’m not sure what though, it was so quiet, like an insect buzzing. Then, out of my peripheral vision, I spot something weird. My eyes shoot down to look at my lower body, and widen when they see that not only am not wearing pants, but also my body is covered in grey colored…fur? I quickly reach down with my arm to feel just what was covering my body, but the moment my hand reaches my leg, I quickly retract it back and stare at it in shock!

“M-my hand…. W-where is my fucking hand!” I quickly lift up my other hand. This left me un-propped, causing my torso to fall back and connect with the grass. But I don’t even notice it, as I stare at my other arm, which, like my other one, is missing its hand.

‘Both my hands are gone…and what are these stubs, what are these?’

I tap the two flat surfaces against each other, creating a clacking sound.

“Hooves?” I question to myself. “Am I dreaming?” I think this through for a few seconds, before coming to the conclusion that I’m not asleep. For one, my body aches, and you can’t feel pain in a dream. Second, this is all…just too vivid. And aside from being… a horse (I guess?) in a forest, nothing dreamlike is happening. Everything is staying consistent, no random creatures or objects appearing, no distortions of logic.

“But if I’m not dreaming….” I sit myself up again. My abdominal wall feels like I’ve just done two hundred sit-ups. I then roll over onto my stomachs side and press my forearms, or should I say legs, against the surface of the earth, and push myself up. I bended my rear legs in the complete opposite way that a humans knees bend, and connected my rear hooves to the ground. I then pushed myself up, so that I’m standing on my rear legs. I wobble, completely off balance, before falling to the ground, landing on my forelegs. I cry out in pain, as it feels like I’d just been slapped hard across a newly formed bruise or welt.

“Right…horse,” I say to myself, before trying this once again, only this time, sticking with the four-legged approach. It’s a new experience, though not completely new. I mean, humans can walk on four limbs if they want, like many due when they’re kids. But now with all my limbs being the same length, it actually feels more comfortable.

Once standing, I take a look at my body. My fur is grey, and if I look behind me, I can see a blue swishing tail.

“What kind of horse has a blue tail?” I ask in disbelief. “Seriously, why is my tail blue, that’s stupid! Did someone dye it another color? Why would anyone dye a horse’s tail?” It takes a few moments, but I soon realize another fact of my situation. “Wait a second…I can talk? I’m speaking English right now?” I always thought horses could only make…well, horse noises.

I honestly have no idea what’s going on right now. I’m a horse, but I can talk. That shouldn’t be possible. I mean, I’m not complaining, if I’m going to be trapped in a horses body, I might as well be able to communicate. It’ll help if I run into any humans. But then again, a talking horse might be a little…vulnerable to human dissection. Humans do like dissecting things, it’s like our favorite thing to do.

“I’ll just have to deal with that when it becomes necessary,” I say to myself.

I then decide to look around. The forest I’m in is dark, the leaves of the trees nearly completely blocking out the sky. The trees themselves look rather intimidating, with what almost looks like screaming faces etched into the bark. A chill runs up my spine as I see them. I can almost hear them screaming out at me. I don’t like it.

“Keep moving Dustin, keep moving.” I do just that, and try to put as much distance between me and these trees as possible.

In a short time, the sun finished setting, and the moon was now in the sky. Though the forest I found myself in was cast in darkness, it didn’t hinder my vision. Somehow, the moon was casting enough light to allow me to see, which is something I’ve never experience before. Usually, I’m blind without a streetlight or something. I’m not quite sure what it is, maybe it’s because I’m a horse now. Perhaps they have better night vision than humans.

During my search for a place to take shelter for the night, I noticed a gnawing in my stomach. It was subtle at first, but soon grew in strength. Soon, hunger became my driving force.

It quickly felt as though I hadn’t eaten in days. Come to think of it, that very well may be the case. I was in a new body; it stands to reason that it’s never eaten before.

I start looking around for something to eat. It takes a while, but eventually I spy a bush with berries on it, resting next to a tree.

I quickly rush up to it, and spy the berries. They’re small, about the size of blueberries, but I can’t really make out the color.

I move my head closer to the berries, smelling them to try to discern what kind they were.

“Hm…they don’t smell like any berries I’ve smelled before.”

I have no idea whether they’re poisonous or not. But they’re the only food I’ve found in this forest, so I decide to try one.

I open my mouth, and bite down on one, pulling it from the stalk. Its taste is…unique. It certainly doesn’t TASTE poisonous, but that’s probably not a decent enough indicator. I decide that I’ll wait a little while to see if I notice any adverse side effects, like an upset stomach or something.

A moment later, an extremely unpleasant smell drifts into my nose. I sniff at it, and it smells like rot and decay.

“Ugh, I feel like I’m gonna throw up.” I start gagging, not sure whether it’s from the berries or the smell, or whether they are one in the same.

A twig snaps. I quickly turn my head to the direction of the noise, and freeze when I see a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

The figure makes a growling noise. I don’t move an inch, as a chill runs up my spine. Slowly the figure emerges from the darkness, and I don’t believe what I see. The body is structured like that of a wolf, only much larger…and made of wood. Twigs and sticks make up its body, with sharp shards making up its teeth. The whole thing looks like a pagan art project, brought to life by unholy means.

“That…that’s not possible,” I mutter to myself.

The creature starts steadily advancing on me. This thing wants to eat me. I quickly turn, and try to make a sprint for it. My eyes widen when I see a second creature, identical to the first one in front of me. It raises its right paw, and brings it down on my chest, leaving three bloody gashes in my flesh! I let out a scream as I collapse to my knees. Blood starts leaking from the gashes, staining my fur.

I hear more growling, and look to my left to see another one of these wolf things advancing. That makes three of them.

“Shit!” I mutter to myself as more blood leaks from my chest. I look to my right. No wolves on that side. I have an opening.

Survivors instinct taking over, I get up to my hooves and dash through the opening. The wolves immediately give chase.

I’m able to run much faster on four legs, but unfortunately, the wolves are able to keep pace with me. I’m still not used to this body, but as I let instinct take control, I’m able to keep from making a fatal error.

I look back behind me to see the three wolves pursuing me. I look forward, and see a log in my path just in time. I leap over it, and keep galloping, with the wolves still in pursuit.

I hear a howling from my right. I look and see yet another wooden wolf running up beside me. I try to bank left, but a fifth wolf blocking my path.

‘God Damn it, they’re trying to box me in!’

I have no choice but to keep running. For minutes, I try to gain ground on my hunters, but I can’t. Nearly reaching my limit, we exit the trees, and come to a clearing. No…no, it’s not a clearing, it’s a cliff!

I dig my newly acquired hooves into the dirt, skidding to a halt. The force from my running knocks me over, and I tumble. I roll over, dirt getting into my wounds as I stop just shy of the cliff.

The wolves surround me, five in all, growling and snarling.

‘Bastards…this was all a trap!’

I painfully get to my hooves, standing up as strait as I can. The wolves are slowly advancing on me, and I can tell they’re getting ready to attack. I look behind myself to see a rushing river far down below.

At that moment, I felt another surge of pain, as sharp wood penetrated my right foreleg. I look to back at my attackers to see one of the wolves has taken advantage of my distraction, and latched its jaws onto my leg. I scream out, as it feels like a sharp vice grip is compressing my leg! I swear I can feel it digging into my bone.

I raise my other foreleg, and bash the wooden wolf on the head.

One hit, does nothing.

A second hit causes a bit of wood to chip off.

I put everything I have into my third hit, while yanking my injured leg in an attempt to get it from the mouth of this beast. It works, but as my arm retracts, the teeth scrape my leg, carving multiple gashes in my arm!

With my legs free but injured, I look back to see the rushing water.

‘I won’t last much longer like this,’ I think. I can see the wooden wolves advancing on me. They’re close enough that I can see dried blood and chunks of meat in their mouths. At that moment, I make a decision.

“I may die either way, but at least this way, it’ll be quicker.”

Just as one of the wolves is about to charge me, I leap backwards. I feel my stomach leap as I begin falling. But it doesn’t last long.

The next thing I feel is the hard slap of the cold water slamming into my body.

I’m already sick of this shit.

Author's Note

This is a collaboration done with theredbregade.
Chapters will be done two a piece, the first two by me, the next two by him, and so on.