„Urgh“
Normally Rumble would have been happy that Thunderlane had cooked pasta with pesto, his favourtie dish, but today he just couldn't bring himself to enjoy them. His sister Flitter just wouldn't shut up about how adorable horses, and especially the smaller ones (whatever they were called), were. She was like that, sometimes talking an entire evening about things that only she actually cared about, but everyone was always too polite to ask her to stop.
Right now she was pondering the issue if brown- or white-coated equines were cuter. Rumble tried to ignore it and instead tried to think about his great plans for the next day: First of all, he would play soccer until sunset. Then there would still be time to either play some of his video games or read one of the new comics still waiting for him on his nightstand. Weekend was a great thing; he would still have time to finish his homework for school on Monday morning. But eventually, his sister's chatter became too annoying, and so he got up and went upwards. This made Thunderlane suspicious, as normally his little brother would always beg for more until nothing would be left any more, whereas today he didn't even finish his first serving.
“Rumble! Aren't you hungry?“
“Nah... not today, sorry.“ Of course this wasn't true, he still had lots of appetite, but right now he just wanted to get away from his sister and be alone for a while.
Flitter was just about to continue, but Thunderlane quickly cut her off, trying his best to remain friendly:
“Would you please hurry up? I want to clean up here and have duty later on at the Weather Service.“
She wanted to argue, but a quick glance to her brother made her change her intentions. Slightly annoyed, she ate up quickly and then proceeded to go upwards as well.
“Just what am I going to do with these kids?“ Being responsible for two children, one of them in the middle of puberty wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. Maybe he shouldn't have dismissed his parents worries so easily. He had said he could take care of them for a whole week just fine, there'd be no need to call Auntie Raindrops. His mother had doubted that, and now he was beginning to see her point. And now they were gone on vacation, and Flitter's twin sister Cloudchaser was currently taking part in a student exchange program, so there were just the three of them.
Thunderlane had often wondered how his family had gotten to these odd, unusual names. Upon asking his father, he just answered “It's a family tradition”
If that's true, it's kind of a silly tradition, he mused.
At this point, Rumble was laying in his bed, bored. His comic book lay half-read next to him, the protagonist, a human, “I. E.” ( “Incredible Evil”) just had wiped each and every antagonist and obstacle with his super powers away, which made it very dull to read. He wanted to try his hand one more time at one of the video games he owned (even though he had played all of them at least a thousand times), when his sister bursted in, holding some plushie in her hand. It seemed to be a … horse. Of course. A small yellow-coated horse with a pink mane. Yuck.
“Just look at her! Isn't she the cutest thing ever?”
She was combing her mane, as if she wasn't already fifteen years old. Geez, when would she ever grew up?
“GET LOST! And leave me alone with that horse stuff!” He wanted to reinforce his statement by throwing a pillow into Flitter's face, but he clearly missed her and instead hit a candle holder in the floor, which promptly crashed down noisily.
“You're just jealous.”, and with that, she left.
Rumble sighed. Why couldn't she be more like her twin sister? Cloudchaser had always been a fun girl, playing board games or watching films together with him. Most of the time they were horror films he had insisted on watching, claiming he is already old enough to watch these. After all, he wouldn't be frightened by some scary, soul-eating monsters. In the end he still often cuddled up to his sister, but that was of course just to protect her from the spawns of evil.
Flitter was never interested in spending some time with her brother, she seemed to have nothing but her horses on her mind. She was just so boring.
Frustrated, he decided to call it a day and go to sleep. As he half an hour later still laid awake in his bed, he couldn't get his thoughts off his sister. Just what was going on in her mind? Couldn't she just stop obsessing about these oh-so-cute animals? She would probably only care for him a bit more if he was one of these creatures himself. Ugh, what an disgusting thought.
The next morning, when the sun had just sent her first greetings into his room, he awoke with a severe case of a backache. Not only that, he had a generally odd feeling all over his body.
Ugh, did I sleep on a brick or something? My back certainly feels like that...
He went to reach for whatever object might have lain below him and disturbed his sleep, but to his surprise his fingers felt a bit stiff. Quite a bit, actually. He couldn't feel them at all anymore, and on top of that, also had a similar feeling in his feet. Taking a look at his fingers, he was, mildly put, shocked to see them gone.
Instead, there were now strange looking grey stubs. After a short examination he found out that they were covered in fur. Grey fur?
Okay, what the hell happened to me last night? I didn't become some mad scientist's guinea pig without my knowledge, did I?
And the same was also true for his feet and toes. The fur seemed to have spread all over his body.
Panic began to stir up inside him.
“Thu– ”
He instinctively had called for his brother, but cut himself off. He couldn't let anyone see him like that. Besides, he was already a big boy. He could handle this very well on his own, right? Just like the guys in comic books and video games. They never called for their big brothers, but instead remained calm and solved whatever problem they were facing all alone.
Okay, so what would Captain Awesome McCool do in this situation? Saying something like 'I might be a ball of fur now, but I still am an awesome ball of fur' ? Yeah, sounds just like him.
He tried to get up like he normally did, but he couldn't keep his balance for long and fell back into his bed, his shortened, fingerless arms swaying helplessly in the air.
Oh great. New plan. So... if that doesn't work, maybe I can... roll on my side and get out of my bed that way?
Rolling to his side helped him get out of bed, but not the way he had intented to. He fell sidewise on to the floor, landing on his stomach.
Ouch! That's not how it was supposed to happen. It looks much easier and less painful when Mareio does it. Anyway, Mission “get out of bed” accomplished!
He tried to stand up on his legs, but found himself falling back on all fours every time.
W-what! Why can't I stand normally! It's like I'm some kind of four-legged animal now! But that's impossible … Wait a minute. In a film, when someone says something like that, it's usually just before they find out what happened to them. And it's usually just what they've believed to be absolutely impossible. … But that would mean... that I'm …
He turned around to look at his reflection in the mirror in the cabinet door.
Oh. No... Come on. Is this some kind of cruel joke?
What he saw, didn't frighten him that much. Nor did it shock him a lot anymore. He just lost his faith in a fair universe. What did he do to deserve this? To be turned into something he despises, and his stupid sister so adores?
Gross! I'm one of these small horsies. Really? I won't even bother asking how this is possible or saying how this is not making any sense at all...
Okay. Calm down, Rumble, take a deep breath. Remember what Science-Man said? … No?
Science-man's advice could have proven useful here, as he maybe could have explained the whole mess, but his comic had lacked action and used so many strange words like “hydrocyanic acid” that Rumble never bothered to read it past the first two pages. It was mostly just him standing around in a fancy suit talking about some half-dead cat or some other weird stuff.
Anyway, it's not a big deal, right? I'm a horse now, nothing more. I think a small one like me would be called a pony, if I remember correctly. And I'm a grey-coated one with a dark mane, saucer-big eyes and... wings. Hey, that's cool! Flying has always been one of my favourite super powers. Now, how to get them working...
As much as he tried, he couldn't even get them to flap a bit. They just were there, motionless, not responding to any commands.
Argh, come on! Why won't you... … do anything. Just how is this supposed to work? And wait... if I have four legs now, how am I supposed to walk? With these small stubs, aren't they called hooves or something?
He tried moving his foreleg in front of him. Then his other foreleg, but this just resulted in him falling on his stomach again. After numerous other unsuccesful tries, he finally find a way to make his first step. Then another, and eventually he got the walking issue sorted out. Somewhat. His walk was kind of clumsy, and occasionally he bumped into things. Hoping that the noise generated by these unvoluntary encounters would not wake anyone up, he continued, until he heard a voice from the other side of the door.
“Rumble? I've heard a lot of noise from here. Did something happen? Are you alright?”
“No, everything's okay, big brother”
As he answered, every thought about how horses of any kind shouldn't be able to talk had been pushed to the back of his mind.
Wait, I can still talk normally? How is this pos– then again, horses don't usually have wings either. Or eyes this big.
“Are you sure? I'll better come in and check.”
“No, no, that's not necessary. I'm fine– ”
This didn't do enough to discard Thunderlane's doubts.
“Really? You don't sound fine.”
Much to Rumble's horror, he began shifting the doorknob.
Oh no no no, what do I do now? Quick, where could I hide? Closet? No, I can't get it opened with these stupid hooves. Behind the curtain? No, he would see me right away. Bed? … That could work.
He managed to crawle under his bed just in time before his brother had opened the door, and could see his brother entering the room. He tried to hold his breath back, lest his brother would notice him.
“Rumble? Where are you? Come out, I just want to see that you're fine.”
I'm fine, just decided to change my looks a bit today... But there's no way I let you see me like that!
Looking around sighing, Thunderlane opened the cabinet doors and looked inside.
“Are you in here? Why are you hiding yourself like that?”
Turning around to the bed, Rumble's breath caught and his heart started pounding fast like a Gerbil on speed.
Fortunately for him, in the end his brother didn't think of looking below the bed and started to leave again.
“Fine, if you don't want to show yourself, then be it. I'll come back later. Just... who is going to eat all those pancakes now?”
Rumble let out a huge sigh of relief, and then immediately regretted it, as it was loud enough to get his brother's attention.
“Rumble? Is that you?”
He turned around again and approached the bed.
“Why are you hiding below your bed?”
Oh sh– what am I gonna do now?
“It's … nothing, really. I'm hiding here because... because I'm a spy, and don't want someone to blow my cover!”
Smiling, Thunderlane answered: “Okay then, young spy. Come down when your mission is finished. Don't take too long, or your breakfast is going to get cold.”
Rumble was glad his brother had bought his story, still being young did have its advantages. He decided to exploit them some more in the future. Right now, he had to wait for him to leave. Just to be sure, he waited some moments more and only then decided to come out from his hiding place.
Uh, so pancakes sounded really good. But how can I get to them without being noticed?
Maybe if I hide myself under a box, I won't be spotted. Of course, people do that in films all the time and never get away with it, but maybe if I'm a bit more cautious...
He walked (a skill he still hadn't mastered yet) over to a corner of his room and rummaged around, until he found a suitable cardboard box. It still had “Give to a good home” written over it, as they had gotten their first cat with it. After a few months they had to give away her again, as noone had bothered to take the time and feed and clean up after her, so their parents had decided to give her away to a better place. Especially Flitter had been upset about this, and even Rumble still missed her sometimes. But right now he was just happy they had kept the box, and so he turned it over and hid himself in it.
He could still see through a hole on the side, so there would hopefully be less bumping into things now. Pushing the door open with his foreleg, he managed to get out. The candle holder Rumble had knocked over the day before was still laying there. He tried looking left and right, but the hole in the cardboard wasn't that big and only allowed for a limited view.
Hearing noone coming, he decided to get going and with as less noise as possible get past his sister's room door, but he stumbled over his own legs and crashed onto the radiator in the floor.
Oh no. If my sister finds me now, she will probably cuddle me to death or something... There's no way she could have missed this noise...
For a minute or so, Rumble just lay there, waiting for his impending doom. But nothing happened. Maybe today was his lucky day, and his sister had got up early and was already gone? Maybe she's listening to loud music so she didn't hear him crashing after all?
Just when he was sure noone really wouldn't come after him, he heard footsteps approaching him. Light footsteps. These did not belong to his brother; his steps were firm and of moderate pace, unlike her sister who always had had smaller and quicker steps. So that meant Flitter would soon find a real-life incarnation of her object of greatest adoration right before her door. Great.
