Fourth chapter

Sam had no idea what time it was when he finally woke up.  All he knew was it was dark out and he felt like death.  His whole body hurt, he felt sick, and he was exhausted.  The alley still looked the same as when he passed out at least.  Sam staggered to his feet to take a better stock of things but wound up struggling to stay upright.  He had to lean against the wall to keep from keeling back over.

First thing he noticed was that his hands were now completely white and covered in fur.  On top of that the tail went down to his ankles and was also furred with the start of feathers growing out of the sides towards the tip.  His pants were ruined from his tail ripping them in half at some point and his shoes had burst at the tip from his feet growing longer.  Those shoes used to be a size six.  Now his feet stuck out of the shoes a good three inches and looked very much different.  The end of his foot sticking out of the shoe looked like it belonged to a cat instead of on any person as well.  The bumps on his sides finally had finally taken a shape into something and appeared to be wings as they now stuck a foot and a half out from either side.  At least he could move the tail and wings if he thought about it.  Shame the wings looked like chicken wings with white fur on them.

After a moment, Sam felt a little better on his feet so he took off the shoes.  They were useless now anyways.  He considered taking off the pants but at least they still covered his crotch.  He didn’t want to be completely indecent.  With a couple steps he realized that walking hurt his heels.  He looked at them again and noticed they were thin like an animal’s.  He tried standing on the balls of his feet and it felt much more comfortable so he took a few steps like that.  Problem solved successfully, he left the alley.

Someone turned on a radio nearby and he heard it announced that the time was 12:30.  Great, just past midnight.  That meant he slept all day.  The weird thing was he felt like he had run marathons all day with how weak he was.  Well technically he did run for an hour.  Either way, he knew that without sustenance he wouldn’t last long.  That was when the smell of heaven hit his nose.

Taco Bell.  That place hadn’t smelled so good before.  Either he was that hungry, or something about it appealed to his new self.  However it was working, the smell had him salivating and sniffing the air.  Sam noticed his nose was a little bigger than it had been before.  He couldn’t tell for sure since he didn’t have a mirror but it looked bigger in his view.  That wasn’t important, though; food was.  Sam came out to the street and looked around.  All of the windows were dark and no one was on the street walking or driving.  The breeze coming up from the south had the smell of Taco Bell heavily on it.  Sam hobbled down the street as quickly as he could in his state.  He really didn’t want to be caught out here like this.  He came to a corner and the smell was coming from the west now.  He crossed the street and followed it a ways before the smell started getting lighter.  He started to get worried that he’d passed the restaurant until he saw the bright sign around the corner.  Ecstatic he jogged--well, hobbled--towards the lights of his salvation.

Someone left the drive thru and Sam pressed himself against a building until they passed and continued on his way.  Surprisingly there was no one in the drive thru so he moved over to the window and knocked.  The poor kid that was standing there jumped in the air, “oh hell no!  Kyle! Get over here.  This is your fantasy not mine!”

Sam, confused, watched as the kid walked away and another walked up with a sudden grin on his face.  This kid was short, skinny, nerdy, and gave Sam the idea that he’d be completely okay with being abducted by aliens.

The kid, Kyle apparently, opened the window to talk to Sam, “wow! This is so cool!  What brings you up to our window so late?”

“I’m… I’m really hungry.  I need food.  Can I get some things?  I have money, I can pay.”

“Oh damn.  Umm, yeah about that.  There are cameras on the windows.  I could get fired if they see me giving food to anyone who isn’t in or on a vehicle.  Sorry.”

Sam groaned, “please.  I’m exhausted.  I’ve been running all day.  I just… I just… I--”

Sam collapsed to the ground.  He didn’t pass out at least but he just didn’t have the energy to stand any further.  His head was swimming as he lay on the ground under the window so he closed his eyes and lay his head down.

“Oh, shit!  Come on Frank, I think she passed out!  We should bring her inside and call the paramedics!”

“Fuck that, man!  I’m not getting probed by anything!  You go pick it up!”

Sam laughed to himself at the conversation as they went back and forth a few times.  They finally settled on Frank holding the door while Kyle picked up Sam and brought him inside.  Sam didn’t want to ruin Kyle’s “save the damsel in distress even if she’s an alien” attitude so he kept his eyes closed.  He still felt like he had vertigo anyways.

“Thanks Frank.  Hey, can you grab me a water cup with some Pepsi?  She probably has low blood sugar or something.  Falling over like that.”

Frank just grunted his affirmation and walked over to the soda fountain while Kyle set Sam down in a booth.  Frank came back and Kyle held it up to Sam’s lips.  Sam felt his nose twitch at the smell and slowly slurped down what was offered.

Sam couldn’t help it, he had to break their mood, “mmmm, personally more of a Dr. Pepper guy, but Pepsi is nice too.”

“You sly witch!  You faked all of that so we’d bring you inside!”  Kyle looked salty but he still had a grin on his face.

Sam only had his eyes open partially and the soda helped him a little but he was still in no shape to be walking around, “I am offended!  I would never.  No seriously, I couldn’t stand right now if I wanted to.  I’m exhausted from everything that has happened over the past week.  What with the changes I’ve been going through and all.”

“Changes?  What do you mean?”

Frank walked back over behind the counter to take care of a customer that pulled up.  Sam looked at Kyle seriously, “I used to be human.  I can show you my drivers license.  It's what I looked like over a week ago.  Hell, I don’t even know what I look like now.  Everything has been changing so fast.”

“That’s so cool!.  You don’t have to show me.  You did want some food though, right?  What can I get for you?”

Sam reached behind himself and pulled out his wallet  He thumbed through his cash and pulled out three twenties, “I’ll take whatever I can get for sixty bucks.  Burritos preferably.  Bean, supreme, XXL.  Whatever it takes.”

“That’s… that’s a lot of food.  I’ll see what I can do.”

As Kyle walked back to the kitchen, Sam called after him, “don’t bother putting wrappers on them!  Just plop them on a tray and bring em over!”

Sam relaxed and watched out the window as people drove out of the drive thru.  Sometimes there would be a rush and he would see five or six drive by in quick succession but generally it was only one or two at a time.  It was probably close to a half an hour before Kyle came back with a beautiful pyramid of burritos, topped with a single hard taco.

“Sorry about the taco, it was just what was needed to hit exactly sixty dollars.”

“Oh that’s fine.  I’m hungry as hell.  I was just thinking of things that would be easier to eat, hence burritos.  I’m so hungry and this all smells so delicious.”

Sam picked up the taco and decided to dig in.  Turning his head sideways, he opened his mouth just enough to fit the taco, and hit resistance with a thunk.  Blinking he tried again with the same results.  Kyle was looking at him strange and looked a little pale.  He freed up a hand and tried to see what was blocking him from eating the taco.  There was nothing outside of his mouth so he opened and felt around a bit.  What he did feel wasn’t what he was expecting as he palpated the inch long incisors where his old ones used to be.  They were thick and heavy like a large cat’s teeth but not really sharp which was a good thing to him.  Sam tried opening his mouth larger to get past the teeth and was rewarded with a wide open mouth even with the teeth.  He chomped down on the taco, shattering the shell and sending lettuce and cheese all over himself.  Sam looked at the mess covering his torso and started to giggle.  Quickly the giggles turned to light laughter until Sam was just laughing at the absurdity of the situation while Kyle stared on, confused.  Sam’s laughter died down a bit and he just looked at himself with disdain.

“Yeah so these new teeth don’t work with hard tacos apparently.  Ugh, this whole visage just doesn’t work.  Why did this have to happen to me, of all people?”

“Well it had to happen to someone?  Why not you?  What is so bad about this anyways?  You look really cool!”

“Cool?  I’m a god damned freak!  I can’t walk around like this!  I already got chased around by HWP yesterday.  It will just be worse now that I don’t even look remotely human.  Everyone will be out to get me!”

“I guess you have a point.  At least you could go to the furry convention without any problems?”

“I hope at least.  This really doesn’t look like a fursuit.  Way too small and detailed.”

“OH!  So you are a furry.  That’s interesting at least.  Do you have a suit?”

Sam just raised an eyebrow at this line of questioning, “I never got a suit made.  Always cost more to go to these conventions than I could save up for a suit.  Now I have a permanent suit I guess.”

“That’s one way to look at it.  Come on, think positive here.”

“Yeah well it's hard to think positive when you’re doomed to be shipped off planet into some random solar system that I am supposedly intended to be from.”

“You don't know where you're from?”

“Not a clue.  My DNA was modified.  I'm not a true alien.”

“Oh.  Dude no wonder you're pissed.  And they're sending you out anyways then?”

“Yeah.  Well nothing I can do about it now.  I do have a mountain of burritos to eat though.”

Sam brushed off the mess from the hard taco and picked up a burrito.  This time he didn't have any problem fitting it between his teeth and reveled in his first real bite of food.  It was glorious in its flavor but Sam didn't take the time to savor it.  Now was the time to eat!  He swallowed the bite half chewed and took another bite, and another, and another.  Kyle was amazed at how fast the burrito was disappearing.  He still had work to do though and walked back to the kitchen to help Frank.

Half an hour later it was time to close up shop.  Kyle and Frank had cleaned up the store while they worked so it was just a matter of closing the registers and putting away the food that wasn't being thrown out.  Kyle came over to get Sam so they could leave but Sam was out cold.  He was also surprised to see the mountain of burritos gone.  He would've wondered where they went were it not for the huge food baby distending Sam’s stomach.  Sam had eaten 25 burritos!  Amazed such a tiny person could put away so much, Kyle just stared for a few minutes.  Finally he broke from his spell and tried to wake Sam.  

“Hey. Come on, wake up.  We got to go.  Hello?  Hey!  Wake up!”  Sam wasn't getting up.  Kyle looked to Frank for assistance.

“Hey, don't look at me, man.  It's not my problem.  Why don't you take it home?  You don't live far and you had no trouble picking it up earlier.”

“I don't have much of a choice, do I?  At least she doesn't weight anything.  I'd wager around 50 pounds.  You got the doors?”

“Yeah I'll get it.  I just hope it doesn't eat you in your sleep.  Nights will be hella boring without you man.”

“Oh ha ha.  She's not going to eat me.”

“Hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Anyways, I’ll see you tuesday.”

Kyle would have waved had his arms not been full of passed out alien.  He really was glad his apartment was really close or this would have been a very taxing trip.  Even if Sam only weighed half of what he looked like he weighed, 30 minutes carrying a 50 pound weight is very tiring.  Getting up the stairs was fun, but the most fun part was trying to unlock and open his door with Sam in his arms.  Kyle didn’t want to set Sam down on the ground to open the door in case Sam woke up and found himself on the ground.

Once inside, Kyle set Sam down on his couch and set about making himself a snack before he went to bed.  Food in hand, he walked back into the living room to stare at Sam now that he had the free time to get a good look.  At first glance, he looked mostly human but there were things that made him stand out.  His feet, the slight muzzle on his face, the ears, the tail, and the fur covering all of the skin Kyle was able to see.

Kyle walked over and took a closer look at Sam’s feet.  They were definitely not human and were much wider and longer than a human’s foot would be.  The length of the foot was actually quite slender but easily 16 inches long, tapering wider slowly to the ball of the foot where Sam had a heavy paw that looked like a cross between a wolf and jaguar.  The toes were longer than a cat’s but were thicker and spread wide like a cat.  Kyle noticed the pad looked large enough to move around silently or on top of snow.  On a whim, Kyle reached out and touched Sam’s foot.  The fur was as soft as a cat’s and the pad was smooth as a baby’s bottom.  The pad also felt thick but was pliable and supple.  He squeezed one of the toes and a long sickle claw poked out close to two inches.  It was also knife sharp and actually pricked his finger.  He decided it was best to leave those alone.

He moved up to the tail that was resting between Sam’s legs and noticed the thick muscles running the length of it.  There was also a fan of feathers on either side towards the tip.  The feathers were short, maybe six inches, but they were stiff and seemed to have a purpose.  Kyle moved up, eyeing Sam’s shapely legs.  Kyle could see the thick cords of muscle beneath the jeans as he eyed Sam’s thigh.  There also didn’t look to be an ounce of fat on Sam’s body.  He glanced at Sam’s crotch but thought better of moving or touching there since it was creepy enough that he was examining Sam while he was passed out.  Sam’s shirt was pulled up over the small wings growing from his sides, which gave Kyle a perfect view of Sam’s abs and lower ribs.  Everything was slim and petite.  Kyle couldn’t see it through the fur but he could definitely feel the 8-pack even while Sam slept.  There was also some strips of feathers that made up some form of pattern that disappeared into Sam's shirt and pants.  The wings looked to be sprouting near the bottom of his ribs but Kyle could feel a bony structure that wrapped around the front and disappeared under Sam.  The wings themselves were about two feet on either side now and had small feathers sprouting from them.  They definitely didn’t look like much and obviously weren’t useful for anything either yet.

Sam’s breasts were barely noticeable under the shirt they were so small so Kyle followed an arm down to his hand instead.  This feature of Sam was definitely the most human aside from the claws tipping each finger.  These ones were not retractable like on his toes, but were still sharp.  Sam’s palms were furless but his skin was close to the white of his fur.  It was weird for Kyle to see skin that was eggshell white and showed no veins or red splotches.  A human with this pale of skin would be translucent.  He shook his head and moved back up, admiring the slender arms.  Kyle poked around Sam's head a bit but there wasn't really anything to feel aside from how the crest on Sam's head felt under his fingers.  He also noticed the feathers went up the backs of Sam's ears as well.  Barely noticeable, there was also two small bumps at Sam's “hairline” that perplexed Kyle.

Sam stirred briefly and Kyle reminded himself that he was examining a person and not some weird photo or dummy.  He shifted his attention to getting sleep and left Sam be.