Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cecil woke up on the hard plastic bench of the subway. He shot up from his lying position and looked around the empty train car. A bell rang, along with the monotone voice that announced, "Union Square and 14th street"

Seems like he woke up just on time. Cecil smiled. Well, that was an interesting dream. He could definately make a short story out of it. He could take some liberties with it, but it was intriguing enough to be something. The subway doors opened, and Cecil strided out through the doors, tinkering with this new idea.

He stopped.

Someone was watching him. He looked over his shoulder There was a cloaked figure standing in front of the departing subway. Now Cecil had been living in the city long enough to deal with just about every random piece of performance art in the book, but this guy was just plain creepy.

The cloaked man came closer, and Cecil began to back away into the turnstile, but the man was already on him.

"Hey-"

The man grabbed Cecil's wrist, and Cecil woke up.

"Ugh!" He yelled, Cecil grabbed his hand. A sharp pain came from where the cloaked man had touched him.

Back to reality.

At least, what reality was now.

Cecil's head shot to the door. His head turned from the knock back to his wrist. The strange sensation was gone, but Cecil couldn't help but feel a bit unsettled about it. He opened the door and shook his head to the maid. Nothing to see, just a bad dream. Cecil dismissed her with a wave of a hand.

Except, it wasn't his hand. Cecil looked at his fingers in the candlelight. It could be a trick of the light, but they seemed longer, a little more bulky. Darker fingernails stood out in the light, ending with wicked points. The most disturbing part were the small pads developing on the palm of his hand. Cecil stood back for a second, eyes fixed on this pawhand, and slammed the door shut.

Oh no... Cecil fell backwards to the floor.

Oh nononononono.

Cecil fumbled with the door with his new paw and opened it again.

The last thing he wanted was more people involved. He stood out in this dimension enough without the freaky hands, thank you very much.

Not like it was going to stop there. Cecil heard an odd ringing in his ears, and felt them push upwards as if some invisible hand was forcefuly remolding them like clay. Before Cecil could pat them out of sight, they twerked upwards into plain sight of the maid.

Before the woman could say anything, Cecil nodded vigourously, yes, he was alright, really. He might have paws for hands and huge, moving ears, but he was perfectly fine! Cecil closed the door, gently this time.

He walked back to his bed, just to fall over a growing claw coming from his toe.

********!

Cecil really wished he could talk right now. He could just curse her out and change. He hoped someone else would wake up and get that damn maid to stop bothering him. His ears flicked around uneasily.

Waitasec.

Did his ears just move?

Cecil backed away as his new ears heard the door unlock, he only scoot a foot off the floor before the pain of change struck his feet. He let out a moan as his bones cracked and streched into odd, pawlike shapes. Cecil held a foot as it twisted into it's new shape, trying to keep the wrenching pain at bay.

But that was nothing compared to the new sensation creeping up on the bottom of his spine.

Cecil was breathing heavily. He couldn't speak up even if he wanted to at this point. Not like anything he could ask for could help him in his current situation. Especially when he was growing a tail. He fell onto the bed and let out a groan of pain as he felt part of his spine grow outward. His knees were held tight to his chest, giving him little comfort during the growth.

When the pulling finally stopped, Cecil was still frozen in his futile position. He rubbed a shaking hand against his face, and felt something that wasn't there before. It felt like hair. Strange, he was sure his face was shaved clean before he was taken.

It didn't feel like facial hair either. This hair wasn't like the coarse hair of a beard, it was smoother, softer.

Cecil got up slowly, careful not to sit on his new tail. His tail moved sorely to the side as he sat up. He looked at Mabel, his golden eyes seemed to glow in the candlelight.

Cecil fell down on his bed, and popped back up when he landed on his tail. He wiggled his tail around experimentally, surprised at how natural it all felt. With a little effort, he laid on his bed without the uncomfortable spinal tap he was getting from body being on his tail.

Finally.

Cecil stared up at the ceiling. He was going to have to leave the Inn tomorow. Just like Alex had, he just hoped he could get out without getting stoned or burned or whatnot. Chances were that the maid was going to say something. He got up.

What was he doing just laying there, waiting for something to happen? He had to make an escape now. He got up, getting another unpleasent, xylophone mallet tap to the spine from his tail, and grabbed his bag. Cecil's ears flinched around, and he heard everything. From the snores of the people from his dimension to the shuffling of the innkeeper. Cecil didn't have time to be amazed, he had to go. He stuffed his ears under his hat and began to leave.