Beasts Like Us

by Feral Sephrian

  The bathroom door squeaked open. The noise hit Mateo’s ears like a low scream. Then came the smell, the same smell that had followed him all the way here. His heart pounded. Grateful for his soft paws, he silently slunk further into the back corner of the stall. His fur stood straight up. He hoped he wouldn’t have to intimidate this person. Maybe this was all a strange coincidence and nothing was going to happen…

  Footsteps, followed by a pair of flat shoes appearing on the other side of the stall. Mateo prayed a face wouldn’t appear along with them, peeking at him through the gap. Worse, the person knocked and said, “I know you’re in there, and I know what you are.”

  Every nerve in Mateo’s body was on edge. He had tried so hard to seem normal. No one was supposed to know about him. He thought of his family, and whether they were in danger. They weren’t freaks, but he knew that’s how they would be treated if they were discovered. Then again, this person smelled like them, though Mateo still didn’t know who it was or what they wanted.

  A lump of gray fur flew under the stall door and thumped against Mateo’s front legs. His heart skipped, until he realized it was just a hat, one of the wolf-ear hoods they sold downstairs in the dealers’ hall. He sniffed at it. This was definitely his stalker, and it definitely belonged to another cat-person, but it didn’t smell like jaguar. The entire situation had Mateo’s mind reeling, trying to figure out what in the hell was happening.

  “I’m coming in,” his stalker said. “Don’t be scared, and don’t eat me.”

  A belt buckle jingled, fabric was drawn over skin, a shirt fell to the floor and was joined by jeans pooling around the pair of shoes, a pair of gray boxers still inside them. His stalker shuffled out of his shoes, leaving his pants behind as well. Then the face Mateo had dreaded appeared, along with arms and a torso as the naked man crawled under the door. Mateo couldn’t remember being this scared or confused, but under his fear there was fascination. The man had jet black hair long enough to brush the tops of his ears, smooth tanned skin, and dark smoldering eyes above a long straight nose.

  Before Mateo could really get a look at this intruder, he began to change. The muscles in his arms and legs, which were already well-defined, grew thicker as fur the color of his skin sprouted all over his body, except for white fur that started under his nose and continued down his chest and belly. A tail almost as long as his torso extended from the end of his spine until it made Mateo’s tail look like a shriveled stump by comparison. His dark eyes became golden brown with a tinge of green, but unlike Mateo, he kept them open the whole time he changed, never taking his gaze off Mateo.

  Where a man once crouched, a mountain lion now stood proud. He was nearly as large as Mateo, and together the two big cats took up most of the stall. Mateo pressed himself as far into the corner as he could go. He bore his fangs and gave the newcomer a warning hiss. The mountain lion blinked, and took two long strides closer. He sniffed at Mateo’s head, then gave him a firm lick between the ears.

  Mateo wasn’t sure he was in the same reality anymore. This was too vivid to be a dream, but it was too bizarre to be anything else. The mountain lion licked him between the ears once more, then sat back on its hind legs. Mateo was reminded of his grandfather. When Mateo was a cub, his grandfather would give him two quick licks between the ears and then nudge him back towards his mother. There was nowhere else for Mateo to go now, though. He lifted one paw and bore his teeth again, showing he would fight if he had to.

  The mountain lion sniffed Mateo’s clothes, nosing at his fuzzy slippers and shoulder bag. Everything he did was so casual, Mateo didn’t know how to respond. Mateo chuffed, which got his attention. He wasn’t threatening, Mateo decided, and he didn’t smell aggressive or fearful. Mateo leaned his head forward to sniff the other cat. His grandfather had taught him how to read smells. The stranger was male, healthy, relaxed, and his scent was oddly pleasing. Hesitantly, Mateo unbunched his muscles and stood alongside the mountain lion.

  To Mateo’s surprise, the mountain lion was purring. Mateo didn’t think big cats could purr. He certainly couldn’t. When he tried, it came out like a soft growl instead of a purr, and only worked when he exhaled. Nevertheless, this other cat could purr, and he playfully butted his head against Mateo’s flank. Mateo tensed and hissed, but the mountain lion kept on purring.

  The door to the bathroom opened again. That’s when Mateo caught a whiff of fear mingling in the mountain lion’s scent. The latest occupant of the bathroom was fully human, and he sighed with a huff. “Okay, you two, get a room. Not only do other people actually need that stall, remember that there are children at this convention.”

  Mateo looked at the other cat, who bobbed his head in a sort of shrug. Both waited until the other guy left, and when Mateo noticed the mountain lion’s fur growing shorter and his muzzle flattening, he willed himself to change back as well. Mateo wanted to stay a jaguar to face this oddity, but at least as a human he could get more definitive answers. The jaguar and the mountain lion became two naked men. The stranger held out his hand.

  “I’m Dazi,” he said, as though they were meeting in line for a panel instead of kneeling on a bathroom floor.

  Bewildered beyond the point of questioning, Mateo accepted the handshake. “Mateo.” He couldn’t help himself. His eyes darted down to check out Dazi’s package. With a tail like that, Mateo had expected him to be much thicker, but he was average-sized—though marginally thicker than Mateo, nonetheless—and uncut. Mateo didn’t know many American men like that, but then again Dazi looked like he was from a local tribe, and Mateo didn’t know their policies on circumcision. If he wasn’t so confused, he might have been aroused pondering it.

  Dazi snatched his clothes from the other side of the door and got dressed. As Mateo did the same, Dazi stared at him. “Your eyes didn’t change.”

  “They shouldn’t, this is my natural eye color.”

  That, Dazi seemed to accept, until he tilted his head to check out Mateo’s backside. “What about your tail?”

  Mateo looked behind him as best he could. The skin on his lower back had light fuzz that gradually darkened into the fur along his tail. “I was born with that too,” Mateo said. He tucked it into the hemmed hole in his jeans. When he looked up, Dazi was still staring, but with even more bewilderment. “…What?”

  “You were born with a tail?”

  “Yeah, my kind have always had tails, and usually jaguar ears too, but my grandfather’s look more human than jaguar, and I was born without them at all. He says it’s because we’ve been breeding with humans too long.” He cocked his head to one side. “Is…is your…condition not genetic?”

  Dazi’s eyes were wide and he furrowed his brow. “No. We’re not…born like this.”

  “Then how—”

  Mateo’s words were cut off by yet another person entering the bathroom. Both Mateo and Dazi remained absolutely silent until he had left. The minutes stretched on, weighed down by all the questions they had for each other. When the door closed, Mateo said, “We shouldn’t talk about this here.”

  “Is there anywhere private in this place?”

  “Not here, but I rented a hotel room about four blocks away.”

  “Four blocks?”

  Mateo shrugged. “It’s where most of the Con-fur-ence attendees are staying. Because it’s such a big draw for Alabaster Spring’s tourism, the hotel made a deal with the Con-fur-ence to give people discounts if they rented rooms when they registered.”

  Dazi didn’t have anything to say except, “I need to tell my friends where I’m going, or they’ll worry about me.”

  “So you weren’t alone! I thought I smelled a dog and some kind of prey animal.”

  For the first time, Dazi laughed. Mateo liked his laugh. “That’s Kesi and Kuhma, but I’ll tell you more about them later.”

  Surreal as this all was, Mateo felt more at ease by the second. While he had yet to find out what Dazi wanted from him, he trusted his new acquaintance. Whethe
r or not that was a wise decision, he got the notion he would find out soon.

  * * * *

  Chapter 2

  Dazi knew he was taking a risk. Though Mateo had powers similar to Dazi’s, he was still an Outsider. Nonetheless, Dazi felt that he could be trusted. He exited the bathroom with more questions than he had had before he entered, but it was too crowded to ask them now. Instead, they had to make small talk, like any two people who had just met. That was how Dazi found out Mateo lived three hours south of Alabaster Springs, but not how many skin-changers he lived with, how he managed to keep everything a secret, or how skin-changing could be genetic.

  Likewise, Dazi gave him vague answers to his banal questions.

  “What brings you to the convention?”

  “Wanted to look around.”

  “Will your friends be joining us?”

  “No.”

  “Do they know where you are?”

  “Sort of.” Dazi had sent Kesi a text from outside the bathroom saying he had the other skin-walker cornered. Now he sent her a follow-up message saying he was alright, but not to wait for him. He promised he would be in touch, and instructed her not to follow him. I need answers, he wrote. Don’t think he would like being outnumbered though.

  They walked out of the convention center. Mateo assured him they could show their badges and get back in without any issue later. “I’m starving, though. There’s a little food mart on the way to the hotel, if you want to stop in and grab something.”

  Dazi was hungry as well. However, what he yearned for more than anything was the chance to talk to Mateo in private. If he could have, he would have sprinted to Mateo’s hotel. To occupy his mind, he tried to figure out a few things about Mateo simply by observing him. Mateo stood an inch or so taller than Dazi, although when he walked his shoulders rotated forward in a half slouch. His resting posture, on the other hand, held all the grace and power of his feline form. Much like his jaguar self, he had a square jaw, but, as Dazi had been surprised to discover, Mateo kept his face clean shaven. He had dark hair and his skin was tan like Dazi’s, but a different shade, and from his slight accent Dazi assumed he might be from a Mexican or Central American tribe.

  The extra time they spent browsing the store nearly killed him. He snatched up the first packet of snack cakes that looked appetizing and a bottle of soda. Mateo bought three sandwiches from the fridge, two bottles of water, a pack of cookies, and a box of granola bars.

  “I told you I was starving,” he said through a mouthful of sandwich as they continued on their way to his hotel. The smell of turkey and tomato did make Dazi hungrier, but his stomach was in so many knots he didn’t know how he could keep anything down.

  It seemed years before they made it to Mateo’s hotel room. Mateo drank half a bottle of water before he said anything.

  “So…you’re a mountain lion.”

  Dazi nodded. “And you’re a jaguar.” That had surprised him, even more than how much the bathroom had reeked of hostility when Dazi first stepped inside. He expected other skin-walkers to be nervous in public, but when he crawled under the door and saw the black mass cowering defensively by the toilet, he almost didn’t believe his eyes.

  “If you didn’t inherit it, how did you get it?” Mateo asked, opening a granola bar.

  “I—That I can’t tell you. Not exactly.” He wasn’t supposed to tell anyone anything, but this was different. Mateo might not count as an Outsider, but Dazi didn’t know yet. I won’t tell him all the details. I’ve never seen anything like him before, so he must be good at keeping secrets. His heart twisted uncomfortably. They won’t like this, but I have to know.

  Mateo frowned and swallowed. “Were you cursed by a witch? Blessed by a god? Bitten by a were-cougar?”

  Dazi shrugged. “The second one, I guess. Though, it’s a long story.”

  “I like stories.” Mateo looked at him expectantly with those perplexing yellow eyes. They were almond shaped, more human than feline, but no human could have irises that color, or have such a wild glint hiding beneath the surface.

  It took Dazi a moment to break free from the mesmerizing gaze, and another to determine where he should begin. “How familiar are you with Shoshoni culture?”

  Mateo waggled his head back and forth. “I know my own better, obviously, but I’ve read a few local legends. Mostly the different creation stories and tales of animals and their interactions with humans.”

  “This is sort of like that,” Dazi said. “I’ll tell you the story we’ve passed down for generations, if you can promise me two things.”

  “Shoot.”

  “First, you must promise to never tell anyone anything you are about to hear from me.”

  Mateo nodded. “I’ve got experience with that. What’s the second request?”

  “You have to tell me everything.”

  A heartbeat passed before Mateo said, “Ah. I’ll see what I can do about that.”

  Dazi nodded, and began.

  “Once, the longest time ago, there was a young man in one of the first tribes. The tribe knew little of magic and much of the land, but the young man was curious about the magic of the animals. Snakes, he knew, could take off their skins and become people, then become snakes again at their will. Bears could walk on two legs like men and speak like men, and some even took human women for their wives. Even the birds could appear as men if they so chose, but humans could only be humans.

  “The young man went hunting by a river one day, but he caught nothing. Exhausted, he sat by the water and drank. His eyes saw movement beneath the water, and he thought perhaps he could bring home a fish. He dove down, but there was nothing there, not even a tumbling stone. He came back the next day, and the next, and the next, and it wasn’t until the fourth day that he found something in the river. However, it wasn’t a fish. To his astonishment and fear, a water buffalo emerged from the river, larger than any buffalo the man had seen.

  “‘Why do you come to my river so?’ the water buffalo asked.

  “The young man was terrified, for water buffalo were dangerous omens. Nearly everyone who laid eyes on them were killed or cursed. ‘I-I hoped I could find some fish,’ replied the young man.

  “‘You found nothing for three days, and yet here you are on the fourth. Why?’

  “The young man thought and said, ‘My curiosity brought me here.’

  “The water buffalo stared at the young man with eyes as dark and deep as a cave. At once he changed into a muskrat, which was his true form. He only disguised himself a water buffalo to frighten away intruders. ‘Your heart is indeed full of curiosity. To answer one question, I am the guardian of all the waters in this land. I know everything there is to be known here, and so I shall grant you one wish of wisdom.’

  “The young man was relieved, and already knew what wisdom he sought. ‘I wish to know about the magic of the animals,’ he said. ‘Just as you have changed your shape, they can change their shape to seem like men, but we cannot change our shape to look like animals. Is it even possible for a man to change his shape so?’

  “‘It is indeed,’ said the Spirit, ‘but only if an animal is willing to give you its skin to wear, and even then it is not so simple. I shall teach you the ceremony, that you may teach your people, if they, too, wish to have the magic of the animals.’

  “And so the Spirit bestowed the wisdom upon the young man, as he had promised, and the young man returned to his tribe to tell them what he had learned. At once everyone began fighting about which animal they would ask to give them their skin. Some wanted to become a clan of bear-men, powerful and strong. Some wanted to become eagles, far-seeing and wise. Some wanted to become deer, swift and gentle. Others didn’t want to become animals at all, but wanted blessings nonetheless.

  “The arguing became so loud that the earth itself grumbled in annoyance. The Spirit heard the earth’s grief and, unable to stray far from the water, changed into the water buffalo and stamped his mighty hooves until the ground
beneath the village shook. Soon every man, woman, and child, fell to the ground as though dead.

  “In their sleep, the tribe was taken to the Spirit World, where the water Spirit could speak to them all. ‘Here you may speak to any creature,’ the Spirit told them in its buffalo form. ‘If they agree to give you their skin, then you may perform the ceremony.’

  “So all the people divided and went off in search of their chosen animals. For those who didn’t want to wear an animal’s skin, they merely asked for blessings. All had to choose wisely, because they could only receive one blessing, so some, especially the children, were allowed to enter the Spirit World at a later time to choose their guardian. This was how the first puha was granted.

  “With the blessings of the animals freely given, the Spirit returned the tribe to their physical world, and as agreed the young man’s hut was filled with what they needed for the ceremony for all who wanted to become skin-walkers. For his wisdom, he was made the first shaman of the tribe, and his hut became the sacred hut in which members of the tribe gained their animal skin. From that day forward, when a child came of age, they would decide which skin they wished to take, and it would be theirs to wear for the rest of their days.”

  Mateo listened to the entire story with wide eyes. “Wow,” he said. “So that’s how it works for you? You get to pick the animal you want to be and then…then you can? How does the ceremony work?”

  Dazi shook his head. “I told you, I’m not allowed to say. You can only know how the ceremony works if you’re going to do it, or have done it. Besides, only the puhagant himself knows exactly which herbs to use and what words to say over them to give them power.”