by Amber Stuart
I whispered it in his ear. “Please fill me up,” I said. “Please.”
“I will,” he replied, and, then I felt him shudder and tense on top of me, just as I felt myself crest my own edge. We came together right then, his muscles tightening as he shot his load and my body thrashing as I lost control and came hard, quivering and panting as the orgasm’s tension rebounded through me.
“Oh god,” I said. The aftershocks continued to make me twitch as I convulsed around his cock. I was practically seeing stars, it was so strong.
When he finished, he paused for a moment, then pulled out. I felt empty, unfortunately. But then, I realized, this was my husband. There was more of this to come in my future. I was a lucky woman.
He lay down on the moss next to me, closing his eyes and breathing heavily. We had to take a while to rest, because coming together had been such a powerful experience. I flexed my legs experimentally; they had become a little stiff, locked in that position, and it felt almost orgasmic to stretch them.
We were silent for a little bit, but it was a comfortable silence. I reached my hand out and took his, feeling pleased when his fingers closed over mine. He scooted a bit closer to me and draped an arm around me, then pulled me close. The warmth from his body felt pleasant.
“Hey,” I said suddenly, “what about that secret room? I’m your wife now, right? So I can see what’s in it.”
He perked up visibly, his eyes bright. “Yes! I thought about it on the flight back from Saltar 7. I’m excited to show it to you.”
We extricated ourselves from each other and put our clothes back on. I did some more stretches; I hadn’t realized just how athletic of an activity sex could be. I followed Tal out the door and down the corridor into the rest of the palace.
I hadn’t yet had much of an opportunity to see the other rooms in the palace so I hadn’t yet seen this one. The door was enormous and intricately carved with all sorts of strange creatures. Tal punched in a code and it slid open; when we stepped inside, I was amazed.
It was a zoo. Literally. I could smell pungent animal smells and hear the cacophony of different animals chirping. They had natural-looking habitats and appeared to be well taken care of; some were in flocks or herds and others were lounging alone. The room was the size of a football field, at least. I couldn’t contain my excitement. My legs wanted to start moving so I could see everything.
“Wow,” was all I could say.
“This is the transformation room,” said Tal in a businesslike tone. “One of the secrets of the Mirrotirik is that we have technology that allows us to take the form of any other life form we choose.”
“No way,” I said. “So I did hear a bird chirping on your ship.”
“Yes,” he said, smiling sheepishly. “We captured one because we thought it might be a fun form to try out.”
“So you use this technology for fun?”
“It’s very common among the Mirrotirik. Civilians use less lethal forms for leisure, while warriors use tougher forms for battle,” he explained. “You can use it too. It will work on you.”
Now that made me really surprised. “You’re joking, right?”
“Why would I joke? Getting to use all of these forms is one of the privileges of marrying me.” He walked up to a tank full of large, brightly colored fish, watching them swim in circles.
“I bet there’s a lot of training that’s involved. And you’ll have to start me off with something easy, like a sparrow or a dog.”
“Not at all. Even our children are trusted with this technology,” said Tal casually. “But you will require a different sort of training. Spiritual training.”
I looked at him oddly. It had never occurred to me that the Mirrotirik would be spiritual. Yet here was this whole new side to them I was discovering—what other surprises would they have in store?
“All Mirrotirik children are taught about this technology from a young age. We are a species that loves animals. We respect the diversity of life as something sacred. As a species, we place a high value on learning about and studying other species, including other sentient species.”
“That’s beautiful,” I said quietly. I hadn’t at all expected this from the hotshot prince. Or king, rather.
“The first animal you choose is your soul animal,” explained Tal. “People raised as warriors get theirs earlier, but everyone chooses theirs before they become an adult.”
“What’s yours?” I asked.
“A wolf.” He gave me a wry smile.
“Why is it an Earth animal? Shouldn’t it be a species from here?”
“I more or less grew up on Earth,” he said. “I was a child when my species came to Earth, and my family remained there during the initial colonization period. I learned a lot about your animals and way of life. Earth is an incredible planet. I thought wolves were fierce and beautiful, so I chose them for my first transformation.” He shrugged. “I don’t at all regret my choice. And when I got older and learned about how wolves are symbolically important to humans, common in their religions and folktales, I understood that I too was drawn to them, in that same mysterious way.”
I was too stunned to even speak. I was overwhelmed simply from looking around at all the creatures in this room with us. They peered at me curiously when I walked close to them; they had probably never seen a human before. When I walked further down, I saw some Earth animals. It was a strange assortment; there were the expected dogs, cats, wolves, lions, and bears, but also parakeets, goldfish, exotic-looking eagles, hooved creatures I didn’t recognize, and sea lions. I even saw insects in one section of the room.
“So, do you want to try it?” asked Tal. A grin started to creep across his face.
“I don’t know what animal I would pick,” I said. “I mean, you said the soul animal is significant in some way, so I don’t want to mess up.”
“You won’t,” he said confidently. “But maybe first I can show you how the process works.”
He walked over to a cage full of macaws and gently took one out. The great red creature stepped onto his hand easily and squawked as if it were amused. It was sweet to see how kind and patient he was with the bird. I would never have guessed that he would have been an animal lover, but here we were.
He set the parrot on a perch on a table, then distracted it with a treat in one hand, using a small metal tool to clip a piece of its tail feather. After returning the bird to its fellows, he took the piece of feather to what appeared to be a large, complicated machine, like an early computer.
“I haven’t tried being one of these colorful birds before,” he said, as he placed the feather on a slide and guided some numbers on the screen. “They are magnificent and quite intelligent.”
“People keep them as pets,” I said, watching mesmerized as rows of data and text flowed across the screen. I had no idea what was going on. Logically, I knew that he intended to transform into the macaw. It was just bizarre to think that it was going to happen.
But then, I was the one who had married an alien. I couldn’t talk.
“Okay, it’s ready,” he said. A small vial of clear fluid popped out of a tray at the bottom of the machine. “When I inject this serum, the bird’s DNA will be absorbed into my body, along with some nanomachines. I will then be able to transform into the bird any time I want.”
“I’m not going to believe it until I see it,” I said.
He took out a very blunt-looking needle and filled up the syringe. It didn’t look like it would be able to pierce his skin, and it didn’t—all he had to do was press it against his skin and the serum was delivered. When he finished, he carefully threw it away.
“Now,” he said, disrobing. When he saw me raise my eyebrows, he said, “It is not possible to transform with clothes on—the new animal form would get tangled in the cloth.”
When he was fully naked, he stood with his arms held out like a bird’s wings, like he was going to jump off a diving board.
I had no idea what I was I was going to see, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. His skin started to become bright red and jagged looking. Feathers rose from it and he immediately started to shrink, falling to the ground. A beak jutted out of his face and a tail from behind him. Feathers grew from his arms, elongating and becoming wings. Within a minute, he had transformed into an exact replica of the original macaw.
He immediately started flapping and lifted up, flying in circles around the room.This is amazing! I heard him cry. This bird is so intelligent, and such an excellent flyer.
Wow, I thought. He sounded like he was having a blast. Who wouldn’t have fun being such a curious, agile, carefree animal? I watched in amazement as the bird that was my husband glided around the room in a phoenix-like flash of red feathers.
After a minute of this, he flew down in front of me and easily transformed into his regular self. He had a grin plastered to his face, which was pretty convincing. I couldn’t wait to try it out.
“What do you think now? Would you like to try?”
“You’re sure it’s safe, right?” I asked. “I can’t get stuck as an animal, can I?”
“There are several hundred nanomachines included in the serum, each with a neural input. Even if several of them fail, it only requires one neural input to trigger the change. This technology has been tested over several decades and is considered foolproof. You will be just fine.”
“Sounds good to me.” I peered around the room, the weight of choosing an animal falling upon me. As a child, I had always wondered what animal I would be if I was an animal. Now that I had a choice, it was hard to decide. Of course, Tal had demonstrated that a person could have several different animals in their repertoire. But the first animal, the soul animal, had significance.
“You will naturally be drawn to the correct soul animal,” he said, as if he knew what I was thinking. “Everyone has a hard time deciding at first. But whatever decision you make will be the correct one.”
So it was impossible to make the wrong decision. That was comforting. I walked around the enclosures, Tal in tow. I knew I wanted an Earth animal, something I was familiar with. And not one that was too different—a bird or mammal I could handle, a fish, not so much.
I stopped in front of one enclosure with a beautiful feline in it. It resembled a bobcat, but was leaner, with its fur a more rusty color. What was it called? The name was on the tip of my tongue. It peered at me with piercing green-yellow eyes, its face streaked with patterns of white and its ears tufted with black fur.
I looked down to see a label on the enclosure. Caracal, that was the word. We continued watching each other, and then I realized that this was my soul animal.
“This is it,” I said.
“Excellent choice,” said Tal, putting his hand on my shoulder. “This is an elegant creature. I know many who are particularly fond of the agility and grace of feline forms. Not that you need more of that.”
I smiled at him and he smiled back. That had been a cute compliment. He took a small pair of scissors and entered the caracal’s enclosure. With the same calm demeanor with which he had approached the macaw, he walked up to the caracal. He soothingly stroked its back and clipped some fur.
Minutes later, I had my own vial of caracal serum. My heart was pounding and there was a sheen of sweat on my skin. I couldn’t believe I was about to do this. I was reminded of the first time I had gone on a roller coaster when I was ten years old. I had been so scared yet so thrilled. I had a feeling that this was going to be an even more exhilarating experience.
Tal loaded the serum up and pressed the blunted needle against my skin. I felt a tingling as the serum was absorbed into my skin and then my bloodstream, and then nothing else. Was the cat really a part of me now?
“So how do I do this?” I asked, as I started to undo my dress. Funny, having sex with Tal earlier had completely obliterated any apprehension I might have had about undressing in front of him.
“Just like with the screens, you think about becoming a caracal. You have to stay focused until the transformation is over. Because it is four legged, it may be easier for you to start on the floor.”
I felt extremely awkward being naked and on the floor in this pristine, clean room, but I did as he said. He knelt down to my level too. I closed my eyes and pictured the caracal, imagining running around easily on its agile legs. I could feel my bones lengthening and my hair turning into fur. It didn’t hurt at all, but it was a bizarre, indescribable sensation, like there was an electric breeze tingling all over my skin.
“You are done,” said Tal. I was startled by how his voice sounded. It was completely different from how it sounded when I was in human form. I could detect so much more in it; it was like the difference between listening to music with crappy earbuds and listening to music with a stereo system.
I opened my eyes and looked down, only to see paws. The first thing I noticed, apart from my sharper senses, was that I was small. Everything around me seemed bigger, including Tal. But I wasn’t scared at all. In fact, I felt overwhelmingly confident, like nothing could touch me.
“You might notice that the animal’s mindset overlaps with your own,” said Tal. “If you are in trouble, you can let the animal’s instincts take over.”
As I watched him, Tal’s skin became gray and furry and his face elongated into a snout. A minute later, I was face to face with a wolf. Want to go running? he asked.
We raced each other through the corridors of the zoo. He was right—the caracal’s instincts helped me control my new body. I could turn around corners easily and jump around just like… a cat.
This is awesome! I cried, laughing when I realized that I was talking telepathically, like he had.
I know! he replied. We bounded around and around. I was shocked at the athleticism of my new body. I wasn’t a particularly fit human, but I wasn’t a couch potato either. This was like upgrading from a compact car to a Ferrari. It was an exhilarating feeling.
How can I talk to you in my head? I asked.
The nanomachines communicate with each other, he said. They can also communicate with translator chips, so we can speak with our allies in battle.
Incredible, I said, chasing him around the corridors. I was zooming along with my own power, feeling the ground disappear under me. I never even wanted to stop.
But then, I thought, there were so many other forms to try. How would it feel to fly as a bird? Or to swim as a dolphin?
God, this was the best thing.
The caracal’s confidence was also intoxicating, like a drug. I felt like I was indestructible, like I could handle anything that came my way. I could see how this could become a problem when using this form in battle. I supposed that I’d have to get used to controlling it.
Eventually, despite my energy, I tired, and I caught up to Tal. We collapsed on the floor, giddy with adrenaline. I closed my eyes and imagined being myself again, feeling my limbs elongating and my body growing. When I opened my eyes, I was fully human.
I sat up. “That was seriously amazing,” I said. Some of the caracal’s confidence had been left in me, and I felt like hot shit.
Tal grinned. “Isn’t it? You’ll want to collect all the forms now.”
“Yeah. So you said you use this for the military too, right?”
“We do,” he said, frowning. He helped me up, and we went back to retrieve our clothes.
“Is there a problem?” I was immediately concerned; I could tell something was eating at him.
“We are having trouble on Saltar 7,” he said. “Our enemies are able to regenerate themselves when they go in the water. We need the forms of aquatic predators.”
“Oh,” I said. “That’s easy. We have all kinds. Whales, leopard seals, sharks…”
He raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“I thought you knew all about Earth. How do you not know about whales?” I asked, incredulous.
He sh
rugged. “I do not know everything.”
“Well, you definitely want whales,” I said. “Probably killer whales. They’re like the wolves of the ocean.”
As I expected, that seemed to pique his interest. “Their name certainly makes them sound fearsome.”
“They’re pretty dangerous, from what I hear,” I said.
“Excellent.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and pulled me close to him. “Killer whales could be what we need to defeat the Guruthun.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but it worried me. He was already talking as if he was going to go into battle again. I knew that he wasn’t really supposed to, because he was King. But it sounded like the situation on Saltar 7 was dire, if they needed him.
How was I going to raise kids with someone who was off fighting on a distant planet? I wasn’t the kind of person who was cut out to be a military wife. It was too difficult, on top of everything that was different about my life now.
Well, I certainly couldn’t tell him what to do. I’d just have to hope that my suggestion worked out.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Maia
Tal had taught me how to use the serum machine and had given me the clearance to make my own vials. While I was nervous to approach the animals at first, I quickly realized that they were remarkably tame, probably because they weren’t used to seeing humans. They put up very little fuss when I tried to take DNA samples, unless they were naturally skittish, like small birds and rodents.
But I wasn’t trying to transform into a prey animal, especially on a planet where I wasn’t familiar with the native wildlife. For my first bird form, I had chosen a powerful-looking black and gray eagle with a red face called a Bateleur. If anything out in the weird blue forests gave me trouble, I’d be able to fight it off.
But there wasn’t anything that bothered me. The Bateleur’s broad wings were perfect for taking advantage of warm air pockets that were numerous over the castle and city, and its cool, calculating mind was relaxing to share space with. I could let it fly me on autopilot while I got some space to think.
