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So I am back again with another little story. This one a 'light hearted' tale... (compared to my last atleast) mild bit of rape, blood, some depression and so forth.. but the goal of this tale is the psychological aspects of a transformation and growth in to a new life... I am thinking of making it a series.. though it may be a while before I write anything to post again. The main character, is Anna, not wholy innocent, of average intelligence. A bit above average in appearance perhaps, but generally a normal human girl, the kind you might see walking down the street with her boyfriend, hanging on his arm. There are a few minor continuity issues in the story that I couldn't fix without rewriting the whole, so please.. forgive them, I'm too lazy otherwise :P and magic is a part of it, though it does seem a very 'factual' tale from the start. I hope you all enjoy! * * * The Sea, She calls to me: The Beginning "The life of a lifeguard" they said, "Exciting, rewarding, respectable!" At the moment I was unsure; eight months along this empty coast. Maybe one or two beach combers, a couple holding hands or so each day. Some times a family picnic broke the monotony, children darting through waves. Not once had I seen actual swimmers. It was true the summer's water had been colder than average and it was true, my beach was not the most pleasant. A pebble strewn half mile of cove bordered by sharp mussel encrusted rocks. You couldn't build a sand castle nor could you go for a true swim; shallow as it was, for nearly fifty meters out, followed by a sheer drop of an underwater shelf. At the breakers people had died, and so the park service hired a lifeguard for this disused 'beach'. And so two hundred novels along with dozens of CDs later, here I am. Today is certainly a good day, a warm wind, a lightly clouded sky. I had grown tan from being outside in the sun every day; today would give it another of the sun's gentle kisses. Careful to keep my back just as tanned as my front, splayed on a beach blanket. Perhaps I had grown lazy but of course I could see anyone coming for a swim; a mile distant from the road as I was. Gulls and the wash of waves over pebbles soothed the senses. With nothing to do, I could be sure no one had an easier job. A book in hand; this one an average romance, not generally my cup of tea but I had read every single one of the local library's fantasy novels. It did nothing for me. The book, tossed aside, my eyes out across the sea, the 89ners on the radio in tune with birds and waves. At first I didn't notice the faint cry, and when I did notice, it sounded more like a dolphin's squeak than the word help. But as a dark head of hair appeared deep in the breakers my hear began to race. How had they gotten out there? How had I not seen? No one had been at the beach all today. For a moment I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do. My first posting, my first rescue, it was all new again. The orange of my floater dragged my senses in to a keen sharpness. The rope in hand I ran, as fast as my feet could carry me. I was suffused in an icy chill, muscles cried at the shock. Twice a day I swam however, my body knew how to cut through the waves. How long it took me to get to that dark head, I don't know, too long I feared... but still I could see it on each crest of the breakers. So close, I could see the whites of his eyes under dark locks, wild, terrified. A pale hand reached out towards me. So close, a barest inch finger tip to finger tip, he sank away. I dived, I had to, I would not fail my first rescue. The rough waves battered at me, sending me crashing in to cliff face. Deeper, the turbulence stopped, instead just a downward draw of water. I saw no one, the boy was either too deep or still above the cliff. Frantic, with eyes burning from salt water I searched. Nothing. A dark shape in darker water, only a glimpse out of the corner of my eye. Too late did I turn, only to feel as if kicked in the ribs. A fluke, maybe a fin, gray skin. Shark? I thought as terror gripped my heart. The boy momentarily forgotten as the dark shape loomed again. I tried to kick myself aside, but the arrow tip of a nose... a dolphin slammed straight in to my stomach. Breath lost, bubbles gone forever above my head. The pain was excrutiating, I knew a rib must have been broken, and my stomach hurt worse than the worst cramps I could imagine. Clawing towards the surface, lungs a fire of need. Again I was struck, in the back this time, and smashed against the cliff face. Sharp rocks dug in to skin, In streaks of water rippled sunlight, stained a rust red... blood. Struck again but I was higher this time, smooth gravel met my body, just beyond the breakers. Time held no meaning, but darkness was edging in, one word echoed in my mind, Air, air... Tunneled vision traveled to the surface, two meters above my head perhaps. I propelled myself towards it, almost tasting the wind on my tongue.. the warm sun on my face. Darkness, but not unconsciousness, a body between my destination and me. Sleek, gray skin, a dark eye looking at me. Mind to mind I begged, 'please, let me pass, let me live.' salty tears met salt water. The dolphin would never see them. He turned towards me, sunlight catching my face briefly; a blessing I thought... until the torpedo of his beak struck my stomach again. Pebbles slid coldly along the skin of my back, a sharp rock cut in to my right flank and tore my swimsuit. He was above me, a mocking grin on his beak. Murderer my mind screamed at him as in reflex my lungs tried to fill; only to meet water. Throat closed, clamped shut I was in truth drowning now, time seemed to slow. Through darkening vision I could see him coming down at me again, aimed for my stomach. His beak slid under the lose right leg of my swimsuit. A rip, loud in the muffled embrace of the sea. I thought it funny, he wanted to wear my swimsuit, that was all.. he would leave me alone if he had the colorful cloth. I tried to laugh, but with no breath it died in a sob. Water leaking in to lungs, irritating my discomfort further. Cloth torn apart, my lower half naked and the rest bunched up under my breasts. I learned something new in that moment, something both horrifying and strangely flattering. He didn't want to wear my swimsuit... he wanted to wear me. At least that is the rational my mind came up with as the animal began to rape me. Smooth hot skin, slippery and wet, forced in to me. I was no where near a virgin, but the dolphin was shaped unlike any man I had ever bedded. A tapered length, that I could feel squirming inside, sharp as a blade as it struck my deepest point. I tore some from that impact and he of course did not care. I wanted to scream, I wanted to breathe, I wanted to escape... I wanted to die then and there. Why my mind refused to blacken I could not know, but there was no final peace to be had. That first penetration and tearing was only a hint of what came next. Cervix crashed in to, blunt compared to the fine pinhole within it. It gave way, a second virginity stolen. The poor little ring parted with a rip, blood filling me as inhuman penis was mated to my womb. My body arching in pain, hands groping to push him away. In his element, he was king, and I was just a whore, a bitch for his lust. No escape while pinned between his brutal rutting and the jagged rock under me. To no little relief, the rape was brief, a few brutal thrusts, ruining me for ever. A gush of his semen, so powerful it too hurt as it splashed against my torn womb. And he was gone, a cloud of blood and semen in his wake around me. I crawled by instinct alone from the depths of my grave. The damage within more disturbing than painful, lose where once I was tight, things shifted where once I never had felt them. At last, with the shore in sight and the water so shallow I could almost lift my head above the waves... I blacked out.

• • * Chill, smooth stones against my cheek, a tickling at my feet I soon recognized as waves. Alive, my first thought, I was alive. The how mattered not, the why was more pertinent; hot, heavy tears rolled down my cheeks. The pain less now, but the memory fresh, a nightmare become reality. I knew I had been ruined, my body broken forever and by all rights I should be dead, I wanted to be dead. I almost attempted to crawl back in to the night sea, let her embrace take me. I had lost everything there but my life, symmetry demanded that too. The instinct of survival was too potent; hands lifted a bruised and battered body. Stained with blood, with other things I didn't at that moment want to think of. Towards my blanket and clothing, not the salty embrace. Softness un-natural under fingertips, a fist made in fabric. Damp with the endless flow of the sea; I knew it was in me now, running down my face. I would never escape its embrace, the salty depths a sorrow from my eyes, my cuts, the... Thoughts were torn away from that train of thought, I did not want to think of what had happened. Only the drowning, only the choking depths, I could bare that. It took me an age to dress. Some of the cuts I was sure would need stitches, still oozing blood. The ruination between my thighs was worse, I dared not look, but I could feel wetness running down me. Underwear bunched up, stuffed in place and pants pulled on. I abandoned my book, my radio, my blanket and stumbled towards the road. So far, too far; eyes drifted once again towards the night darkened ocean. The sound of waves washing over me, no longer soothing but a siren's call. Feet still carried me inland, even as thoughts drowned over and over again. So dark, thin clouds obscuring stars and no hint of the moon in the sky. A swath of light cut across the road above... but passed on, dim red of tail lights fading in to the choking black. For a moment I was sure I was still underwater, chest tightened, unable to breathe. A brush of the cool night wind tossing my damp hair aside reminded me; I could breathe. Eventually, cool metal under my fingers, key from my jacket pocket. Something was familiar now, something that was solid, real. My car, still with that new car smell. It centered me, reminded me, my boyfriend would be pissed, it was almost four in the morning and he was expecting me at eight for dinner. A moment later it struck me, I was ruined, he would have nothing to do with my broken body. Fresh tears welled a tide across my eyes, finally spilling in to my lap. Fingers tightened on the wheel, knuckles white as the pressure inside grew. Emotions I didn't look at long enough to define spilled up my throat... along with sea water and lunch. Door still open, I hunched over the concrete heaving myself empty, "The sea will never leave me..." I murmured to no one in particular. The drive home was blurred by waves, tears that never seemed to stop, a tide that kept flowing. How I wondered could I have so much liquid inside, truly the sea had entered me forever. Fixated, I knew I was but just to cope; to keep my car between the two lines, one dotted yellow the other solid white, I needed a fixation. Twice I passed my driveway to the small pine-log cabin I rented cheap from the park service. Another car was in the drive, one I recognized. Steve, he was there waiting for me on the porch, the light on, showing his sandy hair over an angry face. I didn't want to deal with this; gone, I wanted him gone from here, from my life. A tissue dried my tears, Courage rose in me, strength I didn't know still existed. Gravel crunched under my bare feet, it hurt, but the pain helped my resolve. He bombarded me with questions demanding too many answers. Accusations, the only one I actually heard was, "How dare you? Stand ME up? Where were you! Fucking some tree hugger?" where there was once softness in my expression became only stone. "Go away Steve--can't you take a hint?" I replied, lying, the truth hurt worse. He glared, with the words he had just spoken blooming behind his eyes. Images of what I must have done, I didn't want to see the ugliness any longer. I was about to retract what I had said, appologise, but he cut me off, "Fine, fine. I get it, got your new job now, beautiful people everywhere, how could a whore like you resist?" he spoke as he moved to his car, and slammed the door with the last word. Backing up he almost hit me, breaks coming on just inches from my knees. Gravel sprayed as he left, kicked up against me. My knees hurt, sharp rocks poking through my jeans; everything hurt in truth. Again I wondered why I had not crawled back in to the sea, and who I had survived in the first place. Broken, I was broken, it kept going through my mind over and over tied now to the names he had called me. A broken whore, whore to dolphins a whore to the sea who raped me even as I knelt there before my home. But no, I wasnt raped, I was a whore, you cant rape a whore... The sky grew light, day was coming; I hid. Blankets over windows, I curled up in the bathtub. Empty at first, and slowly it filled. I was naked, shivering, filling the bath with sea water from my tears, from my lips, from between my legs. Sea water stained red, but sea water. I knew the smell, the taste, every time I heaved I knew it. Like a child after a butterfly, I chased sanity around the beach of my mind. Salt water running as tears down my face, brine pouring from my womb. I was the sea, the sea was me. Maybe I slept and dreamed, but the next thing I knew, my bath had gone cold, clear rusty water stained by my sea. I still felt dirty, still felt broken. It was a banging that brought me back, my door with lines of sunlight trying to sneak around it, rattling on its hinges. It was barred, I ignored it, terrified tears began anew, a sob wrenched new pain in my abdomin. The water grew darker with red. Eons passed before my door was left alone, darkness outside now, safty. I hadn't left my bath; wrinkled fingers, shivering body, I still didn't leave. What brought reality back to me again was the gnawing of hunger that finally pushed beyond the envelope of suffering. My clock said four days had passed while I sat in the tub. Skin no longer wrinkled, it felt smooth, soft, and firm. For a while I had itched but I had ignored it, I had ignored everything. A sandwich with stale bread, peanut butter and jelly. The first thing my stomach had taken in days, it came right back up a few minutes later but I felt marginally stronger. My phone was flashing, dozens of messages left on the machine. I listened to them, as i tried to keep saltines down. Work wondering where I was, my mother wondering if I was okay after work had called her. A half dozen messages from Steve, starting out angry, then growing more apologetic, then down right worried. I assumed work had called him too. The phone in hand, I wondered who to dial. I didn't--couldn't go back to work, I doubted I would ever come within a hundred yards of the ocean ever again. At least thats what I told myself at the time, but deep down, my womb had drank of the sea, it was in me now, forever. My mother was the number that came to my fingertips. "Mom-I'm okay." I told her when she answered, "I'm just sick, but I'll be okay." "Thats a relief, people have been asking about you. They said your place had been abandoned but your car was there. You should call the police, they have a missing persons bulletin put out on you." She told me, sounding like she had been crying. I felt horrid, everyone who cared about me was worried, while I was lost in self pity. "I'll do that. I have to make some more phone calls Mom, but believe me, I'm okay." I hung up shortly after that, expressing our love and how much we missed each other. Only a hundred miles inland, but I still never saw her. That would have to change... maybe I could keep my park job, just in a different position, a different forest closer to home. The call to the police was far from brief, they wanted details, details I refused to give and I am pretty sure they knew. But they didn't pressure me, I hadn't committed any crimes I was sure, it wasn't illegal to be dead to the world on your sickbed. While I talked, I gazed out my front door, the forest around me, peaceful, almost... but for the growing nausea. Sick I was, Soul sick for certain, but my body was sick too. I was hot, wounds were puffy, infected probably, but looked like they would heal ok. My stomach hurt still, and for the first time I dared to imagine the damage done. Impaled. The phone clattered in to its cradle and I sat down. I could feel a wetness between my legs, too wet. Clothing removed, I found myself confused to find no blood. A heavy trickle of clear water ran from me. Not just a few droplets from the bath, no, but a steady stream, "the sea..." I whispered, smelling the brine scent, salt. I held myself, rocking in the chair; fingers pressed to torn labia, ripped by the brutal mating. I realized it was too hot, even for an infection. I felt like I had a fever, perhaps delirious. Above my head I saw the moon high in the sky, a thin crescent. It would be high tide now I thought, and it seemed fitting; the sea ran from me at high tide. I laughed for a while, then quietly sobbed myself to sleep the throw rug over the back of the chair, my only blanket. My face bathed in moonlight.
• • * Sun dazzled my waking eyes. I felt both very hot as well as cold and wet, it would take me only a moment to notice I was sleeping in a puddle. The entire cabin floor was covered in water, my chair's upholstery was soaked through. Thighs were slippery with water, chilly, while the dry patches above my waist were on fire. I jerked to my feet and nearly went flat to my face. The world tilted, spun, only the rough hewn wall under my palm steadied me. I felt full, bloated, and a cramp teased at my gut then a moment later nausea. Five minutes I prayed to the porcelain god's statue. Sea water, I knew the taste well.. not bile, not saltines, sea water. I felt better after words, empty and hungry. Saltines again, I did not want to go through the rights of worship again today. Still, I leaked endlessly and so ate sitting on the toilet, "this cant be real..." mumbled words fell from my lips, like water. No one had this much water in them, it was impossible. I couldn't recall even taking a drink in a nigh on a week. Saltines splashed to the damp floor, startled from nervous fingers as the door was pounded on, then opened. The little cabin had only one room, no privacy. A cry leaped to my lips in surprise, hands covering myself. It was Steve, looking furious, cast in the sunlight his face a shadow but I could see the set of his shoulders. He angered too easily and he, to be sure, would have to have been quite furious to barge in as he did. "I thought you dead! I actually felt SORRY. You fucking whore probably did it on purpose." he screamed at me. My eyes darted to the phone half way across the room on the table. A few quick steps, it was ripped from the wall, the cord in his hands still as he came towards me, "They thought I did it.. I spent days in jail because of you and being the dumb ass I am, I thought I would call you with my one phone call a day." I couldn't move, paralyzed to where I sat, naked, quivering, still trickling seawater from my womb, "Do-do you intend..." I broke off as his hand struck my face. Sea water at my cheeks in long tracks; seawater at my lips, stained red. Eyes looked in to his, seeing no pity, seeing no love. And with he, tense with bunched muscles from heavy lifting in a factory. I let my head drop and just cried waiting for him to do whatever he intended. What was one more pain to add to my suffering? I was tied, wrists behind my back, thrown to the bed. He was going on about what a whore deserved, what a whore was made for and how he was going to show me. There were no more blows, no more bruisings, just my naked body under him. A blunt intrusion, gentle compared to the memories but still quite painful on my freshly healed wounds. He didn't even notice the torn labia, or the ragged cervix, still torn in half, gaping as his cock pushed in to it, through it. When he noticed the warm flow of wetness, he humiliated me, telling me how my body proved it, just a lusty whore for anyone to take. I wasn't sure he was half wrong either. The heat within grew, a flame in my womb, overwhelming sensation. I moaned, and it only encouraged his debasement of my person, which encouraged the heat. My eyes looked upon his; once pale blue, I had seen them in the mirror earlier, dark stormly blue, almost black. Again, he hadn't noticed. My body responded in kind, hips lifting to his as he emptied himself in to me. I had no choice, it was rape, I would have said no... but yes or no I came with a gush so heavy, i knew i had spilled a galon of sea water over the bed. This got his attention. His face looked bewildered, then even more so as he stared in to my eyes. My skin felt different to him, I could see it as he touched my stomach, slippery with the water, smooth. The hair between my legs just fell out as his fingers brushed across it. I looked down, watching... my labia wasn't torn now, but it wasn't my labia. Dark grey, fading in to creamy white at the edges, then in to pink of my folds, but far whiter than it should have been. He saw this and stumbled from the cabin, eyes wide and hands trembling. He said nothing to me, just left me bound helpless on the bed. I continued to cry, feeling his semen leak out of me, sticky wetness in contrast to the clean sea water i was used to. I felt-fouled, which greatly confused me since I already felt ruined and was convinced I on par with a whore. The slimy white that clung to thighs and rear seemed some how worse, wrong. For a long time I gazed out the open doorway, laying there tied up. I didn't even try to wriggle myself free. Eventually to my confusion and amazement, my hands just slipped free. A moment later my ankles were unbound, and I sat up. A glance at my bed told me all I needed to know, it too was soaked through. I would sleep in the tub again tonight, with the drain open. Real food, this time it stayed down and I felt much better. The pain was fading, a distant memory, but the memories were bad enough. I called in to work, told them I was ill and apologized for dropping off the face of the earth. As a close knit group, they welcomed the news with warm heartfelt endearments and worry. Forest Rangers weren't suspicious generally from my experience, though some times very reserved like the forest's they cared for. "Tomorrow, If I feel better, I'll come in. I would have called but the phone felt a million miles away. I do have some stuff to talk about, but I would feel better about it in person." I didn't want to quit, but again I thought, I couldn't go near the sea, even thinking about the underwater shelf made my knees weak in fright.
• • * They say the full moon does strange things to people. For me, the moon itself did strange things. I had just about dried up, only a little dampness between my new netherlips. On the porch I sat watching the moon rise, clean clothing giving a fresh feeling and almost sanity. I thought of sleep, but felt not the least bit tired. I thought of going for a walk as my usual routine but was still concerned for my health. The heat I had felt was gone. Though my lower regions were quite changed, gray smooth skin that seemed to weave its way up my stomach and rear. It stopped a few inches above my navel, a triangle from hips to that point. At my back, it stretched a bit further, though I couldn't see very well and I felt a small ache constantly right above my rump. The coloring changed as well, from pale gray almost white to a darker blue black near the edges. It grew by the hour, spreading over my body. By now, I had figured it out. Weather I believed it or not, mattered little, I knew what was happening to me. I was becoming a dolphin. The skin was right, the eyes were right, growing darker and darker. Now I sat, waiting for the moon to rise, to see if my theory was correct. I had a tide chart in one hand, A watch at my wrist. My watched beeped, just as the tide turned. A heat suffused me, immediate and overwhelming. It started in my womb, a pressure building, then spreading upwards. Skirt lifted away, sitting on the edge of my porch, smooth vulva parted by careful fingers. A moment later it started. First a droplet, then a trickle. I could smell the sea coming from between my thighs. Emotions rushed through me of dark deep places, of the womb, of the mother sea. With hiked skirt I laid back, fingers playing now a delightful game. So sensitive, so delicious as the moon light illuminated. It reminded me of pissing, but so much more satisfying, so much more... Right was the only word that came to mind. The sea belonged in me now, and I belonged... In the sea. Skin rubbery, labia tight, almost like muscle holding them together. I began fingering myself, and the image that came to mind was the dolphin, under the waves as he took his pleasure of me. The terror I had felt was gone, the horror just a memory. I came in the moon light, a squeak of inhuman lust, as the inferno of that fever became too much to bare. I was a waterfall, open, receptive, giving. No longer knowing myself as water trickled down my face. No longer fearing what was happening, I embraced it, and it too embraced me. The change was slow, skin taut, muscle flexing and bone reknitting perhaps. But all I knew; I was the waterfall, the climactic rush as the sea poured from my womb from my lips from my eyes-even my ears and nose. Every pore of my body, my bladder was the sea, my bowels the sea my skin parting with imagery of moses. Sheets of water ran off my body, and I knew no more.
• • * As a dream of images and sounds, Words that weren't words. Those were all that were left to me when I awoke, alone on the beach, my beach. I was in shallow water, my naked stomach and breasts laying upon washed pebbles. A warmth that was familiar yet new to me, trickled from between the part of my thighs. A flash of a male dolphin, just a flash, all I needed to know, "The Dolphin Whore..." I said to myself, a low chuckle in my throat, enjoying the idea as it rolled back and forth through my mind. I stood, legs weak, body exhausted. It would be a long walk home, yet it was still night, so no one would notice a naked woman hiking through the woods. The flow of water had stopped, though my belly was full, I knew it was of fish. I had remembered glimpses of it and the salty tang of blood in my mouth as a reminder. For a moment I wondered where my clothing was, ruined perhaps in my change? It didn't matter I supposed, just a skirt and shirt. This, this new life, is more important than frivolous fabric. The wind was cold, but I felt comfortable, the elements were part of me now. My eyes turned towards the road. The walk was as long as I had thought it would be, and the sun had risen by the time I entered my home. My clothing was in a sodden heap on the porch, along with my watch, thankfully waterproofed. Alarm set, I dared to sleep in my bed while my clothes dried on the line outside. A few hours would do me well after such a... night. In my dreams I relived the sea; the taste of fish, the caress of a mate, the rapture of change. Words I understood then, but could only guess at now were exchanged. I was told things, things I knew, but didn't know the words to decipher now. What I was, who I was... and most important, Why, that ever present question why. The answer was there but I could not know it. I awoke wet, but this time, it was only a cold sweat. I looked at my alarm clock, five minutes until it was supposed to go off. The dream tried to drift away from me, so much to know, I didn't want to lose it. Gone sadly by the time I rolled out of bed to relieve myself. In the mirror I looked at my new complexion. It was me, but with a new texture to my skin, a new color to my eyes, and a slight change everywhere. My body was dark blue gray, so close to black-I thought it beautiful. Down my arms the color faded to white, then pink. My hands were very much human, the same with my face and feet. My breasts had changed as well to my dismay, I looked something akin to a prepubescent girl with nipples tucked in a tight fold of skin that reminded me much of my sex. "You stole my breasts and gave me vagina's for nipples!" I shouted at the sea with indignant humor. Sure I could see the importance, sleek body was faster in the water, and nipples would be only in the way and quite uncomfortable. I thanked whatever sea god there was, that my hair stayed on my head. A part of me had worried, seeing the rest of my body hair fall away, that I would be bald.. but it seemed as strong and rooted as ever. With no leaking and a relatively dry bed, I dressed and checked the tide chart. I had slept through the rise of the next tide, yet I stayed dry, "perhaps its only high tide?" I asked my bowel of cereal. To which, its response was quite astute. I had talked to my cereal since I was a kid; rice crispies, the only cereal that talked back. The drive out to the ranger station was exhilarating. I felt a new freedom, one that had never touched my short life. I wasn't human anymore, it gave me such a fluttery feeling, knowing I was something so different. There in the back of my mind was also the realization, the sea was mine, I could go anywhere. At least during high tide, but then again, the dolphin boy I had met a week ago... he had changed and it was during low tide. Car door shut, keys in my jacket pocket. Everyone was here, probably waiting to see me I supposed though I was sure they all had things they could be doing. One step in the station and my bosses face came in to view, the lose skin at her throat shook, telling me she was worried, "Anna! You look like a ghost, your so pale." she cried. I tried to reassure her I was alright, "Well Mable, I guess a few days out of the sun, and my tan just gave up the.. ah Ghost?" She winced at my pun and shook her finger, "Naughty, puns deserve punishment. But honestly Anna, are you alright? When the neighbors didn't see you down on the beach on the second day they phoned in. No one came to the door, and we didn't hear any sounds inside, so we assumed the worst!" I took a chair across her desk, and allowed myself to look weak, though i felt as strong as an ox, "I had put the bar down after me and Steve had a fight... I don't really remember the four days after that, mostly just a blur of sickness. I feel alright now though, I don't know what happened. Though could you put a note some where that Steve isn't allowed on this park's property? He..." I stopped, some how I still felt beholden to him, I was unwilling to reveal the sevearity of the situation, "He threatened me." I finished with a lip caught between my teeth. "You should go to the police Anna, I told you when you started dating him, hes a troubled boy... Though I am glad your relationship brought you out here. You've been a joy for this old farts home. Now, what was it you had to tell us? You said something about wanting to say it in person, over the phone." I gave a shrug to my shoulders, and shook my head, "I think I was mildly delirious when I called yesterday, I don't know what I felt was so important." I had decided to stay, the change, had been more than physical, more than mental, more than emotional. I knew where I belonged, that cove was the womb I was birthed from, I couldn't abandon it now. "I will think about going to the police, if he comes by again, or even looks my way in a supermarket." She watched a small shake go through me, I knew she didn't believe I had only been threatened, "Why don't you take Rusky home with you, he may be old and blind in one eye, but hes still a good guard dog, and he loves you. Anyhow, I can't walk him so well anymore, damned arthritis making it hard to grip the leash." At the moment she was holding a pen, twirling it between three fingers. Arthritis my ass I thought, but I didn't refuse, Rusky was a good dog, and he had always loved me, though hated just about everyone else but Mable. Get near his kennel and its a riot to wake the dead, "Oh absolutely, I could use the company, a dog is a very good replacement for a man, don't you agree?" I teased her. "Oh yeah, lap dogs maybe, but Ruskys no lapdog, don't let him come inside or you will be missing those men right quick. He got in Sandra's trailer last week, had to hire a a carpet cleaner and replace half her dishes." Ah hah, I thought, so thats why you want to be rid of him! The visit lasted an hour or more, saying hi to everyone, proving I was alive. I watched some money changing hands at one point and gave them a glare... they split half with me. A hasty get well card was lain in my hands, and everyone was sure I should be on my death bed by how pale I was. Rusky on the other hand was his same old self, a leap and I had seventy pounds of dog on top of me. He licked my face something fierce, probably tasting all the fish. I got a good sniffing everywhere, and a few puzzled looks, but he was satisfied after a scratch behind the ears. Packed in the car, with a few bags of dog food and some of his leashes and what not, I drove back towards home. We stopped on the coast, near the cove for a moment, and I took him for a walk. Not down to the beach, but out to the cliff above to the south. I felt a clench in my womb as I looked down in to the deep water. Longing to strip naked, and dive straight in to it, the change was just under my skin, I could feel it, but I couldn't push it through. "Well Rusky, what do you think? Do I make a good dolphin?" I asked, dropping to a knee before him, and letting him lick my face. He gave only a non committal woof, more likely directed at a seagull kiting in the wind. For a moment a flash of him on top of me whisked through my mind, followed by a deep blush to my cheeks. A dolphin whore indeed I thought, then whispered, "Would you enjoy rutting a Dolphin?" He had no response of course, and I walked slowly back to the car, the image rolling over and over in my mind. Then the word Bestiality popped up in flashing red letters, and I felt a bit of humiliation and shame for only a moment until I asked myself, "Am I more human? Or more animal now? Does it matter?" I knew, the answer to that, a Dolphin boy had taught me and changed my life. For now, however, I thought I would stick to my own species.... whatever that turned out to be, A were-dog-dolphin didn't sound that fun, howling at the moon and peeing seawater on the rug at the same time? This change-was it my potential, Or was it forced upon me. could it happen again? Or was I now lodged in this shape until I died? I was determined to know more, to know it all, before I made any dangerous choices. End of the beginning, but not the beginning of the end.