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This story continues on from « Arachnephobic »

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I was terrified this beautiful but terrible mutant woman would kill me when she caught me, but instead she offered to take me somewhere else, where being a mutant is not a bad thing. There would still be danger, but it sounded better than any kind of life I had any right to hope for. So I accepted.

The flight to the island was terrifying, especially when we arrived. There was some kind of military ship nearby, and it was firing at us! Kittyhawk managed to get me down on the beach without harm, however, and handed me over to a little raccoon girl.

The girl, Shawna, was very enthusiastic. She seemed unconcerned by my appearance and said she would be happy to share one of the houses they'd built with me. I felt safe around Shawna; she is very small and tends to smile a lot.

Thankfully she took me into their village so I didn't have to get involved with the men from the ship. I knew they were taken prisoner, though. I wondered whether this new 'gang' was any better than the one I had left?

That fear only grew when I learned that Kittyhawk had killed nearly half the men. I knew they'd attacked her first. Even so, I began to fear I might have made a mistake. It was only Shawna's endless enthusiasm that kept me from running and hiding somewhere.

I was very glad when the men were taken away and put on boats to go to another one of their ships. I was kept away again, for which I was thankful. Kittyhawk was showing much greater concern for me than the gang in the city had. Shawna helped me to see that, as she did so many things.

I settled into my new life slowly. Kittyhawk asked me to tell Shawna about myself, both having been male (and still being attracted to women) and my disgusting new feeding habits. Shawna was 'grossed out', I think she would say, but okay. About the feeding, that is. She didn't react to the having been a man part. I suppose it is not unusual on this island.

When Kittyhawk, or Cat as she keeps asking me to call her, was preparing to leave again I learned that someone had tried to kidnap Shawna's friend Jill while K.., I mean Cat, was gone. This was to have a hostage to use against Cat. Someone wanted to study her, because she is the strongest, I think. She is very impressive.

Anyway, Cat was concerned someone would try to use her parents against her in the same way. Her previous identity was known somehow, so she went to find them. Her mate was sad to see her going so soon, but did a good job of making sure everyone did what was needed while she was gone. Even the dog man.

His name is Jacob, the dog man that is. He is strong, fast and tough, and knows it. He is very proud and thinks he is 'God's gift to women', as Shawna says. Thankfully, with my six arms and other freakish changes, he leaves me alone. I do not want that kind of attention from a man. That is disgusting!

Things were quiet while Cat was gone and I found my place in the village. Shawna and I took turns as scouts to make sure nobody came to the island without us knowing. They had been attacked a few times now and were cautious. That made me very nervous, but I took solace in the fact that they had succeeded in repelling those attacks, even when Cat was not around.

Now that she knew I had not been a girl for long Shawna tried to get me more comfortable with my new body. She became frustrated with me at times because I had no interest. I recognized that my body was female, but did that really have to change anything? I thought not.

My need to eat live animals continued to bother me. After her initial disgust at the thought Shawna seemed to consider it quite normal. And she seemed very sympathetic when I accidentally let it slip that I had... eaten somebody before. But I could not get over how horrible it is. I felt like I had become something not human. Shawna tried to disabuse me of this idea, but it was one of those things she got frustrated over.

In my time alone, mostly when I went hunting, I experimented with my webbing. I thought perhaps I might get some practical use out of it. I found that using it extensively resulted in my needing to eat more, which made sense. It was sticky, as you would expect. But it was very strong.

We had a storm a couple of days after Cat left that did some damage to the roof of one of the houses. Shawna and I wandered near to see what the fuss was about. A section of the roof had been torn away by the wind and they were discussing how best to fix it. That's when I did something that surprised me greatly; I volunteered to help!

That's how I found myself crouched on the roof of the damaged building, using my webbing to lash the roof back together. It looked odd, but when Mike, the man who lived in the house, tested it out he said it was stronger than ever. So at least something good came of my grotesque new form.

The fox girl, Tina, acted oddly around me. I realized after a time that she was flirting with me, but couldn't understand why. I knew that many of the women on the island were lesbians, but why would she have any interest in me? I was too confused to respond, so I pretended not to understand her. She left me alone eventually, but I couldn't decide if I was relieved or sad. Shawna missed this entirely, thankfully.

Then a man visited in a plane and left a generator and satellite phone, so that Shawna's mother could call her. I was amazed, since Shawna had told me how her parents had abandoned her as soon as it was obvious what was happening to her. What could have made them change their minds, or was this some kind of ploy?

She received the call not long after that and invited her mother to come to visit. Neither of us were certain whether this was a good idea or not, but it was her mother and she felt she had to give her a chance. Shawna was very nervous about it and quieter than I had ever seen her. I only hoped it would go well.

The next day that same plane arrived. This time there were four people on board. The man who brought the phone, another man nobody seemed to know, Shawna's mother, and a strange woman. This turned out to be her next door neighbor, who had been a man in his thirties or forties but now looked like a young woman. The reunion went very well and her mother decided to stay on the island with us, along with her friend the neighbor.

I had mixed feelings about it. Shawna started spending a lot of time catching up with her mother and trying to assure her neighbor, Kara, that she didn't blame her for her parents mutating and her father dying. That left me alone a lot. I thought I liked that at first, but found I was getting depressed without Shawna's constant enthusiasm.

I didn't have time to get too depressed, though. Not long after the plane arrived Cat came back as well. And she brought her own parents with her, and another mutant. This one, by the name of Melissa (though she also went by Kestrel, which I rather liked) was truly amazing! But our meeting was rushed, as Cat had spotted a group of military ships headed our way. A jet had flown over shortly before she landed and apparently it came from an aircraft carrier.

Everyone was talking about leaving the island, and it being bombed into oblivion. I became very afraid, but Cat became convinced she could deal with it alone. How she could possibly stop such a force alone none of us could fathom, but she left before anyone could convince her otherwise. Her mate, Paul, then led us all to the cave where the men from the other ship had been kept.

The cave had never been properly cleaned, so there were blood stains everywhere. I was afraid to even go into that place, but thankfully nobody asked me to. Paul said we would need to get inside if it looked like any planes had gotten past Cat, but allowed us to stay outside to see what was happening. I was too afraid to look.

Shawna must have seen this, because she dragged me over to talk to Melissa. I soon forgot about our situation as I learned more about how she had helped Cat save her parents. Melissa is truly an amazing person. So strong, confident, and beautiful! But I also learned she had always wanted to be a girl, which I found strange. But that did nothing to diminish how amazing she truly is!

We were distracted from our conversation by blinding flashes of lightning, with nearly simultaneous blasts of thunder. Looking up we all saw her swatting jets from the sky like a goddess with bolts of lightning. All conversation halted and my breath caught at the impossible sight before us.

Very soon the battle was over and Cat flew back. We saw her land in the village, but Paul assured us she would realize where we were and come to us. He was right.

Cat seemed exhilarated, almost intoxicated even. But then she passed out. Paul tried to catch her but was electrocuted. Fortunately the man in the suit who brought Shawna's parents, Thomas, knew CPR and saved him. After that nobody dared touch her. Paul told us to go back to the village and waited for Cat to wake.

The next morning Cat and Paul returned, seeming none the worse for the experience. After talking to Thomas and the other man Cat became very agitated and was ready to fly off again. Paul stopped her, though, reminding her that she needed to rest.

Shawna and I were talking to Melissa later when Cat came to talk. First she asked Melissa to come with her to help free enslaved mutants in a place called the 'Bangkok Zoo'. Melissa was ready to fight right then and there when she learned what was happening there, but Cat said they would be leaving in a day or two.

Then Cat wanted to talk to me. I began to worry when Shawna left us alone to help Melissa pack. Had I done something wrong, I wondered?

I was astonished to learn that she was going to leave the dog man in charge while she was gone! She had warned me about him from the beginning! But she seemed to think he was getting better, and she wanted me to keep him in line if he did anything wrong. Me!

I protested, but she insisted that I was the only one who was staying who was strong enough. I thought Elaine could handle it, but then Elaine only gained strength from her mutation. The dog man had strength, but also had speed and toughness on his side. Although I thought Elaine stronger, just the same. She is very impressive when she wants to be.

I was stunned, even more so that I agreed! But then, I did owe Cat very much.

I was in a daze as I walked over to our house, where Melissa was staying until she could get her own place. She and Shawna had already finished packing, Melissa hadn't had time to unpack very much yet. They were sat talking so I sat in a corner, too stunned to think.

Melissa noticed me there (Shawna's back was to me) and asked if I was alright. I nodded numbly and said, "I'm in charge?"

"What do you mean?" Shawna asked.

"Cat wants me to control dog man. He in charge while she is gone." I said.

"So... you're in charge, but everyone's to act like he is?" Melissa asked.

"I... suppose so?" I replied, confused. That was what it sounded like, but how could Cat want me in charge? I am no leader!

"Cool!" Shawna said, unsurprisingly.

Melissa shrugged, "Well, I guess that makes sense. She's told me a little about the trouble he's caused. Are you okay with it?"

"I owe Cat much, I will have to be." I said. Melissa didn't seem to like that answer much, but Shawna soon had us both sidetracked. She's very good at that.

Shawna and I spent much of our time in Melissa's company before she had to leave. We showed her around and she took each of us flying. I found it terrifying at first, but felt strangely safe with her.

All too soon she and Cat left, along with Paul, Mike, Tina and the new man, Carl. Another plane arrived for Thomas soon after and he left as well.

With so many gone, it wasn't difficult to find places for all the new arrivals to stay. Cat's parents stayed in her house, while Shawna's mother and neighbor stayed in Tina's. Kara was offered Mike's, but didn't want to be alone. That proved wise.

Only a day after Cat left I found Jacob talking to Kara. He wasn't being forceful as I had been told he was before, but he was being very obnoxious. Millie, Shawna's mother, was trying to get him to back off. Kara didn't know how to handle the situation but was clearly not interested. Why dog man acts like that I do not understand.

Remembering what Cat had asked me to do I walked over and politely asked dog man to leave Kara alone, though I called him by name.

He seemed very angry at me, much more so than he seemed at Millie who was also asking him to leave Kara alone, "Not you!" he growled. "I'm not messing with you, get out of here!"

I didn't understand why he reacted to me that way, but later decided it must be because of how freakish I am with my six arms and other oddities. "I will not. She does not want you, go away." I said, wincing at my own rudeness. But Cat was counting on me and I didn't know what else to do.

He growled, a truly canine growl, "This is fucked up! Leave this one alone, leave that one alone! Everyone's pairing up around here but me, all because of Cat! And now her pet bitch is getting in on the act?! Not happening!" I was so bewildered by his speech I didn't react in time to his sudden attack and he punched me in the face. I fell on my back, stunned.

But he wasn't finished and came at me. That jarred me from my stupor. I rolled aside in time to avoid his foot. I quickly jumped to my feet in time to get hit in the chest. This time I slid back from the force of the blow but I managed not to fall down. "Another tough one, huh?" he said, coming at me again.

This time I ducked under his blow and braced myself with my feet. I grabbed him around the waist with two hands and pummeled him with the other four. It was astonishingly effective. In seconds he was on the ground, groaning in pain. I backed away, shocked at what I'd done.

"Thank you dear, that was quite impressive!" Millie said, smiling at me. I looked up at her and saw Kara nod weakly beside her before turning my attention back to dog man. He recovered quickly, but lost interest in the fight. He said nothing, just glared at me and stumbled away.

"I...I..." I stuttered, but couldn't get any words out.

Millie frowned and stepped over to me, laying one hand on my shoulder, "You seem upset, are you alright?"

"I... I... hurt... him?!" I squeaked. I winced at the sound. I still didn't like my new voice.

"Why, yes, although he seems to have recovered alright. What's wrong?" she asked.

"I'm confused." I said.

"Well, why don't we go find my daughter. You're friends, right?" she said. I nodded numbly. "Come along Kara!" They each took an arm, one on each side that is, and led me over to our house. Shawna wasn't there, so Millie went to look for her.

Kara looked a lot better now that we were inside. "Are you worried he'll come after you?" she asked while we waited.

I shook my head, more in confusion than in reply to her question, "Cat said I stronger, I not believe." I didn't even realize my speech was regressing.

Kara frowned but didn't seem to know what to say to that. Fortunately Millie and Shawna arrived before the silence became too awkward.

Millie must have told Shawna what happened because she ran in and hugged me. I was only further confused when I cried. Once I'd gotten myself under control Shawna leaned back, "Are you okay?" she asked.

I nodded weakly, "I think so."

"Why is she so upset? Is she a pacifist or something?" Kara asked.

Shawna turned to look at Kara and shook her head, "She's just insecure." Then she turned back to me, "You see now, right? You're really strong! You don't have to be afraid of anybody!"

"I am... not so sure of that." I said.

Shawna sighed, obviously frustrated with me again. "I've been trying to show her how strong she is, but she doesn't listen." she explained to her mother and Kara.

They both got into it then, trying to convince me that I am very strong, stronger than anybody else on the island (except Cat, of course). Their words had some effect, but I was still reluctant to believe them.

After that encounter Jacob stayed clear of me and glared at me every chance he got. It didn't help any that people seemed more inclined to bring their problems to me than to him. Jill asked me to help her build a nest of sorts in a tree so she could hide there to keep a lookout for any incoming ships. My webs proved quite effective at the task and Shawna and I soon built our own.

We ended up expanding ours into a sort of tree house. It became my favorite place to hide, though everyone seemed to know about it so it proved more of a place where everyone could find me if they needed me.

Jacob seemed to calm down a few days after our altercation. He still didn't like me, but he wasn't so angry. He even smiled a few times, though not at me of course.

Before long the fiction that Jacob was in charge was dropped and he didn't seem to care, oddly enough. Shawna and I discussed his odd behavior many times. She came home one night very excited, "I've figured out what's going on with Jacob!"

"What?" I asked.

"He's seeing my mom!" she said.

"You mean, romantically?" I asked in shock.

She nodded, "Yeah, weird huh? She just told me! I was worried he might be forcing her or something at first, but she says not. Still, I'm a little worried about her. Could you keep your eyes open for me?"

"Of course." I agreed. "Do you think she has somehow tamed him?"

Shawna shrugged, "Maybe? She's a lot different than she used to be. She used to be a real mouse around Dad, but she's a lot stronger now."

"Used to be a mouse...?" I said and couldn't keep from laughing.

"What's so funny?" she asked, annoyed.

"Your mother has a mouse tail, yes? But she's not a mouse anymore?!" I said, laughing even harder.

She held the annoyed look for a moment before giggling, "Yeah, I guess that is kind of funny."

The island became much more harmonious after that. I hadn't realized how much he disrupted things until he calmed down. But then, Cat usually kept him in check. But Millie had succeeded where Cat and I had failed. She tamed the dog!

Elaine worried that Cat was planning on bringing more people back to the island. And that was in addition to the new people already there, and Melissa. We had plenty of room now, while they were gone, but we would need more space soon. She told me how the houses were built and how Cat had prepared the foundations. She wanted to build more, but didn't think any of us were strong enough to use the same approach.

I agreed and we discussed it. I suggested a tree trunk, remembering a large dead tree I'd passed many times in the forest.

"Hmm, I guess if we trimmed off the branches that might work. But how big is it?" Elaine asked.

"I believe it is about four of your feet in diameter." I said, having gotten somewhat used to American measurements.

"That big? Okay, that could work. But how do we get it here, how many people will we need to roll it?" she said.

I didn't know on either count, but agreed to take her out to see the tree the next day.

In the morning I met up with Elaine and took her to the tree. It was a dead tree, most of the branches having already fallen off. It was listing to one side, the roots exposed where they'd pulled out of the ground. "Are you sure this is strong enough for this?" she asked.

I shrugged, "Let's see." I walked over and wrapped all six arms around the trunk of the tree and squeezed. The bark broke away, but the wood underneath was sound. What surprised me is the entire tree moved!

"Whoa, careful there or you'll rip the whole thing out of the ground! On second thought, maybe that's a good idea." Elaine said.

"I can't lift a tree!" I protested.

"You just about did, just now. Give it a try?" Elaine said.

I sighed and wrapped my arms around the tree again. Bracing myself as well as I could I pulled in the direction it was already leaning. Snapping and cracking sounds came from the roots as they broke away. It began to topple towards me and I tried to stop it, but it was too heavy. Using every ounce of strength I had I managed to shift it to the side so it didn't crush me.

"See, you did it!" Elaine said happily.

"I was nearly crushed!" I complained.

"Well, yeah, but you still did it! Maybe the two of us could get it back to the village?" she mused.

We tried lifting it, but we couldn't hold it for long. So we tried rolling it, instead. That worked much better. In fact, I was able to handle it alone that way, freeing Elaine up to guide me.

"This will work great! That thing's heavy enough to get the job done and you can push it." Elaine enthused as I rolled it back to the village. We had to make many detours to fit its bulk through the trees, but eventually we got it to the edge of the village. By that time I was exhausted.

"Okay, now we have the means to prepare the ground we can begin pulling out the grass where we'll be building the houses and making bricks!" Elaine said.

She obviously knew what she was doing, so I followed her lead. I was too tired to do much, though, so ended up watching the others hauling wooden frames out of the storage house and set them up. Most of them started pulling grass while a few went to collect mud and sand. Shawna, her mother and Kara were obviously the only ones who hadn't done this before.

Not much was done that first day besides gathering materials. But Jacob and Vincent cleared off the bark and cut off the stubs remaining of the branches to make the log as smoothly rounded as possible.

Shawna was extremely impressed with me for retrieving the tree and used that as another point to prove how strong she thinks I am. I was even beginning to believe her a little.

The next few days we were busy pulling grass, mixing it with mud and sand and pouring the mixture into the frames. Once we had a good number going I started using the log to flatten the ground. I doubted it would be as firmly packed as Cat had managed, but Elaine believed it would be good enough.

Before long we were laying bricks for the first new house. That's when we heard the sound of a plane approaching. It proved to be Carl with a load of refugees from Thailand!

The refugees were almost all undernourished, or even injured. We quickly reshuffled where everyone was staying to make room for them, but it was tight. Many of the people Carl brought did not speak English, or not well. Fortunately a few spoke both languages and could translate well enough. Before long they were helping and the houses went up much more quickly.

We had to spend more time hunting for food than before and there was talk of establishing a proper farm for vegetables. The gardens and fruit trees we had were helpful but our numbers were going to grow too quickly according to what Carl had told us before he left. I was glad that Cat was helping all these people but wished we had thought this through before hand.

Most of the new people had experience in farming, so they took the lead on that once the houses were done. We knew we'd need more houses soon, but felt that getting the farm started sooner was more important because it would take time to grow anything.

I helped where I could. Mostly with the houses, since my webbing proved amazingly effective. Unlike that American comic book character my webbing didn't degrade quickly. It was very strong and showed no signs of wearing out.

I got to know the others much better as I helped them with their problems. I even got to know dog man a little but I still didn't trust him. We saw no signs he was abusing Shawna's mother at least. That was a relief.

Everything was coming along quite well. I was amazed at how well everyone seemed to work together but reminded myself that most of these people had been relying on each other for survival for years before I arrived.

I knew there would be difficulty once all the mutants Cat had, and probably still was, rescued arrived. But everyone seemed ready to deal with the challenges. And the new people fit right in, helping as much as their health allowed. Which improved greatly. Before long they were almost as healthy as everyone else.

With dog man...Jacob, tamed by Shawna's mother and everyone working together so well there seemed to be no problems. We still kept a lookout in case someone came after us again. But all was peaceful. The only real problem I had, besides how hideous I am, was that I found I was missing Kestrel very much. She is very nice to talk to.

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The End...for now...