Having a Full ride scholarship to MIT meant that I was set for the next four years.
All I had to do was keep my grades up, and I’d have a roof over my head and food in my stomach.
At least, I would once I got to Boston.

But the getting there was the problem.
I ended having to Hitchhike into Fort Wayne to meet the Greyhound going east.
And there I was settling into my seat with a whole fifty bucks in my pocket after bus fare.

The bus was near empty as it wend its way into the Appalachian mountains.
I had the two seats on the left of the isle to myself.
The only other passengers a couple who had gotten on with guitar cases a few stops ago.
They’d been huddled together and trading quick kisses for at least the last hour and showed no signs of slowing.

Public displays of affection bothered me.
Not because of some moral principle, mind you.
No, they bothered me because I was jealous.
Traveling alone sucked.
Not that there was anyone special waiting for me back home.
Small towns sucked for keeping secrets, so I’d let no one in on mine

Boston would be different.
Once I had a degree under my belt and a good job, I could be myself.
I closed my eyes for just a moment.
The next thing I knew I was standing on an endless plan of polished stone, beneath an endless sky of midnight blue filled with stars beyond counting.
Before me stood a throne and on it sat a girl in a gossamer gown which contrived to cover everything that propriety demanded.

"welcome mortal," the girl said.
Her voice that reverberated in my head until my vision blurred.

I looked down. I was still in the jeans and tee shirt I'd winnowing I got on the bus.
Everything looked clean and pressed. Too clean.
"I take it, the bus crashed."

The goddess smiled at me. And crossed her right leg over her left knee, leaving her sandal dangling from her toes.
She extended one hand with a flourish and pulled a manila folder out of thin air.
"Lets see your permanent record shall we."

I waited, shifting from leg to leg out of habit more than discomfort.

"Um, you are a goddess right?"

"Your question does not bode well for you," she said, " according to this record you have not once visited a temple, not even on the holiest of days.
I may be a minor deity, when compared to my Grandmother, but still a little recognition would be nice.
Indeed, it says here you never even prayed."

"I mean I used to, when I was little," I objected.

She closed the folder with an audible slap.
Her face grew stern, the eyebrows drawing down until
they were straight lines above her glowing eyes.
"Newsflash junior, you where praying to the wrong gods."
"How, how was I supposed to know that?"

She sighed and lent forward, resting her forehead on her open palm.
"You are only human, honestly so few of you get it no matter how frequently get everything republished."

"So, um, the Jews where right?"

"Heaven's no. None of the big five religions are right!"
She said, making quote with her fingers in in the air.
"You'd think the divine word would carry more weight with you humans, but no you just keep inventing your own."

"But you said you had books?"

"Yes, we do.
Ever heard of the Voynich Manuscript, or the Codex Seraphinus?
If you'd bothered to read either of them you'd find things we explain things in detail.
I can tell by your vacant stare that you haven’t read either.
Anyway enough theology, we are here to discuss your fate.
You have not qualified for the forest of eternal joy."

"Obviously."
I said, not daring to point out that neither of the documents she mentioned had ever been deciphered. Hell, I was sure that second one was a work of visual art.

The goddess ignored my interjection.
"Now I could just send you to hell, but then again you wheren't exactly evil.
Sure there were some odd fantasies, but all humans have those.
Considering what goes on in those heads of yours,
I don‘t know why you keep inventing such prudish gods."

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry at the mention of hell.
"So, what do you propose?"
She switched her legs and lent forward, smiling at me, her left cheek dimpling.
"How would you like a second chance, I'll send you to a world that is threatened by darkness."

"So I'm supposed to what, defeat the darkness, save a world, or go to hell."

The goddess's laughter was like ringing bells.
"Silly mortal, I don't expect that much of you.
Fighting the darkness will suffice.
Give it your all, and when you lose you will earn your reward"

She waved her hand to produce another object out of thin air,
This time a familiar hardbound book, decorated with the image of a warrior fighting a dragon. Flicking it open, she began to page through it, "Hmm, but what powers to give you."

"Rogue, Make me a rogue."
I said without a moment's hesitation.

"That's not very heroic," she said.

I scratched my head. "I've never been one for straight out fights.
Why go in guns blazing when you can get the job done nice and quietly.
After all evil overlords end up just as dead either way don't they?"

"Fair enough, a rogue it is." she said, flicking through the book again.

The next part would be tricky, after all I was speaking to a goddess.
Was she all knowing?
Did she already know my wish?
“Do I have to be reborn as myself?"

She looked up, her hand resting on the open page.
"No my hero, we can make adjustments, after all the world I am sending you to isn't exclusively human.
Elves, Dwarves and Halflings are all possible options.
I'd recomend Dwarf, quite a hardy race Dwarves, and their culture."

I stood straighter, arms by my sides and hands clenched in fists, “Dwarves aren't really my thing.
Could you?
Could you make me a girl?"

She laughed again, slapping the book shut, then caressed the cover with her fingertips.
"Oh, my, that is an interesting request.
Still, I guess it's in keeping with those fantasies we mentioned earlier."

I stepped towards her, already thinking I'd been a little too rash.
If she changes so much would I still be me, "will I remember?"

"Oh yes. If we wiped your memory, how are you supposed to learn?" Her right hand still resting on the Handbook, she pointed her left index finger at me. "Know me as Katia, my daughter.
I'll give you the potential to be the trickiest and sneakiest rogue Gardoth has ever seen.
See that you bring glory to my name, and visit the temples now and then."

The goddess's eyes grew brighter and brighter, shifting from those of a human girl to those of a cat.
Then everything faded to white.
Just before I lost consciousness again, I thought I heard Katia giggling. "My dear brother will be livid."

I awoke in a small dark space.
My knees pressed against my chest and my arms wrapped about my shins.
My sense of balance told me I was the right way up.

Touch alone was enough to tell me I was naked,
My skin felt soft and hairless.
In contrast, the hair on my head cascaded in heavy locks of over my shoulders and upper back.
The way my thighs pressed together and the way my muscles responded when I squeezed, told me something else.
Just as I was certain that I had ten fingers and ten toes, I was also certain that I was female now.

Even in a fetal position I filled the space of my prison from bottom to top, with scant inches of free space in any direction.
The walls appeared to be of polished stone, but without the coolness that I would have expected.

When I twisted in place, I spotted light.
A circle of stone behind me that seemed to glow like sunlight seen through closed eyelids.
I planted my hands on the floor of my prison and pushed down until my bottom lifted off the stone.
Moving by a few degrees at a time, I turned until I faced the light.

I tapped the stone with my knuckles.
It made an echoing hollow sound.
I hit it harder, clenching my hands into fists and swinging as far as I could, ponding on the stone like a drum.
After a few hits the flesh of my hands stung, but the stone didn't budge.

In desperation I twisted about again until I lay on my back with my feet pressed against the thin patch of stone.
This left my neck cricked and my chin pressed tight against my breast bone.

With a grunt of effort I pushed.
Pushed until my thighs were burning with the effort.
Pushed until I thought my neck would snap from the pressure.
When I thought I could push no more, the stone gave way all at once.

The thin layer of stone shattered like glass.
The blinding light of an alien sun flooded my prison, while I lay there panting with eyes shut tight against the glare.
Hot dry air wicked the sweat from my limbs.

The new light confirmed what my sense of touch had already told me.
My skin was pale and free of hair or blemishes.
I was a girl, and a prepubescent one at that.
I'd kind of assumed that I'd stay the same age when the goddess did whatever she did.
But that wasn't the case.

"Climbing this will suck." I said, just to hear my voice.
The sounds that came out were strange, and had a singsong quality that reminded me of something from northern Europe, Dutch or Finnish perhaps.
Somehow I could not only speak this language but understand it and think even think in it.

The tunnel I had breached extended six feet up and was so smooth that it gleamed.
While not vertical it was steep, with a gradient of at least sixty degrees.
Beyond that I saw nothing but clear blue sky.

Enough lying around Tony, I thought, or this is going to end up being your grave.
I’d probably need a new name, come to think of it, and I wasn’t going to take the copout option of calling myself Toni either.

Taking care to work around the shards of rock I twisted about again until I got my head and shoulders into the tunnel.
If anything, the tunnel was even narrower than the chamber I started in.

With no hand holds to speak off I had to rely on pressure and friction to hold my weight.
First I wedged my arms against the walls and lifted until my knees could go no higher.
Then I wedged my legs similarly and reached up, stretching my torso.

Each such motion saw my end up a few inches further up the stone pipe.
Inch by inch I slivered towards the light.
A quarter hour later my head emerged into a new world.

The stone outcropping I emerged from stuck out of the hillside above a broad valley carpeted with flowers.
The distant ridgeline gave the illusion of a lush meadow.
But the ground beside me told a different story.
The clumps of flowers were somewhat sparse and the ground about them, not grass or loam but sand.

Here and there fingers of stone jutted from the dunes.
Mountains of bare red stone crumpled like a geologist model rose to the North East.
At least I though it was North East, assuming it was before noon and that the sun rose in the east here.

The flowers closest to me were hot pink with dark green foliage, and the next bunch over where ice blue.
It was beautiful, but also deadly.

I'd seen pictures similar to this, of places where for a few weeks per year the desert bloomed.

I pulled myself out of the hole and stretched, arching my back until my hands touched the rock behind me and kicked up into a handstand.

This was new, I'd never done a handstand before, yet now it seemed effortless.
Without a second thought I tucked my knees down and rotated into a piked position parallel to the ground.
Then I swung my legs back under again until my toes brushed the ground and stood on points.

I'd guess my new age at no more than twelve.
Long limbed, strong, and flexible, the body of a dancer or perhaps a gymnast.
No the body of a rogue who could scale walls and sneak through the tinest of openings.

But my skin would be a problem.
Skin this fair didn’t tan, no it burned.
Even in my old life sunscreen had been a necessity, but now, I needed it more than ever, and no convince stores in sight.

Northern Indiana didn't get this hot, but even I knew that going naked in the desert was dangerous.
I needed shelter, and water or this would be a rather short second life.

"Well, my goddess," I said, squinting up at the sky.
"What am I supposed to do now?"

Change, the world echoed in my thoughts of its own accord.
I closed my eyes and focused on it.
What am I supposed to change and how?
Something twisted in my mind and then my eyes opened.

My fingers and toes itched something fierce.
Pins and needles sparked inwards.
The sensation moved up my limbs, triggering nerve endings one after another in a slow burn.

I clenched my jaw, not waiting to advertise my presence by screaming.
Behind the wave of feeling my new body changed, fingers shrinking, toes swelling, and claws extending for every digit.
Fur sprouted from my skin, covering pale pink with patterns of yellows and browns.

I blinked and the entire world changed.
The bright blue sky now seemed washed out.
The vegetation a darker green than it had been a moment ago.
Even the flowers lost their vibrance, fading to near gray coloured with only hints of yellow.
Of red and violet there wasn't even a trace.

Against this drab background something moved.
A scant five yards from where I stood.
My ears flicked from side to side.
I heard the foliage rustle as something crept through it.

Dropping onto all fours I moved forward, half walking, half crawling on the burning sand.
I slipped between the clumps of flowers without disturbing a single petal.

The scent trail told a clear story of how my prey had foraged all over the valley.
Its mouthwatering musk led me even more than the visible signs of passage.

My tail flicked from side to side and then I pounced.
In less than a heartbeat my claws met skin and flesh.
My prey struggled and screeched until my ears hurt, but I held on squeezing the life out of it.
Its ribs cracked, and the screech cut off.
It was some kind rodent, a fair bit larger than a mouse.

I leant close to see it better with no discernible effect.
If anything up close, it looked even less distinct, but the smell.

A quick twist cracked the neck and a single bite separated the head from the body, allowing me to suck the hot blood straight into my mouth.
I ate it raw, stripping skin of flesh with my claws and tearing the meat off the bones with my teeth.

I froze, breath drawn in.
I'd killed it.
I'd killed a rat and ate it raw! Oh god, I thought as I liked the blood from my fingers.
My stomach twisted and bile rose in my throat.
"Goddess what have you done to me?"

If Katia watched, she gave no answer.
Somehow I kept my meal down.
Just when I was getting comfortable in my new skin, the goddess had to pull this trick on me.
Two new bodies in an hour was a bit much.

My new, new eyes seemed farsighted, which made a personal examination kind of difficult.
Despite the killer instinct, I hadn't shifted into an entirely animal form.

I could stand on two legs, though in something a pigion-toed fashion.
Despite the change walking was easily enough and my balance was still perfect.

I stood on one paw and pivoted down to pluck a flower from its stem, only for it to slip through my short fat fingers.
With a sigh of annoyance I grabbed at it again and came away with a flower which I brought to my nose.
Pretty enough but no perfume to speak of.

My ears twitched, tracking a gust of wind as it brushed the foliage and my tail flicked from side to side.
I retracted my claws and used my fingertips to explore my face.

It felt furry, but other than that mostly human.
Well, except for the whiskers, the cleft upper lip and the triangular ears sitting high on my head.
"Myaa!
I'm a freaking catgirl.
That blasted goddess made me into a cat girl!
That was not what I had in mind."

I stomped away from the remains of my meal and shook a fist at the heavens.
"Fuck you, Katia!"

At my words the ground shook.
Before I could move another muscle the very air cracked and my vision faded to white again.
I blinked furiously to clear the green after images from my sight.

Lightening from a clear blue sky., Lightening that had struck only a foot from where I stood with enough force to turn the sand to glass.
Note to self, do not take the goddesses name in vain.
"Sorry my Lady, you surprised me is all." I whispered.

At the edge of the valley I surveyed the wasteland that Katia had dropped me into.
This was indeed a desert, as far as I could see.
Waves of sand interspersed with outcroppings of red rock and patches of wildflowers.

Only the mountains to the North East broke up the monotony.
At least my new form seemed adapted to this land.
Somehow the sand didn't feel as hot against the pads of my paws as it had against my human feet.
The fur also gave at least some protection from the glaring sun.

That’s when I saw the smoke.
At least I through it was smoke, long plums of it rising from some point far to the west.
A forest fire, I reasoned would be more spread out, not rising in dozens of thin tendrils from one small area.

Fire meant people.
perhaps a city or a camp at least and having a landmark to aim at was important.
Otherwise I could well end up walking in circles.

So step one, sneak into an alien city.
Step two, steal some cloths.
I’d have to work out a step three when I got there, but after that step four was always profit.
Oh, yes and somewhere along the way fight evil.
With that I stepped over the ridge line and began my journey.
This would be a long walk.

I walked until the sun was high over my right shoulder. Then walked some more as it sank towards the horizon. Afternoon brought new problems as the glare of the sun made it hard to see the distant smoke.

When it got too much for me, I hid behind another stone outcrop. It wasn't noticeably cooler in the shade, but the dimmer light was welcome, regardless. After hours of motion it felt good to be still and to stretch my tired legs. I started with a standard runner’s routine, then moved on to the extra muscles I didn't even have a name for. The ones between my heels and the thick paws that had replaced the balls of my feet.

Once the worst of the pain faded, and numbness had set in, I lay back on the stone and stretched my arms up to the sky. I'd been experimenting with my claws all day and now extending and retracting them was effortless.

Change, I thought. This time the pins and needles began at my center and burned their way outwards. I rode the burn, eyes squeezed shut and jaws clenched.

As the pain faded, I felt half deaf. I could still feel the wind, but the rustle of the bushes grew muffled. It felt like someone had covered my ears in cotton wool. Stones pressed into my bare skin, one digging into my bottom, and another caught between the rock I was lying on and my left shoulder blade. As I sat up, sand which had been trapped in my fur fell away in all directions.

I cleared a patch of stone of rubble and shifted over to it sitting now with my legs pressed up against my chest to minimise my contact with the still hot stone.

So shifting back to human meant muffled hearing and no protection from the environment. But the colours made it so worth it. The sapphire of the Eastern sky shifting though blues and purples towards the west where the bright red sun kissed the horizon.

Cat hearing was amazing, and the sense of smell was something else. But so far, cat vision was a real letdown. Looking at the blooming desert again with human eyes was a veritable feast. Flowers in every colour of the rainbow as far as I I could see. After a day looking at pale yellows and blues, it was amazing.

Even without bending down I could smell the sweet nectar of a thousand blooms. My sense of smell in car form was tuned differently. It made sense seeing as cats where not attracted to sweetness, so the perfume of flowers meant little to them.

My toes sank into the burning sand as I stepped away from the rock outcropping. This valley was different from the one I'd emerged in. it was more arid for one with longer expanses of stone and less sand. The valley floor here was free of vegetation. Instead the ground was hard backed and cracked, the tell tale signs of a dried watercourse.

I tracked it with my eyes until the creek bed disappeared between two sand dunes. This was worth investigating even if it took me off course a little. With that I stood, brushed the rest of the sand off my skin and resumed walking.

The hard backed sand crumbled under my bare feet as I walked along it. It felt odd to place my heels down instead of balancing on my toes. Still, if I followed this path it would lead somewhere, maybe even a water. And it was still meandering westwards so it wouldn't pull me that much of course.

In my old Life I'd never been this alone. In my old life I‘d never been more than an hour or two from civilization. Here I didn‘t even know what passed for civilization. I kind of assumed when I got there I‘d find a medieval village, but then I had assumed that I‘d be an adult when I spawned here. Hopefully, they had something passing for cities in this world, or most of my new skills would be of limited use. It was the silence that was getting to me. A whole day gone and no one to even say hi to.

My stomach twisted, reminding me I had not eaten or drunk anything since breakfast. Now that I thought about it I was thirsty too. I hadn't felt the need in my cat form but now as a mere human I was parched, my skin was moist with sweat and I needed to pee. So much water wasted just because I’d shifted back into a human.

I stopped short, then shrugged my shoulders. It wasn't like I'd find a toilet out here. With that I squatted down and relaxed my abdominal muscles.

The sensation was the same as I remembered and yet different. Once the stream stopped i wiggled about to get the last drops off my skin. The dry baked ground sucked the moisture up so quickly that by the time I stood there wasn’t a trace of it left.

The valley walls grew steeper with every step, showing more and uneroded stone. Here and there small bushes stuck out of the dried sandy soil, their thin silver-green leaves curled up against the heat. I started to sing as I walked, "The snow glows white on the mountain tonight."

My voice grew louder with every line as I worked my way into the ballad. Some snow sure would be nice, I thought. This song had been my personal anthem ever since the movie came out. But then I wasn't alone in this. It had become an anthem for everyone who was hiding their true self from the world. "It’s time to see what I can do "

Something landed behind me with a thump. I spun around only to be confronted by a cross between a lizard and a chicken. Only it was huge. its legs longer than I was tall and its body at least as large as a compact car.

It stalked towards me with its maw held low to the ground. Its feathers puffed up and flashing in impossible patterns. Magic, it had to be magic. A giant magic chicken was trying to eat me!

Still trying to clear my vision, I sidestepped. Just looking at it for a moment made my head hurt and my stomach twist. just then my foot landed on a rock and I stumbled, twisting as I fell. Change, I thought with all my will.

This time the transformation was near instant, and about as pleased as being dunked in boiling water. The bones in my hands and feet creaked and popped as they shifted and my skin burned. Behind me the monster rustled and hissed as it lept forward.

The yellowed talons brushing through the fur on my arm as I rolled to the left and regained my feet. My cats nose detected a stench of rotting meat, but at least I could look at the thing without being nauseated.

Still backing up I I half crouched, hissed in return. My own fur bristled in a futile attempt to make me look larger too. As I moved, I chanced on a stone a little larger than my hand. Remembering my poor grip, I took a moment to press position my hand fingers before yanking it upwards. then twisted spinning all the way around before hurling the rock at the monster’s head.

All the while I kept spinning until I was facing away from the monster, then I lept forward, using my claws for traction. There was no need to look back. I knew the monsters bird was chasing me as I zigzagged down the canyon.

The good news was that it wasn‘t a stealthy hunter. If anything, it relied on shock and awe to paralyze its prey. Its huge talongs hitting the ground with audible thuds, its feathers rustling as it chased me. Best yet every time it was about to lung forward it hissed giving me a second to change directichasedon. The bad news was that already my paws hurt something feirce and my diagram felt like it was about to burst.

The valley swung to the left and dropped rapidly, the walls turning to cliff faces on either side. I leapt down the slope in something of a half controlled fall. For an instant I saw a shadow moving on the valley floor, then I was pass the corner. I dared a glance back to see a giant of man leaping towards the monster bird. Olive skinned and muscled like a body builder, he flew through the air with a long club held in both hands. At the last moment he twisted sending, and the club cracked against the birds head with an audible smack.

Even before he had landed I'd changed direction, sprinting back towards the bird, and under racking my clawed hands down its belly.

At first all I could feel was feathers brushing through my fingers. They were dense enough to serve as armour. I pressed harder, willing my claws to dig through the fibers. Finally, I felt skin then hot blood weeping soaking into the fur on my fingers as I dug deeper into its neck.

The birds screeched in shock and pain and then my rescuer hit it again, hard enough to make it stagger. He was not quite human, but then again neither was I. The skin colour was wrong for one. Though that could just have being my cats eyes. To me he looked a dark grey with a greenish tinge. For another, he had fangs protruding from his mouth.

Focus Tony, I thought, fight now, ask questions later. With that I leaped again, grabbing onto the bird’s tail and pulled myself up onto its back. Here the feathers worked to my favour as they were surprisingly easy to get a grip on with my claws. Soon enough I manged to pull myself up towards its neck, which I grabbed tight and squeezed.

The bird reared, trying to buck me off its back, This gave my rescuer an opening to dart in and club its vulnerable ankle joint. The bone snapped sending the bird lurching sideways beneath me. With a whole of anger I dug my claws in, tearing a long bloody gash in its neck. Blood squired in bursts, covering my rescuer from head to toe.

Holding on with one hand I dragged my claws down the birds neck again even as it fell to the ground. It spasamed a few more times then grew still, the blood now dribbling lazily from its open corroded artery.

"Damn it, I'm soaked." he said as he brushed the blood out of his eyes. I imagined it was red, but to my cats eyes it looked very much like black ink. The man himself had to be close to seven feet tall, his skin looked gray green and his mouth stretched wide to accommodate protruding tusks. Other than that he looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. Considering that his only clothing was a loincloth, that was a lot of muscle on display.

I pulled myself off the now dead bird and wiped my paws on the feathers. then shifted away, turning my body to hide the important bits. Suddenly, fur didn't seem like adequate cover.

"That’s a lot of blood. Linda, is that you?"

"Um, no I'm, To, Tabitha. You can call me Tabitha."

"Damn, I've been waiting for days and when I heard that song. My Linda is always singing or humming it. Come on, I've got a camp nearby, there's water too. The name's Dan by the way."

"Thanks, but what's the catch?" I said, not moving from where I was crouching. "I mean I'm grateful that you came and distracted this thing, but."

"But I'm a strange guy with big teeth and you're a little girl, I get it. Look, I swear, I won't try anything. I'm guessing where in much the same situation here, you know died, met a god and got reincarnated, right?"

I nodded my assent then followed as soon as he turned his back. The view from the back was nice too, like I said Arny in his prime, so what if his skin colour was unusual, who was I to complain? "Shouldn't we, carve up this chicken?"

"Nah, it's too magical. If we had the right tools, we could probably harvest some valuable ingredients but, without preservation it will fall apart in no time."

"What about the meat?" I said still looking back at that carcass.

"Eating magical creatures is not a good idea, The raw mana can have all sorts of side effects. Don't worry I've got some stores back at the cave."

The valley had become more of a canyon by this point, and the ground was still descending as we walked. Here and there sand had collected in drifts against the walls but the center remained clear.

"So Linda's your girlfriend?

"Wife. Linda's my wife. We'd both be on Broadway now if that Bus hadn't crashed." He said.

Something about his voice seemed odd. It wasn't the tone, which was pleasantly deep with the occasional rumble. No it was the word Bus, it had come out in English rather than whatever language we were speaking. "I think we were on the same bus, how d’you know I was Like you, anyway?"

He stopped walking and gave me a big grin over his shoulder. "Disney doesn't have an inter dimensional division."

I stepped up beside him and sighed in wonder. The shadowed valley before me had to be several miles across, and it was positively filled with vegetation. As the last of the suns rays faded, everything seemed to glow. Bio-luminescence was defiantly a thing here. I suspected that this nighttime display was just as rich as the flowers. Even in shades of blue and Yellow it looked impressive. I was tempted to shift back and look again, but then I’d really be naked. Being Naked "Wow."

"Tell me about it, really hammers home that we ain't in Kansas anymore doesn't it. We couldn't have been on the same bus. I don't remember no kids, just us the driver and one other dude."

"Yea, I was heading for MIT. So you said there's water?"

Dan lead the way pointing out a cave as his camp on the way. Before long we arrived a largish pool, shaded by fern fords and surrounded by a thick carpet of moss which squished under my paws. Dan tossed his club down on the bank then walked straight into the water until he was waist deep, then dropped straight down.

Moving with a little more care I scanned the area, surprised that I could still see in the dim light. But then wasn't that another well known feline ability. I crouched at the edge of the water and dipped a hand in, letting water soak into my fur.

Dan surfaced not far from where he had ducked under the water. "Well, damn, Hod really did a number on you didn't he."

"I met a goddess named Katia, and I kind of asked for this, well not the cat part but the girl part."

"Seriously?"

Looking away form Dan I slipped into the water and also dove under, and surfaced with hair covering my face. I brushed it out of my faced and looked up at Dan. Just breath Tabitha, I thought, time to open up to someone. If he freaked out I could always find somewhere else to spend the night. But then he said he was in musical theater and theater people did have a reputation for acceptance. As long as he wasn’t some Kirk Cameron wannabee, but then would someone like that have even agreed to come here? Worse case scenario, I’d keep heading for where I saw the smoke trails in the morning. "I’m transgender. Or I was, back on Earth?"

"Now you have the right body. That‘s cool, guess it worked out then," he said with a shrug. "I hope Linda shows up soon, this valley is getting kind of old."

I waded deeper in and stated washing in earnest, brushing fingers through my fur to work out the sand. I had pick up a fair bit of it tussling with the killer bird. "How long have you been here?"

Dan said he'd hatched form a giant egg, a good eight days ago right here in the valley. He'd been exploring the area ever since, waiting for his Linda to show up. I told him my much shorter tail in exchange.

Once I felt clean enough, I dragged my waterlogged self out of the water and started squeezing myself dry, or at least dryer. Dan then led the way back up towards a cave he'd taken residence in. It looked rather comfortable considering that he’d only had a week to set things up from scratch.

There was a stone lined fire pit, a stack of dried wood to burn, and a cache of smoked meat. Stone tools were arranged neatly beside a stack of hides, some scraped and others with the fur still on. He even had a bed of rushes to sleep on. Dan said his class was Ranger, and it came with a bunch of useful survival skills, not to mention leather crafting.

We sat by the fire chatting for some time while I dried my fur. Somehow being naked around him got less awkward as the night progressed. He was so head over heels in love with his wife that he wouldn't even look at another woman. And even if he wasn't, Dan didn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd try anything with a kid.

My yawns grew wide while he worked by the fire, sewing several soft hides together with a strips of hide cord. Sewing without a needle was quite the operation. First, he would cut slits in the leather, with a bit of sharpened bone then feed the cord through.

"Past you’d bed time I think," Dan said.

"You known I'm not actually a kid right?"

"Sure, but does your new body know that.
Looks to me like your ready to drop. You can take the bed, and I'll finish this off."

The bed of rushes sure looked inviting. I scooted over to it and tested it with one hand. It was much softer than I expected. With a glance at Dan I slipped in and lay down with my back to the fire. "What you making anyway?"

"An outfit for you, " he said, giving me a toothy grin, "you seemed a little uncomfortable earlier."

At first I tried lying down to sleep, but it just didn't feel right. I tossed and turned and then curled up into a ball just like a kitten and I fell asleep nestled deep in the rushes. I felt safe, and I couldn't help smiling. "purrrr"

It was a strange feeling for me. My real old man had been an ass. He never got violent but he was still a mean drunk and liked to yell. Now here I had a real life Conan worrying that I got enough sleep and making cloths for me.

"Tabby, are your purring?"

"No."

"OK, goodnight."

I dug deeper into the rushes hugging my knees up against my chest. "Night."

What an amazing dream, I thought as consciousness returned to me. In that moment I was certain that I had arrived in Boston and somehow made it to my assigned dorm without remembering it. Running on too much coffee and not enough food could do that.

As soon as I had the cash, I'd have to get better sheets, the dorm supplied ones It felt like crap, so threadbare and rough, it was like sleeping in a pile of straw. At least it was warm. I rolled over and stretched out into a star shape.

My hands and feet brushed against gritty stone. I inhaled. The air felt rather dry, and carried a hint of old smoke, and beneath that another sent. A pleasant musk, which permeated my bed, and yet wasn't me, it was Dan.

Eyes opened, I sat up and looked around. I was in the cave from my dream. Though the fire pit had been racked. My eyes still refused to focus on nearby objects. Not that I needed eyes to sense that I still had fur, claws and a tail. With a thought I extended my claws and flexed them several times. "It wasn't a dream. I'm still Tabitha."

The far side of the valley was bathed in bright sunlight, though the colours still looked dull to my eyes. Closer to home Dan had left cloths out for me as promised. The top garment was a simple suede halter top which laced together with a leather cord down the front.

Beneath that I found a skirt made from multiple overlapping panels. There was even a hidden slit that accommodated my tail. Like the halter it was made from suede and finished with cord laces. The ensemble was plain but well made. Even without needle or thread, or even scissors, Dan had done a wonderful job. The corded seams looked like neat flat braids, the edges were perfectly straight, and everything fit just right. Best yet, the halter even made it look like I had a slight bust.

It was a super cute cave girl outfit, pity I had no mirror to admire myself with. "Some beads would make it even cuter," I said, just to hear my voice, "I must keep an eye out for pretty stones."

Tip-toeing to the entrance of the cave, I closed my eyes and breathed in. Dan's scent was everywhere, but I could still pick out the freshest trail. I headed down hill into the foliage, taking care to avoid sticks, loose rocks and anything else that might reveal my location. It took a lot of focus, but potential obstacles leaped out at me now that I was thinking about it. But then stealth was probably a class skill for me, just like Leather work was for Dan.

While lush compared to the surrounding desert, the valley floor was far from a jungle. Large patches of grass and flowers were occasionally interrupted by trees. Some of them looked ordinary. Straight trunks maybe ten feet tall with a loose canopy overhead. The others were more exotic. Perhaps the most common species looked like a fractal. The main trunk about three feet tall, then it split into seven evenly spaced branches. Only the upward pointing tips of the smallest branches had leaves. Growing in dense bunches they blended together to give the tree an umbrella like appearance.

Tracking Dan took the best part of an hour. I found him crouching at the edge of a mossy glade, with a simple wooden spear in his hand. The ground dipped down here, trapping enough moisture for ferns to grow. Even the Umbrella trees were particularly dense, giving both him and me plenty of cover from the goats. There was five of them, including two kids.

I circled downwind, taking even more care to move silently than scaled one of the trees, squeezing up into the spaces between the branches and leaves above. From my new shadowed perch I could see all five goats and the spot where Dan was stalking them.

With a smile on my face, I waited for him to make his move. Fortunately I didn't have to wait long. I'd just gotten into a good ambush position when he leapt up out of the ferns and cast his spear. It stuck one of the billy goats in the shoulder, causing the animal to buck and bleat in pain. The rest of the tribe jumped at the sound and took off running.

All four of them passed under my hiding place. I let the kids and their mother past then dropped onto the other female, still without making a sound. My clawed hands curled about its neck. it staggered under my weight, then my claws dug into its throat and it was all over.

Meanwhile Dan's spear thrust had missed everything vital, leaving his Billy goat injured but still alive. It bleated in pain from the spear still stuck out of its shoulder. Despite this, it faked left. When Dan followed, it jerked right and sprinted for the trees.

"Mya!" I yelled, jumping out into its path.

Eyes rolling, it dropped its head and charged.

I vaulted at the last moment, doing a half twist in the air and grabbing the spear with both hands. My paws touched the ground a moment later, and I lunged, pushing the weapon deeper into its shoulder.

Dan reached into the melee with his large hands and snapped its neck. "Where the devil did you come from?"

I skipped around Dan, then grabbed jumped up and pulled him into a hug. "I Just wanted to thank you for the outfit, then I saw you hunting and though I'd help."

He Pushed me off and ran a hand through his hair. "Don't you? I could have killed you."

"As if, you didn't even see me, besides this way we have twice as much meat." I said pointing to the other Goat.

Dan made me carry it all the way back to camp. Worse yet, he spent the whole trip lecturing me about proper hunting procedure and ways to signal your presence without spooking potential prey.

We dumped both animals near a refuse pit that Dan had clearly used before, then he left me to guard our catch while he went for tools. Skinning and gutting the goats was just as gross and messy as I expected it to be.

"for a cat girl you sure are squeamish." Dan said.

I pulled my hand out of the goats chest cavity, along with its lungs. and flicked them onto the pile of offal. We'd already eaten the livers and set aside the kidneys for cooking later, but that still left a fair few internal organs. While all of it was edible in theory, we didn't have the tools to cook them properly. The blood had soaked into my fur all the way to the elbows, making it feel sticky and uncomfortable. "It's like I have two minds sometimes. Part of me is still the trans girl from Indiana. Back there I’d never had to think about where hamburgers came from. Then there is another part of me that has no problem eating raw rat while it’s still warm."

Dan shivered at that. He crouched over the other goats hide with a flint scraper in his hand. "You ate raw rat, seriously?"

I rolled up to standing, taking care to keep my arms away from my new cloths. "It was the first thing I did when I got here. I saw movement and my hunting instincts just kicked in. Afterwards I nearly lost my cookies."

"Gross. Come strait back once you've cleaned up. You still need to slice that goat up and get it over the fire to smoke."

"Yes dad." I said, sticking my tongue out at Dan before skipping back down to the water. Getting my fur clean felt so great, even if it left my arms somewhat waterlogged. What the hell, I thought, tugging at the laces of my top. Moments later I was back in the water, swimming and diving. Afterwards I found a nice grassy spot and just lazed in the sun to dry. I'd never understood why cats spent so much of their time lazing about, but now it felt like the best idea I'd had in a long time.

A shadow blocked my sunlight. I rolled over and opened one eye only to see Dan standing over me. His arms stained with dark blood. The smell of wood smoke rolled off him in waves so strong that my nose itched. "You need a bath." He glowered down at me, grinding his teeth in large circles which made his tusks wobble. "The goats all done, thanks for asking." Heat rose to my checks. If not for my fur I'd my face would undoubtably be bright red. "Oh, I'm sorry. The water was so cool and I got distracted."

With a shrug, Dan turned his back on me and headed for the water, casting his loincloth aside. "Whatever."

I snapped my eyes shut, the blood positively pulsing in my cheeks. What the hell was wrong with me, I wondered. Blowing work off and going swimming? That wasn't like me, not like me at all.

At some point the Dan finished his bath and went past where I lay in the sun. I kept my eyes shut and feigned sleep as he passed. "Dan, I'm really sorry, I'll do better next time."

"The meat is going to take all night, you can have first guard shift." He said, then his shadow was gone again leaving me alone.

I waited for a slow count of fifty before rolling over and slipping back into my cloths. Then padded back to our work site. Dan had turned the hides into a makeshift smoke house. Inside, thin strips of goat meat hung from a matrix of branches above a lightly smoking fire. I settled down a ways away and scanned the clearing, hearing and finding nothing.

The fire didn't really need tending. Time passed, the sun set and the air cooled. Sounds of night life came to me from the distance. Small animals scuttled through the grass. Occasionally something squeaked, but nothing approached me or the smoke house.

I sat closer to the smoke house hugging my knees to my chest. Like a normal cat my fur wasn't entirely even, with the fur on down my front being a fair bit thinner than that on my back and limbs. I was still sitting like this when Dan showed up, with another animal hide draped over his shoulders. He paced around the smoke house. "Get some Sleep Tabby."

"Night Dan." I said as I uncurled from my spot and took off back towards the cave at a run. The moons were up providing enough light for my cats eyes. Back in the cave I found a flat piece of wall and marked two dashes with charcoal. One for each day I had spend in this world. Dan had gathered more rushes While I was swimming, so we now both had a comfortable place to sleep.

The next few days were a blur. Dan and I started talking again, which was good, and we had enough food to get by on for a while. We spent the mornings exploring, scouting not just the valley but also the surrounding desert. Afternoons meanwhile were for swimming and just lazying about in the sun.

On the sixth day I washed my cloths and hung them up to dry on top of an umbrella tree. That's when it stuck me, I'd remained in my cat girl form all this time. Weirdly, I wasn't even tempted to change back. After all the last time I did that, I ended up fighting a giant chicken.

My eyes came to rest on the smoke trails that still marked the western sky. The problem was that Dan seemed certain that his wife would show up in the valley. He was ready to wait forever, but how did he know? Even if she had spawned nearby, there was no guarantee that she would find the oasis. Then there was the problem that I had appeared days after Dan had. I worried at the problem all day.

That evening Dan surprised me with two eels that he had caught in the deepest pond in the valley and baked in the coals. The flesh was a little gritty but full of flavor. "Dan, have you considered, that your Linda might have not found this valley?"

At my words Dan grew still, gazing into the fire. He continued eating his eel, as if I hadn't spoken at all. I shifted closer, moving around the fire until we were almost shoulder to shoulder. "We're supposed to fight evil, or something aren't we?"

"It's too dangerous for a little girl."

I flicked the eel bones into the fire where they sizzled for a moment. "We're the same age Dan, no matter what I look like. Besides, If someone tries something I'll scratch their eyes out."

"You think you can do it, Tabby?" He said, finally looking at me. "Kill someone I mean, kill them before they kill you. This place is like the Wild West. No courts, no prisons, no due process, just swords and lynch mobs. That's what Hod told me, anyway."

I hadn't thought about it. Could I kill in self defense? Truth be told, I'd seen no real violence worse than a punch up at a rowdy bar. Sure stuff got broken, but no one was out to kill. It was just something to pass the time when you ran out of booze money. "Yea, I think I could. Maybe that's why Katia gave me this body. It knows how to kill, even if I don't."

"And could you live with yourself after?"

I stood up, stretching out my arms and legs. Outside the sun had set and valley was dark, already the heat of the day was fading into a clear cloudless sky. "Either way, eventually we die and face the gods. This is our second chance, and I will not waste it even if that means killing bad guys."

Dan flicked the remaining bones from his meal into the fire too, then stood. His shoulders drooped, as he strode to his sleeping spot, and fluffed up the rushes. "Good night Tabby."

"Good night," I said, settling into my bedding. "I'm leaving in the morning Dan, I'd like you to come with me, but I'm going even if you don't."

Neither of us slept much that night. I could still hear Dan tossing and turning long after the fire had burnt to embers. His final question stayed with me. Could I do it?

And then I prayed. I didn't get on my knees, or anything like that, but I prayed. I prayed to the goddess who had made me. Somewhere out in the far distance a lion roared, the sound echoing through the night. I took it to be the goddesses answer, what I'd told Dan was the truth.