Forest. I thought it was a forest at least, that’s what it usually means when there are lots and lots of trees all over the place. I felt odd at first, because they seemed much bigger than trees were supposed to be. Distorted or something. But stupid me, I had the silliest idea that was only because I was laying on my back, that the trees would look normal once I sat up. Nope. I twitched my whiskers as I pondered the matter. The only place in the world with trees that big was Stranothlas, in the elven territories. If one were to include other worlds, this could have been Felarya.
I shuddered at that thought, my tail curled around my fuzz covered chest in fear. The portals to that ghastly place were long sense closed off by a legendary band of heroes. But any mage with teleportation magics and enough power could conceivably send people there. As a punishment, or as a combat tactic it was even practical. What could be a more frightening spell than sending someone to the second most dangerous place imaginable? Well, Ok there were probably worse spells. I thought I was probably lucky I wasn’t transformed into a piece of woman’s undergarments, or a flower, or a toadstool.
And whatever all I had to face, I was at least still alive? Right? This place didn’t resemble heaven in the slightest, and none of the rings of hell were this pleasant. Unless someone happened to do some remodeling since the last person escaped to tell everyone else what it was like. I could move my arms, I could stand up just fine. My feet felt awkward and my legs were heavy, but I could deal with such minor problems. I was filled with both optimism and curiosity when my slow witted mind finally noticed I was staring at a patch of grass taller than I was. Either it wasn’t just the trees that were so huge, or … heh, I forgot what I was thinking there.
Too busy noticing I had a tail, a long and stringy one. Too confused to be horrified (not to say the fear wasn’t there) I stepped back to try to look at everything. I saw my nose, a triangular shaped pink thing at the end of my face. I saw my whiskers, long stringy, bouncy little hairs that jutted out the side of my upper jaw. I held shaky, panicky arms up over my head to feel the hair … I wasn’t bald, far from it, but too busy poking and prodding my newfound ears to worry about fuzziness.
Those things were huge! Huge I tell you! They felt more like sheets of paper than ears, frankly, they were just so thin and flat. And soft. And warm, very warm. By now my breath was rapid, my chest and arms were rigid, stiff … I had faced a good many terrifying things in my day, I wasn’t about to let my own body scare the wits out of me. Even if it wasn’t quite mine. There wasn’t a mirror laying around, story of my life, but the sun was at just the right angle for me to get a look at my shadow. I could see the basic shape, my silhouette portrayed against the ground.
“I will not scream at the sight of my shadow” I told myself as I examined what had been done. My body, instead of whatever it used to look like, now sported wide hips with short hind legs. A long stringy tail curling around and waving through the air behind me. Flexible ears at the top of my head, a pointed, angular face as opposed the flat face I should have had. My shoulders were thin, but that matched my neck. My arms were skinny, but my paws were about as large as my normal hands would be. Comparatively.
“I will not scream at the sight of my shadow” I had to remind myself, I simply was not going to scream. I was trained too well for that. I’ve taken broken bones in stride, surely this little spell wasn’t going to mess with me. I was a mouse.
I tiny one, unless everything around me was just disproportionately huge. And … naked. Apparently. I didn’t notice that part for a while thanks to all this fur, but then unless I could find a teeny tiny merchant it wasn’t going to matter. Er, even if I could it still wasn’t going to matter. Did I have any gold on me? Nope. No pockets, no bags, no place to hold any coin, so I certainly didn’t have any. That wasn’t much different from my usual state of affairs.
What was different was the fact I had neither armor nor sword. Even if mine were cheap, mass produced, and utterly laughable compared to the more successful fighters and bounty hunters, I never went anywhere without one. Man, it would be hard to try and carry a sword fifty times bigger than I was …
“But can I still speak?” I asked aloud, effectively answering my own question. I didn’t think my voice sounded squeaky or mouse-like, rather normal actually. But that could just be a part of the spell, a perception filter or some mind trick that lets me understand other mice, at the cost of rendering me unintelligible to humans. But even if that were the case, it would still be better having to speak with actual squeaks and chatters. And if I could speak clear and understandable Uema …
“Ok, so first things first, when I meet anyone I will ask for directions.” I told myself. Mostly just to hear my own voice and take comfort. I sounded like myself. “If I am the proper size for a mouse, then I can assume these trees are their normal height. That’s good, I guess … but I still want to know what forest this is.”
I took a single step … and fell flat on my face. Chin really.
“Omph!” I curled onto one side, cupped my furless little mouse paws over my nose, and lamented on the very idea of failure to walk. It did not take long for the pain to die down, and upon standing back to my feet I stubbornly re-attempted that step. I discovered stubbornness is not a virtue when I fell forward for the second time, but now I was ready. I braced myself with my arms … front paws … and landed softly on four legs.
Quite suddenly this body felt natural, easy and accommodating rather than strange and alien. Curious, I started walking without bothering to get up. I slinked and scurried through the grass, my tail held up off the ground as it trailed soundlessly behind me. I wasn’t able to see over the grass, and I had no idea where I was going, but I felt like I was making good speed. Walking like this was, in a word, easy. I just didn’t like how much it made me feel like a mouse, crawling on all fours with your face just millimeters off the ground just isn’t … human.
Once I came to a dirt covered clearing, when I could see the sky past an opening in the trees and green grass no longer closed in around me, I stood up. That part was natural. Turns out mice can stand up easily and readily, their front paws really did double as hands when they needed. My tail propped up against the ground, my spine bent into a relaxed slump. But I didn’t want to just stand there, I had to be able to walk on two legs as well.
Could mice even do that? Seems like they should be able to. But as soon as I stepped forward, flailing my arms and tail to keep from falling again, I realized it was much harder than it should be. My legs just weren’t shaped for walking as I normally would. The hips were too wide, the legs were too short and bend all the wrong directions, my feet looked huge compared to the rest of me. Not to mention there was all this fatty, loose skin that just made everything feel awkward.
Sighing to myself, I felt my whiskers widen and my right ear perk up, then swivel around at some sound in the distance. I couldn’t tell what it was, and at the moment I was simply too distracted to care. I had to find a way to walk upright, that was my primary goal for the moment. I could even distinguish myself from a normal mouse if I really got the hang of it. That sound seemed to be getting closer, and I wondered with an idle abandon just what it could be.
I took two steps, making wide and exaggerated movements so that it felt more like wobbling, but I stayed up. My lips curled into a smile, stretching my whiskers at an odd angle in the process.
“There we go, just need practice.” until the sound that had been mildly annoying became a pressing concern. As I turned to the right and a shadow fell over me, I could feel the unrelenting fear of a mouse surround my consciousness. My large, black eyes looked up in awe and horror. It was in that moment I figured out why this ground was clear, it was a road. A dirt road, and I had been standing right in the middle.
With this little fact sinking in, I made out the details of what had snuck up on me … I was determined not to scream, so very determined, despite the terror I felt …
I squeaked.
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