Matricidal

*click*

I'm a nice guy. I mean, fundamentally I really think I am nice. I just have a curse, or am really unlucky, or something. I promise I never really meant to kill them- but well, maybe I should start from a different direction.

I started out (or so I have been told) as a deer. At least, my mother was a deer. I wouldn't really know, because I was a tad young to have memories. She got hit by a car while carrying me, and broke her spine. The vet couldn't save her, but managed to deliver me well enough. It would be creepier if I had narry a scratch, but apparently I was banged up pretty good and nearly died as well.

Well the cute little girl who was in the car that killed my mother bugged her father to let her adopt me and I got a goat as a surrogate mother. To this day I really like goat's milk. It's so rich and creamy and makes me close my eyes, slow down, and maybe daydream a little. Which is how- but I'm getting ahead of myself.

According to what I've been told I spent three months there. I vaguely remember a large wooden porch that caught the sunlight just right in the afternoon. And a smiling face that pulled on my tail, like really hard. But it was winter then, and really cold. That might have been what caused me to change. My goat-mom had thick, shaggy fur, so maybe I unconsciously wanted it too. Deer fur is thin, you know? Anyway. I've heard that I gradually changed to grow longer, thicker fur, and there were some other alterations as well. I began to look more and more like my mother (though I was still a lot smaller than her).

Then, after those three months, that lovely porch, and the house attached to it, burned down. The dad, the little girl, and my goat-mom all died. I almost did too, but I was on the porch, which was built on a hill. When it collapsed from the wood being burnt, I fell and rolled away from the flames and into a river. I remember that part. It hurt a lot, and I got burned too. I wonder if I set the country-side on fire.

Well, I was really lucky that I only went as far as the very shallow bit of the river, so I didn't drown. It was still cold though, so I got hypothermia, even with my thick pelt. By rights I should have died, but I got rescued by a paramedic who followed my trail hoping I was the little girl. He decided he might as well save me anyway while he was there.

After fixing me up the man gave me to a friend of his, who was a farmer. I could walk by then and I remember running around in these beautiful flowers and greens and everything smelling so interesting. I still needed a mother though, so the farmer let me suckle one of his cows who also had a calf. It began to get hot, so I envied my cow-mom and cow-brother their thin coats. The spots also looked very interesting to me. And-you guessed it-I started to gradually change to look more like them.

My cow-mom probably got freaked out about that. All I know is she didn't treat me as closely as her own son. I got really jealous and angry. I don't know if I bullied my cow-brother or not. Probably. Kids do crazy stuff to get their mom's affection. But when the pestilence came around, and cow-mom and cow-brother and a few of the other cows died, I sure felt bad about getting so riled up about them. I got sick too, you know. I just didn't die from it. But the farmer had to kill off a lot of his livestock in case they were carrying the disease or something, and might endanger the humans.

At this point I was about half-way through my transformation, so instead of killing me, he sold me off as a freak to a circus. They decided I was old enough that I didn't need a mother anymore, so I got a cage by myself. I was nearby the other animals though. There were tigers and a bear, and little dogs that did tricks. The dogs didn't have to live in cages though. They trained me with the old she-bear. She was the only one nice enough to not try to eat me or some other such thing.

I really liked that she-bear. She was one of the best-treated animals there. The dogs didn't bite or try to herd her like they did to me. The tigers quieted down when she was around, and the humans kinder to her than they were to anyone except the dogs. She was so big and strong, and when I ran to her the dogs left me alone too. So I guess I sort of began to think of her as a mother too. After all, I was only about a year old at this point. Even by most animal standards I was still pretty much a kid. So then, before I even became all cow, I started turning into a bear.

*click*

"Mr Sidall, we'd like to take a break right now. It's gotten to be lunch time. Do you mind?"

"Not at all, gentlemen. I have all the time in the world in this place. I don't suppose you could bring me back a burger?"