literature

Adaptation

Deviation Actions

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It was offered as a cheap apartment, and boy was I paying for it. The constant dull roar of Austin Airlines Irkut MS-21's jetliners taking off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport behind me was an annoyance. Despite the extensive soundproofing of the apartment complex, the noise still occasionally managed to rattle some things in my apartment. I rolled over in bed, my frustration building up as I checked my alarm clock on the side of my nightstand. "1:34 AM" it read in its familiar blue lettering.

I muttered an expletive and rolled back over into the bed. I stared at the fast moving ceiling fan going around and around. Another roar, smaller but still noticeable, sounded as a 787-9 came in, its bright landing lights illuminating my apartment somewhat. I groaned in annoyance as the light quickly passed.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love planes of all sorts, the big ones, little ones, old ones, new ones and so on, however, this is just plain ridiculous. A plane landing or taking off every 5 minutes is just utterly insane, and most of these planes belong to one company, Austin Airlines. Austin Airlines is a huge airline based out of Austin-Bergstrom, flying people all over the world from its hubs in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Boston, Nashville and, of course, here in Austin. This makes it great for weekend and business travelers, but not so great when you look out the window and you can see the airport runway lights.

As another plane came in for a landing with a flash of light and a loud roar, I ripped off of the sheets in complete and utter frustration. I stomped over to the balcony door, threw open the door and shouted at the plane. I don't know what it was supposed to do, but it sure helped me calm down. I closed the door as I reentered the apartment, crashing on my bed as soon as I walked over to it. I pulled the sheets back over me, again watching the fan go round and round. "I wish I could just... Fly away from here. Not have to worry about planes landing or taking off or anything." I muttered in bed as I swallowed an Ibuprofen capsulet and slowly drifted off to sleep.

----

Everyone has those surreal dreams every once in a while. Those dreams that make absolute perfect sense at the time are dashed when you awake, leaving you to wonder if someone was force feeding you mushrooms throughout the night. Tonight, apparently I was having one of those dreams, but this time it had a physical aspect to it. To describe what I was feeling, my whole body felt like putty. Almost liquid, but still able to maintain a shape. It was discomforting, but not too so. It eventually stopped, and the dream ran onto a more rational pattern until the next morning

I awoke to the roar of another jet that passed over. I groaned a bit a bit at the noise, but it was time to get up anyway. I stretched over the sheets, feeling my body loosen up in delightful ensemble of creaks and pops. I rolled over to get out of bed, feeling slightly off today. However, that usually doesn't mean anything. I mean everyone has those days every once in awhile. Today just felt different however, I just couldn't exactly place exactly where anything was off. Eh, it'll clear up later.

Today was Saturday, and there was nothing for me to do. I had recently graduated from college and a job was months away. Market permitting, I can start my business soon. Until then, I was pretty much living out on my own. It was time for me to enjoy this Saturday. I slowly rolled out of the bed, expecting to land on my feet. Surprise. "Whoa!" I said aloud as I got caught in the sheets and Tierra Firma rushed up to greet me.

I was momentarily stunned and gave a resounding 'oof' as top of my head contacted the carpet floor. I twisted myself free from the sheets. I stood up on what I found to be all fours, moaning in slight discomfort as I brought my hand to my forehead to rub the small welt that I felt was forming. That's when I noticed my new hand, and it soon became problem number one. My hand looked more like a talon than anything remotely human. Problem number two also showed up pretty quickly. It appeared that a long protrusion stood in front of my face, long and yellow-orange, it looked more like a beak. I tightly shut my eyes and slowly turned my head to look at the rest of me, feeling more force from the centripetal acceleration as the strange protrusion pulled on my face. I thought only one thing, "Please just let this be me hallucinating".

I opened my eyes and reeled back in total surprise as I glanced at myself. My eyes weren't greeted by a slightly pudgy Caucasian human. Rather the strong and noble form of a... thing. What ever I was, I looked like the product of some sick and twisted science experiment. My chest was covered in feathers until about the gut, where it abruptly changed into the dusty color of what I could assume to be a puma. A long slender tail, quickly twitched behind me as my panic started to build.

Further looking were cut short as I felt two more appendages move on my back, slightly twitching with every action I did. I concentrated just for a second on them hoping that these were fake and that the twitching were just coincidence. Instead, they moved ever so slightly under my command. I was strongly surprised, causing them to unfurl to their full length, making casualties out of a lamp and a portion of drywall. "I have wings?" I muttered before doing what every rational, sane person would do after encountering as abnormal situation like this. I fainted.

----

I awoke a little while later, hoping that this nightmare had passed. However, judging by the fact that I was staring at both the dark floor and bright ceiling simultaneously, I'd think otherwise. I slowly stood up, using my new eagle talon ended, scaled and feathered cat like arms to sit up."OK, so I'm not hallucinating" I said aloud while taking another quick glance at my talon ended forearms. At least I can still talk, to what degree is what I needed to find out, hopefully there would be no change. I did a quick chromatic scale, then moved on to simple and complex sentences. Other than sounding slightly like a cross between a jabbering parrot and screaming eagle, my vocals were relatively untouched. By untouched, I mean I still sounded somewhat remotely like human self.

As I looked over myself once again. Everything about my body felt really alien. Mainly the strange sensations of weight permeated throughout every fiber of my new being as my feathery new wings rested against my frame. It felt like I had two arms "glued" to the back of my shoulders. They could move independently of each other. Touching them against any part of my body was one of the strangest feelings of all. I folded them up. I think a mirror would be the best place to see the rest of me.

I somehow managed to get all four of my legs to be coordinated enough to walk over to my full size mirror near my bureau. Now that I was sorta curious about my this whole thing. I sat down on the floor, staring at the reflection it presented to me.

I remembered what these things (correction "I") was called, a griffin. A mythical creature with the head and fore front of an eagle, but with the overall body of a lion. Supposedly a European mix up on a fossil or something like that.  Apparently, the type of eagles and lions varies with location as I figured out staring into the mirror. I was definitely a real Griffin-Americana.

The white head of a bald eagle stared back into me with its fierce, intelligent blue and gold eyes. They barely hinted at the human soul trapped inside as a nictitating membrane slid across its surface. A long golden-yellow beak curved out in front of my face as cute, feathery ears covered in white down tufts topped my new head. White turned brown as the feathers that raced along my chest and arms were replaced by the smooth belly of cougar-like fur.

I felt my stomach growl from hunger. "I'll wrap up looking over myself after breakfast" I thought, clumsily walking into the kitchen. I set to work making myself some breakfast and I'd thought I'd try many things to discover my possibly new palliate. But first I had a small challenge to complete. I had to actually get the food out of the refrigerator.

Since talons lacked thumbs, grasping almost anything but a tree branch will be extremely difficult from now on. I attempted to get a talon in the small gap that separated the body of the fridge. I managed to prop myself along on the gap and pulled. It took quite a fair amount of effort, balance, not to mention multiple tries. I had damaged the stainless steel with my hard, sharp talons, but the effort paid off when the door open with a satisfying pop.

With the refrigerator door swinging freely on its hinges, I reached inside with my beak to take an egg out of the carton. I grabbed it too hard with my beak, causing the egg to shatter and getting its contents all over my face. After licking the strangely interestingly tasty excess egg white off my beak, I attempted it again, this time using a talon claw to slide the egg carton back toward me to get a better angle on it. I attempted again, only to miscalculate and accidentally swallow the egg whole. Frustrated, I simply took the whole egg carton in my mouth and set on the counter behind me.

I pulled out two other things to make breakfast with, from the fridge again came bacon and from a cabinet came some Shake-and-Pour pancake mix. I stood up and propped myself up against the counter on my chest, I maneuvered over to the sink, I turned on the sink and washed my scaly talons with soap. Turning myself back to the food, I got to work on making myself some breakfast.

Messily tearing off the cellophane wrapping around the lid for the Shake-and-Pour, picking up the small bottle between my two hands. "I really miss my thumbs" I thought, as I wrapped my right talon around the small bottle, imitating how a bird would grip something. A quick hard twist to the right and the cap popped free. I ran water to the prescribed amount, made a large amount of effort to screw the lid back on, put the thing in my beak and shook it around until the mix had the consistency of paste.

Being that you can only really cook on a flat surface, I managed to open the cupboard near the oven. I grabbed two frying pans. One for the pancakes and bacon, the other was for the eggs. Then came the struggle for turning on the stove top. Placing my talons on the grates of the natural gas stove and using my beak, I pushed the little dial to "ignite". Unfortunately, I picked the wrong burner resulting in an instantly painful burn on my foreleg.

I screeched in pain and pushed away from the stove. I fell flat on my back, hurting my wings. I checked the burn on my right forefoot. The damage might have been just superficial, but it sure didn't feel like it. I gingerly tested it on the floor. It hurt for a brief moment as it contacted the cool linoleum but quickly wore off. My stomach growled again, I still hadn't eaten anything besides one and a half eggs. But a small noise got my new instinct's attention.

I heard the tiniest of noises, causing me to angle my catlike ears in a radar-like fashion for the source. I put my new sense of smell to the test, before sniffing out the small fur covered creature in the corner of my apartment. I stealthily moved on the kitchen floor, the sound of my talons clicking ever so slightly on the linoleum as I slowly stalked for the source of the sound. My eyes darting from from one corner to the next until I finally saw my prey, a small field mouse scavenging for food.

I carefully and quietly approached the mouse that apparently on the look out for food. I hunkered down, preparing to strike. When the mouse stopped to sniff the air again, something in the back of my head was telling me that I was quickly running out of time. I needed to catch this meal before it could escape. Wait a sec. Meal? "Crap..." I said aloud, causing the now very surprised mouse to scurry off. I can't believe it, I had actually thought of a mouse as a meal. God knows where that thing has been.

I just decided to just walk back into the kitchen and spent another two or three minutes struggling to open the refrigerator door. Another satisfying pop later and I pulled out a package of beef hot dogs, slit the cellophane packaging with a claw and chowed down. I thought about getting some other pieces of food, like the several grapefruits I had in one of the drawers, but they looked unappealing. Kinda worried me a bit, I just loved a good ruby red grapefruit, but eating now was not the time to think.

After wrapping up brunch by eating the entire package of 12 hot dogs, I stood up and looked around. The kitchen remained a near disaster from when I had breakfast. Bits of egg were everywhere, the bottle of pancake mix still laid unused, and the unopened package of bacon still rested on the counter. I set to work as best as I could. I grabbed a washcloth, and set to work on cleaning up the counters wiping up the mess that I had made. Ultimately, it came down to my cast iron stomach. Every place I looked for food and found some is food that quickly disappeared.

It took quite a bit of effort, but I could finally enjoy a fresh kitchen and a full stomach. I proudly trotted into the den and hopped up on the back of the couch. After admiring my new found sense of balance, I climbed off and walked over to the windows. "Let's get some light in here..." I said to no one, grabbing the blind's draw string in my beak. I twisted the cord around my beak and backed up, the blinds slowly rotated open to reveal the bright blue Austin sky.

It really was a beautiful day, with the sun was shining like the giant orb of plasma it was. I looked around the apartment, something was pushing me to just leave all of this behind. It seems that the wild was calling for me to give into my instincts. Unfortunately for it, my humanity was home so it had to take a message. When it's totally dark out is when I'll probably go out, but until then it's probably best for me to stay indoors for a while. It was a tough choice for me, not helped by the sight of a large 787 jet rotating up into the air. However, I did notice something really awesome about my new senses as I saw that beautiful bird.

Those once impossible to read tail numbers were strangely more legible. I guess eagle head equals eagle eyes, I wonder why I didn't exactly notice that beforehand. I hopped up on the couch and grabbed the remote control to my LED TV. I spent twenty minutes of my time figuring out how to how hold the dad-blasted thing, but I eventually got into a comfortable position to hold it. A quick push of the power button with a talon and the TV screamed to life, literally. The audio from the channel I watched yesterday that seamed relatively comfortable then soon turned into a living hell for me now. I let out a pained screech as I struggled against the torrent of sound until finally turning the volume down on the remote.

It felt like I got hit by a stun grenade, and I fell off the couch and once again onto the floor for at least the third time today. The low volume, however, was a relief to my sensitive ears and to get it over with, I turned the TV off, sighed shook my head again to clear it, and I walked back into my bedroom. I hopped up on the bed curled up to take a nap, just shutting my eyes and slowly drifted off to to sleep. Until a loud pounding suddenly grabbed it from me in a lightning bolt of terror.

----

"Mr. Cabrera?" The landlady said, pounding at the door. "Mr. Cabrera! Open up please. I would like to have a word with you about strange noises that your neighbors have been complaining about."

I quickly ran over to the door. "Sorry, I really can't open up," I lied, trying to sound as normal as possible, "I've got a... stomach virus. Stomach flu."

"You can't open the door?" She replied, jiggling the lock a bit.

"Unless you like pink Pepto-Bismol all over your clothes." I replied, leaning my weight against the door to barricade it in case she did try to actually open it.

"Oh... Well then... Since you're a bit under the weather. Do you mind telling me what the noise was?"

"It was a.... uh... National Geographic DVD that I got in the mail."

"Ah. Alright. Well, have a good day." She said as I heard her turn to walk off, her heels clacking against the stone floor. I breathed a sigh of relief, but this brought a new problem, going out in public. Considering that I was now a creature that seemed to defy all of the rules of science and nature, and only exists in the realms of the human imagination, I would be lucky to make it a day without being kidnapped by either a corporation or the government. Pick your poison.

I laid down in the small hallway that separated the front door from the rest of the apartment, I breathed another sigh, hearing it rush out of my eagle like nostrils. I stared at my beak then at the off-white colored walls. I might have a new body, but I really couldn't do anything with it. I was built for hunting, not social interaction. More than likely, I was condemned to a life fearful of the powers which I once yielded without thought.

Now thoroughly depressed, I hopped back onto my bed. My life was over, all the dreams, aspirations, thoughts of my future as a human are gone, thrown out, garbage. I started to sob uncontrollably, I could probably never see my neighbors and friends.  Heck, even my family was now off limits. I don't remember the exact times, but the sun had set when a loud pounding at the door snapped me back into reality.

"What?!" I shouted, lifting my head up towards the door.

"Uh... Hey. It's me, Charles." Said a cheery, slightly muffled voice through the hardwood of the door.

"Crap..." I thought, totally realizing that I had forgotten all about him. Charles, an old friend of mine, had decided to act on that invitation of coming to visit my apartment. Out of all the days...

Since he wasn't going away and I really couldn't escape to anywhere, I decided to actually let him in. Beforehand, running to each possible light to make the room as dark as possible. When I was done, you couldn't tell the difference between my apartment and a coal mine experiencing a power outage.

I maneuvered myself behind the door so that he couldn't immediately see me and managed to work to unlatch the doorknob, he did the rest. "Gah! You got it like a cave in here." He said, mildly chuckling as he surveyed my dark quarters. "Let's get some light in here."

"Hey Charles. Can I ask you something real quick?" I tentatively said as humanly as I could.

"Yeah. Just let me find some light..." He replied as he continued to shuffle around in the dark. "Ah! Here we go!"

"No!" I replied, panicky. "Wait!" There was a slight click and dark room soon became flooded with light

----

We both were stunned but Charles was the first to recover. "The heck is that?" He shouted, the noise  painfully igniting my sensitive eardrums.

"Charles, stop and-" I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence. He had already started a mad dash towards the door. As much of a friend as he was, I couldn't exactly let him leave without him agreeing not to tell anyone about my existence. Acting on instinct, I to put my body to the test. I poised myself and quickly leaped right for him.

The move caught him off guard. I slammed my weight into his back, causing both of us to tumble. The roll tossed me off of him. Charles made another move toward the door as he stood up, but I was quicker. I jumped on top of him, dragging him down. I attempted to pin him using my over-sized talons and cougar-like paws. He rolled over onto his back as soon as I put a large talon on his chest and dangled the other one above his neck.

However he didn't give up just yet. I felt a sharp pain as his knee contacted my underbelly, I flinched and he took full advantage of it. I felt the hard rubber of his New Balance shoes sting and bite my feathery chest as he kicked me off of him, sending me flying into a nearby wall. Taking the opportunity, he tried the door once again to reach the door. Once again, a well timed leap knocked him down once again. "Enough!" I shouted tired and hurt, placing a deadly talon claw against his neck.

"What's it... To you... Freak?..." Charles asked between gasps, he eyes fearfully looking at me as he tried to squirm out from me. "What have I ever done to you?"

"I won't exactly let you leave until I can get some word that you will not tell anyone about my existence." I replied, trying to keep him pinned. "Stop struggling Charles!  I have you pinned!"

His eyes went wide, "How do you know my name, freak?"

I cursed myself for failing to keep anonymous, but seeing that he was only going to press further I decided to just give in. "It's me."

"Who's 'me'?" he replied, still squirming.

"Matt you bumbling imbecile," I replied, removing the talon, but still keeping him pinned.

He stopped struggling, "Matt?... Holy crap."

I backed off of him while he stood up. I gave a griffonic bow, "At your service."

"What happened to you?" He asked, standing up. I was always a little shorter than he was, but at my height I really had to crane my neck to get a good look at him. Kinda weirded me out that I was only waist height to him.

"I don't know," I replied as I led Charles into my living room. I hopped up onto the couch, I put my head down between my two new forelegs as he took a seat. I told him what I could though, waking up, discovering what I was, fainting, waking up, cooking breakfast. Essentially giving him a summary of my day before finally breaking down, my head collapsing on his leg.

Charles was surprised for a brief moment, before beginning to stroke my head. Wow, that actually feels pretty good. "Does that help?" Charles asked.

"A bit. It feels pretty good," I replied. To me, this was actually somewhat scary. Merely rubbing the top of my head calms me down, almost like some kind of animal. Begging the question, why WAS I acting like some kind of animal? I'll dwell on that thought later, right now this was feeling sooooooo good.

"Are you actually enjoying this?" Charles asked in amazement, as he removing his hand from the top of my head, instantly removing my mental fog.

"I was actually..." I replied just a little shaken, I sat up on my hind legs. "Charles. What am I going to do? I'm a frickin' animal! And a nonexistent one at that! How am I supposed to live now?"

He thought for a moment, cradling his head in his arms. It was a solid, slow and painfully agonizing five minutes, "I have an idea... You could come and live with me. After all the favors you've pulled for me, it's the least that I can do."

"Are you sure about that? I mean, what if you're caught harboring me? I'll probably be experimented on and you'll probably be either hauled off or shot." I replied, surprised and a bit worried.

"Then I guess we'll have to be extra careful,"  He replied standing up, "Come on, my car's outside."

We left the apartment, Charles leading the way, him checking around the corners for any people. The only sounds were the clicking of my claws, the pounding of his sneakers, and the occasional loud (to me) thumping of music of a party.

It was a miracle, but after about a minute of quick skirting through the tight corridors of the apartment complex we finally made it to his car, a blue Subaru Forester. "Quickly!" He hissed, as he opened the trunk door.

"Really?" I inquired, "the trunk?"

"Now's not the time to be picky," He smoothly replied, "unless you like being left alone in the apartment complex."

"I'll pass," I replied as I hopped in. He quickly ran around to the front, started the engine and sped off. Leaving the apartment, and my old life, behind.

----

It had been many months since that night, and at first I've come to respect, rather than reject, my new form. I've learned to adapt, to figure out alternate methods for previously common activities. It's hard work, but it works. I've also started a company with Charles. He's the face of the organization, but I'm the brains behind it. There's some other perks that I've gained too.

The coolest thing is flying, fulfilling the greatest dream of the human race. I've found the early dawn is a great time. There's hardly anyone out and the cool wind does feel great against my feathers, let me tell you. It's also an amazing time to reflect, above the noise and pollution of the ground below. I've often have thought about my former human life, always thinking about where I could really be. How much different my life could have been. Humanity is a great thing, but whether or not to actually have it again is a question that I always answer with three simple words, "I don't know."
A short story written as a project for school. With the worst possible title. :D

Written with help from :iconsome-kind-of-name:.
© 2011 - 2024 TheAkula
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Wishingpole's avatar
great read.
i couldnt help but chuckle to myself when he was eating the eggs.
He was eating baby birds!