GRILL


"Are you kidding me?" You ask sharply. "I have a right to ask why I'm being treated like this." The security officer visibly blanches.

"It's a security check, sir..."

"Ma'mm," You snap. "Captain Grill Smith, 44th military reserve, on leave." You show him the dog tags around your neck. "I thought it might be time to get a friggen vacation for once."

"L-look, we do random security checks," The guard stammers.

"So, why me? Is it because I'm a Telarr?" You ask, your crests unfolding in anger.

"No, not at all," The guard says.

"Then why didn't you do any checks on them?" You motion your tail to the bystanders watching. "In fact, why are you detaining me especially. You aren't attempting to drag any of them to another room."

"We were told to detain any suspicious individuals..."

"How am I suspicious?" You state, getting in the guard's face. "Tell me, you racist bastard!"

The guard promptly faints. You stand up straight, grinning. Works every damn time, you think, and grab your bags off the conveyor belt of the X-ray machine. None of the other guards make a move to stop you, which you deem as a smart move. As you walk out of the security area towards Gate 19, you sigh, and look down at your feet in anger. Seeing the two insect-like toes ignite another spark of anger. As much as you take pride in your race, you do wish it weren't so... well, if you were a form most people could identify with, things like what just happened wouldn't occur. But since Telarr were needed for the military, and the serums used by the military all but create Telarr from new recruits, and wear off once your service is completed. Because of this, you are stuck as a Telarr for the foreseeable future.

You sit down, exhaling through your lung openings. Sometimes you regret your decision to join the 44th... you flex your hands, looking down at the four fingers, a mixture of hate, pride, anxiety, and anger going through you. Patiently, you wait for boarding to being.

You just want to get the hell out of here.

You sit in your airplane seat, uncomfortable. These things were built for humans, and damn it, you just aren't human anymore. You uncomfortably buckle your seatbelt, your tail twisting around your thin body. You shake your head, leaning back in your chair.

"Good morning," The captain says over the intercom. "This is your captain speaking. In a few minutes, we'll be taking off from Sydney and heading off to LAX. Total time should be about twelve hours without the tailwind, we should land in Los Angeles around 5:30 in the evening. The current time is 7:30 a.m. and we're almost ready to take off."

"About time," You mutter, and close your eyes as the attendants start to do the mandatory safety steps.

Your eyes snap open moments before you hear the wing start to snap. The plane shakes and you look over to the nearest window.

"Oh, shit..." You mutter, your stomach plummeting as the plane hits more turbulence. The wing moves up and down even more violently now, and you scrunch up in your seat, bringing your knees close to your chest. Eighty percent of people survive the initial impact – it's the fact that their legs break and so they can't get away from the fire that burns them alive. Of course, add oxygen deprivation and –

The wing finally snaps off. The plane tilts violently and the plane's canopy is seared off as the wing scrapes the plane. The wind rushes in, depressurizing the plane immediately. You stare as your lungs go still, trying to retain enough oxygen until the plane reaches a suitable altitude. The wind whistles in your ears, and you stare as, seat by seat, people are thrown from the plane as it goes into a dive. The plane dives so suddenly, in fact, that you actually see where you're about to crash.

There's an island up ahead. You're all still high enough to see the thing in its entirety... you don't see any signs of life or civilization, but –

The plane evens out and the island disappears from view. You can hear more clearly now, which means the plane is slowing down, which means you're lower now. You brace for the inevitable impact. Suddenly, the plane shakes even more violently, and you are thrown out of the plane.

There is no sound as you are thrown towards the island. Thinking fast, you unbuckle your seat belt and throw yourself away from the seats. You took training for this in the military, you're set in terms of free-falling. It's landing you're scared about. You estimate you have about thirty seconds until you die.

Dead.

That's what you think when you feel your back lying on something cold and soft. You're dead, and this is your coffin.

Then someone touches your shoulder and it startles you back to life. Opening your eyes, you look around. You appear to be in a jungle, but you're confused. You thought you were on a plane –

You remember the plane crash with such clarity you almost stop breathing. You sense something behind you, and you turn. It's a female anthro, you're not quite sure about the species, but she's definitely canine.

"It's going to be okay," She tells you. "You're safe now."

This is too much for you to take in, and you pass out.


When you come to, you're sitting up against a tree.

"What happened?" You ask the anthro.

"You passed out," She replies. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," You say, raising a hand to your head. You freeze as you
see it.

You have five fingers.

Your arm is covered in light brown fur. Your eyes travel down your body, and you see you now have breasts again, a curvy female body, and... you feel your face and head.

"I'm feline," You say to yourself.

"You... you transformed too?" The anthro asks.

"I wasn't an anthro cat before," You say.

"Actually, I think you're more of a caracal," She tells you. "And...  I wasn't female before, either," She says. "My name's Alex. Short for Alexander."

"I'm... I'm Grill," You say, startled. Whatever must've altered the military's serum must've been very powerful... more powerful than anything else known to man. So, what was this island? An experiment gone wrong? Or a hole in the world, like the Bermuda triangle? You open your mouth, ready to ask Alex what she thinks is going on when you hear something stumbling towards you out of the jungle.