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TOBIAS

The wing snaps off and the plane is falling from the sky and the plane hits the ground and the tail is gone and the plane stops moving and there's fire and there's an explosion and all of a sudden there's darkness and you can't breathe –

You jump quickly sitting up in your bed. You're sweating like crazy, it's been a while since you've had a nightmare like that. You glance over at the clock. You've overslept by nineteen minutes, you need to get moving now, before you're too late!

Jumping out of bed, you quickly rush through your morning routine, going through everything to make sure you don't accidentally leave anything behind. Double-checking, you breathe a sigh of relief as you find you're packed and ready to go. Everything's back on track, You think as you leave your hotel room. Your cell phone rings and you're grateful that you have a long-distance plan. A very long distance plan, as you think. Not looking forward to the jet lag once you get home, you answer.

"Hello?" You say.

"Tobias," You mother says. You'll be staying with them for a while before you head back to the college dorm, and it'll be nice to see them again. "Just calling before you head off to the airport. How are you doing? Any problems?"

"I'm okay, Mum," You reply. "I'll see you at the airport, okay?"

"Okay," She says, but you can tell she seems uneasy.

"What's wrong?"

"I... I just have a bad feeling," She replies. "Isn't there a later flight you can take?" you shake your head, conscious of the fact she doesn't know that.

"No," You say instead. "I can't take any later flight. Don't worry, Mum, Oceanic hasn't had anything bad happen since... 1974, I think."

"Okay," She says, still hesitant. After re-assuring her that everything will be fine, you hang up. Putting your luggage into the taxi, you think back to your nightmare. Could she have had the same feeling, half a world away? You shake it off as paranoia and pre-flight jitters, and head off to the airport.

ANDREW

You look out at the water. It looks so clear, so beautiful...

"Enjoying the view? A girl asks as she slides up to the seat next to you.

"Yeah, actually," You say, looking at the pool. "I just wished I had brought my swim trunks down, you know?" She laughs.

"You could always borrow mine," She says jokingly.

"No thanks," You say. "I don't borrow clothes from strangers." You wink, wondering why you're being so out of character. Usually, you're really shy around new people. So why do you feel so confident around this stranger? Whatever you're doing, you seem to be doing it right, because she laughs and extends a
hand.

"I'm Megan," She tells you.

"Andrew," You introduce yourself, shaking her hand. Megan smiles at you, and you smile back.

"So, how long are you staying here?" Megan asks you.

"My flight leaves tomorrow morning, actually," You tell her, frowning. She's cute, red hair to her shoulders, nice figure... if only you had more time!

"Really?" Megan asked. "Me too...which flight?"

"Oceanic flight 199," You say.

"Sydney to Los Angeles?" you nod, and she smiles broadly. "Well, maybe we can get to know each other a little better on the flight over, hmm?"

"What's saying we can't get to know each other right now?" You ask, hopeful. Megan gives another broad smile.

"My room number is 1990," She says, and hops off her seat. "See you tonight." You stare as she walks off, amazed.

"What the hell did I just do?" You ask yourself.

MEGAN

You walk out of the small pool side bar and back into the hotel. Andrew seems like a nice guy, you decide, but you don't see anything happening past tonight. Which is too bad you have to stand him up after tonight, and you just know that if he finds you on the plane, it's going to be a very awkward flight. But it's not that you don't want anything to go farther because you probably live in a completely different part of the country, but because you aren't ready for a relationship yet. You're only nineteen, you've got plenty of time to find someone to settle down with. You don't need a long term relationship.

Which would be fine, you think as you walk from the elevator and to your hotel room. If Andrew didn't seem so... So, what? What was so special about him?

"I don't know," You whisper out loud.

Later that evening, you hear a knock on the door, and you open it, smiling at Andrew.

"You're late," You simply say.

"Sorry, I wasn't sure which – Woah!" He exclaims as you pull him in.

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.

ALEX

"Will Alex Field please come to Gate 19, please? Alex Field, Gate 19." You sigh, getting up from your seat and slinging your backpack over your shoulder as you do. You had arrived at the airport five hours ago, and you are tired, annoyed, and ready to snap at the first person who tried to talk to you into feeling calm. Screw calm! Your flight was cancelled three hours ago for no goddamn reason! You storm to the desk at Gate 19.

"I'm Alex Field," You say to the attendant.

"Yes, Mister Field, we've paged you especially because... well, you're late for your flight," She tells you, sensing your anger.

"What flight? It was cancelled." You say, frustrated.

"Yes, but all of the passengers on that flight were transferred to other flights around the airport," She explains. "You were transferred to this one. You should have been told that at the previous gate."

"No, I wasn't told that!" You exclaim.

"Well, you're here now," The attendant says, and grudgingly, you walk into the hallway she motions to. Continuing down the hallway, you open your mouth to counteract the pressurized air. Walking into the plane, you keep your gaze down. You have a feeling that you're the last passenger to arrive, but you don't care. You glance at your ticket, and memorize your seat number. Only looking up to find your seat, you take it and sigh, closing your eyes. It has been a very, very long day.

ANDREW

You wait in the boarding area, anxious. Last night, you had the time of your life! But... you remember waking up in her bed, alone, with the cleaning service knocking on the door because Megan had already checked out f her hotel room. Quickly getting dressed, you rushed down to the front desk and asked him how long ago she checked out. The receptionist told you that Megan had left only half an hour before. Hurried, you ran up to your room, packed, checked out, and hopped into a taxi and arrived at the airport half an hour later.

Your eyes snap open wide as you watch some... thing walk in through the boarding area. It looks reptilian, or insect like, you're not quite sure. You shake your head, doing a double-take as who should walk in soon after, but Megan! You quickly stand, walking briskly over. You call her name, and she turns to see you, and you can tell she isn't really happy about that.

"Andrew, not now," She says, walking away.

"I just want to know where you went this morning," You say, following her.

"No, you don't," Megan says. "You want to know why I left." You agree silently, and she continues. "I left because I'm not ready to take whatever you think there is between us past the bedroom, okay? I thought you might have understood that, but clearly, you don't." Megan readjusted her bag, walking towards the gate entrance.

"Now calling rows 42-23 for Oceanic flight 199 en route from Sydney to Los Angeles," Someone says at the desk, and Megan finally stops, turning to you.

"I made a mistake," She says as the receptionist repeats the instructions. She sounds sincere, but you can tell Megan's troubled by something. She leaves, joining the queue, and you remain frozen to the spot, your stomach a knot of freezing cold and the feeling of being sick.

GRILL

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.

ALEX

The plane shakes, waking you up. You look around. There's a banging sound from behind you, and you figure it's the wing, or something. You give a little laugh. Just one more thing to add to the list of things going wrong. A second, then a third shake sends you almost flying out of your seat, if it weren't for your seat belt. Now you're worried: is the plane going to crash? There's a horrible metallic ripping sound and the plane suddenly lurches to the left. The wind rushes through the plane as the canopy is somehow ripped off, and the oxygen mask falls in front of you. You grab it, your heart pounding as the plane shakes. Lights flash and you can barely hear the screams of the passengers around you over the sound of the plane falling out of the air. You close your eyes. This is not how you wanted to die.

MILO

You sit in your seat uncomfortably. You don't really like flying – the seats are too cramped and there's no leg room, and the attendants won't give you a drink whenever they come by. It's annoying, but you can handle it. You're awesome at handling things. Plus, looking out the window, you see the wing move up and down, as if waving to the clouds. You wonder if the people sitting on top of it can feel it through the wall of the plane. The plane bumps again and you wonder why you have to sit so far back, you're nearly in the last row!

There's a third, very violent bump, and you can hear something break. You hope it's the glasses on that cart the attendants wheel around – serves them right for not giving you your Coke! But when the plane shakes a fourth time, and a fifth, sending people sprawling down the isle, you start to worry. You look out the window and notice that you are descending quickly. Way too quickly, even you, at eight years old, know that. You stare at the wing, which now looks like it's trying to do a high five with the clouds.

There's a metallic snapping noise that shakes through the whole plane and you watch the wings snap off like it's a piece of cardboard. It disappears from your sight just for a split second, and then there's a shattering noise as it hits the plane, scraping off the roof from the middle of the plane all the way to the tail section right over your head. You see the seats ahead of you launch into the air, disappearing out of the plane, and you start to feel faint.

The last thing you remember before you black out is…

GRILL

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.

MEGAN

You sit in your seat, staring out the window as you fly at an altitude of thirty thousand feet. You're troubled by your run-in with Andrew earlier, and you don't know why. You really aren't ready for something more than a one night stand, right?

What if you are ready? A small voice asks in your head. And what if it's with Andrew?

Long distance relationships never work out, You answer silently. The voice falls silent, as if it had no response.

Or, as if it knew what was going to happen next.

The plane shakes violently, and you jump, suddenly alert. What was happening, turbulence? The plane shakes again, and a second, third and fourth bump increases your worry. What is going on?

Suddenly, there's a metal scream and the sound of metal on metal as the canopy of the plane flies off and the oxygen masks fall from the ceiling. You grab yours, and a final thought runs through your head before everything fades away. You regret that you never told Andrew how you really felt.

LOST

You wake up and realize you're in a tree. You seem to know this because you are upside down.

You look up and see that the reason why you are defying gravity is because you're hanging from a set of airline seats that have caught themselves in the branches. You sway slightly, as does your neighbour, who is dead. You close your eyes for a moment, and as you do, you realize three things:

1. You are alive.

2. Your plane just crashed.

3. You need to find survivors.

Quickly, you grab onto a tree branch, hooking onto it with one arm while you reach up for your seat belt. You hear a cracking noise and you add a fourth and fifth items to your list.

4. The seats are falling out of the tree

5. If you're still in them when they hit the ground, you will die.

You feverishly unbuckle yourself and shout as you suddenly swing as your body succumbs to the laws of gravity. The momentum makes you loose your grip and you fall out of the tree to the ground. Giving a shout of pain as you land on the jungle floor on your back, your eyes widen as you see the airplane seats fall out of the tree towards you. Thinking quickly, you roll out of the way just as they smash into the ground behind you.

You have evaded death twice in one day.

CALLUM

You wake up, and the first thing you notice is your bleeding leg. You sit up, groaning as you see the ocean. You freeze, momentarily distracted from your pain, and ask yourself, "Why am I on a beach?"

The waves crash on the shore, as if in response.

You look down at your pant leg. Below the knee is soaked with blood, but it seems to have stopped. Something is painfully protruding from your leg, and you know what it is almost instantly.

It's your bones. You're right leg has been broken.

Groaning, you try to stand, looking around for anything that could be used as a splint. You see nothing but beach stretching for miles, and only jungle behind you. You wince as you move forward, hopping on one foot. Eventually, that fails, and you end up on your back, pushing yourself down the beach with your good leg. The sun, high in the spotless sky, beats down upon you and you eventually collapse, exhausted from both the pain of a broken leg and dehydration. You fall, closing your eyes as you try and regain whatever strength that you have left.

An undetermined amount of time later, you open your eyes to discover that you're no longer in pain. The sun has barely moved from its position in the sky, so… you're confused. How much time has passed between passing out and right now? You lean on your arms, looking down at your legs, and you freeze.

Your feet have changed. They look… similar, but slimmer, and… furry? You gingerly move your pant leg up a bit and see soft yellow fur growing on your legs as they slim down and became feminine. You watch with amazement and fear as your broken leg cracks and heals, not even leaving a mark as the changes spread up your legs and up your thighs, out of sight. You put a hand on your groin, fearing… you give a shout as you feel your testicles pull in towards your body and your penis inverts into a slit in your crotch. Another series of cracks occur and your hips widen, and you lift up your shirt to see your waist shrink, giving you a fairly curvy body. You shift uncomfortably as a tail grows out of your backbone, a tail you recognize as canine. You feel a pressure on your chest as two breasts grow, and you gasp as you feel your vocal cords changing, hearing your female voice start to appear. Your face pushes out and your ears turn canid, moving to the top of your head. You roll over, gasping as the changes moved inwards, your organs rearranging themselves to fit your new body. You lay back, exhausted once more.

"Why?" You ask to the sky. Sighing, you stand. You figure you'd better find others like you, others who were changed. You stand a little unsteady on your new legs, but you're thankful because at least you can walk again. You realize you don't have any shoes, or socks. What happened to them? You wonder. You walk down the beach anyways, getting used to how your body behaved.

DOCTOR VON LELAND

"Louis?" You shout as you traipse through the jungle. "Louis, where are you? Stupid mouse," You mutter under your breath. Sighing, you wonder why you didn't just stay at the lab where you belonged. But no, you had to go out and do "field research". Now look where curiosity got you! Stranded in the middle of the jungle! Which was in the middle of nowhere! How could this get worse? Oh yeah: You lost your prized specimen in the process!

"That wasn't my fault," You say out loud. "I can't control every variable. Extreme turbulence is certainly possible, if we hit an air pocket. Perhaps faulty wiring or…" You stop rambling about what could have gone wrong as you stumble into a clearing. You freeze. Even your doctorate in biology couldn't prepare you for the small pile of corpses on the ground. You edge closer.

"Corpses seem to be recently dead," You whisper to yourself as you edge closer. You notice a few seats, smashed to pieces, lying on the ground nearby. You realize what this means. You turn to your left, where there is a large trail cute out of the jungle where the bodies must have came through. Logically, there must be more debris, possibly…

You collapse to the ground, holding your stomach in pain. You gasp, trying to figure out what's going on. You roll onto your side, pulling up your sweater/vest thing you decided to wear simply because security would wonder why you were wearing a Victorian-era suit, although, on second thought, there isn't a whole lot of difference between modern suits and –

"Pay attention!" You shout at yourself. You watch with a mixture of horror and fascination as your stomach flattens, all that embarrassing hair disappearing as the sensations spread throughout your body. You watch your body hair thin to almost non-existence, and you gasp as there is a pinching sensation in your groin. You reach down, realizing even as you do, it's too late; your penis is gone. Your hair lengthens and with detached interest you note that the premature gray hairs in the corners had vanished, your straight black hair lengthening to your mid-back. Your clothes rip as your body continues to change, and you realize that this isn't over. Fine black hairs are growing on your hands and feet, pads on the palms on your hands and feet growing. You can feel fur growing around your groin and new breasts (How the hell did they get there? You think) and feel something snaking out of the back of your pants.

"A tail?" You ask, turning to see it moving around, as if on its own. You reach to scratch your head in confusion and feel two feline ears on your head. "All right, let's assess," You said, trying to ignore your new voice. "Feline ears, tail, paws, my gender appears to be female for reasons that are currently unknown… conclusion: I am a nekomimi," You nod in affirmation. "A catgirl. Not quite the ideal form…" There is a rustling in the bushes and you stand, turning towards the corpses. "Who's there?" You shout. As if in response, something appears out of the trees.

It's a large animal, about twice as tall as you. It has gray fur and resembles a mouse, aside from the fact that it's huge.

"L-Louis?" You stammer. You should have realized that his crate would have broken upon impact, but you were hoping that he would be contained somehow. Louis the giant mouse looks at you, taking in your scent, and you realize he doesn't recognize you as his master, but rather as his prey.

"Louis, no!" You shout as he opens his mouth and a plume of fire erupts.

KEEGAN

You open your eyes.

For a moment, you're blinded, but as you adjust, you realize: This isn't right.

You sit up, looking around as you hold your side. There is a splitting pain, like you had just run a mile or two. Which is weird, you haven't done that for years… You look up at the sky.

Around you are trees, tall ones, and the air is humid. Somehow you must've had ended up here, but how you have no clue. The last thing you remember is… Okay, now you're really confused. What was the last thing you remember? I must've hit my head, You think as you use a nearby tree to get to your feet. Straining your memory, all you can remember are flashes of images; loud noises, falling, just a bunch of random flashes that are just as confused as you are right now.

You look around the jungle (because that's where you realize you are now), trying to figure out which way you could go. Maybe you could find other people?

What makes you think you'll find other people? A voice asks you.

"Because," You say out loud, brushing some dead leaves out of your shaggy brown hair. "I can't have been the only one who…" You stop suddenly as your stomach gurgles. You look down. What now?

Suddenly, it seems as if someone's doing some redecorating down there, and you clench your teeth in pain. You kneel down on the ground, groaning as you wonder what the hell is going on. You give a shout as the pain spreads, moving up and down your body. Your legs feel like they're on fire and your chest feels constricted. You lay on your side, blinking as you feel numb and exhausted. You stare at the ground as the pain slowly fades away.

You sit up, dragging yourself over to a tree. You push your glasses back up to your face, relieved that at least that was over. You cough, thirsty.

"Okay, what's next?" You say out loud, and freeze. Your voice is different. You look down at yourself and breathe another sigh. You're perfectly fine, just a couple scrapes and bruises. For a second, you thought you were going to fall victim to something out of those stories you read on the –

Again, that train of thought is interrupted as two breasts swell out of your chest. You blink in surprise, grasping them in your hands to confirm this isn't just a hallucination. The sensations you feel tell you that this is actually happening. You gasp as you feel your butt swell underneath you, and you hear your hips crack as they grow to accommodate your shrunken abdomen. Your arms visibly change, and you guess that your legs have probably done the same. You realize you're forgetting something important, and your hands dive between your legs.

"You've got to be kidding me!" You shout in your girl's voice as you feel an empty space where your genitals were before. You drop your hands to your side, simply staring at your new body in shock. How or why this happened, you don't really care. You stand once again, feeling a little out of balance with your new body. You brush your hair out of your eyes and decide to venture further into the jungle. A few steps in, you collapse once more, and this time you can see why

Your feet change, bones cracking as you realize your feet are becoming digitigrade. Pads form on the bottoms of your feet and on the palms of your hands. You groan in pain once more as our face pushes out into a muzzle, and you blink as orange and black patterned fur starts to grow. You close your eyes as you feel your ears move to the top of your head and become furred as well. What is happening to me? You think, and as you open your eyes, the changes stop. Standing cautiously to your feet, you look down at your newer form, which appears to be an anthro tigress. You sigh, shaking your head.

"Just my luck," you say, pushing your glasses back up once more. "What's going to happen next?" You ask sarcastically, walking further into the jungle.

Suddenly, a shriek prices the air, followed by a blast of what sounds like an explosion. You turn, ears perking up as you trace the sound somewhere to your left. You eyes widen as you see a plume of black smoke rising from somewhere no more than half a mile away. Worried, you head towards the source, a feeling in your gut telling you that whatever it is, it isn't good.

LOST

You walk for the next ten or fifteen minutes, trying to calm down from the adrenaline rush of before, the knowledge that you had almost died again still fresh in your mind. You take a few more steps, then stop. Something isn't right, you think, and collapse suddenly as you feel a pressure in your gut and your groin. The pressure peaks, then releases as you sigh. You freeze as you reach down, feeling your crotch.

"Ah, crap," You say, and notice that your voice is getting higher. There's an itching sensation on your shin, and you feel your self moving very slowly. You realize:

1. You're growing fur

2. You're shrinking

A simple inspection and you realize you're not just shrinking – you're getting younger. Your ears become pointed and move to the top of your head, and you feel a tingling sensation as a tail grows out of your now extremely baggy clothes. You look – it's a fox tail.

"I'm a kitsune," You say out loud. "I don't know whether to be happy or freaked out of my mind…" You stand unsteadily on your new paws for a moment, then walked a little further. Your new ears tell you that there's a waterfall nearby, and your transformation has made you really thirsty. You head towards the waterfall and stop at the clearing's edge when you hear voices nearby.

DOCTOR VON LELAND

You quickly fall to the ground, rolling in an effort to smother the flames. You stand, deciding to take your chances by running into the jungle. As you do, you quickly strip the remains of your clothes, noting the fur covers your breasts and groin fairly well that you probably won't need undergarments for a while. You run, hearing Louis chase after you. You curse yourself for making him so big and –

You're interrupted once more as you crash into something. The groan of pain gives you a clue that it is actually someone. You sit up, marvelling at the tiger girl for a moment before standing up and grabbing her hand.

"Come on," You say. "We're both in danger."

"In danger? From what?" The tigress ask as you pull her up. "Where's the fire?"

"Right there," You point, seeing Louis running through the trees. The tigress' fur bristles and she complies, the two of you running away from the beast. You run for what seems like ages, realizing that your previous body would never have enough strength to carry on like this.

"I think… yes, this way!" The anthro tells you, and now she leads the way. You see where she is going as you follow a riverbed, one that leads to a waterfall ten feet away. For some inexplicable reason, you despise the idea of jumping off a cliff, whether it's to your death or into a pool of water. The two of you stop at the edge.

"I'm not jumping in there," You quickly say, pointing to the pool at the bottom.

"We have to," The tigress said. "We'll jump together, okay?"

"No, but…"

It's too late, and the tigress grabs your hand, dragging out over the edge and into the water below.

LOST

You watch as the cat-girl and the anthro tigress (who you realize are the sources of the voices) jump off the ledge and fall into the pool. You edge a little closer, hoping that the pool was deep enough. You look up to see a freakishly large mouse look over the edge, sniffing for… prey? you wonder. Apparently satisfied, it turns and runs off just as the two cat women pop out of the surface of the water. They swim to the edge, pulling themselves out and resting for a moment.

"What the hell was that?" The tigress exclaims.

"That," The cat girl says, "Was Louis."

"Louis? You even named it?" The tigress seems less than pleased, glaring at the cat girl as if she was crazy.

"Yes," She says. "Louis. He was my experiment in biochemical physics."

"But… that doesn't exist."

"It will," the cat girl continues. "I engineered him to help the stray cat population."

"Well, obviously, 'he' thinks we're strays!" the tigress shouts.

"It would seem so, yes," The cat girl agreed. The tigress shook her head, muttering under her breath.

"Well, Mrs. Mad Scientist, what's your name?" The tigress asked. Your ears perk up and you listen, interested.

"Doctor Andrew Von Leland, Ph.D," The cat girl says. "Or Doctor Leland, I have no preference."

"I'm Keegan," The tigress said. "Wait, Andrew? You mean you used to be…"

"A male? Yes," Dr. Leland said. "And judging by the Irish roots of your name, you used to be male as well?"

"And human," Keegan added.

"Yes, obviously, I didn't see any anthros on the plane, but I did see one passenger I wouldn't mind studying…" You ignore Leland as you think. These two are just like you! They were guys, and they were transformed, and it seemed as if they were on your plane! You decide that now is the time to reveal yourself, and you walk out into the clearing. Keegan and Leland freeze, but relax somewhat as they see it's only you.

I'm so glad I found you two!" You say as if you just stumbled upon them. "I was looking around for survivors!"

"And who might you be?" Leland asked.

"Call me Lost," You say, giving your nickname.

"Judging by the remains of your clothes, you used to be a guy too?" Keegan asked, pointing. Your face flushes a bit, you had forgotten about your clothes.

"And older too," You say. "Why do you ask?"

"We used to be men as well," Doctor Leland replies. "Until we crashed here."
Keegan freezes for a moment.

"Oh god…" She says. "Our plane crashed, right?" You nod.

"I woke up in some seats that got caught in some trees," You explain. "I must've been thrown from the crash…"

"We're all lucky to be alive, that's for sure," Leland agrees, nodding. "Which is why I think we should stick together."

"The three of us? As a team?" Keegan asked.

"At least until we find other survivors." Leland added. You nod.

"It's a good idea," You agree. "But… what are we going to do about my clothes?" They are uncomfortable now, and you don't want to have them dragged around in case Louis shows up again.

"Good point," Keegan says, looking down at her own ruined clothes.

"Just get rid of them," Leland suggests. You notice she is naked, or at least, isn't wearing any clothes. "It's actually quite refreshing to not wear anything." You and Keegan trade glances and shrug, both of you removing your clothes.

"You know, this isn't so bad," Keegan says, and you agree.

"So," You say a few minutes later after you all had gotten some water from the pool. "Shall we continue searching?"

Keegan and Leland open their mouths to agree, but all three of you turn and
stare as a large explosion rocks the forest. The three of you watch, shocked as you see an orange and black fireball rise from the ground about a mile away.

"Oh, god," Keegan says. "That… was that our plane?"

"Only one way to find out," You say, and head towards the site of the explosion.

CALLUM

You see smoke rising about fifty yards away, and you start to run, wondering if there's a fire. Soon enough, you find the source of the smoke, and you stop, horrified.

It's a plane.

As you stare at the smoking wreckage, you remember, this is your plane. You must've crashed… and, just as suddenly, you remember the crash. The shaking, the tearing sounds as a wing fell, the rushing sound of the wind…

You advance, careful to avoid flames from around the plane. Bodies litter the ground, unmoving. You note that the plane landed on its side, a scorch mark on the earth. The tail section has separated from the rest of the plane, but it looks like it happened upon impact, the ceiling completely torn off. Corpses occupy the remaining seats. The one remaining wing hangs in the air, the ceiling of the fuselage torn and the open cabin facing away from you. You could touch the underbelly of the plane if you wanted to.

You don't want to.

You continue moving forward, trying not to throw up as you see people hanging from broken airplane windows, many of them mangled and torn from the impact. The cockpit and front of the plane is completely smashed, obviously that's the part of the plane that hit the ground first and absorbed most of the impact. You know none of the pilots survived. Quite frankly, it's a wonder that you survived. You turn, staring at the rest of the plane, and fall to your knees.

"Everyone's dead," You manage to chock out, and then, light, thunder, heat, and an unseen force throws you towards the jungle, away from the crash site. You land, dazed, and you realize: That was an explosion. Everything starts fading to black and you think, I'm going to die.

You feel someone shaking you and you weakly open your eyes.

"Are you all right?" A muffled voice says to you. "Can you hear me?" A blurred figure moves in front of you, and you blink, trying to focus. You hear voices in the background, at least two others. Your eyes begin working again, and you see a young girl, maybe ten years old. Your mind tells you she's a kitsune, suggesting that she had also been changed. You reach out a hand, trying to sit up. The kitsune girl turns and yells, "Hey! I found someone!"

"Holy…" You hear a voice say. "What… what happened to our plane?" Someone rushes over.

"Don't worry, I'm a doctor," A cat-woman says. "Can you hear me?" You nod.

"Who are you?"

"Doctor Leland," She tells you. "And no, I'm not a real doctor."

"Did you… did you crash here too?" You ask her. Leland nods.

"Unfortunately," She says. "I suppose the four of us should consider ourselves lucky we survived." Leland quickly glanced over her shoulder at the wreckage. "I doubt we'll find many other survivors."

"Four?" You ask, sitting up.

"Me, Lost, you and Keegan," Leland reports. "So far we're the only survivors that we know of." You nod sadly It doesn't surprise you, and you wonder what might have happened if your plane crashed in the water.

"Should we search the plane?" The kitsune girl asks. "For water and food?"

"Good idea, Lost," Leland agrees, helping you to your feet. "We should salvage all we can before the plane burns up from the explosion. It looks fine now, though."

"Everyone! Quiet!" An anthro tigress (Keegan, you assume). "Just, be quiet for a moment, okay?"You all fall silent, waiting. Your ears perk up as you hear something that makes your stomach feel cold with fear and your heart soar with hope simultaneously.

There is a girl's voice coming from the wreckage. You look at Lost, shocked.

"There's someone in the wreckage!" Keegan shouts, running around the exploded airplane engine towards the broken tail section. "Someone in the plane is still alive!"

MILO

You blink.

You're not moving anymore, which is a relief. For a brief moment you think the crash must've been a bad dream, but then you really start to look around. You're at an awkward a angle, almost falling out of your seat. The plane or at least the part of the plane you're in, is facing the jungle, trees and vines snaking in. You're just glad you're close to the ground now, but then you look again. You're not even close, a fall from here… it might kill you. You're great at almost everything, but falling… not so much. Landing isn't your best quality either, and for a moment, you see yourself bouncing on the seats, falling out of the plane and landing –

You're shaken out of your daymare when your skin feels unbelievably itchy. You look down and realize you're clutching the armrests with your hands, you're that afraid of falling out. You watch, thinking this must still be a night mare, because red flakes are growing on your skin and spreading all over the place. For some reason, you're more afraid of the flakes than falling, but you can't get yourself to let go of the arm rests to try to brush them off. You close your eyes as they spread up your face, and you feel something falling from your head. You open them to see strands of your hair falling to the ground. You give a small cry as you realize you can't feel your penis… your eyes widen. It wasn't possible, was it? You gently take your arm and reach a hand, shaking, while you keep yourself in your seat with the other hand. You reach your hand, covered in the red flakes, towards the crotch of your pants. Your fears are confirmed at the same time as a large crashing sound is heard and the plane shakes. You scream as the plane shudders for a moment, then all is still. There's a ringing in your ears and you sit still, frightened that everything will roll over and you'll fall. The ringing in your ears slowly fades away, and the sounds of the jungle return to you.

Suddenly, hear voices.

"Hey! I found someone!" You hear a girl's voice shout. You hear a few footsteps run farther away, and you stay frozen. It sounds like other people, but how do you know that they're from your plane? You decide that you'll just have to hide the fact that you're a girl, and you shout for help.

"Everyone! Quiet!" A woman shouts. "Just, be quiet for a moment, okay?" Then there is silence. You shout again.

"There's someone in the wreckage!" She shouts, and you can hear someone running around towards you. "Someone in the plane is still alive!" You hear, and continue shouting, thankful that someone can get you out of here. Soon, a figure appears below you, and you realize that even though you're covered in red scales, she's covered in orange fur, and you don't really want to fall into the arms of a monster.

"Hey!" The monster shouts. "Are you okay?" You shake your head, and the monster pauses. "What's your name?" It shouts.

"M-Milo," You call back down.

"Milo, we're going to get you out of there, okay?" The monster says, looking around. It runs towards the front of the plane, and you sigh in relief as it disappears from view. That is, until you look and see that your section of the plane has broken off and the monster is now climbing down the seats towards you.

"Milo, my name is Keegan," The tiger-woman monster says. "I'm going to climb up to help you, okay?" It says, standing on the sides of two seats, looking up at you. You shake your head fearfully."Milo, I'm not going to hurt you, okay? I promise, we'll get you down safely." You shake your head again. You don't know how to deal with this, and that makes you afraid, for some reason. "If I don't come after you, you're going to fall," Keegan says softly. You don't say anything, and once she starts to climb towards you, you don't stop her. Soon, she's staring at
you in the face.

"Okay, no, Milo, I need you to put your arms around my neck," She tells you. "Like a piggy back ride, okay?" Nervously, you quickly cling to her, not wanting to slide out. "Okay, now, when I tell you too, you need to do the same with your legs." She instructs you. "Ready?" You feel her hand around the seat belt and know she's going to unbuckle you. Suddenly, you're loose, and she says "Now!" you wrap your legs around her waist and hang on. There is a thumping sound as you realize your shoes have fallen off and land on the ground. Something hangs from your back and you and you look down.

You have a tail, and then you look further and it's a long way down and you don't want to fall and you're starting to panic so you hold onto Keegan tighter, forgetting she's a monster and you don't want to fall you don't want to fall –

"Hold on," Keegan says as she starts to slowly climb down. You close your eyes, wanting this to be over as soon as possible. After what seems like hours of feeling Keegan climb, you hear her say, "We're down now." You open your eyes and see you're now on a beach. The plane is behind you, but you don't care. You just jump off Keegan and start running away. You're the best at running, but you stumble because of that tail thing and there's something wrong with your feet, so you land in the sand. Someone grabs your arm and helps you up, and you see it's a cat-woman, another monster like Keegan.

"Please," She says. "You need to stay here with us, there are... scary things in the jungle."

"I can watch her," Another voice says. "Lost can help you and Keegan search through the plane." You look and it's a fox-lady. You look between the two of them, and wonder if maybe they aren't monsters after all? They seem to be concerned, but you don't need their help, you're awesome at... well, you don't know if you're the best at surviving. This is your first plane crash... you will need help this time. Next time, though...

The fox-woman kneels down next to you.

"I'm Callum," She says. "What's your name?"

"Milo," You say softly. Callum nods, and sits.

"Where are your parents, Milo? Were they on the plane?" You shake your head.

"Mom was in Los Angeles, waiting for me," You say. "I... I want to see her again." Callum doesn't say anything, but puts an arm around your shoulder.

"You will," She says softly. "I promise."

Then, you turn towards her and for the first time in forever, you begin to cry.