Chapter 4: A Chance Encounter (Dorothy)

I was on my way back from picking up a book for my mum. I hated this part of town it had become something of a enclave for anti-MORFS elements, and it was not somewhere someone with obvious physical differences was made welcome. In better times, it had been a prosperous retail district, till larger shopping centres opened up on the other side of town, drawing trade away, and causing it to become run down and populated by more unsavoury types.

But some of the old shops still remained, not able to afford places closer to the new shopping areas, and it was home to some of the best rare book shops in the county, so the trip was often worthwhile. My mum has an interest in rare books, so I often run such errands for her. She is a hybrid, and since my father died, has become somewhat reclusive.

I was lucky to be almost normal looking, but only relatively speaking. I am 7ft tall, but generally human shaped, a little on the curvy Amazon side, if I do say so myself. Not as curvy as I might have liked, but still, at 15 there is some chance of further development, though then again, I might end up taller, which would make it even harder to find clothes in my size.

My hair and eyes look odd, with a slightly outlandish colouration, though nothing that couldn't come from a bottle or a pair of contacts. My canine teeth are slightly elongated, not exactly fangs, but still I have to be careful not to smile too much, which isn't usually a problem in this part of town. So long as I cover up well, I am usually just ignored, other than people noticing my height. My physical presence usually discourages any further investigation.

As I was making my way home, I heard a commotion in an alleyway, a lot of shouting, with the odd high pitched scream. I went to investigate, finding a group of 10 or 20 men attacking a young hybrid girl about my own age. I didn't know how she had ended up in this part of town. I would have thought anyone would know better than to come here.

She was taking quite a beating and I decided I'd better step in before someone did any permanent damage. I grabbed the nearest guy, and flung him into a pile of rubbish. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size" I suggested.

The group turned, then came at me. I easily dispatched them, as most of them were too drunk to put up much of a fight, and I could easily out manoeuvre them. Soon, the ones still standing decided they didn't like dealing with someone who fought back, and did a runner. I made my way over to the girl, who looked terrified. She backed away slightly, holding up a hand to ward off any attack.

I did my best to put her at ease. She was in a bad way, covered in scrapes, and she was also filthy. Her clothes had mud, and what looked like dried blood, all over them. She looked like she had been sleeping rough for a while.

She was quite pretty, even under all that muck, quite tall for a girl, but still a good foot shorter than me. She had a vaguely snake like look, with scales down the sides of her face and neck. The hand she held in front of her seemed similarly covered in scales, with black, talon-like nails. Intense dark eyes stared out at me from underneath a hood. Her eyes had very large pupils, and seemingly, no iris at all. She never seemed to blink and I saw the reason seemed to be some sort of membrane that periodically flashed over her eyes. Her light brown shoulder length hair was clogged with dirt and bits of debris. Under the shapeless rags she wore, she seemed to have a nice figure, though judging by her face, she was a little on the thin side. She had probably not been getting regular meals. I decided that cleaned up, with a few good meals in her and some decent clothes, she would probably be quite a looker, exotic, but very attractive.

As gently as I could I asked, "Are you OK?"

She seemed to relax a little, but as she tried to stand up, she collapsed. I caught her as she fell, and easily lifted the unconscious girl up into my arms, though she weighed more than I would have thought for someone her size.

Having got her I wasn't initially sure what to do with her. I couldn't very well leave her there, especially unconscious, but what could I do with her. I decided to carry her home, at least for now. If she came round in the meantime, I could ask her where she wanted to be taken.

I got some pretty funny looks carrying an unconscious girl through the bad part of town, but no one said anything, obviously not wanting to get involved. After a while, I got into some of the nicer neighbourhoods, and a few people tentatively asked if the girl was alright, to which I replied to the effect I was taking her to see a doctor. Which was mostly true, my mum was a doctor, but of the PHD variety. When I got home a while later, the girl was still passed out.