Chapter 5: awakening (Mort)

I came to in a comfy bed. At first, I thought I must be hallucinating. When the feeling didn't go away, I wondered where I was. Still, I was comfy and no one was attacking me, so I rested for a bit. After a few weeks of sleeping rough, it was wonderful to be in a soft comfy bed. A short while later the door opened, and the girl who had saved me from the group of men earlier stuck her head round the door.

She looked at me quizzically for a bit then asked, "Are you awake?" She paused "I can sort of see you moving."

I wondered what she meant by that, then realised my invisibility was on. I mentally flipped its off switch and the girl's face lit up with a smile, though it was a touch menacing, due to her teeth, which seemed slightly long and more pointed than most.

"That is so cool" she exclaimed. "My name's Dorothy, but you can call me D."

"m ... Mort" I stammered.

She looked momentarily taken aback, but quickly recovered. "I don't mean to be rude but you could use a shower. I can probably find you some clean clothes that would fit you from before I grew, if you'd like?"

I nodded and got off the bed, and D showed me to the bathroom.

"I'll see about getting you some clothes," she said as she left me.

I struggled out of my clothes. Only having one hand made it tricky, but over the past few weeks I had managed to learn some of the trick of it. I folded my clothes, a somewhat futile gesture given how filthy they were, but old habits die hard.

I climbed into the shower, finding that the accumulated muck took a while to wash off. Suddenly the door opened, and D walked in. I must have instinctively triggered my invisibility, as I was suddenly a vague shape in the stream of water. Not transparent, but sort of a body shaped pillar of water, as my camouflage tried to adapt to the fast moving water droplets. It was a quite interesting effect, sort of naked girl made of flowing water, but not really an effective way to hide.

D stared at me for a bit, then shook herself, and put a towel down then picked up my clothes. "I put some clean clothes out on the bed, and got you a towel. I'll put your clothes on to wash", she said before going back out of the door.

I continued my shower. It was a strange experience. My new body was much more stimulated than before. I pushed that thought out of my head, and finished cleaning myself.

I dried off slowly then wrapped a towel around my middle, like I had seen my sister do. I padded across to the room I had waked up in, and found some clothes on the bed. There was a light blue track suit, a plain white t shirt, and plain panties.

I slipped the clothes on, finding that they fitted reasonably well. Clothed and clean, and feeling pretty good, I headed out of the room, pausing to hang the wet towel on a drying rack I had seen in the bathroom.

The house was fairly large old, I would guess a Victorian place, with solid brick construction. It had a nice warm feeling to it, with bright colours, and nice airy curtains in bright flowery patterns. It had exposed wood doors, and nice plush carpets that felt wonderful on my bare feet, especially after a few weeks of hard roads.

I heard voices coming from down stairs, so I made my way towards them. I caught the tail end of a conversation. " ... Just taking a shower I put some of my old clothes out for her. She was a little jumpy. Maybe she's a runaway," I hear D say.

"Poor dear," I heard a woman's voice say. "She has obviously been having a tough time even before you came across her."

I wandered into the room the voices were coming from. It appeared to be a kitchen, with a large wooden table. As I walked in, I could see the girl D sitting at the table talking to someone just out of my line of sight.

"Hi" I said. As I rounded the corner and came into the room I could see the person D was talking to, and I froze. A huge, (though smaller than D), furry woman stood by the counter.

As I took an involuntary step back, the woman gasped and nearly dropped the cup she was holding. I realised I had gone invisible at the same time as I'd stepped back. I stared at the large, muscular, furry woman in front of me. My initial shock and fear was tempered a bit, by the fact she was wearing a flowery dress, and had her hair done with brightly coloured ribbons and bows.

"It's alright, this is my mum," D said, looking in my general direction.

I relaxed a bit, I didn't feel any of the same feelings I had had before when people had wanted to hurt me. I lowered my invisibility, and tentatively stepped forward, giving a little smile to the furry woman, D's mum.

"You gave me such a fright, just vanishing like that," D's mum said with a gentle smile. "That's a very surprising trick you have." She seemed to collect her thoughts, then added, "You can call me Joyce. What is your name, dear?"

"I'm Mort" I said quietly.

"That's an unusual name," she answered. "Would you like a cup of tea, dear?"

"Yes, please," I replied.

"Have a seat at the table, and I'll pour you a cup. Do you take milk and sugar?"

"Milk, no sugar, please," I replied. I took a seat at the table, and Joyce handed me a steaming mug of tea. I took a sip, feeling instantly better about everything.

"Help yourself to a biscuit, Dear." Joyce indicated a plate of chocolate digestives.

Without thinking about it, I reached towards the plate with my left hand, my right being occupied by tea.

"My goodness! What happened to your hand?" Joyce exclaimed on seeing my stump.

I stared at what was left of my hand, seeing it for the first time without the blood and muck covering it. The raw wounded end had completely healed over, and the scaly pattern on the rest of it had started to cover it again. Seeing it, caused the memories of a few weeks ago to come flooding back, and for a while I just stared at the stump with tears in my eyes, before finally sobbing, "My father shot it off,"

"What?" D practically shouted, a look of horror on her face.

I sobbed a bit, and then the whole wretched story of the last few weeks tumbled out. I told them everything from before I changed, up until D rescued me.

After a bit, I realized Joyce was holding me, gently stroking my hair without a word as I cried. After a while, I calmed down and felt a bit better, dried my eyes and sat back.

"There, there, dear. Do you feel a bit better now?" asked Joyce, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder.

I nodded.

"Well then drink your tea, there's no need to fret. You're safe now," Joyce said.

D giggled, "I thought Mort was a strange name for a girl," to which I added a chuckle.

Joyce seemed to come to some sort of decision and turned to looked at me. "I think for the time being you should stay here with us. We have plenty of room, and I won't have you out on the streets any more. We'll see what we can do to sort out the long term situation as and when, but for now, you can stay here. That is, if you want to"

I couldn't believe that someone I barely knew was offering me a safe place to stay.

"Thank you," I said, my eyes tearing up again.

"You're welcome, Dear. Now have a biscuit. You'll feel better." Joyce said with a smile.

I looked back at the plate, and was thinking about taking the biscuit nearest me, when quite automatically I opened my mouth, and my tongue shot out like a rocket, stretching a good half meter to the plate with no discomfort. It somehow grabbed the biscuit I was after, and retracted so the biscuit was in my mouth.

As D nearly choked on her tea, I clapped my hand to my mouth in shock.

By now D had recovered a bit and spluttered, "Girl, you are full of surprises!"

I chewed and swallowed my biscuit, then removing my hand said, "I didn't know I could do that"

"Hmm" said Joyce "It might be worth taking you down to the local testing centre, just in case you have any other tricks up your figurative sleeves."

Joyce went off to sort out an appointment at the testing centre, so I sat with D drinking my tea, occasionally fiddling with my tongue experimentally. By pulling on the end of it, I found it could stretch out to quite astounding lengths. It was as if I had a reel of tongue in the back of my mouth. D watched me fiddling with my tongue with wide eyes, a look of amusement and shock on her face.

"So," she said hesitantly. "Do you have any other cool tricks?"

"Not that I know of," I answered slowly. "The tongue thing is new, though"

After a bit more thought I said. "I can sort of make the invisibility thing change, so rather than invisibleness, it projects something else." I demonstrated by turning myself purple.

"Wow! That's a little weird. You look like a purple statue or something."

"Yeah." I replied shifting back to normal."It takes a lot more effort to do anything that's not invisible, and I can't hold it for long. So do you have any cool abilities?"

"Pah, I wish. I'm big, and fairly strong, and I've got pretty good night vision, but that's about it

Joyce returned and sat down. "I had a word with a friend of mine at the centre, and though normally they couldn't see you without your parents, they are going to make an exception due to the circumstances. We'll take you down later this afternoon to get that hand, and the rest of you, checked out."

I sat quietly for a bit and then regarded what was left of my hand, Was it my imagination, or did it look different? I guessed it must be scarring or some such, or maybe just the fact that it was clean made it look different from what I remembered.

We had some more tea, as both Joyce and D made small talk. I was for the most part quiet. Eventually Joyce said it was nearly time for my appointment. We bundled into a car and drove to the centre.

The place was a far cry from the simple doctor's office I was used to, all gleaming sterile and clinical. It had a receptionist, who directed us to a waiting room. There we sat for a few minutes, with Joyce muttering about how even with a pre-arranged appointment, you still had to wait, so what was the point of booking in the first place.

Joyce seemed a little ill at ease, as I was, as there were the many people sitting in the waiting room. I kept getting flashes of the odd feeling, lots of different things and from all directions. It made me a bit nervous, and I sat with my feet up on the chair, hugging my knees. The fact that Joyce and D were there calmed me a bit.

Eventually we were called, and they took me into an office. The doctor was a small blond lady who looked to be in her early 30's. "Hello. I'm Dr Jones, but please, call me Sarah." she said, coming round her desk to shake my hand.

"Hi" I said, a touch nervous.

"Now we are going to leave you in Sarah's capable hands. We'll be just down the hall," Joyce said, giving me a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.

Joyce and D gave me a wave, then stepped out and closed the door. I turned back to Dr Jones who gave me a smile, and gestured to a seat. "Now then, Mort, I understand you went through MORFS approximate two weeks ago."

"Yes, Doctor Jones" I replied.

"Call me Sarah. I always think my mother has walked into the room when people call me doctor Jones." She continued, "Did you see a doctor after you finished changing?"

"Yes, I saw our village doctor."

"OK, what village is this, and what is your doctor's name?" she asked.

I hesitated, and sensing this she continued "Joyce told me you are apprehensive about your hometown. She didn't go into the details, but I gather your parents are not being at all supportive. Rest assure, I'm not going to contact them, but if I can get access to your previous medical history, then it would be useful."

I nodded, then slowly said, "My doctor's name was Dr Benson, and the village is called Little Greenvale. My full name is Mortimer Wilson."

She gave me a sympathetic look when I named the village. "Ah that explains a lot. I have heard of Little Greenvale, and have had a few patients from there before. I will just see about getting access to your records."

She tapped away at the computer for a while, then turned back to me.

"Excellent, it seems Dr Benson is very thorough. That will certainly help things along. Now then, I understand you injured your hand?"