Shapeshifter's Journal - Epilogue
779 Words
2023-12-26
Day ??? - 12:00
I lost track of time. Has it been weeks or months that I’ve been out here? I'm not sure. All I know is that the leaves are still green so I think that it's still summer.
I've been learning a lot about what I can and can not do. I figured out how to talk normally again. It's hard but as long as I take my time and am patient with myself, I can do it. I've mostly been chatting with Tycho and he doesn't mind how good or bad I pronounce anything, which I appreciate a lot.
I'm also getting a better grasp of moving around with not only this body, but others too. I've reached a point where shapeshifting into various critters has become second nature. Imprinting is very straightforward and, while it makes changing into different forms a lot more disorientating and overwhelming at first, I heavily prefer it over the alternative.
I'm currently practicing to get a steady supply of food for the winter. While I have managed to do both fishing and hunting, they have proved to be way harder than I expected. I'm glad I started getting better at them before needing to rely on them. Thankfully, shapeshifting is a lot of help to do both of the tasks. As much as I love my noodly body, it's not the most adapted for everything.
I know a few campers have seen me. There was a day where I felt really ill: couldn't shapeshift, all my goo was dripping everywhere, and my head was foggy. I was really craving some human food so I just went and didn't care to wait for them to leave. I think that's the fastest I've ever seen campers run away. It worked out in my favour though cause I got all their yummy food.
I've managed to go back to the city. I don't go there often and when I do, I rarely go as a human.
There's a few notable visits I've done:
I checked in on the friend I bit. He's adapted to it really well. You can't even tell that anything happened to him! I actually went in to chat with him and we both forgave each other for what happened. We promised to keep in touch in some way and I plan on doing just that.
Part of me still feels a bit bad for him cause in reality he was really just worried about me but everything happening all at once on that day made me snap way harder than I thought possible.
For the few times I went as a human, not only did I change up my human appearance to show some aspects of my amphimorpho form (like orange streaks in my hair for example), I also felt strangely confident! Confident to the point where I actively mess with people who pay attention to me. They may briefly spot teeth that seem just a bit too big or eyes that glow in the dark. Just long enough for it to be unsettling but back to "normal" if they try to see it again. It's really amusing to mess with their heads. Sometimes I straight up stay as an amphimorpho if there's not many people around.
I think that not subjecting myself to all the humans' stupid unwritten rules has been what made going back to the city as a human possible in the first place for me.
On some of those trips as a human, I made a few purchases with some of the money I have saved up: solar powered fairy lights, a hammock, a tarp, a few cushions and finally: books!
I had been missing having a softer place to sleep so I figured why not just make one? The cushions and the hammock have been a really nice change of pace for sleeping. It's just nice to have options. I got the tarp to get some shelter from the rain. The books have been a nice distraction for when I don't have much to do. Finally, the fairy lights allow me to have a better light source for reading said books than the glow from my own body. A nice bonus is that they make the area very cozy to be in.
All of that put together makes for a really nice nest to go back to at the end of every day.
It's not perfect, of course. But I don't want perfect. "Good enough" is doing the job just fine.
Life has been really enjoyable ever since I moved out here. I’m living out my best life as one of the local cryptids.
Art by Lunwere