"I was brought here by accident," said Carrie with a small and apologetic smile to two men she'd wandered into during Animalia's Spring Carnival.
She was trying to get to know people and get used to the area. Some responded well, but these two were at least nervous at first. Some of this was guessed at the fact that as a Capybara, she was uplifted from the world's largest rodent species. She'd learned enough to know that humans tended to have issues with rodents, and that presented the sense of an uphill battle to begin with.
"What?! How?!" asked the first man with some surprise.
His partner stood by quietly, but with equal shock and surprise. He really didn't think that was possible. Especially given the recent political fights over the US southern border. Some of it related to issues that were a hold over from Heather's trek north two years before, but there was a lot that the present US government seemed willing to fight over on pure paranoia, which would make entering the country difficult. In this it seemed highly unlikely that a South American animal could accidentally wander into the United States. The second man looked to the first and then back to Carrie, who had a bit of a sheepish smile and had backed away, getting the sense that this wasn't going to work out well.
"It's a long story," admitted Carrie.
"We'd be happy to hear it," the first man commented.
"Yeah, I don't do great around rats, but you got my curiosity," the second man agreed.
"I'm not a Rat, I'm a Capybara," Carrie corrected and then gave a small smile before beginning to get into her story...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Carrie's journey to America started in Brazil, though she didn't fully know that at the time. She had been wandering through a marshy area that wasn't too far away from the sea, given the constant sound of the surf in the distance. But at that time, she was simply content to wander through the marsh and eat the lush green grass as she went. Occasionally she'd heard voices and seen people from day to day, but they didn't seem to bother her, so she let them be. One time she'd even wandered through a small village where the people seemed quite friendly, and that let her continue on her way.
However, as she made her way through the marsh she fell victim to a strange metal trap. She'd been walking along when her feet suddenly touched something hard sitting on the bottom of the marshy ground. The surface water, grass, and mud made it difficult for her to see what it was, but she knew it was hard. That got her to move forward a bit quickly, if only to get away from the hard texture of what she'd stumbled onto. Particularly as this part that she'd first touched seemed to have a mesh-like backing that the ends of her digits sank between. It was a bit uncomfortable on her feet and she wanted something more stable.
As she came forward, though, she stepped onto a platform that seemed to sink down a bit as she put her weight down on it. The result was near instantaneous. Three huge triangular walls sprung up quickly. Carrie tried to run forward, only to be knocked back into the center of the trap as the sides sprung shut. This motion brought more of the trap out of the water and she could now see the metal mesh that made the trap. It left her barking at the trap's walls and scurrying in circles trying to find a way out of it, but nothing worked and after a few moments, she was left alone and laying on the floor of the trap. Thankfully the water wasn't super deep there, as she could lay down and her head was above the water level, but that didn't changer Carrie's opinion on her position.
She lay there in the closed trap for what felt like forever before a small fat bottomed boat seemed to come up toward the trap. She could see the large fan on it and saw two men on it as well, and they zeroed the boat in on the trap. One man had a rather confident smile as they approached.
"Hey we got one!" the first man said in Portuguese.
"I told you the trap would work," the second man answered as he leaned over the side of the boat and began to lift up the cage that Carrie was in. His fingers stuck through the mesh, but she was a bit tired from her earlier attempts to escape the trap and had enough fear that she didn't fully know what to do. "It's big enough to hold one and the springs are strong enough to keep it from escaping. And the Americans and their want for exotic pets will buy anything."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Wait... you were captured for the pet trade?" the first of the two Lyre residents gasped in surprise.
"Yes," Carrie nodded, "the two men that trapped me had a relative or an associate that they worked with in America as part of some scheme to smuggle exotic pets into the US and sell them at high prices on the black market. And apparently they'd had some measure of success in doing so... Though in my case, that didn't quite work..."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Carrie lay quietly in a large square pet carrier. It was normally one used for dogs, but as she was unloaded from the plane in Florida, one of the airline's employees managed to get a better look in through the wire door and had seen that she wasn't a dog. From there it didn't take long for the carrier to be taken to the airport's security offices. She could see out the doors and see the white painted walls around the area where the carrier was. She thought she could hear some words in English from another room, but for the moment, Carrie was more content to lay still and let her stomach settle after the flight.
She lay there quietly for a few moments until the sound of footsteps grew louder as someone seemed to approach the room, though Carrie couldn't tell the room's full layout at the moment. She heard a door open and then a pair of voices soon after.
"Man this guy seems a tough nut to crack," one voice spoke, "he admits that his name is the name that's on the pet carrier's tag, but he insists on that he was expecting his pet dog to be delivered along with the appropriate paperwork..."
"The real issue is that we can't get in contact with the guy that he said was supposed to be shipping the dog to him," a second voice answered, "we could probably still get him for smuggling... as it is illegal in this state to own exotic animals privately. A zoo or large scale shelter with state issued permits... can, but not an individual person."
"I'm not even sure why anyone would want a Capybara, though," the first voice answered, "It's like a giant Guinea Pig or something like that."
"It takes all kinds, I suppose," the second voice answered, "but still... without any other witness that can have some contact with the operation... while we may have this guy... his partners will still be at large, which will mean that they'll eventually try some new tactic to try and sneak exotics in. We need someone that can identify who got this Capybara in South America."
Carrie lifted her head as she looked toward where she could hear the voices coming from. They came from her right, which left her looking at the solid maroon plastic wall of the pet carrier she was in. In this she couldn't see who was speaking, but she could hear the two voices as clear as day. For a moment there a brief silence on the outside and then owner of the second voice seemed to have an idea.
"Say... what about Horizon and Animalia," the second voice spoke.
"What about them?" the first voice asked back, "what we got is a mundane Capybara, not an Animalian."
"It's mundane now," the second voice commented, "but Horizon's posted all these articles on the things the Animalia Virus does with animal intelligence when animals are uplifted and so on. They seem to remember things from before their uplifting and things like that."
"Are you saying we call in a private company to uplift an animal smuggled into the US to get evidence?" the first voice asked, "wouldn't that violate the laws of evidence?"
"As evidence now... all this Capybara can do is exist and we report that she was smuggled in," the second voice spoke, "that we can document and prove. We have pictures and we can even add in photographs as the animal is uplifted, which would then show that we didn't just uplift a zoo animal and urge it to fib. Then once an Animalian, this Capybara could actually testify and we might be able to get some legal contacts with Interpol or Brazil on who our smuggler was working with."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Man... how long did that take?" the first Lyre resident that Carrie was talking to asked.
"I'm really not sure," Carrie admitted, "I was kept inside... the inspectors there at the airport did their best and apparently also contacted a zoo for guidance and health checks. In fact they even sent a vet up to make sure I had no ticks or fleas or anything like that... and I did get some exercise in that sort of holding area at the airport while they waited for someone from Horizon to arrive to deliver my shot. In that I really can't complain, and the inspectors seemed friendly enough, so I had no problem with them... Though I do believe they were glad when the Horizon scientist did show up."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"She's been remarkably calm," the first inspector spoke as he lifted the pet carrier up onto an interrogation table while his partner readied a camera to note Carrie's uplifting. "I know the zoo vets said that Capybaras can be... but I would have thought given all the travel and small spaces, she might be a bit nervous or something..."
"It's possible she's adapted to her circumstances reasonably well... we may not know until after the uplifting," the Horizon scientist spoke as he watched the first inspector open the door to the pet carrier, "though we generally tend to give all new Animalians, be they Humans converting or animals being uplifted some degree of privacy. She will recognize the need for clothes once she's uplifted."
The first inspector nodded and turned to another table that was nearby. Carrie had been calm, but for the moment with new voices and what looked like a needle in the scientist's hands, she remained in the carrier. She remembered the shots the zoo vets had given her when they were brought in to examine her and check her health. It was they that identified Carrie as a female Capybara to the inspectors. They then gave her a set of vaccinations that they normally gave the Capybaras at their zoo, along with an awkward shampoo bath in a bathroom sink to make sure she had no fleas or ticks. In this, Carrie was in no great rush to come out of the carrier.
"I'm sure," the first inspector replied, "but we have various rules and regulations that would relate to the present issue. We know that this Capybara is part of a smuggling ring. And the recipient is in custody on those charges, but often times with many of these cases, we've gotten people to talk and expose who was helping him. This time though... we're not getting that, which means while the guy we have will be off the streets for a while, his partners may changer their tactics and try again later."
"Our hope is that she remembers who caught her and sent her here," the second agent added, "and thus can testify in court. As such we need proof that the Animalian testifying is the animal seized in the smuggling operation. Which will mean pictures. If she's offended, we'll apologize and explain the complexity of the situation."
Carrie ignored this for the moment, but after a moment, the first inspector returned to her line of sight in front of the pet carrier with some of the food that the zoo staff had provided them. She liked that food, it was green, tasted good, and was very chewy. Enticed by the food, she slowly made her way forward and leaving the pet carrier. As she did so, the Horizon scientist noted that Carrie looked healthy and the second investigator took a few pictures with his digital phone while the first investigator held the food out for Carrie. As she left the safety of the pet carrier, the first inspector then leaned over to move it. This gave Carrie time to reach the food. She'd gently started eating it right from his hand, doing him no harm and softly felt his other hand softly rub her back as she ate. It was at this point that the Horizon scientist came forward.
"Now, this shouldn't hurt," the Horizon scientist spoke as he delivered the injection. Carrie struggled a little bit when she noticed the movement, but by this time the food had been eaten and first investigator was able to restrain her enough for the Horizon scientist to deliver the injection. And in the end, the injection didn't hurt. Carrie felt a little pinch, but there was no great pain. And once it was delivered, the Horizon scientist backed off and the first inspector kept enough of a grip on her to keep her from running but also being careful to make sure that Carrie didn't whirl around and bite him.
A part of Carrie's mind actually thought about that, but at the same time she was also starting to feel very odd. It was like her whole body tingled. It wasn't exactly painful, more like a leg falling asleep. Carrie looked up to see some look of bewilderment on the second inspector as he kept taking pictures, an apologetic look on the Horizon scientist, and then up to the first inspector looking down to her. As all this happened, the table she was on seemed to be sliding under her feet and the first inspector's grip on her seemed to be affecting her less. In fact Carrie managed a push up that managed to push the inspector's hand up, which surprised both of them.
"It's okay," the Horizon scientist said to the first inspector and noting some of the small barks that Carrie made, especially as her shoulders began to widen a little, "a lot of this tends to happen with animals as they're uplifted."
The first inspector looked down and watched as Carrie looked down to her forepaws as they began to stretch into more paw-like hands. Her legs grew longer as her whole body grew in size. He could also hear a few small crackling sounds as Carrie's hips began to widen out to fit a stance that could be either bipedal or quadrupedal, depending on the preference. Her barks also began to evolve more into human like groans. It wasn't exactly painfilled, but it was something different, particularly as Carrie to continued to grow in size, putting on layers and layers of muscle and her chest area began to swell into a pair of breasts. When her feet reached the end of the table, the inspector was afraid she was about to fall and was about to move forward when Carrie's legs went over the side of the table.
To a degree, Carrie did fall, but she was greatly surprised to find that her feet hit the ground and while gripping the table's sides for support she managed to actually stand on her rear legs, just like the humans did. This was something that she'd never done before and at the same time the swelling orbs on her chest seemed to feel rather good as they pushed forward and the room's ventilation moved the air around her. Despite not being in heat, it actually made her whistle through her nose with soft "mmmmm" escaping her lips. Balancing on her own was a bit difficult, but Carrie did manage, but then as she looked to the first inspector, she was surprised to find herself looking down to him rather than up.
"That was weird," Carrie spoke in English, though it carried a very heavy Brazilian accent. She looked to her hands and flexed them for a moment. "It is like I'm part human now..."
"You're an Animalian, actually," the Horizon scientist spoke, "a race of animals with human like proportions that have their own society..."
"Yes..." Carrie commented remembering the inspectors talking about Animalia, "the inspectors here... Rick and Scott want my help for evidence with a smuggling operation."
"You remember?" the first inspector said hopefully.
"I remember much, and I'd be more than happy to help," Carrie spoke, "If I could get some clothes first."
"I can help with that..." the Horizon scientist offered, "you're a bit bigger than I would have expected... but what I have should fit... I think."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"From there I was able to give the two inspectors the first names of the two men that captured me in Brazil and a good description of them and relayed what they said while they had me in their care," Carrie finished, "The inspectors thanked me. From there, I was offered some time to go through my acclimation classes here in Lyre/Animalia... Though once that is completed, I'm expected to return to Brazil... The Horizon scientist offered the colony at Vilcabamba as a place to go."
"What about the smugglers?" the second Lyre resident asked, "wouldn't you have to appear for the court date?"
"With the guy who was there to "receive" me, I've already gotten to attend that court hearing and provide my statement," Carrie answered, "From there... they didn't need me any more and I was able to then come here for my acclimation classes. The inspectors also censored everything, so no one really got anything sexual to see..."
"What about the guys in Brazil?" the first Lyre resident asked.
"As far as I know, the police in Brazil are still looking for them," Carrie answered with a small shrug.