Wally found Animalia/Lyre to be far dryer than he'd been lead to believe. It was something that he didn't necessarily like, for while the towns seemed to have grass covered lawns, a lot of it was based off of pumping water from a nearby stream that formed much of the boundary between Animalia and Lyre as well as links to other water sources as well. Other than that, it was far dryer from the muddy river he'd once inhabited and to a degree was something he missed, but then, being a Wels Catfish, the preference for a wet environment was probably going to be a bit of a given. So far no one seemed to give him any trouble with that.
"So... you're from Scotland?" one Human student asked him as he exited from one of his first classes for the morning and then looking to his schedule and a map to begin figuring out which way to go to get to his next class.
"England, actually," Wally answered, "though a bit further north than where my species has been known to be introduced in the UK."
"You aren't native to Britain?" the student asked.
"I remember always being there... but according the Horizon people I met after I was uplifted, they said that my species is native more to eastern and central Europe and was introduced into western Europe," Wally explained, "which officially was limited to southern England. But the river I was "found" in was further north. South of Hadrian's Wall and on Lord Dorian's "land," but north of were my species... the Wels Catfish was introduced into the UK."
"Do you know on how you got to that river?" another student asked.
"No... I always remember being there... and my uplifting was more the result of other natural behaviors," Wally admitted as his thoughts drifted back to events during the summer...
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At the time, Wally was still a mundane Wels Catfish, a species known for its large size and becoming potentially aggressive as it matured and began to reach that large size. Prior to that, Wally spent much of his time on the bottom of the river he'd been in and fed on crayfish other crustaceans in the river while doing his best to stay out of the way of the larger adults in the river. And he knew there were larger adult Wels Catfish that swam in the river as well. His parents were likely among them and he didn't want to risk being eaten. This kept Wally swimming fairly close to the water's edge as he looked for food and stayed out of the way of things that might be able to eat him.
In the process of this he came up on a small pier that was on the water's edge. He could hear some small splashing in the area as something was dunked into the water and then pulled out for some reason. He couldn't understand that part, but it did draw him in as it could be a sign of something he could eat. He kept his barbels on alert to help him with some of the extra-sensory organs that would help him find food in murky water, which the present river did quality for. It wasn't fully silt filled, but the visibility was low enough that Wally couldn't see very far and his barbels did seem to taste that something was in the water in front of him. Eventually he got close enough that his eyes could make out something. It sort of looked like an invertebrate of some kind, being sort of pink in color with five little protrusions on its front.
That was enough for Wally at the time, and with a burst of speed, he lunged at the target. It tasted a bit weird and it felt like his front lip hit something that seemed to stretch upward, forcing him to pivot in the water to get his jaw around what he thought to be a large water invertebrate. It lead to a scream and then a great splash as something fell into the water with him. He was about to let go when there was then another sort of splash as something grabbed what he'd grabbed from behind and then lifted it and Wally out of the water. As Wally came out of the water, his target seemed to kick and that was when he let go and essentially flew through the air before landing on something soft, but definitely not water.
"What is that!?!" came a startled female voice, "It's not some alien from outer space is it?"
"I doubt it, my dear," came an aristocratic male voice, "though I don't think I've ever seen a fish like it here... of course neither had I expected to find Roman ruins... but..."
"It tried to eat me!" the female voice cut off the male voice and sounded irritated.
"I'm sure it was just confused," the male voice spoke as Wally noticed a shadow come over him as he flopped on the ground. He was then caught behind his gills and was lifted into the air before being dropped into a bucket. He landed in water again, but found the bucket was fairly restrictive and he couldn't move all that much. In fact he could soon see his own tail in front of him. "Though... I'm not aware of Wels Catfish being brought up here..."
"Wels?"
"A large catfish species, many game fisherman have brought them here to fish for sport," the male voice answered, "though I wasn't aware of them being introduced this far north..."
From there, Wally couldn't hear too much more as more voices where heard. He thought he heard something along the lines of "check her for injury," but he couldn't be sure. He just knew he was in a cramped space and soon that pace was lifted into the air and was moving and moving away from the river and where he'd been. It was something that left him a bit lost and he could only stay in the plastic container that he was in. After a few moments, he heard new voices and they seemed more curious about him.
"That's definitely a Wels," one voice spoke with some confidence, "I didn't think they came this far north."
"They shouldn't," another voice said.
"My only guess is that someone introduced them for sport fishing, but that's still a guess," came the aristocratic male voice, "though I'd suppose if you uplift him, you'll get those answers and he could apologize to the one he tried to make a snack of."
"At his size... even for a Wels, he's not a threat to people... at least not seriously."
"That doesn't change the fright he gave to the one he bit," the aristocratic male voice answered.
Eventually Wally felt a series of hands hold him down in the bottom of the bucket that he was in. Then he felt something sharp prick him in the back. It didn't really hurt, but it was sharp and he wanted to thrash at it. It was only after the shot was delivered that the hands on him were lifted and he was left alone for a moment. As that was done, though, he also began to feel more cramped in the bucket, like it was getting smaller around him. At the same time, there was a strange filling sensation his pectoral and pelvic fins, like they were growing longer and stronger. After a few moments, the hands returned and lifted him out of the bucket and he could see a bit more of his surroundings.
He seemed to be in a well furnished bathroom with ornate furnishings and a tiled floor. He was carried and laid inside a large bathtub with its curtain held open. It was here that Wally was able to manage to look around, as his whole body felt weird. It felt like he was growing larger and that the tub's surface was sliding underneath him. He lifted up his pectoral fins and noticed that they'd grown longer and more articulated, like the bones within them were more than the rays that had normally been there and ended in webbed fingers and were far thicker than before. It was enough that Wally was able to push himself up and looked down to see that his pelvic fins had seemed to have a similar change. They had lengthened and articulated so that they mirrored human legs and even human feet, though like his hands, his toes were also webbed.
He shakily got to his feet and found himself leaning against the shower wall to stabilize himself for a few moments and then looked around, noticing a pair of Human Scientists and a rather muscular looking bird with a large beak. It was only at this point that Wally realized he was breathing air and not water.
"This is... weird..." Wally said slowly as he looked down to his webbed hand.
"That's pretty common for uplifted Animalians," one of the scientists spoke.
"Animalians?" Wally wondered.
"A race of anthropomorphic animals," Lord Dorian Chumlee spoke as he stepped forward, "Most are uplifted animals, like your self, while others are converted Humans, like myself, Dorian Chumlee."
"I've never seen an animal like you," Wally answered.
"Well... the Dodo has been extinct since the 1600s, so it'd be likely you haven't seen one before today," Chumlee answered, "but while you may have some questions... you did attack a young woman who had come to my estate as part of her program's summer tour to report on things being excavated and developed here for what will be "Animalia Anglia" and gave her quite a fright. It would only be fair that you apologize, at least."
"I didn't mean to attack anyone," Wally commented, "I thought it was a crustacean swimming near the surface... and under a pier, it was dark enough to try... I didn't mean to attack or hurt anyone."
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"You tried to eat someone?!" the first student asked as they approached the next classroom they were to go to.
"Not intentionally... but at the time, my daytime vision wasn't that great and the water was just murky enough that it was hard to see in," Wally answered, "so... I lunged at what I thought was a crustacean and got the foot of one of the Human members of Animalia Ambassadoria... and I did apologize."
"But wouldn't your whiskers help?" the second student asked.
"They're barbels," Wally corrected, "and while they can help, that doesn't make them perfect. And as a mundane fish, my ability to recognize things was rather limited. I didn't even begin to recognize some things until after I was uplifted."