Unfortunately for poor helpless and slowly dying Laura she would never know what happened to her next, for suddenly the world faded away and the animal fell into silent darkness.
She had fainted from the rapid loss of blood and slipped into a coma.
Time passed, hours, perhaps days, and Laura’s new mind was left conscious in waking death. The vibrant color of life she had only recently been awestruck by was nowhere to be found. Instead she was left cold and horrified in perfect darkness, no sounds or sights to help her. Then, a curious thing happened as she passed the time in the dark. Just as Laura’s name had come to her out of nowhere, new intelligence began to flood into her comatose brain and expand it.
Human! The creature that had harmed her was human, a male, and probably a hunter. She knew what these things meant and she understood what they were. Other things began to come to her, such as the English language, and how to understand and speak it. A distinct personality completely overwrote the once-beast and made Laura into a charming if not naive female as expressive and smart as any sentient human, no longer a humanoid with an animal’s mind. As the scattered pieces of the puzzle slowly came together with startling but confusing clarity, Laura found herself dreaming of the forest, and the scents and smells of her home. She found herself imagining life with a mate, and raising children. It made her happy and it did pass the time, though she knew the colorful fantasy was just that. Dreams, she realized, pleased by all that she had gained and learned so swiftly. If only she could apply this new knowledge in life, if only she had ran faster or seen the hunter sooner. Was she dead? She had no way of knowing for certain, and slowly she began to regret the tremendous loss of her future.
Just when she feared she might go mad, one morning, quite casually, Laura’s eyelids flicked open with a start and her bright green eyes winced against the light of mid-afternoon. She found herself lying on her back in a worn green cot, a blanket carefully tucked under her and a soft pillow propping up her head. With a grin of ecstasy the doe realized that she was still alive, and then she began to analyze her unfamiliar surroundings, eyes darting around excitedly.
The room she was in was clearly part of a cabin somewhere in the forest, if the trees and scents outside the window were any indication at all. There was a fireplace set against the wall and a desk on the other side of the room. And resting in the corner of the room on a wooden chair was a human being.
Though Laura’s first instinct – which she was grateful to still possess despite her latest change – was to flee the species that had nearly killed her, there was nothing malicious about the sleeping woman. She was a tall and athletic female for a human, much in build like Laura’s strong and well-developed shape. Very female, long dark hair held in a ponytail, soft facial features. Dark skin, almost black but creamy, with a lovely sheen. Wearing some sort of uniform, Laura realized, seeing the drab green attire.
She quickly took another look around the room and smelt something odd, like her own rotted flesh. It was disconcerting until she saw the bloodied surgical tools lying on the desk and several round pellets among the mess. Laura made the connection and weakly lifted her right arm to pull off the blanket, finding her left shoulder bandaged as she had suspected. This human woman had operated on her and saved her life. She sniffed the bandages and smelt some chemicals she couldn’t identify.
Laura felt so… numb. So heavy. Her mind was struggling to stay awake, but this time she let herself go and fell back not into darkness but visions of the kind human heroically saving her. She felt much more comfortable this time, knowing that there was still an exciting new life before her. What to do now!!