They say that enduring something yourself is one thing while watching someone else endure it is another. Kyle was seeing this first hand.
When he'd changed, he'd felt everything he'd dreamed of and worked for slip away from him in a matter of minutes. The curse had taken his identity from him and left him trapped in a body that would dictate his life, future and sense of self.
He could try to get home but he knew that would mean forcing his family to care for a walrus that with the instincts Kyle felt emerging, could be dangerous to his family.
Kyle *was* still Kyle but he was also now a walrus. No amount of denial would change that.
Soon, Felicia would be a walrus as well.
Felicia was quiet as she lay prone, apparently choosing to allow this to happen. She looked at Kyle with darkening eyes.
"It's not your fault," she said.
For the next half hour, Kyle did his best to comfort Felicia as her body changed. He wondered what had gone wrong in his life that led him to this moment. Was it fate? Were he and Felicia meant to be together but something somewhere in the cosmos wouldn't allow them to be together as humans? Kyle couldn't help but wonder why (if that *was* the case) fate even bothered with them being humans in the first place if it never intended them to have a human life beyond what they already had.
A grunt from Felicia broke Kyle out of his contemplation.
Felicia was a walrus. Though, when Kyle looked, he could still see signs of the human Felicia once was. If anything, at least the curse had made her a beautiful walrus. Finding a walrus beautiful as odd as it sounded, wasn't strange to Kyle.
Kyle realized that while the part of the him that was still Kyle may have been intact, the part of him that was human was now walrus. If anything though, he still remembered being human and seemed to have retained his intelligence and knowledge.
Felicia approached Kyle.
The lack of human speech already annoyed Kyle. He may have had human knowledge and intelligence but it seemed locked in his new body. He did his best to point to the ocean with his right flipper and then to Felicia and himself.
Felicia nodded.
For the time being anyway, being in a zoo was less appealing when Kyle had someone to share this with.
He was still terrified and racked with guilt. More then anything, he wanted Felicia and he to return to humanity and their lives.
Kyle knew that wasn't and indeed could never again be possible.
Felicia and Kyle made their way into the water and began to swim away with Felicia taking the lead. Although the sensation of swimming not only naked but as a naked *walrus* was pleasurable, especially in what to Kyle's new form was warm, almost tropical water, any joy was lost knowing what his mistake had cost Felicia.
Kyle could only hope they could find help or at least a civilized existence and that somehow, he could make this up to Felicia.