The twilight of early morning turned to an overcast autumn afternoon and the intelligent anthro deer, Laura, eventually stirred and was brought back to consciousness as she awoke. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, rustling the pale grass. She felt quite refreshed from her sleep as she yawned, flicking her tongue over her lips, and completely excited by the amazing world stretching out in front of her for the first time.
After waking up, Laura stretched and got to her hooves, thumping about on the grass and looking around her clearing. So, where exactly was she supposed to go and what was she supposed to do with herself? Her life wasn’t equivalent to a simple animal anymore, for certain, but her instincts and biological urges were still telling her that it was a great time to go find the special man in her life. Laura grinned, suddenly remembering the beautiful first climax that had pushed her into sleep.
Well, there would be plenty of time to figure out her purpose and all that heavy stuff after she had built herself a family and gotten used to her new body, and who knew, she might even find another deer that had been changed like her! If she could be made into the upright two-legged creature she was the possibilities were pretty much endless from her view. In her excitement over considering what lay ahead, Laura almost didn’t notice the snapping of dry twigs outside the line of trees.
Breaking from her thoughts, Laura turned with alarm towards the noise. She may have been intelligent, but her gut instincts were still that of a woodland deer.
She scanned the area with her sharpened vision and even more powerful senses, and had the strangest memories. That rustic woodland smell, the scent of foul breath, rotten meat. The silver and white fur pattern through the trees. She knew these things as something from somewhere. Memories flooded into her brain. Old memories of her other life, which seemed like a distant haze.
She snapped to attention suddenly. No! She knew what it was! "Wolf!" She whispered, suddenly cringing as her ears raised in instinctual alarm. Laura turned sharply towards the opposite side of the clearing and prepared to run, but hesitated. If she ran, surely the predator would catch her. There might be others, it might be a trap. And if it was just one animal... then
maybe she could outwit it with her new mind. She turned back towards the wolf and waited, trembling.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic." A male voice called with a laugh. "I'm not even hungry right now." To the deer's shock, a wolf
emerged from behind the trees. A morphic two legged wolf like her, all grey and white fur, standing as tall as she did. With a sly grin on his face.
"S-Stay back!" Laura said forcefully. "I know better than to trust a wolf!"
"What's not to trust?" The wolf grinned wider, flashing his pointed teeth. "Besides... if I had wanted to kill you, I could have done it by now. You know that."
Laura paused at that logic but remained fearful. "Then why are you hunting me?"
"Curious." The wolf crossed his arms over his broad chest. "You've changed like me. I thought I was the only one. Drank the river water, yes?"
Laura nodded slowly.
"Well, see, by my estimation if the two of us have changed this way from a simple drink, there must be more who changed. Do you agree?"
The deer considered that and then nodded. "Yes. Surely, there must be others. Are you looking for them?"
"Yes!" The wolf chuckled and pointed at the deer with a finger. "She catches on quick, this one."
"Do you have a name?" Laura stepped forward, finding herself charmed by the wolf's strange humor. She was still cautious, this was her natural predator after all.
"I do." The wolf stepped forward as well, not more than six feet from the deer. "You can call me Casey. You?"
"Laura." She said somewhat nervously. "So... what now?"
"Well... Laura." Casey grinned. He seemed to take a sniff of the air and chuckled again. "I wouldn't mind the company. It's a dangerous world out there, deer. I'm sure you know that. The two of us would get farther together than on our own."
"Are you seriously proposing that I ally myself with a wolf?" The doe laughed sarcastically. "Are you mad?"
"A little." Casey nodded, closing the gap between them slowly, padding forward. "Would it help if I promised I won't hurt you?"
Laura saw the closeness of the wolf and seemed to consider his offer for a moment. Though everything was still screaming at her body to run, she was entranced by the handsome animal. "Can I trust your word, Casey?"
"With all the honor I have." The predator extended his hand to the deer and smiled. "I'll even shake on it."
With a slight smile, Laura took the wolf's hand and stared into his eyes. "All right, then I'll travel with you, wolf."
"I'm glad of it." He returned her smile, and seemed to blush slightly beneath the grey fur of his face. "Where do you think we should look?"
"Hmmm." The doe ignored the wolf's strange dreamy glance at her and looked past him towards the trees. "Why don't we stay close to the river itself? We might find other animals who have come to drink like we have."
"That seems entirely reasonable." Casey turned, and started towards the trees.
Laura hesitated, took a deep breath, and followed her new friend. She took one last look at her clearing, remembering the security of her old life here, and then turned back towards the wolf. It was a strange new world.