Reptiles? You shudder. You've never felt a liking for those cold-blooded animals. Birds would be neat to see,
you think, wondering what might be at the end of these corridors. But you decided to stick to your leftward-
leaning instincts and you follow the sign pointing toward the mammals.
Maybe this leads to some sort of petting zoo, you think, absently reaching up to scratch a tingling behind
your ear. You run your throbbing fingers over your scalp, feeling a prickling in your hair follicles. Must be
dusty down in these corridors. Dropping your hands, you roll your shoulders a few times, starting to feel
confined. You've never experienced claustrophobia before, but your shirt is feeling tight and you're beginning
to pant a bit, your mouth hanging open just a tad.
Padding along, you don't notice that you've started to walk on tip-toe, the arches of your feet elongating a
bit with each step and you toes plump and expand, a rough callus forming under the ball of your foot and each
toe. You gait slows, and your shins and knees begin to tingle, but you have suddenly become absorbed in the
flickering light of the next candle. Mesmerized, you reach out, astonished despite the visual evidence to
find a real wax candle in the sconce.
As you pull your hand away from the light, you become aware of a faint scrabbling behind the wall beside you.
Your ears twitch, following the sound, swivelling a bit on the side of your head. You notice that the candles
must be letting off more light than before, because suddenly you can see every crack in the wooden planks
surrounding you. Your eyes dart about, your vision sharper by the second.
Reaching up again to scratch at an itch on your upper lip, you notice your thicker fingers feel stubbier, and
your nails sharper. Rubbing your mouth, your fingertips feel a short stubble pushing through the skin of your
face - it must be time to schedule a waxing appointment again, you think.
Your feet ache, and you decide to sit down for a minute to rest - you feel like you've been in this funhouse
forever, yet you haven't seen another soul! Rubbing your short hands over your thighs, you wonder if you have
lost weight recently - they feel thinner than you remember. You can feel the nap of fuzz too, and make another
mental note to shave your legs the next time you shower.
A crick in your neck has you tilting your head back, and you find yourself slumping against the wall awkwardly
as a yarn cracks your jaw. Suddenly exhausted, you decided to lay on your side for a second, just to catch a
quick nap... no one is coming through the ark anyway...