As afternoon quickly approached, the bustling of the neighborhood was in full swing, children and the like were out playing basketball in their driveways with one another, riding bikes, and doing all sorts of fun little activities. Meanwhile, sprawled out across his unkempt bed, lay Eric. He snored loudly in his slumber as the day steadily strolled on by without him. Before eventually a sudden, loud ringing filled the home- "Yeeep!" the doorbell jolting Eric from his lengthy slumber, causing him to fumble about in bed before clumsily rolling off, and onto the floor. Entwined in a mess of matted sheets as he let out a displeased huff. "Fuck.. Coming!" Eric shouted, as the doorbell alerted him to it's demanding urgent presence once again.
Once he'd fumbled his way through the entwined mess of sheets enveloping him, Eric ran over to his closet and promptly flung the folding, shuttered doors wide open, grabbing a grey t-shirt and tan cargo shorts, before nabbing his glasses from the messy bedside table and bolting out into the front room, towards the door. The doorbell once again rung throughout the house, several times, demanding Erics attention immediately as he begun to turn the lock on the door, flinging it open with a very perturbed expression. Only to be met by a rather elderly brown kangaroo in a postman's uniform, who was admittedly somewhat surprised at the suddenly flung open door, as well as the disgruntled skunk behind it. "O-Oh! My apologies, it looks like I interrupted something, erm.. Well if it's not too much of a bother, I need ya to sign for this real quick." The marsupial reached to his side and unclipped a small clipboard from his belt, handing it and the attached pen to Eric, as well as a small cardboard box, one you could fit in a single hand.
Upon signing it, Eric returned the clipboard, the postroo gave a salute and turned to head back out to his van and continue on his way. Eric turned as well, swinging the door closed with his foot as he tilted his head slightly at the package and put it on the ledge of a mostly empty bookshelf that was re-purposed as day-to-day shelves. "Must be that black fur dye dad ordered, dunno why he needs it, I can hardly even notice the grey hairs if ya ask me, but.. whatever." Eric let out a sigh with a stretched, slight frown, only just now realizing the time of day, and how long he'd slept for. "Man.. This is garbage." He moaned as he wondered into the kitchen, seeing a list of chores that had to be completed by days end. "Why'd they have ta go out on a week long vacation, while I'm stuck here housesitting?" Eric pouted and put his paws in his pockets as he leaned against the edge of the counter and stared through the sliding glass back doors connecting to the living room at the pool in the back yard.
"Well.. I might as well start with the worst ones I guess, I mean why not, right?" Eric nabbed and adorned a white baseball cap that was laying on a table near the back door before heading out, the glare of the sun reflecting off the pool water and the white patio surrounding it causing him to be blinded by it's light despite trying to prevent it. "AaaAAaagGgghh..!" Eric rubbed his eyes and winced before wondering over to the pool net, gripping it tightly in frustration as he began to scoop out dozens of leaves from the pool's surface. "Damnit, with Fall commin' I have to do this every day, and no matter how many of these things I scoop out they just keep coming back." As he said this a big gust of wind nearly caused him to stumble into the pool, blowing another good dozen or so leaves in as well.
Eric pulled the net out from the pool and dropped it on the patio with a disheartened sigh. "Fiiiiiine, I'll clean up the leaves first, I get it already." Wondering over the flower bushes and through the garden, Eric made his way to the shed that bordered the edge of the forest that surrounded their neighborhood from all sides, excluding the road that lead to it. Heading inside, he grabbed a rake and began to pile all of the leaves, eventually cleaning them all up into a pile behind the shed. He huffed and wiped his brow with his arm before looking off into the shaded forest extending out in front of him. "You know what..? Nuts to this, I'm done for now." Eric leaned the rake against the side of the shed and stared out into the woods, immediately feeling relief from the shading of the canopy, his black fur feeling like the surface of the sun in this unrelenting weather.
Eric picked up a sturdy looking stick and began to run out into the woods, slapping trees he came across with it, seeing just how many it would take before the discarded limb snapped. The twig snapped in two, and Eric chucked the 'handle' into the woods, before climbing up onto a felled tree, jumping up onto a sturdy, thick branch of another tree as he climbed and jumped from one tree to another. "You know.. I think I was supposed to be a squirrel, but they got my fur color wrong, this is way too eas- waah!" Overconfident, Eric tumbled from a body's height onto the leaf coated forest floor, thankfully only to gain minor bruises and a sore rump. "Stupid tree.. that was your fault, you know." With an upset huff, Eric chucked a small rock from the nearby ground at the tree, listening to it 'clunk' off the bark. Afterwards Eric got up and sat against the base of the tree, exhausted, and still somewhat sore from his earlier fall. "You know.. sorry tree, that was my bad, you didn't deserve that, I just got upset.." Eric patted one of the protruding roots of the tree before looking up into the leaves of the canopy, the mesh of countless leaves twisting and rustling in the wind, filling the air with their forest song.
However.. as the wind calmed to a gentle breeze, and the rustling quieted itself, Eric noticed he heard something out of the ordinary. His ear twitched softly as he listened, looking this way and that, as he heard the faint sound of someone talking in the distance. Eric arose from his position against the base of the tree, the pain from his tumble having all but vanished, now replaced with unrelenting curiosity as he carefully, and quietly wondered deeper into the woods. The sounds of the talking appeared to move.. wildly! It would be in a certain direction at one moment and then suddenly be in the opposite one all together, turning this way and that, almost impossibly so! Eric had followed the baffling sound for nearly an hour now, having become so entranced, so enthralled by his needed to find it's source that he'd neglected to pay any sort of mind to where he was headed. And only once the chatter has suddenly become deafeningly silent had Eric noticed.. he was lost.
He turned behind him and looked, his eyes darting through the trees as none of them showed any sense of familiarity towards him, suddenly snapped out of his adventurous trance, Eric broke out into a full sprint, trying his darnedest to find his way back home, shoving his way off trees and hoping that through the next bush, or over the next hill that he would see that familiar blinding shine from his pool, he didn't want to spend the night in the woods, or worse! There were all kinds of things out here, and the last thing he wanted to do was to find something he didn't know how to handle. Out of breath, and energy, Eric panted heavily as he placed his palms on his knees, hunched over in exhaustion before he waddled towards a nearby boulder, climbing on top for a place to take a moment of reprieve, and to gather his thoughts. His mind was still racing a mile a minute, however, his body could no longer keep up.
'Huff.. huff' Eric panted heavily as he laid over the warm boulder beneath him. "Wh-where the hell am I even..? I've come out here more times than I can count, I should know where I am!" Eric clenched his fist and his expression turned to one of anger at himself for being so reckless, before easing up with another sigh. "...It's okay, it'll be fine. I'll find my way back eventually, I just wish I'd eaten some breakfast before I came out here.. I could sure go for some bacon right about-" Eric suddenly paused, the chatter had returned once more.. But closer, much closer in fact. It had been what sounded like an impossible distance away before, but now it felt like he could almost reach out and touch the source of wherever it was coming from! However, this was no English speaker, this wasn't any sort of language Eric had ever heard of before, it sounded more like.. chanting.
The words of which Eric couldn't seem to comprehend. They were alluring.. captivating even, and despite his weariness, Eric slid from the boulder onto his feet. Steadily strolling in the direction of the voice. Through the trees.. an opening steadily appeared, almost as if the trees themselves had moved out of the way for some unparalleled presence, the trees all having bent in impossible directions, about the first ten feet of each had been bent outwards to form a large circle, in the middle of which stood a large, hooded figure. They were large, very large indeed, even though they appeared to be kneeling, they were taller than Eric as he stood on his hind legs, peeking from behind one of the distorted tree trunks.
The figure continued it's chanting for some minutes, and Eric stood there, his morbid curiosity fixating him in place as he awaited for something to happen. And after some time.. the chanting suddenly stopped. The figure, still hooded, turned slightly to the side, placing their elbow on their knee as a grey snout poked out from beneath the hood. A deep, almost monstrous guttural voice spoke, as blackened smoke seemed to emanate from the figure's maw with every spoken word "It is not polite to stare, you'd think your elders would have taught you such a thing." Eric felt a chill go up his spine, his poofy, black tail pwoomfing up behind him as his fingers dug into the trunk of the tree, trying his best to hide behind it, hoping that he was not the one being spoken to.
As he tried to gather his thoughts, the figure once again spoke to him- "Leave. Now." Eric was more than happy to do so, however, he didn't know where to leave to! He was lost, and without someone's help, who knows how long he would remain out here in these woods, and if this was the first crazy thing he'd come across, who knows what else may lie in wait out there! Eric forced himself out from behind the tree and took a few shaky steps towards the figure, who had turned back to their original position. "N-No, not yet! I n-need some help first." Eric stood there, attempting to hide his quivering as he awaited a response.
"H-Hey, I said I needed some help! I'm lost, and I need to know how to get back to my neighborhood, do you know how to get there!?" The figure sat there, still, and silent as a statue. Eric clenched his paw as his temper got the better of him, bending down to pick up a small rock before chucking it at the back of the hooded figure's head. "Answer damnit!" The figure slowly rose from it's spot upon the ground, only then did Eric realize the sheer size of this being. They stood taller than his roof when they'd gotten fully erect, slightly hunched over in their posture, as they began to turn. Eric's eyes opened wide as he realized the mistake he'd made, poking the lion with a stick in it's cage while the door was locked behind him.
Turning to run, Eric froze. His eyes growing even larger. They were there, standing in front of him, bent down to eye level, the unnatural shadows from behind the hood hiding everything about the figure's face, excluding their protruding snout. Eric was petrified, he couldn't move a muscle, no matter how much he tried. The figure raised their claw, curling their fingers behind their thumb as their huge paw sat in front of Eric's face.. Having no clue what they were going to do, Eric closed his eyes and clenched his fists. Then suddenly.. 'Th-WHAP!' Eric got a stern flick to his forehead, strong enough to cause him to fall flat on his behind.
Opening his eyes, Eric looked up to see that the figure was gone, his eyes darted this way and that before he looked behind him, the figure was now.. shorter? Around seven feet tall, and was no longer hunched over as they were before, as they stood in front of a table that previously hadn't been there. Covered in vials, beacons, and bubbling potions, with several large, intricately decorated books stacked by it's side. "I swear, you bloody kids these days, no respect for your elders. I haven't lived for one-thousand years just to have petty pebbled tossed at me, you know!" Their voice, their demeanor, everything about this unbelivibly malicious presence had suddenly.. changed, in an instant. Their voice was old, crotchety, like that of an old man. "E-Excuse me, what? Where? How did-" Eric was baffled, speechless.
"What? Huh? Speak up now, did I not just say I was older than dirt!" The figure turned and pulled off their black hood, revealing an elderly looking wolf, their fur was grey, and short. Eric looked up at him as he staggered to his feet, looking down at the ground for a moment before noticing.. his fur, it didn't look like it normally did. Quickly bringing his paws into sight, followed by his tail, Eric noticed his fur had somehow turned into a dark shade of crimson! He panicked, putting his paws on his head, fearing somehow that the strong flick to his head might have caused him to bleed horrendously or.. something! There had to be an explanation for this, something was wrong! At this time Eric also noticed something smelt.. funny. Something smelt really good, in fact! Taking a moment to sniff the air, Eric had discovered that for some bizarre reason, he now reaked heavily of bacon!
"Wh-What is-" Eric was about to fall to the ground in disbelief when he suddenly found himself falling onto a old looking wooden chair, grabbing onto the sides of the seat as he quickly looked beneath him at the spontaneously appearing seating arrangements. "Now now, chill your beans, mister. There'll be no fainting in my woods, not unless I want you to, of course." The old wolf suddenly disappeared from his spot in front of the table whilest in the middle of mixing potions, causing them to simply drop onto the table, shattering and spilling their glowing, multi-colored contents. He then reappeared directly in front of Eric, hunched down with his eyes narrowed. "You see, I'm an illusionist, a master of the unmastered, a trick of the eye, the brain, and your very perception of reality.." The wolf smirked crookedly before turning around, walking up what seemed to be non-existent stairs, where he then pulled a thick book out of thin air, before simply dropping back down onto the forest floor. Sifting through the countless pages before chucking the book aside, where it then disappeared once again into the unseen. "H-How are-" Eric was still speechless.
"My boy! Do I need to say it again? I'm an illusionist, a magic user, a user of magics, if you will. Your rules do not apply to me, in fact, I am one who -writes- those rules, in a sense. I'll do as I please and there's nothing you can do about it, nope, not one thing." The wolf spoke hastily, before booping Eric on the nose, turning around once again to the table where he picked up a bottom-heavy flask, swirling it's contents briefly before gulping down some of it. Waiting for a moment, the wolf then shook his head in disgust, sniffing at the mouth of the vial before chucking it behind him into the woods, where it once again shattered to pieces.
"Y-You're deranged, what did you do to me!?" Eric shouted, demanding inquisitively. The wolf then suddenly blinked out of existence and into it once again in a fraction of a second, once again having turned into that hulking, shadowy figure he was previously. "Deranged, you say!? Well...-!" Eric winced and shut his eyes tightly before opening them again after some seconds of silence. Once again the wolf had blinked in and out of reality, reappearing right in front of Eric while standing upside down on an impossibly bent tree that appeared to go straight into the ground. "That's a word for it I suppose, yes. You see.. when you're eternal, there's a one-hundred percent chance that you'll eventually do everything, and life gets so dreadfully boring after a time, so this is the way I like to keep it spice-ay!" The wolf strolled down the twisted tree and onto the forest floor with his arms folded behind his back. "Now then, you wanted to go home, yes?"
Eric stuttered, worried that if he spoke again the wolf would do something.. unpredictable. "Y-Yes, but what did you do to me?" Eric persistently asked, keeping a close eye on the wolf. "Well, as I said my boy, I like to keep things interesting, and this is interesting, wouldn't you agree?" Eric couldn't find the words for this situation, trying his best to reason with the insane old wolf. "No, no it's not interesting! Wait.. you said you're an illusionist, so.. you just.. make illusions, right? So none of this is actually happening?" Eric put his paw to his arm, rubbing over the crimson fur curiously. "What? No no, this is very much real my boy, very much real indeed. Illusions come in all shapes, sizes, and girths.. Mmm... sweet magical girths- Erm.. Uh- never mind that. Anyway! Yeah, no this is totally happening." The unstable wolf chuckled to himself as he flipped through more books on his desk, while Eric folded his ears back dishearteningly before standing up and shouting at the elderly, maddened wolf.
"Change me back this instant! Right the fuck now!" Eric stared at the wolf, his eyes like daggers. The wolf sighed and turned, staggering exasperatingly at the sight of the now very pissed off skunk standing in front of him. "Woah, geeze man! Careful with those things, gonna give an old man a heart attack!" He then chuckled again before being abruptly interrupted by Eric. "Change me back, now!" Winding up his arm to clock the wolf in the cheek, Eric swung his fist, and upon contacting the wolf, he disappeared into a puff of smoke, only to reappear seconds later, walking out impossibly from behind a tree onto it's limb. "Not until you appreciate what a jerk I am, haha!" The wolf smiled and snapped his fingers. "Ba-blaow!" And with that, Eric suddenly poofed back into the woods bordering his back yard, he looked down at his hands, seeing they were still the same crimson as prior, and promptly ran to the pool, jumping in to try and wash himself off. "Come on, come on, this has to be something right? Something on me, this can't be real!" Eric scrubbed his fluffs, rubbing his arms, and paws together before he felt something.. strange.
Suddenly he heard the wolf's voice again, much like in a manner from when he originally heard the talking in the woods, distant, and constantly changing direction. "Oh, by the way my boy, I thought you could use a bit more spice in your life, enjoooooy!" He had a cheery, mischievous tone to his voice as he spoke, fading out into nothingness once again without warning. "Hey, hey! Get back here and fix me, and stop calling me 'my boy' already!" Eric suddenly felt what could only be described as a '...fwump!' followed by another, and another! Suddenly, Eric begun to float on the water's surface, his eyes once again darting to his paws as he noticed they had somehow turned to those of an inflatable pooltoy! His arm steadily turned to vinyl, he struggled and slashed in the water, trying his best to somehow get out of the pool as his body shrunk, his digits became singular pool toy paws, and eventually his entire form had become squeaky and rubbery. Eric blushed hotly and clawed at the water's surface as best as he could as a gust of wind blew him against the edge of the pool before he could then clamber out and onto the patio.
"Wh-What the hell?" Eric struggled to waddle on his bouncy, rounded paws, falling a few times onto all fours before managing to get back onto his hind paws. "How is this even p-possible?" Eric grabbed hold of the metal hand rail at the pool steps, doing his best to learn to walk with such strange feeling paws, before he then waddled his way over to the door, being able to open it with relative ease. "Well.. at least I'm still as strong as I used to be? I think? Fuck, what'd he do to me now?" Eric closed the door behind him and shut the curtains, sitting down on the couch with an almost comical pooltoy 'thud', causing him to blush as he wiggled his rump over the cushion and tried to get comfy. Wiggling his rubbery paws in front of him some before letting out a sigh. "I mean.. it could be worse, right? Oh god.. how am I going to explain this to mom and dad? I only have a week- six days to fix this!" Eric put his paws on the sides of his head, causing an audible squirk.
"Oh, I know!" Standing up on the couch, Eric then sprinted off the cushions and arm over into the main entryway, jumping a few times as he did his best to reach the fur dye that had been delivered this morning. "Just- gotta- reaaaaach!" After a few more attempts Eric sighed and scritched the back of his head in thought before suddenly- "Oh, I know! Again!" Eric grabbed onto the shelves of the book shelf and carefully began to climb up, now only weighing as much as a pooltoy, the shelf didn't even so much as creak, allowing him to nab the package from one of the upper shelves, before dropping back to the ground. "Awesome! I guess this has some advantages.. kinda. Anyways-" Eric bolted off to the bathroom, tearing open the box before pouring the tube of dye out onto the floor, chucking the box away before trying his best to open the tube. "Come on... come oooooooooon!" Opening the sealed plastic cap with singular digits for paws proved to be absolutely impossible. Eric sighed and put the tube on the floor before waddling out into the hallway, and back into his room. The sun had set, the crickets had begun to sing their song of the evening, and Eric.. despite everything that was going on, was more exhausted than he knew how to put into words.
Climbing into bed with a squeak and a squirk, Eric planted his head on the cool, refreshing pillow, and closed his eyes. "Maybe.. I could get used to this.. maybe it's not so bad. Maybe it's just a dream? A nightmare? I don't even know anymore. I just hope this gets better in the morning." Eric sighed and let slumber take it's hold, ending the most bizzare day he had ever had in his entire life. The night passed, and dawn finally came, when suddenly Eric was awoken once again by the loud ringing of the doorbell just as he had been the day prior. Rubbing his eyes, Eric rolled out of bed and took a few steps before stretching to yawn exhaustively. Suddenly, Eric remembered the day prior and looked down at himself, he was no longer a pooltoy, he had returned to his normal meaty self, however.. he was still crimson, he still smelt like a freshly cooked breakfast, and still had no idea how to fix it.
"Well.. I guess it wasn't a dream then, now was it..?" Eric sighed and rubbed his eye sleepily as he wondered to his door, the doorbell, soon followed by knocking sounding throughout the house. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" Eric shouted, in hopes of some reprieve from the constant ringing and knocking, before opening his bedroom door, only to suddenly jump backwards, falling flat on his butt as he was greeted by the old grey wolf on the other side. "Oh, well it's good to see you too, glad to know my friends get scared of me so easily." The wolf mumbled as he walked into the room. "F-Friend!? Wait- how'd you even get in here!? Why are you in here wh-" Eric abruptly stopped talking as the wolf did the motion for him to 'zip his lip' effectively causing Eric's voice to go mute. Eric began to react upset but.. soon just rolled his eyes and accepted it, playing along with the old fool's games, raising an eyebrow to him as if to say "Okay, what do you want, old man..?" The wolf leaned over and flicked Eric's forehead once again. "Now then, don't act like you're not happy to see me. I just came by to give you a bit of a hint with that tasty little curse I put upon you.. or is it a blessing? I honestly can't remember anymore, guess it's your job to find out then, huh? Anyway.. It's all in your head, as illusions always are. Well.. sometimes, anyway, buh-bye!" The wolf walked behind Eric, out of his vision, and promptly disappeared into thin air. Eric's voice coming back to him in an instant, while he flopped onto his back. "Man.. I do not have the energy for this today.. What the heck do you mean by it's all in my head though..?"
Eric raised his hand in front of his face as he laid upon his bedroom floor. "Well.. might as well give it a shot I guess, what's the worst that could happen? ...Actually, don't answer that." Eric closed his eyes and thought about what happened last night with the pool, becoming a squeaky, bouncy pooltoy skunk and to much surprise.. when he opened his eyes again Eric had found that his paw was once again made of vinyl! His entire body had once again shapeshifted into that of a pooltoy! "Wh-What on..-" Eric closed his eyes again, thinking about his real body, his black fur, how he was before all of this had happened, and.. When he opened his eyes again Eric had.. mixed feelings.
Eric was no longer a pooltoy, nor was he back to 'normal', he was still red, and smelt like bacon, but he was his normal meaty self once more, about as 'normal' as he was going to get it seems. "Well, I think I could get used to this.. somehow. I'll give it a shot! Shapeshifting seems like a pretty neat thing to have.. and I guess being red isn't that much of a price to pay!" Eric shifted once again into a pooltoy, more naturally this time, without having to focus too hard on doing so. "Yeah, I can work with this!" Eric smiled then suddenly became quiet. "...Oh god. Mom's gonna kill me. ..Pop me? Ugh, whichever works better." Eric dropped his inflatable paw onto his stomach and groaned.
Eric sat up, an optimistic, stubborn expression on his face, vent on making this strange new life of his better than it was before. "Welp, I've got six days to figure this out, to do the chores, and to come up with a story. Lets do this!"
rottin! His upload is HERE If you can please comment and fave it there too.
