Dreams 3 A Winds of Change story by: Lance Holloway The next morning I woke up as usual. I didn't have an early class today. As a matter of fact, I didn't have anything to do until, 12:30. And that was office hours. So, it was about 10:00 am when I got up. I was up all night reading and sending e-mail. I was amazed at how comfortable I was sleeping on my stomach. I usually roll all over the bed, but I guess my new stegosaurian body knew better. Those plates on my back would either rip my sheets or hurt me if I rolled over on them. I got out of bed and gathered my bathroom supplies. I walked down the hall to the bathroom and took a shower. I was still shocked that I was not human, but a stegosaurus morph. But, I felt like it was my normal body. The shower was pretty tough. I had to get used to being about seven feet tall instead of 5'7". I stood well above the shower head. And then I had a hard time washing my back. Not only did the two rows of plates get in the way, but my back was so arched that I couldn't reach all of it easily. I scrubbed the best I could. I made a mental note to buy a bath brush. I got out of the shower, dried off, and finished the rest of my bathroom routine. I used the same sheet I had the day before for clothes. I needed to get some new ones. None of my old clothes fit me anymore. So, I decided to go to the store some time soon. Hopefully I'll be able to find something I can wear. Breakfast was interesting. I ate at the school cafeteria. They had most of the staff working. There was a wide variety of students eating. A table of carnivores were seeing if they could still eat hashbrowns, while some herbivores were tasting of the sausage. "I wonder if I could still eat sausage," I thought. The day before I was too caught up in what was happening, that I didn't eat much. At that was the grass I ate in my "norm" form. I felt all the other students watching me. I guess because I was a dinosaur. I usually blend into a crowd easily. But, being a stegosaurus among a campus of non-extinct animals, I kind of stick out. I got my breakfast food. It was mostly hashbrowns and eggs. I got some sausage to see if I could still eat it. I took my tray and looked for a table. I usually eat breakfast with some of my friends, but I didn't know what they were. So, I sat at a table by myself. I tried the sausage first. It didn't taste like it used to. But, it still tasted good. The eggs tasted the same as they always have. I kind of wished that the cafeteria eggs would taste better. The hashbrowns were the best. I never had hashbrowns that had that much flavor. They were fine before, but now they were great. I finished my breakfast and walked to the office. All the computer science graduate students were there. There was a large range of the degree of change. But, nobody was a dinosaur. I hadn't seen another dinosaur at all. "Am I the only one?" I asked myself. Surprisingly, the day went as normal. Except for the occasional question about the change. Everybody seemed to be taking it well. More students had shown up. I didn't have a class to teach, so I didn't expect to do too much. The hardest part for me was sitting in my chair. I couldn't lean back, and my tail wasn't too comfortable in the position it was in. About 2:00, a horse woman stopped my the office. She had a child with her. He was hiding behind his mother's legs. The boy was still human. That surprised me. I heard on the news that children that hadn't gone through puberty didn't change. But, seeing someone that was still human was shocking.. I wondered if they would change when they got older. "Excuse me. But, is Lance here?" the horse asked. "I'm Lance." "Lance, I'm Carla Grey," she said. "Carla? And this must be your son I heard you talk about." The boy peered around Carla's legs and looked at me. His eyes lit up, and he ran over to me. He stood by my chair staring at me. "I'm sorry, Lance. But, Jimmy likes dinosaurs," Carla said taking Jimmy's hand. "Jimmy, it's not nice to stare." "Mommy, it's a stego," Jimmy replied pointing at me. "Yes, and he is my teacher." She looked at me. "I'm sorry I brought him. I didn't know...." "Oh, don't worry. I am getting use to being stared at," I said. I bent down to talk to Jimmy. "Jimmy, do you want to sit in my lab?" Jimmy looked up at his mother excitedly. Carla nodded, and he hopped up on my lap. He sat there looking up at my head silently. "Lance, I was wondering what we did in class yesterday. Jimmy's school was closed, so I had to stay home," Carla explained. "You didn't miss anything. No one was here," I said. I looked down and saw Jimmy still staring at me with awe. "We will just make that lab up next week." Jimmy started to move. He positioned himself so he could see my back. He reached out and felt of one of my plates. "Jimmy no!" Carla yelled. Jimmy jerked his hand back and sat innocently in my lap. "I just wanted to feel...." "Jimmy, you didn't ask," Carla said. "It's ok," I said. "We better be going. I need to take Jimmy to the store. We were planning on buying him some new clothes. It looks like I need some new ones, too," Carla said picking Jimmy up from my lap. "He wasn't bothering me," I said. "I'll see you next week," she said carrying the boy out the door. "Bye, Mr. Stego," Jimmy called back. Then I heard him say to his mother, "I want to be a dinosaur when I grow up." Carla said something back, but they were too far down the hall for me to understand. I tried to get as comfortable as I could in my chair and started grading people's programs from last week. I wondered how many of them would return to pick them up. Eventually it was time for me to go home. I left the office and headed for the dorm. When I got there, I had a package. It was from my parents. They usually send me the mail that arrives at home. This must have been sent before the Change. "My Parents!," I suddenly realized. I hadn't called my parents. I hurried to my room, put my backpack on the floor, and picked up the phone. It didn't occur to me that my parents had changed. I knew the whole world did, but I didn't think my parents did. I all came as a shock when I realized it wasn't a dream. "Hello?" asked my mom on the other end. "Mom? It's me, Lance," I said. "Lance, are you ok? We were worried. The phones were busy all day yesterday." "I'm fine. I'm a stegosaurus, but I'm fine." "A stegosaurus? That's unique." "How are you all?" I asked. "We are fine. Your dad is a deer now. I don't think he will be hunting anytime soon. Heather is a turtle. She is accepting it rather well. She claims she is more like that Ninja Turtle she used to like." "Michaelangelo?" I asked. "Yeah, that's him. She's trying to pick up nunchakus." I laughed at that. Heather had liked Michaelangelo ever since the Ninja Turtles came out. "I... Well I can say that I don't hate dogs anymore," Mom said. "You're a dog?" "A husky to be exact." "It's nice to know you are ok. Some people seem to have lost it," I said. "I know what you mean. Everything seems to be find here. But, in the city, mobs have formed and looted many of the stores." We talked for about thirty minutes. After I hung up the phone, David came over. Even with the head of a donkey, I could tell something was bothering him. "What's wrong?" I asked. He sighed. It sounded more like a "hee-haw", but I knew it was meant to be a sigh. "I don't understand. Why?" he looked at his hoof-like hands and clenched them. "Why?" "You know I don't know," I replied. I was more puzzled why I became an extinct animal. "Nobody really knows." "I don't know if I can get used to this. I mean I'm a donkey. I'm an animal. Everybody is an animal!" "We are not animals," I said. I remembered what it was like to actually think like a stegosaurus. Even if it was only for a few minutes. "We are people. No matter what we look like now." "That sounds so fake," David said. "Hey. Why don't we do something we used to do?" "Like what?" I almost leaned back in my chair to think. I realized what I was about to do and jerked forward. I rested my elbow on my knee with my chin in my hand instead. "Why don't we go hiking tomorrow? I don't have anything to do." I knew David loved to go hiking. Meghan did, too. But, I don't know how well she can now that she is part walrus. However, I think she is taking to her new form better than David. His long ears perked up. "That sounds good. I hope Meghan will want to go." --------------------- The next day we went hiking. I didn't get a chance to go to the store. So, I found an old sheet and ripped it to make some shorts. I don't think I'll get used to going around naked like other people are. Meghan was willing to go hiking. She also talked Jenny into going, too. Jenny had been wanting to get away from her school work for a long time. She was thrilled to be going on a hike. And now that she is a squirrel, she was even more eager. The four of us decided to go on a short trail. None of us new the limits on our new bodies yet, so we didn't want to risk anything. The trail we picked ended at a lake. That was our driving force. We set out to reach the lake and not turn back until we did. Meghan was the one pushing us. She wanted to get in the water. A swim didn't sound too bad to me either. Although I'm not sure how well a stegosaurus can swim. To get to the lake, we had to cross over a mountain and then go down the other side. It was not a huge mountain, but it is much bigger than a hill. All of us handled it well. Jenny was the one to reach the top first. David was next. He seemed to be enjoying the hike. I just hoped it snaps him out of his depression. I arrived at the top followed by Meghan. The view was spectacular. We could see the lake sparkling in the distance. I felt like I was on top of the world. Well, it might have to do with the fact that I was not the tallest of the group instead of being the shortest and I was at the top of the tallest mountain in this area. But, I really felt like a part of nature. I thought I had accepted my new form before, but I didn't realize that I missed being human. The feeling I had pushed all the regrets away. I loved being a stegosaurus. The plates on my back soaked up the sunlight while a cool breeze blew across them. It was an new sensation. It felt wonderful. I had no intention to change into a full stegosaurus. I didn't want to lose my human thoughts. But, I didn't want to change back into my old human body again. This is me now. "Lance. LANCE!" David yelled. I snapped out of my gaze at the horizon and turned to look at the others. "Lance, we are going down to the lake now." Jenny had already started down the mountain. Meghan was turning to go. David was standing there watching me. "I just love the view," I said. I started walking down toward the lake. I couldn't wait to get there. It looked so inviting from the top. When we finally reached it, Meghan ran and jumped in. The rest of us were a little more reluctant. I was curious about my swimming ability now, so I was cautiously waded out into the water. Jenny and David stayed back. I could understand. They had all that fur. I had gotten out far enough where I couldn't touch bottom. The water was refreshing, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I used to. I guess it was all the added weight. Or it might just be some instincts. I'm not sure. But, I wasn't very good at swimming. I could doggie paddle. That was about it. My saurian body couldn't handle anything else. So, I got back to where I could stand. Meghan sure was enjoying herself. She would swim out into the lake, and then splash me when she returned to where I was wading. I got out of the water and laid out to bask in the sun. Meghan continued swimming. David and Jenny were sitting near the edge watching Meghan. She tried to splash them, but they were just out of reach. After Meghan got her fill of swimming, we headed back to where we parked the car. We were starting to get hungry, and we didn't bring a lot with us. Most of the food we brought was in the car. We didn't know Meghan was going to swim for so long. We reached the car and drove to a nice picnic spot. We went in David's car, because I couldn't sit in mine. I need to get that fixed some how. David had a Jeep Cherokee, so I laid in the back. I couldn't sit down in any of the seats. We ate and drove back to campus. David dropped Meghan and Jenny off at their dorms, and then he parked near ours. "Today was the best day of my life," David said as we were getting out of the car. "Thanks for suggesting to go on a hike. It's just what I needed." "I was a great hike, wasn't it?" "I think I'm going to like this body once I get completely used to it." "I know how you feel," I said. I guess I wasn't the only one who felt like a part of nature. "It's glad to have to old David back." "No, it's the new and improved David," he said laughing. It sounded just like a bray to me.