Bestial Planet

Chapter 34: Metamorphosis

It'd been a few weeks since I got back and one thing worried me. No matter how much I ate I'd be hungry again an hour or so later. This time Nik and Catty walked in on me eating in the mess hall, I essentially had an entire buffet sitting in front of me. It probably started just after I woke up from being knocked out at the Political Stadium, this insatiable appetite. Mom and the others hadn't come back yet and I didn't trust anyone else to know about this.

"I'm scared."

"Dude if you keep eating like this you're gonna turn into a balloon animal."

"I'm serious!" I snarled at them, the unprovoked anger caught them both of guard. "It feels a little bit like before we woke up. I... I feel compelled to find food."

I'd been wondering for a while if I'm reverting back to a feral state. A thought until now I decided to keep to myself.

"What... what if I'm turning into a feral. What if we all will?"

"I don't think that'll happen."

The voice had finally made herself known again. But just as quickly disappeared.

"What do you know?!"

"Wow Panzer take it easy, we're right here. You don't have to thought-yell."
"You're telling me you guys didn't hear her?"

"I don't know how this telepathic shit works man." Nik said hopping up to the table with his two front legs and nipped at some of the food.

I shook the confusion from my head.

"I don't... what if me hearing things is connected to this hunger? What if my mind is deteriorating? What if all our minds end up deteriorating and we actually become a Feral World?"

The possibilities were incapacitating. Nik stamped his foot on the ground as hard as he could, which wasn't very hard and started walking to the elevator.

"First things first. We hunt some shit. If we're worried about balloon animals then we might as well make you as tired as possible man."

I didn't move; still lost in my head thinking about how it was before I woke up. Catty walked over to some people by the ordering kiosk and pointed to the food I amassed. Among them were the chipmunk triplets, whom were the first three to attack the food on the table.

"Hey! I'm not done yet..."

Catty bumped into me and proceeded to push me out of the mess hall.

"C'mon Ambassador, we're gonna catch us some food."

She methodically pushes me toward the elevator as I keep trying to turn around.

"But... there's no need... Catty... wait I just... Let me have the burrito!"

*****

We'd ran a few miles and I was as hungry as ever. It was pretty much nothing but forest and wild-lands for a sizable radius around us. Even though his legs were short Nik had been mastering his new body during the time I was off-world, he was able to keep up with us. The only thing I could think of, the only thing I could concentrate on, was finding more food. I'd stop and rip plants out of the ground and essentially inhale them, then keep going. For the rest of the time we were out hunting - everything is a blur if I try to remember specifics.

That night we stayed out in the wilderness. Catty told me that she had to sleep away from me because I was breathing fast. She said it reminded her of the exorcist.

*****

I was hungry, impossibly so. I spent the next whole day hunting and eating. My body ached and Nik said he felt the heat coming off me just by standing near me. The three of us stayed active the whole day, hoping that I could work through what seemed like a fever. At one point we found a moose. Ten feet of fearless muscle. The fight took longer than I anticipated. I'd tanked most of the antler hits and hoof stomps. I elected not to use my tail, my feral side wanted to get out, so I didn't see any reason to get in its way. At the end of it Nik and Catty were still full but I ate every bit of meat I could rip from its bones.