Abracadabra, Howls, and the Furry Guardians

The Sweet Relief of a Hunt

Was anger the beast inside me, or was I the monster from the get-go?

Marika tried hard to shake away the claws of rage that dug so deep into her skin that she was no longer sure if it was her own skin or if she was herself anymore, but it was too hard. The psychologists Tate took her to all said the same. It was normal to struggle with one's identity after such a sudden transformation of not only one's body but also one's whole identity, but their psychological mumbo-jumbo didn't stop her from going on a rampage. In fact, sometimes, it caused her to lash out. Luckily, it was mostly with words in sessions, but after that, she would let out her anger on her prey, non-moving objects, or anything that stood in her way.

Of course, when they passed through the veil separating her former world of human toil and the one of shiny magical glory of the most ridiculous innovations magic and technology combined had to offer, not only was Marika hit with an overwhelming number of stimuli all at once, like a punch to the face, but she was also further annoyed by what Tate had done.

Oblivious to her rage going off the charts, Tate stood before a thing Marika saw as an abomination of magic and technology. Yet, to Tate, it seemed to appear as something nice, something to be proud of even.

"Really Tate?" Marika asked, putting her hands on her hips and giving him a look that could cut through metal. "Why in the world did you think that a VAM would be a good idea? What happened to the good old flying cars? At least those are mostly technological and won't make me dizzy!"

"What's wrong with a VAM?" Tate asked, oblivious even though they had had similar conversations a thousand times before.

Having never experienced the sensitivities Marika was struggling with, at least not on that scale, he could never quite understand her or remember all the little things that could lead to overstimulation, which either led to hand-shaking-dangerous-for-others anger or incredibly long periods of violent vomiting. He did try to be understanding, but often, issues he wasn't personally dealing with merely slipped his mind, a fact for which Marika usually didn't blame him.

However, today wasn't one of the usual days as she was both hungry and annoyed by the humans she encountered. It was funny how humans, as seen from the outside perspective like she was seeing them after her change, were utterly irrational, irritating beings, and still strangely fascinating, which was why she got into this irksome situation in the first place. An unhealthy level of curiosity.

So, she wished Tate had picked a better day for his wave of forgetfulness.

"For starters, its name makes no sense whatsoever!" Marika said exasperatedly, not sure why she was even arguing about it. "Vacuum augmented magic? It's none of those things. It's a fancy vacuum cleaner that is, for an inexplicable reason, shaped like a saucer with a strange column in the middle that you hold on to for dear life, powered by magic! Which part of it makes any sense?"

"Alright, alright, I won't argue with you," Tate said, partly because he could see her point but partly because he could see that her tail had already popped out, swishing left and right, which was never a good sign. "It's still the best way to get to the Magicless Forest and, more importantly, fastest."

As he said that, he pointed at her tail, which in this part of the world didn't bother anyone, what with most of the beings sporting some unusual features like horns, hooves, warts, you name it. But it was a big deal considering how little self-control she had left, and no one needed a rogue werewolf incident because those tended to turn bloody fast.

As they climbed up onto a Frankensteined version of Roomba, Tate took over controls, which consisted of basically two levers he was supposed to pull to determine the VAM's direction, and that was about it, except for holding tightly onto whatever you could grab, which in his case were the levers. Marika, on her part, hugged the whole middle hub tightly, knowing how well she did with those things. Which was none at all.