Coyote Returns

Coyote was bored, like he normally was. He had already created a few worlds, stolen fire in a few of them, rode a star, and got outsmarted by Skunk within the same day. Now, he was bored. Coyote wandered around to a few worlds, thinking of what kinds of things he could do.

Everytime, Coyote thought “Nah”, because he couldn’t do anything there, at least, nothing that would leave an impact. He thought about maybe creating another world, or simply trying to make a bunch of interesting modifications to an existing one. Of course, many worlds he visited didn’t always notice something whenever he made such a drastic change to the world’s nature physics. By the time anyone would have noticed, a lot of people were simply gone or had accepted it as the new norm.

Perhaps he was too subtle, Coyote thought to himself as he drifted to and from worlds. Maybe he needed to do something a bit more audacious. As Coyote searched through various realities, he eventually started looking through the minds of the residents. Simple mundane seeming world - populated entirely by sapient humans. Perfect place for this - Coyote didn’t even remember who the creator of this world was. Surely they wouldn’t mind if he decided to make some alterations onto this reality.

Coyote crossed from mind to mind until he found one that resonated with him. It seemed like this person was the kind of author, creating a world himself. Some human named Zeke, who seemed to be writing for the fun of it. Coyote entered his little ‘writing’ studio and decided to take a look at the human. Someone descended from those invaders in this timeline - the ones who ousted the people who lived there for centuries long before they came. This made Coyote feel a little less guilty about what he was going to do to him… not. (Not like this particular person named Zeke really had a choice in that matter.)

Coyote made sure to keep himself from outside the physical reality, so that he would not detect an intruder in his room. As Zeke started to get hit with his writer’s block, Coyote grinned wide - when people had hit writer’s block, that made them more and more vulnerable to suggestion. And thus, his influence. Coyote then neared himself to the human and started planting little suggestions into his head. The human took this as a rush of inspiration - as mortals normally did. Coyote chuckled to himself as the human’s fingers raced across the keyboard.

As the human typed, Coyote moved his other ‘hand’ over to the computer, sticking his essence into it. Ideas like him had a way to ‘interact’ with technology - after all, it was another way to get ideas across. While Coyote had one hand in the human’s mind placing ideas into it, his other copied the material from his computer into it. Already, Coyote was liking what he was seeing, and what he was contributing to. Coyote gently patted Zeke on the head, as he stopped typing.

Zeke suddenly stopped, looking up and around. He could have sworn he felt something touching him, yet there was nothing when he looked around. He couldn’t see it, but Coyote had the Akashic records in his hands, and was going on a massive editing spree. Already, Zeke had started to feel some of the effects of it.

Zeke felt a strange cool sensation around his chest, as it seemed to rip open, gradually. Almost like it was being cut by an invisible knife. Yet the cloth did not fray at all, it seemed to form a perfect seam, all the way down to his shorts. The collar of the shirt seemed to start growing, folding against his clavicles, just a bit coming down in front, by his pectorals.

The cloth seemed to feel a lot heavier, becoming bunched up around his elbows. It felt almost like they had been turning from a short-sleeved shirt into a long-sleeved shirt. The colour then started changing, the blue turning brighter and brighter. The pattern that had existed on the shirt before faded, as sets of darker yellow lines drew themselves onto the shirt, forming perpendicular lines. Patterns…. Plaid.

Right before Zeke could take his shirt off, he noticed that his exposed skin seemed to be drying out. The hair that had grown on his body was starting to vanish, not falling out, or even being sucked in, simply… vanishing. It became paler and paler, but then he noticed that it was starting to darken and turn… green?! As Zeke reached out to feel over his changing skin, he felt a not smooth human skin, but smooth yet somewhat rough feeling reptilian skin. Zeke glanced at his hands.

His hands had turned a dark green colour, and the undersides of his arms, just below his elbow, had turned a lighter shade of green, almost like a white form of green. The same shade of green as the area just above his pecs. Zeke’s forefingers elongated, reaching the same length of his middle fingers, as claws replaced the fingernails. Suddenly, there was a small feeling of something scratching at his left pec. Zeke glanced down, spotting a small line of darker green scales there. A scar. Another sensation went to his neck, just as Zeke gasped, reaching up to feel over the somewhat loose and drying skin.

By now, he was entirely bald from head to toe. His shorts seemed to be elongating, covering up his knees. Just before the exposed skin was consumed by the encroaching cloth, he could see more green, some lighter green. Scales.

Zeke gulped, as he stood up. When he did so, he felt a somewhat stiff sensation, followed by a squeezing sensation just at his waist. He had not been wearing a belt before, but now it seemed like he was. It seemed like there was a rip in his trousers, he was able to feel air touching some exposed skin - or rather, scaly skin. Just above his rear. He felt naked - like he was mising an arm or a leg! But he had all four limbs. His arms were there, and his legs were there, encased in a pair of leather chaps.

Suddenly, Zeke felt his tail poking out of his rear, the hole in the chaps and trousers being filled with a thick, reptilian tail. He relaxed, but then suddenly widened his eyes. He had a tail! The tail even moved with his mental commands. He felt himself being stabilised by the tail, then felt his trousers and chaps tuck themselves into a pair of boots. Wait a minute. He was wearing shoes. Shoes!

No, why would he be wearing those, Zeke thought to himself, as he glanced down at the pair of boots that went up to his calves. Shoes are not for the wasteland. They do not provide enough adequate protection. Something else seemed wrong though. Zeke looked right at his nose.

Wait, a nose? He did not have that. He had nose holes. Suddenly, his tongue flopped out, dangling. He brought it up just a bit, spotting a much longer and thinner tongue, tipped with a fork. Zeke sucked it back into his mouth, finding that there was more and more space for it by the minute. His face had started filling out into a wedge shaped muzzle, covered in the same scales that made up the rest of his skin. His nose had been reduced to two holes, just above his mouth.

Small poking sensations indicated that his teeth had regrown back. Wherever had they been? Two fangs gently poked above his scaly lips, followed by two more canine teeth, shorter. He had a bit of an overbite, but that was typical for the kind of lizard he was. Many of the gators and crocodiles he had seen had even more drastic exterior teeth. He flicked his tongue out a few more times, detecting his own heat signature.

Where his hair had been was now a leather hat. Zeke removed it and rubbed over his smooth scalp. He then replaced it, patting down around his thighs to make sure that his gun holster was still there. Perfect, everything was in check. Why else would it be, though? Why did Zeke have such a strange sensation that he had been changed. Wait a minute.

Zeke noticed that this room looked… foreign to him. There was some kind of a contraption in front of him that he couldn’t quite comprehend. The entire room itself seemed a little… strange. It looked like nothing he had ever seen before, there was some kind of a breeze blowing on him. Of course, his musings were interrupted by his eyes glazing over, the reality around him blurring.

Coyote loved this part, gently massaging his ‘fingers’ around the lizard’s mind.This was a very refreshing part, leaving no trace of that human behind. He moved more and more around, the lizard’s eyes no longer looking human. Zek’s sclera turned a red colour, before a bit of yellow at the top overtook them. Ze’s pupils seemed to shrink more and more, as Coyote moved into his essence further and further. Zeb’s pupils finally grew back, his eyes having turned the same black of a reptile’s. Coyote withdrew his hand from the former human, who gently shook his head, tongue flickering in confusion.

Well, there he was - Zebediah Shifton in the ranch he lived in. That was a strange feeling, the lizard thought to himself. After a tongue-flick, he thought he detected another heat signature around him. Zeb looked around, thinking there may have been some kind of a varmint around, only to find… nothing. Flick. Nope. There wasn’t anyone nearby. It just have just been his imagination.

Coyote giggled to himself, and traveled around this new rewritten reality to watch it all unfold. Coyote did enjoy breaking down those arbitrary barriers between human and animal.