"Oh hell my head"
By the time I came to it was already morning. There was a piercing pain in my head, so I groaned loudly.
I dozed off on my feet and fallen to the floor. Must have been quite a deep slumber. Slept through the entire process.
the strange creature I picked up yesterday might have a hand in all this. A situation from a result of gobbling down all that food.
I looked over to the culprit of this situation and cyclops looked different from yesterday. He had a different look from its usual gold like color. A darker shade of yellow for a black metallic color. Cyclops rows of dune shaped protruding scales were now contracted and streamlined. It almost looks like a statue made of metal.
CRACK
I heard a crack sound coming from the cyclops statue. The metallic looking part started to slide off with an oil texture. As the bond weakened the scales started to snap back up and went from black to its original light brown color.
When I thought the transformation was over. It raised its posterior and with a "whish" hot air gushed from in-between its scales.
"Ouch! my hands"
The heated air touched the back of my hand and it hurt like hell. I quickly grabbed my hand. Cyclops scared off by my yell.
As the last bit of steam passed its scale. It walked up to me softly placing its tail on my hand.
"I'm okay"
I said with a smile. Its one eye visible drooped. I could imagine a wrinkle over its scaly forehead.
"Oh don't worry I'm really alright"
I scratched under its jaw.
Its features brightened up and it walked into the cloud of hot air it created. I guess it was some kind of treatment after coming out of its statue form. I could lightly notice that the steam was compressing and expanding at a rhythm. It must be one of those animals that breath with their body. It seemed like Cyclops was going to be there a while so I started packing. It was extremely difficult job to do under such intense heat. I had to pack drenched in sweat in my underwear.
By the time I was done packing, Cyclops was done steam bathing too. Since he was still hot, I decided we should soak together. I ran a foamy bath. Cyclops happily jumped in.
He really loved the water happily swimming around like a turtle. It submerged, resurfaced and barrel rolled a couple of times just having a good time but after a while it started jerk like it was choking.
"Are you okay?"
My voice was uneven and my eyes trembled. Bubbles poured out of its scale. Some bubbles were large or small, depends on the scale chasm size. Cyclops popped them by jetting out the water. I joined in on the fun and before I knew it I spent way too long in the bath and got all wrinkly.
"It really sucks I have to travel like this. Oh maybe I'll get a senior citizen discount"
haha who would even think like that.
…
"Full price! You thing I don't know prune skin when I see one"
"hehehe"
I awkwardly chuckled, paid and walked away.
Originally had cyclops in my backpack but a problem arose immediately. Since cyclops does cutaneous respiration. it needs its entire body to expire. I had to find my workout clothes and cut a portion to wrap around it. It's made from a material that opaque while having excellent air regulation capabilities. When I wear it I can't really tell the difference between having it on or not so maybe it will work.
When it didn't show any kind of discomfort. I wrapped cyclops up and strapped "them" with my belt.
I'll refer to Cyclops as they/them until I figure out their gender. Saying "IT" feels wrong.
I successfully boarded the monorail bus going outside the city but it wasn't going anywhere yet. There's a take off time. I looked around the scanty population leaving the city. There's hardly any reason to leave a city since everything one might need is provided, thanks to the insane increase in standard of living and technology.
Every corner of a city are filled with some structure or another removing any open space that used to exist and filling it in with a behemoth of a building. Creating a place entirely filled with high rise building comprising of numerous stories and numerous units. Made me wonder if you looked at the world from space would it look like uneven rectangles arranged in a spherical shaped.
"Doors closing. vehicle 1 departing"
A man's voice could be heard from the speaker.
Finally on the move. I could feel the agitated Cyclops flailing around. They were breathing fine but couldn't see anything. Luckily no one was sitting next to me, I took Cuclops out. Not all the way but enough for them to observe.
I noticed a couple of things after interacting with cyclops. Like they expressed themselves by making pop sounds from their scale. They had strong control over it, capable of tweaking the volume depending on the situation. I also noticed they could understand me quite well, meaning it's actually an intelligent specie. Far more than any animal in the world. Not as intelligent as a human though but we can have a mutual understanding between us.
I also noticed a difference in my own body too. Like I don't feel hungry until cyclops attached to me. Not that I'm not hungry but I just can't feel it until we bond and share our need to eat with each other. The biggest difference is to my mind. The progress bar had changed; no longer can I fill it with work I do myself but it only responds to my interactions with cyclops. I guess my curiosity and obsession with a new wonderful creature had warped my mind.
I looked out the window and excitement was etched in my face.
"look cyclops an overview of the city"
I lifted cyclops to the window, they peeked out from within the wrapping cloth. The rail leading outside the city ran straight over the city itself. Showing a complicated and amazing pattern of interlocking roads and neatly packed high rise building of different shapes and aesthetic. The different wondrous technologies, like the air trapper and atmosphere regulators creating beautiful waves that are hardly visible to the eye but from this height and with this lighting, it becomes a sight to behold.
"Ah?!"
The bar went up.
I looked around to see if anyone was looking but no one was. No one is really amazed by the sight. Everyone is just looking forward to the next objective. I guess that will happen when every world problem is fixed.
"just do what you have to and you can keep enjoying this privileges huh"
This is why I moved to the city, there's always work to be done.
Well that means no need for "cradle cyclops". So I let them out from their fabric prison. Cyclops was scurried around. Jumping from one place to another. Cyclops ran its tail across my face as a sign of gratitude.
"Puh puh"
It got in my mouth.
Cyclops really uses his tail for everything. Lifting stuff, showing intimacy, hanging and I saw cyclops standing with it at some point this morning. It's so long but cyclops has full control over it, like an extra limb.
I tried to push cyclops tail off my face but if jumped to another part of my face. I tried again but the same thing.
"now, how about both hands"
I pulled my other hand out like some kind of hidden weapon and went to swatting. I tried and tried eventually it went from pushing away to actually grabbing the damn tail but I just couldn't catch it.
"How can I not be able to grab something so long. There's literally so much to grab"
Just as I got tired cyclops lightly rested their tail on my palm. I looked at cyclops and smiled, resting my head back and taking a breather…
Sike, I reached out for a sneak attack but still failed
"Damn!"
Some of the other passengers looked at me but I looked away like I didn't notice their gaze.
We played keep away for a while but eventually we got bored of it. After a bit of awkward silence and window gazing I got an idea. I decided to arm wrestle the tail to see how strong it was.
"Now at the count of 3 you'll try to push my hand down and I'll try to push your tail down. Whichever one touches the surface first loses. Ok?"
Cyclops nodded
"alright, 1... 2... 3"
KO
It was instantaneous.
"let's go again 1 2 3"
Not even a chance to flex a muscle.
"ok slowly this time this time. 1 2 3"
I tried my best to stop the descending tail but to no avail. I faired better than I thought though. I was able to muster up a lot of strength.
After that we played rock paper scissors. It was smart enough to use speed to their advantage. Since cyclops played with their tail we had to get creative with it. Flat tail means paper, rolled up tail means rock and two curves were scissors.
We played different games until we got tired and eventually dosed off. All the while the progress bar kept increasing. The progress was extremely fast and by the time We slept off it was all filled up.
We spent the rest of the ride asleep but luckily we didn't miss our stop. There was no road leading to the estate so we had to walk. It took a while but we got there. At least cyclops had a lot of fun stretching their legs but eventually they piggybacked off me.
We finally were met with a humble 2 story building. It is possibly the last of its kind. Grandpa really liked this house so much so he used the family inheritance to protect it. It was unheard of for a will to dub the inheritor a building but it didn't stop grandpa Francis.
Francis Yevià one of the richest man in the world gave all his inheritance and put all his businesses under his mansion. With this the government couldn't touch the building not even its backyard. He might sound like the worst grandfather in the world but there was a reason for this outcome. His son, my dad died at a young age leaving him with his grandson who left for the city. Though the option to sell the house still rests on me and that would revert all the fortune and businesses to me.
"home at last"
I was way too tired to move but I had to make some food. We haven't had anything since breakfast and it's already 9pm. I might not feel hungry but I'm sure I am. Luckily the kitchen and refrigerator was fully stocked. I picked out some things and made a fast meal and lots of it too. With the food done, Cyclops found his place on my forearm and the intense hunger emerged. I devoured it all. Luckily I found a bed this time.
…
…
…
As it stands Tenka never witnessed this part of the story but whether by luck or intervention at 10pm on the clock the world started to shake.
"What is going on?"
"An earthquake?"
"That should be impossible".
"Wait what is that?"
Far into the distance was dust cloud traveling towards the city.
"It couldn't possibly be a sandstorm"
AHHHH
The group heard a scream in the distance. They were still confused until they saw people pouring out from every corner.
"What's going on?"
They tried to ask but no one gave them even a look. They could tell though from their faces that it wasn't some kind of joke. Some buildings started to topple over. The ground started to split. The men kicked off running.
"Shawn don't look back, don't look back"
One of the men looked over at his friend who was totally overtaken by fear. He wanted to see what was happening behind him. Was he properly escaping or was he still in danger.
It was chaos. Buildings were collapsing on themselves. He tripped on a rubble and fell. (Damn it) he though protecting his head waiting for his death but them everything went quiet. He heard a voice.
"Are you alright?"
Shawn slowly opened his eyes and his friends were looking down at him. They were heavily out if breath and was constantly gasping for air. Shawn got up and was surprised by the image he saw.
"what the!"
The City that was filled with modern structures was filled with vines, bushes and trees. There were fields of grass as far as the eyes could see and all the buildings that fell and stood were covered up so thoroughly one would think they are natural hills and tiny mountains.
The inhabitants couldn't believe their eye and wondered why this was happening to them. Unfortunately, this wasn't just happening here, it was happening everywhere. They weren't all fields, some were forests, deserts, Oasis, mountains, volcanoes, large water bodies etc. Different natural terrains that has long been changed to be useful to humans are back and here to stay.