'Man I'm cold.' I thought while shivering violently.
I wasn't sure why I was shivering though. I thought I was in my bed but maybe I had kicked off my covers. I tried reaching for it by my arms wouldn't move, they were too stiff, but moving them made me realize that I was completely sapped of strength.
'What's going on?' I huffed and puffed like I had just ran a marathon. I kept gasping for breath but my lungs refused to take in the oxygen. My frustration quickly turned into fear. Was I suffocating? I don't want to die. What was going on?
The shivering only made the pain worse. Did I have hypothermia? How was that possible? I tried to think back to what I could have possibly done to result in such a state but I came up with nothing. Mostly because I couldn't remember anything!
It was like my memory bank just got wiped, terrifying me even more. I didn't have any knowledge of personal events or people, yet I knew a whole bunch of general knowledge, probably from school and reading, and it was the only thing left inside my mind. Even so, that didn't explain how I could lose the rest of my memories.
'Well, I can't do anything myself, so maybe I can call for someone.'
"Kwoo..." I squeaked pitifully.
I quickly went silent. 'Was that me?!' That did not sound like me. It sounded more like a dying animal. I tried opening my eyes to see what was around me, maybe I could reach my phone to call 911. However everything was too blurry. All my senses were dulled to the point that they didn't exist, but I could feel water splash against me.
Was it raining? In my room? I'm so confused. My head hurt from the stress and pain coursing through my body. I tried to relax as much as possible, only for a nasty shiver to make it worse again.
'Damn, am I really going to die in this sorry state?' I closed my eyes, ready to accept my fate just as my ears perked up at some sounds in the distance. No clue what they were, but I could only hope they were my family or someone I knew.
"Kwooo...!" I forced another squeak out of me.
It was embarrassing to hear such a cute noise come out of me but it was better than nothing. The noise grew louder and louder until I could hear the splashing of water close by.
"Oh you poor thing!" a childish voice called out.
'Yes, yes poor me. You gonna help?' I complained to myself since I couldn't muster the strength to speak anymore.
I couldn't even make out who they were except for a blurry figure so I could only hope they were friendly and not try to take advantage of me somehow.
"Lady Kyra! You can't just run off like that! The forest is full of dangerous creatures!" I next heard an older man's voice.
'Well at least there seems to be an adult here. No offense kid, but I don't trust you.' With the two blurry figures in my vision, I could see them conversing, disregarding my fading life.
"But its hurt Mr. Herald! I have to save it!" the Kyra girl seemed determined to help me it seemed, but she still wasn't moving. 'Chop chop please! Dying over here!'
"You don't need to save every animal you come across my Lady," Herald responded, "Sometimes nature just has to take its course."
'Animal? How dare you! I know I may not be as clean shaven as I should be, but that's because I've been trying to grow it out. I swear! And please don't take me down to the farm, I'm not ready to die.'
"B-But! Its cute and I promise to take care of it! Pretty please?" Kyra pleaded.
I could imagine the puppy dog eyes she was giving despite my vision fading even more. I was still desperately gasping for air yet these two were just talking like I was some toy in a gift shop. It made me want to pummel them but I could hardly open my eyes at this point, let alone raise a fist.
*sigh* "Fine... but Lady Kyra, this creature is already on its last legs it seems. There is no guarantee that it will survive. Please don't be too disappointed if it doesn't survive."
"Thank you Mr. Herald! I promise to take good care of it and nurse it back to health!" The girl seemed giddy.
'Oh yay, whoopie. Will you please save me now?' I watched the Herald guy turn around and run away from my vision. I had no idea where he was going and the little girl just continued to stare at me it seemed but I already gave up on them.
They took way too long to make a decision. 'My eyes are so heavy, I'm just so tired. My chest hurts and my whole body is numb. This is definitely the end.' Succumbing to the cold, I shut my eyes closed for good.
As my consciousness faded, I seemed to have missed the point where they wrapped me in a warm cloth and took me out of the rain.
- - -
A loud noise woke me up from a pretty good dream. I instantly forgot what it was about though, frustrating the hell out of me but I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Maybe I could somehow find my way back to dreamland.
However, more loud noises kept me from going back to sleep at all. I grumbled to myself as I slowly opened my eyes. I was facing the corner where the walls of a room met. The moments in the rain came rushing back to me, making me move my body out of concern.
Thankfully, my arms and legs moved with only soreness bothering me.
'Great. They put me on the floor. At least they gave me a blanket.' I thought as I felt a fuzzy piece of fabric covering my body. I was much warmer than before and my vision was clearer now.
*Bang!* Another loud noise made me jump and I scrambled to turn around. I found myself in a pretty luxurious room with smooth wooden floors, fancy carpets and furniture, and a queen sized bed with tons of blankets and pillows on it. A large wooden closet was also standing tall not too far from the wall opposite of the bed.
There were a pair of giant windows on the wall closest to me with a set of doors opposite it. I noticed that there were a lot of children's toys around the room. An old rocking horse, blocks and other wooden toys, and lots and lots of stuffed animals.
They were everywhere, cute plushies of various creatures, decorating the room. 'Was this that Kyra girl's room? They let her take care of me? Scary, but at least she seemed to do a good job.' Children weren't always the most responsible when it came to pets, who knows how much help she got from that Herald guy but at least I'm alive.
I kept looking around but I wasn't able to see anything that might have made that loud noise. While that was a bit concerning, I became more concerned by my perspective of the room. To put it simply, I was short. REALLY short.
I couldn't see anything at the very center of the bed, but I could see under it just fine. The ceiling felt extremely tall, as well as the windows and the doors. Everything felt way bigger than it should have been.
I tried getting up, but the height change was negligible. Also, why is it so hard to move? I felt like I couldn't stretch my arms out very much, they were very close together and when I moved, I had to move slow otherwise I'd fall down.
And when I fell, that was scary too. A dull thud would echo in the room like a heavy book was dropped flat on the ground and I found myself rolling slightly, struggling to get back to my feet. It was more frustrating than anything but when I looked down at my body, my eyes shot open.
'What the heck are these?!' I toppled over and rolled around as a pair of four-toed claws flailed around. Looking down was another set of claws with my belly being covered in fur. One way or another, I somehow controlled a tail with small spikes that jutted out of my butt.
I had a hard time turning my head in all directions except down toward my belly. The restrictions on my body were annoying since I couldn't see my back, where it seemed the problem originated from. Luckily, there was a full length mirror in the room so I scampered over as fast as I could, trying to keep myself upright.
My clawed limbs tapping against the hardwood only hammering in how real this all was. Despite being in an unrecognizable body, it felt like me. It was hard to explain. It became even harder to explain just what was going on as I gazed at myself in the mirror.
"Kwoo?!
'I'm an Armadillo!' I thought, staring at the little armored one staring back at me.