“Come on mate, I’ve got to get this to Mackadon by sixteen.” Joey Gruschwald grumbled, leaning out of his semi-truck window to glower at the police officer blocking his route.

“I’m sorry sir, this road is currently under a no travel order. A class 5 Rift entity has been recorded in the area.” Came the exasperated sigh of the police officer.

“And fahking what ye cunt? My boss wouldn’t care if it was a class 6, he’d still blow my ass out the fahkin’ wuhter if he’d heard I was a sehcond late.”

The officer sighed, struggling to keep his tone and expression neutral.

“I understand that sir, but I can’t allow you to drive through.” He said, his tone exceptionally even. “If I recall correctly, there’s another road that leads to Mackadon a little ways back.”

Joey rolls his eyes. “Alright mate. That’s almost three hundred kilometers, I might as well just head back to Sacison.”

“Then I suggest you do that sir.”

Almost as if highlighting the officer’s point, gunfire begins to ring in the distance. Joey raises an eyebrow, and the officer shrugs.

“Class 5.” Is all he says.

Joey huffs, and there’s a piercing beep, beep, beep as the truck reverses into a three point turn, before it drives off in the other direction.

“Fahkin blue boys, closin’ down highways.” He growls, tapping on his transceiver to make the call he dreads.

“Ah, Joey. What’s got you callin me?” Comes a voice over the line, just nasally enough to be aggravating. Leo’s fingers curl over his wheel until his knuckles turn white, but he at least makes an attempt to keep the annoyance out of his tone.

“Hey boss. Boys in blue closed down the route, cat 5 about apparently. I’m not gonna be able to make the delivery until at least twenty two.”

There’s a long pause, as the person on the other end of the call processes this.

“GOD DAMNIT JOEY, THIS IS YOUR THIR-”

“I’m sorry boss! It’s really out of my control. Take it up with the fahkin department ay?” Leo snaps, interrupting the voice, which falls silent for a time.

“Alright Jay. But one more FUCKING LATE DELIVERY, and you’re gone. Understand!?”

Joey sighs, his semi rumbling down the road. “Yeah boss, I got i- WOAH FAHKIN SHIT!

Suddenly a dark shape hurls itself in front of his semi, and before he can even stomp on the brakes the truck impacts against something solid, slamming his head forward as airbags deploy, the vehicle skidding to a halt.

“Joey? Joey, you alright?”

Joey sits hunched over in his seat, his knuckles white and tightly grasping the steering wheel as he gasps for air, eyes wide and straining to get a view of whatever it was he had just hit past his dashboard.

“I think I hit somethin boss. I’ll call ye back.” He says, frantically scrambling out of his seat and climbing out of the truck, his heavy frame heaving as he sucks in air wildly. He slowly approaches the front of his truck, dread growing in the pit of his stomach as a vivid scene of organs splashed along the highway and a carcass caught in the grills of his semi paints his mind.

Finally, Joey spots a limp form, lying still on the road.

Oh no.

The… kid, now that he’s gotten a closer look, that he hit is lying limp on the road, still breathing, but otherwise unmoving. For just a moment he feels the urge to call emergency services, but he knows it’d be faster to just drop the kid off at a hospital than the time it would take for an ambulance to arrive.

The question that comes next hangs heavier than anything else in his mind, like why the kid looked relatively fine - even if knocked out - despite having launched himself into a forty ton semi truck, or why there was a small wolf pup crawling out of a fleshy pouch on the kid’s back to lick his hair, was…

Why was he naked? And why were there so many tentacles around him?

-

Sniff.

It…

STINKS!

AWAKE! OUT OF STASIS!

It stinks so bad! Almost as much as porcupine prey!

“Woah, easy there mate. Ye took a nasty fahkin tumble.” A voice - a human voice - communicates to my left.

Wave tentacles, prepare for threat. Humans are always a threat. PIER-

But I pause.

I can feel… something odd resting on my skin. It is soft, but a different kind of soft from fur.

“... ah fahkin hell mate, glad I was right in assuming yeh were mutated.” The human says, completely undeterred by my tentacles. “No other way yeh survived diving in front of me truck like that. Had me right worried for nothin.”

… wait.

There’s… something familiar in the intruder’s way of communication. Something that reminds me of home.

Finally, I turn my head and wave eye tentacles to study this human.

Big human. Very big. Lots of biomass to offer. Fur (Hair, subtly different from fur in human anatomy) covers its arms and face.

Hungry.

Begin to move tentacles towards it…

“Well mate, seeing as you’re recovered well enough, I figure you’re pretty hungry. I’d be, takin a tumble like that.” The human says, and I pause. It offers me a… stick? But very short stick.

“Here ye go kiddo, oughta fill yeh up, least until we can get some decent food in ya.”

Food!? Where!? In the stick!?

The human passes it over to me, eyes focused ahead of it. I take the stick tentatively.

Sniff.

Sniff sniff.

Strange. It has very slight smell, but…

“What, you’re actin’ like you’ve never seen a protein bar before.” The human says, still not looking at me. But I can detect… amusement in its tone?

I didn’t even know humans could be amused. I thought it was all aggression.

Sniff.

Bite.

…

DELICIOUS!

WHAT IS THIS!?

TASTES SO GOOD!

“Thanks Doc!” I say, eating the rest.

Very happy.

Wiiigggle.

“Ha! I ain’t no doc, but glad ye like it. That’s my favourite brand” The human says, and I detect… satisfaction in its voice.

I finally recognize why this human reminds me of home.

It has the same communication patterns as Carl.

Wiggle.

Carl was a good human.Very rare. Unlike Mr. Standesh, bad human.

“More?” I ask, looking at the human, and it gives another breath burst of amusement.

“Sure, here you go kid.” It says, offering me another protein bar. EAT!

SO GOOD! And high in biomass, despite its small size!

Is this a human structure? Able to condense biomass into such a small form?

Ah, thinking of biomass… THE PUP!

STAR-READER GAVE ME THE PUP TO WATCH, WHERE IS IT!?

Ah, it is in stasis, to the rear of the human and me.

My biomass needs have been somewhat met, and the human has promised more food later.

Still.

Mmm…

I’ve reached a decision.

I will not eat the human! Its strange forms of offered biomass have been very interesting. I must wait to see what other forms of biomass and food it offers later.

More so, it reminds of Carl, and Doc. It’s offered me biomass, like the wolfpack.

So, with my current needs being met, I look around the space myself and the human are occupying.

It is… small. I have to keep my tentacles confined, otherwise they cover the space. There were three soft structures, two of which me and the human are resting on, and the other behind us that the pup is in stasis on.

But the most interesting thing is… this structure is fast.

I look outside - glass structure allows me to do so -, to see trees and grass move by faster than I can process.

This structure is moving at a speed faster than my fastest anatomy can, and for a much longer time.

Ah, the human is communicating.

“-en meaning to ask, what’s your name kid? Now that I’m not worried you’ll die on me anytime soon.”

I tilt my head. Confused.

“Name?”

“Yeah, your name.”

Hmm…

The pack gave names to their members to identify their place in the pack, or because of their Core ability. They gave me one, but was that truly my name? Humans had been calling me X1 for a much longer time than the pack has called me Shape-Changer.

But I also don’t like that I was named by humans. Even if this one is… friendly, the others have brought nothing but pain to my body and brain.

“... don’t have a name.” I say eventually.

The human looks at me from the corner of its eyes, before shrugging. “Ooookay. Well, no-name, we’re almost at a good ol’ Jodie’s.” The human falls into silence for a bit. “Mine’s Joey, by the way. But yeh can call me Jay.” Jay says, hands moving. Strange, the structure we’re in turn one way, but our bodies try to continue moving in our previous direction.

The pup wakes, coming out of stasis, mewling for more biomass. I send a tentacle to it, sharing some of this… protein bar’s biomass with it.

The structure stops, and I look outside of the glass to see an even larger structure, where more humans are sitting and eating.

HUNGRY! ATTEMPT TO CRAWL OUT OF THE WINDOW!

“Ah ah ah, not so fast kiddo.” Joey says, grabbing one of my tentacles, and I glare at him.

Annoyed.

“I didn’t wanna dress yeh all up, but yeh’ve gotta put at least some clothes on.” Joey says, and I look between his body and mine.

Mmm…

His body has armor on it, while mine is just barely covered by a different kind of armor. Or maybe it’s skin, based on how soft it is?

“I’ve got some pants for yeh here mate, put ‘em on and we can go get some ungal and waffles.” Joey communicates, offering me more skin. I look at it, then at him.

“Oh, and put your tentacles away. That’ll scare most of the blokes in there right silly.”