The Changeling: A Quest For Time

Chapter 16: Encountering a Feline

“Dear!” Anita rushed to hold the body of Prakash as she looked at him in worry. She was worried that something irreversible might happen to him if she left him as is.

The growth of the two appendages on Prakash’s forehead stopped the moment he had fainted but didn't seem to have any intention of shrinking or disappearing into a poof of purple smoke.

Anita carefully touched one of the appendages and noticed that the appendage felt like a tube of fatty tissues that were wrapped around by a layer of skin.

“Hmm…?” As Anita took a closer look at the appendage, she noticed faint traces of purple smoke that were each thinner than a hair steadily flowing through the skin section on Prakash’s forehead and pass into the appendage. The two appendages retained a faint purple glow as small hair-like projections further grew on them.

As Anita felt perplexed about finding a solution to resolve Prakash’s dangerous state, she saw, much to her relief that the small hair-like projections retracted into the appendages in a matter of seconds which were followed by the shrinking of the appendages themselves.

A few seconds later, the forehead of Prakash reverted back to being normal, as if the two appendages never existed there in the first place.

“Guh…” 3 seconds later, a pair of eyes shot open as the sky blue coloured irises within enlarged to absorb more of the ambient light.

“I …am fine.” Prakash tried to reassure the worried Anita as he tried to get up with her help. His entire body was drenched with sweat and the moment he tried to recall that memory, he was immediately greeted with a splitting headache, one that served to overwhelm his senses yet again.

“Dear, take a look at your ‘Record’ and see if there are any changes to it.” Anita implored.

“Alright,” Prakash nodded in response, held the extended hand of Anita as he got up and stood straight, even though there was a slight wobble in his legs.

As he willed it, purple smoke seeped out of the pores on his skin and coagulated into a screen before his face, visible only to him.

[Strength: 12.01]

[Agility: 9.09]

[Toughness: 10.12]

[Reaction: 10.04]

[Perception: 35]

[Karma: Mosquito-3 (0.00%)

                Ant-241 (1.00%)]

His ‘Record’ displayed various attributes like always, but Prakash was puzzled as he noticed the sharp decrease in the numbers beside the ‘Ant’ in his karma attribute. He immediately relayed all the details to Anita as the couple began to brainstorm all the possibilities that might have led to such a situation.

They felt that the way in which their minds sought out something unrealistic as well as the strong thoughts that accompanied them served to act as the stimulus to their transformations.

The hair-like projections that grew on the soles of her feet and her palms occurred when she tried to climb faster along the walls of the bookshelf. The process of her climb was similar to the way in which ants traversed along the walls; the decrease in the numbers next to the 'Ant' in her 'Record' was a testament to this possibility.

Similarly, as Prakash tried to observe the details of the numerous ant carcasses, his bizarre transformation got triggered; just that they were confused as to why his head felt such intense pain.

“If we were to assume these bizarre transformations to be similar to the Ants, then yours was similar to the hair-like projections on its limbs and mine seems to be similar to their antennae.” Prakash came to a conclusion. The more he thought about it, the more he felt the absurdity of his theory.

“We’ll take our time to further investigate it. It’s way too risky to blindly approach such a sensitive subject that has too many unknown variables. We can’t endanger our lives recklessly when we have yet to find Akash.” Anita concealed her turbulent emotions as she proceeded to walk towards their living room, a sense of urgency clearly present in her gait.

…

“I-Is this Diana’s footprint?” There was unconcealed joy in her eyes as she gazed at the trail of watermarks that were in the shape of a human foot. The footprints began from one of the window sills of the living room, traversed down the walls and continued for a few feet further down the living room.

The footprints were thick near the window sill due to the large amount of water that got latched on the floor after each step and they began to decrease in thickness after each subsequent step until they had vanished completely.

“Dear! They are alive! My son’s still alive!” Anita exclaimed in joy as she kneeled before the footprint of water and caressed it. It seemed as if she could feel the presence of her son just by touching one of the footprints.

“Hahaha. A one-year-old kid he may be but he’s resilient. He’s my son after all!” Prakash roared in happiness. His back seemed to have subconsciously straightened out as formless confidence radiated from him.

All thoughts of doubt, uncertainty, and indecisiveness had just vanished out as a puff of smoke as Anita reverted back to being her previous self; a gallant tigress that shall never shy away in the face of any challenge, no matter how impossible to scale it may be.

As if they had aged in the reverse, the couple sprinted along the path traversed by the footprints and proceeded to continue along the general direction after the footprints had ended, or possibly evaporated.

“I have a hunch that Diana may have climbed the stairs. Seeing as how her footprints were on the wall along the window sill, there’s a high possibility that she might have figured out a method to climb that is similar to my own.” Anita said.

“You seem to have quite the confidence in that slacker of a brat, don’t you?” Prakash muttered.

Anita just laughed in response when their surroundings lit up once again, in the same manner that it had occurred till now.

“What is even happening out there?” Prakash enclosed his hands over his face to shield his eyes from the sudden increase in the intensity of the ambient light since the only source of light in their living room was from the TV to which their eyes got accustomed to.

3 seconds later, the ambient light that felt similar to that of the Dusk died out, but before the couple could sigh in relief, their surroundings lit up once again. The couple immediately blocked their ears as they awaited for the next impactful segment.

‘Boom’

‘B-Boom’

Two thunderous sounds, as if two huge volcanoes had erupted sounded out as their surroundings began to shake in response.

“Aaaa…”

“Heok”

The couple lost their footing and fell on the floor as the very ground beneath them seemed to be…shaking.

“An earthquake?” Anita mumbled in surprise as her body rolled on the floor in response to the intense rumbling that threw her off balance.

“This isn’t an earthquake-prone region,” Prakash shouted as one of his hands sent a slap to face when his body rolled on the floor like a boat that tried to stay afloat in the turbulent seas during high tide.

Their TV fell down on the floor and fumes blazed out of it amidst multiple sparks; it had broken down. As their only source of light got destroyed, the living room was plunged into absolute darkness.

…

“Ahh…Anita. Where are you?” Prakash called out as he searched for her figure in the darkness. They had been separated by some distance due to the earthquake.

“I…..I’m here.” A voice returned from the surrounding darkness as Prakash tried to run in the approximate direction of the source.

He took two steps and fell down; his entire body wasn’t in sync with his brain due to the earthquake.

Prakash got up once again, took a couple of steps forward, fell on his butt, got up again and then fell flat on his face.

Finally, after numerous shouts to determine the location of each other amidst many rubble that included glass pieces, stationery items, wood, etc. two weary bodies finally found themselves in the warm embrace of the other.

“Let’s go.” The couple regained their bearings as they sought to go towards the flight of stairs at one end of the living room.

They hardly had sufficient ambient light in the surroundings to differentiate different objects, but after their irises had enlarged to their limits, the couple could finally make out faint traces of their surroundings and manoeuvre through all the debris.

“Meooow”

“Meoorrw”

Three kittens, each being only half the size of a regular cat suddenly ran through the door. The biggest of the lot was only about 8 centimetres in height while the smallest was just 6 centimetres in height.

They dashed through the door in a straight line, one behind the other like a train, seemingly in a hurry. It seemed that their destination was the flight of stairs, the very same that the couple were intent on climbing up.