The Changeling: A Quest For Time

Chapter 13: Understanding Transformations/ Understanding Humans

The sounds of the raindrops falling onto the window sill still reverberated across the room as Anita calmly gazed at the darkness filed scenery in front of her.

Her face had such a calm visage that one could not predict the turbulent thoughts that churned within her head. The rain drenched her body and completely healed her wounds while also refreshing her mind.

Her head was calm but her brain was rapidly processing one situation after another as all possibilities played as a simulation in her mind. Her thoughts were like the lightning that streaked across the mighty skies as she observed the scenery that was presented before her, analyzing even the minute details that could help her deduction.

A small lawn appeared before her which was filled with short trimmed grass that gently swayed with the wind and rain. There were a few decorative plants, some of which had sprouted some flower buds while others had flowers in full bloom.

There was a compound wall at the very end that was 5 feet in height over which a faint light shone like a beacon in the darkness. It seemed as if the lights had been switched ON in their neighbour's house.

There were some feathers that drifted about on the puddles which formed due to the rainwater that had accumulated above the trimmed grass to a considerable level due to uneven ground.

Anita saw a trail of feathers on the grass near her window all the way to the window of their living room.

The wire mesh that was used on the window wasn’t as damaged as she had imagined. There was only a hole that was wide enough for her to walk through; it wasn’t big enough for the owl to enter unless it tried to squeeze through into it in desperation.

Her heart was relit with hope as Anita further observed the hole in the mesh. There were traces of red coloured blood around its edges, not purple.

“Maybe they entered the house through the other window?” Anita thought as she clenched her fists until her nails tore into her palm. This level of suspense was taking a heavy toll on her mental health.

She would rather fight against 10 Shaggies than search around aimlessly with no way of confirming her child’s safety and well-being. She wanted to see her son again, alive.

'Dong' 'Dong'... 'Dong'

Anita heard seven consecutive chimes from their wall clock in the living room that was loud enough to be heard even from this adjacent room.

“Seven…?” It took some time for Anita to register this fact in her head. The clock had chimed seven-times; this meant that it was now only 7:00 PM.

“How could it be possible?” Anita muttered out in disbelief. It was 6:00 PM when they first noticed the time. Then, she and Prakash immediately fainted. After that, they gained consciousness a while later, switched on the switch to the TV in the living room to get some light and entered into the adjacent room in search for their son.

They fought for a very long time against the horde of ants, scaled up the bed, fought against another horde, and suffered various injuries. They then fought with another horde after jumping down from the bed and finally began to climb up the bookshelf.

So many incidents happened, so many battles were fought and a long time had elapsed after Anita fainted due to exhaustion and upon reaching her physical limits. But, ever since they had noticed the time displayed on the wall clock first, only an hour seemed to have elapsed?

“Maybe it's 7:00 AM in the morning or 7 PM in the evening a day later?” Anita tried to guess but refuted her first thought immediately. In their city, the sun would have long since risen by the time it was 7:00 AM. It wouldn’t be as dark as it was now even if thick dark clouds had blocked the sun. But, she had no methods currently available with her to verify her thoughts.

Maybe, if she were to look at the date displayed in her wristwatch that was kept in the living room, she would finally be able to confirm her guesses. It would have to wait though.

As she began to feel chillness all over her body due to being drenched in the rain for so long, Anita entered the hole in the mesh and walked on the top of the wooden surface of the bookshelf.

She was completely drenched and her body shivered due to the cold. Anita tried to warm herself up as she began to descend through the hole along the contours of the wall of the fourth row of the bookshelf.

While she was slowly descending, Anita adjusted her mindset to be exactly the same as when she had climbed up. She began to sequentially think about all the ants that she had faced off against till now and eventually met with success. She could finally perceive the workings of the purple mist this time.

Purple mist seeped out from the pores of her body, entered into the ant tattoo on her right arm that made it shine with a bright purple hue. The purple mist then entered through her body by using the ant tattoo as the doorway, looping around her body once and condensed in the region around her palms and the soles of her feet.

Soon, hair-like appendages grew out from her palms and the soles of her feet. The entire process spanned about 2 seconds. These 2 seconds felt like an eternity to Anita as she clearly observed everything that had transpired within her.

Anita slowly placed her hands on the wooden walls as she felt it magically stick to the wooden surface and then gradually proceeded to apply more of her body weight to them. Anita felt astonished at the fact that she could now stick on the wall like a lizard.

“Oops” Within a single second, Anita noticed that the number next to Ant in the ‘Karma’ attribute displayed in her ‘Record’ had decreased by 10. Anita quickly descended to the ground and tried to will the hair-like appendages to be absorbed back into her body.

Thankfully, she succeeded this time as the hair-like appendages were absorbed into her body without trouble and the purple mist seeped into the ant tattoo.

Anita came to the edge of the row and proceeded to descend down to the lower row in the same manner. It took 4-5 seconds of her full concentration to activate the transformation which further took 2 more seconds to form and begin to display its effect.

As Anita descended to the floor of the second row of the bookshelf, she became horrified at the sight of a figure that floated in the air as a refill pierced through his back.

“Prakash!” Anita rushed towards Prakash and carefully lifted him up and then proceeded to remove the refill from his back.

His body was cold to the touch but Anita could still feel a faint pulse. She immediately placed him in a small stream of water that was flowing a few centimetres away from her.

The water began to work its magic as Prakash’s body began to heal. Anita then scooped out some fresh rainwater and poured it in Prakash’s mouth. As his unconscious self was unable to swallow the water in his mouth, Anita had to place her mouth on his and apply pressure. She repeatedly kept pouring mouthfuls of water into his mouth using the same method and then proceeded to treat the injuries on other parts of his body.

“Y-You would be fine. Don’t give up dear.” Anita constantly muttered words of encouragement into his ears as she nursed him.

There was a gaping hole in his back that had almost pierced its way through his stomach. She could also see ink that was smeared on his muscles and internal organs that had probably leaked out from the refill. The refills they were using as weapons weren't empty refills, so when it had pierced through Prakash’s back, some of the ink seeped into his flesh.

Anita turned Prakash’s body till he faced the floor and his back faced upwards as Anita began to nurse the gaping wound. She first patiently cleaned the ink that was smeared on the muscles and organs with water. Every time she cleaned the ink, new traces of ink appeared on the cleaned spot. It seemed that some of the ink had mixed with the blood. Moreover, she had to patiently concentrate at the wound to differentiate between the blue ink and the purple blood.

Her hands shivered every time she poured water into the wound as she could clearly see his twitching organs and convulsing flesh through the hole.

“Get up Prakash!...Get up…please…please get up…get up.” Anita began to weep uncontrollably as she hugged his unconscious body. She had a total mental breakdown.

Even if she had a heart of steel; confusion, fear, despair, constant battles, exhaustion, losing her only son and finally finding her husband in a critically injured condition affected her more than she could ever endure.

She longed for a day to be united with her family once again. Arguing about petty subjects, teasing her adorable son and occasionally showering her husband with love was everything she ever needed in her life.

Before she knew it, Anita had long since fallen asleep due to her mental exhaustion. She actually used the patient that she was nursing as her body pillow. She needed warmth and the familiar warmth that was now radiating from Prakash’s healing body seemed to gradually relax her tensed nerves.

…

In a certain battleship 60 kilometres to the northwest of West Guardian Island, a desperate struggle ensued.

“Ack”

“Run…”

“Monster!”

Dozens of humanoid figures scurried about in the complicated pipelines and hallways of a ship as a huge humanoid figure that was tens of times bigger than the scurrying figures nonchalantly walked around.

Occasionally, the giant humanoid figure would stretch its hand into a crevice and pull out a tiny screaming humanoid figure and lock it inside a small cage on its wide back.

‘Bang’

The sound of a gunshot reverberated through the hallways as a bullet collided against the giant and managed to stop it in its tracks. Unfortunately, the giant was uninjured due to its armour that stopped the bullet and also managed to absorb all the momentum that the bullet had accumulated in its path.

‘Bang’

Another gunshot sound echoed in the metallic hallways as a second bullet hit the cage behind the giant and broke it enough for the tiny munchkins inside to escape.

“Interesting! This would be a first-hand experience to understand a human's wisdom at waging wars. Moreover, these soldiers should have been the best of the lot.” Wutak exclaimed as he gazed at a couple of humans who had huddled above a pistol that was 3 times bigger than their bodies and once again fired another bullet towards him.