The Hidden Kingdom

a

Trust Machines story

by

clancy688

"You're actually serious, aren't you?" Steve asked his wife Amanda. She didn't answer. They'd been married for long enough that she knew when Steve was awaiting an answer or when he was simply asking rhetorical question. "I'd thought that your shark-fantasy had been just a tiny little bit crazy, but this is in an entirely different league." 

"Hey!" Amanda retorted. "That was awesome. And don't forget the time you spent as a dolphin. If the shark was crazy, then why not the dolphin?" 

Now Steve actually grinned. "You've seen this fun-swim competition on TV, haven't you? There was one dolphin racing as well. He even won! They wouldn't have shown his change when it would've been crazy. But there were no full sharks. So sharks must be crazy." contentedly he leaned back on his chair and twinkled impishly at Amanda, waiting for her reaction to his reasoning. 

She simply snorted. "The only crazy thing here is your reasoning and you know it. You're just screwing with me, aren't you?" 

"Foey. We've been married for too long, you can read me like an open book. Bring me the divorce papers at once, before you discover the three affairs I'm currently running!"

To this, Amanda couldn't do other than to laugh and Steve joined in. But then he sobered up.

"No, really. I'll do what you want, but where did you get the idea anyway? I'd thought that your encounter in the forest last month had given you a terrible scare, and this involves way worse dangers. You do know that, do you?" 

Amanda pondered this question for a moment, thinking about how she'd be responding best. 

She'd always been fascinated by the thought of becoming a shark, and when Services Unlimited had transformed her into one for a day last year, her life long's dream had been realized. But afterwards, she'd become even more curious. True, a shark transformation was still her biggest dream and she waited eagerly for the day when she could repeat it. On the other hand... there were enough other animal species out there, many of them being way easier to change into using a Venn Machine than a shark. A dog, for example, didn't have to care about such trifling problems like finding saltwater. 

So several months after her adventure, she'd begged Steve to transform her into an animal again and he'd spent the weekend with his new pet, a cuddly cat. From there on, she'd tried several animal forms. Aside from having been a cat, she'd become a dog, a pet pony and a parrot. Always staying inside the house. 

That was until she'd wanted to become a real, wild animal. Like the shark she'd been. So Steve had transformed her into a doe last month and she'd set out into the nearby woods. The transformation had been set for 24 hours, but six hours before she would have transformed back, she'd encountered a hunter. 

It had been a mistake not to check beforehand when hunting season would begin, but in hindsight, the mistakes are always clear to see. 

She'd been roaming through the undergrowth when suddenly an invisible hammer had punched her in the flank. The rolling thunder which had followed had made abundantly clear what had happened and panicked, she'd tried to escape. She'd barely made ten yards when she had tasted something metallic on her tongue and her legs had failed her. 

Of course she'd known that she wouldn't 'die', that even a corpse would transform back into her true, living body once the duration of change would be over, but that wasn't particularly comforting when you were lying in the mud, feeling the incredible pain, feeling your life flowing out of your body and realizing how your heartbeat was getting weaker and weaker. Thankfully, it hadn't taken long, and after less than five minutes, relieving darkness had encompassed her.

Thanks to the Trust Machine's peculiarities, she'd still been 'conscious' in her dead body, but the pain had been gone and at least her eyes had closed upon dying. She'd 'awakened' six hours later in front of a startled hunter who'd apparently just wanted to start eviscerating her body. Amanda still silently thanked her creator that he hadn't started an hour earlier, otherwise she'd have been in for some very unpleasant experiences. The hunter had been helpful, even driving her to the point where she'd wanted to meet with Steve, but of course he had been a little bit miffed that his Sunday roast had literally evaporated away from him. 

Of course the experience had upset her. She'd practically died! And that had been her last trip into the animal kingdom. At least until now. Truth to tell, she hadn't been that upset by the unwanted experience. It had shaken her for a couple of days, but afterwards she'd been fine. Apparently it differed from human to human how you could handle the experience of 'dying' while venned. There were many who, like Amanda, could simply store away such an episode under 'memory, unpleasant, one', but there were also people who couldn't.

Her aunt Alysha was one of those poor few. She'd been a male version of herself when her car had crashed and she'd been trapped in the wreckage, slowly being burnt alive. She'd become totally catatonic after the accident, and now, six months later, there was still no improvement in sight. 

But the real reason that Amanda hadn't transformed into an animal anymore actually was that by now, she thought of it to be boring. True, her body and senses were different, for example as a doe, but they were still amply familiar and she still had four limbs. She was missing the exhilaration of otherness, something she'd had during her shark adventure.

And then, last weekend, she'd zapped through her TV's channels until she'd stopped at a National Geographic documentation. It had been called 'The Tiny Kingdom', in reference to the 'Animal Kingdom', and it had covered the smallest of animals - insects and other arthropods. And as she'd watched the show, a tiny thought had popped up in her mind. How would it feel being an insect? 

At first, she hadn't thought much about it. But then, over the days, the thought had grown and Amanda had become more and more curious. Until she'd come to the decision to try it out. She'd pondered another two days over the question which insect she wanted to become. She wanted to savor the experience, and she certainly didn't want to be eaten by some bird after barely five minutes. So she'd decided to become an insect which could stay in the house and wouldn't have natural predators in this environment. 

What she'd chosen had therefore been the American Cockroach. She'd researched this little nuisance and had been very impressed by the multitude of senses a roach had. Being such a tiny critter would certainly be interesting. The only thing which had been missing to implement her plan had been getting someone into the boat who would transform her and then bring her back into the house. Her husband Steve, of course. 

"I didn't stop changing into animals because of the shock." she said now truthfully. "I did it because it became boring. And the shock? Well..." she shrugged, "...it was a shock, but I'd coped with it in a matter of days. One unpleasant experience among many, no harm done." 

"And you thought becoming a cockroach might be more interesting than being a doe? You know, I think that's where you're definitely right." 

"So you'll do it?" Amanda asked hopefully, perking up. 

Steve exhaled a half amused, half irritated sigh. "Yes, I will. You'll probably pester me for weeks to come if I say no. Although I have to confess that I'm not that keen on having a cockroach roaming around in our home, even when this specific cockroach turns out to be my lovely wife."