"It's dark… where am I? …. Shivam…..Zooper….Mansi…..? Where are you…?"
A wave of disorientation crashed over him. He was enveloped in a suffocating blackness, a void that pressed in on his senses. Panic, cold and sharp, began to claw at the edges of his awareness.
[I can't move my body. Am I still in the car? …] The last coherent memory was the sickening lurch, the feeling of weightlessness, and then… nothing.
"He woke up. Wait… what… really?"
A rough voice, tinged with disbelief, drifted from somewhere outside his immediate perception. He tried to lift a hand, to signal his awareness, but a profound lack of energy held his limbs captive. His arm fell back with a heavy thud, but before it could strike the grimy surface beneath him, another presence intervened, catching his wrist with surprising gentleness.
"I'm here… I'm just here with you, Muda."
A soft voice, like the rustle of dry leaves, barely registered in his ears, his senses still dulled and unresponsive. "Who…are you….?" He managed to croak out, his throat raw and unused. Not a single muscle in his body seemed willing to obey his commands.
"Me. It's me….Ritso."
[Ritso who? Where am I? What is she talking about?] The name was utterly unfamiliar, devoid of any resonance within the fog of his memory.
The sudden, shocking splash of mud-laden water across his face jolted him into a semblance of consciousness. He gasped, his senses slowly returning, allowing him to tentatively perceive his surroundings. He could barely manage to move his eyes, his neck stiff and protesting, but he managed to take in the squalid reality. He was sitting, slumped against a damp, slime-covered wall, within the confines of what appeared to be a large sewer pipe. The air was thick with the cloying stench of decay and excrement. With a monumental effort, he turned his head and saw the girl holding a flickering torch, its meager flame the sole source of illumination in the oppressive darkness. She looked utterly exhausted, her breath coming in ragged gasps. A thick layer of coarse fur covered most of her body, and her facial structure was distinctly bovine, with a pair of curved horns protruding from her forehead. A heavy, metallic collar encircled her neck, thick chains dangling from it. Her hands, ending in cloven hooves, emitted a soft, ethereal green glow that seemed to radiate a faint warmth, a small spark of comfort in the overwhelming misery.
[Ahhhhh, what is this thing? What is she doing…? I feel…b..be.. better.] A subtle easing of the aches and pains that wracked his body seemed to coincide with the glow emanating from her hooves.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision, to dispel the notion that this was some bizarre hallucination. He rubbed his eyes roughly, but the strange, furry creature with glowing hooves remained. Then, a sharp, stinging sensation sliced across his eyebrow. "Ahhh!"
He instinctively raised his hand, bringing it into the torchlight. His eyes widened in horrified disbelief. Instead of the familiar human hand, he saw four elongated fingers ending in wickedly sharp claws, the skin around them covered in hard, red scales. It was these scales that had scraped against his brow.
"Hey, what are you doing? You're hurting yourself!" Ritso exclaimed, her voice laced with concern.
His vision began to swim, the edges blurring as a searing pain erupted in his eyes. He could feel a burning sensation spreading rapidly from the cut on his eyebrow, as if some potent venom was coursing through his veins. "Aaaahhhhhh, my eye… ahhhhhhhh!"
Ritso swiftly hovered one of her glowing hooves over his injured eye, the green light intensifying. Simultaneously, she placed a surprisingly heavy leg across his lap, pinning him in place. "Stay still, Muda."
"Who are you? Why are you helping me? Where am I?" he stammered, his voice filled with a desperate confusion.
"Shut the fuck up!" Her soft voice was abruptly replaced by a harsh, guttural snarl that cut through his panicked questions. "I'm trying to help you… Why have you always been like this? Why can't you just stay still when I tell you to?"
He fell silent, his body rigid, as she continued to focus the green glow on his injured eye. The burning sensation gradually subsided, replaced by a dull ache.
[What happened? I remember drinking beer when it felt like the car was falling. Where did I come from and how? Why is she calling me 'Muda'? Who is Muda? Such a stupid name.]
His mind raced, trying to piece together the fragmented remnants of his memory, but the last few moments before the darkness consumed him remained frustratingly elusive.
After a few tense seconds, Ritso pulled back her glowing hoof and began to direct the energy towards other parts of his body, where he hadn't even realized he was injured. He finally managed to turn his head to the left and saw a small figure huddled silently in the shadows. It was a child, with distinctly feline ears twitching atop its head, and a metallic collar identical to Ritso's encircling its small neck. "Mhmmm, who are you guys?" he mumbled, his voice still weak.
Ritso roughly grasped his chin, forcing him to look directly at her. He saw tears welling up in her large, brown eyes. "What are you saying? You don't remember who you are, or who we are? Did those bastards beat your brain out for good this time or something?"
"What are you talking about? This is just a dream… yeah, a dream…" he insisted, his voice barely a whisper. "I think… I need to sleep." With that feeble declaration, he squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to retreat into the oblivion of sleep, but the overwhelming stench of his surroundings and the throbbing pain in his head kept him tethered to this bizarre reality.
Then, like a dam bursting, fragmented memories flooded his mind. Glimpses of a brutal past, returning in a chaotic rush, each fleeting image accompanied by a visceral echo of pain and suffering. He saw himself, but… different. He saw Ritso and the cat-eared child, but in contexts he couldn't fully grasp. The volume of information overwhelms him. He began to thrash, his arms and legs slamming against the grimy floor in a desperate attempt to escape the onslaught of unwelcome recollections. A heavy, armored tail, which he hadn't even consciously registered possessing, slammed against the curved wall of the sewer pipe behind him with a dull thud. "Ahhhhhhgggggghgg!"
Ritso panicked, her eyes wide with fear as she tried to understand what was happening to him. She frantically rubbed his scaled claws, murmuring soothing words, trying to offer some semblance of comfort. "What's happening to you, Muda?"
She glanced at the small, cat-eared child huddled in the corner. "Hey Kelly, hold him, but try not to touch his skin directly!" The child, Kelly, nodded silently and cautiously used a dirty, tattered blanket to restrain his flailing left arm.
"Beast Will: Mass Ignition!"
With those words, Ritso's eyes flared with an intense, crimson light for a fleeting second. Her body began to visibly expand, her muscles bulging, her frame growing larger with alarming speed. Her transformation abruptly halted when her neck reached a thickness that caused her metallic collar to dig painfully into her flesh. Her hooves shifted, the cloven parts merging and elongating, becoming more akin to human-like palms. With surprising strength, she grabbed his shoulders, practically straddling him, pinning him firmly to the ground. Her grip, even against his scales, felt like it was threatening to crush his bones.
He groaned In agony. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh my head… stop this. Please, I'm begging you… please…" With a final surge of power, she used her now larger, sharper horns to wedge his head firmly between them, effectively immobilizing him. "Ehhhhhhh mhmmmmmmm…" he whimpered, his breath catching in his throat.
Her voice, now deeper and resonating with a primal power, rumbled close to his ear. "Calm down, Muda. Whatever is happening to you is not helping us."
After a few agonizing minutes, his thrashing subsided. He lay there, panting heavily, his eyes fixed on Ritso with a mixture of fear and intense curiosity, a gaze that felt like a blatant stare to the transformed demi-human. Ritso, suddenly self-conscious under his unwavering scrutiny, felt a blush creep up her furry cheeks. She awkwardly began to adjust her ripped and strained clothing, damaged by her rapid transformation. "What are you staring at?" she finally blurted out, her voice still rough.
"Ahhhh… nothing," he mumbled, but his tone lacked conviction, and his continued gaze only made her more uncomfortable.
[Were those my memories? Was that really me, but in a different universe? What's happening? My head hurts… If those memories are real, and that was me – because my body, these… Ritso and Kelly-named girls, are proof that those weren't just random images – then if this is the truth, then who… was Ashutosh…?Was he just a dream I'm having now, or is this the dream?]
The fragmented flashes of a life he vaguely remembered, a life with a different name, different faces, different surroundings, now warred with the visceral sensations of this squalid reality, leaving him utterly adrift in a sea of uncertainty.
His thoughts abruptly shifted as more recent, though equally disturbing, memories surfaced – glimpses of different kinds of demi-humans, their faces twisted in cruelty as they inflicted pain upon him. He squeezed his eyes shut, focusing with all his might, trying to bring those blurry faces into sharper focus… [Ahhh, this is hard; it's all still so hazy.]
"Mista Muda… Mista Muda… You shouldn't help me… you know."
Kelly's soft, hesitant voice broke through his tumultuous thoughts. He opened his eyes and looked at the small, cat-eared child. "Yeah, what was that?"
"Ahhh, k… Kelly said you shouldn't help Kelly… take care of yourself… or those big… meanies will again hurt you." Her simple words struck a deep chord, triggering another wave of fragmented memories – glimpses of the child being mistreated, the cruel intentions of those who held them captive. [Who is this girl exactly?]
…
Later, Muda, his movements still stiff and uncertain, cautiously navigated the dimly lit sewer tunnels. The air remained thick with the foul stench, but a sense of grim determination had settled over him. He heard voices echoing from around a bend in the pipe and, instinctively wary, melted into the shadows behind a large, moss-covered pipe, concealing his presence.
"This kid," a gruff voice rumbled. Muda peered through a crack in the pipe and saw a burly demi-human with thick horns and a heavy brow – a bull-like creature.
"Yeah… Dude… Her mother… was Gariea," another voice replied, smoother and more sly. Muda saw a taller, slender figure with pointed ears and a long, bushy tail – a fox-like demi-human.
The bu'l-man placed a heavy hand on the fox-man's shoulder, looking him directly in the eye. "Victor… If what you're saying is true, and she's the daughter of that slut Gariea, that means she sold her own daughter for her freedom from this trash place, then… it's problematic. She was… fun to have around…"
"Fun? What… sex? Is that the only thing you wanted from her?" Victor, the fox-man, looked at him with a knowing grin.
"Well, yeah, what you think I'm talking about? Conversation? Hahah! And it's not like she ever exactly agreed to it."
"Heeeehhhhh, forcing her, I see," Victor chuckled, a cruel glint in his eyes. "But I don't really care, as long as I can get some cash, really."
They both glanced towards a dark, barred opening in the tunnel wall – a makeshift cell where Kelly was huddled silently.
"How old is she?" the bull-man asked.
"Probably three," Victor replied casually.
"She doesn't have that… appeal right now."
"Demi-humans, feline specifically always mature their bodies around the age of five, so… two more years, probably."
"So, do we have to feed this thing for two more years?" the bull-man grumbled.
"Ah, yeah…" Victor drawled. "And try to maintain some semblance of respect, Ronny, the Bull Champion Brawler of Underpaths. Forcing a child won't exactly enhance your reputation or provide much satisfaction."
"Shut up! She can't handle it yet, I know. I can't risk her dying on the first time."
"Hahaha haaaa!" Victor threw his head back and roared with laughter, clutching his stomach.
Muda's fists clenched so tightly that his sharp claws pierced the scaled skin, drawing a thin trickle of blood. His teeth gritted together, a low growl rumbling in his chest. [I will kill those bastards…]
After their callous conversation, the two demi-humans moved on, disappearing into the labyrinthine tunnels, leaving the cell shrouded in darkness. Muda seized the opportunity. With a surge of unexpected strength, he ripped the rusted bars of the cell door apart, the metal screaming in protest. He stepped inside, his eyes falling on the small, frightened figure huddled in the corner.
"Who are you, mista?" Kelly whispered, her large, feline eyes wide with apprehension.
A strange protectiveness welled up within Muda's chest. "This is not the time for introductions, kid," he said, his voice low and urgent.