Master! Master! Pt. 14

"Has she told you about their conversations?"

"Yes, she says that they are all questioning how she became what she is. They are actually asking her what happened and want an explanation. They are currently trying to figure it out. This is incredible, it's like they actually become smarter when they are with her."

"Chloe, how are you doing?"

She sat up and the mice moved onto her lap. "I'm doing good. My new friends are really nice."

"It's nice to see you without your anxiety."

Chloe smiled and picked up one of the mice. "I just finally understand how big I've become."

On the other side of the hall, he found Tobi sitting cross-legged on the floor, facing four foxes from the Maine Wildlife Preserve. Like Momo, he was having a complete conversation with them. He would talk, and they would reply with body language and small noises. In the next bedroom, he found Alex doing yoga with iguanas and other lizards climbing all over him. Since he was mute, he had converse entirely with body language, but it was hard to tell if a conversation was actually happening.

It was quite the opposite with Steve. Dr. Lawrence could hear what was going on from the other end of the hall. He checked in, finding Steve surrounded by cockatoos and other songbirds on stands and perches. He was chattering nonstop while the birds squawked, chirped, and cried. In the corner was Dr. Henderson, the look on his face perfectly describing his building headache.

"How are things going on in here?" Lawrence hollered from the doorway.

Henderson turned to him, a dead look in his eyes. "Do you want to tag in?"

Lawrence simply ducked out and moved on to the next room. Inside, he found Jenny and Peter romping around the bedroom with several rabbits, laughing and cheering as they played. Dr. Wortz was supervising, and he had a smile on his face as he watched them. Lawrence then arrived at the end of the hall in the room Elise was in. He found her curled up on the bed, covered in snakes of varying size, but none of them were venomous, of course. She had a smile on her face as she coddled a big boa constrictor.

"Didn't they feed you before you came here? I don't know if we have anything here. I could heat up some cold cuts if you want. What? No, you can't eat those mice. Because you'll make Chloe sad, that's why."

"So you really understand them?" Dr. Lawrence asked.

"This is absolutely amazing. It's like every move they make says a thousand words. Just by the way they stick their tongue out, I can tell whether they are confused, hungry, happy, or tired, and they all just adore me."

"Do they follow your commands?"

"I suppose. I get the sense they do because they don't really have any reason not to. I bet if I asked them to do something they didn't want to do, I'd have to really coax them. I can ask them to come closer or to stay off the floor, but that's about it."

"What do they say?"

"Just that they are confused by what I am. One of them is complaining about not being warm enough, this big boa wants some mice or rats to eat. I suppose you were expecting something profound, like some serpent answer to the meaning of life."

"From what I've seen, all of the animals have the same reaction. They're all curious as to the hybrids' existence. The fact that you can all communicate with your animal counterparts in astonishing."

"So what now?"

"I'm going to check on Sonja and Leah, then I'm going to gather everyone into the living room."

Dr. Lawrence left the house and went onto the back patio. There, Betty was throwing a frisbee for Sonja and the other dogs. While she couldn't keep up with them in her human form, that didn't stop her from chasing after the plastic disc with everything she had. A fellow golden doodle named Harpo caught the frisbee and brought it back to Betty. Before Betty could throw it, Sonja pounced on him with a big smile on her face. She and the dogs began rolling around on the grass in a big pile, nipping at each other's necks with laugh-like snarls.

"Sonja, how are you doing?" Dr. Lawrence asked.

"This is the most fun I've ever had!" she squealed with her blonde hair now filthy with grass and soil.

Down the hill, Dr. Lawrence could see Leah splashing around in a small pond with several salamanders.

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The vans were still parked in front of the mansion when Lorraine and I pulled up the driveway, but I didn't care. The day was over and I wanted to get away from this lunatic. We went inside and followed the sounds of voices to the living room, where we found everyone gathered in a large circle with their animals gathered around them. Dr. Lawrence was joined in the circle, while the rest of the doctors and the people who had brought the animals watched from the sidelines. To see foxes, dogs, cats, and other animals so perfectly behaved and calm was a strange sight, to say the least.

All the hybrids cheered in happiness when they saw us.

"Ah, welcome back," said Dr. Lawrence.

"What's going on here?" Lorraine asked.

"We're having a sort of group therapy session, in which all the animals and hybrids are conversing with each other. I was hoping to have this finished before you got back, but you're here now, so you might as well take part. Go on, take a seat."

I sat on one couch between Momo and Jenny and Lorraine sat on another between Peter and Steve. In Momo's lap were the four cats, and in Jenny's were two rabbits.

"See, Zoe? This is Master. He's the one Momo told you about."

A skinny brown cat crawled from Momo's lap and into mine, sniffing me all over with great interest.

"Ok," said Dr. Lawrence, "next question. Jenny, could you please ask one of your friends if they dream when they sleep?"

Jenny held up a furry bunny to her face. "Do you have dreams?" she asked. I didn't see any kind of obvious reply from the rabbit, at least anything more than a nose twitch, but that seemed to be more than enough of a response. "He dreams about humping vegetables."

"Who doesn't?" Lorraine shot off.

"Last question for the day. Could each of you ask your friends, if they had the opportunity, whether or not they would like to become like you."

The question was repeated over again with the answers varying between yes, no, and undecided.

"All right, I suggest we call it a day. Good work, everyone."

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Weeks passed and we performed experiment after experiment. During our downtime, I'd take the girls out to public places, or we'd just stay home and relax. The doctors continued to monitor us, and every night, the girls and I would put on a show for whoever was watching. Then the big day came, the day when everyone else was due to arrive. It was July 1st, a beautiful sunny day, and we were all waiting in front of the mansion.

Sonja began jumping up and down and pointing into the distance at the end of the driveway. "There they are! There they are!"

Two coach buses had appeared with a full police escort. They pulled up to the front of the house and the doors opened. The men and women came out, all still dressed in their sterile white lab clothes. Their only possessions were the toys and games I had gotten them in the hospital. They were nervous and tired when they stepped off, but when they saw me and Lorraine, huge smiles crossed their faces and they rushed over.

"Master!" x 49

A tidal wave of animal-eared girls washed over me, knocking me to the ground with endless hands reaching for me. But the fiftieth girl remained by the bus, scowling. Neija, no matter how much I had tried to bridge the gap between us at the hospital, retained her grudge. Momo, Sonja, Chloe, Leah, Jenny, and Betty stared in shock, face to face with an army of their own kind. The same thing was happening with Lorraine, buried under a mountain of buff men.

One of them got me into a headlock. It was Gloria, a gorilla. Of all the girls, she was the most muscular, even stronger than Betty and just shy of her physique being a turnoff. She had thick black hair not just on her head, but around her neck like a scarf. Not only did she have the hands of a lumberjack, her toes, while no longer as dexterous as they were when she was a gorilla, were still long enough for her to grab things around her. Back in the hospital, her favorite hobby was wrestling, and I had never won against her. But despite that, the smile on her face was of joyful innocence.

"Master, you said you would bulk up so you could put up more of a fight!"

"Gloria, no amount of exercise would ever put me at your level," I said.

"Gloria, ease up on him."

The words came from Linda, the baboon I had transformed. Due to their similar appearances, they had become good friends at the hospital. She had white hair and a tail, and while she didn't have the same muscular strength as Gloria, she made up for it by having the biggest ass of any of the hybrids. You could rest a breakfast tray on it.

"Master, this house is so beautiful!" said Talia, a colorful parrot. Like Steve, she had feathers instead of hair, radiant with green, red, and yellow shades.

"And the sun feels so good," said Levi, the snake woman I had created.

Lola curled up against me, blinding me with her humungous ears. "I missed you, Master."

"I missed all of you too, I've been looking forward to this day for so long." I looked back at Momo and the others. "Girls, meet the rest of the family."

"Hmph!" Neija scoffed and walked past us but Momo chased after her.

"You're a cat, right?" Momo asked.

Neija gave her only the smallest glance "I'm a lion, what do you want?"

"But you're a cat, aren't you? A cat like Momo?"

"You and I are nothing alike."

"Then you're a big cat! Momo has wanted to meet a big cat since she saw them on Master's computer!" Momo pounced on her, hugging her tightly. "Hello, big cat!"

Funny, she was acting more like a dog than a cat.

"Get the hell off me!" Neija pushed her off and then stormed inside.

"All right, everyone, let's move inside and I can give you all a tour and show you to your rooms."

Lorraine and I lead our flocks through the mansion, both the males and females looking around in wonder. The halls were packed with people, spilling into every room we arrived at. We made our way to the back of the mansion, where all of the refurbished and new bedrooms were.

"Everyone, these are your rooms," I said, standing in one of many corridors. "Unfortunately, there aren't enough rooms for everyone, so a few of you will have to double up. You can all decide who gets what room. At the end of every hall is a bathroom, just make sure you all share."

"How long do we have to stay in our rooms?" Tim, Lorraine's effeminate chinchilla boy, asked.

"You don't have to. You're free to roam the house and the outside as much as you want, whenever you want. It can be the middle of the night, you can run laps around the house if you want. The only rules are to stay on the property, don't make messes, and don't disturb others."

The new hybrids were all in a state of shock. They had all grown up in the zoo, spending their lives behind fences. The idea of freedom was completely foreign to them.

I saw Chloe move into the crowd from the edge, something that she would normally be far too shy to do. She came face to face with Lola, the two of them staring at each other. Minus their animal traits, they looked and acted so much alike they could have been sisters.

"You're Lola, aren't you?" Chloe asked, wringing her tail in her hands.

"Are you Chloe?" Lola asked in turn, hiding her arms behind her back to she could grip her own tail for comfort.

"Master told me a lot about you. He said he couldn't wait for us to meet."

"Yeah, he said the same thing to me."

No more words were spoken, both girls blushing in embarrassment, but they were also smiling.

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The tour ended with us all outside behind the house. All the hybrids, even my girls and Lorraine's boys, were running around the fields, in and out of the woods, jumping and playing in the sun. Lorraine, Elise, and I were sitting on the patio, watching them having the time of their life.

"It's like the liberation of France," said Elise.

"When I first started turning them at the zoo, and when I first saw them in that hospital, I felt so guilty for what I had done, for the life I had forced on them, but maybe with this, I can finally start to do right by them," I said.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're kind of a drama queen?" asked Lorraine. "Seriously, listen to yourself. 'I felt so guilty for what I had done, for the life I had forced on them, but maybe with this, I can finally start to do right by them.' That's the kind of thing you'd hear from the overacted character in every AMC show."

"Says the girl whose entire existence is alcoholism, sex jokes, and anime references. You're like the poster girl for every Spencer's and Hot Topic in America."

Elise ended up laughing so hard that she gave herself hiccups.

"I'm not taking shit from a vanilla fucker who couldn't even handle my pinky. You dish it out, but you can't take it."

"In the last week, how many Facebook posts have you shared of a picture of the Joker or some other bad guy with some edgy wannabe-individualist quote they never said?" Lorraine wanted to respond but couldn't. "Let me guess, at least one of them said something like 'throw me to the wolves, or I'll return leading the pack'. How many of them talked about not giving a fuck? I bet at least half of them were about people being fake or how many times you've been "betrayed" in the past."

Lorraine wordlessly got up and went back into the house and Elise gave me a high-five with her tail.

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The rest of the day was spent helping everyone get familiar with the house and with each other. I spoke with every girl, touching base with them to make sure they were happy. I had long since memorized all their names, getting to know each and every one of them during those weekends in the hospital. They picked out their rooms and played for hours in the sun. When it was time for the evening news, we had to bring in furniture from other rooms so that everyone would have a place to sit. My couch was pushed to the back of the room and as many girls as possible piled on, all of them wanting to snuggle up with me.

I doubt many of them were really paying attention, and if they were, whether or not they actually understood. The only stories that caught their attention were the appearances of more hybrids. The rate of their appearances was increasing. Just a little while ago, there would be one report every few days, but now, there could be five or even more every night. Countless glances were directed back at me and Lorraine.

"Master, are you doing this?" Talia asked. Jenny had asked the same thing when she first watched the news.

"No, I'm not, at least I don't think I am. The doctors and I think that these cases are happening naturally, unlike all of you who Lorraine and I created."

"What's going to happen to them?" Saul, Lorraine's peacock man asked. He was sitting in back with us since his massive tail feathers would otherwise block everyone's view.

"They're going to homes like this one so they can be studied and kept safe. Dr. Lawrence told me that an adoption program is being developed so that they can be looked after in more relaxed environments."

Dinner came, and the sound in the dining room was absolutely thunderous, more than a hundred people all gathered around one long table. Actually, the table had to be extended for everyone to take a seat. No longer were Elise and I doing the cooking. The CDC had hired chefs to prepare huge bulk meals, setting out tables covered in food in the kitchen, buffet style, and everyone would fill up a plate and sit in the dining room. Normally Momo and others would eat from their bowls on the floor, but with so many new additions, they didn't want to be pushed out so they flanked me on either side.

"Mistress, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Brock, Lorraine's rhino, asked.

"Well the doctors might want to perform some tests, but we can pretty much do whatever we want. I was thinking I might show you guys how to play on my Xbox tomorrow," she said.

"Master, what about us?" Amanda, a grizzly bear asked. She had the same kind of hairstyle as Gloria and Linda, but with soft fur also growing from her hands. Her fingers were tipped with sharp claws and she had a poof ball tail like Jenny's, though smaller.

"I'm not sure. I guess we'll just figure it out in the morning."

After dinner, there was plenty of time before bed, so the hybrids continued exploring the property and everything it had to offer. I had convinced the CDC to give them means of entertainment at the hospital, such as foosball tables, ping pong, and some video games, so they already knew how to enjoy many of the activities available at the mansion.

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Neija stood in an empty hallway, staring out the window at the moon. "What do you want?" she demanded.

From around the corner, Momo appeared. "Momo wanted to see you."

"Well go away, I don't want to see you."

Regardless, Momo walked over. "What was it like being a big cat?"

Neija, who only knew of her original lion race, looked at her in confusion. "Weren't you one as well?"

"No, Momo was a small cat. That was back when it was just Momo and Master together. Momo was small enough to sit in his lap. Momo still does, but it's not quite the same."

Neija looked back at the moon. "I don't care, just leave me alone."

"Are you mad at Momo? Did Momo do something wrong?"

"You really don't get it, do you? Your Master made me what I am simply to help keep you safe and then he left me behind. I'm just a tool for your benefit."

"Master didn't leave you behind. Master was worried about you every day, he told Momo, and Momo was worried too. He was counting down the days until he could see you again."

"He cares more about you than he does any of us. So why should I care about him?"

"Because Master loves you."

Neija scoffed and walked away. "That's the same stupid answer he gave me the first time."

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I continued wandering in an endless loop, checking in on everyone. The mansion was filled with happiness and life, all the hybrids playing games and running around like children. I made sure they had each picked their bedroom, taking a mental note of where everyone was sleeping. Almost half of the animals Lorraine and I turned came in pairs from the same exhibits, many of those pairs consisting of a brother or sister. Those siblings had chosen to bunk together in the double rooms.

It was getting late in the evening so I decided to bid everyone goodnight, though that alone took almost half an hour. Momo and the others were so busy playing with their new friends that I didn't want to disturb them and told them they could come to bed whenever they wanted. I, at last, arrived at the living room, where Chloe and Lola were lying on their stomachs on a long couch and playing checkers. It was so funny, how similar they looked.

"Goodnight, girls," I said.

Hearing me, Chloe popped off the couch and ran over.

"Oh, I'm coming too!"

"No, that's ok, stay up as late as you want and have fun, keep playing with Lola."

"Ok," she replied as I rubbed the top of her head. I made my way upstairs and Chloe returned to her game.

"Why were you going to follow Master to his room?" Lola asked.

"Because Master and I sleep in the same bed."

Lola perked up, her ears standing erect. "You do? You share a room?"

"We share the big bedroom with Momo, Sonja, Leah, Jenny, and sometimes Betty. We all sleep together."