Big Brother, Little Sister

Something I wrote based on a dream I had. After I wrote this, I realized it included some elements from my own life, as well as my love of Anthro artwork.

As I sat around in my basement, I felt a buzz in my pocket.  I pulled out my phone and read my latest received text message.  You Busy?

No, I replied.

Mom’s at it again was the next text I received.

Say no more.  I’m on my way.  And with that, I put on my coat, left a note for my mom (she was at work), and headed out to my car.  I knew Melody’s mom was giving her a hard time about something crazy (again), so I was going to get her out of the house and have some fun.

As I started up my car, I started pondering what the two of us were going to do today.  As I began to drive, I turned on my CD player.  Out of the speakers came the words A party, after party, Til' it started to get grating. Another, and another, What are we celebrating?  “Maybe the music’s telling me that we should go to Party Place,”  I said to  myself.  

Party Place was an arcade about half an hour from where I lived.  It had everything - arcade machines, pool, air hockey, even some bowling lanes.  “That would be fun, I‘ll just have to see what Melody thinks,” I thought out loud.  

I continued driving over to Melody’s house.  What I failed to notice was a car chase occurring on the street intersecting with the one I was on.   As I crossed the intersection, I saw what was happening, but by then it was too late.  With a loud CRASH, I was hit by the other cars.  As these were muscle cars moving at crazy speeds, I was hit with enough to make my car flip over a couple times.  When my car stopped moving, I was upside down.  I wouldn’t have noticed though, as I was knocked unconscious.  And when I woke up, I wasn’t even in my car anymore.  

*****

When I woke up, I noticed that I was lying in a bed.  Ugh, I thought.  I must be in the hospital.  However, as I sat up and looked around, I was proven incorrect.  I was in what appeared to be some sort of bedroom.  The walls were painted a dark brown, and the carpet was a dark grey, giving the room an “earthy” feel.  There was a weird picture on the wall of what appeared to be of a tan cat person wearing a T-Shirt and Jeans, and a window behind me.    I looked down, and I saw a blanket that appeared to be knitted together.  But then I saw something else that left me completely baffled.

My hands were covered in grey fur!  In fact, both of my arms were covered in grey fur! Out of curiosity, I pulled the blanket off of me, and I was even more baffled:  I also had grey fur all over me!  I was wearing a strange T-shirt and pair of shorts, and upon lifting up the shirt, I found that I also had a patch of white fur on my stomach.  It was crazy!  How’d I get covered in fur?

“Aw good, you’re awake,” a sweet female voice said to me.  I lifted my head up and was even more shocked!  Standing in the doorway was the same tan cat person that was in the photograph!  She even had on the same outfit.   “You were out for over a day,” the cat person said in the same sweet voice.  “I was starting to get worried.”

“Who are you?,” I asked in a voice that was too high pitched to be my own.  “Where am I?  What happened to me?”

“Woah, slow down Axel,” the cat person said.  How did she know my name?  “You were in a terrible crash, and I brought you here.”  The cat person sat down at the end of my bed.  “My name is Milda. I’m part of a special group of magic anthromorphs called “Givers of New Life.”  If someone of Earth’s life is cut short unexpectedly, and we feel they were unable to complete their destiny in life, we save their spirit and give them a new life in our world.  We then raise them again in this special home until they find a new family to live with.  I brought you here, and now you will live life as a wolf anthro.”

My mind had been blown, big time.  Somehow, after being in a car crash that killed me, I ended up in a world of animal people!  And I had become one of them! In addition, they were going to take care of me here until I found a new family! Wait, did that mean…?

“How old am I?,”  I asked.  

“You’re eight years old,” Milda told me.  

“But I was 18!,” I said.

“The magic that saved you regresses your age somewhat.  How much depends on the magic, and the person,” Milda explained.  “How about I give you something to eat?  I bet you’re hungry.”

Just then, my stomach rumbled.  I was definitely hungry.  After all, I had supposedly been out for a day.  So I got off the bed and fallowed Milda out of the room. It was weird to be shorter compared to everything.  I was pretty tall when I was a human - just over six feet - but here I was shorter or only just as tall as some of the furniture I walked past. 

We ended up in a living room / dining room area.  It was mostly empty, except for all the furniture.  “It looks like Axel finally woke up,” another female voice said.  I look by the stove and saw an anthromorphic bird cooking something.  

As she looked at me, I instinctively hid behind the closest thing taller than me, which was Milda.  Even when I was a human, I wasn’t always that comfortable around new people.  The situation was even more nerve wrecking now, seeing how I was now a wolf kid and the person I was being introduced to was a bird adult.

“It’s alright Axel,” Milda said to me as she patted my head.  “This is Clara.  She’s another member of Givers of New Life.  Actually, all the adults here are.”

I slowly got out from behind Milda.  “H-Hello,” I said weakly. Clara then crouched down in a squat so that she could be at eye level with me.  She was wearing a cooking apron, and under that, she had a T-shirt, jeans, and a pair of what looked like Chuck Taylors.

“Hey there Axel,” she said.  “Are you hungry?”  I nodded my head yes.  Clara then got something off the counter for me.  It was a bowl full of berries.  I would  have carefully observed  them to make sure they were edible, but I was so hungry I just started digging in.  

Clara giggled.  “You really were hungry, weren’t you?”  I didn’t respond, as I was continuing to eat the berries.  When I finished the berries, I handed the bowl back to Clara.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” Clara told me.  She then got a washcloth and wiped the berry juice off my face.  Ugh, I hated when my Mom did that to me as a kid.  It a least wasn’t as bad now, as my mouth was a small distance away from my eyes (I had a muzzle after all).  

After Clara wiped my face off, Milda brought me over to the living room area.  There was a couch, a TV, and some toys and books laying around.  However, what caught my eye was a set of bongos on the other side of the room.  I smiled instantly.  I loved drums, and seeing something familiar in this strange new world made me feel happy.  I immediately picked up the bongos and started playing a beat.  The last song I remembered hearing before I was in that car crash was “Waiting,” so I started playing and singing the song (as best as I could on a set of bongos as opposed to a drum set).  

But as I continued to play, I remembered something.  Melody!  I was going to hang out with her before I was in the crash!  She must be worried sick.  Milda noticed my feeling of distress immediately.  “What’s wrong honey?,” she asked.

“It’s my friend Melody,”  I said.  “Before I was in that car crash, I was going to pick her up at her house and hang out with her.”  I paused.  “She’s a special friend - she was almost like my little sister.  She had been having some parent problems for a while, and me getting her out of the house helped her cope.  But now -”  I sniffed.  “Now I can’t see her, or help her out.”  

Milda bent down so that she could be eye level with me.  “Axel, I’ll see what we can do for your friend, ok?,” she said to me.  I nodded.  “Until then, why don’t you keep playing that song?”

“Ok,” said.  And with that, I continued to play the song.  Milda and Clara then started dancing to the beat.  I knew Chad Sexton’s grooves were super infectious!,  I thought to myself with a smile.

*****

I still couldn’t believe it.  I was going to have some fun with Axel, and then he was killed in a car crash!  It wasn’t fair!  Not only did I not get to hang out with the guy who was the big brother I always wanted, but I had to deal with my parents complaining about little things like the one homework assignment I didn’t so well on, despite the fact that everything else was just fine!

That was two days ago, on a lovely Saturday in October.  Now it was Monday.  I dragged myself over to the bus stop, glad that I was always up before my parents on school days.  As I walked to the bus, I turned on my music player.  Looking through my music library, I decided to play the album “One-X” by Three Days Grace.  I remembered how Axel had given me that album on CD for my birthday over the summer, saying “When you’re feeling angry or down, put on this record. It always helped me out, and I bet it’ll help you too.”  As I rode on the bus, I shed a tear, wishing Axel was still alive.  

******

After school, I started walking over to my job, which was at a local grocery store. Hopefully working would keep Axel off my mind.  

As I continued walking, a strange woman in a brown coat came up to me.  “Do you want to see Axel again?”

I paused for a second, shocked that she somehow knew what I was thinking.  Then again, she might have been some stalker, so I continued walking.  She kept fallowing.  “I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but I can bring you to him,” she said.  

I turned around.  “And just how are you going to being me to him?,” I asked.  Then, the woman started morphing into something else.  When she finished morphing, I realized that she turned into a human shaped bird!

As I stood there in shock, she started to explain herself.  “I’m from a magic group called “Givers of New Life.”  If we believe someone’s life on Earth’s was cut short unexpectedly, and that they were unable to complete their destiny, we save their spirit and give them a new life in our world.”

“So - Axel, didn’t really die?,” I asked.  “You just brought him to your world?”

“Exactly,”  the bird woman said.  “Axel misses you.  He felt like you were his little sister, and he wanted to do all he could to keep you happy.  If you want, I can take you to our world, and you can live with us.”

At first, I was unsure if I should accept the offer.  Did I want to leave my life on Earth behind?  But when I really thought about it, I knew that I did.  School was a major hassle, my parents didn’t know how to treat their daughter like she’s their daughter, and work was just grinding.  I had always wanted a chance to leave it all. And now I did.  “I do,” was my response.  

“Alright then,” the bird woman told me.  She took my hand, and we started to disappear.  

*****

The next thing I knew, I woke up laying in a bed in an unfamiliar room.  As I got up, I realized that I wasn’t human anymore.    My arms were covered in blue scales!  Taking the blanket off of me, I saw that not only was my entire body covered in blue scales, but I also had wings! I guess that makes me a dragon, I thought.  As I took another look at my new body,  I saw I was wearing a T-shirt and a skirt.  But as I looked at my shirt, realized I didn’t have two of the things that made me a woman anymore.  Also, I appeared to be smaller than a lot of the things in the room. “Did I - get younger?,”  I asked in a voice that was higher pitched than I remembered it being. 

“You did,”  a voice said to me.  I turned to the doorway to see that same bird woman looking at me.  “The magic that gave you your new body and new life makes you  younger.  You’re now six years old.”

As much as I appreciated all this, I didn’t want to be a kid again!  I’d spent the last two years preparing to become and independent woman, and now I was a young child that would have to rely on an adult for a lot of things! 

Then again, half the reason I wanted to grow up quickly was because of my parents not being as good of parents as they should have been, and wanting to move out as soon as I could.  Maybe this new life would give me a chance to savor the joys of being younger a little longer.  

“Do you want something to eat?,” the bird woman asked.  My stomach rumbled right after she said that.  “I’ll take that as a yes,” she said with a laugh.  And with that, she lead me out of the bedroom.

*****

As I entered the kitchen, the bird woman called over to a friend of hers.  “Milda! Axel!  Melody’s awake!,” she said.  

“Wait, Melody’s here?,” I heard a voice ask.  I then saw a grey wolf boy run up to me and the bird woman.  “Clara, is she -?,” he began to ask.

“She is,” the bird woman - I guess her name’s Clara, answered.

“Melody!,” the wolf said excitedly.  “You’re here!”

“Axel?,” I asked.  The wolf boy nodded, making my hunch true.  “Axel!,” I said.  Though the two of us weren’t usually the hugging type, we immediately ran towards each other and hugged like there was no tomorrow.

“It’s so cute seeing them back together,”  Clara said to Milda.

“Yep,” Milda replied.  “Especially since they’re going to be brother and sister now.”

“You mean - you already found a family - and they want to adopt both of us?,” Axel asked.

“We did,”  Milda said.  “There was a family that wanted two children, and they were excited to hear we had two kids that wanted to live together.  They’ll come by and take you home tomorrow!”

I was shocked!  I knew that Clara and Milda were going to try to find a new family for me, but I didn’t realize it would happen this soon, or that I would be adopted with Axel too!  I was at a loss for words.

“Th - thank you,” was all I could let out.

Milda gave me a warm smile.  “You’re welcome honey.  Dinner’s gonna be another few minutes, so why don’t you and Axel go and play?”

“Ok!,” Axel and I both said.  We then both excitedly ran over to the living room, where Axel pulled out a child’s xylophone and a set of bongos.  I was excited, because we both played percussion in the school band, and now we could keep playing.  

“Do you want to play the xylophone or the bongos?,”  Axel asked. I thought for a moment.  

“I’ll play the xylophone,” I said.  And with that, the two of us started jamming, playing our own epic little  song, knowing life was only going to get better from here.

THE END

Author's Note

Nothing to say. Just enjoy the writing.