Jared goes on a journey to find one of the boxes Leland has sent him. After finding it, he discovers a centaur Sphinx suit that will send him to a world full of the mythical beasts. After a week of isolation in the wilderness, will he learn to spread his wings in the new world? Or will he crumple and fail under the societal pressures of an alien world?

Part 4 of a series

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Commission for  catprog and their website catprog.org. If you enjoyed this story, you should visit their website for more similarly themed TF stories!

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“Wait… So, they’re really not here?” Jared wondered aloud when he was done reading the letter. He looked up from it and into his closet where the skunk and wolverine onesies were hung. He double checked that there were no others and confirmed that it was the case. He read the letter again. Yes, Leland was telling him to go out and look for the other suits. He said they weren’t far, but they weren’t close either. Way to be vague. What did Leland expect him to do? Go out there stalking though the forest, looking for some animal suits? There were literally millions of acres surrounding Jared, nothing but unkempt wilderness bereft of any manmade landmarks he could orient himself with.

Of course, he’d spent a week traveling his territory end to end. If there was anything worth finding out in the many stretches he claimed as his territory, he could find it. But that didn’t mean Leland had left either of the two suits in his domain. “Not far but not close” could have been just about anywhere. Was Leland playing games with him now? Did he expect Jared to work for his transformations going forward? Maybe him being a tiger helped Leland make the decision. Tigers were supposed to be strong and brave. Maybe he would find some fun in such a challenge. Maybe even a little adventure.

Or maybe not. With the skunk and wolverine onesies hanging behind him in the closet, it made much more sense just to throw one of those on and go back to their respective worlds. He didn’t have to go out and risk stumbling into another tiger’s territory to accomplish that. Life as a skunkette had been easy and was very similar to what it had been like as a human. The wolverine world was a whole lot more brash and scarier, so he didn’t think he’d be going back there. As for whatever the other two suits would turn him into and what kind of worlds they entailed, there was only one way to find out.

Jared folded the letter up and placed it on a nearby table. He strode outside into the daylight, his four powerful tiger legs propelling him along. For a moment he recalled his awkward transition from walking on two legs to four, how he had to rely on muscle memory and forcibly unlearn bipedalism. Now here he was walking around like it was nothing, able to prance, leap, and pounce with all the power and majesty of your average Siberian tiger. He would lose that in the skunk and wolverine worlds. The two suits waiting for him could also very easily take it away from him, but again, he wouldn’t know that until he found them.

His stomach started to grumble. Rrrrrrrrrrrrr. Jared put a paw over it. Throughout the whole week he hadn’t caught or eaten a single animal. He didn’t have the stomach to kill anything, something his tiger instincts continuously begged him to overcome so that he wouldn’t starve. On more than one occasion he had stumbled upon deer and their trails. Instead of relying on muscle memory he would have to start fighting it as his tiger brain went into stalking mode, gearing to take down a juicy deer and eat it. Each time he had fought the urge, much to the chagrin of his empty stomach.

The suits are in the closet, he reminded himself. Three square meals a day plus modern luxury. You can’t beat that. And yet he couldn’t quite tear himself away from this place. A vast swathe of forest he could claim as his own, something he’d earned after a lifetime of fighting. To retreat into a world of leisure seemed wrong to the point of criminal. If he were to leave it eventually, as his growing hunger was starting to insist, he would at least spend one last journey through his territory before doing so. Going back to either the skunk or wolverine worlds meant he might never figure out what was in the two boxes Leland sent, and that wasn’t something he would allow to sit on his conscience.

He hadn’t enjoyed the comfort of his cot after his journey before he was determined to restart it, this time in search of something. Not far, but not close. Not hard, but not easy. Maybe he’d find it soon, maybe never. That made him wonder, how on earth was he going to find it in the first place? How did Leland even get it here if there was no mail? By magic, of course, but how did that help Jared? If the boxes were just magically teleported here like it seemed they always were, then there was little chance Leland left a trail of anything.

But that didn’t seem to occur to Jared, not even as he thought it. If something was in his territory without his putting it there, it was there without his consent. His tiger instincts flared at the thought. Coming here and planting things without my permission? I don’t think so. Trail or not, he would use everything in his disposal to find those boxes. It would be his last little adventure in this world where he couldn’t eat or make friends. He did not know what lands the next suits would bring him to, but he they had to be better than this place. Jared had not enjoyed the comfort of his cot before he began another journey into the forest, determined to find out what Leland had in store next for him.

More time was spent eying the earth beneath his feet than the forest around him, looking for possible clues or a trail Leland had left for him. There was the occasional hoof print of prey animal and the sudden, jerking urge to go on the hunt, but nothing proving that a human had been there. Square miles of territory, and I’m supposed to find a couple boxes. Like finding a needle in a needle stack. The doubts rumbled in the back of his mind like a distant thunderstorm but were drowned out by the more prescient roar of indignation by how his territory had been penetrated. Maybe this is why Leland hid the boxes, he thought at one point. He knew I would go after it like this. The old fart is probably watching me right now, having a blast. He kept track of the landmarks as he crossed them. There was the river, some hills, a cliff, the valley. It took hours upon hours just to come to one after he’d left the other, and it would take days, if not weeks, to scour all of it. Just keep searching. Don’t turn back now. You’ve come too far. Not gonna let that mischievous magician have the satisfaction of making me give up.

He came across something at last. In a patch of woods not unique to the hundreds of others that defined his territory, his nose caught the strangest of scents. He couldn’t define it at first, though each whiff of the vaporous clue sent ripples of familiarity through his fur, sending it into a floof. What is that? He sniffed a few times. That’s not right. That’s not something natural to this place. He sniffed some more. But it’s so familiar. I’ve smelled it before. Just a few more deep, chest-swelling whiffs. A store. A building. Thrift shop… The moment it clicked his black-tipped tiger ears flicked upright. Get It Here. Leland’s shop. One last huff through the nostrils confirmed it. Just that ribbon of smell was what threw Jared back to the place where he had met the mysterious old man and bought the skunk onesie, the place that had catapulted him into all this madness. Jared’s tiger tail started to flick wildly. The box. It’s close.

He made a slow but inexorable trot towards the smell, his flat, pink tiger nose constantly twitching. Sniff-sniff-sniff. This was his hunter instinct unbridled, that primal part of his brain tapped into. That smell of recently cleaned floors, old clothes, and mothballs grew more distinct with each stride until he’d broken into a full gallop, his heart ready to beat out of his chest. It reached a pinnacle when he came across a small hill with an enormous, rooty tree on top of it. He didn’t see the box, but it didn’t take a supreme detective to know it was hidden there. Was it at the top? Could tigers climb? And even if they did, would he be able to in this body?

No time for questions, he continued his run towards the tree, climbed that small hill, and found himself at the base. There he circled the trunk and saw Leland’s package sitting between two gnarled tree roots. Jared’s name was written in what looked like permanent marker on the brown paper that wrapped around the box, also tied up in string. There wasn’t any letter that Jared could see. Full of elation, Jared came forward and picked up the box before immediately clawing it open. The paper and carboard all came apart in a storm of shreds, exposing the treasure that lay inside.

It was a centaur suit like the tiger one Jared had put on when he was a wolverine; he could tell thanks to the six limbs that dangled from it. As for the species, that was a little less clear. Smooth, blonde fur like a lion’s covered the lower half of the body, but the upper half was completely without fur. It was just rubbery skin like he would expect a Halloween mask to be made from. Though the material was obviously fake, it felt eerie rubbing it between his fingers. He noticed the front side of the torso was textured like a fit man’s torso, featuring squared pecs and cut abs. The hood part was made of the skin material too, but featured a set of long, black hair that came down to the neck. It all would have made sense to him before, but after becoming a tigertaur he would expect the upper half to achieve tigrine (or in this case, leonid) features too, but they were absent here. If this suit would turn him into a liontaur like he thought, then what made it different from the tiger suit?

None of that complexed him more, however, than the pair of feathery wings which grew from the back of the lower half. They hung limply with the rest of it. The feathers were incredibly long like an eagle’s. Jared picked one wing up and stretched it out as far as it would go, achieving a span of about four feet with just that wing. OK, so this is definitely not any creature you can find in the human world. It shouldn’t have surprised him to see what had to be a fantastical creature after what he’d become, but this vexed him completely. He could tell that the tigertaurs suit was at least a tiger and nothing else. What he held in his hands was an amalgamation of at least three different creatures. So what the hell was it?

Like always, there was only one way to find out. Jared laid the suit out belly-down on the tree roots and saw that the zipper was on the back this time, starting at the root of the tail and going all the way up to the front of the hood, bisecting it. Makes sense. Would be a pain in the ass getting it on with this body if it was in the front. He pinched the zipper tab and pulled it all the way down to the tail. It took some careful maneuvering to get in position over top of it so that his hind legs could fall into their sleeves. The forelegs followed, and he pulled the suit up so that it loosely hung around his bottom half. It took some reaching, but he was able to get a grip on the zipper again and start pulling it up his back. Next, he slid his arms into the torso sleeves, cringing a little as that fake skin texture bounced and wobbled about his fur. Once that was all the way on he pulled the zipper all the way up to the hood and flipped it over his head, completing the liontaur (or whatever the hell it was). Then a thought crossed him. Maybe I should’ve waited to go home first before I-

Shoomp! Too late. The suit sunk into his body, triggering the transformation. There wasn’t much to change this time, at least not with his feline features. The lion skin covering his tiger body simply shrank around that part of him, replacing those many manly stripes with a flat canvas of lion blonde. The musculature and skeleton stayed the same shape, albeit they became slightly smaller. The real changes happened with his upper half. The hood sank around the shape of his cranium like always and began melting across his visage, absorbing it down to the snout. His beefy tiger paws were taken as well, and for a brief moment he thought he would be able to keep their impressive size.

That did not prove to be the case. Across his body was that sudden squeezing sensation like his skin was becoming too tight. It sank into his muscles, kickstarting a rapid deflation of that awesome physique into what was much more human in size. Jared gritted and grunted through the discomfort. A sound like stretching rubber hummed in his ears. Looking at his arms he saw their build become lither, the many tendons and sinews growing more stark. What replaced it was olive-tan skin, perfectly hairless and with a soft glow in the sunlight. A sense of touch floated to the surface, giving him gooseprickles and making him shiver in the open air of the forest. The last of his transformation came when an intense pressure jammed itself into his face, reducing his snout back into a flat human face and making him clench his jaw against the pain.

The transformation ended once his snout was done flattening. All said and done, he didn’t feel terribly different than when he was a tiger except for the chills on his bare torso, a feeling he hadn’t gone through sense his time as a human. He looked at his arms again, then down at where his torso met his lion body. The smooth human skin transitioned into the furrier lion section smoothly. Looking over his shoulder he saw the rest of it standing there amongst the tree roots, his proud lion tail wagging about lazily. Next, he put a hand on his head and felt the soft, long locks that hung from his scalp. Human hair. Weird. Why does it feel so soft?

And there were his wings to worry about. While flexing his legs beneath him they swung out into their full breadth with an incredible whoosh. Jared ducked, thinking that a bird had swooped on him from the trees. He looked behind him and saw those two majestic wings at full spread. They twitched and flexed at his command, being connected right below the part of him where the lion and human sections faded into each other. Muscles he’d never commanded before were hidden in his bottom half. They would flex and contract wildly as he tested them, throwing his wings into a flurry around him. Stop! Stop! Stop! He relaxed, and the two wings slowed to a stop while pointed straight up in the air above him. Muscle memory. Muscle memory. Chill out. Sure enough, the two wings folded down on the flanks of his lion half, resembling that of an eagle at rest. “Whoa,” huffed Jared, smiling. Will I be able to fly with these things? Or am I too heavy?

His train of thought was cut by the sudden sweep of a shadow. It blew across the forest floor and blew past him with enough speed to make him duck. He looked up at the canopy and saw what had created it zooming just over the treetops. A bird or… something? Jared hadn’t seen it long enough to tell. Whatever it was, it was big, way bigger than any bird he’d seen during his week as a tigertaur. No way. Was that..? Then came another one, higher up this time and in a different direction. He got a clearer look at its silhouette, like a cat mid-leap, its four legs outstretched, its tail in a straight line behind it. Included were two, massive wings wider than the animal was long. Jared didn’t believe what he was seeing until just a few moments later when another zoomed past, and another not longer after that one.

Excitement building, Jared stormed away from the tree, his four legs thundering beneath him. I’ve got to see more of them. There’s got to be a clearing somewhere. He found one quickly, the trees vanishing suddenly to reveal a sprawling park and the civilization that fostered it. Seated in the fields, walking along the pathways, and flying through the air were people of his own kind. They were sphinxes from ancient Greek and Egyptian myth. Fit, bronzed human bodies were attached to the shoulders of lions with wings like the most majestic of eagles. They went about their day as casually as they would in any other setting. A woman was seated in the grass nearby with a quilt beneath her loafed cat legs. She was reading a book with an intense look on her face. She looked up from it at Jared when he came bursting out from the trees. He realized that he was staring at her, and that she was wearing a white T-shirt around her human torso and a pair of pants on her hind legs. The other folk he saw were also wearing clothes.

It would’ve been a silly sight if Jared’s heart didn’t leap in his chest. Shit! I’m naked! He slapped his arms over his chest, then noticed something odd. Wait. No, I’m not? He unraveled his arms and saw that a black T-shirt was draped over his torso. Emblazoned on the front of it was the logo of his favorite band, one he’d listened to in the universes where there was a civilization. How the hell did that get there? He looked behind himself and saw a pair of jeans on his hindlegs, covering everything up to the hips. His lion tail wagged hung out of it just below the beltline. “Huh…” he said with a smile. I guess that answers that question.

Yet so many more had sprouted around him with the world he found himself in. Was he really able to fly? How did that affect transportation? Surrounding the park were tall buildings like he would find in any other modern city, but here they featured something unique. The buildings had large balconies on every other floor, it seemed. On occasion someone would land on it and casually walk inside. It hurt Jared’s brain just to watch. He pictured himself doing the same thing, though he still had trouble believing it.

“Excuse me.”

The voice startled Jared. It was the woman he had first seen reading a book on the quilt. She had a concerned look on her face. Jared cleared his throat. “Y-yeah?”

“Are you OK?” she asked. “You look lost.”

Shit. I probably am lost. Just act cool. “Um, sorry. I just wandered into the woods behind me and got a little disorientated.”

She smiled at him. “Oh, that’s alright. Are you looking for the entrance?”

That might help. “Yeah. Do you know where it is from here?”

Without taking her hands off the book, she unfurled her left wing out at him. The feathers were a deep black like a raven’s. She pointed with the feather on its tip. “Just follow that path there. Or, if you can fly, just go over the trees and you’ll see the parking lot behind the old church. That’s where the entrance is.”

That raised more questions than it answered. A parking lot? So, there are cars? ‘If’ I can fly? So not everyone can? Jared doubted that he could, so he decided to walk. “Thank you, miss. You… have a nice day.”

She retracted her wing and nodded amiably. “You too.”

Jared made a slow trot towards the path she had pointed to. It wound around the stretch of woods he had come out of which he noticed contained species of trees different than what he’d encountered in the tigertaur world. A shit ton has changed. Am I in the same city as the old worlds? He came around the other side of the woods and saw the parking lot in the distance with a large, cast-iron fence surrounding it. Arcing over the entrance was the name of the park in all capitol letters: BATTERY PARK. Jared sighed with relief. OK, so it is the same city. He blinked the gate out of focus and noticed how far away it was. It was at least two hundred yards away. The sign over the entrance shouldn’t have been readable at that distance, and yet he deciphered it perfectly. I guess that makes sense. Birds of prey have really good eyesight. It also explained how he was able to see people flying onto the balconies and walk inside from an even greater distance. He wondered how much he could see on the ground if he was flying, and if he’d ever get the chance to find out.

More sphinxes passed by him as he continued his walk down the pathway. There were people holding hands, chatting and laughing. A mother rolled her baby around in a stroller, though it was one of those pet types with a flat bottom like he’d seen in the human universe. The baby was peeking over the rim, holding on with its chubby baby hands, its cat half splayed out on the bottom. He saw Jared walking past, then smiled at him. Jared just smiled back, thinking the baby was part adorable, part bizarre. He made it to the parking lot where normal looking cars filled the spaces. Someone walked past him towards their car. Jared watched the man go, noticing the twinge and jerk of the muscles in his lion half. That contrasted with his human section which was much rounder and softer with a loose, white T-shirt draped over his shoulders. He didn’t notice Jared watching him by the time he made it to his truck. He opened the door which stretched the whole length of the cabin. There weren’t any front seats inside, nothing but flat floor space for the man to climb inside. He started the truck normally, then drove out of the parking lot.

The entire sequence was amazing in its banality. Jared had just watched a mythical creature climb into a pickup truck and drive away. After a whole week spent alone in the forest, it was the small things that would strike Jared silent and make him wonder what other oddities he would encounter. It was when another person walked past him into the parking lot that he realized he was just standing there like an idiot. I got to get a move on, but is my car even here? Did I walk or did I drive? Did I fly? He recalled how close Battery Park was to his home in the human universe. It was too far for walking, so maybe he’d driven here. But then again, what might be too far away for walking might not be for flying.

Then he remembered. Keys! He looked over his shoulder at his pants. If I have my car keys it means I drove here. He saw that there were four back pockets lined in a row underneath the beltline of his jeans. That was about the only place he could reach with his arms. Sure enough, one of the pockets bulged around the shape of his keychain. The one right next to it contained what looked like his cellphone, and the one beside that had his wallet. He reached into the pocket with his keys and pulled them out by the loop. They looked exactly like they had when he was a human.

“Awesome!” He pressed the lock button on the fob and heard the beep-beep of his car. It wasn’t hard finding it in the parking lot. It was the same model as before, albeit it had been magically transformed into a coupe with only two extra long doors on each side. When Jared opened the driver’s side, he saw the same thing he had in the gentleman’s truck: no seats but a long, cushioned floor for him to lay his body on. Climbing inside was a bit awkward with him having to duck his head under the roof. He noticed the exact same air freshener from the human universe dangling from his rear-view mirror. OK, so this is my car. How do I drive it?

The pedals were in the same place where they were supposed to be operated by his forelegs, apparently. He sighed. “Shit, this really isn’t the kind of thing I should rest muscle memory on.” He carefully depressed the brake with his right forefoot, ignited the engine, and put the car into drive. “Slow and steady. Slow and steady.” He eased off the brake, easing the car out of the parking spot. A sudden beeping sound stopped him. He heaved his foot on the brake. “What now?” A red light was flashing on the dash. His seatbelt wasn’t on. “Oh shit. Yeah, I should do that.” He saw it hanging from the roof on his left. The buckle was on the floor by his hip. Relative to his massive body, everything was where it was supposed to be. He pulled the belt down across himself and buckled it. But what if I get rear-ended? Do I just slam into the back of the cabin? Maybe crashes aren’t as dangerous that way, but I’d rather not find out.

He resumed his fretful trip out of the parking lot by easing off the breaks again. Once he’d cleared the chalk lines, he put his foot on the gas. Carefully. The car glided onwards with ease, and soon he was driving out of the parking lot like it was nothing. He let out a long exhale through his mouth. “Whoooooooo, OK. We’re good. We’re good.” As he made it to the entrance, he passed someone coming into the parking lot in a massive SUV. On a whim, Jared waved at the guy. He got a weird look, but a wave back too. Maybe this world won’t be so bad.

Another boon to life here was the lack of traffic on the city streets. The lanes were all single, the space between blocks dedicated mostly to pedestrians. If someone wasn’t walking, they were flying which required no sort of infrastructure at all. It made sense to cram the buildings together. Less distance to walk, less distance to fly, less distance to drive. If only the other universes got the same memo. But if it’s less distance to fly, then why did I take my car? Why do I even have one? Jared wondered if that meant his apartment was in a different place. How much different was it physically? What about every other building in the world? Well, I’ve got plenty of opportunity to find out.

At a stop light he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened the GPS app. Luckily, the first option that came up was his apartment address. Only one thing was odd. It said the distance between his location and the park was over 7 miles which was way longer than what was between his apartment and Battery Park in the human universe. That’s weird. At least it says it won’t take me long to get there. The ride was quick and easy like the GPS said, allowing Jared a few nice views of the people navigating the city around him. It was long enough that it felt like an entire journey across the city even though it should’ve been just a few blocks. He didn’t mind, not when it gave him a chance to observe the unique architecture of the world around him.

He came upon his apartment complex. It was different from what it had been, featuring several more stories than before as well as being much closer to the buildings across the streets. It struck Jared how, for as far as he could see, the city continued on for miles and miles. In the human universe his apartment was closer to the suburbs, outside of downtown. It was like the city had experienced a massive growth spurt and absorbed everything around it. Unbothered, Jared found a parking deck on the bottom floor of the building. Praying there weren’t any assigned spots, he found a parking space and got into a very spacious elevator. He pressed the 4th floor button, hoping his apartment was there in this universe too. The elevator took him there, and he stepped into the hallway to begin searching for his living space.

He found it eventually. Relief swept through him as his key fit into the slot and unlocked it. The door opened to reveal his apartment in similar shape to how he left it as a wolverine (God, that feels like years ago.) His old decorations were all there plus the furniture, if altered to fit his leonine frame. The sofa was instead just a long, flat ottoman he was supposed to climb up and lie on. Pictures of himself and his family were all changed to match his species, never an unfunny sight. It reminded him that he had a phone with photos on it. He pulled it out of his pocket and opened the gallery. There were the hundreds of pictures he was familiar with already, each of them featuring him and his friends in sphinx form.

But there were other pictures too, ones he never remembered taking. They were shots of the earth taken from the sky. Beautiful landscapes that included rivers, mountains, forests, and plains. The shot that amazed him the most was that of the city. What looked like a million skyscrapers were stretched from frame to frame, the yonder horizon choked with their silhouettes blued by the atmosphere. Did I take these pictures? They aren’t downloads. He kept scrolling through until he happened upon a selfie of his. He was holding the phone out at arm’s length, capturing himself in a pair of flight goggles and a scarf. The Earth was far behind him, the horizon stretched out like it had been in the other photos. His hair and the scarf were whipped back. He couldn’t see all of them, but he could tell that his wings were outstretched from his back, catching the wind.

Yes, not only could Jared fly, he had apparently gone on multiple vacations doing nothing but that. “Holy shit,” he whispered. He scrolled through more of the pictures and marveled at each aerial shot he had taken. It saddened him that he had no memory of taking any of these pictures. Even more disappointing was how the mechanics of flying were still absent from his mind, or at least from memory. If he really wanted to, he could find an open field and take off for the heavens relying on muscle memory like he always had.

But the thought was still intimidating. What if he lost control and crashed on the ground or into something? What if muscle memory failed him, and he would end up looking like an idiot while trying to take off? It posed far more dangers than just trying to walk. It didn’t make sense to go out there and look for a place to try and learn how to fly.

Apparently, he didn’t have to. Looking up from his phone he noticed a vast space in his apartment where there wasn’t any furniture. It led to a wide pair of sliding doors which in turn led into a balcony. Wait, I never had that. Jared stepped outside and realized it was one of the balconies sphinxes used to land. There wasn’t any fence protecting him from falling to the ground. He very carefully inched his way to the edge and looked down. Greeting him was a 50+ foot drop to the street, a sure-fire ticket to becoming a red splat mark on the asphalt. People the size of ants waltzed by next to matchbox cars.

Oddly enough, Jared wasn’t scared. What should’ve been a heart-palpitating view of a deadly drop hardly made him quiver. He could bring himself close enough to the edge so that his toes were hanging over and not feel an ounce of terror. Leaning forward didn’t either, or the thought of plunging forward. And why would it? He could fly. Not a drop off the tallest cliff in the world should frighten him. He was a sphinx. Nothing could.

His attention was snapped to the building across the street when someone came dashing out of their balcony. They went right off the edge, their huge white wings blossoming across their back into a giant, obtuse V. Their agile curve into the air was casual and practiced, just like hopping onto a bike. Jared watched them disappear around the block. He was confident that they would return the same way they came.

I can do that, he thought to himself. I can do that right now. What was stopping him? The fear of heights? He didn’t have that anymore. Inexperience? He’d taken so many pictures of himself flying to prove that wasn’t true. No, he was perfectly capable of launching himself off that balcony and taking to the skies. What was he waiting for? Jared walked back into his apartment and turned around to face the open sliding doors. He took a deep breath. Muscle memory. That pair of words echoed in his head like a broken record. He repeated them a few more times before leaning back on his paws, ready to launch. OK. Count of three. One… Two… Oh God, this is crazy. Three!

Jared barreled through the apartment, towards the sliding doors, and out across the balcony. In just a few strides he was off solid ground, nothing but air beneath his feet. For just that second the world was weightless, his insides clenching on the suspense of gravity which was already pulling him to the earth. Then he deployed his wings.

Whoooooosh!

The air jerked him hard, pulling the skin of his face off his skull and knocking the wind out of him. His wings stayed straight, so did his heavy cat body. His human half stood erect, the arms out at his sides like he was balancing on a rope. He looked down and saw his forelegs dangling above a slowly panning street. Jared was flying.

“Holy shit!” he hollered. “Haha! YES!” He pumped his arms into the air. “Woohoo!” He got some strange looks from other folk who were flying, but he didn’t care. Like the gentleman he’d seen in the SUV, he gave them a big ol’ wave and a goofy smile, some of which were returned in kind. Jared swooped and dived his way across the block, getting a good feel of what he was and wasn’t capable of. He felt like he could climb to the heavens and then dive to the earth full tilt. Only when his wing muscles were starting to ache did he make the return to his apartment where he stood in the middle of the carpet breathing hard and shaking.

“Wow… Hahaha… Holy shit… Oh my God… That was awesome.” Heart racing like crazy, he went to the kitchen and grabbed himself a glass of water. Once his pulse started to die down, he laid down on the couch and turned on the TV. Now his curiosity was burning again, and he wanted everything there was to know about the sphinx world. It came to him in a whirlwind of channels and internet pages. Everything from the human universe was mirrored like in the skunk and wolverine universes, but with their own mystic flair. The same movies and celebrities all existed, their features sharpened and honed into something more mediterranean.


The biggest shock came when he found out why the city looked so massive in the pictures. All of sphinx-kind was located in different hypercities across the world, one for each major region. The one Jared lived in was on the east coast of what would’ve been the United States. Another was on the west coast, two more in South America, and about a dozen others on the other continents. Between them was nothing but unmolested wilderness, all of it teeming with life unconcerned with urban setbacks or a worsening environment. The sphinx was a wise creature, thus it treated the planet it lived on wisely.

Jared wanted to see it all, but there was no damn way he was going to experience it driving around in a car. He was going to fly through it every day, not giving a damn how tired it made him or how far he would actually get. He was going to quite literally spread his wings and enjoy every second of his freedom like every man should. So that’s what he did. He spent a week in that megatropolis flying everywhere he went, seeing the Greco-Egyptian inspired architecture everywhere in buildings, monuments, parks, and infrastructure. He spent time at the movies and sports games, giggling his head off at how the sphinxes played and acted on their sphinx bodies. He never thought getting to these places would be more fun than being there, his every flight through the city bringing excitement and joy.

Then Leland caught him off guard like he always did. Jared was opening his closet in his bedroom when the sight of three onesies hanging on the rack. Jared had totally forgotten about them. Usually, they didn’t come back until Leland had sent him a new suit and a letter. Did Jared miss them? He went back into the living room to make sure he hadn’t missed anything but saw nothing. A trip to the mailboxes downstairs yielded similar results. Jared flew up to his balcony and gave the place one more look over. He asked his neighbors if they had seen a brown paper package with his name on it. No dice. Jared walked back into his apartment one more time, confused and alarmed. Where is the package? Where is the letter?