“So, I have to ask, why humans?” Jane asked.
Nathan looked her up and down. She was a mousy woman, her hair pulled up in a messy looped ponytail. A few dark blonde strands fell across her face as her eyes met his.
“Why?” Nathan leaned back and considered it, “I mean the pipeline already existed. Genome sequencing, editing, and writing has pretty much been solved. Sure we could have set the novel program to run entirely off of gamete editing and surrogacy.” He paused for a second, “But mostly, it’s because—”
“—Because we’re the overpopulated species here.” Ash finished as she pushed open the door, holding a thick binder in one hand and a coffee and doughnut precariously in her other. She put the binder onto the tabletop in front of Jane and gently pushed it forward.
“We have too many people and not enough species that can survive the climate after the clathrate shift. So we’re taking out two birds with one stone.” He saw her wince at Jane, “Metaphorically, of course.”
Nathan shook his head, “It’s not nearly that simple. There are a few different methods that are being used now, Novel species and Progenitors are just one of them. An active reduction in social pressure to have kids has been doing a lot of heavy lifting but our program is going to help carve a little more out of our active population problem within this century.” He smiled warmly, “In short, the Progenitor Program is meant to be a voluntary alternative to population control that also boosts the ecological diversity.”
Jane nodded, “So you turn people into animals… weird animals, but still.”
Ash laughed a little, “The original idea was to have it be a lottery, all ‘sorry but you got selected,’ and all that, but Tanner floated the idea of an open enrollment campaign first.” She laughed again, “he was on to something because we’re basically running at capacity with a waiting list in some locations. Lots of people are just done being, well, people.”
As Ash trailed off, finishing her breakfast, Jane flipped though the pages of the binder. Nathan saw her lightly consider each entry for a second or two before moving onto the next. After a minute or so she glanced up at them, “You have predator and prey species?”
“Course,” Ash said, “Need both for a thriving ecology.”
“I’m sure a lot of people have been choosing predators,” Jane said, her eyes lingering on an entry for a mid sized quadrupedal raptor like creature. There were a few short blurbs of details as well as a basic anatomical layout splayed out across the page. Nathan had always thought they looked a little too much like a child's first big book of animals in some ways, but the simplicity seemed to help more often than it hurt.
Nathan glanced at Ash, catching the woman mid sip of coffee. He decided to grab the reigns of the conversation, “We have a number of ratios running for ecological niches, secondary and tertiary consumers. Herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores.” Nathan explained, “But really I don’t think we’ve hit any of the niche caps as of yet. It’s been more herbivore and light omnivore species that get chosen over carnivores.”
He caught Jane’s glance up at him, quizzical, “The people this kind of program attracts are the kind of people who are just tired of it all. Herbivores might not be flashy, but realistically they want for very little, especially progenitors.” He shrugged as she flipped the page again.
“I’m sure it’s also the thought that if they choose predator they’ll likely be hunting and killing fellow progenitors.” Ash said with a wry smile, “Program isn’t set up to run that way, by the way. We’ve got the carnivores feeding on standard farm stock. Pigs, chicken, cattle, the like. We won’t be introducing novel species into their diets until after the 3nd generation when things are hopefully more stable, Progenitors stay entirely separate from start to finish.”
With a nod, the woman flitted through the rest of the carnivore section and started on the far wider omnivore segment. After a moment she glanced up, “A lot of these species seem geared reptilian and avian? Not much in the way of mammals.”
“It’s gonna get hotter in the next few centuries,” Nathan said, “The designers focused more on biology that can handle the heat.” He smiled, “In a way they took inspiration from the species that were here last time the earth was that hot.”
“Dinosaurs?” Jane guessed, getting a nod from Nathan and another light laugh from Ash.
“Dinosaurs, Archosaurs, Therapsids. You’ll recognize bit of everything in there.” Nathan said, “Though I try and not use those terms too much. Genetically they couldn’t be more dissimilar to those species. It’s all achieved with heavy tweaking of the human genome at the end of the day. Everything’s also smaller, we’re not looking to make megafauna or anything. Biggest option as of right now is maybe bison sized on the very top end.”
Jane nodded as she followed his explanation. “And these flags?” she asked as she ran her fingers along the colored tabs that stuck out of every page.
“Priorities,” Nathan said, “Anything red is something with a niche that’s been filled for this zone. Yellow and green are low and high priorities respectively. Blue is for species with adoption rates well below threshold.” He smiled to himself as he watched Jane flit a little towards the green and blue entries.
Ash laughed a little, not blind to it either, “Not one to follow the trends?”
Jane sighed, “Well, the way I see it, if I’m doing this I might as well try and pick something that actually helps.”
“Just don’t force yourself,” Nathan said, “Find something comfortable to your tastes. We take a lot of care to make sure that as few people regret this as possible.”
She glanced up at him and blinked a few times, “I’m... I really don’t have anything in mind, I’m just looking to… I don’t know how to best describe it.” He heard her grumble a little as her brow furrowed, “I don’t know why other people do this. I mean, I’m not doing this because I hate humanity or even being human. It’s just there’s too much and I just don’t want to have to participate in it.” She shook her head. “I know it doesn’t really make sense…”
Ash chuckled and leaned forwards, “Makes a lot of sense, and honestly what you said isn’t all that uncommon here. But if that’s the case I have a recommendation, though I’ll be frank, I’m biased.” She started to pull the notebook back as Jane nodded, letting it slip from in front of her. Nathan watched Ash flip through the pages, a few dozen at a time before landing on one in particular. Even though he knew what it was going to be, he still smiled as he saw her recommendation.
“A nice beasty called a loraptor.” Ash said, “Most people have been skipping past this one.” She paused to finished off the last of her doughnut before taking a deep a swig of coffee to wash it down.
Jane pulled the notebook back towards here and glanced over the creature displayed while Ash stood and leaned over the table and pointed at picture and a few of the anatomical drawings.
“An opportunistic omnivore,” Ash continued, “mix of a grazer and scavenger. It’s a helpful choice, for us, that is. While it’s more than capable of handling itself, it’s ultimately meant to be a little more domestic. Think something like a horse or oxen. Most of the ones in the program are used for transport and hauling.”
“And the bias?” Jane asked.
Ash smiled widely, “I run the loraptor program for this range.”
Jane glanced up at Ash for a moment before her gaze fell back down to the page again, “Well it looks interesting. Tagged blue? How many are there?”
Ash tapped on her tablet, “As of right now, globally? About three dozen but only seven progenitors, so the program is really going to be hurting for genetic diversity in a year or two. We have one of the male progenitors here, alongside three first-gen juveniles sent over from the other reserves. We hope to expand that number eight-fold over the next ten years.”
There was a moments pause before Jane’s face flushed lightly. She hadn’t missed the implications in Ash’s explanation. With a light tap on the page Jane changed the subject, “Brain capacity is seven to eight? What’s similar to that?”
Nathan nodded, “Might be egotistical, but humans are in the nine to ten range, particularly smart dogs are around seven. Eight to nine is in the range of apes, dolphins, elephants, and the like. Capable of self identification, multi step logic, keeping a fairly fluid mental map of their environment.” He paused a moment, glancing at Ash. She gave him a little nod, and he continued “For progenitors, it’s likely they recognize people they knew and probably remember who they were before it all–”
“They absolutely remember.” Ash interjected. Nathan nodded at her, she’d know better than him, after all.
“–but most people coming here don’t seem to like that part.” He kept going, “But if that wouldn’t bother you it’s a solid choice. They’re social, clever, and personable.” He smiled, seeing Jane’s eyes pouring a little more on the entry in the binder. “Based on testing and our own observations here, the loraptor progenitors lose some long term planning and critical thinking skills, but not much else. They follow conversations without much issue.”
Ash nodded, “–and Chucky can communicate back pretty well with his buttons.”
Jane’s head popped up, “Chucky?”
Ash smiled, “Yea, he’s mine... well not mine in like a pet way...” her face twisted as she clearly started to backtrack. ‘What I mean is more–"
“For progenitors it’s considered guardianship, not ownership,” Nathan interjected, stealing the explanation from Ash, “For high intelligence species like them it’s more along the line of a cooperative partnership. Chucky helps Ash get around the reserve and Ash vouches for him when he needs it.” He saw Ash nodding along at his explanation. The rest of it could come from her.
Slowly Jane nodded and flipped a little through the rest of the pages but it was clear that she wasn’t really looking all that hard anymore. He let her search for a few minutes before he glanced up at Ash, who shot back a small smile before resting a hand on the table lightly.
“Would you like to meet him?” She asked.
“... h-him?” Jane stuttered back.
“Chucky?” Ash said with a smile, straightening back up, “It’s maybe a ten minute walk out to the loraptor barn. Assuming he stayed there, he likes to wander a bit, but rarely far.”
Nathan slid the binder towards himself and closed it, “Remember, you signed up for a tour and trial run. Nothing’s set in stone and you’re here for a little over a week, you don’t need to choose now, if at all. Take a look around, see how the staff handles the reserve and we’ll point out a few other novels you might find interesting. We can move forward from there.”
A ten minute walk had turned into a fifteen minute walk and a seven minute drive as the promised creature had wandered off.
Jane bounced around lightly in the bed of the utility vehicle as Ash wheeled it around the expansive pasture in a wide circle. She sat on top of a large cooler flanked by two bales of hay while she listened absentmindedly to the sounds of the radio drifting out of the cab, occasionally interrupted by Ash and Nathan lightly bickering.
She smiled as she took a deep breath, adjusting the wide brimmed sunhat she’d picked up for this trip. It was a rather balmy early spring day with the temperature hovering just below eighty with nearly no humidity to speak of, the sun shining brightly above. Off to the west the foothills of the Rockies rose into sparsely forested slopes and bare peaks. So much more open and bright than her stuffy apartment, stuffy cubicle, stuffy life.
“Taking in the sights?” Ash shouted at her through the open frame of the UTV.
“Yea!” She shouted back, “It’s gorgeous out here.”
“Well, I’m glad you like it, it’s part of the reason I decided to stay.” Ash said with a laugh, “The other part is just up ahead. Stubborn fucker wandered further than I expected.”
Jane twisted and raised herself up, planting one foot on the bed of the vehicle and resting her other knee on top of the cooler. Over the top of the cab she could see a large-ish shape moving through some of the dense shrubs ahead.
The UTV started to slow as they reached the edge of the brush before rolling to a stop. The leathery back of the animal was all that was visible even from Jane’s raised position.
“He’s probably gotten into something,” Ash grunted, “Damnit.” She stepped out of the vehicle, throwing on thick gloves and a leather jacket before plunging her way through the brush. “You stay there for now!” She shouted over her shoulder, “I’ll get him out of here.”
Jane lowered herself down, stepping around to where Nathan was standing. She could hear Ash’s voice–a little muffled now–lightly berating the creature. An odd whooping and chortling sound responded, accompanied by the sound of crunching foliage.
“That’d be Chucky.” Nathan said, “If you haven’t picked up on it already, the two of them get along well, unsurprisingly.”
“Where are the others,” Jane asked, “she said there were some others?” She leaned against the side of the vehicle and took in the wide scrubland vista.
“Juveniles are kept in a smaller paddock,” Nathan replied, “With such a long perimeter we sometimes get coyotes or the very rare puma inside the range.” He rested his back against the UTV as well, “They mostly went after the chickens and goats we keep. But eventually they got curious enough to harass the novels, so we decided to keep the juvies well secured until we have enough adults to protect them.”
“Makes sense,” She said, “How big are they?”
“Right now? They’re mostly yearlings,” Nathan said, “Bout up to your hip. Like a big dog, they act kinda similar too. Really, we should have just introduced you to them first.” He smiled and sighed, “But Ash is pretty excited about all this, if that wasn’t entirely obvious. You’re the first person whose showed interest in loraptor and she’s got a special fondness for the species.” He nodded towards the brush where the sounds of crunching undergrowth and Ash’s incessant grumbling were approaching.
Jane felt butterflies start in her stomach, sure she’d seen the odd reptilian novel species at an expo or two, the NSPP did a lot of outreach after all. But it was different now, this was something different, something she could choose to become if she chose to pursue it. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she felt her excitement and anxieties fight for dominance inside her chest, not for the first time since she’d signed up for the trial run.
“There we go,” Ash said as she rounded the hood of the vehicle, brushing her jacket off before removing it and tossing it into the bed of the UTV.
“What’d he find,” Nathan asked with a chuckle.
Ash shook her head, “Nothing I could see, so probably a fence lizard. Guessing he either he lost it or ate it.”
Jane leaned forward and tried to subtly crane her head around to see ‘him’ but couldn’t spot the creature behind the vehicle.
She caught Ash’s smirk as the woman nodded at her, gesturing for her to turn around. Before she could, a loud snort barked from directly behind her. The nervousness in her chest immediately ignited into panic. She spun around, feeling her legs immediately push herself back towards the two humans and away from the loraptor, away from Chucky. She stumbled a little bit but stayed on her feet with a little help from Nathan with a steadying hand on her back.
“I didn’t think they were this big!” She all but shouted.
“Gotta be if people are going to ride them,” Ash said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Also results generally have to trend larger than humans, the process can do big way better than small.”
Chucky had closed the distance she’d opened between them, craning his lizardlike head low to look at her from below the brim of her hat. Jane took a long breath as she found her nerves again, forcing her legs to hold firm despite the pinpricks of panic that danced up and down her body. With a huff of hot breath Chucky tipped his nose up and pushed the hat away.
Despite herself, she smiled a little and slipped the hat off the rest of the way, setting it into the bed of the vehicle. “You wanted to see?” She asked as she turned back, brushing her hair out of her face. She watched as Chucky nodded before stepping in a little closer again, tilting his head from side to side, looking at her with each eye.
Hesitantly she reached up, “I....” She started, glancing over at Ash, “Is it demeaning to pet him?”
“Oh god no,” Ash said with a laugh, “If you don’t start he’ll probably beg.” Ash laughed again as Chucky’s head whipped around to look her way, the loraptor vocalizing something in a chattering low grumble. Ash laughed again, stepping in and running her hands from tip of his snout down his neck, “Yea, yea, I’m ruining your perfectly good reputation.” She looped an arm over and under his neck, giving the beasty a tight squeeze before releasing him.
“How much of that did you understand?” Jane asked as she reached up and ran her own hand along the side of his neck, feeling a few clods of dried dirt and clay fall away. The skin underneath was covered in thick raised lumps, almost like scales but not quite. Very much like an alligator, or at least what she expected one to feel like. She felt the creature press gently into her hand as she continued to brush over his neck.
“A fair bit, me and him have a fairly good rapport,” Ash said, “but its mostly just mood and context than anything else.”
Chucky moved a little towards Ash and nudged at her shoulder with his large head, making a few clicking sounds. Jane found herself letting her hand run along the loraptor’s flank as he’d turned, now absentmindedly brushing off the crumbling clay coating his hindquarters.
“Fine, fine,” Ash said with a sigh, “I’ll come completely clean about it.” She leaned against the bulk of the raptor with a sigh, “I can follow all of it, even the subtle stuff like body language. Me and him worked out the basics while he was still changing.”
“So he’s the progenitor. I mean, I assumed based off the conversation earlier,” Jane said, pulling her hand away from the creature’s side and brushing it off on her jeans. She watched as Chucky turned and looked at her with a huff, nodding his head back towards his side. She laughed a little and returned her hand, feeling him lean against the pressure, “you knew him before?” Jane asked, catching an odd glance from Nathan, one that was more directed towards Ash than her.
Ash nodded, but her face had darkened just a little, “Chucky’s the entire reason I’m part of this program. He was the one who wanted to join.” She smiled, but it didn’t really reach her eyes.
“Who was he?” Jane started, “if it’s not too much?”
Ash laughed halfheartedly, “No, It’s not. If you ended up committing to the loraptor track I’d be telling you before all the paperwork was done anyways. Sort of as a full disclosure thing, not official, but important to us.” She smiled and let out an awkward little laugh, gently slapping at the beast’s shoulder, “Chucky here is my ex-husband.”
Jane felt herself blink a little as her breath caught in her chest, her gaze flitting between Ash, Chucky, and Nathan.
Nathan simply shrugged, “She’s not joking.”
“O-oh–” Jane stuttered, “Tha-thats—“
Ash shook her head, “Look, I get it. I know it’s weird and you know it’s weird. But...” She paused a second and grimaced. With a bit of a huff she unfastened a sleeve of her button down and rolled it up.
Jane drew in a sharp breath as she saw the skin beneath, it was ridged and rough, like the progenitor. Ash reached up with her other hand and lifted a little bit of her hair out of the way. What Jane had thought was an undercut wasn’t that. The same rough scaled skin was there as well.
“I’m a dropout. Yea.” Ash sighed, “Me and Chucky were going to go though with this together, as a pair. I... got to the halfway point, where some of the bigger changes start.” She shook her head, “didn’t work out for me. Just... started losing things that I realized I wasn’t okay being without.” She worked her wrist up and down, “I had a panic attack. I realized I couldn’t continue with it,”
Chucky was burying his head into the crook of Ash’s shoulder, grumbling a little, she reached up and patted him on the back of his neck, “I’ll get out ahead of the rumor. Someone spread words around that I tricked him into it, that it was my way of ending an unhappy marriage. But it wasn’t–” she paused blinking rapidly and rubbing the edge of sleeve against her eyes, “–me and him had a lot of long conversations about what we were going to do. Push through my panic, have both of us drop out...” she sighed, “We decided to simply let each other go the ways we wanted to go. We processed the necessary paperwork and I promised him I’d stay close.” She pushed Chucky away a little, patting him vigorously down his side. “I don’t think we chose too poorly.”
They stood there for a few moments. The sun above doing it’s best to bake away the cold sweat that had started to form on her back and under her arms. Even though it all Jane couldn’t help but keep her hand on Chucky’s side, brushing more of the caked on mud clear.
Ash glanced up at her with a small smirk, “and before your head goes there, no, it’s not like that,” she said, causing Jane to blush as she caught the inflection, “We’re different things now. Living different lives alongside one another.” She took a deep breath and sighed, “but we’re still friends.”
Jade nodded, feeling the heat from her blush start to fade nearly as quickly as it had sprung up, “Well, thanks for telling me, I guess. It’s a lot, but I’m glad you two still found a way to be in each others lives.”
This time Ash’s face flushed deeply, “Hun, I didn’t tell you just to tell you. You do understand that this entire program, at it’s core, is a breeding program. I just want you to make the decision with full knowledge of everything. Loraptors can connect enough dots that you’d still be able to figure it all out after.” Ash’s face twisted into a bit of a forced smile, “Rather you know now instead of when you’ve got an extra eight hundred pounds on you and jaw muscles that can crack bone.”
Jane felt an awkward laugh escape her, the full implication of what was being said finally hitting her. “Oh… oh god.” She started laughing, “So if I said yes it would be…”
“Likely you and Chucky, at least for a while.” Nathan said, pushing himself off the UTV and clapping her on the shoulder, “He’s the only adult male here. Not to say that it’s a hard pairing. Some males get shipped around every now and then, we also artificially inseminate with genetic stock from other ranges. However, the general goal is to have a breeding pair on site to bolster the 1st generation numbers.”
Jane felt her own face flush again as she barely managed to hold Ash’s gaze, “So you’re his wingman now?” She asked.
Ash busted out laughing, doubling over after a few seconds of it, Chucky similarly chortled in his odd vocalizations. After a few seconds, Ash composed herself, or at least tried to, “Oh god, I am, aren’t I.” She finally said wiping tears from her face. Chucky turned back towards Jane and stepped closer, pushing the top of his head into her chest almost like a cat. “Well he approves, by the look of things.” Ash said, “or just thinks you’re funny.”
Jane rubbed her hands up and down the back of Chucky’s neck, eliciting a few popping grumbles from his throat and little waive from side to side along his spine. She assumed meant he was happy.
“I’m not going to lie, this is weird.” She glanced up at Ash, “Like, I understood that this was a human at one point in time, but knowing… all that.”
“Makes it a little more real?” Ash said with a nod, “I get it.”
Nathan sighed, “If you’re getting cold feet, I just want to point out you are looking at this from a human perspective,” He grimaced, “Not sure if it makes it better or worse but it’s fairly likely you won’t care nearly as much after the change.”
“Assuming I go forward with it,” She said softly, “There were a lot of options in that binder.” She could hear the halfhearted tone on her own voice… had she really made a decision already? She did her best to hold a straight face as she considered it all. Even based on this small meeting, Chucky seemed bright enough, involved in the conversation and contributing in his own way. She felt her cheeks warm as she tried putting herself in his place, what would it feel like to be like him.
She caught Ash’s smile, “Yea, I suppose that’s true. Plenty of other options to consider.”
“Worth noting, you don’t need to chose anything,” Nathan said, “We’d be just as happy to have you as staff. About a third of the people here did trial runs and decided it wasn’t for them but still wanted to be involved.”
“Three of us are like me,” Ash said, “Dropouts from the program who decided to stop partway through the process, but didn’t feel like leaving.”
Jane nodded a little, perhaps a little too vigorously. All of this… it wasn’t what she’d expected, but it was close to what she’d hoped for. “I think I’ll stick around, at least for the week” She said, catching a smile from Nathan and Ash. Not to be left out Chucky let out a little bleat, twisting his head a little in her chest. She realized she’d stopped petting at him and redoubled her efforts. A very pleasant sounding rumble was her signal she was doing good work.
Ash stepped around them and over to the back of the vehicle, pulling a large leather saddle from a storage box and started busying herself setting it on him.
“So…” Jane questioned, “What’s with that?”
“Well, he’s likely to wander on the way back without someone keeping him on task, so I figure either you ride him back or I do.” Ash said, flashing another smile her way. “Your choice.”
Jane gasped as a shot of nerves burst in her chest. “I mean, I’ve never ridden anything before.”
Ash disappeared around Chucky, reappearing partly underneath him to buckle the straps, “Yea, well, he’s a pretty good first step to get in the saddle. Nice and gentle. Won’t push himself without good reason.” she finished her work with a deft tug of the straps. She moved back around his bulk and next to Jane, gently moving the lizards head to her own chest and taking over giving him attention. “She spoiling you, Chuck?” She muttered, shooting a smirk her way and nodding at the saddle.
A pulse of trepidation and excitement battled for control of her legs as she half stumbled towards the stirrups. Nathan stepped forward, “I’ll help you up, if you need it.”
“I… I don’t…” She sputtered.
“Don’t push yourself if its too much,” Nathan said, “so much of all this is outside people’s comfort zones, last thing we want to do is scare you.”
She paused and glanced up at the saddle as Nathan’s words seeped into her. Seriously? She was actively considering being turned into one of these things and she was balking at the idea of hopping up to ride it? She shook herself a little before quickly slipping a foot into the stirrup and hefting herself up and over, with just a little difficulty.
“Ay! There we go!” Ash said, beaming up at her as she stepped around, running a hand along Chucky’s spine as she did. “Oop, let me get a foot in this,” She said, tapping at Jane’s left knee. Jane slipped her foot out of that stirrup and Ash used it to hoist herself up a little. She grabbed a pair of leather loops and guided them towards Jane’s hands.
“These are mostly for the gen ones and beyond, not progenitors. He’ll understand verbal instruction just fine. But still, pull the left to suggest he move left, right for right. Long pull both for slow down, fast pull both twice to speed up.” She lowered herself back down and took a few steps away, giving her a thumbs up. “Give it a shot!”
Jane inspected the reigns, each loop was attached to a simple set of mechanical springs and arms. She pulled at the right one, watching as a blunt prod pressed into the side of the base of Chucky’s neck. Chucky took a bit of a lumbering step forward, turning to the right, away from the UTV. She released it and he stopped just as quickly.
“Don’t worry, it’s pretty light pressure,” Nathan said, “Doesn’t hurt him at all.”
“Why not do a bit of a loop around here,” Ash called, tracing a wide circle over her head with a pointed finger, “Just stay out of the shrubs, he’ll be fine, but your legs will get shredded in there.”
With a nod, Jane pulled both of the reigns twice, feeling her stomach lurch as Chucky did, starting to move forward, slowly but surprisingly smooth for how she’d seen him lumbering before. Gradually they left Ash and Nathan behind, Jane just gently nudging Chucky into a wide circling pattern.
“I’m kinda useless up here,” She said with a small smile. It felt clear that he had simply understood Ash and plotted the path himself. Chucky turned his head to glance up at her before trumpeting a little. Jane laughed as she felt his course correct to be something a little more straight. “No. No. I wasn’t complaining, you can do what you want, just not the bushes.” A chortling honk was her response, very much a laugh if she’d ever heard one. She felt him return his path back into the circle they’d been tracing before.
“Kinda weird to be in this position though,” She said, leaning back a little, “If I say yes, it’s you and me, huh.”
Chucky let loose a few bleats and honks, quieter than she’d expected a creature of his size to make. She shook her head, “Can’t follow that.” She paused and thought. “Give me a signal, One for good, two for bad.”
She felt the saddle heave a little, tipping her and startling her a bit. But it was once, just once.
“So you’re okay with that?” She asked, laughing as Chucky bounced her once more, chortling again. This time she laughed along with him, “Okay, okay. I guess that’s one worry gone, we’ll see how I feel by the end of the week.”
Chucky craned his head to the side again, looking at her and vocalizing a string of sounds again.
“Okay, we’ll work on that,” She said, smiling before feeling it fade as the reality of it all hit her again. Leaving it all behind, her life, her family, her humanity. She sighed heavily as her mind drifted into basic arguments of philosophy. What was humanity for her, was it anything all that special. Forty-eight hour work weeks, monthly bills, taxes and maybe sixty hours of vacation to spend on herself if she was lucky. Had it all been that bad? Was it worth it?
She sighed and refocused her attention on her here and now. The mountains, the hot sun, the fluttering breeze, and the large creature beneath her that had once called itself human. Probably had considered the exact same things and chosen to leave it all behind.
She smirked a little as she leaned down and patted his rough leathery side, “Really, I think we’ll have plenty of time for it.”
