There was a second dream, where I was trapped in a different world in the form of a sentient, talking snake. I did not remember being human before and was lonely being the only sentient animal in the forest.
A group of adventurers came through. They were looking for me as I had knowledge of how to enter a sealed tower. They offered me many treasures for my help. But all I wanted was conversation. “Help us, we’ll bring you back to human worlds where you’ll be yourself again!”
“I don’t want to be human. I want the delight of discourse and conversation.” “You’ll get that and more because humans sure love to talk!” I agreed to help, not catching the pandering tone of the adventurer.
We entered the tower and found I had in fact been human. But I gave it up because my treatment at the hands of my species was cruel and abusive. The sorcerer took advantage of my discontent and stole my human form for his own intents.
Some random encounters later, the adventurers find the treasure they seek. A magic globe. The sorcerer catches us and shatters the globe. Each adventurer picks up a shard and runs but there is one shard remaining. I know if the sorcerer gets it, he can call the other shards back to himself. I grab the shard and swallow it, then follow after the adventurers.
The sorceror’s power is tied to my stolen humanity. If I regain it, he is broken. We race to the human worlds with him hot on our trail. “If you cross over, all the pain I saved you from will return! All of it! They will treat you like a dumb animal again!” But now I know he had been using my power to enslave others.
I slither into human lands and immediately become human. As I tumble over sudden arms and legs, the shard I had swallowed became part of me. The other adventurers didn’t know I had the last shard. “Oh shit. The snake was really a human afterall!”
The adventurers bring me to an courtroom. Everyone was waiting to hear the results of the expedition. I heard the leader of the group tell his version of events. According to him, I was a helpless slave, devoid of mind and thought. I should be considered hostile and imprisoned for my, and society’s, good. He continued on claiming that I had sought to prevent them from escaping with the shards.
Most of the group just silently nodded. But two refused to go along and told the committee the truth about me. That the globe didn’t matter as much as rescuing me because it was my stolen power that fueled the globe. That if not for my help, they would have failed. And that I came back to human lands on my own.
“Well, she’s just a feral child. Harmless. We see no reason to imprison her. You have all the shards of the globe? He doesn’t have her power anymore but if he has any of the globe, that’s enough to be worrisome.” The committee dismissed me, like I feared they would. I was of no use, nor threat, to them. I was nothing and not worth the effort to throw away.
The adventurers placed their shards on a table. The shards were reassembled. The heart of the globe was missing. “You must go back. Without the heart, the outer layers are useless. Whoever has the heart can call the other pieces. You bring us this useless bitch and leave behind the most important piece!”
That’s it. I’ve had enough. I have been human again long enough to know what I’m capable of, why my species rejected me, why I’ve been abused. Fuck all about this.
“You! You promised to help us! Lead us back to the tower!” The lead adventurer was reaching for my shirt. I waved him off the first time. When he tried again, I zapped his ass.
In the sudden quiet of the courtroom, I spoke. “You have no claim on me. You broke your word. You promised me conversation and discourse. You just argued for my solitary confinement until my death. You promised me equality. You reach for me like a monkey trainer at a zoo. Fuck you. I owe you Jack Shitte.”
I walk towards the incomplete globe. “You all were so concerned about saving yourselves, none of you noted who picked up the last shard.” I raised my hand and the heart manifested within the globe, sealing and completing it. The committee ordered me to surrender the intact globe, but I absorbed it into myself. I felt strangely complete as I did.
“Ladies, Gentlemen, and Kin of the committee. I am reminded why I left humanity. Animals have more honor. Because I was different, your ways abused me and drove me away. All you have wanted from me was how to use me as one uses a cloth. You rub my face into your offal, and then deride me for being filthy.”
“Esteemed and honored members of the Committee, I’m fucking done. My time in the forest taught me how to live on my own terms. I thought I was longing for conversation using speech. I understand now, speech is not a measurement of sentience. The rocks and the trees are preferable to the enslavements you call Polite Society.”
“I have a choice. Having escaped one tyrant, I can submit to the rule of another. Or I can rule myself.” I smiled, made a formal bow, and left the courtroom. The crowd parted to let me pass unrestricted. Behind me, the committee members were howling for my arrest and imprisonment.
Just as I reached the doors, I overheard two spectators. “She stopped talking? What was her choice?” “She just said her choice. Weren’t you paying attention?” “I was paying attention, I was just checking the game scores.” “So you didn’t see her walk by just now?” “No, what did she say? Did she say anything? Why didn’t you tell me! I could have gotten a picture!” “Fucking seriously? Never mind. You couldn’t understand her answer anyway.”
I open the doors and wake up in bed. I should be triumphant. I am almost crushed to tears with such a piercing loneliness. I am my own, but at what price?
I am learning.