Her room was such a strong contrast to the storm of sensations and pain that her awakening had been. It was quiet in here, the padded walls dampened any noise. The light was soft, bright enough to see easily, dim enough not to hurt her eyes. She could smell that people had been in this room, enough scent of them was left to make this room feel populated but not enough to make it feel belong to someone else.

  She could just sit for a while and be herself. Her new self to be precise.

  In the calm of the room she watched her new hands. Her fingers were about the same length as human fingers, but the fleshy part was shorter, and the claws made up the remaining length. Her claws were not retractable, but fixed on her fingers. She would probably leave a lot of scratch marks if she was not careful. She wiggled her fingers to get a better impression how they felt and worked.

  Her fur was short on the back of her hands, and her palms had no fur at all. They showed her dark brown, leathery skin. To her eyes, her golden fur looked very nice on her dark brown skin. It was also surprisingly soft. Her body was certainly designed to be pleasant to look at and, a point which she liked less right now, also to touch.

  A quick inspection with her hands told that she indeed had hair and not just short fur on her head. And if it was fur, it was long enough to be called hair. Two tufted ears, now on top of her head and quite sensitive, both in hearing as well as to touch. Even her own touch made them twitch and sent something like a little lightning feeling through her body. She was fairly sure with the tufts she could detect the slightest draft in the air.

  She tried to say some words just to experience the struggles of having a tongue of unusual length and a different set of teeth. Her pronunciation was bad, to speak clearly she'd have to practice. The sound of her voice was very nice though, easy, light, melodic. For a moment she imagined cursing with a voice like that and had to grin. Even the thought told how futile the attempt would be.

  She liked her new voice. Another detail the body designer had put attention to. Being pleasant to see, being pleasant to hear, she'd know how to use that to her favor.

  She let her tongue run over her teeth. Molars in the back, much like she was used to, but towards the front of her - should she say snout now? She could feel many pointy teeth and four particularly strong ones, canines. She even opened her snout to feel them with her fingers, how pointy they were, and how strongly anchored in her jawbone.

  But besides the apparent and obvious features of her new self, there was something more.

  She laid down on her back and tried to listen into her body. The info sheet about her body had mentioned something and she wasn't sure what to think about it.

  She closed her eyes to feel herself better. It was easy to feel her own breathing. Not so easy to sense her own heartbeat. But neither was the part she was interested in.

  Admitted, even with her old body she usually had not felt that part, except when it hurt and was annoying. She put her hands on her belly and tried to feel something through her abdominal wall. Without any medical education she no real idea what to actually feel for, but she tried anyways for a while and eventually settled with the result that she had well defined abs under her fur which then made her wonder how much training her new body needed to stay in such a good shape.

  But that was also not the point that bothered her. She could not have children. The required organs for that just were not there, at least according to the info sheet about her body, which Thomas had given her. Instead, the sheet had advertised, she had a slightly flatter stomach than the fertile version. A fact which she was willing to book on the positive side.

  Maybe it was good that she could not have children. No accidents that involved a future generation. A few worries less. Also an organ that wasn't there could never get ill or hurt. Also something to score as slightly positive. But despite this it still felt bad to her. She felt lacking. Lacking the essence of being a woman.

  She just laid there for a while milling the thought. There was nothing that she could to do about it. Probably better to make peace with the fact and accept it.

  She rolled over and got on all fours. Then she tried to stand up, but dropped the very moment she tried to shift her weight from her arms towards her legs. Now she sat on the mattress again.

  Her next attempt to stand up ended with her face planting. Good that this was a padded room. She rubbed her slightly bruised snout while thinking of a better plan how to get onto her feet.

  Now she leaned against the wall to help keep balance and actually stood on her legs. She could feel the power in her legs, the potential. She tried to bend her knees which immediately triggered the question 'Which ones?' in her mind. The things that were her ankles felt much more like an extra set of reversed knees. Very springy. She was sure once she could keep a proper balance, these would be great for running and jumping. But not yet, not today.

  She slowly slid down the wall again and crawled onto the mattress. Her body didn't feel as ridiculous to her as she had been afraid of at first. It was actually a quite sportive body, a bit like a race car, which she couldn't control yet.

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  It felt good to move, at least the parts, which she could move well. She threw a few punches from a sitting position. Yep, that felt good. She could feel the muscles responding from her back, her abs to stabilize her position, her shoulder and arm. It was one fluent, powerful motion each time.

  She threw a few more punches. Even half crippled from knees down as she was, it still felt good. She wanted to move more and got into position to do some push-ups. Of course her lower legs failed. But down to the knees she could hold a plank and the push-ups were easy and surprisingly fun. Quite unlike she remembered the experience. It felt actually good to do push-ups. She tried with more force and managed to clap her hands in between. Yes, this was good. One arm was plenty strong enough to lift her in the three quarter plank that she could hold.

  Over the exercises she had totally forgotten about time when the door opened and Thomas looked in, "Hey Vivian!"

  She rolled over from the plank position that she had been holding and sat up to wave at him, "Hey Thomas, nice to see you! Where have you been?"

  He entered the room fully and carefully closed the door behind him, "The docs said it wouldn't be pretty to see you wake up, also that you hardly would notice me and it's better to give you some time to settle in first. But now I'm here."

  He walked over to her, each step quieted by the padded floor and sat down at her side, "How do you feel?"

  "Still quite battered. The pain is gone though and most of the body works. Everything from my knees up is just fine, everything below not so much." She could feel his warm body nearby and felt strangely tempted to lean against him and enjoy more of the warmth his body radiated.

  He nodded and grasped one of her hands, "You've got digitgrade feet now. I guess it's probably best if you try to imagine walking on toe tips. Tomorrow your training will start and the medics can certainly help you better than I can. So just be patient."

  She nodded and after just a few more moments gave up to resist the temptation to feel more of his body warmth and leaned lightly against him, "This body isn't bad. It's strong. I can feel it. But it makes me do things, like things I've never done before. I did push-ups for ... I don't know how long. Long. I've never been a fan of physical activity before. But now I've tried every variant of push-ups that came to my mind just to feel ... how they feel. Enjoyable. I liked it. But that's not me."

  He rubbed her shoulder some while keeping an arm around her, "It's a perk of your new body. Remember how much dogs like running? You'll like it as much. This body is made for moving."

  She frowned a bit, "Dun' like it though. I also never was big in cuddling. But since you sat down here, I want to feel your warm body all close to mine. I don't like it how much this body messes with my emotions. I want to be me."

  He stroked once over her ears, which felt teasingly ticklish and she actually liked the sensation, "It's just new and different. Soon it will feel all natural."

  "I hope so", she pulled her knees up and snuggled more tightly to his side. At least she could enjoy the good feelings, which came with it.

  "Tom, how long will I be here?" A new question came to her mind.

  "Two weeks, three weeks, maybe a bit longer, depends on how quickly you learn to control your new body", he replied while he kept her in a warm embrace, a moment of shelter. She nodded and closed her eyes, "Not so bad then."

  He stroked over her hair and ears again, sending a pleasant shiver down her spine, "No, it should be fine. You've got time to get used to this body and learn how to use it. Don't get stressed over it. The medics know their business and will help you all the way."

  She nodded and looked up after a while, "How will it be once I move in at your place?"

  He laughed, and rubbed her furry cheek a little, "Good I hope. I'm not sure, what do you mean?"

  "Will I have to work, or ... I dunno. Just want to know what you expect from me", she rested her head to his shoulder.

  "You don't need to take a job if that is what you mean? I'd rather have you around at home. Just help a bit with the household, run the occasional errand for me? I mostly just want someone to give me company. That's all."

  She nodded a little, "I'm not a great cook, but I can cook. Maybe I can learn to cook better?"

  He gave her a comforting squeeze with one arm, "If that's something you like to do, sure. Maybe it's more fun if we cook together?"

  She felt a need to yawn and was surprised how wide she could open her snout, just to feel a gentle touch on her nose, "Feeling sleepy?"

  He had put his finger on her nose! She felt a bit angry but nodded anyways, without voicing protest, "Yes, quite. What time is it?"

  He checked his communicator, "Close to 10pm now, maybe we both should get some sleep? I'll come to visit you tomorrow again after your training."

  "Sounds good to me. Maybe I'll be a bit less cripple tomorrow."

  He got up but bowed down to grasp her hands, smiling at her, "You're not a cripple. You're a very pretty cat now. And soon you'll jump and bounce like one, too."

  She smirked. To jump and bounce was certainly not her thing, but seeing that she liked to cuddle now and she'd liked the push-ups, the idea didn't sound so absurd to her anymore, "We'll see, once my legs are better. Have a good time Tom!"

  She received a kiss to her nose, "Have a good time too, Vivian, see you tomorrow."

  She really wanted to walk the few steps with him to the door, but all she could do with legs that denied her will, was to sit on the mattress and wave as he left and closed the door, "Bye!"

  She arranged the pillow, laid down and pulled the blanket over her, just to notice she had no idea how to dim the light in the room. The medic had said if she needed something, she was supposed to shout?

  "Lights out!" She tried, and actually the lights dimmed to near darkness just a few moments later. Or maybe it was actually dark and just her new eyes were still able to see? Something to find out another day.

  Sleep came quickly, and when she woke up, she felt rather well, just her lower legs entangled in the blanket. Without a clock or a window to see the daylight, it was hard to estimate how long she'd been sleeping, but she felt well restated.

  She still laid on the mattress with the blanket pulled over her when the lights turned back on, slowly enough for her eyes to adjust, the door opened and a medic came in, carrying a tablet with a plate and a glass on it. She hadn't seen this man yet, at least she didn't remember his face.

  "Good morning Vivian, my name is Jim. I bring breakfast for you", he introduced himself.

  She put the blanket to the side and sat up, "Good morning Jim. What's for breakfast?"