Hello everyone!
I hope you like my story! :)
Never get distracted in front of a mammoth. Soto had been told this rule again and again while he was learning to hunt, and he thought he would have remembered it for life. However, like they say, you will never truly understand something until it happens to you. Only when he was knocked into a rock wall by a mammoth bull, and several icicles hanging from it fell and impaled him, he realized how important it was to be careful when you had the biggest land mammal right in front of you.
His last thought before he passed out was the shame his deceased parents and higher-ranked packmates must had been feeling, seeing a good alpha like him make such a stupid mistake. Then, when he woke up, about four hours later, more thoughts came to his mind. First, the fact that he had failed: his perfect revenge plan had gone wrong. He had been prevented from killing the baby, who had most likely been returned to his father by the mammoth and the sloth while Soto was unconscious.
He was about to start conceiving a new plan when he remembered why the old one had gone wrong. It wasn't directly because of the mammoth and the sloth, but because of Diego. His second in command, the only one he trusted out of the whole pack, had betrayed not only them, but his own kind, by saving three preys.
He regretted not killing Diego when he lost the baby during the attack to the human camp, and raised his sore head to see whether he was still there or not. Soto had badly wounded him, as he had been dumb enough to sacrifice himself to save the mammoth's life, and Soto doubted that he would have been able to walk away after that. If he hadn't left, he would have killed him immediately.
Diego wasn't there, though, perhaps the mammoth had carried him away. There was no sign of his other three pack members, Oscar, Zeke and Lenny. Soto didn't trust them at all, but they would have been useful now that he was injured. Luckily, the icicles hadn't actually hurt him the way he imagined they would, they had even melted for some reason, so he was sure he was going to survive on his own.
He got up, but as soon as he placed his front paws on the ground, he let out a high-pitched groan of pain, as the snow was unbearably cold. His confusion about the weird sound he had just made took a back seat as he looked at his front paws. They weren't furry and clawed like they were supposed to be, but hairless and pink, much like the ones of a human.
Soto examined them, speechless, for a long time, until he noticed heaps of black fur on his forelimbs. He grabbed and pulled them, feeling pain on his head and realizing they were his, another human characteristic. And the more he looked at his fur, the more he realized that it wasn't attached to his skin, but that he was wearing it.
"What the-" Soto said, getting surprised when he heard that his voice was high pitched.
A scream echoed in Half Peak as Soto looked inside the fur on his upper body and noticed not only that all his skin was indeed pink and hairless, but that he had two large breasts on his chest. He literally threw himself to a big icicle on a rock to look at his reflection, hoping desperately to see a saber-toothed tiger. However, he met the eyes of someone else.
Soto screamed again, staring in shock at a female human. He touched his face, and she did the same, following all his movements. He almost collapsed when he noticed that his sharp teeth, including his sabers, were gone.
"This can't be happening!" He exclaimed, wishing to be in a very realistic and vivid dream.
Suddenly, his reflection was replaced by the upper body of another female human, but this time Soto knew who she was very well.
"I'd better start explaining before you pass out." She laughed.
Soto jumped back in surprise. Several incomprehensible sounds came out of his mouth, he was so confused that he didn't even know what to say.
"Relax, Soto." She smirked.
"What are you?" Soto asked, completely lost.
"You know exactly what I am, I'm the spirit of the female human who died because of your pointless thirst for revenge," She answered, "And now listen to me, so that I can tell you why you look like a slightly uglier version of me." She teased him.
In normal situations, Soto wouldn't have let anyone criticize him and his actions, but that was definitely not a normal situation. The idea of having become a female human left him speechless, he made no sound or movement, standing there as if he was frozen.
"You see…" She said, "While my son has been returned to his father by the mammoth and the sloth, your plan hasn't exactly failed."
Soto forgot about his strange situation for a second, and looked at her with interest.
"The only food available to humans once they go through Glacier Pass, which, as you know, will soon be closed by the snow, is meat," She explained. "And my baby is still unable to eat it, he is too young… he only feeds on berries, watery fruit and, of course, milk."
His saddened voice almost made Soto grin as he understood what she meant.
"When my husband will realize that, it'll be too late, the pass won't be open anymore and my son will die of starvation," She continued, "Unless you change his fate."
"Me?" He asked.
"When someone who has committed horrible actions dies, it's sometimes decided to give them a chance to continue their life, but first they have to prevent something bad they're responsible for from happening." She said. "If they accept and do it, they can continue their life, but if they don't, they die."
Soto understood where she was getting at.
"You've been turned into a female human, because you'll have to head north, reach and join the tribe and breastfeed my baby to continue your current life." She explained.
"Okay, first of all, you are missing something really important here," Soto said with a condescending manner. "Even I, a male, know that females don't lactate unless they have given birth… and they say you humans are so smart."
"Your species and your gender have been changed, do you really think it'd have been a problem to have you lactate without being pregnant first?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow.
Soto looked weirdly at his chest, uncomfortable.
"And you should thank me, because if it wasn't for me you'd have woken up in that body nine months ago, gotten pregnant most likely against your will, and given birth one of these days so that you could save my baby." She explained.
The ex-saber felt even more awkward.
"By the way, your punishment would have been too easy like that, so something else was made more difficult," She continued, "As you may have noticed, you're a human that speaks animal language, so you'll have to join the tribe without being able to talk with the members."
Soto started laughing, confusing the baby's mother.
"All this nonsense is really interesting, but the real question is," He said with a smirk, "Why in the world do you think I'd save your kid, instead of letting him die and, most importantly, making his father suffer as I wanted?"
"Well, it is the only way you can get your saber body back as soon as my son can survive without milk, you have no other chance to continue your life." She clarified.
"Oh, I got it, but I don't care," Soto sneered. "I'd rather die than become myself again by helping your kind, especially your family."
Soto wasn't kidding. He would have died four hours before this conversation if the human and who knows who else hadn't had the crazy idea to make him good, foolishly believing that a ruthless alpha could become a lovely mother. He wasn't supposed to be alive, so he wouldn't have cared if he died.
The knowledge that his plan had actually worked was all he needed to die happy. The baby wouldn't have lived, resulting in his father being heartbroken, namely the goal of his plan. Soto had avenged his deceased packmates, and the tribe chief would have remembered to never mess with sabers again.
"You monster!" The female human's soul exclaimed. "My husband will blame himself for the rest of his life for our son's death."
"Actually, he'll blame the sabers for his death." Soto corrected her, smiling in satisfaction.
"Oh, not really," She said, "I mean, you didn't kill our baby, he was perfectly healthy when he was returned to my husband."
"I know what you're trying to do, and it won't work." Soto replied.
"I'm just saying that he'll blame himself if our baby dies, since he didn't look for something he could eat when he had the chance." She added.
"But my pack and I are still those who started the chain of events that will lead to the kid's death, you can't deny it." Soto said, smirking.
"So?" She provoked him. "I know your plan was to kidnap and eat my son, and then bring his bones and clothes to my husband, to show him what happens when someone messes with sabers... do you really think starting a chain of events is enough to avenge your packmates' death?"
Soto was surprised that she knew the details, as he had never mentioned them during their conversation.
"The only thing my husband has been shown is that he should always carry some fruit around, your attack to our tribe will mean nothing but normal saber hunting behavior to him." She said.
Soto looked at the ground, clearly angered, trying desperately to think about something that would have made her words untrue.
"Oh, and if you want, I can wander around here and ask the deceased sabers of your pack how much they're disappointed by your failure." She smirked.
That was enough. Soto, enraged, tried to roar, making a high pitched scream instead, which almost made the woman's soul laugh. Then, he tried to break the icicle with her reflection, slapping it, but he only hurt himself. She couldn't help but let out a laugh.
"I'll do it!" He exclaimed angrily. "I'm going to go north, find that damned tribe and feed your baby, and you know why? So that I can become a saber again and kill him once and for all!"
"Y-You won't," She stated, with hesitation, as if she wasn't convinced of what she was saying, "My husband will prevent you from murdering our baby."
"We'll see." Soto laughed maliciously. He turned around and looked at Glacier Pass.
When the woman was sure he wasn't looking back, she smiled satisfied.
"It went exactly like I wanted." She whispered, and disappeared.
When Soto was about to start heading north, he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, three creatures running in the distance toward him. As they came closer, he recognized them: three sabers, a fit one, a scrawny one and a fat one. His other packmates, Oscar, Zeke and Lenny, had come back.
Let me know what you think of the first chapter and stay tuned for the next one! :D