Taur virus 9

Part 9

"A 95? I can't believe this." I stared in astonishment at the red ink scribbled on the corner of the test we just took a couple of days ago. Back then I had been confident I gave it well but I wasn't expecting such a high grade.

Josh glanced over my shoulder and let out a smirk "Well, it's because you no longer sit on the rear end of the class, but now that you're right in the front at least you're paying attention."

I nodded "Not to mention that I stand out hence can't really do much aside from paying attention and taking notes without the teacher noticing." I said while slipping the sheet of paper into my backpack. This new one for taurs did make things easier.

"Yeah. Oh, have you talked to your parents already? Or at least have the conversation planned through?" Josh popped in the question, much to my annoyance. Well, not exactly annoyance but more mild discomfort, I could've said I've planned everything and would still sweat when put up at the stage in front of my parents. The way home might be one of the most anxious moments.

"I can't say I'm feeling a hundred percent sure… but I think, at least hope it'll all be ok" I said as we approached my locker, where I proceeded to deposit some of my books, as well as my backpack "I just wanna get this over with, the next week they're gonna start charging me for the room and I can't afford that with my savings."

"You know, you can come over to my place, my mom has had the virus twice, so our place is already adapted for one." He offered. "Of course I would have to ask my parents first" He added. At least I noticed he was now friendlier towards me. Before I was changed I used to avoid him for a while, just like Trish, and once I got affected things were slowly going back to normal between us.

"Yeah, it's an idea, but I don't want to abuse your hospitality" I said closing the locker and trotting over towards the cafeteria.

School has been rather calmed lately, after my transformation there was no real big news and people had gotten used to seeing me around the hallway. Even if my distant antisocial behavior towards everyone that's ever been a carrier is no longer a reason to keep distances, I lost my touch in making new friends, but then again, I settled with the ones I had for now.

As we strolled down the hallway we caught glimpse of a huge taur. This one was a horse, with ochre or tanned fur, down the hooves, then, it darkened until becoming fully black. Must've been about two meters tall. She was a mare and showed it. Her way of dressing and her hour glassy figure, in the human area, gave her away. Her muzzle was rather delicate looking, her arms dainty, at least for the rest of her form. She was clad in a shirt that fitted her frame. It was obvious she's been a taur before as she already possessed the clothes and accessories and I hadn't seen her the day before. Her mane was combed and tied up on a way that wouldn't bother her yet allow her to display her style. I couldn't help this was something horribly familiar in her.

"Oh, again?" Josh blinked, laughing out at the new mare taur. I just stared at her with mild confusion. The horse just giggled, coming out with a bit of a snort.

"Funny Josh" she said in Trish's voice. No wonder I didn't remembered her. She had the same voice, the same looks a special vibe and I've seen her in this taur form before, but from a far. I must've forgotten about how she looked like.

"Trish?" I blinked surprised. Looking at her, she was taller than me, thanks to my cat form. She looked down at me and giggled.

"Stunned? Cat got your tongue?" I heard her say.

"Haha funny" I said, recovering from the surprise. "How did this happen?" said surprised, looking at her from head to hoof. She was still cute and the form just accentuated that with a bit of muscle and figure.

"I don't know." She shrugged closing her locker "When I got home yesterday I was already feeling the symptoms. I changed yesterday at midnight after a rather sucky evening. At least I was prepared for everything." She said showing us her lunch box, which contained, judging by the scent, a salad.

"Um, ok, then let's go over to the cafeteria" I suggested. But she shook her head.

"I still have to go over to the secretary to have me registered as a taur for the next week." She said.

"Well, I'll go ahead to the cafeteria to meet up with Paul. I'll talk to you later" Josh said.

"Ok, I'll tag along then" I commented, much to Trish's delight, I might say.

"Alright, hope you can keep up with me now" She snickered as she walked down the hallway. Her longer legs made it a bit trickier to follow her. Now I was sure she would beat me in cross country with a leg tied up. Her hooves produced the characteristic Horse clip clops against the schools tiled floor.

"I'm glad I bought that friction wax, otherwise I would be skidding and falling over and over" She said in the way. The rather impressive horse taur was greeted by some of the students and feared by others, mainly the ones from the sanity group. Not that I cared, I was officially, no longer a part of that group.

We walked, or trotted down to the secretary's office, who gave a simple nod to Trish, they recognized her fairly easy thanks to her history and in a matter of seconds the registration was finished and we were heading to the cafeteria. It turned out Trish got herself a test before coming to school and she winded up with the one week taur virus strain.

The rest of the day was fairly normal. Trish was herself all the time, she acted as if she hadn't grown an extra set of appendages and vertebrae. She laughed, joked and talked as if nothing was out of the ordinary. I was kind of an oddball when I began and didn't dare to talk to anyone after some time had passed. I could've learned to be with her, heck, could've still been a friend to her all those times she changed.

---

It was nice day after all. Trish and I sat together in the two taur spaces the school provided and attended class. It was a rather nice change of pace. Soon, the end class bell rang and we got ready to go out.

"You know, if you're still without a roof by the end of the week, I can either talk to you or invite you over to my place, it's no biggie. I would just have to ask my parents" She said as I was gathering my stuff from my locker.

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll first await how things turn out with my parents." I said smiling at her as I zipped up my things and carried them over my back to the entrance. "Also, I'm gonna be dropping to the four legs inn to check out how are things going with the management. I heard Tina was over there. Did you meet her?"

"Yeah, she's quite a personality" I noted.

"Yeah, being a local taur and a medical miracle, she was the one that incentivized the use of the taur virus for medical purposes. Too bad that matter still has a political war waging on the subject."

"It is as they say" I added, somewhat intrigued by the subject. If that virus could fix people the way it does then it can be outrageous the fact they're discussing it. "The law is always 4 or 5 years behind what's new."

"Yeah, you should head over to one of her speeches. Ever since her first transformation she has dedicated some of her time to study advanced biology. Right now she's one of the people with more knowledge of the virus."

"That's great." I smiled as we exited the school. I walked down the stairs and paused, Trish stayed on top of the porch. I was just about to ask her if there was something wrong when she immediately began trotting and jumped over the cleared area of the school, landing on her forelegs, like a competition horse, causing a mild tremor.

"Wohoo! I forgot what it was like" she said, raising herself, standing on her hindlegs in a cool western pose. I just stared, letting out an amused chuckle as many of the students turned over to stare at the prancing mare, having felt the minor quake. "Marcus! Are you coming?" She said turning to give me a snicker that snapped me back into reality. "Right" I said trotting after.

"That was nice, I wouldn't have dared to do something like that in fear of breaking a leg" I said.

"Well, I've practiced. I practically had to take horseback riding at some point without the need of an actual horse" She laughed as we approached towards the exit fence. "Oh… I guess this is my queue to leave" She said quietly.

I could imagine what she was talking about as we approached. Standing by the entrance stood both my parents. Somewhat shocked to see me standing next to another taur. My mom stood there, clad in her usual outdoors outfit, something classy with some remembrance to the 1930's, probably because of the scarf and thick looking gloves she wore when out, to avoid contagion. My dad stood right next to her, with his arm around her waist, keeping her close. He was clad in his suit he used to go to the office.

They weren't used to being outside in the open unless it was really necessary. They never went into open spaces. For instance, when they picked me and my brother up from school they didn't leave the car. My brother had to fight for the right to take the bus to college. The fact that they were here told me they were really trying.

"Alright, I'll see ya later" Trish said, giving me a wave, before heading elsewhere.

I gave her a nod and took a deep breath before heading over to where my parents were. They greeted me just like before. My mom gave me a small shy wave, practically uncomfortable of being out in the open with the risk of being recognized. My dad had more of temperance. He stood there with his somewhat stern look.

"Marcus" he said.

"Hi dad" I managed to spell.

"Your mom has told me about your visit last time and, well, we've wanted to talk with you" He said moving away from the crowd, instructing me to follow. To be honest, I was already attracting much attention in my current state.

"and… after some thought, we had to remember you are our son. Inside all that fur, you're still you."His dad said, producing great relief in my heart.

"We've decided to begin, slowly, to stray away of the Sanitary groups and try to focus more on adapt." My mom added. "We just figured, it's a flu. Even people trying to be as clean as us are gonna catch it."

My dad nodded "and the specialists and doctors have reassured us it is not contagious" he said, hesitantly reaching to pet and caress my flank. He wasn't too used to having an animal nearby.

"That's great, dad. But you sure about leaving the group? Aren't they gonna cause trouble for this?" I asked. Somewhat concerned, I mean, after seeing the tactics they employed I would be somewhat worried about what adults would pull off.

"Don't worry about that. We'd be the worst parents if we put our social status above our son's safety and welfare in our priority list… Your mother has told me of how things at the taur inn seem to work and we've agreed to begin the indoor renovations for the next weeks." He said after a rather long pause. Once I accompanied them to the car my dad unlocked it.

My ears perked as I heard those words, In a matter of time, I would be going back home? This was a wonderful news. Not that I was complaining about the accommodations or, even less, Belle's food in the inn, but I was beginning to feel somewhat lonely, kinda out of the family warmth. Even my tail agreed with the idea.

"So, when are we starting? I mean, what have you been doing? You know, in my absence" I asked smiling, tempted to lean on the car but I sensed they still weren't  ready for me touching it.

My mom spoke next. "Well, we've been distancing ourselves from the group. Tomorrow we're formally quitting the group. After the somewhat low taur activity the group has been looking for ways to "proactively" get their point across. Some even sending letters to the mayor and making petitions."

"That's troublesome. To be honest, I wouldn't want to live in one of the isolated farm plans" I said, remembering one time I listened the groups agenda.

"No, we would never let them put you away like that. When we joined the group, remember we used to do it to incentivize the research for a cure as well as a stricter way to keep control of the infected ones. The isolation suggestion could've sounded attractive, but it's just something we wouldn't even dare to put to practice." My dad explained.

"Their last plan seemed to seek some sort of audition with a miracle taur of some sort." My mom mused in remembrance as she got herself up in the car.

I paused for a second. They were gonna try to talk to Tina? To what end? I thought, probably to discourage her speech of pros of the virus. If that is their plan they were gonna have a tough case there. Then the taur community had nothing to worry.

My mother continued "As to what we've done. We've contacted one of those taur remodelers and got to work on the place. The money is not something to worry about. The place will be ready in 5 days, they're fast workers and the modifications are minor but they're all manageable."

"The process started 2 days ago and in three days It'll all be ready" he said moving over. "Until then, we'll stay in touch" he said pat my shoulder, as a bye for now before heading back into the car.

"Don't be afraid of calling us if there's a problem" My mom said. I leaned over to about kiss her cheek but I noticed she backed slightly as a reflex so I stopped my advance and bid my farewell.

"Bye mom, I'll see you two later, maybe tomorrow I'll drop by" I waved at them. For an instance I thought I caught of glimpse of my mom doing a double take. They probably weren't ready for spending that much time with a taur, but at least there was some effort in them.

Making a small adjustment of the taur backpack I simply turned around and trotted my way down the sidewalk, heading back to the taur in to tell Lavender and Norman the good news.

Things just seemed to be on the right direction now.