The enlarged claw i created rested on my hand. When i tried to "curl" the claw back into my paw, the claw only moved backward enough to fill its previous sheath before, and still extended unnaturally outward. When i tried to imagine undoing the claw, the heavy flesh within me reacted, consuming and drawing into it the created claw and shortening it once more.

If i can grow a claw... can i grow a whole new thumb?

With an image of a human thumb in my mind, i imagined growing it out of my hand. And the heavy flesh responded, shifting into my right limb. Slowly, a bump grew at the side of my paw, pressing against my skin as i tried holding the image of a thumb in my mind. The new digit extended, fleshy and bare as a human thumb, with a...clipped fingernail, just as i imagined. A replica of my memory of a finger. I tried to curl it just as my memory told me... and it did nothing.

Confused, i poked a wall with it... and it felt nothing, only the slight pushback against my paw was felt, as the pseudo-thumb bent inward like a water-balloon. I poked at it with my other paw and felt... nothing but a cold flesh-condom, boneless and soft.

I... have no anatomical education, but i made a guess. No bones, no muscles, no nerves. I have no idea how muscles or nerves work, but... I willed the heavy flesh to create two bones into the pseudo flesh, and felt it slowly grow into the thumb. As they completed, i made a hazardous anatomical guess and connected strands of muscle to surround it. And the muscle-imitation, entwined with nerves did grow... in some wrong places included, leaving me now with a very unsightly thumb that might be mistaken for another body part. But... Its muscle, it should now work?

*snap*

A single curl of my thumb broke the skin, with an out-of-place white finger-bone protruding out of my flesh.

With a sigh, i willed the heavy flesh to re-absorb the pseudo-finger once more. This was... promising. My body... Or the heavy flesh in my body can create what i imagine... I just don't know how to correctly imagine what i want. But its learnable, through trial and error. And maybe, i can re-create my human body once i figure it out. 

But as i contemplated it, i noticed... The heavy flesh has gotten smaller. Innately, once i focused on it, i found the heavy flesh stored mostly in my skull and belly in large blobs, but... It felt lighter, emptier in my stomach. Not by much, but as if a quarter of the blob in my belly has gotten missing. Consumed in the experiment, probably.

So... This body is alien, but cooperative... Somehow. How it knows what i think and want it to do? I... have no idea. But its helping me, and i have no desire to resign myself in this weird new hell to be a toddlers chew-toy.  And maybe, bit by bit, i can learn a way to return to the blessed bipedal life.

Still, i need more of this heavy flesh in me to do so. And since it... feels organic, it should probably replenish with food. Maybe this house has enough of that... dried fish i was given before to do so. A whole barrel full perhaps... perhaps more. Or...

A dark thought crossed my mind, that i discarded. I was in a body of a cat, not a pitbull.

Still, a goal in mind, i crawled out from behind the coffer, and looked around. It has gotten dark again, if glancing through a coarse looking window showed. And before me, set on the floor just beside the coffer was another dried fish. Well... thank you, homeowner.

I bit the fish, ate it fully in surprisingly large bites as the salty taste overwhelmed my tongue, and checked my stomach... It felt... a bit more full, but seemingly not equally to the size of the dried flesh i had devoured. On a rough guess, the heavy mass grew but a tenth of the size of the fish... I am going to need to eat a lot of fish...

Suddenly, my ears flicked as they picked up a quiet skittering sound, coming from a nearby room. As my eyes focused toward it, i noticed my vision was dull of colors, but sharp in the darkness, as i made out a modest brick stove, sitting in the noisy room. A kitchen, presumably. With something skittering in it in the dark. Approaching it quietly, i peeked into the room, and saw a large black rat, nibbling on another dried fish at the corner of the room with its back to me.

Now this wont do. That vermin is nibbling on my hosts rations. Rations he probably would give to me. And what sort of a guest i would be if i let that insult stand. 

Half on instinct, i crouched closer to the ground as i snuck toward on all fours. The rat was oblivious in its vermintude, as i judged a good distance where i could bounce on it. Curling up, tensing my muscles... I sprang, leaping forward with all my might with my claws extended toward the pray. And promptly overshot and impacted face first on the wall behind the rat with a sickening crack.

*Thud* "squeak!"

As i fell, dazed and with a feeling of my... jaw being wrongly aligned, i heard a panicked scribbling behind me. Turning around, the vermin had abandoned its nourishment, and was skittering toward me at full speed. Before i could comprehend why, the rat leaped at my neck and bit down right under my dislocated jaw. In panic, i took my claws and buried them on the large rats side, trying to tear the creature off as it shook its head, tearing the flesh from my throat. With force, i removed the rat and tossed it backwards, as i felt a hole being torn into my trachea. Gasping, i right myself, staring forward as i see the rat i tossed getting up. Its sides were slick with red streaks where i tore into him, but... I could feel it in its beady little eyes... It felt it had won.

With an irritated growl that was never made due to the ripped throat, i bounced once more, this time catching the vermin. The moment my claws reached and hooked the rodent, i tried to bite down on its own neck as it struggled, yet... with my dislocated jaw, i only grinded the sharp teeth of my upper jaw into its flesh. Still, that would do, as i twisted my head and ripped, now tearing into its throat as i felt warm blood ooze out of it. The rat spasmed in my grip, scratching and trying to bite back to its last moments, but... It was done. The rat moved its last. And i learned to dread the ferocity of this towns rats.