baby are you coming for the ride

The arrival of the sun, and its associated illumination of the world around him, came with some unexpected side effects. At first, the sunlight streaming into the den had been entertainment. Their sleeps schedules had all been in shambles with the loss of the sun to establish a regular rhythm, which meant that the youngsters were able to roam about with little concern for what time it actually was. Now that sunrise and sunset were becoming regular occurrences again, things had changed. From the first moment he stepped out into the light, the boy's retinas began to sting. After spending his first weeks in darkness and fog, clear skies and sunshine felt like daggers to his sensitive eyes. Wincing against the brightness, a snarl pulled at his pale lips and revealed his tiny fangs.  

As he blinked a few times, trying to adjust to the change of light, something felt off. The world felt.. Smaller. Or was it bigger? He couldn't quite pinpoint why everything looked just a little bit wrong, until he began to turn his head and take it in. Though he kept wandering away from the den, it was becoming increasingly obvious that he might have been smarter to stay close by. Everything on his left side was gone when he looked away. Why couldn't he see the same stuff as he had before? Only on that side. The lanky youth swung his head all the way to the left, and his right eye had no issues perceiving the trees as he wandered through the grove. The dappled shade as he passed beneath the blooming redbuds allowed his cherry red eye to take in broader shapes, stones that had a sharp contrast of shadows against the bright green grass, or the dark shadows beneath some of the underbrush. What was happening to him?

Preoccupied by the alarming changes to his vision, the child failed to notice the way his shoulders and head were already uncomfortably hot. Not to mention, the bright hues of the blossoms overhead were enthralling- vastly different from the silvery shade they turned in the moonlight. He couldn't help but stop in the midst of the grove and simply stare upwards in awe. Already his little nose was beginning to go from a soft peachy shade to a raspberry red.

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