Every part of my head throbbed. I blink as I push myself up off from the floor of thick piles of leaves, twigs, and pebbles.  

What had happened? I touch my head, and I wince as I touch myself as if every part of my head is bruised. It probably is.

I squint my eyes through the dapples of sunlight that leak in between the trees and walk towards a crystal clear stream that it just before me.

My reflection is strange, unfamiliar. I have dark skin bright yellow hair, and strange green eyes that have white around the color and a circle of black within the color.  This can't be right. But what did I look like before? 

I shake my head. This must be my appearance. What else could I possibly look like? 

I smile at myself slightly, showing my white teeth. Then I frown. Something isn't right. Something isn't right. I'm not right.  

This is not my face.

But why would I look so alien to my own self?

I look up from the stagnant pond and see a light-brown creature with empty-looking black eyes and some white specks on its flank. I think it's a deer.

In my reflection, the strange face is no longer there, but it is replaced by the deer's. I step away from the pond. How'd I change? 

This is not my face.

I dash through the forest as quickly as I can, my four legs clumsily tripping over each other.  I barely look at where I'm going, but I don't run into any trees, luckily.  

I stop once I reach an area that doesn't have any trees. There's strange chatter, and I look up to see strange creatures more like the one I had seen in my own reflection not too long ago. The creatures are long and upright, some have one thick leg that have two stubs at the bottom, others have two legs. They appear to be moving in pairs- and they're moving rapidly underneath a giant half-loop of flowers.

One of the creatures is in the center and has the biggest and whitest leg of all and she is tramping with a thin two-legged creature. She must be their leader of sorts.

I blink at the creatures. A two-legged creature prances up to me, and squawks something unintelligible, holding out one of their upper appendages. It also shows me his slightly yellow crooked teeth.  It grabs my own appendage.

I screech and back away from it, jerking it away from it. It stops in its tracks. It squawks louder, frantically waving its appendages . The other creatures run towards us, squawking as well. They grab at me and pin me to the ground. I scream more and more and more...

The creature with the huge white leg bustles towards us, screeching at her fellow creature things. They stop wrestling me and back away slowly.

The creature shows me its teeth gently and touches my face and forehead with one of its upper-appendages. It turns and barks something at one of the other creatures, and they dash off and then come back with some strange objects. It hands them to the creature and the creature places something icy cold on my forehead. 

I try to jerk my head away, but then the creature caresses my face and eases me into a submissive position. I feel it press something into my mouth and I swallow. It coos at me softly as it brushes its appendage on my head more. It is a strange yet oddly pleasant sensation. It is as if the creature has maternal instincts- ah, yes, this creature must be a 'she'.  

I let my eyelids fall over and I am awake no more.

                                                                              ********************

I open my eyes. I am back by the small pond again. I get up and look at it.

Yes. 

I smile at my own reflection.

This is my face. 

I hear a familiar call and turn to see two of my own kind, both of them being bigger than me. They come towards me and rub their faces against mine and push their bodies against me in one warm embrace.

This is who I am.

And this is where I belong. 

This is my face.