Part 2

Jim used the wall outside of the shower room for support and walked around to the right as one faced it, and over to where he had not yet investigated. Here he found a collection of furniture. A table with two chairs, a free standing counter with a cupboard shelf, a small refrigerator, and beyond all of these between this kitchenette and the outer wall of the room a large mattress and box spring lay on the floor, with some blankets and pillows piled on it. In the built wall he leaned against, there was a door that Jim figured went into the far end of the locker room.

Jim was able to stagger from the wall to the table without incident, then leaning against the table he went around to the counter. It was long enough it had a sink and a two burner cook top on it, enough working space, and a tiled surface across the whole of it. Jim opened all the cupboard doors and found an eclectic assortment of stuff. He guessed, correctly, that whomever had put this together had gone to a thrift store and just grabbed enough to make do for two. Almost nothing matched, but there was a fry pan, a pot, and an assortment of cutlery and larger implements. Jim found two tall cups, and put one to use. First he turned on the faucet in the sink and let it run. Initially it ran brown and smelled, showing that the pipe it was connected to was new or returned to service. He let this run to flush it out.

As Jim let the water run, he felt the train vibration rumble through the structure again, and wondered that it had been an hour already. Jim finished his investigations checking in the fridge to find it empty, save for an empty ice cube tray.

The first few gulps of water that Jim took came back up very quickly, and tasted of the tank fluid, tinted with unused pipes. After rinsing his mouth out and drinking carefully, Jim was able to keep the water down. This helped as he had been feeling dehydrated. Jim filled the ice tray and put it in the freezer portion of the fridge.

Jim then turned to the last thing to investigate here.

The bed was a large two person mattress with appropriate box spring. These did not match, causing Jim to guess their source was the same as the dishes. There were four blankets, two pillows, and no sheets piled on it. As Jim leaned against the counter and appraised the bed, him tail twitched and thumped against the doors in some mild agitation.

“I don’t think she will want to share.” Jim folded his arms and looked for a moment longer. The implications of the arrangement were few and obvious. The real question would be one: willingness of the participants. For his part, Jim felt that he liked Tanya but did not want to go in that direction with a relationship by coercion. Let it happen naturally and properly, as their relationship developed, or not.

Jim looked around the warehouse and decided to go to the other end for a better look at what was there. He found he was up to five unsupported steps before loosing his balance from his wings and tail. Getting to the wall, Jim used it for support at he crossed the length of the room. As the light increased he could see across the room clearly. The ambient exhaust fans began to turn slowly, and the two giant room fans began slowly turning to circulate the air.

This far end of the room had a rubber mat on the floor, made of interlocking squares. The mat covered a square about one half of the width across the room. A rack of dumbbells sat all but against the side wall for most of the length. Two sets of each weight were on the rack, with the heaviest weights looking to be ridiculous to Jim.  Toward the middle of the room at this end of the mat sat an adjustable barbell bench, with two stacks of plates for the barbells. Past the bench was a frame with an assortment of weight lifting stations set up with cables and pulleys to move the stacks of weights.

As Jim looked the weight lifting equipment over, he realized that he could clearly hear across the room and generally hear what Tanya was doing. As well he heard the fans on the computer equipment, the drive motors for the ceiling fans, the exhaust fans spinning on their bearings, and a few other sounds that he could not yet puzzle out. As he listened to each thing, he turned and looked and could clearly see each one well. The wall and the doors to the locker room from what he estimated to be about twenty meters. The labels on the ceiling fan housings were distinguishable. He could read all the numbers of the weights all the way down the dumbbell rack, and on all the stacks on the frame.

Deciding to start easy, and see what he could do to improve his balance; Jim staggered over to the barbell bench. He had realized that he was dragging his tail and wings some, and wanted to practice holding and using them. Straddling the bench, he held on to the barbell, and concentrated on spreading his wings, and then holding them out. In college he had a friend who tried to teach him exercises that Jim remembered were called isometrics, Jim was not sure if he remembered that correctly, but did remember that a few of the exercises were to simply hold weights out at arms length, at given angles and elevations. Jim did remember that the few times he did them it made his shoulders ache.

On the other hand, Jim still did similar things to relax and stretch from time to time. Now he first practiced unfurling and folding his wings, holding them out spread, and stretching them. Jim found that he was slowly bringing these limbs under control, but it took a lot of effort. He figured it was going to be like an infant learning how to do things. And like an infant, having the body lie down and establish the proper nerves to control these limbs.

His wings were impressive in size, but Jim though they probably had too much resistance for his muscle mass to flap, and would instead prove to be better for gliding and soaring than buzzing about. The main arms were almost as long from shoulder to wrist as measured against his trunk from shoulder to ankle. The finger spars were long enough that the shortest one was as long as the arm, and the rest proportionally longer to form a crescent wing. The innermost sail panel started at his side, where his pelvis was at its highest. Tip to tip, Jim figured that his wingspan was a bit over five times his height.

As Jim stretched out his primaries, he found that the secondary’s at his hips spread out. These seemed to have two positions at this point, furled and folded. Jim determined that the muscles for these were anchored to his pelvis, but the wings themselves did not have any bone in them. Cartilage and other tissues made four spars that ran the length forming a rounded triangle with the long side against his thigh and the hypotenuse as a front edge.

A set of fins was folded at the end of his tail, near two thirds the size of the ones at his hips. Like the wings, it took a lot of concentration to actively move his tail, and spread the tail fins.

Jim practiced until his sides and back hurt from leveraging his wings. After some time the water turned off, and quickly after he heard several lockers open. As Tanya shuffled about in the lockers, Jim again felt the train rumble through the structure.