As the slow creeping rise of the sun continued on its way. Its beams of light danced their way steadily down the wall until, just as they were about to cast themselves onto the bed that lay there, the silence was shattered. The ear rattling noise of the tiny hammer striking back and forth between the two bells in rapid succession was frankly enough to wake the dead. Which meant that it most certainly pulled Anna from the slumber that still lingered within her.

The blind fumbling of her hand followed rather quickly thereafter until, at last, she managed to grab and silence the device. With the awful din fading away she was left to snooze in that half asleep and half awake state. Eventually though, even that faded as she scooted her way over and then off the edge of her bed, ever careful not to land on the large canine form that lay still sleeping there next to it. 

After a quick journey down the hall to the bathroom she made her way down to the kitchen and, more importantly, the fridge that lay there. Ignoring the pair of large sheets held in place by magnets the girl fished out one of the covered plates inside. Taking the contents and loading it into the nearby microwave oven. As her own food reheated she went back to the fridge, this time retrieving one of several bowls of pre mixed food that lay within before setting it on the counter and waiting. 

When the ding of completion filled the air her plate was traded out for the bowl, though that one only got a fraction of the time, after which it was set on the floor next to the seat she had claimed at the table. Then with a slap of her hands on her thighs and a shout of "King! Breakfast!" she sat and began to dig in.

Meanwhile, up above, the sounds of paws and claws scrabbled on wood as the once sleeping German Shepherd made a beeline from bedroom to food bowl. Before she had managed to eat even half of her own breakfast the dog had devoured all of his own meal. At which point there really was only one outcome to be had. His head slipped in to lay on her lap while giving his best puppy dog eyes. The look of which elicited a quiet laugh as the girl began to pick out bits and pieces that were promptly hand fed to that canine companion of hers. 

As the minutes ticked by, and bit by bit she ate her breakfast, Anna's now ever more awake mind turned to ideas on how exactly to occupy their day. Especially with the rather absolute freedom granted to her thanks to her parents being out of town. The previous day, the first of her week of freedom, had ended up being a rather quiet affair thanks to the particularly massive rainstorm that had made its way through. The heavy and endless rain, practically a biblical deluge, in her eyes at least, had meant that girl and dog had spent their day decidedly indoors. Their entertainment was a mixture of books, plus some television and radio when the signal wasn't completely gone.

Today though? Today was a bright and sunny summer day, and as such she eventually settled on just what exactly would occupy their time. "King, I think we're going to go to the Rock. The one we found back during winter when we got turned around in the woods? With the big old moat around it?" 

King, for his part, let out a little chuff when she went quiet again. Tail wagging happily as her hand scratched behind an ear. He didn't exactly fully understand those vocalizations of hers, but she always seemed plenty happy when he responded. So that's exactly what he did. Which earned him a smile and a nod back from the girl.

"Yeah! That one! We couldn't go out and look at the big old rock in the middle because of the ice. So now that it's summer it should be perfect. Maybe we'll get out there and it'll be a castle from a long long time ago. If it is, we'll have to figure out who should be king of it too. Can't let a castle not have a king, right?"

As she spoke the girl slid off her chair. Gathering up the dishes and setting them in the sink before making her way back to her room. There her pajamas were promptly stripped off and hung back up before she vanished into her closet. Reappearing a pair of minutes later now wearing the dark blue fabric of that one piece swimsuit of hers, a pair of dark reddish orange shorts, and finally the light sky blue that she only just then finished pulling on. 

A quick check in the mirror later and she was down to the front door where King was already practically dancing about in excitement. The big dog promptly ran out the door the second she opened it. Anna, meanwhile, lingered as she slid on a pair of hiking sandals and snagged the small day pack she always took on adventures such as these. But both of those things now in her possession she closed the door behind her and promptly took off after that big mutt of hers.

Weaving their way through the little blob of suburbia the pair headed right to what they were after, namely the head of the trail that cut its way through the nearby forest and, here at least, turned into a walking path through the neighborhood. For almost an hour the pair jockeyed for position back and forth. Peals of laughter and playful barks echoing first through the empty streets and then through and among the trees as they went. Eventually though they turned off when the trial made a fork. 

Taking the right path that led to a little rest stop the pair then continued further on. Along a barely perceptible trail they went. Up and over a trio of hills before finally their destination came into sight from atop the third. By the time Anna managed to make her way down to the edge of the water King was, himself, already halfway across the small lake that ringed the great mass of stone of a kind that had likely been deposited there by glaciers possibly thousands of years ago.

With the confirmation as to the size, and depth, of the lake off came the shirt, shorts, and sandals. The lot of them packed up into the pack which was then promptly hung on the stub of what had been a branch of one of the nearby trees. Then, with a hoop and a holler, she ran and dove into the cool water.

Unknown to the pair, however, was what now lurked within the water. Brought by the storm were things so tiny that one would need a microscope to even begin to see the largest of them. But those ever so tiny things were also quite fragile in their own way. Unable to survive outside or long outside of water where they might dry out and then break. But there? There in the water of that lake? There they had multiplied. There they lingered, for now anyways as their lifespan had not been intended to be longer than a few days. 

And it was there that they then began to infiltrate the pair that were now swimming through that water of theirs.

That swarm intelligence of theirs gathering information about the pair as it went. So many similarities, yet so many differences. Clearly, that simple intelligence judged, these two things were defective. In need of repairs to become closer to one another. Then and there the swarm set to work. Harvesting and analyzing until, at last, it was forced to give up and instead simply settle where it could. The two things were simply too different from one another to bring to the clearly desired middle ground, so some lesser modifications to push them closer would simply have to be done.

King, for his part, was the first to be effected. The dog shaking the water off of his fur as she stood in the shallows on the other side of the lake. Turning and barking excitedly at his owner only to let out a yelp as the swarm sprung into action. His muscles going completely slack and his form collapsing where it had stood. That yelp, in turn, drew Anna's attention and a cries of, "King?! King?!" as she worked her arms and legs as hard as they would go.

Once she had arrived, however, the girl suffered much the same fate. A sudden shock of pain followed by all of her muscles simply no longer responding to her as she too collapsed beside her canine companion. 

With the thread of the pair leaving the water, and thus the swarm losing the access they needed to complete their work, said work now began in earnest. 

The first modifications were made to the four legged one. Changes to its voice box to make it closer to the one the two legged one carried. Changes to its brain so it could think more like the two legged one. Anna, meanwhile, was not left unaffected either. That fur of hers was far too delicate in comparison to the four legged one, so that simply had to be changed. Those genitals of hers simply did not correctly match the four legged one. So that, and the accompanying rest of the attached biology, was also changed.

For hours the pair lay unconscious and motionless as the swarm went about that critically necessary work until, at last, every bit of work was finally complete. Only after checking and rechecking a dozen times did the swarm then mostly retreat back into the water. The few bits of that remained doing what was necessary to restart those functions so that the pair didn't simply remain where they were until they died.

A jolt of chemicals and electricity.
So it was that two sets of eyes opened, and a journey into the unknown began.