Hunter's Woods Writing Prompts

   Perhaps the hardest thing to get used to was their hearing.
   Oh, don't be mistaken, the rest of this body was quite the adjustment as well - Their tails tangled up in each other when they moved, the tree sprouting from their spine left them much less flexible than they once were, and seeing through two sets of eyes in directions just different enough to not quite share the same vision was very disconcerting at first. But they could adjust to those things relatively easily on the whole. More conscious of how they swished their tails, moving them in sync to make sure they didn't end up knotted up amongst each other. More careful about stretching and squishing to ensure they didn't find themselves stuck in a position they couldn't escape from on their own, especially after that splinter incident. Closing two of their eyes and using only one pair when they needed to focus... Actually, that last one was rather useful, as they got used to it. They could choose between a normal view or one with a bit of a wider angle, if they closed one eye from each head.
   But the hearing. How does one turn off their hearing? A more flexible creature, one that needed only two legs to walk, like a human? Well, they could simply use their forelimbs to plug their second set of ears. Or perhaps, in the case of a human, they would use other means, to keep their hands free - Headphones, or earplugs, or something along those lines. But that wasn't the case when you were a cat.
   And not being able to turn off one's hearing... That becomes a bit unbearable when you have a fully functional pair on two heads. All the sensations that one might dislike hearing normally were twofold, now. When they ran, they heard in their ears not only their own heavy breathing, but another's, too - Two throats, panting and gasping into the other's ears, like someone getting a bit too close for comfort during a marathon. But unlike that, they couldn't simply run up ahead or fall towards the back of the pack get away - Their heads were next to each other. Unavoidable.
   And the chewing! No matter which mouth they chewed with when they ate, it was like the world's worst... what was it Beatrix had called it? Some sort of acronym, started with an A... Ah, they didn't remember, but it was terrible nonetheless. Chew with one mouth, and the other head's ears couldn't help but register it as another cat entirely (namely one with no sense of personal space) going to town on their lunch right next to them. Chew with the other, and the sound of the heads' mouths might help to drown it out in their respective ears, but it was never quite enough, and then they had to contend with the feeling of two up close and personal munch squads.
   Why, even outside of becoming all too acutely aware of what noises their body made in the external? It was, quite frankly, more trouble than it was worth. Could they theoretically move their heads independently and use that to triangulate a sound? Perhaps. Could they ever really find a chance to do that in the moment? No, not really. And even if they had, if they were being realistic, their heads were too close together for it to be much use, and it was all too difficult to distinguish anyway. Was that sound strongest in the left ear of their right head, looking off to the side, or strongest in the right ear of their left head, staring straight forward? They could guess, but they couldn't tell, not really.
   They hated to admit it, but sometimes they wished one of their heads was deaf. Or at least that their inner ears were. It would make the adjustment much less uncomfortable.