Hyena's have been on my mind a lot, and since there aren't that many tf stories surrounding them I had to do something. ;)

The carnival is in town, and with a name like Hardy Hars Hyenas Carnival, it's got to be a gas...

I hope you all enjoy, and I would love to hear what you all think! ^^

---

The carnival was in town, and with school coming up in just a couple of days Stephen wasn’t going to waste his time doing nothing. Driving past the carnival Stephen pulled into the parking lot, and smiled as he saw kids rushing past towards the ticket stands with money clenched in hand. He glanced down at his cellphone, and sighed as he saw the last of his friends declining his invitation as they wanted to get back onto a regular sleeping schedule. “Come on guys… we’re in college, not high school,” he muttered, but just shrugged as he clambered out of his car. “I guess there’ll just be more fun for me!” he said cheerfully, and started towards the stands.

The sign of the carnival read “Hardy Hars Hyena Carnival”, and though Stephen thought it looked a bit zany from the looks of the large Ferris wheel that had been built in the middle of the large carnival he couldn’t deny that it looked fun. Standing at the gate was a man dressed in a hyena costume, and though Stephen knew it was just an outfit it looked eerily real with the large red tongue lolling out of its mouth.

“Welcome to Hardy Hars,” the man said, the mouth of the costume moving in sync with his words. Heck even the smell of the costume smelled real, but Stephen was a realist when it came to such things.

“Nice costume, bud,” he chuckled, walking past the costumed man. “I hope you get paid extra for wearing that,” he shouted over his shoulder, earnest in his voice as he couldn’t imagine wearing such a costume. The glass to the ticket booth was one way which threw Stephen off as he found himself looking into a mirror, but as he started to wonder if it was just a joke a voice came from a small speaker near his ear.

“H… ho… how can I help you?” the voice asked, and in Stephen’s opinion it sounded as if the person on the other side had been laughing way too much and was wheezing to get breath.

“I’d just like a ticket for the carnival,” he said, not quite sure about the price.

“Okay, how old are you?” the person asked, and Stephen was wondering why it was relevant, though he figured price might be different for kids.

“Nineteen,” he said, and for a moment he swore he heard a racket of laughter from in the booth, but a moment later the voice came back on just as winded as before.

“Well you’re in luck tonight my friend, it’s free for nineteen year olds tonight,” the voice said, and though it was an awfully strange age to be offering free tickets, Stephen wasn’t about to complain. He watched as a small lid slid open, and for a moment as a ticket slid through he swore he saw a black claw pull back and let the lid slide down. “Have a Hardy Har good time,” the voice said, and Stephen just shrugged and took his ticket before heading towards the entrance.

The carnival was crazy as a variety of lights were lit around as the moon was rising above the mountains, and the kids were have a lot of fun as they ran around eating candy with their parents. “Come one, come all to the Hardy Har shooting gallery!” one of the many hyena dressed men shouted, he pointed to Stephen out of the crowd. “You! Won’t you try your hand at our little game?”

Now Stephen was all for a good time, but the game looked pretty cheap, and as the little spinning hyenas seemed to be moving obnoxiously fast he doubted he was going to win anything. “Nah…” he murmured, and started to move away when he felt the worker clasp his shoulder, and he shivered as he swore he felt an actual pulse through the hyena suit before pulling back.

“First games free,” the worker said, and with a sigh Stephen rolled his eyes. He couldn’t deny the fact that a free game was always fun, and who knows… he might win something nice. Though personally he just wanted to get to the Ferris wheel as soon as he could, but since he hadn’t spent anything on the ticket it wouldn’t hurt too much.

Following the worker back to his station, Stephen shouldered the gun and aimed down the sights at some very cartoonish looking hyenas. “Alright,” he said, signaling that he was ready to the worker, and suddenly the machine cranked to life at a ridiculous speed. The gun held three shots according to the worker, so Stephen took aim and tried to plink one of the metal figures, but the first flew right past it without even brushing it. “Dang…” he muttered, and once again took aim before pulling the trigger again.

Another miss, Stephen swore that one of the little devils was sticking its tongue right out at him. For the last time, Stephen shot and for a moment he thought the machine stopped altogether before the pellet stuck. “You hit one!” the worker shouted, and though it was just a simple hit Stephen felt like he’d won the world cup. “You just won a free face painting session!” the worker laughed, his laugher raising to near hysterical levels as he bent over and laughed for a minute before wiping away what looked to be a real tear from his mask and handing over a ticket to Stephen.

Walking away from the shooting gallery, Stephen thought about throwing away the ticket as he didn’t really like face paint, but as tonight was such a special occasion he might as well enjoy it. The face painting booth wasn’t too far away, and as he approached the hyena working the station grinned wide at him. “You the winner of the free face painting ticket?” he asked, his smile practically up to his eyes.

“How did you know that?” Stephen asked dumbly, not realizing that he was gripping the ticket in plain few.

“Telepathy, now take a seat,” the hyena laughed, gesturing for Stephen to take the chair opposite of himself. As Stephen handed over his ticket, and took the seat he found himself looking into the costumed worker’s eyes, and he could’ve sworn that the eyes he was staring into were animal eyes.

“What’s with your eyes?” he asked, the hyena laughed a few times as he painted a mixture of dark and light browns onto the college student’s face.

“Contacts,” the worker said, and painted a dark ring of brown around Stephen’s eye. The process was quick as the costumed man was surprisingly able with his enclosed hands, and Stephen watched as the hyena lifted a mirror to allow him to look at himself.

“Whoa… my face looks like a hyena’s… except you forgot my nose…” he said, poking his still uncolored nose.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” the hyena chuckled, and pulled a blue rubber nose like that of a clown’s and slipped it over Stephen’s nose. “Don’t remove it until you leave, and you’ll receive a nice gift,” he said, winking before gesturing to Stephen that he could leave.

Stephen wondered how they would know, but he didn’t want to press his luck as he walked towards the Ferris wheel. He grinned as he saw the large wheel spinning around and around, and as the worker noticed him he smiled as he slowed the wheel down right to number 12. “Here you are, sir,” the worker said, opening up the pod to allow Stephen to take a seat.

“Thanks,” Stephen said, his voice was slightly muffled from having the rubber nose over his own. The pod closed behind him as he sat down, and it started to spin around. Though Stephen realized that the pod lacked any sort of window, actually there were screens around him but none of them showed him the outside, but were instead small TV monitors. “What?” Stephen asked, and suddenly he realized some sort of gas was flowing into his small pod. “Wait… let me out!” he shouted, panic gripping him as he realized that he was in a bad situation.

Outside the hyena started to laugh harder and harder as Stephen’s pod started to rock back and forth from the effort of leaving, and so he pressed a button to make it stop rocking as he stopped each pod before Stephen’s. “Sorry, but you have to leave as the carnival is closing for tonight,” he said to each customer, and none noticed Stephen’s cries as they were muffled by the special pod. The whole park was closing as Stephen started to find himself laughing against his will, the gas was a mixture of laughing gas, and another gas.

“Le… let me out! Hahahaha,” Stephen gasped for air as he laughed, the screens had turned on now, and were circling with yellow and blue swirls, and though Stephen tried to look away the pod’s very walls were circulating with the swirls. “Help! Hahahahaha,” he roared, but it was no use as already the park had been vacated, and the hyena workers were laughing manically as they walked towards the Ferris wheel.

“What’re we gonna make him boss? Hehehehehe,” one of the hyenas giggled, the face painter smirked to himself as all of the other hyenas laughed.

“I’ve been waiting to make a clown act, I think Chuckles will make a fine addition,” he laughed, and the rest followed suit as the boss pressed a button on the Ferris wheel’s control panel, and a voice started inside of the pod.

Already the gas’ second effect was taking hold as Stephen’s face paint started to become real fur, and he felt his nose constrict for a moment to the rubber before he took a deep whiff of the gas. “Hahahahaha!” Stephen rocked back and forth as he looked at the spirals, and the voice spoke. “Your name is Chuckles, Chuckles the hyena. You’re our funny laughing clown,” the voice said, and already Stephen’s addled brain felt the words sinking in like glue.

The fur upon Stephen’s face sank back and started to move across his body as his ears popped for a moment, and he felt them regrow on his head. “Chuckles, you like to eat a lot of your own pies which is why you’re always so chubby, and whenever the kids call you fat or chubby you’ll just laugh since you know it’s true.”

The human clothes were growing tight very quickly as the changing man’s body started to grow in his clothes, and fur pressed up against his clothing. Stephen’s stomach grew out even further as he became Chuckles the fat hyena clown, and already the laughter was becoming his own rather than just the gas. “Hahahaha! Chuckles loves food!” he roared, hysterics making tears flow out of his eyes as they turned into a deep green color.

For a moment Chuckles winced as his fingers pricked as black claws grew out from his fingernails, and then paw pads grew out as well. The roughness making Chuckles laugh as he remembered the silly smooth hands he had as a human, and that though brought back the point that he had been in college for some silly reason, but it didn’t matter much when he had a much better job as a hyena clown. “Chuckles, you will be a hyena for life, and a clown forever,” the voice explained, and Chuckles nodded as tears poured from his laughter.

There was a rip as his pants ripped open at the back to allow his new tail to grow out, and his shoes were pushed off by his large paws. Finally the gas stopped pouring in, and Chuckles rubbed away the swirls and laughed to himself as the pod opened to reveal the rest of the hyenas laughing. “Hey everyone!” he giggled, and the others guffawed at his new deep and silly voice.

“Hiya, Chuckles!” they all cheered, and they all fell down to their knees laughing as their leader handed over a new large clown costume. “This is for you, Chuckles,” the leader giggled.

“Thanks, boss!” Chuckles laughed, and already he knew that when the carnival moved he would be going with it. The college could wait, he was going to be making kids laugh with his silly antics, and he would be eating a lot too!