This the first half of the fifth chapter of that same project that I have been working on for the longest time. I have rewritten it entirely to make it so much better and have posted it here for your enjoyment. It is a highly detailed transformation scene, meant for the fandom and those interested in transformation scenes. Maybe this will make some ideas for a few pieces of artwork, maybe? Anyways, enjoy this little excerpt from my larger story and I await your responses.
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Chapter 5: Hair Of The Dog

When I was back in Texas, many years ago, I was a beat cop for many years, and a very good one at that. I took my job seriously because I believed deeply that protecting the people of my hometown was what I had enlisted to do. Police Officer Daniel Tanner was not going to let any harm come to anybody, not small nor large.
But one day I let my job get ahead of my own safety. Hearing cries from an alleyway, I ran to the aid of whoever was in trouble. What I found was a large man stealing the handbag from a little old woman most likely in her eighties. When he saw me, he tore the handbag from the poor woman’s grip and started off with it.
Crying, the woman begged me to retrieve and return her handbag because it had her only pictures of her grandchildren contained within it. Knowing it was my duty to help her I readily accepted and began pursuing the mugger. Chasing him for nearly three blocks, I finally pinned him in an old warehouse.
After calling in for backup, I chased the robber up a set of rickety metal stairs to a set of catwalks that ran around the top of the warehouse. At the top, I lost the robber and when I mounted the stairs, he suddenly appeared. Pushing me backwards with both hands, I snatched the woman’s handbag from within his possession and tumbled back down the stairs.
Falling for nearly a story and a half, I landed on my spine and lied there for nearly twenty minutes before my backup arrived, tracked down the robber and had me sent to the hospital. I found out that I need a major surgery, which my health care would cover, thank the lord. I also discovered that I had been promoted to Lieutenant, from Sergeant.
I would never again walk the beat to help the people I had sworn to protect. For the next nearly six years, I spent my work life sitting behind an oak desk in a plush leather chair, signing paperwork and coordinating operations. I received a huge pay raise and a bonus. I thought it was great before I learned that I had been promoted and given a bonus on top of a cushy desk job so that I wouldn’t sue the force.
The pain that I felt whilst in that hospital was nothing compared to the pain I feel now. Despite returning to the California to try to get to sleep before the Serum’s effects would take effect, I am roused by the excruciating pain that the Serum causes in the middle of the night.
The pain is in my head, though it feels like it is coming from everywhere. It feels as if though chains had been tied to my ears and to my nose and mouth and were then attached to freight trains going in opposite directions. My ears are pulled towards the top of my head while my nose and mouth are pulled away from my skull.
In fact, the pain is so excruciating that it knocks me out several times. Usually, I will regain consciousness about twenty minutes later, only to find out that, although that pain has subsided, a new pain has begun to drag me through hell in a different location. I feel so much throughout the course of the night, so much that I can barely even explain it.
Much of the pain resides in my head; though, I do feel the excruciating hellfire raging in my legs and in my behind. Little shifts in the bone structure of my legs keep me far away from gaining any well-needed rest. Changes in my skin, hair, ears, nose, mouth, organs and bones all drive me insane and make me cry out for death.
Around midnight, I think I reach the eye of the storm. Pain my head has stopped and my legs have stopped hurting me as well. Allowed to go to sleep, I allow myself this simple pleasure, and pass out for nearly two full hours. When I wake, I find that the storm has resumed and I am plunged into the hellfire once more.
What Dawn had told me would happen is an understatement. The pain she described is nothing compared to what I am feeling. From the burning of fur growing on my skin, to the development of a tail sprouting from the end of my spine, the only thing that I could describe this as is being branded again and again.
Strangely enough, throughout the night, I feel myself becoming more and more tired, yet I am not allowed to even get near sleep. The pain drives sleep away from me. And this hard, pre-Civil War bed offers me little comfort. In fact, the only comfort is somebody else that spends the night with me.
I remember feeling a hand against my cheek and a cool washcloth going over my forehead. A hand grasps mind throughout the night, allowing the transformation to occur there, but allowing me a bit of comfort, knowing that somebody else is there with me, to experience it with me.
“Hush, now, calm yourself. It’ll all be over in time.” I remember the voice telling me, low, protective, like a grandfather to a sick grandchild.
The voice doesn’t belong to Dawn as it is much too male to belong to Dawn. Although he coos me and consoles me, it is hard to believe him. As claws pull from the end of my fingers, pads grow on my palms, and my feet shrink into tiny paws, the pain that those shifts cause makes me only think of death.
Finally, around three in the morning, I feel the pain become so extreme that I lose consciousness and do not wake up until some time later. In fact, what I felt wasn’t exactly even unconsciousness. It felt as if I had ceased to exist for a few moments, as if my mind had exited my body due to the extreme pain.

The gentle sounds of small birds chirping reaches my ears, calling on me to rise from my slumber. Twitching my eyes and nose, I take several deep breaths and then twitch my entire body. Gasping for breath, I open up my eyes and stare towards the white ceiling above me.
Closing my mouth, I lick over my teeth and feel something strange. I have never felt that shape of my mouth before. Without too much fright, I slowly roll my head to the right and look to the pillow that has cradled my head for two nights. Staring down a grey snout to a black nose at its end, I suddenly realize what happened last night.
Flexing my arms and moving my fingers about, I push my body upwards so that I can sit up. Once I plant my arms on the mattress, I don’t stop pushing until my entire upper body is revealed from beneath the heavy blue blanket that kept me warm through the night. As I lower my eyes to examine exactly what that horse’s serum did to me, I suddenly find myself much different than I could have possibly imagined. Stripped last night, most likely to protect my clothes and to allow my body to shift and change freely, there is nothing keeping my eyes from seeing the results of my courage.
Breathing gently, I watch my chest rise and fall slowly, my skin hidden beneath a thick coat of grey fur and a white fur underbelly. Lifting my left hand up, I pull it up and gently place it down onto my pecs. When I see my hand, covered with the same grey fur and tipped with black and sharp nails, I am even more shocked.
Turning my hand slowly over, I examine the little black pads that have formed on my palms and along my fingers, which do not frighten me, but actually intrigue me. Flexing my fingers, I feel them over and find them soft and nice. Lowering my hand to my stomach, I feel over my muscles, muscles I haven’t felt since I was in high school.
In fact, I can say I have lost nothing less than all of my body fat! My beer belly, heavy arms and thick legs have melted away to reveal the toned muscles that I’ve developed over years of running around my hometown. Smiling, laughing happily, I feel my body up and down, happy that I’m no longer an out-of-shape middle aged man. It is almost as if I’ve regressed to the age of 18!
My eyes slowly migrate to the blanket and what is hidden underneath. Curious, I reach towards it with my left hand, but, when it nears the edge of the blanket, I stop. Knowing that everything has been changed throughout the course of the night, I am afraid of what I will see. But, taking a deep breath, I grab the blanket with my newfound clawed fingers and gently pull it from over my legs.
What I see is freakish beyond imagination. My legs have been contorted into monstrous angles and my feet have all but disappeared. Relatively tiny paws, not exactly tiny like a real dog’s paws, but, not large enough to fit my shoes, have replaced my feet. Clenching my teeth, I flex my toes and watch as the little toes on the paws flex and move at my command. This makes me smile happily. Maybe this isn’t all bad.
Suddenly I see something thumping about beside my legs, which grabs my attention. A big, fluffy grey and white tail extends from under my body and flops about happily beside my waist, moving faster and faster as I smile larger and wider. Reaching out, I grab it and hold it still. My smile goes away as I suddenly realize that I’m holding my tail.
My tail! I’m holding MY tail! There are no words to explain how it feels. As I rub up and down the soft and extremely sensitive tail, my body twitches and I take in short, choppy breaths, as the sensations hit my mind. Letting go of my tail, I put my hands in my lap and then lean back, sighing and thinking to myself.
Closing my eyes, I let my head roll back onto my pillow. As I lick over my lips, I find myself presented with one part of me that I haven’t examined. Making a sound that I’ve never made before, something between a little grunt and a purring sound, I lift my hands up and place them gently onto my new face.
A thick muzzle has grown to encompass my nose, mouth and cheeks. My face twitches as my hands touch down on little whiskers at the end of my muzzle. Rubbing my hands up towards my eyes, I feel over my cheekbones and then go back around my head. My fingers rub against the bottom of my ears, which now grow from the side of my head, but go directly upwards.
Rubbing them with my hands, I follow my ears until they end in a point with a little, short tuff at the end of both. Coming down, I rub the top of my head and find that I no longer have any hair. I simply have fur there, most likely grey, black and white, like the rest of my body. Finally, I go and feel over where my eyes are. Smiling, I accidentally tickle myself as the pads over my hands touch little sensitive, whisker-like hairs all over my face. Finally, I let my hands rest onto my chest.
“I’m a wolf.” I say.
Suddenly I gasp and my eyes open up. I look downwards and over my body again. The white of my underbelly stands out against the grays and sometimes deeper blacks of my back, sides and outside of my arms and legs. There is one last thing that I wish to examine, but, after seeing it, I feel only shame on how it has changed. At this point, I see no gain in it.
“And I’m naked.” I continue with a matter-of-fact tone.
Lifting my eyes upwards, I look towards the door, which is thankfully closed, and see a chair sitting beside it. My clothes sit in a pile, folded neat and nice, with my jeans on the bottom, my shirt on top of it, and my underwear and socks at the top of the small pile. Groaning, I know I have to retrieve them before somebody comes in to see me, especially Dawn.
At the thought of her, I feel a bit of warmth rush through my body, emanating from my heart. Smiling, my tail wagging gently back and forth, I begin to drift off into a little dream. But, quickly, I dash down that dream and force my right hand to jump to where my wedding ring is. Surprisingly, it is the only thing that is still on my body.
After a few minutes of twisting that little band of gold brings me back down to earth once more. Sighing, I let my body go limp and then make that little, groaning, purring sound as I roll over onto my side. As I drag myself to the edge of the bed, I swing my legs out over the end and then let my new paws hang limply down towards the floor.
Although they are three times as big as a real wolf’s paws, when I place my paws gently down onto the floor, forcing a cold wave to rush to my mind from the pads on the bottom, I am not confident in them. How can anybody stand on these teeny, tiny paws? But, looking to my clothes once more, I don’t think I have much of a choice.
Sighing, unsure of myself, I push myself forward and stumble up onto my paws. Before I can think, my arms go out to my side and I sway forward like a drunk man. Putting one of my new paws out forward, I catch myself and then feel my tail go out. Immediately, I am balanced and no longer feel as if I’ll fall upon my new coal-black, button nose.
Turning myself to the side and with my arms still at my side, I begin to walk forward like a man on the high wire. My eyes watch as my paws actually function well as feet, as they move and flow as if I had been walking on them for years. Still, I feel like a two-year-old, still learning to walk.
I round the bed with ease and slowly lower my arms to my side. Seconds later, I almost rush to my clothes and pick them up from the seat of the chair. Stepping back, I drop the pile of clothes onto the foot of the bed and then begin to dress myself. My Led Zeppelin shirt goes on easily and so do my underwear, even though I do need to slit a hole in the back with my sharp claws.
As I slip my jeans on and button them up, I begin to hear sounds from down in the California below. Boots upon the wood floor, glasses upon the bar counter and the quiet chatter that comes from the sitting room opposite of the foyer and check-in room. My hearing is so sensitive that I can hear the ‘ban-bang’ of the hammer against the anvil from the blacksmith’s shop up the street.
Sniffing, I begin to smell food cooking somewhere downstairs. Oh, it smells like steak, beef, chicken, corn, carrots and even fresh bread! If I were still a human, I couldn’t be able to smell or hear any of these things! It’s absolutely amazing! Suddenly my hearing focuses on a set of boots that have begun to ascend the stairs that lead up to the hotel rooms here on the second floor.
Listening, I wait until the bootsteps, which move slowly, arrive on the second floor and stop just outside of my room. Seconds later, I hear three heavy knocks upon the door.
“Come in.” I say gently.
The brass doorknob turns and then swings open. Thinking it will be Dawn, I smile, but, the smile goes away when I see a tiger step into the room. Old and with cloudy eyes hidden behind bifocals, a tiger wearing an expensive suit appears in the bright doorway. When the light nearly blinds me, I realize how dark it was in my bedroom, and throw my arms up to protect my eyes.
The tiger chuckles and then says, “Is the light bright enough for you?”
“Ugh, it’s too bright.” I say quietly.
“Well, it is three in the afternoon.” The tiger says. “You slept for nearly eighteen hours.”
As my eyes adjust to the light, I lower my arms and look to the tiger. He smiles gladly and then steps into the room, closing the door slightly so the light will be less. The venerable tiger steps towards me and then, noticing the chair, gently takes a seat and looks to me.
“My name is Doctor Horace Payne. I was with you all of last night, making sure that you would not go into traumatic arrest.” The tiger says frankly. “You were in an extreme amount of pain, the likes of which I don’t see from too many other ailments, save for being shot. What do you remember of the night?”
“Not much.” I respond after a short time of thinking. “Pain is all I remember. The pain that I felt made me want to die.”
“Most humans that are injected with the Serum do die.” Horace explains. “The Serum requires a lot of energy, which it robs from the body. Without enough body fat or muscle content, it will steal that energy from the organs and the brain, effectively killing the person. That is why you lost so much weight.”
I nod in understanding and look to the old tiger for more answers. Mr. Payne looks me up and down and then hums, rubbing his chin with a strong hand as he frowns gently. I watch him and cock my head to the side.
“How do you feel?” Mr. Payne says.
“Strange.” I reply. “I feel so strange, like I don’t belong in this body. Why are my feet like this? Why don’t I have any hair on my head? And why can I hear all those things and smell all those things happening downstairs?”
“Well, that is part of the change, Daniel.” Mr. Payne says. “Your feet are digitigrade, meaning, that the weight of a being is focused on the toes, or digits, instead of the heel. Unlike humans, who have plantigrade feet, which means they are focused on the heel and toes, dogs, cats and other creatures focus their weight only on the toes.”
“But why are mine like this?” I ask, a bit upset and my tone showing it. “Dawn’s feet aren’t like this.”
“It depends on how much or how concentrated of a dose of Serum that you receive. A more concentrated dose forces you to be more animal-like. It does not, though, make you think more animal-like, so, do not worry.” Mr. Payne answers. “That is also why your senses are so acute. You are very wolf-like. Same with your hair, which has been transformed entirely into fur, it is due to the concentration of the serum.”
I look down and wonder why I messed with that renegade in the first place. But, I guess that was simply my nature: to protect the innocent from the criminals intending to harm them. Finally, I look up to the doctor and think of one last question.
“Is there a cure to this?” I ask with my tone sad and pathetic.
Mr. Payne is still for a second, but after the longest time, he nods his head and looks to me.
“Yes there is.” Mr. Payne replies. “It is an antiserum called The Slaves Serum, due to its properties to reverse the effects of the Serum that transformed you into one of us. But, it is illegal out west and the only way to get it would be to travel to a large, King-controlled city. The nearest would be just across the border, in New Orleans. That is the largest, most-western city that the King controls. But even if were to make it to New Orleans, you would be hard-pressed to find a doctor sympathetic to your cause that would allow you a vile of the serum.”
“But it is true that if I were to go there, I could get some and hopefully turn back into a human?” I ask him.
Mr. Payne nods, sitting upwards further.
“Yes. Now, before I go, I must tell you that you should retain everything about your identity that you had before. Any memories, skills, or any knowledge that you had you will still have, despite the new body.” Mr. Payne informs me. “Your body simply represents your spirit, your mind, your soul. Strong, leader, courageous, daring, but arrogant, headstrong, rush into things they shouldn’t. A horse would be strong, beautiful, but a womanizer, stupid. Foxes are cunning, intelligent, wise, but are often easily seduced and are quiet, shy.”
“That’s nice to know.” I reply with a smile.
“I must tell you one final thing before I leave. Most humans find that this new animal body can have a mind of its own. Your instincts can control you, force you to do things that you subconsciously want to do, but know may be wrong. We have this as pups and kits, but are often expressed harmlessly.” Mr. Payne warns me. “But, when a human is transformed into one of us, those same Animal Spirit instincts force them to do things they really don’t want to do. These include greed, wrath and lust. Be wary of your emotions and keep them in check, because your subconscious can rule you mind and body.”
I nod my head and watch as Mr. Payne slowly rises up to his paws, which I notice are digitigrade, just like mine. He smiles and then offers his hand to shake mine. Warily, I offer mine and he grasps it, shaking it happily, heartily. Then he turns and begins towards the door. As he nears it, he stops and looks over his shoulder, towards me one last time.
“Dasher and Dawn are waiting below. They told me to inform you that something important, something that involves you has risen and they need you. Dasher has readied his coach and Dawn has gone off somewhere. Now, I must go. I wish you well and hope to see you home soon.” Doctor Payne says. “Tallyho!”
Turning away from me, he disappears out into the bright hallway and begins to descend the stairs back into the foyer and check-in area of the California below. Lowering my eyes to the ground, I cross my arms and smile a little bit. This little ‘accident’ has suddenly taken a very interesting turn. The lord only knows what Dasher and Dawn want from me.