The above transformation sequence was commissioned from the awesome  Professor Pinecoon depicting my character (Blake) transforming into a horse!

How did this happen to him you wonder? Read the below story to find out! I hope you enjoy! ^^

An Un-Stable Customer:

Working at the feed store…is 100% going to be a short-term gig, I decided to myself as I drove the pickup truck along the highway with my cargo in tow.

I was handling a delivery to one of our most notorious recurring customers. Andrea was her name. She lived a bit on the outskirts of the suburb I lived in. It wasn’t that far from our store. But it was a good enough ways away to be considered a part of the rural countryside since the land wasn’t yet claimed by the kind of planned community neighborhoods I was from.

Ranches, ranches, and more ranches were all to be seen out here. And boy there were a lot of them. We were one of their main suppliers.

Every day, dozens of ranchers, ranch hands, and animal caretakers come to our store to browse our inventory of feed, hay, or equipment to take back to their place. Either that, or they have us deliver larger, more burdensome orders to their doorsteps, much like I was doing now.

If my more experienced co-workers told me a few weeks ago when I started working here that I’d be handling a delivery, I’d have been more excited. It’s a sign of trust from the manager that they believe they can count on you to drive their store-owned vehicle to a designated location, carry out a delivery to the customer’s satisfaction, and bring everything back in one piece. But now, I was sure I was being hazed.

You see, I’ve been on deliveries before, but only as a helper while one of my higher up co-workers did the driving. And we always had another guy with us to help us lift the hay bales as a team and bring them from the parked truck to the place they needed to be at whichever locale we delivered to.

I have a feeling my co-workers never really liked me to be honest. They’ve never been directly mean towards me. But as the newbie, I’m always assigned or ordered by them to do the most mundane stuff around the store premises, like sweep the parking lot spotless of hay straws or weed eating the most out of the way areas.

And now, for today’s delivery, I was sent out by these same co-workers alone on a delivery to Andrea of all people.

First reason I was sure this was hazing: I’m not a very strong guy to be honest. I need help lifting heavy items like hay. My co-workers know that. They deliberately sent me on this delivery alone without help knowing I’ll likely mess up or prove I’m not up to the task so they can fire me and hire someone more fit or funnier maybe. At least that was my theory.

Secondly, it was 5:20 pm when I left, right before closing time, when nobody wants to be sent for a late delivery like this.

Lastly and most importantly: Andrea. She is a middle aged woman well-known for berating all of our employees in every interaction we have with her. Like one time, she criticized the way another co-worker and I were putting feed into her truck and used the opportunity to call us “uneducated” or whatever. I’ve had at least 12 such meetings with her before. Point being, I’m sure nobody else wanted to do business with her, so they sent me.

What am I supposed to say? No?

Anyways, I hated being taken advantage of just for being the new guy. But I would still do my best on the job, even though I already made up my mind to put my two weeks in tomorrow like another former colleague named Abby did a few days ago. College is stressful enough. Job hunting again would be much better than this.

Anyways, it was now nearing dusk, and I had to make the delivery quickly to avoid it getting too dark. I used Google Maps on my phone to guide me to the place I needed to go to, turned off the highway onto a long dirt path with the gate opened in advance, before parking the truck in a circular driveway in front of a large cream colored house. Down a dirt path leading from the side of the house, there was a brown barn and a white building housing the stables, complete also with several grazing fields and a circular dirt track for horseback riding.

I hopped out of the car to knock on the door, but it appeared I was already expected. Andrea immediately came out of the house, dressed in a long sleeved shirt and jeans.

“Well hello, Blake,” she said upon noticing me. She knew all of the store employees by name at this point, since she always asked us for our names before giving us our first “the customer is always right” lectures from her.

“Just…you?” She said with genuine curiosity. “No one else with you?”

I put on my customer service smile and responded back to her, laughing nervously. “Yes ma’am. Just me for tonight. How’s your evening so fa-“

“Now that’s just goofy,” Andrea said, interrupting my greeting, before scanning the driveway behind me as if expecting more people. “I know I told them this was a delivery that required at least three strong workers, and instead they send you,” she said with a scornful tone.

“No offense of course to you, young man,” she continued matter of factly while I continued to hold my fake smile in place. “But I thought y’all would be more considerate of…loyal customers. Seems not.”

Then she crossed her arms, and looked at me with contempt in her piercing blue eyes.

“Yes I’m sorry, ma’am,” I said to her with a neutral tone. “But they told me for the larger round hay bale I have with me, you had a large horse-pulled wagon you could use to move it to the barn. That’s just what I was told when I was sent here. But I will still carry the smaller hay bales for you wherever you’d like. I’m sorry I can’t do more.

Then Andrea rolled her eyes again, rubbing her fingers in circles against her cheeks. “And you didn’t even think to ask the- Actually, never mind.”

As I stood there awkwardly, she took an audible breath, clearly using her body language to express how frustrated she was. That was something she always did.

But then she exhaled, and said in a genuine sounding tone, “Sorry, I guess I’m only taking it out on you since you’re the only one who showed up, when I suppose that’s the very reason I should be thanking you instead.”

“I-It’s no worries, ma’am,” I said reassuringly. “Um, if you could kindly direct me to the place to put these smaller hay bales, I can car-“

“Yeah whatever,” Andrea said to me with a dismissive wave of her hand while she turned to make her way in the direction of the stables. “You need to take these to the barn. Just do that and I’ll handle the round hay bale.”

And with that, I went to work and opened the truck bed to start taking the first of the 16 small bales of hay to the barn. The shortest path to the barn was through a small grazing field which was fenced off from the driveway. But conveniently, Andrea opened a gate on both sides of the field while she made her way to the stables. So I had a straight path to the barn from the truck.

I collected the first hay bale and tried fast walking my way through the field to the barn. There was a side door into the barn, which upon entering, had a room specifically meant for storing hay. To be safe, I started a new pile of hay away from then other piles, since they appeared to be made of a different type of straw. The last thing I wanted to do was mix up Andrea’s hay and be ordered later to reorganize everything while she gave me her usual stink eye.

All in all, it wasn’t that bad until I got halfway through the small hay bales. They’re super heavy for someone like me. And I always hated how the straw poked holes through my shirt as I carried them.

As I was carrying another bale back towards the barn, I passed by Andrea, who was riding a horse-drawn wagon with her reins strapped to a tan-colored horse with a dirty blonde mane.

As I passed by, the horse suddenly got excited and nuzzled me in the side while whinnying loudly; knocking me over and making me drop the hay bale. I heard Andrea say “Woah girl! No!” in a very stern voice. “Stop that now!”

Even while I was still getting up and shaking off the daze, Andrea asked me “Which hay bale are you on?” in an uncaring tone. Gee, a little “are you okay?” might’ve gone a long way.

“Uh, sorry my bad,” I said with a groan as I slowly got up and reached for my glasses which had fallen on the ground. “12 I think?”

Then Andrea looked at me with the sort of face that seemed to show some kind of…I guess…acknowledgement if you could call it that? That is to say, she didn’t scold me or anything for once.

“Well, not bad! Keep going then,” she said before cueing the mare onwards towards the truck. Meanwhile, I grabbed the hay bale from off the ground and continued my way towards the barn.

It was strange. For a moment, I actually caught a glimpse of the horse when it knocked me over. It had a strangely intelligent look in its eyes, as if it desperately wanted something from me. Whatever the case, it probably just wanted to be owned by someone else other than Andrea. That was my impression at least.

The rest of the hay bales took a little longer to do, and were exhausting work to carry. Carrying each one felt twice as heavy as the last. Andrea waited impatiently for me to carry the rest of the small bales out of the truck bed, so that she could use a forklift she had parked by her house to put the largest round hay bale onto the horse-drawn wagon. As I carried the last hay bale to the barn, I wondered why she needed the horse wagon if she already had a forklift that could carry the larger hay bale on its own.

When all was done, and the small hay bales were piled neatly, I sat down and rested by the barn for a minute, exhausted.

Andrea passed by me, riding her wagon loaded with the round hay bale, and hopped off to walk silently past me into the barn as I sat on the ground heaving from the effort.

As I waited outside, seated on the gravel, I noticed the longing eyes of the mare locked on me, its head low towards the ground. This, in my experience, was unusual for a horse to do. They always struck me as the kind of animals that constantly moved around and never lent attention to any one thing or person for too long. But whether or not that was true, this mare must’ve looked at me for a good minute at least.

Eventually I tried talking in a friendly sing-song voice to the mare, saying “Helloooo girl! Are you hungry? Is that it? I brought you some hay to eat!”

At that, the horse snorted, and recoiled as if I had somehow insulted it. Now that definitely struck me as odd for a horse to do, and I decided to lay off interacting with it. Having mostly caught my breath by this point, I stood up. And right as I did, Andrea came out of the barn and abruptly thrust a water bottle into my hands, causing me to almost drop it in surprise.

“Thank you,” she said to me in a monotone voice without looking in my direction as she kept walking towards the wagon. “You can rest here for a few more minutes. I’ll be right back.”

Before I could even muster a response, she got in her wagon and cued the mare onwards.

Suddenly, the mare began acting up again, neighing and shaking her head in my direction. But then Andrea grabbed a crop in her hand and silently held it up threateningly. Upon noticing this, the mare stopped, drooped its head, and despondently moved forward again with a last glance in my direction.

I wondered to myself if this kind of treatment was normal between a horse and its handler. But then again, I knew next to nothing about rearing animals or owning a ranch. Also, why did Andrea want me to stay put? I was just going to wish her a good night and leave since by now, it was already 6:40 pm and I had to finish the last paragraph for a paper due tonight before my brain shut down for the day.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for Andrea to return by herself, presumably after putting up the wagon and hay she had with her, and led her mare back to the stables. As I waited, I drank the entirety of the water bottle that Andrea gave me. I noticed how oddly refreshing it was. Drinking it actually helped wipe away all my exhaustion from earlier. At least that’s how it felt.

“Thanks so much for the water, ma’am!” I told Andrea as she approached. “Is everything where you wanted it to be?”

“Actually yes,” she said in a pleased voice. “Well done, Blake. I’m sorry. I do believe I misjudged you. You do seem like you can do some hard work after all!”

“Haha It’s nothing,” I said with a friendly grin on my face. “I’m just glad it all worked out! Is there anything else I can do for you before I head out?”

“Mmm hmm,” Andrea said with crossed arms, holding another bottle of water in one of her hands. “How about working for me full time? Starting tomorrow? You seem to check all the boxes of someone who could be a great ranch hand if trained properly.”

Taken aback by the sudden proposal, I froze in place, unsure of what to say or how to react.

“To tell the truth,” Andrea continued, “we’ve been a bit short staffed here. We could always use the extra help and I’d be willing to pay you handsomely for your time here.”

Me? A ranch hand? I’m studying to major in history in college with an upbringing as far from a rural life as one could imagine. And working with Andrea everyday wasn’t something I was sure made any amount of pay a good bargain.

“W-Wow. Thanks for the offer ma’am. I might actually need time to get back to you on that.” I reached in my pocket to pull out my phone. “But if you give me your information, once I’m able to make up my mind about it, I can reach out t-“

“I need to know now,” Andrea said bluntly, interrupting me again. “This is a great opportunity for you, Blake. I won’t offer it again. One day you might look back on this moment and regret your decision you’ve made here.”

Wow, that was a deep response. Still, it didn’t help change my mind or anything. I held my fingers under my chin and looked towards the ground, pretending like I was actually giving it some thought. I didn’t want to appear as if I wasn’t considering her proposal at least.

“I’m…sorry,” I said finally after looking up at her one more time. “I’m honestly too much of a city boy if you know what I mean. I don’t think I’m cut out to commit to ranching at this point in my life just yet. But I greatly appreciate the offer, ma’am.”

At that, she stared at me for a little longer with searching eyes, then smiled at me. “That’s ok. Most people I ask don’t accept that offer anyways. Still, I think you’re a hard worker, Blake. And you’d have made a good ranch hand. At least have another swig of water before you go.” Then she held out the water bottle in my direction.

Despite how weird this whole interaction was, it felt a little good to get a compliment from Andrea. I smiled back at her, thanked her, and kindly took the bottle she was offering.

“I appreciate it! Who knows? Maybe that’s in my future one day,” I told her as I opened the water bottle and drank it until it was empty. Then, wiping my mouth with my sleeve, I turned and waved goodbye to Andrea as I walked towards the truck.

“Thanks for the water, ma’am! I’ll see you next time!” I said to her as I began to cross the grazing field.

“Next time?” Andrea said with a strange, unnerving, conniving look in my direction. “What do you mean? You’re not leaving are you?”

The sight of those blazing eyes of her’s reflecting the setting sun was enough to make me gasp softly. But I turned away quickly, and tried to ignore the look she gave me.

Maybe not only should I put my two weeks in tomorrow, I should probably not even show up altogether after today. Just to avoid seeing this lady again!

But that line of thought was interrupted as I was walking across the field back to the truck. I stopped where I was to see why my left hand felt odd. When I lifted it up to observe it, I noticed that some of my fingers started merging into some odd very dark brown hardened material.

That…to say the least, confused and worried me greatly. Especially when that hardening expanded all throughout my hand and seemed to contort its shape in a way that shrunk my fingers. Then suddenly, several tufts of white and dark brown fur grew all at once from my wrist and down my left arm until it seemingly worked its way up my right arm as well.

Simultaneously, my ears started to reposition themselves on my head and change shape, while I grew slightly taller and larger; enough to cause my clothes to start tightening around me. With a grunt, I also felt something growing out of my backside. “What’s going *grhhhh* on?!” I shouted fearfully as the changes continued.

My other arm was quickly consumed by the brown fur, which by now had worked its way down to my legs and up my neck to parts of my face. My hands were suddenly stump-like hooves, while my feet also felt like they were changing within my shoes. Meanwhile, my body also contorted its entire shape, causing me to lean over forwards until it was difficult to remain standing on two legs.

My clothes had also been pushed to their limits. I realized with horror that my body was absolutely growing. Looking back, I noticed my shirt and pants were starting to completely rip.

Oh no! What if people see me like this?! I thought to myself with fear. How did this happen to me?!

Before I could lend it another thought, my entire shirt and most of my pants completely ripped off my body. My face had elongated somehow and the last bits of fur were creeping up my forehead. All I could do was let out a neighing sound as I screamed in a panic, unable to form words or anything resembling human speech. Then, after the last shreds of human clothes fell off me, I fell on all fours, catching myself with the hooves that once were my hands.

For a solid moment right after all of these changes. I could think clearly. But I was still unable to process what had happened to me. All the new sensations I felt, the smells, the sounds, the way my body felt.

It was all so unfamiliar, as if I was thrust outside of myself and put into something else. I whirled my head backwards, and saw a large curved dark brown furry backside of a horse, with a lighter brown tail that kind of reminded me of my own hair color.

And if I crossed my eyes, through my glasses which had somehow remained on my face even by this point, I could see a long snout between my eyes.

Then, my eyes focused to see Andrea behind me, looking at me with an evil grin on her face. Then, my consciousness began to fade. But before it did, I could hear Andrea’s voice say one more thing.

“Horses don’t leave the ranch without their owner’s permission. Do they?”

Then the world faded to black.

Thanks again to the awesome  Professor Pinecoon for the art! I hope anyone who got this far enjoyed part 1 of this story!

Next part coming soon!