First he felt an odd tugging at his cheeks. As he struggled to reawaken, he realized his body was in an unusual position. It was upright...legs resting on a cold floor. His arms were suspended above him. Rough ropes dug into his skin painfully.

His eyelids would not obey him. His body felt strange. Motor control very slowly returned to him. In his position he had difficulty moving any limb except an unfamiliar one. It seemed to extend from his lower back, and although he could move it from side to side, he felt no fingers, toes, or anything else with a muscle or joint. He felt it dragging on the floor as he twitched the new muscles, and although his mind was still wading out of the muck of unconsciousness, he realized it had to be a tail.

He tugged at his restraints to no avail. His arms felt wrong. Tougher, bulkier. His entire body weighed him down more than he knew it should. His mass felt crowded in his skin, like there was too much of him.

The tugging continued. Something was pulling his cheek. His face itched. For that matter, so did many parts of him. He lifted his neck slowly, feeling it supporting a greater weight than he expected.

At last, his eyes began to open, and his vision slowly cleared to reveal a strange face. It was that of a brown cow...except, not entirely animal. Her eyes gleamed with humanity, and he could read a gentle expression on her face. She was looking down below his chin at something. Then her eyes looked straight into his.

She smiled. "You are awake."

He inhaled deeply through his nose. The air seemed partly obstructed. He could feel something attached to it. His throat was dry, making it hard to speak, but he attempted it regardless.

"What...are you?" he spoke in a deep, rumbling voice that caused his eyes to open wider. "What happened to me?"

"You were attacked on the road. Foolish to travel alone in these lands." The cow woman returned her gaze downward, and he felt more tugging. He lowered his chin and saw a half-formed brown braid of hair in her thick, three-fingered hands. The hair was his. Had he grown a beard? Had he been asleep that long?

The woman continued, speaking in a heavy but soft, warm tone. "I came upon you, left for dead. Stripped of everything. I brought you into my home. My magics could not repair your broken body, but I could not allow you to pass from this world so unjustly."

"You...," he said, still weary and struggling to understand what the woman was telling him. A hot, animal-like snort escaped his nostrils. "You changed me..."

"I can use my magics to mend those of my own kind," she said. He heard in her voice a tone of despair, and a small furrow appeared in her heavy brow. "The only way was to make you like me."

She tied off the thick braid that extended from his right cheek, then took up loose hair on his left and began to plait it.

He felt confusion, alarm, and fear. If what she said was true--and all of the senses of his strange new body told her it was--the consequences to him were incredible. He had so many questions. Why had this creature done this to him? Had he really been attacked, or was it a story to gain his trust?

Yet as he entertained accusatory thoughts in his mind, his eyes beheld her sincere expression as she worked. Here and there small changes to her face betrayed her feelings of pain and remorse. What she had done to him was a kindness, but it came at a price for them both. Instead of death, he would have a new life. But in doing so she ensured that he could never return to his old one, nor the family and friends he treasured in his heart. What would they see, if he should encounter them? What did he even look like? A beast, more animal than human? A barbaric creature?

And what of the creature in front of him? So clearly intelligent and able of compassion. She knew fully what she had done, and could have easily left him transformed but abandoned in the wilderness to fend for himself. Yet here she sat, braiding his hair, and struggling to keep her conflicting emotions in check.

He exhaled slowly. "Thank you," he said. "You saved my life. Whatever...whoever you are, I am indebted to you."

She looked at him with happier eyes. "No debt will be asked. What I have done was done at the end of your old life. Now you begin anew."

"And what of these ropes?" he asked, tugging again at the bindings on his wrists.

"I apologize for their necessity. You needed to be in an upright position for the magic to reform you properly. You will be freed when the changes have fully taken hold."

She began to braid yet another lock of his thick brown hair. "What are you doing?" he asked,

"My people...our people...braid their hair when outside of our dens. To appear unbraided before others would be a grave insult. For you, I am making the braids of a warrior."

"Warrior? I am only somewhat skilled with a blade..."

"No blade, my new warrior..." She smiled. It seemed her smile was holding back a torrent of information. A new world she could barely wait to reveal to him. "You will find life much different with us. But, I sincerely hope, more than fulfilling."

The End