A "Winds of Change" Story

By Jon Sleeper

The end of the weekend. I hated Sunday nights, but this one was almost unbearable. Why my parents continue to watch reruns of "America's Funniest Home Videos" even after the show was canceled nearly five years ago was beyond me. I'd never particularly liked the show to begin with. And that fact that the host was a hyena morph probably had something to do with it, too. I was slowly getting zebra instincts, and they said hyenas were a bad thing.

So I decided to go to take my shower and go to bed early. Normally before bed I'd practice my singing, but I couldn't do it anymore. My voice was gruff and deeper, and when I did try to sing it inevitably started to changed into the zebra's barking whinny.

Though I never showed it to my friends, my vanity had filled the void of self esteem that my singing had once filled. Around the house at least. Mom said I was bordering on being narcissistic, but I didn't care.

I stepped into the bathroom and admired my reflection in the mirror. Over the past six weeks since my First Sign, two things had happened. I was now covered from ears to toes in the black and white stripes that identified my exact species. Grant's Zebra. And my body had started to bulk up and change to support the heavy equine head. I'd gained a full fifty pounds, (up to 225 from 175, and he said I'd be between 300 and 350 pounds when I was done) and at my physical exam on Saturday the doctor said that my now-larger chest and torso was now equipped for an equine diet of grass in morph form. (my teeth could certainly handle it).

My overall body structure had subtly altered. I was stronger, had gained another two inches in height, my chest had barreled a bit since the morning (I'd found that I could breathe a bit deeper than yesterday). But the most telling changes had started on my feet.

My toes were now joined by a webbing, and my foot bones were a half inch longer. My feet were next in my Change, that was for sure. The nails were already black in color and looked distorted. I sighed when I looked at them.

A month, the doctor had said, until they were hooves. But still, it all seemed mundane compared to my best friend Todd...

I got into the shower and used my expensive "ManeStay" shampoo. Not like I needed it anyway. My increased vanity made me use a lot of it. I especially scrubbed the black tuft at the end of my tail. When I was done I activated the shower's built in dryer. It was a bit more economical than having lots of towels.

I looked all frazzled when I got out, and spent the next fifteen minutes with a curry brush arranging things. My mane didn't need much, but my tail tuft did. It took about five minutes to brush out right. And when I was done I got into a pair of shorts and looked at myself in the mirror, bare-chested. "Stripes, you are one handsome hunk of zebra." I said quietly, smiling.

Sure, it was a blatant bit of pure narcissism, but I really didn't care.

I no longer laid in bed, singing along with my favorite artists. I just turned out the light and tried to get some sleep.

And then I smelled my mother's scent wafting down the hallway. Which momentarily made me remember just how overwhelming things had been when I'd taken my first breath after my head Changed. My parents being cervids, they were practically walking perfume factories. The overload had quickly diminished to where I could handle it, though. "You can come in, Mom," I said.

She opened the door quietly. I didn't even have to turn my head to look at her. "Are you okay, David?" she said in a soft voice.

"Okay? Oh, yeah sure. I'm fine. What makes you think I'm not?"

In response, I saw her nostrils flare once. And her scent got a bit of an acrid taint to it that must have meant that she knew I was lying. "Is it Todd?"

"Haahaa!" Oops. "I meant, yes it's Todd!" I sometimes lost my voice when I was emotional, emitting a zebra whinny instead. "And it's you-know-what!"

She sighed, I saw her tail flip behind her. "All we can do for Todd is pray, David. We don't have any alternative. You do. What about the saxophone you were talking about?"

My ears twitched once (I'd gotten used to that) in thought. "Well, these new lips of mine make it easier to play. But I just don't have the knack of it that Mano does. And the doc says I might end up with a finger reduction. So playing the guitar is even in doubt.

"I don't have anything left that I can do..." I lamented.

"You'll find something. Going to bed already? Do you want to sleep on the back lawn again tonight?"

My Change had made things a bit hard for me to sleep in my bed. My slowly Changing proportions made it very difficult to sleep normally. Instead I slept out on the lawn in norm form, standing up like zebras do when they sleep. "I'll try the bed tonight, thanks." I felt my tail laying on the mattress. For once supported by something.

Besides, it was well into fall and a bit chilly outside.

My mom sensed that I was done speaking for the night and closed the door. I reached up and turned off the light. 

Just like Todd's Change. Creeping along.

I hit the "accept" button, and heard Todd's voice say, "Stripes? Are you there?" He sounded stressed.

"Yeah. What's up?"

"Could you get over here right now? Please? I need to uh... show you something."

"This early?"

"Please, Dave."

With that tone of voice I couldn't refuse. "I'll be there in ten minutes." I hung up.

Knowing that quite a gallop was ahead of me, and I might not be able to come back for my books, I quickly got ready for school. I put on my special Equine Shifter backpack, and a little thing that was purely fashion for all equine morphs. A kind of bitless bridle without any reins. Mine was real leather, and rather plain in style. A sort of contrast to my "exotic" stripes.

It was chilly outside when I left the house, and the world was wrapped in a blanket of fog. I norm-shifted and started at a walk, my hooves clopping on the cement. Warmed up I moved to a trot, then a canter, then a full on gallop! Above all else, I loved this part of being a zebra the most. In this form I weighed nearly eight hundred pounds, and to me it felt like one-hundred percent power! My nostrils flared widely with each breath, drawing in huge amounts of oxygen that was sent to my pumping leg muscles and thence to my hooves that were propelling me along at thirty miles an hour.

I got to Todd's house all too quickly. Then I realized I had PE today. So I could gallop more later. I shifted to morph, put my shorts on, and went up to Todd's door. A half bock away I'd slowed to a walk to keep things quiet. There were enough equines in the world so it might be dismissed as someone

out for an early morning jog. Todd opened the door before I could knock. "Hi. Follow me." He said in a tense voice. His scent stung at my nostrils.

"What's up?" I asked cautiously. I hated having to go tippy-hoof around him sometimes. It was dim enough that I couldn't really see him. I bumped my muzzle against a wall. "Ouch! Can we turn on a light?"

We arrived in his room and he sat down on his bed. I heard the squeak of springs. My ears moved backward of their own accord. It wasn't a pleasant sound. His scent-expression was still unfamiliar with me. But I didn't like it. He turned on his light.

In the week and a half since his First Sign the four of us had watched the fur on his forearms creep up to his neck. But this morning... He sighed. "You see it too, I guess."

Faintly visible was the raccoon's black mask. His face protruded slightly, nose looking darker, ears pointed and furry. And mixed in with the normal brown hairs on his head were numerous gray ones. "Umm... You look great, Todd."

He just sighed deeply in response.

This isn't going to work at all, I thought. "I wish I could help you. But I can't."

"I didn't ask you to!"

"Well then why am I the only one here?"

"Because I couldn't work up the courage to call anyone else!"

Oh. "Sorry. I guess I got selfish for a second."

Todd just looked at his fully Changed arms and hands, and looked back in a mirror at his face. "I'm sorry I snapped at you... It's just that... You realize what my head will look like by Saturday, don't you?"

"I know. And I know the feeling. But I think I should tell you this. I don't believe you're going to lose it. I refuse to. You're my best friend, and I just won't. I'll need concrete proof—like you knocking over our trashcans—before I'll believe it." I sighed, the noise sounding like air rushing through a hose. "Maybe we should call the rest of the guys and see what they say."

"Maybe you're right. And thanks, Stripes."

"Don't mention it. And can I sit down? My feet are killing me." He nodded.

He went and sat down at his computer, while I massaged my feet. My shifting, itching, aching, feet.

Remembering that would be the last thing on Todd to Change, I decided to keep from voicing any more discomfort.

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