Thanks for revising and proofreading to John Burkitt, Nashville, Tennessee Email: john.burkitt@nashville.com This story is dedicated to Dave Morris' dog BJ. BJ died 11-5-1997.
Foreword
I have been toying around in my head about what it would be like changing into a wildcat, preferrably tigers, they have proven to be my favourites, though I'm a Lion King fan. Please, if you read this: Do not forget tigers are an endangered species! Try to help them as good as you can, they have every right to live as you and I do, not just existing somehow in cages in a zoo but where nature intended for them to live!Hannover, Europe, Germany, 14:00 GMT+1
Go ahead, friend, and stare at me. I am used to it. Sometimes I look in the mirror in amazement myself. One of my great joys in life is observing the reactions of the humans I meet. My favorites are the children. Some of the youngest ones in their blessed innocence want to reach out and touch my face. I purr and lick their hand and they smile at me. Usually it is the girls that hug me, for they are most likely to prefer cats, but one young boy begged his mother to take me home. He saw only beauty in my smile. Some of the older ones, especially the superstitious and ignorant folk, treat me like some cursed creature. A Bavarian (read: very conservative and catholic) minister thumped soundly on the Bible that he always carried about, and with veheamence proclaimed me the beast mentioned in the Book of Revelations. Obviously he didn't look in the mirror lately, he was a low-degree with pig nose, since he considered himself to be 'fully human' Bad luck, Theo Waigel! He is the German minister for finance, the permanent hand in your wallet, but for the first time in his life he got a 'nose for money. As calmly as I could, I restrained him from beating me with his cane and the Police agreed heartily that I acted wisely and in self-defence. Still, some very painful headlines in the BILD paper (read: German Yellow Press of the worst kind) really hurt my feelings, and I contemplated a lawsuit against the young reporter that declared, "Monster mauls minister." It was not necessary. Far more of my neighbors were supportive and caring, and I knew that my reputation did not depend on good press coverage. I even submitted to the scientific curiosity of the professors at the MHH*-a large hospital and scientific facility with international reputation- for a while, but I was worried about the radiation of multiple x-rays and the prick of so many needles and biopsies. I always wondered why they approached me to volunteer for these tests, the scientists themselves looked like a zoo. But I was told it was because of me that they found out the Change was not caused by a genetical alteration. I am a person with a life of my own and I had to finally brush off the long-hairs with a polite but firm "No."
I will never forget the night when my Change took place. It was still when I awoke with a throbbing headache. I was bathed in sweat and wiped my forehead with my pyjama sleeve as I glanced at my at my radio clock. The crimson numbers said 13:59. It would have been a decent night's sleep if I hadn't just crawled in bed 6 hours ago after an IRC chat with my American friend Dave 'Ahadi' Morris. I was one of the humans who needed to spend at least 8 hours on his back a day. I felt strange, thinking I must have a touch of the flu. I sat up carefully to avoid another headache attack, but I still felt an invisible hat five sizes too small being forced down on my head by some gleeful demon.
My first attempt to get out of bed failed, but I managed to break a glass on the nightstand trying. I tried once more, and with sheer determination of will won the fight against the clumsyness in my head and my body. Unsteadily I staggered to the windows. I reached for the curtains. One little pull and...."Damn!!" The light of the day bored into me with fierce heat. It seemed to take an eternity beforel I could bear to take the arm from in front of my eyes. Feeling too tense and ill to try and go back to sleep, I rubbed my still blurry eyes and made my way to the stereo. I wanted something pleasant to awake me to full consciousness, and soon "The Lion King" was spinning in the CD player. "Circle of Life" sprang to life. It seemed somehow flat, and I reached for the treble control. It was set at 100%. It was too early in the morning for an expensive stereo to break down on me. "Damn, 500 DM down the drain!" I did not understand at the time how little of the world that twenty to twenty thousand hertz described! Listen to what I say and let it spark your imagination, but trust me friend you will never fully understand it until you've been there.
I'd been a Lion King fan since the movie came out in 1994, and I'd found many friends with the same addiction. Through it I learned to love all wild cats, though always my heart belonged most with the tigers. The play of black and russet stripes rippling across their beautiful, lithe body always made me shiver with timid joy, and I imagined something that was very unlikely--cradling a broad, expressive tiger face in my trembling hands, and drawing the strong, proud neck and shoulders against my heart with my arms!
Just three steps and I was looking into the mirror. First my view was a little blurred from the sleep in my eyes, but when my vision cleared, the changes revealed by my reflection took my breath away. Two rounded ears were peeking rakishly back at me through a shock of hair. I looked at them surprised as they flattened to my head. There was a black, brown and white pattern on their back, made of fuzzy fur with a small white patch on each one. Not to mention they were on top of my head! Slightly shocked I ran my fingers through my hair, stroking the new ears. I felt the touch of my fingers on them. They were a real, warm, natural part of my anatomy that felt familiar but exotic. In my explorations, I tickled one with my fingertips and it twitched! I was even able to flick them around!
I wondered if my eyes looked the way they felt. I stared into the mirror closely expecting to see my bloodshot eyes in all their glory. But they were not! Their color had changed from greyish-green to amber. They did not look like human eyes anymore. They brought back a distant memory, a moment of special joy when a zoo lion looked right into my eyes with a proud but gentle light. As I watched my face I realized the color was leaving my skin. But it wan't just my skin that was changing. The room behind me was in muted colors, shades of the earth and a few bluish tones. But the loss of color perception was compensated for by the breathtaking sharpness of objects in the room. The changes did not horrify me--indeed, I was too fascinated to even run to the telephone, so glued was I to my bathroom mirror! In a moment, the wings of my nose had widened and flattened and begun to form a shallow split dividing it in two perfect halves and coursing down to my upper lip. The halves of my newly split lip began to grow convex and pitted. From some of the dark pits wiry hairs sprang. "Man, this is too weird!" I said, surprised by the appearance of my teeth as I spoke. My lips were dark brown and growing darker all the time.
Stunned I stumbled backwards, until I felt the washing machine behind me. For a moment my thoughts threatened to run amok.. Maybe you wonder why I'm not telling much about my emotions in the first moment. To be true, I don't know exactly what I felt that day. It was somewhere between amazement, shock and fear of what was yet to come, being scared of the unknown. Quite a lot of what an animal feels about unknown things. I don't even remember if I was aware about the animal I was changing to, though it was obvious, especially for me, being a wildcat freak.
Wilmington, NC, USA. , 8:10 am EST
David Morris spent an unnerving night. The progress on his part of the story "Yaguara" was very slow, as often in the last few months, his workload and the German courses he was taking had made him tired, keeping him from getting ideas for it. "Maybe a pizza helps" he said to himself, saving the unchanged Word document he had stared at blankly for almost an hour. A last click to close the text processor's window, and simultaneously his microwave's bell rang to tell "pizza's ready". Dave was neither a carnivore nor a herbivore, he's what I call pizzavore. I had never liked pizza before--the change did not extend to my feelings toward that round, flat, stale semi-edible cardboard product. It did not cause any damage to our friendship, but our teasing about that always ended up in funny chat sessions. Hurrying he reached the kitchen, opened the microwave just to be beaten with the scent of the pizza. "Yes, it STINKS," he admitted to himself. In disgust he took a bite, just to spit it off. "Jeez, that must be the wrong brand." David complained, throwing the pizza in the trashcan.
A Blue Russian cat was curiously smelling the kitchen table. Completely concentrating on smelling its surface, the cat kicked a spoon down. The metallic noise when it fell to the ground echoed in Dave's head like the bell of a cathedral. "Taka.." he murmured in pain, due to his headache that was caused by the spoon's sound, "I know I forgot the dishwashing."
Hannover, Germany
A hissing behind me made me turn around. Shanni, my house cat was standing behind me. She was hissing at me! "Shanni! It's just me!" I said. "Oh man, don't freak out! I'm not going to hurt you!"
Her instincts told her what I was slowly realizing, I was becoming a tiger. I had no idea HOW and HOW FAR the Change would go, if my personality or conciousness would be affected. I made two steps towards Shanni, intending to calm her down, but like a lightning she ran from me. Something in me whispered- "It runs from me, it's prey!". I realized feline instincts had become a new and strange part of me. For a moment I was tempted to drop down to all fours but a certain amount of my humanity still held sway over me. I felt vulnerable so close to the floor in an room--indeed a city--designed for a two-meter race. And of course you will notice that not all of my furniture is what I had then. I prefer sleeping on the floor close to Mother Earth and while I still have my doorknobs at the same height, I prize my Japanese table and cushions in the dining area as a convenient and comfortable way to eat my fill and then roll over to digest it properly.
But as I was saying, feeling at a loss I scratched my neck to chase an odd tingling sensation away. There was something under my fingers, and the tingling turned to a pulling. My neck elongated about three inches in just under ten seconds. If ever I had thought I was dreaming this, the sensation pushed it from my mind.
Unwillingly I uttered a groan. It did not hurt, I had no idea why, but I blamed the doubtlessly sensationally high adrenaline level in my blood for that. I stripped as fast as I could, fearing more radical changes in my phsysiology would rip the seams of my clothes.
It was very easy to crane my head around, watching my spine. That something on my now longer neck was a slight fuzz of white fur, rapidly growing down from my neck to the base of my spine, just to be overgrown by a black striped layer of rust brown fur. It stopped for a moment, just to make place for more radical changes. The furred skin close to my spine bulged out to give room for the growth of steelish hard muscles that started to surround my increasingly feline spine. I had to lean on the sink, fearing my back was not able to bear my weight. As the muscle cover reached the base of my spine, it did not think about stopping to grow.
Surprised I grabbed the upper end of my behind. First it was only as long as a pencil, and naked like a worm, but just a moment later I felt it grow to a healthy girth of more than two inches as it slid through my fingers, soon reaching a length of almost five feet. Excited I started to stroke that beatiful new extension of my body. My tail reflected my excitement, jerking and twitching with my nervous laughter. I remembered an old joke. 'If you want to calm a cat down, glue her tail to the ground." It was a dumb joke, and in sarcasm I chuckled at myself, not believing it would help in my case.
I was still at a loss, but I remembered my friend David. With my tail raised I hurried over to my room, turning on my PC. I never thought about how to control the tail muscles, it simply happened. It takes a few seconds to boot W95.
Wilmington, NC
From the neighboring room the cheap speakers of David's PC were squeaking "Incoming Chat Request". He walked over and saw it was Kublia wanting to chat with him. As ususal, it did not work, and a message popped up on his flickering screen. "Please go to Efnet. I need you!" Secretly he hoped the day would start with funny a funny chat session with me, starting mIRC.
<Ahadi> Hey, Mirco, didn't you say you want to sleep through the whole day? I thought that's breaking a record! <grin>
<Amurtiger> Guess what I was trying. But seriously, I AM breaking all records-- of weirdness! If I'd tell you what's happening with me....
<Ahadi> Hrm??
<Amurtiger>Please believe me, my body is changing!
<Ahadi> Changing? Whatcha mean?
<Amurtiger> Do you remember we were talking about what it would be like being a wildcat for some time?
*Ahadi grins
<Ahadi> Certainly I do.
<Amurtiger> I have a tiger head now! I have a tail, whiskers, amber eyes! I'm NOT dreaming. And I'm STILL changing!Now he's lost it, at least it's going to be fun, Dave thought, chuckling.
<Ahadi> Maybe pulling off your tiger paw slippers helps. =)
<Amurtiger> It started... dunno how. Everything was different, scents, colors. Incredibly intense.
<Ahadi> Mirco, wait a moment.He walked back to the kitchen, to get a beer from the fridge. On his way back his neck started to tingle. Absently minded he scratched it.
Suddenly there was long reddish hair sprouting from the lower rim of his hair at his neck. The sudden feeling of his head somewhat gaining height made him stuble over the carpet's rim. Dave fell down, the beer tin rolling over the ground. If it was not reminding the scent of his pizza that made him thoughtful then it was the tingling. Cursing he stripped to see if his suspection was right. It was. The reddish hair was a stripe of mane running down his spine for a few inches, narrowing into a stripe of goldish brown fur. He saw the fur growing fast towards the base of his spine. Puzzled he made it back to his feet and back to his PC.
<Ahadi> It starts! Mirco, I am changing, too!!!I didn't know if he was making fun of me, but all was weird enough, why should I be the only one?
<Amurtiger> For heavens sake, Dave, ENJOY it. Don't fight it, you can't! Lay down on your bed and watch your changes. CU later? It's going on with me!
*** Amurtiger has left IRC (Connection reset by peer)Hannover, Germany
I went back to the bathroom. The mirror uncovered new changes. My face's skin had turned dark in a few stripes, and bleaker in other places. Here and there fur was growing, under my chin and at my cheeks. The whiskers were fully developed, and turning my head slightly to the side I was able to see my mouth and nose had elongated to a short snout. Unwillingly I poked my tongue out to groom my whiskers, a clearly feline habit. The roughness of it on the not yet furred parts of my face was almost hurting. I nearly forgot it, but there they were. I was growing canines. They were short for a tiger yet, but visible. Sudden awareness and disgust struck me. I felt sick to my stomach remembering what those teeth in a cat's mouth were good for. For eating raw meat. I could only hope feline instincts would take care of this problem soon, or I'd starve in the most wonderful body I could imagine.
"Just wait a few minutes, and your smile is that disarmingly that you get your food for free at the butcher's." I said to myself, seems my subtle humor was not affected at all. But some of the words sounded like a purr from my throat.
In the meanwhile my visibly growing canines were pressing the gums aside. My fledgling muzzle elongated, my lips finally turning jet black. I smiled and admired the white teeth and pink gums against the ebony frame of my strongly delineated lips. My harelip was completed, with it my whole muzzle, chin and throat were covered in white fur, the rest of my face hidden under tiger patterned fur, just my eyes had a white rim, too. My hair was already lying in the sink, it fell out and my head's transformation was finished, all tingling and pushing feelings were gone, the second surge was over.
I stared at my profile in the mirror. My muzzle was 6 inches long. Curiously I raised my lips. My canines had full size now, somewhat shorter than 2 inches each. I passed my hands through the somewhat shallower fur between my eyes and ears, I knew that was how cats spread their scent. From the moment on I smelled on my hands my scent was as familiar and important to me as my name. In amazement I started to stroke my new face, cheeks, nose, harelip and my throat. I closed my eyes and purred deeply, enjoying the sensations....
Apeldoorn, Europe, The Netherlands, 14:30
Jeroen's nickname was Unicorn, adapted from his second most favourite movie, 'The Last Unicorn'. Plus he was the 'artist in spe' of our writers conference, The Gentle Kingdom. As a matter of fact all TGK members were Lion King fans, and as artist Jeroen was really gifted. As every Saturday he was waiting for his (girl-)friend Rocio Orozco. She was living in Mexico City and only able to go online iin the evening at her place. Jeroen left his computer online, mIRC running in Efnet #TLK-L and #TGK-our private channel. But the Guys on #TLK-L were lurking around so he decided to spend his time until Rocio shows up on his airbrush, completing a picture for the story "The Promise". Dizziness made it hard for him to concentrate.
"I need a coffee" he said to himself. Absent minded he walked to his small kitchen, heating up some water. It would take some minutes, so he hoped one of the other fellas had appeared on IRC. Then his first surge came. On the way back his legs began to feel stiff and numb, and it spread upwards to his knees. He made it barely to his chair and he somehow felt helpless. His feet became bleak, toenails ridiculously growing. His feet elongated, heels shrinking. From his knees down sinews and muscles moved oddly under his skin, reshaping to a slightly crooked semblance. His toenails were..."Hooves!" He almost shouted, followed by not spellable dutch curses, when sudden awareness hit him. Dumbstruck he watched his lower extremities. Turning his head Jeroen saw the texts of mine and Ahadi on the screen, but before he could overcome his fascination Amurtiger and Ahadi had quit IRC.
"Shit, Kub, I believe you everything!"
Carefully he touched his legs, feeling the white fur that had spread...
Hannover, Germany
Seems my ISP was downloading the newsgroups, but it was welcome because my body's changes continued.
The fur was spreading down from my neck almost to my lap. Black stripes embraced my body like snakes, meeting right over my spine and middle the middle of my stomach. On my front side there was not even a trace of brown fur, but it was white like snow. My upper torso had clearly gained diameter. I would have loved to watch myself in a larger mirror, but I knew my weight would be soon to much for my human legs, so I took the 3 steps to my bed with quivering knees, right in time before the power left them. I slumped on my bed, watching what happened. I got the odd feeling the distance between my eyes and my crotch was increasing. A faint crackling from my back confirmed it, my whole spine was elongating 10 inches within five minutes. I gave myself to the sensations of the Change. Now there was enough room for my organs to expand, to fit my body's increased hunger for nourishment. For a moment I thought I'd choke as my lung's volume increased. With every beat my heart felt stronger, pumping feline blood in my veins with unbelievable power. The rest of my internals started to rearrange, moving in place somewhat and growing. The placement of the feline's organs was luckily not completely different, otherwise I feared I'd die.
Wilmington, NC, USADavid did not lay down, as I suggested, but curiosity killed the cat, which was definetly an important part of him now. Looking in the large mirror in his bedroom he examined his body.
His tail raised and lowered rhytmically, expressing his excitement. Fur had spread all over his face, his fangs had fully developed, very contrary to his muzzle. But there was no need to wonder how to close his mouth-'Muzzle' he corrected himself mentally- with those teeth.
A stinging all over his face and a glance into the mirror told him his snout was pushing out, along with his lips tightening and turning dark. He growled low and throaty in relieve as it was over. He ran a finger over his teeth, as if he was examining them. His incissors had definetly turned shorter and pointed, as it used to be for a lion. Right at this moment his hair fell out in tufts. His mane became visible. It almost covered his ears, only their rim was visible. And for sure the mane would grow larger with the years, for humans we both were still young, about 4 lion (or tiger) years. One thing was odd, until now he blamed his eyes for it, his color vision had faded since they became leonine. The fur that covered his face looked quite bleak for a lion. But the slight trace of blue in his eyes told him he was at least partially an albino.
It did not disturb him. Taking two steps back he sat down on his bed, looking at his head, turning it in all directions. Inhaling air through his nostrils he lay down. In the meanwhile Dave's jerking tail caught Taka's attraction. Nothing better to do the cat pounced at it, digging his claws in Dave's body's new extension. Surprised Dave raised his lips, growling instinctively at the cat, but just a moment later he was aware the little kitten was just following the same instincs he would stick to soon. Carefully he took the cat in his arms and cuddled it in his mane, he was purring. In response Taka purred, too. Something in Dave's brain told him that means "Groom me...", but he restrained himself. "No, little one, I don't want to swallow you accidentally. Besides I fear we'll have to share litter box and food bowl soon... Oooh! It continues.." Dave whispered, feeling the tingling spreading over his whole torso. Deep inside he was longing to be complete.
Hannover, Germany
I was still lying on my bed, its wooden construction complaining noticably about my weight. It felt like an army of ants on my haunches and arms. A few moments ago skin had grown over my fingernails, swallowing them, and now five half inch long claws were slowly stinging through the skin The fur had reached my wrists, parts of my arms were bulging, growing very defined muscles. Not that I looked like Mr. Universe, the muscle growth was everything than exaggerated, but every single muscle was visible under my striped coat and they felt stronger than ever. The palms of my hands became leathery pads, so did every single of my fingertips, but their sensitivity increased, running them over my body made me think I felt every single hair. In general my hands did not change much, they were longer, leaving my shortened thumb behind. The fur reached my finger tips now, as they did leathery sheaths were wrapping my claws. Slits in my fingers told me where they were hidden. I found out stiffening my finger muscles or clenching my fingers around things made them come out. Even today, years later, it's amazing me seeing them come out from their hidden place, parting my finger's fur. I was happy to see my whole hand's agility had not vanished at all, still enabling me to use my keyboard. But I was sure it would need practice not to extend claws during typing.
Suddenly I realized that 'army of ants'- the tingling that signalled which places were about to change- was crawling all over my lap and the inside of my thighs. I did not know what my genitals would look like, but I would know soon. My scrotum -- stop me if I am embarrasing you -- became a very little tighter and fur was rapidly covering it's folds -- or were my testicles growing somewhat? A pulling sensation took control of my pelvis. My lower abdomen flattened and even started to grow hollower. I almost panicked as I felt my thigh bones losing their 'fixed' connection to my pelvis. For minutes I could not move them, they felt like dead. But then new sinews and muscles started to tie them to my body again in a strong, elastic connection which was the secret of the elegant feline walk. I was not surprised that those new muscles did not allow me to straighten out my legs anymore, instead their angled posture was very relaxing.
My pelvis had narrowed and my thigh's muscles were almost rubbing each other on their insides, leaving no more space for my scrotum, testicles and penis. In haste I put a hand between my hindlegs in a foolish attempt to find my genitals where I was used to have them as a human. Can I show you? No? Well, no matter. I could not help but chuckling about my dumbness. Now I was tiger down to my knees, I needed to angle thighs even more until my knees touched the flanks close to my stomach. I craned my head around and my tail moved aside, then I saw my new aspect of maleness where they used to be. I started to run my hand gently over my male... uh -- tigerness. Well, that was giving me a break to the final step.
My carefully extended claws felt incredible when they scratched through my scrotum's silken fur. It was arousing! Blood surged into my penis, it grew longer and peeked a little through my foreskin, every heart beat pushing it further out. Jeez, my member was pointed. I let my finger slide the thick furred sheath down as far as possible. The tip of my cock was not only pointed, it was about 2 1/2 inches long from the place the foreskin was attached to, and a few short, thick hairs had grown on them-the barbs I had heard about. They seemed to lead the feeling of my padded fingers sliding over my cock deep inside of it to a place that was extremely receptive for them. Amazed I sled my furred sheath back to cover my privacy, though it almost sent me over the edge. But I wanted to enjoy that later and comprehensive, and probably with a female mate. I had nothing better to do than straighten my legs somewhat and bending my tail back to its normal position to rest if my privacy was visible. Though my testicles rested partially between my thighs and partially being covered they were still visible. The thick coat of fur almost all over my body gave me the feeling of being well clothed, I felt not ashamed of it. But I decided if I would go out on the streets I would wear shorts. No more, no less, not to offend people-If I could go out at all without ending up in a zoo or circus as an odd exhibit. I was so naive and caught by my own physical alterations that I had no idea what the hell was about to happen outside on the streets, normally I should have heard the odd sounds with my sharpened cat senses.
Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
Jeroen stood up, expecting his changes to be over, it went far enough, he thought, though he loved horses. His behind's immense growth had blown his shorts up, giving his tail a way to peek at the world. Clumsily he tried to get rid of the pants, but it was a herculean effort to do so since his fingers had fused to almost a complete hoof-no, they had been more or less swallowed by his middle finger. And white fur had spread halfways up his arm. Finally he made it to get rid of his clothing. He stared down. From his navel downwards he had become a snow white stallion, with white bushels of hair at his former ankles. A dark sheath of skin had attached his maleness to his body. He wondered if his girlfriend would appreciate a tool of a size like that.
"Maybe she's a mare now, or a long thing will end a short relationship." he chuckled...
Hannover, Germany
Ah, yes, final step that enabled me to make the first steps into a new life. The last surge hit literally like a hammer. I moved my thighs close to my torso to grab my lower legs, still expecting it would hurt. It looked as they were narrowing, and they were. For about the tenth time I saw human muscles and sinews were replaced by feline ones with even more power. The narrowing spread further down. My feet started elongating ridiculously, their soles and heels shrinking to a point I could say they were not meant for standing on them anymore. My ankles shrunk, too, growing stiff and shifting to the crooked semblance of a cat's leg. The ends of my feet were growing dark, leathery pads, so were my toes that were noticably stiffer and arched, skin had swallowed my toenails as it did before on my fingers. Finally the fur reached the tips of my toes, and right after it did an odd sound signalled my deadly claws came out, more than one inch long. Somwhow in a reflex I made it to retract them, even to me they looked a bit brutal.
No more tingling. No more shifting body parts. What did it mean? Seriously, there was almost nothing left to change since my legs and feet were completely tigrish.
"I am complete." I whispered. My voice was sounding very low, somehow even purring or growling. I was...yes-happy! But the Change exhausted me, I felt tired like a dog. Instictively I rolled on my belly, taking the posture of a very large lap cat, one half changed hand or paw on my nose.
Apeldoorn, The Netherlands
A new wave of tingles raced up to the top of his body. The horse that he wanted to be was fighting to break the constraints of his human head. His neck elongated, sprouted fur and a horse's mane, his nose and mouth elongated. In a despaired try to stop it he put his arms crossed over this muzzle, just to feel it growing right under them. To make the change complete and end his career as artist before it even began his color vision faded, his eyes adjusting to the horse head he was having now.
"HOLY SHIT! It's just a nightmare!" he cursed, stomping a set of expensive color pecils to toothpics with a forehoof. A short glance at the mirror told him his head was a perfect white horse's head and not the least bit of a bad dream.
Hannover, Germany
As you might have expected I was not able to sleep like a human is used to, my senses were always awake. It took only a fly to make me fully attentive to the slightest detail, though one can't see it on a cat's surface. But for the moment I gave up trying to sleep. Carefully I sat up at the rim of the matress. I bent down. Tenderly I touched what had been the sole of my feet-now not made for standing on anymore. My fingers moved down to my pads, continuing to my toes and the incredibly silky fur between them. I was wondering if I could walk on these feet, no, more on my toes. "Pobieren geht ¸ber studieren" I said to myself, which means "Try it out or you'll never know". I lowered my paws to the ground. The feeling was odd, like experiencing every single staple of the carpet below me. Then I tried to put weight on them, rising carefully. "It is so easy" I thought. With wondering eyes I saw my heels 6 inches over theground. My paws flattened as they beared my whole weight and my claws poked out a little with every step I took, their ebony color a beautiful contrast to my fur. It felt like my torso was sinking between my thighs a little. My upper legs and pelvis were attached with sinews rather than the almost fixed connection of a human physiology, that is the true secret of the feline walk. And walking was never easier to me, literally all my senses and conciousness were sharpened incredibly, including balance and the ability to let all muscles play in a concerto of pure power.
Wilmington, NC
A first inspection of his new body gave Ahadi a contented feeling, though he wished to have a fuller mane, but on the other paw being young meant having a longer time span to live, and cats live only for about 15 years. He had no idea that the Change was no genetical transformatoin so his life clock continued running at human speed.
For the first time Ahadi was standing on his leonine digitigrade legs. Even he could not imagine it would work, but it did. At all his excitement Ahadi's tail flicked around like a snake. Certainly a lion's tail is as curious as the rest of the whole kitten, so his rear extension decided to take a closer look at the nearby table. An uncontrolled swipe of his tail sent a glass flying to the ground, pouring it's contents at the tuft if Ahadis tail. Ahadi gave a shocked meowish sound when the soda seeped in his fur. In surprise Taka sprang to avoid the furiously approaching tail, just to make the clean-up complete what meant another glass fell to the ground, shattered to pieces. Happily the tail was standing erect. Growling the lion man grabbed his tail, fighting his anger he blew some air through his nostrils at his tails tuft, adressing it.
"Liss'n ta me, dood! I know you have your own head, you're just lucky that I need to talk to Mirco right now. We'll discuss this later. Don't forget you're stuck with me!" From below Taka grinned at Ahadi, showing his innocent "Hey, wasn't me this time" look.
Hannover, Germany
Tortured I flattened my ears and flicked my tail when "User is online" was shouting at me twice from the still running PC. I reconnected mIRC to irc.sprynet.com and entered the channel #TGK as before. Sitting down seemed to be a problem, I bent my tail aside, but feared to sit on my genitals, what proved to be not true. Muscles and fur gave space enough not to hurt my privacy when sitting.
<Ahadi> Mirco-You're OK?
<Amurtiger> Yes... David, I'm finished changing-I think. I'm almost completely a tiger, but on 2 legs-digitigrade legs. I'm even having retractable claws!. And you?
*Ahadi smirks
<Ahadi> Do you remember my Lion King Musical T-shirt? Well, I look almost exactly like this. Just my mane lets me look like a quite young lion. Just look at yourself , remove the stripes and add a mane and you get Ahadi! Gods, I feel so strong!
*Amurtiger is happy for Ahadi.
* Unicorn has joined #TGK
<&;Amurtiger> Uuniii! Kˆrnchen!
<Ahadi> Jeroen!
*Unicorn whinnies
<Unicorn> Godverdomme, I'm almost a hrrrse! I saw your chat right at the moment I started changing! Please go without any things that can make an equine nervous. ;)
<Ahadi> Hrm??
*Unicorn is sorry, he is typing using a pencil clenched between his teeth.
<Ahadi> Lemme guess, you're an anthro horsey?
*Amurtiger hands.... Urm...paws Unicorn glue and a plastic stick to enable him to complete the change >:)
<Unicorn> Funneeeehehe.
*Ahadi smirks
*Amurtiger grins :[= =]*Unicorn whinnies
<Unicorn> Jeez, stop threatening me. I gotta gallop over to the supermarket... bye!
*Ahadi thinks that was a foul excuse.
*Amurtiger grins at the coward
*** Unicorn has left IRC
<Amurtiger> David, I need to explore myself a little more. CU tonight as usual?
<Ahadi> Certainly =) That's a thing we have to talk about, I'll do the same.
<Amurtiger> Tsch¸_
<Ahadi> Tschuss with dots on the u! ;)I sighed in relief, knowing my friends are OK. Did I say OK? I bet this term got a few billion new definitions these days. Now my thoughts wandered back to my new body. I wanted to see it again, as much of it as possible at once. I went over to my mum's bedroom, to the largest mirror we had. The fur on my cheeks had grown longer and thicker since I saw my head changing in the bathroom. Before my head looked a bit like a striped lion.
A sudden hiss to the left made my ears flip around. Shanni had entered the bedroom, snarling at me. I did not care, but I purred: "'s ok, my little sister, I won't harm you." But these words came from my muzzle rather absent-mindedly. I was wondering if there was much of a difference between my actual state and being completely a tiger. I closed my eyes, focussing my thoughts. Not even the cracking noises from my pelvis could bring me back to reality.
Within a few seconds it was alost impossible for me to stand upright, furred skin attached my upper legs to my torso. When I opened my eyes I saw I was on all fours. Even my hands had become perfect forepaws. I jumped on the bed and the picture the mirror showed was incredible. Not the least bit of my body resembled the human that I was not even five hours ago. I let my instincts go, hunting my cat all over the flat.
Epilogue
Today I know that was my very first norm shift. No, I did not hunt my cat for eating her, it was a game that I was unable to respond to since I could not hunt her when I was human. In the following years she slept in my forepaws frequently. Indeed, I treated her like she was my cub. And I admit I tried one or two of her catfood cans.After the Change the talkshows were filled with odd creatures talking about silly topics like how hard it is to find a tailhole taylor, or how to grin at herbivores without scaring them off. But in general the talkshows weren't more ridiculos like usually. But to everyones surprise the dumb articles, based on completely idiotic preoccupations faded away unusually fast, since the insight that the plain surface of a being is quite unimportant spread through the heads all over the world, now that the people's life had changed that drastically. It was affecting literally everybodies all-days life.
Ahadi and I spent our holidays in Kenya every year. No, not for a photo safari. We were hunting, two weeks shifted to norm, sitting at a camp fire in our anthropomorphic state in the evening, the stars above. Maybe it's silly, but Ahadi crouched down and I was cuddling my head in his mane. He purred softly. "Look at the stars, Kub. The Great Kings of the past .." I could not help but bursting out into a laugh. "You know what, Ahadi? It'd work better if your mane would be fully grown!" A fully grown tiger like me acting out little Simba from 'The Lion King'. But with the years I got practice and Ahadi the needed 'fur around his head'.
It feels so damn good to let the animal inside you take over for a while. And I even found a wife. She is a lioness morph, a hiddie, certainly I could not help but giving her the nick "Nala". Reviewing my life as tiger morph I can only say it changed my life to a better. Even not a real change, but a coming out of what was hidden deep inside of us.
*= Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
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