“I would like to be a riding horse,” Trevor said with a slight flutter in his voice. Even though his mind had been made up when he booked the trip to the Animal Resort last month, he still couldn’t believe he was about to do this.
“Excellent choice,” Glorietta said with a slight smile.
“You’ve been a horse before?” Trevor asked as the clerk entered in his species choice on the reservation.
“Yes. We were encouraged to spend time as all the different animals on the list during orientation,” she explained calmly. “You know, to be more knowledgeable for our guests. I have to admit, being a horse was definitely pretty fun.
“Anyway, in case you weren’t aware, your fur color will most likely be based off your natural hair color, and, after the transformation, you’ll still be able to talk in your normal human speech – though your voice will sound very different – or you can talk to other horses through equine speech. You’ll have horse instincts on top of your own human knowledge, which helps when it comes to talking equine and being able to walk on four legs right after transformation.
But, because of those instincts, there is very little modesty out in the paddock and, of course, no clothes. With that in mind, do you want to go through with this transformation?”
Trevor thought about it for a second, before he slowly nodded his head and said, “Yes.” He’d already weighed the side effects of becoming an animal in his mind before he made this trip.
“You can always change back when you’re ready, but we just like to make sure our guests know what they are getting in to before they walk back into the transformation rooms,” Glorietta assured him, noticing the worried look on Trevor’s face. She then reached into a refrigerator on the wall behind her and pulled out a plastic bottle. When she sat it on the counter, Trevor noticed it had a label with a saddle pictured on it.
“Okay then,” Glorietta began, “please take this with you and head to one of the rooms down this hall that has the same symbol on it. Once inside, remove your clothes and your backpack and put it in one of the bins in there before drinking the bottle. After you’re done transforming, press the button on the floor near the base of the back door to get out into the paddock. And I hope you enjoy being a horse as much as I did,” Glorietta concluded with a smile.
“Me, too,” Trevor smiled back before grabbing the chilled bottle and heading down the hall Glorietta pointed out.
A few seconds later, he found a row of doors in a large room at the end of the hall. By the size of the room, he figured it must have taken up the entire back half of the farm house. There were about ten rooms in all and every two of them had a different set of symbols on them. The best Trevor could tell, there were two rooms for each type of animal to change into, though similar animals were matched together. For instance, when he found the door with the saddle symbol on it, it was joined by two other symbols featuring a horseshoe and frontal view of a donkey’s head.
He watched as one of the people from the bus stepped in to the room and opened one of the doors for farm birds. A red light came on right after showing the room was occupied. So far, the two equine doors were empty.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Trevor sighed as he as he stepped into one of the equine changing rooms and shut the door behind him. He was a bit surprised when his shoes landed on hard packed sand and a very horsey smell greeted him. The walls were lined with a heavy wood paneling and the room was lit by a pair of skylights built into the wall. The lights bolted into the wall behind a wire mesh proved this place was open overnight, too.
He found the back door he’d be walking out of on four legs before too long directly across from him with the resort’s rules printed in large letters on it. Just to his right was a long bench with a large plastic bin sitting on top of it.
Letting out a final sigh, Trevor sat the bottle on the bench next to the box then placed his backpack in it. Afterwards, he stripped off his clothing and his shoes and put them in box, too. Feeling his heart racing, Trevor grabbed the bottle, took off the lid, and took one chug. Surprisingly, the formula had very little taste to it.
He sat the bottle down on the bench next to his stuff and then moved to the middle of the room, waiting for the transformation to start. He just hoped the brochure hadn’t lied when it said the transformation was mostly painless.