He didn’t want to be too huge. Given the small confines of his condominium, it’d assuredly be hard to get through doors and stuff. But, of course, that was assuming that this thing would work. With palms sweating and anxiety mounting, Ben eagerly chose the “medium horse” size option. He quickly read through the additional modifications, just to make sure there was nothing abnormally off in the settings, and then he clicked Save.
As the Chronivac had done previously, the mouse froze, and Ben waited… and waited… and waited. So anxiously, he waited! Beyond one minute, and for quite a few minutes, actually, he continued to sit there in front of the screen, with impatience mounting. Nothing happened, except that his computer was grinding hard, using all the processing power it could muster. He clenched his hands. He whipped out his phone and read through a few emails. Ten minutes later, he looked up, and still nothing. He rubbed some dirt off his forehead and took a deep breath. This was a more complex change than switching hair colors, he thought, so it would likely take a lot longer. While he waited, he decided to get a soda from the fridge.
But as he walked into his kitchen, he heard the sound of a Windows error from the computer back in his room. That couldn’t be good, he thought. He grabbed the can of cola and walked briskly back to his desk to see that, indeed, an error message now displayed:
“Error: Subject out of range. Subject beyond 20 feet (6 meters). Continue?” (OK/Cancel)
Oops. That’s right, he had left the range of the computer - something that was not protocol. Well… nothing had happened yet to him physically, so he clicked OK. “C’mon, please work…” he thought. The subtle hope for success looming in the back of his mind was barely fighting off the thoughts of giving up.
After two more minutes of hard-core processing and frozen controls permeated the room, the Window of Life popped up on his screen.
It read: “Beginning transformation.”
Right at that moment - it had only been a second or two to digest the message he saw - there was a very forceful push on his groin, a push from seemingly nowhere. It got Ben to stand up out of his desk chair, and the surprise quickly turned to joy. This force, this push… it felt like he was leaning into his computer. But, more noticeably, his legs. They were growing. They were growing!
The changes were underway!
It did present one problem pretty early on - he needed to shed his clothes, and fast! He did his best, given his shock and nervousness. By the time he was down to his underwear, though, his legs and torso were actually - well, they were distant enough from his arms that he couldn’t pull them down at the right angle. His midsection, his waist, was expanding very quickly now. A few moments later, under the pressure of the sheer size change, they just ripped open. Underneath he could see the disfigurement of his hips and legs, and he could even feel his genitals shifting around. That was an odd realization.
Then, from the center of his waist… or really, the extended portion of what could be the equine midsection of his body, there was an indescribable “click” - a hard snap, like bones rearranging. He felt the force again, a hard push forward against his back. Ben’s waist bent upwards, like an S-curve, and he was doing everything he could to support this malformed body, arms pushing down on the desk. He’d fall down to the floor if he let go; a quick smile, his sense of balance was shifting backward.
Seconds later, a couple of nubs appeared from where his body had “clicked” - a left and right nub, below his stomach. “Front legs,” he realized! Mentally he was being challenged now - they continued to grow down, quickly and forcefully, towards the floor. As they did so, the nubs formalized into limbs, which he could wiggle back and forth; they were taking on a dark brown hue. These were definitely his front legs… FRONT legs… horse legs!!! Simply amazing - he wanted to jump with joy!
This reminded him - he had been using his human legs, his feet and ankles as back supports. But these would become his new back legs, and further inspection revealed that his feet had stretched to inhuman proportions. They now looked more like the back legs of a horse, complete with a hoof-like toe that was three times the size of the other toes, flat on the floor. He was lost within the transformation itself, it was going so quickly! And he was so fascinated by the details and the process. This was certainly what he wanted, and it didn’t hurt one bit!
The midsection of the horse part of his body was growing in size, very quickly now, as did his front legs. The limbs appeared to have grown hooves of their own, and Ben was confident that he could set his legs down on the floor to support his upper human body on these new limbs. The lower body, which was otherwise equine, was starting to get covered in short but coarse brown fur, and it tapered off at his front waist. The sense of gravity had completely shifted now, somewhere on his upper horse back. He now felt compelled to stand in this position, and didn’t dare try to sit down; the stance was natural, if there was such a thing.
Finally, the light flair of something across his hips and butt - it had startled him the first time, but he quickly recaptured his thoughts. Horses had tails, and a turn of his head revealed a dark-haired, flowing horse tail that nearly reached the floor. It was wondrous to know what a tail felt like, and the mental ability to move it around… it captured his senses like nothing else had thus far. Even though the answer was obvious, his mind wanted to know why - why didn’t he know how to move his tail around before?
Not long after that, the changes slowed, and the progress bar on the computer screen acknowledged 100% completion. Suddenly, the free thoughts of what had just happened flowed - the knowing of it. Oh my goodness! He had to check himself out in the mirror. He turned around, and bam. Dear lord, he was a for-real, living, breathing centaur! And quite a handsome one, he might add - he loved the way he looked. There was a bit more ruggedness to his face than before, a natural tone to his skin, a lot of vigor and very masculine. He was maybe 7, 8 feet tall, just barely short enough to be in his room without hitting the ceiling (and the ceiling fan!) Sure, some of what he imagined a centaur to be… well, without a shirt on, he could see that even the muscles on his human stomach seemed more toned than before, despite not being modified. But the transition between human and horse - it looked so flawless, so natural. Forget that there were several hundred medical questions to ask about this situation… the machine had done it! Every muscle, every ounce of weight and movement of his tail, every bristle of air against the fur on his hide - he could feel it, because it was him, and it was his body.
After a few seconds, the progress bar on the screen was replaced with a simple windowed message: “Save progress?” (Yes/No)
Last time, he had used the Revert function to reset his hair color, but he wanted to spend a little more time getting to feel out this new body - he was totally infatuated with himself. At least, he wanted more than an hour - the program had stated that an unsaved change would revert automatically. So, instead, he clicked Yes.
The window disappeared. A second passed, but then...