A phone rang.
Reed was still holding the towel he cleaned Ben's new body with, but he quickly threw it to the rack. "Hold on, I need to take it."
Reed grabbed his own shirt, while simultaneously grabbing his mobile phone out of his pants' pocket. "Hello?" With that, he left the bathroom.
Ben walked over to the bathroom door and closed it, locking it in the process. "Finally..." He sighed. The care taking thing was nice and all, but some privacy was also required. He could think freely again.
He put his hands on his back, and started to shamble around the room. Every half a second, if it weren't faster, a loud clop would sound from one of his four hooves hitting the tiles underneath him. He got lost in a trance and started to focus on it.
How could he fix this? He was a centaur, by his own choice, of course. It had been quite an experience, but this exciting feeling left quicker than it arrived, when he realized he might've turned himself into one for the rest of his life. It needed to be fixed.
The only solution he saw in front of him was Yanush, the man who he talked to on the phone earlier that day. Another problem was how he could get there without anyone seeing the large equine body behind him. He got out of his trance with another loud stamp of his hoof on a tile. It brook underneath him.
A large mirror, in front of Ben. What did he actually look like?
I mean, Ben felt everything -he stroked his hand through his fur again-, he saw a brown horse behind him. But still, what did he look like? 'Down' there? He turned his body so his now massive ass could fit the picture in the mirror. It was his hind side. He scratched his back, but it had almost no effect. His ass seemed out of reach. Something else as well. Could horses really not reach their backs?
Ben tried to fold his back, so it almost looked like he was laying on his own -horse- back. Then still his arms needed to be stretched. Despite all the effort, it was no succes.
He stood upright again.
"Wait a minute..."
How did his back make him get up that easily? It was much more flexible!
He leaned forward, slowly, then quickly. He let out a yelp for a second, his arms flailing. If human, he would've fallen. A nose-dive onto the ground. But he didn't fall. His hands were a few centimeters away from the ground, Ben himself looking straight at the floor. He had not fallen. He looked underneath him, blood flowing to his brain, feeling his head turn red, but what he saw... he stood perplex.
The keyword was 'stood'. Ben 'stood' perplex. His equine legs stood. They stood very relaxed, he noticed. He looked in front of him again, his arms now also bungling. The stomach in his horse body was rumbling again. Ben became aware of how his body worked when he 'stood' in this position. His human torso seemed to be functioning as a horse's neck would. Like this, he was supposed to eat.
Like horses would, on grass. Horses eat that way. Where Ben would usually sit on a chair to eat, in case of his new body lie down on the floor of his apartment, horses just stood up while eating. Was it called grazing?
For centaur Ben it didn't work. His blood rushing to his head would only make him turn red. Then still his equine body reacted instinctively to it. The muscles in his legs and back relaxed a bit, and his stomach -which made him realize he got hungry again- rumbled. What he observed only later was that his tail was also subconsciously swishing around again, and Ben telepathically commanded it to stop, which it obediently did.
Ben moved back up, so he was able to stand up again. Automatically, the horse legs dealt with the shift in balance and repositioned themselves on the floor. "Shit," Ben thought, as he now saw how one of the bathroom tiles had been shattered underneath his hoof.
He turned his focus to his own muscles again, as he was still trying to figure out how to reach his back. Itches started to spread out on his behind, a mental trick, and it only stimulated him more.
Ben started thinking. "So if my torso now functions as a neck, I need to be able to twist it to the sides as well."
His thoughts were followed by actions, as he was now looking to his right, without having moved his actual neck, the one that had always functioned how it was supposed to. This stretching of his back felt pleasant, as if some muscles were tensed up to the extreme. And he let out a *very long* sigh due to the feeling of relief that washed over him. He turned further, and as his eyes followed, they widened more and more.
Almost 180 degrees! That's how far Ben's torso had moved in comparison to his equine underside! With an outstretched arm, his hands followed the path of his horse body to the point where he could touch, *touch!* his tail! "Just a little further." Ben gritted his teeth, as the previously tense muscles turned relaxed, started tensing up again, trying to grant Ben's wish of reaching his equine ass. It had never been that difficult before, that was obvious.
He managed to do it. But the rest of his body, the part that didn't function as his equine neck, couldn't cope with the way he was standing. If his mind were that of a horse, it would have stopped at the slightest level of discomfort, but human instincts were lost a long time ago.
Horse's instincts weren't.
All four of his legs disorderly tried to step sideways, making Ben lose his already confused sense of balance. If he reacted too late, he would've broken his 'neck'.
Ben grunted. His arms were hurt, probably bruised. He fell on those. But he did not fall only on his arms. More places on his new body were hurt. "Dang," Ben said to himself, "I really need to know the limits."
Excited chatting were sounding from downstairs, followed by an audible "Thank you, goodbye!" And a cry of happiness followed by it. It was Reed, and in a few seconds he was going to storm to the floor Ben was on.
Ben stood on his 4 hooves again, unlocking the bathroom and walking out of it, when Reed came running towards him.
Ben was surprised, and instinctively his body was too. He staggered!
"Whoa now! Calm down stallion! But you should be excited indeed!" Reed shouted!
"I wasn't excited, you surprise-"
Ben couldn't even finish his sentence or Reed was shouting again.
"Guess who called! Guess!"
Ben stood there for a moment. "What?"
"Just guess!"
"I don't know, your girlfriend?"
At that moment Reed paused for a bit.
"I don't have one, no time, but that doesn't matter!"
Ben lifted a hind hoof, mostly in confusion. Reed had a girlfriend didn't he? Reed, waiting for a second guess, got impatient and answered his own question. He did it with one of those weird jumps, making a gesture as if to celebrate something.
"The Wickmans called!"
Ben tilted his head.
"You honestly don't remember?" Reed continued, "The Wickmans called! We can finally make good money!"
The Wickmans? Ben frowned, where do I know them from?
"The guys who would call for your seamen extraction Ben. These guys!"
Ben's heart dropped. This was a disaster.
"The sample they took from you turned out to have a positive effect on an unfertilized egg cell in one of their labs. They wanted you to be at their farm tomorrow."
Ben wanted to get out of this mess. "Can I still refuse the offer?"
Reed answered his question just as nonchalantly and uncaring as always: "No dude, I already accepted, we can still cancel, but in that case Danny would be our next and last option. And honestly Ben, I don't want to risk it. Besides why would you want to? You're the one to do the fun work there." Reed shrugged, making a disappointed face. "I'll have to fix all the paperwork. I don't even know how."
Ben gulped, Reed noticed.
"Ben don't worry, everyone's first time is scary. The same goes with humans."
He said it with a smile as if he didn't care. Ben snorted. He'd had sex before. Plenty of times with his girlfriend. Just why couldn't he remember the experience? Nothing seemed to trigger him...
Now wasn't the time to think about that. He needed to have his body fixed, definitely before tomorrow. He didn't want to have sexy time with a horse!