Vito Crisoni drove his van away from Horizon Labs with Akia. But this time, Akia wasn't in the back of the van and in a cage. Now shi was sitting right next to Vito. Shi was wearing clothes that Judy had provided for hir so she'd be able to go out in public. With hir fully clothed, it was easy to forget that shi was a hermaphrodite now. In fact, if Vito ignored hir fur, paws, and head, shi could be an ordinary woman.
Eventually, Vito broke the semi-awkward silence. "So, how does it feel?" he asked.
"Pretty good, actually," said Akia, "I'm young again. I feel strong and energetic. And I have hands now, which are going to be useful. And I like being smarter."
"I mostly mean your..." said Vito waving a hand vaguely in the area of hir groin.
"Well, I don't particularly know yet," said Akia, "When you're a hyena, gender only meant who was in charge and who was going to give birth, the answer to both is the females. But having my equipment rearranged is going to be a lot more convenient. The only drawback is I can get raped now."
Vito swerved a little at that and said, "Excuse me."
Akia gave a grin that showed lots of sharp teeth. "You can't rape a girl hyena. Our entrance is so complicated it takes cooperation from both parties to get anything done. But now I've got a back door like the rest of you mammals," shi said.
Vito briefly wondered where Akia had picked up that vocabulary. Then he said, "I highly doubt anyone's going to try to rape you. You're bigger than most people would mess with."
Akia looked again at hir body. While shi was mostly built like a woman, there were still some masculine traits to hir. Most notably was that she had broader shoulders, greater height, and bigger muscles than a woman. Shi smirked and said, "Yeah, I don't see any guys trying to take advantage of me."
Eventually, they reached an apartment building known as the Reptile House for how many reptilian Animalians lived there. "Up in the penthouse?" asked Akia, looking up at the newer additions that made up the top two floors of the building.
"Yeah, apparently that antivenom company pays them really well," said Vito.
As soon as they parked, they walked to the building. Inside the apartment building's ground floor, they found someone waiting by the elevator. By all appearances, she was another Animalian mare, palomino in color. However, Akia could already smell there was something different about this horse. She definitely had a feminine aroma, but it was mixed with a masculine musk. And Akia could see a bulge in the horse's pants that definitely confirmed that shi was not just a normal horse.
The horse looked at Akia and apparently made the same deduction. Although shi was obviously a bit unnerved by the presence of a predator, shi had more interest in Akia's body judging by the way hir shorts bulged even more. "So you're the hyena that also got hermaphrodized?" shi asked.
"Yep, the name's Akia. And you are?" asked Akia.
"I'm Goldenrod," said the horse, extending hir hand to shake. Akia took it, hir closeness to Goldenrod allowing hir to smell more of hir arousal. Akia could feel hir newly-acquired penis starting to get hardy. Shi had been feeling rather horny since shi was uplifted and shi wondering what it would be like to plow hir dick into this horse's pussy.
Vito cleared his throat and said, "We're here to meet the first herms, remember?"
"Oh, right," said Goldenrod. Letting go of Akia's hand, shi pushed the button to call the elevator. Akia couldn't help but feel she had been 'cockblocked', whatever that meant.
==========
Vito was rather impressed with the penthouse suite. It was a lot better than anything he could afford on his zookeeper's salary. The three inhabitants of the suite were impressive too. Typhoon and Waterlily were easy to distinguish from each other, Ty being the one with the limp Mohawk and Lily being the one with the full head of long hair. Iphis and Ianthe stood above the former humans not just because of their height, but because of their two heads. But all three (four?) of them were heavily bloated with unborn children.
"So, I'm betting you've got a lot of questions," said Ianthe.
"When are the babies due?" asked Goldenrod before he could stop himself.
"Should be next month, hopefully," said Iphis.
"Next month?" asked Akia, "But you look..."
"Like we each swallowed a sheep," said Iphis, "We're each carrying six kids. And it has not been easy." Both Akia and Goldenrod winced at that. Horses only have one foal at a time, with twins being a rarity. Hyenas usually had two cubs, but considering they had to pass out through the female's clitoris and hyena cubs are the largest carnivore young relative to their mothers, it was a very complicated and painful process. It made Akia all the more grateful for hir now-simpler vagina.
"Take it easy, sister," said Ianthe before turning to their guests, "We were actually hoping you'd have questions about being both sexes."
"I guess it's not easy finding a mate like you are," said Goldenrod.
"It was a challenge finding the right people," said Iphis.
"The hardest part was finding someone who wanted to be in a polygamous relationship," said Ianthe.
"But me and Ty here were, well, we weren't a normal couple either," said Lily.
"We had a lot of adjustments to make," said Ty, "Now we're going to be each both mother and father."
"I've had my own cubs," said Akia, "They're already grown up in and in other zoos. But I think for my next cubs, I'd want them to have a better life."
"I never got a chance to have any foals," said Goldenrod.
"Why not?" asked Ty.
"I was a gelding," said Goldenrod, "It makes me all the more grateful to be Animalian, but now I'm not sure if I can be a father."
"You could be a mother first," said Lily.
Goldenrod's ears flattened slightly at that, "I'm definitely not ready for that."
"You just need to find the right partner," said Akia, "Someone you know can be there for you." She gave Vito a meaningful look.
"Wait, me? Uh, I'm not so sure," said Vito.
"Why not?" asked Akia, "Don't you find me attractive?"
"Well, yeah, kinda. I'm just not sure if I want to jump species or go bisexual," said Vito, "It's a nice offer but...I think that would require more thought."
"Don't rush into it," said Lily, "We took our time to get to know Iphis and Ianthe."
"It would have been really awkward if we jumped the gun and found we didn't work out," said Ty.
"I'm really grateful we were able to click together," said Ianthe.
"Now if only we can settle the fact of whether we're actually married or not," said Iphis.
"Anyways, there's gonna be people who'll want to be horses and hyenas like us," said Goldenrod, "Maybe one of them would be an ideal mate for you."
"I guess we will see," said Akia, though shi has a strong preference for Vito. Shi hoped shi would be able to convince him eventually.