Andrea waited patiently in the middle of the aisle, thinking about his work and the problems the boss raised in the last meeting, completely unconcerned about his surroundings. Jessica was unusually late for their date, but this did not worry the man, this abrupt visit to the zoo was because the amount of stress reached new heights for them both, and they decided to spend the day between only the two of them without external concerns.
‘She is probably lagging behind in the pursuit of a perfect look like always’ He thought with amusement .
Maybe if Andrea was more observant and wary of the place he would have noticed something very wrong in the stables, thus fleeing and remaining human, unlike his girlfriend that in this exact moment was brought away to face punishment for her insubordination.
It started from a unassuming halter, placed moment before by the attendant on a nearby table, that fell soundlessly down on the floor, wiggling without help and seemingly alive. The garment then started to move like a snake among the various obstacles, especially mindful for a piece of leather to not make any kind of sound, sliding closer and closer to its prey with every moment.
A rustle alerted the man, that turned around to greet the person he suspected just arrived, when he found nothing behind him. His eyes roamed the empty aisle before noticing an abandoned halter near his feet.
‘Someone forgot this on the floor’ He noticed the nearby table full of other harnesses and sighed “Well I have nothing else better to do…” Andrea leaned down and lifted the harness to place it in the right place when the strap of leather in his hand suddenly and without warning coiled around his wrist, eliciting a yelp and a startled jump from him.
“What the he-?”
The bit pounced in the mouth mid shout, cutting off the man and prompting him to choke and sputter in a bid to dislodge the unwanted piece of metal, and after that he started to pull on the rest of the gear.
With the bit firmly secured in the mouth of Andrea the other pieces of leather relocated to enclose his entire head, assuming the correct positions as if he was in fact a horse. Meanwhile the man was constantly trying to remove the bindings, obvious that his body was changing at an alarming rate now that he was harnessed.
The angry and displeased shouts turned into frightened whinnies as the halter started to drag the bound prey toward the nearby open door of a stall with surprising strength. As this impossible situation happened the transformation resumed, the face was the first to push out to fit exactly into the halter, while the teeth themselves flattened and grew into an herbivore dentition, sliding the bit in the correct position for a harnessed horse. His ears migrated on the top of the head before assuming a pointy form and sprouting brown fur, twitching every so often without his control.
The voice box was one of the first thing to transform on account of the bit, preventing him to call help. The cellphone, brought out in an insightful moment, clattered forgotten on the floor after he tried to talk to an operator but only horse sounds were heard. The operator hung up thinking it a prank in poor taste.
Andrea found himself at the entrance of the stall with a newly grown brown pelt in the entire body, pulled to the interior of the stall by the infernal piece of leather, to finally find the ultimate objective of the bride, a wooden hitching post placed innocently in the back of the stall.
He would not surrender! His hands grabbed the side of the walls to better resist the pull, succeeding in halting the advance completely and causing a stalemate. To his elation he was even able to distance himself from the entrance with a clever leveraging, but this joy was wiped completely when the hands that held him outside hardened and balled into fists on its own, leaving behind only two shining hooves, followed shortly by his feet that transformed into solid keratin too, shredding the shoes. Unable to hold on anymore Andrea was dragged on the inside with a strong yank, falling on all four with a clop and incapable of stand upright anymore.
The spine rearranged to render his new stance comfortable, before a tail emerged from his backside and he filled up with muscles befitting of a stallion, finishing the changes for good. After all this only a stud remained in his place, with the tatters of the worn shirt clinging to his neck, while his back hooves were still contained in a pair of green socks.
He could still escape! Andrea only needed to win this tug of war before the halter tied itself to the post, a situation he suspected was the point of no return. Still, for every effort the stallion put on his freedom the march toward the back of the stall was inexorable, inch by inch he was dragged to his fate, and his strength and endurance couldn’t help him much longer. As a last stand the young horse locked his hooves in place, balking completely and relaying on his new weight and resistance to stop.
It was all for naught, as his hooves were not enough as a foothold, and with a final push the new stallion of the stables was tied to his new home, amidst his dismayed and appalled whinnies.
The attendant chose that moment to appear and inspected the stallion with a critical eye before silently closing the gate with a smirk, spotting a new boy entering the stables just in that moment. The stable’s halters were so convenient…