Two nubs were forming on either side of his forehead. Lions didn't have... Derrick's eyes widened as he remembered the struggling wildebeest - and its long horns. "Oh, shit!" Circe had said that no animal would intentionally harm him, but did that rule apply if the guest became a prey animal? The pride would still be busy eating its first victim, but when they were done? Fear turned to panic, and Derrick began running blindly away from the still-strong predator scent.
He wasn't sure when he had stopped his flight. Derrick blinked, confused, and found himself in the middle of a large herd of horned, deer-like animals. Wildebeasts! Their scents were strong in his nostrils - male, female, young, old, and all of them oddly familiar. One male scent overpowered them all, a young buck in excellent health, its odor partially mixed with a dusty undertone it shared with all of the other animals. The scent of a beast that had spent its entire life in the plains of Africa. His scent.
Derrick should have been shocked by the realization, but when he looked back to see the smooth, sleek body of a male wildebeest instead of his human form, he simply accepted it. There was memory of the transformation, though it had occurred while he was running in panic, the fear powering the change to allow him to run faster, escape the pride of lions. It was strange - he had full memory of his human life, yet he felt completely normal on four hooves. It was more than just the form - he WAS a wildebeest. It did not matter that he had been a teenage boy an hour before - Derrick knew he had become a young buck in all ways that mattered - he would act and react as if he had been born to this body
The herd shifted, and some of the older bucks stared off in an alert stance. Only then did Derrick pick up a faint trace of predators on the breeze. Instincts took over, and Derrick was part of the herd, breaking into a run away from the danger.