"... a hawk. I've always been fascinated by flying - real flying, not going up in an airplane."
Circe chuckled. "You know that 'circe' translated is Hawk? In any case, that is an excellent choice. Do you wish to be a bird in all ways, have instincts but your awareness, or be fully yourself?"
Thinking, Derrick frowned. "If I am fully a bird then I would not appreciate being a hawk. And I sure don't know how to fly. So instincts with my awareness, please."
"Very well thought out." Circe stood and nodded towards the mirror. "Many who come here make the mistake of becoming total animals. They have no frame of reference, and while they remember being an animal when I change them back, the experience is mostly a blur of images and sensations." She grinned. "Now, you will have to remove your clothing so you are not entangled."
Derrick flushed, but realized that wings and talons would not go well with shorts and a T-shirt. He removed his clothing, hands instinctively covering his crotch.
If Circe noticed his embarrassment, she gave no sign. With a simple nod of approval, she gestured with one hand and Derrick felt his whole body warp. Feathers grew out from his skin and his head collapsed inward, his nose thrust out to form a beak, and his legs dwindled. It was very odd to feel his body shrink while his arms spread wide, and the sense of a tail forming. The transformation was so fast that he barely had time to register it, and then he was viewing Circe and his surroundings from a much lower position.
His amazement was mixed with a sudden need to fly, to avoid the threat represented by Circe. He was able to keep the instincts at bay, though it was an effort not to take off. The woman watched him and smiled. "Excellent! Come back here when you ar ready to become a boy again. Until then, enjoy flying!" She returned to her chair, picked up the book, and resumed reading s if she had just sent him to the store to buy bread.
Derrick hesitated a moment, not sure of what to do. But that was all his instincts needed, and he automatically launched himself up into the air. Startled, he tumbled a few times, but avoided injury nd found that he did not need to think about flying. It came naturally. He only had to decide where to go - its was like walking or running. Except this was FLYING!
Once he got high enough, he saw that the island was bigger than he expected, and had obvious divisions. Some looked like jungle, some like old forest, there were sections of pasture lands, a small mountain with trees and brush, and a large lake. That as all just background noise in his head, though. Derrick swooped and climbed and twisted in the air, thrilled with the sensation. He was amazingly fast, and had incredible vision. He could focus in on any movement. There! A small rabbit was sunning itself in one of the pastures, ears perked but unaware. Fascinated, Derrick closed in on it, not realizing until the last moment that he had talons outstretched ready to kill! Shock overrode instincts, and he slammed into the ground painfully and rolled over the grass and the startled rabbit hopped away.
He lay there stunned for a minute, then slowly checked himself as he rose. Nothing broken as far as he could tell. Instincts were sneaky! He had been doing what felt natural - in this case, hunting a meal. Maybe some other time he would be willing to try eating like that, but for now he would prefer a hamburger with ketchup and fries.
Taking off again, he rose back to soar on the updrafts around the mountain. A speck in the sky quickly turned into another hawk, which his instincts told him was female. She swerved around him and called out, then flipped and did some complex acrobatics - he somehow recognized a mating ritual. He felt an urge to follow, but the strength of that instinct was a little scary. If he gave in, it would be hard to fight, and he could end up becoming a father. Would that matter? He had to decide now to either follow or make an effort to escape the powerful reproductive instincts that were starting to overpower his will.