“Ambrose! Ambrose!”
Andrew, Ambrose’s young brother, ran up the stairs to wake his brother up in his room. He threw open the door and jumped onto Ambrose’s bed. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”
Ambrose, who was still half asleep, groggily asked Andrew, “What’s the fuss all about Andrew? I’m trying to sleep here.”
His brother didn’t listen. He kept jumping up and down. “Ambrose, wake up! Mom’s back!”
Ambrose’s eyes went wide open the moment he heard that last sentence. He immediately sat straight up and looked at the calendar. It was the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, and his mom was already back home. “I thought mom wouldn’t be back until New Year’s Eve?” he asked Andrew.
“Just come downstairs, Mom brought us presents!” Andrew said as he gleefully bolted out the door. Ambrose, who was wearing a plain maroon shirt and white loose fitting shorts, quickly stood up from his bed and put on a pair of slippers. He quickly scratched and rearranged his curly black hair and started heading towards the stairs.
When he was about to reach the ground floor of their house, he spotted his stepfather smoking outside their house. He didn’t really know what to think of their stepfather. He only ever interacts and talks with their mother. Whenever she goes abroad, he’s always out of the house, doing something else rather than looking out for the two brothers. He wasn’t an ass (yet). Their stepfather was sort of neutral to Ambrose and Andrew. Their stepfather only ever really seemed to care about their mom.
Suddenly, a voice came from the hallway.
“Jay, what did I say about smoking?” When Ambrose turned to see who it was, it was his mom, right there standing by the doorway. “Merry Christmas Ambrose,” she said once she caught sight of his oldest son.
Ambrose ran right past his stepfather, Jay, and hugged his mom as tightly as he could. He asked her, “I thought you wouldn’t be home until the 31st?”
His mom smiled. “Well, we got dispatched earlier than usual this year. And I couldn’t wait to see my two big boys before Christmas day.”
His mom was a Filipina beauty. She had curly long hair, just like Ambrose, and it was tied up in a bun. She had a fairly dark complexion; a true Morena. Her face boasted perfect symmetrical eyebrows. And although being at an age of 43, Ambrose’s mom still had piercing hazel brown eyes that could make any man fall on their knees and propose. Well, that was what actually happened with their dad. And when he passed away, the same thing happened to their stepfather Jay.
Too bad Jay didn’t seem that much like a father figure to them.
Ambrose slowly withdrawed from the hug and looked at his mom. “Well come on then!” his mom said. “We wouldn’t want your presents to spoil, now would we?” She turned towards Jay. “Jay, come on!”
Jay turned his head and smiled a little. “I’ll be right there Ailene.”
All of this took place 11 months ago, just three days right before their mother was killed in a car accident.
—————
Ambrose woke up.
He was lying in the woods. Naked.
The sun was already shining in the sky. The time of day seemed to be around 8 o’clock in the morning.
Ambrose’s ears were ringing. He took his hands and started rubbing them.
Hmm. Odd. They seemed to be long and flappy, and...leathery...
Ambrose’s eyes shot wide open. He felt his ears. They were the ears of a bull. He withdrew carefully and felt the weight atop his head. Indeed, he had horns attached to his forehead. Fear and panic started to creep inside his body. His heart started beating faster as he felt his new bovine muzzle. His broad nose was covered in muccus, resembling that of a true bull.
Still wide-eyed, he tried standing up on his new hooves. He fell at first, causing him to yelp in pain with his new baritone voice. He tried once again, and once he was able to balance himself, he examined himself.
He was truly a sight to see and marvel. The sun shined light on his bulging muscles. He looked down to feel his developed abdominal muscles, obliques, and pectorals. He touched his nipples, which were erect in the wind of the woods. He marveled at his arms; very strong and powerful. He felt something move behind him. He looked to see what it was, and he realized it was his new tail involuntarily moving by itself. He checkes his rump, and they were indeed very plump and muscle bound, just like the rest of his new Minotaur body.
Ambrose couldn’t believe it. He has been transformed into a beast. The Minotaur! Of whom he has been dying to meet in person but never expected to become one himself. He tried slapping his face in panic. He WAS just dreaming, wasn’t he? He couldn’t possibly have turned into a real Minotaur?
He tried the trick he did last night. He pinched himself. When he winced in pain, there and then he knew that this was definitely not a dream. It was real life.
He slapped himself once again, refusing to accept his circumstance. “Wake up,” he said, in his new deep and baritone voice.
“Wake up.”
Ambrose began pinching himself, painfully pulling at a tough, insensitive skin just to wake up from this nightmare. He couldn't be stuck like this. Not like this. He couldn’t live like this!
“Wake up!”
He painfully slapped his strong muzzle, the slap reverberating into his skull.
“WAKE UP!”
Ambrose roared in anguish, charging towards a tree akin to a mad cow, his body stomping over the ground and ramming horns first into the tree, goring into it.
Tears streamed down his face, dropping in rivulets to the dead leaves below. Sobs racked his bullish body, grief overwhelming.
He tried pulling his horns out, but to no avail. He tried desperately to push his muzzle back in, but to no avail. He tried pulling and yanking his tail to remove it, still to no avail.
He's stuck.
Just like his situation with this unwanted, Minotaur body.
All of this strength he just gained, yet he was stuck. Literally and figuratively.
Ambrose stood there, wondering what he should do next.