Archie was back home from work and enjoying a peaceful evening in his garden and wondering what it might be like to be an animal. He'd largely forgotten his experience from the previous evening and hadn't thought much about it since morning. It was a fun idea, or course, but it no longer crossed his mind that it might have been real. After all, why would someone just suddenly turn into bird?
But he did wonder how it might feel to be an animal for real though. He would just live by the strength of his own senses and natural defenses out in the forest or in the streams and caverns, never more worrying about work and gardening and debts. And it was just as he saw the sun draw a little closer to the horizon that Archie realized he felt itchy.
He scratched and scratched and pulled up his shirt to see what was the matter. That's when he noticed all sorts of brown and grey fur growing down over his body. It was sprouting up into a very thick coat all over him. This was reminding him of yesterday evening when he started to grow feathers.
"Maybe it wasn't a dream after all?" he wondered as whiskers emerged from his face.
"What's going on with my ears?" he pondered, reaching up to feel them with his hairy palms. He was shocked to get a grip on the fuzzy, veiny protrusions that continued high up above the top of his head. He ran his hands up over as much of them as he could, trying to get a feel for every inch of his massive lobes. He marveled at their length and flexibility. The whiskers twitched on his face.
Archie was also amazed that he could aim the giant ears in whichever direction he chose, swiveling them around freely to listen out behind him or in front of him or to the sides. His hearing would be spectacular as long as he had ears like these! But he was soon distracted by the stretching and contorting in his lower extremities, which left him with powerful legs and long, nimble feet to stand on. He felt like he could leap as far as he wanted if he set his mind to it. He got to watch with his own eyes as a similar change took over his arms, leaving him with thin furry forelegs and a recognizable pair of paws. His face pushed out but it was hard to see what was happening since his eyes were getting pushed apart to to the sides of his new face. Boy did he have a wide field of vision though! He felt like he could see almost all the way around himself in the late-day sun.
"I'm an animal again! This is great," he thought. "What am I going to do first?"
He wondered if he would wake up as a human yet again. Perhaps he might be wise to make the most of this experience while it lasts. But if one doesn't know why one is changing, how does one decide what to expect?