Vocal every so often, nervously moving about, her ears searching for the faintest hint of what was setting her on edge, the female goat could hear and smell the buck in the next shed. But unlike previous times when she could smell him, and wanted him, this time she found that she didn't care for him as a new sense of awareness came over her. Uttering a series of bleats that almost sounded human, she paced about some more, but then suddenly stopped.
It was almost as if a light had turned on in her mind, and she knew not only this, but what it meant. Thoughts progressing beyond the simple need to rut, to sleep, to eat, to be aware of predators, to fight if need be, the female goat came to understand that the one who had come to her, petted her, was named Taylor and, somehow, was her older sister. Thinking beyond the simplistic animal thoughts of her brain, the doe tried to figure out what this meant as her teats shrank and moved upward, slowly becoming human looking nipples, whilst inside her body, a slight discomfort marked her ovaries changing to testes and gradually pushing through her interior reproductive works.
In the other shed, Holly was agitated as well, but not for the same reasons as the female goat. Pacing back and forth, she found her mind in a strange tug of war between the buck that threatened to dominate her, the smidge of humanity she still had to her, which she was alarmed to discover seemed to actually be shrinking faster and faster, and an alien mind that she was unable to identify. Fearing what her sister had done to her, Holly bleated out, "Damn you, Taylor," as her testicles began to pull tighter and tighter against her body. Bleating out a noise that was almost closer to a chittering squeak, Holly stopped her movement. Suddenly aware of what was happening between her legs, she shook her head and then peered at her back end.
Unable to see what was going on, but able to feel it, she twitched her tail, which was now longer, no longer white, but black, in excitement and agitation. Vaguely understanding what was as happening, she could feel her penis split and became the clitoris and urethra. For a brief moment, the elation she felt was so overwhelming as she realised that she was once again female, but then everything slipped from her as the alien mind forced itself further upon her. Fighting against it, she missed it as her male genitalia finished reforming to a vulva.
Meanwhile, the doe was having issues of her own as she twitched what her mind thought were supposed to be hooves, but now were more like what her older sister had. The words, "Fingers," and, "Toes," coming to mind, she bleated out as sound that was pretty much human sounding.
Fur regressing, she shivered and tossed her head as her ovaries finally pushed outward a titbit, but didn't fully descend. As the doe became aware of the fact that she had testicles, and knew they were her boy parts, she grimaced as her head began to painfully morph. Skull changing shape and size, she bleated out, "Mama," and surprised by her first human word, she smiled as between her legs her clitoris and urethra fused together and pushed outward into a tiny penis.
Now more human than goat, but confused as her mind was somewhere in between and couldn't fully understand how it were possible, nor how it was happening, the doe bleated out, "Mama," then, "Mama, would, know," as she, now fully he, struggled to stand.
Holly, who could hear this, wanted to cry as she, briefly, understood that somehow the other animal, which she could no longer remember what it was called, had become what she wanted. And then it slipped from her and as her fur darkened, she began to chitter, bark, and rasp angrily. Losing more of not only her goat mind, but also nearly the last bits that were her human mind, Holly could feel the alien presence assert itself more and more. Fright replacing the anger, she continued to rasp and chitter as her hooves morphed into paws, each tipped with a claw capable of easily climbing things.
Finally able to stand, the boy who had been moments ago a goat stared into the dark. Sticking his thumb into his mouth as the last of the female goat disappeared from his mind, and his body looked more and more like a five year old human, the name Martin came to him. Wondering if this was his name, the three foot four, thirty five pound healthy boy took a couple tottering steps forward. Getting his balance easily, even as his mind asserted he had been walking for a little over three years or so, he whispered, "Mama," around his thumb. Fumbling forward, a fear of the dark coming over him as he heard, faintly, scary noises from somewhere close, it took him a moment before he found the door out of the shed.
As the five year old toddler found his way free, Holly found herself losing more and more of herself to the alien mind. Shrinking, pain rippling through her as her bone structure morphed and conformed to her new size, Holly had one final thought, "Damn you, Taylor," before the squirrel mind fully asserted itself.
Staring into the dark, the female melanistic red squirrel cowered in the straw. Close by she could smell and heat a human nearby. Frightened to move, it made difference to her as the last vestiges of the male goat and human female mind floated away. When she heard a door open and the fresh scent of evening air wafted in, she almost ran toward it, but remained frozen as something made a noise, "Mama?" that she didn't understand.
An instinct screamed out that it was danger, and remaining hunkered down in the straw, she sniffed every so often. Hoping it wouldn't find her, remaining as still as possible until the thing that had let in the fresh air turned and moved away, she stayed right where she was, not daring to move a muscle. Holding herself for as long as she could, sniffing, waiting, the squirrel that had one time been a human named Holly who'd been turned into a male goat tensed when the thing that had frightened her turned and wandered away. The instant it had, she leapt forward, scarpered out the opening and into the night. Running until she found a tree that didn't smell like any of her kind, or a predator, or any other that might have marked it, she leapt upward. And with tiny claws digging in, she scaled the tree until she reached a safe perch. There, she curled up and after a moment, slept.
Upstairs, sound asleep next to Charlotte, Martin dreamed deeply of Taylor. At first, he found it troubling that they were sisters instead of father and daughter. But as more of the images spun and played out, and the curse dug in further, it seemed less and less important. Like the sisters they were, they played, argued, fought, loved and hated each other, as much as he learned from her when she was patient enough to try and teach her. Drifting deeper and deeper, and slowly losing himself as Taylor continued to call and address him as Holly more and more, a strange thing began to occur.
First, it happened within the dream. When they had first began, he was his normal, adult self, a man in his mid to late forties. But then something changed and he slowly began to regress. And the more he accepted that he was Holly, Taylor's younger sister, the more he aged back to being the seven year old younger sibling he thought he was.
Whilst this was happening in his dreams, a strange thing was taking place outside them. For as he regressed in his dreams, so to did he do so in the real world, only not in any way that could be seen. He still looked like his normal mid to late fortyish self, with a round, feminine face, hair on top of his head that was once again down to the midpoint of his back, despite the fact that he'd cut it, again, before bed. What was changing was chronological, emotional, mental, yet with enough left over that it wouldn't alarm or scare him to bad. For that was part of the curse's nature, that once enacted, it wanted you to change, to maybe fight, but to accept in the end, and to maybe miss, often fully, some of the things happening in an effort to lull the person, in this case Martin, into a comfort.
As the dreams played out and became less and less so, and more and more along the lines of memories, Martin slowly became aware of someone existing on the fringes. Trying to figure out who they were, certain it wasn't mommy, he watched as they slowly came into focus. And as he lost, in the dream, the last grasp that he was Martin, she realised it was their younger brother, Marty. Telling him, "Come play with us," Holly listened as her younger brother whimpered, "I want mama," before sticking his thumb his mouth.
Immediately aware that her brother was naked, a sense of needing, wanting, to help came over her. Looking at her older sister, she hugged the little boy close and said, "We should help him," before looking at her brother and saying, "Come on. Let's get you something to wear. And then we'll go find mommy together. All right?"
A nod from the little boy and after the seven year old girl had taken his free hand, she led her five year old brother to his room.
In the waking world, this to was having an effect on Martin. For as he dreamed about being Holly and wanting to help his brother, he had gotten up and wandered downstairs. Drawn by something he wouldn't be able to explain if he'd been awake and tried to do so, Martin slipped easily through the dark house and out the back door. Heading a couple steps across the yard, he stopped when he ran into the five year old boy who had been moments ago a female goat. And as he dreamed of what to say, he said the same things, listened to the little boy's pleas before, replied the same way, then took his hand and led him inside.
Back upstairs the two went, Martin lost in the throes of the dream and the next step of his transformation, and the five year old boy, who'd decided at one point that he was Marty, that mama and his big sister Taylor, called him this, and that he was named after daddy, who'd had an accident and gone away. At the top of the stairs, the sleep waking man with the mind and age of a seven years led little Marty down the hall to his room, which had been, until recently, another empty room. There, he helped the boy into a clean pair of underwear and pyjamas. And as the boy climbed into bed, he told the child, "I'll go see if mommy is still awake," before slipping back out of the room and down the hallway toward the bedroom he'd shared with Charlotte for the past thirteen or so years.
Passing as he went the other empty room, which also was no longer empty, but fully decorated, Martin stopped. Inside his mind, the dream shifted and suddenly mommy was telling him, "Time to get ready for bed, Holly. You've got school in the morning," and his thoughts shifting, Martin suddenly realised she was right as he stepped into the room and headed for the dresser.
There, he took out his favorite footed pyjamas that were white with pink cuffs and neckline, and a pair of Hello Kitty panties. Undressing from the lounge pants he'd put on before bed, Martin slipped on the girl's clothing. Blissfully unaware of what he was putting on believing he was only dreaming, he zipped up the front of his pyjamas and crawled into the bed. Snuggling under the pink and purple sheets, cuddling a plush doll closer, the dream like memories finally releasing him as the curse slipped into a dormant state, Martin imaged, briefly, mommy coming in to tuck him in before he slipped deeper into an undisturbed sleep.