The light swirled around Cerise like a glowing wind. Her old, worn, torn clothing fluttered in the breeze as it grew stronger. She braced against the wind, her yellow hair whipping wildly about her shoulders. She started to grow worried — what had she allowed the Sorceress to do to her!? This was more magic than she’d ever seen, ever even imagined, and it was growing brighter every moment. She could feel the magical force rushing out of the circle, and at first it was just rushing past her but now she could feel it going *through* her, into her flesh and through her bones. It was too much. She couldn’t take this. It was the wrong choice, the wrong option, she had to get out, she had to escape —
The Sorceress thrust down at the floor, and suddenly the magic redoubled brilliantly, bursting out of the floor through Cerise’s body and lifting her up into the air. Her clothes weren’t even remotely strong enough to withstand the pressure and tore, shredding into the air, but still the magic grew and grew until it felt like her entire body was going to be crushed by it. She gasped, and would have cried out, but under all that pressure, she could not even squeak. Her hands were glowing now, and her body, and even her eyes, having taken on so much of the magic themselves that she now felt like she’d become made of pure magic itself.
Something burbled and wrenched inside her, and she realized she was growing, stretching, getting longer at her middle, but it was too much, and she wrenched her eyes shut and balled up her fists, simply trying to withstand whatever was happening to her. It wasn’t painful, but it was uncomfortable, as if she was being squeezed or squashed, but somehow the opposite of that. Somewhere she distantly realized she was getting bigger, but she could not tell where or how, just *bigger*, as invisible forces pushed her entire body outward from deep inside her somewhere.
Still it grew stronger, more and more, beyond anything she could imagine, until it was almost unbearable, and at last Cerise cried out. “Aaaaah — !” The scream echoed on the stones of the tower and across the mountainsides and through the whole valley, and in the village far away, the villagers looked up and shuddered, seeing the brilliant light in the distance, and tried not to think about whatever nightmare must have been happening inside the depths of the Sorceress’s tower.
And then —
With a rush of air about her, the glowing winds stopped, swirling away, and Cerise felt herself float down to the floor, and she alighted, breathing deeply from two sets of lungs somehow.
Her eyes opened, and the Sorceress slowly stood up. “Marvellous,” said the Sorceress, “just marvellous.”
“Wha — ” Cerise tried to speak, but the word emerged as a gasp, all wrong and uncontrollable. “Wha — what did — what did you do — to me?” she said.
“I made you *wonderful*,” said the Sorceress, taking a deep breath of her own. “My word, I had no idea you’d turn out this good.” She slowly started to circle Cerise, looking at her up and down, appraising her work. “Fabulous, just fabulous. I could not have done better if I’d tried.”
Cerise breathed hard, looking down at herself, and realized that there was a whole lot more than she expected. From the waist up, she presumed she was still the same, same soft skin, same hands, same hair. The little mole on her left breast was still there, even if the breast itself seemed a bit larger than before. But soft, beige fur started somewhere on her belly, barely visible at all below her belly-button, and it continued down over her lower body, thickening until it was a fine coat covering her skin.
And her body — !
She stared at herself in amazement. Everything below her waist was so much bigger now, and ended in long, knobby legs. The fur turned white near their ends, which finished in narrow, tan-colored hooves. But the fur continued behind her, widening to a big, round body, and as she looked back over her shoulder, she could see an even bigger rear supporting two more legs and a thick yellowy tail that matched her hair.
“What — what am I?” she breathed?
The Sorceress continued around her, inspecting her work. “I call it a *centaur*,” she said. “It means ‘quick hunter.’ Marvellous work, if I do say so myself.”
“Centaur?” repeated Cerise slowly.
“It’s a perfect fit for you,” said the Sorceress. “As one woman to another, I really didn’t want to damage those pretty looks of yours, but now, you’re fast and strong in ways you’d never imagined before.”
Cerise continued looking down at herself. “Am — am I a horse?” she said.
“No, you’re *better* than a horse,” said the Sorceress. “Lowly beast of burden? Hah! You, my dear, are the best of the most lithe of steeds, and the best of the most beautiful of women, fused as one being, a creation of my own design, utterly flawless if I do say so myself. You are neither a mere horse nor a mere girl, but far superior to either.”
Cerise looked down at herself, and slowly ran her fingers over her new lower body. It was all hers, every furred inch, and she slowly lifted a hoof. “Centaur,” she murmured.
“Now, then,” said the Sorceress, “let’s see you walk. Come on. Show me what you can do.”
Cerise nodded, and took a step, and then another. The movements were strange, but came to her naturally. “I’m — doing it,” she breathed. “I’m walking like this.”
“If I had known better, I would have also turned you into a goddess, for the idiot villagers to worship you,” said the Sorceress. “You very nearly have the look of one, but alas, it didn’t occur to me until now, so you’re still mortal. But a luscious, fabulous, glorious representative of your new species.”
Cerise nodded, slowly walking around the room, pacing back and forth. It felt — strange. Different. But at the same time, natural. She knew exactly how to move her limbs, exactly how to walk, as if she’d somehow always had hooves.
“It’s strange,” she said, “but I don’t mind it. I think I can be like this for a while.”
The Sorceress laughed. “For a while? Lovey, that was a one-way trip. There’s *no* going back. It took everything I had to transform you into a creature that until I designed it could not possibly exist. No, you’d best be getting used to that, because it’s all yours now.”
Cerise stopped and looked up, aghast. “I’m *stuck* like this!?”
“Best not think of it as *stuck* and more as *privileged*, my dear,” the Sorceress slyly replied. “You’re far superior now to the lowly human you were. As smart as a woman but as strong and as fast as a horse? You wanted power, well, now you have plenty.”