Zeke's weekend had been fairly standard so far, just taking care of odds and ends around his small, lonely house on the edge of a quiet southern town. His life felt adrift and directionless, with more and more of the people he'd known growing up getting married, moving away, or worse, dying. His hobbies didn't interest most of the people around him and his hidden fantasies... well, let's say that, with furries and transformation being the most "normal" of them, he didn't feel like sharing much of them.
At thirty, while he still likely had more life ahead of him than behind him, he definitely felt he couldn't call himself "young" anymore.
He was at the front door of his home, about to head out on a trip to the library, hoping for some distraction or another, when a glowing, golden light suddenly appeared in front of him. He let out a gasp, and backed away, but the light steadily moved toward him.
What sounded like a chorus of voices, male and female, rang out from within the light; "Zeke Sutter, you have been chosen to receive a power beyond anything your kind has experienced, in this world."
"Wh-what kind of power? Wh-Who are y-you?"
"Our identity is unimportant. From this day forward, the world, and all in it, is yours to mold as you see fit. Whatever change you make shall be reflected in history, and accepted without question by those around you, unless you will otherwise. This power will stay with you until the end of time, save that you will it away (an action that cannot be accomplished without over three days of focus, to ensure it is not carelessly tossed aside). Even if your mortal vessel should perish, this power will allow you to persist in this world and continue to affect it, including producing a new vessel or restoring your previous one."
Zeke's eyes widened, and he suddenly found himself stuck stock still, as the golden light began to pour into his body. "That's.... That's too much! I'm not worthy of something like that!" Even as he said those words, dozens of his fantasies, from his most innocent and selfless, to his most freaky and depraved, all played before him. All of them could become real in a moment if he wished, and yet... did he really WANT those things to happen? And could he trust himself with this? "Why are you giving me this power?"
"Because you were chosen," the voices stated simply.
The golden light had become almost completely absorbed by him. "What am I supposed to do with it?"
"Whatever you want."
With a final blinding, golden burst, Zeke absorbed the light, and found he could move again. Everything seemed normal. Had he imagined it?
He looked down at his sneakers. Maybe a little test could help. He thought about them changing color, from gray, to green. He inhaled sharply as he saw them change just like that, becoming the exact shade he'd imagined in his head.
Stepping out his front door, he saw some of his neighbors out and about. A young man was jogging past him, dressed as lightly as the chilly weather would allow.
Zeke focused on him, and watched as the man's body sprouted short, deep-brown, almost black fur. His clothes seemed to unsew themselves, before re-weaving themselves into a small bag tied around his waist, where all the contents of his pockets moved to. His shoes gone, the man's feet clenched up, becoming far narrower as the two biggest toes on each foot became cloven hooves, the remaining digits moving to the back of his feet as little more than black stumps, but even these changes don't break the jogger's stride. A ropey, fur-cover tail draped down over his bare behind. As the change takes his hands, they become thicker, the finger tips becoming solid, black, and hoof-like. The jogger's face stretches out longer and thinner, white fur and brown mixing in a pattern across his face. His jaws moved forward to the end of his new snout, his nose rounding out as it's pulled down to the end as well. A pair of long, impressive horns arched up a good foot above his head before they start to arch back down.
Looking to the other neighbors on the street, Zeke saw that nobody at all seemed to be questioning the man's sudden transformation, or nudism, a couple even casually waving to the antelope man as he passed.
Stunned, and wanting to try more, Zeke focused on his neighbor across the street, a retired lady of around seventy, tending her garden. The woman suddenly stood up straight, raising her arms as her skin turned grey, the folds and wrinkles becoming the rough bark of a tree. She began to slowly grow, taller and wider, her clothes turning green, then splitting apart, dropping to the ground below her as leaves. Her legs joined together, as her feet sank into the earth, each toe branching off into long, thick roots to keep her upper body stable, more and more roots spreading out from new angles in her old feet. Her human features were absorbed into her increasingly cylindrical frame, as she rose to twice her original height, then taller than her own single-story home. Her arms reached out, growing thicker, fingers becoming branches with yellow and orange leaves, while clumps of hair joined together to from even more branches, reaching up into the sky and splitting up into more and more shoots.
With a gasp, Zeke, feeling guilty, having half-expected it not to work, was about to undo it, when he thought of something more he could add to it. He focused again, and soon, the tree glowed subtly, and, like a ghost, a woman stepped out from within it. But unlike before, now the once-elderly woman was a young, green-skinned, dryad, her dark-green hair now made of long grasses, with flowers poking all through it. Her supple body, looking like that of a woman in her twenties, was completely visible to all, but once again, it hardly seemed to attract any attention.
Zeke could hardly believe it, but it seemed true.