You take off all your clothes so you don't get them wet or mess them up if you manage to transform. You dip one foot into the cold water, and shiver. You step in. You walk out a little ways. You feel ridiculous. You hope no one is going to think you look stupid staring into the water naked! You picture the horse you want to be: a huge black-and-white Clydesdale with genitals even larger than Nash's! You start muttering "Clydesdale" under your breath. Then you hear the pounding of hooves from within the forest. All at once a massive animal lunges from the forest and knocks you into the water! Then you feel a set of giant blunt teeth clamping down on your arm, and you scream! When it's over, you sit up in the water and look for your attacker. Surprisingly, he's already turned back into a human: it's Nash!
"Ha, ha! Just kidding about the water ritual. Yeah, we totally spread our 'curse' by biting. Not much of a curse if you ask me, though. Maybe the were-chickens don't like it, but I think horses have it made!"
"So, I'm gonna be a werehorse, too?" you ask.
"Probably. The species is usually transmitted along with the shapeshifting. Sometimes your own desires have something to do with it. Sometimes you just randomly become a were-whatever. But you can change whenever you want. The full moon is just more fun, because of tradition, and because there's more light out to see by if you turn into something that has eyes, like a horse."
"Wow, this is amazing!" you exclaim. "I'd never even heard of Moon Lake until I moved here. I'm starting college this fall and didn't want to live in the city, especially not in a dorm. I thought Moon Lake would be close enough to nature and close enough to drive to class. The sophomores who invited me said I'd better watch out for werewolves since it was going to be a full moon. I thought they were joking!"
"Well, we do have a world-famous sense-of-humor here in Moon Lake, especially where newbies are concerned. But what do you think? Is that thing between your legs just a joke?"
You've already stood back up at this point, and you haven't looked down since, so you quickly check your crotch. Your dick and balls look normal, so at first you start to think that maybe it IS all a prank, but then you see a whole bunch of long hairs hanging down behind your knees. Something twitches in your spinal region, and the thing that looks like a long messy hairdo flits out view before flopping down between your legs again. You gasp and start twisting around to try to see it. It look's just like a real horse's tail! You flex it around curiously and even manage to grab it.
"The first change is always the coolest," says Nash. "Everything feels so new and different, and yet the weirdest part is how natural it all seems. You probably didn't even notice your ears yet, huh?"
Now that he mentions it, you do feel an odd but strangely normal quivering in your ears. It's like you can feel your ears moving and pointing in different directions, which you've never felt before, but it also feels like something you should have always been able to do had you thought about it. Reaching up, you feel long pointed earlobes that flex around to take in the sounds of the night air and adjust to your touch. You have horse's ears!
"You should see the look on your face!" he laughs.