Cory was outside the exercise room, still stunned, coming back to reality as Ali jogged up to him. "Cory! What's going on here?" The other players streamed past them, leaving the two alone in a hallway of boring landscape paintings and chandeliers.
Cory said, "I'm seeing things, or, or going crazy. That instructor changed everybody."
Ali looked around. "You too? Here, look!" He reached behind himself and then turned around, revealing a ropy thing dangling from his back, with hair covering it and a tuft at the end.
"She got you to put on a tail?"
"I didn't put it on, man! It's stuck! It's like it grew out of me while we were doing this yoga move about 'stretching our spines'."
Wordlessly, Cory lifted up the front of his shirt. Ali stared. "And that's real, too?"
Cory tried reaching into his pouch and shuddered. It was warm inside, and he felt the touch against his skin on either side. The seemed to tense against his hand, sending an unexpected shock of pleasure up his spine. He removed his hand in slight shock. "It's real. What do we do about this?"
"We've got to talk to the rest of the team. I guess they're at dinner?"
"Yeah. Off to the cafeteria."
They went to the little maze of rooms that was the dining area, and grabbed a couple of chicken sandwiches. Ali found himself absent mindedly swishing his tail on the way, flicking it much like a cow would. For some reason, he found, the asction was comforting. He couldn't help but think the tail felt somehow good. A thought that was immediately troubling, and distantly, exciting. He quickly brushed off the topic.
Most of the team was around along with the weird animal-women. Cory sat down next to a couple of the guys and said, "What was that about?"
"What was what?" said Ryan taking a bite of his sandwich. Oddly, Ryan had loaded up his plate, something the smaller man rarely had the appetite for.
Ali said, "The tails!"
Ryan briefly glanced back at his tail, it flicked in acknowledgement, before turning back to the guys. A brief flash of concern crossed his face, before the smell of the sandwich once more stole his attention.
"Tails?" asked Josh guy who'd been in Cory's class.
Cory said, "And the weird pouch things! Have you ever seen that before?"
"Well, no, but it's part of the exercise I guess...?" He replied, lifting his shirt to examine his pouch. Idly, Josh ran his fingers across its thick, somewhat moist seam. Cory noticed that since he last saw Josh, the changes seemed to have advanced. Where once were hard jagged abs, were now a toned, thinner set. Fur had also advanced, having snaked out from the pouch up into his shirt and down the seam of his pants.
Cory gaped. "Dude, that is not normal."
"Huh?" Josh replied in vague confusion, while he was always slow, he definitely wasn't so dense that he'd readily ignore a pouch.
Another guy swished his new tail, just like Ali's. Come to think of it, the things looked just like cow tails, brown in Ali's case and white in this other guy's. Looking around the room, Cory saw tails on about half the team.
Rock flopped down in the next seat over. "That was a workout, for us not really moving around much." He tore into a pile of sandwiches.
Cory said, "Rock, please tell me you noticed."
"Notice what?" Rock said, pulling some silverware out of his pouch. Cory saw that his stomach had thinned as well, taking on the same furry yet toned look of Josh. Rock's fur, on the other hand was grey, whereas Josh was red.
Cory reached over and tugged at it. "This! You put napkins and a fork in there? That's gross! That's got to be unsanitary."
Rock looked mystified. "But it's just my pocket. My... uh... What the hell?!" He stood up suddenly, knocking over a cup of soda. Realization seemed into Rock and he quicky removed his shirt, not worrying for an instant about making a scene. Looking down he pulled open the pouch, its moist folds and furry exterior looking completely alien. He gently touched the grey fur, which had advanced to just under his pecs, before his hands drifted to his sides. Clasping them, he shuddered. They were thinner. Slowly, the hands descended down, feeling his alien figure. As his hands moved down, his waist thinned more, fat redistributing and muscle melting away.
Removing his hands, he was shocked. His sides looked almost...girlish, and above, his once meaty pecs slowly began to fade.
"Wha...the fuck?!" He gasped "I...oh fuck. I gotta go..." Grabbing his shirt, he dashed out of the room.
"At least someone gets that something's going on!" said Cory.
"What's wrong with his pouch?" asked a teammate passing by.
"Probably poked it with those knives" said another "He should know better by now than to shove silverware down there. You know what coach always says, the pouch is for footballs and joeys!"
A few murmurs of agreement could be heard from the pouched teammates across the room.
Cory shuddered. "This is too strange for me. I'm gonna eat in my room." He took his tray and got out of there.
Ali followed him with his own food, and opened the door. They put their stuff down, and each sat on the beds to eat. Ali said, "So nobody even knows but Rock, of all people?"
Cory ate, thinking. "I've never heard of yoga messing with people's heads." He took off his shirt, threw it aside, and looked over the smooth shading of where his chest hair gave way to actual fur. He couldn't help but notice his figure also had begun to thin.
"What's that pouch like?" asked Ali, his tail flicking across the bed as he ate.
Cory pulled it in front of him by several inches. "Loose, warm inside, like somebody glued a sweater to me. How's the tail?"
"I can barely control this thing. It keeps flicking and I almost sat on it twice." Ali said, turning to show it.
Cory oddly felt, jealous. The thought of a tail just seem, appealing, comfortable in a way. Again, he ignored these intrusive thought. Examining his friend, Cory couldn't help but notice Ali's butt had grown, it was certainly bigger, but not fat. Just shapelier. What one might expect from a cow.
Ali glanced back, noticing for the first time that in addition to the tail, fur had advanced up his back. He shuddered slightly at this development.
Cory shook his head. "I call the shower first." Before He went in, he went to grab a change of clean clothes. Oddly, his black t-shirt was shorter than he remembered, shrunken in the wash, and his underwear felt odd. His fingers traced the fabric, the feel was kind of... slippery? Silky? The material was slick. He frowned, grabbing the clothes and entering the bathroom "One problem at a time."
Ali collected his clothes, readying for his shower. He couldn't help but notice his underwear had grown, and now sported a tailored hole for his tail. He quickly ignored this however, the detail minor compared to all the other changes. "At least we'll be back to a normal schedule tomorrow. It'll be good to practice actual football again." He called to his friend.