Note: Parts taken from other chapters by other authors as they seemed like they could work well together.
The audience shouted their suggestions to the ringleader, who just smiled at the enthusiasm of his audience. They suggested several animals, from A to Z, from four legs to eight, but one stood out more than others. "CHICKEN! MAKE HER ACT LIKE A CHICKEN!!".
The ringleader smiled, he knew this would be a huge crowd-pleaser. The more he let the audience decide, the louder the suggestion went. More and more joined in, wanting the ringleader to do what would be the funniest thing they would ever see, their suggestion getting even louder as the ringleader smiled.
"A CHICKEN!" The ringleader boomed. The audience roared with applause, their suggestion was heard, their demand was answered. "Always a classic, the chicken" The ringleader said to the happy members of the audience.
The ringleader turned to Tayla, smiling deviously, speaking in a soft, comforting tone of voice. "Tayla, do you know an animal that lays eggs?" The ringleader said, knowing that Tayla would give the most obvious answer that he needed.
Tayla slowly nodded, up and down, while giving the ringleader a slow response "Yes..."
"Tayla, what was the first animal that you thought of that lays eggs?"
"A Raven..."
The ringleader turned back to his audience. As soon as they heard the word Raven, the audience was silent.
The ringleader smiled, “If that is what she wants.”
The audience clapped.
The ringleader turned back to the sleepy Tayla, still under his trance. "Tayla, I want you to picture a Raven in the woods, just doing what a Raven does. Are you picturing the Raven, Tayla?"
Tayla gave another nodded response "Yes..."
"I want you to think about what a Raven thinks about. What it does, what it likes, what it hates, all the thoughts of a regular, well behaved Raven".
Tayla nodded as the thoughts of a regular Raven started to enter her mind, she now knew what Ravens think about, solving puzzles, having fun, socializing, flying, hunting, but it wasn't enough for the ringleader. He needed her to fully understand anything and everything about a chicken before he could do anything to make her believe that she was truly a Raven. "Now, Tayla, I want you to know what a chicken's instincts are, I want you to know what they feel, what their feathers feel like, what their beak feels like, their tail, their wings, all of the natural features of a Raven, I want you to concentrate on those thoughts, Tayla".
Tayla continued to nod. The thoughts continued to enter her mind, she nearly completely understood what Ravens acted like, felt like, what their instincts were like, she knew possibly everything that a Raven thought about.
"Now, Tayla, I want you to picture what you would think about if you were a Raven. Concentrate on those thoughts, Tayla, what would you look like? What would you act like? What would you do instinctively as a chicken?"
Tayla began to think about it, as her knowledge of chickens helped her understand what she would feel like if she were a Raven. Tayla thought of her claws, her beak, and her black feathers.
The audience starts to giggle as soon as they hear the ringleader mentions the idea of what Tayla would do as a Raven. The ringleader turned back to the audience for approval, approval that he got almost immediately from the audience. They were laughing and giggling, patiently waiting for the big moment to happen.
"Are you picturing what you would think about if you were a Raven, Tayla?"
Tayla nodded again. "Yes... I... picturing it..."
"Now, what would it feel like, Tayla? What would your instincts tell you do if you were a Raven? Concentrate on those thoughts".
The thoughts started to flood Tayla's mind with new instincts. She tried to push them away, but she couldn't, she had to concentrate on them... concentrate... concentrate...
"Yes, keep concentrating on those thoughts, concentrate on those feelings..." The ringleader whispered to the hypnotised Tayla, beaming with delight as the audience continued to giggle and guffaw at the volunteer. "Keep concentrating, Tayla, think about what your feathers would feel like, brushing against your Raven skin..."
"I... concentrate..."
"Remember all the thoughts of a Raven, Tayla, let them enter your mind..."
Everything that she was focusing on before entered into her brain. Suddenly, she knew what Raven- Wait, wasn't she a Raven? N- n- Yes, she was always a Raven, wasn't she? The voice of Tayla's mind was panicking, trying to stop the hypnotism, but failed badly as more and more information of how her Raven mind worked started to overflow her rational thought. "Thoughts... Raven..."
"Yes, that's right, Tayla, you are a Raven!"
As soon as the ringleader said the species' name, the thoughts overpowered any sense of her human mind.
Tayla barely had time to process the feeling before she felt pressure building up behind her lips. She crossed her eyes when her teeth merged together and started to slant outwards. Within seconds, they were pushing out past her lips and becoming a solid triangular block. Shortly after cresting out of her lips, his forming beak started to shift from the white of her teeth to solid black.
As her beak was taking shape, the soft cartilage of her nose melted away, sucking her nose into her face. In a matter of seconds, two nostril holes punctuated the top of her beak.
Tayla opened it for the first time and felt the edges of her beak with her shifting tongue. She was so caught up in exploring her new mouth that she barely noticed that he was shrinking, fast. On her way down, she impulsively whisked her arms out to steady herself and felt her bones reshaping and hollowing out. A few seconds later they had changed into bare raven wings. She was disappointed that her feathers hadn’t formed yet, but that was when she became aware of an odd tingling sensation racing over her body.
Glancing down at her arms and legs, where the sensation was most acute, Tayla watched a massive amount of quills start to bud out above her darkening skin. It didn’t take long for the quills to be consumed with dark plumage, though, as feathers started to envelop her body.
"Yes... I... Raven..."
"That's right, and if you are a Raven, does that mean you are like me?"
Tayla tried to get something out of her mouth that wasn't what the ringleader wanted to hear, but it was so difficult to let it pass through the trance. She did get a word out, but it wasn't what she wanted.
"No... you... human... me... Raven..."
The audience erupted with applause and laughter, finally he did it, he made her believe that she was a Raven. But that was enough for both the audience and the ringleader. The ringleader pointed to Tayla "Before we let this Raven roam around, let's have a look at our other volunteer, Jared!"
The ringleader walked towards Jarer and held his shoulders. "What shall we do with him? Let's get some more participation, shall we?"