His dreams took a weird turn that night. Most of Cedric’s dreams were not really notable or worth remembering. Standing atop a large medieval castle tower overlooking a massive city though, this was clearly something different. Especially looking out to the large garden surrounding the estate seeing the various anthro people that were tending to the fabulous greenspace. Various birds, mammals, and reptiles all in service of their sovereign, himself looking down upon them.
At Cedric’s side was his personal guard, a rather strong looking buck with impressive antlers. His loyal guard bowed down, “My liege, it’s almost time for the ceremony. Shall we see to your quarters to get ready?”
“I think it’s about time, yes. I must be presentable to the loyal citizenry as their new king,” Cedric says looking to his guard headed to the steps down the tower.
This fantasy seemed to abruptly end as he was woken up by the sun shining on his face through the window, the chirping of birds serving to pull him out further. Opening his eyes though it looked almost exactly like the same castle he was just exploring in his dreams from the stone architecture and elaborate decorations. The bed he was on was also extremely large, much larger and more elaborate than a king size bed. While the upgrade from his lonely university dorm bed was appreciated it still begged the question of where he was.
“I can’t still be dreaming can I?” Cedric asked himself as he looked around the ornate bedroom. Going the stereotypical route he looked to his arm and pinched himself hard.
“Gaaahh!!” He rubbed his arm, “Probably not dreaming then.”
Slowly he crawled out of the warmth of the bed and put his feet on the cold castle floor also taking notice that he was no longer in his old pair of shorts and shirt for his pajamas and instead wearing some kind of elaborate nightgown. Did someone change him?
Cedric didn’t have long to think as a knock was heard from the door causing him to jump, “Do I hear our beloved sire scurrying around.” He heard a playful voice call from the other side.
Before the man could decide what to do the mysterious person opens the door revealing himself to not be human but an anthro hyena, similar to the anthros from his dream. Cedric backed away quickly towards his bed, surprised to see the figure before him in a rather colorful outfit.
“Why the fear in your eyes, your highness? I am merely your jester here to welcome you to your kingdom,” The hyena gave a jovial bow smirking and giggling to himself.
“K-Kingdom? Your highness?” Cedric seemed panicked and confused. How could he not be given the creature that was right before him, “I don’t belong here! W-Where am I! Explain yourself!”
The hyena jester just chuckled more from his questioning, “Now my liege I can understand your confusion given your current state but I assure you it’ll only be a matter of time before you’re back to being our noble prince.”
“Prince? No no no, I-I’m still at college! I’m a human not some…furry.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand sire. What is…what did you call it, a human?”
Cedric’s face dropped, “S-So humans don’t exist here?”
“If you’re referring to the current form you have then no I don’t believe so. We are a nation of very Beastians with more than fur, plenty have scales or feathers or other natural ways to protect their flesh. Can’t say I’ve seen a creature as naked as you are currently,” The jester chuckled some more from the comment, Cedric blushing from the comment.
“What’s going on! Has the prince awoken!?” A strangely familiar voice called out from the halls. He heard the sound of hooves racing down the hallways of the stone castle before arriving at the door: a strong looking buck wearing a knight’s guard uniform. Images from his dream flashed into his head once more.
“W-Wait, how is this possible?” The human stared in awe at the deer before him. His buff body and commanding appearance would be intimidating for most though Cedric felt more comforted seeing him, “How am I still in my dream?”
The buck walked slowly up to Cedric before kneeling down next to him, “Listen, I know there’s a lot going on right now that you don’t understand. This is a whole new world that’s very different from your own.”
“That’s putting it lightly.”
“We brought you here for a reason. You have an important duty to fill in our kingdom as our sovereign.”
“But why me!?” Cedric protested, tears welling in his eyes, “Why do you need some human not even from this world to be brought over here? To rob me from my old life, my family, my dreams? Don’t you have someone of your kind who’s able to do it?”
The buck seemed to look down in sadness from his questioning, “Unfortunately our previous sovereign is no longer with us anymore. Without his power our kingdom would fall to ruin. We brought you here because you are your universe’s version of our departed Prince. You should even share his name, Cedric.”
“This is getting way too crazy now. I’m not some royal Prince like…whoever this previous Cedric was. I’m just a student at college barely scraping by. I’m not meant to lead a nation of anthros.”
Seeing his panic, the buck hugged Cedric, giving him a pat on the head as more tears streamed down the boy’s face, “I understand this is a lot to handle. We were in a bind and needed to do something fast. All I can say is as your guard I will ensure that you are well taken care of and become a great king in the future.”
Having this strong anthro hug him suddenly shocked the boy. He was able to feel the deer anthro’s fur right up close and the strong musky scent he had was off putting initially. The longer the embrace happened though the more comforted he felt. He didn’t know why but he just felt this to be…right, almost sensual. His heart was beating faster and was starting to blush.
“I suggest you back away from the Prince, Cyrus.” He heard a voice call out from the bed chamber door. The buck backed away from him letting Cedric come back to his thoughts. He saw an owl with an elaborate robe standing in the doorway. “Don’t want to overwhelm his senses right away. We don’t know how his body will react just yet.”
“What do you mean by that?” Cedric turned to face the owl, still processing the strange emotions that went through his head.
“Apologies my liege,” The owl takes a short bow before walking up to the boy, “My name’s Timaeus, I serve the castle as your wizard. I’m the one who summoned you here.”
“Magic…okay just more to add on to the craziness,” The boy took a few deep breaths trying to calm himself down after that experience.
“I’m sure Cyrus here has been doing his best to explain the situation. You and our departed Prince Cedric are different versions of the same person. Naturally if we wanted to get our Prince back the best way was to bring one of his alternate selves to this universe and let him change into the departed Prince’s form.”
The last sentence caught Cedric’s attention, making his eyes go wide, “When you say change into the Prince’s form you don’t mean…”
“Being moved from one universe to another where your alternate self no longer exists, the world will seek to fill that void by changing any alternate self into the vacated one’s form, given that their passing wasn’t too long.”
“So I’m going to turn into a beastman?!” Cedric panicked.
“Beastian actually,” Cyrus corrects the human, “That’s what our race is called.”
“Anyways,” Timaeus clears his throat, “With your body slowly morphing over the next while your senses will become heightened as a result. One common side effect of this tends to be an increase in sexual drive and romantic feelings. That’s what was happening when Cyrus here hugged you earlier. Being so close to him while your senses are in the process of changing set your emotions into overdrive.”
Cedric at this point had mostly recovered from the strange feelings from before but was still spooked from the earlier encounter. Looking back to Cyrus he knew the buck was good looking, at least from what he could tell from the few Beastian’s he’d seen, but he didn’t think he was gay in any way, “So I’m going to be turning into your guy’s monarch all the while I’m going to get more aroused by my changes and everything else?”
“That about sums it up, yes.” Cyrus answered.
“And what if I refuse. What if I want to be sent back home?”
“I’m afraid that’s extremely difficult if not impossible,” Timaeus replied, “I essentially pulled the first Cedric from another universe I was able to reach. Basically like reaching into a massive bag of marbles and pulling one out at random. To locate your specific universe again would take eons.”
Cedric just sat down on the large bed behind him processing it all. It was getting to be too much. He was stuck here with no way back to his old life. He noticed the deer anthro walk over to him in an effort to console him only to stop just before touching the human looking down with a slight blush.
The buck eventually gets his composure and kneels in front of the boy. “I-I’m sorry we took you away from your old life. I know it’s selfish of us to do this to you but I promise you we’ll do everything to make your life here worth it. We’ll train you to be the best ruler we’ve had and assure you that you will be well cared for. So please, will you become our Prince?”
Cedric looked down at the buck before him. He wanted to cry and do something, anything to get back to his old life but he knew it was impossible. There was no way back and he knew it. As much as he wanted to hate the people before him who put him in this predicament he knew it wouldn’t change anything. A couple tears trickled down the boy’s face which he wiped off.
“I-I’ll do it,” He finally replied, “I’ll be your Prince. I’ll take on his form and rule. However, I don’t want to change who I am. Whatever happens is my choice and I don’t want to be forced to be someone I’m not.”
The buck looks up to Cedric with a warm smile on his face, “Of course we won’t. You are our Prince after all.”
You hear Timaeus give a sigh of relief from the side and the clack of his talons on the stone floor as he works his way to you, “We’ll make sure that you still have your autonomy. Now I believe it’s prudent for you to prepare and expect your changes over these next few days. They shouldn’t be painful but it will take some adjusting to based on your current human form.”
“Right, that’s the big thing after all.” Cedric takes a deep breath before turning to the owl, “Might as well rip the bandage off now. What exactly was Prince Cedric? In terms of species that is.”