You don’t even say anything as your mom’s words hit you deep. Your family had the ability to transform into anthro animals? That can’t be right. They’ve always been human, just like you. Or at least how you used to be.
“You mean everyone in the family can turn into animals?” you ask dubiously, refusing to believe the idea that your entire family had the ability to transform into anthros.
“I mean it doesn’t take a scientist to figure out two shifters are gonna have kids with the same abilities,” she answers humorously. “Besides, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen me, your father, and your siblings in our anthro and feral forms plenty of time.”
“But… but… you’re human!” you retaliate, waving your paws at her obvious human appearance. “You always are!”
Your mom lets out a sigh and shakes her head. “I wish you kids followed our example but you always seem to shift into your anthro forms whenever you come home. There’s nothing wrong with embracing it in private but you can’t roam through the house all willy-nilly. The neighbors could see! Not to mention any unexpected visitors…”
To your dismay, your mom begins to give you a long lecture, rambling about how irresponsible it was for you and your siblings to transform so carelessly. Soon your shock is replaced by boredom, fear fading quickly from your body.
“Fine, I get it. I’ll go get my whites and turn back into a human,” you interrupt, stopping your mom from lecturing you any longer.
“Thanks sweetie, now hurry up!”
You run back to your bedroom and rummage through your dirty laundry, separating your whites onto a pile on the floor. It’s only when you finish that you realize that you’ve been acting like you normally do.
“What am I doing?!” You run back to your bedroom mirror, a full-length panel of glass you had next to your closet, to be met with the same anthro tiger you saw earlier.
“If what Mom said earlier is true, then I must be able to turn back into a human.” You concentrate on your reflection, attempting to alter your physical appearance back into a human. Just like before, you transform instantaneously, fur beginning to disappear off your body as you shift back to normal. Within seconds your paws are gone, a set of hands and feet replacing them instead, along with any other sign that you were once a tiger. However, you note that you still kept your heightened senses, your eyes more catlike than you remember as well as equipping a set of sharper teeth in your mouth.
Yet, you don’t complain. You looked human enough and that’s what mattered. Besides, it beat the way you looked after the pill the zookeeper gave you. You grin as you notice the lack of a tail behind you.
Returning to the laundry room you hand your mom your whites and notice her approve of the way you now looked. You had to agree with her. Nothing beat being human.
“We didn’t get to talk much earlier about your trip to the zoo. How was it?” Your face retorts into a pained expression as you recall your experience. Unfortunately, your mom notices. “Wait, I thought you said you had a good time?” She looks at you suspiciously, knowing full well that you had lied before.
“I mean… it was alright just a bit… different than what I expected.” You weren’t exactly lying. The zoo HAD been more different than you expected. Much more magical and mad sciencey than you would’ve imagined. Honestly you wished that you had been met with a disappointing zoo instead of the one you visited.
“Well it’s a good thing your boss gave you those tickets then. I don’t think you would’ve been thrilled paying for admission.”
You give her a weak smile. Not enough money in the world could make up for what happened to you at the zoo, so you couldn’t even fathom the concept of paying to return to that establishment.
After talking with your mom a bit longer you head back to your room. Now that you had a better idea of what was going on, you needed to decide on what to do next.