With trembling fingers, Erick shoved the buck picture through the slot and waited. For a long, almost painful, moment he thought that it was all a hoax. Perhaps the machine was broken?
He barely had the thought out of his head when he felt his body fill with an incredible electric jolt. Every hair on his body stood out as he was aware of his perception changing. The world became strangly muted at the same time that it altered from a tiny elevator-like room to a forest glen.
And just as it started, it was over.
Erick stood still for several seconds, panting heavily. He felt no pain, but his body was bone tired. Every muscle ached, every joint seemed to scream in agony.
The pain started to subside, but Erick only partly noticed. It was what he could see that freaked him out all the more: he could see the tip of his black nose. Slowly, he lowered his gaze, acutly aware of a weight on his head and he looked down to see what should have been his arms, and was instead a pair of hooves. An ear flicked, brushing against a tine. He felt a tail swich reflexivly as a fly buzzed past.
Finally allowing himself the luxery of moving his head, he turned to examine his body. Definitly that of a deer, a buck to be sure. He lifted a hoof once, then twice. Finally, after far too long in the open, he took a tenetive step forward. He was happy to find that, for now, he was able to move his body like he'd been born with it.
For the first time, his attention turned to the forest he was in. He felt a sickening feeling that he didn't immediatly reconize where he was. He'd expected to be transformed in the house and somehow dumped out the back. He hadn't thought he'd actually be transported away.
Again, he felt fear welling up. He'd chosen a deer because he'd known how to get to a national park that forbade hunting. Now he didn't know where he was.