As you catch up to your friend, you see that indeed, his donkey ears are taking a look that is something you'd expect to find on a human. His tail however seems to be growing thicker!
The grey fur on his tail is turning from grey to dark brown and seems to spreading across his back.
"Wait, some thing's wrong," you say. "Your fur is spreading!"
"What do you mean it's spreading?" he asks. "We can't turn into donkeys in the water! We’ll drown!"
"I don't think you're turning into a donkey. Your tail is getting thicker too," you say.
He stops swimming, turns around and treads water. You see that cream fur is spreading around his chest and that his mouth and nose are developing into a short muzzle.
"It's happening to you too," he says. "Your ears are small and round now and they got brown fur."
You tread water and touch your left ear letting out a gasp when you see that he's right.
"What's happening to us?" you ask.
"I think we're becoming otter people," he says.
You gasp and then look into his eyes. “What makes you say that?”
“The fur color, the water, the thick tail, it all fits,” he says.
By now, cream fur has covered his chest and brown fur is making its way down his arms. Despite the fur, you can still see a sick pack on his belly.
You feel water touching your now ticker and stronger tail.
“I’ve heard of otter people but I’ve never seen one before,” you say. “Aren’t they supposed to be playful but they also help ships in distress and that sort of thing?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that too,” he says.
You see a ripple in the water and before you can question it, an otter man surfaces.
“Please forgive the intrusion,” he says. “I did this to you but I ask that you don’t feel hostility toward me.”
“But you’re turning us into animals the way the island was,” your travel companion says.
“The curse is what was changing you,” the otter man says. “I could not remove it but I could alter it.”
You blink as you start remembering things you had no idea you’d forgotten. The water now feels like a second home to you. It's as though your parents raised you not just at sea but spent half of their time with you in the water. You also feel a desire to help others and a playfulness that while easy going, is still responsible.
Donkey instinct and other mind altering desires that were only starting to invade the sanctity of your mind go the way of the dinosaur.
Your gender is one thing that doesn’t change. However, whatever this otter man is doing also seems to help you understand being female. You develop a familiarity and even report with your body that would have taken weeks, months or even years to attain; being female in body at least is now as comfortable as it would have been had nature brought you into this world female.
While you feel sad over remaining female, you also feel that despite the change in gender identity, you are still you.
The idea that you could bear children affects you in a way that makes you unique and indeed, you.
Both you and your companion are now otter people.
“You never did tell me your name,” you say to your companion.
“I’m Melvin,” he says.
He's looking you over and you can tell he likes what he sees.
“Hello Melvin,” the otter man that apparently saved you two from donkeydom says. “My name is Winston but most call me ‘ston. An unusual nickname for sure but it is unique. So what is your name?”
He’s addressing you. You’re unsure you want to answer him. However, you also know that it would be best to get the truth out into the open. You tell them your name.
“You’re a guy?” Melvin asks.
You nod and tell them of the theater.
“It is fortunate that you escaped and I discovered you both,” Winston says. “As a donkey, they’d no doubt have used you for breeding.”
Winston hangs his head. “What they would do to a female donkey, natural female or otherwise is a form of rape that is difficult to understand.”
You nod. “I feel all right as a female physically but if I go home looking like this, my family will freak out! I’m not sure I’m ready to start being a girl.”
“Your identity is yours to choose,” Winston says. “If you chose to stay with us, there are many males which would cherish a plutonic friendship with you.”
“I would,” Marvin says. “It’s not like we have to have sex or anything.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth back on the island,” you say. “I was afraid you’d freak out and I guess I wanted you to have a little fun.”
Melvin “Well yeah, I’d have freaked out but if you wanted to be cool to me then I guess you were at least trying to do the right thing. SO, I guess it’s all good. And, no offense but you made a fun girl.” Melvin says.
You shrug your shoulders and blush.
Then you realize that there are still many on the island suffering and in the midst of the fate you and Marvin only barley avoided. At that moment, many are helpless as the island takes their humanity and even robs them of their human will. Knowing the emotional agony they must feel as the island forces upon them the identity and mentality of a beast of burden with no real escape makes you feel ill.
"What's wrong?" he asks.
"All those people still on the island," you say. "I mean, I like donkeys as much as any other animal. My friend's uncle owns a couple. But, to turn someone into one against their will; such a life would be boring for a human. To know that it is all one will ever be is difficult to comprehend."
Winston swims over to and pets your shoulder. "Indeed it would be a horrible fate,” he says. “Without intervention, the form the island forces upon those people will forbid a return to their lives in any reasonable function. If their minds are that of the donkeys they've become, there perhaps may be nothing to save."
“But what can we do?” you ask.
“Yeah, that island made her a girl without asking and it’s making everyone else a donkey,” Melvin says. “We gotta do something!”
“And indeed we will my friends,” Winston says. “But first, we need to get help.”