Howard took a step over to the big door that would lead out to the Visitor Center and waited for it to open, glancing at the walls to make sure there wasn't something as simple as a handle or a 'Push' or 'Pull' label. She smiled uneasily to herself, partly curious that such a transformation was not only technologically possible, but quick and painless. At every moment in which there could have been serious bone-altering pain, there had been a numbness to her nerves which ended just as that part of her was through transforming. Heck, there'd been no injection of any kind, no strange salve, and nothing that even resembled a laboratory.
Standing there on balls of her feet, she tried a few Yoga posses that she knew from Wii Fit way back when she was little. Howard did her best to get use to the differences that flowed all throughout her body. The legs took a different kind of way to stand than she was use to, and with her posture somewhat leaning forward, it was difficult to do the poses in the manner they had been intended. Her fingers were shorter, hands longer, and they moved a bit differently than she was use to which made her absently wondered if she would still be able to use a keyboard in this current state.
Do they even have keyboards? she wondered to herself, hopping up and down in place on one leg, then the other. She noted how her breasts didn't jiggle all that much, and she moved her hands over them, feeling what felt like additional muscles that shouldn't have normally been there. Hm… Genetically there's been some real thought put into these forms… though something a little closer to human would have made a bit more sense. What's with the extra breasts? she wondered, feeling each of them and noting that they were the firmest breasts she had ever held… almost unnaturally so.
A short 'ding' came from the huge door in front of her and she stopped hopping in place. Howard smiled lightly as a woman who looked very much like how she herself now appeared stood there looking her over as the doors opened. Just in front her was a woman who was also gray and white furred as a timber wolf hybrid with the white and gray curly hair just as Howard's was. She was wearing a NATP (North American Transformation Park) shirt that was not unlike what the woman who had lead her here had been wearing a few minutes ago. Her lower body also had on it the same brown cargo pants that the woman same woman had been wearing.
She did have one major difference, and that was that she didn't have three pairs of breasts down her front behind her shirt like Howard did. "Hello, it's me Maggie," she grinned, speaking in a voice very close to what she had few minutes earlier when she had been human. There was a gruff rumble to her somewhat high voice now. With a measured experienced, she pulled up a small iPad-looking device and seemed to make a few notes on it. "You seem to have made it through with minimal genetic variation," she nodded to the on in the swimsuit.
"Maggie?" Howard blinked, being almost completely certain that this was the same woman as earlier. "From just now?" she asked, motioning over her shoulder towards the doorway she'd entered the room from. "Why are you… Why do you–"
"Look like you do?" Maggie smiled, giggling just a bit. This reaction made Howard's fur feel tingly and her tail swayed side to side a bit. The tingling in her chest and lower regions made her consider that perhaps this was how wolves blushed… but it seemed a bit all-encompassing. "You may interact with the 'park's twenty-four-seven anthropomorphic staff'," she smiled to him. Also, she noted, "Remember that 'things can still go wrong, and if they do, Tee-Eff Park has a crack team of rescue specialists and medical personnel standing by to assist' you," she smirked, motioning a finger to herself, "Which in your case means me."
She motioned Howard into the next room which was a large stone and metal-rimmed room that looked not unlike an air-lock from so many sci-fi movies he'd seen. The differences here was that it was dividing her from her transformation and her vacation instead of the spaceship and space. "Each visitor to the park is assigned a single personnel staff to be on call for them for up to a month," she noted, stepping over to a full length mirror that went from the floor to the twenty-five foot ceiling. "My response time to you should be anywhere from two minutes to twenty minutes depending on your distance from my current location as well travel conditions," she smiled and nodded.
Howard stepped over to the mirror to take a good look at herself. He'd been a good six-foot tall previously, but now she was closer to five foot eight without realizing it. "I shrunk a little," she frowned, looking over the mirror. "I'm my wife's height," she said, tilting her head before realizing she'd spoken allowed. She grimaced and looked back to Maggie.
Maggie waved off the look with a smile, "I'm a medical doctor, veterinarian, psychiatrist, park ranger, and nature specialist all rolled into one," she said to Howard. "Means I have doctor-patient confidentiality with you. I don't repeat anything you tell me lest you want me too, and that hasn't happened yet," she explained. "People come here to get away. You being faithful or not faithful to your wife is your own choice inside the park just as it would be outside the park."
"I am faithful to my wife," she said firmly to Maggie with a hint of a growl. "Trying to get away from people that think otherwise is the whole reason for this trip," she said, her tone going more of a growl then as part of her wanted Maggie to back down from this. She frowned and looked back to the image of herself, a heat rising in her chest as she sighed at her reaction.
"In order to make this stay more enjoyable, Howard, I feel I should ask you what you mean," she said. Howard looked back at her, still frowning. "Psychologist," she smiled, tapping her head with an index finger. "If you've come here to unwind or to spend some time dealing with personal issues, I am here to help," she nodded, tentatively reaching out to Howard and putting her hand on the former man's shoulder.
"My wife Heather, her private eye, my boss, and a few of my fellow employees all think I am cheating on her with my secretary," Howard said softly with a sigh, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the mirror in front of her. "It's not true, but the woman, Amy, has played it up as such… she's a home wrecker… I don't think she even cares about me or wants to have me… I think that maybe she's just broke up my life because I was happy," she said softly, still not understanding completely why someone would do that. Yes, she knew it happened, but knowing that people did it an experiencing it first-hand were two different things entirely.
Maggie took a moment to think about that, removing her hand from Howard's shoulder. "You've come here not to think about this," she said, now understanding. "In that case, I will not bring it up any further, but I will certainly speak on it if you wish to," she said. "I can direct you into the community at the Crossing where you can be around others vacationing just like yourself, or one of many other locations around the park," she explained. "There are caves all over, and packs of hybrid human-wolves who roam the land as well as regular, healthy wolves that you'd find in this region. It's far more likely that you'll be allowed in with a group of anthropomorphic wolves than with actual wolves, but far stranger things have happened," she nodded.
"Not sure I wan to run with anyone," Howard frowned, thinking that premise over. "Why do you look like me, by the way? Well, mostly like me," she offered, turning enough to motion at Maggie's breasts.
"The personnel assigned to assist you through the duration of your time in the part, for up to one month, is also assigned your same form, gender, sexual preferences, and wether or not we'll be wearing cloths… though we will almost always be wearing a Tee-Eff Park uniform when we do," she motioned down at herself. "Since, obviously, not all your genetic code is changed when you transform, genetic variation between Guest and Linked Personnel is entirely normal, though rarely very dramatic such as now," she noted, motioning her own hand at Howard's front. "Usually this is due to an already present genetic marker for an uncommon disease," she warned. "Do you know of any such condition?" Maggie asked.
"Do frequent, mostly-incapacitating migraines count?" Howard wondered, "Or how about Insomnia, Allergies to a couple varieties of grasses, or anything like that?" she laughed a bit. "Could be anything, right?"
Maggie nodded, "Yes, but we do like to make notes so that we can better refine the search method to account for what genetic markers may cause what additional mutations," she explained. "It's an… ever evolving process," she grinned at Howard. Howard smiled at Maggie again, her tail wagging a bit behind her as she felt better… that heat in her chest and groin somewhat tingling as she watched Maggie step over near a locker beside the door leading out into the woods. "Though your cloths will not fit properly, you may still wish to have them," she said as she tapped a panel. The hook with Howard's cloths slid out of the adjacent wall.
Howard waved off the notion with her hand, "No. I really don't want to be anything like myself here. I've been a role-player before, so I'm thinking I have a leg-up on other people," she blinked, "So to speak." Maggie giggled a bit. "I called my carrier and had my cell turned off for two weeks… so, I mean, maybe if I could have my jacket back about that time? I like to keep all my things in my pockets so I'm less likely to lose them," she noted.
"Ah, a role-player… well, I think you will find as many do that this will be a whole 'nother experience than that," she grinned. "I have prepared a list of names if you would like to hear them… something less masculine and obvious than Howard," Maggie offered with a smile, closing the locker back away and stepping over to the map that was painted all over the back of the door. Her hand moved to a south and west little red star on the map that clearly displayed 'You Are Here' on it.
Howard shook her head, "I've got a particular character's name in mind. I answer to that online sometimes, so that should work for me," she said, stepping over to the map. "There's the Crossing," she said, tapping her hand on the map just east of where they were… it was a small village with a river running through it. It looked to have simple amenities like post office, central message board, minimart, housing, and fishing locations. "Looks nice. I see two paths go through it," she said, noting the river ended in a lake that had a island out in the middle of it to the south. "What other choices are there?" she asked, looking to Maggie.
"Well, there are caves to the north all over the inner walls of the park, of course. There is the space far to the west side of the Park that we've termed the 'Beta Camp'. It's where those who have made this area their home both before and after our American Beta period live," she explained. Howard blinked at that thought, but held her question. Maggie went on to explain different locations of forest, and a few other places where there were cabins that families might reside in. "It's true that this part is where you are meant to be able and unwind and get back to nature, but we've done our best to incorporate technology in a way that is unobtrusive. The Crossing itself is the closest thing to a resort that we have, of course, and even it is tiny. Most everyone there is clothed, and there is full eight-oh-two-dot-eleven G.S. situated there around the Crossing, the Beta Camp, and the Cabins… though only the Crossing and Family Cabins actually have power of any kind… solar-powered. There's a power indicator usually next to the light-switch in each room that denotes how much is left for that particular dwelling," Maggie explained. "Oh, and you should have a secondary tracker," she said, looking from the map to Howard.
"Secondary? Wouldn't I need a primary one?" Howard asked, looking to her.
"No. We can actually monitor you based on your specific heat signature, pheromones, wind-current dispersion, the material of your selected cloths, the particular beating or rhythm of your heard and the like," she explained. "All very sophisticated and lacking any internal monitoring," she explained, "But a secondary tracker is often recommended," she explained. "Wouldn't want anything to happen to our Special Guests… what with the Free Vacation and all," she added with a smile and a nod. "Would you have a preferred method. Many people prefer collars, rings, necklaces, or even piercings."
"Have anything that looks like one of those animal trackers?" Howard asked, smirking to Maggie. She grinned and nodded to him, stepping over to a stone and tapping it so it slid a drawer out of the wall. Pulling out what looked like a little metal flag, "Wont hurt… just put the clip to either side of one of your ears," she nodded. "You'll see similar flags on me and any other personnel within the park, actually. Ours are communicators, though, and will actually flash a bright red and blue when we're in a rush to help someone. Do stay out of the way if that should happen."
Howard nodded, stepping up to the door. "Just going to try and enjoy myself," she smiled to Maggie, that tingling still behind her breasts and groin lightly as she had no idea that her heat would become noticeable in four or five days… and overpowering by the end of the week. "If I have questions or want to talk to you, how do I get in contact with you?" she wondered.
"Pinch your fingers on the ear-tag for twenty seconds," she advised as she watched Howard reach up to her own ear with the clip. It seemed to lock softly into place by way of a magnet, but it wasn't really uncomfortable or anything. "And don't worry about how to be a wolf… the instincts, as faint as they can be, will kind of guide you in that," she said with a smile. "In case you don't need to see me during the month, I will wish you now an enjoyable visit and a memorable month here at Transformation Park," she said, putting her hand to the panel just to the side of the door.
As the door rolled softly to one side like a bolde, Howard stepped forward out into stone path that lead out of a cave. At the end of it were three thick waterfalls each lining the path that lead out. She remembered Maggie talking about them earlier. Each one would wash away as much of his human scent as was possible, and allow him to more easily blend into his part as a newly anthropomorphic female wolf.
Raising her hands up and her head back as she let the three separate falls was over her as she walked out into the green, brown, and very alive forest beyond the cave's outer marker. Howard took a deep breath, the cool feeling of late winter against her fur where it was uncovered from the swimsuit. Nodding to herself, planning to be free for a month, Howard stepped off onto the path and headed for her destination.