The farmhouse front door slammed, a little too loudly. Crystal had half-wished her parents had left the car for her, but she knew that would have raised a whole new set of problems. She couldn't let them see their children turning into a pair of chickens. Crystal pulled her younger brother along toward their everyday bicycles, hand in hand. But Cole, visibly shaken, pulled back.
"Cole, what are you doing? We don't have much time!"
"Crystal, my legs... my arms. It's..."
His sister knew what he was talking about. The white feathers on his arms, neck and shoulders were puffing out, getting longer bit by bit. It was gradual, but relentless. If she stared at his arms, nothing seemed to grow. But if she looked away and back again, feathers seemed to appear out of nowhere. His yellow legs stood out like neon signs, yellow and bright from the tops of his thighs down to the soles of his feet. It was early evening in a rural area, but she knew they might run into someone on the way. Crystal relented, and hurried Cole back into the house and up to his room.
"OK, go put on some pants. Grab your coat on the way out, we don't have much time." As she admonished him, Cole silently pulled on a pair of sweatpants. To his dismay, he shredded right through them with his fingernails and long foot talons. Whimpering, he grabbed at another pair. Crystal looked away, not wanting to make him nervous. It was eating her up inside to see them change like this, but she buried her feelings in order to support Cole. Her eyes were drawn to the egg Cole had laid earlier, in the bathroom. Crystal knew from working on the family farm that chicken eggs passed through an ovipositor and a 'vent', as it was called, while they were being laid. Therefore, her brother had become technically female, lacking anything that would define him as her brother. He was too modest to tell Crystal any of this, of course.
Crystal rubbed at her eyes with exhaustion. Vanessa had whispered 'chicken', after all. Her poor brother.
Meanwhile, Cole fiddled with his pants. He carefully inserted his right foot, toes sticking straight down, and pulled up the pant leg as slowly as he could. The same went for the left leg. He tore a five inch hole in the back of the leg with one of his spurs, but he knew it would have to do. His talons had gotten longer; he didn't even try to put socks or shoes on. He knew that the skin on the bottoms of his feet felt harder, more suited to outdoors living. The thought made him shudder. Soon he was on his feet and headed toward the door.
Crystal was already wearing long pants, so she was left to wonder how she would get out of them with her newfound chicken feet. Slipping on jackets, the two once again ran toward their bikes. After a bit of fumbling they inserted their feet into the pedals and took off down the street at top speed.
* * *
Night had deepened to an inky black. An uneventful journey under a waxing silvery moon had brought the siblings at last to Vanessa's house. They had decided on the way to investigate the large bird coop first, thinking that logically, anything Vanessa did with chickens would be located there. Strangely, Crystal's transformation had seemed to stall. Her feathers had nearly covered her bare skin and her legs had turned a dusty yellow, but her feathers were nowhere near as long as Cole's. His face was covered with fine white fuzz. She had only a few feathers on her neck and upper arms. Looking more chicken like by the minute, Cole's brown hair had deepened to a dull red. It had fallen out on the sides, leaving him with a red mohawk of sorts. His still human lips had turned yellow, the same yellow as his legs. His neck had stretched out, and his ears had become small holes in the sides of his head, vestigial structures visible only under close scrutiny.
The pair leaned their bikes up against the large coop, abandoning them to continue their investigation on foot inside the pen. Crystal was about ten feet ahead of Cole, but stopped once she realized he had been left behind. The young girl whirled around in a panic, spotting her brother. Cole was still with her in the fenced in pen, but he was standing still, panting. "Crystal, it's so hot..." Cole had taken off his jacket and was fumbling with his shirt. Using his feathery chicken fingers, he half tore, half pulled it off, to reveal a thick layer of white feathers on his thin chest.
Crystal ran over to her brother. His pants, the pants he had so painstakingly put on to hide his condition, were swiftly removed. "Cole, stop this..." Crystal shook her brother by the shoulder, but he continued unhindered. The silver shorts, his last scrap of clothing, soon lay shredded among the sparse grass and chickenfeed. Cole began to prostrate himself on the ground in a delirium, picking up the bird seed into his mouth, consuming it.
Crystal stared at Cole in revulsion. His legs, all the way up to his butt, were bright yellow. White feathers started right at his lower back, continuing up the rest of him uninterrupted. His front lacked any male genitals, as she had suspected. Seeing it, though, upset her deeply. A chicken's vent had replaced his male anatomy, which correlated with his newfound egg laying ability. This too was covered in white feathers, extending down from his chest and head. It looked to Crystal as though he was wearing a white leotard with yellow tights.
Cole glimpsed his sister's face. What he saw was enough to snap him out of his stupor. He sat on his butt as a spray of feathers shot out from the top of it. He didn't seem to notice. "Crystal!", he pointed. "Your eyes! Your... face!"
Crystal found a small compact in her pocket, and held it up to her face. "My eyes! My head!" Her pupils grew even as she stared at them, taking over all of the iris and white of her eye. They moved away from each other, as her face began to narrow to a point. But again, her transformation stopped. She was still way behind Cole, who was nearly a total chicken. Cole, realizing his poor luck, began to shake with despair. White feathers dislodged themselves and littered the ground.
Suddenly a voice rang out. "Welcome home, my new pets!" A flash of light, and Vanessa was standing before them.