Les was not making much progress in the woods. The pain in her feet and ankles was getting worse, and now her thighs were starting to burn. But she was at least out of sight of the house, now hidden in the dense foliage of the forest. The dark night sky helped conceal her, but didn't help her find her way through the forest. Everything seemed dark and lost in the shadows. She tripped more than once.
"Leslie, stop! You're going to get us both killed, " yelled Jeff, as she tripped a third time, sending both of them sprawling on the ground. Jeff scrambled to get away, but Les quickly caught hold of him again. He felt smaller in her hands, and it was easier to keep him in her grip.
"Leslie, please just let me go. You don't need me anymore, " said Jeff calmly.
Leslie ignored his request. Just a few minutes ago, she had heard stomping in the brush nearby, and knew Jeff's sister Elizabeth was still in hot pursuit nearby. Her injuries had slowed her running, and Liz was sure to have caught up to her by now. And she was probably even angrier now. She knew she couldn't outrun her. She had to hide. She saw a large opening in the ground, leading to an underground cave. She trudged uneasily into the cave dragging Jeff with her.
Inside the cave, it was even darker. She couldn't see her hands in front of her face. She tightened her grip on Jeff, as if to assure herself that he had not escaped.
"We'll just wait here until she leaves. Then you can go. I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise, " she said, relaxing a little.
"Why do I find that hard to believe? " said Jeff with resignation.
Les was a little insulted. "What do you mean? I'm a nice person. I don't hurt people, " she said.
Jeff sighed. "Leslie, you're a bully. You hurt people every day. Why should you treat me any differently?"
Jeff didn't hear anything for awhile, and he expected a punch or smack any second. But instead, he heard her softly crying. Her reaction took him by surprise.
"Leslie, are you okay?" he asked, concerned.
Leslie tried to restrain her sniffles. "What do you care? You're just like everyone else! You see somebody with muscles and just assume I'm some bully that picks on people. And of course, since I'm girl with muscles I must be some kind of evil bitch."
Jeff realized that she was right. When he first saw Leslie, all he could see was a big pile of muscle. He was afraid of her, just because she could hurt him. Before today, she had never actually done anything bad to him personally. He just assumed she was bad because of the rumors and stories he had heard about her. Now that he thought about it, he couldn't remember Leslie ever actually physically assaulting anyone, much less getting into a fight. She just hung around Brittany, looking intimidating.
Jeff reached through the darkness, and gently touched her shoulder. It was bigger than he imagined, and the fur didn't seem as thick as his sisters. "I'm sorry, Leslie. It was wrong for me to judge you by your appearance. But you have to admit, you do keep poor company. What do you expect people to think?"
Leslie scoffed. "I keep poor company? I should worry about what other people think? Do you know what it was like for me before I met Brittany? I was always smaller than everybody else, the runt of the class. All the other girls made fun of me, and none of the boys were interested in a girl with a flat chest. I used to get beat up a lot. I hoped that I would eventually get a growth spurt or something and catch up with everyone else, but it never happened."
"So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I started working out - a lot. And I found that not only did my body really respond to exercise, I actually enjoyed it and felt better about myself. Of course, that didn't stop the girls from making fun of me and the boys from avoiding the 'muscle chick'."
" My favorite part was the dyke comments. Everyone assumed since I didn't have a boyfriend and I had a lot of muscle, that I must be gay. Yeah, it has nothing to do with feeling better about yourself or making yourself look better and healthier. Any girl with muscle must be gay. Everyone kept calling me Les the Lesbian. How creative."
Jeff blushed a little, ashamed that he had assumed the same thing. He had used the name before - never to her face, of course - but behind her back, when he was making fun of her with his friends.
"Then I met Brittany, and she made it all stop. She saw something special in me, I guess. She took me under her wing, taught me how to dress and act more like a lady. And she made sure that anyone who was mean to me or talked bad about me regretted it. After I hooked up with her, everyone suddenly started treating me very nicely and with respect. She can be really bossy, and kinda mean, but she was the only one that treated me like a real person, and not a freak. And all I had to do for her was stand around and act tough."
Jeff was touched. "I'm really very sorry, Leslie. I never knew how tough it was for you. I guess I was just as bad as everyone else, making assumptions without getting to know the real person."
"Nah, you weren't so bad. I don't remember you ever insulting me, even before I met Brittany. You're the only person I know who has never called me Les. You always call me Leslie. I really appreciate that, " said Leslie.
She ducked down her head a little embarrassed. "It wasn't my idea to - you, know - do what we did to you today. But Brittany made me. She threatened to stop hanging out with me and being my friend if I didn't help. And she's my only friend, really. I didn't want to be alone again. I meant what I said - we weren't going to hurt you. It was just supposed to be a few pictures, and then let you go, no harm done. We had no idea about what would happen ..... what your semen could do. I mean, how could we?"
Jeff remained silent. "I only hit you because you wouldn't stop struggling, and I was afraid that I couldn't hold onto you. Brittany would have never forgiven me if I let you get away. I hope it didn't hurt. I wasn't trying to hurt you. I didn't use my full strength. Can you forgive me?"
After a long pause, Jeff quietly said, "Yes, I forgive you. I don't condone what you did, but I understand why you did it."
Suddenly she realized that she no longer had Jeff in her grasp. During their conversation, she had been distracted by the strange sensations running over her body. She had let go of him so she could rub her feet. She noted, with some excitement, that her foot was now much wider, and now ended in three toes. The toenails were still long, but at least her body was starting to look more human. It looked like the program was going to work, after all.
For some reason, she was a little embarrassed to tell Jeff now. Her desire for power seemed like the wish of a child who no longer wanted to be bullied. She now realized it seemed kind of silly. You didn't need power to feel safe and protected. You just needed good friends.
"I let go of you some time ago. I can't see anything in this darkness. You could have escaped easily. Why are you still here? Why did you stay?" she asked.
Jeff sighed. "Let's just say I feel a little guilty. You seem like a really nice person who got a really rotten deal. It seemed like you needed a sympathetic ear tonight to work some things out, and I thought it was the least I could do to help. Besides, I kinda like you now, and I don't want my sister to hurt you. She's not bad either, but she looked pretty mad. "
"Thank you, Jeff, " said Leslie with genuine affection. "You know, you're not such a bad guy after all. You're actually pretty nice, for a guy. I kinda like you, too, and I like having you around. Maybe I'll just keep you, " said Les with strange smile.
"Haw, haw, very funny. Let's just get some sleep. It's too dark to find our way home through the forest tonight. We'll find our way back in the morning when he have better light, " said Jeff, as he curled up and went to sleep.
Leslie curled up, too, with a surprisingly flexible back for a horse. She watched Jeff drift off to sleep. Her body felt really good (probably because of my growth, she thought), but looking at Jeff made her feel good in a different way.
He wasn't that bad looking, for a guy, she decided. He was scrawny, but there was some muscle on that thin frame. His body was actually kind of feminine, like a Bishōnen, and in the right light he could almost pass for girl. His skin was smooth and soft, just like a girl. Yeah, she decided, he was pretty attractive, and she might like having a boyfriend like him. She started to drift off to sleep, too, as her body's transformation began to accelerate in the dark of the cave.