Temporary Quarters (7)

by Bob Stein

This road was a lot more desolate than Aaron remembered. It had been years since he drove this mountain blacktop, but even then he remembered seeing gas stations and houses. Besides, even the mountains only extended so far, yet he had been driving for hours and the land showed no signs of flattening out.

Or had it been hours? He looked at the MG's clock. 2 a.m.? That couldn't be right. It had been 2 a.m. when he checked it the last time. Had the damn thing broken? It was the only electrical part of the car that hadn't been replaced. The second hand was ticking around properly. Maybe it had been 1 a.m. last time he checked.

One of the ever-present yellow diamonds appeared, and he gave it a cursory glance as he drove by. Odd. Looked like one of the deer-crossing signs, but it seemed to have a person on it. A school crossing ahead? He was actually a little hopeful that it was a school crossing sign. After all these miles of empty roads, he was feeling a little lonely.

A few more miles of curves and hills brought no sign of life. Then another of the signs popped into view and he slowed to get a better look. The silhouette was of a person, and he grinned at the rather obvious breasts. Not exactly politically correct in these parts. Weird. The lower part was very animal-like. Not human-looking at all. Probably kids playing around. He shrugged and continued on. A glance down at the odometer showed 236 miles. Have to get gas before too long. Still, he had a good hundred or so miles before he had to worry, and there had to be a town along here somewhere.

At least he wasn't tired. That sorta surprised him. He felt really good, despite the hours sitting in this cramped little car. He glanced at the clock, and was irritated to see it still reading 2 a.m. Damn. Wish he'd brought a watch. Well, he could figure his time by the miles. His eyes flicked over to the odometer and back to the road. And then back to the odometer, where they stayed.

236? Aaron pulled over to the side of the road and stared at the dashboard. Had the speedometer broken too? He tapped at the gage. Easing out the clutch, he rolled back onto the road and watched the tenths dial slowly roll from 7 to 8, then 9, then 0. But the other numbers remained stuck at 236.

A feeling of uneasiness washed over him, and he stomped on the gas. The sooner he got to anyplace with people, the better he would feel. The road whizzed by now, and he slammed through turns with tires screeching. Across both lanes now. Why worry? There weren't any other cars here. The insanity of his actions screamed from the back of his mind, but fear kept his foot to the floorboard. Another of the strange signs flashed past, this one with a diagonal bar across it. No people? Or whatever the sign was supposed to represent.

Aaron slid around another curve, and suddenly faced a large group of animals blocking the road. "Shit!" He slammed on brakes, fighting to keep the car from skidding out of control. The animals loomed close, and he tensed in anticipation of impact.

Nothing. The car was silent, engine stalled by the sudden braking. "Baaah." He opened his eyes, and found himself surrounded by goats. What the..? Pushing the door open, he slid out of the MG and looked around. The road vanished into curves in both directions, with heavy forest on both sides. Where the hell had these animals come from?

He felt a tug on his pants, and twisted around to see a large billy goat directly behind him. The other animals pressed close against him, and he tried to push them away. Teeth pulled at his clothes, and he twisted away in growing fear. "Shoo! Go away!" He shouted and waved his hands with no effect. A crunching noise drew his attention back to the car, where more of the huge goats were standing. The car rocked as teeth pulled hunks of metal from it, collapsing suddenly as the flock literally tore the wheel off.

Aaron backed away in horror, trying to push through the mass of furred bodies. Ripping noises and cool air against his skin. He stared down and saw that his clothes were being ripped away in hunks. Panic took over, and he tried to run. The beasts were too thick around him, and he ended up falling awkwardly to hands and knees. He was naked now, stripped of his clothing by the goats which now pressed close around him. Their odor was overpowering, and he gasped for air.

His legs felt strange. There was no pressure on his knees now, and he twisted around to see them vanish into furred limbs which looked like those of the goats around him. "No!" He screamed and tried to break away, but the strange legs didn't seem to work right, and he fell over on his back. As he struggled to roll over, he caught a glimpse of his crotch and froze. Dark teats stood out firm and full between fur-covered thighs, with no sign of the male organs he'd been born with.

The male was next to him now, musky and huge. Aaron tried to push the animal away, but his arms wouldn't move sideways anymore. He rolled up to all fours, staring down at spindly forelegs and black hooves. His scream came out as a bleating noise, and he felt the billy trying to slide up over his back. Horror gave him strength, and he twisted out from under the male, and pushed through the flock. The side of the road dropped down in a deep chasm, and he flung himself over the edge without a thought.

"Aaron?" A voice broke through heavy fatigue, and he struggled to come awake. A small hand stroked his back, and the voice repeated his name. The goat smell was strong in his nostrils, and memory of the dream sent a shock of adrenaline through his system. Where was he? Eyes opened to provide blurred, distorted vision, and he shook himself. The immediate response was the realization that whatever his dreams and memories told him, he was definitely still male. Not only male, but gloriously, incredibly, impossibly male. He didn't even care that his monstrous maleness was in the process of taking an equally monstrous piss.

"Graxle!" He didn't recognize the word, though it was clearly an obscenity. However, he did recognize the voice, though it sounded slightly amplified and sharp. Rocky? Aaron twisted his head around, still trying to clear his eyes. There was someone next to him with the right shape, but not the right size. Rocky was huge, and this satyr-like form was small. And he didn't remember Rocky stinking this much, either.

Some small corner of his mind cataloged the scent, and also caused him to lean forward and lift his tail to the side. Tail? He turned his attention from the satyr to the huge mass next to him. Aaron blinked, realizing that the mass was his body. It also had a familiar scent and shape. Horse. Or more accurately, stallion. They'd made him a centaur, like Rhudi! He reached out to touch the rough fur.

Or tried to. No arms responded. They were under him, locked in place by weight he was just now aware of. And he couldn't feel his hands. An amazingly flexible neck allowed him to twist his head enough to look at them. Not arms. Forelegs. Thick, rounded forelegs, like those of a horse. Rhudi had them. But Rhudi also had arms and hands.

That little corner of his mind noted the last squeeze from his rectum, and allowed his tail to drop back down. He automatically turned and sniffed the pool of urine, and then the solid mass further back. What the hell? He'd just used the bathroom! Yet he couldn't feel a lot of concern over the breech of manners. He knew it was a terrible thing to do, but it just seemed so natural.

The blurred figure beside him moved forward and placed both hands on his face. His incredibly long face. It pushed out between his eyes in a dark mass that split his vision. "Can you understand me, Aaron?" Rocky was actually looking up into his eyes. He tried to answer, but all that came out was a strangled whinny. "Just nod your head. You can't talk, at least for now." Confusion filled his mind, but he managed to move the massive snout up and down.

"Good. Take it easy, and just let the host take care of things." Host? What host? Aaron was only more confused, yet he realized that he wasn't frightened at all. Instead, he felt very comfortable. As a matter of fact, the more he concentrated on his body, the better he felt. He was aware of every part, from the ears he could twitch, to skin which quivered on command. Even the still-extended organ between his legs provided a dull pleasure as it shrank back into its cocoon.

Rocky stroked his muzzle, sending a wave of contentment through his mind. "The transfer just didn't work well for you. We had to get you out." Aaron blinked. Transfer? What transfer? There were dim memories of Rocky pushing him into some sort of cabinet, and then this. No. There was something in between. It was so hard to concentrate. He'd felt pain, and then woken up different. Not like this. Images from the dream swirled with vague memories, and then he remembered.

A satyr! He'd been a female satyr! Rocky seemed to read his thoughts. "You rejected the other body. I'm really sorry. Maybe I should have told you it was female, but it was the best one available." Aaron snorted, recalling the initial shock of seeing nothing between his legs. "It was either a healthy 19 year-old female, or a 46 year-old male with a history of drug use. I thought you'd rather be young."

Aaron pulled his head away from the satyr's hands and looked back at himself again. "You're pretty much what you would consider a horse. Not exactly, but close enough that anyone from your planet wouldn't notice anything odd. Except your size, maybe. You're a horse from my world, about the size of a really big draft horse on yours."

That was interesting. Aaron shook himself again, enjoying the feelings of mass and strength. Odd. He should be scared, or upset. He was an animal! Yet his only emotions were curiosity and a contentment which blanketed his thoughts. Even the loss of his hands didn't bother him, at least not yet.

Rocky slipped a rope loosely over his head, and that odd little corner of his mind set his ears back against his skull. "Easy, boy." The satyr patted Aaron's neck, and he relaxed again, moving when the rope tugged gently for him to follow. Even with his blurred vision, he could tell he was in the transfer room, or one just like it. He could smell the cold metal, the sharp scents of chemicals and electricity. But new scents wafted in from ahead, and he could just make out a rectangular glow ahead.

His ears perked up, and he moved faster now. These new scents were strong and strange, yet part of his mind recognized and welcomed them. They walked towards the glow, and stopped just before walking through. He pressed anxiously against the satyr, wanting to find the source of those marvelous odors. "Wait, Aaron. Not yet." It was difficult to push back the longing, but he managed to stand still and look at the satyr with one eye.

"This is another part of my world. Where your host came from." Aaron managed mild curiosity at that. The satyr patted his side. "When you rejected the female host, we had to find a place for your mind. Your old body was completely a plant, and putting you back in it would have been the same as killing you." Aaron shuddered, feeling the movement ripple back. "The older male body was taken by another candidate while we tried to adjust you into the female's. And there aren't any others available.

"This is different from transfer. No matter what it feels like, you aren't really this horse. At least not completely. The animal is still there, sharing space." So, the little corner of his mind that was so active wasn't his mind at all. Aaron whickered, getting anxious for the promise carried by scents. Or maybe it was the horse.

"We had to do something quick. Since being female got you so upset, I figured this would be more to your liking. You're a stallion, and you'll have plenty of chances to use that equipment you refused to give up. But you don't have hands, or a voice. You'll live as an animal until we can find a way to get you into a form more to your liking."

Aaron nodded, and pawed the ground. Whether it was the stallion or his own curiosity, he wanted to get through. He heard Rocky's words, and even understood what this meant. No artwork, no talking. At least for now, he found the prospect exciting. Still, there was faint guilt in his mind. Was he so shallow that sex was all that mattered? What had been so horrible about the female satyr's form?

The more he thought about it, the sillier it all seemed. He'd spent more than 40 years as a male, and then weeks as a sexless plant. Perhaps it had just been too much change at once. Yet here he was as a full animal, not only accepting it, but anxious to try things out! Anxious indeed. The stallion was becoming more forceful now, and it took some effort to keep from knocking Rocky down and charging ahead.

The satyr seemed to recognize his time was limited, and started slipping the rope from Aaron's neck. "You're the only stallion here, so you'll be easy to find." He hesitated. "Be careful, Aaron. Don't become the beast so much that you lose yourself. Horses can't create art, or explore. Remember that you are more than a beast."

Rocky's words struck home, and a tinge of fear tarnished Aaron's growing desire and lust. Still, it wasn't enough to banish the stallion completely. As long as he was careful, this should be wonderful. The only stallion in a field of mares. With a final shake of his mane, Aaron stepped through the portal and into the sunlit pastures of heaven.

- end -

Temporary Quarters (7) copyright 1996 by Bob Stein.