David had been very careful in his art class. The plan was fairly simple- if probably the plan of every boy that ever thought he was sick. Wait for this to blow over, just like it always did. It was not uncommon to get a small change, and it was certainly possible to fight it.
A few did wonder why he was wearing a hood, and even his art teacher Miss Webber asked him to take it off. She was a nice woman in her thirties, with dark black hair. Perhaps a little stern with her piercing eyes, but a passion that she easily brought forward to her classroom. She was definitely 'no nonsense', and at the moment she had her eyes squared on David.
"I think I've got a cold miss," he explained.
The teacher looked at him very slightly closing her eyelids in a furrowed look with not a wrinkle on her skin. "A cold David? What's that? You mean you feel cold?" Honestly she didn't understand the way teenagers talked. It was clearly some weird 'youth lingo', and she didn't really like the corruption of language. Perhaps that was odd for an artist, but if one had to describe art it was easier if the language was reasonably consistent.
David frowned at the question. What did he mean? "I mean... yes I feel cold."
The teacher looked at him for a moment. "Hm, would you like to have the rest of the day off?"
David's eyes widened. If he could have that, then he could rest up and be out of this situation! "Y-yes," he said quickly. "Could I?"
"Go ahead," nodded Miss Webber as she dismissed him from the classroom. "Alright today we continue our lesson on the artistic changes that took place following the events of the 19th century..."
David walked as quickly as he could out of the school without making it obvious he was in a rush. He kept a fast pace on the small streets of the suburbs and was glad his art teacher was understanding enough. Though this whole situation still made him nervous. Things just didn't make sense! The more he thought about it, he was getting this weird nagging feeling that something was just 'odd' with the world. Most of the time he dismissed it, but there were these times when he was alone that feeling became more profound.
Though at the moment he was distracted by a growing headache. "Fight it," he said to himself. The virus... his family had always resisted it, why was it so strong now? Maybe he didn't eat correctly? Maybe he didn't exercise enough? Starting tomorrow he would change that. He would eat all the right things, go regularly to gym and be in the pinnacle of health that any human could be. He didn't want to change... not if it was into something so... lame!
That's when he noticed more strange things.
The sounds of all the creatures around him seemed to be increasing. There were birds chirping in trees, and the noise was starting to really pick up. It was startling to realise that he currently had 'four' auditory senses, and was hearing things at a much wider wavelength then humanly possible. That combined with the human wavelength of his ears, was causing a massive 'crash' in his brain as it tried to process sounds from four different angles and in multiple wavelengths.
If the changes had gone so far to connect to his nervous system... was it too late? He tried to calm himself. Even if he 'did' change, it was incredibly unlikely it would be permanent. Indeed at this point he had to concede he was infected and that last roll of the dice was all he had.
When he got home, he took off his hat, feeling his skin almost burning hot. "Good..." he thought. Fever was good. Burning hot was good. It would kill the virus... he soaked himself in a hot bath, being careful not to get the sensitive new ears wet. He could almost feel them start to.. fold? They felt floppy, but with a thought they straightened out. As if it couldn't get worse! It was all feeding into his brain, becoming part of his body. Sensory, physically, mentally, it joined up as much as his hands or eyes and were insistent on being felt as such.
He towelled himself dry, and went to bed turning off the light. He wanted to cry, but he consoled himself that such an act would only weaken his immune response. "I can fight it.. I've always fought it," he whispered to himself. "Just go to sleep... it will all be over tomorrow."
the curtains still showed some light, as David slept through into the late afternoon. In a few hours his parents would probably come by from work. As he slept he naturally let go of his memories, thoughts, and troubles of the world. He could always sleep when he needed to, and it was a natural gift that some envied. On a plane or in the middle of loud music... he slept soundly.
He didn't know where he was, he didn't know what he was. He didn't know when, or where... or what the waking world was, as the door to reality was shut. So void were his thoughts that he had a natural inclination to knowing when certain things just didn't 'fit' from night to night, often scattered by the presence of strange and surreal dreams.
The puzzle had changed when he tried to put it all together in the morning- a puzzle that had always been this puzzle since as long as he could remember, and yet... it felt 'wrong'.
This state left him curiously disconnected from his body. He didn't feel his body slowly shortening at all. Slowly at first, then rapidly as he legs lost their mass and his human hair simply fell away onto the mattress. He shifted himself a little to the right instinctively, curling up. The mass of muscle seemed to flow into his feet, making them quite large as they changed from five digit human feet into three digit feet, capped with lovely soft snow-white fur giving the strange appearance of wearing slippers.
Still his torso shrank even more, as his face started to become more feminine. It became a lot more round, losing what facial hair he had. Smooth and with a smaller mouth. His new rabbit ears practically 'exploded' in size, becoming as large as his- now slowly 'her' face. It tickled along his brow a little, making his hair the purest white possible, as it touched on his eyebrows. The hair slowly lengthened, completely covering his human ears. It was not possible to see what became of them, as the hair framed the feminised face going lightly down the middle of his back.
Changes slowly descended down, going down his spine as it lengthened just slightly. A soft cotton ball tail formed resting on his tail-bone. His diminutive body continued to shrink, having used up all the possible mass it could in the transformation to his feet and ears, and yet it still needed to take more. His groin changed into a female configuration relatively quickly, as his- now her womb started to pump and push chemicals into his blood, forcing small mammary glands to grow on her chest using up all the mass it conceivably could for one with such a small frame. The rest had to be burned.
Her heat beat raised slightly uncomfortably, as did her temperature but with the changes it wouldn't last too long. It left a sheen of cold sweat on her body, wetting the mattress.
She shifted her new body with her eyes still closed, pulling the mattress closer... why she had so much more mattress now was a mystery to be answered on awakening.
David's mother was home first. She know something was wrong as soon as she got home. The bathroom had been used, her son's jacket was here... she slowly knocked onto her son's bedroom. "David? Are you there?"
There was a muffled sound, and a scream. The sound of a girl.
David's mother quickly ran into the room, not expecting to see a girl- with strange rabbit ears on her head. She was standing on her son's bed, completely naked. A diminutive girl, that looked to be about twelve possibly thirteen years old. It was hard to tell with her innocent eyes and an ample bust for someone her age. (That was going to be a concern, she quickly realised.)
The rabbit-girl was looking at herself in shock, fear and was clearly terrified as someone much larger was towering over her despite standing on a bed. She nearly tripped over her enlarged feet, not even able to walk on them!
Suddenly her mother swooped to the rabbit girl before she fell... and hugged her lifting her up in an embrace. The rabbit girl whimpered tears at the familiar scent and feeling... the sound of her mother's voice and coos instilling an instinct to calm down.
"Shh... It's okay David, I know it's you." Her mother assured. "I've seen you like this before." How strange... a relapse? Still she didn't expect an age change as well... not like this.
"H-Help..." She whispered. "P-Please... mom."
"I'll take you to the doctors. Last time it was temporary... we'll just have to hope the same."
