“Let go of me, you hag!” a voice woke me from my long daze. It had been so long since I heard someone talk, it took me a while to remember what the words meant. “People will know I’m missing, they’ll come for me, then you’ll be sorry.” My ears twitched as I heard the voice get closer as metal doors creaked and slammed shut.
‘Let…’ that word meant a lot of things, my master used to let me out of the barn, my master used to let me wander the paddock where I’d eat the fresh grass and head down to the stream where I could drink fresh water. It had been so long since I had done those things, now I only drink stale water and tasteless pellets. Thinking back to those days, I remembered the barn how it used to be, with dirt under my hooves and made of wood, I missed that smell. This barn had no smell besides me and was made of metal and my master no longer let me go outside. I had been in this metal barn for, well I don’t know there was nothing that indicated the time of day, except for the artificial light and the seasons didn’t change down here. I had shut myself off to it long ago.
“Is that a cow?!” The voice startled me as my master led them into my stable. I looked into their eyes and examined them. They seemed bewildered to see me, though I don’t know why, cows were a very common animal. I used to have a whole herd with me, I remembered it so clearly, all the cows of different colours and sizes, with me as the matriarch. They all looked to me for guidance, especially when they first arrived, or if one of their friends were taken away. Now I was all alone, I don’t think any of the others joined me when I was moved to the metal barn.
“Hey wait, you can’t leave me in here!” the person screamed as my master left the room without saying a word. Locking her in with me. They ignored me as they tried to open the door, before proceeding to bang on the door. I watched as they gave up and turned back towards me, sliding down the wall to rest.
I felt sorry for her, they were female, it had been so long since I had seen a human it took me a while to remember. I did see my master a fair bit but they wore robes and a mask and didn’t talk anymore. I can’t even recall if I had ever seen what they looked like or the sound of their voice. This human though, this woman, I had seen plenty of them, I liked how they looked, appealing faces, gentle voices, long flowing hair, lumps on their chest, good looking legs. That’s why I felt sorry for her. I liked how they looked now, but my master liked to change people, my whole herd used to be human. Maybe I had even been human once, though if I did I couldn’t recall.
The woman gave up on escaping for now and turned her attention to me. She already began to change, her eyes started off as the colour of grass but now had changed to the colour of dirt. Despite her captivity she was still amazed to see a creature like me and I was equally as fascinated as her.
“People at my camp told me about cows, showed me them in pictures,” she said as she walked towards me hesitantly. “The elders said their meat was the best.”
I snorted and stomped towards her at the mention of meat. I was nobody's meal and I never would be. My master loved me, and cared for me. I was the oldest in the herd and yet I would always produce milk while those younger than me dried up. I was the most spoiled and looked after and stayed with my master while the others moved on.
“Okay, you don’t want to be meat,” she raised her hands up and backed off slightly. “Though once I’m rescued it won’t be up to me, it’ll be up to the rest of my camp, and a cow is a big mouth to feed, so if you don’t want to be food, you’d better produce good milk.”
She stepped to my side and approached my rear, I knew what she was trying to do and I let her proceed. That was until she showed she didn’t know what she was doing as she grabbed me and yanked down way too hard. Instinctively, I kicked out, knocking her to the ground. I walked out of her reach and turned back around to check on her.
I didn’t hurt her but I did spook her, she was now back against the wall, looking at me more alert and concerned about what I might do. I walked to the opposite wall to assure her I meant no harm. She was the first living being I had interacted with in so long, I didn’t want her to hate me.
“What?” there was a panic to her voice as she noticed her hands began to change shape. Her fingers fused together as her thumb twisted and bent, while her nails turned black and grew back over her skin. “What did you doooo to meeee…” her voice was deeper and drawn out, she reached up to clasp her throat to examine it, until she recalled she no longer had hands.
She looked at me as if I was the one responsible for her current state. My master always enjoyed the slow transformations, they loved it when the people panicked. I had seen a handful of transformations myself, and they were always different. I recalled one person who was left mostly as a human once, but she had an udder, ears and tail, though her feet were turned into hooves. For this human however her spine, arms and legs were the first thing to change, other than her eyes. It was weird seeing a mostly human body on all fours with her neck bending her head back into an uncomfortable position.
She struggled to walk in her current state and with her neck twisted she could no longer talk. Now that she had the posture of a cow, I was able to read her body language more, though it wasn’t hard to tell she was terrified and angry at me.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she struggled to walk, she was like a newborn calf trying to find their feet, only she was much bigger. I wanted to go over and comfort her, but I knew it would only make things worse. Instead I watched as her head began to reshape itself, as her nose and mouth began to extend into a snout and her nostrils widened. Her ears also changed shape growing outwards and more pointed as she grew two small horns.
She began to moo, as her throat changed form. I always found that to be one of the saddest parts of the transformation, when the humans lost their voice and couldn’t tell the other humans they were one of them. I saw how humans treated cows and it wasn’t nice. We were forced to produce milk for them or be slaughtered for meat. Our children would be sold off so were other members of our herd. We’d also be tagged, it used to be hot metal burning a symbol into our flesh, but now it was a tag on the ear. The humans would also send dogs to harass us to force us to go to places we didn’t want to. I always considered myself lucky that my master cared for me more than the others in the herd, but I was still aware of all the injustices. Sometimes it made me so angry I felt some of these humans deserved to be turned into cows, to experience what we had to. Other times, like now, I felt sorry for them, knowing the life they would now have.
The woman who shared my barn was now a cow in shape, including a tail and udder, she still had her human build though as well as her long brown hair which covered her eyes. She let out another painful moo as her body began to expand, tearing through her clothes and her hair fell out. As she stood there exhausted from the change in shape, her fur grew, until her whole body matched the brown of her former hair.
I gave her a sympathetic and submissive nod as I let her know I wasn’t a threat to her. She still seemed agitated and I was worried she’d lash out at me, instead she turned around, and sulked in the corner. I wanted to console her, and assure her everything would be alright, that this was not an end but a new beginning. Though I couldn’t promise her that, I didn’t know what my master’s plans were just yet. I hoped that she’d leave the former human with me, it had been so long since I had a companion.
We both turned around when we heard the doors open once again, this time my master led three male humans inside. She gestured to the other cow, who seemed happy to see them. I guessed that she was a part of their herd before she was turned into a cow. I felt a sense of dread, as I had seen this too many times before, the cows being happy to see their former herd only to be treated what they were now.
“She seems eager to leave with us.” one of the men commented, to the one in the centre of the group. “Not sure about the other one though.”
“Too bad, they’re both coming with us,” the man in the centre pulled out what I recognised as a gun. I was immediately on high alert and waited to see what my master would do.
My master casually walked in front of me to block them, and pointed to the other cow. I recognised this for what it was, it was their last warning to take what was theirs and leave.
“That was the original deal, Lilly for a cow,” the man said as he cocked his weapon. “Only we’re changing the terms, we’re taking Lilly back and your two cows. If you had any sense you’d stand aside.”
My master began to laugh silently as she reached out to the third person, who clasped their throat, their laugh became audible as they did, first as a male voice but with each cackle it became more feminine.
“Foolish mortal, you were always going to get Lilly back. The deal was to exchange Lilly for a cow and I delivered.” She gestured towards Lilly, who now knew what was going on, suddenly she was less excited to see her former herd. “How did you think that was going to be possible when your war killed all the cows?”
“You expect us to believe that’s Lilly?” the first human who spoke asked, casually pointing his gun towards her. “That’s… that’s impossible.”
“It doesn’t matter, we’re taking both the cows,” the leader fired the trigger at my master, hitting them in the head and shattering their mask. I looked at her and saw a skull with glowing green eyes.
“That was a stupid idea,” they said as they got up. Everyone who looked at their face was frozen with fear, myself included. “Now I’m going to make a counter offer. First, you’re going to restore my body,” they said to the man clutching at his throat. I watched as his flesh rapidly disintegrated until only a skeleton was left. I gazed back at my master who for a brief second looked exactly like him before taking on the appearance of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“I offered your people a cow because they had more uses than just meat, when I sell you two to a rival group, you won’t have the same luxury.” She aimed her arms at the remaining two men who rapidly turned into another animal I recognised my master used to tend. It took a while for the name to come back to me, but they were now pigs. The leader who had shot my master was female while the other was male. “Though if you want to live a little longer, I’m sure they’ll be happy breeding the two of you together.”
My master tied the two pigs up as well as Lilly before she removed us from the effect that froze us in place. She then turned around to me and gave me a pat on the head. “I’m sorry I’ve kept you down here for so long Harold, but those filthy humans destroyed the world, it wasn’t safe.” She looked at the bones on the ground. “Though it appears to be liveable again, how about we restart the farm? I’ll even let you keep Lilly as a companion.”
She untied Lilly from the post and led her outside as I followed. There was a ramp made of stone that led up to a metal door where I could see sunlight. I followed Lilly and my master outside and paused. I was still on the farm, but it wasn’t the one from my memories, all the trees were dead and the creek dried up. My master’s house was a wreck and the barn I adored had collapsed. The fences were destroyed and from under the dirt I could see the bones of my former herd. Unable to process what I was witnessing I looked up to the sky, which now looked sick.
“It’s been a long time,” my master gave me a sympathetic look as she patted my side. But it’s slowly healing.” She pointed at a small patch of dirt where I saw a bit of green. “I can speed the recovery of this land up, and make it like it was.” She turned to Lilly and let go of the rope. “As for you, you can see there are no fences holding you in, you can leave if you’d like but you know the kind of world you’ll be stepping into. And no I’m not changing you back, it’d be unfair on Harold.”
That last comment made me recall a memory. My master was crying holding my snout as a woman that looked like her laughed at her misery. This woman wasn’t my master, she was my wife and a long time ago I had been a dairy farmer. Her sister, angry at our relationship, had changed me into this form and my wife was powerless to change me back. But that was many lifetimes ago, I was a simple cow now, with a master who loved me and ensured my survival even after the end of the world.