Claire yawned, sending an idle glance to her watch. She still had about a minute until her lawn was fully watered. Then… The woman smiled, already feeling her serum bubbling in her veins. She’d been looking forward to this vacation for the past month, a special week of leave for her latest project.
That was the nice thing about working with TransFun. If you developed a serum, you earned all testing rights. The second Claire had tried that, she knew she had to work on a hydrangea serum. Everybody wanted to be animals; nobody wanted things like trees or bushes.
Well, that changed today. Claire tossed her hose to her side, dropping the watch on the ground beside her. With that, she was completely naked. The woman strode confidently ahead, feeling the grass beneath her toes turn to nice and damp soil.
She’d earned this little break: some time as a bush. She’d worked so hard on her serum: a condition-activated drink that would transform the user once they were naked.
Enough people called in about getting animal fur in their clothes as it was. Claire could hardly imagine how people would react to branches tearing their clothes apart. She giggled, sending a hand to her belly at that familiar feeling of change.
Then it spread to her back.
“Oh—oh!” Claire grunted, feeling her skin rippling. She hadn’t expected that. Then again, every serum worked differently. With TransFun, the journey was fluid; the destination was the only constant. And her destination would be magnificent.
Claire gasped, the sound seeming to echo in the warm summer air. Her spine fell like it was twisting, arching. There was something bubbling below the surface of her back that was just about to let go…
With a loud crackling sound, dozens of branches erupted from her spine, each of them growing long and leafy. Claire giggled with bewilderment, then gasped again, forced to her hands and knees. The pressure was incredible, a wealth of new growths pressing her belly onto the ground.
It felt like her arms and legs were sinking into the warm soil—no, like they were burrowing. Which meant that her head would be next… Claire shivered at the warmth of the dirt around her arms; then she pressed her face into the dirt.
A moment later, she felt a flush of embarrassment as her head didn’t sink into the soil as well. It felt like there was another purpose for her head in mind, something magical for it to become. Carrie couldn’t wait for to find out what it was.
But first, it felt like her branches had even more growing to do. Small shoots raced form the sides of her long wooden sprouts. Each of these shoots began to sprout growths in turn: though these felt more like the budding of leaves.
Claire whimpered in surprise, her jaw falling slack at the joy of photosynthesis. She’d heard that being a plant was enjoyable, but this—this was something else! She could feel herself absorbing the sunlight and taking it all in. It was so nice and heavenly, she could barely take it.
The changing woman dug her arms and legs further into the ground, groaning as they transformed into roots. She could feel them breaking apart, becoming a branching system of rootlets. The warm dirt went from comforting to delicious almost instantaneously, and Claire groaned as her body untangled into the classic system of branches that was a plant’s body.
She murmured faintly, her eyes fluttering closed as she braced herself for the changes to reach her head. Yet when they did it was still completely shocking. Her face felt like it was bubbling, and her head started to feel so light and cottony.
Without warning, Claire’s head exploded into hundreds of soft azure flowers, each of them gathered in small clumps. One second she had a human head; the next she was practically senseless and loving it. These bunches moved along her branches, settling in and coloring her new green and bushy body.
Moreover, it helped to distance herself from anything even remotely human. Claire felt her whole body sway gently in a cool breeze and realized she couldn’t tell which part was which. The only things she could place were that her roots were once her arms and legs.
But even knowing that didn’t let her know which root corresponded to which limb. Or even which parts of which root were once and arm or a leg… It was beyond belief, she didn’t know what was where!
All Claire knew was that her leaves were giving her such warm pleasure, and her leaves were getting her so full… She settled in deeper into her new body, slowly beginning to drift off to sleep.
Or rather, she began to drift off to a trance. Plants didn’t sleep, after all. All they did was bask in the nice sunlight and drink in more and more nutrients through their roots.
A plant’s life was pleasure: swaying in the breeze and drinking in the rain. And of all these sensations, Claire’s favorite part had to be feeling her leaves droop with the weight of morning dew. Each day, it was like a special wake-up call; a reassuring hug.
The first time the scientist changed back, she didn’t make it half an hour before guzzling another serum and flopping down in her garden. The second time she managed to document the changes thoroughly before her addiction took hold again.
By the fourth serum, Claire found herself writhing in the dirt, whining as she realized that those were all of the test tubes she’d brought from the lab. It took her another hour outside in the warm sun to finally come to her senses.
She blinked, sitting upright and looking around dizzily. It had to have been at least a month’s leave from the office. Unfortunately, that meant her little concoctions were too good. No, worse than that. Being a bush was too good.
Claire sighed aloud, slumping back in the dirt. She’d need to work on testing a less addictive serum… Maybe this time, manufacture a six-pack. Claire smiled at the thought, settling back in the dirt as she thought of how to perfect her potions.