Molly sighed, tossing her arms into the air. Today really was an awful day; maybe the worst of her life. It had all started when she woke up before her alarm sounded. From there, her toast was slightly burnt; traffic was a little slow; and worst of all, her local coffee shop had run out of a soy vegan substitute. How in the hell was she supposed to get a coffee fix like this?
The young redhead sighed, tossing some of her dyed locks behind her head. She glared idly at her cabbie from within her car, seeing him checking back on her in the rearview mirror. No doubt he was staring at how her cherry hair was already returning to its natural brown.
“Eyes front, wage slave." She grunted, her blue eyes flashing as they met his green gaze. She was used to working men looking at her, and if she had her way she wouldn't need to take cabs.
"Wage slave!" He clapped, looking back at her. His dark hair and tanned skin were at odds with his piercing stare. He looked almost Greek, yet there was an air of the divine about him. "Tell me, do you have another good insult up your sleeve?"
Molly shivered, pursing her lips slightly. She hadn't expected that, and for a moment she just remained silent.
“Well, you've already insulted my job. Maybe you’d like to offend my religion?" The cabbie offered. "Sorry if my race doesn't immediately lend itself to insult. I’ve chosen it that way, you know.” He said. His voice had an odd musical lilt to every word that Molly found to be soothing, despite the situation.
All she was able to retort with was: “People don’t choose their races, dummy.”
“Ah! Dummy!” He laughed. “I haven’t heard that in a while. I’m sorry to inform you, however, that people can. If they’ve chosen the right path to follow, I mean. See, I’m a Circinist—”
“Gesundheit.” Molly interrupted, still frowning.
“Clever. I’m a Circinist, and we find things like form to be rather… ephemeral.”
“Mm-hm.” Molly rolled her eyes, wishing the light would turn green.
“We also believe that there are certain people who the world would be better without. And that hooved animals are almost sacred. You’ll see how the two are related in a moment.” The light turned green and he hit the gas.
Molly opened her mouth to retort, only to falter as her surroundings changed. It was like one second the woman was surrounded by a metropolis; the next they were driving along a dirt road, surrounded by greenery and wildlife.
She yelped in surprise, banging on the back glass. “Let me out! Please, um.” She paused, intending to appeal to his name only to remember that she hadn’t asked.
“I’m Charlie the Circinist Cabbie.” He said with a chuckle and a wink.
“Charlie! Charlie, let me out this instant!”
“Well, if you insist. But know that there are consequences.” He spoke with a slow smile, still looking at her only through the backseat window.
“Consequences? What the hell is going on here?” Molly shouted.
“You’ve been a very spoiled woman, Miss Molly. And I think it’s time you realized this.” He chuckled, clicking the backseat open. “You might not have realized this, but this cab has chosen you. Now, you face some very real changes in life.”
“Screw you, buddy!” Molly kicked her way out of the car, hoping that the world outside would change back to a familiar cityscape. It didn’t, and she huffed with indignity.
Then a spike of pain shot through her ears, like someone was pulling on them. She yelped in distress, waving her hands behind her head. Instead of meeting an attacker’s hands, her fingers met something else entirely.
It was like the skin on her ears had started to lengthen out. Molly could feel her wrists against her longer ears and her longer ears against her wrists. Her hands flew to her ears, and she rubbed at them with worry. As she did, they began to feel coarser and coarser, like they were getting furred.
Molly spun towards the cab, intending to look and see if her ears appeared as they felt. Instead, she found herself focusing on her nose. It began to ache too, and she could see that it had begun to broaden on her face, getting paler. Her nostrils flared out to asinine proportions, and she ducked to the passenger side window, rapping at the glass.
Her taps went from a dull sound to a clacking, and she looked down to find that dark and black enamel was beginning to flow its way acrosess her fingertips. She squeaked in distress, then let out a bray. It was like coughing: one moment she was looking at her hand; the next she’d convulsed violently, putting both hands on the side of the car to steady herself.
Molly looked back at her reflection and whimpered loudly. Her hair had begun to change back to a dark brown, shortening on her head. Not that she was getting any less hairy. No, far from it; the skin all over her body had begun to itch, and with that came a coat of coarse brown fur.
“What’s HAWWpenning?” Her head jerked forward again, another bray escaping her throat.
The cab’s window rolled down and she looked into Carlie’s eyes pleadingly. Yet where she had expected some glimmer of humanity, she found none. It was like he was studying her as an entomologist would look at an ant.
“Change is happening.” He replied simply. “You were spoiled, took things for granted, and thus have earned this little fate.”
As he spoke, Molly found herself having to lean on the car more and more. It was like some giant hand was pressing into her back, forcing her to all fours. Yet something in the girl’s mind told her that if she fell, she’d never stand back up again.
Even as the thought crossed her mind, her ankles started to lengthen and her thighs shortened. She groaned at the feeling of the latter bulking up, putting on weight—even as she began to wobble. Her new stance was barely manageable; it looked for all the world like her knees had reversed.
Molly whimpered aloud, her arms cracking so that her elbows faced away from her body. “NAWW! PlHEEse!” Again, that damnable braying forced itself from her mouth. “NAWWt a DAWWnkHEE!”
Her feet began to cramp, and she whimpered at the feeling of them changing. Her lovely toes pulled back towards her body, disappearing within her sesamoids. Her soles went numb, and Molly let out a low groan in distress as hard enamel covered her feet.
There was a faint stretching; a tearing brought on by the expansion of her oncoming hooves. Molly could only cry aloud in distress as the strained fabric finally gave way, exposing her hooves to the air. Seconds later, another creaking echoed this.
It was her clothes: the seams stretching as her tight top and jeans became too confining on her new body. She was bulking up, her body slowly pushing out to match the appearance of a donkey. Molly’s chest barreled out; her breasts sinking into its dark fur. She brayed again in distress, rolling from the car to fall to her side.
The transforming woman kicked and brayed, her clothes like a straitjacket fastened beyond all comfort. She couldn’t stand the thought of being a naked donkey, but anything would be better than such tight confines! Finally, with a loud tearing, the threads of her clothes lost their fight with her changing body.
Molly sighed in relief, feeling the cool grass against her furred cheek. Then she realized that she could feel a good deal more it against her cheek than she had a moment ago. She rolled onto her hooves, trying to stand and failing miserably.
“HAWW! EE-AWW!” Molly brayed, her eyes wide as she watched her face crack out into a donkey’s muzzle. A shaggy mane grew from the top of her head, down along her neck, and the girl teared up as she realized that even her neck was longer; thicker.
“EE-AWW! HAWW!” She screamed again, beginning to panic as she realized she’d even lost the ability to speak. Her eyes darkened to a pair of animal-like orbs, pulling a little to the sides of her new muzzle. She shook her head out in denial and disgust alike.
As she did, her teeth grew large and blocky in her mouth, and her tongue broadened, losing much of its taste bud’s. Her nose flattened out even further, leaving her only a pair of massive nostrils, and Molly’s lips thickened to those of a common animal’s.
Something swatted her rear and she kicked her back legs in terror, braying again. When she failed to connect with anything, Molly turned back to find the last of her changes settling in: a long and furred donkey tail, dangling down over her huge ass.
She was a braying brown-furred jenny with a white nose and belly, and she hated it. The new donkey loudly voiced her opinions to the air, beginning to buck and kick violently as she railed against her transformation.
Little did she know that this act of defiance was actually the worst thing she could have possibly done. Giving into her instincts had opened up her mind to the transformation, and before she knew it, she was forgetting everything about Molly. Thoughts of grazing filled her mind, of trotting through the fields and finding a mate.
The donkey went from panicking from its new body to bucking at the air in fear of the giant yellow machine next to her, and she turned tail and fled, trotting away and braying loudly. She ran as fast as she could, until the cab was out of sight. Then, without so much as a trace of her humanity remaining, the donkey began to graze.