Donna grinned to herself, her target clear ahead of her. It was a red sleigh, parked above a roof in clear defiance of the safety of those below it. Of course, there was probably some magic to it that kept it so light… It was Santa’s, after all.
The animal rights activist crept up towards the shackled reindeer, her heart reaching out to them. The poor things! It would be so humiliating to be such a noble animal only to be chained up like that! She trailed her hand along the sleigh as she approached, taking care not to spook them.
Much to her surprise, it looked like though the reindeer had noticed her approach, they either didn’t care or didn’t mind her being there. Even Rudolph was as steady as a trained horse, eyeing her with something akin to curiosity.
“H-hey, easy there.” Donna said. She brought a hand towards the closest beast, letting her hand play against its chocolate fur. It shifted its horned head, but made no other motion than that; apparently as calm as could be.
It was perfect. Their calm made this all the easier for her, and she’d become a legend within the PETA community. After all, who had ever heard of freeing animals from a damned mythical figure? People go enough credit for targeting celebrities, but this was… Well, it would be legendary.
“Oh, you’re a good girl, aren’t you?” Breathed the brunette, smiling from ear to ear. The reindeer flicked an ear in response, its nostrils twitching. Still smiling, Donna moved to the next reindeer in line. This one was a larger one, a perfect first-to-free. She’d look perfect in a selfie beside it, and the girl smirked, pulling her phone from her jacket.
“And you… You’re going straight to Instagram.” Donna chuckled as she pet the large animal’s head. He seemed to enjoy her affections, and she trailed her free hand towards the buckle. Her other raised the phone, and she prepared for the picture of her career.
“Say cheese…” She smiled as she lifted the harness from the beast, holding it in one hand and turning to get a little closer to the deer. It was a perfect photo: with her under the harness, holding it aloft in one hand above the freed animal. She’d title it ‘Donna: Liberator of Reindeer’.
The camera’s shutter clicked, its flash going off and blinding Donna for a fraction of a second. But that was all it took for the reindeer to spring to life. It was like he had been waiting for this very opportunity, and he even bumped into her on the way out.
“W-whoa!” The girl yelped, both hands outstretching as she tried to keep her balance. Her one hand dropped the phone onto the snow-covered roof, and her other dropped the harness.
Somehow, by either the random whims of fate or some Christmas miracle, the collar fell perfectly around her, its girth slipping below her breasts and the collar thumping onto her shoulders. It at least steadied her, and she let out a sigh of relief as she realized she wouldn’t fall.
“That picture had better have been worth it…” Donna muttered, reaching her hands to lift the harness from around herself. The irony of being a bridled liberator hadn’t escaped her, and she wanted out as soon as possible.
However, this apparently wasn’t what Rudolph wanted. The red-nosed reindeer snorted aloud and tugged hard on the line, yanking Donna forward.
She yelped aloud, arms windmilling once more, this time to no avail. With a loud crunching of snow, she fell onto the very snow-covered roof she’d been trying to avoid. Worse, the motion had sent the bit over her head and into her mouth.
The salty musk of reindeer drool filled her mouth, and the girl yelped in shock and disgust. “Uugh eww!” She moaned, feeling her tongue against the well-worn leather. Desperately, Donna tried to spit it out, but the damnable thing was caught fast in her mouth, spreading her lips wide around it.
She struggled hard, but the harness had her stuck fast. The collar was weighing down on her shoulders, keeping her from reaching her arms much further than the nape of her neck. Was she going to be caught like this? Freeing a reindeer was probably worth a lump of coal…
Her pants slipped down as she wriggled in place, the trendily loose fabric slipping past her rear. For a moment, the sharp bite of winter snapped at her bared cheeks; then it was replaced by an odd warmth. She had the strangest feeling there too, almost like a wiggling by the base of her spine…
It was enough to force Donna to divert her attention, and she looked back only to gasp in horror. There, before her eyes, was a deer’s tail. It was brown, fluffy, and most important of all, attached to her ass. Her eyes bulged as it wiggled, as though dancing with mirth at her shocked expression.
“N-no way…” She breathed at length, finally finding words. They weren’t nearly enough to convey the fear she felt at having grown a tail, but it seemed they were enough to damn her nonetheless. As her distress faded into an echo, her plump butt began to swell further, much to her distress.
Donna squeaked, chomping hard at the bit in her mouth and squeezing some of its reindeer drool into her mouth in the process. She hardly cared about that, too distracted by the changes to her body to appreciate the humiliation of her predicament.
Her blue eyes sparkled with fear as she tried to reach her arms to the collar, only to find it even harder now than it was before. It was so snug around her; everything was so snug- No, tight! Donna whimpered as her frame expanded, popping open her jacket.
Again, cold snapped at her skin, only to be shut out by a wave of prickly, itchy warmth. Donna suspected that it could only be fur growth, which only heightened her distress. Her heart felt like it was pounding a thousand miles a minute, a fear brought on by this impossible affliction.
How was she changing? It wasn’t possible for a person to become a reindeer, was it? Donna whimpered around the bit, staring at the reindeer butt that seemed determined to prove her doubts wrong. With every passing second it was getting larger, she was getting larger.
Already small runs were working across her stockings, and her shirt was torn along the back of her shoulders. She tried to stand in desperation, only to have her hands fall back into the deep snow, its crunch like the fall of a gavel to her ears.
“Pleaath! Thumun! Help!” She slurred, her voice strained thanks to the collar in her mouth… And worse, thanks to the strange feeling in her tongue. It was a numb, pillowy sort of sensation and one that spoke only of further changes.
Donna was growing so much, but somehow her feminine curves remained. Though she now filled the harness, her hourglass figure was much the same, if not more pronounced. Raw anxiety flooded her heart, sweat dripping from fur-covered pores.
She wasn’t an animal; wasn’t a reindeer! The girl tried to lift herself once more, but this was even less successful than her prior efforts. Even though her thighs were getting thick, it seemed the muscle was hardly meant for walking on two legs. No, it was for walking on all fours, like a common animal.
“Aaarnywaarrrnt!” She sobbed, the half-bleat, half-snort of a reindeer interspersing with her words. She could see her face growing, jaw stretching out into a muzzle before her wide eyes. Her ears twitched and grew long, and her nostrils flared out. New scents rushed into her nose, scents which filled the girl with nothing but terror.
Donna could identify the deer around her by smell alone, picking out which ones were male and which were female. The changing girl didn’t know what was worse: the fact that she could smell the males’ arousal, or the fact that the females smelled just like her.
“Haaarrrlp!” She warbled, thumping her hands and feet against the ground as though they were hooves. In seconds, they were; muscle and bone reforming to the dull feet of a reindeer. It was one step closer to becoming an animal, one step further into Donna’s nightmare made manifest.
She tugged at the bit in an attempt to leave, only to have the reindeer by her side pull back against her. He was particularly attentive to her, his nostrils twitching as he huffed and panted. From scent alone, Donna could tell that if she couldn’t escape and was returned to the stables, he’d make himself her company for the night.
The prospect added only more anxiety to her world, and tears dewed at her eyes. Then a strangled bellow escaped her bit-filled mouth as her forehead ached. Some invisible force was pulling at her skull , drawing two tapered points from beneath her furry skin.
She kicked and grunted in discomfort, hyperventilating as she realized that she could only be growing the short antlers of a doe. Sure enough, she could feel them branching out; feel them stretching longer and longer.
“Haaarrrnggrllnnt!” Donna pleaded, one last call for help before forever losing her human voice. She thrashed against the bit desperately, heart beating with anxiety and ears flicking straight upright. Even her tail was alert with her distress, held aloft and exposing her privates to the deer behind herself in line.
The last of her clothing fell from her form as she struggled against the changes, even though they were leaving her. Somehow that was even more frightening; the thought that she’d be left as this: as some animal tied up in a line alongside other reindeer.
Her dark hair shook as she waved her antlers frantically, feeling her large ears flop with the motion as well. She could feel the changes come to a halt; feel herself settle into this form. Despite this, she tied to deny it desperately. It couldn’t be real; she couldn’t be a reindeer! This couldn’t be her, could it?
Her body begged to differ, from her dark and large snout all the way to her pert tail. Donna bleated loudly into the night sky, now just a tied-up curvy reindeer. Her bare breasts swayed below herself as she called out another cry, hearing her reindeer voice echo into the night.
“Ho, ho, ho!” A loud and merry voice called. “Not so loud, girl; you’ll wake the children.”
Donna turned her head in shock to find a man straight from a Christmas book sauntering before her. His cheeks were rosy and his eyes were twinkling, a bounce in his every step. Then he was past her limited field of view, the bridle limiting her sight.
“But, I suppose that’s the last of the houses anyways.” Though she could no longer see him, she could hear him just fine. “So, to home we go! Now, Dasher! Now, Donna! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On Comet! On, Cupid! On, Dunder and Blitzen!”
The reindeer around herself began to trot, and Donna found herself forced to move in time with them. All four of her hooves pounded at the roof; then at the air itself as they began to lift off, taking into the sky.
It was the strangest feeling, and in another situation could almost have been pleasurable. But instead of celebrating in the freedom of flight, Donna could only dread the destination. She was completely helpless in her harness, and anxiety flooded her heart as she awaited her new life at the North Pole.