(F to Cow)

Some people would consider it to be vain to admire themselves in the mirror. Some people weren’t Chess.

“Purr-fect!” Chess smirked to herself, admiring her callipygian frame in the mirror. She wiggled her hips slightly, shaking the tail to her costume. Halloween only came once a year, and she fully intended to make the most out of this one. Besides that, it wasn’t often that she was able to show off her wild side.

Chess hummed, stretching and spinning on her heel, checking out how well her outfit clung to her curves. It was fit for a Playboy calendar, though she was a catgirl rather than a bunnygirl. It was something of an inside joke, since witches were supposed to have a feline affinity, though it also helped that Chess liked how she looked with animal ears.

She considered making her cat-eared headband the real deal, then remembered how her last date had freaked out when her ‘faux’ ears had started twitching. The brunette sighed a little fondly at the memory, wondering if he’d started to enjoy his life as an alley cat. In a way, she hadn’t wanted to do it. He’d called her cute, and she rather enjoyed that. Still, she couldn’t have anyone spilling her magical secret.

“The past is the past, I guess,” she yawned with a rather feline stretch. “And this year,there’s no more cute little Chess. This year, it’s sexy Chess, and it’s going to be hot.”

For good measure, she did apply a subtle charm to her costume’s tail. It allowed the thing to move in time with her thoughts and feelings, which she hoped would catch more than a few eyes.

A faint flush crept across her freckled face, and she quietly went over a checklist of anything else her outfit might need. The cups to her strapless top showed off her smallish breasts perfectly, and the bell around her neck jingled in time with their supple bounce. The tube sleeves over her arms went well with her thigh-high leggings, and she’d put good money on some lucky guy finding themselves unable to resist her charms.

Her doorbell rang, interrupting her train of thought. Chess blinked, a little surprised by the intrusion. People didn’t usually swing by her house, especially not on a night when they should be partying.

She opened the door and realized her mistake almost instantly. Three kids stood before her, with matching pumpkin candy baskets. Chess labeled them as Ghost, Witch, and Pumpkin Head, after their costumes.

“Trick or treat!” They chimed in unison, smiles on their little doe-eyes faces.

Chess couldn’t stand them.

It wasn’t that she hated kids, she just disliked anything hyperactive and irritating. It was the same reason she turned that one yappy boy-toy of hers into a puppy, before putting him up for adoption. Hm. Come to think of it, a lot of her suitors ended up on all fours. She wondered if that was a problem. Well, food for later thought. For now, she had to get these kids off her porch so she could get back to looking incredible.

“Sorry, brats,” She began. She rested a hand on her hips, leaning forward and smirking as Ghost and Pumpkin Head caught a good look of her cleavage. The grin faded as they didn’t react to her display. “No candies here tonight…”

“What?” Witch seemed to be shocked by that. Her arms fell limp at her sides, and she swayed both her candy basket and an oddly familiar lantern back and forth. “But… It’s Halloween! How can you not have any candies?”

Chess chuckled, adjusting her top to show off her cleavage. “Well, when you’re a grown-up, candies aren’t really the point of Halloween.” For some strange, alien reason she felt a modicum of guilt. “But… I’m sure you’ll have better luck at the next house. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish dressing up for tonight.”

Witch lifted the lantern in her hand, a surprisingly baleful glare marring her cute features. “You want to dress up? Fine, let me help you finish your costume!”

With that, a bolt of energy lanced from the lantern. The design on its face seemed to flare with light, and a corposant halo surrounded a very startled Chess.

“What the f-” She began, looking down to herself in panic. Her feet lifted from the ground, and changes began to sweep across her form.

The first thing she noticed was how loose her clothes had gotten. Her tights weren’t rather fitting of the name, drooping down to her slimming knees. The cups of her top fell empty, as her breasts receded into her chest.

Chess yelped in panic. She knew that she should be working on some sort of countermagic, but it was hard to focus when she was busy dwindling away. She worried about what would happen to her, wither she’d become a cat, or a mouse, or some shrunken toy.

The reality was so much worse. Years of age slipped away from her in seconds. Her face lost its toned curve as baby fat swelled from her cheeks,and her hourglass figure soon looked more like a jellybean.

“What did you do?” She whimpered, her voice cracking as it lost the husky tone she’d spent so long perfecting. “Oh. Oh no. Oh nonononono…” Chess pawed at her outfit fruitlessly as it too began to change.

What was once a sexy leather top loosened to a sleek and soft lace. Its lower hem dropped into a loose skirt, and a hand-tied bow knotted itself around her waist, keeping it held securely around her. At the same time, cups that once held her bosom softened to form a demure top that covered her modesty, though it left her shoulders exposed in a mocking resemblance to her old outfit.

Her heels turned to loose and cutesy cat-paw boots, and as they thumped against the ground her bell jingled. Witch cackled at this, eagerly studying Chess’s descent. “I’m not doing much. Just giving you a proper form to enjoy Halloween like us.”

Chess squirmed in horror, feeling her face, patting herself down as if that could stop this nightmare. She could tell immediately that her younger body had almost no magical potential, meaning that she was stuck like this unless she could convince the kids to change her back.

“Now that you’re a kid again…” Witch smirked. “You’ll go grab some candies for us.”

Chess blinked, snivelling instinctively. She hadn’t been bullied much as a child, and so was singularly unprepared for it now. It didn’t help matters that now she was shorter than a girl who’d barely come up past her waistline.

“But… How?” Chess whimpered. Her fluffy, cutesy tail drooped miserably.

“You’ll figure it out,” Ghost gloated.

Witch shoved a basket into Chess’s tiny arms, making her bell jingle with the motion. “Here’s your pumpkin bag. You should hurry and fill it before the morning if you want to be big again.”

Chess looked down into the basket. It was empty, which meant she’d need to at the very least run up and down the block collecting sweets. Hardly her idea of a good Halloween night, but if it meant returning to adulthood... 

She looked up to find the kids already venturing off. Witch called to her regressed victim over a shoulder, without breaking stride. “And if you don’t… Well. We don’t know what’ll happen to you, but it’s going to be even worse than this.”

Chess didn’t need any further motivation. She screwed up her pudgy face in determination and promptly took a step out into the night… And squeaked her plush cat’s paw in the process. A deep shade of pink colored her cheeks, and she realized that each step she took would squeak her paw-boots and ring her bell at the same time.

Of course, she wasn’t the only one to notice. At the very first house she went to, the girl was practically assaulted by a handsy old woman. “Oh, dearie! That’s the most precious thing I’ve ever seen in my life!” The woman crooned, pinching Chess’s cheeks like it was her life’s duty to humiliate the girl.

Chess remained quiet, worried that if she said what was really on her mind, she’d end up with less candy. Unfortunately, it seemed that age had made the woman miserly, and she dutifully doled out a single wrapped toffee. It wasn’t even a properly sized Halloween candy.

“Thank you, Miss!” Chess chirped, forcing herself to play nice. “But, can I please have a bit-” The door slammed in her face, and Chess made a mental note to return to the building and set it on fire.

The next few houses were a bit better. She earned her fair share of laughs and coos, but also raked in a rather respectable amount of sweets. It was worth a bit of shame, since every snack in the basket brought her closer to her real life.

However, one of the houses had the worst kind of family: a wholesome one. They opened the door in matching outfits that looked like they belonged in the 1950s, and immediately fell head over heels with pint-sized Chess.

“Trick or Treat!” Chess called, looking up to them, feeling a bit apprehensive at the almost manic glint in their eyes.

“Oh my God! Aren’t you just the cutest little catgirl I’ve ever seen!” The mother gasped, petting Chess’s head and pinching her cheeks. Why was it always the cheeks with these people? Couldn’t they tell how much it bothered her?

“Oh, we’ll need to get pictures of this one for sure! Don’t worry, little girl, we’re on the Neighborhood Council. We’ll make sure that these photos get Facebooked to everyone we can find, so you’ll find yourself in no time!” The father added, making matters only worse.

Chess forced herself to play along, but couldn’t help but blush and squeak. Unfortunately, this only spurred them on.

“Oh! She’s dressed like a kitty, but she squeaks like a mousie! That’s the cutest thing ever, be sure to take some video, too.”

“Of course! Ah, Nan’s gonna love this!”

What kind of people were these? Did they have to share everything online? Chess just wanted a-

The two interrupted her thoughts by nearly burying her with a Costclub-sized bag of sweets, enough chocolates to keep the city’s dentists busy for years to come. “Here you go, sweetie! Be sure not to eat it at once, or else you’ll get a tummyache!”

Chess smiled sweetly and stood on her tippytoes, squeaking her boots. “Thank you!” She chirped innocently, hating herself for acting like a kid.

“Oh, don’t worry about it! It’s getting late, and we really don’t want to keep any candy for ourselves,” the man laughed, waving Chess off good-naturedly.

Chess felt a wave of panic. Late? How late was late? The kids had said midnight, hadn’t they?

Frantically, Chess grabbed her basket and set off in search of the kids. They had to be around here somewhere, didn’t they?

Her boots squeaked a panicked pace, which only quickened as her body tingled. “Nonono! Where are you guys, I did what you wanted! Come on, please!” She gasped, darting her head left and right, jingling the bell on her collar.

Then, she caught sight of them. The creepy little bastards were laughing to each other atop a nearby hill, seemingly ignorant of Chess’s presence. “Hey! Hey! I’m right here!” She raced towards them, only to trip and fall as her limbs shot out.

“W-wha?” Chess gasped, looking to a rather adult pair of hands. She beamed victoriously, falling onto her backside and smiling as it swelled. “Yes! I made it!” She cupped her breasts in  her hands, watching her outfit change back into its sleek, sexy form.

The tingle of magic didn’t cease though, and Chess soon found her breasts were heavier than she remembered. “Um… I did make it, right? I thought I MOOOde it.”

Her blood ran cold as she mooed, and she realized that she wasn’t so lucky, after all.

“No! NOO!” Chess’s protests dropped in pitch, her voice lowering and letting her better resemble a bovine. “I dOOn’t wanna be a cOOOWMMOO!”

Chess staggered to her feet, stumbling towards the kids. Her clothes tightened around her body, and she gasped at how constricted she felt. Her stumble became a wobble as her thighs bulked up too large to move easily, and she stuck her hands out to her sides to maintain her balance.

A crash filled her ears as she lost her grip on the candy basket, and she looked to her wrists to find that they now ended in hooves. “NooOOOUGH!” She mooed, panicked. She tried to reach down and scoop up the basket, but her body twisted at the last second, turning her lean into a stumbling fall.

Her hooves clopped against the pavement like thunder, and Chess wailed in horrified distress. “NOOT UH COOOUWW!” She bellowed, grunting as her top got tighter and tighter still. She pinched her eyes shut, grimacing as her ears tugged atop her head.

“Haha!” A familiar laugh filled the air, and Chess opened her eyes to find the kids walking towards her. “Look at that, she’s too late!” Ghost snorted gleefully. He only laughed harder as Chess’s outfit burst at the seams, unable to contain her cowy bulk.

“Looks like you won’t be dressing up any more, huh?” Witch asked, watching as Chess’s attractive features distended into the dopey expression of a farm animal. “That must be too bad, coming so close to being an adult again and ending up as a cow.”

“MOO!” Chess pleaded with them, her large eyes watering in fear. She didn’t want this! She had a life ahead of herself, one full of fun and magic alike! How could it end like this? How could she end up like some stupid cow?

“Too funny!” Ghost giggled, swatting Chess’s rump and guffawing as a tail shot out from her backside.

Chess miserably mooed, itching from head to toe as she grew a lush coat of fur. Her soft brown hairs fluttered from her head, displaced by the onset of brown-and-white coat. For some reason this bothered her more than anything else so far, and Chess shook her head in distress.

“MOO! MMOOUGH!” She bellowed, ringing the bell on her neck. Its chime lowered in pitch as well, and it grew broader and larger around her throat. Soon she wore a cowbell fit for any common heifer, though this one was knotted with a bow, in cruel mockery of the person she’d been.

“Sorry, we don’t talk cow!” Ghost cackled.

“But we know others who do! A whole pasture full!” Witch smirked, and motioned for Pumpkin Head to approach.

Chess watched the child with fearful eyes, realizing just now that he hadn’t said a word so far. Somehow that made him even more frightening than the little witch, and she visibly baulked at his approach.

It didn’t stop him from looping a rope around her neck, nor did it keep him from petting her ears curiously, like a child who’d never seen a cow before. Chess tried to pull away, but soon found herself pulled instead-straight towards a nearby field full of cows.

There she lived, for two years. The farmer who ran the place seemed a little confused by his new acquisition, but he didn’t protest much. After all, how could he complain about one of the best milkers on the farm? And besides that, she’d done so well in bearing him calves.

Indeed, Chess had soon been bred like the common animal she was. She didn’t have much say in the matter, not that she could say anything other than ‘moo’. The former witch sank into a deep misery, made only worse by the knowledge that every time she’d give birth, she’d only get mated again.

Then, on the eve of Halloween, she heard a familiar laugh.

Chess’s large ears perked up, and she saw a trio that had haunted her nightmares walking towards her. They hadn’t aged a day since she’d last seen them. She didn’t know what to do, so she froze like a steer in the headlights.

“Hey there, thunder thighs. Bet you don’t feel too sexy now, huh?” Ghost smirked.

“Come on, go easy on her. After all, it looks like she’s a Mommy now,” Witch pointed to the field, towards some of the brown-furred calves Chess had borne.

Pumpkin Head patted Chess’s large, broad nose. This was somehow worse than the other insults. While the words could just bounce off of her, the reminder of her snout made her moo in complete misery.

“Don’t sound so sad! We’re giving you a chance to change back, after all,” Witch tutted. When she saw the surprise in Chess’s eyes, she laughed. “I mean, we found your candy basket after taking you out to the field. Since it was so full, we decided to change you back next Halloween…”

“But we forgot. Oops,” Ghost snickered.

“Still, better late than never, right? That’s a thing people say, right?” Witch asked eagerly, before giggling. “I shouldn’t ask a dumb cow what people say! Still, I do want to know if you want to be human again. So, I guess… Nod if you do?”

Chess agreed without a moment’s pause. She nodded so hard that her ears flopped and her cowbell rang. Then, she let a familiar magic course over her, bringing her back to a world she’d thought would be nothing more than a memory. Soon she was sitting on the grass, naked as the day she was born.

Of course, it couldn’t be easy. Chess noticed almost immediately that she wasn’t the same. Her breasts were each larger than her head, and the only thing that kept them from sagging was her fat stomach. That, in turn, was kept off of her mountainous thighs thanks to an udder.

“What the MOO?” Chess wailed, struggling to stand and falling clumsily onto her hands. She felt something brush against the backs of her legs, and looked back to find that she still had a tail. When her ears twitched, she realized they hadn’t fully changed back either.

“HAHA!” Ghost cackled. “She’s a total heifer still!”

“No! This MOOsn’t fair! You said I’d be huMOO again!” Chess sobbed, feeling her udder sway beneath her. She struggled to cast a spell, but found that her animal-like body had rendered her as magically inert as a cow.

“Well, that was the plan,” Witch admitted. “But, I guess you just spent too long as a cow. It’s a part of who you are now, too bad.”

“No! You can’t leave MOO like MOO!” Chess cried out, looking to each of them in terror. “I MOOn’t wanna be a freak!”

Pumpkin Head tapped Witch’s lamp, then looked at Chess pointedly.

“What? Well… I guess he’s right. We could change her back into a cow forever. But you won’t be able to dress up anymore,” Witch said.

Ghost laughed. “Not that she’d be able to dress up now! I don’t think clothes stores sell things for cows!”

Chess whimpered, caught between two awful fates. She could be a freak of a human, or a normal cow. And, when she thought of it like that, there really wasn’t a choice at all.

“Make MOO a cow.” Chess mumbled, broken.

“Disappointing,” Witch pouted. “I wanted you to be all fun and cow-y. But, that’s fine. I guess we’ll put you back in the pasture, where you belong.”

She lifted the lantern, and a slow smile dawned on her face. “And besides, it means we get someone new to play with.”

Chess blinked, surprised. “Wait, what do you MOO by-MOOUGH!” She was borne aloft once again. This time, her bovine ears were capable of hearing every crackle and pop of magical energy.

It was like she was in the middle of a raging storm, one that was stealing what little remained of her humanity. Her udder slowly swelled, soon sagging with its sheer mass. Her hooves kicked feebly at the air as she let out low groans of discomfort.

She’d been fat when they’d first changed her back. There could be no denying that. Her lithe feminine frame had become soft and doughy, with rolls of soft flab. However, even that looked skinny when compared to what was happening to her now.

“MOO! I changed my MOO!” Chess whimpered pitifully, groaning as her belly gurgled, rippling outwards. Her flanks lost any resemblance to a human form as they barreled into the thick guy of a cow.

Too heavy for the girl’s magic to lift, Chess thumped clumsily onto the ground. She sobbed as her arms and legs rotated to face forwards, locking her in a quadrupedal stance.

“Well, it’s much too late to change that now,” Witch tutted, as though she was explaining it to a particularly dim-witted child.

Chess’s eyes watered as her skull sloped, squishing her brain. Through her misty eyes, she could almost see a reflection of herself, the way she looked on that fateful Halloween.

The reflection was hazy, like it was made of mist, but it was undeniably Chess in a catgirl outfit. However, it wasn’t her adult self. This looked more like she did as a child.

“MOO?” Chest fumbled for words, finding none. Her tongue had become clumsy in her mouth, and not just because it had tripled in length. She was having trouble remembering how to make it form words.

The reflection shimmered, coalescing into something with a bit more definition. Facial features emerged from within the haze, and Chess was able to see more and more of the little details on the girl’s outfit.

Then it lifted a finger and pointed at her. “Ha! She’s still realizing, isn’t she?” A voice that was familiar and alien at the same time filled Chess’s large ears.

Pumpkin Head patted Chess’s head patronizingly, and each thump of his little palm dropped her intelligence like a rock.

“M-moo?” Chess struggled to focus on what the girl meant. And… Why was she so familiar? Catgirl reminded the cow of something, but she wasn’t sure what... 

Chess struggled to her hands and feet, groaning as her digits bloated, congealing into hard, black masses. Her new hooves dug small furrows into the dirt and grass.

Grass… Chess’s bloated belly developed new stomachs, all of which hungered for the simplicity of grazing. She dipped her head towards the earth, chomping down on a mouthful of the stuff.

Chess had forgotten everything of basic table manners at this point, let alone the shame she should feel about eating grass in front of others. Unfortunately, Catgirl didn’t.

“Oh wow, look at her! She’s such a big moron, chewing with her mouth open!” Catgirl’s bell chimed as she laughed, and she mimicked the wide, oafish working of Chess’s jaw.

“Be easy on her. After all, she’s been such a good cow, giving us her soul like that,” Witch chuckled, sidling up to her new best friend. “And it’s so good to have another girl around, even if you are a bit catty.”

Chess’s chewing slowed as something about those words stood out to her. It wasn’t the pun, it was something about a soul... 

Half-chewed grass and dirt fell from her slack jaw, which grew wider as if to better express her displeasure.

“Haha! She finally figured it out!” Ghost pointed.

“MOOUGH!” Chess bellowed, panicked. It all made sense. The more real Catgirl became, the harder it was for Chess to think. Her humanity was being stolen, and put into some kind of Halloween spirit.

She had to stop it. She had… Chess blinked, helpless. She couldn’t even remember the basics of magic, and her fat bovine body was made for mating and milking, not magecraft.

“Aww, whatcha gonna do about it? Cry?” Catgirl leaned in, her tail flicking with the sadistic amusement of her species. “Big blubbery cow, blubbering like the heifer she is?”

Chess did. She didn’t know what else to do. Tears ran from her oversized eyes, and she turned to run with a hefty, loping gait.

She didn’t make it far. Each step doubled the weight on her head, and the pressure in what passed for her brain. Her nostrils widened as she snorted in exertion, and she tossed her head in a blind panic that rang her cowbell.

“Don’t be scared cow,” Witch cooed. She smirked, and continued… But her words lost their meaning to Chess. “Yuhrr suhr fuhrth, yuhrr muhrrstbuh hungry.”

She was still speaking English, but Chess was rapidly losing the ability to process the sounds. The last word made sense to her though. Her stomachs rumbled in agreement, and Chess’s retreat slowed.

“M… moo…” Che s s fumbled, her identity slowly slipping away. She knew she needed to eat, though. She was hungry. She had to eat.

Catgirl pointed at her and made some sounds that were probably mean, but C h e  s couldn’t understand them. That made her happier and calmer for some reason, and she twitched an ear happily.

C    h chomped down again, feeling the leaves of grass and the grit of dirt mix in her mouth. Her thick, blocky teeth made short work of the grass, and she didn’t mind eating a little dirt. She didn’t mind much of anything.

Then, for just a fraction of a second, her old self returned. Chess felt a whelming wave of revulsion course through herself, realizing what she was doing, and what sort of life was in store for her.

“Hey, don’t look so glum,” Catgirl smirked, and grabbed Chess’s cowy head in her hands. She locked eyes with the animal, grinning triumphantly. “Dumb animals like you aren’t supposed to feel anything at all.”

Chess’s eyes widened as she looked at her doppelganger. There was something about the girl’s stare that was magnetic, hypnotic, or even alluring. She froze, unable to do anything but look.

A hole had been drilled in Chess’s very soul, and Catgirl was sucking everything out. In an instant, the glimmer of light vanished from what was once a witch’s eyes, and the last vestiges of Chess were stolen from her being.

“Moo.” She uttered simply and plainly, drooling. The hands around her snout released, and she looked into the girl’s glowing eyes, unable to comprehend their significance.

The kids kept laughing at her, but when she didn’t react, they soon lost interest. After all, there wasn’t much fun in making fun of a cow, now that she’d lost every bit of her human identity.

The cow watched them leave her, heading back into town. The sun fell, and for a moment she felt an atypical curiosity about where they were going.

The thought was hard to hold onto, though. And grass was so easy to eat. The cow returned to her grazing, utterly devoid of thought, and ignorant of the life she’d lost.

---

A steady thumping filled the air, the unmistakable sound of a party breaking the quiet of Halloween night. It only grew louder as the door opened, thanks in no small part to a girl’s insistent knocking.

“Trick or treat!” Catgirl held up her basket, her ears flicking attentively. She stared happily up to a man who was inexplicably wearing sunglasses at night. For some reason, the girl wrapped around his arm seemed to find this intoxicating.

“Come onnn, just ignore the kid so we can get back to our fun,” the woman purred.

The man chuckled, and popped some brightly colored candies into his mouth. He chewed them idly, then looked down to the four kids on his porch. “Sorry, kids. We don’t have anything here for you. Maybe try again when you’re older.”

The girl laughed vapidly, making a shushing motion towards the group on their doorstep. When it was clear they wouldn’t move, she crinkled her nose and slammed the door for good measure.

“Man, that made her look like a pig,” Ghost snickered.

Pumpkin Head agreed, pushing a finger against where his nose would be.

“If only,” Witch giggled, draping an arm around Catgirl’s shoulders, “there was someone who could do something about that.”

Catgirl sighed and rolled her eyes, looking at her friends. “Well, don’t say I never do anything for you.”

She hated this part. It wasn’t that being an adult was lame, it was more that Catgirl liked being cute. Adult her was sexy, and that just wasn’t cute at all. But adulthood did come with a few benefits.

The girl closed her eyes and felt her body stretch, gaining years of age in seconds. She remembered what the old her had looked like, and duplicated the woman known as Chess perfectly, down to the witch’s every last spell.

Witch had her lantern, Ghost had that possession, and Pumpkin Head did that creepy shadow thing. Yet all of them paled in comparison to Catgirl’s magic. That almost made it worth the change.

Catgirl opened her eyes, letting out a low purr. Then she knocked on the door again, smirking as the man nearly dropped his sunglasses from how hard he ogled her.

“Room for one more?” She breathed huskily, swaying her hips. It was a dumb part of her existence, but she couldn’t enter a house unless invited. Luckily, there wasn’t anything about a little magical glamour to help speed things along.

“Uh-huh.” He nodded vacantly, eyes literally swirling from her spell. He’d have agreed even if he wasn’t distracted by her assets. His companion stuck up her nose and huffed, blissfully ignorant of how she’d soon be snorting.

“Good boy,” Catgirl chuckled, casting a wink over her shoulder to her friends. “Now, let’s have some fun.”

The party girl glowered at Chess as she walked past her, then turned to shut the door on the kids outside. As it slid closed behind her, the kids noticed how the party girl’s nose had squashed against her face, and how a small curly tail poked from beneath her skirt. They giggled.

The sound of percussive bass continued through the night. It very nearly drowned out the screams that soon devolved into the cries of beasts.