Bella's Big Night

Part 2

Some dreams have a profound effect on you, even if you can’t recall them in the morning.

This was one of them.

Electrostar hovered above Bella, his familiar fluorescent blue costume and cape crackling with electricity. At least she thought it was Electrostar, from the old superhero TV show, but for some reason he looked about thirteen years old and was the spitting image of Bella’s first boyfriend, Chris Higgins.

‘We’re going to need your strength and power if we’re to break into the Bad Actors stronghold,’ said Chris/Electrostar. ‘It’s time to elephant up!’

Bella blinked. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘Hurry, Bellaphant!’ said a figure standing next to her, dressed in the armour of Boudicca 13, the sci-fi cyborg heroine. Bella looked closer and somehow wasn’t surprised to see that it was her Aunt Claire that was toting Boudicca’s signature Multi-Maser. ‘If you don’t change now, all our hard work will be wasted.’

‘I know I never usually remember dreams,’ said Bella to herself. ‘But are they always like this?’

She looked down to see she was wearing a costume of her own: a grey jumpsuit bearing a stylised ‘B’ logo with an elephant’s trunk and tusks. That was odd enough. But what made her double-take, even in her semi-aware dream state, was her body.

The ‘B’ logo rested on an almost flat chest. Her frame was lean and wiry, like an athlete’s. Instead of the curves she loved, there was only the slightest hint of a waist. And where had her lovely butt gone!? A vague sense of loss washed over her, undefined, but enough to trigger a reaction from her. She knew what she had to do.

‘”Bellaphant”, is it then? Oh well... Here goes!’

Bella wriggled her nose, much as she had done earlier when she was awake, but this time there was no hint of hesitation or uncertainty. In response, it elongated, slowly at first, then, as the first of its thousands of new muscles formed and multiplied, with ever increasing speed.

She bunched her cheeks, baring her top row of teeth. With a quiet grunt, she pushed at her canines and they began to grow, centimetre by centimetre forming her tusks.

A tightening of her scalp caused her ears to flatten out and grow. Their transformation wasn’t going so smoothly, and every now and then she’d have to flap one or the other to tease out a little more. Her hair snaked out of its braid, changing colour at random like a retro fibre-optic lamp. All the while, as these changes took place, her face filled out, fattening up to its usual size and then beyond.

This was all similar to what she’d experienced before. She’d worn the face of an elephant dozens of times. But then, entirely without thinking, she set her thin arms and shoulders and tensed them, her half-trunk straightening as she began to push. Reassuringly, they quickly plumped up to their normal size with a pleasurable sensation that only increased when she realised that they weren’t stopping there and were at last getting bigger still.

Almost unconsciously, Bella started pushing all over her body. Breasts grew where once there had been none, becoming larger and rounder, swelling until they were almost toppling out of what was left of her costume.

Her washboard stomach plumped and fattened as if ripening. The lush belly expanded further, jiggling with each little push of encouragement Bella gave. Any disappointment she’d felt at her bony little bottom was smothered by two huge, wonderful cheeks straining against the fabric of her jumpsuit. The material tore just in time for Bella to push out her brand-new tail.

Following the example of Bella’s arms, her legs were thickening out nicely too. She sighed at the stimulating sensation of enlarging them, enjoying the tingle as her fingers and toes were replaced with their elephantine equivalents. Her skin coarsened as it faded from pink to grey, though even that felt amazing as she wobbled at its arrival.

This was her chance. She was going to do it. She was going to push on and become an elephant at last.

And then she woke up.

At least she thought she’d woken up. She was definitely in her own bed, although she could feel the divan below her bowing alarmingly. And wearing the pants and tee she’d gone to sleep in. Well, not so much wearing them, since they appeared to be in shreds.

Shreds caused by the fact Bella was now a huge anthro elephant that couldn’t possibly fit in them.

Bella jumped off her bed, and promptly banged her head on the ceiling. She let out a trumpet of pain from the trunk she’d just realised she’d grown and fell back on her bed, which unhelpfully gave way with a loud crack.

She’d done it. Or at least part done it. An elephant!

Only problem was she had no idea how.

Bella's confusion was soon dispersed by another thought. Or rather a memory. Fading now, but still lingering tantalisingly at the back of her mind. The details were hazy, but she was certain she’d been about to completely transform into an elephant.

Was that possible? She had to try.

But not here, there was nowhere near enough room. At her present, hulking size it was obvious that her earlier plan to change in her living room had been a foolish one. She stomped over to the full-length mirror on her wardrobe, wincing at every creak her floorboard gave. Ducking down to get a better view, she gasped at what she saw.

She looked amazing. She’d seen that elephant face before, the tusks and trunk dominating the still-human expression on her eyes and brow, and her hair long and wild, back to its original coppery red. But the body was all new. She was glad of her huge, seven-foot frame because it was packing a lot. She turned to admire her enormous behind, happily wiggling her tail. She plumped her massive breasts with her elephant 'hands', then lowered them and stroked her gigantic belly. This was better than a full transformation. But she had to keep her eye on the prize. If she was to attend the ball in an appropriate body, she’d have to learn how to become a large animal completely.

She’d been distracted by her gorgeousness, but the real purpose of her inspection had been to check if she’d pass anthro decency laws. Satisfied that she would – but only just! – she headed out to the park.

It wasn’t far, but Bella was feeling a little shy about her new body, especially with it as exposed as it now was. She knew she shouldn’t really take her car for such a short trip, but in the circumstances, she thought it was just about forgivable. Picking her keys up was easier with her trunk. She grabbed them and pressed the fob to unlock her car as she left the house, just as she had done hundreds of times before.

Except when she stepped outside onto the driveway, she saw that somebody had replaced her car with a much smaller model.

Of course, she knew what was going on, but it was only as she walked up to her compact saloon that the full sense of it hit her. She thought of the step stool she used so she could clean the middle of her car’s roof. Now, she towered over it, and in her glee, she ridiculously imagined herself using her trunk to spray wash it from above.

There was no way she’d be able to fit inside, a thought that filled her with joy. She leaned against its tiny frame and laughed at how easily she could rock it. She’d probably be able to overturn it with a good push, but was content just to play around with that idea rather than implement it. She’d have to walk to the park, after all. But that didn’t seem quite so daunting a task as it had a minute ago. Bella was at large and she wanted the whole world to see her in her pomp. She stepped over the gate to the driveway, just because she could, and strode off down the road.

The morning yoga crowd were already out in the corner of the park nearest to Bella's house. Humans, animals and everything in-between were stretching and exercising on the grass, some transforming, some sticking to one body that they contorted without changing.

Bella found a spot big enough for a full-size African elephant and prepared herself. This was going to be it.

Stretches, pushes, grunts and struggles: nothing was working. She stomped the ground, both upright and on all fours, but there wasn’t any hint of further growth. At one point she trumpeted her frustration to the heavens, drawing disapproving looks from the more serious exercise fiends around her. Wary of causing any more disturbance, and realising she’d skipped breakfast in her excitement, she slunk back home.

The rest of the day didn’t get any better. After returning to her fully human form to avoid spoon and mouth issues with her morning yoghurt, she discovered she was unable to change back to her anthro state. Not so much as a tiny trunk this time, much to her despair. By the time the evening came around and a bottle of Rioja had been polished off, Bella had resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t be going to the ball the following evening. However, there weren’t any tears as she drifted off to sleep. She had dealt with this frustration for a long time and had had lots of practice holding them back.